Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choir sings) | 0:12 | |
(choir singing swells) | 0:57 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:23 | |
(choir sings) | 2:02 | |
(serene organ music continues) | 2:27 | |
(choir singing continues) | 2:32 | |
(choir singing continues) | 2:43 | |
(choir singing continues) | 3:25 | |
(choir singing continues) | 3:55 | |
(serene organ music continues) | 4:06 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 4:47 | |
- | Grace be to you and peace from God, our father, | 5:07 |
and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 5:10 | |
We are come together in the presence of all mighty God | 5:14 | |
and of the whole company of Heaven to make our worship, | 5:17 | |
which is to make confession of our sins, | 5:22 | |
to set forth God's praise, to hear his word, | 5:26 | |
to declare our common faith, | 5:30 | |
to ask for ourselves and for all men, | 5:33 | |
those things necessary for the body and the soul, | 5:37 | |
to offer unto him the service of our lives | 5:41 | |
and to receive his blessing. | 5:45 | |
Therefore, remembering the words of Jesus | 5:48 | |
that he came not to call the righteous, | 5:50 | |
but sinners to repentance. | 5:53 | |
Let us continue his worship, | 5:55 | |
as we acknowledge and confess our sins and our failures. | 5:58 | |
Let us pray. | 6:02 | |
All mighty God, our Heavenly father, | 6:08 | |
who standeth beyond both the darkness and the light, | 6:12 | |
who are hidden by the names we give you, | 6:18 | |
who moves in mystery to touch us to life. | 6:23 | |
Grant us, we ask in this hour, | 6:27 | |
the glory and the power of your presence. | 6:29 | |
Oh God, break through the safe customs of our praise. | 6:35 | |
Turn back the thin devices of our devious fear, | 6:40 | |
and let us hear your word reverberate | 6:45 | |
in the high places of our hearts, | 6:48 | |
and in the deep abyss of our need. | 6:51 | |
If our religion has protected us from your mercy | 6:56 | |
or our prayers' smothered our rebellion and sin, | 7:00 | |
or our faith made your grace feudal, | 7:06 | |
then put us straight, undeceive us, | 7:10 | |
and bring us where we will find you our savior | 7:14 | |
and our Lord. | 7:18 | |
God, most merciful and holy, | 7:21 | |
forgive us for the sin of blindness, | 7:24 | |
which sees so superficially that it sees no sin, | 7:27 | |
more deeply still forgive the sins which make us blind, | 7:32 | |
the furious haste, the weary indifference, | 7:38 | |
the hard sophistication, evasive restlessness, | 7:43 | |
the covered guilt and the love of comfort, | 7:50 | |
which so infects our lives. | 7:54 | |
Forgive us and save us we ask | 7:57 | |
from that sin of all sins of denying your love. | 7:59 | |
Forgive us for that denial, | 8:05 | |
which refuses to face you | 8:06 | |
even more for confessing your name, | 8:10 | |
but avoiding your presence. | 8:13 | |
Most of all, for coming into your presence | 8:16 | |
to well-protected by self satisfaction, | 8:19 | |
to be humbled by your glory or meekend by your grace, | 8:22 | |
forgive us, oh God. | 8:28 | |
Open our eyes that we may repent and be saved, | 8:31 | |
have mercy upon us, our father, | 8:36 | |
and restore us unto the joy of your salvation. | 8:39 | |
Giving us an understanding of those conditions among us | 8:44 | |
that are an offense to you, | 8:48 | |
that are contrary to your spirit of love and compassion. | 8:50 | |
That we may learn of you | 8:55 | |
and be living expressions of your love | 8:57 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 9:00 | |
Hear now these words of assurance from the new covenant. | 9:08 | |
If anyone is in Jesus, the Christ, he is a new being. | 9:14 | |
The old has passed away and the new has come. | 9:20 | |
The chain of complicity linking our lives to pasted guilt | 9:26 | |
and sin has been snapped by the forgiving love of God. | 9:30 | |
The door of our freedom is open | 9:36 | |
and we may walk forward in hope. | 9:38 | |
In the words of our Lord, himself, to a repenting sinner, | 9:42 | |
"Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. | 9:47 | |
Go and sin no more." | 9:53 | |
It's an expression of our thanks unto the God | 9:58 | |
who has given us | 10:01 | |
the possibility of forgiveness and free grace. | 10:02 | |
Let us join in our unison prayer of thanksgiving. | 10:06 | |
Let us pray. | 10:10 | |
We call to you Lord out of our distress and you answered us. | 10:13 | |
You heard our voices. | 10:19 | |
We said, we are cast out from your presence. | 10:22 | |
How shall we again, look upon your holy temple. | 10:26 | |
The waters closed in over us. | 10:30 | |
The deep was round about us. | 10:33 | |
Yet you brought up our life from the pit. | 10:36 | |
Oh Lord, our God. | 10:39 | |
When our souls fainted within us, | 10:42 | |
we remembered the Lord | 10:45 | |
and our prayers came to you into your holy temple. | 10:47 | |
With the voice of thanksgiving, we will sacrifice to you. | 10:52 | |
Deliverance belongs to the Lord. | 10:56 | |
Amen. | 11:00 | |
(serene organ music) | 11:04 | |
(serene organ music continues) | 12:18 | |
(choir sings) | 12:50 | |
(women sing) | 14:12 | |
(men sing) | 14:25 | |
(choir sings) | 14:29 | |
- | The scripture lesson for the day is taken from the Gospel | 15:15 |
According to Saint John 17:20-26. | 15:18 | |
Let us hear the word of God. | 15:25 | |
"I do not pray for these only, | 15:30 | |
but also for those who are to believe in me | 15:34 | |
through their word, that they may all be one. | 15:37 | |
Even as thou father art in me | 15:42 | |
and I in thee that they also may be in us | 15:45 | |
so that the world may believe | 15:49 | |
that thou has sent me. | 15:52 | |
The glory which thou has given me, | 15:55 | |
I have given to them that they may be one, | 15:57 | |
even as we are one. | 16:01 | |
I in them, and thou in me | 16:04 | |
that they may become perfectly one | 16:07 | |
so that the world may know | 16:10 | |
that thou has sent me and has loved them, | 16:12 | |
even as thou has loved me. | 16:15 | |
Father, I desire that they also, thou has given me, | 16:19 | |
may be with me where I am to be hold my glory, | 16:24 | |
which thou has given me and thy love for me, | 16:30 | |
before the foundation of the world. | 16:33 | |
Oh, righteous father, | 16:36 | |
the world has not known thee, but I have known thee. | 16:38 | |
And these know that thou has sent me. | 16:43 | |
I made known to them thy name. | 16:47 | |
And I will make it known that the love | 16:51 | |
with which thou has loved me, | 16:54 | |
may be in them and I in them." | 16:56 | |
Here ends the reading of the lesson. | 17:01 | |
(serene organ music) | 17:04 | |
(choir sings) | 17:15 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 17:50 |
(congregation calls) | 17:52 | |
Let us pray. | 17:54 | |
Oh God of mercy, and God of love | 18:07 | |
who has commanded us to care for one another, | 18:12 | |
as you care for us. | 18:15 | |
Hear are intercessions for our brothers, we ask. | 18:17 | |
With this offer unto God, | 18:23 | |
our prayers for the church, universal. | 18:25 | |
Lord, we intercede for your church in all its branches | 18:30 | |
and members throughout the world, | 18:35 | |
be with and help those who seek to live across | 18:38 | |
the reconciliation and the great cities of this world, | 18:42 | |
where men congregate. | 18:46 | |
Empower those who carry the concern of Christ | 18:49 | |
to lonely homes, far apart and scattered hills and valleys. | 18:53 | |
Animate your church, in this land we ask, oh God, | 19:00 | |
make it worthy of the great gifts it has received from you. | 19:06 | |
Purge from it all that is self seeking | 19:10 | |
and subversive of faith, of love and of purity. | 19:14 | |
God, whose son has taught us that we're members of one body, | 19:23 | |
hear now our prayers for our sisters' and brothers' needs. | 19:28 | |
Each of us brings before in and holy remembrance, | 19:35 | |
our Heavenly father loved ones and friends, | 19:38 | |
our brothers whose faces and names we know. | 19:44 | |
And our brothers, when we know not. | 19:48 | |
Some are in far lands, | 19:52 | |
some in barren places, enduring loneliness, | 19:55 | |
hardship and peril, some are facing pain and suffering, | 19:58 | |
and perhaps even death this day, | 20:03 | |
some are confronted by perplexities | 20:08 | |
or wearied by monotonous duties, | 20:11 | |
all bearing the burdens of this world. | 20:15 | |
Struggle and striving everywhere to live | 20:17 | |
and to be found worthy of their fellow men | 20:21 | |
on those who stand in the circle of our hearts concern, | 20:25 | |
oh God, we pray the outpouring of your life giving spirit. | 20:28 | |
May your love penetrate their condition | 20:36 | |
and quench their hunger and bring peace. | 20:40 | |
Oh, God from whom the whole family | 20:46 | |
in Heaven and earth is named, | 20:48 | |
let your fatherly blessing descend upon the family of men. | 20:51 | |
On this day, when we honor our fathers, | 20:57 | |
we remember that you uncovered your face to us | 21:01 | |
in Jesus the Christ, and call us to be your sons. | 21:05 | |
We remember that we had no face until we reflected the face | 21:13 | |
of our fathers, our loved ones and our friends. | 21:16 | |
It was through them that we became human. | 21:22 | |
Oh God, hallow, and strengthened | 21:26 | |
to all fathers and children, | 21:30 | |
the joys and the cares that are the gift of their special | 21:32 | |
relationship to the end that each may become even more | 21:36 | |
deeply, rightly, and richly human, | 21:42 | |
after the fashion of Christ. | 21:47 | |
Lord, we come to you with our needs and our petitions, | 21:53 | |
strange mixture of common men and women. | 21:58 | |
A few among us are good people. | 22:05 | |
Some are evil who bear your name, | 22:09 | |
but most are never either, like most men in most places, | 22:12 | |
some of us are here for love of you and our brothers, | 22:19 | |
but many of us out of a restless curiosity | 22:24 | |
for want of a better temple. | 22:27 | |
We are men of moderation in both virtue and vice, | 22:30 | |
which is to say, we maintain a pale neutrality, oh God, | 22:34 | |
we have an allergy to risk. | 22:39 | |
We don't often fail, but then we don't often try. | 22:43 | |
We are a safety first people | 22:47 | |
more concerned with the state of our stocks than our souls. | 22:50 | |
We are drab strangers. | 22:55 | |
Oh, God, help us to reach out in our need of new life. | 22:58 | |
Out of the mud of first chaos, | 23:06 | |
you brought meaning and creation, | 23:08 | |
out of the dark smells of a tomb, | 23:12 | |
you brought joy in the morning, | 23:13 | |
out of a confused babble folk, | 23:16 | |
you brought a Pentecostal people of joy. | 23:19 | |
Out of us, surely you can do it all again. | 23:24 | |
Take our commonness our curiosity, our restlessness, | 23:29 | |
our indecision, our neutrality, our musty moderation, | 23:36 | |
and pour into us, even us, | 23:43 | |
the life giving spirit of our Lord. | 23:48 | |
Teach us, oh Lord, the song of the Pilgrim community, | 23:53 | |
which was a song filled with courage and questions, | 23:58 | |
but also filled with joy and with faith, | 24:02 | |
teach us to be free and human men and women, | 24:06 | |
to embrace lived values, diverse styles, | 24:10 | |
and loving conflicts through Jesus thy son, | 24:14 | |
our brother and Lord taught us to pray together | 24:20 | |
as Christians saying, "Our father who art in Heaven, | 24:23 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 24:29 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. | 24:33 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread | 24:38 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 24:41 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 24:43 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 24:47 | |
but deliver us from evil | 24:50 | |
for thine is the kingdom and the power | 24:53 | |
and the glory forever." | 24:56 | |
Amen. | 25:00 | |
- | I greet you in the name of Christ | 25:22 |
and I'm happy to be sharing | 25:27 | |
a service of Christian worship with you. | 25:29 | |
And in the context of this worship, | 25:33 | |
I would like now to offer some thoughts, | 25:36 | |
which I hope will be helpful to us in our life | 25:39 | |
and the various communities of which we are a part | 25:44 | |
and in which we move. | 25:49 | |
The unexamined life is not worth living. | 25:54 | |
That familiar statement is not a verse from the Bible | 26:01 | |
to be used as a text for this sermon. | 26:05 | |
We'll get to the biblical text in a little while. | 26:10 | |
Let's first look though at this sentence, | 26:14 | |
which I have quoted, | 26:17 | |
which has come down to us from ancient Greece | 26:19 | |
rather than from the Hebrews. | 26:23 | |
Many of you I'm sure recognize it as a dictum of Socrates | 26:26 | |
recorded by his famous student Plato in the "Apology." | 26:32 | |
When Plato quoted Socrates, | 26:40 | |
as having said that the unexamined life is not worth living, | 26:43 | |
he preserved a statement | 26:48 | |
which was destined to be repeated millions of times | 26:50 | |
in halls of learning across 22 centuries. | 26:54 | |
The assumptions inherent in this statement | 27:00 | |
and in its implied positive counterpart. | 27:04 | |
Namely the examined life is worth living, | 27:08 | |
are very basic to the whole academic enterprise, | 27:13 | |
not only of Duke University, | 27:16 | |
but all other schools. | 27:18 | |
Indeed with justification, | 27:21 | |
it might be said that college and university | 27:23 | |
existence is the examined life. | 27:25 | |
Someone has said that it is the business of universities | 27:31 | |
to examine and correct the teachings of common sense | 27:35 | |
and appearance, if you get in your car | 27:40 | |
and drive a days journey, and if at the end of the day, | 27:47 | |
you have only common sense to guide you, | 27:51 | |
it's almost inevitable | 27:55 | |
that you will assume the earth to be flat, | 27:57 | |
but the university examines that assumption | 28:01 | |
and declares it false. | 28:04 | |
Long before the astronauts circled the earth, | 28:07 | |
the university scientists | 28:10 | |
had chartered a world that is round, not flat. | 28:11 | |
In like manner, the academic life constantly | 28:18 | |
corrects the errors of appearance. | 28:23 | |
If you were to rise very early tomorrow morning | 28:28 | |
and take a lawn chair with you | 28:31 | |
and sit all day from dawn to dark in the middle of the quad, | 28:33 | |
it would appear to you that the sun rose in the east, | 28:38 | |
that it passed over your head, moving ever westward. | 28:44 | |
And finally it sank below the horizon. | 28:49 | |
And as Thomas Gray would phrase it, | 28:53 | |
"Left the world to darkness and to you." | 28:56 | |
But if you then picked up your lawn chair | 29:01 | |
and consulted the accumulated discoveries of the university, | 29:04 | |
it would become clear to you that what you learned | 29:08 | |
by trusting appearances was false, completely false. | 29:12 | |
The sun had not been on any such journey at all. | 29:20 | |
You were the one making the trip. | 29:24 | |
While sitting all day in that lawn chair | 29:27 | |
in the middle of the quad, | 29:29 | |
you had actually traveled many thousands of miles. | 29:30 | |
Now it is precisely because the inquiring mind has corrected | 29:35 | |
an uncountable number of such errors that the examined life | 29:40 | |
has come to be evidently referred above common sense | 29:46 | |
and appearance. | 29:51 | |
In our culture today, | 29:54 | |
the examined life is in and common sense is out | 29:55 | |
Indeed, the examined life | 30:02 | |
has come to be the intellectual establishment | 30:03 | |
and the priests of the cult | 30:07 | |
have generally accepted societies appraisal of them | 30:09 | |
as being among the most valuable man in the world. | 30:12 | |
Now, the reason why all of this has crept into a sermon | 30:19 | |
is that there is a tendency for corruption to beset | 30:23 | |
everything which gains on critical acceptance. | 30:27 | |
However healthy and sound, | 30:32 | |
the main body of the establishment may be, | 30:34 | |
there is always a tendency | 30:38 | |
for some of its members to become corrupt | 30:40 | |
and to take unhealthy advantage of the favorite position | 30:44 | |
which they hold. | 30:49 | |
Sometimes this corrupted form of the establishment threatens | 30:51 | |
to invalidate and to discredit the central reality | 30:56 | |
of which it is a distortion. | 31:00 | |
This must not be allowed to happen. | 31:04 | |
And it is the desire to prevent its occurrence, | 31:11 | |
which prompts this sermon today. | 31:15 | |
What am I talking about? And why is it so important? | 31:18 | |
Well, I'm talking about the concept of examination, | 31:23 | |
which many people hold today. | 31:29 | |
The difficulty is that in some circles, | 31:32 | |
examination has come to mean criticism exclusively | 31:36 | |
and criticism has come to mean negative criticism | 31:44 | |
and negative criticism | 31:51 | |
has scorned the companionship of positive support. | 31:55 | |
That's what I'm talking about. | 32:02 | |
The end result of this downward spiral | 32:05 | |
is the production of a steady stream of negative criticism, | 32:10 | |
devoid of any tangible evidence of endorsement, | 32:17 | |
but a criticism which claims for itself, all the prestige, | 32:22 | |
the status, the justification | 32:28 | |
and the protection of the establishment. | 32:30 | |
In the circles, therefor, | 32:36 | |
the examined life has come to mean, | 32:38 | |
let's face it, the negatively criticized life. | 32:41 | |
One of the most obvious characteristics of this trend | 32:49 | |
is its failure to examine itself. | 32:52 | |
It examines all assumptions except its own assumptions. | 32:58 | |
It criticizes everything except criticism. | 33:04 | |
It has a completely positive attitude | 33:09 | |
toward negative examination | 33:12 | |
and its chief affirmation is denial. | 33:16 | |
Today I am here to say | 33:23 | |
that this kind of criticism needs to be criticized | 33:26 | |
and this concept of examination needs to be examined. | 33:30 | |
To be sure that what I am saying is understood | 33:36 | |
and not misunderstood, let me attempt an illustration. | 33:40 | |
Suppose that we were to change the arena of our thoughts | 33:46 | |
this morning, | 33:50 | |
so that instead of considering the so credit thesis | 33:54 | |
that the unexamined life is not worth living, | 33:57 | |
we were to consider the engineering thesis | 34:01 | |
that the unexamined bridge is not worth driving over. | 34:05 | |
I believe such a thesis as that | 34:11 | |
could be successfully defended. | 34:13 | |
Here's a bridge spanning a mighty gorge. | 34:17 | |
Both ends of the bridge | 34:21 | |
are connected to ribbons of concrete, | 34:22 | |
which stretch to the horizon and either direction. | 34:24 | |
The construction crew has completed its work | 34:28 | |
and is preparing to depart. | 34:31 | |
All of a sudden a huge tractor trailer truck | 34:35 | |
comes rolling along one of those ribbons of concrete. | 34:38 | |
And as it approaches the bridge, | 34:43 | |
the driver brings his truck and its cargo to a halt, | 34:44 | |
knowing that the bridge is new. | 34:48 | |
He asks the contractor if the bridge has been inspected | 34:52 | |
by an authorized and competent examiner. | 34:56 | |
And let us suppose that in reply, | 35:01 | |
the contractor invites the driver | 35:02 | |
to look at the bridge for himself. | 35:04 | |
And although the driver admits that it appears to be sound, | 35:07 | |
he insists he wants more assurance than mere appearance. | 35:13 | |
So the contractor appeals to common sense | 35:19 | |
and asked the driver if he thinks a licensed contractor | 35:22 | |
would want to build an unsafe bridge. | 35:25 | |
Again, the truck driver's dissatisfied | 35:28 | |
with common sense demands, | 35:30 | |
a rigorous examination of the bridge. | 35:32 | |
He will not trust his cargo and his life | 35:35 | |
on that bridge without it, | 35:38 | |
he says the unexamined bridge is not worth driving over. | 35:41 | |
Finally, a certified examiner comes, | 35:47 | |
gives the bridge a rigorous examination using instruments, | 35:50 | |
standards, as critically accurate as can be devised. | 35:54 | |
And let us suppose that he finds the bridge to be completely | 35:59 | |
sound and entirely safe and he so announces. | 36:03 | |
Thus opening the bridge to traffic. | 36:10 | |
Now, if you have followed me up to this point, | 36:13 | |
I have a question. | 36:17 | |
Does this certified examiner | 36:20 | |
in order to approve his competence | 36:24 | |
and to establish his usefulness to society | 36:27 | |
have to stand there by the bridge day in and day out, | 36:31 | |
pouring forth a steady stream of negative criticism | 36:37 | |
directed first at the bridge, next at the builders, | 36:42 | |
and now at the architect? | 36:45 | |
Does he? | 36:48 | |
Indeed were the examiner to behave in this way | 36:53 | |
for only a few days, | 36:56 | |
his family would call the hospital and asked the men | 36:59 | |
in white coats to go for it father's day or no father's day. | 37:03 | |
By means of this analogy, | 37:10 | |
I hope to suggest the truth that rigorous examination | 37:12 | |
and honest inquiry do not of necessity lead to denunciation | 37:18 | |
and to suggest the concept | 37:25 | |
that the negatively criticized life, | 37:30 | |
that concept is a perversion of the true concept | 37:36 | |
of the examined life. | 37:40 | |
A perversion of it. | 37:44 | |
Moreover, when we find an individual engaging | 37:47 | |
in the production of nothing but negative criticism, | 37:50 | |
we have to call into question his objectivity, | 37:54 | |
his balance and his motivation. | 37:57 | |
Were this chronic critic to be a single man living alone | 38:03 | |
on an otherwise deserted island in the south seas, | 38:10 | |
his negative bias might be the least one of his problems. | 38:14 | |
But if instead he is a member of a group, | 38:19 | |
if he is a participant in community, | 38:22 | |
and if his negative criticisms are directed | 38:25 | |
from week to week | 38:28 | |
toward the community of which he is a member, | 38:29 | |
then his negative bias | 38:33 | |
becomes a source of inescapable concern | 38:34 | |
to the community off which he is apart. | 38:37 | |
The community may be a family, a fraternity, | 38:41 | |
a church or a university. | 38:44 | |
In any case, I think the principle is the same. | 38:47 | |
The person who is seeking to live the examined life | 38:53 | |
in any given community must ask himself | 38:56 | |
whether he is a responsible member of that community. | 39:01 | |
Whether on the one hand, | 39:06 | |
his negative criticisms of it constitute enmity, disloyalty, | 39:07 | |
or a paranoid type of sickness, | 39:13 | |
or whether on the other hand, | 39:17 | |
they represent the intelligent efforts | 39:18 | |
of a loyal member of that community to improve it. | 39:21 | |
There is one sure way by which he can convince | 39:27 | |
both himself and the members of his community, | 39:30 | |
that the purpose | 39:32 | |
and the effect of his fault finding is constructive. | 39:34 | |
And here it is, | 39:39 | |
if prior to and along with his negative criticism, | 39:41 | |
he offers tangible, | 39:47 | |
sincere, and convincing evidence of support. | 39:49 | |
His community can likewise accept his fault finding | 39:56 | |
as being sincere. | 40:00 | |
Otherwise he must, | 40:04 | |
the community must look upon the chronic carping critic | 40:05 | |
as being an enemy of the community, | 40:10 | |
operating from within it. | 40:12 | |
As a disloyal member of the community, | 40:15 | |
or as a sick person, knowing this, | 40:20 | |
the enemy and the disloyal member | 40:26 | |
are often prone to pretend just enough endorsement | 40:29 | |
to escape the accusation that they never give support. | 40:33 | |
But when the chronic critic praises the community of which | 40:39 | |
he's a part, it is with such faint praise, | 40:42 | |
that the effect is damning rather than supporting. | 40:45 | |
When he does give as sent to his community, | 40:50 | |
it is with a civil leer. | 40:53 | |
And if he manages to avoid snaring, | 40:56 | |
he at least teaches others to sneer. | 40:58 | |
For a few moments | 41:04 | |
let us look at some of the communities | 41:05 | |
of which we are members. | 41:07 | |
First think of that community of learning | 41:11 | |
known as Duke University. | 41:14 | |
Like every other vital group, | 41:19 | |
this one needs to be examined. | 41:22 | |
And often the examination will lead to criticism. | 41:25 | |
But again, like every other group, | 41:30 | |
this university has a right to expect that it's critics, | 41:31 | |
especially if they are personally benefiting | 41:36 | |
from the university, shall give tangible, | 41:39 | |
sincere and convincing evidence of support. | 41:43 | |
Let me cite an example of what I mean, | 41:49 | |
in the academic year, 1965, 66, | 41:53 | |
a coed by the name of Libby Faulk | 41:57 | |
was editor of the Duke Chronicle. | 42:01 | |
She contributed through the pages of the Chronical | 42:04 | |
her full share of negative criticism | 42:07 | |
of this academic community. | 42:10 | |
I paid attention when she criticized, | 42:14 | |
because I could not forget the editorial she wrote | 42:18 | |
in the very first edition she published | 42:23 | |
when school opened in September, | 42:26 | |
let me read you just a part of that editorial. | 42:29 | |
"The walls have opened again," she wrote, | 42:35 | |
"to let in 1,217 new pairs of feet. | 42:37 | |
You come here as a freshmen | 42:42 | |
as the next month stretch into years, | 42:46 | |
you'll hear criticisms of practically | 42:48 | |
every aspect of this university. | 42:51 | |
Everyone will be pointing out problems, | 42:53 | |
objecting to things that seem wrong, | 42:56 | |
complaining of various lacks. | 42:58 | |
Soon, you too will be one of the critics, | 43:02 | |
but realize this now while your enthusiasm is still intact. | 43:05 | |
Most of us who criticize are working to improve something | 43:13 | |
we think is worth improving. | 43:19 | |
This is a good school." | 43:22 | |
Exclamation point on unquote. | 43:26 | |
Libby Faulk had earned the right to criticize | 43:31 | |
and both her criticism and her support | 43:35 | |
should be taken seriously. | 43:38 | |
Each made a contribution that year | 43:41 | |
to the strengthening of the university. | 43:44 | |
Think next about this principle, if you will. | 43:49 | |
And the life of that community, | 43:52 | |
which we call the United States, | 43:54 | |
our nation and particularly its government | 43:57 | |
needs to be examined rigorously. | 44:01 | |
That examination will often lead to criticism. | 44:05 | |
The late President John F. Kennedy | 44:10 | |
was one who never shrank from honest criticism. | 44:13 | |
He often made jokes even out of the criticisms | 44:17 | |
which were directed personally at him. | 44:20 | |
And yet even this unusually tolerant man | 44:23 | |
understood the depth and the width of the chasm, | 44:27 | |
which separates supportive criticism, | 44:31 | |
from irresponsible denunciation. | 44:34 | |
On November 22nd, 1963 President Kennedy | 44:38 | |
rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas | 44:42 | |
taking with him in his hand, a speech, | 44:46 | |
which he was on the way to deliver. | 44:50 | |
The bullets of an assassin cut him down, | 44:53 | |
as we all know, before he could deliver that address. | 44:56 | |
But the world now has a copy of what this great man | 45:00 | |
was planning to say on that day. | 45:03 | |
One sentence from that speech is lodged in my consciousness, | 45:07 | |
and here it is. | 45:12 | |
"There will be dissident voices heard | 45:14 | |
in our land finding fault, | 45:17 | |
but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side | 45:20 | |
and seeking influence without responsibility. | 45:27 | |
Well, the loyal citizen who loves his country, | 45:33 | |
will offer it the best fruit of his intellect. | 45:35 | |
He will examine its policies | 45:38 | |
in the light of his keenest judgment. | 45:40 | |
Sometimes this examination will lead him to criticize. | 45:44 | |
Sometimes it will lead him to approve, | 45:48 | |
but he will be just as ready to approve as to criticize. | 45:51 | |
And he will both realize and acknowledge | 45:57 | |
that his own personal destiny | 46:00 | |
is involved with the health of his national community. | 46:02 | |
If he is wise, as well as perceptive, | 46:07 | |
he will know that negativistic and chronic | 46:11 | |
and carping criticism does not contribute to that health." | 46:14 | |
Well, third and finally, | 46:20 | |
let's look at the relevance of all this | 46:22 | |
to the community of faith. | 46:24 | |
Is there a place for an examining mind in the church? | 46:27 | |
Is criticism valid in a religious group? | 46:35 | |
Our Lord Jesus Christ, commended childlike faith, | 46:41 | |
and declared that only those who are like children | 46:46 | |
shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven. | 46:49 | |
And yet it does not seem that the Socratic proneness | 46:52 | |
to examine all things, | 46:56 | |
isn't any kind of necessary conflict with childlike faith. | 47:00 | |
If in the church, | 47:06 | |
the emphasis is upon examination with open, | 47:07 | |
willingness to criticize or to endorse such examination can | 47:11 | |
be a useful companion to the trusting faith, | 47:16 | |
which Jesus called for. | 47:20 | |
On the other hand, if in a religious group, | 47:24 | |
examination becomes criticism exclusively | 47:26 | |
and criticism becomes negative criticism | 47:29 | |
and negative criticism scorns any meaningful support. | 47:32 | |
Then we have a situation in that religious group, | 47:36 | |
which is as disloyal or sick as is the case in any other | 47:39 | |
type of community in which negativistic bias operates. | 47:44 | |
When the examined Christian life | 47:50 | |
becomes the negatively criticized Christian life, | 47:53 | |
it stands in danger of ceasing to be community at all. | 47:58 | |
From the very beginning of the Christian Church, | 48:05 | |
it has been criticized and rightly so | 48:08 | |
and would have been extremely unhealthy without it. | 48:11 | |
But it is interesting to observe that it's most penetrating | 48:15 | |
critics have always been members of the church | 48:19 | |
and its most helpful critics | 48:24 | |
have always been those who have given tangible, | 48:26 | |
sincere and convincing evidence of support | 48:29 | |
to the community they criticized. | 48:33 | |
There are two contemporary religious writers | 48:39 | |
who illustrate how constructive and destructive criticism | 48:42 | |
work within the community of faith. | 48:46 | |
One is the German academic preacher Helmet Thielicke. | 48:50 | |
The other is an American seminary professor, | 48:54 | |
Peter Berger. | 48:57 | |
Thielicke has a quarrel with the church, | 49:00 | |
but it is a lover's quarrel. | 49:03 | |
Berger has a quarrel with the church, | 49:07 | |
but it is no lover's quarrel. | 49:09 | |
Thielicke criticizes the church | 49:13 | |
in such fashion that his readers | 49:14 | |
become very interested in the criticism | 49:16 | |
and they recognize the accuracy | 49:21 | |
of the criticism he is making. | 49:23 | |
They are inspired to renew the church, to correct it, | 49:25 | |
to discipline it and to join with Thielicke in | 49:29 | |
making it responsive to its Lord. | 49:32 | |
Berger on the other hand, | 49:37 | |
distorts the weaknesses of the church, | 49:38 | |
pretends that exceptionally bad situation are normative, | 49:42 | |
seems to delight in finding fault with the church. | 49:47 | |
And as a result inspires his readers to sneer at it. | 49:52 | |
I think there's great wisdom in the kind of balance | 49:57 | |
suggested by the late Dr. William Preston Few, | 50:00 | |
the first president of Duke University, | 50:04 | |
who declared in a 1937 baccalaureate address | 50:07 | |
while standing in this very pulpit, these words. | 50:11 | |
"Our ancestral religion is our richest inheritance, | 50:15 | |
but it must be constantly touched by the spirit of progress. | 50:20 | |
The problem is to take the good | 50:26 | |
that has come to us out of the past | 50:28 | |
and adjusted to the conditions of the present | 50:32 | |
and the needs of the future." | 50:35 | |
End of quote. | 50:38 | |
What it's fashionable these days | 50:41 | |
for some campus religious groups all across America | 50:42 | |
to spend the majority of their time in bad mouthing | 50:47 | |
the institutional church, | 50:50 | |
sobering thought is that | 50:53 | |
these campus branches of the church would cease to exist | 50:55 | |
if the institutional church where as critical of them, | 51:00 | |
as some of them are of it. | 51:04 | |
Because if it were, | 51:07 | |
it would terminate its financial support of them, | 51:09 | |
and that would be the end. | 51:12 | |
Fortunately, the institutional church is more tolerant | 51:15 | |
and supportive of its perfect critics than they are of it. | 51:19 | |
So the church moves ahead in dialogue, | 51:25 | |
but what the carpet critic is | 51:30 | |
and what he is in a religious group, | 51:34 | |
is a person who must remember that negativistic criticisms | 51:38 | |
without convincing evidences of support, | 51:44 | |
destroy community by destroying personal relationships. | 51:47 | |
And when these are gone, there is very little left. | 51:52 | |
The presence of a given number of warm bodies in a group | 51:58 | |
does not guarantee community. | 52:02 | |
There is not some trust, some mutual acceptance and support. | 52:05 | |
The chronic critic destroys Christian community. | 52:12 | |
And when one does this, | 52:16 | |
he assumes a very heavy responsibility. | 52:20 | |
I am very happy to say this morning | 52:24 | |
that there is a more excellent way. | 52:26 | |
It is the way of love, when there is charity, | 52:30 | |
when there is genuine care and concern, | 52:35 | |
even sharp criticism | 52:40 | |
is not really painful and destructive. | 52:43 | |
For we speak the truth to each other | 52:48 | |
in love as Paul wrote to the Ephesians. | 52:50 | |
In Jesus Christ's high priestly prayer, | 52:57 | |
which was read as our scripture lesson today, | 53:01 | |
Christ prayed that his disciples might be one O-N-E | 53:06 | |
so that the world might believe in him. | 53:13 | |
Now, even before Christ came, | 53:17 | |
the Psalmist knew that it was both good and pleasant | 53:20 | |
for brothers to dwell together in unity. | 53:25 | |
Our Heavenly father, | 53:30 | |
it is still good for brothers to dwell together in unity. | 53:33 | |
Still on this Sunday, | 53:38 | |
we pray that the disciples and followers of Jesus, | 53:42 | |
may be one in his name, we ask it. | 53:46 | |
Amen. | 53:50 | |
(serene organ music) | 53:56 | |
(choir sings) | 54:29 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 55:33 | |
(slow low organ music) | 55:49 | |
(lively organ music) | 57:40 | |
(choir sings in foreign language) | 57:46 | |
(women sing in foreign language) | 58:37 | |
(choir sings in foreign language) | 58:57 | |
(serene organ music) | 59:29 | |
(choir sings) | 59:35 | |
(choir singing swells) | 1:00:46 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:01:19 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:01:33 | |
(choir sings) | 1:01:57 | |
- | Oh Lord, our God, | 1:02:56 |
you have given us life and earth and freedom. | 1:02:58 | |
Receive this, our response of thanksgiving and praise, | 1:03:03 | |
we ask, send your holy spirit | 1:03:07 | |
to hollow our gifts to perfect the offering of ourselves | 1:03:11 | |
and in the service of your love. | 1:03:16 | |
Go forth now to do God's work in the world. | 1:03:22 | |
May the love of God, | 1:03:27 | |
the father almighty, the son, and the holy spirit | 1:03:28 | |
rest and abide with you now and forever more. | 1:03:34 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:43 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:48 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:54 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:59 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:04:10 |
Item Info
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