Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Incomparable (Incorporated)" (November 16, 1958); Howard C. Wilkinson - "The Church Looks at the World" (February 15, 1959) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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To this chapel service may need to be briefed on the fact

0:10

that we are in the middle of a Duke family squabble

0:17

of considerable heat.

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The matter has to do with the justice or the injustice

0:24

of a bit of legislation

0:29

which would prohibit students on West

0:31

with an average below C from having cars on campus.

0:35

It's an ethically complicated matter

0:42

which this sermon makes no pretense of resolving.

0:46

But there's one facet of the debate

0:52

which is quite significant.

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The frantic point made by the antagonists of the plan,

0:58

the academic cliffhangers,

1:04

namely, that to be deprived of a car

1:07

is tantamount to being deprived of life and limb,

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that for any self-respecting Duke student,

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a car is indispensable

1:22

in making one's way through the organizational jungle.

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How can any student without a car hold his head up

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and move among his peers as a man among men?

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Now this argument, fervently advanced,

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is indicative of a certain frame of mind among us,

1:49

students and faculty alike.

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A symptom of a way of living among things.

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A way of getting and spending

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which needs the illumination and guidance

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of the Christian gospel.

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It's the problem of the ethics of consumption

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in an affluent society.

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It does not take much research in campus anthropology

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to see the conspicuous consumption in the folkways

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of the upper Bohemians in plaid shorts.

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Anyone with half an eye to see

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can discern that we eat pretty high off the hog.

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How much is spent on Joe College weekend?

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On gasoline?

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Versus how much is spent on books?

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What does your budget look like in items for clothes,

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the car, banquets, dues, clubs, parties, Cokes,

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and so forth?

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Especially the and so forth.

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The sober fact is that we spend fantastic amounts

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on the so-called means of living.

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And when one sees a husky denizen of West

3:40

bumming a ride from the dorm to the engineering building,

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one is led to ponder whether in time

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the human leg may not shrivel up through disuse

3:54

and become a vestigial structure.

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In this regard, we simply reflect

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the whole American culture of affluence.

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We are no different from this sea around us.

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Our economy is one of gigantic productivity

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and consumption of goods.

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As Galbraith's "Affluent Society" shows,

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we've been shifted by the technological

4:30

and organizational revolutions

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from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance,

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though we may still recite

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the old Puritan and Yankee maxims of scarcity

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of Benjamin Franklin or McGuffey's Readers

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about thrift, hard work, simplicity.

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Though we may pass them on to our children

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as economic guides,

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our actual economy calls for a totally different ethos.

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The new economy is built on an enormous rate of consumption,

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on expanding markets constantly creating new demands,

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turning luxuries into necessities for more and more people,

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rapid obsolescence rather than durability,

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and high consumer credit.

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Buy now, pay later at a steep hidden interest rate.

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Apparently this kind of expansion is indispensable

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to the health of our economy.

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To contract, to go back to plain living and high thinking

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would be to collapse.

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One central figure in this new economy

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who exists to create new consumer demands,

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to engineer the mind of the buyer to consume more and more

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and think he likes it, is the smiling ad man

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who haunts us night and day, at every turn,

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with wheedles and lures to a chromium happiness.

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The main force in our society

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which educates in consumer choices is advertising.

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Vance Packard's "Hidden Persuaders" is a shocking revelation

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of the extent to which our souls are daily assaulted

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and invaded by the most monstrous deceits

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and pretentious claims to what has held out

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as the happy life, compounded of speed, comfort,

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convenience, and glamor.

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The beatific smile on the face of Life Magazine's heroin

7:31

who has discovered Revlon at long last

7:38

as the clue to eternal happiness

7:42

has a kind of religious mystique about it.

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And in the scientific age,

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no one would dare to challenge this superstition

7:53

because the high priests of advertising

7:58

have enlisted science on their behalf to prove the claims

8:00

by scientific tests.

8:06

The whole abracadabra is as logically unsettling

8:09

as the ad which entreats me

8:17

to join the growing number who smoke Viceroy,

8:20

the cigarette of the man who thinks for himself.

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Here is confirmed the moral dialectic of advertising,

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it's slick enslavement of man as consumer

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in the name of freedom and joy.

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The so-called sovereign consumer of economic textbooks

8:45

is pictured as the grinning king of his family castle,

8:52

surrounded by outdoor grills, filtered cigarettes,

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station wagon in the euphoria of eternal youth.

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But he is in fact, a victim, the pathetic prisoner

9:07

of an elaborate science of manipulation

9:13

known as consumer engineering,

9:18

compounded of cold cereal boxes and greens stamps.

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Neither school nor church nor home instruct man

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in consumer choices, how to buy wisely.

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He is screened off from seeing any difference

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between wants and needs, between necessities and luxuries,

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between high and low goods, chrome and silver.

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The voice of the huckster drowns out another voice,

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that of Isaiah from way back.

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"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?

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"And your labor for that which does not satisfy?"

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When this pattern of consumption is looked at

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from within the circle of economic theory,

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it has a logic of its own.

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Prosperity depends on continued expansion

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and consumption of no matter what kind.

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But from a standpoint outside the circle of economics,

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from the standpoint of Christian ethics,

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the economy is vicious for what it does to the soul of man,

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to his scale of values, to his sanity,

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and to his real freedom.

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If we could get out from under the TV aerial

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and look at our patterns of consumption

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from under the sign of the cross,

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the matter would take on a different look.

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How does the gospel speak to us as buyers

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in the marketplace?

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Is it in any sense to be taken as a consumer's guide?

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At first glance,

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it would seem as all the gospel is completely irrelevant

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to our problems, as remote, as useless,

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as sentimental as poor Richard's Maxims

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like a penny gained is a penny earned

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or to school children who watch TV giveaway shows

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in which $10,000 is dispensed for nothing at all.

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The society to which the gospel was first spoken

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was the lean society of desperate poverty.

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Those who heard the Sermon on the Mount

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were the ragged and the hungry,

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those anxious for the moral supply of food

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to fend off starvation.

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The gospel says, "Be not anxious."

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But what has that to do with us?

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Whereas it might speak trust and confidence

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to those in an economy of scarcity,

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it does not speak to us in an economy of abundance

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whose major health problem is obesity.

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We should relegate it then

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to the limbo of pretty Oriental fairy tales,

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a story nice to tell in church teaching a spiritual lesson

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but totally foreign to our shopping

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and to our gravitation towards the dope shop

13:36

between classes.

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Yet a second and closer look at the gospel

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indicates its profound relevance to economic choices,

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to our patterns of getting and spending.

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It speaks both judgment and redemption,

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negative rebuke and positive guidance.

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It addresses us in our affluence

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with a voice that even penetrates into our air conditioned,

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plastic, suburban captivity.

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"Why are you anxious?"

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Ours may not be the old anxiety of poverty.

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It is the new anxiety of wealth,

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the frenzy for comfort,

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the disillusionment that haunts

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the desperate attachment to things

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which moth and rust consume.

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The despair of the rich fool.

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The anxiety that lives with the one

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whose treasures are all on earth.

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It's symptomatic that the literature on anxiety

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is larger in our prosperous age than in our lean years.

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Auden calls ours "The Age of Anxiety."

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Old or new, it's the same anxiety

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which puts its ultimate trust in things

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to render life meaningful and to hold despair at bay.

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The Protestant Christian norm for the ethics of consumption

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is the doctrine of stewardship.

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Like other great Protestant doctrines,

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this one has gotten lost in the ecclesiastical shuffle.

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It means nowadays hardly more

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than something to do with church envelopes and benevolences.

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But that isn't at all it's original rich meaning.

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What it means in essence is the restrained and moderate use

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of things for their right ends.

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It is not the renunciation of things as inherently bad.

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It is not an escape to the monastery,

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nor does it mean wallowing in things

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as though the good consists in goods.

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It is rather the much more difficult task,

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living in but not of the world.

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To make holy use of things.

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As John Calvin put it,

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"Let this be our principle,

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"that we earn not not in the use

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"of the gifts of Providence

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"when we refer them to the end for which God made them,

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"since He created them for our good

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"and not for our destruction."

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Stewardship always puts material things

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in a context of ends and purposes

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and judges each consumer choice by the question,

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what moral end does it serve?

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There are two main dimensions

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of this doctrine of stewardship

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which become relevant to our day-to-day life

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in this very comfortable community.

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The one dimension is the vertical,

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as between higher and lower goods.

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It has to do with a scale of values,

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of priorities of worth for each individual.

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It has to do with means and ends.

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Everybody operates on some value scale,

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even when it's upside down.

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In general, we eat to live, we don't live to eat.

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Though some people invert the order.

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In general, a car would be a means to an end.

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People get a car to go to work.

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Though again, our economy often forces the reverse.

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Some people go to work to get a car.

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A Christian norm for choices on this vertical plane

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could not be better put than in Thoreau's dictum,

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"Save on the low to spend on the high."

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There are degrading and there are elevating consumer goods.

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Money spent on books, on the arts, on education

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is spent on the higher.

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Money spent on escape mechanisms,

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on cheap and useless gadgets is wasted on the low.

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Now the distinction between higher and lower, note,

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is not the one between spiritual and physical.

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A school building or a hi-fi set is just as physical,

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is just as much a machine as a slot machine.

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Distinction is rather between

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the commodities which are suited

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to man's dignity and holiness as a child of God

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and the commodities which degrade him

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to the level of animal.

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Stewardship is not opposed to things,

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but it always judges things

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by reference to good or bad ends.

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The final norm of stewardship is the word of our lesson,

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"Seek first the kingdom of God

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"and all these things will be yours as well."

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He had another way.

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The doctrine of stewardship is a constant inner perspective

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on means and ends and the habit of choice

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in accord with that perspective.

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It knows means for means and ends for ends

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and does not confuse the two.

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Parenthetically, the invasion of the foreign small car

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into the American market is a nice example

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of the unwitting recovery of stewardship.

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It's a kind of judgment of God

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against the idolatry of the blinking, bloated,

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insolent chariots imposed on the buying public.

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The whole revolution in cars is a reminder that after all

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a car is a means of conveyance,

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it is a way of getting from here to there,

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and not a mobile chromium castle, itself man's destination.

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It might not be even irreverent to surmise

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that the little cars will get through the pearly gates

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where the big cars would just crumple their fenders.

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The other dimension of the doctrine of stewardship

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is the social dimension.

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The right use of things in Christian ethics

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is determined not only by the principle of priority

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between higher and lower, but also by the law of love.

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As Calvin, again, put the matter,

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"Whatever we obtain from the Lord

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"is granted on the condition of our employing it

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"for the common good."

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The horizontal dimension of ethical choices

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is the awareness of the neighbor's need as much as my own

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in all of my daily consumer choices.

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At this point, the Christian doctrine of stewardship

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leads out into questions of foreign policy, foreign aid,

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international politics.

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For the most striking fact

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about comparative national economies

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is the radical disparity between American prosperity

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and the desperate poverty of many nations

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of the rest of the world.

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As Niebuhr points out,

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"We are a gadget-filled paradise

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"suspended in a hell of international insecurity."

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If the present population of the world

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could be represented by a thousand persons

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living in a single town,

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60 persons would represent the population

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of the United States, and 940 all the other nations.

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The 60 Americans would have half the income

24:53

of the entire town.

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The 940 persons would share the other half.

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What most forcibly strikes some of our foreign students

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on campus, though they are often too polite to tell us so,

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is our prodigal waste, our exorbitant consumption,

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which goes on blithely oblivious

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to the neighbor need of the world.

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The person of Christian conscience in his consumption

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is sensitive to this economic discrepancy,

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for in Christ he knows his neighbor

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to be the hungry child in Thailand or Burma,

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the beggar with haunting eyes in Seoul or Deli.

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Give us this day our daily bread.

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In Christ, the us means the distant one, the far neighbor,

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along with all of us.

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The Christian's action as a total person then,

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in response to this neighbor need,

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would involve him as citizen in political choices

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as to our foreign policy

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which attempt to close the gap,

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in all acts of charity and care

26:43

which are sensitive to the far neighbors' need.

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But also it will involve

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more responsible consumer choices at home.

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If any student is gripped viscerally

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by this sense of Christian stewardship,

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he will treat all of his income, all of his petty cash,

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his time, his talents as sacred entrustment

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to be used for the common life of his neighbor in need,

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the neighbor across the tracks in town,

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the neighbor back home,

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maybe a smaller brother

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who would also like to go to college,

27:39

all who are seen with the eyes of love,

27:44

to be standing, watching us in our getting and spending.

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If we were given to simpler living,

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we could serve our neighbor's need more readily,

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and our eyes would be opened

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in the breaking of our common bread

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to the presence of Christ in our midst.

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Amen, let us pray.

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Eternal God, Who has set us in a world of things

28:32

true and false, holy and grace,

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and has granted us the precious

28:45

and perilous gift of freedom to one and all,

28:48

grant us by Thy grace for to use our freedom

28:55

as to seek first Thy kingdom and the things that endure

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that we may pass through things temporal,

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and all the treasures on earth,

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with hearts fixed on things eternal

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and the treasures of heaven.

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Now may the blessing of God almighty,

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

29:29

be amongst you and abide with you now and evermore.

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Let us pray.

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Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts

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be acceptable in Thy sight,

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O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

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Amen.

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Did you see much point to the scripture message

30:25

which you have read in your healing?

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Or weren't you paying much attention?

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With an academic waterloo around the corner,

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you're sitting there wondering

30:43

whether you're going to let them fool you.

30:47

What's more, the passage seemed to be nothing

30:51

but a repetition of salute

30:53

and an epidemic of people's names.

30:57

And yet, let me tell you something,

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something quite personal,

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Romans 16:1-16 is fast becoming one of my favorite chapters

31:07

in the Bible.

31:15

And I hope it will be one of yours

31:17

by the end of this sermon.

31:20

I know it doesn't have the spiritual depth of Isaiah 53,

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"But He was wounded for our transgressions,

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"He was bruised for our iniquities.

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"The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,

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"and with His stripes we are healed."

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I know that it doesn't have the comfortable words

31:48

of John 3:16, "God so loved the world."

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Not good men.

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"He loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son

32:01

"that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,

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"but have everlasting life."

32:09

I know it doesn't have the experienced beauty

32:12

of First Corinthians 13, "Now abideth faith, hope, love,

32:17

"these three, but the greatest of these is love."

32:24

But you know, there are times when death and comfort

32:32

and beauty are not in immediate demand

32:37

nor specifically appropriate.

32:41

Sometimes we want something of a more commonplace,

32:45

more tactical character.

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G.K. Chesterton was once asked what he would choose

32:53

for reading matter if he were shipwrecked

32:56

on a South Sea island alone.

32:59

Would it be the Bible or Shakespeare?

33:04

And he answered, "Neither."

33:08

His choice would be a little pamphlet

33:11

entitled "Ten Easy Lessons in Simple Boat Building."

33:14

At such a time, he would sacrifice depth and comfort

33:24

for practical know-how.

33:28

So with Romans 16, it's a pedestrian kind of chapter,

33:31

but it is a little letter which establishes the heart

33:37

and stiffens the backbone of the average Christian

33:41

and sends him out

33:47

to do his two-by-four piece of work for God

33:48

at the ordinary, everyday, humdrum level of life

33:53

with renewed encouragement.

33:59

Let's look at it together.

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In Romans 16, Paul is saying thank you.

34:04

Thank you very much, to a group of first century Christians.

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He's finished with arguing and exhorting,

34:14

with debating and haranguing,

34:17

with justifying and condemning.

34:20

He's just remembering a group of men and women in the church

34:26

and being grateful to them out loud.

34:31

The refrain of the chapter is greetings to.

34:36

Be sure to remember me too.

34:40

As Moffitt translates it, salute.

34:45

Now, that was not an easy thing for the apostle Paul to do,

34:50

to say thank you.

34:55

He was a proud man.

34:58

As we say in Scotland, he had a guid conceit of himself.

35:02

That was certainly true before he became a Christian.

35:07

Do you recall what he wrote to the church at Philippi

35:11

about his preconversion days?

35:14

"If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence

35:18

"in the flesh, that is to brag about his pedigree,

35:23

"well, I have more.

35:29

"Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,

35:32

"of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews,

35:37

"as to the law, a Pharisee,

35:42

"as to zeal, a persecutor of the church,

35:45

"as to the righteousness under the law, blameless."

35:49

Now think of that.

35:58

Blameless.

35:59

Moffatt translates it,

36:01

"Immaculate by the standards of legal righteousness."

36:03

And for a Jew, that was the ne plus ultra of goodness.

36:09

And Paul claimed it for himself in a public letter.

36:15

Paul had a good opinion of himself.

36:22

And then he became a Christian.

36:25

Even so, his pride broke through.

36:28

Though he may not be the author of everything

36:33

in the pastoral epistles, he surely wrote this one verse.

36:36

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,

36:42

"that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

36:49

"of whom I am the chief."

36:55

Phillips paraphrases that that last clause,

36:59

"I realize I was the worst of them all."

37:03

If Paul can't brag anymore that he was perfect,

37:06

he'll boast that he was hopeless.

37:10

But he'll gloat, he'll gloat.

37:13

He had to be first man, right out in front,

37:16

at one end of the moral scale or the other.

37:20

If he can't be proud in one direction,

37:24

then he'll be proud in the other.

37:26

Now, it isn't easy for a proud man

37:29

to say thank you to others,

37:32

especially to lesser men and women.

37:37

But Paul did it for almost a whole chapter.

37:41

Why?

37:48

Why?

37:49

Because of Easter.

37:53

That was the reason.

37:57

Because of Easter.

37:58

Because the Spirit of the risen Christ

38:01

had taken possession of him.

38:05

Oh, yes, I know,

38:08

the old Adam in him fought against the Christ,

38:09

the New Adam, now and again.

38:13

But the circumstances which made Paul dictate

38:16

all these thank-you notes was the Easter faith.

38:20

"I lived, not I, Christ liveth in me,"

38:26

are his own words about faith, Easter faith.

38:35

Now, let's look at this chapter in more detailed fashion.

38:39

Whom is he thanking?

38:43

We haven't time to comment on all the verses,

38:45

but let's look at two or three.

38:48

Priscilla and Aquila are rightly conjoined

38:51

because they were husband and wife,

38:56

a couple to whom Paul was devoted.

39:01

We read about them in the Acts of the apostles.

39:06

Paul plied his trade with them.

39:08

They were all tent makers together.

39:11

Paul tells us that they had risked their lives for him.

39:13

And he thanked them.

39:18

So did the church.

39:21

I wish we knew what the incident referred to was.

39:24

Then there's Mary.

39:29

There were so many Marys in the church

39:31

that we can't be certain which one this was.

39:33

But notice what Paul says about her.

39:36

"Salute Mary, who has worked hard for you."

39:39

Evidently not all the Marys were content

39:46

to sit at Jesus' feet in raptured meditation

39:49

leaving the work to Martha.

39:55

Here was one who had the name of Mary

39:59

and the qualities of Martha.

40:03

Then Andronicus and Junias are described by Paul

40:09

as men "who have been in Christ longer than I have."

40:12

They were converted before Paul.

40:18

He says they're men of note among the apostles,

40:21

and yet we never read them anywhere else

40:24

in the New Testament.

40:26

But he says one more arresting thing about them.

40:29

"They were fellow prisoners of mine."

40:34

Perhaps they'd all being incarcerated together.

40:39

Imagine meeting Andronicus or Junias and saying to him,

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"Do you know Paul?"

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What an answer we'd get.

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"Sure, we were in jail together."

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And you'd talk about the old-school time.

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Many early Christians could have worn the old jail tie.

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You know, the New Testament church

41:03

had a remarkable criminal record.

41:05

None of them would get jobs on this campus.

41:09

Not if the trustees had anything to say about it.

41:12

Apelles has a single adjective ascribed to her,

41:16

an adjective which I covet.

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That tried Christian.

41:25

My secretary once wrote it as tired, that tired Christian.

41:30

No, no, no.

41:34

That tried Christian.

41:35

To use an old Scottish synonym,

41:38

Apelles was a good tholer, T-H-O-L-E-R.

41:40

That is one who absorbs punishment and pain

41:46

and disappointment and keeps on keeping on.

41:49

We use it in Scotland of listening to a sermon.

41:54

To the total sermon.

41:57

The next time anyone says to you

42:00

that Paul had a low opinion of women,

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you quote verse 12 about Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis

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who had worked hard, even very hard, in the Lord.

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Paul was not always consistent in his estimate of women.

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That merely proves he was a man.

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But this chapter shows his appreciation

42:28

of their work for Christ.

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I wish we knew more about Rufus and his mother.

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Paul describes Rufus, that is red, red head,

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as that choice Christian.

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And then adds the tantalizing comment on his mother,

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"Who has been a mother to me."

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Who is this woman who found time to treat Paul

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as an adopted son?

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I used to tell my students that they might be lucky

43:06

if they found a woman like this in their parishes.

43:09

I used to say she should be at least 40 years old.

43:12

Now I'd say at least 60 years old, I think.

43:15

Now, who are these brethren?

43:20

This is a list of the junior varsity saints.

43:22

The saints with a small S.

43:27

They're not the well-known New Testament figures,

43:30

the big shots in early Christianity,

43:33

but they are the consecrated laymen of both sexes

43:36

for whom and to whom one of the capital S saints

43:41

was genuinely grateful and publicly thankful.

43:48

It's a great chapter, Romans 16,

43:54

full of open acknowledgement.

43:58

Now, one would imagine with some justification

44:03

that public gratitude would be a not uncommon phenomenon

44:06

in the long life of the church.

44:12

One wonders how the church could have kept going without it.

44:15

Theologically, gratitude is an inevitable byproduct

44:19

of the love of God for us and our love for Him.

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And psychologically, it is the lubricant

44:35

which keeps the gears of social togetherness

44:39

from squeaking in complaint or shrieking in agony.

44:44

Even outside the Christian community,

44:51

wise men have recognized the worth

44:54

of acknowledged obligation.

44:57

Aesop in the middle of the sixth century B.C. commented,

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"Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."

45:05

Perhaps the inference

45:12

is that there were not many noble souls.

45:13

And Seneca in the first century A.D. wrote,

45:19

"He who receives a benefit with gratitude

45:23

"repays the first installment of his debt."

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He who receives a benefit with gratitude

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repays the first installment of his debt.

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Now, surely the Christian can match the non-Christian

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in appreciation of this virtue

45:48

and in public expression of it.

45:50

Perhaps he has.

45:54

But let me tell you this, brethren,

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it is much scarcer in Christian literature than I expected,

45:59

as I read the Christian journals and letters.

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Oh, toward the end of his life,

46:11

John Wesley tried to figure out what kept him going

46:12

despite failing sight, chronic headaches,

46:17

a weakening memory, and persistent rheumatism.

46:22

And he writes this in the journal for June 28th, 1788.

46:27

"To what cause can I impute this, that I am as I am,

46:32

"that is able to write and preach sermons

46:39

"and to travel?

46:42

"First, doubtless, in the power of God.

46:43

"And next, subordinate to this,

46:49

"to the prayers of His children."

46:54

That's what kept Wesley going, grace of God

46:58

and the prayers of His children.

47:02

He probably said thank you often,

47:05

though he wrote it infrequently.

47:07

And J.P. Struthers, the beloved minister

47:11

in Greenock, Scotland, who had the humility

47:15

to refuse an honorary D.D. from Glasgow,

47:21

to the embarrassment of those who accepted.

47:26

He wrote in his letter diary, "O God, make us more worthy

47:30

"of all the lovingkindness done to us."

47:39

Now, He's not talking of God.

47:45

He's talking of his congregation.

47:47

Make us more worthy of all the lovingkindness done to us.

47:49

Perhaps shyness and reserve

47:54

keep us from expressing our thanks,

47:56

though we are not unaware of what others mean to us.

47:59

Perhaps, like Paul, we remember our benefactors

48:01

in our prayers.

48:05

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

48:07

And I'm awfully glad that once Paul spelled it out

48:13

in Romans 16.

48:19

Because, you know, we are such tough folks

48:22

that we require an individual pat on the back,

48:26

a separate squeeze of the hand,

48:31

a personal grip on the shoulder.

48:35

But we neither receive it, nor give it often enough.

48:40

A Boy Scout once relinquished his seat to a lady

48:45

in a trolley car and then bent forward and said to her,

48:49

"Excuse me?"

48:54

And she answered, "I didn't say anything."

48:56

And he commented, "Oh, I thought you said thank you."

49:00

Now, he ought to have been spanked,

49:06

but she was justifiably trounced.

49:08

When we realize what we owe to others,

49:15

then Romans 16 will be often in our minds

49:19

and Shakespeare's words regularly on our lips.

49:25

"I can no other answer make but thanks and thanks."

49:30

Do you now understand why Romans 16

49:39

is fast becoming one of my favorite chapters

49:42

in the New Testament?

49:45

It shows what the fact of the resurrection faith

49:48

means in the changed life of a spiritual aristocrat.

49:52

It points out that the Pauls and the Peters

49:58

could not have done the kind of work they did for God

50:03

if Mary and Tryphena and Tryphosa,

50:07

if Andronicus and Junias and Apelles

50:13

had not held out their hand.

50:18

It reminds me in my official position

50:21

as an ordained minister of the Church of Christ

50:25

that it is my beautiful privilege

50:30

to be vocally appreciative of you, the folk in the pew,

50:35

the laity of Christ.

50:43

I would be grateful today for a special reason,

50:47

other things being equal, which they never are,

50:53

though I hope for the best on this occasion.

50:58

This will be my last sermon in the Duke Chapel

51:02

for 15 months.

51:06

Now, when one thinks what may happen in that space of time,

51:10

it may well be my last sermon in the Duke Chapel period.

51:15

Of what should one say on such an occasion?

51:22

I came to the conclusion that though I am no Saint Paul,

51:27

it would be right to follow my spiritual mentor

51:31

and dictate my Romans 16, so far as it pertains to Duke

51:37

over a period of 14 years.

51:45

I do count my blessings.

51:49

And among them are you, my lay coworkers.

51:52

I cannot name each of you one by one, but I can sample.

51:57

And the samples are symbolic of many of you

52:03

who will be unnamed.

52:07

I leave out the professionals, the chaplains,

52:10

the directors of student work, the organist,

52:15

the choir directors.

52:18

The reason I do so is not lack of gratitude,

52:20

I am thankful to them.

52:23

But I'm concentrating today on God's amateurs.

52:25

There is my wife, my best critic and my poorest judge,

52:32

who showers me with an embarrassing patience

52:40

and an undeserved love.

52:44

There is my secretary, who in shrewd Christian love

52:48

wisely stops me from dictating

52:53

what I would often like to say in a letter

52:55

via raised eyebrow or a gentle suggestion

53:00

or a wise emendation.

53:05

There is the president

53:11

who whimsically has granted me freedom of utterance

53:12

and supports his defense of this freedom.

53:15

I once thanked him for being in chapel so often

53:19

when I preached.

53:21

And he said, "You bet I am.

53:23

"I want to know it, I want to know it firsthand

53:26

"what to defend myself against

53:29

"when I open the mail on Monday."

53:31

There are the doctors in the medical school

53:36

who make available to me their knowledge and their wisdom

53:39

in pre-marital counseling

53:42

and look after the nose and throat ailments

53:46

of my divinity students.

53:48

There are the members of the choir who occasionally,

53:52

very occasionally, this morning, for example,

53:55

sing bad music because I need the words of a certain hymn

53:59

in the service.

54:05

There are innumerable students in the wise

54:08

and in the denominational groups assisting at Edgemont,

54:10

those who act as ushers and collectors.

54:14

And the nurses who are my deaconesses

54:19

when the holy communion is celebrated in the hospital.

54:24

All these, I salute.

54:30

Then there are individuals whose good work under God

54:35

for others has made me stop in wonder and admiration.

54:38

I recall a retired admiral, a retired colonel,

54:44

and one of the deans from Allen Building

54:49

cleaning up downstairs after a service of the Lord's Supper,

54:52

aided and abetted by a group of women

54:59

all under the direction of one of the medical faculty.

55:01

There is the member of the staff

55:05

who almost single-handed refurbished the East,

55:07

call it the East Campus Chapel.

55:14

There are the wives, old and young, and the coeds

55:18

who volunteer as pink ladies,

55:23

humanizing the necessarily scientific procedures

55:26

of the hospital.

55:30

There are the faculty and student members

55:32

on the committees of the Duke University Religious Council.

55:35

There are my brownies on each campus.

55:41

All these, I salute.

55:46

Time would fail to tell of friendships

55:48

formed all over the campus,

55:50

some of the happiest being in the athletic department.

55:53

Perhaps one recollection will give you a clue

55:57

to sucker asked for and given.

56:01

In my first year here, I called Coach Wade

56:08

telling him who I was, explaining that I needed help

56:11

on a football illustration in a sermon,

56:16

and asking him if I might come to see him.

56:20

There was silence on the telephone line, and then his reply,

56:24

"Would you say that all over again?"

56:30

I did.

56:36

There was another silence and then one sentence,

56:39

"Well, no one has ever used that approach before.

56:44

"You better come over."

56:49

I did.

56:54

A friendship began.

56:56

Help continued.

56:59

Him, I salute.

57:02

Then there are those of you who sit in front of me

57:05

or listen to me over the air.

57:09

You, who in loyalty, in appreciation, in support

57:12

drop me a note, stop me in the halls and on the sidewalks

57:17

to comment, to criticize, but always in love.

57:23

I remember one of my students after a sermon

57:30

talking to me, I had been discussing the elephant sermon.

57:32

That is a sermon where the introduction is too long

57:36

for the body.

57:39

And he said to me as I came out,

57:43

"Doc Cleland, that was an elephant sermon

57:44

"you preached this morning."

57:47

I said, "Yes, probably."

57:49

And he looked and said,

57:51

"You know, if you took Dr. Cleland's course,

57:53

"you wouldn't make that kind of mistake."

57:55

I remember it every time I prepare.

57:59

"You are my beloved, Epenetus and Stachys.

58:02

"You are that tried Christian, Apelles,

58:09

"and that choice Christian, Rufus.

58:14

"You are Mary and Persis who work hard in the Lord."

58:20

And I salute you, my Romans 16.

58:28

In Philip Barry's play "The Philadelphia Story,"

58:36

there is one line which has haunted me

58:42

ever since I heard Katharine Hepburn speak it as Tracy,

58:45

the heroine of the play.

58:51

She has just been left almost at the alter.

58:54

And Mike, the newspaper reporter, offers to marry her

58:59

then and there.

59:04

She looks at him and says very simply,

59:07

"I am beholden to you.

59:13

"I'm most beholden."

59:18

These are my words in au revoir, under God,

59:23

I'm beholden to you.

59:31

I'm most beholden.

59:36

Amen.

59:41

Let us pray.

59:44

Almighty and eternal God, our heavenly Father

59:49

Who has deemed it unwise for man to be alone

59:54

and has set the solitary in families,

59:59

bless these Thy children

1:00:04

who belong to this family of heaven,

1:00:06

confirming them in every word and deed of love for Thee

1:00:10

and for one another.

1:00:17

And adding Thy benediction

1:00:19

through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord.

1:00:22

And may.

1:00:26

Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Incomparable (Incorporated)" (November 16, 1958); Howard C. Wilkinson - "The Church Looks at the World" (February 15, 1959)

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