Waldo Beach - "High Time" (October 12, 1958); James F. Peter - "God's Rights" (November 23, 1958)

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-	It's usually some day in October.	0:25
	After the initial dinner of the opening of school is passed,	0:31
	you're walking somewhere amid falling leaves,	0:37
	or on one of those rare times,	0:44
	when you meet yourself coming the other way,	0:46
	and of a sudden, you are overtaken by a somber sadness,	0:51
	which is unaccountable.	0:59
	It's a deep twinge of autumn melancholy.	1:03
	It's not home sickness, unless it be a cosmic home sickness.	1:09
	It's nothing that student health service	1:16
	can do anything about.	1:19
	Usually, you shake it off and jump into the next activity.	1:22
	But for the moment that it seeps in, it's very real.	1:29
	It's an encounter with the mystery of time	1:35
	and the passing away of all things.	1:40
	It's a glimpse of the soul into the sadness of trenchancy.	1:44
	It's nowhere better put than in the 90th Psalm,	1:53
	which is an October Psalm.	1:58
	"Thou does sweep men away,	2:01
	they're like a dream,	2:04
	like grass which is renewed in the morning,	2:07
	in the morning, it flourishes and is renewed,	2:11
	in the evening, it fades and withers."	2:15
	The 90th Psalm deals with a problem of time.	2:21
	One of the most elusive and unavoidable mysteries	2:25
	in anybody's theology.	2:29
	What is time?	2:33
	This stuff, this medium,	2:36
	we all talk about and swim in all the time.	2:40
	Saint Augustine says, "If nobody asks me what it is,	2:50
	I know perfectly well, but if anybody asks me,	2:53
	I'm at a complete loss to say."	2:56
	Dial 28111 in Durham, and you'll hear the correct time.	3:02
	But if you should dare to ask the voice,	3:11
	"Thanks, but what is time?"	3:14
	You only at a click for an answer.	3:19
	The machine can't handle this simple question.	3:22
	The Bible is acutely and fascinated	3:28
	by the mystery and problem of time.	3:31
	Throughout the Old and New Testaments,	3:36
	there are many ponderings of the Jews	3:39
	and the early Christians about the meaning of the word.	3:44
	In the New Testament, there are two main words,	3:50
	which both are translated as time in English.	3:56
	But this translation obscures	4:02
	the radically different meanings that they have.	4:05
	The two words are Chronos and Kairos.	4:11
	Chronos, C H R O N O S.	4:19
	We're all aware. We live in it and buy it.	4:23
	Chronos means clock time.	4:28
	The steady regular beat of passing, of trenchancy.	4:32
	The thin edge line that moves along inexorably	4:40
	without change of pace,	4:44
	making the not yet, the no longer.	4:46
	Chronos means succession.	4:53
	The mechanical parade of moments into oblivion.	4:55
	And though you can stop the clock on the scoreboard,	5:03
	you can't stop time.	5:07
	As such, it is a negative principle.	5:12
	It's a negating power.	5:16
	Chronos wears the mask of death,	5:20
	and carries life downstream toward nothingness.	5:23
	Farther time carries aside, cuts all the grass down.	5:30
	Or is the hymn has it,	5:36
	"Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons away."	5:39
	It's this passing into nothingness of Chronos,	5:47
	which makes us, I think, strangely sad this time of year.	5:51
	Somehow, along with the Islamic,	5:58
	we have an inkling of the weariness of years,	6:00
	even before we become gray hair at alumni	6:05
	back for homecoming.	6:08
	We know the burning of slow time.	6:11
	We know that living is a slow form of dying.	6:18
	Nothing stays fixed or fast.	6:23
	The years of our life are soon gone and we fly away.	6:28
	If this be all there is to time,	6:36
	if Chronos be the only kind of time	6:38
	we have to live in and contend with,	6:41
	then I suppose we tend to react to it	6:45
	in one of two opposite ways.	6:47
	One way would be that of the good solid junior,	6:52
	the extremely average man you see everywhere between classes	6:58
	who has a look of benign bored fatalism on his face.	7:05
	He takes Chronos as something to get through.	7:12
	College is a kind of Gothic house of detention	7:18
	in which he's serving time or marking time,	7:26
	until he can begin really to live.	7:31
	He's postponing his existence until he gets out.	7:36
	In a very amiable, casual sort of way,	7:43
	he's busy finding past times	7:46
	and elaborate devices for fooling around.	7:51
	He talks about the university as they, the guards.	7:56
	They'll let you graduate if you have so many credits	8:05
	or they'll let you go home at Christmas,	8:09
	and I'm sweating it out until then.	8:14
	Temperamentally, he's a clock watcher.	8:19
	He leans toward the door when the bell rings.	8:23
	Time's up.	8:30
	He's been known to walk out of class with the bell	8:31
	even if the professor has only paused on a comma.	8:35
	Denizen of dope shop and dive,	8:41
	he's an expert in refined doddling,	8:46
	anything to make the time go faster,	8:51
	even sitting through the show twice.	8:55
	But this response to Chronos makes time something to beat,	9:00
	something to get through.	9:06
	The clock and the calendar become the enemy.	9:09
	For it's a strange thing about time as Chronos,	9:14
	try to make it go faster and it seems to go slower.	9:18
	Throw it away and it sticks to your fingers like pitch.	9:26
	"I've got time on my hands," he says,	9:32
	but it hangs heavy and weighs down his soul.	9:36
	He's bored and beat,	9:41
	because he's tyrannized by Chronos, the enemy.	9:44
	He may profess that he's having a high old time at college.	9:50
	Actually, he is serving time as a slave.	9:55
	The opposite reaction might be that of the frantic female,	10:04
	maybe on east or at least east of Eden,	10:10
	who always takes Chronos as the only kind of time there is.	10:15
	But instead of waiting to get through it,	10:22
	she is going to beat the clock no matter what,	10:25
	if it kills her.	10:29
	She's the kind of that jumps into college	10:32
	and rides off everywhere at once.	10:35
	She has a kind of obsessive passion about time,	10:38
	and runs scared catch up	10:43
	about two weeks behind the whole way.	10:46
	Her mind is now a kind of cluttered list of things to do,	10:52
	study for quiz, finish book report, committee at 6:30	10:57
	committee at 7:00, write Joe, write home,	11:01
	press dirt, get no dose.	11:04
	(audience laughs)
	Her constant nightmare is of missing trains by 30 seconds.	11:16
	She has a kind of panicky feeling	11:23
	that as God's special gift to Duke University,	11:25
	it's all up to her to keep it from falling apart.	11:30
	(audience laughs)	11:34
	But she's had ridden by time by striving with it,	11:36
	as something to conquer.	11:42
	In the attempt to beat it, she is beaten by it.	11:45
	She does not realize that she's running away from herself	11:49
	rather than toward herself.	11:53
	At my back, I always hear times winged chariot drawing near.	11:57
	Appearances to the contrary,	12:06
	she is the spiritual counterpart	12:08
	to the tired captive of Chronos on west.	12:12
	For both of them, time is the enemy.	12:18
	Both miss the mark of college	12:21
	by failing to grasp the inner meaning of time	12:25
	or to hear its inner momentum.	12:29
	Their fate is something like that of the poor man	12:34
	who looked out from behind the times	12:38
	and had his head taken off by a passing event.	12:42
	The biblical understanding of the problem of time	12:49
	provides wisdom.	12:53
	Correct if I think of both these attempts.	12:55
	It speaks to the condition,	12:59
	both of Bob Bored and Sally Frantic.	13:01
	The psalmists, the prophets, the chroniclers,	13:07
	the writers of the New Testament,	13:11
	are certainly conscious of time as Chronos,	13:14
	as sheer succession.	13:18
	But they are more impressed by another dimension of time,	13:21
	the depth dimension which appears within Chronos,	13:26
	and that is Kairos.	13:32
	K A I R O S.	13:36
	Kairos means not clock time but the right time,	13:41
	the crucial time, the time of opportunity,	13:48
	the time of expectancy, decision, choice.	13:53
	Kairos means the moment in the fairy tale	14:00
	when the clock is just about to strike 12.	14:03
	It means high time.	14:10
	The biblical understanding of time as Kairos,	14:15
	conveys also that it is the moment of opportunity	14:20
	provided by God for decision.	14:24
	It is the chance offered from the divine side to be seized,	14:27
	to be met by the human response of obedience.	14:35
	And when a person grasps the challenge,	14:41
	the call within Kairos, he fulfills his Kairos.	14:45
	Then time as Chronos is transformed	14:52
	from enemy to friend.	14:58
	Chronos is no longer something to be lit in frantic pace	15:01
	or to be waited through in boredom.	15:06
	Now it becomes the instrument for the expression of Kairos.	15:11
	Isn't this true in a general way, in our own experience,	15:18
	when you are absorbed in something completely,	15:25
	Chronos seems to tear by.	15:29
	"I forgot all about time," we say.	15:33
	There are many facets of Kairos as high time,	15:38
	which apply directly to where we are	15:44
	in our jumbled confusions weighed down	15:47
	on the nether side by Chronos.	15:52
	Looked at as just Chronos,	15:58
	October is the running down time of year.	16:01
	Looked at as Kairos,	16:08
	October is the high time of the year.	16:11
	One meaning of it is the Kairos is crucial opportunity.	16:19
	It is decisive opportunity.	16:24
	Lowell's poem catches the urgency of Kairos,	16:29
	wants to every man and nation comes the moment	16:34
	to decide in this strife of truth with falsehood,	16:38
	for the good or evil side.	16:45
	And the choice goes by forever,	16:48
	twixt at darkness and at light.	16:52
	In a morally serious universe,	16:57
	the fulfilling or the muffing of opportunity	17:00
	has permanent consequences.	17:05
	We pass this way but once.	17:09
	We miss the right turn and it's forever missed.	17:13
	You can't go back again to the crossroads.	17:20
	You can't go home again to start over. Really.	17:25
	So maybe, that should be said in a low tone of voice	17:32
	at homecoming weekend.	17:35
	Choices are fateful.	17:41
	Future destiny is prefigured in the now.	17:43
	It is decided now how it will come out.	17:48
	The now, the moment may be protracted duration of Chronos.	17:53
	It may be a day. It may be a season. It may be a year.	18:00
	The long or short of it is a little moment.	18:07
	What matters is the content within the duration.	18:10
	Another point of relevance,	18:15
	in the biblical understanding of Kairos,	18:20
	is the faith that within the slow beat of Chronos,	18:24
	God provides all sorts of openings.	18:30
	Kairoi leads chances for the seeker to grasp.	18:36
	For many, college is a kind of limbo	18:46
	of vocational uncertainty, suspended animation.	18:49
	When we are asking very anxiously,	18:56
	"What am I cut out for?"	18:58
	By senior year, if we have no clear lead,	19:02
	we get inwardly panicky.	19:07
	The way out of this limbo is to see college as high time,	19:12
	the time of your life to find yourself,	19:19
	by grasping the leads that Providence offers.	19:26
	But how and where do these leads come?	19:33
	How do I know a Kairos when I see one?	19:39
	How do I spot my Kairos, my hour, when it appears?	19:45
	There's no infallible rule for this question,	19:52
	no clear bell rings when the hour is it had.	19:57
	But in the Christian faith, the form that Kairos takes	20:04
	is when a student's spirit is stabbed awake	20:09
	to some great human need out there	20:14
	where the times are out of joint,	20:19
	and when he is also alerted to	20:23
	talents or gifts within himself that can match these needs.	20:26
	There's nothing mystical or magical or spectacular	20:35
	in the appearance of Kairos.	20:40
	No flags wave, no cannons sound.	20:43
	It involves hard-headed realism	20:50
	in the understanding of the sicknesses of society,	20:52
	physical sicknesses, political, economic, racial.	20:57
	And then the patient responsible cultivation	21:05
	of one's own tools and skills to meet the need,	21:09
	thus redeeming the times, fulfilling one's Kairos.	21:13
	Saying with Isaiah, "Here am I, send me."	21:20
	In this way, Kairos overcomes the slow attrition of Chronos.	21:27
	One is no longer a victim of time,	21:34
	but a servant of eternity.	21:37
	There's yet another facet of the biblical grasp of Kairos,	21:43
	which is the corrective to the frantic despair of the coeds	21:51
	racing with time and thinking the universe depends on her.	21:56
	It's a curious but profound paradox in the biblical faith	22:05
	about Kairos.	22:09
	At once, it holds that Kairos is decisive decision for man,	22:12
	but also,	22:19
	that God is Lord of time.	22:22
	It's up to me, but the outcome is not all up to me.	22:26
	"Thou art my God," says the psalmist.	22:34
	My times are in thy hands.	22:38
	This curious sort of faith	22:45
	which goes deeper than strict logic,	22:46
	is a faith in a Providence which orders our times,	22:52
	which rules and overrules men and nations.	22:55
	This faith is the ground of resolute action.	23:00
	It's also the stay against strain and fret, inaction,	23:06
	against the dread,	23:14
	the fears it will lose the battle of time.	23:17
	It's the same God of Isaiah who asks,	23:22
	"Who will go for us?"	23:25
	Providing Kairos' opportunity,	23:29
	who is the New Testament God who provides also assurance.	23:33
	Be not anxious.	23:37
	If then, the sense of Kairos is a renewal	23:42
	to the victim of empty time,	23:45
	giving him a sense of purpose,	23:49
	it's also salvation from frantic despair.	23:52
	Action which rises to the challenge of high time	23:57
	is a reflex action of faith in Providence,	24:02
	which both offers and sustains.	24:07
	It is unstrained and patient	24:12
	because it is an instrument of the cosmic patience.	24:16
	It is a poised waiting on the Lord.	24:20
	A waiting in action.	24:26
	But note that those who wait on the Lord	24:32
	rather than on themselves,	24:35
	are exactly those who run and are not weary,	24:37
	who walk and do not faint.	24:44
	Perhaps the double meaning of Kairos	24:50
	is contained in the casual admonition	24:55
	we speak to each other on campus,	24:58
	"Take your time."	25:01
	On the one hand this means,	25:04
	this is the moment, it won't come again,	25:07
	grab it.	25:11
	But also it means relax.	25:14
	The times are in God's hands.	25:19
	It means to live and work in the present that is given to us	25:21
	without regret at yesterday's misses	25:27
	or anxiety at tomorrow's threat.	25:31
	It means to live within the slow turning of time,	25:36
	the drift toward nothingness,	25:44
	with the confidence of a child of eternity.	25:47
	Let us pray.	25:56
	Eternal God.	26:07
	Lord of all times.	26:11
	So teach us to number our days,	26:16
	that we may get a heart of wisdom.	26:21
	Now may the peace of God which passeth it all understanding,	26:26
	keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,	26:33
	and of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.	26:38
	And the blessing of God Almighty,	26:43
	the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,	26:46
	be among you and remain with you always.	26:50
-	In the name of the Father, and of the Son,	27:05
	and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.	27:07
	The text is in the 20th chapter of the gospel,	27:13
	according to Matthew and the 15th verse.	27:16
	Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?	27:21
	Is thine eye evil, because I am good?	27:27
	Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?	27:33
	There isn't exaggeration	27:43
	just for the sake of dramatic effect.	27:45
	In this story which Jesus told of a householder	27:48
	who went out at various times in the day	27:52
	to pick up for his vineyard.	27:54
	It was in those days,	27:58
	what we today would call an employer's market.	28:00
	And every open space had its gathering of unemployed,	28:04
	waiting about, hoping to be engaged,	28:09
	even if it were for only the last hour of the day.	28:12
	So far, the story is very true to life.	28:18
	What may be a little unreal however,	28:24
	is the householder's action.	28:27
	After agreeing with those whom he employed at dawn	28:30
	to pay them the usual day's wage,	28:33
	and entering into no such agreement with those	28:37
	whom he sent into his vineyard at later hours of the day,	28:39
	in nonetheless paying all of them at the day's end,	28:44
	the usual day's wage.	28:48
	One doesn't have to be a 20th century trade union advocate	28:53
	for whom are axiomatics,	28:58
	such slogans as 'A fair day's pay for a fair day's work',	29:00
	and 'Last to come, first to go'	29:05
	to feel something strange and a little unpalatable	29:10
	in this householder's action.	29:15
	We can be sure indeed that many of those	29:19
	who first heard the story from the lips of Jesus himself,	29:21
	felt that way about it too.	29:26
	For an employer to act in that way isn't true to life	29:29
	and it's not strict justice.	29:33
	But that only serves to emphasize that the standards	29:38
	which men are accustomed to employ sometimes differ	29:41
	from those which are applied in the kingdom of God.	29:46
	That Jesus bothered to tell such a story at all,	29:52
	and that Matthew,	29:56
	out of the many which were available to him for selection,	29:57
	should have chosen to include this one in his gospel,	30:00
	suggests that here is a story	30:05
	with important lessons to teach.	30:07
	And one of these lessons is this,	30:11
	that all are equal before God.	30:15
	All are equal before God.	30:20
	I don't think there's any doubt	30:26
	about the identification of the characters in this story.	30:27
	The householder is God,	30:32
	the laborers, the various classes of people	30:35
	whom God allows to work for him.	30:38
	And those who are so privileged to for God	30:42
	do so on a basis of equality.	30:46
	The service of no individual	30:49
	being of greater intrinsic worth than that of anyone else.	30:52
	It is possible for someone who serves God	30:58
	only half a lifetime	31:03
	to equal in faithfulness another person	31:05
	whose every day has been one of service.	31:09
	We who are working for the kingdom of God here today	31:14
	can make just as greater contribution	31:18
	as those who were here, 5 and 25 or 200 years ago,	31:20
	if we are willing.	31:28
	The reason why those sent into the vineyard	31:32
	at the end of the day	31:34
	had been standing about all day long in the marketplace idle	31:35
	was that no one had engaged them.	31:41
	God's call comes to different individuals	31:47
	at different times and with widely different opportunities.	31:50
	What this story has to teach,	31:56
	is that the same blessing is there for all	31:59
	who will respond to the call with readiness,	32:02
	whenever it may come to them.	32:07
	It can be mentioned also,	32:12
	even if only incidentally on this occasion.	32:14
	But this story contains certain social implications,	32:18
	which those of you who are interested	32:24
	in seeing how the Christian gospel	32:26
	should affect the order of our society,	32:28
	and I should hope that you all have such an interest,	32:32
	may care to note.	32:35
	One of these implications comes to light,	32:38
	as we think of this matter	32:41
	of the equality of all before God.	32:42
	In the story you see, every man,	32:47
	irrespective of the number of hours he worked,	32:51
	received a day's pay.	32:55
	And the implication is that in a social order	32:59
	governed by Christian principles,	33:02
	everybody who is willing to work	33:05
	will receive a living wage,	33:09
	whether in fact he finds full employment or not.	33:12
	Now that doesn't constitute an encouragement	33:18
	to slack workmanship.	33:21
	Probably quite a number of employers	33:25
	would have to echo the sentiments of the factory manager,	33:28
	who, when he was asked,	33:32
	"How many people work in your plant?",	33:34
	replied, "All Bellford of them".	33:37
	The attitude of which that manager	33:44
	had evidently had too much experience	33:46
	is no part of Christian ethics.	33:48
	You won't find basis here	33:51
	or anywhere else in Christian teaching,	33:53
	for the attitude which seems to have twisted	33:56
	the old slogan into,	33:58
	'A fair day's work pay for half a day's work.'	34:01
	That ought to be clear enough from the biblical injunction.	34:06
	If a man will not work, neither let him eat.	34:09
	The principle implied is that if a man is willing to work,	34:15
	society should see that he receives a living wage.	34:19
	And it's revealing to note that this is the principle	34:25
	which was being put into operation in this story.	34:28
	And the difficulty only arose	34:32
	because other workers complained.	34:34
	Where there are dissatisfaction and inequality in society,	34:40
	there are there because of the imperfections of the people	34:45
	who make up the society.	34:49
	They arise out of envy and selfishness.	34:53
	And they can only be done away with	34:59
	when man's natural inclinations	35:01
	have been subordinated to other motives.	35:03
	As Christians, we hold that all men are equal,	35:08
	and that we can never be satisfied with a social order	35:13
	in which anyone in need is left unassisted.	35:17
	And it may be worth reminding ourselves,	35:23
	that this belief in the equality of men	35:27
	takes its rise out of religious belief.	35:32
	After all, there's no empirical evidence	35:38
	for the statement that all men are equal.	35:40
	And where a society has cut itself of drift	35:45
	from its Christian foundation,	35:49
	belief in the equality of men	35:52
	and in the respect for each individual's personality	35:55
	which follows from that belief,	35:59
	are among the first civic values to be dispensed with.	36:01
	The first lesson from this parable then,	36:07
	all are equal before God.	36:11
	The second lesson is this.	36:17
	Our dealings with God are not on the basis of bargaining,	36:21
	rather is the truth.	36:28
	This, that we hear God's call, we obey,	36:30
	and we find the reward	36:36
	greater than ever we could have bargained for.	36:37
	How wrong it is then	36:43
	to make comparisons of the gifts which we have	36:45
	with those had by somebody else,	36:48
	and wonder why God hasn't endowed us more richly.	36:52
	How wrong it is to put the efforts	36:58
	which we have made alongside	37:00
	those put forward by somebody else,	37:01
	and murmur because God hasn't rewarded us more richly.	37:05
	This is the point of the householder's question.	37:11
	Is thine eye evil because I am good?	37:15
	Are you bearing me a grudge because I'm generous?	37:21
	The householder had kept his word with the men	37:28
	whom he had engaged at the beginning of the day.	37:31
	And it was no concern of theirs	37:34
	what, out of his generosity,	37:36
	he should choose to do with others,	37:37
	even though their labor had been	37:40
	neither so long, nor so arduous.	37:42
	There's an occasion recorded in the gospels	37:49
	where Jesus had the same thing to say in real life.	37:51
	On that dawn, when after a night's fishing,	37:56
	His disciples returned to find their risen Lord	38:00
	waiting them on the seashore.	38:04
	The conversation that morning,	38:09
	especially as it related to the apostle Peter,	38:11
	was tense and keen.	38:15
	Leading up to the master's prediction	38:18
	that Peter would meet his death by martyrdom.	38:20
	And Peter taking all this in,	38:26
	suddenly pointed to John and said,	38:28
	"What of this man?	38:31
	Would he have to undergo similar suffering?"	38:35
	And the answer which Jesus gave is worth fearing in mind,	38:41
	"Lest envy should ever mar your service."	38:44
	If I will that he tarry till I come,	38:50
	what is that to thee?	38:53
	Follow thou me.
	And this is the call which comes to all of us,	39:01
	not, what will God do with this man or that man,	39:04
	but what does God want of me.	39:09
	If I will that others tarry till I come,	39:13
	if I will that others go through a pathway of life	39:18
	that seems to have nothing of the difficulties	39:21
	that confront you,	39:24
	if I will, that they perhaps because of their weaker faith,	39:26
	don't have to put up with what you have to put up with,	39:31
	what is that to you? Follow me.	39:36
	That's the call that comes to all of us.	39:45
	We don't bargain with God.	39:48
	And in truth, what idiots we would be	39:53
	if we did try to bargain with God,	39:57
	if we did attempt to tie him down	40:00
	to our are petty conceptions	40:02
	of what constitutes a fair thing.	40:04
	To do so would be only another expression	40:09
	of that all too common man centered outlook,	40:12
	which was put in a nutshell by the epitaph that runs,	40:16
	"Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde:	40:20
	Have mercy on my soul, Lord God;	40:24
	As I wad do, were I Lord God,	40:28
	And ye were Martin Elginbrodde."	40:30
	Much different and much more a proper expression	40:37
	is the ejaculation that is attributed to St. Augustine.	40:41
	"Oh my God, if I were God and thou Augustine,	40:47
	I would wish that thou were God and I Augustine."	40:55
	We don't bargain with God.	41:01
	The third lesson is really a summary of the other two,	41:07
	and it's this, "That God is sovereign."	41:10
	And that is to say that God's grace is sovereign.	41:16
	Because it is His very nature to be gracious.	41:21
	The sovereignty of God is a fact that's declared	41:27
	on every page of the Bible.	41:30
	It's the point for instance,	41:34
	of that very well known story,	41:35
	that's in the 22nd chapter of Genesis,	41:39
	where Abraham, tested by God,	41:42
	proceeded to make a sacrifice of his dearest possession,	41:46
	the son of his old age.	41:50
	You'll remember the story,	41:55
	how the old man Abraham and the young lad	41:57
	climbed the mountain.	42:00
	And the lad said, "Father, I can see the wood and the fire,	42:02
	but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"	42:07
	And Abraham,	42:11
	knowing rather more than he did at the time, really said,	42:14
	"My son, my son, God will provide a lamb	42:18
	for the burnt offering."	42:22
	And how just at the point	42:24
	of Abraham's taking out a knife to slay his son,	42:26
	because he believed that this was what God wanted of him,	42:30
	he heard a voice saying, "Abraham don't do that,	42:34
	because now I know that you'll love me,	42:38
	because you have not withheld thine only son from me."	42:41
	Now while it's integral to that story,	42:47
	that sometimes surprising how people quote this story	42:50
	without remembering its ending.	42:54
	While it's integral to that story	42:56
	and to the conception of God which it enshrines,	42:59
	note that sacrifice, though it was demanded was not exacted.	43:02
	While that's integral to the story,	43:09
	there's nowhere in it a suggestion	43:11
	that God was not entitled to make such a demand.	43:13
	He is sovereign.	43:19
	And when Jesus says,	43:23
	"If any man come to me,	43:26
	and hate not his father, and mother,	43:28
	and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters,	43:31
	yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."	43:34
	He too is making exhaustive demands.	43:39
	Such sacrifices as hating our families,	43:46
	and all else that we properly hold dear,	43:50
	may not be exacted from us.	43:53
	But for true discipleship,	43:56
	there must be no doubt as to their legitimacy.	43:59
	They are legitimate demands.	44:03
	God is sovereign.	44:08
	He can do what he wants with His own.	44:11
	And since He is sovereign, He is judge.	44:18
	And shall not the judge of all the earth do right?	44:22
	None but He has the authority	44:28
	to make of us the supreme demands of service.	44:30
	And none but He decide	44:35
	what will be the reward of our service.	44:38
	He is sovereign and we leave it all to Him,	44:43
	assured of this,	44:47
	that He is always giving to the sons of men,	44:48
	more than they can ever expect or deserve.	44:52
	Before our God then,	44:59
	we are all equal, all dependent on His grace,	45:00
	who is sovereign Lord of all.	45:05
	Those in the story who complained,	45:11
	evidently considered that as they had contracted	45:13
	at the rate of a penny for 12 hours work,	45:17
	those who had but worked one hour,	45:21
	should have received only the 12th of a penny.	45:23
	And there is such a thing as a 12th part of a penny.	45:29
	But there's no such thing as a 12th part of the love of God.	45:34
	He doesn't deal with us after the mathematics of our minds,	45:40
	but He comes to us,	45:44
	offering us all of Himself in Jesus Christ,	45:47
	in whom we see, as we can see it nowhere else,	45:52
	the infinite love of God for us men.	45:56
	And in whom we hear, as we can hear it nowhere else,	46:00
	God's calling us to give Him the whole of our service.	46:05
	Then grant us Lord in all things thee to own,	46:13
	to dwell within the shadow of the thy throne,	46:18
	to speak, to work,	46:21
	to think and live and move,	46:25
	reflecting thine own nature, which is love.	46:27
	That so by Christ redeemed from sin and shame,	46:33
	and hallowed by thy spirits cleansing flame,	46:37
	ourselves, our work, and all our powers,	46:42
	may be a sacrifice acceptable to thee.	46:47
	Now unto the God of all grace,	46:55
	who have called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,	46:56
	the glory and dominion forever.	47:01
	Let us pray.	47:05
	Almighty and everlasting God,	47:17
	in whom we live and move and have our being,	47:20
	who has created us for thyself,	47:25
	so that can find rest only in thee,	47:28
	grant unto us such purity of heart	47:33
	and strength of purpose	47:35
	that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will,	47:38
	no weakness from doing it,	47:44
	but in thy light, may we see light clearly,	47:47
	and in thy service find perfect freedom,	47:51
	for Jesus Christ's sake.	47:56
	We remember before thee, the multitude of every name	48:00
	who are joined with us throughout the world.	48:04
	Oh, Lord save thy people and bless thine inheritance,	48:07
	feed them also and lift them up forever.	48:12
	And we beseech thee,	48:16
	knit surely together by servants on earth and in heaven,	48:18
	that we ,being even now of one fellowship with the saints,	48:23
	may come to be of one company with the redeemed	48:29
	who Lord thee forever and ever,	48:33
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	48:36
	Unto God's gracious mercy and protection, we commit you.	48:42
	And the blessing of God Almighty,	48:47
	the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,	48:49
	be upon you and remain with you always.	48:53

Item Info

Title:

Waldo Beach - "High Time" (October 12, 1958); James F. Peter - "God's Rights" (November 23, 1958)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4513zx18

Date:

October 12, 1958
November 23, 1958

Speaker:

Beach, Waldo

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0058
ref5327_tsh
uachapelsermaud
duke:628119
dcrau002096
ark:/87924/r4513zx18
a830e0dd-3dfd-4c76-a258-96366108cd1b

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Waldo Beach - "High Time" (October 12, 1958); James F. Peter - "God's Rights" (November 23, 1958)

Transcript

Item Info

1. Waldo Beach - "High Time" (October 12, 1958)

Duke University Archives

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Waldo Beach - "High Time" (October 12, 1958); James F. Peter - "God's Rights" (November 23, 1958)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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