James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)
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Transcript
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(silence) | 0:00 | |
- | In the name of the Father, the Son | 0:33 |
and the Holy Ghost, one God above all. | 0:35 | |
One evening this week, | 0:43 | |
I tuned in the television program on Channel 4. | 0:44 | |
Representatives of the secondary schools | 0:49 | |
in the United States and Great Britain | 0:52 | |
were comparing problems within their school systems. | 0:54 | |
There were one phrase, the crisis in values, | 1:00 | |
was used by speakers from both sides of the Atlantic. | 1:05 | |
An English educator spoke of the importance | 1:10 | |
that the schools transmit | 1:16 | |
and defend the traditional values. | 1:17 | |
A chief spokesman for American schools responded that | 1:22 | |
in this country educators are no longer sure | 1:26 | |
what these values are. | 1:31 | |
The dialogue was concluded with a statement by the America. | 1:34 | |
"The difference," he said, "Is essentially this, | 1:40 | |
British educators work with the ideal | 1:44 | |
of an ordered society. | 1:47 | |
American educators, with the ideal of an open society." | 1:50 | |
The growing edge of this open society in America | 1:58 | |
seems to be located in the managed strip cities | 2:02 | |
and suburbs, which our culture has spawned | 2:05 | |
from coast to coast, | 2:09 | |
with the ever evolving pluralistic value systems. | 2:12 | |
From one perspective, this secular city | 2:18 | |
has brought into being an era | 2:22 | |
of which some would call post-Christian. | 2:23 | |
One suspects that our time is not | 2:29 | |
as radically different incurred as some would think. | 2:32 | |
It is certainly not new that Christians | 2:37 | |
shouldn't make common cause with secularists | 2:40 | |
for the amelioration of social injustices, | 2:43 | |
by mass protests and political action | 2:47 | |
although some of the causes are new ones. | 2:52 | |
Now, is it novel that some Christians | 2:56 | |
should work alongside unbelievers | 2:58 | |
for this establishment of religions in public education? | 3:01 | |
It is certainly not new the non-Christian exponents | 3:07 | |
of a secularized auto should challenge | 3:12 | |
our Lord's sovereignty over men in their society | 3:16 | |
and pronounced the Denise of quote, | 3:21 | |
"Christian civilization close growth." | 3:24 | |
What is new perhaps, is the intense interest on the part | 3:29 | |
of so many Christian to embrace this open society | 3:34 | |
and contemporary modes of life and thought | 3:40 | |
as well as to obliterate many of the traditional lines | 3:44 | |
which have distinguished the church from the world. | 3:49 | |
For example, a recent study of theological education | 3:54 | |
advocates a positive secularization of the clergy | 3:58 | |
and welcomes the rapid disillusion in America | 4:05 | |
of its church bound subcultures. | 4:08 | |
The most striking evidence of this passion | 4:13 | |
to embrace the modern world is the attention | 4:16 | |
now being given to the new radical theology. | 4:20 | |
Writes one of its exponents, | 4:25 | |
"Surely it is not possible for any responsible person | 4:28 | |
to think that we can any longer know | 4:32 | |
or experience God in nature, in history, | 4:35 | |
in the economic and political arenas, | 4:40 | |
in the laboratory or in anything | 4:43 | |
that is genuinely modern, | 4:47 | |
whether in thought or experience. | 4:49 | |
Wherever we turn modern man experiences, | 4:53 | |
the eclipse or the solars of God." | 4:56 | |
The so-called death of God theologians, | 5:03 | |
writes John Bennett in this week's look magazine, | 5:04 | |
have blurted out ideas that are widely held, | 5:10 | |
but seldom spoken. | 5:15 | |
The web of technological culture seems to narrow | 5:18 | |
the possible area of any distinctively divine action. | 5:22 | |
To some people this area seems to have vanished altogether. | 5:28 | |
I do not intend this morning to examine | 5:35 | |
the so-called death of God theology. | 5:37 | |
At least some one thoughtful sermon on the subject | 5:40 | |
has been given in this chapel recently. | 5:43 | |
I mentioned it here only as evidence | 5:47 | |
of the spreading melees within the churches. | 5:49 | |
Not only the secularists who reject Christianity, | 5:53 | |
but believers themselves are finding it increasingly | 5:57 | |
difficult to reconcile the traditional claims | 6:02 | |
concerning God and Christ | 6:06 | |
with modern thought and experience. | 6:08 | |
One practical consequence of this theological confusion | 6:13 | |
is the paralyzing perplexity of the Christian countries. | 6:17 | |
How indeed shall a Christian bear witness | 6:23 | |
to his faith in today's world. | 6:26 | |
In a course this semester on the gospel | 6:33 | |
according to John, I have become increasingly aware | 6:35 | |
that this gospel speaks to our present situation | 6:39 | |
in many remarkable ways. | 6:43 | |
Consider first how the book was written. | 6:47 | |
At a time when the traditions concerning Jesus | 6:51 | |
historic ministry, not only seem to tell a things | 6:54 | |
in the long ago and far away, | 6:58 | |
but the lasting significance of his teaching | 7:02 | |
and action was being seriously questioned. | 7:04 | |
Because of the impact of certain cultural influences, | 7:09 | |
Christians were becoming uncertain | 7:13 | |
of the implications of Jesus' gospel | 7:15 | |
for their own lives and the lives of others. | 7:18 | |
John's primary purpose was to help these Christians | 7:23 | |
to understand a fresh the God who is revealed | 7:27 | |
in Jesus Christ. | 7:31 | |
That beholding His Glory, they might joyfully | 7:33 | |
receive the eternal life He offered them | 7:37 | |
not only in some imponderable future day | 7:41 | |
or unknown Rel but especially in the here and the now. | 7:44 | |
To achieve his purpose, John adopted the vocabulary, | 7:53 | |
the modes of thought and even some of the presuppositions | 7:56 | |
of a view of the world, | 8:01 | |
which according to some Christians at least | 8:03 | |
seem to threaten if not to destroy their faith. | 8:06 | |
So in after its publication, | 8:11 | |
John's gospel was acclaimed by a radical group | 8:13 | |
within the church as a statement | 8:16 | |
of the new theology | 8:18 | |
With the passage of time, | 8:21 | |
it became evident that John had composed an original | 8:23 | |
and powerful proclamation of the old Christian message. | 8:27 | |
He had brought the Gospel up-to-date | 8:32 | |
by reinterpreting its archaic language | 8:35 | |
while preserving its essential content. | 8:38 | |
His work in fact had provided second century Christians | 8:42 | |
with an understanding of the gospel, | 8:46 | |
which was genuinely relevant to their needs | 8:48 | |
and to their world. | 8:52 | |
It's not easy for us to recover man's view of his world | 8:57 | |
and John's day yet some of its assumptions | 8:59 | |
seem to resemble those of our own time. | 9:03 | |
Apparently the existence of God | 9:08 | |
had become highly problematical. | 9:10 | |
All if God's existence were allowed as a supposition. | 9:12 | |
There was serious doubts that men could know Him | 9:17 | |
under any ordinary conditions. | 9:21 | |
From the cultural perspectives of John's world, | 9:24 | |
The realm of the so-called spirit seemed unreal | 9:27 | |
or if real, then inaccessible to human thought. | 9:32 | |
John accepted this description of the world | 9:38 | |
as partially true. | 9:42 | |
" No man has ever seen God," he says flatly, | 9:44 | |
not once, but several times. | 9:49 | |
To readers of this gospel, Jesus declares | 9:52 | |
God's voice you have never heard, | 9:55 | |
His form you have never seen. | 9:57 | |
Furthermore, the popular religious notion | 10:01 | |
of some of John's contemporaries that men | 10:03 | |
or at least some man had a spark of divinity within | 10:07 | |
is Summerlin dismissed. | 10:12 | |
"You do not have God's word abiding in you," Jesus declares. | 10:15 | |
All in more emphatic terms, | 10:20 | |
that which is born of the flesh is Flesh. | 10:23 | |
For all that man could see or experience | 10:29 | |
this world of darkness seemed to eclipse | 10:32 | |
the traditional ideas of God and of immortality. | 10:37 | |
Even more remarkable than John's acceptance | 10:43 | |
of these assumptions, is his conviction | 10:46 | |
that Israel has the true people of God | 10:49 | |
will little better off. | 10:52 | |
Of course, he affirms that God had revealed Himself | 10:55 | |
through Moses and the prophets in ancient times. | 10:59 | |
He also held a peculiar notion that these men | 11:03 | |
had visions in their own days of the cross | 11:07 | |
and resurrection of Christ. | 11:10 | |
Yet John describes the Jews in aggregate | 11:13 | |
as truly representative of man in his world. | 11:19 | |
Nothing in man's history, in his religious heritage, | 11:26 | |
in his peculiar cultural milieu really prepared | 11:30 | |
individuals for God's approach, for His gifts | 11:35 | |
and promises in Christ. | 11:40 | |
The law was given through Moses indeed. | 11:43 | |
But with knowledge of that law | 11:48 | |
men repudiated Jesus of Nazareth. | 11:50 | |
This man is not from God ,the authorities decided | 11:53 | |
for He does not keep the Sabbath. | 11:56 | |
Like Jews and early Christians, | 12:00 | |
John believed that the prophets had foretold | 12:02 | |
the coming of God's anointed one. | 12:05 | |
The popular views of the Messiah | 12:09 | |
closed eyes and ears to the presence in history | 12:11 | |
of this man sent from God | 12:15 | |
to whom John declares the spirit was given | 12:18 | |
without measure. | 12:21 | |
Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, | 12:24 | |
whose mother and father we well know some objective? | 12:27 | |
We know where this man comes from | 12:32 | |
search and you will see that no prophet | 12:35 | |
is derived from Galilee. | 12:37 | |
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? | 12:39 | |
When Jesus spoke of his emminent death and departure, | 12:44 | |
John reports with fine irony | 12:48 | |
the protests of the people, "We have heard from our law | 12:51 | |
that the Christ remains forever." | 12:56 | |
"Do we spell a countryman?" Jesus declares. | 13:00 | |
"You do not know once I come, nor of whether I go. | 13:03 | |
You know neither me nor my Father." | 13:08 | |
The unreadiness of Jesus' own disciples to believe, | 13:14 | |
the in capacity to understand Him | 13:18 | |
is another mocked feature of this gospel. | 13:21 | |
I wish to return to this point in a few minutes | 13:24 | |
but I noted now only to illustrate how all inclusive | 13:28 | |
John's belief in the inability of men | 13:32 | |
from the perspectives of their own cultures to perceive | 13:37 | |
the truth of God how to recognize his revelation. | 13:42 | |
This is starkly summarized in the gospels prologue. | 13:47 | |
The world knew Him not. | 13:51 | |
He came to His own home | 13:55 | |
and his own people received him not. | 13:58 | |
It is not by accident that those men who confront Jesus | 14:02 | |
in John's gospel are they incurable paralytics | 14:06 | |
who are as good as dead and men born blind. | 14:10 | |
Yet into this dark world, John proclaims, | 14:17 | |
light had appeared within this world | 14:21 | |
of modern flesh and ignorance | 14:24 | |
and incomparable life had been lived | 14:27 | |
under these common skies. | 14:29 | |
And these words, John's declares the mystery | 14:32 | |
and God's word became flesh and dwelt among us. | 14:37 | |
And we beheld His Glory, | 14:43 | |
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, | 14:45 | |
full of grace and truth. | 14:47 | |
God so loved the world that he gave | 14:52 | |
His only son that whoever believes in Him | 14:55 | |
should not perish, but have eternal life. | 14:58 | |
For God sent his son into the world, | 15:03 | |
not to condemn the world, | 15:06 | |
but that the world might be saved through Him. | 15:08 | |
It is clear from these statements and others like them | 15:13 | |
that John thought of the world as something more | 15:16 | |
than the sum total of man's cultural life, | 15:20 | |
his beliefs, his values, his institutions. | 15:24 | |
This world which did not know God or acknowledge Him, | 15:28 | |
this world in reality owed its existence to Him. | 15:33 | |
this world was loved by Him | 15:39 | |
beyond all comprehension of the mind of man, | 15:42 | |
the sons of darkness whose own world eclipses | 15:47 | |
the reality of God and silence as his voice, | 15:51 | |
turn and turn again. | 15:54 | |
A Holy unable to quench this divine light, | 15:57 | |
not to destroy God word made flesh. | 16:01 | |
No man has ever seen God, | 16:05 | |
indeed this is so John held. | 16:08 | |
But God's only son who is nearest to the heart of God, | 16:11 | |
He has made Him known he was in the world, | 16:17 | |
The world was made through Him | 16:22 | |
yet the world knew Him not. | 16:25 | |
Yet to all who received Him, He gave power | 16:28 | |
to become children of God who were born | 16:31 | |
not of the will of the flesh, | 16:34 | |
not of the will of man but of God. | 16:37 | |
It's all too easy for us who are familiar | 16:42 | |
with this state lip rolls to overlook its cultural context | 16:44 | |
in the perspective of John's world, as well as of ours | 16:50 | |
the area of a distinctively divine action, | 16:55 | |
was perceived to be very, very narrow. | 17:00 | |
The angle of vision was almost closed | 17:04 | |
for many persons in his age as in ours, | 17:08 | |
this area seemed to have vanished altogether, | 17:12 | |
but to such an incredulous world, | 17:18 | |
John presented the Christian gospel | 17:21 | |
not by logical arguments, | 17:24 | |
not by a massing proof texts from classical books | 17:26 | |
but by the means of a narrative of a single man's life. | 17:30 | |
Once again John told how this man had lived, | 17:36 | |
how he had met the needs of individuals | 17:40 | |
and satisfied that perennial hungers and their thirst, | 17:42 | |
how he offered them life in the very presence of death, | 17:48 | |
laying down His own life for their sakes. | 17:52 | |
How Christ spit a humiliation upon a cross | 17:55 | |
could be understood as the moment of His glory | 17:58 | |
as affording the surest clue to the whole meaning | 18:03 | |
of his history, how witnesses had told of His resurrection. | 18:08 | |
This is the portrait of Christ in John's Gospel. | 18:15 | |
And it has held a peculiar fascination | 18:18 | |
for men in all ages in all cultures, | 18:21 | |
when God has been felt to be very near | 18:25 | |
and in the midst of life, | 18:28 | |
absent and hidden from men's vision. | 18:30 | |
John truly wrote that this man because of his life, | 18:34 | |
but more especially as the result of His death | 18:38 | |
and exaltation would draw all sorts | 18:41 | |
and conditions of men unto Himself. | 18:45 | |
Even the death of God theologians find optimism | 18:50 | |
for man in our world. | 18:53 | |
And the ideal of obedience to the man Jesus | 18:55 | |
yet it is not to this man alone, | 19:01 | |
that I would direct your attention in the closing moments | 19:04 | |
but rather to his disciples. | 19:08 | |
John knew well the stories of the 12 | 19:11 | |
and his interests sent us on them | 19:14 | |
as in other gospel. | 19:16 | |
Surely one reason for this interest was that | 19:19 | |
John was acutely aware of the difficulty Christians | 19:23 | |
were having in his own time in understanding Jesus, | 19:27 | |
in understanding his gospel | 19:32 | |
and what it meant for their way of life. | 19:34 | |
It was certainly not evident the questions in John's day, | 19:38 | |
couldn't maintain that discipleship in their world | 19:41 | |
and witness to his gospel among men. | 19:44 | |
Those who had first been confronted with Jesus | 19:48 | |
and His claims had by no means had an easy time of it. | 19:50 | |
He had invited them to come and see, | 19:55 | |
and they had followed incredulous, perplexed, | 19:56 | |
vacillating, fearful, protesting wavering. | 20:00 | |
John repeatedly reminds his readers | 20:05 | |
that neither Jesus actions, | 20:08 | |
nor his words had been understood by Jesus' own men. | 20:09 | |
Jesus had talked to them about knowing God | 20:15 | |
as a real presence and on the very Eve of His death, | 20:18 | |
Phillip had said, "Blind to this revelation, | 20:21 | |
show us the Father that we may be satisfied." | 20:25 | |
Recall the pathos in Jesus reply, | 20:29 | |
"Have I been with you so long Philip | 20:32 | |
and you do not know me?" | 20:35 | |
No more than the authorities of each of Israel | 20:38 | |
had the disciples understood Jesus. | 20:41 | |
Obviously His disciples were not able bear | 20:45 | |
much that he had said and wished to say to them. | 20:47 | |
And for all that protests of loyalty, Jesus knew well, | 20:51 | |
that not one of them would stand with Him | 20:56 | |
when time came for Him to be taken. | 20:59 | |
The witness to the resurrection did not | 21:02 | |
shatter all doubts and fears | 21:05 | |
or make all things plain. | 21:07 | |
The doubt of Thomas was given special prominence. | 21:10 | |
Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails | 21:13 | |
I will not believe. | 21:16 | |
It's not without significance that John never uses | 21:19 | |
the nouns, faith and knowledge. | 21:22 | |
This may seem strange since he insist to anyone | 21:25 | |
who has perceived the glory of God in Christ has everything | 21:28 | |
yet secure faith and perfect knowledge, | 21:33 | |
Jesus' disciples never had. | 21:37 | |
To enforce this truth John always uses active verbs. | 21:42 | |
Man's faith, man's belief must grow, | 21:47 | |
must occur and reoccur, | 21:52 | |
meeting challenge after challenge after challenge. | 21:55 | |
"I am the light of the world," declares Jesus, | 21:59 | |
"But only he who follows me shall have the light of life. | 22:02 | |
Only those who continue in my word shall know the truth | 22:08 | |
and the truth will make them free. | 22:14 | |
He who has my commandments and keeps them, | 22:17 | |
he it is who loves me and to whom I will manifest myself. | 22:21 | |
If any man wills to do God's will, | 22:26 | |
then he shall know whether my teaching is from God | 22:30 | |
or whether I'm speaking simply on my own authority." | 22:34 | |
In a world that experience the clips or the silence of God, | 22:40 | |
John challenged Christian men | 22:45 | |
to an active life of discipleship. | 22:47 | |
The experience of the absence of Christ | 22:50 | |
to the contrary not withstanding. | 22:53 | |
It was both realistic and reassuring | 22:56 | |
that John should make it plain. | 22:58 | |
that this was no certain, | 23:02 | |
no easy way that there would always be | 23:03 | |
lack of understanding, always doubts, always fears, | 23:06 | |
always disappointments and chances for falling away. | 23:10 | |
Yeah, it was two men who experienced this insecurity, | 23:15 | |
this not infrequent desolation of spirit, | 23:21 | |
but the following words are addressed. | 23:25 | |
"Let not your hearts be troubled. | 23:31 | |
Believe in God. | 23:34 | |
Believe also in me, | 23:37 | |
I am the way the truth and the life. | 23:39 | |
I will not leave you desolate. | 23:44 | |
I will come to you. | 23:48 | |
The counsel of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, | 23:50 | |
He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance | 23:54 | |
all that I have said to you. | 23:59 | |
Peace I leave with you. | 24:01 | |
My peace I give unto you, | 24:04 | |
not as the world gives do I give to you, | 24:08 | |
let not your hearts be afraid." | 24:12 | |
On the night of his betrayal by one of his own, | 24:17 | |
Jesus prayed, "Oh righteous Father, | 24:20 | |
the world has not known thee, but I have known thee. | 24:25 | |
And these men know that thou has sent me. | 24:31 | |
I made known to them thy name | 24:36 | |
and I will continue to make it known | 24:40 | |
that the love with which thou has loved me maybe in them | 24:44 | |
and I in them." | 24:50 | |
Let us pray. | 24:54 | |
Oh God of love whose voice we have never heard, | 25:01 | |
whose form we have never seen, | 25:04 | |
we thank thee that thou has to reveal thyself to us | 25:08 | |
through Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. | 25:12 | |
Enlightened our darkness, we beseech thee oh Lord, | 25:18 | |
and enable us to be not faithless but ever believing. | 25:22 | |
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 25:29 | |
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 25:32 | |
the faithful counselor be with us all. | 25:36 | |
(humming) | 25:46 |
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