James T. Cleland - "Audacious Witness" (October 2, 1966)
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| (silence) | 0:00 | |
| Narrator | There is one correction that must be made | 0:11 |
| at this time brethren and that is | 0:13 | |
| the subject of the communion meditation | 0:16 | |
| is not audacious witness. | 0:20 | |
| I don't know where that came from. | 0:24 | |
| Gremlins, Ferries, | 0:27 | |
| the little people, in the printer shop. | 0:30 | |
| But let us ask God's blessing and what I did, | 0:36 | |
| prepare for you, let us pray. | 0:39 | |
| Let the words of my mouth, | 0:44 | |
| and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable | 0:47 | |
| in thy sight. | 0:51 | |
| Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer, | 0:53 | |
| Amen. | 0:58 | |
| (silence) | 1:00 | |
| Do you read detective stories? | 1:06 | |
| Do you read them as a relief from required reading? | 1:11 | |
| Do you read the last chapter first | 1:17 | |
| so as to take the strain off? | 1:19 | |
| Does it ever cross your mind | 1:23 | |
| and that it is possible for a faculty member | 1:25 | |
| to write a best selling detective story? | 1:28 | |
| It has happened, | 1:33 | |
| It is happening. | 1:36 | |
| Professor Harry Kemelman | 1:39 | |
| of Massachusetts state college in Boston | 1:42 | |
| has produced two best sellers, | 1:45 | |
| In two years. | 1:48 | |
| Friday The Rabbi Slept Late, | 1:52 | |
| In 1964, | 1:55 | |
| Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry, | 1:59 | |
| this year. | 2:03 | |
| His detective is a Rabbi Small by name, | 2:05 | |
| who's synagogue is set in a sea coast town, | 2:09 | |
| Barnard crossing, Massachusetts. | 2:13 | |
| Time magazine in an almost rave review last week | 2:18 | |
| says that, in addition to solving a cracking good mystery, | 2:23 | |
| the Rabbi unobtrusively offers a short course | 2:29 | |
| in conservative Judaism. | 2:34 | |
| Rabbi unobtrusively offers a short course | 2:38 | |
| in conservative Judaism. | 2:41 | |
| He does something said in Friday, | 2:44 | |
| the Rabbi Slept Late | 2:47 | |
| was the primer for this communion meditation. | 2:48 | |
| Let me give you the second, | 2:51 | |
| A girl has been murdered in the synagogue parking lot. | 2:54 | |
| This leads to anti-Semitic rumblings | 3:01 | |
| chiefly in the farm of unseemly telephone calls | 3:04 | |
| to Jewish residents in the town. | 3:08 | |
| The board of selectmen decides | 3:12 | |
| to give a public demonstration of its opposition | 3:14 | |
| to such nastiness. | 3:18 | |
| The chosen method is to ask the Rabbi | 3:20 | |
| to bless the little books in the harbor, | 3:24 | |
| at the beginning of race week, | 3:28 | |
| the Roman Catholic Monsignor had done it one year, | 3:31 | |
| the leading Protestant Clergyman had done it another, | 3:35 | |
| why not invite the Rabbi of the local temple. | 3:39 | |
| It wouldn't harm the books | 3:43 | |
| and it might restore a sense of civic unity, and community. | 3:46 | |
| So the selectman asked the Rabbi and he refuses, | 3:52 | |
| on theological grounds. | 3:58 | |
| Here is the conversation. | 4:01 | |
| You mean that you just want the books themselves blessed | 4:05 | |
| that's the idea Rabbi? | 4:09 | |
| your job would be to bless the books not only ours, | 4:12 | |
| but all those that are in the harbor at the time. | 4:15 | |
| I don't know said the Rabbi doubtfully, | 4:20 | |
| I haven't had much experience in that sort of thing. | 4:23 | |
| You see, | 4:28 | |
| our prayers are rarely petitionary. | 4:30 | |
| We don't so much ask for things that we don't have | 4:35 | |
| as give thanks for what we have received. | 4:40 | |
| I don't understand the Rabbi smiled | 4:45 | |
| It's something like this. | 4:48 | |
| You christian say | 4:50 | |
| our father who art in heaven | 4:52 | |
| give us this day our daily bread, | 4:55 | |
| our comparable prayer is | 5:00 | |
| blessed art thou Lord | 5:02 | |
| who bring us forth bread from the earth. | 5:04 | |
| That's why the Rabbi simplified, | 5:09 | |
| but in general, | 5:10 | |
| our prayers tend to be prayers of thanksgiving | 5:12 | |
| for what has been given to us. | 5:16 | |
| Of course I could offer thanks for the boats, | 5:19 | |
| which provide us with the pleasures of sailing. | 5:22 | |
| It's a little far-fetched, | 5:26 | |
| I'd have to think about it. | 5:28 | |
| He thought about it and said no, | 5:31 | |
| and his reason was, | 5:35 | |
| we don't so much ask for things we don't have | 5:36 | |
| as give thanks for what we have received. | 5:41 | |
| Judaism is basically a religion of gratitude. | 5:45 | |
| According to an ancient tradition, | 5:51 | |
| a Jewish would let God know, | 5:54 | |
| 100 times a day | 5:56 | |
| that he is thankful. | 6:00 | |
| This is the spiritual set of the Jewish mind, | 6:03 | |
| thanksgiving, gratitude. | 6:07 | |
| His prayers are not primarily those of supplication | 6:09 | |
| not even those of intercession. | 6:12 | |
| They are thank you, | 6:15 | |
| thank you, thank you very much. | 6:18 | |
| Grace before meals is one occasion | 6:22 | |
| when Jewish thanks is expressed. | 6:24 | |
| Blessed art thou that is praise, | 6:28 | |
| Blessed art thou oh lord, our God sovereign of the universe | 6:30 | |
| who bring us for bread from the earth. | 6:33 | |
| The table of blessing is a returning of thanks, | 6:37 | |
| the glad response to him who is creator and sustainer. | 6:41 | |
| It transforms a meal from an animal function, eating | 6:46 | |
| into a secret occasion, | 6:52 | |
| man and conscious touch with God. | 6:54 | |
| Now Jesus was a Jew, | 6:59 | |
| he knew his tradition, | 7:03 | |
| he inherited his tradition, | 7:05 | |
| he fulfilled his tradition. | 7:08 | |
| In the look and account of the Lord supper, | 7:12 | |
| we read that he twice gave thanks. | 7:14 | |
| Before he passed the common cup around the table, | 7:18 | |
| he gave thanks. | 7:21 | |
| But he probably said was, | 7:22 | |
| blessed art thou oh Lord our God | 7:24 | |
| who has made the fruit of the vine. | 7:27 | |
| Before he passed the broken bread around the table, | 7:31 | |
| he gave thanks. | 7:34 | |
| But he probably said was, | 7:36 | |
| blessed art thou oh Lord our God king of the universe, | 7:37 | |
| who bring us forth bread from the earth. | 7:42 | |
| These are almost the words which Rabbi Small | 7:45 | |
| used to the board of selectmen | 7:48 | |
| Bernard crossing Massachusetts | 7:51 | |
| Thanks. | 7:54 | |
| Thanks. | 7:56 | |
| Thanks. | 7:57 | |
| It's because of this willing acknowledgement of gratitude, | 7:59 | |
| that one name for the Lord's supper is Eucharist, | 8:02 | |
| which is Greek for giving of thanks. | 8:07 | |
| It's Greek group is the very higher line to rejoice. | 8:10 | |
| The Eucharist is three cheers for God. | 8:16 | |
| Now most of us have missed that in the Lord supper. | 8:22 | |
| Because of the undue solemnity of the ritual and | 8:26 | |
| the ceremonial. | 8:30 | |
| Because of the Pauline Emphasis, | 8:32 | |
| on the death of Jesus. | 8:34 | |
| Because of a general atmosphere of quiet gloominess, | 8:37 | |
| which we mistake for holiness. | 8:43 | |
| Even granted that the service recalls and is in itself | 8:47 | |
| a sacrifice, remember what kind of sacrifice it is. | 8:51 | |
| Our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving | 8:56 | |
| to you as a phrase from one of the prayers | 9:01 | |
| in the literature. | 9:03 | |
| We aren't remembering a corpse, | 9:05 | |
| we are in communion, in fellowship, | 9:10 | |
| in partnership with the ribbing risen, living Christ, | 9:13 | |
| whose body the churches, hallelujah. | 9:17 | |
| Three more cheers, | 9:22 | |
| What are we particularly thankful for this service today | 9:25 | |
| for Jesus, | 9:29 | |
| the pioneer of our faith, | 9:31 | |
| the one who has made God more easy for most of us | 9:35 | |
| to understand, to knowledge, | 9:38 | |
| to accept. | 9:41 | |
| The one who gave himself to and for his disciples | 9:43 | |
| and there for to and for us. | 9:48 | |
| It's hard to find words, | 9:52 | |
| to describe what he means to, | 9:54 | |
| one who has come face to face with him, | 9:57 | |
| George Mathison in a hymn, | 10:01 | |
| which has become a favorite throughout the world, | 10:04 | |
| tried to express what Jesus meant to him through metaphors | 10:08 | |
| oh love, | 10:12 | |
| that will not let me go. | 10:15 | |
| Oh light, | 10:20 | |
| that followers to all my way. | 10:22 | |
| Oh joy, | 10:26 | |
| that seek me through pain. | 10:28 | |
| Oh cross, | 10:32 | |
| that lift stuff my head, | 10:34 | |
| that's a hymn of gratitude, Eucharist him. | 10:36 | |
| Yes, we are particularly thankful for Jesus, | 10:40 | |
| there's one other fact for which we return, | 10:44 | |
| thanks at this service. | 10:46 | |
| Christians from different countries | 10:49 | |
| and various denominations | 10:52 | |
| are gathered around the Lord's table, | 10:54 | |
| to serve it, to receive from it. | 10:58 | |
| Here is democracy based on, | 11:04 | |
| one common fact, | 11:07 | |
| we are all sinners, | 11:10 | |
| reconciled to God, | 11:16 | |
| through his good work, | 11:18 | |
| made evident in Jesus Christ. | 11:21 | |
| So we are no longer primarily, | 11:24 | |
| white or black, | 11:28 | |
| Methodist or Baptist, | 11:31 | |
| American or Asiatic. | 11:34 | |
| We are all one | 11:37 | |
| and act one, | 11:40 | |
| in the church. | 11:43 | |
| Praise be to God. | 11:45 | |
| We are here today not primarily to ask for anything, | 11:48 | |
| but to say, thank you, | 11:54 | |
| thank you to God | 11:58 | |
| for himself, | 12:01 | |
| for his son and for this table furnished | 12:03 | |
| for our common good. | 12:10 | |
| So let us give thanks, let us pray. | 12:15 | |
| Blessed be thou our Lord, our God | 12:20 | |
| who bring us forth bread from the earth. | 12:23 | |
| Blessed be thou our Lord, our God who has made the fruit | 12:27 | |
| of the vine. | 12:32 | |
| Blessed be thou our Lord, Our God | 12:34 | |
| who through thy sun has spread this table | 12:36 | |
| for our benefit, | 12:41 | |
| blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, | 12:43 | |
| and honor, and power, and might be unto thee, | 12:48 | |
| our God, | 12:51 | |
| forever and ever, | 12:53 | |
| Amen. | 12:57 | |
| (silence) | 12:58 |