Benjamin E. Mays - "In But Not of the World" (November 8, 1964)

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-	The subject, a vocation	0:02
	of a Christian	0:07
	in but not of the world	0:10
	strongly implies	0:15
	that there is a vast difference	0:20
	between the vocation	0:25
	of a Christian	0:29
	and that of a non-Christian.	0:32
	Between the vocation	0:40
	of a Christian	0:45
	and that of a communist	0:48
	or fascist or a Nazi	0:51
	or that of a humanist.	0:57
	It must be said, however,	1:02
	that I'm not wise enough to draw a short line	1:07
	of distinction between a Christian	1:12
	professing to be a Christian	1:20
	and one not professing	1:25
	because many professing Christians are not Christians,	1:29
	and many non-professing Christians	1:35
	may be Christians.	1:41
	But if the invocation in the subject is true,	1:46
	the difference lies	1:52
	mainly in two specific areas.	1:56
	In one's attitude toward God	2:04
	as revealed in Jesus Christ,	2:10
	and one's attitude toward man.	2:16
	I made bold to assert	2:24
	that every man,	2:30
	whether Christian, communist, fascist,	2:33
	nationalist, or humanist,	2:37
	must have a God.	2:44
	So it isn't a question as to whether a man	2:50
	believes in God,	2:55
	but rather it's what kind of a God	2:59
	shall one believe in.	3:05
	In order	3:11
	to be a fairly well organized,	3:14
	well-adjusted,	3:19
	and fairly well integrated personality,	3:22
	one must have an object other than himself	3:29
	to which he can give	3:36
	ultimate allegiance and loyalty.	3:38
	An object which he can give all.	3:44
	Which he can idolize,	3:51
	bow down before, and praise.	3:54
	To the communist,	4:03
	this object of devotion and worship maybe	4:07
	a classless society or the communist party.	4:11
	To the fascist, it maybe the state.	4:18
	To the Nazis in Germany, it was German blood and soil.	4:23
	In essence, it was Adolf Hitler.	4:29
	To the humanist who believes that man is good enough	4:35
	and wise enough to lift himself	4:40
	by his own bootstraps	4:45
	the object of devotion may be	4:48
	a glorified humanity.	4:52
	To some people, it may be money.	4:59
	To others, it may be the worship of power.	5:03
	To the alcoholic, the object of devotion may be the bottle.	5:07
	But every man needs to give his allegiance	5:14
	to something beyond	5:17
	and bigger than himself.	5:21
	This is the reason why	5:27
	Jesus said to the young man,	5:30
	thou can love the lord thy God with all thy heart,	5:34
	with all thy soul, with all thy mind,	5:38
	and with all thy strength.	5:43
	This is the first and great commandment,	5:46
	and the second is right under it.	5:49
	Thou shall love thy neighbor as thy self.	5:53
	On these two commandments	5:58
	hang all the law and the prophet.	6:02
	And whatever that thing is,	6:11
	whatever the thing is that he worship and idolize,	6:15
	that's our God.	6:21
	To the Christian, the object worshiped by the communist,	6:27
	idolized by the fascist,	6:31
	glorified by the Nazi	6:35
	and revered by the humanist, is inadequate.	6:37
	It's too small, it's not big enough.	6:45
	The God of the Christian is the God of Abraham and Isaac,	6:53
	Amos and Hosea,	6:58
	Jeremiah and Isaiah, Jesus and Paul.	7:01
	In other words, the God of the true Christian	7:08
	is supra- nations, supra- class,	7:12
	supra- cast,	7:17
	and supra- race.	7:20
	This is what Paul meant when he said	7:27
	there is either Jew nor Greek,	7:29
	there is neither slave nor free,	7:33
	there is neither male nor female,	7:37
	for you are all one in Christ Jesus.	7:41
	This is what Peter meant when he said, truly I perceive	7:46
	that God shows no partiality, but in every nation	7:52
	anyone who fears him and does what is right	7:58
	is acceptable to him.	8:03
	This is also what Paul meant when he had claimed	8:07
	God has made of one blood	8:13
	all nations of men for to dwell	8:17
	on all the face of the earth.	8:21
	To Christians,	8:28
	it is vocation.	8:30
	This is also for the non-Christian in his conception of man.	8:36
	A Christian believes	8:43
	in contrary distinction to accommodate	8:46
	that man is somebody	8:51
	that he is unique,	8:55
	that he has status.	8:58
	Not because it was conferred upon him by the state,	9:02
	not because it was given to him by	9:09
	a particular ethnic group	9:11
	but man is unique.	9:16
	Man is somebody because God	9:19
	gave uniqueness to him.	9:25
	As proof of this,	9:31
	it is, it tells us,	9:36
	that when God reached man	9:38
	in the creative parapet,	9:42
	he did for man what he did not do	9:46
	for any other creature that he made.	9:50
	God breathes into man's nostrils the breath of God	9:58
	and man became a living soul.	10:04
	God did not do this for the beasts of the field.	10:10
	He did not do this for the fowl of the air.	10:15
	He did not do it for the fish of the sea.	10:19
	But only man.	10:26
	Founding fathers recognized this when they wrote,	10:31
	we hold these truths to be self-evident	10:36
	that all men are created equal.	10:41
	That they are endowed by their creator	10:45
	with certain, inalienable rights,	10:49
	and among these are life,	10:54
	liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.	10:56
	The Christian in his vocation recognizes	11:03
	the uniqueness of man.	11:07
	The Christian believes more.	11:12
	The Christian believes that the life of every person	11:15
	is significant.	11:19
	Is of intrinsic worth and value.	11:22
	Is a pearl of great price,	11:27
	even the homeless.	11:33
	The individual person is so significant	11:37
	that to do injury to the least worthy	11:41
	is to do injury to God.	11:43
	This point is eloquently	11:48
	and dramatically set forth	11:52
	in the judgment scene of the sermon on the mount.	11:56
	There,	12:01
	one's entrance into the kingdom	12:04
	is based on one thing.	12:08
	How did you treat the man farthest down?	12:12
	He said to him on the right hand side, you may come in.	12:18
	For I was hungry, and you gave me bread.	12:25
	Thirsty, and you gave me drink.	12:30
	Naked, and you put clothes on my back.	12:34
	In prison, you came to see me.	12:39
	Sick, and you ministered to my needs.	12:44
	No no, they replied,	12:49
	you've never been sick.	12:54
	You could speak the word and diseases would flee.	12:58
	You never been hungry.	13:03
	You could speak the word and stones would turn to bread.	13:07
	The reply was eloquent and eternal.	13:15
	In as much as ye did it on the least of these,	13:19
	ye did it unto me.	13:24
	The Christian believes that the person is so valuable	13:29
	in God's eyes	13:32
	and God cares so much for men	13:35
	that the strands of hair	13:39
	on his head all numbered.	13:42
	Man is so precious	13:46
	that God sent his son into the world	13:49
	to bring salvation to man.	13:53
	The Christian believes on this point	13:59
	that no distinction can be draw between men.	14:04
	If the life of a rich man	14:12
	is sacred and precious,	14:15
	the life of a sharecropper in Mississippi	14:20
	is also precious.	14:23
	If the life of the learned man is important,	14:30
	the life of the illiterate man	14:38
	is equally important.	14:43
	If the life of the Queen of England	14:48
	is of intrinsic worth and value,	14:52
	then it must follow as the night the day,	14:57
	the life of a coal miner in Wales	15:02
	is of equal worth and value.	15:09
	And if the President of the United States,	15:14
	if his life is precious,	15:16
	then the life of a mill hand in one of the Carolinas	15:20
	is also valuable.	15:25
	These are all or none.	15:29
	So it is this interested	15:38
	on the value of a person	15:42
	that sets the peculiar Christian religion off	15:46
	from most of the world religions.	15:51
	It is this interest that makes democracy,	15:56
	as I see it, superior to fascism or communism.	16:00
	If you a man, and if you a God,	16:07
	give their spirituality to the vocation of a Christian,	16:13
	that is not inherent in the vocation	16:19
	of a non-Christian communist or fascist.	16:23
	The Christian in his vocation has a mandate from God.	16:29
	Not from man,	16:36
	but from God, to deal justly,	16:40
	sympathetically, helpfully, and lovingly	16:45
	with his fellow.	16:50
	He's called upon not only to make a living,	16:52
	but to make a life.	16:58
	Not only to make a living for himself and family	17:01
	to be physically and economically secure,	17:05
	but he is called upon to make a life	17:10
	by using his talent and skills to the end	17:14
	that no man may go without adequate food and shelter.	17:19
	None without adequate education.	17:26
	None without an opportunity to develop strong bodies.	17:29
	And none without an opportunity to develop to the fullest	17:35
	the talents given to him by God.	17:40
	To the Christian, his vocation must be	17:47
	beneficial to himself	17:52
	and beneficial to mankind.	17:55
	To the Christian, his vocation is more than a profession,	18:00
	more than skills.	18:04
	It is a calling.	18:06
	He does his job,	18:12
	not so much because he wants to do it	18:15
	but he does it because he must do it.	18:19
	There is a kind of an inner	18:24
	urge that drives him on.	18:29
	Whether physician or lawyer, teacher or minister,	18:35
	architect or businessman, engineer or artist,	18:39
	he does his job like the prophet prophesies	18:45
	and the poet writes poetry.	18:49
	There is an inner urge, there is a compulsion.	18:54
	There is a must.	19:00
	Whether deacon or lawyer, teacher or minister,	19:04
	architect or businessman,	19:08
	likened to Paul.	19:13
	For it was Paul who said I'm ruined if I preach not	19:16
	the gospel.	19:19
	Jesus who said the spirit of the lord is upon thee.	19:21
	It was Amos who said when the eternal God speaks	19:26
	who can but prophesy?	19:30
	It was Jeremiah who said that I feel that there is a fire	19:33
	shut up in my bones.	19:37
	The Christian does his job	19:41
	like John Bunion	19:46
	who said I have to set aside the writing of sermons	19:49
	and other serious tracks	19:53
	in order to write Pilgrims Progress.	19:55
	Or like Horace, who said I could not sleep at night	19:57
	because of the pressure of unwritten poetry.	20:01
	Or like Herman, who said I must lay awake	20:07
	in order to keep a contract with my soul.	20:12
	The Christian man, in his vocation,	20:21
	whatever that vocation may be,	20:28
	the Christian man in his vocation may gain great wealth.	20:32
	He may achieve things.	20:38
	He may occupy positions of prestige and power.	20:40
	But his greatest joy, his greatest satisfaction	20:46
	comes not in holding and keeping,	20:52
	but in giving and sharing.	20:58
	The physician who has saved hundreds of lives	21:04
	through his skill and surgery,	21:10
	must find great satisfaction.	21:14
	The teacher who has inspired thousands of students	21:19
	to aspire for higher things must find joy.	21:23
	The rich man who would use his wealth to benefit mankind	21:31
	must find peace in his soul.	21:38
	He who will find cure for cancer	21:44
	can die a happy man	21:49
	or a happy woman.	21:53
	Finally,	21:58
	the Christian in his vocation is in the world	22:02
	but not fully of it.	22:06
	He conforms but he is not a slave to conformity.	22:10
	The Christian in his vocation, whatever it is,	22:18
	is sensitive to and responsive to	22:23
	God's call.	22:29
	He knows that he must be in the world	22:33
	but not wholly of it.	22:37
	That the time may come when in response to God's call,	22:40
	whatever his vocation may be,	22:47
	he must rise above customs,	22:51
	traditions, morals,	22:54
	and respond to the call of God.	22:57
	He's conscious also of the fact	23:06
	that this call	23:12
	usually comes not to the multitude,	23:15
	but to the individual.	23:19
	And he is open and responsive	23:23
	to the call	23:28
	because he knows that it might come to him.	23:30
	You see God did not call	23:38
	a thousand men to leave their country	23:43
	and to come to father a great people, he called Abraham.	23:47
	God did not call on 100 men to lead the children of Israel	23:54
	out of Egypt, he called Moses.	23:59
	He did not call the Jews to be the son of God,	24:04
	but he called Jesus.	24:09
	He did not call 100 men	24:14
	to break the bonds and universalize	24:18
	the Christian religion, he called Paul.	24:22
	When the Roman empire was tottering and had fallen,	24:31
	he did not call 1,000 men to give	24:37
	a Christian interpretation of history,	24:40
	he called St. Augustine.	24:43
	When the church needed cleansing	24:48
	he didn't call 1,000 people	24:52
	but Martin Luther and some others.	24:56
	When the time came to free science from the domination	25:00
	of religion, Galileo, Robert, Bacon, Copernicus,	25:04
	Darwin, and others were called.	25:08
	When what we needed crusades	25:14
	for the freedom of women, it was Susan B. Anthony.	25:20
	When it were necessary for one to lift up his voice	25:26
	against untouchability in India, he called Mahatma Gandhi.	25:29
	When it was necessary to call someone	25:37
	to demonstrate	25:43
	the suffering of nonviolent and crusading for civil rights,	25:45
	it was Martin Luther King Jr.	25:52
	The Christian man, whether in business,	25:56
	or in medicine or in teaching,	26:02
	he knows that he is in the world but not fully of it.	26:07
	No man can live in the world without conforming to it,	26:12
	but the world moves forward on the work of those	26:18
	who are in the world but not wholly of it.	26:22
	The Christian must live in the world,	26:27
	in two worlds,	26:33
	but always in a state of tension	26:36
	between the world that is	26:41
	and the world that ought to be.	26:45
	Let us pray.	26:53
	Dear God, we pray,	27:04
	tithe, benedictions	27:10
	upon all mankind, everywhere.	27:16
	Upon the secure and the insecure.	27:23
	Upon the sick and the well.	27:30
	Upon those in prison	27:35
	and those in slavery.	27:40
	Upon the saints and upon this earth.	27:44
	For all we need thee	27:52
	and we all stand in the need of prayer.	27:55
	Go with us to our further activities	28:01
	of the years,	28:07
	for the work of continuing here.	28:10
	Now may the strong arms	28:12
	of the eternal God,	28:17
	the love of Jesus Christ,	28:20
	the fellowship of the holy spirit	28:25
	guide, sustain and keep this people,	28:28
	now and forever more.	28:34

Item Info

Title:

Benjamin E. Mays - "In But Not of the World" (November 8, 1964)

Description:

Christian vocation is a distinct calling to be sensitive to the call of the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ and to treat all people with dignity and respect. In order to faithfully live out his or her calling, the Christian must be in the world but not wholly conformed to it. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 00:02. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 28:39.
Key quotation: “The Christian, in his vocation, whatever it is, is sensitive to and responsive to God’s call.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4r49gq59

Date:

November 8, 1964

Speaker:

Mays, Benjamin E. (Benjamin Elijah), 1894-1984

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0272
ref5747_c4s
uachapelsermaud
duke:321250
dcrau001786
ark:/87924/r4r49gq59
4d510769-cf40-4f2a-98f8-7e6b2820a096

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Benjamin E. Mays - "In But Not of the World" (November 8, 1964)

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