James T. Cleland - "The Church in the World" (October 23, 1966)
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| (gentle music) | 0:03 | |
| Preacher | Let us pray. | 0:24 |
| Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts | 0:27 | |
| be acceptable in Thy sight. | 0:32 | |
| Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer, | 0:36 | |
| Amen. | 0:41 | |
| May well be that a sermon at a service, | 0:51 | |
| which is part of dad's day weekend | 0:55 | |
| should be specifically addressed | 0:58 | |
| to the fathers in our midst. | 1:00 | |
| There are two reasons why I am unqualified, | 1:04 | |
| if not incompetent to speak to fathers as such. | 1:08 | |
| My own father died when I was 12, | 1:15 | |
| and I have begotten no children. | 1:18 | |
| I cannot speak to dads as dads. | 1:23 | |
| So, I'm not going to try. | 1:28 | |
| It's wise to know when you're weak, very wise. | 1:30 | |
| Nevertheless, I'm glad that you are worshiping | 1:35 | |
| with your sons in the chapel. | 1:38 | |
| And it seems fitting to me to let you see | 1:41 | |
| what normally takes place in this service Sunday by Sunday, | 1:45 | |
| with the notable exception of two weeks ago. | 1:52 | |
| Moreover, I want to deal with the subject | 1:59 | |
| which is of as vital interest to you as to your sons, | 2:01 | |
| and to the worshiping university communion community. | 2:07 | |
| Namely, the matter of the church in the world. | 2:12 | |
| And the first thing we you must do with such a subject | 2:18 | |
| is to define our key terms. | 2:20 | |
| This would take a semester of Sundays, | 2:25 | |
| with midweek discussion groups on the evolving decisions | 2:29 | |
| and de-limitations. | 2:34 | |
| However, for the purpose of corporate understanding, | 2:37 | |
| let us pause at two working definitions, | 2:41 | |
| so that we may stand on common ground. | 2:45 | |
| The church. | 2:50 | |
| The church is society as it is organized | 2:52 | |
| with some conscious reference | 2:58 | |
| to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. | 3:02 | |
| The world has contrasted not only with the church, | 3:07 | |
| but with the earth. | 3:13 | |
| The world is society | 3:16 | |
| as it is organized apart from God, | 3:18 | |
| to all intents and purposes. | 3:23 | |
| Now, what should the relationship be | 3:27 | |
| between these two societies? | 3:29 | |
| Let's look together at three attitudes | 3:31 | |
| which have been taken toward this lively question. | 3:34 | |
| One answer, which has some New Testament backing, | 3:39 | |
| is that the church though in the world, | 3:46 | |
| should not be of the world. | 3:50 | |
| Here is what is written in 1st John Chapter 2 Verse 15, | 3:54 | |
| Do not love the world or the things of the world. | 3:59 | |
| If anyone loves the world, love of the Father is not in him. | 4:06 | |
| Now, that's both definite and understandable. | 4:15 | |
| It's understandable for two reasons, | 4:18 | |
| the world in a joint effort of the Jewish hierarchy | 4:21 | |
| and the Roman state, | 4:26 | |
| had put to death the Lord of the church, Jesus, the Christ. | 4:28 | |
| The world therefore, is wicked. | 4:36 | |
| 1st John goes so far as to write, | 4:38 | |
| We know that we are of God | 4:41 | |
| and the whole world is in the power of the evil one. | 4:44 | |
| And then second, the new Testament church | 4:50 | |
| expected the literal end of the world in its own lifetime. | 4:54 | |
| Jesus would return in a second coming | 5:01 | |
| surrounded by the angels of God, | 5:03 | |
| and that would be curtains for the world. | 5:05 | |
| Church militant would then become the church triumphant. | 5:10 | |
| For these two reasons and others, | 5:15 | |
| the early church attempted to live | 5:16 | |
| in isolation from the world. | 5:19 | |
| And that point of view has always been in the church. | 5:22 | |
| One need but think of Totallian in the first century, | 5:25 | |
| whose slogan might well have been, | 5:30 | |
| Christ against culture. | 5:32 | |
| Or one may recall the whole development | 5:35 | |
| of the Monastic Movement with its conscious withdrawal | 5:37 | |
| from the institutions of the world. | 5:41 | |
| Or one may turn to Tolstoy, | 5:44 | |
| the 19th century Russian novelist and Christian socialist, | 5:47 | |
| who had scarcely a good word to say | 5:52 | |
| of his contemporary civilization. | 5:55 | |
| And today there are some secs which in the name of Christ | 5:59 | |
| refuse to vote in political elections. | 6:04 | |
| To be in the world but not of it, | 6:09 | |
| is still a guiding star for some church. | 6:13 | |
| Now, there are three criticisms of such a position, | 6:18 | |
| first it denies the doctrine of creation. | 6:21 | |
| God is not only the creator of the earth, | 6:27 | |
| He is the cohering force which integrates society on earth, | 6:30 | |
| namely the world. | 6:36 | |
| Be He acknowledged or be He not. | 6:38 | |
| God is at work outside of the church. | 6:42 | |
| The awful thing is that sometimes He is at work | 6:47 | |
| despite the church. | 6:50 | |
| For Christians to say otherwise | 6:54 | |
| is to buy (indistinct) reality. | 6:55 | |
| And second, this in but not of position | 6:58 | |
| can lead to our most un-Christian esoteric snobbery. | 7:02 | |
| We are going to heaven, the rest of you be damned. | 7:10 | |
| You're not going to heaven, we don't want heaven crammed. | 7:17 | |
| And yet our Lord had a place in His love for Samaritans, | 7:24 | |
| and a Roman soldier. | 7:29 | |
| For an income tax collector and rich women. | 7:32 | |
| For two members of the Jewish Supreme court, | 7:37 | |
| and some tourists in Jerusalem. | 7:41 | |
| And third, this attitude has never worked | 7:46 | |
| on any broad scale. | 7:48 | |
| And the first part of our scripture lesson | 7:50 | |
| read this morning, Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth | 7:52 | |
| telling them not to be miss-mated with unbelievers. | 7:55 | |
| Come out from them and be ye separate, says the Lord. | 7:59 | |
| And then the second part of the lesson | 8:02 | |
| he had to explain and even amend his advice. | 8:04 | |
| You almost see him scratching his head and is ejaculating, | 8:10 | |
| oh Sheol, don't take me so literally. | 8:13 | |
| You can't separate yourselves like that from the world. | 8:18 | |
| And yet brethren, | 8:22 | |
| let's recognize the value of this position. | 8:23 | |
| It's sincere, though inadequate. | 8:26 | |
| It's important, though biased. | 8:30 | |
| It's inevitable, though impossible. | 8:33 | |
| It's useful as a corrective. | 8:37 | |
| A corrective, especially of the second answer. | 8:39 | |
| The second answer is that the church is both in the world | 8:44 | |
| and of the world. | 8:48 | |
| Paul in 1st Peter hint at it, | 8:51 | |
| especially in the attitude of the church | 8:54 | |
| toward the government. | 8:56 | |
| But it's hardly a general New Testament position. | 8:58 | |
| However after 323, when Constantine The Great | 9:03 | |
| put his imprimatur on Christianity, | 9:08 | |
| and gave it the green light to become the official religion | 9:12 | |
| of the Roman Empire, | 9:15 | |
| it was almost a foregone conclusion | 9:19 | |
| that the church and the world would mingle, blend, | 9:21 | |
| merge, coalesce. | 9:28 | |
| There's only one snag to this solution though, | 9:34 | |
| when the lion and the lamb lie down together, | 9:39 | |
| the lamb is usually inside the lion. | 9:45 | |
| And the question here is, which will be the lion | 9:52 | |
| and which will be the lamb, | 9:55 | |
| when applied to the church and the world? | 9:57 | |
| Sometimes in history, the church calls the plays. | 10:01 | |
| It's dramatized in the holy Roman emperor, Henry IV. | 10:06 | |
| Standing barefoot in the snow for three days at Canossa. | 10:10 | |
| Before Pope Gregory VII absolved him | 10:18 | |
| from his sin of rebellion against certain people decrees, | 10:22 | |
| and received him again into the bosom of holy mother church. | 10:26 | |
| Church was the lion. | 10:32 | |
| Point of view was sometimes called Hildebrandism. | 10:34 | |
| Which was Pope Gregory VII's name | 10:38 | |
| before he became Gregory Hildebrand. | 10:40 | |
| But mind you, it's not a Roman Catholic monopoly, | 10:45 | |
| I speak as a Presbyterian. | 10:47 | |
| John Calvin tried it in Geneva. | 10:50 | |
| John Knox tried it in Scotland. | 10:52 | |
| For you Congregationalists, | 10:56 | |
| the Puritans tried it in New England. | 10:58 | |
| Say nothing of the Episcopalians in Virginia, | 11:03 | |
| but we won't go any further about it. | 11:05 | |
| I want the Baptist in Rhode Island if you want some more. | 11:11 | |
| The opposite viewpoint, the domination of the church | 11:14 | |
| by the world is just as easily documented from history. | 11:18 | |
| In its political aspect, | 11:23 | |
| it's known as Erastianism after a Swiss Theologian, | 11:25 | |
| Thomas Erastus. | 11:28 | |
| It's evidenced in Henry VIII's attitude to the church | 11:30 | |
| in England. | 11:33 | |
| The Anglican church is still referred to | 11:36 | |
| as the conservative party, a prayer. | 11:39 | |
| Read Bonhoeffer on the German Christian Church, | 11:45 | |
| and it's benediction on Hitler and the Nazis. | 11:49 | |
| Think of our own local churches in Durham. | 11:55 | |
| Mirrors held up to the cultural status quo, | 11:57 | |
| on the race issue. | 12:03 | |
| In our day, Erastianism (indistinct) to Brandism, | 12:05 | |
| is the natural outcome of a church that's in the world | 12:09 | |
| and of the world. | 12:13 | |
| Now this attitude too, is an understandable one, | 12:15 | |
| there's something to be said for it. | 12:20 | |
| So much that is of the world is true, lovely, | 12:22 | |
| of good report and sheer fun. | 12:27 | |
| This makes the church willing and anxious | 12:33 | |
| to naturalize it as Christian. | 12:35 | |
| That's why it wishes to claim Mahatma Gandhi as a Christian. | 12:38 | |
| Even though he died making the Hindu sign | 12:44 | |
| of peace and forgiveness. | 12:46 | |
| And yet one must be on one's guard against a too easy, | 12:50 | |
| a too willing identification. | 12:54 | |
| Can we really dress Christ in cocky? | 12:57 | |
| Or in a capitalist tuxedo? | 13:03 | |
| Or in a Ku Klux Klan toga? | 13:07 | |
| What would you do as a member of religious life staff, | 13:11 | |
| when two students, neither of them ever attending church, | 13:15 | |
| wish to be married in the Duke Chapel, | 13:21 | |
| with a Christian service? | 13:24 | |
| What would you do as Dean of the chapel, | 13:27 | |
| if you were approached by a colleague | 13:29 | |
| to bury a member of his department | 13:31 | |
| who was a joyous and enthusiastic atheist? | 13:34 | |
| Bury him here in chapel. | 13:40 | |
| I told him, it seemed unfair to the corpse. | 13:43 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 13:46 | |
| The one person who wouldn't be there in spirit. | 13:50 | |
| And I loved him for his honesty and his humor about it. | 13:56 | |
| What do you do? | 13:59 | |
| Is there no distinction between Christ and Caesar? | 14:00 | |
| Rome thought there was. | 14:05 | |
| So did Lennon's Russia, | 14:08 | |
| and Hitler's Germany, | 14:11 | |
| and they were right in great measure. | 14:14 | |
| In the world and of the world is not the best answer | 14:18 | |
| to our question. | 14:22 | |
| There is a third and a last answer, last this morning. | 14:24 | |
| The church is in the world, inevitably. | 14:31 | |
| Somewhat of the world existentially. | 14:36 | |
| But on behalf of the world intentionally. | 14:41 | |
| And it's the additional phrase | 14:49 | |
| that we must now consider, on behalf of the world. | 14:51 | |
| The motivation for it is given in the third part | 14:57 | |
| of our scripture lesson, | 15:00 | |
| the best known verses in the Bible, John 3, 16 and 17, | 15:02 | |
| For God so loved the world, | 15:07 | |
| that He gave his only Son | 15:12 | |
| that whoever believes should not perish | 15:15 | |
| but have eternal life. | 15:18 | |
| For God sent the Son into the world, | 15:21 | |
| not to condemn the world, | 15:25 | |
| but that the world might be saved through Him. | 15:30 | |
| Martin Luther called these verses | 15:34 | |
| the gospel in miniature. | 15:36 | |
| And not well what they did not say, | 15:40 | |
| they did not say, | 15:45 | |
| for God so loved the church | 15:46 | |
| that He sent His son to earth. | 15:51 | |
| God so loved the world. | 15:54 | |
| The world of humanity, the world ignoring God, | 15:56 | |
| misunderstanding God, even at enmity with God. | 16:01 | |
| And Paul picked that thought up in 2nd Corinthians, | 16:05 | |
| God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. | 16:08 | |
| Not counting their trespasses against them. | 16:15 | |
| And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. | 16:19 | |
| These are the church's marching orders, | 16:24 | |
| to reconcile the world to God. | 16:27 | |
| Now this is all tied up with the doctrine of creation, | 16:31 | |
| it's God's world even though it's in sorry shape. | 16:33 | |
| The secular is not in opposition to the holy, | 16:37 | |
| the secular is the raw material of the holy. | 16:42 | |
| As it is of the profane. | 16:45 | |
| And that's what lies behind the simple words | 16:49 | |
| of the prayer at the presentation of the monetary offering. | 16:52 | |
| A prayer I've never had the nerve to use in this chapel. | 16:55 | |
| And now I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna use it someday. | 16:58 | |
| Come up to the altar with the offering, | 17:02 | |
| you raise it and you say, | 17:04 | |
| here we offer and present unto thee, | 17:06 | |
| our minted and our printed blood. | 17:10 | |
| That's what our money is. | 17:15 | |
| Our minted and our printed blood. | 17:18 | |
| Money is per se, our model, it can be used for God, | 17:23 | |
| it can be used the against. | 17:25 | |
| The Christian does his work in the world and for the world, | 17:29 | |
| as Jesus did. | 17:33 | |
| With the raw material which the world | 17:36 | |
| sometimes uses profanely. | 17:37 | |
| The world is not evil per se, | 17:40 | |
| though at sometimes perverted good. | 17:43 | |
| But the good is there. | 17:45 | |
| That's why the world holds together at all. | 17:47 | |
| The church's place is in the world, | 17:51 | |
| even when Bethlehem becomes Bedlam. | 17:54 | |
| Luther knew that when he talked of holy worldliness. | 17:59 | |
| This fear of faith works is worldly society and disorder. | 18:04 | |
| The church is in the world, somewhat of it, | 18:09 | |
| and always for its benefit despite the dangers. | 18:14 | |
| Would such viewpoint work? | 18:20 | |
| Oh it has tried to work in specific cases. | 18:23 | |
| Here is a surgeon who is in a hospital | 18:28 | |
| after undergoing a successful disc operation. | 18:31 | |
| He struggles to his feet at six o'clock each morning | 18:38 | |
| while he's in the hospital. | 18:42 | |
| To visit any disc patient who has to be operated on that day | 18:44 | |
| to bring them good news of surgeons with skillful hands. | 18:51 | |
| That is holy worldliness. | 18:58 | |
| Here is a patient twice laid low with heart attacks, | 19:04 | |
| organizing a group of retired businessmen, | 19:09 | |
| to staff the reception desks on each floor | 19:13 | |
| in a suburban hospital, | 19:18 | |
| during the evening hours when help is scarce and needed. | 19:20 | |
| Holy worldliness. | 19:28 | |
| Here is Archbishop Paul Hallinan of Atlanta | 19:33 | |
| telling George's Catholics that they cannot in good faith, | 19:37 | |
| vote for segregationist Lester Maddox, | 19:45 | |
| the democratic nominee for governor. | 19:47 | |
| He adds that his policy is not to become personally involved | 19:51 | |
| in politics. | 19:55 | |
| He concludes, this is not politics, | 19:57 | |
| it is morality. | 20:02 | |
| Holy worldliness. | 20:04 | |
| These are instances of the church in the world, | 20:08 | |
| partly of it and always on its behalf. | 20:11 | |
| Here then are three attitudes, | 20:18 | |
| there are others in the relationship | 20:19 | |
| of the church and the world, | 20:21 | |
| let's apply them to our own lives for a moment now. | 20:23 | |
| Should a Christian play poker for money? | 20:28 | |
| Should a Christian go to the movies | 20:36 | |
| even the Quadrangle movies on Sunday? | 20:38 | |
| Well, come and see. | 20:43 | |
| Should a Christian smoke? | 20:46 | |
| Not during Lent, hmm? | 20:51 | |
| Should a Christian drink at any time? | 20:54 | |
| Should a Christian cheat on exams regularly? | 21:00 | |
| Should a Christian join The Ku Klux Klan, | 21:08 | |
| or the Black Powered Party? | 21:13 | |
| Or the John Bricks society? | 21:16 | |
| Or the Communist Party? | 21:20 | |
| Think of these three positions | 21:25 | |
| in the case of the chapel and the university. | 21:27 | |
| Should the chapel be in the university, but not of it? | 21:32 | |
| Should the chapel be in the university and of it? | 21:38 | |
| Should the chapel be in the university, somewhat of it, | 21:45 | |
| but always on its behalf? | 21:52 | |
| Well, a congregation is supposed to do | 21:57 | |
| something with a sermon. | 22:00 | |
| So, I hand it over to you for rejection, | 22:03 | |
| acceptance, amendment. | 22:09 | |
| But always in the name of Jesus Christ, | 22:13 | |
| who is the Lord of the church | 22:19 | |
| and who came to earth | 22:23 | |
| because God loved the world. | 22:27 | |
| Amen, let us pray. | 22:32 | |
| Almighty and eternal God who so loved the world, | 22:42 | |
| that Thou gaveth us Thine only Son. | 22:45 | |
| To reconcile all men unto Thee and to one another. | 22:49 | |
| Grant unto Thy church, the body of Christ. | 22:56 | |
| The world to implement the ministry of reconciliation, | 23:02 | |
| for Thy glory and for the sake of the world, | 23:06 | |
| through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. | 23:10 | |
| And may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly. | 23:14 | |
| May it keep you strong and tranquil | 23:19 | |
| in the truth of His promises through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 23:21 | |
| (gentle singing) | 23:33 |
