Robert L. Johnson - "Faith as Vision" (April 29, 1973)

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	(orchestra music)	0:03
	(orchestra drowns out speaker)	0:08
	(orchestra drowns out choir)	0:23
	(orchestra drowns out speaker)	1:02
	(orchestra drowns out choir)	1:08
	(orchestra music)	1:41
	(orchestra drowns out speaker)	2:15
	(orchestra drowns out choir)	2:41
-	Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father,	3:28
	and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.	3:32
	Christians are a people who believe	3:35
	that life is a gift from God.	3:37
	A gift to be accepted joyfully and shared freely.	3:40
	We affirm here that we have been given life,	3:44
	but most of us have not truly lived.	3:48
	We have used our lives with reckless unconcern	3:51
	as though they belong to us and to us alone.	3:54
	By our own fault, we have abandoned the fountain of waters	3:59
	and we have built broken reservoirs which hold no water.	4:04
	We speak well of love and we curse our enemies.	4:08
	We take pride in freedom	4:13
	even as we slide into new slaveries.	4:15
	We cry out against exploitation	4:18
	as we exploit our selves and our neighbor.	4:20
	Therefore, we assemble before God to halt our haste	4:25
	and to attempt together to open ourselves	4:30
	to the possibilities of the call of God	4:33
	to come back again to the Father's healing love.	4:35
	And therefore, confident, that if we truly	4:40
	and earnestly confess the state of our lives	4:43
	before that love, they will be forgiven, restored,	4:46
	and returned to us with new meaning and with hope.	4:51
	Let us unite in our unison prayer of confession.	4:55
	Let us confess our sins together before God.	5:06
	Oh God of grace and love, we unburden ourselves before you,	5:11
	out of a need of great mercy for we have sinned	5:17
	and done much evil in your sight.	5:20
	We have lied to ourselves and worn mask	5:23
	and not trusted in love.	5:27
	We have been unfaithful to the goodness in others.	5:30
	We have dealt as misers with hope.	5:33
	We have been seeking the pleasures that give us no joy,	5:37
	seeking the securities that give us no peace,	5:41
	seeking the community that gives us no love.	5:44
	Without you, we are but broken pieces of persons.	5:48
	In your mercy, forgive us, mend us	5:52
	and give us over to the uses of love,	5:56
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.	5:59
	Let us hear these assuring words daily and hourly.	6:05
	And in this moment of God's good and forgiving grace,	6:11
	we are forgiven.	6:16
	God the father gives it. Jesus Christ reveals it.	6:18
	The holy spirit bears it to us and to all men.	6:23
	Grace is in us.	6:27
	Angels may dance in our blood.	6:30
	The lame walk. The sick be healed. The mountains rejoice.	6:33
	This is the acceptable time of the Lord.	6:38
	Now is the day of the Lord's favor.	6:42
	Your prayers are heard. Your sins are forgiven.	6:46
	Your life is open. You are free to be a servant of love.	6:50
	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,	6:56
	and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.	6:59
	Let us offer unto God the prayer of all Christians,	7:03
	that our Lord taught us to pray together saying,	7:07
	Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.	7:10
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done	7:15
	on earth as it is in heaven.	7:18
	Give us this day our daily bread,	7:21
	and forgive us our trespasses	7:24
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	7:26
	And lead us not into temptation,	7:30
	but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom,	7:32
	and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.	7:37
	(orchestra music)	7:45
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:35
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:41
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:47
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:51
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:55
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	8:59
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:03
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:07
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:12
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:20
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:26
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:30
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:33
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:36
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:40
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:44
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:47
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:51
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	9:56
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:08
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:14
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:20
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:23
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:27
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:30
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:33
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:41
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:48
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	10:53
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:06
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:09
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:13
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:18
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:23
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:26
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:31
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:35
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:39
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:43
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:46
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:50
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:56
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:00
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:06
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:10
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:14
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:17
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:23
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:39
	The Lord be with you.	13:27
	Let us pray.	13:31
	Let us offer unto God our unison collect for the church.	13:33
	Oh, gracious Father, we humbly beseech you	13:40
	for your Holy Church Universal,	13:43
	that you would be pleased to fill it	13:46
	with all truth and all peace.	13:47
	Where it is corrupt, purify it.	13:51
	Where it is an error, direct it.	13:54
	Where in anything it is a miss, reform it.	13:57
	Where it is right, establish it.	14:01
	Where it is in want, provide for it.	14:04
	Where it is divided, reunite it.	14:07
	For the sake of Him who died and rose again,	14:10
	Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.	14:14
-	The old Testament lesson is found in Habakkuk 2:1-4.	14:25
	"I will take my stand to watch	14:33
	and station myself on the tower	14:35
	and look forward to see what he will say to me	14:37
	and what I will answer concerning my complaint.	14:41
	And the Lord answered me,	14:45
	'Write the vision, make it plain upon tablets.	14:47
	So he may run who reads it.	14:51
	For still the vision awaits its time.	14:54
	It hastens to the end.	14:57
	It will not lie, for if it seems slow, wait for it.	14:59
	It will surely come, it will not delay.	15:05
	Behold, he whose soul is upright in him shall fail.	15:09
	But the righteous shall live by his faith.'"	15:14
	Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 13:10-17,	15:20
	"Then the disciples came and said to him,	15:28
	'Why do you speak to them in parables?'	15:31
	And he answered them, 'To you, it has been given	15:34
	to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,	15:38
	but to them, it has not been given.	15:41
	For to him who has, will more be given,	15:44
	and he will have abundance.	15:48
	But from him who has not,	15:50
	even what he has will be taken away.	15:52
	This is why I speak to them in parables.	15:56
	Because seeing they do not see	15:59
	and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand.'	16:01
	With them indeed has fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah	16:07
	which says, 'You shall indeed hear but never understand.	16:10
	And you shall indeed see, but never perceive.'	16:16
	For this people's heart has grown dull	16:20
	and their ears are heavy of hearing	16:23
	and their eyes they have closed.	16:26
	Lest they should perceive with their eyes,	16:28
	and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,	16:31
	and turn for me to heal them.	16:36
	But blessed are your eyes for they see,	16:40
	and your ears for they hear.	16:44
	Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men long	16:47
	to see what you see and did not see it.	16:52
	And to hear what you hear and did not hear it.'"	16:56
	Here ends the reading of this morning's lesson.	17:00
	(orchestra music)	17:04
	(orchestra music drowns choir)	17:13
-	Let us affirm our faith.	17:46
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	17:48
	who has come in the true man, Jesus,	17:53
	to reconcile and make new.	17:56
	Who works in us and others by his spirit.	17:59
	We trust him. He calls us to be in his church,	18:02
	to celebrate his presence, to love and serve others,	18:06
	to seek justice and resist evil,	18:11
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	18:14
	our judge and our hope, in life, in death,	18:18
	in life beyond death, God is with us.	18:22
	We are not alone. Thanks be to God.	18:26
	Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanksgiving,	18:39
	intercession and petition.	18:42
	O glorious God,	18:49
	You who art the giver of every good and perfect gift.	18:52
	We give Thee thanks for this green time and the sun.	18:59
	For the walks of love, for small children,	19:04
	for shelter from the storm, and for the blessings of sleep.	19:09
	Our five and urgent senses praise you, oh God.	19:15
	For the large and growing summer sites,	19:20
	for sweet airs to smell, for sounds within sounds,	19:23
	and for gifts within gifts.	19:29
	We praise you oh Lord for all the times and the places	19:33
	where men have set compassion before hate	19:37
	and have accepted for the sake of us all,	19:40
	more than their share of the wounds	19:43
	and the sorrow of the world.	19:46
	Our hearts praise You for suffering transformed,	19:49
	for sorrow comforted, and for joy extravagantly given.	19:53
	Our minds praise you for the disciplines of learning,	19:59
	for the conversations of wisdom,	20:03
	and for the parables of truth that have been given to us.	20:06
	And our souls, oh Lord, praise you	20:12
	for your love endlessly persuading us out of our darkness	20:15
	and into Your marvelous light.	20:20
	We've glorify You, our Father,	20:23
	that undergirding all of Earth's seeming life,	20:25
	all chaos and all calm,	20:29
	all clamor and silence is your peace.	20:32
	Awesome, amazing and eternal for us.	20:36
	Oh Lord, in whom the twisted things are straightened,	20:44
	the crippled are enliven and made whole, blind men see,	20:49
	and the slain arise in resurrection.	20:54
	We lift our prayers for our brothers	20:58
	and our sisters across your world.	21:01
	We remember before you, oh God, those who are old,	21:05
	whose silver thread shine now with honor	21:10
	and whose golden anniversaries sing with joy.	21:13
	Those who have enough health and money,	21:17
	who have found wisdom and learned patience	21:20
	and journeyed in faith, may your love be in their lives	21:22
	and bless their condition.	21:27
	Oh God of all ages, who would not forget the old	21:31
	whose health fails, whose children fail,	21:35
	and whose courage fail.	21:38
	Those who must worry to their dying day about bills.	21:41
	Those who feel unwanted and unneeded	21:45
	and who have not found faith.	21:49
	May your love break through their condition	21:52
	and quench their hunger and bring peace.	21:55
	Oh God of the strong,	22:00
	we remember those who are in the prime of life.	22:02
	Those whose work prospers, whose families are happy,	22:06
	who eat the fruit of competence and achievement,	22:10
	who are glad to be who they are,	22:13
	who look back with satisfaction and ahead with anticipation.	22:16
	May your power bless their condition	22:20
	and sustain them in hope and in joy.	22:23
	Oh God, we would not forget before you	22:28
	those whose work is frustrating.	22:30
	Those who discover in themselves a wound	22:33
	which will never heal.	22:36
	Whose marriage hurts or breaks.	22:38
	Those whose friends move away or fade away.	22:42
	Those who wish they were somebody else.	22:46
	May your love, our Father, break through their condition	22:50
	and quench their need and bring peace.	22:53
	We remember before you, our Father,	22:58
	the children of the world.	23:00
	Those who slurp their milk	23:02
	and crawl on the cool, summer grass.	23:04
	Who stagger with their first hilarious steps.	23:07
	The eager children who play ball	23:10
	and climb trees and ride bikes.	23:12
	Who get in fights and play games.	23:15
	The laughing, crying children whose hugs and kisses	23:17
	and tears are food and drink to so many of us.	23:21
	May your grace hallow their growth.	23:26
	We would not forget, oh God, our Father,	23:30
	the children who have no milk to drink.	23:32
	Who run from the whine of jet engines	23:35
	and scream at the whistle of bombs.	23:38
	Those who crawl on hot streets where there are no trees.	23:41
	Those whose bodies and spirits slowly starve	23:45
	in migrant shacks and in tenant farms.	23:48
	May your love, through our actions,	23:53
	break through their condition,	23:55
	quench their hunger and bring peace.	23:58
	Oh Lord of our lives, we ask your presence	24:04
	and your power for ourselves and our needs.	24:07
	We pray for those of us who are so burdened	24:11
	with the sins of mediocrity or guilt	24:13
	that we cannot let go of supposed securities	24:16
	for fear that justice would strip us naked.	24:20
	Ever loving Father, give us other ground to stand on.	24:24
	Show us that to renounce complicity to our lower selves	24:28
	is the beginning of true security	24:32
	in the community of Christ.	24:35
	Lord, we pray for strength in our own troubles.	24:38
	Oh, judge of history,	24:42
	you have let trouble surround us and enter into us.	24:43
	Some of us are tired. Some of us are in pain.	24:47
	Some of us are sometimes near despair.	24:51
	Send your spirit to each one of us	24:54
	and underneath our flagging faith,	24:57
	put an energy from outside us, we pray.	24:59
	Hold us fast in the love of the community,	25:03
	remembering that everything we suffer and endure	25:06
	has already been suffered and survived by Christ,	25:10
	who is our Lord.	25:13
	We would remember Jesus before you, Oh God, our Father.	25:16
	We remember the simplicity of his life.	25:21
	Oh God, without self punishment,	25:25
	he reduced his needs to a minimum.	25:28
	His message was short.	25:31
	He did not travel far nor live long.	25:33
	Give us, we ask, oh God, his disciples,	25:37
	a share of his simplicity and truthfulness	25:41
	so that our success may be of the same kind as His success.	25:45
	And our failure may be measured by His failure.	25:50
	In His name, we ask these and all things. Amen.	25:55
	We welcome to the University Service of Worship	26:08
	and to the University pulpit,	26:12
	the Reverend Robert L. Johnson,	26:14
	the director of the Wesley Foundation	26:17
	at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.	26:19
-	For most of us, as Protestants,	26:35
	faith is a matter of hearing, as Martin Luther put it,	26:38
	faith is an acoustical affair.	26:44
	We are nurtured through preaching,	26:50
	through reading the Bible,	26:53
	through the study of the catechism, through theology.	26:56
	For Protestants, religion has been a verbal, propositional,	27:01
	sometimes noisy affair.	27:07
	The believer had to hear in order to be saved,	27:11
	but that is not the whole story	27:18
	of the human encounter with the divine.	27:22
	The ear is not the only channel of grace,	27:27
	else we would not have Giottos Frescoes at Assisi	27:33
	or the Cathedral at Char,	27:39
	or the great vaulted space of this chapel.	27:42
	Cathedrals were built for people who did not read or write,	27:48
	who were yet unaddicted to words.	27:54
	While we continue to be dominated too often,	28:00
	by the notion that faith	28:04
	is a matter of hearing and believing,	28:06
	of ear and mind.	28:10
	We cannot escape the fact that biblical faith	28:14
	from beginning to end is about seeing and caring.	28:18
	About heart and about eyes.	28:26
	Unfortunately, our worship too often betrays	28:32
	this larger range of faithful experience.	28:35
	We are overly bound to words.	28:41
	The pulpit, and the book, and the sermon dominate	28:45
	both our architecture and our liturgy.	28:52
	But we cannot forget a rich history of celebration	28:59
	in which one worships through dramatic gesture,	29:06
	through touch, through taste,	29:11
	through smell, through silence.	29:15
	Most especially at the Eucharist,	29:20
	the words of the Psalmist come alive,	29:25
	oh taste and see that the Lord is good.	29:29
	And in our church tradition, we have given the task	29:37
	of interpreting, of communicating,	29:41
	and clarifying the faith to a discipline called theology.	29:44
	Theologos.	29:49
	But why not a discipline of theographica	29:52
	that takes the visual image	29:59
	as seriously as the written word.	30:02
	The eye as seriously as the ear.	30:06
	Matthew's lesson this morning suggests	30:12
	that Jesus' use of parables	30:17
	recognize this fact of our deadend and limited perceptions.	30:21
	You shall indeed hear, but not understand.	30:29
	You shall indeed see, but not perceive.	30:35
	Your hearts have grown dull and your ears heavy of hearing.	30:39
	Lest you should perceive with your eyes	30:44
	and hear with your ears.	30:48
	The experience of salvation as proclaimed by Jesus,	30:53
	salvare, meaning to be healed, to be in good health.	30:58
	This experience Jesus taught is a way	31:04
	to a totally fresh perception of our world.	31:09
	It means new birth, second sight, a third ear,	31:15
	a vision that penetrates the ordinariness of the world	31:23
	to the core and substance of life.	31:28
	It is the difference Carlos Castaneda notes	31:33
	between mirror looking and seeing.	31:38
	All of this is hard for us to take in	31:46
	because our perceptions are skewed.	31:50
	We have put the accent on hearing and believing	31:55
	on words, on priests, on systems,	32:01
	rather than on passion, insight, vision.	32:06
	And Jesus ask of us not what do you believe	32:14
	or what do you say,	32:17
	but what do you see? What do you care for?	32:21
	Faith begins less as an act of the mind or the will	32:28
	than an act of the imagination.	32:37
	A faithful person lives on another level,	32:42
	aesthetically, rationally, morally, spiritually.	32:48
	And we are called in our faith,	32:55
	as in the letter to Ephesians,	32:59
	"Awake, O sleeper from the dead,	33:02
	the call that echoes through Bach's great Cantata,	33:08
	Wachet Auf.	33:13
	To be saved, to be healed, is to see afresh.	33:17
	And so it was with Jesus.	33:26
	He saw something new on the horizon of history.	33:30
	He named it the kingdom of God.	33:35
	The rule of forgiving law.	33:38
	He saw it like a great underground current,	33:42
	like an invisible structure,	33:45
	like a seed bed of new consciousness.	33:48
	And while some would gladly see it	33:53
	and give themselves to it,	33:56
	others would fail to sense the claim of the kingdom.	33:59
	Some seeds would fall on rocky ground.	34:05
	Some would be devoured by the birds.	34:09
	Some would be scorched by the sun or choked out by weeds.	34:13
	A few would send down roots	34:18
	and become trees of insight sustained by grace.	34:23
	But why did it have to be this way?	34:30
	Why could not everyone see?	34:35
	Why could not Jesus simply have laid out	34:40
	a four full plan of salvation?	34:43
	Could it be that He was less interested	34:48
	in telling people what to believe	34:52
	than in equipping them to see for themselves?	34:56
	Can you not read, He set the signs of the times?	35:03
	How ironic it is that religion, especially in the south,	35:10
	has come to mean for many a set of blinders,	35:18
	restricting vision rather than enlarging.	35:23
	But the gospel Christ lived was not a set of blinders,	35:28
	but a lens to greater vision.	35:36
	And we can never forget that first preaching	35:42
	to the home folk in Nazareth.	35:45
	When Jesus identified his mission	35:49
	as a mission of release to the captives.	35:52
	Sight to the blind. Liberty to the oppressed.	35:57
	The claim of the Christian community through the ages	36:06
	is a qualitative difference in conversion.	36:10
	The scales have been removed.	36:16
	I once was blind, but now I see.	36:20
	But what is seen, what is the range of Christian vision?	36:27
	I take as my clue to answering this question,	36:35
	the way in which Jesus pointed to the love commandment	36:40
	as the sum and substance of the law and the prophets,	36:45
	and the beginning point of faith	36:50
	in which it is said that faith is more than asset	36:54
	to doctrine or the response of will to law.	36:57
	It is the reach of heart, and mind, and soul, and body.	37:02
	It is the passionate encounter of the whole person	37:09
	in what Paul Tillich called	37:14
	A state of being ultimately concerned.	37:16
	It is described by Luther	37:20
	as those things the heart clings to.	37:22
	It is suggested in the German root of the word belief,	37:27
	(speaking German)	37:32
	The act of holding deep.	37:34
	Through such an act, in such a state we are given,	37:39
	as William Blake says, "Eyes of flesh, eyes of fire,	37:44
	in which we burn through the ordinariness of the world	37:51
	and see wonders and terrors,	37:55
	miracles and fresh moral possibilities.	37:57
	Indeed, the lamp, the eye is the lamp of the soul."	38:03
	Consider then the full range of such faithful vision.	38:15
	There is surely a rational dimension to the vision	38:23
	in which our minds love the creator	38:28
	through exploring the manifold dimensions of the creation,	38:31
	probing, discerning order and process,	38:37
	change and continuity,	38:42
	such vision being the discipline of the scientist,	38:47
	questing ever for new meanings beyond established patterns.	38:52
	It governed Copernicus in exploring an expanded universe.	39:00
	It spurred Columbus daring venture into roundness.	39:07
	It was the sustaining power of the old Galileo	39:14
	as he was hold before the fathers of the inquisition	39:20
	in a dark, old church in Rome	39:23
	and asked to recant his teachings on the geometry of motion.	39:27
	69-year-old Galileo recant,	39:34
	but an observer on the scene noted that as he shuffled off	39:40
	from the witness stand, he was heard to mumble,	39:44
	"It still moves. It still moves."	39:51
	He had seen something the fathers of the inquisition	39:57
	could not see.	40:02
	There is as well, a creative,	40:06
	aesthetic dimension to our vision,	40:11
	that special sight given to artists,	40:15
	the capacity to see beauty in ever new forms,	40:19
	the sight that is exhibited in the remarkable drawings	40:24
	of da Vinci or in Michelangelo's vision	40:30
	of a David lurking beneath that piece of defective marble	40:36
	in the courtyard of the cathedral at Florence.	40:42
	It is the power ever to see reality	40:47
	from a fresh angle in new perspective.	40:50
	For the artist can never say, a tree is a tree is a tree.	40:53
	You've seen one tree. You've seen them all.	41:01
	Because Grandma Moses' tree is not van Gogh's tree.	41:05
	Picasso's man is not Rembrandt's man.	41:12
	Zorba the Greek had just this kind of creative vision.	41:18
	And Kazantzakis cherished Zorba as a friend and companion	41:27
	because he constantly delivered him	41:35
	from academics sterility.	41:37
	He had wrote Kazantzakis'	41:41
	"Just what a pen pusher needs for deliverance."	41:44
	The primordial glance which seizes	41:49
	its nourishment arrow-like from on high.	41:53
	The creative artlessness renewed each morning	41:58
	which enabled him to see all things constantly	42:03
	as for the first time	42:07
	and to bequeath virginity to the eternal elements	42:10
	of air, fire, ocean, water, woman, bread.	42:16
	How desperate academic life needs to be delivered	42:29
	from such staleness	42:35
	by the gifts of the artists and the poets.	42:38
	Beyond the rational and aesthetic angles of vision,	42:46
	there is the moral dimension.	42:51
	The sight given to Moses with his people in bondage,	42:55
	the sight that was generated in anger	43:01
	as he saw a Hebrew slave struck by an Egyptian master.	43:06
	And as the anger grew, the bush burn,	43:13
	and Moses saw a way out. Exodus.	43:18
	The same experience of the young Illinois lawyer	43:24
	who made the trip to New Orleans,	43:30
	and for the first time, experienced a slave market,	43:31
	in which families were separated on the block	43:37
	and a mother went to a Mississippi plantation,	43:40
	and a daughter to Alabama.	43:44
	And Abraham Lincoln found the same anger growing	43:47
	and resaw someday to strike.	43:53
	And he saw a way out in emancipation.	43:57
	It was the vision of Gandhi in India	44:04
	to see beyond British rule.	44:06
	It was the sight of Martin King,	44:10
	who on the eve of his death in Memphis said,	44:13
	"I may not be able to make it with you,	44:19
	but I have seen the promise land	44:24
	and you as a people will make it."	44:30
	Why is it given only to a few to see what Moses,	44:37
	and Gandhi, and King saw?	44:45
	John Oman, a late British theologian once said	44:51
	that a Christian is one for whom to see is to do.	44:58
	For whom the impulse of compassion is translated	45:06
	into the deeds of justice.	45:11
	It is the capacity to see ourselves in the binds,	45:15
	in the hurts of others.	45:20
	And yet we are accursed with what Gunnar Myrdal called	45:25
	The blindness of convenience.	45:31
	That phrase appearing in an American dilemma	45:35
	about the racial situation in America.	45:39
	We are cursed with the blindness of convenience.	45:43
	And so a courageous Southern governor,	45:49
	now Senator, Hollings, confessed that his determination	45:52
	to bring industry into South Carolina	45:58
	blinded him to the fact	46:01
	of abject hunger and malnutrition	46:07
	in the people of Buford County.	46:12
	It is so difficult for us to see ourselves	46:17
	in relation to neighbor.	46:22
	Are we not there, very much there	46:25
	in the parable of the good Samaritan?	46:28
	Following the best and the brightest of our culture	46:32
	along the other side,	46:37
	blind to the American Indian,	46:41
	blind to the unseen Cambodians 25,000 miles	46:45
	below our bombers.	46:50
	And does not something in us resonate	46:54
	with the defensive response of those charged	46:58
	in the parable of final judgment?	47:02
	Lord, when did we see the naked, or hungry, or in prison?	47:05
	Not in our neighborhood.	47:16
	It is worth remembering the remarkable strategy employed	47:20
	by the prophet Nathan, as he trapped King David into seeing	47:26
	what he had done in taking Bathsheba from her husband Uriah.	47:33
	And sending Uriah into the battle lines to be killed.	47:40
	The prophet did not directly accused David,	47:46
	but employed a certain guy in telling the king	47:50
	of a story of a rich man and a poor man.	47:55
	And the poor man had a single ewe lamb	48:00
	which he loved very much.	48:03
	And the rich man came along	48:06
	and took the lamb to entertain a guest.	48:08
	In hearing the story, David was in rage.	48:13
	Surely this man shall die.	48:16
	And all that was left was for the prophet Nathan	48:20
	to stick in the stiletto of judgment and say,	48:23
	"You are the man.	48:28
	Judgment and moral sight come to most of us that way,	48:34
	obliquely and indirectly, as our imaginations are caught up	48:41
	in the hurts of others.	48:46
	The range of vision is not yet complete.	48:52
	The unrational and aesthetic and moral sight,	48:57
	there is yet another dimension that is difficult,	49:02
	if not impossible to describe.	49:07
	Whatever you call it, mystic sight or spiritual sight,	49:11
	it involves a sense of transcendence or otherness	49:19
	that transforms our relationship to ourselves,	49:27
	to our brothers and sisters, to the whole life process.	49:32
	The Greek root of the word mystic,	49:38
	suggests a closing of the eyes.	49:43
	A shutting out of external reality	49:48
	to be aware of another inward reality.	49:51
	We find ourselves, the great Venerable Bede said,	49:58
	"Like birds flying into a lighted room out of the dark	50:02
	for a moment in the light and then again into the dark."	50:09
	But for that moment, something is seen,	50:16
	the light shines, there is inward clarity.	50:21
	Paul falls off that horse on the road to Damascus.	50:26
	Blind, but now knowing who he is and what he is about.	50:31
	John Wesley at Aldersgate knew something	50:41
	then he did not know with the Indians in Georgia	50:44
	or with the Moravians in the storm at sea.	50:49
	Call it grace, call it insight, call it ultimate acceptance.	50:55
	It remains the turning point in perception.	51:02
	It struck Augustine as he held up before himself	51:09
	the mirror of an indulgent life.	51:14
	It struck Pascal as he hung for a breathless moment	51:20
	out the door of a speeding horse carriage	51:26
	over a bridge in Paris	51:30
	and the prospect of death was before him.	51:31
	Such moments are moments of revelation.	51:37
	And because of them, we see our way more clearly.	51:42
	Such vision may come to us in ways	51:50
	and circumstances we cannot predict nor control.	51:54
	It may be in a moment of solitude.	52:00
	It may be in the crash of a great crowd.	52:02
	It may be when we hear a word of comfort	52:06
	or it may be in the midst of a grave	52:09
	and terrible disappointment.	52:12
	Or it may come not in words, but in pregnant silences	52:15
	such as, it came to Joe, and St. Francis,	52:22
	and Dag Hamarskjold.	52:30
	But however, and whenever such vision comes,	52:33
	count yourselves blessed, that in the great mystery of life,	52:39
	you have been given eyes to see and ears to hear.	52:46
	And know that you are in the glorious company of Paul,	52:54
	who knew how little we see,	53:00
	who knew the partial range of our knowing,	53:04
	who knew the fragmentary character of our speech,	53:08
	and yet, who knew that while we see through it last darkly,	53:13
	one day, we shall see face to face.	53:21
	And then beyond all inadequacy of words,	53:28
	we will identify with the cry of Joe.	53:34
	I have heard of him by the hearing of the ear,	53:38
	but now, my eye see a thing. Amen.	53:44
	Let us pray.	53:52
	Lord, now let us vow Thy servants depart in peace	54:00
	according to Thy word.	54:07
	For our eyes have seen Thy salvation,	54:10
	which Thou has prepared in the presence of all peoples.	54:14
	A light for revelation to the Gentiles	54:19
	and for glory to thy people of Israel. Amen.	54:24
	(orchestra music)	54:33
	♪ Amazing grace ♪	55:07
	♪ How sweet the sound ♪	55:11
	♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪	55:15
	♪ I once was lost, but now I'm found ♪	55:24
	♪ Was blind, but now I see ♪	55:32
	♪ 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear ♪	55:42
	♪ And grace my fears relieved ♪	55:50
	♪ How precious did that grace appear ♪	55:58
	♪ The hour I first believed ♪	56:07
	♪ Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail ♪	56:16
	♪ And mortal life shall cease ♪	56:25
	♪ I shall possess, within the veil ♪	56:33
	♪ A life of joy and peace ♪	56:42
	♪ Amen ♪	56:52
	(orchestra music)	57:06
	(indistinct)	58:47
	♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪	58:55
	(choir members drowns out other members)	59:01
	♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪	59:06
	(choir members drowns out other members)	59:12
	♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪	59:17
	(choir members drowns out other members)	59:23
	♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪	59:28
	(choir members drowns out other members)	59:31
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	59:38
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	59:44
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	59:49
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	59:54
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:00
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:06
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:11
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:17
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:24
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:30
	(choir members drowns out other members)	1:00:34
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:01:16
	(orchestra music)	1:01:26
	♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪	1:01:36
	♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪	1:01:42
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:01:48
	♪ Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ♪	1:01:55
	♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪	1:02:01
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:02:06
	♪ Amen ♪	1:02:27
-	Oh Lord, our God, send upon us your Holy Spirit,	1:02:36
	we ask to hallow our gifts,	1:02:41
	to cleanse and make perfect our wills,	1:02:45
	and to empower our ministry in the world.	1:02:49
	Grant us courage, Oh Lord, without coldness,	1:02:52
	compassion without confusion, and vision without narrowness.	1:02:56
	Send us forth, as your people,	1:03:03
	may we have peace with the restlessness of God.	1:03:05
	Grace that paradox of discipline and freedom.	1:03:10
	And always joy to fill all of life with celebration.	1:03:15
	In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.	1:03:22
	(orchestra music)	1:03:28
	♪ Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart ♪	1:04:03
	♪ Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art ♪	1:04:11
	♪ Thou my best thought, by day or by night ♪	1:04:19
	(orchestra music drowns out choir)	1:04:28

Item Info

Title:

Robert L. Johnson - "Faith as Vision" (April 29, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4w37qx0m

Date:

April 29, 1973

Speaker:

Johnson, Robert L.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0655
ref6512_7y4
uachapelsermaud
duke:628345
dcrau002635
ark:/87924/r4w37qx0m
9138cb59-b42d-470e-8d04-b6d3af5e5488

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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Robert L. Johnson - "Faith as Vision" (April 29, 1973)

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1. Robert L. Johnson - "Faith As Vision" (April 29, 1973)

Duke University Archives

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Robert L. Johnson - "Faith as Vision" (April 29, 1973)

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