WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.375 --> 00:00:08.950 Who are the affluent comfortable 2 00:00:09.940 --> 00:00:14.733 and gay children is the product of tradition. 3 00:00:24.455 --> 00:00:25.288 (Indistinct) for some of you 4 00:00:25.288 --> 00:00:29.597 that Lent is the season of the Christian year, 5 00:00:29.597 --> 00:00:33.923 the 40 day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter, 6 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:40.493 of penitence and penance in preparation for Easter. 7 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:47.660 And in case you didn't notice what with basketball and all 8 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:51.263 we are now in Lent. 9 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:58.380 There have been a few Lenten signs around the campus. 10 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:04.973 At least Hot cross buns were served in the cafeteria. 11 00:01:06.830 --> 00:01:09.600 I know that the Episcopalians 12 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:12.710 with their characteristic pension 13 00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:15.290 to make the most of the Christian year 14 00:01:16.210 --> 00:01:20.533 through a Mardi Gras before Lent began. 15 00:01:21.910 --> 00:01:23.513 But for the large part, 16 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:27.543 we don't know what to do about Lent. 17 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:32.963 Maybe go to church or chapel a bit more often, 18 00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:37.873 or feel a little more guilty about not going. 19 00:01:39.770 --> 00:01:40.603 And maybe 20 00:01:40.603 --> 00:01:43.713 while they're look a little more serious than we usually do. 21 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:48.473 And perhaps if we're very devout, 22 00:01:49.570 --> 00:01:51.380 follow the VR crutches 23 00:01:52.910 --> 00:01:55.150 by giving up ice cream, sundaes 24 00:01:55.150 --> 00:01:57.163 or cigarettes for the duration. 25 00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:01.950 But Lent means hardly more than 26 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.973 a kind of frosting on our buns. 27 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.870 A vague nudge to solemnity. 28 00:02:10.870 --> 00:02:12.670 I'm proud of our childhood memories. 29 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:18.840 The real purpose of Lent largely neglected or forgotten 30 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:23.410 is that it'd be a time of self-examination, 31 00:02:23.410 --> 00:02:25.830 of inner cleansing, 32 00:02:25.830 --> 00:02:30.830 of fasting and prayer in imitation of Christ, 33 00:02:31.660 --> 00:02:34.633 fasting and prayer in the wilderness. 34 00:02:36.690 --> 00:02:39.770 The spiritual logic behind it 35 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:42.640 is that one cannot come 36 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:45.760 into the joyous meaning of the Christian life, 37 00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:50.760 except by way of negative purging of self-denial. 38 00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:55.243 No cross, no crown. 39 00:02:57.930 --> 00:03:00.030 The positive meaning of redemption 40 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:05.030 is found only along a via negativa. 41 00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:09.293 Through the disciplines of denial. 42 00:03:12.630 --> 00:03:15.900 The classic paradigm for the inner meaning of Lent 43 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:18.520 is found in the scripture of the morning. 44 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:21.123 The story of the rich young ruler. 45 00:03:22.630 --> 00:03:27.630 Here is dramatized the encounter of us all 46 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:32.453 with the one who sets the ultimate terms of our life. 47 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:36.640 We are in the rich young ruler 48 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:39.603 who run up and asked, 49 00:03:41.153 --> 00:03:43.827 " What must I do to find eternal life?" 50 00:03:46.130 --> 00:03:49.663 Or to translate it into terms we would use, 51 00:03:50.890 --> 00:03:53.093 to find the point of it all, 52 00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:57.043 to find authentic existence. 53 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:00.643 And God is in Christ, 54 00:04:01.730 --> 00:04:05.913 confronting us with the stringent answer. 55 00:04:06.770 --> 00:04:08.243 You lack one thing, 56 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.363 go sell what you have give to the poor, 57 00:04:15.210 --> 00:04:20.210 and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. 58 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:26.330 When taken, not in its extra and all 59 00:04:26.330 --> 00:04:28.540 or crude or literal sense, 60 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:33.290 but in its internal sense, this word of Christ 61 00:04:33.290 --> 00:04:36.023 catches the meaning of Christian self-denial. 62 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:40.890 There are three levels represented. 63 00:04:40.890 --> 00:04:45.853 Three dimensions of self-denial subtly interrelated. 64 00:04:46.940 --> 00:04:51.653 And the validity of each depends on the next level down. 65 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:57.000 There are three directions of giving 66 00:04:58.950 --> 00:05:01.693 suggested by three preposition. 67 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:05.860 And in the definitions of the moral life, 68 00:05:06.930 --> 00:05:09.463 prepositions count for everything. 69 00:05:11.690 --> 00:05:15.120 The first is suggested by the phrase, 70 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:20.120 go sell what you have give up your possessions. 71 00:05:24.220 --> 00:05:28.090 Here is the usual and traditional discipline of denial 72 00:05:28.090 --> 00:05:31.113 and the most familiar in the Catholic tradition. 73 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:34.303 The way of renunciation. 74 00:05:35.570 --> 00:05:38.620 To give up the things that one owns 75 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:42.063 is the necessary beginning of self discovery. 76 00:05:44.320 --> 00:05:46.500 The obvious moral reason 77 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:48.900 for giving up in the Christian sense 78 00:05:51.430 --> 00:05:56.430 is not that it does things for one's win or one's figure, 79 00:05:58.260 --> 00:06:03.170 but that it clears the sight clouded by distraction 80 00:06:03.170 --> 00:06:05.573 and preoccupied with things. 81 00:06:07.530 --> 00:06:10.913 Possessed by our possessions, as the law says. 82 00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:16.480 We cannot possibly make out the lineaments of eternal life 83 00:06:18.130 --> 00:06:21.580 bothered by this and that. 84 00:06:21.580 --> 00:06:26.140 All Martha's cumbered with many things 85 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:31.290 lacking Mary's single eyed devotion 86 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:33.973 to the one important thing. 87 00:06:37.100 --> 00:06:42.100 The monk, the nun really has something 88 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.720 which today's operator in Suburbia lacks. 89 00:06:49.900 --> 00:06:51.080 Who is surrounded, 90 00:06:51.080 --> 00:06:53.853 almost drowned in things. 91 00:06:55.320 --> 00:07:00.320 A monk walking through a Supermarket drugstore 92 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:07.483 is free knowing all the things he doesn't need. 93 00:07:09.030 --> 00:07:12.140 In calm possession of a detachment 94 00:07:13.110 --> 00:07:16.090 from the superficial junk 95 00:07:16.090 --> 00:07:19.093 to which we are frantically attached. 96 00:07:20.130 --> 00:07:21.383 Simplify. 97 00:07:22.672 --> 00:07:23.505 Simplify. 98 00:07:24.340 --> 00:07:26.763 This was Thoreau's counsel. 99 00:07:27.840 --> 00:07:30.303 We would do well to heed his word. 100 00:07:31.630 --> 00:07:36.630 If we could only hear it within the den of canned music, 101 00:07:36.915 --> 00:07:38.823 the racket of traffic. 102 00:07:41.290 --> 00:07:46.290 We might well take a leaf from the notebook of the monk, 103 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:51.960 and give up for Lent, some cherished physical pleasure. 104 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:59.750 The aesthetic from Eastern culture has a moral point. 105 00:08:01.810 --> 00:08:05.663 We in the West eat too much. 106 00:08:07.520 --> 00:08:10.630 To see clearly with a mind's eye 107 00:08:10.630 --> 00:08:12.213 into the nature of reality. 108 00:08:13.270 --> 00:08:14.860 There's a deep moral wisdom 109 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:17.963 in the discipline of self denial of things. 110 00:08:18.820 --> 00:08:22.173 Lent should be the season to recall it. 111 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:29.790 But giving up by itself is only superficial. 112 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.970 Indeed it is laden with danger 113 00:08:34.970 --> 00:08:38.010 unless related to a deeper moral purpose. 114 00:08:38.010 --> 00:08:40.230 The second give. 115 00:08:40.230 --> 00:08:45.230 To give to self denial, 116 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:50.193 renunciation for the good of neighbor. 117 00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:56.463 Go give up what you have and give to the poor. 118 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:00.480 Here is a reading of the Christian life. 119 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.430 More like that of the classical reformers 120 00:09:03.430 --> 00:09:07.653 we should renounce in order to fulfill the law of charity. 121 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:13.223 We give up in order to give to. 122 00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:16.850 The discipline of sacrifice 123 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:22.260 is one practiced not only in the context of the soul, 124 00:09:22.260 --> 00:09:24.060 in the world of things, 125 00:09:24.060 --> 00:09:27.563 but also in the context of the world of neighbor needs. 126 00:09:29.130 --> 00:09:31.650 And in the Protestant tradition especially 127 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:34.600 we are to go without, 128 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:36.853 in order that the neighbors should go with. 129 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:42.503 The law of love surrounds the ethics of renunciation. 130 00:09:43.410 --> 00:09:45.743 Social concern, service. 131 00:09:47.150 --> 00:09:50.040 Returning of the goods one renounces for oneself 132 00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:51.423 to the common market. 133 00:09:53.150 --> 00:09:54.963 Here is fulfillment of the law. 134 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.720 But even these two gives lack the one thing needful. 135 00:10:05.047 --> 00:10:10.047 "What lack I yet?" asks the Ernest attractive young ruler. 136 00:10:12.420 --> 00:10:16.710 One who has observed the law all the way up, 137 00:10:16.710 --> 00:10:18.560 from Sunday school, 138 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:23.560 to give up and to give to may be done 139 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:26.133 out of a pinched and narrow spirit. 140 00:10:27.770 --> 00:10:30.730 Jesus carried on a running attack against the Pharisees 141 00:10:32.790 --> 00:10:36.973 who practiced a conspicuous self mortification, 142 00:10:38.330 --> 00:10:42.023 a conspicuous arms giving on the street corners. 143 00:10:44.350 --> 00:10:47.820 Morally exactly like the conspicuous consumption 144 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:50.083 of the suburban status seeker. 145 00:10:51.610 --> 00:10:56.083 Just in the Pharisees, it was conspicuous austerity. 146 00:10:57.150 --> 00:11:00.373 Both are done in order to be seen of men. 147 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:05.590 The disciplines of self denial and of charity 148 00:11:05.590 --> 00:11:08.340 may be perverted in their spirit 149 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:12.713 by a self centered spirit. 150 00:11:14.260 --> 00:11:18.183 Incurvatus in Se. 151 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:21.393 To use Luther's phrase, 152 00:11:22.260 --> 00:11:24.667 a heart turned in on itself, 153 00:11:25.660 --> 00:11:27.560 which misses eternal life 154 00:11:28.810 --> 00:11:30.960 by doing all the right outward things 155 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.313 for the wrong inward reason. 156 00:11:36.060 --> 00:11:38.790 The third give of the Christian life 157 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:41.450 at the heart of the matter 158 00:11:44.260 --> 00:11:45.313 is to give in. 159 00:11:47.920 --> 00:11:50.343 And come follow me. 160 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:56.330 At the circumference of existence, renunciation. 161 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:03.610 Closer in charity, social concern at the core, 162 00:12:08.060 --> 00:12:12.043 the surrender of the self to the sovereignty of God. 163 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:17.520 The validity of giving up and giving to 164 00:12:19.180 --> 00:12:22.150 rests upon the inner bent of the will 165 00:12:22.150 --> 00:12:27.150 that has given in to the overwhelming demand of God's grace. 166 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.990 Oh I know there's much cheap and slick talk 167 00:12:37.970 --> 00:12:41.963 in church circles about surrender, 168 00:12:43.790 --> 00:12:44.853 conversion. 169 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.810 This most difficult and subtle aspect of the Christian life 170 00:12:52.030 --> 00:12:54.380 is often by the evangelist 171 00:12:54.380 --> 00:12:59.380 perverted into some sort of emotional flip. 172 00:13:01.900 --> 00:13:05.393 To talk of surrender and self-denial, 173 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:11.740 maybe an odd incongruity amid all this respectable elegance 174 00:13:14.532 --> 00:13:18.523 among the cautious and well satisfied generation, 175 00:13:20.330 --> 00:13:24.543 the term surrender is alien. 176 00:13:25.560 --> 00:13:27.350 Really impossible. 177 00:13:27.350 --> 00:13:32.350 This is the duke chapel, not a camp meeting or a revival. 178 00:13:34.970 --> 00:13:39.970 It's just not done to surrender around here. 179 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:47.063 Yet despite the misuse, 180 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.373 the misunderstanding of the term, 181 00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:56.590 it stands as indispensable to give in. 182 00:13:57.390 --> 00:14:01.330 It means in essence that the self centered self 183 00:14:02.280 --> 00:14:06.193 is taken out of its radical egocentricity. 184 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:12.940 Is transformed by radical theo centricity 185 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.863 into God-centered centered existence. 186 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.763 It requires that the self come forth from its I castle, 187 00:14:24.940 --> 00:14:28.630 tear down all its elaborate self defenses 188 00:14:28.630 --> 00:14:30.540 and self justifications 189 00:14:31.800 --> 00:14:35.040 and give itself over to the sovereignty 190 00:14:35.040 --> 00:14:36.793 of the king of the universe. 191 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.663 Then authentic existence, 192 00:14:43.687 --> 00:14:46.480 the great possession of eternal life 193 00:14:47.460 --> 00:14:50.430 is by the miracle of grace 194 00:14:50.430 --> 00:14:53.453 handed back to the self. 195 00:14:55.870 --> 00:15:00.870 Then to the giving up of renunciation 196 00:15:02.290 --> 00:15:06.333 is redeemed from cautious anxiety. 197 00:15:07.780 --> 00:15:11.350 It is made easy within its exaction's. 198 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:16.950 And the giving to of charity 199 00:15:16.950 --> 00:15:19.490 is redeemed from paternalism 200 00:15:21.520 --> 00:15:26.203 or from the earning of merit badges by kindnesses. 201 00:15:30.810 --> 00:15:34.340 Lay this story of the rich young ruler 202 00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:38.993 against our Lenten life in this pleasant university, 203 00:15:41.430 --> 00:15:44.110 running through this four year dress rehearsal 204 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:46.003 for life in Suburbia. 205 00:15:48.640 --> 00:15:52.950 Story all seems very far away and long ago 206 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:57.713 yet we are mirrored in the story. 207 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:02.753 It has a jarring contemporaneity about it. 208 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.190 Story is reviewed and judgment 209 00:16:08.150 --> 00:16:11.163 before it is promised and renewal. 210 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:17.453 As the gospel is always bad news before it is good news. 211 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:22.230 Hold the story up against our life 212 00:16:22.230 --> 00:16:26.853 we do rather badly on all of the three gives. 213 00:16:28.710 --> 00:16:29.543 Giving up. 214 00:16:31.950 --> 00:16:33.793 We don't give up much. 215 00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:38.030 The report on the campus chest 216 00:16:38.030 --> 00:16:41.177 on West campus was, what was it? 217 00:16:41.177 --> 00:16:43.260 $700 this spring 218 00:16:43.260 --> 00:16:47.193 averaging out to 21 cents per student. 219 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:53.923 Compare what we spend on ourselves in a day. 220 00:16:56.260 --> 00:16:59.990 Compare the budget for the Shanty Clear 221 00:17:01.330 --> 00:17:02.923 with a Campus Chest. 222 00:17:03.880 --> 00:17:06.343 Lent becomes an embarrassment. 223 00:17:08.490 --> 00:17:11.683 We don't give to very much. 224 00:17:13.970 --> 00:17:17.950 There are yes projects in town 225 00:17:17.950 --> 00:17:22.623 Edge Month, Project Nicaragua, 226 00:17:23.470 --> 00:17:26.130 summer projects on which we do well 227 00:17:26.130 --> 00:17:31.130 where Duke students are magnificently giving hours, 228 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:37.153 energy, finding a kind of significance in it. 229 00:17:38.350 --> 00:17:42.443 A richness of possession lacking in the dorm. 230 00:17:44.320 --> 00:17:49.320 But mostly we feed ourselves in cozy and cotton splendor 231 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:56.020 and fend off all consideration of the world's hurt 232 00:17:56.020 --> 00:17:57.170 and the world's hunger 233 00:17:58.760 --> 00:18:00.563 by practical considerations. 234 00:18:03.610 --> 00:18:08.610 And who gives in to the sovereign demands of God in Christ. 235 00:18:12.120 --> 00:18:17.120 Egocentricity is the spiritual ailment endemic 236 00:18:17.810 --> 00:18:20.573 to American university culture. 237 00:18:21.910 --> 00:18:26.910 We are all spoiled children and operators. 238 00:18:30.230 --> 00:18:33.400 With a curious deep bias in us, 239 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:38.400 which expects our universe to hand a Suburban happiness 240 00:18:39.780 --> 00:18:41.693 to us on a platter. 241 00:18:42.620 --> 00:18:44.493 With all the fringe benefits. 242 00:18:45.910 --> 00:18:48.450 All we have to do is to offer 243 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:51.623 the credentials of a college degree is our ticket. 244 00:18:56.667 --> 00:18:58.150 The story of the rich young ruler 245 00:18:58.150 --> 00:19:01.013 does not have a happy ending. 246 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:06.380 He went away with a heavy heart 247 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:09.233 for he had great possession. 248 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:12.143 or so he thought. 249 00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:16.373 The encounter was a failure. 250 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.160 So when we are encountered by the one who offers 251 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.523 the terms of authentic existence, 252 00:19:26.810 --> 00:19:31.810 we are attracted, caught by this powerful winsomeness. 253 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:37.323 But only for a moment. 254 00:19:38.550 --> 00:19:39.760 On second thought, 255 00:19:39.760 --> 00:19:44.760 we go away because we have a busy schedule 256 00:19:46.040 --> 00:19:49.523 and great possessions or so we think. 257 00:19:51.250 --> 00:19:53.690 But our hearts are restless 258 00:19:54.580 --> 00:19:58.830 as we move on to live in what Reese man calls 259 00:19:58.830 --> 00:20:01.053 the suburban sadness. 260 00:20:02.140 --> 00:20:05.993 Surfeited by honey and caught in traffic. 261 00:20:09.470 --> 00:20:12.110 Self denial, we shrug 262 00:20:13.090 --> 00:20:17.293 maybe all right for the monks and the missionaries, 263 00:20:19.630 --> 00:20:20.713 but not for me. 264 00:20:22.730 --> 00:20:24.380 Yet we are forever haunted 265 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:26.663 by a summon from beyond ourselves. 266 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:31.880 That we cannot quite shake off or drown out 267 00:20:34.110 --> 00:20:38.953 the word of perpetual relentless exacting rebuke 268 00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:45.743 and gracious invitation. 269 00:20:48.320 --> 00:20:51.863 Whoever shall seek his life shall lose it. 270 00:20:54.270 --> 00:20:58.250 Whoever will lose his life for my sake 271 00:20:58.250 --> 00:21:01.643 and the gospel will find it. 272 00:21:05.470 --> 00:21:07.963 Amen, let us pray. 273 00:21:17.330 --> 00:21:21.720 Almighty God who recalls us at this season 274 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:26.523 to the special memory of the life and death of thy Son. 275 00:21:29.260 --> 00:21:31.810 And through his memory prompts us 276 00:21:31.810 --> 00:21:36.193 to the disciplines of self-examination and self-denial. 277 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:41.920 Grant we beseech thee 278 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:46.583 that the resolves we speak easily with our lips in worship, 279 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.870 maybe self practiced in daily deed 280 00:21:54.600 --> 00:21:58.920 that we may come to understand the meaning of his death 281 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:02.720 and resurrection whom we call our Lord 282 00:22:04.370 --> 00:22:08.910 and to a single obedience through him 283 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:13.630 to be in knowledge of whom 284 00:22:14.570 --> 00:22:16.293 stands our eternal life. 285 00:22:19.040 --> 00:22:22.373 Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 286 00:22:23.530 --> 00:22:28.030 the love of God and the communion of the holy spirit 287 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:30.483 be with you all.