Creighton Lacy - "Custodian or Christ?" (June 26, 1983)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(positive organ music) | 0:03 | |
(gentle organ music) | 8:09 | |
(intense organ music) | 10:21 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 15:12 | |
(indistinct choir singing) | 16:01 | |
Woman | Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you | 18:38 |
from God, our creator, and the Lord Jesus Christ. | 18:40 | |
Now, with a clear mind and open heart, | 18:45 | |
let us in truth confess our sins before one another | 18:49 | |
and almighty God. | 18:53 | |
Let us pray. | 18:55 | |
Oh God, our creator, | 19:06 | |
in love for Your creation, | 19:08 | |
You sent Jesus to claim a city and its people | 19:10 | |
to establish a kingdom of fellowship and service. | 19:14 | |
Yet, You saw Your son rejected, betrayed, | 19:19 | |
deserted, condemned, and crucified. | 19:22 | |
We confess that all too often, | 19:26 | |
we fail to respond to Your redeeming approach to us, | 19:28 | |
not trusting ourselves, we do not trust You. | 19:33 | |
Forgive us, oh Lord, such flagrant sin. | 19:37 | |
Help us to open our very beings, | 19:41 | |
heart, mind, will, and soul | 19:44 | |
to Your mercy and to the urgings of Your Holy Spirit. | 19:47 | |
Through Jesus of Nazareth, now Lord and Christ. | 19:51 | |
Amen. | 19:56 | |
(child shouts) | 20:04 | |
(loud thud) | 20:15 | |
There is therefore now no condemnation | 20:23 | |
for those who are in Christ Jesus | 20:26 | |
who walk not according to the flesh, | 20:29 | |
but according to the spirit. | 20:32 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, | 20:34 | |
our sins are forgiven. | 20:36 | |
Let us then give thanks for God is good | 20:40 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 20:43 | |
Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 20:47 | |
Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 20:51 | |
Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 20:55 | |
We welcome you this beautiful summer Sunday morning | 21:01 | |
to worship here with us in Duke University Chapel. | 21:04 | |
It is now the fifth Sunday after Pentecost | 21:08 | |
and we pray that God's spirit will richly bless you today | 21:12 | |
as we have gathered here as God's people, | 21:16 | |
expecting to be filled with God's spirit | 21:19 | |
and sent forth in compassion as God's servants. | 21:22 | |
We are pleased today to have participating in our service | 21:29 | |
Mrs. Barbara Delapp Booth as our lecturer. | 21:34 | |
I wanted you to note that there is a printing error | 21:38 | |
in the bulletin listing her name. | 21:40 | |
Also, Mr. Shane Doty is our organist for this morning, | 21:44 | |
playing the Flentrop organ | 21:48 | |
and we look forward to the special music | 21:51 | |
that he will bring to us at two points in the service today. | 21:53 | |
Our preacher this morning is no stranger to many of us. | 22:00 | |
The Reverend Doctor Creighton Lacey is a professor here | 22:04 | |
in the Divinity School at Duke University. | 22:08 | |
He is currently professor of World Christianity | 22:11 | |
and some of you know that Creighton | 22:15 | |
was himself born in China, | 22:18 | |
son of Methodist missionary parents and grandparents. | 22:20 | |
He has recently returned from another trip to China. | 22:25 | |
I know that his sermon this morning will be reflective | 22:30 | |
of that experience in his life. | 22:32 | |
Dr. Lacey, before coming to the Divinity School, | 22:36 | |
has served as a missionary to the country of China | 22:39 | |
and has made many visits there since. | 22:44 | |
He has taught at both the University of Nanking | 22:47 | |
and later at Fukin Union Theological College. | 22:50 | |
He is a former Fulbright research scholar in India | 22:54 | |
and a Danforth visiting professor of philosophy | 22:58 | |
at the International Christian University in Japan. | 23:02 | |
We have heard many times of Dr. Creighton Lacey's work, | 23:07 | |
including books and articles about the Asian cultures | 23:12 | |
and international affairs. | 23:17 | |
He continues to write for the New World Outlook | 23:20 | |
and we continue to receive his perspective | 23:22 | |
on world missions. | 23:25 | |
Dr. Lacey is not only an honored teacher | 23:28 | |
in the life of the Divinity School here, | 23:31 | |
but he is friend and pastor to many students | 23:34 | |
and many of us on campus. | 23:37 | |
We welcome him warmly in returning | 23:39 | |
to the Duke Chapel pulpit. | 23:41 | |
We look forward with eager anticipation | 23:44 | |
to the sermon he will bring today. | 23:46 | |
The sermon title is "Custodian or Christ?" | 23:49 | |
- | Let us pray. | 24:07 |
Oh Lord, our God, You have given Your Word | 24:09 | |
to be a lamp unto our feet | 24:12 | |
and a light unto our path. | 24:15 | |
Grant us grace to receive Your truth in faith and love, | 24:17 | |
that by it, we may be prepared unto every good word and work | 24:23 | |
to the glory of Your name through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 24:28 | |
Amen. | 24:32 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from Zachariah 12, | 24:35 | |
verses seven through 10. | 24:39 | |
And the Lord will give victory | 24:42 | |
to the tents of Judah first. | 24:44 | |
That the glory of the house of David | 24:46 | |
and the glory of inhabitants of Jerusalem | 24:49 | |
may not be exalted over that of Judah. | 24:52 | |
On that day, the Lord will put a shield | 24:56 | |
about the inhabitants of Jerusalem | 24:58 | |
so that the feeblest among them on that day | 25:01 | |
shall be like David. | 25:04 | |
And the house of David shall be like God, | 25:06 | |
like the angel of the Lord at their head. | 25:09 | |
On that day, I will seek to destroy | 25:13 | |
all the nations that come against Jerusalem. | 25:15 | |
I will pour out on the house of David | 25:19 | |
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem | 25:21 | |
a spirit of compassion and supplication | 25:24 | |
so that when they look on him whom they have pierced, | 25:28 | |
they shall mourn for him | 25:31 | |
as one mourns for an only child | 25:33 | |
and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn. | 25:36 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 25:42 | |
The epistle lesson is from Galatians chapter three, | 25:46 | |
verses 23 through 29. | 25:50 | |
Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, | 25:54 | |
kept under restraint until faith should be revealed | 25:59 | |
so that the law was our custodian until Christ came | 26:04 | |
that we might be justified by faith. | 26:08 | |
But now that faith has come, | 26:11 | |
we are no longer under a custodian. | 26:13 | |
For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. | 26:17 | |
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, | 26:22 | |
have put on Christ. | 26:26 | |
There is neither Jew nor Greek. | 26:28 | |
There is neither slave nor free. | 26:31 | |
There is neither male nor female, | 26:34 | |
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. | 26:36 | |
If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, | 26:40 | |
heirs according to promise. | 26:44 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson. | 26:47 | |
(gentle organ music) | 26:58 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 28:00 | |
- | Will the congregation please stand | 30:45 |
for the reading of the gospel lesson? | 30:47 | |
The gospel lesson is from Luke chapter nine, | 30:54 | |
verses 18 through 24. | 30:58 | |
Now it happened, that as he was praying alone, | 31:02 | |
the disciples were with him and he asked them, | 31:05 | |
"Who do people say that I am?" | 31:09 | |
They answered him, "John the Baptist." | 31:12 | |
But others say "Elijah." | 31:16 | |
And others that one of the old prophets has risen. | 31:19 | |
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" | 31:22 | |
Peter answered, "The Christ of God." | 31:28 | |
But he charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, | 31:33 | |
saying, "The son of man must suffer many things" | 31:37 | |
"and be rejected by the elders and chief priest and scribes" | 31:40 | |
"and be killed and on the third day, be raised." | 31:45 | |
He said to all, "If any man would come after me," | 31:50 | |
"let him deny himself" | 31:55 | |
"and take up his cross daily and follow me." | 31:57 | |
"For whoever would save his life, will lose it." | 32:01 | |
"And whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it." | 32:05 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson, amen. | 32:10 | |
(organ music) | 32:17 | |
(indistinct choir singing) | 32:25 | |
(baby cries out) | 33:12 | |
Pastor | In the intimacy of the Duke community, | 33:25 |
I had decided that it was unnecessary | 33:27 | |
to say an introductory personal word this morning. | 33:30 | |
But just an hour ago, I had a telephone call from Bob Young | 33:35 | |
to assure me that his prayers as well as his hears | 33:39 | |
would be tuned to this service. | 33:43 | |
So I cannot forgo a word of very genuine appreciation | 33:46 | |
for what he and the religious life staff | 33:51 | |
and this chapel have meant in my own life | 33:55 | |
over nearly 30 years here at Duke | 33:59 | |
as well as in the life of this university. | 34:01 | |
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" | 34:07 | |
And Peter answered "The Christ of God." | 34:12 | |
He said to all, "If any man would come after me," | 34:17 | |
"let him deny himself" | 34:21 | |
"and take up his cross daily and follow me." | 34:23 | |
The law was our custodian until Christ came, | 34:28 | |
that we might be justified by faith. | 34:32 | |
But now that faith has come, | 34:35 | |
we are no longer under a custodian, | 34:37 | |
for in Christ Jesus, | 34:40 | |
you are all children of God through faith. | 34:42 | |
Some of you know that as a seminary professor, | 34:48 | |
I am not strongly committed to lectionary preaching. | 34:51 | |
The lessons selected in rotation | 34:54 | |
by whatever learned biblical scholars | 34:56 | |
do not always contain much in common. | 34:59 | |
What I want to say or even what the Holy Spirit | 35:02 | |
wants me to say in a particular sermon | 35:06 | |
does not always fit the prescribed text. | 35:09 | |
But I like to be accommodating on occasion. | 35:13 | |
Here we are for this week and this Sunday and this moment | 35:16 | |
presented with two of the most familiar passages | 35:22 | |
in the New Testament. | 35:25 | |
"Who do you say that I am?" | 35:27 | |
Whoever would save his life would lose it. | 35:30 | |
Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. | 35:33 | |
There is neither Jew nor Greek. | 35:38 | |
There is neither slave nor free. | 35:41 | |
There is neither male nor female, | 35:43 | |
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. | 35:46 | |
Few of you who attend church even infrequently | 35:52 | |
have escaped hearing sermons on one or both of those texts. | 35:55 | |
They may suggest a pious personal relationship to Jesus | 35:59 | |
or the majesty of the incarnation. | 36:04 | |
They can exalt martyrdom | 36:08 | |
or the patient acceptance of sacrifice and service. | 36:10 | |
They can be used to justify feminism or racism in reverse, | 36:15 | |
depending on whether human differences are seen | 36:19 | |
as non-existent or as real but not decisive. | 36:22 | |
The program of religious music, | 36:28 | |
entitled "Joy" on this morning's local radio station, | 36:31 | |
followed the same theme. | 36:36 | |
Some of you may prefer to meditate | 36:38 | |
upon your own interpretations | 36:40 | |
and your own applications of these texts, | 36:42 | |
instead of listening to mine. | 36:45 | |
That is okay. | 36:48 | |
Beloved, I am writing no new commandment, | 36:50 | |
but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. | 36:53 | |
The old commandment is the word which you have heard. | 36:56 | |
As I have lived with these passages during the past month, | 37:03 | |
I have come to the conclusion | 37:06 | |
that there is not a simple dichotomy between law and faith, | 37:08 | |
between sin and salvation, | 37:13 | |
between custody and freedom. | 37:16 | |
Rather, there is an intermediate step of belief, | 37:19 | |
of desire, of intellectual ascent, | 37:23 | |
which precedes a commitment to Christ | 37:26 | |
as the Lord of our lives. | 37:29 | |
This, I think, can be seen | 37:31 | |
in the confessions of Peter and of Paul. | 37:33 | |
The disciples had been living and traveling with Jesus | 37:37 | |
in times of failure and times of success, | 37:40 | |
in days of doubt and days of confidence. | 37:44 | |
They loved and respected Him as friend and teacher. | 37:48 | |
They had entrusted their lives to Him for a while at least. | 37:52 | |
Yet to most of us, as to the multitudes about whom he asked, | 37:56 | |
Jesus was still the fulfillment of the law, | 38:00 | |
the Messiah, the reincarnation of John the Baptist, | 38:03 | |
or Elijah, or one of the old prophets. | 38:07 | |
He was the embodiment, even the verification, of tradition. | 38:10 | |
They had no inkling this early in his ministry | 38:16 | |
of how radically Jesus would turn their world upside down, | 38:19 | |
how radically He would turn the entire world upside down. | 38:24 | |
Peter, and perhaps others, | 38:30 | |
were beginning to have a glimmer of the truth, | 38:32 | |
a suspicion that, at least, this was a very remarkable man. | 38:34 | |
Peter may have known the scriptural promises | 38:38 | |
better than the rest. | 38:41 | |
He may have wanted to acknowledge the divine purpose | 38:42 | |
in this ministry of which he was a part. | 38:46 | |
He may have sought to put the unity of the 12 | 38:48 | |
in more immediate, intimate terms | 38:52 | |
than merely invoking John the Baptist or Elijah. | 38:54 | |
Whatever his basis for his insight, | 38:58 | |
Peter blurted out a startling assertion. | 39:00 | |
"The Christ of God." | 39:04 | |
The Anointed One. | 39:06 | |
The Deliverer. | 39:08 | |
The Liberator. | 39:10 | |
To his credit, he emphasized the divine initiative | 39:12 | |
rather than the political expectations. | 39:16 | |
Strange, is it not, that Jesus should immediately hush up | 39:20 | |
the very response he had wanted to hear | 39:23 | |
after deliberately pulling forth the confession | 39:26 | |
which would separate his disciples | 39:29 | |
from the unimaginative crowd. | 39:31 | |
He then charged and commanded them to tell this to no one. | 39:34 | |
These friends should hear the shocking truth, | 39:39 | |
that the son of man must suffer many things | 39:43 | |
and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes | 39:46 | |
and be killed, and on the third day, be raised. | 39:51 | |
They must hear but not understand. | 39:55 | |
They needed to believe in His mission, | 39:59 | |
to be told the theoretical cost of discipleship, | 40:01 | |
but they did not yet know what it meant to take up a cross | 40:05 | |
or to lose their lives for His sake. | 40:09 | |
A similar progression is implied, it seems to me, | 40:14 | |
in the passage from Galatians. | 40:17 | |
Before faith came, we were confined under the law, | 40:19 | |
kept under restraint. | 40:23 | |
The law was our custodian, | 40:25 | |
says the revised standard version. | 40:28 | |
But it is revealing to note some of the other terms used. | 40:30 | |
Schoolmaster, says the King James version. | 40:34 | |
Tutor, in the New English Bible. | 40:37 | |
A strict governess, suggests J.B. Phillips, | 40:40 | |
in what 30 years ago, may have been prophetic feminism | 40:44 | |
or sheer chauvinism. | 40:47 | |
A disciplinarian or truant officer, | 40:49 | |
according to some commentators. | 40:52 | |
Two weeks ago, I drove out of our church conference grounds | 40:55 | |
behind a bumper sticker which said, "Divine truant officer." | 40:58 | |
I do not know what the message was meant to convey, | 41:03 | |
but for me, it was neither an appealing designation for God | 41:06 | |
nor an adequate description of Christian ministry. | 41:11 | |
Contemporary translations are even more threatening. | 41:15 | |
The law kept us all locked up as prisoners, | 41:18 | |
says today's English version and the New English Bible. | 41:22 | |
We were prisoners in the custody of the law. | 41:26 | |
On a university campus, | 41:31 | |
it may be risky to list tutors and schoolmasters | 41:33 | |
as synonymous with truant officers and prison custodians. | 41:37 | |
Certainly, the language reflects a long, | 41:42 | |
abandoned concept of education, | 41:45 | |
a Greek model in which the instructor | 41:47 | |
was also a disciplinarian, | 41:50 | |
the teacher a molder and example of moral behavior | 41:52 | |
as well as intellectual achievement. | 41:57 | |
If some of us still believe | 42:00 | |
that ethics should have a major indispensable place | 42:02 | |
at every level of education, | 42:06 | |
it is generally defined as value orientation, | 42:09 | |
rather than adherence to law. | 42:12 | |
With all due respect to the legal profession, | 42:15 | |
it sometimes appears as if law is a dirty word | 42:17 | |
in the theological vocabulary, | 42:21 | |
in discussions of freedom and grace. | 42:23 | |
It should not be. | 42:27 | |
It was not for Paul. | 42:28 | |
In the verses directly preceding today's text, | 42:30 | |
he writes "Is the law then against the promises of God?" | 42:33 | |
Certainly not, for if a law had been given | 42:39 | |
which could make alive, | 42:41 | |
then righteousness would indeed be by the law. | 42:43 | |
The law can guide, instruct, discipline, | 42:47 | |
keep in custody. | 42:52 | |
It does not "make alive" | 42:54 | |
as the revised standard version so vividly puts it. | 42:56 | |
The scripture Paul goes on to say, | 43:00 | |
consigned all things to sin. | 43:02 | |
Not simply law itself, but legalism. | 43:05 | |
Not simply rules and regulations, | 43:09 | |
but the reliance on tradition and custom. | 43:11 | |
But something more is needed | 43:16 | |
as both Jesus and Paul realized. | 43:18 | |
The Christian is not meant to be locked up in the law, | 43:21 | |
in tradition, in the past. | 43:24 | |
For grace and freedom to operate, | 43:27 | |
for the human spirit to come alive, | 43:29 | |
there must be a recognition of the Christ, | 43:31 | |
which makes us all children of God through faith. | 43:34 | |
It is an important step, | 43:40 | |
this acknowledgement of what God has done, | 43:41 | |
by making visible the divine involvement in human history. | 43:44 | |
It is an essential step. | 43:48 | |
This affirmation that Jesus is indeed God's gift, | 43:50 | |
not merely a symbol of our aspirations. | 43:54 | |
It is not a sufficient step. | 43:58 | |
Insofar as they represent theoretical belief | 44:02 | |
or intellectual assent, | 44:05 | |
neither Peter's confession nor Paul's call for faith | 44:08 | |
constitutes the final goal. | 44:11 | |
The crowds who listen to Jesus preaching | 44:14 | |
were not prepared for any ultimate commitment. | 44:17 | |
The signs of the times, | 44:20 | |
the political and psychological circumstances | 44:22 | |
were not ready even for an atoning death, | 44:25 | |
much less for a redemptive resurrection. | 44:29 | |
The disciples had not yet understood | 44:33 | |
what it meant to deny oneself, | 44:36 | |
to take up a cross daily and follow Him, | 44:38 | |
to lose one's life for the sake of Christ. | 44:41 | |
Have we? | 44:45 | |
We have had 2,000 years to learn, to practice, to imitate. | 44:48 | |
Millions of persons, including most of those | 44:54 | |
who listen to these words, | 44:57 | |
have made some profession that Jesus | 44:58 | |
is indeed the Christ of God. | 45:02 | |
But perhaps, we have not yet discovered | 45:05 | |
how that can and should alter our lives. | 45:08 | |
Perhaps, we have been too eager to escape | 45:13 | |
from the custody of the law, | 45:15 | |
from the truant officer of tradition, | 45:17 | |
from the prison of self-indulgence | 45:20 | |
before we have accepted Christ | 45:22 | |
as our schoolmaster and tutor, | 45:25 | |
as our mentor and model, | 45:28 | |
as our Lord and redeemer. | 45:31 | |
We have settled for an assertion of faith | 45:35 | |
instead of going through faith, | 45:38 | |
which means beyond faith as well as by faith, | 45:40 | |
in true and living discipleship. | 45:44 | |
The decisive test, as Paul points out, is that | 45:48 | |
for those who have truly put on Christ through faith, | 45:51 | |
there is neither Jew nor Greek, | 45:55 | |
slave nor free, male nor female, | 45:58 | |
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. | 46:01 | |
Six weeks ago today, I was worshiping in a church in Peking | 46:07 | |
in the People's Republic of China. | 46:11 | |
Named at the turn of the century for Francis Asbury, | 46:14 | |
the building had been closed to Christian worship | 46:18 | |
for over 16 years until just a few months ago. | 46:20 | |
In fact, four years ago, | 46:23 | |
there were no Chinese church services | 46:25 | |
celebrated in public anywhere in that country. | 46:29 | |
Today, there are at least 300. | 46:32 | |
Some estimates go as high as 600 each week. | 46:35 | |
The next hymn that we are to sing together this morning | 46:39 | |
was the first one I sang | 46:42 | |
in a recent Chinese Christian congregation. | 46:44 | |
And I hope you will note well the fullness of meaning | 46:47 | |
for people in those circumstances. | 46:51 | |
If I may, for a few minutes, | 46:55 | |
apply our scriptural formula to the church in China, | 46:56 | |
it may help to challenge us | 47:00 | |
to deeper commitment and broader fellowship in Christ. | 47:02 | |
Protestant missions first came to China in 1807. | 47:08 | |
Roman Catholics much earlier of course in erratic movements, | 47:12 | |
with little permanent impact. | 47:16 | |
Many of those early missionaries, | 47:19 | |
present accounts not withstanding, | 47:22 | |
had a genuine love for the Chinese people | 47:24 | |
and a concern for their social and political and economic | 47:27 | |
as well as spiritual welfare. | 47:30 | |
But the religion they brought | 47:34 | |
was primarily a religion of law, | 47:35 | |
a demand for conversion, | 47:38 | |
a custodian of morals and culture. | 47:40 | |
The symbol of rectitude was Moses or one of the prophets, | 47:44 | |
Martin Luther, or John Wesley, | 47:48 | |
possibly Confucius or Laozi. | 47:51 | |
There was much good done in education, | 47:54 | |
health, social services, | 47:57 | |
emancipation from fear and superstition, | 48:00 | |
but it was largely geared to Western institutions, | 48:04 | |
Western controls, | 48:08 | |
Western theology. | 48:10 | |
Then came in 1949 what the Chinese still call liberation. | 48:13 |
- | Church as well as the nation, | 0:03 |
this meant escape from foreign domination, | 0:05 | |
an opportunity to build an indigenous society. | 0:07 | |
Despite the traditional Marxist distrust of religion | 0:12 | |
as an instrument of colonial exploitation, | 0:15 | |
several thousand missionaries continued | 0:18 | |
to work in the People's Republic of China | 0:20 | |
until our two countries came to the brink | 0:23 | |
of declaring war on the Korean Peninsula. | 0:26 | |
Meanwhile, economic and ideological pressures | 0:30 | |
on the church gradually winnowed the wheat | 0:34 | |
from the chaff. | 0:38 | |
Rice Christians, those who had counted on financial | 0:40 | |
or educational or political advantage from contacts | 0:43 | |
with Westerners drifted or were frightened away. | 0:46 | |
Rural churches closed for lack of funds | 0:51 | |
and also because preachers were required | 0:55 | |
to join the productive workforce | 0:57 | |
instead of being, in Marxist terminology at least, | 0:59 | |
parasites on society. | 1:03 | |
City churches were often consolidated or merged, | 1:06 | |
their educational and social services | 1:09 | |
taken over by the government, | 1:11 | |
their buildings converted to secular uses. | 1:13 | |
In a sense, this did represent a form of freedom. | 1:18 | |
What Christianity did survive | 1:22 | |
was no longer dependent on foreign support | 1:24 | |
or dominated by foreign missionaries. | 1:26 | |
Hence it could no longer be branded a Western religion, | 1:29 | |
a tool of cultural and political imperialism. | 1:33 | |
In a sense too, this represented | 1:37 | |
a courageous period of faith. | 1:40 | |
Those who remained in the churches | 1:43 | |
until all of them were closed | 1:45 | |
by the cultural revolution in 1966 | 1:47 | |
did so under suspicion, criticism | 1:50 | |
and often persecution. | 1:54 | |
It is sometimes said that Westerners | 1:57 | |
are like an oak, firm and rigid in moral righteousness | 2:00 | |
or dogmatic principle | 2:03 | |
until the storm becomes too violent | 2:06 | |
or the lightning strikes | 2:10 | |
and the tree is shattered. | 2:12 | |
A Chinese, on the other hand, | 2:14 | |
is like a bamboo or a willow | 2:16 | |
bending with the wind, | 2:18 | |
bowing to necessity but springing back | 2:19 | |
to healthy growth when the tempest is over. | 2:22 | |
By yielding to political pressures | 2:26 | |
and by declaring their proud | 2:29 | |
and genuine patriotism, | 2:31 | |
some Chinese Christians managed to retain | 2:34 | |
a limited recognition from the government | 2:36 | |
and an even more restricted amount | 2:39 | |
of religious freedom. | 2:42 | |
This was a nominal affirmation of faith. | 2:44 | |
To some, especially critics in the West, | 2:48 | |
a compromised confession. | 2:51 | |
It said in effect, Jesus is the Christ of God | 2:53 | |
but Mao Zedong is the custodian of daily life. | 2:58 | |
It said in effet, there is no significant difference | 3:01 | |
between Chairman Mao's powerful slogan, | 3:05 | |
serve the people and Jesus' gentle appeal | 3:07 | |
to love your neighbor. | 3:11 | |
It said in effect, we affirm the truth | 3:14 | |
of the gospel in answering ultimate questions | 3:16 | |
about life's purpose and heavenly rewards | 3:18 | |
after we have taken care of economic prosperity, | 3:22 | |
political stability and national security. | 3:26 | |
Does any of that sound familiar? | 3:31 | |
The period since Mao's death | 3:35 | |
offers somewhat different opportunities for formal faith. | 3:37 | |
Chinese church leaders are embarked | 3:41 | |
on a heroic attempt to build a new structure, | 3:43 | |
a new institution, a new community for Christ | 3:47 | |
in what they call the post-denominational era. | 3:51 | |
Our Western labels derived from | 3:55 | |
historical doctrinal issues | 3:58 | |
in Europe and America have been cast aside, | 4:01 | |
pastors and church buildings are occasionally identified | 4:06 | |
as formerly Methodist or formerly Presbyterian | 4:09 | |
but are today united in a cooperative parish | 4:13 | |
simply called as in New Testament times, | 4:15 | |
the Christian church in a given locality. | 4:18 | |
Some communities hold Saturday services | 4:22 | |
in deference to the Seventh Day Adventist heritage. | 4:25 | |
Local units, a single congregation | 4:29 | |
or a coalition of churches | 4:31 | |
now set their own qualifications | 4:34 | |
and their own rituals for ordination, | 4:36 | |
for baptism and for holy communion. | 4:39 | |
After 13 years of complete silence, | 4:42 | |
the word of God is being proclaimed in public services | 4:46 | |
in hundreds of places in China. | 4:50 | |
It may be a circumscribed word, | 4:53 | |
it may be as some Christians told me privately, | 4:57 | |
a political word but it is being preached | 5:00 | |
and it is being heard. | 5:04 | |
That leads to another category of would-be disciples. | 5:08 | |
Every Sunday in China, | 5:11 | |
thousands of young people, men and women | 5:12 | |
and youth, born since liberation in 1949 | 5:15 | |
are hearing the good news that Jesus | 5:19 | |
is indeed the Christ, the Son of God. | 5:21 | |
It should be added parenthetically | 5:25 | |
that public indoctrination of children | 5:27 | |
is still forbidden. | 5:30 | |
Pastoral testimony and parishional observation suggest | 5:32 | |
that 1/4 to 1/3 of the congregations | 5:35 | |
are made up of people under 30, | 5:38 | |
people who have been taught for decades | 5:41 | |
in school and society that religion | 5:43 | |
is an opiate of the people, | 5:45 | |
an obstacle to social revolution, | 5:47 | |
an unscientific superstition. | 5:50 | |
Today they are wanting to find out if that is true. | 5:53 | |
Today they are asking questions | 5:57 | |
not only about ultimate goals and values, | 5:59 | |
but about the spiritual foundations | 6:02 | |
of freedom and democracy. | 6:05 | |
Jesus still asks, who do you say that I am? | 6:09 | |
These Chinese youth reply, | 6:14 | |
well, our grandparents tell us | 6:16 | |
that you are Elijah or one of the prophets. | 6:18 | |
Our pastors in church tell us | 6:21 | |
that you are the Christ of God. | 6:23 | |
We don't know. | 6:25 | |
We don't even know what that means. | 6:27 | |
There are some in China | 6:32 | |
and some in America | 6:35 | |
who do know what that means. | 6:37 | |
They are the ones who have walked | 6:41 | |
through the valley of the shadow. | 6:43 | |
They are the ones who have taken up the cross | 6:45 | |
to follow him. | 6:48 | |
They are the ones who have lost their lives | 6:50 | |
for his sake. | 6:53 | |
During the cultural revolution of 1966 to 1976, | 6:56 | |
most Chinese intellectuals suffered severely | 7:00 | |
for their Western ideas, | 7:04 | |
for their elitist education, | 7:06 | |
for their reluctance to accept ideological conformity | 7:08 | |
as a substitute for progress. | 7:12 | |
Christians often endured even greater harassment, | 7:15 | |
rejection, isolation and worse. | 7:19 | |
They had foreign friends, | 7:23 | |
they had alien ideas, | 7:25 | |
they had a vision of humanity and of truth | 7:27 | |
which transcended petty party policies. | 7:30 | |
I asked one former colleague | 7:36 | |
who spent several years in prison | 7:38 | |
whether the guards identified their Christian prisoners. | 7:40 | |
They knew who we were, he replied, | 7:45 | |
by our attitude toward them, | 7:48 | |
toward our fellow prisoners | 7:50 | |
and toward our incarceration. | 7:52 | |
Then he went on to tell me about one guard | 7:56 | |
who had been particularly cruel and sadistic | 7:58 | |
so that my friend dreamed often | 8:01 | |
of someday getting even | 8:03 | |
but when he was released, | 8:05 | |
rehabilitated to an influential position, | 8:07 | |
he could not do so. | 8:11 | |
I knew, he told me, that if the gospel | 8:13 | |
of Jesus Christ is ever to have an influence | 8:15 | |
in this great land of ours, | 8:18 | |
it will not be by hatred and revenge | 8:21 | |
but by love and forgiveness. | 8:24 | |
What will a man gain, the New English Bible asks, | 8:29 | |
by winning the whole world | 8:32 | |
at the cost of his true self? | 8:34 | |
What about us, complacent American church goers? | 8:41 | |
With numerous theological reservations | 8:46 | |
or reformulations, we have made the intellectual | 8:48 | |
and verbal assertion that Jesus is the Christ of God. | 8:51 | |
For some this still means a reincarnation | 8:56 | |
of Elijah or the prophets, | 8:59 | |
a custodian of the law, | 9:02 | |
a truant officer or a governess. | 9:04 | |
For others, it is a recognition that something, | 9:08 | |
no, someone has come into the world | 9:12 | |
to transform it and us. | 9:15 | |
But we are bound not Christ's admonition | 9:19 | |
but by our own selfish blindness | 9:21 | |
from entering into the full glory | 9:24 | |
of that recognition. | 9:26 | |
We have seen the hope | 9:27 | |
that lies unfulfilled in the custody of the law. | 9:30 | |
We have declared our faith | 9:35 | |
that God has indeed come into this world. | 9:37 | |
We have not yet translated that personal reality | 9:41 | |
into everyday love. | 9:45 | |
We are not yet ready to take up the cross daily, | 9:50 | |
we are quite determined in fact | 9:53 | |
to save our life in every way possible economically, | 9:55 | |
militarily, psychologically, | 9:58 | |
we are very certain that not only there are Jews | 10:01 | |
and Greeks, slave and free, male and female, | 10:04 | |
friends and enemies | 10:09 | |
but also that we know which are best for us. | 10:11 | |
We are not all one in Christ Jesus. | 10:18 | |
But the promise is there, | 10:24 | |
the possibility is there | 10:28 | |
because the Christ is there. | 10:33 | |
Amen. | 10:38 | |
Let us pray. | 10:40 | |
Show us, oh God, the importance | 10:44 | |
and the inadequacy of law. | 10:47 | |
Show us, oh God, the ineffectiveness of nominal | 10:51 | |
and intellectual faith. | 10:54 | |
Show us, oh God, the transforming power | 10:58 | |
of total self-sacrificing commitment | 11:01 | |
to your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ | 11:05 | |
who alone can make alive. | 11:10 | |
Amen. | 11:15 | |
(lively organ music) | 11:23 | |
(congregation sings) | 12:02 | |
- | As the people of God, | 14:47 |
let us affirm what we believe. | 14:48 | |
- | We believe in God | 14:51 |
who has created and is creating, | 14:53 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 14:56 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 15:00 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 15:02 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 15:06 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 15:10 | |
to love and serve others, | 15:13 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 15:16 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 15:19 | |
our judge and our hope. | 15:23 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 15:25 | |
God is with us, we are not alone. | 15:29 | |
Thanks be to God. | 15:33 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 15:35 |
- | And also with you. | 15:37 |
- | Let us pray. | 15:39 |
Let us come in peace this day | 15:53 | |
and pray to the Lord | 15:55 | |
for the world in need of reconciliation and peace | 15:58 | |
that a spirit of hope may grow among nations | 16:03 | |
and peoples, we pray to you, oh Lord. | 16:06 | |
For the church of Jesus Christ | 16:10 | |
that it may be filled with truth and love | 16:13 | |
and may be eager to serve as Christ's ambassadors, | 16:16 | |
we pray to you, oh Lord. | 16:21 | |
For the mission of the church | 16:24 | |
that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel | 16:26 | |
to the very ends of the Earth, | 16:30 | |
we pray to you, oh Lord. | 16:32 | |
For those who do not yet believe | 16:35 | |
and for those who have lost their faith, | 16:38 | |
that they may receive the light of the gospel, | 16:41 | |
we pray to you, oh Lord. | 16:44 | |
For the poor, the persecuted, | 16:47 | |
the sick and all who suffer, | 16:50 | |
for refugees, prisoners and all who are in danger, | 16:53 | |
that they may be relieved | 16:58 | |
and protected, we pray to you, oh Lord. | 16:59 | |
For all those how have been in our hearts | 17:04 | |
and in our private prayers, | 17:06 | |
for our families, friends and neighbors | 17:08 | |
that they may live in joy, in peace | 17:12 | |
and health, we pray to you, oh Lord. | 17:15 | |
For ourselves, for the forgiveness of sins | 17:19 | |
and for the grace of the Holy Spirit | 17:23 | |
to truly amend our lives, | 17:26 | |
we pray to you, oh Lord. | 17:29 | |
We thank you, Lord, our God, | 17:32 | |
for all the blessings of this life | 17:35 | |
and we will exalt you, oh God, our creator | 17:37 | |
and praise your name forever | 17:41 | |
and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord | 17:43 | |
who taught us to pray saying. | 17:47 | |
- | Our Father who are in heaven, | 17:50 |
hallowed be thy name, | 17:53 | |
thy kingdom come, they will be done | 17:55 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 17:58 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 18:00 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 18:03 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 18:05 | |
and lead us not into temptation | 18:09 | |
but deliver us from evil | 18:12 | |
for thine is the kingdom, | 18:14 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 18:16 | |
Amen. | 18:19 | |
(tranquil organ music) | 18:26 | |
(lively organ music) | 23:41 | |
(congregation sings) | 23:57 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:09 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:11 | |
(congregation sings) | 24:15 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:27 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:29 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:32 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:35 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:38 | |
- | Giving us all things, oh God, | 24:51 |
will you now receive these gifts of your people. | 24:53 | |
Help us to render unto you all that we have | 24:57 | |
and all that we are | 25:00 | |
that we may praise you with our whole lives. | 25:02 | |
In Christ's name we pray, amen. | 25:05 | |
(lively organ music) | 25:13 | |
(congregation sings) | 25:48 | |
And now the peace of God | 28:46 | |
which passes all understanding, | 28:48 | |
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God | 28:51 | |
and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord | 28:56 | |
and the blessing of God Almighty, | 28:59 | |
creator, redeemer, sustainer | 29:02 | |
be among you and remain with you always. | 29:05 | |
Amen. | 29:10 | |
(lively organ music) | 29:13 |