James T. Cleland - "Approaching Lent" (February 28, 1965)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(bright music) | 0:03 | |
- | Let us pray. | 0:20 |
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations | 0:23 | |
of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. | 0:27 | |
Oh Lord our strength | 0:33 | |
and our Redeemer, Amen. | 0:35 | |
Some days ago there crossed my desk, | 0:48 | |
a folder entitled Mardi Gras, 1965. | 0:52 | |
Published by a group of our students with the interesting | 1:01 | |
and somewhat inaccurate name, | 1:05 | |
''The Steering Committee of University Weekends''. | 1:09 | |
Now this folder gave me pause, | 1:16 | |
do not jump to the conclusion | 1:20 | |
that I am against extra curricular revelry. | 1:23 | |
I am for it. | 1:29 | |
I'm in favor of section parties and open houses | 1:32 | |
and even dancing in the streets, whether permitting. | 1:37 | |
My attitude is summed up in four lines of verse, | 1:43 | |
which I thought were written by a Scott, | 1:47 | |
but which were actually penned by a South Carolinian | 1:52 | |
John Bennett by name. | 1:57 | |
Here they are. | 1:59 | |
''We are all but fellow travelers along life's weary way. | 2:02 | |
If any man can play the pipes in God's name, let him play.'' | 2:09 | |
Good, good. | 2:17 | |
No, it's not the musical shenanigans | 2:21 | |
that which gave me pause, | 2:23 | |
It was the timing of the event. | 2:26 | |
It was described as a Mardi Gras Jollification | 2:31 | |
but it was dated February 19 and 20. | 2:36 | |
Now Mardi Gras in actual fact | 2:42 | |
is next Tuesday, March the 2nd. | 2:45 | |
Was the steering committee | 2:52 | |
of university weekends confused | 2:54 | |
or careless ,or uninformed. | 2:58 | |
Therefore it has seemed good to me to look with you | 3:04 | |
at Mardi Gras and Pre-Lent and Lent. | 3:08 | |
To discover if they mean or should mean anything to us | 3:15 | |
at this time of the year. | 3:20 | |
For those of us who are liturgically erudite | 3:23 | |
or ecclesiastically pedantic. | 3:28 | |
Today is Quinquagesima, | 3:32 | |
the Sunday preceding the beginning of Lent. | 3:36 | |
It is appropriate then for us to see what Pre-Lent | 3:42 | |
and Lent have meant in the past, | 3:46 | |
in order to discover if they have anything to say to us | 3:49 | |
about how we should behave | 3:53 | |
in these two Pre-Easter periods in 1965. | 3:56 | |
Now this coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. | 4:04 | |
The first day of the long Lenten Fast. | 4:09 | |
The three days before Ash Wednesday | 4:14 | |
are known in England as Shrovetide. | 4:18 | |
Shrove is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Scriven, | 4:23 | |
which means to Shrive | 4:28 | |
that is to make confession | 4:31 | |
or to hear confession and to grant absolution. | 4:35 | |
Now this period preceding the 40 days of Lent | 4:43 | |
was formerly according to a Catholic dictionary, | 4:47 | |
a period particularly set for going to confession | 4:51 | |
and also for lively recreation | 4:57 | |
for going to confession | 5:02 | |
and also for lively recreation. | 5:04 | |
The order of activity should I think be reversed. | 5:09 | |
It was a time for lively activity | 5:14 | |
and therefore for the ensuing journey to confession. | 5:18 | |
If the long Lenten period were to be one of penitence, | 5:25 | |
prayer and fasting, | 5:30 | |
then one used Shrovetide | 5:33 | |
to make sure he had done something | 5:37 | |
necessitating penance, prayer and fasting. | 5:40 | |
One danced for hours on end | 5:47 | |
so as to make the consequent refraining | 5:51 | |
from dancing during Lent | 5:54 | |
a genuine exercise in self restraint. | 5:56 | |
One ate and drank his fill. | 6:02 | |
So as to give a real meaning | 6:05 | |
to abstinence as a spiritual discipline, | 6:07 | |
excess preceded moderation, | 6:12 | |
abandonment ushered in sobriety, self-gratification led | 6:17 | |
the way to self mortification. | 6:24 | |
That is why tomorrow, Monday became known as Blue Monday. | 6:29 | |
It describe the Tuesday morning after feeling of depression | 6:37 | |
and gloom following a day of revelry. | 6:42 | |
The church for centuries anticipated this hangover | 6:47 | |
by decorating the sanctuary with blue hangings | 6:51 | |
on the Monday preceding Ash Wednesday. | 6:55 | |
Tuesday was called Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. | 7:00 | |
Why Pancake Tuesday? | 7:08 | |
Because one was not supposed to eat eggs | 7:11 | |
or fat during Lent. | 7:14 | |
So one used them all up the day before | 7:19 | |
in a glorious Pancake feast. | 7:23 | |
I wish the dining halls would make note of that. | 7:27 | |
(audience laughing) | 7:30 | |
Sweet. | 7:31 | |
Mardi Gras is French part Fat Tuesday, | 7:35 | |
perhaps because of the fat used in the Pancakes. | 7:42 | |
I wish the steering committee | 7:47 | |
of university weekends had known that. | 7:48 | |
Perhaps it's timing would have been better. | 7:52 | |
Carnival is one way of describing these Shrovetide days. | 7:58 | |
And carnival may be derived from the Latin Carne Vale, | 8:05 | |
which means, oh, flesh farewell. | 8:12 | |
This may be the glutinous RFR to butcher meat | 8:17 | |
or to one's own of war deploys for 40 days. | 8:22 | |
If I our university really kept the Christian year | 8:28 | |
in historical traditional ecumenical fashion, | 8:32 | |
there would be high revelry on Tuesday night, | 8:37 | |
a joint dance for both faculty | 8:41 | |
and students on both campuses, | 8:44 | |
even in the denominational centers. | 8:48 | |
And then there would be a crowded service here | 8:51 | |
in the university chapel, elderly on Wednesday morning. | 8:55 | |
When the combined task force of all | 9:00 | |
the university chaplains would anoint our foreheads | 9:03 | |
with ashes saying to each one of us individually, | 9:07 | |
''Memento, homo, quai pulvis es, | 9:12 | |
et in pulverem reverteris.'' | 9:17 | |
Remember man, that our dust | 9:21 | |
and to dust now shall return. | 9:24 | |
Where would they get the ashes | 9:33 | |
in this day of oil fire central heating? | 9:36 | |
They would be made by burning the palms leftover, | 9:40 | |
from last year's Palm Sunday, | 9:46 | |
Now pick up your bulletins | 9:50 | |
and turn to the denomination announcement. | 9:53 | |
And you will realize that the Episcopalians | 9:57 | |
is the only group in campus that appreciates this. | 9:59 | |
The second announcement | 10:03 | |
on Tuesday ,Shrove Tuesday, | 10:06 | |
there will be a Mardi Gras at the center beginning | 10:10 | |
at 5:30 p.m with a Pancake Supper. | 10:14 | |
The university community is cordially invited. | 10:17 | |
Well, that'd be a jam | 10:20 | |
If we all go. | 10:23 | |
(audience laughing) | 10:23 | |
A notice about that Wednesday Ash 7:00 a.m | 10:25 | |
holy communion, 5:30 p.m. | 10:30 | |
Holy communion and the liturgy | 10:35 | |
of Ash Wednesday followed by a quiet evening | 10:37 | |
of meditation and devotions from 7:00 to 11:30. | 10:40 | |
As a Presbyterian I'm glad to pay | 10:48 | |
the Episcopalians this tribute. | 10:50 | |
The appreciation of the holy year. | 10:53 | |
Well, that brings us | 10:58 | |
through Shrovetide, Pre-Lent to Lent. | 10:59 | |
Now ,what about Lent? | 11:04 | |
Lent is the name given to the 40 days, | 11:10 | |
excluding Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter Eve. | 11:14 | |
It may be derived from Latin, the Anglo-Saxon word | 11:23 | |
for spring or from a Teutonic word, | 11:28 | |
meaning long the hours of daylight being longer now than | 11:32 | |
they were in the winter months. | 11:39 | |
Ecclesiastically it is the long spring season mark | 11:42 | |
as was said by penitents, | 11:48 | |
prayer and fasting and symbolized | 11:50 | |
by some disciplined act of super arrogation. | 11:56 | |
I suppose some of us are going to give up one | 12:03 | |
or more about hacky habits during Lent. | 12:07 | |
Tobacco, the divine herb, | 12:13 | |
the vice, which comes nearest virtue | 12:19 | |
or the movies, even firm films at the Quadrangle theater. | 12:25 | |
Basketball including | 12:33 | |
the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. | 12:36 | |
Now that would be penitential discipline | 12:39 | |
or dancing maybe because we suddenly recall | 12:43 | |
what happened to king David | 12:48 | |
as he pranced before the Ark of the Covenant. | 12:51 | |
I once had a colleague who gave up hiking during Lent, | 12:54 | |
but as he weighed over 200 pounds and never went anywhere, | 13:00 | |
except by car, | 13:04 | |
it didn't seem to me to be either accurate or penitential. | 13:06 | |
There are three things that should be said | 13:12 | |
to those of us who plan to discipline ourselves, | 13:14 | |
in some self-denying Carnegie valley fashion | 13:19 | |
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam Dei to the greater glory | 13:25 | |
of God during the next 40 days. | 13:30 | |
First, we do not give up sins | 13:34 | |
as Linton discipline | 13:41 | |
that does not count. | 13:43 | |
Sins are never valid acts for the Christian, | 13:47 | |
not even on Pancake Tuesday, | 13:52 | |
there is no open season for conscious transgression | 13:56 | |
for willing non-conformity to the will of God. | 14:02 | |
We give up what is good as a personal, | 14:08 | |
intentional lively sacrifice. | 14:15 | |
We give up what is good for a temporary better. | 14:19 | |
What is the temporary better? | 14:26 | |
It is the proving to ourselves | 14:30 | |
that under God and with God, | 14:32 | |
we are in control about desires and appetite | 14:38 | |
and legitimate pleasures | 14:43 | |
and that they are not in control of us. | 14:46 | |
Second, Sunday's don't count. | 14:53 | |
Sunday's don't count. | 15:00 | |
There are six Sundays in Lent. | 15:03 | |
Now, note well | 15:07 | |
the preposition in, | 15:08 | |
the Sundays are not liturgically known as | 15:11 | |
the six Sundays of Lent, | 15:14 | |
but the six Sundays in Lent. | 15:17 | |
Sunday is not part of Lent. | 15:21 | |
Why? Because Sunday is never a day of fasting. | 15:26 | |
Sunday is always a festival. | 15:33 | |
Why? Because Sunday is always the celebration of the day | 15:38 | |
in which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. | 15:45 | |
It is a hallelujah day. | 15:51 | |
Every Sunday is a little Easter. | 15:54 | |
That's why it is properly named the Lord's day. | 15:58 | |
Therefore, if we are giving up tobacco during Lent, | 16:05 | |
we may smoke on the sixth Sundays, | 16:10 | |
but we ought to | 16:15 | |
what we give up is not sinful. | 16:19 | |
It is good. | 16:22 | |
And Sunday is a good day, | 16:24 | |
joyous day, a little Easter, | 16:26 | |
always a festival, never a fast. | 16:29 | |
Therefore, if you are planning to keep Lent, | 16:34 | |
remember never on Sunday. | 16:37 | |
Third, let those of us who do discipline ourselves, | 16:45 | |
be aware of the sin of pride, | 16:51 | |
the sin of having a good conceit of ourselves, | 16:57 | |
the sin of Protestant phariseeism, | 17:03 | |
the sin of thinking we are better | 17:08 | |
than others who do not discipline themselves. | 17:11 | |
The sin of justification by works. | 17:16 | |
Isn't that what Jesus was trying to show in that terrible | 17:23 | |
parable of the Bond Servant, which was our morning lesson. | 17:28 | |
Let me read it to you again. | 17:35 | |
As J.B. Phillips has paraphrased it. | 17:37 | |
''If any of you have a servant ploughing | 17:43 | |
or looking after the sheep, | 17:47 | |
are you likely to say to him when he comes | 17:50 | |
in from the field, come straight in | 17:52 | |
and sit down to your meal. | 17:55 | |
Aren't you more likely to say, | 17:59 | |
get my supper ready. | 18:02 | |
Change your coat and wait while I eat and drink. | 18:05 | |
And then when I finish, you can have your meal. | 18:11 | |
Do you feel particularly grateful to your servant for doing | 18:17 | |
what you tell him? | 18:21 | |
I don't think so. | 18:24 | |
It is the same with yourselves. | 18:27 | |
When you have done everything that you're told to do, | 18:31 | |
you can say we are not much good as servants | 18:34 | |
for we've only done what we ought to do.'' | 18:40 | |
Now, that is rough talk. | 18:45 | |
That is the severe Jesus. | 18:49 | |
It is thank God, | 18:54 | |
not the whole gospel, | 18:55 | |
but it is an emphasis which should not be forgotten, | 18:58 | |
particularly by those of us who are going to keep Lent. | 19:02 | |
Here is Jesus antidote for the conceit of merit, | 19:09 | |
for the absurd belief | 19:15 | |
that one can put God under an obligation | 19:17 | |
by interested obedience. | 19:21 | |
No man can make God his debtor. | 19:25 | |
We cannot acquire a right to thanks. | 19:30 | |
So when we come to Easter Eve | 19:36 | |
and look back on our Lenten sacrifice, | 19:39 | |
let us say we are not much good as servants, | 19:42 | |
for we've only done what we ought to do. | 19:49 | |
Keep these three caveats in mind, | 19:54 | |
but there is another way of observing Lent to my mind. | 20:00 | |
A better way though you may disagree, | 20:04 | |
instead of cutting something off, | 20:09 | |
let us add something. | 20:14 | |
Let us consciously devote a period of time. | 20:18 | |
Maybe daily, maybe weekly, | 20:22 | |
40 times or six times to a conscious effort | 20:26 | |
to broaden or deepen our understanding | 20:32 | |
of the Christian faith | 20:38 | |
to cultivate the things of the spirit, | 20:41 | |
the religious undergirding about day-to-day living, | 20:46 | |
how? Well, here are a few suggestion. | 20:52 | |
If you have a dollar 50 to spare buy a copy | 20:59 | |
of'' The Gospel According to PEANUTS,'' by Robert L. Short. | 21:04 | |
Persuade some others in your dorm or in your house, | 21:13 | |
in your fraternity and your sorority to do likewise | 21:17 | |
and spend some hours together during Lent discovering some | 21:22 | |
of the central ideas in Christianity, | 21:28 | |
as they are enlivened by the art of the cartoon strip | 21:33 | |
For Charles M chutes, | 21:40 | |
the creator of peanuts | 21:43 | |
on his own confession admits to preach. | 21:45 | |
Lucy, is original sin incarnate. | 21:54 | |
(audience laughing) | 21:58 | |
Charlie Brown is despairing common man. | 22:05 | |
Linus is a psychiatric case | 22:13 | |
(audience laughing) | 22:16 | |
full of pantophobia, fear of everything. | 22:18 | |
Actually dependent on the portable security of his blanket. | 22:24 | |
Snoopy is a hound of heaven. | 22:32 | |
Now the interpreter of the strip calls on Tillich | 22:37 | |
and Barth and Karl Bath and Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot | 22:41 | |
and Graham Greene to shed light | 22:46 | |
on this good grief collection of junior varsity adults. | 22:49 | |
''The Gospel According to PEANUTS'' is a good textbook | 22:57 | |
for a discussion group during Lent. | 23:03 | |
If you are more sophisticated, | 23:10 | |
then read what has almost become a Christian classic, | 23:13 | |
C.S. Lewis, ''The Screwtape Letters.'' | 23:17 | |
Here are 51 letters from an old devil, Screwtape. | 23:23 | |
One of his satanic majesties Lowerarchy. | 23:32 | |
To his nephew, Wormwood, | 23:38 | |
a junior devil who has been given | 23:40 | |
the assignment of keeping a person | 23:44 | |
from becoming a Christian. | 23:47 | |
The books sparkles with wit and with unexpected twist. | 23:51 | |
Jesus is the enemy. | 23:57 | |
Satan is our father below. | 24:01 | |
All you talk about is here Sex, pacifism, pleasure, | 24:06 | |
prayer, time, spiritual fatigue. | 24:13 | |
This little volume must have | 24:19 | |
caused considerable annoyance in Hell. | 24:21 | |
It will give you by yourself or in the company of others, | 24:26 | |
food for thought and shuttles of delight | 24:29 | |
and insight into the faith. | 24:34 | |
I think it's now in paperback. | 24:38 | |
And yet there may be a more excellent way. | 24:43 | |
Read slowly and carefully through one of the gospels, | 24:51 | |
come to know Jesus, | 25:00 | |
the author and finisher of our faith. | 25:03 | |
Let us look at him and unto him during Lent. | 25:09 | |
As we have never looked before, | 25:15 | |
let us walk with him through Galilee, | 25:21 | |
listening to what He is saying | 25:23 | |
and watching those to whom He's talking. | 25:26 | |
Let us walk with Him to Jerusalem into that last week, | 25:32 | |
which began so successfully, on Palm Sunday, | 25:38 | |
ended so despairingly on Good Friday | 25:45 | |
and was transformed so wondrously on Easter Sunday. | 25:51 | |
How do you make | 25:58 | |
of this carpenter son who took to itinerant preaching? | 25:59 | |
And who for the joy that was set before him, | 26:06 | |
endured the cross despising the shame. | 26:10 | |
This man of joy, who was acquainted with grief. | 26:17 | |
What will a study of him do to you? | 26:26 | |
It may do what it did to Isaac Watts, | 26:30 | |
who wrote a hymn about it. | 26:33 | |
A hymn which Mahatma Gandhi said | 26:37 | |
was his favorite Christian hymn. | 26:39 | |
A hymn which we sang this morning. | 26:45 | |
Let's look at the first and the last stanzas of that hymn. | 26:49 | |
When I survey the wondrous cross, | 27:00 | |
on which the Prince of glory died. | 27:04 | |
Well, what? My richest gain | 27:09 | |
I count, but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. | 27:15 | |
So what? were the whole realm of nature mine. | 27:25 | |
That were an offering far too small, | 27:33 | |
then what can I give? | 27:41 | |
Love so amazing, | 27:43 | |
so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. | 27:46 | |
Gazing at Jesus inspired Isaac Watts. | 27:56 | |
It affected Mahatma Gandhi. | 28:03 | |
It may do surprising things to us. | 28:09 | |
We may never be quite the same again. | 28:14 | |
We may be converted, | 28:18 | |
transformed, born again. | 28:24 | |
A happy Shrovetide and a blessing Lent to you all. | 28:35 | |
Let us pray. | 28:45 | |
Almighty and eternal God | 28:52 | |
whose blessed son came to teach us about thee, | 28:54 | |
and about ourselves, | 28:59 | |
assist us a company of worshiping scholars. | 29:01 | |
So to use this coming Lenten season, | 29:07 | |
that our minds may be instructed, | 29:11 | |
our hearts quickened and our wills directed | 29:15 | |
through the teaching and in dwelling spirit | 29:22 | |
of the same Jesus Christ our Lord, | 29:25 | |
and may the blessing of the Lord, | 29:30 | |
come upon you abundantly, | 29:32 | |
may it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth | 29:36 | |
his promises through | 29:41 | |
the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 29:43 | |
(soft music) | 29:48 |
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