Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond Damascus" (February 28, 1960)

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	(keyboard music)	0:03
-	Near to exhaustion yet determined to reach Damascus	0:31
	saw with venom in his heart	0:38
	trudged along the rough terrain,	0:41
	a consuming passion had driven him	0:45
	to undertake this journey.	0:48
	Somewhat earlier, he had come	0:51
	to the holy city of Jerusalem	0:53
	to complete his study of the law.	0:54
	And there, he had been alarmed	0:58
	by the heresy of a group of followers,	1:00
	diluted man, who went after one Jesus	1:04
	and called him Lord.	1:08
	With growing apprehension,	1:11
	he had seen their numbers mount	1:13
	and then the members of the Sanhedrin	1:16
	that council that guarded Israel's religious life	1:19
	began relentlessly to hunt the brethren down	1:24
	and to flag the blasphemy out of them.	1:27
	So remorseless a campaign did they wage	1:31
	that many went into hiding	1:34
	and some fled the city	1:37
	and there for a while the man arrested,	1:39
	at least with the priests not so with Soul.	1:42
	He went into one house after another	1:48
	dragging out men and women	1:51
	and casting them into prison	1:52
	and breathing out murderous threats,	1:55
	he pursued them even to the cities	1:58
	where they had taken refuge,	2:00
	that he might search them out	2:02
	and destroy them there.	2:04
	Armed with letters from the high priest,	2:07
	he took it upon himself to go even toward Damascus	2:10
	and when he was almost within sight	2:15
	of his destination, it happened.	2:18
	A light dazzling and blinding shone about him.	2:22
	He fell to his feet.	2:27
	A voice cried out from heaven,	2:30
	"Soul, Soul, why do you persecute me?"	2:33
	"Who are you?"	2:39
	"I am Jesus."	2:42
	And so they met.	2:46
	Jesus, the Christ and the Jew of Tarsus.	2:48
	Reconciliation and redemption followed swiftly	2:54
	on this encounter,	2:57
	healed of his blindness and received as a brother	2:59
	by the followers of Christ at Damascus	3:04
	Paul strove no more against the Christ.	3:07
	Henceforth, he might struggle with the flesh,	3:11
	he might wrestle with principalities and powers	3:14
	but the content between him and the Christ was ended.	3:17
	He had met the Christ	3:22
	and Christ was victor.	3:24
	But the Damascus episode is neither the conclusion	3:28
	or the climax to Paul's story.	3:32
	His significant lies	3:37
	not in the meeting itself	3:39
	but in what happened in the years beyond Damascus.	3:42
	A changed man, he was	3:47
	and a different person.	3:49
	And in the years that followed	3:51
	he went far, far beyond Damascus.	3:55
	Pisidian Antioch, Ephesus, current Rome	3:59
	for more than a decade	4:05
	he moved around in the Mediterranean world	4:08
	and he drove himself with a burning passion	4:11
	never relaxing his effort	4:15
	to convert men to the gospel.	4:17
	Going along the rocky roads	4:20
	and through the thorny defiles of Cypress	4:22
	and the Asia Minor and Greece.	4:25
	But it was after the encounter	4:28
	that he fought this good fight.	4:31
	It was following the meeting with Christ	4:33
	that he knew the very essence of his life	4:37
	transformed by a shattering and remaking power	4:40
	of the presence of the risen one.	4:44
	It was in the years beyond Damascus	4:47
	that this dynamic messenger	4:50
	became the representative of Christianity	4:52
	to the Western world.	4:55
	Now, the sermon from this familiar story of Paul's life	5:00
	is an obvious one.	5:04
	It comes to us in letters	5:07
	so large that as Emily Dickinson says,	5:09
	"He who runs may read it without his glasses	5:14
	written upon revelations wall."	5:17
	The important thing,	5:21
	was not meeting the Christ	5:22
	but the response to that meeting,	5:25
	it is not enough simply to be moved with wonder	5:28
	and with praise.	5:31
	Do you not remember how on occasion,	5:33
	Jesus took Peter, James and John with him	5:36
	up into an high mountain	5:40
	and there for an instant	5:42
	the veil of flesh could not hide the essence of his being	5:44
	and deity shown through	5:48
	with the radiance whiter than all of Herman snows.	5:50
	They stood so close to eternity	5:54
	that when they came down from the mountain	5:57
	their very faces were shining with full reflected glory.	6:00
	Yet they were still unwilling	6:05
	to walk toward the cross	6:08
	already reaching out	6:10
	with God wooden arms to gather them	6:12
	into our lethal embrace.	6:15
	It's not enough to be moved with amazement	6:18
	to fall upon our faces.	6:21
	More was required of that than them and of us.	6:24
	As nearly as a man can understand such an encounter,	6:31
	Paul understood it.	6:36
	Here was more than a meeting and a knowledge of the truth.	6:39
	Here was a recognition of the truth	6:44
	and an acceptance of the plain obligation	6:48
	that this truth laid upon life.	6:51
	Here was not the knowledge but acknowledgement	6:54
	has spontaneously the words rise to the lips of Paul.	6:59
	What would thou have me do?	7:03
	There must be something to do in response.	7:06
	Long afterwards, preaching in chains before King Agrippa,	7:10
	Paul recall this experience,	7:15
	and do you know what he said?	7:18
	"I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision	7:20
	for to obey the evasion	7:25
	means to accept the responsibility,	7:28
	to assume the obligation.	7:31
	So then this sermon is plain for us.	7:35
	We must respond to the heavenly vision.	7:39
	And Paul is an archetype for us	7:43
	not because he had a vision,	7:45
	but because he obeyed it.	7:49
	And if we claim saintenous for him,	7:50
	we must do so on the basis	7:54
	of that incandescent flame	7:57
	that continued to burn within him	7:59
	and shine through his deeds	8:02
	and illuminate the way beyond Damascus	8:05
	as he went about performing the deeds	8:08
	worthy of repentance.	8:12
	So then the question is still upon the human heart,	8:15
	how do I respond to a heavenly vision?	8:18
	Yes, you ask.	8:22
	How do I respond?	8:24
	Particularly you inquire when you are not certain	8:27
	that the voice will speak to you	8:30
	or the heavens open or the light shine about you.	8:32
	Do you go along the road to Damascus?	8:36
	Will you meet eternity face to face?	8:40
	If even in an instant of time	8:43
	shall you have the heavenly vision?	8:46
	The answer is, yes.	8:50
	For Christ comes to all,	8:54
	look about you.	8:57
	Here are the signs and the symbols	8:57
	the dates on the calendar,	9:01
	the spars against the sky	9:03
	the bells on the morning hour,	9:05
	the message from the pulpit	9:07
	the words from the book,	9:09
	the bread and the wine.	9:10
	He speaks in all these sign and symbols	9:12
	and may come to us in any of them,	9:15
	but they have grown trite and familiar.	9:17
	And too often we find him not in them	9:21
	but this does not mean	9:24
	because he does not come to you or me	9:27
	in so clear and plain a fashion	9:29
	that the heart knows the answer	9:32
	before the ears hear him say, "I am Jesus."	9:34
	This does not mean because he comes	9:38
	in no clear fashion	9:40
	that you shall not meet him.	9:42
	Finally, the meeting on the Damascus road	9:46
	was no more for Paul than a meeting with the truth,	9:50
	for Christ is truth.	9:54
	And truth is a visitor who wears many faces.	9:58
	Flee him as you will,	10:02
	you may not escape truth.	10:04
	He will pursue you down the labyrinth	10:06
	of your doubts and days.	10:09
	And he will find you out	10:11
	for he speaks all languages.	10:13
	Truth will search you	10:16
	and truth will come to you.	10:18
	How then? Rather how not and where not?	10:21
	You are students for the most part.	10:27
	What more natural than that	10:29
	truth should speak to you through the pages of your books.	10:31
	You are reading the assignment	10:35
	and it is that first no more than lines to be memorized.	10:37
	Something to be outlined,	10:42
	a date to be committed to memory.	10:45
	You read the sorry tale	10:47
	of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal of York	10:49
	in the days of Henry VII.	10:53
	Here is the glory of a greedy, worldly pellet	10:56
	of a churchman who betrayed his trust	11:00
	and who finally was trapped	11:04
	by his own duplicity and greed.	11:06
	And all at once,	11:09
	the words are no longer words.	11:11
	They are the very I mantle of truth	11:14
	for here is more than the confession of a man	11:17
	who is stripped of his offices	11:21
	and bereft of his wealth.	11:23
	Here is truth speaking to you as he speaks.	11:26
	Had I but served my God	11:30
	with half the zeal I served by king,	11:33
	he would not in mine age	11:37
	have left me naked to mine enemies.	11:39
	Here is the solemn warning	11:44
	of the awful folly of placing our trust	11:47
	in earthly treasures that time can destroy	11:50
	or that thieves can despoil.	11:54
	Here is the grand reminder	11:57
	that your chief end and your only joy	11:59
	is in the love and the service of God.	12:02
	Do you not see what has happened?	12:06
	Truth has met you	12:09
	as you studied your lesson.	12:10
	And it is not only in philosophy or in literature	12:13
	that this can happen.	12:16
	God can speak to you	12:18
	in the bare beauty of the laboratory	12:20
	or in the balanced rhythm of an equation he does.	12:23
	Or again, you are listening to the newscast,	12:28
	who consider the details of the missile race	12:32
	or the possibility of woos war than coal	12:37
	without trembling for the coming terror.	12:40
	Yet, as the newscast continues	12:44
	somehow these facts that are no more	12:47
	than articles from the paper	12:49
	or later to be read,	12:52
	become for you a window into an understanding	12:54
	of man's condition,	12:58
	so clear that you can never forget it again.	13:00
	There is never going to be a better world	13:05
	until there are better men in it.	13:09
	This is why we are in the mess we know,	13:12
	the cold war is nothing more no less	13:15
	than the highest pinnacle	13:18
	upon a whole continent of wrongdoing.	13:20
	We have gone on building machines,	13:24
	bigger and grander but we have lacked the soul	13:27
	and the mind to direct and control them.	13:31
	How ironical that we have discovered atomic fission	13:34
	which should have enriched and battered life.	13:38
	And yet it has become a threat to its very existence	13:42
	and the progress is all away from the things of the spirit.	13:46
	The television is an eye that sees further,	13:50
	the radio a keener ear,	13:54
	the H bomb, a stronger arm	13:55
	and our progress is impressive but materialistic	13:58
	and overcoming with this sickening realization	14:02
	of the difference between what you are	14:05
	and what I am and what we are meant to be.	14:08
	And of sorry mess that we have made of this world.	14:10
	There is no reaction accepting deep humility to cry out,	14:14
	"Oh, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips	14:18
	and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."	14:23
	But this is truth having spoken to us.	14:27
	From the newscast or the pages of the paper	14:31
	and it is more than an Axiom that comes with it.	14:35
	The question is, "Well, who will go for us?"	14:39
	And instinctively if you have seen,	14:43
	there is no escape except to say,	14:46
	"Send me, send me."	14:48
	The truth, mind you is not always grim.	14:53
	Sometimes it is joyfully reassuring.	14:56
	Particularly, when we see it exhibited in the lives	15:00
	of folk about us,	15:02
	who does not know that grand and wonderful person	15:05
	in whose presence it is impossible	15:08
	for us to be little or mean or ugly.	15:10
	This one who bids us,	15:14
	be more than we are	15:15
	or more than we dare be.	15:17
	Or if it comes to that,	15:21
	what have the parent who asks nothing,	15:23
	nothing at all,	15:25
	except the opportunity to sacrifice for a child?	15:27
	Are not some of you here this day	15:32
	because a parent has willingly, eagerly sacrificed	15:35
	that you might come to college?	15:40
	And what of the friend	15:44
	who smiles and stands steadfastly by	15:45
	when others smile and turn away?	15:49
	Or this individual who lives under tension	15:52
	without whimpering or who suffers tragedy	15:56
	without the loss of faith?	16:00
	It does happen indeed	16:03
	and send not to inquire who these be	16:05
	who exhibit these characteristics	16:08
	of what these values mean.	16:10
	I can tell you, this is the voice of truth.	16:13
	Speaking to you and me and saying,	16:16
	"Go and do thou likewise."	16:19
	Oh yes. Every man travels the road to Damascus.	16:23
	Every man had his appointment with infinity.	16:28
	Each man shall be found by the truth.	16:32
	The obligation is laid upon us.	16:35
	The question is, how do we respond?	16:37
	Now, there are, it seems free courses	16:42
	open to those who have seen the truth.	16:45
	It is possible to run away from it,	16:50
	to ignore it, to shut the eyes to the vision,	16:54
	to stop the ears, to stifle the voice	16:58
	until the soul is scribbled	17:03
	and the conscience is dead.	17:04
	In the days of his flesh,	17:07
	there were those who did not stop or stay to listen.	17:09
	There were those who laughed at him,	17:13
	there were those who ran away,	17:16
	but in the end,	17:19
	the common lot of those who would not	17:21
	and did not listen to him was the same.	17:24
	You may run away from the truth	17:28
	and this is nothing more nor less	17:30
	than the common place reaction	17:32
	of being unwilling to do our duty	17:35
	to God, to fellow man, to our generation.	17:38
	Yes, when truth seeks you out,	17:43
	you may run away from it,	17:45
	or you may fight it.	17:48
	This was the sin of the Pharisees.	17:50
	This is the most virulent form of pride.	17:53
	This is seeing the truth and saying it is not true.	17:57
	And offering the ignoble,	18:01
	the toddly substitute.	18:03
	The words of the gospel leap out	18:05
	plainly before our eyes.	18:07
	And we cannot question what they mean	18:09
	but we say it does not mean this.	18:11
	We will not have it.	18:15
	That the publicans and the harlots	18:16
	have a place in the kingdom	18:18
	much less that they proceed us.	18:20
	We are respectable, they are not.	18:23
	It doesn't mean this.	18:26
	And we offer our substitute	18:28
	or political chicanery is revealed	18:31
	in high places of government.	18:34
	And instead of taking this opportunity	18:36
	to remake and to reform,	18:38
	we use the chaos as an attempt	18:41
	as an opportunity to jockey ourselves	18:43
	in the better position.	18:46
	We do not seek to stabilize the economy,	18:48
	we do not seek to show trust in the man	18:51
	who acts on principle rather than out of selfish interest.	18:54
	No, we use it for our advantage	18:58
	or we see an individual of true innocence and goodness	19:01
	and do we accept this as genuine?	19:06
	We do not. What is he really like?	19:09
	We inquire of a close friend.	19:12
	Assuming that if we but knew	19:14
	surely he cannot be so good as he seems	19:16
	we do not believe or even want the truth.	19:20
	We deny many times a day by our observation.	19:23
	It's too good to be true.	19:27
	But we will, will not have it	19:30
	that the truth is good.	19:31
	Now, when we offer these substitute values	19:33
	when we try to put our way,	19:36
	rather than God's way,	19:39
	we are guilty of what theologians have called hubris.	19:40
	This is what it is.	19:44
	It's seeking to invent values	19:46
	rather than to discover them.	19:48
	Instead of searching out what the will of God may be,	19:51
	we say, we know the truth	19:54
	and we offer the philosophy	19:56
	and we give the teaching.	19:58
	We meet the truth and it offends our pride	20:00
	and we fight it.	20:03
	Oh yes, we may run away from the truth,	20:05
	or we may rise up and fight against it, or we may,	20:10
	we may submit to it.	20:16
	And this is what Paul did.	20:20
	And submission to the truth is not this savor	20:22
	slavish defeated resignation that says,	20:26
	"I will take this way,	20:31
	and if I perish, I perish.	20:34
	The grim stoic determination	20:38
	that grits the teeth and sets the face."	20:41
	This is not submission to truth.	20:45
	Submission to truth, sees it with clear eyed honesty	20:49
	and says, "Lo, I come to do thy will."	20:52
	This is the acceptance of truth.	20:59
	And this is what Paul knew.	21:02
	And what does it mean for you or for me?	21:04
	It means of course,	21:07
	that if we are called upon to go in chains to Rome	21:09
	and be arraigned before Caesars bar,	21:13
	then we must be.	21:15
	But this is not the way in which it happens.	21:17
	It is not so grand or so dramatic as this.	21:20
	What happens to us is,	21:24
	that we see a little bit of the truth	21:26
	and it illuminates a dark corner of our lives.	21:29
	And here becomes the opportunity	21:32
	in this little remote corner of life	21:34
	or existence to build integrity.	21:37
	Here is the opportunity for us	21:40
	to bridge one single gap	21:42
	of misunderstanding with love.	21:44
	Here is the fellow whom we meet in the way	21:47
	and at least for him for a while,	21:49
	we may bear his burden.	21:53
	Here is the joyful secret of the heart	21:55
	that knows the truth	21:58
	and cannot keep it within himself.	22:00
	This is what the gospel is.	22:02
	This is the news that must be announced.	22:04
	This is the love that must be shared.	22:07
	One of Shaw's character says,	22:11
	"So long as I conceive something better than myself,	22:14
	I cannot rest, except I try to bring it into existence	22:18
	or clear the way for it."	22:22
	This is what submission to the truth means.	22:25
	And this is what you do and what I do	22:28
	when you submit to the truth.	22:31
	It is a lonely thing	22:34
	but there is a certain singularity of soul	22:36
	that for all the community goes	22:39
	with the Christian way.	22:41
	Do you see of all the men who have ever lived	22:44
	you only came to life at the instant of your birth.	22:49
	There is that essential part of you	22:53
	that is like no other one.	22:56
	It is known only to God.	22:58
	And it is this part of you that he addresses,	23:01
	this part of you, that he seeks out.	23:04
	You know, when Jesus spoke to man	23:08
	thus strongs heard him	23:11
	but he called the apostles, one by one.	23:14
	And when he said, "Come, follow me."	23:19
	He spoke to multitudes	23:22
	but they followed him in single file.	23:24
	And so in aloneness, and as an individual,	23:27
	the truth will find you	23:32
	and give the vision to you	23:34
	and lay the obligation	23:37
	that truth implies upon your soul.	23:39
	And when truth does,	23:43
	you may run away from it,	23:46
	you may fight it,	23:50
	or you may submit to it.	23:53
	And so God bless and pity you	23:58
	in the Damascus of your own soul	24:03
	you meet with Christ	24:06
	and you do submit to him.	24:09
	And his will lead you far beyond the place of meeting	24:12
	and you go groping, airing,	24:17
	stumbling, failing, falling to be sure,	24:22
	albeit creating, giving, blessing,	24:28
	showing compassion, feeling pity, knowing joy.	24:34
	I tell you, except there be compassion and pity	24:41
	and honor and sacrifice	24:44
	in the lives of Christian man and in his name,	24:47
	there shall be none, in this generation.	24:51
	And so you go,	24:54
	and so you show	24:57
	in the way that lies beyond Damascus.	24:58
	Go now, for you have the voices	25:02
	of the past to guide you.	25:05
	And do you have the memories of old mistakes to warn you	25:08
	and the need of this generation	25:13
	that beckons you.	25:16
	And beyond you, the road that lands	25:19
	out of Damascus and into the future	25:23
	of your life in love.	25:28
	Almighty God, lighten our eyes	25:41
	by the understanding of thy truth,	25:48
	that we may see eternity	25:53
	and make firm our wills	25:56
	that we may follow after	25:59
	and make strong our faith,	26:03
	that we may not doubt the goodness of it.	26:06
	The Lord bless you and keep you.	26:11
	The Lord make his face to shine upon you	26:13
	and be gracious under you.	26:15
	The Lord lift up his countenance upon you	26:17
	and give you peace.	26:20
	Both now and in the life of a lasting.	26:21
	(keyboard music)	26:25

Item Info

Title:

Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond Damascus" (February 28, 1960)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4kw5ck68

Date:

February 28, 1960

Speaker:

Henry, Stuart C.

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 RR-0094
ref5389_jss
uachapelsermaud
duke:628423
dcrau002122
ark:/87924/r4kw5ck68
ceb00bf6-b088-494a-9eee-2d9872ac80eb

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

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Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond Damascus" (February 28, 1960)

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