H. Langill Watson - "Christ the Tempter" (June 26, 1977)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| - | Duke University Chapel Service Awardship, June 26th, 1977. | 0:05 |
| (gentle music) | 0:13 | |
| (gentle music) | 4:06 | |
| (gentle music) | 5:43 | |
| (gentle music) | 10:09 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 12:11 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:28 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:30 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:33 | |
| (gentle music) | 12:42 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 13:16 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 13:33 | |
| - | Brothers and sisters, | 16:05 |
| we have come together in the presence of God | 16:07 | |
| to set forth His praise, to hear His word | 16:11 | |
| and ask for ourselves and on behalf of others, | 16:16 | |
| those things that are necessary for life | 16:21 | |
| and our salvation, | 16:24 | |
| and so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and mind, | 16:27 | |
| to worship this gracious God. | 16:33 | |
| Let us enter now into prayer with penitent | 16:36 | |
| and faithful hearts. | 16:40 | |
| Let us pray. | 16:42 | |
| Almighty God, who sent the promised power | 16:46 | |
| of the Holy Spirit, to fill disciples with willing faith, | 16:50 | |
| we confess that we have been held by the force | 16:55 | |
| of your spirit among us, | 16:58 | |
| that we have been slow to serve you | 17:01 | |
| and reluctant to spread the good news of your love. | 17:04 | |
| God have mercy on us. | 17:08 | |
| Forgive our divisions, and by your Spirit, draw us together. | 17:11 | |
| Fill us with flaming desire to do Your will. | 17:17 | |
| And be a faithful people. | 17:21 | |
| For the sake of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. | 17:24 | |
| May we continue in silent prayer. | 17:31 | |
| May the Lord have mercy on us. | 18:22 | |
| Forgive us all our sins through Christ's abundant grace. | 18:25 | |
| Strengthen us in all goodness. | 18:30 | |
| And by the power of the Holy Spirit, | 18:34 | |
| keep us all in eternal life. | 18:37 | |
| Amen. | 18:39 | |
| (gentle music) | 18:43 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 19:42 | |
| Now let us attend to the hearing of God's Word. | 22:29 | |
| First in Acts 9:1-9. | 22:33 | |
| "But Saul, still breathing threats and murder | 22:39 | |
| against the disciples of the Lord, | 22:43 | |
| went to the high priest and asked him for letters | 22:46 | |
| to the synagogues at Damascus. | 22:49 | |
| So that if he found any belonging to the way, | 22:52 | |
| men or women, | 22:55 | |
| he might bring them to be bound to Jerusalem. | 22:57 | |
| Now, as he journeyed, he approached Damascus. | 23:02 | |
| And suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. | 23:05 | |
| And he fell to the ground | 23:10 | |
| and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, | 23:12 | |
| why do you persecute me?' | 23:17 | |
| And he said, 'who are you, Lord?' | 23:20 | |
| And he said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. | 23:23 | |
| But rise and enter the city, | 23:28 | |
| and you will be told what to do.' | 23:30 | |
| The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, | 23:33 | |
| hearing the voice, but seeing no one. | 23:37 | |
| Saul arose from the ground. | 23:40 | |
| And when his eyes were open, he could see nothing. | 23:43 | |
| So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. | 23:47 | |
| And for three days, he was without sight, | 23:52 | |
| and neither ate nor drank." | 23:55 | |
| But a stand for the hearing of the gospel. | 24:00 | |
| Matthew 4:18-22. | 24:05 | |
| "And as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, | 24:11 | |
| he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter | 24:14 | |
| and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, | 24:19 | |
| for they were fishermen. | 24:24 | |
| And he said to them, | 24:26 | |
| 'follow me and I will make you fishers of men.' | 24:27 | |
| Immediately they left their nets and followed him. | 24:32 | |
| And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, | 24:37 | |
| James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, | 24:40 | |
| in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, | 24:46 | |
| and he called them immediately. | 24:50 | |
| They left the boat and their father and followed him." | 24:54 | |
| And the Lord bless to us this reading of His Holy Word. | 25:01 | |
| (gentle music) | 25:04 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 25:14 | |
| Let us now affirm what we believe. | 25:49 | |
| - | We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 25:53 |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus, | 25:58 | |
| to reconcile and make new, | 26:01 | |
| who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 26:04 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 26:08 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 26:13 | |
| to love and serve others, | 26:16 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 26:19 | |
| to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 26:22 | |
| our judge and our hope, | 26:26 | |
| in life and death and life beyond that, | 26:29 | |
| God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. | 26:34 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 26:40 | |
| - | And with your spirit | 26:42 |
| - | Let us pray. | 26:43 |
| Come quietly, O God, and still our noisy clamorous cells. | 27:01 | |
| Come with power | 27:10 | |
| and cast out the many devils that divide us | 27:13 | |
| and drain us of strength through fears of imagination, | 27:18 | |
| and contradictions of the heart. | 27:23 | |
| Come with courage to touch our will, | 27:27 | |
| that we may grow to be steadfast and purpose, | 27:33 | |
| uniting dreams and deeds, | 27:38 | |
| and be faithful to those who claim our love. | 27:41 | |
| Come with light to light our way | 27:47 | |
| that our minds may be clear | 27:53 | |
| and daring and able to name failure and bad judgment | 27:56 | |
| and thus to grow in grace and knowledge. | 28:03 | |
| We praise thee for this time apart from the busy world, | 28:11 | |
| for the grace that illumines our way | 28:17 | |
| through a great cloud of witnesses. | 28:20 | |
| All those we remember who girded us in truth, | 28:24 | |
| forgave our meanness of spirit | 28:29 | |
| and showed us a vision full of hope and new life. | 28:32 | |
| For parents, teachers, friends, and enemies, | 28:38 | |
| we give thee thanks for these learnings of the heart. | 28:46 | |
| Out of the fresh strength of these moments, O Lord, | 28:53 | |
| move us again into the traffic of the world. | 28:58 | |
| Take away the disguises and covers | 29:03 | |
| that keep our light from shining in dark places. | 29:05 | |
| To release the love that is in each of us. | 29:11 | |
| Link us together as a mighty force of people | 29:17 | |
| on afraid to reach out and risk the pain of new life. | 29:21 | |
| Enable us as a people to say no to death, | 29:28 | |
| no to injustice, | 29:34 | |
| no to all evasions of the full breadth and depth of truth. | 29:38 | |
| And to ever say yes | 29:46 | |
| to that love that endures our foolish wanderings | 29:49 | |
| and brings us back to health and wholeness. | 29:53 | |
| Which is to say yes to Him who gives us forgiveness | 29:58 | |
| for what is past. | 30:03 | |
| Courage for what lies ahead | 30:06 | |
| and peace in his will for all our time. | 30:10 | |
| Yes, even Jesus Christ our Lord, | 30:15 | |
| who taught us when praying to be bold to say, | 30:19 | |
| our Father who art in heaven, | 30:24 | |
| hallowed be thy name. | 30:27 | |
| Thy kingdom come. | 30:30 | |
| Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 30:32 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 30:37 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 30:41 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 30:44 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 30:49 | |
| but deliver us from evil, | 30:52 | |
| for thine is the kingdom | 30:54 | |
| and the power and the glory forever. | 30:56 | |
| Amen. | 31:01 | |
| The derivation of the word | 31:08 | |
| that Protestants have for years used | 31:12 | |
| to describe their ministers, | 31:15 | |
| as person is, of course, parson. | 31:18 | |
| The minister has taken on an exemplary role as priest | 31:25 | |
| and representative for the people of God. | 31:30 | |
| The preacher this morning, in a very special way, | 31:35 | |
| is an exemplary person of the church's ministry. | 31:38 | |
| Line Joe Watson comes to us from a long ministry | 31:45 | |
| in this state, | 31:49 | |
| an education that goes from Louisburgh to Duke to Yale, | 31:51 | |
| to his time as a mural fellow at Harvard Divinity School. | 31:57 | |
| I know him as a friend and able preacher of the word | 32:02 | |
| and the Duke pulpit is proud | 32:07 | |
| to welcome him here this morning. | 32:09 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 32:42 |
| O thou eternal wisdom | 32:50 | |
| whom we partly know and partly do not know. | 32:55 | |
| O thou eternal justice | 33:05 | |
| whom we partly acknowledge but never holy obey. | 33:10 | |
| O thou eternal love, | 33:21 | |
| whom we love a little, but fear to love too much. | 33:26 | |
| Open our minds that we may understand. | 33:36 | |
| Work in our wills that meet we may obey. | 33:42 | |
| Kindle our hearts that we may love thee. | 33:49 | |
| Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. | 33:57 | |
| We read in the Gospel this morning. | 34:07 | |
| And he says unto them, follow me. | 34:13 | |
| And in the epistle, he fell to the earth, | 34:19 | |
| and heard a voice saying unto him, | 34:28 | |
| "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? | 34:31 | |
| Why do you kick against the goad?" | 34:38 | |
| The word temptation is universally associated with evil. | 34:48 | |
| One of our hymns speaks of not yielding to temptation. | 34:58 | |
| Suggesting that temptation is an evil | 35:05 | |
| to be avoided and overcome. | 35:11 | |
| If you say of some person that they are tempted, | 35:16 | |
| the immediate for conjured is one of having been lured | 35:24 | |
| to do something wrong. | 35:31 | |
| Why is that? | 35:34 | |
| Our lives major enticements always toward sin. | 35:38 | |
| I wish to suggest this morning | 35:47 | |
| that lovely things can tempt us as well as evil. | 35:51 | |
| Beauty and goodness and truth. | 35:59 | |
| Great music, great books, great art. | 36:04 | |
| Inspiring homes and fine friends. | 36:09 | |
| Causes worth serving, faith worth believing, | 36:15 | |
| hope worth fulfilling, character worth obtaining. | 36:22 | |
| And above all, Christ saying, follow me. | 36:29 | |
| All these tempt human beings. | 36:35 | |
| Life with all its evil is also full of enticements to good. | 36:40 | |
| Consider the Apostle Paul. He hated Christianity. | 36:50 | |
| He presided at the stoning of Stephen. | 36:56 | |
| The Scriptures tell us he laid ways to the church. | 37:00 | |
| But even then, there was something going on | 37:05 | |
| inside the apostle. | 37:09 | |
| Intelligent man that he was, | 37:13 | |
| he could not persecute a movement without understanding it. | 37:17 | |
| And the more he came to understand, | 37:24 | |
| the more he was tempted, goaded toward it. | 37:29 | |
| Paul, the persecutor of Christians, | 37:36 | |
| was inwardly tempted to be a Christian. | 37:40 | |
| Finally on the Damascus Road, | 37:46 | |
| in a state of spiritual trauma, | 37:49 | |
| he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, | 37:52 | |
| why persecutest thou me? | 37:56 | |
| Why do you kick against the goad?" | 38:00 | |
| And out of that confrontation of spirit with spirit, | 38:04 | |
| surrendered his life to Christ. | 38:10 | |
| Or consider the prodigal son. | 38:15 | |
| He left home for the far country. | 38:20 | |
| He was we say, tempted by evil, fair enough. | 38:24 | |
| But when he was there in the far country, | 38:35 | |
| draining the dregs of his bitter cup, | 38:40 | |
| he was tempted again, there amidst the swan, | 38:45 | |
| an appeal to reason tugged at his heart. | 38:52 | |
| He fought against it, | 38:56 | |
| tried to escape the humiliation of a penitent returning. | 38:58 | |
| But in the end, | 39:05 | |
| he surrendered to a pool he could not resist | 39:07 | |
| and turned his face homeward. | 39:12 | |
| What the Apostle experienced | 39:17 | |
| and what the prodigal son experienced, | 39:21 | |
| has also been the experience of countless numbers | 39:24 | |
| of human beings who have been goaded to be decent, | 39:29 | |
| driven, drawn, coerced to clean up their lives and walk | 39:35 | |
| in the new direction of a Christian life. | 39:42 | |
| And surely, no time in human history stands in greater need | 39:47 | |
| of that quality of temptation than does our own. | 39:53 | |
| Many among us have been turned off by the church, | 40:02 | |
| the church with all its pettiness, | 40:09 | |
| with all its superficiality, | 40:12 | |
| with all its passion for form without substance. | 40:16 | |
| But there are many others | 40:24 | |
| who are disturbed by what they see happening | 40:27 | |
| in the world around them. | 40:31 | |
| And are in response, turning to Christ. | 40:34 | |
| For they see in the Christian faith, | 40:42 | |
| a great tradition of spiritual life | 40:47 | |
| sprung from Hebrew prophets, and the man of Galilee. | 40:52 | |
| They see gathered up in the Christian faith, | 40:59 | |
| the best the Greeks thought, | 41:04 | |
| and in its profound his insights and noblest qualities, | 41:08 | |
| they see an inspiration drawn from the life | 41:14 | |
| and teaching of Jesus. | 41:20 | |
| There are men and women who see in that spiritual heritage, | 41:23 | |
| the origin of our ideas of human dignity, | 41:30 | |
| of the soul's value, | 41:36 | |
| of the rights of conscience before God, | 41:40 | |
| of democracy and liberty and human possibility. | 41:47 | |
| And thus seeing, | 41:55 | |
| have been tempted to claim Christ as their own, | 41:58 | |
| answering in their own way his call, follow me. | 42:04 | |
| St. Paul started life with a great sense | 42:13 | |
| of self sufficiency. | 42:16 | |
| Certain that a religious person needed only the law | 42:20 | |
| and that with the law, he could rely upon himself, | 42:24 | |
| confront life with a strong will, | 42:29 | |
| and handle whatever might come his way. | 42:33 | |
| But all the time, | 42:37 | |
| deep within Paul knew the growing need of an inner help, | 42:39 | |
| greater than self, | 42:45 | |
| if he was to be the kind of person he yearned to be. | 42:48 | |
| In his spiritual autobiography he writes later, | 42:54 | |
| that the good which he wanted to do, he could not do, | 43:00 | |
| the evil which he did, he did not want to do. | 43:05 | |
| And in anguish at the thought of the helplessness | 43:10 | |
| of it all, he cries out, "O wretched man than I am, | 43:14 | |
| who will deliver me out of this body of death?" | 43:21 | |
| And then Paul began to see in those first Christians | 43:29 | |
| of power released, resources of inner strength | 43:32 | |
| from unfathomable wells, | 43:37 | |
| set free to transform character and make possible, | 43:41 | |
| the impossible. | 43:46 | |
| And the goad of it, the temptation of it, | 43:48 | |
| drove him toward Christ. | 43:54 | |
| Later writing to the Ephesians, | 43:58 | |
| he testified that he was strengthened with might, | 44:00 | |
| by Christ's spirit in the inner man. | 44:06 | |
| And all my brothers and my sisters in Christ, | 44:11 | |
| that same kind of experience is being reproduced among us. | 44:18 | |
| Situations where self sufficiency has collapsed. | 44:28 | |
| Pride has been broken. | 44:34 | |
| And if there be any power to see a person through, | 44:37 | |
| they know how terribly they need it. | 44:42 | |
| The greatest joy of my years of ministry | 44:49 | |
| came out of those eight years, | 44:55 | |
| when I had the happy privilege of being minister | 44:58 | |
| to youth in a university community. | 45:01 | |
| A joy, which reached its height as I saw many | 45:07 | |
| looking for that kind of faith. | 45:12 | |
| The faith that enables a person to pray | 45:17 | |
| that simple prayer which says, | 45:20 | |
| O God, help me to understand that you are not going | 45:24 | |
| to let anything come my way, | 45:28 | |
| that you and I together cannot handle. | 45:33 | |
| It is hard enough at any time | 45:41 | |
| to be strong, coherent, steady, | 45:43 | |
| well integrated as a human being, | 45:48 | |
| able to hold together under life's strain, | 45:53 | |
| and when in the process of spiritual victory. | 45:57 | |
| But there are countless numbers among us | 46:02 | |
| caught up in that kind of struggle, | 46:06 | |
| who having heard Jesus saying, be of good cheer, | 46:09 | |
| I have overcome the world. | 46:16 | |
| have been tempted and goaded to respond to that kind | 46:19 | |
| and measure of faith. | 46:27 | |
| One of the strange marvels of Christian history | 46:31 | |
| is the way that Jesus has tempted so many. | 46:37 | |
| We picture the tempter as the devil. | 46:42 | |
| And that is a truth we do well to recognize. | 46:47 | |
| Yet Christ saying across the centuries, "Follow me," | 46:52 | |
| outmatches the devil at his best. | 46:59 | |
| We say no to him, | 47:07 | |
| we kick against the goad and we'll have none of him. | 47:11 | |
| But when we are through, he is still there, | 47:17 | |
| and in our deepest need and darkest hour, | 47:23 | |
| we too cry out, oh, that I might be like him. | 47:27 | |
| A few years ago, | 47:36 | |
| I had the exciting experience of spending a semester | 47:38 | |
| in residence at Harvard Divinity School. | 47:44 | |
| While there, I became acquainted with a Japanese student | 47:50 | |
| who had arrived at the same time I did. | 47:57 | |
| He had come to the United States five years previously | 48:04 | |
| for a graduate study, | 48:11 | |
| and just the previous spring, | 48:14 | |
| he had received a PhD at Northwestern University | 48:17 | |
| in Metallurgy. | 48:23 | |
| As the weeks wore on that fall in seminary, | 48:28 | |
| he seemed to become more and more troubled in spirit. | 48:35 | |
| And so provided an occasion, | 48:43 | |
| one day I engaged him in conversation. | 48:45 | |
| And out of it, we talked. | 48:51 | |
| We talked for almost three hours, | 48:54 | |
| three hours during which I learned that during those years | 48:59 | |
| at Northwestern, he had become involved | 49:05 | |
| in a Christian campus group, | 49:11 | |
| which did an in depth study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. | 49:16 | |
| And as he had learned about Bonhoeffer, | 49:25 | |
| the deep hold which Christ had upon Bonhoeffer's life, | 49:32 | |
| the sense of inner serenity | 49:41 | |
| with which Bonhoeffer faced death, | 49:45 | |
| this young man found that it spoke too deep | 49:51 | |
| an articulated need in his own life, | 49:56 | |
| the need to experience that kind of faith, | 50:02 | |
| the need to know the Christ who was Bonhoeffer's Savior. | 50:07 | |
| So it was then that he laid aside his doctorate | 50:16 | |
| in metallurgy and enrolled at Harvard Divinity School, | 50:21 | |
| in the hope that such a program of theological study | 50:28 | |
| would assuage his deep hunger | 50:36 | |
| and provide a new direction for his life. | 50:41 | |
| And now after several weeks in residence, | 50:47 | |
| he was troubled of spirit. | 50:51 | |
| Divinity School had not turned out | 50:55 | |
| to be what he had expected. | 50:58 | |
| Had he made a mistake? He asked. | 51:01 | |
| We talked on for several hours. | 51:06 | |
| In the process, I mentioned his fellow countryman, Kagawa, | 51:10 | |
| and was surprised to learn that he knew very little | 51:15 | |
| about this spiritual jaunt of our century. | 51:19 | |
| We talked about Kagawa's search for spiritual certainty. | 51:25 | |
| And the answer provided for that search | 51:32 | |
| in loving self giving service. | 51:37 | |
| The next morning, I found a note pinned to my door, | 51:44 | |
| expressing appreciation for the time spent together, | 51:50 | |
| saying that a new perspective had been gained | 51:57 | |
| on what he was seeking and possession of a renewed certainty | 52:04 | |
| that he was indeed where he should be, | 52:12 | |
| though he did not know where it was taking him. | 52:15 | |
| He was yielding to the tempting Christ, | 52:22 | |
| no longer kicking against the goad. | 52:27 | |
| Here is another man, | 52:32 | |
| a truck driver in Ida Grove, Iowa. | 52:36 | |
| He is a reformed alcoholic, | 52:42 | |
| a member of the Methodist church | 52:46 | |
| and a regular member of its choir. | 52:50 | |
| He develops an interest in politics | 52:56 | |
| and goes on to become a third term Democratic governor | 53:01 | |
| in that rock ribbed Republican state. | 53:09 | |
| After that, he was elected to the United States Senate. | 53:14 | |
| A man of deep, personal, spiritual faith. | 53:20 | |
| Senator Howard Hughes found that more and more | 53:27 | |
| he was spending his time praying and counseling | 53:33 | |
| with his troubled colleagues. | 53:38 | |
| And even with total strangers | 53:41 | |
| who called him up seeking his help. | 53:44 | |
| In the fall of 1973, | 53:50 | |
| Senator Hughes announced that he would leave the Senate | 53:55 | |
| at the end of his present term to launch out | 53:59 | |
| in what he called a different kind of effort | 54:05 | |
| that will be primarily spiritual rather than political. | 54:11 | |
| He told one of his shocked aides, | 54:19 | |
| that he would rather bring one person to Christ, | 54:23 | |
| than to address a rally of thousands. | 54:30 | |
| When challenged that he could do more | 54:37 | |
| by continuing as a senator, he replied, | 54:39 | |
| "Salvation is all that counts. | 54:46 | |
| You can't take high office and plaques and commendations | 54:52 | |
| into eternity." | 55:00 | |
| Tempted by Christ' call saying, "Follow me," | 55:06 | |
| he was goaded into walking in a new direction | 55:13 | |
| with a new sense of meaning and purpose. | 55:18 | |
| Many greeted Senator Hughes decision | 55:25 | |
| with cynical disbelief. | 55:30 | |
| Some suggested that what he had chosen to do | 55:34 | |
| was not practical. | 55:40 | |
| That it was all right | 55:44 | |
| to hold Christian conviction and ideals. | 55:46 | |
| But that finally, you have to recognize that it is in a far | 55:51 | |
| different practical world of realism, | 55:58 | |
| that decisions have to be made, | 56:04 | |
| suggesting thereby that Christian idealism | 56:08 | |
| and worldly practicality were somehow mutually exclusive. | 56:15 | |
| But think about that for a moment. | 56:27 | |
| I ask you, | 56:32 | |
| what is truly practical in this world of ours? | 56:37 | |
| Is bombing a whole country into a scarred wasteland | 56:45 | |
| in order to save it practical? | 56:53 | |
| Is subsidizing national governments | 57:01 | |
| that imprison thousands for political dissent, | 57:07 | |
| while at the same time espousing | 57:16 | |
| the democratic way practical? | 57:20 | |
| Is funding water projects, | 57:29 | |
| which are at best of questionable value, | 57:34 | |
| while at the same time denying funds for enabling persons | 57:39 | |
| estranged from their country by an awful war, | 57:47 | |
| to get home and become integrated once more | 57:53 | |
| into our society practical? | 57:57 | |
| Is it practical | 58:07 | |
| to consistently sell short programs | 58:11 | |
| whose purpose is to create an environment | 58:18 | |
| where children can grow up | 58:22 | |
| with physical and emotional normality? | 58:26 | |
| Is it practical to organize and work to save the fox, | 58:34 | |
| to save the dolphin, to save the bald eagle | 58:43 | |
| and other endangered species, | 58:50 | |
| and then work even harder to create fiscal | 58:57 | |
| and legal means by which human life may be denied | 59:04 | |
| to unborn children? | 59:11 | |
| Is it practical to spend millions of dollars | 59:16 | |
| building bombers whose need is at least questionable | 59:24 | |
| and whose cost is outrageous, | 59:32 | |
| while crying that we must cut budget items | 59:37 | |
| that feed children and provide economic opportunity | 59:42 | |
| for the dispossessed? | 59:49 | |
| I ask you, is all of that what is truly practical | 59:52 | |
| in our world? | 1:00:00 | |
| Or is it more apparent than ever before, | 1:00:05 | |
| that the only true practicality is that which is based | 1:00:10 | |
| on the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount. | 1:00:16 | |
| I testify out of the depth of my own heart | 1:00:22 | |
| and everything which I hold to be true | 1:00:28 | |
| that this business of being tempted to hear Christ's call | 1:00:34 | |
| to follow Him is not some lovely, | 1:00:40 | |
| uninvolved kind of idealism | 1:00:47 | |
| but the sternest, most practical realism of all, | 1:00:51 | |
| granted the far country is tempted. | 1:00:59 | |
| But when finally we get there and end up among the swan, | 1:01:05 | |
| and lose our last shred of self respect, | 1:01:11 | |
| that is not tempting at all. | 1:01:16 | |
| For a truth, sexual promiscuity is tempting, | 1:01:21 | |
| but finally, when sex becomes jaded, | 1:01:31 | |
| and nothing is any longer satisfying, | 1:01:36 | |
| and our sensual capacity so beautiful when controlled, | 1:01:41 | |
| but so debilitating when unleashed, | 1:01:47 | |
| brings us at last to nothingness. | 1:01:52 | |
| That's not tempting at all. | 1:01:57 | |
| Thank God, there are still young people | 1:02:02 | |
| and middle aged people and older people | 1:02:08 | |
| who are tempted to live decent, disciplined lives, | 1:02:12 | |
| faithful to partners, making secure the homes of the land | 1:02:19 | |
| and thereby greater possibility | 1:02:28 | |
| for the children destined to live in them. | 1:02:32 | |
| To be sure, it is tempting to be selfish, | 1:02:39 | |
| to think only of me and mine, | 1:02:45 | |
| to be miserly in the sharing of resources | 1:02:51 | |
| and talents and time and self. | 1:02:56 | |
| But when life's work is done, | 1:03:03 | |
| and we look back and assess what life has been all about, | 1:03:07 | |
| too late we learn that what we have is a (indistinct) | 1:03:14 | |
| and that is not tempting at all. | 1:03:25 | |
| Some poet spoke well when he said, | 1:03:30 | |
| "All such shall go down to the vile dust | 1:03:35 | |
| from whence he sprung, unwept, unhonored, unsung. | 1:03:41 | |
| Praise God. | 1:03:51 | |
| There are still men and women who are tempted | 1:03:53 | |
| to forget themselves, | 1:03:59 | |
| to give themselves to something greater than self, | 1:04:03 | |
| to lose their lives in something worth sacrificing for. | 1:04:08 | |
| And as a result, find life, | 1:04:16 | |
| finding it not as some illusory idealism | 1:04:21 | |
| but as the way, the basic, practical, | 1:04:28 | |
| realistic way to worthwhile life. | 1:04:34 | |
| Praise God. | 1:04:41 | |
| There are still those who hear the call, follow me, | 1:04:43 | |
| and are tempted and goaded to response. | 1:04:52 | |
| In the name of the Father, and of the Son | 1:05:01 | |
| and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. | 1:05:07 | |
| (gentle music) | 1:05:17 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:05:39 | |
| (gentle music) | 1:07:22 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:08:33 | |
| (gentle music) | 1:10:58 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:12:04 | |
| - | Receive O Lord, these are gifts of heart and hand. | 1:13:09 |
| Bless our best intentions with thy guiding spirit, | 1:13:14 | |
| that we might ever turn our energies to works of justice | 1:13:18 | |
| and compassion at all the broken edges of this earth. | 1:13:22 | |
| In Christ's name, Amen. | 1:13:27 | |
| (gentle music) | 1:13:32 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:14:14 | |
| Glory to God, whose power working in us | 1:17:12 | |
| can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. | 1:17:16 | |
| Glory to him from generation to generation in the church | 1:17:22 | |
| and in Christ Jesus, forever and ever. | 1:17:27 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:38 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:44 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:51 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:55 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:06 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:17 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:31 | |
| (gentle music) | 1:18:49 |
Item Info
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