Rosemary Ruether - "Religion as Sacred Canopy or Prophetic Hope?" (September 26, 1982)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(regal organ music) | 0:09 | |
(regal organ music continues) | 1:30 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 1:57 | |
(dramatic organ music continues) | 2:40 | |
(lively organ music) | 2:57 | |
(lively organ music continues) | 6:20 | |
♪ Defend the glory of God ♪ | 7:06 | |
♪ Defend the glory of God ♪ | 7:15 | |
♪ Defend the glory of God ♪ | 7:24 | |
♪ Praise His name ♪ | 7:33 | |
♪ Praise His name ♪ | 7:40 | |
(regal organ music) | 7:48 | |
(regal organ music continues) | 8:26 | |
(choir indistinctly singing) | ||
(choir indistinctly singing) | 10:30 | |
Pastor | In the name of the Lord, our God, creator, | 11:59 |
redeemer and sustainer. | 12:02 | |
We come together as the church of Jesus Christ, | 12:06 | |
recognizing that Christ lived | 12:13 | |
and died not only for the church, but for the world, | 12:14 | |
and for every person in this world. | 12:22 | |
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, | 12:26 | |
that whoever believes in him should not perish | 12:29 | |
but have eternal life. | 12:31 | |
For God's most precious, precious gift, | 12:35 | |
we do give thanks and praise. | 12:38 | |
Thus to be open and to God, | 12:41 | |
we must be honest with ourselves. | 12:45 | |
No matter how painful or distasteful this may be, | 12:47 | |
we have indeed missed the mark of our calling | 12:52 | |
in Christ Jesus. | 12:55 | |
Therefore, my friends, I invite you to confess your sin | 12:57 | |
as we offer to God this prayer of confession. | 13:02 | |
Be seated please. | 13:05 | |
Let us pray. | 13:09 | |
Oh Lord, holy and righteous God, | 13:13 | |
we acknowledge before you that we do not fear you | 13:17 | |
and that we do not love you above all things, | 13:20 | |
we do not delight in prayer, | 13:25 | |
nor take pleasure in your word. | 13:28 | |
We do not really love our neighbor. | 13:31 | |
We lack the conscience | 13:34 | |
that should accompany our Christian profession. | 13:36 | |
Our hearts are divided, | 13:40 | |
crossed by doubts and guilty desires. | 13:42 | |
We accuse ourselves before you, oh God, | 13:46 | |
we implore you whose nature and whose name is love | 13:50 | |
to forgive us and in forgiving to heal us so | 13:55 | |
that in our lives something will finally be changed. | 14:01 | |
Amen. | 14:06 | |
Let us hear these words of assurance. | 14:39 | |
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. | 14:43 | |
God's mercies never come to an end. | 14:48 | |
They are new every morning. | 14:52 | |
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, | 14:57 | |
to those who constantly seek him. | 14:58 | |
It is good that one should wait quietly | 15:04 | |
for the salvation of our Lord. | 15:06 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, | 15:11 | |
I declare our sins are forgiven for his sake. | 15:13 | |
Amen. | 15:18 | |
In the light of this forgiveness, let us give thanks. | 15:22 | |
For God is good and God's love is everlasting. | 15:25 | |
Thanks be to God whose love creates us. | 15:30 | |
Thanks be to God whose mercy redeems us. | 15:34 | |
Thanks be to God whose grace leads us into the future. | 15:39 | |
Amen. | 15:44 | |
May I welcome you to this service | 15:46 | |
of worship this morning in spite of the cloudiness | 15:49 | |
and the dreariness and the rain outside | 15:52 | |
which we so badly need, | 15:54 | |
it is good to gather in this place | 15:56 | |
to worship the Lord our God | 15:59 | |
and to have fellowship with one another. | 16:01 | |
May God spirit speak to you in some very special way, | 16:03 | |
during this time when we come together in the name | 16:07 | |
of our Lord, let me mention just a couple of things please. | 16:10 | |
There is someone here | 16:14 | |
who might have a little difficulty | 16:15 | |
if I do not make this announcement. | 16:17 | |
There's a yellow Toyota parked behind the Divinity School | 16:19 | |
with lights on. | 16:24 | |
I'm sure you wouldn't want to try | 16:25 | |
to start a dead battery in the rain after the service, | 16:27 | |
so you may wish to leave | 16:31 | |
and check that the license number is YVM 786. | 16:33 | |
A yellow Toyota parked behind the divinity school, | 16:37 | |
next Sunday morning at 9:45. | 16:43 | |
Those of you who are interested in helping us | 16:46 | |
to begin a church school program connected | 16:48 | |
with the chapel are invited | 16:51 | |
to meet in the conference room downstairs | 16:52 | |
to do some planning for such a program, | 16:55 | |
9:45 next Sunday morning. | 16:59 | |
Included in the bulletin this morning | 17:03 | |
is a leaflet describing the Billy Graham series | 17:06 | |
of evangelistic lectures, | 17:10 | |
which will begin tomorrow evening at eight o'clock | 17:13 | |
in Carmichael Auditorium in Chapel Hill. | 17:17 | |
I have been asked to tell you | 17:21 | |
that students do not need a ticket to get in. | 17:22 | |
Special seating has been reserved for students | 17:27 | |
both at Carolina and here at Duke. | 17:31 | |
So if you are a student, | 17:34 | |
no ticket is needed for others of us. | 17:35 | |
Tickets are needed, | 17:38 | |
but these lectures will begin tomorrow evening | 17:40 | |
at eight o'clock and continue each evening | 17:43 | |
through Friday evening. | 17:46 | |
I encourage you to come to go | 17:47 | |
and to share in these services for your enrichment | 17:49 | |
and our enlightenment along the way of our faith. | 17:53 | |
Martha Hall, a junior here at Duke was injured | 17:58 | |
in an accident Friday afternoon | 18:03 | |
when she was riding her bike and hit by a car. | 18:05 | |
She is in room 3321 Duke North. | 18:09 | |
She had surgery Friday evening. | 18:14 | |
I saw her yesterday morning after the surgery | 18:16 | |
and things seemed to be going quite well for her, | 18:18 | |
but if you are a friend for her, | 18:21 | |
a friend of hers | 18:23 | |
or if you would like just to write her a note | 18:25 | |
to express your love and concern, | 18:26 | |
I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear from you. | 18:28 | |
She sings in the chapel choir and is a junior here | 18:30 | |
and would be delighted to hear from you | 18:34 | |
and to know of our love. | 18:36 | |
Dr. Rosemary Ruther is our guest preacher this morning. | 18:39 | |
She currently serves as the Georgia Harkness professor | 18:43 | |
of Applied Theology | 18:46 | |
at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, | 18:47 | |
Illinois. | 18:51 | |
She is a prominent theologian, teacher, | 18:54 | |
lecturer and preacher, well known not only in this country | 18:58 | |
but around the world. | 19:02 | |
She's a member of the Roman Catholic Church | 19:04 | |
but is widely known | 19:07 | |
and deeply admired for her concern for ecumenism | 19:09 | |
and for her work in the church of Jesus Christ at large. | 19:14 | |
She has pioneered and has written some landmark works | 19:21 | |
in the field of feminist theology, | 19:25 | |
enlightening and helpful to us all. | 19:28 | |
She has been to Duke before, | 19:32 | |
but this is the first occasion | 19:34 | |
when we have had the privilege of having her preach | 19:36 | |
for us service of worship here in the chapel. | 19:38 | |
Dr. Ruther, we're pleased to have you and look forward | 19:41 | |
to the word of God which you bring to us today. | 19:44 | |
Thank you. | 19:47 | |
Preacher | Let us pray. | 19:55 |
Oh God, who according to the promise of Jesus Christ, | 19:57 | |
your son did send the spirit of truth to your people. | 20:00 | |
Grant that the spirit may teach us all things, | 20:05 | |
guide us into all truth. | 20:09 | |
Open to us the scriptures and take the ways of Christ | 20:12 | |
and show them to us for your namesake. | 20:17 | |
Amen. | 20:22 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from Amos, | 20:24 | |
chapter eight verses four through 12. | 20:27 | |
Hear this you who trample upon the needy | 20:31 | |
and bring the poor of the land to an end saying, | 20:35 | |
when will the new moon be over that we may sell grain | 20:39 | |
and the Sabbath that we may offer wheat for sale, | 20:43 | |
that we may take the ethos small and the shekel grate | 20:48 | |
and deal deceitfully with false balances | 20:53 | |
that we may buy the poor for silver | 20:57 | |
and the needy for a pair of sandals | 21:00 | |
and sell the refuse of the wheat. | 21:03 | |
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. | 21:06 | |
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. | 21:10 | |
Shall not the land tremble on this account | 21:13 | |
and everyone mourn who dwells in it | 21:17 | |
and all of it rise like the Nile and be tossed about | 21:20 | |
and sink again like the Nile of Egypt | 21:24 | |
and on that day says the Lord God, | 21:28 | |
I will make the sun go down at noon | 21:31 | |
and darken the earth in broad daylight. | 21:34 | |
I will turn your feasts into mourning | 21:38 | |
and all your songs into lamentation. | 21:40 | |
I will bring sat cloth upon all loins | 21:44 | |
and baldness on every head. | 21:47 | |
I will make it like the morning for an only sun. | 21:50 | |
In the end of it like a bitter day, | 21:53 | |
behold the days are coming, | 21:57 | |
says the Lord God when I will send a famine on the land, | 21:59 | |
not a famine of bread, not a thirst for water, | 22:02 | |
but of hearing the words of the Lord. | 22:08 | |
They shall wander from sea to sea | 22:11 | |
and from north to east they shall run to and fro | 22:14 | |
to seek the word of the Lord but they shall not find it. | 22:18 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 22:23 | |
Amen. | 22:27 | |
(organ music) | 22:35 | |
(choir sings) | ||
Will the congregation please stand for the reading | 26:42 | |
of the gospel lesson? | 26:44 | |
The gospel lesson is from Luke, | 26:50 | |
chapter six verses 20 to 31 | 26:53 | |
and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, | 26:59 | |
blessed are you poor. | 27:03 | |
For yours is the kingdom of God. | 27:05 | |
Blessed are you that hunger now for you shall be satisfied. | 27:09 | |
Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh. | 27:15 | |
Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you | 27:20 | |
and revile you | 27:24 | |
and cast out your name as evil on account of the son of man, | 27:25 | |
rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold. | 27:32 | |
Your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did | 27:35 | |
to the prophets, | 27:40 | |
but woe to you that are rich | 27:43 | |
for you have received your consolation. | 27:45 | |
Woe to you that are full now for you shall hunger, | 27:49 | |
woe to you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep, | 27:55 | |
Woe to you when all men speak well of you | 27:59 | |
for so their fathers did to the false prophets. | 28:02 | |
But I say to you that here, love your enemies. | 28:07 | |
Do good to those who hate you. | 28:11 | |
Bless those who curse you. | 28:14 | |
Pray for those who abuse you to him | 28:17 | |
who strikes you on the cheek, | 28:21 | |
offer the other also | 28:23 | |
and from him who takes away your coat. | 28:25 | |
Do not withhold even your shirt. | 28:28 | |
Give to everyone who begs from you | 28:31 | |
and of him who takes away your goods. | 28:34 | |
Do not ask them again | 28:37 | |
and as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. | 28:39 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. | 28:46 | |
Amen. | 28:49 | |
(organ music) | 28:51 | |
Preacher 2 | Good morning on this fine and rainy morning, | 30:06 |
although for us from Chicago, | 30:11 | |
everything a little bit south seems like springtime. | 30:13 | |
I would like to talk on what I think is a very serious issue | 30:19 | |
for us today and that is the very deep | 30:24 | |
and different views of Christianity | 30:30 | |
held within the Christian community. | 30:36 | |
In one sense you might say that Christian unity seems | 30:44 | |
to be the wave of the future. | 30:48 | |
Ecumenism is again in the news. | 30:53 | |
Three different groups of Lutherans are getting together | 30:56 | |
and the new Lutheran church | 31:03 | |
and the Episcopalians are establishing intercommunion. | 31:05 | |
In one sense, | 31:09 | |
it seems as though historical divisions based on ethnicity, | 31:11 | |
polity and theology are breaking down. | 31:15 | |
Is Christian unity the wave of the future? | 31:23 | |
Unfortunately, | 31:28 | |
it seems that these old divisions are fading only | 31:29 | |
to give way to different divisions. | 31:33 | |
You might say the arena of the divisions between Christians | 31:38 | |
is shifting not so much divisions | 31:44 | |
between denominations of the traditional kind, | 31:48 | |
but instead divisions within denominations. | 31:53 | |
While there are some denominations that might be described | 32:02 | |
as predominantly liberal | 32:07 | |
and others predominantly conservative, | 32:08 | |
most of the mainstream churches of Western Christianity, | 32:12 | |
Protestant and today also Roman Catholic, | 32:17 | |
are in fact deeply divided within their own families. | 32:23 | |
A new kind of socioeconomic, ecumenism we might call it, | 32:31 | |
I suppose, is forming around these internal divisions. | 32:37 | |
The anti-war and social justice. | 32:46 | |
Catholics and Protestants line up together | 32:49 | |
and find they have a great deal in common, | 32:53 | |
but also the anti-choice, | 32:57 | |
the anti ERA and the pro-public school prayer. | 32:59 | |
Protestants and Catholics line up on the other side | 33:06 | |
and I would have to say quite candidly | 33:11 | |
that sometimes the hostility | 33:15 | |
between anti-choice and pro-choice Roman Catholics | 33:17 | |
or liberation theology and good news Methodist, | 33:22 | |
approaches the level of religious war. | 33:30 | |
What is the cause of these deep divisions | 33:38 | |
between Christians today? | 33:42 | |
It seems to me that the real division | 33:45 | |
between Christians today is caused in in fact | 33:47 | |
to a large extent by very great differences | 33:51 | |
about the social meaning of the gospel. | 33:55 | |
What surfaces in these divisions is a basic conflict | 34:03 | |
about the nature and role of religion in society. | 34:10 | |
Is religion primarily an agent of social conservation | 34:19 | |
or is it to be primarily, | 34:28 | |
an agent of social change of social justice? | 34:33 | |
This division is an ancient one going back in many ways | 34:39 | |
to the roots of biblical faith itself. | 34:44 | |
One could find within the Bible itself, | 34:48 | |
very deep differences about the social role of religion. | 34:52 | |
On the one hand, religion has perhaps always been seen | 34:59 | |
by politicians and probably by most ecclesiastics | 35:03 | |
as the instrument for conserving | 35:13 | |
and sanctifying the status quo. | 35:16 | |
The existing social order is seen as divinely ordained. | 35:21 | |
Israel or America is understood as God's elect people. | 35:29 | |
Its land is a promised land given to them | 35:40 | |
by God and its conflicts with other nations are holy wars, | 35:45 | |
holy wars of the righteous against the unrighteous. | 35:57 | |
From this perspective, the role of religion is | 36:02 | |
to provide the divine sanction, | 36:05 | |
what I call the divine canopy for national goodness | 36:09 | |
and destiny to bless the leaders | 36:16 | |
of the social institutions from government to family | 36:20 | |
in their appointed roles | 36:27 | |
and of course to reconcile the subjects of their rule | 36:31 | |
to obedience, to constituted authority. | 36:37 | |
In America, this politicization of religion on the side | 36:43 | |
of the status quo | 36:49 | |
has been promulgated in a particularly confusing way | 36:55 | |
because those who see religion primarily as the agent | 37:00 | |
of social conservation, | 37:05 | |
as the sanctification of the traditional social order, | 37:08 | |
claimed to be unpolitical | 37:15 | |
and to understand religion as purely spiritual, | 37:18 | |
whereas those who understand religion as an agent | 37:25 | |
of social justice are condemned as political. | 37:28 | |
In fact, what we have is not spiritual versus political, | 37:33 | |
but two different religious politics. | 37:39 | |
This view of religion as sacred canopy blessing, | 37:47 | |
the established order is in fact very deep | 37:50 | |
in our American theological tradition. | 37:54 | |
In Puritan theology. | 37:59 | |
While the equality of all persons in Christ was affirmed, | 38:03 | |
the social hierarchy of male over female, | 38:07 | |
ruler over subjects and masters over servants | 38:11 | |
was regarded as the divinely ordained order of creation | 38:19 | |
to rebel against one's place | 38:26 | |
in the social order is to rebel against God. | 38:29 | |
In the late 16th century, | 38:37 | |
a leading puritan divine by the name of William Perkins, | 38:40 | |
wrote two treatises among others. | 38:45 | |
One of these treatises was entitled on Domestical Economy | 38:49 | |
and the other was titled On the Damned Art of Witchcraft. | 38:55 | |
In the first treatise, | 39:04 | |
he sought to set up the traditional relationships | 39:06 | |
between men and women in the family, the man as the head, | 39:10 | |
the woman, | 39:14 | |
as the help meet, and to reconcile of course women | 39:15 | |
to their appointed role in the family. | 39:19 | |
But in the second he opined that women | 39:22 | |
in fact have a natural tendency toward the demonic, | 39:26 | |
and this comes because they are discontent | 39:33 | |
with their subordination in the family and in society. | 39:36 | |
So we have a kind of funny duality here between his praise | 39:41 | |
of women in the first treatise | 39:45 | |
and his deep suspicion that in fact they | 39:48 | |
are not very reconciled with their position in society, | 39:51 | |
which we find in the second. | 39:58 | |
In the heresy and witchcraft trials | 40:03 | |
that proliferated in Massachusetts between 1638 | 40:06 | |
and 170o had only to show | 40:12 | |
that a woman had been insubordinate to her husband | 40:16 | |
or perhaps to the ministers | 40:19 | |
or to the governors to clinch the case against her | 40:21 | |
to be insubordinate was in fact to rebel against God. | 40:26 | |
Certainly Roman Catholics also | 40:34 | |
have seen the Catholic established order as a reflection | 40:37 | |
of the divine will, | 40:43 | |
not only the subordination of women to men but kings to, | 40:47 | |
but the subordination of subjects to kings, | 40:52 | |
surfs to nobility, slaves to masters. | 40:57 | |
All this was seen as the divinely ordained order | 40:59 | |
of creation. | 41:03 | |
Christians today tend to forget that mainstream Protestants | 41:07 | |
and Catholics alike drawing on the Augustinian tradition | 41:12 | |
continue to justify slavery. | 41:18 | |
Until well into the 19th century. | 41:22 | |
A hierarchical model of the church was closely connected | 41:28 | |
with a hierarchical model of society. | 41:35 | |
Now, in contrast to this view of religion as sacred canopy, | 41:42 | |
as the the blessing of the established order, | 41:46 | |
there is deeply rooted in scripture | 41:52 | |
and alternative perspective | 41:56 | |
in the prophets and in Jesus particularly, | 42:00 | |
religion is often seen as socially unsettling, | 42:06 | |
and even a subversive power. | 42:11 | |
God is seen as judging the rich | 42:18 | |
and the powerful for their unjustice | 42:20 | |
and vindicating the poor and the oppressed. | 42:27 | |
The word of God confronts the established order | 42:33 | |
and its leaders as contrary to God's will | 42:36 | |
at an it envisions a new society | 42:43 | |
and alternative order that will arise | 42:45 | |
after a divine revolution in history, | 42:52 | |
a time when all creatures will be in peace | 42:55 | |
and harmony with each other. | 42:58 | |
The prophets in Jesus confront the rulers | 43:04 | |
and the religious authorities as hypocrites | 43:07 | |
who use religion to sanctify injustice | 43:15 | |
and to deprive the poor of hope. | 43:21 | |
In the words of the magnifica, the Prayer of Mary, | 43:27 | |
at the beginning of the gospel of Luke, | 43:32 | |
it says that Christ will come | 43:37 | |
to put the mighty down from their thrones | 43:40 | |
and raise up the humble. | 43:45 | |
There is not only a social criticism, | 43:53 | |
there is indeed a criticism of religion | 43:55 | |
that you find in the prophets | 43:58 | |
and very centrally in the gospels. | 44:00 | |
The prophets in Jesus are in confrontation | 44:04 | |
with the established religious order. | 44:09 | |
The religious cult itself is seen as abhorrent to God | 44:16 | |
when it is carried out in a purely cultic way, | 44:20 | |
in a way that ignores God's agenda of justice. | 44:26 | |
In the words of the prophet Amos, | 44:35 | |
words that were favorite texts from Martin Luther King, | 44:42 | |
that Great preacher of prophetic hope | 44:45 | |
in the American context, it is said, I hate, | 44:51 | |
I despise your solemn assemblies. | 44:56 | |
I take no delight in your feasts. | 44:59 | |
Take away from me the noise of your hymns to the melody | 45:04 | |
of your harps. | 45:07 | |
I will not listen, but let justice roll down like waters | 45:09 | |
and righteousness like a mighty stream. | 45:17 | |
Prophetic faith and creates a radical transformation, | 45:25 | |
a radical transformation in the relationship | 45:30 | |
between religion and politics. | 45:33 | |
Prophetic religion does not allow for the sacralization | 45:37 | |
of the present political order | 45:42 | |
of the the present social structure, | 45:44 | |
but on the other hand, it does not allow for a private | 45:48 | |
and other worldly escape from history. | 45:51 | |
Instead, the prophets have taken the old visions | 45:59 | |
of an ideal social order, even the ideal of a righteous king | 46:05 | |
and transformed it into a critical ideal. | 46:12 | |
A critical ideal by which the present social order | 46:19 | |
is judged. | 46:25 | |
Future hope you might say becomes a measuring rod | 46:31 | |
by which the present system is held up to the test. | 46:33 | |
It's hypocrisies and injustices sternly revealed, | 46:39 | |
but at the same time, the ideal is a demand. | 46:47 | |
It is a mandate upon the present social order | 46:50 | |
to live up to this ideal as God's calling, | 46:56 | |
God's commandment, | 47:01 | |
And so the ideal becomes a revolutionary force | 47:06 | |
commanding transformation of the present social order | 47:10 | |
in the direction of peace and justice. | 47:17 | |
This concept of the kingdom of God as a revolutionary ideal | 47:29 | |
is maintained in the preaching of Jesus. | 47:35 | |
In his inaugural sermon at the outset of his ministry, | 47:41 | |
Jesus announces his mission as indeed the fulfillment | 47:45 | |
of the prophetic vision. | 47:50 | |
Opening the book of Isaiah in his home synagogue | 47:54 | |
in Nazareth, Jesus announces the spirit of the Lord | 47:58 | |
is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news | 48:05 | |
to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, | 48:12 | |
the recovering of sight to the blind, | 48:18 | |
to set at liberty those who are oppressed. | 48:22 | |
However, once Christianity became the official religion | 48:33 | |
of a Christian Roman empire, | 48:38 | |
prophetic theology tended to fade, you might say, | 48:42 | |
from the mainstream of the church, | 48:46 | |
often surviving among marginal groups. | 48:51 | |
Groups indeed often persecuted by the main. | 48:57 |
- | Dream of the church. | 0:04 |
Only with the disintegration of Christendom. | 0:09 | |
That is the alliance of church and state. | 0:12 | |
In the late 18th and 19th century, | 0:15 | |
the establishment of secular societies | 0:17 | |
did it again become possible for some people | 0:22 | |
to see prophetic theology as the true gospel. | 0:26 | |
And this we have to say, | 0:33 | |
came about through an indirect route. | 0:34 | |
As Christendom disintegrated in Europe, | 0:40 | |
secular social movements began to recover the vision | 0:45 | |
of a transformed human society that would overthrow | 0:49 | |
the old social order of class domination, | 0:54 | |
create a new social order of liberty, | 0:59 | |
and economic justice. | 1:03 | |
These secular revolutionaries | 1:07 | |
including many of our own founding fathers, | 1:10 | |
identified these ideals with rationalist philosophy. | 1:15 | |
They were often critical of the churches, | 1:21 | |
and suspected that religion was primarily a tool | 1:26 | |
for justifying an unjust social order, | 1:31 | |
an unjust order of clerical and aristocratic rule. | 1:36 | |
So often the new visions of social justice were identified | 1:43 | |
with an attack on religion, | 1:48 | |
or with, you might say, irreligion. | 1:55 | |
And this made it doubly difficult for the church | 1:58 | |
to recognize its own message in these social ideals. | 2:03 | |
But some Christians were able to see through this criticism | 2:12 | |
and to recognize that indeed it was a valid criticism. | 2:17 | |
A valid criticism of a false identification of Christianity. | 2:22 | |
with feudalism, with a particular social order. | 2:31 | |
They began to bring together the liberal | 2:38 | |
and social ideals of these secular movements | 2:40 | |
with their original biblical roots in Messianic hope. | 2:47 | |
Catholic liberals such as Dominic, | 2:56 | |
or Christian socialists like F.D. Maurice, | 2:59 | |
as far back as the 1830s and forties began to proclaim | 3:03 | |
that the ideals of political liberty and social justice | 3:08 | |
were in fact the true message of the gospel. | 3:12 | |
This concept grew stronger in the late 19th century | 3:19 | |
in the social gospel movements, as they were often called. | 3:22 | |
That flourished in diverse movements in England, | 3:28 | |
and Germany, and in the United States. | 3:32 | |
However, this kind of perspective tended to be seen | 3:38 | |
as passe, as having been too optimistic. | 3:41 | |
In the 1930s, neo orthodoxy, anti-communism, | 3:46 | |
the rise of fascism, all these seemed to put a damper | 3:51 | |
on this earlier kind of Christian optimism. | 3:56 | |
It seemed as though the visions of social justice | 4:03 | |
had turned from a dream into a nightmare. | 4:07 | |
Christian thinkers began to be more concerned | 4:14 | |
to defend the remnants of Western Christendom | 4:17 | |
rather than to attack present society | 4:23 | |
and dream of new futures, Reinhold Niebuhr for example. | 4:26 | |
And so only in the 1960s | 4:35 | |
the rise of the civil rights movement, | 4:38 | |
the peace movements and so on, | 4:40 | |
did this idea of the gospel as a message of social justice | 4:43 | |
come back again to center stage | 4:48 | |
for at least some Christians. | 4:51 | |
And increasingly, this vision has become a powerful movement | 4:55 | |
among third world Christians, | 4:59 | |
who are often deeply challenging | 5:01 | |
the authenticity of Christianity | 5:05 | |
in the developed industrial world. | 5:09 | |
So I think we are again being challenged | 5:17 | |
by this vision of the gospel | 5:19 | |
as a hope for human liberation and justice. | 5:23 | |
You might say transforming the pietistic understanding | 5:30 | |
of relationship to God as a personal, | 5:34 | |
a purely private relationship of the self to God, | 5:37 | |
and instead understanding that we cannot be reconciled | 5:41 | |
with God by turning our backs on our fellow creatures. | 5:46 | |
Indeed, reconciliation with God | 5:53 | |
is expressed only in and through | 5:56 | |
reconciliation with our neighbors. | 6:00 | |
In the very pointed words of the epistle | 6:05 | |
of the first epistle of John, | 6:08 | |
"The one who says that they love God | 6:12 | |
and hate their neighbor is a liar. | 6:15 | |
For how can you love God who you have not seen | 6:18 | |
if you do not love your neighbor, who you have seen." | 6:23 | |
In other words, reconciliation with God | 6:28 | |
cannot be taken as a purely private act. | 6:32 | |
It is expressed, it exists, you might say, | 6:36 | |
only in and through | 6:39 | |
reconciliation with our neighbor, | 6:44 | |
with the whole relationships in which we exist in society. | 6:47 | |
I think we have to understand | 6:56 | |
reconciliation with the neighbor on many levels. | 6:58 | |
Indeed, we have to understand it on the interpersonal level | 7:03 | |
in just and mutual relations | 7:10 | |
with one's immediate associates. | 7:12 | |
And I would suggest that overcoming sexism | 7:16 | |
between men and women is an important aspect of this change, | 7:20 | |
this transformation from dominant subordinate relations | 7:25 | |
to relations of persons in mutuality. | 7:30 | |
But I would also suggest that loving and mutual relations | 7:37 | |
cannot in fact be realized on a purely interpersonal level, | 7:41 | |
because even the most intimate relations | 7:50 | |
are embedded in social and economic systems | 7:53 | |
which create dependency and exploitation. | 7:56 | |
We have to look at the structural connections between, | 8:02 | |
let's say, home and work, | 8:06 | |
which trap people in dehumanizing and partial humanities. | 8:09 | |
As we look at the socioeconomic system | 8:19 | |
that defines our neighborhoods, the city, the region, | 8:22 | |
the nation, one has to recognize these unjust relationships | 8:25 | |
of sex, of race, of social class. | 8:32 | |
Our societies are structured for the privilege | 8:38 | |
of a tiny minority. | 8:41 | |
A tiny minority of wealthy white people | 8:45 | |
over the majority of society. | 8:51 | |
How do we begin to envision a just social order | 8:56 | |
that distributes access to work | 9:01 | |
and the fruits of work more equally? | 9:04 | |
How do we begin to humanize our workplaces | 9:09 | |
so they allow fuller participation in decisions | 9:14 | |
by workers and harmonize the goals of production | 9:19 | |
with the common wheel of society? | 9:25 | |
These are questions which, | 9:33 | |
certainly some in our society want to sweep | 9:36 | |
under the rug entirely, | 9:40 | |
but I suggest it is precisely at this moment | 9:42 | |
that we must bring them back to center stage. | 9:45 | |
The question of just relations between men and women, | 9:51 | |
between races, between social classes | 9:55 | |
today have to be seen in an international context. | 9:59 | |
Our economic system is global, | 10:04 | |
even if our political systems are geared | 10:09 | |
to the nation state. | 10:13 | |
Increasingly multinational corporation disregard | 10:16 | |
not only the social welfare of third world nations, | 10:20 | |
where they exploit raw materials and labor, | 10:24 | |
but disregard the welfare even of their own home nations | 10:29 | |
from which they originate. | 10:35 | |
They think nothing of picking up a factory from Youngstown, | 10:38 | |
Ohio, let's say, | 10:42 | |
taking it to a third world nation | 10:44 | |
where they can find higher profits, cheaper labor, | 10:47 | |
and perhaps no pollution regulations. | 10:52 | |
In other words, with very little regard | 11:00 | |
for the people in either area. | 11:02 | |
So the question is how can we make | 11:07 | |
this global economic system accountable, | 11:09 | |
accountable to human values? | 11:16 | |
We have to look at the destructive costs | 11:21 | |
that mount up in the world as a result of a rapacious search | 11:24 | |
for wealth and power. | 11:28 | |
The escalation of the arms race is creating a globe | 11:32 | |
bristling with missiles and counter missiles | 11:36 | |
capable as we know of destroying every man, woman, | 11:39 | |
and child on the earth many times over. | 11:42 | |
The very earth, sky, and waters grow poisonous around us | 11:46 | |
as the rich seek profits | 11:52 | |
without regard for the harmony of the productive system | 11:55 | |
with either the social covenant | 12:00 | |
or the covenant of creation itself. | 12:04 | |
For the first time in human history, | 12:10 | |
humanity is faced with the specter | 12:14 | |
of a technological Armageddon. | 12:19 | |
And so the alternative to the development | 12:26 | |
of a just world order may be the failure | 12:29 | |
of human survival itself. | 12:33 | |
Now, I would suggest that the biblical vision | 12:40 | |
is very relevant to this crisis. | 12:42 | |
The Prophets, the apocalypse is | 12:48 | |
envision in fact such crisis. | 12:54 | |
I don't mean in some literal prediction, | 12:56 | |
but they recognize the extremities of this kind of crisis. | 12:58 | |
On the one hand, the burden of human sinfulness | 13:04 | |
breaks the covenant of creation, | 13:08 | |
weighs the earth down with pollution, | 13:10 | |
unleashes the four horsemen of pestilence and destruction. | 13:13 | |
But on the other hand, the conversion of humanity to God | 13:19 | |
means a conversion to each other, | 13:24 | |
a conversion to the earth. | 13:28 | |
This conversion means that we recognize | 13:34 | |
that the ultimate meaning of human existence | 13:36 | |
is indeed the solidarity of all creatures with each other. | 13:39 | |
None can prosper, none can survive, perhaps, | 13:47 | |
unless all are affirmed as brothers and sisters. | 13:50 | |
This vision is nothing less than the biblical vision | 14:01 | |
of God's shalom, God's peace. | 14:04 | |
The reign of peace and justice on earth | 14:08 | |
where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven | 14:10 | |
for which Jesus taught us to pray. | 14:15 | |
So what is the role of the Christian in all this? | 14:22 | |
Surely we should recognize this struggle for shalom, | 14:28 | |
for peace on earth. | 14:31 | |
Peace, by the way, shalom, always means peace with justice. | 14:34 | |
We should recognize this as nothing less | 14:39 | |
than the very mission for which the church itself exists. | 14:42 | |
And yet this moment of great danger | 14:49 | |
and great possibilities for humanity finds the church | 14:51 | |
deeply divided, suffering from its long history | 14:55 | |
of apostasy to its own vision and mission. | 15:00 | |
Today, as I said at the outset, | 15:06 | |
we see a growth of a Cubanism | 15:09 | |
between Christian denominations, | 15:11 | |
even between world religions, | 15:13 | |
and yet this Cubanism is only points up the great divisions | 15:17 | |
that exist within religious bodies. | 15:22 | |
The division between those who understand the gospel | 15:25 | |
as a message of social transformation, | 15:29 | |
and those who want to see it as only private piety, | 15:32 | |
and you might say at the same time a sacralizing | 15:36 | |
of the existing society, or perhaps a earlier society | 15:42 | |
that they would wish to restore. | 15:48 | |
So our religions are deeply divided | 15:53 | |
between those who use the tradition | 15:55 | |
in a critical and prophetic way, | 15:58 | |
and those who use it primarily to comfort the comfortable, | 16:00 | |
as it sometimes said. | 16:05 | |
And this I would suggest is the real division | 16:07 | |
in the church today. | 16:11 | |
And the outcome of this struggle within the church | 16:14 | |
will determine the relevancy of Christianity | 16:17 | |
to the present human crisis. | 16:23 | |
Will the church, as the secular radicals | 16:29 | |
of the 19th century believed, | 16:31 | |
be finely defined by its alliance | 16:34 | |
with the wealthy and the powerful, | 16:39 | |
or will it be defined by the vision of God's shalom, | 16:42 | |
the vision of Jesus and the prophets? | 16:48 | |
The question is really about the church's authentic mission | 16:52 | |
and purpose of existence. | 16:56 | |
Can the church become an authentic sign of its own mission? | 17:01 | |
Let us pray then that we will not suffer | 17:12 | |
as the ancient prophet threatened | 17:18 | |
with what he called not only a famine of bread, | 17:21 | |
but a famine of hearing the Word of God. | 17:25 | |
Amen. | 17:30 | |
- | Let us omit the next hymn | 17:43 |
and let me invite you to stand as we affirm our faith. | 17:46 | |
With one voice let us affirm what we believe. | 17:54 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 17:59 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 18:04 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 18:07 | |
who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 18:11 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 18:14 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 18:19 | |
to love and serve others, | 18:22 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:25 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified, and risen, | 18:28 | |
our judge and our hope, | 18:32 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death. | 18:35 | |
God is with us. | 18:39 | |
We are not alone. | 18:41 | |
Thanks be to God. | 18:43 | |
The Lord be with you. | 18:47 | |
Let us pray. | 18:51 | |
Blessed Lord our God. | 19:01 | |
Surely You have made each of us, | 19:03 | |
You have made every child who lives | 19:07 | |
upon the face of this earth this day, | 19:09 | |
you have placed us here as brothers and sisters | 19:12 | |
one to another. | 19:14 | |
You have created each of us with ultimate and eternal value. | 19:17 | |
Oh God, surely each of us is created Imago Dei, | 19:20 | |
in Your holy image. | 19:25 | |
So remind us of those ties which bind us | 19:28 | |
to one another this day. | 19:31 | |
God, we pray especially for those who have suffered | 19:33 | |
from the massacre in Lebanon. | 19:36 | |
May those who have died now find eternal rest | 19:39 | |
and peace in Your holy presence. | 19:42 | |
May those who have lost loved ones and friends | 19:46 | |
be comforted by Your holy presence. | 19:48 | |
And may those who have committed the atrocities, oh God, | 19:51 | |
be so convicted of the evil that they have done | 19:55 | |
that they might repent and help to bring | 19:58 | |
new life and hope in the world in which they live. | 20:00 | |
God, we remember those of our neighboring community | 20:05 | |
in Warren County, those who are protesting | 20:07 | |
against that which they feel is wrong | 20:11 | |
to come to their community. | 20:14 | |
No one knows, oh God, but give them strength and courage. | 20:17 | |
Reassure them as they seek to have that which is right | 20:22 | |
brought about in their own community. | 20:26 | |
Bless this university community, we pray, | 20:30 | |
those who study, those who learn, | 20:34 | |
those who are lonely, oh God, | 20:37 | |
those who need the comfort and the presence of a friend. | 20:41 | |
At times, oh God, your presence is | 20:46 | |
or seems to be very far from us. | 20:48 | |
So give us this day a new faith. | 20:52 | |
A faith in Christ which keeps us going | 20:56 | |
when we want to give up, | 20:59 | |
a faith which carries us when we are lonely, | 21:02 | |
A faith which helps us to trust | 21:06 | |
even when we seem not to know where You are or who You are, | 21:09 | |
a faith which allows us to be grateful | 21:16 | |
even when we suffer loss. | 21:19 | |
God, be very close to each of us, | 21:22 | |
and to all of us as a part of Your church, | 21:24 | |
and help us to know Your way and to follow in that way, | 21:28 | |
in this day and in the days to come. | 21:31 | |
Through Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray. | 21:35 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, | 21:39 | |
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done | 21:44 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 21:48 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 21:51 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 21:54 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 21:56 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 22:00 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory | 22:05 | |
forever. | 22:10 | |
Amen. | 22:11 | |
(solemn music) | 22:14 | |
(solemn music continues) | 22:24 | |
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(choir singing in foreign language) | 22:41 | |
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(choir singing in foreign language) | 28:32 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:40 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:42 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:48 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:51 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 29:00 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 29:04 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 29:14 | |
(solemn music) | 29:42 | |
(solemn music continues) | 29:52 | |
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(solemn music continues) | 31:01 | |
Oh Lord, our blessed God, as we offer these our gifts, | 31:11 | |
may we also offer our very selves. | 31:14 | |
As we present our gifts and ourselves to you, oh Lord, | 31:18 | |
reveal more of your grace to us. | 31:21 | |
May You be known and seen in our daily living, | 31:24 | |
in deeds performed and in words spoken, | 31:28 | |
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 31:31 | |
in whose holy name we pray. | 31:34 | |
Amen. | 31:37 | |
(solemn music) | 31:40 | |
(solemn music continues) | 31:50 | |
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The grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, | 35:55 | |
the love of God, | 35:59 | |
the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you | 36:01 | |
and with those whom you love this day and forever. | 36:06 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:14 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:20 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:28 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:44 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:57 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 37:12 | |
(solemn music) | 37:37 | |
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(people talking indistinctly) | 42:57 | |
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Item Info
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