Creighton Lacy - "Wild Storms of Peace" (February 19, 1961)
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- | [Dr. Clayton Lacey] Let all who share | 0:19 |
in this service of worship | 0:20 | |
within this chapel or through the miracle of radio | 0:22 | |
continues steadfastly in prayer. | 0:26 | |
Being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. | 0:30 | |
Will you pray for us also | 0:34 | |
that God may open to us a door for the word. | 0:36 | |
To declare the mystery of Christ | 0:40 | |
that I may make it clear | 0:43 | |
as I ought to speak. | 0:45 | |
Amen. | 0:48 | |
The dedicated life and heroic death of Dr. Tom Dooley | 0:55 | |
have inspired millions of people around the world, | 1:00 | |
even if they could not remember his name. | 1:03 | |
One examination paper last month | 1:06 | |
informed me that Dr. Dooley was a great humanitarian. | 1:08 | |
And another reported that Thomas Dewey | 1:13 | |
was a noted missionary surgeon. | 1:15 | |
From the jungles of Laos to the canyons of New York, | 1:19 | |
his reputations spread. | 1:22 | |
When I spent a week in Malaya last May | 1:25 | |
Tom Dooley was there. | 1:28 | |
In person on the remote Eastern shore, | 1:30 | |
but on the front pages of newspapers in the capital city. | 1:34 | |
In nine years, | 1:39 | |
he raised one and three quarter million dollars | 1:40 | |
and built seven hospitals in four countries. | 1:43 | |
Most important he convinced other people | 1:47 | |
humble donors and distinguished doctors | 1:51 | |
of desperate human need | 1:54 | |
and of creative human responsibility. | 1:58 | |
Last December, less than seven weeks before his death | 2:03 | |
at the age of 34, | 2:06 | |
Tom Dooley wrote a letter to Father Hesburgh, | 2:09 | |
President of Notre Dame university. | 2:11 | |
May I repeat some excerpts | 2:15 | |
which I hope many of you have read. | 2:16 | |
"Whenever my cancer acts up | 2:20 | |
"and it is certainly acting up now, | 2:22 | |
"I turn inward a bit, | 2:25 | |
"less do I think of my hospitals around the world | 2:28 | |
"or of 94 doctors fundraising and the like, | 2:31 | |
"more do I think of one divine doctor | 2:36 | |
"and my own personal fund of grace. | 2:40 | |
"Is it enough?" | 2:44 | |
Then a few sentences later, he gave this answer | 2:47 | |
to his own question. | 2:50 | |
"Inside and outside the wind blows | 2:52 | |
"when the time comes like now, | 2:55 | |
"then the storm around here does not matter. | 2:58 | |
"The winds within me do not matter. | 3:02 | |
"Nothing human or earthly can touch me. | 3:05 | |
"A wilder storm of peace | 3:09 | |
"gathers in my heart. | 3:12 | |
"What seems unpossesable I can possess, | 3:14 | |
"what is unfathomable, I fathom, | 3:18 | |
"what is unutterable, I can utter, | 3:21 | |
"because I can pray, I can communicate. | 3:25 | |
"How do people endure anything on earth | 3:30 | |
"if they cannot have God?" | 3:33 | |
Tom Dooley went on to speak with appreciative insight | 3:38 | |
of the difference between the external symbols of religion, | 3:41 | |
the cross, the sanctuary, the stain glass windows, | 3:46 | |
the music and the something else which really counts. | 3:50 | |
But this testimony to the power of prayer | 3:56 | |
will take its place in the classic literature of faith. | 3:58 | |
A wilder storm of peace gathers in my heart. | 4:03 | |
What seems unpossesable I can posses, | 4:08 | |
what seems unfathomable I fathom, | 4:12 | |
What is unutterable I can utter, | 4:16 | |
because I can pray, | 4:19 | |
I can communicate. | 4:22 | |
This is not the pious platitude of a mystic in his cell | 4:25 | |
this is the vibrant witness of a young dynamic, full life | 4:30 | |
who had made his few short years | 4:34 | |
count tremendously in service. | 4:36 | |
When the end came, | 4:40 | |
an end which many people would label | 4:42 | |
unfair, unjust, even cruel | 4:44 | |
he learned that he could fathom the unfathomable | 4:49 | |
and possess the unpossesable | 4:52 | |
because he could communicate | 4:55 | |
with the one divine doctor. | 4:57 | |
Whatever other epithets characterize contemporary youth | 5:02 | |
they are no longer the silent generation. | 5:06 | |
Taking a world view one can hardly charge | 5:09 | |
that young people are apathetic these days, | 5:12 | |
there are plenty of wild storms agitating students. | 5:15 | |
You can work up a good rousing riot over anything | 5:20 | |
from a cabinet crisis | 5:23 | |
to an extra day of Christmas vacation. | 5:25 | |
This past year I have seen African students | 5:29 | |
demonstrating outside the French Embassy | 5:33 | |
in the Indian capital | 5:35 | |
against atomic tests in the Sahara desert. | 5:37 | |
I have seen Indian students | 5:41 | |
demanding that their government | 5:43 | |
undertake military resistance against communist China. | 5:45 | |
On Japanese television, | 5:50 | |
I have watched students roughing up Jim Hagerty, | 5:52 | |
then presidential press secretary, | 5:55 | |
and forcing the cancellation | 5:58 | |
of President Eisenhower's intended visit. | 5:59 | |
On American TV, I have watched students defy police | 6:03 | |
and human decency outside a university dormitory. | 6:09 | |
Within the past 12 months, | 6:14 | |
students have toppled the government in Korea | 6:16 | |
and threatened others. | 6:19 | |
In all these areas there is no lack of activity, | 6:22 | |
but is conspicuous by its absence in each situation | 6:26 | |
is a sense of responsibility. | 6:31 | |
Responsibility, commitment, involvement. | 6:35 | |
Last October the New York Times | 6:42 | |
reported a survey of American attitudes | 6:44 | |
indicating widespread criticism, fault-finding | 6:47 | |
dissatisfaction with the state of the nation and the world. | 6:51 | |
But as the reporter Drew Middleton said, | 6:55 | |
what was disappointing was the absence of any willingness | 6:59 | |
to abandon security at home | 7:03 | |
for jobs that would contribute to the American effort | 7:05 | |
in the cold war. | 7:09 | |
For example a medical student | 7:11 | |
complained bitterly about the failures and blunders | 7:14 | |
and chaos in Africa, | 7:17 | |
but was thunder struck, | 7:19 | |
the journalist's word, thunder struck, | 7:21 | |
at the idea that his medical vocation | 7:24 | |
might contribute a significantly stabilizing element | 7:27 | |
in the situation there. | 7:31 | |
The survey added that government service | 7:34 | |
seems to make little appeal to young people today. | 7:37 | |
The same might be said | 7:41 | |
about the world mission of the church. | 7:43 | |
But the Times reporter concluded with a pointed observation. | 7:46 | |
Many students seem to be developing | 7:51 | |
into highly critical spectators | 7:53 | |
rather than citizens. | 7:57 | |
Again his choice of words hit home. | 8:00 | |
He did not contrast spectators with sportsman, | 8:03 | |
with activists, with demonstrators | 8:06 | |
of these we have planted. | 8:09 | |
The term citizen, implies above all else | 8:12 | |
a sense of participation, of responsibility. | 8:15 | |
The organization man is not a true citizen | 8:20 | |
precisely because he lacks | 8:24 | |
genuine freedom and responsibility. | 8:26 | |
His security lies in conformity to the decisions of others. | 8:30 | |
He has become a spectator | 8:34 | |
in the major activity of his life, | 8:37 | |
his vocation, his calling. | 8:40 | |
And what is true of society | 8:44 | |
is equally true of the church. | 8:46 | |
We have become spectators in the very act of worship | 8:49 | |
which should most completely | 8:52 | |
demand our involvement, our participation. | 8:54 | |
Each week hundreds of us | 8:59 | |
thrilled to the majestic Oregon | 9:01 | |
to these splendid choir, | 9:04 | |
to the rich colors of the windows | 9:06 | |
and the architectural lines of this cathedral. | 9:08 | |
On more fortunate Sundays than this, | 9:12 | |
we listened to stimulating sermons | 9:14 | |
which may inspire us to some lively discussion | 9:16 | |
of the lunch table. | 9:19 | |
One of the symptoms of the so-called revival of religion | 9:21 | |
is the theological discussions have become fashionable | 9:25 | |
and intellectuals can prove their broad mindedness | 9:29 | |
by arguing Tillich or Bolt mon or post-Christian man. | 9:32 | |
But what proportion of this congregation | 9:40 | |
takes any part in the religious life of the campus | 9:42 | |
during the week? | 9:45 | |
What proportion of faithful church goers | 9:47 | |
assumes any responsibility | 9:50 | |
for the educational program, | 9:52 | |
for the social service, | 9:54 | |
for the missionary outreach | 9:56 | |
or even the choir music of the local church? | 9:58 | |
A radio announcer just this week | 10:02 | |
told us a story of a small town preacher, | 10:04 | |
who went faithfully every afternoon to the station | 10:07 | |
to watch the daily train go by. | 10:10 | |
When his church officials protested against | 10:14 | |
this somewhat juvenile hobby, he explained, | 10:16 | |
"I am not going to give up watching that train. | 10:20 | |
"I preach your sermons and teach your Sunday school classes | 10:24 | |
"I conduct your mission studies | 10:27 | |
"and address your civic clubs. | 10:28 | |
"I baptize your children and bury your dead. | 10:30 | |
"I organize your charity bizarres | 10:33 | |
"and direct your community chest drives. | 10:36 | |
"That train is the one thing that moves in this town | 10:39 | |
"that I don't have to push." | 10:43 | |
In a statement of purpose issued in 1932 | 10:52 | |
the World Student Christian Federation | 10:55 | |
whose particular concerns and program | 10:57 | |
we observe today | 11:00 | |
declared "The primary aim of the Federation | 11:02 | |
"has always been to lead students | 11:05 | |
"to a personal Christian faith. | 11:08 | |
"At the same time it seeks to lead them to realize | 11:11 | |
"that the Christian life involves sharing | 11:13 | |
"in the communion and the fellowship of the church." | 11:16 | |
In other words, it moves from faith to commitment. | 11:21 | |
The very word commitment goes far beyond mirror adherence | 11:27 | |
to an intellectual belief or a dogmatic creed. | 11:30 | |
Webster's dictionary defines it | 11:34 | |
as the act of doing or performing something, | 11:36 | |
a promise or a pledge to do something. | 11:40 | |
Christian commitment then means doing the truth | 11:44 | |
as it has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. | 11:48 | |
That truth and the incentive to do it come for the Christian | 11:53 | |
from communion with God. | 11:58 | |
What seems unfathomable I fathom | 12:01 | |
what is unutterable I can utter | 12:04 | |
because I can pray, | 12:06 | |
I can communicate. | 12:09 | |
Hundreds of student congregations in many lands today, | 12:13 | |
services of worship are built around the text | 12:17 | |
selected by the World Student Christian Federation. | 12:20 | |
Continue steadfastly in prayer, | 12:24 | |
being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. | 12:27 | |
The chaplain Wilkinson called me about this theme | 12:33 | |
and read that verse over the telephone. | 12:35 | |
I told him it was the perfect outline | 12:38 | |
for a three point sermon, which I would forego this morning. | 12:40 | |
Let me simply sketch it in a few sentences instead. | 12:45 | |
First, continue steadfastly in prayer. | 12:49 | |
Continue, here is no casual invitation to a new practice. | 12:54 | |
Paul assumed that prayer was an indispensable attribute | 13:00 | |
of Christian living. | 13:04 | |
He could not even imagine a situation | 13:06 | |
so familiar to us | 13:09 | |
where Christians pray only occasionally | 13:11 | |
on special days or in time of emergency. | 13:14 | |
This was no caricature like that of the | 13:18 | |
sea captain summons. | 13:21 | |
The ship is sinking, all hope is lost. | 13:23 | |
Call all hands to prayer. | 13:26 | |
Nor was this the mood in which Tom Dooley | 13:30 | |
plumb the depths of divine communion. | 13:32 | |
Continue steadfastly, firmly, faithfully, regularly, | 13:37 | |
even though there may be long periods | 13:45 | |
from that effort seems unrewarding, | 13:47 | |
when the lines of communication seems to be down, | 13:50 | |
Jesus spoke more than once of the effectiveness | 13:53 | |
of perseverance in prayer. | 13:57 | |
Second, being watchful in it, | 14:01 | |
not drowsy, not preoccupied, | 14:05 | |
not too tired to do anything else | 14:08 | |
so that you rattle off a Pater Noster | 14:10 | |
before you fall asleep. | 14:12 | |
The main reason for being watchful in prayer | 14:16 | |
is that this is a two way transmission. | 14:18 | |
God waits to speak to you, | 14:21 | |
and you will not hear his voice | 14:24 | |
unless your mind and heart and soul | 14:26 | |
are spiritually alert and morally attuned. | 14:31 | |
Tom Dooley did not possess the unpossesable | 14:36 | |
in a coma of pain or resignation. | 14:39 | |
At the end of the letter he wrote, | 14:43 | |
"Though I lack a certain buoyancy in my bones just now | 14:45 | |
"I lacked none in my spirit." | 14:49 | |
Watchful in prayer, | 14:53 | |
buoyant in spirit, | 14:56 | |
then and then only a wilder storm of peace | 14:59 | |
gathers in my heart. | 15:04 | |
Third, with Thanksgiving, | 15:08 | |
not with confession though that is an essential prerequisite | 15:10 | |
for meaningful prayer. | 15:14 | |
Not only with petition, | 15:16 | |
though that is a priceless privilege | 15:19 | |
accorded to those who come into the presence of God. | 15:20 | |
Paul says with Thanksgiving, | 15:24 | |
with bountiful awareness of all that we have received | 15:28 | |
that God hands. | 15:31 | |
This is in the Bible especially in St. Paul's writings, | 15:34 | |
the motivation and the incentive | 15:38 | |
for all obedience, | 15:40 | |
for all moral action. | 15:42 | |
We use a faulty mechanical metaphor, | 15:46 | |
"Gratitude is the high test gasoline | 15:49 | |
"that cleans the carbon of greed and selfishness | 15:52 | |
"from the engine of prayer." | 15:56 | |
Paul does more than admonishes friends | 16:00 | |
in the techniques of prayer, | 16:02 | |
he asks for it himself. | 16:05 | |
Pray for us also | 16:08 | |
that God may open to us a door for the word | 16:10 | |
to declare the mystery of Christ | 16:14 | |
that I may make it clear as I ought to speak. | 16:17 | |
Pray for all those in every land | 16:22 | |
who are witnesses to Christ's love, | 16:24 | |
of the word of God which they transmit | 16:27 | |
may be clear and true. | 16:30 | |
For the National Student Christian Federation | 16:34 | |
in 77 countries and for the world movement | 16:37 | |
which binds them together. | 16:40 | |
For exchange students, | 16:44 | |
seeking to bridge the chasms of race and culture | 16:45 | |
in the spirit of love. | 16:49 | |
For men and women in the armed forces | 16:52 | |
caught in moral tensions that strain the firmest fate. | 16:54 | |
For young people cut off from the rest of the world | 17:01 | |
by iron or bamboo curtains | 17:03 | |
yet eager to communicate with their contemporaries | 17:06 | |
through every available channel. | 17:09 | |
For those on this and every campus | 17:13 | |
who sincerely search for God's purpose | 17:15 | |
in their daily choices | 17:20 | |
and in their lives commitment. | 17:22 | |
Sometimes the open door is clear but difficult, | 17:26 | |
in another familiar passage Paul declared | 17:32 | |
"A wide door for effective work has opened to me, | 17:35 | |
"and there are many adversaries." | 17:39 | |
Recently a church publication reported that | 17:43 | |
most of the Methodists of the University Of Georgia | 17:46 | |
stayed away from the student demonstrations, | 17:49 | |
but that 88% of them signed a petition | 17:53 | |
asking the state legislature | 17:56 | |
to keep the school open. | 17:58 | |
How many of these were spectators, not citizens? | 18:01 | |
But the president of the campus Methodist Student Movement | 18:06 | |
asserted that segregation is dead | 18:09 | |
and is wrong. | 18:12 | |
The vice-president guarded Ms. Hunter | 18:15 | |
on some of her tormented journeys. | 18:18 | |
And the group as a whole issued a statement which said, | 18:20 | |
"Our faith demands that we protest actively, | 18:24 | |
"all that would lead to violence, lawlessness, | 18:28 | |
"or even lack of courtesy. | 18:31 | |
"It demands too that | 18:34 | |
"if we are to have a Christian fellowship, | 18:35 | |
"we must say that our group is open | 18:38 | |
"to all students of the university." | 18:41 | |
Sometimes our ideals are strong | 18:46 | |
but our wills are woefully weak. | 18:49 | |
A few nights ago an international group | 18:52 | |
discussed the evils of prejudice | 18:55 | |
and the struggles for social justice. | 18:57 | |
All were opposed to segregation. | 19:00 | |
Yet it turned out that over half of those present | 19:03 | |
had attended a movie in Durham | 19:06 | |
since they picketing for equal treatment begun. | 19:08 | |
This is not the question whether picketing or sittings | 19:13 | |
are legal and moral instruments | 19:16 | |
for Christian Justice and brotherhood. | 19:18 | |
I believe that they are. | 19:21 | |
But the tragic point was | 19:24 | |
that so many of us are unwilling to sacrifice | 19:25 | |
even a popular movie, for ethical principles, | 19:28 | |
which we most strongly affirm. | 19:32 | |
For our fellow students in Russia or South Africa or China, | 19:37 | |
we can perform less tangible service. | 19:43 | |
So we could say much more than we do about foreign trade, | 19:46 | |
the Connolly amendment, the world rule of law | 19:50 | |
as the National Student Christian Federation put it, | 19:55 | |
"Prayer remains the only means | 19:58 | |
"for us to express our concern for some students, | 20:00 | |
"not only internationally, | 20:04 | |
"but also on the very campuses we inhabit. | 20:06 | |
"The day of prayer for students | 20:10 | |
"is a day of prayer for all students | 20:12 | |
"everywhere in the world." | 20:16 | |
There are men and women in our midst | 20:20 | |
who are far from home | 20:23 | |
facing loneliness, insecurity | 20:25 | |
and all the problems of adjustment to a strange society. | 20:28 | |
There are students whose choice of friends | 20:34 | |
as represented in today's fraternity pledges | 20:38 | |
may determine for good or ill, | 20:41 | |
the vocational and moral | 20:45 | |
and spiritual direction of their entire lives. | 20:48 | |
These two need remembrance on this day of prayer | 20:52 | |
for all students everywhere. | 20:57 | |
Some of you will be saying at this point, | 21:02 | |
"Haha, he's urged responsible citizenship | 21:03 | |
"and now he's taking refuge in passive prayer." | 21:07 | |
Let me reemphasize to earlier position. | 21:11 | |
First responsibility, | 21:15 | |
need not always be equated with physical activism. | 21:17 | |
I would say that those who really do | 21:22 | |
continue steadfastly in prayer, | 21:25 | |
for this university, for the world church, | 21:28 | |
for the fellowship of Christian students around the globe | 21:32 | |
are more committed, more involved, | 21:35 | |
more responsible than many | 21:39 | |
who bustle about their manifold busy-ness. | 21:40 | |
But second, prayer has never been defined | 21:45 | |
here or elsewhere as passive. | 21:48 | |
Those who continue steadfastly | 21:52 | |
being watchful in it with Thanksgiving | 21:54 | |
will not be allowed by God himself to stop there. | 21:58 | |
He will open doors for the word. | 22:03 | |
He may call you to picket lines | 22:08 | |
or to appease cops | 22:11 | |
or to distant frontiers of the church. | 22:13 | |
That's the call for this day of prayer says | 22:17 | |
the knowledge that Christ intercedes with us and for us | 22:20 | |
leads us to prayer, which includes, | 22:24 | |
thought, speech and action. | 22:29 | |
Those who like Tom Dooley have learned to work and to pray | 22:35 | |
with others and for others | 22:40 | |
will learn the power of prayer for themselves as well. | 22:43 | |
When the wind blows inside and outside | 22:48 | |
then nothing human or earthly can touch me. | 22:51 | |
A Wilder storm of peace gathers in my heart. | 22:54 | |
What seems unpossesable I can possess, | 22:59 | |
what seems unfathomable I fathom, | 23:03 | |
what is unutterable I can utter, | 23:07 | |
because I can pray, | 23:10 | |
I can communicate. | 23:13 | |
The World Student Christian Federation | 23:16 | |
is a fellowship of young people | 23:18 | |
without barriers of race or class or a nation | 23:21 | |
who know that they can communicate, | 23:25 | |
who know with whom they can communicate | 23:29 | |
and who are seeking to learn better | 23:33 | |
how to communicate. | 23:36 | |
Will you join your prayers with theirs. | 23:39 | |
(congregation clapping) | 23:44 | |
Announcer | Dr. Clayton Lacey | 23:53 |
has just given us a tremendous talk | 23:54 | |
on the wild storms and peace in February the 19th 1961 | 23:56 | |
at Duke University chapel. | 24:01 | |
We are sorry all could have missed it | 24:02 | |
but it will be tape-recorded and mimeographed up | 24:04 | |
then put in the library and various spots on campus | 24:07 | |
for you all to notice. | 24:10 | |
I like take it back to studio | 24:12 | |
this week we have a special guest appearance with | 24:14 | |
Howard McMillan who was brother of | 24:17 | |
the prime minister of England | 24:19 | |
who's going to speak on South African affairs | 24:21 | |
and relate particularly to Guinea | 24:23 | |
as it is involved in the UN general assembly. | 24:25 | |
Duke University thank you and good evening. | 24:29 |
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