Thor Hall - "A Choice Concern" (August 6, 1967)

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	(organ music)	0:03
-	Grace to you and peace from God, our Father,	2:22
	and from the Lord Jesus Christ.	2:25
	Brethren, we have come together to hear God's Holy Word,	2:29
	and to offer Him our service of praise and thanksgiving.	2:32
	As we do let us therefore begin by bowing and examining	2:37
	our lives, seeking God's grace,	2:41
	that we may draw near to Him with repentance and true faith.	2:45
	May we remember the ancient promise of God to His people,	2:50
	"If my people which are called by my name	2:54
	shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face	2:57
	and turn from their wicked ways,	3:02
	then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin	3:04
	and will heal their land."	3:09
	May we begin now to meet the conditions that will enable God	3:12
	to fulfill His promise, to hear, to forgive and to heal.	3:15
	Let us offer to God our corporate prayer of confession,	3:21
	let us pray.	3:26
	Almighty and most merciful Father,	3:31
	we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep.	3:34
	We have strayed from our own responsibilities,	3:39
	to families and communities, thinking we would thus be free.	3:42
	We have followed too much the devices and desires	3:47
	of our own hearts.	3:51
	We have been too sentimental and at the same time	3:53
	have followed too much the logic of our minds.	3:57
	We have built great universities to search out truth,	4:01
	then hidden behind their Ivy walls,	4:04
	protecting ourselves from strife and danger.	4:07
	We have offended against thy holy laws.	4:12
	We have allowed our communities and nations	4:16
	to respect selfishness and injustice	4:19
	and have washed our hands of the due process of law.	4:22
	We have left undone those things	4:27
	which we ought to have done.	4:29
	We have been irresponsible in our economic life	4:32
	and allowed unrighteousness to hold sway	4:36
	in politics and the struggle for power,	4:38
	and we have done those things	4:42
	which we ought not to have done.	4:44
	We have lived at the expense of our poor brothers	4:47
	at home and abroad.	4:50
	We have used the terrible destructiveness of science	4:53
	against our enemies,	4:56
	and there is no health in us.	4:58
	There is conflict in the depths of our souls,	5:02
	which has driven us into sickness of mind and body,	5:05
	but thou, oh Lord have mercy upon us, miserable offenders	5:09
	who have considered ourselves untainted	5:15
	by the evil of our modern world.	5:18
	Spare thou those, oh God, who confess their faults,	5:21
	be they personal, social, cultural, or religious sins.	5:26
	Restore thou those who are penanced	5:32
	and would change both themselves and their society.	5:35
	According to thy promises declared unto mankind	5:39
	in Christ Jesus, our Lord, through whom together,	5:42
	we are raised up into thy kingdom on earth and in heaven,	5:47
	and grant, oh most merciful Father, for His sake,	5:52
	that we may here after live a godly,	5:56
	righteous and sober life, ordered by thy law and freed	5:58
	by thy grace to the glory of thy holy name, Amen.	6:04
	Because you have confessed your sins	6:14
	from your heart to Almighty God,	6:16
	I declare unto you that a person who is in Christ	6:18
	is a new man, forgiven, free to live	6:22
	and to celebrate this life, which God gives unto us.	6:27
	Let us pray.	6:32
	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	6:34
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth	6:40
	as it is in heaven.	6:44
	Give us this day our daily bread	6:46
	and forgive us our trespasses	6:49
	as we forgive those who trespass	6:51
	against us and lead us not into temptation,	6:53
	but deliver us from evil.	6:57
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	7:00
	and the glory, forever, Amen.	7:03
	(a capella choir music)	7:30
	The Lord be with you.	9:23
	Let us pray.	9:27
	Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanksgiving.	9:32
	Oh God who art the ruler of the universe,	9:38
	the Lord of all power and the King of our lives,	9:41
	we praise the for thy son, Jesus Christ,	9:46
	who brought thy reign of love and righteousness	9:49
	for every person in every age.	9:52
	Thou openness the gates of love and humanity for us.	9:56
	Thanks be unto thee, oh thou who dost come to break down	10:01
	the walls of separation and to enthrone hope and peace,	10:05
	among the multitudes of the world.	10:10
	Oh God, our Father, for every triumph of the spirit	10:14
	we give thee thanks.	10:17
	For all the joys, which the beauty of thy world creates	10:19
	for us, for that joy which men know	10:23
	in the creation of beauty, for the joys of truth	10:26
	and for that joy that men know in the struggle	10:31
	with mystery and the unknown,	10:33
	for the joy of hands at work or at prayer or at play,	10:36
	we give thee thanks.	10:41
	For the joy of the seeing eye and the understanding heart	10:43
	and the creative spirit, for the joy of struggle	10:48
	and for the joy of rest, for the joy of deeds	10:52
	and for the joy of dreams out of which deeds come.	10:56
	For all these joys, oh God, and others such as any of us	11:01
	who are willing may know, we give thee thanks,	11:05
	through Him who first made	11:09
	this day a time of joy and a celebration.	11:10
	Oh God, whose son Jesus Christ has made us members,	11:19
	one of another, we take our place in the human family	11:22
	at this time by offering our prayers	11:27
	for our brothers and sisters in Christ.	11:30
	We lift up our hearts in intercession, oh God,	11:35
	for the lonely, for the bereaved,	11:38
	for those who have been torn away recently	11:42
	from those they love, and to thy hands, oh God,	11:44
	we would commit the sick, the sorrowful and the tempted	11:49
	that they may know thy healing and enabling power and love.	11:54
	We would intercede for our land, our Father,	12:00
	especially for those persons and those communities	12:04
	whose very fabric has been ripped and stained	12:09
	by hate and violence.	12:12
	For those who are so weakened by selfishness,	12:16
	and for those who are so poisoned by resentment,	12:19
	that they see no way but hatred and violence,	12:23
	we would lift up our prayers.	12:26
	We ask our Father that reason may be restored	12:29
	to our common life.	12:32
	That our civic order may be both lawful and just,	12:35
	and that the blessings of peace on earth and goodwill	12:40
	among men may be known again in our, and in all lands.	12:42
	Lord, hear our prayer and make us the instruments	12:48
	of thy peace, we ask.	12:53
	Oh God, on this day particularly,	12:58
	the foreign newspapers keep reminding us	13:02
	about a city called Hiroshima.	13:05
	Most of us cannot imagine what Hiroshima was like	13:11
	when the bomb fell 22 years ago.	13:14
	We wonder what went through the minds of mothers,	13:17
	what happened to lives of children,	13:21
	what stabbed at the hearts of old men	13:25
	when they were caught up in a sea of flames.	13:27
	Tell us, oh God, we who are so quick to judge	13:31
	our father's generation, that we too are capable	13:36
	of the same cruelty, the same horror,	13:40
	if we turn and our back on thee, our brother,	13:44
	and on our other brothers.	13:47
	Save us from ourselves, spare us the evil	13:50
	of our heart's good intentions, unbridled and mad.	13:54
	Turn us from our perversions of love,	13:59
	especially when these are perpetuated in thy name.	14:02
	Speak to us, oh God, about war and about peace,	14:07
	and about the possibilities for both	14:13
	in our very human hearts.	14:15
	We who stand as thy people in the world, oh Lord,	14:19
	offer ourselves and our society in these prayers	14:23
	for thy blessing and healing.	14:27
	We have confessed before thee	14:30
	that we have failed to love as Jesus did.	14:32
	We have been socially unjust and that our society	14:35
	is imperfect, fragmented, and sometimes sick unto death.	14:38
	Teach us thy ways in the world and in this life,	14:45
	which we share together.	14:48
	Keep us from restricting thy name	14:51
	to a narrow ghetto labeled religion	14:53
	and lead us to glorify thee in the fullness of life,	14:57
	as the Lord of politics, economics and the arts.	15:01
	Give us light, oh God, to seek true morality,	15:06
	not in narrow legalisms but in sacrifice,	15:10
	and in open responsibility to our neighbor.	15:14
	Show us how to express our love for thee,	15:18
	in the very specific human service	15:21
	that we need render to our fellow men.	15:25
	Lord change our hearts	15:29
	from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.	15:32
	And let us give thanks to thee for all of life,	15:38
	which thou giveth unto us.	15:42
	In the name of Christ we ask it, Amen.	15:45
-	Of the lesson from the Holy Scriptures,	16:17
	selected versus from the 12th chapter	16:21
	of the Epistle to the Romans.	16:26
	"Therefore, my brothers, I implore you by God's mercy	16:32
	to offer your very selves to Him, a living sacrifice,	16:37
	dedicated and fit for His acceptance,	16:41
	the worship offered by mind and heart.	16:45
	Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern	16:51
	of this present world, but let your minds be remade	16:54
	and your whole nature thus transformed.	16:59
	Then you will be able to discern the will of God	17:03
	and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.	17:06
	Love in all sincerity, loathing evil	17:12
	and clinging to the good, let love for our brotherhood,	17:17
	breed warmth of mutual affection.	17:22
	Give pride a place to one another in esteem,	17:26
	with unflagging energy in order of Spirit, serve the Lord.	17:30
	Let hope keep you joyful, in trouble stand firm,	17:37
	persist in prayer, contribute to the needs of God's people	17:43
	and practice hospitality.	17:48
	Call down blessings on your persecutors,	17:51
	blessings, not curses.	17:55
	With the joyful be joyful and mourn with the mourners.	17:58
	Have equal regard for one another,	18:04
	do not be haughty, but go about with humble folk.	18:07
	Do not keep thinking how wise you are,	18:11
	never pay back evil for evil.	18:15
	Let your aims be such as all men count honorable.	18:19
	If possible, so far as it lies with you,	18:23
	live at peace with all men.	18:26
	My dear friends do not seek revenge,	18:29
	but leave a place for divine retribution,	18:32
	for there is a text which reads,	18:35
	'Justice is mine', says the Lord, 'I will repay,'	18:37
	but there is another text,	18:41
	'If your enemy is hungry, feed him.	18:44
	If he is thirsty, give him a drink,	18:47
	by doing this you will heap live coals on his head.'	18:51
	Do not let evil conquer you,	18:56
	but use good to defeat evil."	19:01
	And here ends the reading from the Holy Word.	19:08
	In the name of the Father and of the Son	19:18
	and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.	19:20
	it's often enlightening to read about	19:24
	or get acquainted with saintly people.	19:28
	They throw light on what life can and ought to be,	19:32
	and sometimes by contrast reveal more clearly	19:37
	what life usually is.	19:41
	Sometime ago now, I read about such a person, a poor man,	19:46
	deeply troubled by the conditions of his life	19:51
	and the situation of the world as he experienced it.	19:55
	And there was one comment that he made again and again	20:01
	throughout his life that has stuck in my mind.	20:03
	He said, "I have really only one worry in life,	20:08
	that I am not a holy man."	20:14
	I remember as I read about his life,	20:19
	how that comment grabbed me again and again,	20:21
	from what I could judge, this poor man could find	20:26
	a great many things to worry about.	20:31
	His life was cast in one miserable role after the other.	20:35
	Seemed to be no end at all to the trouble	20:40
	that piled up on him.	20:43
	But he kept saying, "I really only worry over one thing,	20:47
	that I am not a holy man."	20:52
	He said it negatively, and that I suspect	20:56
	is just his own self effacing way of doing things.	21:02
	Positively we could express it this way,	21:07
	he had made a choice of concerns.	21:10
	He had made a decision concerning	21:16
	his life's center and goal, its meaning and direction,	21:19
	and his aim was now holiness of life,	21:25
	and he was worried about missing it.	21:31
	I don't know what it was that made me think	21:34
	of that man again, but I did one night as I was watching	21:37
	the blue charcoal smoke of my suburban burned offering,	21:41
	rising pleasantly to the sky.	21:46
	There I was in very different setting from this old man,	21:49
	with no pressing personal problems to worry me.	21:55
	And yet somehow I could not tell myself to take my ease	21:59
	and to eat my steak and to drink my tea	22:04
	and to be merry with my family and to forget about trouble.	22:07
	Unlikely though it may seem,	22:14
	I feel at one with that worried man of the past,	22:17
	wondering about the status of my life before God	22:26
	and among men, worrying that in my relationships,	22:30
	both vertical and horizontal, both heavenward and earthly,	22:35
	I am not a holy man.	22:43
	See, I have made a choice of concerns also,	22:47
	the decision concerning my life's center and goal,	22:53
	its meaning and direction.	22:56
	Strange as it sounds,	23:00
	I am one with anyone who is aiming	23:03
	for holiness in life, and I'm worried that I might miss it.	23:08
	Perhaps you wonder a little what I'm driving at,	23:16
	let me say it plainly.	23:20
	Whatever our situation and setting in life,	23:23
	whether miserable or comfortable,	23:26
	whether filled with concerns and problems	23:30
	that causes pain and worry or free	23:34
	from such pressing predicaments.	23:36
	There is one thing that ought to constitute	23:39
	our common chosen concern, namely the quality of our life,	23:43
	the character of our being,	23:52
	before God, our maker and among men our fellow creatures.	23:56
	Whether we are hot and bothered about something	24:06
	or cool and collected about everything,	24:10
	one thing ought to have a standing engagement	24:14
	at the center stage of our life.	24:17
	A deliberate worry, a chosen concern,	24:21
	whether we are holy men and women.	24:28
	There is a priority question then before us,	24:34
	and it is our conscious consideration of that question,	24:39
	which will decide how we feel about everything else,	24:42
	in our setting, as well as in our life.	24:47
	I don't know about you,	24:53
	but I wonder how we would feel if Durham had a town crier	24:54
	who would pass through the city every hour,	24:57
	ringing his bell and pronouncing	25:00
	with professional assurance,	25:02
	"Eight o'clock and all is well.	25:05
	Nine o'clock and all is well.	25:08
	10 o'clock and all is well."	25:12
	I can see some of us take that message	25:15
	with open ears and grateful hearts.	25:17
	We would look up from our newspaper and nod silently	25:21
	to each other and take another sip of coffee or something	25:26
	and we would smile contentedly	25:29
	and we would say, "Good, so there is nothing	25:35
	to worry about then the city is quiet,	25:40
	things are normal and peaceful.	25:43
	Everything is all right,	25:46
	nothing to be about concerned at all."	25:48
	But there are others among us, and many more in this city,	25:52
	who would take that town crier's message	25:59
	as a big hollow joke,	26:02
	they would look at each other in disbelief	26:06
	and shake their head with a frown	26:08
	and take another drink of beer or something	26:12
	and they would think with themselves,	26:14
	"Where in the world does that man get his news from.	26:16
	Hasn't he heard of the match, the threats, the cat calls,	26:23
	doesn't he see the conditions of people, the poverty,	26:30
	the slums, the demand for and the fear of equality,	26:34
	the mutual tension, the prevailing suspicion,	26:39
	the crime, the suffering, all the sickness and stupidity	26:44
	with which this particular community is struggling?	26:50
	'All is well,' he says, how foolish can you get?"	26:55
	It's to all of us, to both of these groups,	27:04
	whichever way we feel about our situation at the present,	27:10
	that I would want to introduce an alternate worry,	27:14
	a chosen concern, namely the question of the quality	27:21
	of our life, the character of our being	27:26
	before God are maker and among men, our fellow creatures.	27:31
	It is the degree to which we worry over that question	27:36
	that we will look with understanding	27:43
	and depth on all other facets of our situation.	27:48
	No person who worries whether he is a holy man,	27:55
	can lull himself into thinking that all is well	27:58
	and there is nothing more to do.	28:02
	Neither can anyone who is concerned over his status	28:06
	before God and among men, let himself be imprisoned	28:09
	in material or political or social concerns solely	28:13
	and forget, the personal, the moral,	28:21
	the religious qualities of life.	28:29
	The Christian, in other words, must worry	28:34
	whether or not his own life is infused in character	28:39
	and consistence, by holiness.	28:44
	Holiness in the direction of God, the Lord of life	28:50
	and holiness in the direction	28:54
	towards everything else in life.	28:57
	Now, I suppose that word holiness needs	29:00
	some sort of salvaging in our time.	29:04
	For most of us, perhaps,	29:07
	this term carries a great many unhappy associations,	29:08
	so much so that we feel inclined to disassociate ourselves	29:13
	from the entire concept.	29:17
	Much of what's called holiness, is so utterly foreign	29:20
	to normal human life,	29:25
	as well as the essence of Christian faith itself,	29:29
	and so sickeningly hypocritical	29:37
	both in form and content often,	29:39
	that most of us would shrink from even considering	29:44
	that the Christian man's life in the world	29:46
	is to aim at being holy.	29:49
	On the contrary, we have begun to use	29:52
	a different set of symbols these days.	29:55
	We are much more comfortable with describing	29:58
	the Christian life and relationship to the world	30:02
	in terms of secularity,	30:06
	"Worldliness is not such a bad word at all," we say today.	30:09
	God himself created the world	30:15
	and intended for us to live in it.	30:19
	The man who desires to fulfill God's intentions for him	30:22
	cannot deny the secular and flee into some holy separation	30:25
	from the world.	30:32
	He must, if he is true to God's intentions for the world,	30:34
	affirm the world and live responsibly,	30:40
	as a secular man within it.	30:46
	This is the way we talk today,	30:48
	but let's not quibble about words.	30:50
	Many of the theologians who talk about the Christian life	30:55
	as responsible secularity,	31:00
	mean by that phrase exactly or closely,	31:03
	what the best traditions of Christian thought meant,	31:09
	by their emphasis on holiness in life.	31:14
	In fact, many of them, the modern men,	31:19
	talk about the attitude they're seeking in terms of	31:22
	a sense of the sacred in the secular.	31:25
	And when we hear the contemporary proclamation	31:31
	of a religionless Christianity,	31:34
	it is really very little different from the earlier emphasis	31:37
	in traditional Christian faith reflection	31:41
	on the life of a Christian as a personal experience	31:44
	and a commitment and a conviction and a witness in life,	31:49
	and not just a formal institutional religiosity,	31:54
	and a nominal association with the church.	31:58
	Whether we use the word holy or not,	32:03
	it seems clear that most of us who are thinking	32:07
	and feeling strongly about the quality of our life,	32:11
	agree that the shape of the Christians' life must be	32:17
	in relation to God, in relation to other people,	32:23
	characterized by a difference.	32:30
	What we are talking about is a quality of life	32:36
	which sets the Christian apart from everybody else,	32:39
	and marks him as a very special kind of man.	32:45
	Perhaps it's difficult and dangerous	32:52
	to use the term quality.	32:54
	Perhaps that word indicates that the difference	32:57
	between a Christian and a non-Christian resides	33:00
	in something substantial, some internal piety	33:02
	or some outward purity, some predefined pattern of thought	33:07
	or feeling or action to which each Christian	33:15
	must be required to conform.	33:18
	I said that it would be a dangerous implication to do so,	33:22
	perhaps we should talk of the distinct nature	33:27
	of the Christian's life in terms of orientation,	33:30
	rather than quality, we should at least keep it dynamic	33:35
	and not define it in a static way.	33:40
	The character of the Christian life should be a living,	33:44
	growing kind of life, involving all of what a man is	33:50
	at every point, at every place at every moment in life.	33:57
	If we settle on that, on talking about the Christian life	34:03
	in terms of orientation, what is the specific feature	34:06
	which would be involved	34:12
	if we are to describe this orientation as holy?	34:14
	People have talked about that in a variety of ways,	34:23
	of course, one theologian talks about it	34:25
	as ultimate concern,	34:28
	another has developed it in terms	34:33
	of absolute responsibility.	34:35
	More specifically, contemporary theologians	34:40
	are using symbolisms of a total commitment,	34:42
	an all inclusive decision.	34:48
	Kierkegaard, some 100 years ago, talked of it as,	34:53
	to will one thing, and John Wesley, a 100 years before that,	34:58
	used the symbolism of having a single eye.	35:05
	If we go all the way back to St. Paul,	35:10
	we find him describing it this way,	35:14
	"I implore you by God's mercy to offer your very selves	35:17
	to Him, a living sacrifice,	35:22
	dedicated and fit for His acceptance,	35:25
	adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern	35:29
	of this present world, but let your minds	35:31
	be remade and your whole nature thus transformed."	35:35
	Follow me one more step back and stand with me	35:42
	and everyone who is an honest inquirer	35:48
	before the originator and fulfiller of our faith.	35:52
	And you'll find the shape of holiness defined	35:58
	as no shape at all, but as a power, as an attitude,	36:02
	as a spirit within, as a living dynamic life force,	36:08
	which he called love.	36:15
	As he said, "Love the Lord your God, with all your heart,	36:20
	with all your soul, with all your mind,	36:26
	that is the greatest commandment."	36:29
	It comes first, the second is like it though.	36:32
	"Love your neighbor as yourself."	36:36
	Everything in the law and the prophets,	36:40
	hangs on these two commandments.	36:43
	Now that I take it as a very clear way to set forth,	36:48
	both the essential nature	36:54
	and the double direction of Christian holiness.	36:55
	I don't think it can be improved upon really.	36:59
	It shows, for example, that holiness is outward in direction	37:02
	to God, to other people, not inward to oneself.	37:08
	It shows that holiness is always a relational force,	37:15
	not a solitary man's individual property.	37:21
	It exists only as a person is related in love to God	37:26
	and related in love to his fellow men,	37:33
	and not simply to one or to the other,	37:38
	both are involved at the same time and in same way.	37:43
	Love, which is the essence of Christian holiness,	37:49
	forms at every point and in every moment	37:53
	a symbol of a cross.	37:56
	There is the verticality of love received and returned	37:58
	in full openness and communion with God.	38:03
	And there is the horizontality of love given and accepted	38:06
	in full openness and communion even,	38:13
	with one's fellow man, one's neighbor.	38:18
	There is no holiness then in a man who is all wrapped up	38:24
	in himself, he cannot have love and fail to move outward	38:28
	in the direction of other people.	38:37
	He cannot have love and fail to open up	38:40
	in responsible obedience to God.	38:45
	Love is not a property, a thing we can have by ourselves,	38:51
	it is a power, an attitude, a spirit, a life force,	38:56
	which must seek its way toward another,	39:00
	toward the supreme transcendent other who is the center	39:05
	of life's universe and to the common everyday other,	39:09
	who orbits with us in the same plane in time,	39:16
	around the same center in history.	39:23
	Love, holiness is operative in both directions.	39:27
	And when we talk of holiness in this fashion,	39:38
	giving it both a specific content	39:41
	and a definite double direction,	39:44
	it's clear that for a Christian,	39:46
	the question whether he is a holy person must	39:47
	be the most important, must be the priority question.	39:51
	It's the most relevant question he can raise,	39:55
	for it touches his very essence,	39:59
	as well as the circumference of his life.	40:02
	It's the basic, basic concern.	40:05
	It should be the concern that disturbs	40:11
	all of our secure superficiality and denies us the pleasure	40:15
	of being able to tell ourselves all is well.	40:22
	It's that deeper worry which outweighs all other worries,	40:27
	and make them secondary and even puny by comparison.	40:33
	For when we worry over the quality and the character,	40:41
	the orientation, the life force, the spirit of our own life,	40:45
	we have found a concern to over arch and undergird,	40:53
	everything else we are and feel.	41:03
	Now finally, perhaps we need to see what	41:09
	that honest acceptance of a choice concern	41:10
	does to us in practice.	41:18
	To put it in a nutshell, it would disturb the comfortable,	41:21
	and it would challenge and perhaps comfort the disturbed.	41:29
	Remember what I said a few minutes ago,	41:37
	I said that it is the degree to which we worry	41:39
	of this question, the question of the quality of our life,	41:41
	the character of our being,	41:45
	which will decide how we look at everything else in life.	41:48
	Look at those of us who are so easily comforted	41:51
	to think that all is well.	41:55
	We read our Bible and do our prayers and go to church	41:58
	and give some money and we think all is well.	42:01
	My only real worry is that I am not a holy man.	42:07
	We are put on committees and we serve as ushers	42:16
	and we teach in Sunday school and we are elected chairman,	42:19
	and we feel that things are fine.	42:22
	My only real worry is that I'm not a holy man.	42:27
	We paint our house and admire our children	42:35
	and receive a salary increase and join a club,	42:37
	and we tell ourselves that everything	42:42
	is looking up, going well.	42:44
	My only real worry is that I am not a holy man.	42:49
	Do you see how that chosen concern tears us out	43:00
	of our comfortable, easy secularity,	43:06
	and makes us alive, concerned and growing.	43:17
	Well insert that same concern into the life of those of us	43:26
	who are already troubled.	43:30
	We read our newspapers and follow the trends of "The Times"	43:32
	and we wonder what's going to happen to our property,	43:36
	to our business, to our neighborhood and to our city.	43:40
	My chosen concern is that I am not a holy man.	43:48
	We sit together in our organizations and groups	43:56
	and we talk about the government and the poverty program	43:58
	and the White Citizen Council and the Ku Klux Klan,	44:01
	and the Black power struggle.	44:06
	And we tighten up inside for fear,	44:08
	of what they're all going to do to our society.	44:12
	My chosen concern is that in relation to God	44:18
	and in relation to man, I should be holy.	44:24
	We take action to express our fears,	44:32
	we sign petitions and we send letters to the editor.	44:34
	We demonstrate openly or implicitly	44:37
	how we feel about things and we are concerned	44:40
	that our side shall prevail for or against integration	44:43
	of the nation, for or against	44:48
	the Office of Economic Opportunity,	44:50
	for or against the war in Vietnam.	44:53
	My choice concern in all my life	44:58
	is that I should be a man of love toward God,	45:08
	toward my fellow man.	45:18
	Can you see what that basic personal question concerning	45:21
	the quality of life would do to us?	45:26
	It will confront us at every juncture of our life	45:29
	when we are at peace with ourselves	45:33
	and we think all is well.	45:35
	And when we are worried about the world	45:40
	and think all is going wrong.	45:43
	It would confront us with an alternate perspective on things	45:47
	which would change both our peace and our worries.	45:52
	But when we worry about love,	46:00
	love of God and love of neighbor,	46:05
	then we will never be able to settle down and take our ease.	46:11
	We will begin to work love,	46:18
	and we will never be able to let ourselves be overpowered	46:27
	and mastered by all the troubles of our time.	46:31
	We will have a shape of life in mind,	46:37
	a dynamism of life to inform us.	46:43
	We will work love, in all relationships,	46:49
	in all that he is and does the Christian	46:57
	will have a new center of orientation.	47:02
	A new dynamic life orientation,	47:06
	a new life force penetrating the whole, an ultimate concern,	47:11
	an absolute responsibility, a total commitment,	47:18
	an all inclusive decision.	47:22
	Whichever way we term it, we will will one thing,	47:24
	we will have a single eye.	47:31
	We will offer ourselves in a living dedication to it.	47:34
	We will seek above all to love God and obey Him	47:39
	and to love our neighbor and serve him in all of life,	47:50
	in church and the world,	47:59
	on the one side of an ideological wall or on another,	48:02
	involved as we are here or there,	48:07
	identified with this group or that group,	48:10
	we will seek above all to be holy,	48:14
	to be men and women of law.	48:21
	Let me close by referring again	48:26
	to that saint who made a choice of concerns,	48:27
	are we with him?	48:31
	Have we made for ourselves	48:34
	the same kind of decision concerning the center and goal,	48:36
	the meaning and direction of life?	48:40
	My only real worry is that I'm not a holy man.	48:44
	You're dealing with the essence of things here,	48:51
	as the early church had it proclaimed to them	48:54
	by the Apostle Paul.	48:56
	"This is the will of God that you should be holy."	49:00
	And now let us pray.	49:12
	Oh God bring us again	49:19
	to face the central question	49:23
	of the quality, the character, the orientation,	49:28
	the dynamic center of our own life,	49:32
	that in our life together with thee and with each other,	49:37
	we may all have a chosen concern,	49:44
	a central worry that we should live, love,	49:50
	through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.	50:00
	(organ music)	50:06
	(choir sings)	50:37
	(pipes playing)	53:45
	(opera music )	54:26
	(opera music)	56:07
	(organ music)	58:28
	(feet stomping)	59:18
-	Oh God, as we place this money upon thy altar,	59:33
	we would bring together the sacred and the secular,	59:37
	the material and the spiritual,	59:41
	our work and our worship.	59:44
	Help us we ask, to use all our gifts to unify life	59:47
	and not to split it apart, to create fellowship	59:51
	and not to disrupt it.	59:56
	Our Father, with these gifts,	59:58
	we reaffirm our membership in thy church.	59:59
	Help us to belong to it in spirit and in truth	1:00:02
	and in deed, Amen.	1:00:07
-	Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	1:00:18
	the love of God, the Father and the fellowship	1:00:23
	and communion of the Holy Spirit be upon you and remain	1:00:26
	with you this day and each day, even unto the end, Amen.	1:00:30
	♪ Amen ♪	1:00:43
	♪ Amen ♪	1:00:52
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:02
	(bells tolling)	1:01:27
	(organ music)	1:01:42
	(indistinct)	1:02:34
	(woman laughs)	1:02:41
	(indistinct)	1:02:43
	(organ music)	1:02:54

Item Info

Title:

Thor Hall - "A Choice Concern" (August 6, 1967)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gm85q04

Date:

August 6, 1967

Speaker:

Hall, Thor

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0394
ref5991_twn
uachapelsermaud
duke:628097
dcrau002388
ark:/87924/r4gm85q04
f38c126d-0c02-4c05-a793-85423f9a3540

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Duke has not determined the copyright status of this item. Regardless of its status, we have made a good faith determination that online access through the Duke Digital Repository is an acceptable fair use and otherwise permitted under U.S. copyright law. For more information, see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions

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Thor Hall - "A Choice Concern" (August 6, 1967)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

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