Robert T. Young - "Is Faith Really, Ever Blind?" (March 11, 1979)

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	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	0:04
-	The hour cometh and now is	10:04
	when the true worshipers shall worship	10:07
	the father in spirit and in truth.	10:09
	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	10:27
	(Cathedral pipe organ music with operatic hymn choir)	10:55
	Let us join together in the prayer of confession.	14:31
	Oh God, we thank you	14:39
	that you have not treated us as we deserve.	14:42
	We thank you that through,	14:47
	though you are creator, judge and king,	14:49
	you also love us, so that though we are wondering children	14:54
	there is always a road back to your presence.	15:01
	You have spoken to us in the voice of conscious,	15:05
	and the words of scripture,	15:10
	in the promptings of your holy spirit,	15:13
	and yet we have not obeyed your voice.	15:17
	You have shown us the best,	15:21
	in the ideals which still haunt us,	15:24
	in the life and the example of godly persons	15:28
	around us, in the pattern of Jesus,	15:32
	and yet, we have not followed it.	15:36
	You have tried to teach us in the events of history,	15:41
	in the experiences of life,	15:47
	in the wisdom of the sages, the prophets and the saints,	15:50
	and yet we have not learned your lesson.	15:56
	You have called us to the life of love,	16:01
	to the forgiving of each other,	16:05
	to the helping of those in need.	16:09
	To the caring which is like your care,	16:12
	and yet we have lived in bitterness, in selfishness,	16:17
	and not heeded the appeal of others.	16:23
	We have nothing in our hands to bring.	16:27
	No merit of our own, and no plea that we can offer,	16:31
	so above all else, we thank you for Jesus Christ,	16:37
	our Savior, who died that we might be forgiven.	16:42
	So for his sake, hear us, as each of us says,	16:48
	God be merciful to me as sinner,	16:55
	through Christ, our Lord.	16:59
	Faithful and compassionate father,	17:39
	we beseech you, absolve us from our offensives,	17:44
	so that through your bountiful goodness,	17:53
	we may be delivered from the bonds of those sins	17:58
	which imprisoned us.	18:02
	Grant us most undeserving gift, oh father,	18:06
	for Christ sake, Amen.	18:11
	Let us give thanks for God is good.	18:20
	And God's love is everlasting.	18:23
-	Thanks be to God,	18:27
	(muffled responsorial psalm)	18:38
-	Oh heavenly father, illuminate our being	18:48
	with the eternal fire of your word.	18:51
	The scripture lessons this morning	18:59
	are from Genesis:12 and John:4.	19:00
	Reading from the old testAment, Genesis:12,	19:06
	one through eight.	19:10
	Now the Lord said to Abraham,	19:14
	go from your country and your kindred	19:18
	and your father's house to land that I will show you.	19:20
	And I will make of you a great nation.	19:24
	And I will bless you and make your name great,	19:27
	so that you will be a blessing.	19:32
	I will bless those who bless you,	19:35
	and him who curses you, I will curse.	19:38
	And by you, all the families of the earth	19:42
	will bless themselves.	19:45
	So Abraham went as the Lord had told him.	19:49
	And Lot went with him.	19:55
	Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.	19:58
	And Abraham took Sarah, his wife,	20:03
	and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions	20:05
	which they had gathered,	20:08
	and the persons that they had gotten in Haran.	20:11
	And they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.	20:14
	When they had come to the land of Canaan,	20:19
	Abraham passed through the land to the place that	20:21
	Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.	20:23
	At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.	20:27
	Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said,	20:31
	"Through your descendants I will give this land."	20:36
	So he built there an alter to the Lord,	20:41
	who had appeared to him.	20:44
	Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel,	20:47
	and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west,	20:51
	and Ai on the east.	20:55
	And there he built an alter to the Lord.	20:58
	And called on the name of the Lord.	21:01
	The gospel reading this morning is from	21:20
	the gospel according to John,	21:22
	chapter four, versus five thru 15.	21:23
	So Jesus came to the city of Samaria,	21:30
	called Sychar, Sheechem.	21:35
	Near their field that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.	21:38
	Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was,	21:43
	with his journey, sat down beside the well.	21:49
	It was about the sixth hour, noon.	21:54
	There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.	21:59
	Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."	22:03
	His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.	22:07
	The Samaritan woman said to him,	22:12
	"How is it, you a Jew, ask a drink of me,	22:14
	"a woman of Samaria?	22:17
	"For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."	22:20
	Jesus answered her, "If you knew that the gift of God,	22:25
	"and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink.	22:32
	"You would have asked him,	22:37
	"and he would have given you living water."	22:38
	The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with	22:44
	"and the well is deep, where do you get that living water?	22:48
	"Are you greater than our father, Jacob,	22:56
	"who gave us the well, and drank from it for himself,	22:59
	"and his sons, and his cattle?"	23:02
	Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water	23:06
	"will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water	23:11
	"that I shall give him, will never thirst.	23:15
	"The water that I shall give him,	23:20
	"will become in him a spring of water,	23:21
	"welling up to eternal life."	23:24
	May the Lord bless unto us,	23:31
	this reading from his divine word.	23:34
	(Cathedral pipe organ music with operatic hymn choir)	23:42
	And now may the words of my lips	24:49
	and the mediations of our hearts	24:54
	be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord.	24:59
	Our strength and our redeemer, Amen.	25:02
	I was talking with a group of students recently.	25:11
	And one of them,	25:16
	an intelligent and articulate young man,	25:18
	spoke to all of us, and in a very real sense,	25:24
	called us all up short, a bit, when he said,	25:27
	"I'm not a Christian,	25:33
	I do not believe in God yet."	25:37
	And later I remarked to him that it was intriguing	25:41
	to me that he had chosen to say,	25:44
	"I do not believe in God yet."	25:46
	He said, "I do not believe in God yet,	25:49
	"you Christians all seem to have a blind faith,	25:52
	"and my life is too important to commit blindly	25:59
	"to anyone or anything."	26:05
	I did not argue with him with him	26:12
	then or there.	26:15
	But I thought a great deal about his comment.	26:20
	And now I think I would say something like this to him,	26:25
	I'm not so sure about your comment	26:30
	that we Christians all have a blind faith.	26:33
	I can see, however, I think where you get your idea.	26:39
	For we within the Christian faith do often talk about	26:44
	faith in God as if it really were blind.	26:47
	We talk about faith as a leap in the dark,	26:51
	as believing the unbelievable,	26:55
	as knowing the unknown, as seeing the unseen	26:58
	as having heard the unheard.	27:03
	We talk about that still, small voice of God.	27:06
	But I'm not so sure I would say that faith is blind.	27:11
	As a matter of fact, I guess I would raise the question,	27:15
	is faith ever really blind?	27:18
	It seems to me that much that is going on today	27:24
	in the name of religion, and the name of faith,	27:26
	that is in the name of all kinds of faith,	27:31
	is forcing us, perhaps as never before,	27:34
	to re-examine our faith in Christ, our faith in God,	27:39
	and see what faith for us really is.	27:42
	And so for the moment, based upon Scripture,	27:46
	based upon the life and history of the church	27:48
	as I know it, and for me personally,	27:50
	the answer to this question,	27:53
	is faith ever really blind, is no.	27:55
	Faith in God, the god of Abraham and Sarah,	28:02
	of Jesus, and the woman at the well.	28:07
	This faith, it seems to me, is never really blind.	28:10
	The Judeo-Christian faith, our faith in Jesus as the Christ,	28:17
	has never been faith in nothing.	28:21
	Our faith, it seems to me,	28:25
	has always been faith in something, someone,	28:26
	some experience that happened,	28:29
	somewhere, sometime, and someplace.	28:31
	Faith for us, it seems, is always based on something real.	28:35
	Some experience, some encounter, some presence.	28:39
	A voice, a vision, a whirlwind, a fire, bush,	28:43
	the hem of a garment, or a cross.	28:49
	Faith is always based on something heard, seen, or felt,	28:54
	something that is known.	28:58
	As the writer of Hebrews puts it,	29:01
	"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,	29:02
	"the conviction of things not seen."	29:06
	That is, faith is assurance.	29:09
	Faith is convection, or in other words, reality.	29:11
	Authentic faith, it seems to me, is never simply	29:17
	something that is contrived, imagined, fantasized,	29:19
	created, or blindly conceived in the heart and mind	29:23
	of any person, or indeed, in any group of persons.	29:27
	Authentic faith is faith that has been through	29:30
	the struggles of life, through doubting and questioning,	29:33
	through skepticism, criticism,	29:36
	through attacks from without and within.	29:39
	It has been analyzed, criticized, evaluated, rejected,	29:41
	and then perhaps, accepted and claimed and lived out,	29:45
	both in the night and in the day.	29:49
	Authentic faith can withstand questioning and doubting.	29:56
	This is why we can argue with God, as did Moses.	30:01
	This is why we can question God, as did Job.	30:05
	This is why we can try to run from God, as did Jonah.	30:09
	This is why we can get angry with God, as did David.	30:13
	This is why we can struggle and sweat	30:18
	even drops of blood before God, as did Jesus.	30:20
	This is why we can doubt the presence of God,	30:24
	as did Thomas, until he literally stuck his hand	30:26
	in the side of our Lord.	30:29
	This is why, as Carlyle Marney says,	30:33
	"I fall back on the idea that God someday	30:36
	will have a whole lot to give account for.	30:41
	"God can stand our anger, our questions, our doubts,	30:46
	anything that we can throw at God,	30:52
	God surely can withstand."	30:55
	Authentic faith is never really blind.	30:59
	This is why Robert G. Kemper,	31:05
	a Congregational Christian minister,	31:08
	who did go blind, says in his book,	31:10
	"Life is more than sight."	31:15
	And so the Christian faith is, and always must be more	31:21
	than blind ascent, or acquiescence, or acceptance.	31:24
	Someone was telling me this week of a recent interview	31:30
	of Oral Roberts by Donahue,	31:33
	on the Donahue television program.	31:36
	Donahue was doing, what I guess any of us would do,	31:40
	he was pushing Oral Roberts rather hard.	31:43
	And the conversation at one point,	31:46
	as they were talking about Oral Roberts University	31:48
	and the students who go there,	31:50
	and those who graduate from there,	31:52
	went something like this.	31:54
	Donahue said, "You want, it seems to me,	31:55
	"or as I know about Oral Roberts University,	31:58
	"you want all of your students to believe in God."	32:00
	"Yes."	32:03
	"And yet you don't want them to really question anything.	32:05
	"You want them to just simply to believe."	32:08
	Roberts said, "No, not at all."	32:12
	"On the contrary," he said,	32:14
	"I am the greatest questioner alive today,	32:16
	"I'm always questioning.	32:19
	"I think we must question our faith.	32:21
	"It is tragic," he said,	32:24
	"when someone simply blindly believes,	32:25
	"we must continually raise questions."	32:28
	And then he said, "We would not have had the tragedy	32:31
	"at Jonestown if some of those people had been questioning.	32:34
	"If they had been asking why, what is this,	32:39
	"what's going on here, what do we really believe?	32:42
	"We must always," he said,	32:45
	"question our faith in God."	32:48
	So is faith ever really blind?	32:52
	Well, let's look at these two absolutely beautiful	32:55
	passages of Scripture which were read for us today.	33:00
	Abraham is the epitome of a man of faith.	33:04
	If ever a people, a religion, a tradition, a history,	33:08
	set one man aside or one person aside	33:12
	as the example of faith, Abraham has been that one.	33:15
	And rightly so, for he was a man of faith.	33:20
	He left his native country, he left his kindred.	33:24
	He left his father's house.	33:27
	He left all his familiar surroundings.	33:29
	He took his wife, Sarah, and his brother's son, Lot,	33:32
	and all their possessions and he left Haran,	33:34
	to go to the land of Canaan.	33:37
	Abraham, at the age of 75, with his wife,	33:39
	with his nephew, with his belongings,	33:44
	packed up and went, so the writer tells us,	33:46
	"As the Lord had told him."	33:50
	Blind faith.	33:52
	Was that blind faith on the part of Abraham?	33:54
	Was he simply responding blindly without seeing,	33:56
	without knowing, without understand, without being sure?	34:00
	I think absolutely not.	34:03
	He had heard a voice, he had heard the Lord.	34:06
	He had received a command, a word to be obeyed.	34:10
	He had been given a promise, a promise to Abraham,	34:14
	and to his descendants to have this land	34:17
	where the Lord would take him.	34:20
	He had received the Lord's blessing.	34:21
	"I will bless you," the Lord said.	34:23
	"I will bless those who bless you,	34:25
	"I will make of you a great nation,	34:27
	"by you, all the families of the earth	34:29
	"shall bless themselves."	34:33
	Blind?	34:36
	No, Abraham had lived 75 years of his own life	34:37
	in the religious tradition of his people.	34:42
	So that when the Lord spoke, he understood.	34:44
	When the Lord blessed, he recognized.	34:47
	When the Lord promised, he believed.	34:50
	And when the Lord commanded, he obeyed.	34:52
	No blind faith here.	34:56
	Jesus, according to the fourth chapter	35:01
	of the gospel of John,	35:05
	left Judea to go to Galilee,	35:08
	and he had to go through Samaria.	35:11
	We must remember that the Samaritans	35:15
	were a people despised by the Jews in that day.	35:17
	Jesus came to Sychar in Samaria,	35:22
	near the field that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.	35:26
	Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was,	35:30
	with his journey, sat down beside the well.	35:35
	It was about the sixth hour.	35:38
	He had traveled some hot and dusty roads,	35:42
	he was weary and tired.	35:46
	It was about noon, and so he sat down to rest.	35:48
	A woman of Samaria came to the well to draw water.	35:53
	Jesus said to this woman, "Give me a drink."	36:00
	She said, "How is it, that you a Jew,	36:05
	"ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?"	36:09
	We must remember,	36:14
	men were not to speak to women in public, in Jesus's day.	36:17
	And surely men were not to speak	36:21
	to a woman who was married.	36:23
	Remember also Jews and Samaritans hated one another,	36:26
	and certainly would not speak civilly to one another.	36:30
	And would never dare ask for a favor from one another.	36:33
	The woman must have sensed immediately	36:39
	that this was not just any ordinary man	36:43
	sitting at this well.	36:46
	The next few lines are memorable as John records them.	36:51
	Jesus answered her,	36:56
	"If you knew the gift of God,	36:58
	"and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink,	37:02
	"you would have asked him	37:06
	"and he would had given you living water."	37:07
	The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with,	37:12
	"and the well is deep."	37:16
	Jim and some others just returned from a trip	37:19
	to the holy land, and he was telling me	37:23
	that one of the places that they stopped on their tour	37:26
	was at this very well, at Jacob's well.	37:28
	And he said he and the others on the tour	37:31
	looked down into that well, and indeed Jim says,	37:33
	even today, it is very deep, 75 feet or so, he says.	37:35
	The woman said, "The well is very deep,	37:43
	"and you have nothing to draw with.	37:45
	"Where do you get that living water?	37:50
	"Are you greater than our father, Jacob,	37:53
	"who gave us this well and drank from it himself,	37:55
	"and his sons and his cattle?"	37:58
	Jesus said to her,	38:01
	"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again."	38:02
	And we know that.	38:06
	Even from the well of Jacob, even from your fountain,	38:08
	or my fountain, any fountain of water as you and I know it.	38:11
	We will thirst again.	38:15
	"But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give,	38:17
	"will never thirst.	38:19
	"The water that I shall give will become a spring	38:24
	"of living water, welling up into eternal life."	38:26
	And what an amazing response from this woman.	38:33
	This woman, whom Jesus had just met.	38:36
	They had barely exchanged half a dozen sentences	38:39
	with each other, according to Scripture.	38:42
	But something about the presence of this man Jesus.	38:45
	This God in the flesh,	38:48
	caused this woman to say immediately,	38:51
	"Sir, give me this water,	38:53
	that I may never thirst."	38:57
	What a striking act of faith.	39:05
	Is this blind faith on the part of this woman?	39:08
	No, not hardly, I think.	39:13
	For this woman knew her tradition.	39:16
	She knew the significance of that well,	39:18
	historically, and traditionally, and religiously.	39:20
	Both to the Jews and to the Samaritans.	39:23
	This was the well of Jacob,	39:26
	faithful ancestor of both peoples.	39:30
	She knew, she must have known,	39:33
	that there was something distinctive,	39:34
	something special about a Jewish man who would talk to her,	39:36
	who would ask a favor of her.	39:41
	Thus, she would not have been surprised	39:44
	when Jesus told her of the water that he could give,	39:46
	that she would never thirst.	39:49
	And then her simple, earnest, I believe,	39:52
	unhesitating, honest words of faith,	39:55
	"Give me this water,	39:58
	that I may not thirst."	40:01
	Thus, when someone says to me,	40:05
	you Christians live simply on blind faith,	40:07
	I want to reply, "This is not so."	40:09
	We have never believed blindly, nor do we now.	40:12
	There is always presence or experience.	40:15
	There is vision or voice, or encounter, or assurance.	40:18
	Faith is never, never really blind.	40:22
	That is why I believe, Scripture talks about all kinds	40:26
	of images which we can relate to.	40:30
	That's why the Scripture talks about the rainbow,	40:33
	the Ark of the Covenant, the pillar of cloud by day,	40:36
	and pillar of fire by night.	40:39
	That's why it tells us about the manna which fed	40:40
	the Israelites in the wilderness.	40:44
	That's why we read in Scripture about fire,	40:46
	about the dove, about a voice,	40:49
	about angels, or messengers.	40:51
	That's why we read about a cross, about bread and wine.	40:53
	That is why there is sign and symbol and reality.	40:59
	That, indeed, is why we have Scripture.	41:02
	To take what we experience, what we feel,	41:05
	what we believe, what we think,	41:07
	and place it in the context of God's word in Scripture.	41:09
	Faith is not expected to be, nor can it ever be,	41:15
	totally, really blind.	41:20
	As G.A. Studdert Kennedy writes,	41:24
	"I bet my life on beauty, truth, and love.	41:26
	"Not abstract, but incarnate truth.	41:29
	"Not beauty's passing shadow, but itself,	41:32
	"it's very self-made flesh, love realized,	41:35
	"I bet my life on Christ."	41:39
	What is the Christian faith to me?	41:43
	Two simple things, I'd like to share.	41:45
	The Christian faith for me is very personal,	41:49
	very personal.	41:53
	Jesus said to the woman,	41:56
	"If you had known."	41:57
	And then, she said to Jesus, "Give me this water."	42:00
	That's about as personal as faith can be, or can become.	42:04
	Jesus asked the disciples one time,	42:09
	"Who do men, who do other people say that I am?"	42:11
	They told him some things, and then he said,	42:14
	"But who do you say that I am?"	42:16
	Even from the disciples, he wanted to know	42:18
	who each of them felt that he was.	42:21
	And so the question, I believe, must be answered	42:23
	by each one of us, who is the Christ	42:25
	to you, or to me?	42:30
	Who do we say?	42:33
	I used to think that the Christian faith was for old people.	42:36
	When I was little boy, I can recall having told myself,	42:40
	actually, literally, carried on a conversation with myself.	42:43
	And I would say to myself,	42:47
	"Well, I'll say that I will believe when I get older,	42:48
	"or just before I die because that's good enough, anyhow.	42:53
	"And then just before I die, I'll say that I believe	42:57
	in God or in Christ and everything will be okay."	43:00
	And then something happened, I did meet Jesus, the Christ.	43:04
	I'm not sure how, or when, or where.	43:07
	Perhaps, my encounter with Christ was at a well somewhere.	43:10
	Where Christ needed me to draw water for him,	43:15
	and where I suddenly heard him say,	43:18
	"Whoever drinks of the water that I give,	43:24
	"will never thirst."	43:26
	And perhaps somehow or other, I took just a little drink.	43:27
	I believe that faith in Christ is not for just before we die	43:34
	but I believe that faith in Christ is for any aged person,	43:38
	and it is for just now.	43:41
	I used to think, as I grew up,	43:44
	as quote, trying to be the all-American boy,	43:45
	that the Christian faith was for sissies.	43:49
	And it was not really for any boy or girl or man or woman	43:53
	who had real strength in himself or herself.	43:56
	If you were a real, solid, strong, able person,	43:59
	you did not need Christ.	44:02
	He was for those people who were weak,	44:04
	and who couldn't make it alone.	44:07
	And then I read about Peter, who was crucified upside down	44:11
	because he didn't want to be crucified	44:15
	in the same manner as his Lord.	44:16
	I read about Stephen who was stoned to death	44:19
	because he dared not to say	44:21
	that he would not believe in Christ.	44:24
	I read about Paul who was beheaded.	44:27
	Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake.	44:29
	In this century, three missionaries who were murdered	44:32
	in South America, their wives came back home	44:35
	to the United States for awhile,	44:37
	and then, they, the three of them,	44:39
	returned where their husbands had been killed,	44:40
	as they said, "For the sake of Christ."	44:43
	I read about Tom Dooley, the doctor who went to	44:46
	Southeast Asia, in the name, and in the spirit of Christ.	44:48
	Read about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was safe	44:52
	in this country, could have stayed here,	44:54
	and possibly even be alive today,	44:56
	who said, "No, I must go home."	44:58
	And in the late 30's, he went back to Germany,	45:00
	and just before the end of the war, he was killed.	45:02
	Martin Luther King, who died because he dared to believe	45:05
	in a just and humane society.	45:10
	Sissies?	45:12
	I used to think so.	45:14
	But not these, and not an authentic Christian.	45:17
	I used to think that the Christian faith	45:21
	deprived one of the real joy in life,	45:23
	that is of excessive drinking, or of illicit sex,	45:26
	or gambling, or profaning God's name.	45:28
	These, somewhere along the line, for me,	45:32
	were to be the joys of life.	45:36
	But now I see, for the most part,	45:40
	these are simply the crowd pleasers, and not real joy.	45:42
	The Christian faith does not deny any person	45:46
	any real pleasure in life.	45:49
	As a matter of fact, it opens the doors to real pleasure	45:51
	and real satisfaction, but perhaps not without a struggle.	45:54
	I was sitting here just a moment ago,	46:00
	and recalled just as vividly	46:02
	as if it had happened last night.	46:04
	One night, during my senior year in college,	46:08
	where I literally was lying in bed,	46:13
	struggling and wrestling, and I did not know with what,	46:16
	or with whom, or for what, or for whom.	46:19
	At that time, I thought I was struggling	46:22
	to try to decide whether I would go to law school	46:24
	or to Divinity School.	46:26
	I was trying to decide what to do as a vocation in life,	46:27
	and I thought that, that was a struggle for my life's work,	46:32
	and now I guess I look back on those moments,	46:35
	and it really may well have been a struggle,	46:39
	not for my life's work, but for my life.	46:41
	And perhaps what we have to have every once in a while,	46:47
	is a struggle in the dark	46:49
	to keep the Christian faith personal for us.	46:51
	The Christian faith is personal to a Duke student,	46:54
	and I graduated, who called me one Sunday morning,	46:57
	just before the worship service,	47:01
	and said that he wanted to see me,	47:02
	and wanted for us to talk for a few minutes.	47:03
	We did, sitting downstairs in one of the offices.	47:05
	He had been on drugs, hard drugs.	47:09
	The night before, that is Saturday night, he had,	47:12
	had, what he thought was a real encounter with Christ,	47:14
	and he had heard the voice of God speak to him.	47:17
	I was somewhat skeptical, so we agreed that morning	47:21
	that we would talk again after the drugs wore off.	47:25
	We did, many times, no more drugs.	47:30
	He had had an encounter with Christ.	47:35
	Christ, then following that experience,	47:38
	did become very, very personal to him.	47:40
	He finished his studies here, and is in graduate school,	47:43
	still very much aware of the personal presence	47:46
	and reality of Christ.	47:49
	Blind faith?	47:51
	No, not really.	47:53
	The Christian faith, the second thing it is for me,	47:57
	is that it is very real.	48:00
	As real as the Lord speaking to Abraham.	48:03
	As real as Jesus talking to the woman at the well at Sychar.	48:05
	As real, as our consciousness right now,	48:10
	that God is near, closer to us than breathing,	48:12
	and nearer than hands and feet.	48:15
	Faith is not something distant or vague or unreal.	48:18
	Faith in Christ is real here, now, in my heart,	48:22
	my soul, my very being.	48:26
	Faith in Christ in the midst	48:29
	of our everyday search and struggle,	48:31
	is very much like the incident in "Pilgrim's Progress".	48:35
	Where the travelers had come to the last dark river	48:40
	they were to cross. Hopeful was out front, leading the way.	48:42
	And when he came to the middle of the river,	48:48
	he called back these words of assurance,	48:50
	"Be of good cheer, my brother,	48:54
	"for I feel the bottom now,	48:58
	and it is sound."	49:01
	Christ calls to each one of us, you may feel secure,	49:06
	you may feel sure, you may feel safe, my friend,	49:10
	because I have been in the midst of life,	49:13
	life as you live it, and life as you know it,	49:16
	and the word I want to tell you,	49:19
	is that in the midst of it,	49:20
	it is very, very sound.	49:23
	Faith in Christ is real.	49:28
	As real as the Lord's presence with Abraham.	49:30
	As real as the presence of Christ for the woman at the well.	49:34
	Is faith ever really blind?	49:39
	I believe not, for as Albert Schweitzer writes,	49:44
	in the closing lines of his book,	49:49
	"The Quest of the Historical Jesus",	49:51
	"He that is Christ,	49:54
	comes to us as one unknown,	49:56
	"without a name, as of old, by the lakeside,	50:01
	"he came to those who knew him not,	50:04
	"he speaks to us in the same words,	50:07
	"follow thou, me, and sets us to the tasks which he	50:10
	"has to fulfill in our time, he commands,	50:15
	"and to those who obey him,	50:20
	whether they be wise or simple,	50:24
	"he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts,	50:28
	"the sufferings which they shall pass through	50:32
	"in his fellowship,	50:35
	and as an ineffable mystery,	50:38
	"they shall learn in their own experience	50:43
	who he is."	50:47
	He comes to us, he speaks to us, he commands us,	50:52
	and those who obey	50:57
	shall know him as he is.	51:01
	Let us pray.	51:09
	Oh Lord, you have revealed yourself to Abraham and Sarah.	51:12
	And to the woman at the well.	51:18
	Reveal yourself to each of us now	51:21
	in a personal and real way,	51:24
	that we may truly learn who you are for us	51:28
	and for our lives, through Jesus Christ,	51:33
	our Lord, we pray, Amen.	51:37
	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	51:46
	(Cathedral pipe organ music with operatic hymn choir)	52:24
	Let us affirm what we believe.	54:49
	We believe in God who has created,	54:54
	and is creating, who has come in the truly human Jesus,	54:57
	to reconcile and make anew.	55:04
	Who works in us and others by the spirit.	55:07
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	55:12
	to celebrate life and it's fullness,	55:17
	to love and serve others,	55:21
	to seek justice and resist evil,	55:24
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	55:28
	our judge and our hope, in life, in death,	55:33
	and life beyond death, God is with us.	55:39
	We are not alone, thanks be to God.	55:44
	The Lord be with you.	56:00
-	And also with you.	56:02
-	Let us pray.	56:04
	Oh, eternal father, hear our attempts to reach you,	56:09
	to rise from our own lostness, to you.	56:20
	We praise you, we praise you oh Lord, our creator,	56:32
	the one who has made us, we praise you as the one	56:38
	who is constantly with us, even though we forsake you.	56:44
	We praise you for creating anew, each day.	56:51
	We praise you for going on beyond us,	57:00
	into time, we praise you for calling us to follow.	57:04
	We praise you for showing us the way.	57:10
	We need you, oh God, how much we need you.	57:16
	Each day, in subtle ways we know how much we need you.	57:28
	Help us to understand this need	57:38
	as a coming to being, help us to be open.	57:43
	We praise you for the comfort that comes to us	57:50
	from some mysterious place.	57:57
	We thank you for the help,	58:03
	not only in our times of greatest crisis,	58:07
	death of child, death of a father, death of a mother,	58:11
	death of other loved ones.	58:21
	Thank you for hearing our call for help.	58:24
	We thank you for accepting us and for acceptance.	58:29
	We thank you for love.	58:37
	The love that gives us power and strength.	58:41
	We thank you for these great gifts,	58:46
	comfort, help, acceptance, love.	58:49
	That come when we realize how much we do need you.	58:52
	We thank you, oh God, we thank you for telling us	59:00
	that we must seek, we must ask, and we must knock.	59:06
	We thank you for so many things we know about.	59:13
	And for so many things we only have glimpse.	59:18
	Those things that seem to move just beyond our perceptions,	59:23
	yet are there, very real, very strong,	59:27
	although we cannot grasp them,	59:31
	we feel that we are strongly grasped by them.	59:33
	And we thank you, we praise you, we need you, we thank you.	59:39
	And each, our own little way.	59:48
	We are so very different,	59:51
	those of us gathered together here.	59:53
	Not only here in the congregation,	59:55
	but those on the radio, those sitting beside the radio,	59:57
	and bowing their heads, as we are bowing our heads.	1:00:01
	We are so different, God.	1:00:07
	We have one thing in common,	1:00:11
	and that's our need for you,	1:00:14
	and our need to praise you and to say thank you.	1:00:16
	Personally I wish to thank you for the great experiences	1:00:22
	I've been able to enjoy, most especially,	1:00:25
	recently to arise while it was yet dark,	1:00:32
	in the deep deserts of Sinai.	1:00:35
	And at 3 a.m. to ascend the mount, Mount Sinai, itself.	1:00:39
	And then to look as far as one can see	1:00:45
	in the distance to the east, and slowly see the dark,	1:00:47
	craggy mountains of Saudi Arabia,	1:00:52
	and then to feel that, an effable mystery,	1:00:58
	as the light comes, and then the sun.	1:01:03
	We praise you for this great experience,	1:01:07
	one that is linked most historically	1:01:12
	with a man named Moses, and later with a man named Elijah,	1:01:15
	who fled from Mount Carmel, from Jezebel to the desert,	1:01:20
	from one mountain to another.	1:01:28
	Each of us has felt you, has heard you,	1:01:32
	and we do want to follow.	1:01:39
	Thank you for the one who showed us how to follow,	1:01:43
	and indeed taught his most intimate father as to say,	1:01:47
	when they pray,	1:01:50
	Our Father, who art in heaven.	1:01:52
	Hallowed be thy name.	1:01:56
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	1:01:59
	on earth, as it is in heaven,	1:02:04
	give us this day, our daily bread,	1:02:07
	and forgive us our trespasses,	1:02:11
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:02:14
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:02:19
	but deliver us from evil,	1:02:22
	for thine is the kingdom,	1:02:25
	the power, and the glory forever, Amen.	1:02:27
	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	1:02:50
	Our heavenly father, we give thee but thy known,	1:08:13
	whatever the gift may be, a trust, oh Lord, from thee, Amen.	1:08:16
	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	1:08:32
	(Cathedral pipe organ music with operatic hymn choir)	1:09:14
	Now the god of peace, who brought again from the dead,	1:12:23
	our Lord, that great shepherd of the sheep,	1:12:28
	through the blood of the everlasting covenant,	1:12:30
	make you perfect in every good work to do his will.	1:12:33
	Working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight,	1:12:38
	through Jesus Christ, Amen.	1:12:42
	(Cathedral pipe organ music)	1:13:02

Item Info

Title:

Robert T. Young - "Is Faith Really, Ever Blind?" (March 11, 1979)

Description:

Sermon start time: 25:11. Sermon end time: 51:41.
Faith is real, based on our experiences of God not only in teh text, but also in our lives. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: We have never believed blindly, nor do we now. There is always presence or experience.There is vision or voice, or encounter, or assurance.

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gt5fv9h

Date:

March 11, 1979

Speaker:

Young, Robert T., 1935-2009

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1009
ref7227_6xy
uachapelsermaud
duke:320373
dcrau001889
ark:/87924/r4gt5fv9h
4d6c2e93-bc8f-44ce-b7a9-127dac5ba4b2

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Robert T. Young - "Is Faith Really, Ever Blind?" (March 11, 1979)

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1. Robert T. Young - "Is Faith Really, Ever Blind?" (March 11, 1979)

Duke University Archives

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Robert T. Young - "Is Faith Really, Ever Blind?" (March 11, 1979)

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Duke University Archives

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