Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Unlimited (Incorporated)" (August 18, 1963)

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	(religious music)	0:04
-	Now, let us offer under the heavenly Father,	0:22
	our unison, prayer of confession, let us pray.	0:25
	"Oh God who willis not the death of any sinner,	0:29
	"forgive the sins of us who turned to thee	0:33
	"in repentance with all our hearts.	0:36
	"We have not loved and served thee as we are,	0:39
	"but have loved things hateful to thee,	0:42
	"and have beguiled our hearts.	0:45
	"We have been unprofitable to thee, unstable and afraid,	0:47
	"hiding the light that is in us.	0:53
	"For thou has commanded us to let our light shine	0:55
	"for these and all other sins of which we are guilty,	0:59
	"oh Lord, we ask thy pardon	1:02
	"through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen."	1:05
	Beloved, let us hear the comforting words	1:11
	that come to us from the Holy Scriptures,	1:13
	that are addressed to those	1:15
	who are concerned about their sins.	1:17
	"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation	1:20
	"that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.	1:25
	"There is therefore now no condemnation	1:29
	"to those who are in Christ Jesus,	1:32
	"who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit."	1:34
	Let us now joined together in praying	1:41
	the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ	1:43
	has taught his disciples to pray saying,	1:45
	"Our Father who art in heaven,	1:48
	"hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	1:51
	"thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	1:55
	"Give us this day our daily bread,	1:59
	"and forgive us our trespasses	2:02
	"as we forgive those who trespass against us	2:04
	"and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,	2:07
	"for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory	2:12
	"forever, amen."	2:16
	(instrumental religious music)	2:21
	Let us now hear the reading of the Word of God,	5:12
	as selected from the Old Testament.	5:15
	The book of Psalms chapter 19.	5:19
	"The heavens are telling the glory of God	5:23
	"and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.	5:26
	"Day to day pours forth speech	5:30
	"and night tonight declares knowledge.	5:33
	"There is no speech nor are their words.	5:36
	"Their voice is not heard,	5:40
	"yet their voice goes out through all the earth	5:42
	"and their words to the end of the world.	5:45
	"In them he has set a tent for the sun,	5:49
	"which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,	5:52
	"and like a strong runs its course with joy.	5:56
	"It's rising is from the end of the heaven	6:01
	"and its circuit to the end of them,	6:03
	"and there is nothing hidden from its heat.	6:06
	"The law of the Lord is perfect,	6:10
	"reviving the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure,	6:13
	"making wise the simple.	6:18
	"The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.	6:21
	"The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.	6:26
	"The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.	6:32
	"The ordinances of the Lord are true	6:37
	"and righteous altogether.	6:39
	"More to be desired are they then go, even much fine gold.	6:42
	"Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.	6:47
	"Moreover by them is thy servant the warned,	6:53
	"in keeping them there is great reward.	6:56
	"But who can discern his errors?	6:59
	"Clear thou me from the hidden faults,	7:03
	"keep backside servant also from presumptuous sins.	7:07
	"Let them not have dominion over me.	7:11
	"Then I shall be blameless	7:14
	"and innocent as the great transgression.	7:16
	"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart,	7:20
	"be acceptable in thy sight,	7:25
	"oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, amen."	7:28
	(instrumental religious music)	7:38
	The Lord be with you.	10:02
	(congregation replying in the background)	10:04
	Let us pray.	10:06
	"Our heavenly Father, we pause now at this sacred time	10:09
	"to call thy holy name in prayer.	10:14
	"Although we are not worthy to speak thy name,	10:18
	"we do so in response to thy own bidding.	10:21
	"Imperfect children that we are,	10:25
	"our hearts cry out unto thee.	10:28
	"Our Father in praise and an adoration of thy glory.	10:30
	"We marvel at the beauty of that creation	10:34
	"and we rejoice in the seasonal renewal of it	10:38
	"from year to year, from moment to moment.	10:41
	"When we consider thy steadfast love,	10:46
	"our hearts are humbled and warmed within us.	10:49
	"We praise thee for loving us before we love thee	10:53
	"and for continuing thy perfect love	10:58
	"even though our own response has certainly been imperfect.	11:00
	"We thank thee oh God for the gift of thy Son, Jesus Christ,	11:06
	"who lived a human life in Palestine long ago,	11:10
	"but who yet lives and seeks to live in us in our time.	11:15
	"We thank Lee for the truth he taught,	11:20
	"the example he set for us,	11:23
	"the redemption he offered to all	11:26
	"who will choose to accept it.	11:28
	"We thank thee that he was willing to die on a cross	11:31
	"rather than to compromise with evil.	11:34
	"We blessed thee oh God, for all those who follow	11:38
	"however, haltingly in his way.	11:42
	"We ourselves have been blessed by those	11:46
	"who placed service above self,	11:49
	"who have dedicated to honesty and justice,	11:52
	"who have loved their enemies and have worked for peace.	11:56
	"We express our gratitude to thee for the body of Christ,	12:01
	"which through the centuries has witnessed	12:05
	"to the power of the cross and the resurrection.	12:07
	"We thank thee for the present season of examination	12:12
	"into which we are now entering.	12:15
	"And during which we may test the measure of our efforts	12:17
	"during this summer.	12:21
	"We offer onto thee oh God our prayers,	12:25
	"for those who labor under all kinds of handicaps.	12:27
	"For those doctors who toil long hours,	12:31
	"giving of the best of their energy and reserves.	12:34
	"We pray for our nurses who by their cheerful efficiency	12:39
	"seek to bridge the gap between illness and health.	12:42
	"We pray for the patients in homes and hospitals,	12:47
	"who hour after hour experience	12:51
	"a strange feeling of helplessness and loneliness,	12:53
	"wandering how long their illness flew last.	12:58
	"Be thou their confidence, be thou their great physician.	13:01
	"We pray for students who have tasted defeat,	13:08
	"who have tried and failed, who have tried again,	13:12
	"but who's goal yet alludes them.	13:16
	"Grant onto them wisdom to evaluate their goals correctly,	13:20
	"give them grace to pursue and to achieve worthy objectives.	13:25
	"Oh God, we intercede for those who are the victims	13:31
	"of slander and of malicious gossip,	13:34
	"whose enemies have spread on truth behind their backs.	13:37
	"Give them patience to endure this injustice.	13:41
	"Oh God, we now pray for those who practice this	13:47
	"and other kinds of unfairness,	13:50
	"may the Holy Spirit impress upon their hearts,	13:53
	"the evil of their attitudes	13:56
	"and bring them to repentance and to righteousness,	13:58
	"so that they may be redeemed.	14:01
	"Oh God, thou has taught us to love our neighbors	14:06
	"as ourselves, but we're not certain of how to love	14:09
	"even ourselves, teach us how to know what is good for us.	14:12
	"We pray for wisdom to know the difference	14:19
	"between food and chaff,	14:21
	"between the abiding and the temporary,	14:24
	"between love and lust, between wisdom and mere cleverness.	14:27
	"We pray thee to enable us to cast out	14:35
	"the large obstructions in our own spiritual lives,	14:37
	"so that we may see clearly to remove	14:41
	"the smaller imperfections in the vision of our brothers.	14:43
	"We offer our petition for the safety of all students,	14:48
	"who should be going home at the end of this summer term,	14:52
	"may no one fall victim to tragedy	14:57
	"and may no one give offense to another.	15:00
	"Give us some grace to be witnesses for Christ	15:03
	"at all times and in all places.	15:06
	"And now oh Lord, we pray thee to deliver us	15:11
	"from offering onto thee, a mere part of our money	15:14
	"without giving thee all of our hearts.	15:19
	"Save us from seeking to do things for thee	15:22
	"without allowing thee to transform our affections	15:26
	"by the Holy Spirit.	15:29
	"We pray for grace to be honestly dedicated	15:32
	"to the purposes for which Jesus Christ went to the cross.	15:35
	"We pray in his name, amen."	15:40
	(instrumental religious music)	15:48
	(instrumental religious music)	17:49
	(congregation singing in the background)	18:39
	(instrumental religious music)	25:57
	(instrumental religious music)	26:05
	"All things come up thee oh Lord,	27:08
	"and as thy known, have we given thee in Jesus name, amen."	27:11
	(instrumental religious music)	27:19
	The heavens are telling the glory of God	27:48
	and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.	27:52
	It has been my privilege this summer	27:57
	to drive some 9,000 miles across this great country of ours,	27:59
	up the West Coast and back,	28:03
	camping in some of the loveliest of our national parks.	28:05
	It is awesome to travel and entire day in continual sight	28:10
	of the snow-covered peak of Mount Shasta.	28:14
	It is thrilling to romp in the snow fields of Yosemite	28:17
	via Crater Lake in the morning,	28:21
	and that same afternoon to sit on the rocks	28:22
	and watch the seagulls catch the hapless fish	28:25
	thrown up by the Pacific wave.	28:29
	In the majesty of Glacier Park	28:33
	or the matchless grandeur of the Tetons,	28:36
	one appreciates the fresh, the tremendous expanse	28:38
	and variety of this fabulous land.	28:42
	You realize there's a new world so,	28:46
	the marvels of God's creation,	28:49
	of rugged mountains and Sapphire Lake,	28:52
	and the distant horizons beyond.	28:55
	Truly the heavens declare the glory of God,	28:59
	and the firmament shows his handiwork.	29:03
	Sometime ago on the skyline of Cleveland, Ohio,	29:07
	I spotted a small, but striking neon sign,	29:11
	that made all the frantic appeals for black finish slip.	29:15
	It says simply, "Horizons Incorporated."	29:19
	The name, I assume, referred to some company	29:25
	engaged in industrial research.	29:27
	But today I wanted to apply it to the broader field	29:29
	of Christian concern.	29:32
	Horizons incorporated,	29:35
	a contradiction in term,	29:39
	some of you will say, for that was my first reaction.	29:41
	Horizon have a set of stereotype adjective,	29:44
	boundless, illimitable, viable, sweeping, infinite,	29:49
	never before incorporated.	29:57
	But the more I thought about those two words,	30:01
	the more convinced I became that they represent	30:03
	profound and divine paradox.	30:06
	Let us look first of all, at horizon.	30:11
	The Bible hasn't much to say about horizon, not as such,	30:16
	perhaps, because the boy, Thomas and the herdsmen of Tacoa,	30:21
	and the shepherds of Bethlehem,	30:27
	and the carpenter of Galilee,	30:28
	all lived with horizons as their intimate friends.	30:30
	They knew the seasons in both nature and religion	30:34
	because they knew the heaven and the good earth.	30:38
	They did not need to go	30:42
	on a carefully contrived camping trip	30:43
	in order to see the horizon or the stars.	30:46
	This urbanized and mechanized generation	30:51
	looks up at the sky, only when a jet zooms by,	30:53
	or a Sputnik is reported to be visible.	30:57
	Our horizons are so punctuated with television antenna	31:00
	that we hardly see the sunset.	31:03
	Glibly we recite in church,	31:07
	I will lift up mine eyes under the hill,	31:10
	at how seldom do we practice it.	31:14
	Those of you who have crossed an ocean,	31:18
	know something of the awe, the sense of helplessness,	31:20
	but also the serenity that come from gazing	31:25
	across the immensity of sea, to the boundlessness of sky.	31:27
	No wonder a little child staring into the apparent emptiness	31:33
	wanted to know what and where was the horizon	31:38
	she heard people talking about.	31:41
	And wise the parent who pointed to the thin line	31:43
	of unimaginable code and told her that the horizon	31:47
	was square earth and heaven meet.	31:51
	So it is also with our spiritual horizon.	31:57
	How infrequently we sound upon the hill tops of life	32:02
	and stretch our vision.	32:05
	Even here in this great university,	32:09
	where one of the most commonly avowed aims	32:10
	is to broaden our horizon.	32:13
	We rarely lift our eyes from our books or our microscopes,	32:16
	long enough to see a shimmering wing past our window,	32:20
	a blueberry or a Cardinal or an angel.	32:25
	Thoreau once said our horizon is never quite at our elbows,	32:32
	but for all too many of it is not much farther away.	32:37
	Most of us have come to do, for to this service of worship	32:44
	with less than 2020 vision in our soul.	32:48
	It is not only that we are bound	32:53
	by the physical surroundings of our childhood,	32:55
	the village store or the city block,	32:59
	we come with limited thought patterns,	33:02
	limited understanding, limited interests.	33:05
	Many of us have built a Berlin Wall of prejudice	33:11
	within ourselves.	33:15
	The bounds of our concern are marked by academic credits,	33:17
	so on the fall football schedule	33:22
	or a frantic weekend at the beach.	33:24
	We bemoan the heat in the classroom	33:27
	and the rain on the golf course,	33:29
	oblivious to disastrous typhoons in Korea	33:32
	and avalanches and Nepal.	33:36
	Even my 10 year-old daughter remarked how consistently	33:40
	news commentators seem to be preoccupied	33:43
	in reporting the recent Yugoslavian earthquake	33:46
	or overseas air crashes,	33:50
	with whether and the Americans were involved.	33:54
	We based our domestic policies on the reader's digest	33:58
	and our view of international relations on Time Magazine.	34:02
	We suspect that labor unions are alien and subversive,	34:06
	dominated by some sinister combination of,	34:10
	Roman Catholicism and Russian communism.	34:13
	And we have believed the senator who tells us	34:17
	that all the racial agitation around us,	34:20
	is commanded by Moscow.	34:23
	Even the unity and the universality of our Christian faith	34:27
	somehow failed to widen our horizon.	34:31
	We are beset by narrow patterns of prayer.	34:36
	We are bored in a quicker service,	34:41
	because we have never learned	34:44
	the deep and powerful discipline of silence,	34:45
	or we are repelled by the pumps and formality	34:51
	of high liturgy because we have never seen	34:53
	the beauty of order or the dignity of tradition.	34:56
	Not only in your religion classes,	35:03
	but in your laboratories and in your history lessons,	35:05
	the Bible should acquire infinitely deeper meaning	35:08
	and wider significance, by the time you leave here,	35:12
	than the volume you brought with you.	35:16
	If this school is in any sense,	35:19
	fulfilling is declared objective, "Eruditio et Religio,"	35:21
	even the God you worship,	35:27
	should grow in your own understanding	35:30
	from a local, denominational creedal deity,	35:32
	into what Carmen has aptly called,	35:37
	the Lord of the far horizon.	35:40
	Kohler it spoke with tragic accuracy when he said,	35:46
	"The first range of hills the encircles	35:50
	"the scanny veil of human life.	35:52
	"is the horizon for the majority of its inhabitants.	35:55
	"On its ridges, the common son is born and depart.	35:59
	"From them the stars rise and touching them they vanish."	36:04
	For the majority, that is true.	36:11
	But it need not be so,	36:13
	and for those who would live as Christians	36:16
	it must not be so.	36:18
	We were called to follow into witness to an infinite God,	36:20
	let's push our horizon far beyond the limits of sight,	36:25
	out into the emptiness of social,	36:29
	as well as geographical and cosmic space.	36:32
	Famous become in sharpest reality,	36:36
	the place where earth and heaven meet.	36:40
	As the heavens are high above the earth,	36:46
	so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.	36:48
	As far as the east is from the west,	36:54
	so far does he remove our transgressions from us.	36:56
	And speaking of this passage from the beloved 113 storm,	37:02
	the Abingdon Bible commentary remarks	37:06
	that the very limits of the horizon	37:09
	meant more to the man of the Psalmist day than today.	37:11
	Yet in some respects the vast outreach	37:17
	of God's steadfast love, should have even deeper meaning	37:19
	for us of the 20th century.	37:23
	Today the space age is so familiar that we cease the marvel,	37:27
	but it was an incredible miracle 10 years ago	37:31
	when a friend of mine in the air force	37:34
	scooted from South Carolina to New England	37:37
	in an hour and 1/2 by jet plane.	37:39
	But what impressed me more than the speed	37:43
	was his account of flying so high,	37:45
	that he could see both New York and Washington	37:48
	at the same time.	37:52
	To our astronauts, that is a common experience today.	37:55
	Yet as Christians, we are very far from achieving	38:00
	that kind of vision.	38:03
	Can we know in our worship and our fellowship,	38:06
	our work and our play, so far enough above the selfishness	38:11
	and prejudice of human life, to look out on God's world	38:16
	with perspective like that.	38:21
	As followers of the Prince of Peace,	38:25
	should we not be able to compass in the same view,	38:27
	Johannesburg and Door, New York and New Delhi,	38:31
	Chicago and Pekin,	38:37
	or the hills so near and yet so far apart,	38:40
	of Bethlehem and Calvary.	38:45
	Another boy, who a friend of mine who became an aviator,	38:51
	wrote a poem called, "High Flight,"	38:55
	which some of you may know.	38:58
	As a student, he had broken away	39:00
	from his missionary heritage and become a fleet,	39:02
	the cynical agnostic.	39:05
	But before he was killed in the Second World War,	39:08
	he wrote these lines.	39:11
	"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth,	39:14
	"and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;	39:17
	"sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth	39:22
	"of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things	39:24
	"You have not dreamed of,	39:27
	"wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.	39:30
	"Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along,	39:36
	"and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.	39:38
	"Up, up the long delirious heights with easy grace	39:42
	"Where never lark, or ever eagle flew.	39:46
	"And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high	39:51
	"untrespassed sanctity of space.	39:56
	"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."	39:59
	That is one answer through the Russian cosmonaut,	40:07
	who said he could not see God up there.	40:10
	Unless through prayer and service,	40:15
	we too can travel the high untrespassed sanctity of space.	40:18
	Our lives will be narrow earth-bound,	40:24
	but to the degree that we can establish intimate contact	40:27
	with God, the Father of all mankind,	40:31
	we shall see through his eyes,	40:34
	the height and depth and breadth of his world,	40:37
	and we shall discover our own horizon unlimited.	40:42
	If there is nothing really contradictory	40:50
	about having horizons incorporated,	40:52
	some of us suspect that incorporation implies narrowing,	40:55
	restricting, circumscribing action.	40:59
	Lawyers and businessman	41:03
	would indignantly deny that assumption.	41:05
	A firm incorporates itself because thereby it acquires	41:08
	a legal personality, which entitles it to certain freedom,	41:12
	immunities and rights, it would not otherwise posses.	41:16
	A city becomes incorporated because within that framework	41:21
	of organization and legal procedure,	41:26
	it can exercise its duties with greater efficiency,	41:28
	and responsibility.	41:32
	So let it be with our horizon.	41:36
	There are pantheists to be sure who recognize	41:39
	only two types of horizon,	41:42
	the natural beauty of a palm tree against the sunset sky	41:45
	or of a big hazy foggy blur in the distance.	41:50
	God sees many other kinds.	41:57
	Some of you are familiar with a painting by Paul Flandrin,	42:01
	titled, "Christ mourns over the city."	42:04
	In it Jesus looks sorrowfully across the roof of paret,	42:08
	where narrow crowded tenements,	42:12
	looms dark and clear in the foreground,	42:14
	but Notre Dame and the Napoleonic Dome	42:18
	and the Arc de Triomphe are almost law	42:21
	in a pole smoke and soot and sand.	42:24
	Over 50 years have passed,	42:30
	since Flandrin painted that picture,	42:32
	50 of the most eventful years in all history.	42:34
	Yet, as I stood by the Church of the Sacred Heart,	42:39
	which now dominates the Hilltop,	42:41
	I could recognize the scene and simply.	42:44
	The same river, the same slums, the same twisting streets,	42:47
	the same cathedral, the same sand.	42:53
	And in my soul vision, the same price is gaze-fixed,	42:59
	not on the remote countryside beyond,	43:03
	but on the greed and misery and selfishness	43:06
	that is very big.	43:09
	For God's horizons are not limited to Jerusalem,	43:12
	resplendent in cinema scope.	43:15
	They are incorporated in Paris and New York	43:19
	and Durham and Raleigh.	43:25
	In light manner I often look from the office window,	43:29
	on the third floor or in this university	43:33
	and wished that I could amputate to unsightly chimneys	43:35
	so that my immediate horizon	43:39
	would consist exclusively of pine trees and gothic rooms.	43:40
	But then I remind myself that the power plant	43:46
	is probably more vital to this institution	43:49
	and to my own comfort as well,	43:52
	than either pine trees or gothic rooms,	43:55
	no matter how ugly and smoky the chimneys may be.	43:58
	The horizons of God always have room	44:04
	for smokestacks and skyscrapers,	44:08
	and we should give thanks when they represent	44:11
	power plants or bridges,	44:13
	instead of tenements or munitions factories.	44:16
	I mentioned earlier the inquisitive little child	44:22
	who was told that the horizon	44:25
	is where earth and heaven meet.	44:27
	Like most children,	44:31
	she had another question immediately, forthcoming.	44:31
	"When are we going to get there?"	44:34
	Ah, yes, my Christian friends,	44:38
	when are we going to get there?	44:40
	Jacob almost got there at the foot of the ladder,	44:44
	near enough at least to hear God's promise	44:48
	that his purpose would be fulfilled.	44:50
	And Jacob was afraid.	44:54
	Ezekiel almost got there with his bewildering vision,	44:58
	near enough to hear God's assurances	45:01
	that his dreams would not perish, that the days are at hand	45:04
	and the fulfillment of every vision.	45:08
	Peter and James and John,	45:13
	got almost there on the mountain top,	45:15
	as they saw the glory of the Christ,	45:17
	but they too were afraid of such dazzling splendor.	45:20
	And they too had to come down	45:24
	from the Mount of Transfiguration,	45:27
	to the plane of sickness and controversy	45:29
	and hatred and selfishness.	45:33
	No, it is not easy to dwell where earth and heaven meet,	45:37
	principally because God himself is there,	45:42
	and his presence makes sinful mortals awfully uncomfortable.	45:45
	The ancient Hindus were pretty smart after all,	45:52
	they set up three levels of deities,	45:55
	the gods of the heaven and the gods of earth	45:58
	and the gods of the middle atmosphere in between.	46:03
	They weren't going to take any chances	46:06
	about letting heaven get too close to earth.	46:08
	But as a result, they missed the priceless privilege	46:12
	of bringing earth to the threshold of heaven.	46:15
	And incidentally, one of the corollaries	46:20
	of this Hindu polytheism, was the vicious caste system,	46:22
	which has been the curse and the shame of India	46:26
	for some 3000 years.	46:30
	Have we to defended prejudice and injustice	46:34
	by erecting a barrier between the Lord of heaven	46:38
	and the god of our social and individual life?	46:41
	In truth, He dwells where earth and heaven meet.	46:46
	If our horizons are vague, blurs in the distance,	46:56
	so we'll be our concept of Almighty God.	47:00
	If instead, our horizons are sharp outlines of human life	47:04
	against the divine backdrop of heaven,	47:08
	then Christ himself will be incorporated	47:11
	into our daily acts of love and service.	47:14
	Albert Schweitzer has seen beyond the depth	47:20
	on the brush of African jungle,	47:22
	to the day when black men will sound beside by	47:25
	an equal dignity and opportunity,	47:29
	Frank Laubach has seen beyond the night of ignorance	47:34
	and illiteracy, the first rays of hope and freedom	47:37
	and self-respect.	47:42
	Ralph Bunche has seen beyond the limitations	47:45
	and frustrations of his own racial experience	47:48
	toward a world of truly united nations,	47:52
	a world of genuine brotherhood.	47:55
	In the words of that little poem so popular in youth groups,	48:00
	dreams are they, but they are God's dream.	48:04
	And what does God do with his dreams?	48:11
	He incorporates them.	48:15
	For by now you have all recognized	48:17
	to where there's almost synonymous,	48:19
	incorporation and incarnation.	48:22
	The dictionary definition,	48:27
	give at least one word in common, embodiment.	48:28
	You have heard thus far very little mention	48:34
	of the center of our Christian faith,	48:37
	and there was a deliberate reason for that.	48:41
	Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and David and Jonah,	48:44
	Isaiah, Amos and Micah,	48:50
	all follow the Lord of the far horizon,	48:53
	and never quite arrived.	48:56
	So God incorporated his love in Jesus Christ	49:00
	and the world has been transformed	49:06
	and challenged to infinitely greater transformation.	49:09
	Heaven and earth map up the cross,	49:14
	and it's dark silhouette pointed to the infinite horizon	49:18
	of Easter morning.	49:21
	This university fails in if the purpose,	49:26
	if it does not open our eyes to vast, boundless,	49:29
	illimitable horizons, spiritual and intellectual,	49:33
	historical and contemporary, social and personal.	49:38
	But we ourselves fail even more miserably,	49:45
	if we do not incorporate those horizons	49:49
	in our campus programs, our denominational program,	49:52
	our personal schedule.	49:57
	Through responsible participation in community affairs,	50:01
	through simple but sincere friendliness	50:05
	toward overseas students in our amidst,	50:08
	through the setting of higher moral standards	50:11
	in the dormitories and the classroom,	50:13
	you can turn the image of your faith	50:16
	into meaningful substance.	50:20
	Through the short term missionary program of the church	50:24
	or through the peace corps,	50:27
	you can embody the ideals of world brotherhood,	50:29
	which you have formed in Summertown or in this very chapel.	50:33
	With the Robert Oppenheimer who said,	50:39
	"The best way to deliver an idea	50:40
	"is to wrap it up in a person."	50:43
	To incorporate our horizon may mean for some	50:49
	to walk a picket line.	50:53
	For others it may help persuade our senators	50:56
	to ratify the Test Ban Treaty,	50:58
	let our so-called Christian nation	51:01
	appear in the eyes of the world as the real warmonger.	51:04
	To still others, it may mean the gift of time and energy	51:09
	in some boys club, at Edgemont Center,	51:12
	at the VA hospital, or the county jail.	51:16
	Whatever gives substance to our faith,	51:20
	we are called upon to do because God did it first.	51:23
	The magnificent prophecies of Isaiah would be empty rhetoric	51:30
	without the incarnation.	51:35
	The journey of the wisemen	51:38
	would have been foolish stargazing,	51:40
	had it not led to a stable in Bethlehem.	51:42
	As the 19th Psalm reminds us,	51:47
	"In the horizons of God there is no speech,	51:50
	"nor are there words,	51:53
	"and yet their voice has gone out through all the earth	51:55
	"and their words to the end of the world,	51:59
	"when they are expressed in the lives of the disciple.	52:02
	"The gospel would never have circle the globe	52:08
	"had it not been embodied in the preaching, teaching,	52:10
	"healing and serving ministry of millions of believers.	52:15
	"And our own deepest spiritual vision will be futile dreams	52:21
	"unless our horizons unlimited,	52:27
	"become horizon incorporated."	52:31
	Let us pray.	52:36
	"Lord of the far horizon, grant us the vision,	52:44
	"we beseech the to recognize the unlimited possibilities	52:48
	"of service and brotherhood, which thou does offer to us.	52:51
	"Grant us the courage and commitment	52:57
	"to incorporate those dreams in daily acts of love.	52:59
	"We pray in the name of him who embodied thy love,	53:04
	"and thy truth for all mankind."	53:08
	(congregation mumbling)	53:12
	Now may the love of God, the Father, bless you.	53:14
	The grace of his Son, Jesus Christ uphold you,	53:18
	and the power of his Holy Spirit direct you,	53:22
	this day and evermore, amen.	53:26
	(bell banging)	53:31

Item Info

Title:

Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Unlimited (Incorporated)" (August 18, 1963)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4w66f978

Date:

August 18, 1963

Speaker:

Lacy, Creighton

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0238
ref5681_l7v
uachapelsermaud
duke:628433
dcrau002244
ark:/87924/r4w66f978
1dfa6688-c042-46d5-a3b4-153e123fc10c

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Unlimited (Incorporated)" (August 18, 1963)

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Duke University Archives

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