Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sam's Creek Revisited" (January 16, 1966)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(orchestra music) | 0:03 | |
Narrator | It is wonderful that so many of you | 0:29 |
brave the elements to come for divine worship today. | 0:31 | |
I think if we were physically to revisit Sams Creek, | 0:35 | |
we might very well be able to go skating on it this morning. | 0:41 | |
The sermon today is about the Methodist Church | 0:46 | |
in the United States. | 0:50 | |
If this announcement comes as an unexpected jolt | 0:53 | |
to some of you who regularly worship | 0:58 | |
in this interdenominational chapel, | 1:00 | |
let me ask you to bear with me for a few minutes | 1:03 | |
I shall explain why I am doing it. | 1:07 | |
And perhaps I should even justify the doing of it. | 1:10 | |
The occasion for this sermon is the celebration | 1:16 | |
in this year in 1966 of the 200th anniversary | 1:19 | |
of the establishment of the first Methodist Church | 1:26 | |
in the United States. | 1:30 | |
In the year 1766, Robert Strawbridge came from Ireland, | 1:34 | |
organized a congregation of 15 Methodists | 1:39 | |
and built them a log church on Sams Creek in Maryland, | 1:43 | |
a spot now less than an hour's drive | 1:49 | |
north of the nation's capital. | 1:51 | |
Hence the celebration this year of the second Centennial | 1:54 | |
of Methodism in America and hence this sermon. | 1:59 | |
That then is the occasion one of the explanation, | 2:04 | |
why in an interdenominational chapel, | 2:10 | |
should we have a sermon dealing | 2:14 | |
with a particular denomination, | 2:16 | |
precisely because this is an interdenominational chapel, | 2:20 | |
not a non denominational chapel. | 2:27 | |
It's congregation, it's choir, it's ushers, it's musicians, | 2:32 | |
it's ministers, it's preachers, hostesses, maid and janitor | 2:39 | |
are all members of particular denominational churches. | 2:43 | |
From time to time, we singled out a particular denomination | 2:49 | |
for special attention so that all of us might be aware | 2:52 | |
of the contribution, which that member of the body of Christ | 2:57 | |
is making to the whole body. | 3:00 | |
For instance, on October the 24th, | 3:04 | |
less than three months ago, | 3:06 | |
the Methodist Dean of the Duke Divinity School | 3:09 | |
from this pulpit fired a 21 gun homiletical salute | 3:13 | |
to the reformation, which is now taking place | 3:18 | |
within the Roman Catholic Church, and so it goes. | 3:21 | |
But there is an exceptional justification | 3:27 | |
for taking a look now at the Methodist Church | 3:31 | |
on the occasion of its second Centennial, three reasons. | 3:34 | |
The first reason is that Mr. James B. Duke, | 3:39 | |
who founded this university was himself a Methodist. | 3:43 | |
And he credited the Methodist Church | 3:48 | |
with giving him the inspiration, the vision | 3:51 | |
and the encouragement, which led to his magnificent deed. | 3:54 | |
There are many evidences of the influence | 4:00 | |
of Methodism upon Mr. Duke, | 4:02 | |
but let me summarize the matter by quoting a portion | 4:05 | |
of an address given by the late judge William R. Perkins, | 4:09 | |
the father of the present chairman of the Duke Endowment. | 4:13 | |
Judge Perkins was the personal legal counsel of Mr. Duke. | 4:17 | |
And he knew him intimately. | 4:22 | |
And in this address, which was given exactly four years | 4:24 | |
after Mr. Duke's death, | 4:28 | |
Judge Perkins explained the motives and purposes | 4:30 | |
which Mr. Duke had in setting up the endowment. | 4:33 | |
And here are his words. | 4:37 | |
According to Mr. Duke's plan, | 4:39 | |
the objects of the endowment may be conveniently classified | 4:42 | |
as religion, hospitalization, and education. | 4:45 | |
To appreciate the provisions for religion, | 4:51 | |
one must realize that Mr. Duke was a Methodist | 4:53 | |
of the rural district type | 4:56 | |
and such had been his father and his grandfather before him. | 4:59 | |
And the first rate type it was and is. | 5:03 | |
The circuit rider had entered deeply | 5:07 | |
into the warp and woof of their lives. | 5:10 | |
Mr. Duke, often remarked, | 5:14 | |
"My old daddy always said that | 5:17 | |
if he amounted to anything at all in this world, | 5:19 | |
it was due to the Methodist circuit riders." | 5:22 | |
To which he, James B. Duke invariably added, | 5:27 | |
"If I amount to anything in this world, | 5:31 | |
I owe it all to my daddy and to the Methodist Church." | 5:35 | |
The second factor contributing to this special justification | 5:41 | |
for a sermon at Duke on Methodism | 5:44 | |
has to do with the financial support, | 5:47 | |
which the Methodist Church has voluntarily given | 5:50 | |
to the university through the years. | 5:53 | |
The church does not own the university. | 5:56 | |
It is privately owned by its own board of trustees. | 5:59 | |
The church does not control or hold the veto power | 6:03 | |
over the Duke administration. | 6:07 | |
No bishop, nor all the bishops together, | 6:09 | |
no church board or all the boards acting in concert | 6:12 | |
can countermand the actions of the President | 6:17 | |
of Duke University or the trustees. | 6:19 | |
Yet the church which began on Sams Creek | 6:23 | |
gives Duke University a substantial sum of money each year | 6:27 | |
for faculty salaries, for the erection of new buildings. | 6:31 | |
The current rate of giving is in excess of $200,000 a year. | 6:35 | |
No other denomination gives Duke a dime. | 6:42 | |
There is no record that any other church as such | 6:47 | |
has ever given the university as such | 6:51 | |
any operating or capital funds at any time. | 6:54 | |
The third and final reason for a special look at Methodism | 7:00 | |
here has to do with the so-called fifth decade plans. | 7:04 | |
I'm sure it is no secret to you, | 7:09 | |
and we hope no secret to anyone in the United States | 7:11 | |
that this university is now engaged | 7:14 | |
in the greatest development program | 7:17 | |
in its entire history so far. | 7:19 | |
After years of careful planning and projection | 7:23 | |
by groups of the faculty, | 7:26 | |
the administration, students, trustees, alumni, | 7:27 | |
a goal was fixed and an ambitious campaign was launched. | 7:33 | |
The immediate and crucial objective was announced | 7:39 | |
as the securing of $102,876,000 | 7:42 | |
from anyone and everyone who will contribute. | 7:50 | |
Now, this was not a campaign thrust upon the university | 7:54 | |
by any outside group. | 7:57 | |
It was so to speak an inside job. | 8:01 | |
Something else was an inside job. | 8:05 | |
The selection of the man upon whom the university | 8:09 | |
will depend to lead us to victory | 8:13 | |
without any other criterion than that of proven ability | 8:19 | |
and demonstrated interest in Duke University. | 8:24 | |
The university itself selected six men | 8:28 | |
who would lead the overall campaign | 8:33 | |
and its five subdivisions. | 8:36 | |
There was no deliberate attempt to pick Methodists, | 8:39 | |
but five of the six men whom the university chose | 8:44 | |
happened to be Methodists. | 8:49 | |
Only one of the six happens to be an active layman | 8:52 | |
in one of our sister denominations. | 8:55 | |
Therefore in summary, we believe that at Duke, | 8:59 | |
there is special justification | 9:03 | |
for a focus upon the 200th anniversary | 9:05 | |
of the Methodist Church in America. | 9:08 | |
Because Methodism has played a decisive role | 9:10 | |
in the university's founding. | 9:13 | |
It continues to give something more | 9:15 | |
than token financial support | 9:17 | |
and most of the key leaders in our great fifth decade | 9:20 | |
campaign received their spiritual nourishment | 9:23 | |
in the Methodist Church today. | 9:26 | |
What conclusion should we draw from this? | 9:32 | |
What does it all mean? | 9:37 | |
That Methodist students at Duke | 9:41 | |
should be given better grades in chemistry | 9:43 | |
than Baptist students. | 9:45 | |
That the Methodist should be given preferred seats | 9:49 | |
at the home basketball games. | 9:52 | |
That Methodist professors should be given higher salaries | 9:56 | |
than Presbyterian professors. | 9:59 | |
That Methodist Forge should be given | 10:03 | |
better campus parking places than Episcopalian Cadillac's. | 10:06 | |
Well, merely to express these questions in words | 10:15 | |
is to reveal the impossibility and certainly | 10:20 | |
the undesirability of preferential treatment | 10:24 | |
of Methodism on this intentionally | 10:28 | |
interdenominational campus. | 10:31 | |
What then, should we conclude from the fact | 10:35 | |
that the Methodist Church has played | 10:38 | |
and will continue to play a decisive role | 10:40 | |
in the fortunes of this university. | 10:43 | |
The only conclusion which I care to press this morning | 10:46 | |
is that the students and faculty who have and will benefit | 10:50 | |
so largely from the influence of American Methodism, | 10:55 | |
should take a little time to become knowledgeable | 11:00 | |
about that church. | 11:03 | |
How much time they should spend | 11:05 | |
and how knowledgeable they should become, | 11:07 | |
I do not care to indicate. | 11:09 | |
I've only asked for 25 minutes this morning. | 11:12 | |
But I do suggest that enough time be spent | 11:16 | |
in study that is free from negative bias, | 11:19 | |
at least to dispel the worst misconceptions | 11:23 | |
which some academicians have about Methodism. | 11:27 | |
The actual shortcomings and the genuine weaknesses | 11:32 | |
of Methodist people and of the Methodist Church | 11:37 | |
are bad enough. | 11:39 | |
They do not need to be made to appear worse | 11:41 | |
than they are by a distortion and outright fabrication. | 11:44 | |
Now, let me briefly indicate therefore a few of the areas | 11:50 | |
in which American Methodism has made distinct contributions | 11:55 | |
and about which you might wish to inform yourself. | 11:59 | |
I shall mention some of the postures that has taken | 12:03 | |
that have been characteristic. | 12:06 | |
Now you may agree or disagree with those postures, | 12:09 | |
as you learn more about them. | 12:13 | |
The first characteristic of American Methodism, | 12:16 | |
which I should like to mention is, | 12:19 | |
its interest in education, | 12:21 | |
including higher education. | 12:23 | |
John Wesley, the English founder of Methodism | 12:26 | |
once declared the Methodist may be poor, | 12:30 | |
but there is no need they should be ignorant. | 12:33 | |
And Francis Asbury, who was the greatest leader | 12:37 | |
of early American Methodism, | 12:39 | |
agreed with Wesley on this point. | 12:41 | |
And he began by educating himself at very great sacrifice. | 12:44 | |
And indeed he drafted plans for a Methodist school | 12:50 | |
only 14 years after Strawbridge organized | 12:53 | |
the first congregation on Sams Creek. | 12:57 | |
By the time the American Methodist were ready to hold | 13:01 | |
their very first general conference | 13:03 | |
Asbury together with Dr. Thomas Koch, | 13:07 | |
who was an Oxford graduate, | 13:09 | |
had already laid the plans for a college | 13:11 | |
and had collected some of the funds for it. | 13:14 | |
Interestingly enough, at the end of the first | 13:17 | |
of these two centuries of American Methodism, | 13:20 | |
it was reported that the American Methodist Church | 13:22 | |
had founded nearly 300 schools and colleges. | 13:26 | |
I think you would be interested to know the names | 13:31 | |
of some of today's leading universities, | 13:34 | |
which owe their existence to American Methodism. | 13:36 | |
The University of Southern California, | 13:40 | |
Vanderbilt University, Syracuse, Northwestern, | 13:43 | |
Boston, Emory, Duke, SMU, Wesleyan, | 13:49 | |
The University of Denver, Lawrence University, | 13:54 | |
Southwestern University, | 13:57 | |
and a host of other universities and colleges, | 13:59 | |
some of which rank very high in national ratings. | 14:02 | |
Now, since the membership of the Methodist Church | 14:06 | |
is only about 5% of the total population in this country, | 14:09 | |
it is easy to see that this denomination | 14:15 | |
has provided the nation with a disproportionately large | 14:18 | |
share of the opportunities for higher education. | 14:22 | |
But having founded these universities and colleges, | 14:27 | |
having given them financial support, | 14:30 | |
the Methodist Church has by and large adopted | 14:33 | |
an attitude of trust and cooperation towards them. | 14:37 | |
And it has not sought to dictate their policies, | 14:42 | |
rather leaving to the trustees and the administration, | 14:45 | |
the complex decisions which must be made from week to week | 14:49 | |
and from day to day. | 14:53 | |
And indeed some of the universities and colleges, | 14:55 | |
which were given birth by American Methodism | 14:57 | |
now have no official kinship at all with their parents. | 15:00 | |
Now, this first characteristic is in harmony | 15:06 | |
with another distinguishing feature of this denomination. | 15:09 | |
I speak now of a policy which Wesley described | 15:14 | |
by the phrase think, and let think, | 15:18 | |
hard and fast creedal statements | 15:24 | |
have never been apart of Methodism | 15:27 | |
nor have neatly refined theological postulations | 15:31 | |
been the basis of membership. | 15:34 | |
The governing principle has been, think and let think. | 15:38 | |
I say this has been the governing principle, | 15:46 | |
not the unanimous behavior of Methodists. | 15:48 | |
Here and there one will encounter a misplaced Methodist | 15:53 | |
with a barnacle brain who is willing neither to think | 15:56 | |
nor to let think. | 16:01 | |
For him the very thought of thinking is unthinkable. | 16:03 | |
But by and large, the Methodist Church has allowed | 16:08 | |
and even encouraged great latitude on matters | 16:12 | |
of doctrine and practice. | 16:16 | |
Now it's important to remember at this point | 16:19 | |
that the emphasis is upon tolerance | 16:24 | |
rather than indifference. | 16:28 | |
The Methodist Church believes doctrines | 16:32 | |
are extremely important | 16:34 | |
and that every Christian should earnestly strive | 16:37 | |
to know the truth of God. | 16:40 | |
But when one has a faith, | 16:44 | |
which he cherishes even more than life itself, | 16:45 | |
he is in the best position to understand | 16:49 | |
how much another's beliefs can mean to him, | 16:53 | |
and therefore to be tolerant. | 16:59 | |
The Methodist Church insist that all its ministers | 17:03 | |
be thoroughly grounded in biblical studies and in theology. | 17:06 | |
In the application of the Bible and theology | 17:11 | |
to the secular life of man. | 17:14 | |
Some of the nation's most outstanding theologians | 17:17 | |
and biblical scholars are Methodists. | 17:20 | |
I should omit calling any names, | 17:23 | |
but scholars of every denomination know this to be true. | 17:25 | |
And now speaking of other denominations, | 17:29 | |
perhaps this is as good a time as any for me | 17:32 | |
to say that Methodism is not unique | 17:34 | |
in any point of strength, | 17:38 | |
which I shall mention or not mention. | 17:40 | |
And unfortunately in most of the weaknesses of Methodism | 17:43 | |
are also shared by one or more of her sister denominations. | 17:47 | |
I want now to mention a third characteristic | 17:53 | |
of American Methodism, that is its historic insistence, | 17:55 | |
that the gospel of Jesus Christ | 18:02 | |
has an escapable implications | 18:05 | |
for the social relations of mankind. | 18:10 | |
Private piety is necessary, but by itself is not enough. | 18:15 | |
No area of secular life has been exempt from the scrutiny | 18:22 | |
and interference of some Methodist bishop or board. | 18:26 | |
Often these activities have encountered | 18:31 | |
their very strongest opposition | 18:34 | |
from within the denomination itself, | 18:35 | |
but the church has nevertheless forged ahead. | 18:38 | |
For instance, a Methodist bishop marches | 18:44 | |
from Selma to Montgomery. | 18:47 | |
A group of Methodist Churches unite with Baptist | 18:50 | |
to throw whiskey stores out of a county. | 18:53 | |
A Methodist preacher uses his pulpit | 18:57 | |
to expose rampant corruption in city government. | 18:59 | |
Another Methodist preacher is threatened with contempt | 19:04 | |
of court proceedings because he criticizes a judge | 19:08 | |
for his persistent refusal to sentence proven racketeers. | 19:12 | |
A Methodist missionary is ejected from Angola | 19:19 | |
because he declared that colonial exploitation | 19:22 | |
should give way to democracy, | 19:27 | |
that there should not be taxation without representation. | 19:29 | |
Now, the one theme which runs through | 19:36 | |
all of these activities, | 19:38 | |
which not all Methodists would agree with in particular, | 19:41 | |
but with which Methodists do agree on the theme. | 19:45 | |
And that is the insistence that the gospel | 19:50 | |
has secular implications that God cannot be shut up | 19:53 | |
within the four walls of the church | 19:59 | |
and that his will touches all of life. | 20:02 | |
Now because of this emphasis, | 20:06 | |
Methodists have sometimes been accused of being activists | 20:09 | |
and do gooders. | 20:13 | |
They have been accused of leaving off the preaching | 20:15 | |
of the gospel and meddling in affairs, | 20:17 | |
which were none of their business. | 20:20 | |
Only God knows for sure whether some of these accusations | 20:23 | |
have been partially true. | 20:28 | |
But Methodism has always felt that it must in God's name, | 20:30 | |
get involved wherever human needs are at stake. | 20:35 | |
It has been willing to experiment to try and fail, | 20:40 | |
to try again in a different way. | 20:45 | |
The Methodist missionary program experimented | 20:49 | |
with short term missionaries. | 20:52 | |
And this pattern was later borrowed by Peace Corps. | 20:54 | |
The Methodist Church tried financing | 20:58 | |
an interdenominational chaplaincy in the Duke Hospital. | 21:00 | |
This idea is catching on. | 21:05 | |
The Methodist division of higher education gave Duke | 21:08 | |
a $25,000 grant simply to support some Latin American | 21:11 | |
ventures that Duke was interested in. | 21:16 | |
Our Project Nicaragua has been partially supported | 21:19 | |
by that grant. | 21:22 | |
The point is that the denomination is willing to experiment | 21:25 | |
to try new ways to make the will of God real in God's world. | 21:29 | |
It may fail. | 21:34 | |
It may miss the point. | 21:36 | |
It may be criticized, but it will keep trying. | 21:38 | |
And now last but not least, | 21:43 | |
American Methodism has been characterized | 21:46 | |
by an emphasis upon the importance of every person, | 21:48 | |
having a vital relationship to the living God. | 21:53 | |
Nothing will take the place of that, in the Methodist view. | 21:59 | |
They have taught that correctness of form | 22:05 | |
in public worship is an unacceptable substitute for this, | 22:08 | |
however valuable that may be in itself. | 22:13 | |
Methodists have insisted that membership in a correct church | 22:17 | |
or orthodoxy of creed and intellectual belief | 22:23 | |
cannot be an acceptable substitute | 22:27 | |
for a personal relationship with a personal God. | 22:31 | |
Therefore the great thrust of American Methodism | 22:36 | |
and its witness has been against deism, formalism, | 22:41 | |
institutionalism, and coldness in religion. | 22:45 | |
The representative Methodist | 22:50 | |
has a warm hearted religious faith, | 22:53 | |
which proclaims God as Father | 22:56 | |
and Jesus Christ as the living Lord. | 23:00 | |
The God is dead churchman have not found fertile soil | 23:05 | |
in Methodist vineyards. | 23:08 | |
Dr. J Robert Nelson, a distinguished Methodist theologian | 23:10 | |
who formerly incidentally was director | 23:15 | |
of the Western Foundation at Chapel Hill | 23:17 | |
represented most Methodists in an article | 23:20 | |
he recently published in the Christian Century. | 23:22 | |
He noted that the three professors who are conducting | 23:25 | |
a prolonged funeral of God, | 23:28 | |
profess and attraction to Jesus. | 23:31 | |
And yet their descriptions of Jesus, | 23:34 | |
he says are conflicting and especially fanciful. | 23:37 | |
And here are his words. | 23:42 | |
"None is the real Jesus of biblical witness | 23:44 | |
and Christian faith. | 23:47 | |
Apart from the living Lord, | 23:50 | |
whom Jesus called Father | 23:51 | |
and whom he represents in person word and deed, | 23:54 | |
there is just no real Jesus Christ who can be known | 23:58 | |
or addressed by a faith properly called Christian." | 24:02 | |
Well, the living God through Jesus Christ, | 24:08 | |
beckons all men to draw near to him. | 24:11 | |
He does not compel them to come as Methodist see it, | 24:15 | |
and some do not come. | 24:19 | |
Methodist theology has held that some men will not be saved, | 24:22 | |
exclusively because they declined to accept | 24:28 | |
the free gift of grace, | 24:33 | |
which God offers them through Jesus Christ. | 24:35 | |
And it has held that some men will be saved | 24:39 | |
again exclusively because they accept | 24:43 | |
the free gift of grace. | 24:46 | |
Methodist theologians and preachers almost unanimously | 24:50 | |
have rejected the unbiblical narcotic | 24:53 | |
that all will be saved regardless. | 24:56 | |
Methodist preachers and teachers have taught that | 25:00 | |
nobody is going to be forcibly dragged | 25:03 | |
into the kingdom of God while kicking and screaming | 25:06 | |
in rebellion against it. | 25:08 | |
All may come, none will be compelled. | 25:12 | |
None are predestined either to salvation or to perdition, | 25:16 | |
but anyone who chooses the salvation freely offered | 25:20 | |
in Christ will be accepted. | 25:23 | |
For the past 200 years, one of the favorite texts | 25:27 | |
for sermons and Methodist pulpits | 25:31 | |
stretching from Sams Creek Western | 25:33 | |
has been the one read by Jack Wilson this morning. | 25:36 | |
The words of Christ, I will give unto him | 25:41 | |
that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely | 25:45 | |
and let him that is a thirst come | 25:51 | |
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. | 25:55 | |
Heavenly Father, whatever our church preference | 26:07 | |
or membership may be, | 26:11 | |
each one of us now accepts the free gift of grace. | 26:13 | |
We take from thee, the water of life. | 26:21 | |
Granted we may walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ | 26:25 | |
and with one another of every persuasion, | 26:28 | |
all the days of our lives. | 26:32 | |
And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ | 26:35 | |
be with you all. | 26:38 |
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