dcrau002217001.wav / Creighton Lacy - "From Being Anxious or Secure" (December 2, 1962) / Duke Digital Repository

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Let us pray.

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Hear us, oh, here us Lord,

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to thee a sinner is more music,

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When he prays than spheres' or angels'.

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Praises is be in panegyric alleluias.

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Hear us, for till thou hear us, Lord.

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We know not what to say.

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Amen.

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The words which we have just prayed,

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are from the litany of John Donne,

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one of the earliest and most brilliant of English poets.

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He lived at the time of Shakespeare,

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and wrote some of the finest love songs of his age,

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and yet he was also strange as it may seem a parish priest,

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and the author of a great many prayers and hymns.

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My text today is taken from another stanza of the litany,

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which reads,

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from being anxious, or secure.

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Dull clods of sadness, or light squibs of mirth.

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From needing danger, to be good,

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from owing thee yesterday's tears today.

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From bribing Thee with alms,

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to excuse some sin more burdenous.

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Good Lord, deliver us.

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From being anxious, or secure.

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Good Lord deliver us.

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Those two words, anxious or secure

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sound like a contradiction.

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How often we pray that we may lose our anxiety,

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and find security,

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that we may replace,

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worry with trust and certainty.

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Nevertheless,

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this prayer that God will deliver us from both anxiety,

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and security, is more even than divine paradox.

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It is a profound blending of truth,

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and faith, as important in our daily lives,

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as in our Christian gospel.

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The anxieties of undergraduate days loom large,

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dates and grades and money in that order,

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but let the voice of experience assure you paranthetically,

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that amid these Gothic towers,

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you have more security, than you will ever have again.

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we are all familiar with two commandments of Jesus,

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not to be worried or anxious,

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to those of us who presume however,

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unworthly to stand in his pulpit.

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He says, "when they deliver you up",

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and believe me anyone standing on

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this spot in duke chapel, feels delivered up.

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"When they deliver you up, do not be anxious,

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how you are to speak or what you are to say,

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for what you are to say will be given to you in,

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that hour for it is not you who speak,

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but the spirit of your father speaking through you."

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Some of us preachers, unfortunately,

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do not take these words of the master, seriously enough,

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with the result that the message from God is buried,

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under polished language and clever illustrations,

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but all of us have heard other speakers who take,

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this assurance too literally,

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and stand up in the pulpit with nothing to say,

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nothing, at least that sounds

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like the spirit of the heavenly father speaking through us,

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but all of us in our

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everyday speech need to think about this verse, however.

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The opportunities to witness for Christ do not always occur

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in public meetings.

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As Christians, we need to ask ourselves constantly,

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whether in the classroom,

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or on the football field.

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In the laboratory,

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or in the office.

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In dealing with our roommates or with the janitors.

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The words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts

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are acceptable in the sight of God,

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our strength and our Redeemer.

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But, there is an even more familiar,

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yet perplexing assurance.

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Do not be anxious about your life,

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what you shall eat,

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or what you shall drink,

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nor about your body, what you shall put on.

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Your heavenly father knows

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that you need them all.

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Seek first, his kingdom and his righteousness,

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and all these things shall be yours as well.

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Be not therefore anxious for the Morrow,

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for the Morrow will be anxious for itself.

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We who call ourselves practical moderns,

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find this disturbing to say the least.

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It's a natural human concern to,

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wanna know where the next dollar is coming from.

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Imagine my astonishment,

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the other day to see a student sending off a money order.

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I had assumed that it was a one-way traffic

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from thousands of parents into Duke Station,

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but it's only sensible and realistic

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to keep sufficient savings for a rainy day.

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It's simple common sense to,

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"go to the ant thou sluggard,

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consider her ways and be wise",

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as the book of Proverbs advises.

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It's good American tradition to admire frugality,

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and thrift than hard work.

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In fact, as Horace Greeley, who put it,

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"The darkest hour of any man's life is,

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when he sits down to plan

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how to get money without earning it."

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Yet, beyond our selfish concerns,

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Jesus' words here,

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pose the searching problem of other people's suffering.

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We cannot believe,

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that all human beings throughout the world,

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who starved or thirst or freeze are evil,

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we cannot maintain as Christians that,

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poverty and misery are always the fault of the victims.

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It seems that best around about kind of justice to seek

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the Kingdom of Heaven and expect,

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that all our material needs will be added unto us.

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One clue is given in the new testament epistles.

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According to my small Bible concordance,

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the noun anxiety occurs only twice.

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The first letter of Peter says,

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"humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

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that He may exalt you in due time casting all your anxiety

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upon Him, because he cares for you."

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All of us, I venture to say,

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I prayed for deliverance from anxiety,

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of all forms of suffering.

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Worry is perhaps the most widespread,

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one of the hardest to bare,

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often costly and its effect,

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and probably the most unnecessary.

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So I say this,

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with full awareness of approaching examinations.

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when anxiety becomes extreme,

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it takes the dreadful form of panic,

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and fear may be paralyzing,

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and crippling at the very time

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when we need strength of body and clarity of mind.

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We admit that fruitless, faceless worry

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is either annoying disease or a soul searing sin,

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and we have all felt in time of crisis,

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large or small,

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the relief,

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the freedom,

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the peace of casting,

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all our anxiety upon God, who cares for us,

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but there is another kind of anxiety from,

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which we should never be free.

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The reaction which we usually speak of

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with a better word, concern.

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Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

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"besides those things, which are without,

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there is that which presses upon me daily,

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anxiety for all the churches."

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How deeply all of us feel that kind of concern of intervals

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for our families and friends,

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how deeply as Christians,

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we ought to feel that kind of anxiety

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for the churches of the world,

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those under prosecution,

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and more subtle pressures,

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or those which in complete freedom,

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deny their Lord by denying brotherhood.

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Rabbi leibman, reminded us in his bestseller, peace of mind,

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"that our susceptibility to anxiety is

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the soil of our human growth."

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Let us never pray to be delivered from the kind of concern

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that produces progress and creativity.

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Fear of disease, such as polio and cancer

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inspires us to seek for causes and for cures.

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Fear of war, may someday lead mankind to build

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a world of justice and brotherhood.

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Fear of poverty is inducing many nations

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to embark on great social and economic experiments,

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along many lines.

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These efforts, which we in America call social security,

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turn our thoughts now toward

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that other word of John Donne,

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"from being secure, good Lord deliver us."

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Why should we pray to be delivered from feeling secure?

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Is security not the one thing

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that frees us in turn from anxiety?

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Can we not confidently affirm

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that the world will guarantee us anxiety,

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but our faith in God provides security.

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It's not as simple as that.

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Speaking of social security,

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a prominent preacher said in

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the Christian century sometime ago,

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"its' extension has been one of

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the greatest acts of justice in our history.

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It is a convincing affirmation

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that a nation's wealth and responsibility is its' people,"

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but the same writer continued,

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"yet, the quest for security can be distorted

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and perverted until it becomes the exclusive aim in life,

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blocking out nearly everything else,"

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and he told up a New Yorker cartoon in

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which a man is proposing to a girl, in these words,

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"I have a good basic salary with escalator clause,

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social security and diamond insurance,

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old age benefits, unemployment compensation,

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and the pension plan.

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When you marry me?"

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Now, the tragic conclusion is

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that most modern girls would jump eagerly

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at such a proposal.

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For security today,

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so often takes precedence,

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over love or kindness or understanding.

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Sometime ago I had a visit

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from a brand new graduate of this institution.

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Who had always dreamed of studying for the law,

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but because he had a wife and baby daughter,

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he was abandoning that dream,

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and sat around in the barber shop,

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waiting for replies from his job applications

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to big industrial firms across the country,

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which could guarantee him security and steady income.

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From sacrificing our dreams,

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from letting our courage rust,

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from being base secure.

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Oh Lord, deliver us.

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Or, take the military phase of our 20th century life.

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In my college day,

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the phrase collective security was in every headline

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and in every foreign policy debate,

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it is heard less frequently today,

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but the idea is inherent in the United Nations

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and in mutual assistance treaties.

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The agreement on which NATO

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and the European Defense Community rest

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was originally called the Atlantic Security Pact.

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When it was signed,

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the realistic journalism of life magazine commented.

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"It is a military Alliance,

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an instrument of security,

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it has already made

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and will continue to make

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for more, not less tension in the world."

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Yet the nuclear age confirms an ancient truth,

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that there is no such thing as absolute security,

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and any nation which undertakes it

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will become a Garrison state,

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or a bankrupt state or both.

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Similarly, the fourth national study conference on

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the churches and world order warned,

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"according to the Christian gospel,

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nations, as well as men that are concerned solely

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with security and self-defense,

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lose even these."

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When we seek simply to have security,

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we get into a vicious circle.

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We never have enough.

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So it is with all our efforts to achieve security in

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this life, they make for more, rather than less tension.

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What about the religious field?

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We think instantly of the great Psalms of trust and comfort

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and faith, other names for security,

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yet for us to call ourselves Christians,

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it may be shocking to discover

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that all the biblical references to anxious or anxiety

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are in the new Testament,

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and all the references to secure or security

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are in the old Testament,

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And another fact of the four or five times

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that the noun security appears in

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the American revised version,

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all are unfavorable or dangerous,

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not something admirable.

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In Judges.

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The people that were there in dwelled in security,

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for there was none in the land possessing authority,

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and they had no dealings with any man.

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Security, in those terms then was the kind of hibernation

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as undesirable as it is impossible in

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this modern world,

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as proof of the poor quality of this type of security.

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The king James version translates

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the phrase they dwelt careless.

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The second passage in job, begins hopefully,

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"God giveth the mighty to be in security,

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and they rest thereon,"

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but it goes on to say,

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"they are exalted.

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yet a little while and they are gone.

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Yea, they are brought low.

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They are taken out of the way as all others."

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Here is a clear-cut warning to people of our own day,

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who are inclined to put their trust in wreaking tube,

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and iron shard.

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Job is warning that all the empires and peoples

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who pride themselves on power and security

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are eventually brought low and swept away.

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And the book of Daniel refers to a king of fierce

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countenance, a contemptible person.

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The devil, or the enemy,

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in their security, shall he destroy many.

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He shall come in time of security

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and shall obtain the kingdom by flattery's

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in time of security shall he come even upon

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the fattest places of the province.

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Days of security then, for the nation or the individual

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are dangerous because they lead to false confidence,

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and laziness,

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the material comfort,

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which blinds us to spiritual realities

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and the needs of others.

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The pride which goeth before a fall.

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From this eternally contemporary book,

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which we call the Bible,

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John Donne got his idea,

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that security is to be feared and avoided.

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We call it self-contentment, complacency,

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but we often use the term false security.

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Even in modern usage,

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security has a deadening effect on life.

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One of the clearest lessons of history is the growth,

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and progress come from periods of insecurity

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because of real and desperate need

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the periods of security and complacency

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lead often into decay and death,

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in both physical and spiritual realms.

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Albert Schweitzer is wisely remarked,

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"The good conscience, is an invention of the devil."

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Look out he warns, when your conscience tells you

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that all is well,

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whether it be with your nation or with your own soul.

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Another 17th century poet just after John Donne,

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Thomas Traherne put it that;

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"Contentment is a sleepy thing.

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If it in death alone must die.

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A quiet mind is worse than poverty,

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unless it from enjoyment spring,

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true joys alone contentment do inspire,

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enrich content and make our courage higher.

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Content alone's a dead and silent stone."

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I suspect that Jesus had this truth in mind when he spoke

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those perplexing words,

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"I come not to bring peace,

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but a sword,"

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for Jesus was a revolutionary,

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and never, never,

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never, sought security as one of the goals of life.

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Security that means contentment, satisfaction, complacency.

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No.

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In individuals and nations, that is a dead end,

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a moral cancer,

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a dead and silenced stone.

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From being thus secure.

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Good Lord deliver us.

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But, security that is rooted in faith,

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there is a different thing.

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Security that swallows up anxiety by trusting God.

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Now we're getting close to the center of spiritual truth,

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which is the only real truth.

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We shall never find absolute peace

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and certainty in this life,

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least of all in this tumultuous 20th century.

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Saint Augustine voiced, the simple fact,

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some 1700 years ago, that,

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"Our hearts are restless,

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until they find their rest in thee."

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Jesus and his farewell message to

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the disciples told them the same thing.

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"My peace, I leave with you.

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My peace I give unto you,

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not as the world giveth, give I unto you."

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Let us pray God to deliver us from

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the foolish petty selfish worries of life,

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but fill us continually with Christ, divine discontent

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with his refusal to be satisfied in

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the face of injustice and misery and sin,

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with his energy and his concern for all mankind.

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Let us pray, God also to deliver us from false security

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from the self satisfaction,

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and ills that are dangerous to us as a nation

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and to our individual souls,

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but fill us full to overflowing

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with trust in God's abiding Providence

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and with delight in his service.

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C.S. Lewis, who has been called,

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undoubtedly the most influential lay defender

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of Christianity in England and America,

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writes in the Problem of Pain,

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"The settled happiness and security, which we all desire.

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God withholds from us by the very nature of the world,

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but joy, pleasure and merriment.

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He has scattered broadcast.

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We are never safe,

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but we have plenty of fun and some ecstasy.

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Let us pray,

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That we may change to evenness,

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this intermittent aguise piety.

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That snatching cramps of wickedness

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and apoplexies of fast sin may die.

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That music of thy promises,

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not threats in thunder may awaken us to our just offices,

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what in thy book, thou dost,

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or creatures say,

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that we may hear, Lord,

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hear us when we pray.

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Spare us oh God, our loving father from national pride,

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from material pride,

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from spiritual pride,

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may we never make a selfish security our goal,

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but rather be continually anxious for the needy

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and the suffering, of all the world,

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but give us ever an abiding trust in thee,

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a faith that amid the tensions

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and uncertainties of this life,

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Thou are eternal,

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absolute, unchanging,

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and full of love.

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From being anxious or secure,

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good Lord deliver us.

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Now may the Lord of peace himself,

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give you peace at all times in all the ways.

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The Lord be with you all.

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(choir singing)

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