James T. Cleland - "On Preaching from the Old Testament" (February 27, 1972)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
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- | Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, | 5:18 |
and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 5:22 | |
We have come as the people of God | 5:26 | |
in the presence of Almighty God, our Father | 5:29 | |
and the whole company of heaven | 5:32 | |
to make confessions of our sins, | 5:34 | |
to set forth his praise, | 5:37 | |
to hear his word, | 5:40 | |
to declare our common faith | 5:42 | |
and to ask for ourselves and for all men, | 5:45 | |
those things necessary for the body and for the soul. | 5:48 | |
Therefore, let us continue his worship | 5:54 | |
as we acknowledge and confess together our sins. | 5:56 | |
Let us pray. | 6:01 | |
Almighty God, our heavenly Father | 6:06 | |
who stand us beyond both the darkness and the light, | 6:09 | |
who are hidden by the names we he give to you. | 6:15 | |
And yet who moves in mystery to touch us to life. | 6:19 | |
Grant us we ask in this hour, | 6:24 | |
the glory and the power of your presence. | 6:27 | |
Most merciful Father before thy holiness, | 6:35 | |
we admit that we have done little | 6:39 | |
to forward your kingdom in this world, | 6:41 | |
to foster the brotherhood of men | 6:45 | |
and to establish love as a law of life. | 6:48 | |
We have allowed self to blind us, | 6:53 | |
pains to embitter us. | 6:56 | |
We have forgotten that whatsoever is done | 6:59 | |
to one of the least of your children is done unto you. | 7:03 | |
Pardon our shortcomings we ask. | 7:09 | |
Forgive our neglect. | 7:13 | |
Give us a pure heart intent upon pleasing you. | 7:17 | |
Help us in all our seeking to seek first your kingdom | 7:22 | |
and your love and your righteousness. | 7:26 | |
And make us to come as your son Jesus Christ, | 7:30 | |
not to be ministered unto, | 7:34 | |
but to minister and to serve. | 7:37 | |
All of which we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 7:41 | |
Amen. | 7:47 | |
Let us hear these assuring words from holy scripture. | 7:50 | |
Jesus said, "Be of good cheer. | 7:58 | |
Your sins are forgiven. | 8:02 | |
Go and sin no more." | 8:05 | |
And these words from St. Paul, | 8:09 | |
"For the love of Christ leaves us no choice. | 8:12 | |
When once we have reached the conclusion | 8:16 | |
that one man died for all, | 8:18 | |
and therefore all mankind has died. | 8:21 | |
His purpose in dying was for all men | 8:24 | |
while still in life | 8:28 | |
that they might cease to live for themselves | 8:30 | |
and should live for him, | 8:33 | |
who for their sake died and was raised to life. | 8:35 | |
From now on, therefore we regard no one | 8:40 | |
from our human point of view, | 8:43 | |
even though we once regarded Christ | 8:46 | |
from a human point of view, | 8:48 | |
we regard him thus no longer | 8:50 | |
for when anyone is united in Christ, | 8:53 | |
there is a new world. | 8:58 | |
The whole, the old has passed away and the new has come." | 9:01 | |
May we continue our worship of God | 9:08 | |
by using the Psalm of Praise, number five, sevens, | 9:10 | |
this five in the back of our handbook. | 9:16 | |
Let us offer this Psalm to God in thanksgiving | 9:26 | |
for the truth and the power of grace. | 9:32 | |
Praise is due to thee oh God in Zion | 9:37 | |
and to thee shall vow to be perform. | 9:41 | |
Oh thou who hears prayer to thee shall all flesh | 9:45 | |
come on, count of sins. | 9:49 | |
When our transgressions prevail over us, | 9:52 | |
God does forgive them. | 9:54 | |
Blessed is he whom do us choose and bring near | 9:57 | |
to dwell and thy courts. | 10:01 | |
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, | 10:04 | |
thy holy temple. | 10:07 | |
By dread deeds thou does answer us with deliverance. | 10:09 | |
Oh God, of our salvation, who are the hope | 10:13 | |
of all the of the ends of earth and of the far, | 10:16 | |
the seas who by thy strength | 10:19 | |
has to established the mountains, | 10:22 | |
being guard with Mine who does still | 10:25 | |
the roaring of the seas, | 10:28 | |
the roaring of their waves and the tumult of the peoples. | 10:30 | |
So that those who dwell at Earth's farthest bound are afraid | 10:34 | |
of thy signs. | 10:38 | |
They'll make us the outgoings of the morning | 10:40 | |
and the evening to shout for joy. | 10:43 | |
They'll visit us the earth and water it. | 10:46 | |
They'll greatly enriches it. | 10:50 | |
They'll provide us their grain for so thou has prepared it. | 10:52 | |
They'll waters it furls abundantly settling its ridges, | 10:57 | |
softening it with showers and blessing its growth. | 11:02 | |
Thou crowns the year with thy bounty, | 11:06 | |
the heels spread themselves with joy, | 11:09 | |
the Middles cloth themselves with flocks, | 11:13 | |
the valleys deck themselves with grain, | 11:16 | |
they shall and sing together for joy. | 11:19 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 11:26 | |
(choir singing) | 12:17 | |
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(choir singing) | 16:29 | |
Today's scripture lesson is taken from the book | 17:14 | |
of Matthew fifth, chapter 13th through the 20th. | 17:17 | |
You are the salt of the earth, | 17:23 | |
but if salt has lost its taste, | 17:25 | |
how shall it softness be restored. | 17:28 | |
It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out | 17:30 | |
and tied underfoot of men. | 17:33 | |
You are the light of the world. | 17:36 | |
A city set on a hill cannot be hide nor do men light a lamp | 17:38 | |
and put it under a bushel, but on a stand. | 17:42 | |
And it gives light to all in the house. | 17:45 | |
Let your light so shine before men that they may see | 17:48 | |
your good works and give glory to your Father | 17:51 | |
who is in heaven. | 17:54 | |
Think not that I have come to abolish the law | 17:55 | |
or the prophets. | 17:58 | |
I have not come to abolish them, | 18:00 | |
but to fulfill them for truly, | 18:02 | |
I say to you to a heaven and earth pass away, | 18:05 | |
not in thy order, not a dot will pass | 18:08 | |
from the law until all is accomplished. | 18:10 | |
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments | 18:14 | |
and teaches men so | 18:18 | |
shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, | 18:20 | |
but he who does them and teaches them | 18:24 | |
shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. | 18:27 | |
For I tell you, | 18:30 | |
unless righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes | 18:32 | |
and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. | 18:35 | |
Thus end of the lesson. | 18:39 | |
(orchestral music) | 18:42 | |
(choir singing) | 18:53 | |
- | The Lord be with you. Let us pray. | 19:29 |
Let us offer unto God, | 19:38 | |
our prayers for others and for ourselves. | 19:39 | |
Oh God of mercy and of love | 19:47 | |
who has commanded us to care for or one another. | 19:51 | |
As you do care for us, | 19:54 | |
here are our intercession for our brothers | 19:57 | |
and our sisters in need throughout your world we ask, | 20:00 | |
but it's offer unto God, | 20:08 | |
a prayer for the families of the world. | 20:09 | |
Oh Lord, we call on your spirit | 20:14 | |
and we ask your presence and your power for families. | 20:17 | |
It is your way of God to build great things out of small | 20:22 | |
maintain, we ask each family against all suspicions | 20:28 | |
and anxieties so that it might become an example | 20:32 | |
and a building block in the home | 20:38 | |
of us all, that the new mankind, | 20:40 | |
which you are bringing in through Jesus our Lord | 20:44 | |
may be truly built. | 20:48 | |
Oh Lord we would remember before the broken families. | 20:53 | |
Oh God, you knew the pain of a once uncomprehending family | 21:00 | |
in Nazareth. | 21:08 | |
Take up all broken families in your arms we ask, | 21:10 | |
break the chain of misunderstanding and provocation, | 21:15 | |
teach parents and children gentleness, | 21:21 | |
bring the alienated together by building them | 21:25 | |
into your new community of love we ask, | 21:30 | |
our Father, we call on your spirit | 21:36 | |
and we ask your presence for the elderly. | 21:38 | |
We pray for our fathers and mothers, | 21:44 | |
our grandfathers and grandmothers | 21:46 | |
who'll see only by hope and trust the new things | 21:50 | |
which you are doing in our world. | 21:55 | |
Help them understand that their strange children are born | 21:58 | |
of their bone flesh of their flesh. | 22:03 | |
That the catechism of good, | 22:08 | |
they taught in their churches has not been forgotten | 22:10 | |
by their sons and their daughters. | 22:15 | |
Oh God of peace. | 22:20 | |
Give peace, we ask to all trouble hearts, | 22:22 | |
deliver the tempted, | 22:26 | |
comfort those in this land who mourn | 22:28 | |
heal those who are lying worn with sickness | 22:32 | |
and receive, oh merciful God, | 22:36 | |
the souls of all those who die this day, | 22:40 | |
Eternal God, our Father, | 22:47 | |
nourish words before they're on our tongues. | 22:50 | |
Hear us as we lift before thee, our supplications, | 22:55 | |
we pray, oh Lord, for reverence, | 23:01 | |
for life and for sensitiveness to all creation about us. | 23:04 | |
We ask our Father to be delivered from unwanted | 23:13 | |
destructiveness, from wasting the good gifts from you, | 23:16 | |
from physical cruelty and from that mental brutality, | 23:23 | |
that cripples life, that stunts human growth and murders, | 23:27 | |
the young shoots of idealism and of effort in ourselves | 23:34 | |
and in others. | 23:39 | |
Oh Lord, we pray for a wholesome attitude to physical life | 23:42 | |
for a proper regard for human personality, | 23:48 | |
for the ability to delight in beauty, | 23:52 | |
without wishing to possess it. | 23:56 | |
Oh God give us power and courage to rebel | 24:00 | |
against all that corrupts the relationship of men and women | 24:05 | |
and against all that exploits the curiosity | 24:11 | |
and the growing awareness of the young. | 24:15 | |
Oh Lord, we pray to be saved from possessive about people | 24:21 | |
and things for the spirit that delights | 24:27 | |
to share and spend and give. | 24:31 | |
We pray for freedom from inquisitiveness and greed. | 24:36 | |
We pray that thou might enable us to dedicate ourselves | 24:42 | |
to simplicity of life, | 24:49 | |
to the discipline of desire and to the fullest use | 24:52 | |
of those talents and abilities | 24:56 | |
that have been given from you. | 25:00 | |
Oh Lord let the world, which is ours be good. | 25:06 | |
Make the world, you may be the world as you intended, | 25:13 | |
make the man you created be the creation you will replace | 25:19 | |
in our lives, lethargy with life, | 25:26 | |
turn aspiration into action and our thoughts into deeds. | 25:31 | |
Oh Lord, near the end of winter | 25:37 | |
we ask for hope for tomorrow, | 25:41 | |
give us spring at the end of winter | 25:45 | |
love of at the end of strife, | 25:49 | |
peace at the end of war and a home at the end of the exile. | 25:53 | |
Give us that you have those who have followed you | 26:01 | |
in all ages, | 26:04 | |
freedom after imprisonment, Canaan after Egypt, | 26:05 | |
Easter after land, give the earth | 26:11 | |
we inhabit a strong present tense, | 26:17 | |
strengthen and renew creation | 26:20 | |
we ask by what we are doing by what we are saying, | 26:22 | |
and by what we are celebrating, as your people. | 26:27 | |
Save us, we ask, oh Lord in our day, show us who we are, | 26:31 | |
how we are and why we are in Jesus Christ | 26:38 | |
our only Lord and Master, | 26:44 | |
who taught us that we might pray together | 26:49 | |
as Christian saying, | 26:50 | |
our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name | 26:53 | |
thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth | 26:58 | |
as it is in heaven, give us this day | 27:02 | |
our daily bread and forgive us our tresses | 27:06 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 27:10 | |
and lead us, not into temptation, | 27:14 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the Kingdom | 27:16 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 27:21 | |
- | Sometime ago, a letter reached me | 27:52 |
from an Episcopal rector in the north | 27:56 | |
who was writing a thesis on the significance | 28:00 | |
of the Old Testament for Christian preaching. | 28:04 | |
I wrote a brief article | 28:10 | |
on the topic and I sent him a copy | 28:13 | |
as my reply to his letter. | 28:17 | |
Then I decided to share my thoughts with you, | 28:22 | |
because some of you may be wondering about the valid | 28:27 | |
of the Old Testament in a Christian service. | 28:31 | |
The church Catholic reformed Roman Catholic | 28:37 | |
has always assumed a unity of some kind | 28:44 | |
between the Testaments. | 28:49 | |
Why not? | 28:52 | |
The Old Testament was the Bible, | 28:55 | |
the book of the early church, | 28:59 | |
though it was shorter than our Old Testament. | 29:04 | |
Why? It contained only law and the prophets. | 29:09 | |
The third great section known as the writings, | 29:17 | |
including such books, this is the Psalms, Ecclesiastes | 29:21 | |
and Job were not accepted as canonical. | 29:26 | |
That is officially approved by the authorities, | 29:32 | |
Jewish authorities until the Senate of Jamia | 29:38 | |
around '90, '80, the law and the prophets made up | 29:42 | |
the Bible of Jesus and the 12 and St. Paul | 29:49 | |
for then it was thee book. | 29:56 | |
And then around 140AD there arose within the church, | 30:03 | |
a fascinating and able scholar by the name | 30:10 | |
of Marcian, Marcian, | 30:15 | |
who has the distinction of being runner up | 30:19 | |
for the title Arch Heritage. | 30:23 | |
He decided that the God of Jesus was far removed | 30:28 | |
from the angry, blundering Creator, God | 30:33 | |
of the Old Testament. | 30:38 | |
So he rejected the Old Testament as his Bible | 30:40 | |
and offered an alternative the Gospel, | 30:45 | |
according to St. Luke and 10 of the letters of St. Paul | 30:50 | |
as amended and censored by Marcian. | 30:59 | |
Orthodoxy, rose in its wrath, squashed him and then realized | 31:05 | |
that there was some merit in his contention | 31:14 | |
and thus began the formation of an official New Testament. | 31:19 | |
But notice this, it was united with the Old Testament, | 31:27 | |
the two becoming for Christendom, the Holy Bible, | 31:35 | |
and with variations minor rather than major the Bible, | 31:42 | |
both Testaments is the Holy Textbook of the Word of God | 31:49 | |
for Christendom. | 31:57 | |
But as you might guess, | 31:59 | |
the matter does not rest there or end there. | 32:02 | |
Still to the fore is Marcian's nagging question | 32:08 | |
which kept on nagging and still does granted that Jesus, | 32:15 | |
the Christ is the Supreme revelation of God | 32:23 | |
even equated with God. | 32:29 | |
Then why not as such the superiority of the New Testament | 32:33 | |
to Old and concentrate on it. | 32:38 | |
So far as the Christian, as a worshiper is concerned, | 32:44 | |
the Old Testament is interesting, oh yes, | 32:49 | |
sometimes much more interesting than the New, | 32:53 | |
but it is not basic for Christian faith and behavior | 32:57 | |
And brother and I guess that most of us here | 33:04 | |
this morning feel that way. | 33:07 | |
We are 20th centuries, Century Marcianites | 33:12 | |
though most of us don't have is fascination. | 33:18 | |
Nevertheless, the powers that be in the major streams | 33:23 | |
of Christendom keep the new two Testaments bound together. | 33:26 | |
How then does one relate the Old and the New Testaments | 33:33 | |
to each other, or there's a variety of answers? | 33:38 | |
Let's look at a few. | 33:43 | |
There is the allegorical method, the allegorical method | 33:46 | |
where one sees the Christian message of salvation | 33:52 | |
foreshadowed in the earlier volume. | 33:58 | |
If one has just enough imagination or should I say fancy | 34:02 | |
more than one preacher down the centuries has based a sermon | 34:11 | |
about the holy Trinity on, listen to this Genesis 1:26, | 34:15 | |
Then God said, let us, us make man in our image, | 34:25 | |
a committee of three with the Father in the chair. | 34:34 | |
You see what's happened. | 34:40 | |
One reads into the text | 34:43 | |
what one would like to find there, | 34:47 | |
that's known as "Eyes to Jesus." | 34:50 | |
And then pretends that one reads it out of the text, | 34:53 | |
which is ex of Jesus. | 34:58 | |
This is not unusual pulpit device, even in this pulpit. | 35:00 | |
And then there is typology, | 35:08 | |
the doctrine that events and people | 35:11 | |
in the Christian dispensation are symbolized, | 35:13 | |
prefigured, typed In the Judith dispensation. | 35:18 | |
The sacrifice of Christ in Calvary | 35:24 | |
is typed by the sacrifice of the Pascolum at the Passover. | 35:28 | |
The mosaic mount of the law anticipates the New Testament, | 35:35 | |
Mount of the Sermon, Joseph persecuted by his brothers, | 35:41 | |
but saving them in Egypt is the type of Jesus despised | 35:48 | |
and rejected of men. | 35:54 | |
But their savior. | 35:56 | |
Well, maybe what do you think? | 36:00 | |
Or does the unity between the Testaments lie | 36:06 | |
in the more common view | 36:09 | |
that the old is preparatory to the new, | 36:12 | |
that the new fulfills that which is promised in the old, | 36:17 | |
oh, many of us accept this view. | 36:22 | |
Prophecy then is equated with foretelling | 36:26 | |
and enumerable Old Testament versus | 36:33 | |
are connected with Jesus. | 36:37 | |
Isaiah 7:14, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, | 36:40 | |
Isaiah 53:3. | 36:48 | |
He was despised and rejected of men, | 36:51 | |
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief | 36:54 | |
and so on and on and on. | 36:59 | |
But it is neither honest nor wise to equate prophecy | 37:04 | |
with foretelling or to confuse the prophet and the seer, | 37:11 | |
prophecy is not second sight. | 37:21 | |
Do I have any view of my own about the relationship | 37:27 | |
of the two Testaments? | 37:30 | |
Yes I do. | 37:32 | |
And I'm gonna share it with you now | 37:34 | |
so that you may understand my approach to the Bible. | 37:36 | |
For me, the intimate relationship, yes. | 37:42 | |
Even the unity of the two Testaments lies in the character, | 37:48 | |
will and action of God, who is the same yesterday, | 37:55 | |
today and forever. | 38:02 | |
And therefore the same in both testaments. | 38:05 | |
Let me say that again, for me, the intimate relationship, | 38:11 | |
even the unity of the Testaments lies in the character, will | 38:16 | |
and action of God who is the same yesterday, | 38:23 | |
today and forever. | 38:28 | |
And therefore the same in both Testaments. | 38:29 | |
The central insights of both are the same | 38:35 | |
as they present to us the eternal drama of how God | 38:40 | |
and man react to each other. | 38:45 | |
That's the theme of the whole Bible interpreted, | 38:49 | |
reinterpreted, misinterpreted by the host of authors | 38:55 | |
who wrote and edited this little library, | 39:01 | |
which we call the Bible. | 39:05 | |
And it is interpreted, reinterpreted and misinterpreted | 39:08 | |
by me too. | 39:15 | |
But the unity remains let's think about it. | 39:18 | |
The unity is not a superficial one. | 39:24 | |
There are both continuity and discontinuity | 39:28 | |
between the Testaments. | 39:32 | |
The Old Testament has disagreements within itself. | 39:35 | |
If you were asked, | 39:42 | |
what was God's attitude to Nineveh the oppressive capital | 39:44 | |
of the Assyrian empire, | 39:51 | |
you have a choice of answers In the Old Testament, | 39:55 | |
Naim, who wrote superb and vivid poetry, | 40:01 | |
perhaps the most glorious poetry in the Old Testament. | 40:07 | |
He said that God was blasting Nineveh to smothering it. | 40:11 | |
But if you turn to the Prophet Jonah, | 40:20 | |
that funny little man kind of Old Testament, Phi Beta Kappa | 40:24 | |
who was more knowledgeable than he was wise. | 40:31 | |
He was peevishly angry because God forgive Nineveh. | 40:37 | |
Now you've bought the Bible. You've got your pick. | 40:45 | |
Do you wanna need Him? | 40:47 | |
Do you want Jonah? | 40:49 | |
Which destruction or pardon was the true | 40:53 | |
or true or word of God? | 40:58 | |
Ezra, the Ecclesiastical lawyer after the return | 41:02 | |
from the Babylonian exile, | 41:07 | |
decreed that Jews must separate themselves | 41:09 | |
from their non-Jewish wives. | 41:15 | |
The race must be kept pure. | 41:19 | |
And about the same time, | 41:25 | |
an unknown author retold an old folk tail | 41:27 | |
about how David, the Great King, | 41:33 | |
the supposed ancestor of the Messiah | 41:39 | |
had foreign blood in his veins. | 41:43 | |
His great-grandmother was Ruth a Moabitess. | 41:48 | |
Now, do you choose Ezra or the author of Ruth | 41:56 | |
as God spokesman? | 42:01 | |
Why? Do you side with the Deutronomic Theory | 42:04 | |
that goodness guarantees prosperity? | 42:09 | |
Goodness guarantees prosperity or do you side with Job? | 42:15 | |
The most impatient man in the Bible who blasts and decries | 42:22 | |
this theory in his own particular case, | 42:29 | |
which? Why? | 42:33 | |
How do we go about answering such questions with consistency | 42:37 | |
or come at this matter of unity from another angle? | 42:45 | |
What are the key words? | 42:49 | |
(preacher coughing) | 42:51 | |
What are the key words of the New Testament? | 42:53 | |
There is grace. | 42:57 | |
The freely given unmerited love of God to sinful man. | 42:59 | |
And yet, can you think of a better example of grace | 43:07 | |
than the call of Isaiah? | 43:13 | |
When he never confessed these sins, | 43:16 | |
he just ejaculated them and said, "It's all up with me. | 43:19 | |
I've seen the King." | 43:23 | |
And the angel touched his lips and said, | 43:26 | |
"You're, iniquitous forgiven. | 43:28 | |
Your sins are taken away." | 43:29 | |
New Testament grace. | 43:33 | |
The date of that is 770 years | 43:34 | |
before Jesus began to speak that's faith. | 43:39 | |
Man's grateful acceptance of the grace, | 43:44 | |
the graciousness of God. | 43:48 | |
And yet when Paul thinks of the man of faith, | 43:51 | |
he goes all the way back to Abraham. | 43:54 | |
Beginning of Genesis, | 43:58 | |
there is mercy compassion toward the suffering. | 44:00 | |
And one remembers Hosea's gentleness to his wife | 44:07 | |
who had become a prostitute. | 44:14 | |
And whom he took back into his home, | 44:17 | |
making the amazing spiritual deduction. | 44:23 | |
If I can love a woman who has betrayed me, | 44:26 | |
surely God can do as much for Israel, | 44:33 | |
which has gone a worrying after idols. | 44:38 | |
The Old and the New Testaments speak the same language. | 44:42 | |
Let's listen to Jesus on this. | 44:49 | |
When a lawyer asked him, | 44:52 | |
"What kind of commandment was utterly basic, primary, | 44:53 | |
preeminent final." | 44:59 | |
Do you know what Jesus did? | 45:02 | |
He answered by bringing together two half | 45:03 | |
versus from the Old Testa, | 45:08 | |
"First, you will love God with everything that's in you." | 45:12 | |
That's from Deuteronomy. | 45:17 | |
Second, "You will love your neighbor | 45:19 | |
as much as you love yourself." | 45:22 | |
That's from Leviticus. | 45:25 | |
And then he added, | 45:27 | |
"There is no other commandment greater than these." | 45:29 | |
And in the passage read is our lesson. | 45:35 | |
Jesus said, | 45:38 | |
"Think not that I am come to abolish the law | 45:39 | |
and the prophets." | 45:43 | |
That is the Jewish Bible. | 45:45 | |
"I not come to abolish them, | 45:48 | |
but to fulfill them not to abolish yet, | 45:52 | |
not necessarily to keep, to fulfill, | 45:56 | |
to express in its full significance, | 46:00 | |
to grasp the heart of the matter, | 46:04 | |
to appreciate the spirit behind the letter." | 46:06 | |
And at that point, | 46:11 | |
Jesus places himself in the prophetic tradition. | 46:11 | |
So amid discontinuity, there is a genuine continuity. | 46:17 | |
The New Testament gospel is not entirely new. | 46:24 | |
You see, then what we need a norm, a creed, | 46:29 | |
an affirmation of faith drawn up from both Testaments | 46:36 | |
to be used to test any part of the Bible | 46:41 | |
as an instance of God in action, | 46:46 | |
God in action for man salvation. | 46:49 | |
And here is how a class in the divinity school | 46:53 | |
some years ago worded such a touchstone, | 46:55 | |
God, the Creator and Sustainer of life. | 47:00 | |
Has so purposed in his love | 47:04 | |
that man being right relations with him, | 47:06 | |
that of his own free will he overcomes the power | 47:10 | |
and he raises the guilt of sin, | 47:13 | |
which separates man from God. | 47:16 | |
This was always his effective purpose, | 47:20 | |
always in the Old Testament. | 47:23 | |
But it was uniquely manifested and dramatized | 47:27 | |
in the birth life, death and resurrection of Jesus. | 47:30 | |
He's acknowledged as the son of God, | 47:34 | |
because he supremely reveals the will and nature of God. | 47:37 | |
This redeeming activity of God is perpetuated | 47:42 | |
by the working of the Holy Spirit | 47:45 | |
those who believe this are bound | 47:48 | |
in an eternal fellowship whose daily life on earth | 47:50 | |
is marked by faith, love and hope. | 47:54 | |
Next year's class picked this up and said, "Sir, | 48:00 | |
you better have something said about those | 48:02 | |
who don't believe this." | 48:04 | |
I said, "Will you write it?" | 48:06 | |
Students wrote the first part. | 48:08 | |
Well, that class split down the middle | 48:09 | |
half of them believed in hell more vehemently | 48:12 | |
than they believed in Heaven. | 48:15 | |
They even knew who was going there, | 48:17 | |
which is more than His holiness | 48:20 | |
the Pope would claim to know. | 48:22 | |
The other half were Universalists. Everybody will be saved. | 48:24 | |
And they said, "Sir, you are the professor. | 48:28 | |
You bring together these two points you in one sentence." | 48:30 | |
So I did. | 48:34 | |
Those who refuse to believe this | 48:38 | |
are under the judgment of God's love here and hereafter. | 48:41 | |
And that left it to God, | 48:46 | |
which seemed to me the safest place to leave. | 48:47 | |
Now with such an affirmation of faith, | 48:53 | |
one tests the Bible passages, | 48:56 | |
and for example, prefers Jonah to Nahum | 48:59 | |
on the issue of Nineveh and Ruth to Esra | 49:03 | |
on the matter of matrimonial segregation. | 49:08 | |
One rejoices that grace and faith and mercy and love, | 49:11 | |
are at home in the Old Testament is in the New. | 49:16 | |
One rejoices that Jesus appreciated his heritage, | 49:21 | |
even though he was not unaware of its infirmities, | 49:26 | |
then is there nothing new in the New Testament? | 49:29 | |
Of course there is. | 49:32 | |
There is the rabbi Jesus | 49:35 | |
who loved God and his neighbor even unto death. | 49:39 | |
There is Easter, the real birthday of the Christian faith. | 49:46 | |
And there is Paul of Tarsis, | 49:53 | |
who transformed a sect of Judaism into an independent | 49:56 | |
and interracial religion. | 50:02 | |
But what I seek to stress today is the validity | 50:06 | |
of the Old Testament for Christian preaching. | 50:10 | |
As we worship the God who is the same from Genesis | 50:15 | |
to revelation, from Christmas unto Easter, | 50:19 | |
and even to this day. | 50:24 | |
And so let a sing a hymn to Him, | 50:27 | |
the 30th hymn, a Jewish hymn full of Christian thought, | 50:29 | |
hymn number 30. | 50:36 | |
(orchestral music) | 50:49 | |
(orchestral music) | 51:33 | |
(choir singing) | ||
(gentle orchestral music) | 55:59 | |
(orchestral music) | 56:28 | |
(choir singing) | ||
(orchestral music) | 59:26 | |
(orchestral music) | 59:49 | |
(choir singing) | ||
Oh God, of all that is receive and sanctify, | 1:00:47 | |
we ask for your loving purposes, | 1:00:52 | |
these gifts of our life's labor and the allegiances | 1:00:55 | |
of our hearts to the end that your will, | 1:01:00 | |
may be faithfully done in this congregation, | 1:01:03 | |
in this university, in this city, in the world, | 1:01:08 | |
in the name of Christ, we ask it, amen. | 1:01:15 | |
Go forth now to be God's apostles of great in the world | 1:01:20 | |
and made a peace, the love and the grace of God, the Father, | 1:01:26 | |
the Son, and the Holy Spirit go with you. | 1:01:32 | |
(choir singing) | 1:01:41 | |
(bell ringing) | 1:02:55 | |
(orchestral music) | 1:03:16 | |
(indistinct) | 1:03:38 | |
(group chatter) | 1:03:46 |
Item Info
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