Chester A. Pennington - "The Church as Counter - Culture" (December 12, 1971)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(congregation singing) | 0:07 | |
- | Dearly beloved on this founder's day, | 2:31 |
as we begin our service of worship to God, | 2:35 | |
may we unite our hearts and our prayer | 2:38 | |
to the heavenly father. | 2:42 | |
Oh God, we have come into your presence | 2:47 | |
not because we are worthy, but because you have called us. | 2:50 | |
We are indeed not worthy unless you make us worthy. | 2:57 | |
You have created us for righteousness, | 3:02 | |
but we have been unrighteous. | 3:05 | |
You have called us to be loving. | 3:08 | |
But as we think about it, | 3:10 | |
we know that we have been more selfish than loving. | 3:11 | |
You have set good example before us, | 3:17 | |
but we often have followed bad examples instead. | 3:19 | |
When offered Christ or Barabbas, | 3:24 | |
we have sometimes chosen Barabbas and have crucified Christ. | 3:27 | |
Even in the Christmas season, | 3:33 | |
we have given more thought to what we are going to get. | 3:35 | |
And we have to the possibility | 3:38 | |
that the Christ event may reoccur in our hearts. | 3:40 | |
We confess that we have shown too little gratitude | 3:46 | |
for what our founders did for our university. | 3:49 | |
We have usually accepted their gifts as a matter of course | 3:53 | |
and even complained that | 3:57 | |
we have not had more things done for us. | 3:59 | |
We confess that we have had a tendency | 4:03 | |
to blame somebody else for everything we don't like | 4:05 | |
and have not been willing to assess | 4:08 | |
our own share of responsibility. | 4:10 | |
Now, oh God, in this moment of honesty, | 4:14 | |
we confess all this wrongdoing and wrong thinking, | 4:18 | |
and we pray that you will take it away, | 4:22 | |
that you will forgive us, that you will make us | 4:25 | |
by your grace worthy to be in your presence. | 4:28 | |
And to keep us honest in Jesus name, amen. | 4:33 | |
In the Christian scheme of things, | 4:44 | |
there are certain steps which follow other steps. | 4:47 | |
When a person has come into the presence of God | 4:51 | |
and has acknowledged that he is less than God, | 4:55 | |
into the presence of beauty | 5:00 | |
and has acknowledged that he is not beautiful. | 5:02 | |
In the presence of love | 5:05 | |
and has acknowledged his own lack of love, | 5:07 | |
and is asked to be restored to the fellowship of God. | 5:11 | |
The Christian answer is that God forgives him, | 5:16 | |
restores him, accepts him, | 5:24 | |
owns him as a son or as a daughter, | 5:27 | |
and gives him new grace. | 5:31 | |
For the scriptures say, if we confess our sins, | 5:34 | |
he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins | 5:37 | |
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. | 5:42 | |
And because of that, we are thankful. | 5:46 | |
And because of that, we now join together our hearts | 5:49 | |
and our voices in our unison prayer of thanksgiving. | 5:51 | |
Let us pray. | 5:55 | |
Almighty God, whose mercy is over thy works. | 5:57 | |
We praise thee for the blessings | 6:02 | |
which have been brought to mankind by thy holy church | 6:04 | |
throughout the world. | 6:08 | |
We bless thee for the grace of thy sacraments, | 6:10 | |
for our fellowship in Christ with thee | 6:13 | |
and with one another, | 6:16 | |
for the teaching of the scriptures | 6:18 | |
and for the preaching of thy word. | 6:20 | |
We thank thee for the holy example | 6:23 | |
of thy saints in all ages, | 6:25 | |
for thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear, | 6:28 | |
and for the memory and example | 6:32 | |
of all that has been true and good in their lives. | 6:34 | |
And we humbly beseech thee that we may be numbered with them | 6:39 | |
in the great company of the redeemed in heaven, | 6:43 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 6:46 | |
And now as our savior Christ has taught us, | 6:50 | |
we humbly pray. | 6:52 | |
Our father who art in heaven | 6:54 | |
hallowed be your name. | 6:57 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 6:59 | |
as it is in heaven. | 7:03 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 7:05 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 7:08 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 7:10 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 7:14 | |
but deliver us for from evil, | 7:17 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 7:19 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 7:21 | |
Amen. | 7:24 | |
(congregation singing) | 7:42 | |
- | The lesson is from the 12th chapter of Romans. | 8:31 |
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers | 8:38 | |
and beg of you in view of God's mercies | 8:42 | |
that you offer your very selves to him a living sacrifice, | 8:46 | |
dedicated and fit for his acceptance, which is the worship. | 8:52 | |
It is right for you to give him. | 8:57 | |
Do not let the world around you | 9:00 | |
squeeze you into its own mold, | 9:02 | |
but let yourselves be transformed | 9:06 | |
by a renewing of your minds. | 9:08 | |
So as to find and follow God's will. | 9:11 | |
That is what is good, well pleasing to him, and perfect. | 9:16 | |
For by the favor that God has shown me, | 9:21 | |
I would tell every one of you | 9:24 | |
not to estimate himself above his real value, | 9:26 | |
but to think with sober judgment, | 9:30 | |
according to the measure of faith which God has given him. | 9:33 | |
For just as in the human body, | 9:38 | |
there is a union of many parts | 9:40 | |
and each part has its own function. | 9:43 | |
So we, being many are one body in Christ | 9:46 | |
and we are individually parts of one another. | 9:51 | |
The gifts we possess differ | 9:55 | |
as they are allotted to us by God's grace, | 9:57 | |
and must be exercised accordingly. | 10:01 | |
He that has the gift of prophecy, | 10:05 | |
let him exercise it | 10:08 | |
according to the proportion of his faith. | 10:09 | |
He that has the gift of ministration, let him minister. | 10:14 | |
The teacher must mind his teaching. | 10:19 | |
Let the man who gives in charity do so | 10:23 | |
with a generous heart. | 10:26 | |
Let him who is in authority exercise due diligence. | 10:28 | |
And he who shows mercy must be cheerful. | 10:33 | |
Let love be without hypocrisy, | 10:37 | |
hate what is wrong, cling to the right, | 10:41 | |
be affectionate in your love for the brotherhood. | 10:44 | |
Outdo one another in showing honor. | 10:48 | |
Never be lazy in your work. | 10:51 | |
Be a glow with the spirit. | 10:54 | |
Be true bondsman of your Lord. | 10:57 | |
(soft piano music) | 11:04 | |
(congregation singing) | 11:14 | |
(soft piano music) | 11:53 | |
(congregation singing) | 12:50 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 17:06 |
Let us pray. | 17:10 | |
May we sincerely unite in prayer | 17:20 | |
as we use the litany of commemoration. | 17:24 | |
Almighty and eternal God in whom our fathers trusted. | 17:29 | |
We their children on this day of remembrance | 17:34 | |
offer unto thee our litany of commemoration. | 17:37 | |
For the men and women of this state, | 17:45 | |
Methodists and Quakers, farmers and merchant men, | 17:48 | |
teachers and administrators who believed in education | 17:52 | |
and made their belief prevail. | 17:57 | |
For the embodiment of their dreams. | 18:03 | |
Private school, academy, college, university, | 18:05 | |
founded in hope, continued with perseverance, | 18:11 | |
growing in outreach, established in assurance. | 18:16 | |
For educators whose vision was matched by their courage, | 18:22 | |
whose patients was tempered by their ending nation, | 18:26 | |
whose idealism was moderated by their awareness of sin. | 18:30 | |
For the Duke family, father, sons, and their wives | 18:38 | |
grandchildren, and continuing generations | 18:45 | |
who with wonder and surprise, bewilderment, and tenacity, | 18:48 | |
laid a good foundation, built a worthy school, | 18:54 | |
and provided for exciting growth | 18:59 | |
beyond there can in years unseen. | 19:01 | |
For the continuance of good ideas, | 19:07 | |
the union of truths and reverence, | 19:10 | |
the freedom of responsible academic thought, | 19:13 | |
and the right of public concern. | 19:17 | |
The joint care of the body and the spirit, | 19:20 | |
the linking of science and humanities, | 19:23 | |
the realization that the old order changes. | 19:27 | |
For the future of our university, | 19:34 | |
established to thy glory and for the relief of man's estate. | 19:36 | |
For the consecration of the discontent of the young, | 19:41 | |
for wisdom in the conservation of the middle aged, | 19:46 | |
for resiliency in the obstinacy of the old, | 19:50 | |
for understanding cooperation, | 19:54 | |
and a sense of humor within our community. | 19:58 | |
And to thee, we shall ascribe as is most do | 20:04 | |
all praise and glory, world without end. | 20:09 | |
Amen. | 20:14 | |
(soft piano music) | 20:40 | |
(congregation singing) | 22:11 | |
(soft piano music) | 27:04 | |
(congregation singing) | 27:27 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 27:38 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 27:41 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 27:58 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 28:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 28:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 28:06 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 28:10 | |
- | Almighty Gog, on this day | 28:28 |
when we remember what our founders have established, | 28:30 | |
we come here to dedicate this portion of our money | 28:33 | |
and all of ourselves, | 28:36 | |
that we may establish something worthwhile for man | 28:38 | |
and for God in Christ's name, amen. | 28:42 | |
- | Christians are intended to constitute | 29:21 |
a sort of counterculture. | 29:24 | |
You might not guess this from looking at the church | 29:30 | |
because most religious institutions | 29:33 | |
generally fail to be what they are intended to be. | 29:35 | |
And yet the church though, | 29:41 | |
all mixed up with the establishment | 29:44 | |
knows itself to be committed to a faith, | 29:48 | |
which is greater than any status quo. | 29:52 | |
Christians know themselves to be called to an allegiance | 29:57 | |
which defies when necessary every claim of any culture. | 30:04 | |
We who name the name of Christ | 30:11 | |
are intended to constitute a counterculture. | 30:15 | |
Now this puts the church in a rather awkward position. | 30:21 | |
It would be amusing if it were not so uncomfortable. | 30:25 | |
The establishment expects the church | 30:30 | |
to be chaplain to the status quo. | 30:33 | |
We say prayers on special occasions. | 30:37 | |
And somehow the clergy is always called upon | 30:40 | |
to say these prayers. | 30:43 | |
The anti-establishmentarians therefore reject the church | 30:47 | |
as being part of convention. | 30:51 | |
And yet those who take the Christian faith seriously | 30:56 | |
know very well that we are called to a faith | 30:59 | |
which is beyond anything expressed in our culture. | 31:04 | |
We know that we are called to allegiance, | 31:11 | |
to values and standards, | 31:13 | |
which judge our civilization. | 31:18 | |
There's a sense in which the university | 31:23 | |
and the church are very much alike at this point. | 31:26 | |
When we are doing our jobs properly, | 31:31 | |
we do indeed contribute to the health | 31:33 | |
and strength of the civilization of which we are a part. | 31:35 | |
But at the same time, we are committed to humane values. | 31:41 | |
We are committed to standards of excellence, | 31:44 | |
which set us over against any civilization | 31:48 | |
in which we are immersed. | 31:53 | |
There is a sense in which university and church alike | 31:56 | |
are countercultures dedicated to the purging, | 32:01 | |
the upgrading of the civilization | 32:06 | |
of which we happen to be a part. | 32:11 | |
On this Sunday, when we are recalling | 32:15 | |
the founding of this university | 32:20 | |
which still bears such good relations | 32:22 | |
with the community of faith. | 32:24 | |
I thought it might be appropriate for us | 32:28 | |
to think about this vocation | 32:30 | |
which we share this common calling. | 32:33 | |
I haven't discovered any logical | 32:39 | |
or orderly way of doing this. | 32:41 | |
So I invite you simply to think about | 32:44 | |
the role of the Christian faith | 32:49 | |
and the Christian community as a counterculture, | 32:51 | |
and to look at it from several different directions. | 32:56 | |
First, a text. | 33:00 | |
This extraordinary word of Paul | 33:06 | |
in the second verse of the 12th chapter to the Romans. | 33:10 | |
It was written 1900 years ago | 33:13 | |
to a little community of Christians | 33:17 | |
hardly noticed in the capital city of Rome, | 33:20 | |
and yet it's just as relevant. | 33:24 | |
Oh, blessed word. | 33:28 | |
Just as relevant today as it was 1900 years ago. | 33:31 | |
This is what Paul wrote to a handful of beligered Christians | 33:35 | |
with little hope even of enduring. | 33:41 | |
Don't let the world around you | 33:46 | |
squeeze you into its own mold, | 33:48 | |
but let God mold your minds from within. | 33:53 | |
I suppose there has seldom been a civilization | 34:01 | |
as clever in the ways of manipulation as our own. | 34:06 | |
I suppose there has never been a day | 34:13 | |
when it has been more important for us to affirm | 34:15 | |
that it is necessary for us | 34:18 | |
if we are to be persons of integrity at all. | 34:20 | |
It is necessary for us to resist the coercions | 34:23 | |
and blandishments of our culture | 34:27 | |
and live according to values of our own choosing. | 34:30 | |
And for those of us who take Jesus Christ seriously, | 34:34 | |
that means to live out of faith in and commitment to him. | 34:37 | |
Don't let the world around you | 34:42 | |
squeeze you into its own mold, | 34:46 | |
but let God mold your minds from within. | 34:51 | |
The church under God is intended to be a counterculture. | 34:56 | |
Now it may be that I'm using this term rather loosely. | 35:05 | |
And if so, in the presence of experts, I apologize. | 35:10 | |
But it seems to me that the term counterculture | 35:16 | |
is being used in our time to designate adherence to values, | 35:18 | |
which are contrary to conventional purposes, | 35:24 | |
following a style of life which may be unconventional. | 35:28 | |
And when a group of persons | 35:35 | |
out of commitment to their values | 35:36 | |
and out of adherence to a style of life. | 35:39 | |
When they get together, they constitute a counterculture. | 35:41 | |
This sort of thing has its highest visibility, | 35:47 | |
I suppose among the young. | 35:50 | |
There are many on any campus | 35:54 | |
who have rejected the competitive ways of our society, | 35:55 | |
who refuse to be taken in by the most recent fashions, | 36:00 | |
who want to live simply, kindly, | 36:06 | |
and who therefore adopt their own styles of clothing, | 36:10 | |
of hair, of music. | 36:15 | |
And so they take on a certain obvious visibility | 36:20 | |
on the current scene. | 36:24 | |
It's worth noting that there are many different kinds | 36:27 | |
of such counter or subcultures. | 36:31 | |
They range all the way from the radical left | 36:34 | |
and other politically oriented groups | 36:38 | |
to the Jesus people and other religious groups. | 36:41 | |
Now once again, there is an awkward fact | 36:48 | |
which we need to note, | 36:50 | |
which makes it rather uncomfortable for the church. | 36:52 | |
Many of these countercultures | 36:57 | |
have no use at all for the church, | 36:58 | |
but the one thing they have in common is, | 37:01 | |
they reject Christianity | 37:04 | |
because it does not champion their own enthusiasm. | 37:05 | |
Every one of these subcultures has its own commitments, | 37:09 | |
its own values, its own purposes. | 37:12 | |
And they reject the church | 37:15 | |
because the church does not always support them | 37:17 | |
in their commitments. | 37:20 | |
I ran head long into this quite unexpectedly, | 37:23 | |
and therefore, I didn't carry myself very well. | 37:27 | |
But I ran head long into this not long ago | 37:32 | |
with a group of Marxist-oriented young people. | 37:34 | |
And they just flatly rejected the church | 37:38 | |
because it was not committed to Marxian ideology. | 37:41 | |
And when I suggested rather timidly | 37:45 | |
that maybe it isn't the business of the church | 37:48 | |
to champion any ideology, whether Marxian or anything else. | 37:50 | |
They were quite unimpressed. | 37:55 | |
Yet certainly, it is true | 37:59 | |
that the Christian community cannot take its cues | 38:01 | |
not only from the establishment, | 38:05 | |
but also not from the many countercultures, | 38:08 | |
the subcultures which constitute our society. | 38:12 | |
Therefore when the church determines what it must believe, | 38:16 | |
it cannot allow the limits of its faith to be determined | 38:20 | |
simply by the academic community. | 38:23 | |
When the church determines what position it shall take | 38:29 | |
with respect to the use of drugs, | 38:32 | |
it cannot allow its standards to be shaped simply by those | 38:34 | |
who are already committed to the drug culture. | 38:38 | |
When Christians try to work out | 38:44 | |
their best understanding of sexuality, | 38:46 | |
they cannot simply accept the teachings of those | 38:50 | |
who are already committed to a sheerly permissive society. | 38:53 | |
The church happens to have certain commitments of its own. | 38:57 | |
The Christian faith happens to mean certain basic beliefs | 39:01 | |
and values and meanings. | 39:07 | |
The church is itself a counterculture, | 39:12 | |
and it must be faithful to its commitments. | 39:15 | |
We who take Jesus Christ seriously | 39:19 | |
believe that in him we are given the index | 39:24 | |
to the meaning of our existence. | 39:27 | |
We happen to believe that in him, | 39:32 | |
God has come into our midst as he has nowhere else | 39:33 | |
in all of history. | 39:38 | |
That's what advent and Christmas is all about. | 39:38 | |
And the style of life to which we are committed | 39:44 | |
grows out of this understanding of ourselves | 39:46 | |
and of God and of our existence. | 39:50 | |
That's what it means to be a Christian. | 39:54 | |
Now let me try to say this in a somewhat different way. | 40:03 | |
This past spring, the church which I served | 40:07 | |
gave me a short sabbatical. | 40:12 | |
Very short when measured by academic standards, | 40:15 | |
but long enough to give me a chance | 40:19 | |
to do some consecutive study, | 40:21 | |
which usually isn't possible, | 40:23 | |
In the kind of life we have to carry on. | 40:26 | |
And in the course of this study, | 40:30 | |
I made several interesting discoveries. | 40:32 | |
One of which is relevant this morning. | 40:34 | |
I had heard about "The Greening of America" | 40:40 | |
and had read it in digest form. | 40:42 | |
But I decided in all fairness | 40:46 | |
that a book that was at that time, | 40:49 | |
at least getting so much attention | 40:52 | |
ought to be read in its entirety and with greater care. | 40:54 | |
So I read "The Greening of America." | 40:58 | |
And I discovered to my surprise | 41:01 | |
that most of the enthusiasts for consciousness three | 41:04 | |
were overlooking one very significant aspect | 41:08 | |
of the author's thought. | 41:11 | |
In the very chapter in which he outlines | 41:15 | |
or interprets revolution by consciousness. | 41:19 | |
He makes the point again and again, | 41:22 | |
that this new consciousness of goodwill | 41:25 | |
and kindness and simplicity. | 41:27 | |
This new consciousness comes into existence | 41:30 | |
only as individuals decide how they are going to live. | 41:33 | |
Consciousness three ultimately manifests itself | 41:38 | |
when people like you and me | 41:41 | |
decide that we're not going to be shoved around | 41:43 | |
by the corporate state and we're going to live | 41:45 | |
according to values of our own choosing. | 41:47 | |
Indeed the author says, | 41:52 | |
"this virtually calls for new persons." | 41:54 | |
And he speaks in his own fashion | 41:58 | |
about the need for conversion. | 42:00 | |
You will not be surprised | 42:06 | |
if I found some similarity between that language | 42:07 | |
and the language of the believing community. | 42:11 | |
At the same time, | 42:16 | |
I was working through a volume of a quite different sort. | 42:17 | |
Mumford's enormous study of the technological society | 42:22 | |
called "The Pentagon of Power." | 42:27 | |
Massive. | 42:29 | |
Thoroughly documented. | 42:32 | |
Almost overwhelming to a layman like myself | 42:34 | |
as I worked my way through his strong and powerful argument | 42:38 | |
as to where our society is going. | 42:44 | |
And this interesting thing. | 42:48 | |
When Mumford begins to talk about | 42:50 | |
how we may possibly give direction | 42:52 | |
to the movement of society. | 42:56 | |
He comes out at a point very similar | 43:00 | |
to "The Greening of America." | 43:02 | |
He says, what is necessary is that we as individuals | 43:05 | |
choose the human values by which we will live. | 43:09 | |
And he uses a magnificent statement. | 43:13 | |
If I can remember it. | 43:19 | |
One of his words is gone. | 43:25 | |
So this won't be quite exact. | 43:26 | |
But what he says we must do is to | 43:29 | |
"reject the society in which we live | 43:32 | |
"and make a selective use of its facilities. | 43:37 | |
"Separate ourselves from the system, he said, | 43:42 | |
"and make a selective use of its facilities." | 43:46 | |
I read that phrase, | 43:52 | |
bells began to ring and lights began to flash in my mind. | 43:53 | |
And I realized that's the way I had been taught Christianity | 43:56 | |
from as far back as I can remember. | 44:03 | |
I have been persuaded that to be a Christian | 44:06 | |
means to live according to values | 44:09 | |
which grow out of the teachings of Jesus Christ. | 44:12 | |
To be a Christian means to be willing | 44:15 | |
to go against the crowd, | 44:17 | |
to reject popular culture if necessary. | 44:19 | |
To be a Christian means not to be worried | 44:23 | |
about what your peer group is doing, | 44:25 | |
but to be concerned only to be faithful to Jesus Christ. | 44:28 | |
Whatever this commitment lays upon you to be and to do, | 44:34 | |
that is what you must be and do. | 44:37 | |
The simple unsophisticated people | 44:40 | |
who had brought me up in a small town in New Jersey, | 44:44 | |
who had taught me what Christianity meant to them | 44:48 | |
had been saying in their own naive way | 44:51 | |
what this popular professor and learned scholar were saying. | 44:55 | |
And they all were saying what Paul | 45:03 | |
had ventured to say 1900 years ago. | 45:05 | |
Don't let the world around you | 45:09 | |
squeeze you into its own mold. | 45:11 | |
Let your life be shaped out of your faith in Jesus Christ. | 45:18 | |
Let your life be shaped by your commitment | 45:26 | |
to whatever he lays upon you. | 45:31 | |
Christians are intended to constitute a counterculture. | 45:36 | |
We're not supposed to be worried about conforming | 45:46 | |
to the latest fashions in thought or action. | 45:49 | |
We're not supposed to buy everything | 45:54 | |
that our highly commercialized culture offers us. | 45:56 | |
We're supposed to live out of our faith in Christ. | 46:03 | |
Now I wonder if it's possible for us | 46:09 | |
to indicate what this means. | 46:10 | |
Again and again, I find the people with whom I live | 46:12 | |
and work most closely asking me, | 46:15 | |
"Come on now, doc. | 46:18 | |
"Be specific. | 46:19 | |
"Spell it out for me." | 46:20 | |
And I always say, "I can't spell it out." | 46:21 | |
The Christian faith does not consist of a series of rules | 46:24 | |
and tests by which you can determine | 46:28 | |
whether you're doing well or not. | 46:31 | |
To try to spell out specifically | 46:33 | |
what Christianity demands of you | 46:36 | |
would be contradictory | 46:41 | |
to what the Christian faith ultimately is. | 46:43 | |
To be a Christian does not simply mean | 46:46 | |
being obedient to rules. | 46:48 | |
To be a Christian means being freed | 46:50 | |
from legalistic requirements, | 46:52 | |
freed to live out your own commitment to Jesus Christ. | 46:54 | |
And yet there may be some way of indicating what this means. | 47:00 | |
At this point, I can't resist telling you | 47:05 | |
what to me is a charming story | 47:07 | |
which I heard just a short time ago. | 47:10 | |
It illustrates negatively | 47:14 | |
what Christians are intended to be. | 47:20 | |
As some of you may be old enough to remember, | 47:23 | |
there was a time when Methodism was famous | 47:26 | |
for its staunch opposition | 47:30 | |
to any use of alcoholic beverages. | 47:34 | |
Many of you in this congregation | 47:39 | |
might not remember that time, but many of you will. | 47:41 | |
This story comes out of that period in our past. | 47:46 | |
Up in the frozen Tundra of Minnesota, | 47:51 | |
in the city of lakes called Minneapolis, | 47:58 | |
by the laughing gitty gummy or whatever it is. | 48:01 | |
There is a beautiful Methodist home for the aged. | 48:06 | |
It hasn't been too many years ago | 48:12 | |
when television was first introduced into the lounges | 48:14 | |
of this home for the aged. | 48:17 | |
This injection of the world | 48:22 | |
into the life of these elderly citizens | 48:25 | |
exposed them to certain kinds of worldly amusements | 48:28 | |
and indulgences to which they were opposed. | 48:32 | |
And at no point was this more objectionable | 48:37 | |
than the commercial blandishments of the local breweries. | 48:40 | |
So there was one dear lady among this elderly group | 48:47 | |
who every time the beer commercial came on, | 48:52 | |
planted herself squarely in front of the television set | 48:56 | |
so as to block out the screen. | 48:59 | |
Now she surely wasn't trying to protect | 49:05 | |
the innocence of her contemporaries. | 49:06 | |
This had to be her own way of expressing her opposition | 49:11 | |
to something in her culture to which she was opposed. | 49:15 | |
Ever since I heard that story, | 49:21 | |
I have wondered whether this is what the church, | 49:26 | |
what the clergy sometimes looks like. | 49:29 | |
Standing, spreading out our pulpit gowns | 49:32 | |
so that they'll block off some aspect of our culture | 49:36 | |
that we'd rather you not see. | 49:39 | |
Is this what the church is trying to do? | 49:42 | |
To deny certain aspects of reality | 49:44 | |
that we wish were not there, | 49:46 | |
to try to shield young people from temptations | 49:48 | |
which they cannot in any case avoid. | 49:51 | |
I think not really. | 49:55 | |
The image of the church is not always good | 50:00 | |
and we're not always effective | 50:05 | |
in protesting against our culture. | 50:06 | |
But the Christian affirmation is primarily affirmative. | 50:10 | |
The counterculture to which we are committed | 50:14 | |
is primarily an affirmation faith | 50:17 | |
and a style of life which grows out of that faith. | 50:20 | |
Let me say quickly what I believe these two things to be. | 50:24 | |
The Christian community is committed to faith | 50:29 | |
in the reality of God and Jesus Christ | 50:31 | |
as the index to that reality. | 50:35 | |
We are utterly committed to belief that in Jesus Christ, | 50:40 | |
God is in our midst. | 50:43 | |
And the meaning of our existence | 50:47 | |
takes its clue from that reality. | 50:49 | |
Now ironically enough, | 50:55 | |
this faith often brings us into conflict | 50:56 | |
with the academic community | 50:58 | |
because it seems undeniable that in the past two centuries, | 51:01 | |
the intellectual tradition has been increasingly contrary | 51:04 | |
to this authentic Christian faith. | 51:08 | |
But that's all right because we happen also to believe | 51:12 | |
that it is out of such tension | 51:14 | |
even conflict that our understanding of the truth | 51:16 | |
is sharpened and clarified. | 51:20 | |
But there can be no question | 51:23 | |
as to what the church is committed. | 51:25 | |
Our culture will never embrace this faith | 51:29 | |
as a majority faith. | 51:31 | |
Our civilization will never be built clearly | 51:33 | |
upon this conviction, | 51:36 | |
but this is the vocation to which we are called. | 51:37 | |
And in our society, there is no other institution | 51:41 | |
which is committed to this faith. | 51:44 | |
This is our task to keep alive | 51:48 | |
this option in every generation | 51:51 | |
and in every style of civilization. | 51:55 | |
Our way of life grows out of this faith. | 52:00 | |
If we take this faith seriously, | 52:02 | |
we must allow our life to be shaped in terms of it. | 52:04 | |
And here's where we can't spell it out exactly. | 52:09 | |
But I find myself again and again | 52:11 | |
sharply caught up by a word of Jesus in which he said, | 52:13 | |
"Seek first the kingdom of God." | 52:16 | |
Above all else, let your life be ruled | 52:22 | |
by the purposes of God. | 52:25 | |
Now this sets us sharply and abrasively | 52:28 | |
against our popular culture | 52:31 | |
with its strange love of violence, | 52:35 | |
with its anxious inquisitiveness, | 52:38 | |
with its frenzied search for pleasure. | 52:40 | |
So we are called to be a counterculture. | 52:49 | |
And all of these thoughts bring us back again | 52:55 | |
to the word of Paul. | 52:58 | |
Don't let the world around you | 53:02 | |
squeeze you into its own mold, | 53:06 | |
but let God remold your minds from within. | 53:12 | |
Let us pray. | 53:23 | |
Oh thy God who has made us | 53:30 | |
in whose will therefore is our fulfillment. | 53:34 | |
Give us courage to resist the forces | 53:40 | |
which would be contrary to thy will, | 53:43 | |
wisdom to know what doubt is call us to be and do | 53:45 | |
and strength to bear witness to the life and love and joy | 53:51 | |
which thy give us, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 53:57 | |
(soft piano) | 54:08 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:15 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:17 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:20 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:22 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:26 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:28 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:31 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:33 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:45 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:47 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:48 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 55:01 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 55:11 | |
(trumpet blowing) | 55:13 | |
(congregation singing) | 58:58 | |
(bell chiming) | 1:00:23 | |
(soft piano music) | 1:00:47 |
Item Info
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