Robert J. McCracken - "The Duty of Being Discontented" (April 8, 1956) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

[Deep voice] Virtues (indistinct) morning.

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Priest

The text is taken from

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the epistle of Paul to the Philippians

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in the fourth chapter at the 11th verse.

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I have learned to be content wherever I am.

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Contentment is a virtue

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an attractive and an engaging virtue.

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It's praise has been sung by poets in every age

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and its practice is repeatedly urged on us in the Bible.

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It is one of the minor virtues.

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Few of us would rate it as high as courage or integrity,

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loyalty or magnanimity,

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but those who possess it, help in no small measure

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to reduce the streams and tensions of existence,

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and they make life easier and sweeter

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for their neighbors and acquaintances.

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I have been rereading David Grayson's

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"Adventures in Contentment."

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If he lived does he wrote,

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Greece must have been a benediction to a whole community.

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And a friend in a thousand

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for his book is a running commentary

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on the seeing of Socrates.

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Contentment is natural wealth. luxury is artificial poverty.

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Now just how attractive

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and engaging a virtual contentment is.

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We see, as soon as we take into account,

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the person who lacks it.

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The individual who would rather air a grievance,

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then acknowledge or kindness.

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The individual who is consumed by petty trivial discontent.

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All of us are familiar with the inveterate grumbler

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complaining of the weather or food

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or of the conditions under which he has to work.

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All of the people with whom he has to work.

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Complaining of what goes on in his church

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or his fraternity or Washington.

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The root of all such discontent is self-centeredness.

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Somehow the more the self is indulged the more it demands.

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Did you ever know a selfish person,

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who wasn't also a chronic grumbler?

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On the other hand, you have a great soul,

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like the apostle Paul writing from a prison cell,

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"I have learned to be content wherever I am."

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It was something however that he had to learn.

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And his letters one by one show how the lesson was mastered

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by denying himself, by saying no to himself

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there sternest of disciplines.

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And by teaching himself to think about other people

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to care for them.

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A who woman who had lost the son became hard

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and bitter and inconsolable

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so that her health failed and her mind week.

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Her husband took her to a famous French neurologist,

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who attempted an unexpected, but direct method of cure,

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for he went with her for a long drive

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through villages that had born the fear

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and fire and devastation of the war.

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Madame said, "In nearly all these little humble homes,

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there is a poor woman who has lost a son

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and some of them that are mothers

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who have lost two or three sons

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is your grief greater than theirs?

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Go home and bear your sorrow with courage and patience."

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But though an attractive and engaging virtues,

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there are times when content is anything but a virtue.

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And saying that I'm thinking of a vivid striking passage

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in the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

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Moab from the thirst has to lean at ease.

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Never known exile afar.

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Lean like wine left on the leaves,

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never pour from jar to jar, the taste the same as ever.

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And it's Saint mellows never,

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but the day comes, says the eternal,

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when I saying men to move him, tilting him up and over,

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emptying out his casks and breaking up his flasks.

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Well, hundreds of years have passed

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since those words when I first uttered?

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But isn't there meaning crystal clear that are wrong,

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that cry out to high heaven to be right.

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There are injustices that must either be ended or mended.

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There are situations so intolerable

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that silence in regard to them

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is not merely culpable but criminal

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And they are inconsistent the offense of the man of Moab.

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They were easy going and complete.

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They tolerantly accepted the status quo.

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They acquiesced in conditions as they were

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in conditions against which they should have

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raise that voice and that arm in spirited, defiant protest.

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You see contentment is always in danger

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of settling into complacency or what is even worse

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into apathy into indifference.

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You may have heard of the farmer who said,

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"Don't tell me how to farm any better.

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I don't farm as good now as I know how."

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And in all walks of life that are men there women

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who might well make the same sort of confession

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in the realm of personal character, for instance,

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there are those who are far too readily

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and easily come to terms with themselves

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and with the limitation.

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Now I know that psychologists insist and rightly insist

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on the need of self-acceptance,

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but let us remember that there is a self-acceptance

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that is all together to indolent and supine.

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If you imposed on yourself a stricter discipline,

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you could be a finer person

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and you could turn into the classroom,

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a finer quality of work.

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Few things are said than to see men and women

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deliberately sentencing themselves

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to low levels of living and achievement.

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Listen to what G.J.Nith

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the dramatic critic says about himself

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in his book, "Living Philosophies."

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"To me, pleasure, and my own personal happiness,

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only infrequently collaborating with others,

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at all I deem worth a hoot.

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It would make me out to much finer that and nobler person.

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I duly, appreciate to see

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that the happiness and welfare of all mankind

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were close to my heart.

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As a matter of fact, the happiness

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and welfare of all mankind are not my profession.

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I have all the time I can do to look out

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for my own happiness and welfare

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that I am selfish and to a very

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considerable degree possibly or offensive.

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Is that more and more regrettably obvious.

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All that I am able to offer in extenuation is

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that so are most other men, if you dig down into them

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and pay no attention to their altruistic pretentious

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get up a heart of them."

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I have yet to find a man

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who did not think of himself first and foremost,

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as one type of self-acceptance for you,

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does anyone really want to get up and defend it?

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Should we be content with a philosophy of self-interest

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even of enlightened self-interest.

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If everybody adopted that sort of philosophy,

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pleasure and our own personal happiness,

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or we deemed worth a hoot,

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what a crazy chaotic world, this would be.

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Yes. And some people have to quickly come to terms

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not only with themselves and their limitations,

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but with the world and its limitations.

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In adolescence, the status quo, anger them.

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They could hardly wait until college days were over.

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So we got to where they took it into the free,

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they were free men crusaders for every good cause.

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And for every overdue and unpopular reform,

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they participated in debates, they passed resolutions.

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They join societies and they went home

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in the vacations to shock the parents

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by their radicalism and their extremism.

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Where are they today?

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What has become of the social passion

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of the resolve to change the face of the world

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and hand down the millennium?

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Alas in the case of the majority, time, further time

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has had his way with, the years have tamed them

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Some of them are prudent and cautious and calculating.

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Some of them have given up their aspirations

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for possessions they don't fight anymore.

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Takes a great deal to arouse or stair them.

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Next time you're in New York, all that you have to do,

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is make four fifth avenue, cross to the fifth avenue

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where the university club is situated,

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cross to the front window of Elizabeth Arden shop

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and watch the big front windows of the university club.

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See the pot bellied man sitting there,

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in those big windows.

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It takes a very great deal to move them, to stir them.

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The tumultuous, enthusiasms of youth have died down

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and just like many of them, just like Dr. Samuel Johnson

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at the time of the American revolution.

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Bossewel, "If I were in parliament,

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I should be vexed if things went wrong."

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Johnson, "That can't, sir. Public affairs vex no man."

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Bossewel, "Have they not fixed you a little sir?

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Have you not yourself been vexed

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by all the turbulence of this reign?"

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Johnson, "Sir, I have never slept an hour less

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nor an ounce less meat."

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So shooting Samuel Johnson and I time him of public calamity

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have been as equable as philosophical,

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would it not have been for the general good,

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if when king George The Third,

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was making such disastrous decisions,

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the leading man in England,

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because of their concern over what was going on

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had lost some sleep and found the age going off

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their appetite, public affairs, vex no man.

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A story that came out of China during the war

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illustrates how wide of the mark

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their generalization can be.

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Story about two men

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who succeeded in escaping from a prison camp.

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After arduous travel and desperate hazards,

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they made their way to the threshold of safety.

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They had been associated for years in the service of China.

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The one as a worker, the other as a publicist.

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Insight of freedom, the worker stopped.

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"You go on." He said, "And with your brilliant gifts.

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Tell the world what we are fighting for.

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I'm going back, so that when you write,

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you can dip your pen in my blood.

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And the world will know that we mean what we say."

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There was a man whom the years have not tamed

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and back of every movement for reform in history.

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Of every one of them, you can trace a deep,

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I would say, I divide this content.

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Moses, for example, he was by adoption

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a prince of the Royal house of Egypt.

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But there was Israelitish blood in his veins.

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How could he be content his brethren

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were treated like beasts of burden.

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His whole soul rose in revolt

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at the sight of their suffering.

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Every decent instinct in the man drove him

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to renounce the link with the palace

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and to identify himself with his own Kith and Kin.

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In the end, at that head determined defiant,

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he led out of Egypt.

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Amos was the herdsman in Tacoma,

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in the eighth century before Christ.

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If you want to see how ill at ease and impatient,

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a good man can be in the presence of social wrongs

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and how zealous for radical thorough going reforms.

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Read the little track for the times,

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that is the prophecy of Amos.

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It is full of tempestuous and withering words,

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It is full of spiritual dynamite, no soft pleading in it,

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no gentle persuasion in it,

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but the wholesome cleansing influence of that

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little book of nine chapters,

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it would be very difficult for me to exaggerate.

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And in the same prophetic succession

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stands the Lord Jesus Christ.

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For 30 years, 30 years,

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he remained in the seclusion of Nazareth.

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The wonder is that he stayed

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by the carpenter's bench so long.

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The wonder is that he was able to keep his patience,

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or to hold his tongue in these of the situation of Israel,

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of religion in Israel, at the time,

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the formality, the unreality, the blight

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that was lying on what should have been

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a blessed beneficence thing.

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But when at length he did speak,

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there could be no mistaking the righteous indignation

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that flamed in his words and in his looks.

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It's strange the generation after generation

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should persist in thinking about him

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as a sweetly sentimental soul, insipid, was how a student

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once described Jesus to me, insipid.

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He was gracious.

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He could be gentle as the gentlest woman here,

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but all through his ministry,

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there seize the name a divine discontent,

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why the disciples had only to look at him,

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to be reminded of the saying in the Bible,

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"The seal of thine house have devoured him."

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You see, he came to win the world back to God,

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it was impossible for him to recline in slipperiness,

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to stay by the carpenter's bench

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to take life as he found it.

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That last freeze, by the way,

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I borrowed from a verse by Author Clow,

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"The world load is very ill we see, we cannot comprehend it,

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but in one point we all agree.

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God won't and men can't mend it.

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Being common sensed can be seen to take life as we find it,

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the pleasure to take pleasure in the pain.

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Try not to mind it."

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The sentiment of those lines is anything but christian,

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measure them against the life and teaching

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and spirit of Jesus and the contrast becomes stark at once.

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No one who professes to follow Jesus,

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should take life as he finds it

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or subscribe to the view

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that the ills of this world are beyond repair or cure.

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Yet, it has with contrition to be acknowledged

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that the church has sometimes done this very thing

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at intervals in its history there've been pious people

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who have suppose that earthly conditions

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had hardly any importance.

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Some have said categorically,

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that it is no part of the duty of the Christian,

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to seek to make this world a better place.

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That religion first and foremost

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is a matter between a man and this maker

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and the patrons and the structure of society

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are neither his province nor its concern.

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As I see it, this is disastrous doctrine.

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And if I refer to it,

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it's because it's always raising its head

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on this continent and on the European continent,

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one of the troubles about the crisis theology

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is that it leaves its readers with the impression sometimes

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that when all is said and done,

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there's nothing that the Christian can do for that matter,

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nothing that he should attempt to do

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about the external order of society,

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since God alone can save and redeem it.

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There was a theological student who went from

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the United States to Europe,

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came for a time under the influence of this crisis theology.

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He was familiar with as you're familiar

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with W. P. Merrals, great hymn "Rise up, oh man of God,

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His kingdom tarries long.

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Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong."

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But coming under this other kind of influence,

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he parodied that verse and wrote,

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"Sit down oh man of God, His kingdom, He will bring

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whenever it may pleases His will, you cannot do a thing."

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Believe that and you cut the nerve

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of Christian social endeavor, you narrow the range

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and the application of the christian ethic.

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Yes, and you'll give your support

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to the abdication of Christianity

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from the whole field of politics and economics.

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That way lies the passive acceptance of the status quo.

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No matter how saturated the status quo may be with injustice

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and inequality and oppression.

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Over against this view, is the conviction

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that you and I are called

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to the service of God here and now.

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And that it is our bound and duty to labor

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for a society that will embody and reflect

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the principles and the spirit of Jesus Christ.

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When it comes to the maintenance of the cosmic order,

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God requires no man's assistance.

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But when it comes to the establishment of the social order

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in his providence, He has called us to be His coworkers.

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We have God in history is through human agent,

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Moses and Amos and the others

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Christ towering above them all, who is human and divine.

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The kingdom of God is the gift of God,

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but we can forward this coming

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till the will of God is done on earth, as it is in heaven.

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That should be in the heart of every Christian,

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a divine discontent.

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He should be alert to the presence of evil.

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His conscience should be tender and sensitive

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to whatever is unclean or unfair, unjust or unChrist like.

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These certainly are days when there are situations in plenty

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to stir up within us, discontent

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within us stone's throw of the beautiful church, I serve.

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Housing conditions exist,

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which are a reproach to the city of New York.

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And which should be a burden as I take occasion to say,

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should be a burden and at the same time,

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a challenge to the conscience of my congregation.

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Disturbing to any sensitive conscience is the fact that

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the United States

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has well over twice, the average amount of food

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of the rest of mankind, and with 6.2

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of the world's population, it has 47% of its income.

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And when we look abroad, what do we see?

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The war no longer cold between the west and the east,

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a fresh feverish race and armaments

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with four new and awesome feature,

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the experimentation and atomic vision.

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What we see in short is a world on the brink of a new hell.

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And I ask you,

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who could be content with that for the status quo?

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But you say, "What can we do?"

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We mustn't harden ourselves.

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That's what we must do. We mustn't harden ourselves,

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we mustn't tell ourselves either

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that things are not as bad as they seem.

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We mustn't tell ourselves that in any case,

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they're not our business.

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We mustn't allow ourselves to become indifferent

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to what is going on in the country

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and to what is going on in the world.

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Odd Nansen, son of the famous Norwegian Explorer,

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wrote a day by day chronicle of his life

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in a Nazi concentration camp.

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And this is the way in which the book finishes.

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"Dear reader, I shall stop now.

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This book has turned out long enough

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and it may have been heavy going.

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But when you go to your book seller for a new one,

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don't say to him as so many do,

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I have had enough of these retched prison books.

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Give me some better kind of thing.

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I can't stand any more of that misery" says Nansen.

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"Worst crime you can commit today against yourself

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and against society is to forget what happened

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and sink back into indifference.

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What happened was worse than you have any idea off.

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And it was the indifference of mankind

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that let it take place"

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Odd Nansen warning shouldn't go unheeded.

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If we are going to build a screen,

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between ourselves and the giant agony of the world

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We're also going to pave the way to new miseries.

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We mustn't harden ourselves.

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We mustn't tell ourselves

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that things are not really as bad as they seem

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or at any rate they're not our business anyway.

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And we must remember,

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I want now to talk especially to undergraduates,

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we must remember that the only discontent

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that is worth anything is discontent that issues in action.

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I remember when there had been

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a fresh outbreak of corruption in New York,

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getting into the subway one morning

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and sitting down beside a man who had his paper open

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at the place where the news was printed there in grave type

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but he was fuming. He was angry.

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He was as discontented as anyone could be.

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I couldn't help wondering whether

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all of the discontent would ooze out of him

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and in picturing complete,

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or if when the next time came to vote,

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he registered a vote

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that would do something to secure integrity for his city.

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People who care, go and do something,

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those who want democracy work for it.

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Those who want peace work for it.

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Those who want a finer juster order

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roll up their sleeves pitch in and work for it.

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And finally, forbidding and menacing

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as the contemporary situation is

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we mustn't allow ourselves to become

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panicky and jittery over it.

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If we are Christians, we must think

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and talk and act like Christians,

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that is to say, we must keep our faith in the love

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and grace and power of God.

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And we must also keep our faith

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in the essential greatness and goodness of man.

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I'm going to conclude now with a story,

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which as I see it, doesn't contradict, but compliments

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and maybe sums up what I've been endeavoring to say.

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In the days of Oliver Cromwell, bulls trod Whitlock.

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The British ambassador to the Hague,

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was tossing through the night

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in anxiety about the condition of his country.

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And old servant lying in the same room addressed,

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"Sir, may I ask you a question?"

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"Certainly" replied the ambassador.

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"Did God govern the world before you came into?"

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"Certainly." was the answer.

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"And Will He govern the world when you've gone out of it?"

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"Undoubtedly." was the answer.

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"Then sir, why can you not trust him

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to govern the world while you're in it?"

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The tired ambassador turned over on his side

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and fell fast, asleep.

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Fell fast to sleep so that the next morning

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he was able and adequate for the handling

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of the affairs of his country.

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Let us pray.

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Oh, Son of God in whose heart zeal burned like a furnace,

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save us from weak resignation to the evils we deploy.

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Stir up within all of us a divine discontent,

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help us as we have opportunity.

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And as though dos give us grace and strength

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to bring in the day of brotherhood

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and help in the night of wrong.

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The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ the love of God,

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the fellowship of the holy spirit,

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be with us all now and forevermore. Amen.

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♪ The Lord bless you and keep you ♪

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♪ The Lord lift his countenance upon you ♪

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♪ And give you peace ♪

30:59

♪ And give you peace ♪

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♪ And give you peace ♪

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♪ And give you peace ♪

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♪ The Lord make his face to shine upon you ♪

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♪ And be gracious unto you ♪

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♪ And be gracious ♪

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♪ The Lord and be gracious ♪

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♪ Gracious unto you ♪

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♪ Amen, Amen ♪

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♪ Amen Amen ♪

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♪ Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen ♪

32:04

(bell ringing)

32:25

(instrument playing)

32:35

Baby

Well, I think I'll talk to Heidi first.

32:57

Well Heidi we went in a car to see Santa, Santa Clause.

33:03

And I wanna tell all of you,

33:12

that I have a preset that Peggy gave me,

33:17

and I hardly can wait to open it up.

33:21

I can't think of what I wanna say now.

33:26

I think I'll give you-

33:31

Woman

What else did we see besides Santa Clause?

33:33

Baby

What?

33:36

Woman

What else did we see besides Santa Clause,

33:36

Baby

I don't know.

33:39

Woman

That's nice?

Did we see some pretty Christmas trees?

33:41

Baby

Yes' I will tell them about the manger.

33:44

Woman

Oh, all right, you tell them about the manger.

33:47

Baby

Well, not even grandmother,

33:49

I'll tell all the the girls about it.

33:53

Woman

Go ahead and do it.

33:54

Baby

Not even grandmother and Heidi,

33:56

we saw a manger scene and some pretty Christmas trees,

34:00

beside Santa Clause and over aunt Teresa's house,

34:05

It just lay in a Santa Claus.

34:10

♪ Up on the house stop reindeer pause ♪

34:14

♪ Out jumps good old Santa Clause ♪

34:18

♪ Down through the chimney with lots of toys. ♪

34:21

♪ All of the little ones Christmas joy ♪

34:25

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:28

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:32

♪ Up on the house stop click click click ♪

34:35

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

34:39

♪ First comes the stocking of little Nail ♪

34:42

♪ Oh dear Santa fill it well ♪

34:45

♪ Give her a dollar that last and cross ♪

34:49

♪ One that the local man shut her eyes ♪

34:52

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:56

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:59

♪ Up on my house stop click, click ,click ♪

35:03

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

35:06

♪ Next comes the stoking of little Will ♪

35:10

♪ Oh just see what a glorious bill ♪

35:13

♪ Here is a hammer and lots of texts ♪

35:17

♪ Also a ball and a whip that cracks ♪

35:20

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, ♪

35:23

Boy

Your not singing the right tune.

35:25

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

35:27

♪ Up on the house stop click, click, click ♪

35:30

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

35:34

♪ Jolly old Saint Nicholas new year this way. ♪

35:39

♪ Don't you tell us single soul what I'm going to say. ♪

35:44

♪ Christmas Eve is coming soon now you dear old man. ♪

35:48

♪ Whisper what you bring to me, tell me if you can. ♪

35:53

♪ When the clock is striking 12, when I'm fast asleep ♪

35:57

♪ Down the chimney brown and black, with your pack of three ♪

36:02

♪ Stockings, you will find hanging in a row. ♪

36:06

♪ Mine will be the shortest one, you'll be sure to know. ♪

36:11

♪ Johnny wants a pair of skates, Susie wants a Dolly ♪

36:16

♪ Nellie wants a story book ♪

36:20

♪ She thinks dolls are folly ♪

36:24

♪ As for me, my little brain, isn't very bright ♪

36:26

♪ Choose for me oh Santa Claus, watch you think is right. ♪

36:32

♪ Way down upon the Swanee river far, far away ♪

36:38

♪ That's where my heart is turning ever ♪

36:48

♪ That's where the old folks stay ♪

36:53

♪ Oh, my heart is sad and dreary everywhere I roam ♪

36:58

♪ Oh, brothers how my heart grows weary ♪

37:09

♪ Far from the old folks at home ♪

37:15

Woman

I've been trying very hard

37:20

to get Walter to say Merry Christmas to you.

37:21

And he agrees that he will.

37:25

And then when we hand him a little microphone,

37:27

he's just a silent as a little mouse,

37:29

but he's sitting here with us

37:31

and he's thinking about all of you up in Bridgehampton

37:32

and looking forward to another summer with you next year.

37:36

Now we want to say a last Merry Christmas to all of you.

37:41

♪ Merry Christmas to you ♪

37:45

♪ Merry Christmas to you ♪

37:49

♪ Merry Christmas dear family ♪

37:53

♪ Merry Christmas ♪

37:57

Robert J. McCracken - "The Duty of Being Discontented" (April 8, 1956)

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Duke University Archives