Thomas A. Langford - "Solitude, Society, and Students" (October 27, 1968)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(church choir singing) | 0:11 | |
- | Let us offer unto God, our unison prayer of confession, | 2:36 |
and for pardon. | 2:41 | |
Let us pray. | 2:44 | |
Have mercy upon us, oh God. | 2:46 | |
According to thy loving kindness, | 2:49 | |
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, | 2:52 | |
blot out our transgressions. | 2:56 | |
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity | 2:59 | |
and cleanse us from our sin | 3:02 | |
for we acknowledge our transgressions | 3:05 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 3:08 | |
Create in us, clean hearts, oh God | 3:11 | |
and renew a right spirit within us. | 3:15 | |
Cast us not away from thy presence | 3:18 | |
and take not thy Holy Spirit from us. | 3:21 | |
Restore unto us, the joy of thy salvation | 3:25 | |
and uphold us with thy free spirit. Amen. | 3:29 | |
And hear these words of assurance, of forgiveness | 3:35 | |
from the New Testament. | 3:39 | |
If we confess our sins, | 3:42 | |
God is faithful and just, | 3:46 | |
and will forgive our sins and cleanse us | 3:49 | |
from all unrighteousness. | 3:54 | |
Jesus said, | 3:57 | |
"Him who comes to me, | 3:58 | |
I will not cast out" | 4:02 | |
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance | 4:05 | |
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. | 4:10 | |
Therefore, be of good courage. | 4:18 | |
(church choir singing) | 4:55 | |
At this point in the service, | 8:54 | |
we would set apart to the glory of God | 8:56 | |
and for the use of the worshiping congregation, | 8:59 | |
the hymnals which have been given us. | 9:03 | |
And in doing so, would you turn with me | 9:06 | |
to page eight, Roman numeral eight | 9:09 | |
at the very beginning of the hymnal. | 9:13 | |
Here you find John Wesley's directions for singing | 9:18 | |
as published in the preface to sacred melody in 1761. | 9:25 | |
These I would read aloud in your hearing. | 9:31 | |
And you can decide for yourselves | 9:35 | |
if John Wesley had a great sense of humor | 9:36 | |
or none at all. | 9:39 | |
Learn these tunes before you learn any others. | 9:45 | |
Afterwards, learn as many as you please. | 9:49 | |
Sing them exactly as they are printed here | 9:54 | |
without altering or amending them at all. | 9:56 | |
And if you have learned to sing them otherwise, | 10:01 | |
unlearn it as soon as you can. | 10:04 | |
Sing all. | 10:08 | |
I don't think that means sing all the verses, | 10:10 | |
I think it's sing, you all. | 10:12 | |
Maybe the influence of Georgia upon him. | 10:13 | |
Sing all, see that you join with the congregation | 10:17 | |
as frequently as you can. | 10:21 | |
Let not a slight degree of weakness | 10:23 | |
or wariness hinder you. | 10:26 | |
If it is across to you, take it up. | 10:29 | |
And you will find it a blessing. | 10:33 | |
Sing lustily and with good courage. | 10:36 | |
Beware of singing as if you were half dead or half asleep. | 10:41 | |
But lift up your voice with strength, | 10:46 | |
be no more afraid of your voice now, | 10:49 | |
nor ashamed of it's being heard | 10:52 | |
than when you sung the songs of Satan. | 10:54 | |
Sing modestly. | 10:59 | |
Now, I don't know how that goes with sing lustily, | 11:00 | |
but I'll try both. Sing modestly, do not bawl | 11:03 | |
so as to be heard above or distinct | 11:08 | |
from the rest of the congregation, | 11:10 | |
that you may not destroy the harmony, | 11:13 | |
but strive to unite your voices together | 11:15 | |
so as to make one clear melodious sound. | 11:18 | |
Sing in time. Whatever time is sung, | 11:23 | |
be sure to keep with it. | 11:28 | |
Do not run before nor stay behind it, | 11:31 | |
but attend close to the leading voices | 11:34 | |
who are here behind me and move therewith | 11:38 | |
as exactly as you can | 11:41 | |
and take care not to sing too slow. | 11:43 | |
And the last one above all, sing spiritually. | 11:48 | |
Have an eye to God in every word you sing. | 11:52 | |
Aim at pleasing him more than yourself | 11:56 | |
or any other creature. | 12:00 | |
And so that we may do that, | 12:03 | |
let us sing one verse of a hymn. | 12:05 | |
And during that, | 12:06 | |
I shall take one copy of the hymnal | 12:07 | |
and place it on the altar. | 12:10 | |
And after that verse, remain standing | 12:12 | |
while the prayer of dedication is spoken. | 12:14 | |
And now let us rise and sing | 12:18 | |
the first stanza of 55; | 12:19 | |
praise to the Lord, the almighty, | 12:24 | |
the king of creation. | 12:27 | |
Fifty five, the first stanza. | 12:28 | |
(upbeat music) | 12:32 | |
(church choir singing) | 12:50 | |
Eternal God, king of Kings and Lord of Lords, | 13:37 | |
who (murmurs) | 13:43 | |
by choirs of angels and archangels | 13:44 | |
and who need us not, | 13:47 | |
but delightest in the music of men. | 13:49 | |
With gratitude to the giver, | 13:52 | |
and to thy glory and praise, | 13:55 | |
we dedicate these hymnals. | 13:58 | |
With confidence in the working of thy Holy Spirit, | 14:01 | |
which has inspired men | 14:05 | |
to offer their best in music and song. | 14:07 | |
We dedicate these hymnals | 14:11 | |
to bear up the melody of hymn and psalm | 14:13 | |
in such ways that we may go forth from this house | 14:17 | |
with joy in our hearts and resolution in our wills. | 14:21 | |
We dedicate these hymnals to extol thee, | 14:26 | |
worthily, harmoniously, and unanimously, | 14:30 | |
we dedicate these hymnals, | 14:36 | |
so that with angels and archangels | 14:38 | |
and with all the company of heaven, | 14:40 | |
we may laud and magnify thy glorious name, | 14:43 | |
evermore praising thee and saying, | 14:47 | |
holy, holy, holy | 14:51 | |
Lord God of hosts, | 14:54 | |
heaven and earth are full of thy glory, | 14:56 | |
glory be to thee oh Lord most high. | 15:00 | |
Amen. | 15:05 | |
The lesson for the day is from the 107th Psalm | 15:28 | |
verses one through eight. | 15:32 | |
Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, | 15:35 | |
for His steadfast love endures forever. | 15:38 | |
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so | 15:41 | |
whom he has redeemed from trouble | 15:44 | |
and gathered in from the lands, | 15:46 | |
from the east and from the west, | 15:48 | |
from the north and from the south. | 15:50 | |
Some wandered in desert waste, | 15:52 | |
finding no way to a city to dwell in, | 15:54 | |
hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. | 15:57 | |
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble | 16:01 | |
and he delivered them from their distress. | 16:03 | |
He led them by a straight way | 16:06 | |
till they reached a city to dwell in. | 16:08 | |
Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. | 16:11 | |
And for His wonderful works to the sons of men. | 16:14 | |
May God bless this reading to our hearing. | 16:18 | |
(upbeat music) | 16:23 | |
(church choir singing) | 16:29 | |
The Lord be with you. | 17:01 | |
Church members | The Lord be with you. | 17:03 |
- | Let us pray. | 17:04 |
Let us offer unto God, a prayer of Thanksgiving. | 17:11 | |
We do praise and thank you God, | 17:16 | |
for all great and simple joys, | 17:18 | |
for the gift of wonder and the joy of discovery, | 17:21 | |
for the everlasting freshness of experience. | 17:25 | |
For all that comes to us through sympathy | 17:29 | |
and through sorrow. | 17:33 | |
and for the joy of work attempted and achieved, | 17:35 | |
for musicians, poets, and craftsmen, | 17:40 | |
and for all who work in forum and color | 17:44 | |
to increase the beauty of life. | 17:48 | |
For the likeness of Jesus in ordinary people. | 17:52 | |
Their forbearance, courage and kindness, | 17:57 | |
and for all obscure and humble lives of service. | 18:01 | |
For all these great and simple joys, | 18:06 | |
we give thee humble and hearty thanks. | 18:09 | |
And let us offer a prayer of intercession | 18:15 | |
for the world. | 18:17 | |
Almighty and eternal God, who did so love the world | 18:20 | |
that thou gave us thine only son for its redemption, | 18:25 | |
grant unto us, such goodwill to all thy creatures | 18:29 | |
that we may continue thy work of reconciliation, | 18:34 | |
bringing to lost souls, the love of the cross | 18:39 | |
and the power of the resurrection | 18:45 | |
for their ever lasting salvation. | 18:49 | |
And on this reformation Sunday, | 18:54 | |
let us offer a prayer For the church. | 18:56 | |
Not just for the reform church, | 19:00 | |
but for the ecumenical church. | 19:02 | |
Most gracious father, | 19:06 | |
we humbly beseech thee for thy holy Catholic church, | 19:07 | |
fill it with all truth, in all truth, with all peace. | 19:12 | |
Where it is corrupt, purge it. | 19:17 | |
Where it is in error, direct it. | 19:21 | |
Where anything is amiss, reform it. | 19:25 | |
Where it is right, strengthen and confirm it. | 19:30 | |
Where it is in want, furnish it. | 19:35 | |
Where it is divided and rend asunder, | 19:40 | |
do thou make up the breaches in it | 19:44 | |
for the sake of thy son whose church it is. | 19:47 | |
And let us offer a prayer of supplication for ourselves. | 19:54 | |
Eternal God, in whom is our health and our peace, | 19:59 | |
how may we utter our need of thee? | 20:04 | |
Our minds need thee, to give them poise. | 20:09 | |
Our wills need thee, to give them strength. | 20:15 | |
Our hearts need thee, to give them quiet. | 20:21 | |
We need thee as we worry about a better world. | 20:26 | |
Very urgent is our need of thee, | 20:31 | |
if we are to face persistent evil | 20:35 | |
with hopeful determination. | 20:39 | |
Oh thou, who understandest us | 20:43 | |
better than we do ourselves, | 20:45 | |
grant unto us a healing, heartening consciousness | 20:49 | |
of thy presence as revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 20:53 | |
And now as our savior Christ hath taught us, | 21:00 | |
we humbly pray together saying, | 21:04 | |
Our father who art in heaven, | 21:07 | |
hallowed be Thy name, | 21:11 | |
Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth | 21:13 | |
as it is in heaven. | 21:18 | |
Give us this day our daily bread; | 21:20 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 21:23 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 21:25 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 21:29 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 21:31 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 21:34 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 21:36 | |
Amen. | 21:40 | |
There is a puzzling, | 22:02 | |
seemingly contradictory divergence | 22:04 | |
in student life. | 22:07 | |
On the one hand, there is radical concern | 22:11 | |
about personal identity. | 22:14 | |
While on the other hand, | 22:18 | |
there's radical political interest and action. | 22:21 | |
Perhaps this was first clearly exhibited at Berkeley. | 22:28 | |
The campus resounded with student demands | 22:32 | |
for complete freedom. | 22:35 | |
Every impingement of external authority was opposed. | 22:38 | |
At the same time, | 22:44 | |
the same students were organizing | 22:47 | |
freedom rides to Mississippi | 22:49 | |
and struggling to change the university structures. | 22:52 | |
More recently, one can find the same divergence | 22:58 | |
on nearly every campus. | 23:00 | |
Concomitant with a demand | 23:04 | |
for society to remove its pressure | 23:06 | |
is an attempt to gain control or power in society. | 23:09 | |
Along with rejection of all values | 23:17 | |
except those which are personally derived, | 23:19 | |
is an imperialistic attempt | 23:23 | |
to force those values upon others. | 23:26 | |
These two directions of self projection | 23:32 | |
seem to run counter to one another. | 23:34 | |
The quest for self identity tends to force one | 23:38 | |
into introspection and isolation. | 23:42 | |
Here, the search for self and personal meaning | 23:47 | |
takes place within the confines of the self. | 23:51 | |
And every intrusive factor from the outside | 23:56 | |
is roughly excluded. | 23:58 | |
The political interest draws one out of himself. | 24:04 | |
It leads one, not only into the arena where others live, | 24:09 | |
but also to an interest in changing, | 24:14 | |
and at times perhaps even manipulating | 24:16 | |
the ways in which men relate to one another. | 24:20 | |
To put this another way, | 24:26 | |
the identity crisis is taken to be an inward crisis. | 24:29 | |
One is driven to the deepest recesses of his own spirit. | 24:33 | |
The political crisis is taken to be an external crisis. | 24:38 | |
One is driven to explore the most far ranging dimensions | 24:43 | |
of social interrelatedness. | 24:48 | |
The divergent movement of these two primal concerns | 24:52 | |
only adds to the general anxiety | 24:56 | |
which the student feels | 24:58 | |
and sometimes leads to rather surprising modes | 25:01 | |
of thought and action. | 25:04 | |
Let me attempt to describe the situation. | 25:08 | |
A person comes to maturity in a traumatic fashion. | 25:13 | |
He has his beginnings in a family | 25:18 | |
with which he must struggle, | 25:21 | |
both in terms of relating positively | 25:23 | |
and of rejecting inordinate influences, | 25:26 | |
which attempt to shape him arbitrarily. | 25:29 | |
He fights for his distinctiveness, | 25:35 | |
while he carries a deep longing for meaningful | 25:38 | |
and increasingly adult relationships. | 25:41 | |
The strength of the family impingement is such however | 25:46 | |
that most often, he finds himself | 25:50 | |
seeking a safe distance. | 25:53 | |
He needs to say no | 25:56 | |
and insist upon his own integrity. | 25:58 | |
Increasingly, he keeps others at arms length, | 26:02 | |
demanding his freedom | 26:07 | |
and a right to establish and live by his own values. | 26:10 | |
This desire for individuality, | 26:16 | |
the young person soon learns must be asserted | 26:18 | |
not only against the immediate family, | 26:21 | |
but also against every institution | 26:24 | |
which would function as an external control upon him. | 26:26 | |
Hence he resents the university, | 26:30 | |
which would stand in loco parentis. | 26:32 | |
He's antagonistic toward every political structure | 26:37 | |
that would commandeer his thought or action. | 26:41 | |
He fights every external authority, | 26:45 | |
which would impose itself as an alien sovereignty. | 26:49 | |
Psychologists speak of negative identification, | 26:58 | |
a concept which has relevance here. | 27:03 | |
In negative identification, a person defines himself | 27:07 | |
in terms of what he is not. | 27:10 | |
He throws away the values and perspectives of his context, | 27:14 | |
simply because they're making claims upon him. | 27:17 | |
In such a case, a person knows who he is not | 27:22 | |
although he may have no clear positive indication | 27:26 | |
of who he is. | 27:29 | |
(murmurs) in a recent column, | 27:33 | |
illustrated this beautifully. | 27:35 | |
When he suggested that the national elections this year | 27:38 | |
should take place in such a manner | 27:42 | |
as to allow everyone to vote for the candidate | 27:44 | |
which he opposes. | 27:48 | |
Because this one political certainty | 27:50 | |
was the only one most Americans possess. | 27:54 | |
In personal terms, negative identification | 28:00 | |
works the same way. | 28:03 | |
One knows more certainly who he is not, | 28:05 | |
than he knows who he is. | 28:09 | |
Perhaps we can explore how such a tendency develops. | 28:14 | |
For in the effort to claim his own | 28:19 | |
individual distinctiveness, | 28:21 | |
the maturing person tends to isolate himself. | 28:24 | |
In order to discover who he is, | 28:28 | |
he closes more and more upon himself. | 28:30 | |
He becomes captive to the centripetal forces | 28:34 | |
which propel an attempt to define himself | 28:40 | |
not only for himself, but in himself. | 28:43 | |
He knows the anguish of loneliness. | 28:49 | |
He knows the travail of solitude. | 28:52 | |
He even has a sense of the impossibility of finding himself | 28:55 | |
simply in terms of himself. | 28:59 | |
But this is his situation. | 29:02 | |
And he is driven, | 29:05 | |
even as he carries himself to isolation | 29:06 | |
and looks inward with a despairing hope. | 29:11 | |
At the same time, maturation brings with it | 29:17 | |
a kind of public or political consciousness. | 29:19 | |
For self identification takes place | 29:23 | |
in a situation of multiple counterclaims, | 29:25 | |
a man is a social animal. | 29:29 | |
Man is a political creature and this he can never forget. | 29:31 | |
Sometimes his awareness of such a public dimension | 29:36 | |
is simply an extension of the problems | 29:41 | |
he has already faced. | 29:43 | |
Problems which caused him | 29:44 | |
to turn upon himself in the first place. | 29:46 | |
Because he's had to struggle against external pressures, | 29:50 | |
which attempted to make him conform to arbitrary standards, | 29:53 | |
he now turns to fight the sources of those pressures. | 29:57 | |
He strikes out against his father or his mother | 30:02 | |
Who attempt to impose their values upon him. | 30:06 | |
He fights the school, | 30:09 | |
which assays to set the frame in which he must live. | 30:12 | |
He fights the civil orders, | 30:16 | |
which would tell him what he must think | 30:18 | |
or how he must express his thoughts. | 30:21 | |
Sometimes the maturing youth becomes political | 30:24 | |
in order to reinforce his effort, | 30:29 | |
to gain his personal freedom. | 30:32 | |
At other times, | 30:36 | |
the political interest results | 30:38 | |
from the universalizing of his own situation. | 30:39 | |
He sees the limitations which are placed upon him | 30:43 | |
as also affecting others. | 30:45 | |
So he identifies with those | 30:48 | |
who are struggling for their freedom. | 30:49 | |
He stands beside them, he argues their cause, | 30:52 | |
he fights their fights. | 30:56 | |
If this analysis is correct, | 31:03 | |
then perhaps the reaction to the draft, | 31:07 | |
or Vietnam, or poverty | 31:11 | |
or civil rights | 31:16 | |
or discrimination because of race | 31:17 | |
may be better understood at least in part. | 31:19 | |
For in each case, | 31:23 | |
one of the issues which is at stake | 31:24 | |
is a person's freedom to find himself. | 31:28 | |
What is at the heart of the struggle | 31:32 | |
is a person's desire to establish his own values | 31:35 | |
even as he attempts to utilize his sources of power | 31:41 | |
in his political context. | 31:45 | |
At its worst, this dual concern to be himself, | 31:49 | |
even as he's caught in the web of societal controls, | 31:54 | |
results in what one might call a skeptical fanaticism. | 31:59 | |
That is, the person becomes skeptical | 32:04 | |
of every external force, every authoritative pressure, | 32:07 | |
every social frame. | 32:13 | |
Hence he demands his freedom in an absolute way. | 32:17 | |
He will trust no other person. | 32:22 | |
He will give no other person any prerogative over him. | 32:25 | |
He will now allow no external intrusion | 32:30 | |
into his own life. | 32:34 | |
If at the same time, | 32:38 | |
he continues his concern for society, | 32:40 | |
is often expressed in a fanatical manner. | 32:44 | |
He sets out to change society | 32:47 | |
by overthrowing the whole thing. | 32:49 | |
He does not reason. | 32:53 | |
For values which have been derived independently | 32:56 | |
and in an isolated fashion, | 32:59 | |
provide no basis for political consensus. | 33:02 | |
With a kind of hate for everything | 33:07 | |
that limits him or other people, | 33:10 | |
he becomes political but in a fanatical way. | 33:13 | |
He gives up the struggle to change his context | 33:18 | |
by slow, internal transformation | 33:20 | |
for he shares little with that context. | 33:24 | |
Consequently, whether the opposing structure be family | 33:30 | |
or school or government, he sets out to destroy | 33:34 | |
what he feels to be an insensitive authority | 33:37 | |
in hopes of bringing in a new day | 33:40 | |
with a fresh possibility of personal freedom. | 33:42 | |
It is no surprise therefore, | 33:46 | |
that the freedom movements which they start | 33:49 | |
as a demand for individual freedom on the college campuses, | 33:52 | |
end as political confrontations on the city streets. | 33:56 | |
And in a more moderate form, | 34:03 | |
the dual concern for personal identity and common freedom | 34:06 | |
does not reach the extremes of thorough skepticism | 34:11 | |
or fanatical action. | 34:15 | |
In most cases, the struggle for individual personhood | 34:18 | |
takes place within the context | 34:22 | |
provided by surrounding authorities. | 34:23 | |
It is in situations of this type, | 34:29 | |
that one hears voices calling legitimately I think, | 34:32 | |
for participatory democracy, | 34:35 | |
for a modified self determinism, | 34:38 | |
and for an authentic place in one society. | 34:41 | |
But where the pressures which enforce conformity | 34:47 | |
have been strong. | 34:50 | |
And where the resulting reaction, | 34:52 | |
which has sought freedom has been strong, | 34:54 | |
any balance of order is difficult to keep. | 34:59 | |
Most students, I'm convinced, | 35:07 | |
know the intensity and the difficulty | 35:10 | |
of the search for personal identity. | 35:12 | |
Most students know the continual pressures | 35:17 | |
for inter-involvement with family, with school, | 35:20 | |
with church or government. | 35:25 | |
Students know the tensions, they experience the anguish. | 35:28 | |
And yet they would like to keep the balance | 35:33 | |
between self searching and relating to others. | 35:37 | |
Have I misjudged you, students? | 35:45 | |
Do I not hear you say two things at once? | 35:49 | |
I want to be myself, | 35:53 | |
but I want to learn to relate to others. | 35:57 | |
I want my freedom and I want others to have their freedom, | 36:03 | |
but I also want to acknowledge the legitimate claims, | 36:10 | |
which each of us makes upon the other. | 36:14 | |
I think most students are saying this | 36:20 | |
and I think they're right in saying this. | 36:23 | |
On the personal level, | 36:29 | |
you know the importance of saying no, | 36:31 | |
as well as yes, to your family or friends. | 36:34 | |
Most of us sense that a person never truly finds himself | 36:39 | |
only in himself. | 36:44 | |
One finds himself in relationships. | 36:46 | |
In this, Martin Buber was correct. | 36:51 | |
"Life is relationships." | 36:54 | |
We become a self by interaction, | 36:59 | |
both positive and negative, with others. | 37:02 | |
We become a self by an evaluation, | 37:06 | |
which arises out of these relationships with others. | 37:10 | |
Their evaluation of us and our evaluation of ourselves | 37:14 | |
in relation to their evaluation. | 37:20 | |
The one who retreats into absolute isolation | 37:23 | |
or solipsism, loses the possibility for self finding. | 37:26 | |
For self knowledge is gained | 37:30 | |
only in the context of other persons, | 37:32 | |
only in living interaction with neighbors. | 37:34 | |
If this is so, | 37:39 | |
then the importance of family and friends | 37:41 | |
becomes evident. | 37:43 | |
The ability of others to allow us to be, | 37:46 | |
to be ourselves, | 37:48 | |
even as they make their just claims, | 37:50 | |
is a necessary ground for our self acceptance | 37:53 | |
and self affirmation. | 37:56 | |
Where one has not known such acceptance, | 38:00 | |
he finds it difficult to accept himself, | 38:03 | |
But where a person has known such acceptance, | 38:06 | |
he finds self identification, immeasurably enhanced. | 38:10 | |
In short, as persons, we live in a mixed situation | 38:17 | |
of acceptance, rejection, of granted freedom | 38:21 | |
and demanding authority. | 38:25 | |
And self-identification has to be achieved | 38:28 | |
in just this ambiguous context. | 38:32 | |
And what is true on the personal level | 38:37 | |
is also true in the web of relationships | 38:39 | |
as these are enlarged. | 38:42 | |
Not only must one find his sense of freedom | 38:44 | |
and awareness of his determination | 38:47 | |
and personal relationships, | 38:48 | |
he also has to ask about a viable political environment | 38:51 | |
in which he and others may live. | 38:54 | |
The contexts are multiple and different for each of us. | 39:00 | |
But each of us as a person, finds his personhood | 39:05 | |
only as he finds it with other persons | 39:10 | |
in the context of political involvement. | 39:14 | |
Nevertheless, there are always problems | 39:22 | |
and these problems remain. | 39:23 | |
Relationships are never finished. | 39:26 | |
Maturation is open ended. | 39:29 | |
It is a process, not an accomplishment. | 39:32 | |
Consequently, every new encounter with another person, | 39:37 | |
every new government regulation, | 39:40 | |
every new university policy creates a new tension | 39:44 | |
and requires a fresh self interpretation. | 39:49 | |
Some encounters and some events | 39:53 | |
are more traumatic than others | 39:55 | |
and require greater resourcefulness and flexibility. | 39:57 | |
But every new relationship in its own way, | 40:01 | |
every political context in its own way | 40:04 | |
requires a new appreciation of one's self | 40:07 | |
as relating to others | 40:10 | |
and a fresh self affirmation in that relationship. | 40:12 | |
And so for the analysis, looking back, | 40:20 | |
perhaps all we feel able to say | 40:24 | |
is that of all knowledge, | 40:29 | |
none is so difficult to come by | 40:31 | |
as knowledge of the self. | 40:33 | |
Of all action, none is more difficult | 40:36 | |
than the action and interaction | 40:39 | |
of oneself with other persons. | 40:41 | |
Of all tensions, | 40:44 | |
none is more threatening or promising | 40:47 | |
than that of the self in relation. | 40:50 | |
And this matter of self finding | 40:56 | |
is also a recurrent theme in biblical writing | 40:57 | |
and in Christian theology. | 41:01 | |
Man is created by God with the possibility | 41:04 | |
for matured personhood. | 41:09 | |
He has an incipient integrity, which sets him apart, | 41:13 | |
both from God and from other persons. | 41:16 | |
Yet he also lives in a society | 41:21 | |
and has a responsibility to husband the world. | 41:23 | |
This general condition only offers to men, | 41:29 | |
to you and to me, | 41:32 | |
the possibility for maturation, | 41:35 | |
the possibility of being a person | 41:39 | |
and a person in community. | 41:41 | |
Yet as we mature, we tend, it seems inevitably | 41:46 | |
to attempt to define ourselves | 41:53 | |
in unfulfilling and limiting ways. | 41:55 | |
We tend to become self isolating, | 41:59 | |
reject all claims upon us, | 42:03 | |
or we tend to become so engrossed in society | 42:08 | |
that we lose our self identity. | 42:13 | |
These are the conditions are false to human life: | 42:18 | |
the inordinate love of self | 42:21 | |
or the inordinate loss of self. | 42:24 | |
And they're are conditions | 42:27 | |
which theologians have called sin. | 42:28 | |
For sin in its essence is the failure | 42:32 | |
to relate properly to the claims of God, | 42:34 | |
of our society, and of ourselves. | 42:37 | |
Sin is the failure to live creatively | 42:42 | |
within the tension between our self determination | 42:45 | |
and our being determined as a self. | 42:48 | |
Hence, sin is usually expressed | 42:52 | |
as a dollar tree of one's own self, | 42:54 | |
which denies all others, | 42:57 | |
a dollar tree of an object which demands the denial | 43:00 | |
of the authenticity of the self. | 43:03 | |
The sin of self affirmation to the exclusion of others, | 43:09 | |
exerts itself in relationships, both personal and political. | 43:13 | |
A manipulative control in the | 43:17 | |
utilization of persons and situations | 43:19 | |
for one's own end. | 43:21 | |
The sin of self negation or weakness | 43:25 | |
manifests itself | 43:28 | |
in refusing to make claims upon one's context | 43:29 | |
and challenges neither the other person | 43:33 | |
nor the political system. | 43:35 | |
If any claim has been made for Christian faith | 43:39 | |
in a continuous way, | 43:42 | |
it is the claim that such faith does two things | 43:45 | |
at the same time. | 43:48 | |
It draws a man out of himself, | 43:51 | |
even as it reinforces him in himself. | 43:56 | |
Religious faith works in this fashion | 44:02 | |
because it understands man as being in a context | 44:05 | |
in which he is addressed by God. | 44:08 | |
Man is evaluated even as he evaluates himself. | 44:13 | |
Man's personhood is affirmed | 44:19 | |
even as he is laid under obligation | 44:22 | |
to relate to the one who affirms him. | 44:24 | |
Now, we often fail to actualize this possibility | 44:30 | |
and we sin. | 44:34 | |
But the possibility by grace is continuously offered. | 44:37 | |
If man begins to realize this potential | 44:41 | |
for giving and being given to, | 44:44 | |
he finds that his obligations begin to move | 44:48 | |
like concentric circles. | 44:50 | |
He must relate to others as individual persons. | 44:53 | |
He must relate to others | 44:56 | |
through the medium of political organization and action. | 44:57 | |
But always with the intention | 45:01 | |
of establishing the authentic integrity of the other. | 45:03 | |
The Grace of God which is given to us life, in relationship, | 45:08 | |
becomes the gift which is shared | 45:13 | |
and sets the character of that sharing. | 45:16 | |
If man only finds himself in relationships then, | 45:21 | |
the word of grace is the word of that primary | 45:26 | |
and ultimate relationship which encompasses all of us. | 45:31 | |
It's the word of God which evokes our response. | 45:36 | |
And such a word, God has spoken | 45:43 | |
in Jesus Christ, | 45:49 | |
who came to us, | 45:52 | |
that we in response might relate to him. | 45:54 | |
Let us pray. | 46:02 | |
Dear God, who has come to us in Jesus Christ | 46:11 | |
and who has given to us the opportunity | 46:17 | |
for relationship which will both, establish us as persons | 46:21 | |
and bring us into creative involvement with other persons. | 46:27 | |
Help us to respond to thy acceptance | 46:35 | |
with our love. | 46:39 | |
In Jesus name. | 46:42 | |
Amen. | 46:45 | |
(church choir singing) | 46:46 | |
(slow melodious music) | 48:47 | |
(church choir singing) | 50:46 | |
Here we offer and present unto thee, oh Lord, | 56:15 | |
this symbol of ourselves | 56:18 | |
to be a reasonable, holy and lively sacrifice unto thee | 56:21 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 56:29 | |
And now unto God's gracious mercy and protection | 56:37 | |
do we commit you. | 56:42 | |
The Lord bless you and keep you. | 56:45 | |
The Lord make his grace to shine upon you | 56:49 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 56:53 | |
The Lord lift up his (murmurs) upon you | 56:56 | |
and give you peace, | 57:00 | |
this day and forever more. | 57:03 | |
(church choir singing) | 57:16 |
Item Info
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