James T. Cleland - "How Do We Look at Religion?" (August 9, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(light gospel music) | 0:03 | |
- | Let us offer unto God, our prayer of confession. | 6:34 |
Let us pray. | 6:38 | |
Almighty God, our father in whose blessed son, our Lord, | 6:41 | |
the divine life became flesh | 6:49 | |
and dwelt among us full of grace and glory | 6:52 | |
and who in Jesus has set before us | 6:58 | |
an achievement of the highest potential of human life | 7:00 | |
and of all thou doest intend for us to be. | 7:06 | |
In shame and confusion do we confess before thee | 7:11 | |
that with this light of truth shining upon us | 7:16 | |
we have turned, every one, unto his own way, | 7:21 | |
and we have walked in darkness. | 7:25 | |
Forgive our broken and partial response to our high calling | 7:29 | |
as children of God and joined as with Christ. | 7:34 | |
And look with compassion, we beseech thee, | 7:39 | |
upon the feeble and ofttimes tarnished spirit | 7:43 | |
and tenor and quality of our lives. | 7:48 | |
In Jesus name, amen. | 7:52 | |
Dearly beloved, it is the holy and blameless example | 7:59 | |
of Jesus that brings us into judgment | 8:04 | |
and calls forth our confession of sin | 8:08 | |
and acknowledgement of guilt. | 8:12 | |
Measured by the standard of his life, | 8:15 | |
we know we fail and fall short, | 8:19 | |
far short of God's design. | 8:24 | |
Yet, this same Jesus is the Lord | 8:29 | |
who emboldens us to ask for mercy. | 8:33 | |
Remember how he said that he came | 8:38 | |
not to call the righteous, but sinners? | 8:41 | |
Once, when a bad character would not even lift his eyes | 8:46 | |
to Heaven but beat his breast saying, | 8:51 | |
"God, be merciful to me, a sinner." | 8:56 | |
Jesus said of him that he returned home a saved man. | 9:00 | |
And when our Lord was put to death, | 9:08 | |
a thief who was crucified beside him called out, | 9:11 | |
"Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power." | 9:16 | |
To him Jesus replied, | 9:22 | |
"Today, you will be with me in paradise." | 9:25 | |
Remembering his words, let us now offer our litany | 9:33 | |
of thanksgiving unto the loving and compassionate Father | 9:37 | |
who forgives our sins and heals our inequities. | 9:43 | |
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. | 9:57 | |
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. | 10:05 | |
And gathered in from the lands | 10:11 | |
from the east and from the west, | 10:12 | |
some wandered in desert wastes | 10:18 | |
hungry and thirsty. | 10:24 | |
Then, they cried to the Lord in their trouble. | 10:29 | |
He led them by a straight way. | 10:35 | |
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. | 10:40 | |
For he satisfies him who is thirsty. | 10:48 | |
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, | 10:54 | |
and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. | 11:01 | |
(light gospel music) | 11:08 | |
- | Let us hear the word of God | 13:54 |
as is contained in four passages of the holy scriptures, | 13:57 | |
three from the "Old Testament", | 14:04 | |
one from the "New Testament". | 14:07 | |
Psalm one, one to three. | 14:10 | |
"Blessed is the man who walks | 14:14 | |
not in the council of the wicked, | 14:16 | |
nor stands in the way of sinners, | 14:19 | |
nor sits in the seat of scoffers. | 14:23 | |
But his delight is in the law of the Lord. | 14:28 | |
And on his law he meditates day and night. | 14:32 | |
He's like a tree planted by streams of water | 14:39 | |
that yields its fruit in its season. | 14:44 | |
And its leaf does not wither. | 14:48 | |
Micah six, six to eight. | 14:53 | |
With what shall I come before the Lord | 14:59 | |
and bow myself before God on high? | 15:02 | |
Shall I come before him with burned offerings, | 15:07 | |
with calves a year old? | 15:12 | |
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, | 15:17 | |
with 10 thousands of rivers of oil? | 15:20 | |
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, | 15:26 | |
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? | 15:32 | |
He has showed you, O man, what is good. | 15:38 | |
And what does the Lord require of you? | 15:44 | |
But to do justice and to love kindness | 15:46 | |
and to walk humbly with your God." | 15:53 | |
The gospel according to St. John, | 16:00 | |
the first chapter, one to five and 14. | 16:02 | |
"In the beginning was the Word. | 16:09 | |
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. | 16:13 | |
He was in the beginning with God. | 16:21 | |
All things were made through him | 16:26 | |
and without him was not anything made that was made. | 16:29 | |
In him was life. | 16:36 | |
And the life was the light of men. | 16:39 | |
And the light shines in the darkness. | 16:43 | |
And the darkness has not overcome it. | 16:46 | |
And the Word became flesh | 16:50 | |
and welcome among us full of grace and truth. | 16:54 | |
We have beheld his glory, | 17:01 | |
glory as of the only son from the father." | 17:05 | |
Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. | 17:12 | |
"'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, | 17:18 | |
'when I will make a new covenant | 17:22 | |
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, | 17:24 | |
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers | 17:29 | |
when I took them by the hand to bring them | 17:34 | |
out of the land of Egypt. | 17:37 | |
My covenant, which they broke, | 17:40 | |
though I was their husband,' says the Lord. | 17:45 | |
"But this is the covenant which I will make | 17:50 | |
with the house of Israel after those days,' says the Lord. | 17:53 | |
'I will put my law within them. | 17:58 | |
and I will write it upon their hearts. | 18:04 | |
And I will be their God, | 18:10 | |
and they shall be my people. | 18:14 | |
And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor | 18:18 | |
and each his brother saying, "Know the Lord." | 18:21 | |
For they shall all know me from the least of them | 18:27 | |
to the greatest,' says the Lord. | 18:31 | |
'But I will forgive their inequity. | 18:35 | |
And I will remember their sin no more.'" | 18:39 | |
Here endeth the lesson. | 18:47 | |
(light gospel music) | 18:50 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 19:32 |
Let us pray. | 19:36 | |
Our heavenly father who art willing to receive | 19:46 | |
and answer each sincere and earnest prayer | 19:52 | |
and who has taught us that in returning | 19:58 | |
and rest we shall be saved | 20:01 | |
and in quietness and confidence shall be our strength. | 20:05 | |
By the might of our spirit, lift us, we pray thee, | 20:10 | |
to thy presence where we may be still | 20:14 | |
and know that thou art God. | 20:18 | |
Hear our prayer for others and ourselves. | 20:23 | |
Since thou doest also mark the sparrows fall, | 20:29 | |
we seek thy help, too, for all in sore distress and need, | 20:35 | |
for the anxious and careworn, | 20:42 | |
for the faithless and errant, | 20:47 | |
for the bereaved and broken-hearted, | 20:51 | |
for all those young and old who have lost the joy of living. | 20:56 | |
We would pray for all sorts and conditions of men | 21:07 | |
to whom Jesus was want to give special thought and care. | 21:10 | |
For those lacking food or drink or raiment, | 21:17 | |
for the sick and all who are wasted by disease, | 21:23 | |
for the blind, for the maim and lame, | 21:29 | |
for prisoners, | 21:37 | |
for those oppressed by any injustice, | 21:41 | |
for the lost sheep of our human society, | 21:46 | |
for lonely strangers within our gates. | 21:51 | |
We pray also for those friend and foe alike who are torn | 21:57 | |
and ravaged by the scourge of war | 22:03 | |
and stained and terrified in the carnage of battle. | 22:07 | |
Guide and strengthen the efforts of men of all nations | 22:14 | |
who strive for peace, who work to establish justice, | 22:19 | |
to banish fear, to lift from us the heavy burden | 22:27 | |
of hate and suspicion and greed. | 22:33 | |
So do we pray for peacemakers in every walk of life | 22:39 | |
who bring healing to the nations and comfort | 22:45 | |
and hope to the children of men. | 22:49 | |
Especially do we remember before thee with love | 22:53 | |
and gratitude two servants of our community. | 22:56 | |
Rosa Warren Myers, for her glad life | 23:04 | |
as devoted faculty, wife, and mother, | 23:12 | |
for years of leadership and inspired service | 23:16 | |
in the Duke University choir, | 23:21 | |
we give thee thanks, O Lord. | 23:24 | |
And Richard John Sheeley, | 23:29 | |
who prepared himself and devoted his life | 23:36 | |
as a physician's assistant, | 23:42 | |
for his scholarly attainments | 23:46 | |
in the Duke University Medical Center, | 23:48 | |
and for the giving of himself in skillful | 23:53 | |
and loving dedication to patient care, | 23:55 | |
we give thee thanks, O Lord. | 23:59 | |
May it please thee to their families | 24:03 | |
and friends by fatherly kindness in the midst | 24:06 | |
of bereavement that they | 24:10 | |
and we together may receive perfect consolation | 24:14 | |
and deliverance in time of trouble | 24:19 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 24:23 | |
And now, as our savior Christ has taught us, | 24:27 | |
we pray together saying our father who art in heaven, | 24:31 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 24:37 | |
thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 24:41 | |
Give us this our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses | 24:45 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 24:51 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 24:56 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 24:58 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 25:01 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 25:04 | |
- | Grace to you and peace from God, our father, | 25:30 |
and the Lord Jesus Christ. | 25:35 | |
There is one major difficulty | 25:41 | |
in conducting public worship for | 25:43 | |
and with an interdenominational congregation such as this. | 25:47 | |
It is the perplexity of appreciating | 25:55 | |
and satisfying the different denominational emphasis | 25:59 | |
of the faith at one and the same time | 26:05 | |
in one and the same service. | 26:10 | |
No matter how much goodwill we try | 26:15 | |
to bring to bear on the matter, | 26:19 | |
some person will feel annoyed, | 26:22 | |
if not positively rebellious, | 26:25 | |
at some aspect of the interpretation of Christian life | 26:29 | |
and work as it is spelled out from the lectern | 26:33 | |
or from the pulpit. | 26:38 | |
Now, such a tension cannot be | 26:41 | |
completely relaxed by one sermon, | 26:44 | |
but maybe an examination of three or four attitudes | 26:48 | |
will help us appreciate the problem, | 26:54 | |
the problem which arises when people | 26:58 | |
of differing Christian interpretation | 27:01 | |
and emphasis come together in corporate worship. | 27:05 | |
Therefore, let us ask the question, | 27:12 | |
how do we look at religion | 27:16 | |
and listen to the various answers? | 27:20 | |
Perhaps we'll find one answer | 27:24 | |
which is more satisfactory than the others. | 27:26 | |
The first reply to the question, how do we look at religion, | 27:32 | |
is religion defined in law. | 27:37 | |
Now, that is a thoroughly understandable answer. | 27:42 | |
There are folk who like precise detail, | 27:48 | |
everything cut and dry down in black and white, | 27:54 | |
easily read, plain to follow precept upon precept, | 28:01 | |
line upon line. | 28:08 | |
It is the blueprint approach to living. | 28:11 | |
One follows the plan, abides by the prescription, | 28:16 | |
one obeys the rules. | 28:23 | |
Now, that appeals to many of us, | 28:25 | |
because it leaves no room for beating about the bush. | 28:28 | |
We know what we ought to do, whether we do it or not. | 28:33 | |
Now, this point of view has been seen | 28:40 | |
in religion in two great instances. | 28:42 | |
It is to be observed in Judaism, | 28:47 | |
the Deuteronomic Code of 621 BC | 28:51 | |
and the Priestly Code of the year 500, | 28:57 | |
where the valid but sometimes unspecific generalizations | 29:02 | |
of the profits were put down in black and white | 29:08 | |
so that people knew what to do so as to be right with God. | 29:15 | |
I suppose one group of verses | 29:22 | |
which we love as well as any in the Old Testament | 29:24 | |
are those from Micah. | 29:27 | |
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord | 29:30 | |
and bow myself before the high God?" | 29:32 | |
Then, he makes his suggestions: | 29:36 | |
sacrifice, rams, rivers of oil. | 29:38 | |
"Shall I even give my first born for my transgression, | 29:43 | |
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. | 29:49 | |
And the answer comes. | 29:55 | |
He assured thee, O man, what is good | 29:57 | |
What does the Lord require thee | 30:01 | |
but to do justly and to love mercy | 30:03 | |
and to walk humbly with God?" | 30:06 | |
And that is beautiful, even clear, | 30:11 | |
until we start thinking about it. | 30:15 | |
What does it mean to do justly? | 30:18 | |
What's it mean to love mercy? | 30:22 | |
What's it mean to walk humbly with God? | 30:26 | |
And the law scaled out in detail what Micah rhapsodized. | 30:29 | |
It said here is what you do. | 30:37 | |
And the people said, "Thank you, thank you very much. | 30:41 | |
Now, we know what to do." | 30:46 | |
And the first Psalm shows us the joy of the law, | 30:50 | |
not the curse of the law, the joy of it. | 30:52 | |
"Blessed is the man that walketh | 30:56 | |
not in the council of the ungodly, | 30:57 | |
but his delight is in the law of the Lord | 31:00 | |
and in his law that he meditate day and night." | 31:05 | |
Now, in the Christian faith, | 31:10 | |
that point of view was seen in puritanism. | 31:11 | |
It used to be evidenced in Presbyterianism. | 31:15 | |
Take, for example, the sabbath. | 31:20 | |
It's an interesting thing that Presbyterianism | 31:24 | |
took over from Judaism the word for its holy day. | 31:28 | |
They did not take the Christian word, | 31:35 | |
which is the Lord's Day. | 31:38 | |
They took sabbath, | 31:42 | |
because they wanted to make of the Lord's Day a sabbath. | 31:46 | |
A different from any other in the week. | 31:52 | |
And it was different. | 31:55 | |
There was church attendance all day long. | 31:59 | |
I can remember that. | 32:02 | |
Five times at church on the Scottish sabbath. | 32:04 | |
Oh, don't think it made us bitter; it didn't. | 32:10 | |
What we never forgot was that God could have had | 32:15 | |
seven days like that if he'd wanted, | 32:18 | |
but he chose only one. | 32:25 | |
He was a decent soul. | 32:28 | |
Dr. Jowett, who came from England | 32:34 | |
to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, | 32:36 | |
said that when he went to study theology in Edinburgh, | 32:40 | |
he knew when the holy day had come, | 32:44 | |
because on Saturday night, | 32:48 | |
the landlady locked the piano and opened the harmonium. | 32:50 | |
And on Monday, she locked the harmonium | 32:56 | |
and opened the piano. | 32:59 | |
There was even a holy instrument. | 33:02 | |
That was one visible sign of righteousness. | 33:06 | |
Now, this is religion conceived | 33:09 | |
as law divinely given, obeyed to the utmost. | 33:11 | |
There's good in it, of course there is. | 33:16 | |
I speak of Presbyterianism, | 33:19 | |
but there are two dangers. | 33:21 | |
One danger is that of spiritual snobbery | 33:24 | |
in those who keep the law. | 33:30 | |
Read what our Lord said about the Pharisee, | 33:33 | |
particularly the story of the Pharisee and the public. | 33:37 | |
Or study the elder brother in the prodigal son. | 33:43 | |
Now, there's a good man in the worst sense of the word. | 33:48 | |
On the other hand, if we don't meet with spiritual snobbery, | 33:55 | |
we come upon spiritual pessimism. | 34:00 | |
Read Romans Seven. | 34:03 | |
The problem of those who cannot keep the law | 34:05 | |
and who are in despair. | 34:09 | |
This interpretation of religion may be good, | 34:12 | |
but it's not good enough. | 34:16 | |
There's a second answer to the question, | 34:20 | |
how do we look at religion. | 34:21 | |
It is religion expressed in a standard. | 34:24 | |
Now, let me approach by means of an analogy. | 34:30 | |
Back in the '30s, my goodness, 20 years ago, | 34:34 | |
there appeared in "Harpers Magazine" | 34:38 | |
an article entitled "Then, What is Cricket?" | 34:40 | |
I've never forgot it. | 34:46 | |
It began, "You, sometimes, hear an Englishman | 34:49 | |
say it isn't cricket. | 34:52 | |
And by that, you know he's damning someone's conduct. | 34:54 | |
What is cricket? | 35:00 | |
It is not that extraordinarily tedious game | 35:02 | |
which takes two days to play | 35:06 | |
and which judged by its soporific effects | 35:09 | |
upon the spectators has in it the properties | 35:12 | |
both of an aspirin tablet and a lullaby. | 35:15 | |
No, cricket is a standard. | 35:20 | |
It is a norm." | 35:25 | |
And then, he makes the following | 35:27 | |
very shrewd remarks about in England. | 35:29 | |
"The English don't like rules. | 35:32 | |
They prefer standards, practical working standards, | 35:36 | |
which they can see with their own eyes. | 35:41 | |
And standards they have many. | 35:44 | |
For in England, you may look | 35:48 | |
in almost any department of life, | 35:49 | |
and you'll be pretty sure to find at least one unit there | 35:52 | |
towering above all others as a standard of high quality. | 35:56 | |
The Rolls-Royce, for instance, | 36:02 | |
in the field of motor manufacturing, | 36:04 | |
the "London Times" in journalism, | 36:07 | |
or "Punch" among comics, | 36:12 | |
the country's choir as a pattern of rural public spirit, | 36:15 | |
Harley Street doctors, | 36:21 | |
heads of the large joints' top banks, judges, | 36:23 | |
and those at the top of what they call the services." | 36:29 | |
Then, he adds this. | 36:33 | |
"You may not own a Rolls-Royce nor read the "Times", | 36:35 | |
and you may be bored as many an Englishman is by cricket, | 36:42 | |
but you're constrained to recognize | 36:49 | |
the value of these various standards | 36:51 | |
as practical influences for good." | 36:54 | |
He finishes the article, | 36:58 | |
"These institutions, then, taken together | 37:00 | |
are what may be termed the higher conscience | 37:05 | |
of the Englishman." | 37:10 | |
The higher conscience of the Englishman. | 37:13 | |
Now, this is England as contrasted with Scotland. | 37:16 | |
This is Episcopalianism as contrasted with Presbyterianism. | 37:21 | |
Religion in terms of a criterion of excellence. | 37:27 | |
What is the Episcopal prayer book? | 37:34 | |
It is "The Book of Common Prayer", | 37:37 | |
not a book of common prayer. | 37:41 | |
It lists the gospel and the epistle for the day. | 37:45 | |
It lists any general confession, | 37:54 | |
but I've never heard an Episcopalian | 37:57 | |
refer to the prayer in those terms. | 37:58 | |
He calls it the general confession. | 38:01 | |
And for good measure, he adds the general thanksgiving. | 38:05 | |
This is religion expressed in | 38:10 | |
and judged by a criterion of excellence. | 38:13 | |
But religion in terms of a standard | 38:18 | |
is not the sole possession of Episcopalians. | 38:20 | |
The Bible is a standard in theory for many folk. | 38:25 | |
If that's too much of a muchness, | 38:29 | |
then the scope is reduced to the gospels, | 38:32 | |
or to one gospel or to "The Sermon on the Mount", | 38:35 | |
or to John 14, or to First Corinthians 13, | 38:41 | |
or to Psalm 23, or to the Golden Rule. | 38:46 | |
Such is the norm for religious people | 38:52 | |
who try to live according to a standard of excellence. | 38:54 | |
Now, of course, there's a danger in this. | 38:58 | |
The highest virtue is conformity. | 39:02 | |
Perhaps that is why Anglicans are correct, | 39:07 | |
rather than enthusiastic. | 39:11 | |
Someone has said at Oxford University | 39:15 | |
they practice fastidiousness and call it holiness. | 39:18 | |
There's too often a lack of criticism, | 39:23 | |
an unwillingness to change the standard. | 39:27 | |
The gallant conservative may become a Tory diehard. | 39:30 | |
He may accept the tradition instead of interpreting it. | 39:34 | |
Even so, at its best religion expressed in a standard | 39:39 | |
is more flexible than religion as law, | 39:46 | |
but let's go on. | 39:51 | |
A third answer is religion interpreted by an example. | 39:53 | |
Now, we've moved away from the written code. | 39:58 | |
We've moved away from a practical standard. | 40:00 | |
Now, we are evaluating religion | 40:03 | |
and shaping our lives in terms of a person. | 40:06 | |
One who believed such an interpretation | 40:12 | |
of life was Thomas Carlisle. | 40:15 | |
He expounded and defended it in heroes and hero worship, | 40:18 | |
where he sought to understand a movement | 40:25 | |
in terms of the leader at the heart of the move. | 40:28 | |
Now, of course, that point of view collapsed | 40:33 | |
for a time before economic man, | 40:38 | |
that Frankenstein of the ec department. | 40:43 | |
Other things being equal, | 40:48 | |
then economic man will do so and so, and so and so. | 40:50 | |
Of course, other things are seldom equal. | 40:57 | |
Therefore, he seldom doesn't. | 41:01 | |
That's why classical economics is so often a branch | 41:05 | |
of mythology rather than a science. | 41:09 | |
But economics did defeat heroes | 41:13 | |
and hero worship until what happened? | 41:16 | |
What happened was that he that sitteth | 41:19 | |
in the heavens laughed. | 41:22 | |
And there arose Lenin, and Abacha, and Stalin, | 41:25 | |
and Mussolini, and Hitler, and Winston Churchill, | 41:33 | |
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, | 41:39 | |
and the Kennedy brothers, and George Wallace. | 41:42 | |
And once again, we saw movements in terms of men. | 41:48 | |
A man or a woman may be the guide of millions of people | 41:55 | |
in some area of their lives. | 42:02 | |
Now, while this answer to the interpretation | 42:05 | |
of life is accepted all over the world, | 42:08 | |
it's particularly prevalent in America. | 42:11 | |
Life in terms of a hero. | 42:15 | |
Life modeled on and evaluated by man. | 42:20 | |
The word, any word, love, loyalty, sport, religion, | 42:26 | |
is much more easily understood | 42:35 | |
when it becomes flesh and dwells among us | 42:37 | |
and we see the glory of the word in a person. | 42:42 | |
That's why the prologue to the fourth gospel | 42:47 | |
is such a notable piece of interpretation. | 42:51 | |
Now, you know the two dangers here. | 42:56 | |
One is that the hero may let us down. | 43:00 | |
Do you recall the poem that Robert Browning wrote | 43:06 | |
when Wordsworth ceased to be a liberal | 43:11 | |
and became a conservative? | 43:14 | |
"Just for a handful of silver he left, | 43:18 | |
just for a riband to stick in his coat." | 43:24 | |
And he thought of the days before that. | 43:30 | |
"We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, | 43:32 | |
lived in his mild and magnificent eye, | 43:37 | |
learned his great accent, caught his clear accents, | 43:40 | |
made him our pattern to live and to die." | 43:44 | |
And then, Wordsworth left them for the right-wing party. | 43:48 | |
Terrible thing when the idol is discovered | 43:55 | |
to have feet of clay. | 43:58 | |
What's going to happened to George Washington | 44:01 | |
now that his expense account has come to light? | 44:03 | |
So if the hero is alive, we may be let down. | 44:11 | |
If he's dead but still a hero, what happens? | 44:17 | |
Imitation becomes the highest virtue. | 44:22 | |
May be the sincerest form of flattery, | 44:26 | |
but it will breed spiritual parrots. | 44:29 | |
I think that's even true of Jesus worship. | 44:31 | |
If you haven't read it, | 44:36 | |
get hold of Henry Cadbury's wise book | 44:36 | |
"The Peril of Modernizing Jesus". | 44:39 | |
And you'll see that. | 44:44 | |
This is the faith more or less of adolescence. | 44:46 | |
Maybe that's why it's so popular in the United States. | 44:49 | |
There's a fourth answer. | 44:56 | |
Religion embodied as an inner spirit. | 44:56 | |
There, we come to religion at its purest. | 45:00 | |
The emphasis upon the state of the heart upon character. | 45:05 | |
And the interesting fact about it is this. | 45:09 | |
That note comes ringing right down | 45:12 | |
through the centuries in all kinds of places. | 45:16 | |
Listen to Jeremiah, 600 BC. | 45:21 | |
"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. | 45:25 | |
I will put my law in their inward hearts | 45:30 | |
and write it upon their hearts and will be their God." | 45:35 | |
Now, come 200 years on from Jeremiah | 45:42 | |
and leave Palestine for Greece. | 45:45 | |
Here is Socrates talking about the daimon, | 45:50 | |
the spirit inside of him. | 45:54 | |
"This is the voice which from childhood | 45:58 | |
has frequently come to me and which makes itself heard | 46:01 | |
only to turn me back from what I'm about to do, | 46:08 | |
never to impel me forward, negative guidance. | 46:15 | |
And Xenophon says writing of Socrates, | 46:22 | |
"He yielded to it the most implicit obedience." | 46:26 | |
Now, come 450 years on and go back to Palestine. | 46:34 | |
Heareth St. Paul. | 46:39 | |
"I live, | 46:41 | |
not I, | 46:44 | |
Christ liveth in me." | 46:46 | |
Hear him again. | 46:50 | |
"As many as are led by the spirit of God, | 46:51 | |
they are the son of God." | 46:55 | |
Or come 1,400 years on to France | 47:00 | |
and watch St. Joan standing before her accusers, | 47:04 | |
trying to posit the voice of the spirit within her | 47:09 | |
against the decrees of the church. | 47:13 | |
And the church did the only thing the church could do. | 47:16 | |
It burned her at the stake. | 47:21 | |
Or at least it persuaded the English | 47:24 | |
to burn her at the stake. | 47:26 | |
And then, it canonized her. | 47:28 | |
Not just one or the other, but both. | 47:32 | |
The church had to burn this kind of Christian, | 47:36 | |
because she was dangerous as a fact. | 47:40 | |
And the church had to canonize her, | 47:45 | |
because she was and is admirable as an idea. | 47:48 | |
Now, you see the difference between that way of living | 47:55 | |
and living by law or by standard or by example. | 47:58 | |
It's not confirming to an external law. | 48:03 | |
It's not adherence to a standard. | 48:06 | |
It's not the copying of a person. | 48:09 | |
It is the overflowing of an inner spirit. | 48:12 | |
And to describe it, | 48:15 | |
you've gotta use such metaphors as radiation, | 48:16 | |
the outgoing of the inner man, | 48:19 | |
the transfiguration of the soul. | 48:22 | |
Paul described it as the spirit which giveth life. | 48:25 | |
Now, is a danger here, a tremendous danger. | 48:32 | |
We know it. | 48:35 | |
Paul knew it. | 48:36 | |
He wrote about it to the Corinthians. | 48:38 | |
Subjectivity, I decide, individualism. | 48:41 | |
If each person has the spirit, | 48:48 | |
if each person knows what is good, the good, | 48:50 | |
then we may have spiritual anarchy. | 48:54 | |
It can lead either to a rampant individualism | 48:58 | |
or to the formation of an exclusive set, | 49:03 | |
a spiritual oligarchy. | 49:08 | |
I think the Quakers do the best job with this spirit. | 49:10 | |
But even they don't have to seek their troubles | 49:16 | |
regarding the interpretation of it. | 49:19 | |
And so there is very briefly a fifth | 49:24 | |
and the last answer I leave with you for this question, | 49:26 | |
how do we look at religion. | 49:30 | |
The last answer is religion as inner spirit | 49:33 | |
expressed as standards, interpreted by example, | 49:42 | |
and formulated in law. | 49:52 | |
There is no doubt that the person whose life is controlled | 49:57 | |
by the indwelling spirit of God comes closest | 50:01 | |
to the ideal of a religious Christian. | 50:06 | |
And the peculiar danger of spiritual anarchy | 50:11 | |
can be anticipated, | 50:15 | |
and it can be overcome by the use | 50:17 | |
of the other three as safeguard. | 50:21 | |
Test the religion of the inner life | 50:25 | |
by evaluating the standards. | 50:28 | |
Are they still valid or are they heirlooms? | 50:31 | |
Are their claims reasonable? | 50:37 | |
Are they worthy touchstones? | 50:39 | |
Test it by choosing the examples. | 50:43 | |
Read the biographies of the saints. | 50:46 | |
What makes them leaders rather than signposts? | 50:49 | |
Let our spirits find in them kindred spirits | 50:55 | |
as we begin to know what is meant | 51:00 | |
by the communion of saints. | 51:02 | |
Let's test it by examining the law codes of religion. | 51:08 | |
Let us sift them, weigh them, amend them. | 51:12 | |
Let us remember the tremendous value of law | 51:17 | |
in hindering hindrances to the good life. | 51:21 | |
Law may not always | 51:27 | |
or even intentionally promote the good life, | 51:29 | |
but it can hinder hindrances to the good life. | 51:34 | |
Let's keep in mind the practical value | 51:40 | |
of law for ordinary man. | 51:42 | |
I think it's in interrelation of all four answers | 51:46 | |
that the true interdenominational answer is found, | 51:50 | |
but we shall have to meditate and meditate | 51:56 | |
and meditate on the interrelation. | 52:01 | |
It takes time. | 52:04 | |
It's not an act. | 52:07 | |
It's a process. | 52:09 | |
It is a religious discipline. | 52:11 | |
And what will the result be? | 52:13 | |
As many as are led by the spirit of God, | 52:16 | |
they are the sons and daughters of God, | 52:21 | |
Sons and daughters of God, | 52:26 | |
because of the spirit within | 52:31 | |
expressed through law in standards by personal example. | 52:34 | |
And the question for each one of us to ask | 52:47 | |
is how does each one of us look at religion? | 52:48 | |
Let us pray. | 52:57 | |
Almighty God, who doest continue to reveal thyself | 53:02 | |
in the working of thy holy spirit, | 53:06 | |
grant us to know that the control of our spirits | 53:10 | |
by thy spirit is the hallmark of our faith | 53:13 | |
and that thy spirit manifests itself | 53:19 | |
in standards, persons, and laws, | 53:23 | |
so that we may understand one another | 53:29 | |
and offer to thee a united worship to the honor of thy son, | 53:35 | |
Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 53:43 | |
(light gospel music) | 53:53 | |
- | Oh God, most merciful and gracious | 1:04:15 |
of whose bounty we have all received, | 1:04:20 | |
accept this offering of our people, | 1:04:24 | |
a token and pledge that our lives are thine. | 1:04:27 | |
Remember in thy love those who have brought it | 1:04:33 | |
and those for whom it is given | 1:04:37 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 1:04:40 |
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