James T. Cleland - "Long Day's Journey Into Light" (February 10, 1957)
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Transcript
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- | Sunday, February 10th, 1957. | 0:03 |
Preacher, the reverend professor James T. Cleland, | 0:08 | |
dean of the chapel. | 0:12 | |
(choral praise music) | 0:14 | |
(organ music) | 1:20 | |
(choral praise music) | 2:02 | |
- | Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession. | 4:15 |
Have mercy upon us oh God, | 4:25 | |
according to thy loving kindness. | 4:28 | |
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, | 4:30 | |
blot out our transgressions. | 4:34 | |
Wipe us thoroughly from our inequities | 4:37 | |
and cleanse us from our sins. | 4:40 | |
For we acknowledge our transgressions | 4:44 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 4:47 | |
Create in us clean hearts, oh God. | 4:50 | |
And renew a right spirit within us. | 4:54 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. | 4:57 | |
And now as our savior Christ has taught us, | 5:02 | |
let us humbly pray, | 5:05 | |
Our father, who art in heaven, | 5:08 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 5:11 | |
They kingdom come, | 5:13 | |
they will be done. | 5:15 | |
On Earth as it is in heaven. | 5:17 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 5:20 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 5:23 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 5:26 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 5:29 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 5:32 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 5:35 | |
the power, | 5:37 | |
and the glory | 5:38 | |
forever and ever. | 5:39 | |
Amen. | 5:41 | |
(organ music) | 5:43 | |
(choral praise music) | 6:14 | |
- | Let us hear the word of God | 7:59 |
as 'tis contained in the scriptures of the New Testament. | 8:02 | |
In the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. | 8:07 | |
The eleventh chapter at the 22nd verse. | 8:12 | |
Let me say a word about the setting of this chapter. | 8:19 | |
Some people have challenged Paul's apostolic credentials. | 8:23 | |
And he is justifying himself. | 8:28 | |
Beginning of this passage, he's indignant. | 8:32 | |
But Christian love overcomes him before the end. | 8:37 | |
This chapter is from that section of the Corinthian | 8:42 | |
correspondence which is known as the angry letter. | 8:45 | |
Are they Hebrews? | 8:53 | |
So am I. | 8:57 | |
Are they Israelites? | 9:00 | |
So am I. | 9:03 | |
Are they the seat of Abraham? | 9:06 | |
So am I. | 9:10 | |
Are they ministers of Christ? | 9:13 | |
I speak as a fool. | 9:16 | |
I am more in labors more abundant, | 9:18 | |
in stripes above measure, | 9:22 | |
in prisons more frequent, | 9:25 | |
in deaths oft. | 9:27 | |
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. | 9:29 | |
Thrice was I beaten with rods. | 9:36 | |
Once was I stoned. | 9:38 | |
Thrice I suffered shipwreck. | 9:41 | |
A night and a day I have been in the deep. | 9:44 | |
In journeys often. | 9:48 | |
In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, | 9:51 | |
in perils by mine own countrymen, | 9:56 | |
in perils by the heathen, | 9:59 | |
in perils in the city, | 10:01 | |
in perils in the wilderness, | 10:03 | |
in perils in the sea. | 10:04 | |
In perils among false brethren. | 10:07 | |
In weariness and painfulness in watchings often, | 10:12 | |
in hunger and thirst in fastings often, | 10:17 | |
in cold and nakedness, | 10:21 | |
beside those things that are without. | 10:24 | |
That which cometh upon me daily. | 10:29 | |
The care of all the churches. | 10:32 | |
Who is weak, and I am not weak. | 10:38 | |
Who is offended, and I burn not. | 10:43 | |
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things | 10:50 | |
which concern mine infirmities. | 10:55 | |
The God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, | 11:02 | |
who is blessed forever, | 11:06 | |
knoweth that I lie not. | 11:10 | |
Amen. | 11:15 | |
And my God bless unto us the reading of His holy word. | 11:17 | |
(organ music) | 11:25 | |
(choral praise music) | 11:47 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 13:36 |
- | And with thy spirit. | 13:39 |
- | Let us pray. | 13:40 |
Oh thou most holy God, | 13:52 | |
who inhabitest eternity, | 13:55 | |
whose greatness no mortal can comprehend, | 13:57 | |
yet who hath granted unto men a vision of thy glory | 14:02 | |
in Jesus Christ, | 14:06 | |
thrill us anew with thy revelation for our salvation. | 14:08 | |
Grant us here again such a living awareness | 14:16 | |
of thy being and thy nature | 14:20 | |
that our hearts my bow before thee in true reverence. | 14:24 | |
Graciously purify the motives which have brought us to | 14:30 | |
this sanctuary we pray thee. | 14:34 | |
Lift us from self satisfaction and all | 14:37 | |
selfish preoccupations | 14:41 | |
to the praise of thee | 14:44 | |
and of thy great glory. | 14:47 | |
We thank thee our Father for all the experiences | 14:51 | |
of our lives. | 14:55 | |
The good and the ill. | 14:56 | |
Whereby we are brought to acknowledge | 14:59 | |
that we are thine. | 15:02 | |
We praise thee for those times when thou hast taken from us | 15:05 | |
our idols, our wrongheaded notions of reality, | 15:10 | |
and of our place in the scheme of things. | 15:16 | |
For those revealing moments when our false | 15:20 | |
and inadequate conceptions have not been able | 15:23 | |
to contain thee or explain thee, | 15:26 | |
and we have been led to behold in awe | 15:31 | |
some fuller measure of thy glory and goodness. | 15:34 | |
Thou art supremely worthy of our love and loyalty. | 15:40 | |
In thy service we find our true freedom; | 15:45 | |
to live in thy presence is to know true blessedness | 15:49 | |
forevermore. | 15:54 | |
By thy mercies, restrain those temptations in us | 15:57 | |
to inordinate pride, | 16:00 | |
to false securities in our success. | 16:04 | |
Let not our minds succumb to specious reasonings | 16:08 | |
of the impious. | 16:12 | |
Hold us firmly to the truth, when the drab and prosaic | 16:14 | |
moments of our days drain from us our faith, | 16:18 | |
our courage, and our hope. | 16:22 | |
Oh God who hath prepared for those who love | 16:27 | |
and trust thee such good things as surpass understanding, | 16:30 | |
continue we beseech thee to surprise us with | 16:36 | |
thy favors and companionship, | 16:40 | |
that we may come to love thee above all things | 16:43 | |
and may obtain those promises which exceed | 16:48 | |
all that we deserve or can desire through | 16:52 | |
Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 16:56 | |
Oh God who in thy son revealeth thy love | 17:00 | |
for all mankind, | 17:03 | |
yet who careth for each as though there were | 17:06 | |
but one to love, | 17:08 | |
we offer thee our intercessions for all persons | 17:11 | |
whose needs are like unto those who knew | 17:15 | |
the compassion of Christ. | 17:18 | |
For all little children, | 17:21 | |
especially the offended ones. | 17:23 | |
For all persons who are sick and afflicted | 17:27 | |
in mind or in body, | 17:30 | |
especially the seemingly incurable. | 17:33 | |
For all social outcasts and victims of race prejudice | 17:37 | |
and other depraving inhumanities, | 17:41 | |
for all conscious stricken penitents, | 17:45 | |
who finding not the forgiveness of men | 17:49 | |
have become embittered. | 17:52 | |
For all lonely discouraged and bereaved folk. | 17:56 | |
Especially those of our near acquaintance. | 18:00 | |
For all who are wretchedly poor, | 18:04 | |
especially those who by reason of age or ill health | 18:07 | |
are unable to provide for themselves | 18:12 | |
proper food, clothing, and shelter from the winter's cold. | 18:15 | |
Deliver us oh merciful Lord, from contempt | 18:21 | |
of any person less fortunate than ourselves, | 18:24 | |
supposing that such people as Jesus befriended | 18:29 | |
are no concern of our own. | 18:33 | |
Forbid that in callousness to the needs of others | 18:37 | |
we should reject thee and deny to anyone the blessings | 18:40 | |
of this life or of that eternal hope which is | 18:45 | |
ours to share. | 18:50 | |
As we have prayed here that thou wouldst continue | 18:53 | |
to favor us with enlarging revelations of thyself | 18:57 | |
and of the meaning of our lives, | 19:01 | |
so now we pray for a broadening sympathy for our | 19:05 | |
fellow men, for an increase in ourselves of Christ like | 19:09 | |
compassion for the needs of others. | 19:14 | |
By thy spirit teach us that we must love thee | 19:18 | |
in our neighbors, and our neighbors in thee. | 19:21 | |
And so make us aware that we are bound together | 19:27 | |
in the bundle of life, | 19:31 | |
environed by thy love in good providence | 19:34 | |
that we may live for thy glory who liveth | 19:38 | |
and reigneth with the son and the holy spirit, | 19:42 | |
one God, world without end, Amen. | 19:47 | |
(organ music) | 19:57 | |
(choral praise music) | 23:42 | |
(organ music) | 26:31 | |
(choral praise music) | 27:14 | |
Oh God, our creator and redeemer, | 27:53 | |
no labor or gift of our hands can repay thee | 27:56 | |
for thy great goodness, | 27:59 | |
yet in thy grace receive these offerings as | 28:02 | |
representing the gift of our lives | 28:05 | |
for the sake of the love of Christ, Amen. | 28:09 | |
(organ music) | 28:19 | |
- | Let us pray. | 28:45 |
Let the words of my mouth | 28:48 | |
and the meditations of our hearts | 28:52 | |
be acceptable in thy sight. | 28:54 | |
Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer, Amen. | 28:58 | |
One of the wonderful consequences | 29:13 | |
of having friends | 29:17 | |
is that they introduce you to someone or something | 29:22 | |
or some experience which has meant much to them | 29:29 | |
and which they want you to share. | 29:35 | |
A faculty member and his wife did just that for me | 29:40 | |
at Christmas. | 29:45 | |
They gave me a copy of Eugene O'Neill's | 29:49 | |
"Long Day's Journey Into Night," first published in 1956. | 29:53 | |
I have read it twice. | 30:03 | |
And I long to see the play. | 30:06 | |
Because you are my friends in God, | 30:10 | |
I am going to share | 30:15 | |
my reading experience with you. | 30:17 | |
"Long Day's Journey Into Night" is located through | 30:23 | |
all four acts in the living room | 30:28 | |
of a summer home in | 30:32 | |
New London, Connecticut, | 30:35 | |
from the beginning until the close of an August day in 1912. | 30:39 | |
It is one long day's journey into night, | 30:47 | |
with its four acts timed | 30:53 | |
at 8:30, 12:45, | 30:56 | |
6:30, and midnight. | 31:01 | |
The playwright thus preserves two of the | 31:06 | |
Aristotelian unities; | 31:10 | |
place and time. | 31:13 | |
One set, one day. | 31:19 | |
In that living room, a father and a mother and two sons, | 31:24 | |
the Tyrones, talk | 31:31 | |
and talk, and talk. | 31:36 | |
About themselves. | 31:42 | |
Each about himself. | 31:45 | |
Each about the others. | 31:47 | |
Their relationship to one another. | 31:51 | |
Their loving hatred of one another. | 31:55 | |
Their angry affection for one another. | 32:00 | |
There is no action in the play, | 32:06 | |
but there is talk. | 32:09 | |
Three and a half hours of it. | 32:11 | |
Bitterness is succeeded by regret, | 32:16 | |
which in turn leads to renewed bitterness | 32:20 | |
and subsequent real, but ineffective apologies. | 32:25 | |
Lies are told that deceive no one. | 32:31 | |
Lies that are spoken in a mixture of family love | 32:36 | |
and self-justification. | 32:40 | |
The play is a four handed game of confessional solitaire, | 32:45 | |
in which there is neither expiation nor atonement. | 32:53 | |
The characters cannot be painted in black or white. | 33:00 | |
If you were to chose a color, it would be | 33:10 | |
battleship gray with purple patches. | 33:13 | |
If I were to use adjectives to describe that day's | 33:19 | |
life with the Tyrones, I would have to use adjectives in | 33:23 | |
three different categories. | 33:28 | |
First, vivid, repetitive, | 33:31 | |
unforgettable, haunting, intense. | 33:36 | |
Again, | 33:41 | |
bitter, twisted, | 33:45 | |
harrowing, impotent, pessimistic. | 33:49 | |
Third, | 33:56 | |
compassionate, understanding, | 33:58 | |
appealing, pitiful, pathetic. | 34:03 | |
It is a poetic drama | 34:12 | |
where moods clash and change | 34:15 | |
because no character understands himself | 34:20 | |
as a whole person. | 34:24 | |
And it is set in an atmosphere | 34:27 | |
of fuddled garrulousness | 34:31 | |
and drug addiction. | 34:35 | |
When the play ends, all is quiet. | 34:39 | |
But no one is saved. | 34:45 | |
The curtain is rung down on the drunken, | 34:50 | |
drugged sleep of the damned. | 34:55 | |
The members of the family know one another | 35:00 | |
a little better, | 35:03 | |
but tomorrow is going to be | 35:07 | |
another day just like yesterday. | 35:10 | |
And so the audience goes home forgiving, | 35:16 | |
but frustrated. | 35:22 | |
There is some pity for the Tyrones, but little admiration. | 35:26 | |
There is no classical catharsis, none. | 35:32 | |
Now it isn't enough to say, "Don't worry, | 35:41 | |
this is typically Irish | 35:46 | |
and the Tyrones, like O'Neill, | 35:50 | |
are Irish." | 35:52 | |
Yes, brethren, but we are all Irish to some extent, | 35:56 | |
because we are mortal men and women. | 36:04 | |
This play is the old Irish epitaph come to life. | 36:10 | |
An Irishman doesn't know what he wants, | 36:16 | |
and he won't be content till he gets it. | 36:20 | |
Therefore he lives ineffectually, | 36:27 | |
and he is some of us. | 36:32 | |
So let us look at the four characters, one by one, | 36:39 | |
and try to find out what is driving them to Hell, | 36:43 | |
here and hereafter. | 36:47 | |
Let me thumbnail sketch them for you. | 36:49 | |
James Tyrone, the father, is 65 years old, | 36:54 | |
an actor who gave up the chance to be a great actor | 37:01 | |
by accepting one popular and perennial role | 37:10 | |
which brought him money and more money. | 37:17 | |
Remembering the poverty stricken days of his childhood, | 37:21 | |
he has become a penny pincher, | 37:25 | |
and is now a petty, mean, | 37:30 | |
bullying, inebriated miser. | 37:33 | |
And yet there are undertones of loyalty and humility, | 37:40 | |
and remorse. | 37:46 | |
His wife, Mary, aged 54, | 37:50 | |
was reared in a convent school | 37:53 | |
and expected to become a nun before she married. | 37:58 | |
She has lost one child through her own neglect, | 38:05 | |
so she blames herself. | 38:10 | |
And has become a drug addict because of careless | 38:13 | |
medical prescription in the illness following the | 38:17 | |
birth of her third child. | 38:22 | |
She loves her man and her boys, but looks back with | 38:27 | |
regret on the years of cheap hotel living | 38:32 | |
as she followed her husband's company around the country. | 38:38 | |
Jimmy, the elder son, age 38, | 38:45 | |
is an embittered drunkard, | 38:49 | |
and a dissatisfied Libertine, who is shot through with | 38:53 | |
a jealousy which caused him to effect the death | 38:59 | |
of one brother and makes him long for the destruction | 39:02 | |
of the other. | 39:07 | |
He loathes the life which has him under its spell, | 39:11 | |
and he detests himself. | 39:16 | |
That is, he detests himself when he's drunk enough | 39:20 | |
to be honest about himself. | 39:25 | |
In vino veritas. | 39:28 | |
Edmund, the younger child, age 23, | 39:34 | |
is a drinking consumptive | 39:40 | |
with a doubting desire to write. | 39:43 | |
He's on the surface, like Jimmy, an alcoholic and a ruey, | 39:47 | |
but inside there are yearnings for beauty | 39:51 | |
and for peace. | 39:54 | |
A servant girl, also Irish, completes the cast. | 39:58 | |
Now there are four main characters, | 40:05 | |
and yet as soon as one has said that, | 40:08 | |
one knows that is not true. | 40:09 | |
There are eight main characters. | 40:12 | |
because each has what the Germans call | 40:16 | |
a doppelganger, | 40:19 | |
a second self. | 40:23 | |
And the conversation is permeated and penetrated | 40:27 | |
with this everlasting duality, | 40:33 | |
blame and pity, | 40:36 | |
rage and apathy, | 40:38 | |
failure and yearning. | 40:41 | |
There's a double self constantly before us, | 40:44 | |
the what is, and the what might have been. | 40:47 | |
And in the mother's case, what was. | 40:52 | |
It must be an exhausting encounter | 40:56 | |
to sit through this play. | 41:01 | |
I don't recommend it for academic relaxation. | 41:04 | |
Now is it possible to get behind the symptoms to causes? | 41:11 | |
What is trying to express itself in all this | 41:18 | |
money grabbing, and drug addiction, | 41:21 | |
and unhappy drinking, | 41:26 | |
and unsatisfactory lechery? | 41:29 | |
One can point causally to the death of the second child | 41:34 | |
in which all four were involved. | 41:38 | |
The father caused it by insisting that his wife | 41:44 | |
be with him on the road, though the child needed her. | 41:47 | |
Mary caused it by choosing to be a wife, | 41:54 | |
rather than a mother. | 41:58 | |
Jimmy caused it in typical | 42:04 | |
seven year old fashion. | 42:08 | |
He caused the baby to catch the measles which he had, | 42:13 | |
so that the child died. | 42:17 | |
And the unborn Edmund is also involved, | 42:21 | |
because he was brought into the world to replace | 42:27 | |
the dead baby. | 42:30 | |
And he made his mother so ill at his birth, | 42:33 | |
that an unskilled doctor prescribed morphine | 42:38 | |
and started her on the way to be a dope addict. | 42:43 | |
There's the cause, and yet is it? | 42:49 | |
We know families which have wept and worked | 42:54 | |
and prayed through similar calamities and emerged | 42:58 | |
bloody but unbowed. | 43:04 | |
Oh, other causal factors are involved. | 43:07 | |
James Tyrone's fear of poverty and his longing | 43:11 | |
to be a great actor rather than a stage idol. | 43:17 | |
Mary's yearning for a home | 43:23 | |
and her pathetic return | 43:27 | |
to the childhood dream of being a nun. | 43:29 | |
Jimmy's guilt, not nearly because he deliberately | 43:34 | |
gave the baby measles, but because of his constant efforts | 43:39 | |
to ruin Edmund morally, he hates his brother. | 43:44 | |
Edmund's terror at the thought of tuberculosis, | 43:51 | |
and his desire to write, and to write well instead | 43:55 | |
of the stammering stuff he produces. | 43:59 | |
Even then, the real causes are not here. | 44:06 | |
Each character seeks to escape himself. | 44:15 | |
And none of them can find a dominating larger self | 44:23 | |
to which each may give himself. | 44:30 | |
They have no internal infallible center of loyalty. | 44:35 | |
They have no invisible means of support. | 44:44 | |
Now if a man is not self sufficient, | 44:52 | |
and few of us are, | 44:57 | |
then God or Satan, | 45:00 | |
the spiritual or the demonic, | 45:04 | |
will take over the direction of that person's life. | 45:11 | |
God is peripheral in this play. | 45:18 | |
Spiritual values are prominent by their absence. | 45:23 | |
The demonic is enthusiastically present | 45:29 | |
in the persistent | 45:33 | |
love of money, the false satisfaction of drugs, | 45:35 | |
the unhappy dependence on alcohol, | 45:42 | |
and the unrewarding bed of the prostitute. | 45:47 | |
This play is a little saga | 45:55 | |
of the effectively damned. | 46:00 | |
It's the day, it's one day in the life of a family | 46:06 | |
on the brink of oblivion. | 46:11 | |
Because in nary a one is there any basic, | 46:17 | |
personal security. | 46:22 | |
Then is there no cure, no balm in Gilead? | 46:29 | |
There is none in the play. | 46:35 | |
It ends with the mother recalling in a sad, | 46:44 | |
wakeful dream, her days in the convent, | 46:47 | |
with the father staring in his chair where he slouches drunk | 46:53 | |
with Jimmy and Edmund motionless. | 47:00 | |
Curtain. | 47:06 | |
And yet, if you read the play carefully, | 47:10 | |
there are hints, hints, that's all, | 47:14 | |
hints at the possibility of healing | 47:18 | |
given by each of the characters except Jimmy. | 47:22 | |
Mary says to her husband, "James, we've loved each other. | 47:28 | |
We always will. | 47:36 | |
Let's remember only that. | 47:39 | |
And not try to understand what we cannot understand, | 47:43 | |
or help things that cannot be helped, | 47:48 | |
the things life has done to us that we can neither excuse | 47:52 | |
nor explain. | 47:56 | |
She says to him again, "I know you love me, James, | 48:00 | |
in spite of everything." | 48:05 | |
He answers, "As God is my judge, always and forever, Mary." | 48:08 | |
And she replies, "And I love you, dear, | 48:18 | |
in spite of everything." | 48:23 | |
She says to Edmund, "You must try to understand" | 48:27 | |
and forgive your father, and not feel contempt." | 48:33 | |
The father says to Edmund, "When you deny God, | 48:40 | |
you deny hope. | 48:46 | |
When you deny God, you deny sanity. | 48:49 | |
And Edmund says to his father, "You have to make | 48:57 | |
allowances in this damned family or go nuts." | 49:02 | |
That's Christian love. | 49:09 | |
He talks again in an amazing monologue of belonging | 49:14 | |
to something greater than my own life, | 49:19 | |
or the life of man, | 49:23 | |
to life itself, to God if you wanna put it that way. | 49:26 | |
He refers to peace, the end of the quest, | 49:32 | |
the last harbor, the joy of belonging to a fulfillment | 49:38 | |
beyond men's lousy, pitiful, greedy fears | 49:43 | |
and hopes and dreams. | 49:48 | |
Like a saint's vision of beatitude. | 49:50 | |
Love and God. | 49:57 | |
Forgiveness and peace. | 50:01 | |
Belonging and beatitude. | 50:07 | |
Haven't you heard it all before? | 50:12 | |
Isn't it the refrain of the Bible from beginning to end? | 50:15 | |
Isn't God the invisible means of support | 50:21 | |
who quickens love in us so that on Earth | 50:25 | |
we may have peace? | 50:29 | |
Peace, lack of worry at the heart. | 50:32 | |
The peace which creates blessedness. | 50:36 | |
Let me recall it to you. | 50:38 | |
23rd Psalm. | 50:41 | |
"Surely goodness and mercy | 50:43 | |
shall follow me all the days of my life. | 50:46 | |
And I will dwell in the house of the lord forever." | 50:51 | |
The prophet Hosea. | 50:57 | |
"When Israel was a child, I loved him. | 50:59 | |
And out of Egypt I called my son. | 51:05 | |
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk. | 51:09 | |
I took them up in my arms. | 51:14 | |
I led them with cords of compassion, | 51:17 | |
with the bands of love, | 51:21 | |
and I became to them as one who eases the yolk | 51:23 | |
on their jaws. | 51:27 | |
And I bent down to them and fed them." | 51:31 | |
"Lord Jesus, | 51:37 | |
if you then who are evil | 51:41 | |
know how to give good gifts to your children, | 51:45 | |
how much more will your father in heaven | 51:50 | |
give good gifts to those who ask him?" | 51:53 | |
Or the first epistle of John, | 51:58 | |
perhaps the loveliest book in the New Testament. | 52:01 | |
"Beloved, let us love one another, | 52:05 | |
for love is of God. | 52:11 | |
And he who loves is born of God, and knows God. | 52:14 | |
He who does not love | 52:22 | |
does not know God, | 52:26 | |
for God is love. | 52:29 | |
In this is love, not that we love God | 52:32 | |
but that he loved us and sent his son. | 52:36 | |
Beloved, if God so loved us, | 52:42 | |
we also ought to love one another. | 52:48 | |
No man has ever seen God, | 52:52 | |
but if we loved one another | 52:56 | |
God abides in us. | 52:59 | |
And his love is perfected in us. | 53:03 | |
Let's see Paul interpret all this for us. | 53:09 | |
"Paul, | 53:13 | |
you certainly went through hell and high water on Earth, | 53:17 | |
judging from your autobiography. | 53:21 | |
How'd you do it?" | 53:24 | |
Can you hear his answer? | 53:28 | |
"I discovered that God loved me | 53:31 | |
before I became aware of it. | 53:35 | |
That did something to me. | 53:40 | |
I yielded myself to that almost unbelievable fact, | 53:44 | |
that the great God loves me. | 53:49 | |
And wants me as his companion on Earth. | 53:56 | |
Now, I just have to love others as he loved me | 54:01 | |
and nothing can stop it. | 54:06 | |
Hell or high water, as you put it. | 54:10 | |
I go through these afflictions | 54:13 | |
because he loves me, | 54:17 | |
and in consequence, | 54:21 | |
I love my fellows. | 54:23 | |
Love and God. | 54:26 | |
Love which according to John, is God. | 54:31 | |
Not only God is love, love is God. | 54:37 | |
Love through which we know God. | 54:42 | |
God, who is the groundwork of our life. | 54:46 | |
That's what the Tyrones were groping for. | 54:51 | |
In that is their hope of salvation, | 54:56 | |
that is their hope of health. | 55:01 | |
Health, spiritual health. | 55:05 | |
This is the invisible means of support | 55:09 | |
which the demonic obviously does not supply. | 55:15 | |
This is the remedy. | 55:20 | |
The committing of self to the more than self | 55:21 | |
which doesn't observe the self, | 55:27 | |
but which reestablishes it | 55:32 | |
by giving it the dignity of son, daughter of God. | 55:38 | |
And then seeks to work in love through that self. | 55:44 | |
That's how a person is given back his soul, | 55:51 | |
redeemed, made perfect by the exercise of love. | 55:55 | |
If you don't believe this, how do you account for Paul, | 56:01 | |
and Augustine, and Wesley, and Kaddalah, and Schweitzer, | 56:05 | |
and for the people you yourselves know | 56:12 | |
who live like this? | 56:15 | |
If you do believe, how are you going to set about | 56:17 | |
giving the Tyrones and your father, | 56:21 | |
and your students, | 56:27 | |
and your roommate, | 56:29 | |
the capacity to see it? | 56:32 | |
Granted that this is the remedy, | 56:35 | |
what is the mode of treatment? | 56:37 | |
Well let's be honest. | 56:38 | |
To begin with, the Tyrones don't need us, | 56:41 | |
they need a psychiatrist. | 56:45 | |
Because what is obvious to the Tyrones | 56:49 | |
under the influence of drink or drugs | 56:53 | |
had better become obvious and accepted | 56:55 | |
when they are cold sober, | 56:59 | |
and it'll take the skill of an expert | 57:02 | |
to make them cold sober. | 57:04 | |
Now during that treatment and after it | 57:07 | |
they must be steadily loved. | 57:10 | |
They must be loved not because they're lovely, | 57:14 | |
but because they need love. | 57:17 | |
Now the psychiatrist may do that, | 57:20 | |
it depends on his world view. | 57:21 | |
But then we come in as Christians and we must do it, | 57:24 | |
and oh brethren we do it not to make the Tyrones Christian, | 57:28 | |
you can't make anybody Christian. | 57:32 | |
Only God can do that, that's the truth behind | 57:34 | |
the doctrine of election. | 57:36 | |
Only God can make a person Christian. | 57:39 | |
We don't do it to make them Christian, | 57:42 | |
we don't do it to make them lovely, | 57:44 | |
we don't do it to influence them and make them our friends, | 57:46 | |
oh God forbid. | 57:51 | |
We do it because they need love. | 57:54 | |
They need the love which we received from God | 57:58 | |
when we were unlovely. | 58:02 | |
And still receive from his disciples when we are | 58:04 | |
still unlovely. | 58:08 | |
They'll need to know humble understanding. | 58:11 | |
Numerous Christians, who go out to them in perpetual | 58:16 | |
good will despite their misunderstanding, | 58:20 | |
their self assertion, their impotence, their backslidings, | 58:24 | |
their hostility. | 58:28 | |
That will probably call for more than one Christian. | 58:29 | |
And that's where the church comes in. | 58:32 | |
And that's where people come in who understand, | 58:36 | |
who can answer questions, because those Tyrones | 58:38 | |
will ask questions. | 58:41 | |
Don't go as a naive Christian, for God's sake, | 58:42 | |
as well as theirs. | 58:46 | |
It means knowledge. | 58:48 | |
It means the capacity to expound. | 58:50 | |
It means understanding. | 58:52 | |
And it ultimately requires that the Tyrones try this. | 58:55 | |
Action, interpretation, incitement to action, | 59:00 | |
that's the Christian procedure. | 59:03 | |
And you say to me, yes you're very naive, Dr. Cleland, | 59:06 | |
this well senior on a pulpit in the coward's box. | 59:08 | |
This doesn't work in life. | 59:12 | |
Strangely enough, it did work, | 59:15 | |
with one of the Tyrones. | 59:18 | |
Long day's journey into night is autobiographical. | 59:22 | |
Eugene O'Neill was the youngest Tyrone, Edmund. | 59:28 | |
He wrote the play in 1941, 15 years before it was published | 59:34 | |
and dedicated it to his wife on their | 59:39 | |
twelfth wedding anniversary. | 59:43 | |
Do you know why? | 59:45 | |
Because she loved him into life and into light. | 59:47 | |
She exorcized the demon. | 59:53 | |
She washed away his guilt. | 59:56 | |
Even his suffering, she gave him dignity, | 59:58 | |
and peace, | 1:00:01 | |
and exhilaration. | 1:00:03 | |
If I were producing this play, | 1:00:06 | |
I would read the dedication after the fall | 1:00:10 | |
of the final curtain. | 1:00:13 | |
Or is that bad theater, | 1:00:16 | |
even if it is homiletically sound? | 1:00:18 | |
Well, let me try again. | 1:00:20 | |
I would print the dedication in the program. | 1:00:22 | |
Why? | 1:00:26 | |
Because it explains the reason for the play | 1:00:29 | |
and it offers the catharsis. | 1:00:32 | |
The purifying and elevating of the emotions | 1:00:36 | |
which the play, per se, does not give. | 1:00:39 | |
Let me read it to you. | 1:00:42 | |
For Carlotta, on our twelfth wedding anniversary. | 1:00:45 | |
Dearest, I give you the original script of this play | 1:00:51 | |
of old sorrow, written in tears and blood. | 1:00:56 | |
A sadly inappropriate gift it would seem, | 1:01:02 | |
for a day celebrating happiness. | 1:01:05 | |
But you will understand I mean it as a tribute | 1:01:09 | |
to your love and tenderness, | 1:01:12 | |
which gave me the faith in love. | 1:01:16 | |
That enabled me to face my dead at last | 1:01:20 | |
and write this play. | 1:01:24 | |
Write it with deep pity and understanding, | 1:01:27 | |
and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones. | 1:01:33 | |
These twelve years, Beloved One, have been | 1:01:39 | |
a journey into light, | 1:01:43 | |
into love. | 1:01:47 | |
You know my gratitude and my love. | 1:01:50 | |
That is within the Christian world view | 1:01:56 | |
because it understood the catharsis | 1:02:03 | |
and the impelling force of love. | 1:02:09 | |
It was a long day's journey. | 1:02:16 | |
A long day's journey. | 1:02:20 | |
But it ended in light. | 1:02:25 | |
Let us pray. | 1:02:31 | |
Oh God, who art love, | 1:02:38 | |
and who dost work continually in love, | 1:02:42 | |
grant us to know that thou art love, | 1:02:47 | |
and grant us to live in love, | 1:02:52 | |
that thy saving health may be known, | 1:02:55 | |
and thy love lived by us through Jesus Christ, | 1:02:59 | |
thy love incarnate. | 1:03:06 | |
Thy son, and our lord. | 1:03:08 | |
And may the blessing of the lord | 1:03:12 | |
come upon you abundantly. | 1:03:15 | |
May it keep you strong and tranquil | 1:03:18 | |
in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ our lord. | 1:03:21 | |
(choral praise music) | 1:03:35 |
Item Info
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