Howard C. Wilkinson - "An Educated Religion" (September 18, 1960)

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-	I'm starting over again.	0:05
	And I'm going to see if this will not record pretty well	0:07
	with the volume turned all the way up	0:11
	and the green light flickering just a little bit	0:14
	as the recording goes into it.	0:18
	I'm hoping very much that this will record	0:22
	to the extent that the...	0:24
-	The New Testament lesson is found in the sixth chapter	0:47
	of the book of Galatians,	0:51
	reading from the king James version.	0:53
	"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,	0:57
	ye which are spiritual restore such a man	1:00
	in the spirit of meekness, considering thy self	1:04
	lest thou also be tempted.	1:08
	Bear ye one another's burdens	1:12
	and so fulfill the law of Christ	1:14
	for if a man think himself to be something,	1:17
	when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.	1:20
	But let every man prove his own work.	1:25
	And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone	1:28
	and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden,"	1:32
	Here the lesson ends.	1:39
-	You freshmen have been here at Duke only three full days,	1:56
	now. Already however,	2:02
	you have discovered more things that you will need to do	2:06
	than you have hours in which to do them.	2:11
	There are approximately 150 extra curricular interests	2:15
	that are pulling for your time and your energy	2:21
	and your devotion.	2:25
	Oh yes, and then there will be courses too.	2:28
	Before the coming week has reached its end,	2:32
	you will be very much aware of these courses.	2:35
	Now to the tension that is set up between	2:41
	your curricular courses and your extracurricular	2:46
	Campus interests will be added yet another tension.	2:51
	You need to keep in with the folks back home.	2:57
	You need to write your parents.	3:02
	And then you need to write to your sweetheart back home.	3:05
	Now you need to do all of these things.	3:10
	You really should keep in touch with your parents	3:16
	and I suppose it's perfectly all right to correspond	3:18
	with your hometown date.	3:22
	You know, this person that you told last Wednesday night,	3:25
	that you would never forget.	3:28
	Now, I would suggest, however,	3:34
	that once classes begin,	3:40
	you should start each day by going to class,	3:44
	rather than by writing your hometown date.	3:47
	The difficulty that would be with your taking time	3:51
	to write your hometown sweetheart,	3:55
	before you'd go to class is not that you would be	3:57
	putting the cart before the horse,	4:01
	but that you would be putting the heart before the course.	4:04
	(students laughing)	4:07
	Your professors, I can assure you	4:09
	will not look with favor upon that.	4:11
	There will be curricular classes,	4:15
	extracurricular activities, the writing of your parents,	4:18
	your hometown date, and many other things.	4:23
	And you will be aware that there is something	4:26
	of a conflict of interest for your time and your energy.	4:28
	The wise student is one who discovers a proper balance	4:36
	among all these conflicting or seemingly conflicting	4:43
	interests, finds out how much time to give to this	4:47
	and how much energy to devote to that.	4:52
	Now all of this that I have said is by way of introduction	4:57
	to the topic of the freshman sermon,	5:01
	which is an educated religion.	5:05
	You have come here to college to educate your knowledge	5:09
	of English, to educate your knowledge of the sciences,	5:14
	of philosophy, of history, of government, et cetera.	5:19
	I would like to insist now that you also need to educate	5:24
	your religion and that you give proper emphasis	5:29
	to the education of your religion,	5:33
	along with your education of these other important areas	5:37
	of your life.	5:41
	It needs to be educated, believe me.	5:44
	Your high school knowledge of algebra needed to be educated	5:49
	and so you came to college.	5:54
	Your high school knowledge of the sciences	5:57
	needed an education, so here you are.	5:59
	The religion which you learned at your mothers knee,	6:05
	or at Sunday school, likewise needs an education.	6:08
	The word educate comes from a Latin word,	6:14
	which means to bring up or to bring to maturity.	6:18
	Now that in essence is what you have come here to do	6:26
	to your algebra, to your science and so forth.	6:30
	And that in essence is what you need to do to your religion,	6:35
	to bring it up, bring it to maturity.	6:39
	Now notice if you will,	6:43
	that this may involve the acquiring of a great deal	6:45
	of factual information.	6:49
	However much of that is involved,	6:54
	there is something more important than that involved	6:56
	in getting an education.	6:59
	Because if to be educated is to be brought up,	7:02
	to be brought to maturity,	7:05
	then there is a matter of emphasis that is as important	7:08
	as the matter of information.	7:11
	All right, then what does it mean to educate your religion?	7:15
	It seems to me that an educated religion is a religion	7:19
	which is reflected upon, which is studied,	7:25
	which is informed, which is well balanced, well-rounded,	7:32
	which does not become obsessed with any particular idea	7:40
	of religion or any particular cause in religion	7:46
	to the exclusion of other equally valid ideas and causes	7:51
	in religion.	7:55
	Like we were saying a while ago about your curricular	7:59
	courses, your extracurricular campus activities	8:03
	and your interests off campus,	8:07
	all of which need to be pursued in balanced fashion.	8:10
	So your religion and the ideas and causes of religion	8:16
	need to be pursued in balanced well-rounded fashion.	8:22
	This is not only extremely important to you	8:30
	as an individual,	8:32
	but it will be a greater importance even to the church	8:33
	of which you are a member after you have graduated	8:37
	from this university and have begun your family life	8:40
	and your vocational activity.	8:43
	Many of our local churches suffer from having a great many	8:47
	people on the roles of their membership,	8:51
	who are obsessed with one idea, and one only,	8:56
	who do not have a balanced religion.	9:02
	And it is my hope that when you return to Archdale	9:06
	and go to your church,	9:12
	that you will have a more balanced religion	9:13
	than you had when you came here.	9:17
	That when you returned to Albuquerque,	9:20
	your religion will be one upon which you have reflected	9:23
	while you are at college.	9:26
	And it is one that is seen steadily and seen whole.	9:29
	Too many of our people will select one emphasis.	9:35
	For example, here is a person who is interested in tithing,	9:38
	and he tithes but that's the end of his religion.	9:42
	Here's another person who is interested	9:46
	in church attendance,	9:48
	and he condemns everyone who doesn't attend church	9:49
	and that's all there is to his religion.	9:52
	Here's another one who is interested in temperance	9:55
	and temperance only, one who is interested in race relations	9:57
	and nothing else. One who is interested in world peace,	10:01
	but not in peace at home.	10:05
	I suggest to you that while you are here at college,	10:10
	you learn the value of not riding religious hobby horses.	10:14
	But that you see what religion is as a whole	10:21
	and learn to adjust the various demands and requirements	10:25
	of religion to each to the other,	10:30
	so that you will have an educated religion,	10:32
	so it will be brought up to maturity.	10:35
	Now, having said that, let's take a look at	10:40
	some of the things that happened in this area	10:42
	and see how they should be brought to adjustment.	10:45
	Suppose we were to pick up our Bibles and turn to the book	10:50
	of Galatians as Bob Hyatt did a while ago.	10:53
	We turned to the sixth chapter and we began reading at	10:57
	the first verse, and very soon we'd come to a statement,	10:59
	"every man shall bear his own burden." well, he said.	11:03
	Now that's wonderful, clear, cut advice.	11:08
	We'll put down our Bibles now and we'll go out	11:11
	and bear our individual burdens.	11:13
	This means that every man should assume a sense	11:17
	of responsibility for the things which are his,	11:19
	and he should not try to push off onto someone else,	11:23
	those decisions and those duties and those actions,	11:25
	which he can perform, which he can be faithful to	11:28
	and which by the help of God, he is able to do, all right?	11:32
	So far, so good.	11:36
	But here's what often happens.	11:39
	A person who makes this verse of scripture,	11:42
	the text of his life begins to draw some unfortunate	11:44
	conclusions from this text when he sees it in isolation	11:48
	and out of its context.	11:52
	When a neighbor gets in trouble or a friend needs some help	11:55
	comes to him for help. He says,	11:59
	"Why, I read in the Bible where Paul wrote to the Galatians,	12:01
	"Every man shall bear his own burden."	12:05
	I'm bearing mine, you bear yours."	12:07
	So he cuts himself off from his fellow man,	12:10
	and in the hour of his friends need,	12:13
	he uses scripture to justify his selfishness	12:16
	and his failure to help.	12:19
	Now, if he would only educate his religion	12:22
	and read a little bit farther in that same chapter,	12:25
	he would come to further light on the matter	12:27
	of bearing burdens and would find this bit of advice	12:30
	given by the apostle Paul, "Bear ye one another's burdens."	12:33
	That was only in verse five.	12:38
	We didn't have to read very far to see another side	12:40
	of the same picture, the other side of the coin as it were.	12:43
	Now, this does not in any sense detract	12:48
	from the importance of every man bearing his own burden,	12:50
	but it says, this is not the whole picture,	12:53
	because if we're going to be well-rounded Christians,	12:55
	it is necessary for us from time to time, indeed,	12:58
	as one of the great motives of our lives	13:01
	to bear the burdens of our fellow man,	13:03
	to share their burdens.	13:06
	Now, an educated religion is one which sees	13:11
	that it is not an either/or situation.	13:14
	Either I bear my burdens or I bear another person's burdens,	13:16
	but that I do both and in the right way.	13:20
	Even this is not enough.	13:25
	Because after we have had a hard day of burden bearing	13:27
	and of burden sharing,	13:30
	we find that still the load of the world's responsibility	13:33
	has not been properly carried.	13:37
	And we have to read elsewhere in the Bible	13:40
	and come to the book of Psalms.	13:42
	Psalm number 55, verse 22,	13:44
	where it is suggested to us, "Cast by burden upon the Lord."	13:49
	Often as we go to bed at night,	13:57
	or even in the heat of the day's activity,	13:59
	when we have done the best we can to bear our burdens	14:02
	and have done the best we can	14:05
	to share the burdens of another,	14:08
	it is still necessary for us to catch the whole load	14:09
	upon God.	14:13
	And yet you see the uneducated person who has not reflected	14:16
	upon his religion is likely to say,	14:20
	"Why does not the Bible say cast thy burden upon the Lord?"	14:23
	And so he doesn't bear his burden	14:26
	or the burden of his neighbor either.	14:27
	I have a burden, what do I do?	14:29
	I follow the Bible? I cast it on the Lord.	14:31
	Now a religion that has been brought up to maturity	14:38
	is one that sees that in these paradoxical situations,	14:41
	where we are commanded to be responsible,	14:47
	commanded to share responsibility,	14:49
	and finally commanded to turn our responsibility	14:51
	over to God.	14:55
	With the great insights of the whole gospel	14:57
	and the genius of the gospel of Christ is seen.	15:00
	Now, in case you think that this is a little bit strange	15:06
	or unusual,	15:08
	let me remind you that as Ralph Sockman said some years ago,	15:09
	"The genius of the gospel is never seen in any one	15:13
	admonition or advice or any one insight.	15:18
	It is seen partially when we get additional insight	15:22
	and advice,". But said Sockman, "It is seen best	15:28
	when we view the paradoxical sense of advice,	15:32
	which the scriptures give us,"	15:36
	such as the one that has been presented just now.	15:38
	Or let us turn to another.	15:44
	There are those who say,	15:47
	Well, it is the business of the church to be prophetic.	15:48
	It is the business of the individual Christian	15:52
	to be prophetic."	15:54
	That is to say he supposed to take a look at society	15:56
	and its ills and speak out against them.	15:59
	And he is not supposed to pay any attention to the mind	16:02
	or the influence of man,	16:06
	he's not to regard a person of any body who might disagree	16:07
	with this, or who might be upset by his prophetic utterance.	16:10
	He is simply to call the shots as he sees them.	16:14
	He is to be a prophet and speak out against social	16:17
	injustice.	16:19
	Not only is the church supposed to do this with regard to	16:22
	the secular world,	16:25
	but the church is supposed to do this to itself.	16:26
	We are supposed to preach the prophetic word in the church	16:30
	to the church and to show how Sam has crept in to the very	16:33
	body of Christ.	16:38
	We have very good precedent for this. Our Lord said,	16:41
	"I did not come to send peace, but a sword." Jesus said,	16:44
	"I have come to speak a word that will divide	16:49
	father from son and sister from sister."	16:51
	And set the members of the man's household against him	16:54
	because of the sharp biting unflinching, unyielding,	16:58
	prophetic word.	17:02
	Now this is true, we are supposed to do this.	17:06
	And Christ did say he came not to send peace, but a sword.	17:09
	But some people who have made this	17:15
	the text of their religion,	17:16
	and this has been all of their religion	17:17
	have forgotten another very important part	17:19
	of the gospel of Christ.	17:21
	And if you truly educate your religion	17:25
	while you're here in college,	17:27
	you will not be like these people.	17:29
	You will do this much, but you will do something else also,	17:33
	which is paradoxical.	17:35
	The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans and he said,	17:38
	"In so far as it lies with you,"	17:40
	now he implied by that	17:45
	that it doesn't always lie entirely with you,	17:47
	but in so far as it lies with you	17:52
	live at peace with all men.	17:55
	That is to say, we have on the one hand,	18:01
	the demand to be prophets and on the other hand,	18:02
	we have the demand to build and to hold unity	18:05
	and brotherhood.	18:08
	We are not out to divide simply for the sake of dividing	18:10
	and even when we must speak the divisive,	18:13
	prophetic word at the same time,	18:15
	we must be grasping with all the strength we can muster	18:17
	to hold the people of God together in one unity	18:21
	and not to destroy the brotherhood,	18:24
	not to destroy the spirit of love	18:26
	and of brotherly affection, which we have for each other,	18:29
	even when we must disagree over social issues	18:33
	and the implications of the gospel in ethical situations.	18:37
	We have this twofold equally important emphasis here,	18:41
	to speak sharply, to speak unflinchingly	18:46
	and yet to promote and protect the unity of the church.	18:49
	Let's look at a third.	18:59
	And this paradox is contained in one verse of Paul's letter	19:02
	to the Philippians.	19:05
	It sounds as though he's contradicting himself.	19:07
	"Work out your own salvation," he said with fear	19:11
	and trembling. Well, that sounds like our salvation	19:15
	depends upon our work, doesn't it?	19:20
	What we do.	19:23
	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.	19:24
	It's all up to us.	19:29
	Now here's the rest of the sentence,	19:32
	"For it is God who works in you and enables you both	19:35
	to will and to achieve." It's all up to us?	19:42
	No, it's all up to God.	19:52
	Is it all up to God? No, it's up to us.	19:55
	What did he mean?	20:00
	He meant it is all up to us in so far as what we can do	20:02
	is concerned, but it is for us to realize that unless,	20:06
	and without the activity of God,	20:10
	everything we do would be null and void.	20:13
	And in fact,	20:20
	if it had not been for the prior activity of God,	20:21
	through his grace in our hearts,	20:25
	we would have not the ability even to will	20:27
	to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.	20:30
	And we would not have the ability to work out our salvation	20:34
	with fear and trembling,	20:37
	if it were not for the prior activity of God's grace	20:39
	in our hearts. And so what are we to do? paradoxically,	20:42
	we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling,	20:47
	knowing all the time that it is God who makes it possible.	20:52
	Now, when we see this,	20:58
	we are led to see a couple of other things.	20:59
	One of which is that human activity on the human level	21:02
	is an absolute necessity in the Christian life.	21:07
	Now, not that we're going to earn our salvation,	21:12
	the idea that any one of us could go out today	21:14
	and earn his salvation is almost as extinct	21:17
	as the hooping brain and it ought to be.	21:19
	But at the same time,	21:23
	we should be guarded against the thought	21:26
	that it is all up to God as is the fashion	21:28
	in certain circles today, to think that we do not need	21:31
	as Christians to be actively concerned	21:35
	with promoting our Christian faith,	21:38
	because when God decides to act,	21:39
	he will act, when he acts, that's everything,	21:42
	and until he does, there's nothing we can do.	21:44
	Now there's an element of truth in this,	21:47
	but it is an element of truth,	21:49
	which is corrected by the first part of the advice	21:50
	which the apostle Paul gives.	21:53
	The second conclusion by way of a scripture verse	21:57
	that we would be driven to here is	22:00
	the one where Paul says that it is for us to plant,	22:04
	It is for us to water.	22:10
	It is for us to harvest,	22:13
	but it is God who gives the increase.	22:16
	So that without the increase, which God gives,	22:20
	our planting would be vain.	22:25
	Our watering would be vain and there wouldn't be anything	22:28
	to harvest.	22:30
	But even though God is able and willing	22:32
	to give the increase,	22:35
	the crop would not be harvested if it were not for our	22:37
	planning and our watering and our harvest.	22:39
	An educated religion is one which does not ride	22:46
	any one idea or hobby or obsession about religion	22:49
	to the exclusion of the rest of the picture.	22:54
	Oh, there are so many of the religious concepts,	22:58
	values and causes that need this kind of education.	23:03
	We do not have time to mention them here this morning,	23:07
	but there's one that must not be passed up	23:09
	even in a brief sermon, such as this.	23:11
	Some people have the feeling that when you	23:16
	get your religion educated, that you will cease to hate sin.	23:18
	You will become tolerant of sin because you love the sinner.	23:22
	And religion that has been informed by scriptural insights	23:27
	is one that insists upon the value of the human personality	23:31
	and how God loves every sinner.	23:35
	And of course he does, that is our gospel.	23:38
	And yet an emphasis upon loving sinner that minimizes	23:42
	a hatred of sin is paradoxically	23:47
	an emphasis which will undercut the significance	23:51
	even of loving the sinner,	23:54
	because you do not have the love a sick person	23:57
	if you say to him,	23:59
	"Now, I love you in spite of the fact	24:00
	that you've got cancer,	24:01
	and don't you worry about this cancer,	24:02
	because really we love you.	24:04
	And we're going to forgive this cancer you have in you."	24:05
	An attitudes such as that would of course kill the patient	24:09
	because it would leave the disease unchecked.	24:11
	And so someone whose life is filled with all kinds of pride	24:14
	and lust and hatred and greed,	24:18
	and all other forms of sin is not a person who is redeemed	24:20
	simply by saying to him, "God loves you,	24:24
	sinner that you are,"	24:26
	a love of the sinner must go hand in hand	24:29
	with a bitter burning hatred of sin.	24:32
	And unless it does,	24:38
	it loses its force and significance.	24:39
	By the same token, the person who decides,	24:43
	"Well, you can't really love the sinner	24:46
	unless you hate the sin."	24:49
	And so he majors on hating sin and goes around with a shovel	24:50
	and a pickax and begins to chop out sin wherever	24:54
	he can find it and develop some burning animosity	24:57
	against sin.	25:00
	Well, unless he is careful begin to minimize the love	25:01
	of the sinner. And he will become so zealous in rooting out	25:05
	sin, that he will also root out the sinner.	25:09
	The educated mature person is one who must	25:15
	constantly check himself to see if the insights	25:20
	in this paradoxical need both to love the sinner	25:25
	and to hate the sin are in proper balance in his own life.	25:28
	Now, we've said a few other things	25:35
	that an educated religion is,	25:37
	I'm sure we ought to mention a few things	25:41
	that an educated religion is not.	25:43
	So that by way of contrast,	25:47
	we will not confuse the one with the other.	25:48
	Some people have the idea that an educated religion	25:51
	is one that always communicates its content	25:54
	in six syllable words.	25:56
	This is not true, necessarily.	26:00
	Religion has its six syllable words.	26:02
	It has some eight and 10 syllable words,	26:04
	which are perfectly good words.	26:06
	And if you're going to major in theology,	26:09
	and this is a perfectly legitimate thing for you to do,	26:12
	you may become familiar with all of these terms	26:15
	and the concepts behind them,	26:18
	but having an educated religion does not necessarily mean	26:22
	that you are thoroughly conversant with all of the large	26:26
	technical terminology, which theology has, like law has,	26:30
	like medicine has, like all of the disciplines have.	26:35
	You can do this if you want to,	26:40
	but it is not an absolute requirement	26:42
	of an educated religion. If you want to,	26:44
	you can get interested in Christology	26:46
	and go back into the history of theology	26:49
	and decide whether or not your concept of the nature	26:51
	of Christ makes you a whole Mol Lucien,	26:55
	or a whole Moi Lucien.	26:57
	You can decide whether the Nicene Creed really represents	26:59
	the adequate statement of your belief or whether really	27:03
	you feel we should move beyond Nicean formulation	27:06
	to the Chalcedonian Creed.	27:10
	And then after you got into the Chalcedonian Creed,	27:13
	you can decide whether those theologians are right,	27:15
	who say that it was nothing more than a political compromise	27:19
	to keep the Ecumenical Church together,	27:22
	or whether Albert Outler is right in saying that it was	27:23
	the greatest theological formulation that has ever been made	27:26
	by an Ecumenical group.	27:30
	And then if you say, "Well, I don't wanna deal in the past	27:33
	in these big terms and then theological significance.	27:37
	I'll come down to the present time."	27:40
	You can, you can tackle Tillich.	27:42
	And when you've tackled Tillich,	27:46
	then you can decide while you're studying him,	27:47
	whether the Harvard theologians are right	27:52
	in saying that Tillich is the finest thing	27:55
	that ever happened to theology,	27:56
	or whether Nelson Ray is right in saying	27:58
	he's the most dangerous theologian alive.	28:00
	And while you're deciding that, you can then decide	28:04
	whether or not he represents a blending of neo orthodoxy	28:07
	and Neo animism, or whether really,	28:10
	what he has done is to take Protestant theology	28:13
	and bring it up and link it with depth psychology.	28:15
	Or whether those are right,	28:20
	who suspect that Tillich is not original at all.	28:22
	That he's simply putting into English thought forms	28:25
	and language,	28:27
	what the German metaphysicians Shelling had already written.	28:28
	You see, you could learn all that	28:33
	and there would still be 99 other concepts	28:35
	in theological personalities,	28:37
	just as important that you would not know anything about.	28:39
	Now, you can do this,	28:42
	but you do not have to do this to have an educated religion.	28:43
	You can have a well-balanced mature brought up religion	28:50
	without becoming a professional theologian.	28:54
	There is another illusion which some people have about	29:00
	an educated religion that I should dispel.	29:03
	And that is, they say an educated religion	29:06
	is one that has given up faith in favor of fact.	29:08
	That whereas these ignorant, uneducated people	29:13
	out in our local churches,	29:15
	who've never been to college, live by faith,	29:16
	the educated person is one who lives by a fact.	29:19
	And while I'm at college,	29:21
	I'm going to throw out my religious faith	29:22
	and bring in religious fact.	29:24
	Now that's absurd.	29:27
	The more you educate your religion,	29:30
	the greater your faith will become.	29:31
	And instead of you throwing out your faith,	29:34
	your faith will grow, to be sure you will add facts.	29:36
	You should, and you should throw out some things	29:40
	you thought were facts that are not.	29:43
	Now, this is very important for the reason	29:47
	that some people have the idea that religion deals in faith	29:50
	and science deals in fact. If you had that illusion,	29:58
	this is one which you can at this moment,	30:04
	dispel from your mind, there is not a science,	30:07
	there is not a discipline that is taught in this university	30:11
	or in any other university that is not founded upon	30:14
	unproven and unprovable faith.	30:17
	The greatest scientists are men	30:21
	who will tell you that you cannot move an inch in a	30:23
	laboratory without proceeding on unprovable faith.	30:25
	Religion is no different from anything else at this point.	30:31
	So therefore do not have the idea that what you're going to	30:35
	try to do as you educate your religion,	30:37
	is get rid of your faith and started walking on solid fact.	30:39
	It isn't so, it isn't done anywhere in town,	30:43
	be done anywhere in this world.	30:45
	And then there is another misconception,	30:49
	which we should not take into the process of educating	30:50
	our religion.	30:53
	And that is, if when a religion becomes a properly educated,	30:54
	it loses its zeal and enthusiasm,	30:58
	it becomes polled and dead and formal.	31:00
	I say to you that during the three years,	31:05
	I have been chaplain to this university,	31:08
	I have come to know some highly educated professors	31:12
	who are as zealous and as enthusiastic	31:16
	and as devoted in their Christian faith	31:21
	as any ignorant church man I ever met anywhere else.	31:24
	And who would as quickly die for his faith.	31:29
	Do not feel that you want to keep your religion	31:34
	in an airtight compartment and not infuse it	31:38
	with the insights of education,	31:41
	because you're afraid you'll lose your religious zeal	31:44
	and devotion. It is not true.	31:47
	This brings us in conclusion to see why the church	31:56
	has stood through all these years,	32:02
	when religious societies and leads and associations	32:05
	have died. You can get interested in world peace	32:12
	and have you a society for world peace.	32:16
	You can get interested in temperance	32:19
	and have you a temperance society.	32:21
	You can get interested in Bible reading	32:23
	and have you a Bible reading society.	32:25
	But these societies and associations and leagues	32:30
	and organizations have a tendency to die out	32:34
	because they promote one cause	32:36
	and very often promoted out of context.	32:39
	But the church down through the centuries has been preaching	32:45
	and witnessing to and working for the whole gospel.	32:48
	It has been preaching the Bible, yes,	32:55
	but it hasn't been worshiping the Bible,	32:59
	It has been worshiping Christ. And it has been seeking	33:02
	to save people from giving that measure of devotion	33:06
	to the Bible, which they ought to give to Christ.	33:10
	One Sunday, the church preaches hatred of sin.	33:14
	And the next Sunday, it preaches the love of the sinner.	33:16
	One Sunday, the church preaches the prophetic message	33:20
	and the next Sunday, it preaches the need for unity	33:23
	and harmony in the body of Christ.	33:26
	It is a brought up gospel,	33:29
	an educated gospel which the church has.	33:32
	And it is my hope that by you're here at Duke,	33:36
	you will get this whole gospel.	33:40
	You will bear your own burdens,	33:43
	but you will bear one another's burdens	33:45
	and you will know the fine art of casting your burden	33:48
	upon the Lord without taking it off of your own shoulder.	33:51
	You will learn to appreciate the Bible	33:55
	without worshiping it.	33:57
	You will learn all of the things that you must do,	34:00
	If you're to be a devoted Christian.	34:07
	Not obsessed, any one idea or cause to the exclusion	34:11
	of any other.	34:17
	I really hope that what is possible may come to pass.	34:19
	That you will educate your religion.	34:24
	Most of the people who have educated their science	34:28
	and have thrown out their religion,	34:30
	threw out an uneducated religion,	34:33
	they had a science that had grown up,	34:36
	but a religion that was still in the 'now I lay me down	34:39
	to sleep' category.	34:42
	Educate your religion.	34:45
	Instead of throwing it out, you will grow up with it.	34:48
	Because the Christ who offered to comfort men with the cross	34:52
	and arrest them with a yoke.	34:57
	And who said, "If you'll lose your life for my sake,	35:00
	you will save it. But if you try to save your life,	35:02
	you'll lose it."	35:04
	Has in these paradoxical teachings of his	35:06
	challenged us to a magnificent way of life.	35:09
	Life abundant here and life hereafter.	35:15
	Oh God, our heavenly father,	35:27
	give us grace to plant and to water	35:29
	and to harvest and keep us mindful always,	35:34
	that it is thee does give the increase,	35:40
	through Christ our Lord.	35:44
	May the Lord bless you, and keep you.	35:49
	May the Lord make his face to shine upon you	35:52
	and be gracious unto you.	35:54
	May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you	35:56
	and give you peace.	35:59

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "An Educated Religion" (September 18, 1960)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4m042z6f

Date:

September 18, 1960

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0116
ref5433_xpz
uachapelsermaud
duke:628319
dcrau002138
ark:/87924/r4m042z6f
3250f700-38b1-4354-a310-010cb1d592a4

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "An Educated Religion" (September 18, 1960)

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