WEBVTT
1
00:00:05.175 --> 00:00:07.675
(choir sings)
2
00:01:23.138 --> 00:01:26.638
(bright organ-pipe music)
3
00:01:58.786 --> 00:02:01.286
(choir sings)
4
00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:02.503
Our Lord has said,
5
00:06:05.370 --> 00:06:07.093
if anyone comes to me,
6
00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:13.633
I will in no way cast him or her out.
7
00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:21.070
Created in the image of God we have often failed
8
00:06:21.070 --> 00:06:22.493
to live up to our potential.
9
00:06:25.501 --> 00:06:27.663
In the presence of others like us,
10
00:06:30.225 --> 00:06:34.537
in the company of this supportive fellowship of worshipers,
11
00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:41.500
Let us now confess our sins to God, and to one another,
12
00:06:43.340 --> 00:06:44.233
Let us pray.
13
00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.820
Oh Lord, we come before you in the knowledge
14
00:06:49.820 --> 00:06:52.963
that we do not love you above all things.
15
00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:57.530
We do not cherish the beauty of your world,
16
00:06:57.530 --> 00:06:59.603
but literate with ugliness.
17
00:07:00.700 --> 00:07:04.740
We do not use the power you gave us over your creation
18
00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:06.733
to preserve and protect it,
19
00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:09.960
but to pave it over with monuments,
20
00:07:09.960 --> 00:07:12.423
to our own selfish achievements.
21
00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:17.400
You have given us the will to shape our lives
22
00:07:17.400 --> 00:07:21.070
and our institutions to serve all peoples.
23
00:07:21.070 --> 00:07:24.433
But we have advocated the power and greed.
24
00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:30.660
We turn to you now away from our mistakes and seek mercy
25
00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:35.893
for not knowing and for knowing what we do.
26
00:07:37.090 --> 00:07:41.070
We implore you whose nature and whose name is love
27
00:07:42.030 --> 00:07:46.750
to forgive us, us and in forgiving to heal us,
28
00:07:46.750 --> 00:07:51.650
so that in our lives, something will finally be changed.
29
00:07:51.650 --> 00:07:52.483
Amen.
30
00:07:53.460 --> 00:07:57.283
Let us continue with our personal prayers of confession.
31
00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:20.593
I say to you,
32
00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:25.590
by the witness of the Word and the church through the ages,
33
00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:28.593
you are accepted as you are.
34
00:08:29.830 --> 00:08:34.040
Your life does have some ultimate significance
35
00:08:34.040 --> 00:08:35.273
in this world.
36
00:08:37.050 --> 00:08:40.913
Your life is good as it is given.
37
00:08:42.140 --> 00:08:44.343
Your future is open.
38
00:08:45.950 --> 00:08:48.060
Receive every moment of it
39
00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.603
as God's good gift to you.
40
00:08:55.460 --> 00:08:58.093
Let us pray now as you find it in the bulletin.
41
00:08:59.690 --> 00:09:02.773
The prayer our Lord has given us praying,
42
00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:06.233
Our Father who is in heaven,
43
00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:10.053
may all men come to respect and love you.
44
00:09:11.040 --> 00:09:14.333
May you rule in every heart and in all of life.
45
00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:20.050
Give us us day by day the things of life we need,
46
00:09:20.050 --> 00:09:24.110
forgive us, our sins like we forgive everyone
47
00:09:24.110 --> 00:09:25.823
who has done us wrong.
48
00:09:26.700 --> 00:09:29.483
Let nothing test us beyond our strength.
49
00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:33.640
Save us from our weaknesses,
50
00:09:33.640 --> 00:09:38.090
for yours is the authority, the power and the glory forever,
51
00:09:39.272 --> 00:09:40.105
Amen.
52
00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:45.492
(Soft organ-pipe music)
53
00:10:30.304 --> 00:10:35.304
♪ Holy, holy ♪
54
00:10:37.051 --> 00:10:42.051
♪ Holy ♪
55
00:10:44.383 --> 00:10:47.300
♪ Holy is the Lord ♪
56
00:10:58.014 --> 00:11:03.014
♪ Holy, holy ♪
57
00:11:04.582 --> 00:11:09.582
♪ Holy ♪
58
00:11:11.749 --> 00:11:14.666
♪ Holy is the Lord ♪
59
00:11:25.538 --> 00:11:27.955
♪ He is holy ♪
60
00:11:37.965 --> 00:11:40.548
♪ Forever more ♪
61
00:11:50.303 --> 00:11:55.129
♪ I will my praise ♪
62
00:11:55.129 --> 00:12:00.129
♪ Him more ♪
63
00:12:01.995 --> 00:12:06.871
♪ I will praise ♪
64
00:12:06.871 --> 00:12:11.871
♪ His name ♪
65
00:12:14.182 --> 00:12:19.182
♪ Holy, holy ♪
66
00:12:20.579 --> 00:12:25.579
♪ Holy ♪
67
00:12:28.242 --> 00:12:31.159
♪ Holy is the Lord ♪
68
00:12:42.435 --> 00:12:47.435
♪ Holy, holy ♪
69
00:12:48.757 --> 00:12:53.757
♪ Holy ♪
70
00:12:56.175 --> 00:13:01.175
♪ Holy is ♪
71
00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:06.409
♪ The Lord ♪
72
00:13:10.206 --> 00:13:14.919
♪ Lord I will praise ♪
73
00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:17.169
♪ Him more ♪
74
00:13:32.363 --> 00:13:37.363
♪ Holy, holy ♪
75
00:13:38.654 --> 00:13:43.654
♪ Holy ♪
76
00:13:46.425 --> 00:13:49.342
♪ Holy is the Lord ♪
77
00:14:21.790 --> 00:14:26.700
Let us open our hearts and minds to the Word of God.
78
00:14:26.700 --> 00:14:29.880
The scripture this morning is taken from
79
00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:34.643
the third chapter of second Samuel versus 31 through 34.
80
00:14:35.990 --> 00:14:38.263
And the second chapter of first Kings.
81
00:14:42.957 --> 00:14:47.324
"Then David said to Joab and to all people
82
00:14:47.324 --> 00:14:48.933
who were with him,
83
00:14:49.850 --> 00:14:54.850
rend your clothes and gird on sack cloth,
84
00:14:55.060 --> 00:14:57.233
and mourn before Abner.
85
00:14:58.670 --> 00:15:02.053
And king David followed the bier.
86
00:15:03.370 --> 00:15:05.863
They buried Abner at Hebron,
87
00:15:06.870 --> 00:15:10.430
and the king lifted up his voice
88
00:15:10.430 --> 00:15:15.430
and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
89
00:15:18.020 --> 00:15:21.113
And the king lamented for Abner saying,
90
00:15:22.581 --> 00:15:26.000
'should Abner die as a fool dies?
91
00:15:27.830 --> 00:15:31.000
Your hands were not bound.
92
00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.503
Your feet were not fettered.
93
00:15:35.050 --> 00:15:39.747
As one falls before the wicked you have fallen.'
94
00:15:40.900 --> 00:15:43.817
And all the people wept again over him."
95
00:15:49.267 --> 00:15:52.660
"When David's time drew near,
96
00:15:52.660 --> 00:15:57.550
he charged Solomon, his son saying,
97
00:15:57.550 --> 00:16:01.603
I am about to go the way of all the earth.
98
00:16:03.350 --> 00:16:08.350
You know, also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me,
99
00:16:10.410 --> 00:16:13.420
how he dealt with the two commanders
100
00:16:13.420 --> 00:16:15.900
of the armies of Israel.
101
00:16:15.900 --> 00:16:17.653
Abner, the son of Ner,
102
00:16:18.546 --> 00:16:21.463
and Amasa the son of Jether,
103
00:16:22.450 --> 00:16:27.450
whom he murdered avenging in time of peace,
104
00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:30.733
blood which had been shed in war,
105
00:16:31.860 --> 00:16:34.150
and putting innocent blood
106
00:16:34.150 --> 00:16:36.673
upon the girdle about my loins,
107
00:16:37.550 --> 00:16:40.183
and upon the sandals on my feet.
108
00:16:41.470 --> 00:16:44.603
Act therefore according to your wisdom,
109
00:16:45.710 --> 00:16:50.710
but do not let his head go down to sheal in peace."
110
00:16:53.640 --> 00:16:55.283
Here ends the morning lesson.
111
00:16:56.752 --> 00:17:00.252
(bright organ-pipe music)
112
00:17:05.031 --> 00:17:07.531
(choir sings)
113
00:17:37.475 --> 00:17:40.475
Together, let us affirm our faith.
114
00:17:42.260 --> 00:17:47.090
We are not alone, we live in God's world.
115
00:17:47.090 --> 00:17:52.090
We believe in God who has created and is creating,
116
00:17:52.280 --> 00:17:55.120
who has come in the true man, Jesus,
117
00:17:55.120 --> 00:17:57.263
to reconcile and make new,
118
00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:01.213
who works in us and others by His spirit.
119
00:18:02.100 --> 00:18:03.900
We trust Him.
120
00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:06.980
He calls us to be in his church
121
00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:11.980
to celebrate his presence, to love and serve others,
122
00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:16.980
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified
123
00:18:17.360 --> 00:18:21.250
and risen, our judge and our hope,
124
00:18:21.250 --> 00:18:25.750
in life, in death, in life beyond death,
125
00:18:25.750 --> 00:18:29.820
God is with us, we are not alone,
126
00:18:29.820 --> 00:18:34.113
we believe in God, thanks be to God.
127
00:18:36.150 --> 00:18:37.850
The Lord be with you.
128
00:18:37.850 --> 00:18:39.410
And with the spirit.
129
00:18:39.410 --> 00:18:40.403
Let us pray.
130
00:18:51.690 --> 00:18:55.573
Oh God, our father, we thank and praise you for a new day.
131
00:18:58.010 --> 00:19:01.130
And a new time of worship in this place of beauty,
132
00:19:01.130 --> 00:19:04.213
of inspiration and of fellowship.
133
00:19:06.140 --> 00:19:09.613
We thank you for the life that stirs within each of us.
134
00:19:12.100 --> 00:19:16.823
For this beautiful world into which we go and in which move.
135
00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:23.010
For the work and the study you have given us to do
136
00:19:25.390 --> 00:19:28.343
for our friends and families.
137
00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:33.873
For music and books and good company,
138
00:19:34.940 --> 00:19:37.513
and all the good pleasures in life.
139
00:19:40.770 --> 00:19:43.003
Here our prayer we offer for others.
140
00:19:45.590 --> 00:19:46.753
We pray, oh God,
141
00:19:50.110 --> 00:19:54.123
for those in whom the pulse of life grows weak.
142
00:19:56.870 --> 00:20:01.473
For the sick, who miss the brightness of the day,
143
00:20:02.881 --> 00:20:05.873
and the moon light of the night.
144
00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:13.920
For the overworked, who take no time to relax
145
00:20:13.970 --> 00:20:15.993
and have no joy in leisure.
146
00:20:18.940 --> 00:20:23.150
For the unemployed, who have no labor,
147
00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:25.373
who have no joy of labor.
148
00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:32.073
In particular in this moment, oh God,
149
00:20:34.750 --> 00:20:39.373
We raise our prayers for peace in the Middle East.
150
00:20:41.180 --> 00:20:44.560
We do not understand all the complexities
151
00:20:44.560 --> 00:20:47.443
which cause war to be waged there.
152
00:20:49.110 --> 00:20:52.373
But we do understand that war is hell.
153
00:20:54.920 --> 00:20:59.243
That war brings death pain, brokenness,
154
00:21:01.470 --> 00:21:04.793
widows, and orphans.
155
00:21:06.460 --> 00:21:10.060
Help us to cry peace, peace,
156
00:21:10.060 --> 00:21:13.973
and someday, oh, God defined that there is peace.
157
00:21:18.290 --> 00:21:20.213
Also, oh God,
158
00:21:23.107 --> 00:21:27.907
in the confusion of leadership which has become our country,
159
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:35.680
may your will of truth and justice
160
00:21:36.870 --> 00:21:41.470
and righteousness become clear
161
00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:43.743
to our leaders.
162
00:21:46.010 --> 00:21:49.763
And may they follow your will.
163
00:21:53.820 --> 00:21:56.763
Hear oh, God our prayer, which we offer for our needs.
164
00:21:59.780 --> 00:22:04.780
Oh God, keep us from over indulgent, self-centeredness.
165
00:22:08.010 --> 00:22:10.943
From careless destruction of life and beauty.
166
00:22:13.970 --> 00:22:17.510
From intentional harm to this good earth,
167
00:22:17.510 --> 00:22:18.883
which you have given us.
168
00:22:24.010 --> 00:22:26.653
We realize we are human, oh, God.
169
00:22:28.813 --> 00:22:31.030
And we need not only our own power,
170
00:22:31.030 --> 00:22:34.533
but strength that comes from beyond us.
171
00:22:36.420 --> 00:22:39.773
Help us to grow in grace and in concern.
172
00:22:41.810 --> 00:22:46.810
As our minds grow wiser, make us kinder of heart.
173
00:22:48.550 --> 00:22:52.573
As our arms grow stronger, make our hearts deeper.
174
00:22:54.080 --> 00:22:59.080
As our world grows smaller, make our hearts larger.
175
00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:06.240
As our neighbor grows colder, make our hearts warmer.
176
00:23:10.230 --> 00:23:15.230
May we or God be persons who meet and fulfill
177
00:23:15.790 --> 00:23:20.300
our responsibilities in life with songs of joy and love
178
00:23:20.300 --> 00:23:25.300
and real caring as Jesus, our Lord came caring.
179
00:23:26.970 --> 00:23:31.970
May our lives also reflect his loving concern
180
00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.813
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
181
00:23:37.970 --> 00:23:42.970
these words are offered as our prayer
182
00:23:43.100 --> 00:23:46.453
for this moment, Amen.
183
00:23:52.490 --> 00:23:53.940
Our preacher for this morning
184
00:23:56.260 --> 00:23:57.913
is Dr. Karl Earl Magni.
185
00:24:01.570 --> 00:24:05.063
Theologian, philosopher,
186
00:24:07.030 --> 00:24:11.663
writer, interpreter of life,
187
00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:16.713
to a countless number of persons.
188
00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:21.983
Preacher of preachers.
189
00:24:24.070 --> 00:24:28.893
But above all, a warm human being,
190
00:24:30.860 --> 00:24:35.860
who knows we're on the path of life he is traveling
191
00:24:38.430 --> 00:24:43.430
And tries constantly to help others of us on that same road,
192
00:24:46.650 --> 00:24:49.723
to find meaning and assurance.
193
00:24:51.270 --> 00:24:55.620
It is a personal joy and a privilege for those of us
194
00:24:55.620 --> 00:25:00.620
who worship in this chapel to hear him,
195
00:25:01.610 --> 00:25:02.443
Dr. Magni.
196
00:25:11.802 --> 00:25:15.719
The Chaperone, I would be a delict to myself,
197
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:22.150
if I did not begin by expressing my infinite regard
198
00:25:22.150 --> 00:25:26.503
for this place and this people.
199
00:25:27.460 --> 00:25:32.130
I think I'd rather go to church here than any place
200
00:25:32.130 --> 00:25:35.453
I know now in this country.
201
00:25:36.800 --> 00:25:38.120
And if I did not express
202
00:25:38.120 --> 00:25:43.120
my tremendous personal satisfaction
203
00:25:43.500 --> 00:25:47.130
that working with the persons with whom I'm privileged
204
00:25:47.130 --> 00:25:50.110
to work briefly part of each week, one semester
205
00:25:50.110 --> 00:25:54.023
as a visiting guru of some sort.
206
00:25:56.920 --> 00:26:00.160
I have infinite regard for this place.
207
00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:03.443
Consequently, I'll do the latest thing I know.
208
00:26:04.310 --> 00:26:08.447
And the best thing I know anytime I come.
209
00:26:09.520 --> 00:26:12.453
And I'm grateful for the privilege of worshiping with you.
210
00:26:14.290 --> 00:26:19.150
I suppose the title as fools die seems stupid.
211
00:26:19.150 --> 00:26:22.493
It could read all fools die.
212
00:26:24.010 --> 00:26:26.753
Or it could read everybody dies.
213
00:26:28.010 --> 00:26:30.627
Or it could read all fools die.
214
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.303
All fools in the day of rath.
215
00:26:36.220 --> 00:26:39.690
For what I am concerned to get across
216
00:26:39.690 --> 00:26:44.690
is the inescapable morality of politics.
217
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:52.963
Anybody whose way of life is political gets it.
218
00:26:56.220 --> 00:27:00.240
Long years ago now Paul Sherason said,
219
00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:04.480
that four kinds of American religion ought to die
220
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:08.893
and they ought die, for they cannot help us.
221
00:27:10.120 --> 00:27:15.120
The merely intellectual, the merely emotional,
222
00:27:15.380 --> 00:27:19.860
the merely therapeutic with its medicine kit under its arm,
223
00:27:19.860 --> 00:27:21.573
and the merely moral.
224
00:27:23.130 --> 00:27:25.973
We had a birth of all of it lately.
225
00:27:26.830 --> 00:27:29.350
and especially as Meneger has put it,
226
00:27:29.350 --> 00:27:33.663
pastors aren't very good chief psychiatrists,
227
00:27:34.950 --> 00:27:38.510
we really aren't, and there's a great deal more
228
00:27:38.510 --> 00:27:39.923
for us to be.
229
00:27:40.950 --> 00:27:43.340
But who wouldn't wish for the death
230
00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:45.983
of all mere religion anyhow.
231
00:27:47.650 --> 00:27:50.273
Real religion is intellectual.
232
00:27:51.370 --> 00:27:53.980
It is emotional.
233
00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:57.260
It is always therapeutic.
234
00:27:57.260 --> 00:28:00.460
And as others have said here also,
235
00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:05.460
basically irrefragably religion is moral, really moral.
236
00:28:09.130 --> 00:28:12.853
And so is politics always moral.
237
00:28:14.120 --> 00:28:19.120
That is to say life as religious and life as political
238
00:28:19.570 --> 00:28:23.083
has something to do with character.
239
00:28:26.260 --> 00:28:29.580
All of the great novels in plays.
240
00:28:29.580 --> 00:28:34.080
All of the histories of dynasties in power are memories
241
00:28:34.080 --> 00:28:38.893
of the violation of a basic moral expectation.
242
00:28:41.130 --> 00:28:46.130
In particular, the pageant of the Kings of Israel in Judah
243
00:28:46.350 --> 00:28:50.960
is an epitome displayed against a backdrop
244
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:55.000
of moral expectation.
245
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.633
The violation of which is death.
246
00:28:59.120 --> 00:29:02.793
Now, if I were a Jacob Blue Vic Mendelson Bartore,
247
00:29:03.800 --> 00:29:06.660
I do with the rest of my life,
248
00:29:06.660 --> 00:29:09.653
a set of auditorials about this.
249
00:29:10.860 --> 00:29:15.283
I do a king Hezekiah for Woodrow Wilson.
250
00:29:17.130 --> 00:29:21.703
I do a Nebuchadnezzar for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
251
00:29:23.770 --> 00:29:27.913
I do a Tiglef Palizer III for Harry Truman.
252
00:29:29.710 --> 00:29:34.370
I do a sort of Midwestern Kansas Solomon
253
00:29:34.370 --> 00:29:36.143
for General Azin Howard.
254
00:29:38.140 --> 00:29:43.140
I do a tragic unrealized Jonathan,
255
00:29:43.340 --> 00:29:44.713
for John Kennedy.
256
00:29:46.070 --> 00:29:49.653
I do a gaunt dark but giant sow
257
00:29:52.020 --> 00:29:53.093
for Lyndon Johnson.
258
00:29:55.850 --> 00:29:59.210
And in the last of my auditorials,
259
00:29:59.210 --> 00:30:04.210
I'd leave king David in a office For Richard Nixon,
260
00:30:06.050 --> 00:30:09.423
With Abner and Joab in the front office.
261
00:30:13.270 --> 00:30:18.270
Indeed, I think in minor key now,
262
00:30:18.340 --> 00:30:23.340
I'd had a subset interlude on Ish Bashef for Spiral Agnew.
263
00:30:25.900 --> 00:30:29.090
But if you think, I mean to compliment by ascribing
264
00:30:29.090 --> 00:30:33.380
by David as I did, you simply do not know David
265
00:30:34.390 --> 00:30:36.860
or Abner, or Joab.
266
00:30:39.270 --> 00:30:42.940
The morale of the politician
267
00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:47.940
and the morals of the king are most safe
268
00:30:48.310 --> 00:30:53.310
when Abner and Joab occupy the front office.
269
00:30:54.660 --> 00:30:58.160
With Abner and Joab in the front office,
270
00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:01.793
the king doesn't have to know anything.
271
00:31:02.650 --> 00:31:06.230
He is safe, his morals are safe.
272
00:31:06.230 --> 00:31:10.320
King David can play his harp, sing his songs,
273
00:31:10.320 --> 00:31:13.410
dance before the altar, preach at the funerals,
274
00:31:13.410 --> 00:31:16.610
issue press releases, wait for his friends
275
00:31:16.610 --> 00:31:21.503
while Abner and Joab make his wheels go round.
276
00:31:24.140 --> 00:31:25.973
The morality of it is is,
277
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:31.680
David saw Abner die by knife
278
00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:34.630
as a fool dies he said.
279
00:31:34.630 --> 00:31:39.507
And his last word to Solomon condemned his Joab
280
00:31:40.760 --> 00:31:42.577
to the acts of Beniah.
281
00:31:46.260 --> 00:31:50.350
Until here of late, where was there ever a pair
282
00:31:50.350 --> 00:31:53.653
of administrators like Abner and Joab,
283
00:31:54.830 --> 00:31:59.830
nephews of Kings, 30 year career men of highest rank,
284
00:32:01.700 --> 00:32:06.700
one dispatched by his service of two small a principal,
285
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:13.210
the other act by putting functions so high,
286
00:32:13.210 --> 00:32:16.683
he lived on manipulated relation.
287
00:32:18.190 --> 00:32:21.323
Both days are utterly moral.
288
00:32:23.824 --> 00:32:26.033
Abner was a man of war.
289
00:32:27.140 --> 00:32:30.733
He had lived as a man of war and as a politician.
290
00:32:32.130 --> 00:32:36.560
He mixed his political techniques with war tactics
291
00:32:36.560 --> 00:32:41.560
at the Watergate in Gibeon where 12 against 12,
292
00:32:42.810 --> 00:32:45.710
they had fought with knives.
293
00:32:45.710 --> 00:32:50.710
And then he commanding general was maneuvered into killing
294
00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:56.420
a sub turn Lieutenant, insult of insults
295
00:32:56.420 --> 00:32:59.393
with the butt end of his spear.
296
00:33:00.710 --> 00:33:05.710
But the dead man was Asahel, little brother to Joab,
297
00:33:06.530 --> 00:33:09.133
his opposite number in politics.
298
00:33:10.570 --> 00:33:13.240
Now back to the merely political,
299
00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:17.080
having lived by sword and chicanery,
300
00:33:17.080 --> 00:33:20.930
Abner now wishes to live only on chicanery.
301
00:33:20.930 --> 00:33:25.930
So he took off his sword, he didn't wear his knife,
302
00:33:26.700 --> 00:33:31.360
he forgot his basic principle, his opposite number Joab,
303
00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:35.420
David's nephew, chief of staff.
304
00:33:35.420 --> 00:33:39.370
And he died with a knife of Joab in his belly
305
00:33:39.370 --> 00:33:43.003
at the gate, at his funeral David wept.
306
00:33:44.450 --> 00:33:48.630
For he needed Israel's Abner, and he said, Abner,
307
00:33:48.630 --> 00:33:53.630
you died as a fool dies from the morality of politics.
308
00:33:57.923 --> 00:34:01.393
And Joab, son of the David's sister,
309
00:34:02.320 --> 00:34:06.890
crew, chief, commando leader, top banana
310
00:34:06.890 --> 00:34:11.620
in David's bandit days long since army commander,
311
00:34:11.620 --> 00:34:16.100
trusted advisor, chief of staff to the king.
312
00:34:16.100 --> 00:34:20.500
He became willingly the servant of the back end
313
00:34:20.500 --> 00:34:23.063
of somebody else's virtue.
314
00:34:26.390 --> 00:34:30.620
Here David incubates King Louis 14,
315
00:34:30.620 --> 00:34:35.620
by some centuries for Louis to knew
316
00:34:36.030 --> 00:34:39.423
what one needs in the front office.
317
00:34:40.520 --> 00:34:45.363
And would say, I, my chancellor is a scandaler,
318
00:34:46.730 --> 00:34:49.683
but I cannot do without him.
319
00:34:52.380 --> 00:34:55.050
What if David is acting when he says in public,
320
00:34:55.050 --> 00:34:57.453
that Joab is too hard for him?
321
00:34:59.510 --> 00:35:03.010
What if Joab is not an independent operator,
322
00:35:03.010 --> 00:35:07.435
but is organically and functionally the backside
323
00:35:07.435 --> 00:35:09.493
of David's public virtue?
324
00:35:11.990 --> 00:35:16.420
What if the David-Joab relation is such that Joab will do
325
00:35:16.420 --> 00:35:21.313
what David wants, regardless of what David says he wants.
326
00:35:22.720 --> 00:35:27.033
What if Joab knew David needed Abner dead?
327
00:35:28.837 --> 00:35:31.333
In spite of David's tears at the funeral,
328
00:35:32.690 --> 00:35:37.033
See Joab grinning In the wings.
329
00:35:39.010 --> 00:35:43.413
What if in spite of David's gentle terms for Rayma,
330
00:35:43.413 --> 00:35:46.060
Joab knew David wanted no more threat
331
00:35:46.060 --> 00:35:49.350
from that troublesome quarter.
332
00:35:49.350 --> 00:35:53.930
So he Joab would destroy all evidence of David's complicity
333
00:35:53.930 --> 00:35:57.640
in the death of Uriah, by making seemed to have been
334
00:35:57.640 --> 00:36:02.640
so vicious a fight, that the cry no quarter
335
00:36:03.330 --> 00:36:04.763
was justified.
336
00:36:06.170 --> 00:36:11.030
What if Joab is so near as David's backside
337
00:36:11.970 --> 00:36:14.523
that he knew that Absalom had to die.
338
00:36:15.720 --> 00:36:20.720
Even while the king weeping on the rooftop at Mahanaim,
339
00:36:21.190 --> 00:36:25.323
had ordered, don't you hurt that young man.
340
00:36:26.430 --> 00:36:30.430
See Joab slither out the limb of the Terrabens.
341
00:36:30.430 --> 00:36:35.430
And with his hand, no bull, just with his hand,
342
00:36:35.690 --> 00:36:39.733
first, an arrow into the throat, to the rioting Absalom.
343
00:36:41.500 --> 00:36:45.000
That was never until lately a front man,
344
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:46.557
like Joab, it worked.
345
00:36:50.417 --> 00:36:53.703
Never shall trusted and administrator.
346
00:36:54.620 --> 00:36:59.090
Never so fear, sidekick so faithful as steward
347
00:36:59.090 --> 00:37:02.623
until I after 30 chapters or so.
348
00:37:03.720 --> 00:37:04.923
The X,
349
00:37:07.170 --> 00:37:09.233
the morality of politics,
350
00:37:11.310 --> 00:37:14.863
King David on his deathbed sings for Solomon,
351
00:37:15.890 --> 00:37:19.137
I am about to go the way of all the earth.
352
00:37:19.984 --> 00:37:23.533
You what Joab did to me,
353
00:37:24.770 --> 00:37:29.040
how he used the tools of war in my front office
354
00:37:29.040 --> 00:37:30.993
in a time of peace.
355
00:37:33.540 --> 00:37:36.883
How he put innocent blood on my girdle.
356
00:37:38.090 --> 00:37:43.033
Don't let his head go down to the grave in peace.
357
00:37:44.850 --> 00:37:49.850
Last shot, Joab clinging
358
00:37:49.940 --> 00:37:52.230
to the horns of the altar
359
00:37:52.230 --> 00:37:54.540
in the tent of the Lord,
360
00:37:54.540 --> 00:37:59.540
before Beniah sent to axe him in the head
361
00:38:02.290 --> 00:38:04.433
and succeed him as commander.
362
00:38:05.850 --> 00:38:08.770
For politics like religion
363
00:38:09.980 --> 00:38:13.881
is moral when it's real.
364
00:38:13.881 --> 00:38:16.430
(speaks foreign language)
365
00:38:16.430 --> 00:38:19.663
Is it all really so moral, reverend?
366
00:38:21.600 --> 00:38:25.590
Can you really expect a modern audience in such a center
367
00:38:25.590 --> 00:38:28.873
to be receptive to such a dictum as that.
368
00:38:30.090 --> 00:38:34.590
Politics is immoral, unmoral, non-moral,
369
00:38:34.590 --> 00:38:36.760
beyond morals and unmoral,
370
00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:39.363
but it's hardly ever moral long.
371
00:38:40.200 --> 00:38:44.170
Of course, and everything dies
372
00:38:44.170 --> 00:38:47.370
not just us fools I know that.
373
00:38:48.447 --> 00:38:52.760
But it all adds up to a moral set of moral alternatives
374
00:38:52.760 --> 00:38:56.570
for life and living for of politics like religion
375
00:38:56.570 --> 00:38:59.960
is always moral in its nature.
376
00:38:59.960 --> 00:39:03.610
So it simply means that politics and religion
377
00:39:03.610 --> 00:39:07.230
are dimensions of human life, so much a like
378
00:39:07.230 --> 00:39:11.030
that each is a medium through which and within
379
00:39:11.030 --> 00:39:13.440
which mans real nature
380
00:39:14.560 --> 00:39:19.353
is always crippled or blessed.
381
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:24.100
And the moral effect aspect is that he man,
382
00:39:27.720 --> 00:39:32.383
has choices and is responsible.
383
00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:41.400
Then if Abner and Joab political supreme to say to us,
384
00:39:43.097 --> 00:39:45.850
"Are you trying to say that we should live like characters
385
00:39:45.850 --> 00:39:50.850
in gun smoke, that we should watch out for our enemies,
386
00:39:52.110 --> 00:39:54.360
that we should throw away all pocket knives
387
00:39:54.360 --> 00:39:59.060
and search all our house guests, not at all."
388
00:39:59.060 --> 00:40:03.080
I mean, only to say that life itself is moral
389
00:40:03.080 --> 00:40:06.570
and that neither in religion nor politics,
390
00:40:06.570 --> 00:40:11.570
can a man expect more than life from life
391
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:16.053
than his basic principle can deliver.
392
00:40:18.100 --> 00:40:20.203
He works most everywhere.
393
00:40:21.600 --> 00:40:25.350
Those who see marriage as a mere meeting of emotional needs
394
00:40:25.350 --> 00:40:29.190
must prepared for changing needs to over spill the relation
395
00:40:29.190 --> 00:40:30.720
and dissolve the marriage,
396
00:40:30.720 --> 00:40:32.833
for marriage is a moral commitment.
397
00:40:34.940 --> 00:40:37.430
Those who live utterly on material principles
398
00:40:37.430 --> 00:40:40.333
ought not to expect spiritual rewards.
399
00:40:42.200 --> 00:40:46.080
Those whose creed put self at center must be prepared
400
00:40:46.080 --> 00:40:49.963
to endure a life that finds its limit at that center.
401
00:40:50.980 --> 00:40:54.480
Those whose principle is psychological behaviorism need
402
00:40:54.480 --> 00:40:57.513
to expect little from unconditioned love.
403
00:41:00.020 --> 00:41:03.300
Those who bet on a naturalistic determinism
404
00:41:03.300 --> 00:41:07.383
should not require themselves to do free acts of decision.
405
00:41:10.160 --> 00:41:15.160
If you limit me to optimistic humanism, forget immortality.
406
00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:20.170
If your origins are really contained
407
00:41:20.170 --> 00:41:23.343
in scientific materialism,
408
00:41:24.470 --> 00:41:28.523
quit bothering these gurus about the inner life.
409
00:41:30.530 --> 00:41:32.960
What is your basic principle?
410
00:41:32.960 --> 00:41:37.907
It will determine as it did with Abner, what you get.
411
00:41:39.940 --> 00:41:42.033
In political religion it means,
412
00:41:43.300 --> 00:41:45.060
that those who model their church
413
00:41:45.060 --> 00:41:48.470
on the American business community must not look
414
00:41:48.470 --> 00:41:52.820
for the new Jerusalem to come down or of it isn't coming,
415
00:41:52.820 --> 00:41:54.123
it's already here.
416
00:41:55.890 --> 00:41:57.943
In the religion of politics,
417
00:41:59.180 --> 00:42:02.820
it means that if my basic principle,
418
00:42:02.820 --> 00:42:07.400
my wearing of the sword is loyalty.
419
00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:09.833
If loyalty is my virtue,
420
00:42:10.900 --> 00:42:15.253
I better hope that the object of my loyalty stays in power.
421
00:42:18.350 --> 00:42:23.350
If I live for control, I must not expect love for it.
422
00:42:26.210 --> 00:42:30.570
If my character is conformity,
423
00:42:30.570 --> 00:42:34.693
I must not expect creativity of me.
424
00:42:35.740 --> 00:42:40.740
If my God is always deemed right,
425
00:42:40.760 --> 00:42:45.203
I should not look for any much good out of it.
426
00:42:46.750 --> 00:42:49.923
Is innocence my prime virtue?
427
00:42:50.950 --> 00:42:53.643
I'd better not look for accomplishment to.
428
00:42:55.980 --> 00:42:59.803
Is the political God of the country power?
429
00:43:01.140 --> 00:43:04.143
Then forget peace as a prospect.
430
00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:10.440
No country has ever had both dominance and loving neighbors.
431
00:43:13.360 --> 00:43:18.360
If it's Caesars, Jesus, has said to have said,
432
00:43:18.590 --> 00:43:19.573
give it to him.
433
00:43:21.640 --> 00:43:25.040
But it meant no separation of state and church,
434
00:43:25.040 --> 00:43:27.547
politics and religion have done.
435
00:43:29.060 --> 00:43:34.060
The two kingdoms represent all categories used by Augustine,
436
00:43:35.460 --> 00:43:38.913
the Roman church, and not abandoned the even by Luther,
437
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:42.443
our present day, political protestants.
438
00:43:44.060 --> 00:43:46.860
None of that two kingdoms business really holds
439
00:43:46.860 --> 00:43:50.370
for politics or religion.
440
00:43:50.370 --> 00:43:55.060
Calvin made no such mistake,
441
00:43:55.060 --> 00:43:58.730
one kingdom, and he knew who should rule
442
00:43:59.890 --> 00:44:04.020
and where his oracle could be heard,
443
00:44:04.020 --> 00:44:06.860
Though Jonathan Swift would later characterize
444
00:44:06.860 --> 00:44:10.500
the Scottish version as the emission
445
00:44:10.500 --> 00:44:15.483
of oracular belches delivered before panting disciples.
446
00:44:18.210 --> 00:44:21.550
But the real point here is that my basic principle
447
00:44:22.620 --> 00:44:26.230
had better be broad enough to contain what I have ordered
448
00:44:26.230 --> 00:44:31.210
from politics, for that base will determine the nature
449
00:44:31.210 --> 00:44:33.223
of my gathering in.
450
00:44:34.200 --> 00:44:38.460
Jesus illustrates this with his least understood parable,
451
00:44:38.460 --> 00:44:41.363
about a manager that got it in the nick.
452
00:44:42.540 --> 00:44:45.570
And to which the object of the parable was,
453
00:44:45.570 --> 00:44:50.570
if I live by the book, I had better be the book keeper.
454
00:44:52.570 --> 00:44:56.940
For the man out front is dispensable, disposable
455
00:44:56.940 --> 00:45:01.940
and vulnerable, especially in the religion of politics.
456
00:45:03.860 --> 00:45:08.860
And the religiopolitics of life and living,
457
00:45:09.170 --> 00:45:10.423
it's all the same.
458
00:45:11.460 --> 00:45:14.570
If you goal is to be harmless as a dove,
459
00:45:14.570 --> 00:45:19.010
you really will need the wisdom of a snake as a base,
460
00:45:19.010 --> 00:45:21.053
for politics gets rough.
461
00:45:23.240 --> 00:45:27.140
And if you are going to live on grace,
462
00:45:27.140 --> 00:45:32.140
you had better come to terms with responsible guilt.
463
00:45:32.780 --> 00:45:34.893
It's too late to be innocent.
464
00:45:36.760 --> 00:45:38.550
Better take a look at the morality
465
00:45:38.550 --> 00:45:40.303
of religiopolitical life.
466
00:45:41.840 --> 00:45:46.810
A childhood vow too narrow, really constricts.
467
00:45:49.010 --> 00:45:53.110
A man who models himself on a warped and twisted leader
468
00:45:53.110 --> 00:45:56.123
will be himself warped and twisted.
469
00:45:57.940 --> 00:46:02.940
A person whose cultural values are local and regional,
470
00:46:03.150 --> 00:46:08.083
Harvard Yard, or Southwest Texas Teachers College,
471
00:46:09.430 --> 00:46:13.423
both are too local, you may count on it.
472
00:46:16.250 --> 00:46:19.940
For the business of your living will end up by reflecting
473
00:46:19.940 --> 00:46:21.843
what you have really treasured.
474
00:46:23.080 --> 00:46:28.080
Poor Abner, he thought Joab had become civilized.
475
00:46:30.350 --> 00:46:33.713
He thought the ground rules had changed.
476
00:46:34.600 --> 00:46:37.173
He forgot to wear his basic principle,
477
00:46:39.150 --> 00:46:44.103
This as Paul Tilik knew and said really is your life.
478
00:46:45.230 --> 00:46:49.500
The shape of your ultimate concern is that shape
479
00:46:49.500 --> 00:46:54.500
you really live by and for this indeed is faith,
480
00:46:55.380 --> 00:46:57.543
your ultimate care.
481
00:47:01.220 --> 00:47:02.943
At this point in time,
482
00:47:05.570 --> 00:47:08.223
when I was writing yesterday, this piece.
483
00:47:09.420 --> 00:47:12.840
Through my window at Carolina Inn,
484
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:17.840
I could see old man Sam Irwin, loading a thin suit bag
485
00:47:18.910 --> 00:47:21.593
in the back end of an old blue Chrysler,
486
00:47:23.220 --> 00:47:26.743
headed up the Hills to Morganton, I suppose.
487
00:47:29.290 --> 00:47:32.650
In spite of his voting record on the social issues
488
00:47:32.650 --> 00:47:35.713
I have supported and he didn't.
489
00:47:36.750 --> 00:47:41.750
He reminds me that there's a different kind of politics
490
00:47:41.900 --> 00:47:43.303
and political living.
491
00:47:45.190 --> 00:47:50.190
He would not change places within any chief in Washington.
492
00:47:52.870 --> 00:47:55.543
For there's a different way to be political.
493
00:47:57.820 --> 00:48:02.820
Two Yankee visitors passed my open window at the same time,
494
00:48:03.080 --> 00:48:07.067
one stretched and said,
495
00:48:07.067 --> 00:48:12.067
"The air is really different down here in the south."
496
00:48:14.600 --> 00:48:16.223
So mode it be.
497
00:48:18.340 --> 00:48:23.340
But we've a lot to face as religio-political persons
498
00:48:23.420 --> 00:48:28.193
now alive who are moral and there is a higher way.
499
00:48:29.770 --> 00:48:32.840
In the realm of political public religion,
500
00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:35.580
whether civic or folk religion,
501
00:48:35.580 --> 00:48:39.870
there's simply no way that the institutional church can talk
502
00:48:39.870 --> 00:48:44.540
its way out of the fix into which we've come in the sixth
503
00:48:44.540 --> 00:48:48.290
and seventh decades of the 20th century.
504
00:48:48.290 --> 00:48:53.270
And the issue really lies where Jesus put it,
505
00:48:53.270 --> 00:48:56.670
God or mammon translated.
506
00:48:56.670 --> 00:49:00.520
It means humanity or security,
507
00:49:00.520 --> 00:49:03.080
people or property,
508
00:49:03.080 --> 00:49:07.890
and the awful fact remains the only institutional church,
509
00:49:07.890 --> 00:49:12.060
more helpless than the church without people,
510
00:49:12.060 --> 00:49:16.930
but property is the church without property,
511
00:49:16.930 --> 00:49:19.203
which has lots of people.
512
00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:24.813
There's really not much room to play around with this.
513
00:49:24.813 --> 00:49:26.913
And of all the religious,
514
00:49:28.180 --> 00:49:31.480
the pastor is in the middle tempted
515
00:49:31.480 --> 00:49:33.463
toward the lower politics.
516
00:49:35.510 --> 00:49:38.533
It covers him with a virtual necessity,
517
00:49:39.410 --> 00:49:44.410
to use relations in such a manipulative way as to guarantee
518
00:49:44.570 --> 00:49:47.573
the function that supports the total enterprise.
519
00:49:49.940 --> 00:49:53.320
The threat here of the lower joy of politics
520
00:49:54.200 --> 00:49:58.990
is that I may very well anywhere I work,
521
00:49:58.990 --> 00:50:03.143
become the backside of somebody's virtue.
522
00:50:05.060 --> 00:50:09.500
I may have been hired to make somebody look good
523
00:50:09.500 --> 00:50:12.340
or somebody's class look good,
524
00:50:12.340 --> 00:50:14.400
and that's rough to live with
525
00:50:15.500 --> 00:50:18.043
unless you happen to like this sort of thing,
526
00:50:20.518 --> 00:50:21.873
the higher politics.
527
00:50:23.970 --> 00:50:26.760
Only those religious institutions which have changed
528
00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:30.750
neither theology, their ecclesiology,
529
00:50:30.750 --> 00:50:33.550
their social ideas, nor their customs.
530
00:50:33.550 --> 00:50:36.770
Only those that have really served their bunch,
531
00:50:36.770 --> 00:50:40.383
their class only these have stayed solvent,
532
00:50:41.800 --> 00:50:43.900
Some even prosper.
533
00:50:43.900 --> 00:50:47.290
And what kind of backside of virtue is that?
534
00:50:48.820 --> 00:50:52.253
It's as if to opt for mammon breeds mammon.
535
00:50:53.330 --> 00:50:57.503
It's as if money is only worth its power.
536
00:50:58.990 --> 00:51:01.360
And believe me, it has been used for power,
537
00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:04.943
the awful power of withholding life.
538
00:51:06.260 --> 00:51:11.260
The iniquitous, ubiquitous temptation for all relig youth
539
00:51:11.610 --> 00:51:15.460
is to get with it, to throw your weight on the side
540
00:51:15.460 --> 00:51:16.693
of the power.
541
00:51:17.540 --> 00:51:21.440
To pick up one skirt and tiptoe gingerly across
542
00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:26.440
this long muddy flat, until some catastrophe changes
543
00:51:26.630 --> 00:51:29.750
the political mind of the churches and puts us out
544
00:51:29.750 --> 00:51:32.530
in the streets where we belong.
545
00:51:32.530 --> 00:51:37.207
But the temptation of the lower politics is still to go
546
00:51:37.207 --> 00:51:42.207
for the support of the buggy, and let others choose, turned,
547
00:51:43.740 --> 00:51:46.433
and drive the horses to death.
548
00:51:47.620 --> 00:51:49.603
There must be a better way to be.
549
00:51:53.010 --> 00:51:56.620
The old Senator was backing out now,
550
00:51:56.620 --> 00:52:01.453
to head across the Piedmont, another week done.
551
00:52:03.830 --> 00:52:06.500
In my heart, I wished him out my window
552
00:52:07.829 --> 00:52:08.773
a safe journey.
553
00:52:10.700 --> 00:52:12.770
And I didn't call out the open window
554
00:52:12.770 --> 00:52:15.490
as I really wanted to do,
555
00:52:15.490 --> 00:52:18.143
bravo! Bravo!
556
00:52:19.850 --> 00:52:23.610
But his late example presses me to offer
557
00:52:23.610 --> 00:52:27.110
an alternative prospect to the knife
558
00:52:28.050 --> 00:52:31.650
and the axe of Abner and Joab.
559
00:52:33.600 --> 00:52:36.533
It's for all of us, it's in the Book.
560
00:52:38.200 --> 00:52:42.763
What if your eye, your self regard and confidence,
561
00:52:43.630 --> 00:52:48.630
whoever you are is so high that you really do not have
562
00:52:49.730 --> 00:52:52.983
to stay as and where you are.
563
00:52:55.470 --> 00:52:58.980
What if God really does have other folks,
564
00:52:58.980 --> 00:53:02.363
other villages, where you can work?
565
00:53:04.930 --> 00:53:09.930
What if Caesar's share of things really is just a penny.
566
00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:19.163
What if there really is no secular holy dichotomy,
567
00:53:20.420 --> 00:53:23.823
and God Almighty has access to whatever he might want.
568
00:53:26.570 --> 00:53:30.387
What if your real worth is in your being
569
00:53:30.387 --> 00:53:35.387
and your having been, and your will be,
570
00:53:35.460 --> 00:53:38.603
more than it's in what you have or what you do.
571
00:53:41.280 --> 00:53:45.810
What if your prime gift is a of relations
572
00:53:46.820 --> 00:53:50.800
with brothers, sisters, fellows,
573
00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:54.183
and there is no thing you must be.
574
00:53:56.330 --> 00:54:00.857
What if your life really is a personal affair,
575
00:54:02.600 --> 00:54:06.093
not a professional thing at all?
576
00:54:07.800 --> 00:54:11.510
What if no rank or place or station
577
00:54:11.510 --> 00:54:16.143
can give me anything to keep?
578
00:54:19.770 --> 00:54:23.083
What if dear A.C. Reed was right when he says,
579
00:54:24.420 --> 00:54:27.236
in the Duke lectures years ago,
580
00:54:27.236 --> 00:54:31.267
"whatever you earn nature will collect."
581
00:54:35.190 --> 00:54:40.190
What if a life lived is my only word
582
00:54:40.430 --> 00:54:42.613
and that is moral.
583
00:54:45.070 --> 00:54:48.560
What if the issue really is God or Mammon,
584
00:54:48.560 --> 00:54:52.000
humanity or security people, or property,
585
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:54.773
and God has got all the artillery.
586
00:54:57.540 --> 00:55:01.313
What if money is really means of loving or not loving?
587
00:55:03.570 --> 00:55:06.910
And what if really not one stone shall be left on top
588
00:55:06.910 --> 00:55:10.253
of another of any house we have built to God.
589
00:55:12.490 --> 00:55:17.490
What if God's flock all did have and always
590
00:55:17.660 --> 00:55:22.660
will have more lambs than it has rams,
591
00:55:25.550 --> 00:55:27.560
and there's only a few old rams
592
00:55:27.560 --> 00:55:31.023
a man has to share by hand in his lifetime.
593
00:55:33.930 --> 00:55:37.940
That's to say, what if he did say to Simon Peter,
594
00:55:37.940 --> 00:55:42.710
that third time feed the lambs,
595
00:55:42.710 --> 00:55:45.770
meaning that power does not matter much,
596
00:55:45.770 --> 00:55:49.063
the rams are old and will die.
597
00:55:51.200 --> 00:55:56.170
What if my real political life is of the same stuff
598
00:55:56.170 --> 00:55:59.810
as all the fellows I work with and for,
599
00:55:59.810 --> 00:56:03.630
and that I am expected to understand this is moral
600
00:56:03.630 --> 00:56:06.893
and cannot evade it by my mere bookkeeping.
601
00:56:08.280 --> 00:56:12.550
What if God Almighty won't marry mammon because
602
00:56:12.550 --> 00:56:15.243
He doesn't like or need mammon.
603
00:56:16.360 --> 00:56:18.503
And I can't pull it together.
604
00:56:19.370 --> 00:56:24.370
And my in house church roof really does fall in out of it.
605
00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:29.313
It's happened before.
606
00:56:31.380 --> 00:56:35.800
What if true politics requires me to opt for people
607
00:56:35.800 --> 00:56:38.890
where they could be instead of where
608
00:56:38.890 --> 00:56:42.393
our frozen institutions have kept them.
609
00:56:44.250 --> 00:56:49.250
What if gospel really is political, and is too tough,
610
00:56:49.430 --> 00:56:53.883
and too expensive, and too liberal, to be lightly taken.
611
00:56:55.090 --> 00:56:57.620
And what if I really do have
612
00:56:57.620 --> 00:57:02.620
to choose Joab, Abner, axe or knife,
613
00:57:04.350 --> 00:57:06.633
or is there not a higher way?
614
00:57:08.270 --> 00:57:13.270
What if the politics of life is inescapably moral?
615
00:57:16.910 --> 00:57:18.923
There's a life one way,
616
00:57:20.650 --> 00:57:24.263
and the horns of Joab's alter the other way.
617
00:57:25.360 --> 00:57:27.283
For hey, hey you,
618
00:57:29.320 --> 00:57:33.573
we are a people who really do know better.
619
00:57:36.700 --> 00:57:40.540
We know a way toward an ultimate earth
620
00:57:42.700 --> 00:57:44.683
and we are responsible,
621
00:57:46.930 --> 00:57:50.063
and politics is moral,
622
00:57:53.270 --> 00:57:56.913
just like life and living.
623
00:57:59.496 --> 00:58:00.329
Amen.
624
00:58:18.170 --> 00:58:21.670
(Bright organ-pipe music)
625
00:59:09.907 --> 00:59:12.407
(choir sings)
626
01:02:06.500 --> 01:02:09.820
Let me say just a word about an announcement
627
01:02:09.820 --> 01:02:12.350
you find in the bulletin this morning
628
01:02:15.070 --> 01:02:18.643
concerning the friends of the chapel.
629
01:02:20.772 --> 01:02:23.170
A number of people have talked with me
630
01:02:25.429 --> 01:02:26.762
about this item.
631
01:02:29.021 --> 01:02:32.604
(speaking indistinctively)