Samuel S. Wiley - "Going on to Maturity" (August 2, 1970)

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	(choir singing)	0:11
	(orchestral music)	2:32
	(choir singing)	3:10
-	May we now approach the heavenly father,	5:37
	In recognition of our need of confession	5:41
	and of forgiveness for our sins.	5:45
	And make our humble confession.	5:48
	Let us pray.	5:50
	Oh God, who art rich in mercy toward all those	5:53
	who having missed the way, still turn and seek thy face.	5:58
	We bow in contrite prayer to acknowledge our guilt.	6:05
	We're guilty because we failed to do the right	6:12
	as well as we knew to do it.	6:16
	And because we failed to avoid evil	6:19
	as well as we knew how to avoid it.	6:22
	In thy presence, our father,	6:27
	our customary disguises and comfortable pretenses	6:30
	do not avail.	6:34
	And under the searching light of thy holiness,	6:36
	we know ourselves for what we are,	6:39
	imperfect and wayward creatures	6:42
	who often seek our own wills	6:46
	in spite of our noble aspirations and our high resolutions.	6:48
	As Christians, oh God,	6:54
	we confess that the sin of the world is often very much	6:56
	our own sin and that the greed,	6:59
	which shocks us when we see it in others,	7:02
	lurks in our own hearts.	7:06
	None of us loves justice and mercy	7:11
	the way we should.	7:15
	May we receive the grace of humility, here, now	7:18
	in thy presence.	7:23
	So that we may cease to defeat thy will for the world,	7:26
	by our selfish wills.	7:29
	In these and many other ways, we have failed to witness	7:34
	to the power of Christ's resurrection	7:38
	and to the power of his redeeming grace.	7:42
	And oh God,	7:46
	we pray that the vision of what we honestly might be	7:47
	shall convict us of what we are	7:52
	so that thy mercy may redeem us of our sin	7:55
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	8:00
	Amen.	8:02
	You remember from reading the sixth chapter of Isaiah,	8:07
	That Isaiah, when he found himself in the presence of God	8:13
	acknowledged what he had not seen	8:18
	when he was simply consciously in the presence	8:21
	of his fellow man. Namely, that he was a sinner.	8:23
	When he was comparing himself with his fellows,	8:28
	he thought I'm as good as he is,	8:32
	or I'm no worse than she is.	8:35
	But when he saw God high and lifted up, he said,	8:38
	"Woe is me or I am a man of unclean lips.	8:42
	I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."	8:46
	But God did not leave him in that state.	8:49
	When he acknowledged his sin and was sorry for it.	8:53
	Then you recall the passage continues	8:57
	and tells us how a person who was a servant of God,	9:00
	took a call from the altar.	9:06
	Symbolically, taking God's own gift and touched his lips	9:10
	and he was cleansed.	9:14
	His sin was taken away and he was no longer a guilty person	9:17
	alienated from God,	9:22
	but was then able to hear the voice of God	9:24
	and to go out as a servant of God, with joy,	9:28
	with acceptance and being loved.	9:32
	And this is the word of assurance	9:36
	which the scripture gives us over and over again	9:38
	that we do not need to go around with our heads down	9:41
	and a hang dog expression on our face.	9:44
	That when we worship God and are honest with God,	9:47
	and sorry for our sins and seek amendment,	9:52
	we are received as sons and daughters	9:57
	and are a part of the family of God.	10:00
	And this is great good news,	10:03
	should provoke us to praise and thank God	10:06
	which we will now do.	10:10
	As we turn to number 624 in the back of our hymnals	10:11
	and read responsively this prayer of Thanksgiving	10:16
	entitled, "The song of David". 627.	10:21
	Blessed art thou, oh Lord, The God of Israel.	10:31
	Thine oh Lord is the greatness and the power,	10:40
	the glory and the victory and the majesty.	10:43
	Thine is the kingdom, oh Lord.	10:51
	Both riches and honor come from thee.	10:57
	In thy hand of power and might.	11:02
	And now we thank thee, our God.	11:09
	(orchestral music)	11:20
	(choir singing)	12:06
	Now let me read for our benefit of part of a letter,	16:43
	which Paul, the apostle wrote to the Christians in Ephesus.	16:46
	It's now a part of the Bible and Bible scholars	16:51
	have chopped it up into chapters and verses.	16:53
	And according to this chopping,	16:55
	this appears in chapter four.	16:57
	I read from the Revised Standard Version.	17:01
	I therefore a prisoner for the Lord,	17:06
	beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling	17:08
	to which you have been called.	17:12
	With all lowliness and meekness,	17:14
	with patience for bearing one another in love,	17:16
	eager to maintain the unity of the spirit	17:21
	and the bond of peace.	17:23
	There is one body, one spirit,	17:26
	just as you were called to the one hope	17:30
	that belongs to your call.	17:32
	One Lord, one faith, one baptism.	17:34
	One God and father of us all.	17:39
	Who is above all and through all and in all.	17:43
	But grace was given to each of us,	17:47
	according to the measure of Christ's gift.	17:50
	Therefore, it is said when he has ascended on high,	17:55
	he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.	17:57
	In saying he ascended, what does it mean	18:03
	but that he had also descended into the lower parts	18:06
	of the earth.	18:10
	He who descended is he who also ascended far above all	18:11
	the heavens, that he might feel all things.	18:16
	And his gifts were that some should be apostles,	18:21
	some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,	18:24
	or the equipment of the saints or the work of the ministry,	18:29
	or building up the body of Christ	18:34
	until we all attain to the unity of the faith	18:36
	and the knowledge of the son of God.	18:40
	To mature manhood,	18:42
	to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,	18:46
	so that we may no longer be children,	18:51
	tossed to and thrown and carried about	18:54
	with every wind of doctrine	18:56
	by the cunning of men,	18:58
	by their craftiness in deceitful wilds.	19:00
	Rather speaking the truth in love,	19:04
	we are to grow up in every way unto him,	19:07
	who is the head into Christ.	19:12
	Amen.	19:19
	(orchestral music)	19:22
	(choir singing)	19:30
	The Lord be with you, let us pray.	19:59
	Oh God, whom we call our eternal father.	20:16
	Strong to save, hear us as we pray for our fellow men	20:20
	and for ourselves.	20:25
	We pray for those young people who perhaps are students	20:29
	in this summer school or in some other institution	20:33
	or those who are at home or at work,	20:39
	trying to make decisions about their lives,	20:44
	may the waning days of this summer,	20:50
	be times when the tangled and fragmentary meanings	20:55
	of learning, of education,	20:59
	come to have a central and controlling purpose	21:03
	and be brought into focus.	21:08
	May thy son, Jesus Christ, The Lord of life,	21:12
	the Lord of love be lifted up and chosen as master.	21:19
	We offer unto thee, oh, God, our prayers for the sick,	21:27
	the injured. And beyond any routine prayer of ours,	21:33
	we earnestly beg for health to come to those	21:39
	who suffer in any way.	21:42
	May Jesus, who correctly has been called the Great Physician	21:45
	be manifest to them in love, in power,	21:51
	in strength and healing.	21:57
	Give knowledge to the physicians,	22:02
	give tender care to the nurses	22:05
	and may extra grace be given to those who serve at home,	22:08
	whose tasks are heavier because of the illness	22:15
	of a loved one.	22:18
	Our great and loving father,	22:22
	we offer our prayers on behalf	22:24
	of all thy children everywhere.	22:27
	But particularly now, we offer them for the students	22:31
	of our university who are at work on summer jobs,	22:35
	earning money for their study in the fall.	22:40
	Those who labor in the war against poverty.	22:44
	Those who are involved in some kind of project this summer	22:49
	to help the dispossessed.	22:52
	Those who are serving in Nicaragua and the jungles,	22:55
	those who are seeking to alleviate the tragedy in Peru,	23:01
	others in other places around the world	23:08
	in their own way, seeking to help.	23:13
	We pray for those of our number whom we think of	23:17
	as our friends here,	23:22
	some of whom have graduated or serving in distant places.	23:25
	We pray for those in the armed forces,	23:32
	for those in the Peace Corps,	23:35
	those who are in their own way,	23:38
	and according to their own understanding and capabilities,	23:41
	doing what they can make this a better world.	23:43
	Uphold their hands, cheer, and inspire their hearts.	23:46
	And now God, we pray for our president,	23:53
	for the officers of our administration, The Senate,	23:57
	the Congress, and all of our representatives,	24:02
	and particularly those who have been given	24:05
	the responsibility to seek to bring peace to Israel	24:07
	and the Arab world and to Vietnam and that tortured area.	24:14
	May they be firm in the right,	24:22
	as thou dost give them to see the right.	24:24
	May they find support in working for a world of peace	24:27
	and justice, but we pray especially	24:31
	that some new light may dawn upon those	24:34
	who are seeking to find a solution to these tortured areas	24:38
	of the world.	24:41
	And to that end though, God,	24:44
	we pray that the Lord of the church,	24:45
	The Christ, the Prince of Peace, may be in their hearts.	24:51
	Strengthen the movements for unity and for sanity,	24:57
	which are stirring in the world today	25:00
	through the holy spirit.	25:03
	And especially, may unity come to thy Church.	25:05
	Bless all Catholics,	25:10
	all Orthodox and all Protestant enterprises,	25:12
	which are seeking to bring harmony and oneness	25:16
	to the broken body of our Lord.	25:19
	Even as we pray, oh God, for these goals,	25:24
	we are mindful our own responsibilities in cooperating	25:28
	with thee and answering our own prayers.	25:31
	So now we pray for ourselves in this service	25:34
	that we may be given grace to be faithful,	25:38
	to be unbiased,	25:41
	to be cooperative, to be intelligent,	25:44
	and actually to be honest.	25:47
	We pray that we may grow to be mature.	25:51
	We are bold ask these favors because we pray in the name	25:55
	of our Lord, Jesus Christ.	25:59
	Help us oh God to make our own prayer,	26:03
	which he has taught us to pray, saying,	26:06
	our father who art in heaven,	26:10
	hallowed be thy name.	26:12
	Thy kingdom come.	26:14
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	26:16
	Give us this day, our daily bread	26:20
	and forgive us our trespasses	26:23
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	26:25
	And lead us not into temptation,	26:29
	but deliver us from evil.	26:31
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	26:33
	and the glory, forever.	26:36
	Amen.	26:38
-	One of you scholars may be able to help me find the source	27:04
	of a word, which I read many years ago.	27:08
	The oldest angels are the youngest	27:13
	because they are nearest to the heart of God.	27:17
	In thinking and praying about this opportunity	27:25
	which is mine today,	27:28
	I concluded that I might well present a sequel to what I	27:31
	offered just one week, less than a year ago in this place.	27:34
	The subject then was the image of God.	27:41
	And the text was from second Corinthians in the third	27:44
	chapter.	27:46
	But all of us who are Christians have no veils on our faces,	27:48
	but reflect like mirrors, the glory of the Lord.	27:53
	We are transfigured in ever increasing splendor	27:58
	into his own image.	28:01
	And the transformation comes from the Lord	28:03
	who is the spirit.	28:06
	Now there was the suggestion in those words,	28:09
	that for the Christian,	28:12
	a process has begun whereby ultimately, he is to be restored	28:15
	to the pattern of the true humanity	28:20
	from which we all through sin have departed.	28:21
	Having been out of town two weeks ago,	28:26
	I did not know this past Monday when I notified	28:30
	the chaplain's office, that my subject for August 2nd,	28:34
	was going to be, going on to maturity.	28:39
	I did not know that the chaplain himself on July, the 19th	28:44
	had preached here on maturity according to the Bible	28:48
	and boy, I'm sticking with the theme,	28:52
	not out of near stubbornness,	28:57
	but because it was too late to change.	28:59
	And because I feel sure that what a United Methodist might	29:03
	have said and what a Southern Presbyterian will say	29:07
	will probably bear only a remote resemblance.	29:11
	Besides I'm going to leave fraud strictly out of it.	29:16
	But just as I was leaving for church this morning,	29:21
	a very lovable neighbor of ours who is probably	29:24
	somewhat of a pagan,	29:27
	called to me while he was digging a ditch in his backyard,	29:30
	fracturing the Sabbath, "Good luck," this morning.	29:33
	I didn't know that he read the church notices,	29:38
	or is aware of what might be going on here,	29:43
	but I'd like to wish you good luck.	29:45
	It is a little warm for a sermon, isn't it?	29:49
	To qualify our subject and our texts for there are	29:54
	two of them for use here.	29:58
	Let me point out that they're very close to	30:02
	a theme held by John Wesley, In Colossians 1:28,	30:05
	Paul having referred to Christ in you,	30:11
	the hope of glory continued whom we preach.	30:14
	Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom	30:18
	that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.	30:22
	In the fourth chapter of Ephesians,	30:28
	the same notice struck, this time with a new resolute.	30:30
	Reference has been made to the gifts in that passage,	30:35
	to the gifts given to individual Christians	30:39
	for building up the body of Christ.	30:42
	Till we all come in the unity of the faith	30:45
	and of the knowledge of the son of God,	30:49
	unto a perfect man,	30:52
	unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.	30:54
	Some of you aware that when ministers in the United	31:01
	Methodist Church come to their examination and for admission	31:04
	into full connection, the Bishop pro-founds 19 questions.	31:07
	They're very close questions. The first two are these,	31:14
	have you faith in Christ? Are you going on to perfection?	31:17
	When I first heard the second question,	31:25
	first I thought it must be a bold Christian indeed,	31:28
	who could confidently affirm,	31:33
	I am going on perfection	31:35
	and I do expect to be made perfect in love in this life.	31:37
	And yet in a university setting,	31:41
	it should not seem strange to set such a moral goal.	31:44
	Educators are accustomed in setting educational goals	31:49
	to aim at excellence.	31:54
	This demanding objective may be softened in the	31:57
	teacher's thinking by interpreting it in terms	32:00
	of the individual's capacity,	32:03
	challenging each student to excel not the other person's,	32:06
	but his own past achievement.	32:10
	Now the university,	32:13
	which succeeds doing that to any great degree	32:14
	may be said to be excellent.	32:18
	In reading the famous treatise by John Wesley called,	32:22
	"A Plain Account of Christian Perfection",	32:26
	I kept wondering in what sense	32:30
	the present today's Christian can accept perfection	32:32
	as a valid personal goal.	32:37
	If there are those who can say in all humility,	32:41
	I am going on to perfection.	32:45
	There are others,	32:46
	including myself who must confess this is a hard word.	32:47
	It is high.	32:53
	I cannot attain unto it,	32:54
	not without a divine miracle.	32:57
	Besides in our present speech,	33:00
	perfection smacks of moralism, of perfectionism,	33:02
	a kind of scrupulosity,	33:06
	which we are told is bad for mental health.	33:09
	That sort of morbid self effort surely was not what	33:13
	John Wesley meant.	33:16
	So I admit being much relieved to find that the new	33:19
	translations of the New Testament, hewing to a close study	33:23
	of the original Greek and it's meaning for today.	33:28
	You have another cast to the word perfection	33:32
	so that it need not unnerve us,	33:35
	need not cut the nerve of moral temple.	33:38
	Where the king James version said,	33:44
	whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man	33:46
	in all wisdom that we may present every man	33:49
	perfect in Christ Jesus,	33:53
	the Revised Standard Version, which was read,	33:55
	goes like this, him we proclaim,	33:59
	warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom	34:04
	that we may present every man mature in Christ,	34:07
	where the Jacobean English put it like this,	34:11
	till we all come in the unity of the faith	34:14
	and of the knowledge of the son of God,	34:16
	unto a perfect man under the measure of the statue	34:19
	of the fullness of Christ.	34:22
	The newer language says, until we all attain to the unity	34:24
	of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God,	34:28
	to mature manhood, to the measure of the statue	34:31
	of the fullness of Christ.	34:36
	In those, in this sense,	34:40
	those believers who feel unnerved by the expectation	34:43
	of Christian perfection in this life	34:48
	may rally to Wesley's standard.	34:50
	I do have faith in Christ.	34:55
	And I am going on to maturity.	34:59
	While being perfect in love in this life	35:03
	may come only at the very threshold of the future life,	35:05
	I'm earnestly striving to grow up	35:09
	but it's going to take a miracle.	35:13
	Now, the thought to which Jesus referred when he said,	35:17
	"Can any of you have a much he worries	35:19
	make himself an inch taller.	35:22
	It will take a miracle like that,	35:26
	which causes the lilies of fields to grow	35:27
	from the brown earth, with rain and sun and dew.	35:30
	It's the miracle of the seed.	35:35
	And it's on this ground that the Christian of today	35:38
	can understand Wesley.	35:40
	Those questions asked of United Methodist ministers coming	35:43
	into full connection were formulated by Wesley and have been	35:47
	little changed throughout the years.	35:51
	Recall that 19th question. It is in two parts.	35:55
	Will you observe the following directions?	36:01
	Be diligent, never be unemployed,	36:05
	never be trifling employed, never trifle away time.	36:08
	Neither spend any more time at any one place	36:13
	more time than strictly necessary.	36:18
	Second part, be punctual,	36:21
	do everything exactly at the time and do not mend our rules,	36:24
	but keep them not for wrath, but for conscious sake.	36:28
	Those directions may seem anachronistic to us today,	36:35
	but they do speak of how greatly an earnest that saintly man	36:41
	was and look at the results.	36:46
	If you seek his monument, look around him.	36:50
	Look at the great church which grew from his work	36:54
	and the immense good that has grown from the passion	36:56
	for changed lives and changed society	37:00
	which is lain in Western following.	37:04
	Such results did not come from doodling along the way,	37:09
	but by diligence.	37:12
	They did not come either from moralistic compulsion	37:15
	or an unhealthy perfectionism that drove these Christians	37:18
	to self harm.	37:22
	They came because what Wesley meant by Christian perfection	37:24
	was absolute Christian love.	37:29
	Would not be hard for a man to be diligent	37:34
	and to be punctual.	37:37
	If the work on which he went was done out of love,	37:39
	and this is the clue That John Wesley's doctrine	37:45
	of Christian perfection.	37:48
	Desire not to live, but to praise his name,	37:53
	let all your thoughts, words, and works, tend to his glory.	37:56
	Let your soul be filled with so entire love to him	38:00
	that you may love nothing but for his sake.	38:03
	Whether we eat or whether we drink or whatsoever we do,	38:10
	through all for the glory of God.	38:16
	Or Wesley being a Christian was all a nun.	38:22
	His feeling can be simply stated,	38:26
	can any serious person find a medium	38:29
	that is a halfway house between serving God,	38:35
	and serving the devil?	38:40
	Early in 1738,	38:43
	as he was returning from Savannah back to England,	38:45
	John Wesley wrote a hymn, which expressed the cry	38:47
	of his heart. Oh, grant for nothing in my soul may dwell,	38:50
	but thy love alone. oh may thy love possess me whole.	38:54
	My joy, my treasure and my crown drains fires	39:00
	far from my heart remove.	39:06
	My every act, word, thoughts, love.	39:09
	Such intense piety seems a little too rich for our blood	39:17
	or too individualistic.	39:21
	Read on in Wesley's accounts.	39:24
	And loving God,	39:27
	the Christian loves his neighbor as himself.	39:29
	He loves every man as his own soul. He loves his enemies.	39:32
	Yay, and the enemies of God.	39:36
	And if it be not in his power to do good to them,	39:39
	that hate him yet he ceases not to pray for them.	39:41
	Though they spun his love and still despitefully use him	39:45
	and persecute him fo he is pure in heart.	39:50
	Love has purified his heart from envy, malice, wrath,	39:54
	and every unkind temper.	39:57
	Linking thus the first and great commandment,	40:01
	to love God with everything we've got.	40:04
	And the second like unto it,	40:07
	Wesley was used with God to set in motion forces,	40:09
	which are still moving powerfully in human society.	40:12
	And it is that that I wish to speak now.	40:17
	In the book of discipline to which I've referred,	40:22
	that there included two important historical documents,	40:26
	The Methodist Social Creed,	40:31
	and basic beliefs regarding social issues	40:33
	and moral standards of the evangelical united	40:35
	brethren church.	40:38
	These documents should lay to rest forever	40:41
	among those who acknowledge their grip,	40:45
	the contention that Christianity has no business tampering	40:49
	with social and political matters.	40:52
	There are some in every,	40:56
	nearly every denomination in certain many in my own	40:57
	to claim that the Christian faith has to do	41:01
	only with the salvation of the individual	41:03
	and that it should stay out of the forums,	41:06
	which seek to mold the legislation that regulates	41:08
	the structures of a common life,	41:12
	the structures which make or break men.	41:15
	You know, how pleased you are when some famous person	41:20
	says something you've been and have been trying to say?	41:23
	Well, not long ago,	41:27
	a former moderator of the general assembly	41:28
	of my denomination did just that.	41:31
	He wrote, we believe he was speaking for a truth.	41:33
	We believe strongly that if the church is to be adequate	41:38
	both today and tomorrow, she must in false words,	41:41
	declare the whole council of God.	41:45
	She must proclaim to the world of balanced full on gospel.	41:48
	We're caught up just now in a tug of war between two groups	41:53
	of churchmen. Those who champion individual salvation,	41:58
	and those who champion Christian social action.	42:02
	As a consequence,	42:06
	the body of Christ is afflicted with the disease	42:07
	of either/or.	42:10
	Whereas what is needed is a fresh baptism of both/and.	42:12
	We refuse, said this man,	42:19
	we refuse to choose between doctrine and essence.	42:23
	Between Christianity as a creed and Christianity as a life.	42:27
	Between the inner life of the soul and the outer life	42:32
	of conduct.	42:35
	Between personal salvation and social crusading,	42:37
	we will never get very far in the years ahead,	42:41
	frantically pulling on only one	42:44
	or on only one side of the boat.	42:46
	No friend of Christianity	42:49
	sets the personal gospel over against the social gospel.	42:52
	God meant these for a holy alliance	42:56
	and to neglect either is to lose both.	43:00
	Anyone who reads the New Testament even casually	43:06
	must know that the Christian religion	43:09
	has to do with life, the whole of life mightily	43:11
	and all the time.	43:14
	It is no vacuous piety unrelated to the issues	43:16
	of the real world in which we spend most of our time.	43:19
	Nothing is strictly removed from the concern of religion.	43:24
	Having said this,	43:29
	let us go on to say that the partisans of social action	43:31
	should remember that apart from transformed men and women,	43:35
	the victories we yearn for in society are impossible.	43:40
	Well, there will be lacking the mind that knows the right,	43:45
	the heart that loves the right and the will	43:49
	that works for the right.	43:52
	Those were the words of William Amaliot of Dallas.	43:57
	They described the attitude of Christian maturity,	44:01
	fresh baptism of both end.	44:06
	If we followed such a word,	44:12
	we would be delivered from the moral heresy	44:14
	which selects a few virtues for observance and excuses,	44:16
	one self lapses than others by claiming	44:19
	rectitude in those selected.	44:21
	We know the latent and perhaps unwitting violence	44:26
	of the pietist, who says many prayers,	44:29
	but tries to appear oblivious to the hunger of his neighbor.	44:33
	On the other hand,	44:38
	I do want my social activist friend to be the sort of person	44:39
	I can trust around my women folk.	44:42
	Must we discard the doctrine of Christian perfection?	44:48
	Not I think, if we understand it in terms of maturity,	44:52
	in terms of starting out to become truly human,	44:59
	like Jesus Christ, bending all our desire towards that.	45:02
	Some of us have been involved in seminars at Central Prison	45:08
	in rallies designed to give us understanding of what it is	45:12
	to be incarcerated in that bastion,	45:15
	which was built over a hundred years ago,	45:19
	like a fortress to repel invasion from outside.	45:21
	And it was in no ways suiting for the rehabilitation	45:27
	of criminal minds	45:30
	in order that these men go back to their communities.	45:31
	We have learned that even in maximum security,	45:37
	in that bastion, there is a hierarchy power,	45:40
	only it's a low-archy .	45:44
	The prison psychiatrist described it to us as an inverted	45:46
	pyramid as though the structure was seen,	45:50
	reflected in a lake.	45:53
	Power gravitates, not to the best man in the prison,	45:57
	but to the worst, the most unscrupulous, the meanest,	46:02
	the most grasping.	46:06
	One has in our time an awful sense that something like this	46:11
	is happening in today on the streets of some of our cities	46:15
	and on some of our campuses among our youth.	46:18
	We have a rebel generation.	46:23
	It's easy to understand why they should be repelled	46:26
	by what they term the hypocrisy of the older generation.	46:28
	Yet for all their hypocrisies,	46:34
	those elders have a little grace left enough to be shocked	46:36
	that the youth, their children,	46:41
	have turned away from the middle class virtues.	46:43
	Some of which were sacred to them like chastity.	46:46
	May there not be a common meeting ground	46:51
	for the generations then in this concept of maturity.	46:54
	If parents could see that age, their years alone,	47:00
	do not necessarily mean maturity.	47:04
	And if the kids could see that doing your own thing forever	47:07
	may result in permanent childhood,	47:11
	perhaps our society could get moving again.	47:14
	Show the letter to the Ephesians, to the track for our time.	47:20
	It represents biblical scholars.	47:25
	Tell us the ripening concepts	47:26
	the apostle Paul had shared with his friends	47:29
	in earlier letters.	47:31
	Colossians, he speaks of presenting every man mature	47:34
	in Christ. In Ephesians,	47:37
	the emphasis is on the church as community	47:40
	in which the relation is so organic,	47:44
	that the individuals maturity is seen	47:47
	to be inseparably connected with the maturity	47:50
	of the whole body of Christ, which is the church.	47:54
	And the goal of Christians to be pressing on	47:57
	until we all attain.	48:02
	For the unity of the faith and of the knowledge	48:05
	of the son of God to mature manhood	48:07
	is the measure of the stature of a fullness of price.	48:11
	I'd hoped today that there would be time to talk about	48:19
	the elements that go into the making of maturity.	48:22
	I can only hope now that the chaplain told you all of that	48:24
	two weeks ago.	48:27
	In these concluding moments,	48:30
	allow me to say what you would expect me to see	48:31
	in Ephesians because it's then.	48:34
	It's this verse that mature churchmanship is at acumental.	48:40
	We are to come in the unity of the faith,	48:46
	to the knowledge of the son of God,	48:49
	to the measure of respect of the fullness of Christ.	48:53
	There is one body and one spirit,	48:56
	just as you were called to the one hope that belongs	48:59
	to your call.	49:02
	One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God	49:03
	and father of us all.	49:06
	Who is above all and through all in and all.	49:09
	And this unity is something given the not to be achieved	49:12
	by church unions.	49:16
	But as Francis Fared had said,	49:19
	naturally, this is a true inward unity,	49:20
	but it does not occur to the writer,	49:23
	to imagine that it may not find outward expression.	49:26
	That is why as humanists feel that healing,	49:32
	the unhappy divisions in the church is a part of what is	49:35
	meant by earnestly pursuing the will of God	49:39
	and going on the maturity.	49:44
	Vocation.	49:49
	So breathtaking is that of the church	49:52
	which is to reveal a plan that's surprising	49:55
	even to the angels.	49:58
	Of calling to have a part in the fulfilling	50:01
	of God's vast design for the universe,	50:05
	in the unity that the church should show for,	50:09
	give the pattern of the unity of all things created,	50:13
	show by the harmony of our fellowship,	50:18
	a habiter of the universal harmony there is to come.	50:22
	Such a vocation so breathtaking	50:28
	when rightly sensed should make both young and old	50:31
	begin to ask if doing our own thing as meaning doing	50:36
	what pleases ourselves in childish self-centeredness	50:40
	is being big enough.	50:45
	I was a child. I spoke like a child.	50:48
	I fought like a child. I reasoned like a child.	50:50
	I became a man.	50:54
	I gave up childish ways.	50:57
	Gifts, the skills of individuals	51:00
	are to help build community.	51:04
	A little book called "God Reconciles And Makes Free"	51:10
	George Becared of Oxford has said,	51:14
	He asked first, "What is man?"	51:16
	Then he replied,	51:19
	"He is a creature of contradiction	51:20
	who is capable alike of great good and great evil.	51:23
	Of whose highest achievements are constantly being spoiled	51:27
	and distorted into means of degradation."	51:30
	The Christian diagnosis is that in all this,	51:34
	we see only defective manhood. Man has alienated from God.	51:37
	True manhood is to be seen in Christ.	51:43
	The union of manhood and godhood,	51:46
	which we see in him is what God always intended for man	51:48
	and Christ thus possibility and the actual beginning	51:53
	of a new humanity.	51:57
	Here's where the life lived wholly for God	52:00
	and therefore for the men and women	52:02
	who are the objects of God's love.	52:05
	And the gospel is that we can be drawn into union	52:07
	with his life in such a way as to share his obedience to God	52:12
	and his concern.	52:18
	Amen.	52:22
	They call the earliest Christians disciples	52:26
	or followers of the way.	52:29
	When the father of one of my best friends died,	52:33
	the son said of him.	52:36
	He went a long way on the road	52:38
	a man could walk with Christ in this life.	52:41
	Could any father have a higher hope than that	52:46
	his son could say that of him when time comes for graduation	52:49
	to another life?	52:54
	That text aroused from Ephesians said that,	52:57
	unity of the faith and knowledge of the son of God,	53:00
	lead to maturity.	53:02
	How shall we know him unless we go with him and share his	53:05
	obedience to God and his concern for man.	53:10
	I give you now, again, those words of Albert Schweitzer,	53:16
	He comes to us as one unknown,	53:21
	without a name as of old,	53:24
	by the Lakeside he came to those men who knew him not.	53:27
	He speaks to us the same word, follow thou me.	53:31
	He sets us to the tasks,	53:36
	which he has to fulfill for our time.	53:38
	He commands and to those who obeyed him,	53:42
	whether they be wise or simple,	53:45
	he will reveal himself in the toils,	53:48
	the conflict, the sufferings,	53:51
	Which they shall pass through in his fellowship.	53:54
	And as an ineffable mystery,	53:58
	they shall learn in their own experience who he is.	54:02
	That's great.	54:11
	Father of Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature	54:18
	and in favor with God and man,	54:22
	grant our soul to mature that we may become part	54:25
	of the answer instead of part of the problem.	54:29
	Give us the child like heart,	54:33
	but deliver us from childishness.	54:36
	Teach us in what true freedom lies	54:41
	so that in the liberty of perfect love,	54:45
	we may share the work and the joy of our Lord	54:47
	in his name. Amen.	54:54
	(orchestral music)	54:59
	(choir singing)	55:36
	(orchestral music)	1:00:51
	(choir singing)	1:01:17

Item Info

Title:

Samuel S. Wiley - "Going on to Maturity" (August 2, 1970)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4sj1fs56

Date:

August 2, 1970

Speaker:

Wiley, Samuel S.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0532
ref6267_mod
uachapelsermaud
duke:628326
dcrau002521
ark:/87924/r4sj1fs56
274d7784-e18c-49f4-ba6a-92a5e15a531f

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Samuel S. Wiley - "Going on to Maturity" (August 2, 1970)

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1. Samuel S. Wiley - "Going on to Maturity" (August 2, 1970)

Duke University Archives

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Samuel S. Wiley - "Going on to Maturity" (August 2, 1970)

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