David C. Steinmetz - "For the Sake of the Gospel" (February 7, 1988)

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	(organ music)	0:00
-	Grace and peace to you	3:09
	in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,	3:10
	and welcome to this service of worship	3:12
	here at Duke University Chapel	3:14
	on this fifth Sunday after Epiphany.	3:15
	We extend special greetings to those of you	3:18
	in our radio and television audiences,	3:20
	and especially to any of you who may be	3:22
	visiting our campus for the first time.	3:24
	If there's any way that we may offer our assistance	3:27
	to you here at the chapel, please let us know.	3:29
	Our preacher for this morning	3:32
	is the Reverend Doctor David Steinmetz,	3:34
	Professor of Church History and Doctrine	3:36
	at Duke Divinity School.	3:38
	Doctor Steinmetz is a distinguished scholar	3:40
	in the field of late medieval	3:42
	and Reformation church history,	3:43
	and he was recipient of the Duke University	3:45
	Scholar-Teacher Award for 1986.	3:48
	He is also a United Methodist pastor	3:51
	and a greatly admired teacher here on our faculty.	3:53
	We welcome Doctor Steinmetz and his family to our service,	3:57
	and we look forward to his message.	4:00
	We also welcome the bell ringers	4:03
	from Edenton United Methodist Church in Raleigh.	4:05
	Directed by Mister William Wiser,	4:08
	they will join our chapel choir	4:10
	for the offertory anthem today.	4:12
	Please note the remaining announcements	4:15
	as they are printed in your bulletins.	4:17
	And now let us continue our worship.	4:19
	(choir singing)	4:30
	(organ music)	5:46
	(choir singing)	6:23
	(organ music)	8:19
	(choir singing)	9:38
-	When we gather to praise God,	10:20
	we remember that we are a people	10:22
	who have preferred our own wills to the Lord's.	10:25
	Accepting God's power to become new persons in Christ,	10:29
	therefore let us confess our sins	10:33
	before God and one another.	10:35
	Please be seated.	10:37
	Have mercy upon us, O God,	10:55
	according to thy loving kindness.	10:58
	According to the multitude of thy tender mercies,	11:01
	blot out our transgressions.	11:04
	Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities	11:07
	and cleanse us from our sins,	11:10
	for we acknowledge our transgressions	11:12
	and our sin is ever before us.	11:15
	Create in us clean hearts, O God,	11:18
	and renew a right spirit within us	11:21
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	11:24
	Hear the good news.	11:29
	Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.	11:31
	That is God's own proof of his love toward us.	11:35
	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	11:39
-	Let us pray.	11:55
	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	12:00
	by the power of your Holy Spirit,	12:02
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed	12:05
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	12:09
	The Old Testament reading is taken from the book of Job,	12:16
	chapter seven, verses one through seven.	12:19
	Has not humanity hard service on earth	12:25
	and are not its days like those of a hired laborer,	12:28
	like those of a slave longing for the shade	12:31
	or a servant kept waiting for wages?	12:35
	So months of futility are my portion,	12:38
	troubled nights are my lot.	12:41
	When I lie down I think, when will it be day	12:44
	that I may rise?	12:48
	When the evening grows long and I lie down,	12:50
	I do nothing but toss til morning twilight.	12:53
	My body is infested with worms	12:57
	and scabs cover my skin.	12:59
	My days are swifter than a shuttle	13:02
	and come to an end as the thread runs out.	13:05
	Remember, my life is but a breath of wind.	13:09
	I shall never again see good days.	13:13
	Here ends the lesson.	13:16
	(organ music)	13:29
	(choir singing)	13:41
	(organ music)	16:37
	(choir singing)	16:52
-	The epistle reading is from 1 Corinthians 9:16-23.	17:56
	Even if I preach the gospel,	18:07
	I can claim no credit for it,	18:10
	I cannot help myself,	18:12
	it would be misery to me not to preach.	18:14
	If I did it of my own choice,	18:17
	I should be earning my pay,	18:19
	but since I do it apart from my own choice,	18:21
	I am simply discharging a trust.	18:24
	Then what is my pay?	18:28
	The satisfaction of preaching the gospel	18:31
	without expense to anyone, in other words,	18:33
	of waiving the rights which my preaching gives me.	18:36
	I'm a free man and know no master,	18:41
	but I have made myself everyone's servant	18:44
	to win over as many as possible.	18:47
	To Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews,	18:50
	as they are subject to the law of Moses,	18:54
	I put myself under that law to win them,	18:56
	although I am not myself subject to it.	19:01
	To win gentiles, who are outside the law,	19:06
	I made myself like one of them,	19:09
	although I am not, in truth, outside God's law,	19:11
	being under the law of Christ.	19:14
	To the weak I became weak to win the weak,	19:18
	indeed, I've become everything in turn	19:23
	to persons of every sort	19:25
	so that in one way or another,	19:27
	I may save some.	19:29
	All this I do for the sake of the gospel,	19:32
	to bear my part in proclaiming it.	19:35
	Here ends the epistle lecture.	19:38
	The gospel reading for today	19:42
	is taken from the gospel according to Saint Mark,	19:44
	first chapter, verses 29 to 39.	19:47
	On leaving the synagogue,	19:55
	they went straight to the house of Simon and Andrew,	19:57
	and James and John went with them.	20:00
	Simon's mother-in-law was ill in bed with fever.	20:03
	They told him about her at once,	20:07
	he came forward, took her by the hand,	20:09
	and helped her to her feet.	20:12
	The fever left her, and she waited upon them.	20:14
	That evening, after sunset,	20:18
	they brought to him all who were ill	20:21
	or possessed by devils,	20:23
	and the whole town was there gathered at the door.	20:25
	He healed many who suffered from various diseases,	20:29
	and drove out many devils.	20:32
	He would not let the devils speak	20:34
	because they knew who he was.	20:36
	Very early the next morning,	20:39
	he got up and went out.	20:43
	He went away to a lonely spot	20:45
	and remained there in prayer,	20:47
	but Simon and his companions searched him out,	20:49
	found him, and said they are all looking for you.	20:53
	He answered let us move on	20:58
	to the country towns in the neighborhood,	21:00
	I have to proclaim my message there also,	21:03
	that is what I came out to do.	21:06
	So, all through Galilee he went,	21:09
	preaching in the synagogues and casting out the devils.	21:11
	Here ends the lesson.	21:16
	It's the word of God to the people of God,	21:19
	thanks be to God.	21:21
	(organ music)	21:33
	(choir singing)	21:55
-	Again from the epistle lesson,	23:59
	to Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews.	24:01
	To win gentiles who are outside the law,	24:06
	I made myself like one of them,	24:08
	although I am not, in truth, outside God's law.	24:10
	To the weak I became weak to win the weak,	24:14
	indeed, I have become everything in turn	24:16
	to men of every sort so that in one way or another	24:20
	I may save some.	24:23
	All this I do for the sake of the gospel	24:26
	to bear my part in proclaiming it.	24:28
	Paul is attempting, in a brief autobiographical passage,	24:33
	to reestablish his credentials with the church at Corinth.	24:37
	The question at stake is not the credibility of the gospel,	24:42
	the Corinthians seem to have no real misgivings	24:46
	about their commitment to the good news,	24:49
	but the credibility of the man	24:52
	who first preached the gospel to them.	24:54
	It had been suggested to the Corinthians by a person	24:57
	or persons unnamed that Paul, whatever his gifts,	25:00
	and however well intentioned his motives,	25:04
	was nevertheless an unsound teacher	25:06
	who had misconstrued fundamental points	25:09
	of Christian doctrine.	25:12
	It's not altogether clear who Paul's opponents were.	25:16
	For a long time, it was thought that Paul's opponents	25:21
	were Judaizers, converts to Christianity from Judaism	25:23
	who insisted that their religious experience	25:29
	was normative for non Jews as well.	25:32
	Conversion to Christianity implied	25:36
	a concomitant conversion to Judaism,	25:38
	or at least to a kind of abbreviated	25:42
	and bowdlerized Judaism.	25:45
	Christians of non Jewish ancestry	25:48
	should keep a kosher table,	25:50
	well, at least some kosher regulations,	25:52
	they should observe Jewish practices and holidays,	25:54
	the men should undergo the rite of circumcision	25:59
	and give prominence to the Mosaic law	26:02
	as a pattern for Christian discipleship.	26:05
	As the Judaizers saw it, Paul,	26:10
	by short circuiting this conversion to Judaism,	26:13
	and by stressing Christian freedom,	26:17
	had denigrated the law of God	26:19
	and falsified the gospel.	26:21
	More recently, scholars have argued that Paul's enemies	26:25
	were gnostic Christians,	26:29
	members of spiritualistic group	26:32
	who thought that freedom in Christ	26:35
	meant freedom from ordinary moral constraints,	26:37
	and who therefore opposed any unhealthy repression	26:40
	of natural human drives.	26:45
	Saints are known by the intensity	26:47
	and fervor of their ecstatic worship,	26:49
	not by the character of their sexual morality.	26:52
	It is no business of the truly spiritual to be good,	26:56
	in which case Paul was opposed	27:00
	by people who thought not that he had too low a view	27:02
	of the moral law, as the Judaizers alleged,	27:06
	but altogether too high of one.	27:10
	Paul argues for his credibility as an authentic teacher	27:14
	by bringing up the sensitive subject of money,	27:19
	or rather by reminding his readers	27:23
	that he had never brought up the subject of money	27:25
	when he was living with him in Corinth.	27:28
	Soldiers do not go on active service at their own expense,	27:31
	farmers eat their own produce	27:36
	and use their own dairy products,	27:38
	even the Mosaic law allows an ox	27:40
	that is threshing to thresh unmuzzled.	27:42
	But Paul never took a cent from the Corinthians,	27:47
	though, as these examples make clear,	27:50
	he had every moral right to do so.	27:52
	Instead, he supported himself	27:55
	by practicing his own trade of tent making.	27:57
	Paul puts himself forward as an evangelist	28:01
	who never asked for money,	28:05
	but who preaches the gospel	28:08
	for the sheer pleasure of communicating the good news.	28:09
	Doesn't that count for something	28:14
	when they issue his credibility?	28:16
	Paul does not rest his claims to credibility	28:20
	merely on his refusal to charge	28:24
	the Corinthians for services rendered,	28:26
	though that is clearly an important point to him,	28:29
	but also on the extent he has been willing	28:33
	to accommodate himself to his listeners	28:35
	in an effort to persuade them to embrace the gospel.	28:38
	To Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews,	28:43
	to gentiles who are outside the law	28:47
	I made myself like one of them,	28:50
	to the weak I became weak to win the weak,	28:53
	indeed, I have become everything in turn	28:57
	to men and women of every sort	29:00
	so that in one way or another	29:03
	I may save some.	29:06
	Effective communication of the gospel	29:10
	rests for Paul on flexible adaptation to his audience.	29:12
	The message was credible	29:18
	because it was directed to people where they were	29:21
	and not where Paul might've preferred them to be.	29:25
	It was believable because it was understandable,	29:28
	and it was understandable because it was couched	29:31
	in the familiar terms of the world they knew.	29:34
	They trusted the gospel because they trusted Paul first,	29:38
	and they trusted Paul because	29:42
	he'd taken the trouble to become one of them.	29:45
	Any teacher who reads this passage	29:50
	from Paul's letter to Corinth	29:53
	might be tempted to remark that Paul	29:55
	does not seem so much to be describing	29:57
	the special circumstances and conditions that pertain	30:00
	only to the preaching of the gospel	30:04
	as the universal conditions that apply	30:07
	to the communication of any subject in any field	30:09
	to any group of people who are unfamiliar with it.	30:14
	Teaching is a matter of patient adaptation	30:18
	and accommodation by those who know more	30:22
	to the knowledge, hesitations,	30:26
	fears, and confusions of those who know less.	30:29
	In his lectures on Romans delivered in 1515,	30:33
	Martin Luther contrasted two kinds of art teachers.	30:37
	The first sweeps into the studio,	30:41
	slaps clay on a potter's wheel,	30:43
	molds it into a vase, fires it in the kiln,	30:45
	glazes the vase, and heaves a self satisfied sigh.	30:49
	My, he says, look what a lovely vase I made.	30:54
	Make one like it.	30:57
	The second teacher not only tells his students what to do,	30:59
	but encourages their first tentative departures	31:03
	from his design,	31:06
	advises them when the process does not work as advertised,	31:08
	and assesses critically their first efforts at a new craft.	31:12
	The second teacher is superior to the first	31:17
	and not because he knows more,	31:21
	but because he's accommodated his learning	31:23
	to the ignorance and inexperience of his students.	31:26
	To the weak, he became weak.	31:29
	I've been a teacher for so long	31:34
	that I'd almost forgotten what it was like	31:37
	to be badly taught by someone else	31:39
	until I learned to use a computer,	31:42
	and was introduced to the arcane world of computer manuals,	31:45
	the world of ROM and RAM, of bias and bod,	31:50
	of bit speak and byte babble.	31:54
	Computer manuals are written by people	31:58
	who tell you everything you need to know about a program,	32:00
	except the one vital piece of information	32:03
	that will make the software work.	32:06
	That's not because technical writers	32:10
	are attempt to obscure their subject,	32:11
	or because they maliciously aspire	32:14
	to keep their readers in the dark.	32:16
	The fact of the matter is that they have encountered	32:19
	that omitted piece of information	32:21
	so long ago that they have forgotten	32:23
	that there is anyone on the planet who does not know it.	32:25
	And so, they neglect to mention it.	32:29
	To the weak, they remain strong,	32:32
	of course with the result that the weak remain weak.	32:35
	In this connection, I had an experience two weeks ago	32:40
	that brought me up short.	32:42
	I needed to transfer some information	32:45
	from one computer with a special operating system	32:47
	to a second computer with a different operating system.	32:52
	After the transfer,	32:56
	I discovered that I could edit the information better	32:57
	if I made yet another transfer of that information	32:59
	to a third computer with an operating system	33:03
	different from the first two.	33:05
	I was having coffee with two colleagues	33:08
	who were not computer literate.	33:10
	I felt such a relief at having	33:12
	successfully made the transfer that I told them about it	33:14
	as a topic of collegial small talk.	33:17
	I said something like this,	33:21
	the files I needed for Ventura Publisher	33:24
	were on a Victor 9000 with a proprietorial system	33:26
	edited with Benchmark.	33:29
	We transferred them to an IBM machine	33:31
	that was hardwired to the Victor,	33:34
	and pumped them over as pure ASCII files.	33:37
	ASCII strips out the high bits and substitutes	33:40
	hard carriage returns for soft,	33:42
	but left the files formatted in a way	33:43
	Ventura could not read.	33:46
	Ventura wants flush left ASCII files	33:47
	with two carriage returns at the end of each paragraph,	33:50
	and all extracts tagged.	33:52
	Word Perfect reads ASCII files, of course,	33:55
	but was clumsy to use since it involved	33:58
	the text in out function key	33:59
	rather than normal load and save.	34:01
	PC Right is an ASCII editor	34:04
	but I had been put off by its lengthy menus	34:06
	so I never learned to use it,	34:08
	therefore I use Compact to get the files	34:09
	into my CPM Cape Pro where I could edit them	34:12
	with Perfect Writers since Perfect Writers	34:15
	is a pure ASCII editor.	34:17
	After editing them in ASCII I would put them	34:18
	in MS DOS format since Ventura would accept	34:21
	MS DOS ASCII but not CPM.	34:24
	Couldn't be clearer.	34:26
	I said all this in a cheerful tone of voice	34:31
	that invited my colleagues to share my relief	34:34
	at finding such a simple solution to my problem.	34:36
	My colleagues, however, looked at me	34:39
	as though I had just announced	34:41
	that I was a poached egg.	34:42
	It was evident that neither of them	34:47
	had the faintest idea what I was talking about.	34:49
	They could see that I was immensely pleased with myself,	34:54
	but the grounds for this pleasure were unclear to them.	34:58
	To outsiders, I talked the language of insiders,	35:02
	and so remained incomprehensible.	35:06
	There is, however,	35:11
	a limit to the principle of accommodation.	35:11
	The adaptation of the expert to the beginner	35:15
	has to be tactical and not real	35:18
	or the process of education will come to an abrupt stop.	35:21
	Teachers must identify with the situation of beginners	35:25
	in order to make effective contact	35:28
	with their world of discourse.	35:30
	They cannot themselves be beginners,	35:33
	or they'll have nothing to teach.	35:36
	However much they may like and admire their students,	35:39
	they cannot go native.	35:41
	Education is a strategy for bridging the distance	35:44
	between knowledge and ignorance,	35:47
	it is not a game of pretending	35:50
	that such distances do not exist.	35:51
	When I began teaching in the 60s,	35:55
	it was fashionable in academic circles	35:58
	to claim that the lecture method was dead	36:00
	and that henceforth all education	36:03
	would be advanced through small group discussion.	36:05
	Teachers were not repositories of knowledge to be tapped,	36:09
	nor students empty vessels to be filled.	36:13
	Teachers were co-learners,	36:16
	colleagues with students in a mutual quest for truth.	36:19
	There is, of course, some truth in this theory,	36:24
	but not merely enough to cover the facts.	36:27
	I remember watching teachers who had spent 25 years	36:31
	with their subject painfully struggling	36:34
	to suppress their knowledge and experience	36:36
	in a discussion with students	36:39
	who had spent 25 minutes with it.	36:40
	This egalitarian approach to learning	36:44
	never really caught on in the hard sciences,	36:46
	since there was too great a danger that ignorance	36:49
	might synthesize the wrong chemicals	36:51
	and do itself and the surrounding laboratory	36:54
	grievous bodily harm.	36:56
	At any event, the theory collapsed of its own weight.	37:00
	Ignorance has no right except the right to diminish.	37:03
	The theory collapsed because adjustment to students	37:10
	is not the only accommodation that must be made.	37:15
	There is a prior and even more fundamental adjustment	37:20
	to the subject matter.	37:24
	Knowledge can only be had on its own terms.	37:27
	It refuses to accommodate itself	37:31
	to our personally less inconvenient terms,	37:33
	or less demanding schedule.	37:37
	Anyone who wants to learn organic chemistry,	37:41
	among whom I do not number myself,	37:43
	but anyone who wants to learn organic chemistry	37:45
	has got to be prepared to spend long hours	37:47
	in a chemistry lab setting up experiments	37:50
	and patiently recording data.	37:52
	Anyone who wants to read Goethe or Kleist or Ichendorf	37:55
	has got to learn what seems	37:59
	the almost purely arbitrary gender	38:01
	of German nouns with the endings appropriate to each,	38:03
	is that strong or weak?	38:07
	Anyone who wants to become a labor negotiator	38:10
	has to learn the history, economy,	38:12
	and social psychology of the working class in America.	38:15
	In short, anyone who wishes to learn any subject whatever	38:20
	must be prepared to undergo a change of life,	38:25
	and to meet the moral	38:28
	and intellectual demands of that subject.	38:29
	If anyone would be my disciple	38:33
	let him pick up his cross and follow me	38:35
	could as easily been spoken by Freud	38:37
	or Heisenberg or Mendel or Keynes as by Jesus.	38:40
	The university looks like a cloister because it is one,	38:45
	no self denial,	38:50
	no conversion to a new and inconvenient way of living,	38:52
	no accommodation to the demands of the subject matter,	38:56
	no voluntary subjection	38:59
	to the criticism of superiors and peers,	39:01
	no rigorous self scrutiny and examination of conscience,	39:04
	no knowledge.	39:08
	All that's missing from daily life	39:11
	are robes and hoods,	39:12
	and twice a year we even put on those.	39:14
	Paul makes it clear that he has become a Jew to the Jews,	39:20
	a gentile to the gentiles,	39:24
	weak to the weak,	39:26
	for the sake of the gospel.	39:28
	That is to say that gospel forms	39:31
	the prior controlling norm in his mission to the world.	39:33
	Whatever accommodations he has made to his audiences	39:38
	have been for the sake of communicating the good news.	39:42
	Credibility is not for him primarily	39:48
	a matter of adjusting elements in his message,	39:50
	but of adjusting himself to that message.	39:55
	The issue is the suitability of the messenger	39:59
	rather than the adequacy of the message.	40:01
	That stands in contradiction to the general trend	40:07
	in contemporary American Protestantism	40:09
	of Protestants are incorrigible message tinkerers.	40:13
	Liberal Protestants want to adjust the message	40:19
	to a modern worldview more in tune with the Enlightenment,	40:21
	as though people do not people Christians	40:25
	because Saint Mark did not read Copernicus.	40:27
	Conservative Protestants want to preach	40:30
	a painless gospel of health, success,	40:32
	nationalism, and the avoidance of tragedy,	40:36
	as though the Christian gospel	40:39
	does not have death to the world,	40:40
	the flesh, and the devil at it's very heart.	40:41
	It's not for Paul the message	40:46
	that is a cause of anxiety,	40:48
	he says earlier I've resolved while I was with you	40:50
	I would think nothing of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross,	40:52
	not the message, but the messenger,	40:56
	I came before you weak, nervous, shaking with fear.	40:58
	The question which the text raises	41:03
	is not the credibility of the gospel,	41:06
	which carries its own convincing power,	41:08
	but the credibility of the men and women who witness to it.	41:12
	It's very easy to think that this is a text	41:19
	only for professional clergy.	41:21
	After all, Paul's defending his credibility	41:25
	to a congregation he once served,	41:27
	and to whom he had preached on more than one occasion.	41:30
	Very few members of this congregation in Duke Chapel	41:34
	have occupied the pulpit.	41:37
	A few expect to.	41:40
	But the communication of the gospel	41:44
	is the responsibility of the whole church,	41:46
	not merely the professional clergy.	41:52
	Most of us trusted the good news about Jesus Christ	41:56
	because we trusted the people who first told us about it.	41:59
	Sometimes, those people were clergy,	42:04
	just as frequently, probably more often,	42:06
	they were laypeople.	42:10
	Luther tried to explain the distinction between	42:14
	laity and clergy by stressing the difference	42:17
	between public and private function,	42:19
	not altogether satisfactory but it helped,	42:21
	pastors are Christians who've been set aside by the church	42:24
	to preside at the administration of sacraments,	42:27
	and to preach the gospel	42:30
	at public gatherings of the congregation.	42:31
	Laypeople are Christians who worship God	42:34
	through sacraments, through hymns,	42:37
	and who bear the message of God's judgment and grace	42:40
	in private word and deed.	42:43
	The pastor has the duty to equip the congregation	42:46
	for its mission to the world,	42:49
	but the mission belongs to all Christians,	42:51
	not just to clergy.	42:53
	The principle danger that confronts us in the university	42:59
	and very probably in the world outside the university	43:02
	is not the danger of failing to translate	43:05
	our Christian convictions	43:07
	into the vernacular of intelligible words and deeds,	43:10
	but of failing to translate them at all.	43:16
	The temptation to go native,	43:20
	to be full participants	43:22
	in the circle of friends we most admire,	43:24
	to postpone inconvenient convictions	43:27
	to more convenient times,	43:30
	is so strong as to be almost irresistible.	43:32
	In the movie Wall Street,	43:38
	the hero is lured into insider trading	43:40
	in part because of the quick wealth, power, and prestige	43:43
	such trading will bring,	43:47
	but also in part, I think it's very clear	43:50
	in the way the character's developed,	43:52
	also in part because he wants the good opinion	43:53
	of the Wall Street trader Gekko, whom he most admires.	43:56
	The thought of being excluded from the inner circle	44:01
	of Gekko's intimate associates	44:04
	because of his own moral scruples	44:06
	is almost more than he can bear.	44:08
	No one has described the moral and spiritual dangers	44:13
	inherent in this quest for admission to the inner circle	44:17
	more eloquently than C.S. Lewis	44:22
	in a 1944 talk to undergraduates at King's College, London.	44:24
	I'd like to quote a paragraph from him.	44:28
	It would be polite and charitable,	44:32
	and in view of your age reasonable too,	44:34
	to suppose that none of you is yet a scoundrel.	44:37
	On the other hand, by the mere law of averages,	44:41
	I'm saying nothing against free will,	44:44
	it is almost certain that at least two or three of you,	44:46
	before you die, will become something very like scoundrels.	44:49
	There must be, in this room,	44:54
	the makings of at least that number of unscrupulous,	44:56
	treacherous, ruthless egotists.	44:59
	The choice is still before you,	45:03
	and I hope you will not take my hard words	45:04
	about your possible future characters	45:06
	as a token of disrespect to your present characters.	45:09
	And the prophecy I make is this:	45:13
	to nine out of 10 of you,	45:17
	the choice which could lead to scoundrelism will come,	45:18
	when it does come, in no very dramatic colors.	45:22
	Obviously bad men, obviously threatening or bribing	45:26
	will almost certainly not appear.	45:30
	Over a drink or a cup of coffee	45:34
	disguised as a triviality and sandwiched between two jokes	45:37
	from the lips of a man or woman	45:41
	whom you have recently been getting to know rather better,	45:43
	and whom you hope to know better still,	45:46
	just at the moment when you are most anxious	45:48
	not to appear crude or naive or a prig,	45:51
	the hint will come.	45:55
	It will be the hint of something	45:57
	which is not quite in accordance with the technical rules	45:58
	of fair play,	46:01
	something which the public, to be ignorant,	46:03
	romantic public would never understand,	46:05
	something which even the outsiders in your own profession	46:08
	are apt to make a fuss about.	46:11
	But something, says your new friend,	46:13
	which we, and at the word we you try not to blush	46:15
	from mere pleasure, something we always do.	46:18
	And you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in,	46:23
	not by desire for gain or ease,	46:26
	but simply because at that moment	46:29
	when the cup was so near your lips	46:30
	you cannot bear to be thrust back again	46:33
	into the cold outer world.	46:35
	It would be so terrible to see the other man's face,	46:37
	that genial, confidential,	46:41
	delightfully sophisticated face	46:43
	turned suddenly cold and contemptuous	46:45
	to know that you had been tried	46:48
	for the inner ring and rejected.	46:49
	And then, if you are drawn in,	46:53
	next week it'll be a little something further	46:55
	from the rules, and next year something further still,	46:57
	but all in the jolliest, friendliest spirit.	47:00
	It may end in a crash, a scandal, and penal servitude.	47:04
	It may end in millions of peerage	47:09
	and giving the prizes at your own old school,	47:11
	but you will be a scoundrel.	47:14
	The temptation to go native,	47:19
	to be in the inner circle at any cost,	47:22
	to postpone inconvenient convictions	47:25
	to more convenient times	47:28
	is almost, but not quite, irresistible.	47:30
	Paul hints at this when he says that he has become	47:35
	all things to all men and women	47:37
	for the sake of the gospel.	47:40
	He says it more explicitly in Romans 12	47:42
	when he warns adapt yourselves no longer	47:44
	to the pattern of this present world,	47:47
	or as J.B. Phillips, who's translated	47:49
	don't let the world around you	47:51
	squeeze you into its own mold.	47:52
	As Paul sees it, we are obliged to accommodate,	47:55
	but forbidden to conform.	48:00
	All of us, therefore, who follow Christ,	48:04
	stand where Saint Paul stood.	48:07
	A mission to the world we cannot neglect	48:10
	because the gospel demands it,	48:12
	an identity we cannot surrender	48:15
	without compromising our witness,	48:17
	an accommodation to outsiders we cannot avoid	48:21
	without lapsing into an unintelligibility.	48:23
	The task remains for us as for Saint Paul	48:27
	to adjust to the world without conforming to it,	48:30
	to speak every vernacular without losing our native tongue,	48:34
	to see from alien perspectives	48:38
	without blurring our own vision,	48:40
	to become everything in turn to men and women	48:43
	of every sort without abandoning our identity.	48:45
	All this I do for the sake of the gospel,	48:50
	to bear my part in proclaiming it.	48:54
	Communicating the gospel is not a simple task,	48:58
	but then of course, no one said it would be.	49:02
	(organ music)	49:20
	(choir singing)	49:44
-	Let us unite in this historic confession	51:48
	of the Christian faith, the apostle's creed.	51:50
	I believe in God the Father Almighty,	51:54
	maker of heaven and earth,	51:58
	and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord,	52:00
	who is conceived by the Holy Spirit,	52:04
	born of the Virgin Mary,	52:06
	suffered under Pontius Pilate,	52:08
	was crucified dead, and buried.	52:10
	The third day he rose from the dead,	52:13
	he ascended into heaven,	52:16
	and siteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,	52:18
	from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	52:22
	I believe in the Holy Spirit,	52:26
	the Holy Catholic Church,	52:29
	the communion of saints,	52:31
	the forgiveness of sins,	52:32
	the resurrection of the body,	52:35
	and the life everlasting, amen.	52:36
	The Lord be with you.	52:41
	Let us pray, be seated.	52:44
	Almighty God, giver of all things with gladness	52:57
	we give thanks for all your goodness.	53:01
	Because of your gospel and for its sake,	53:05
	we are bold this day to pray.	53:09
	Save and defend your whole church	53:13
	purchased with the blood of Christ,	53:17
	give it perseverance by your spirit,	53:22
	and strengthen it through the word and sacraments,	53:26
	make it perfect in love and in all good works,	53:29
	and establish it in the faith delivered to the saints.	53:35
	Unite all of your people in the world,	53:43
	that one holy church,	53:47
	so that we might bear witness to you,	53:49
	the creator and redeemer of all.	53:52
	Give your wisdom and heavenly grace	53:55
	to all pastors,	53:57
	and to those who hold office in your church,	53:59
	that by their faithful service to the gospel	54:03
	faith may abound and your kingdom increase.	54:07
	Send the light of your truth	54:12
	into all the earth,	54:14
	raise up faithful servants of the word	54:16
	to labor in the gospel both here and in distant lands.	54:20
	In your mercy, strengthen the younger churches	54:26
	and support them in time of trial.	54:30
	Make them steadfast,	54:33
	abounding in the work of the Lord,	54:36
	and let their faith and zeal for the gospel	54:39
	refresh and renew the witness of your people everywhere.	54:41
	Preserve our nation in justice and honor,	54:47
	that we may lead a peaceable life with integrity.	54:51
	Grant health and favor to all who bear office in our land,	54:55
	especially the president of these United States,	55:00
	the governor of this state,	55:04
	our senators and representatives,	55:06
	and all those who make, administer, and judge our laws,	55:08
	and help them to serve this people according to your will.	55:13
	Take from us all hatred and prejudice,	55:19
	give the spirit of love and dispose our days in your peace.	55:22
	Prosper the laborers of those who take counsel	55:28
	for the nations of the world,	55:30
	that mutual understanding	55:33
	may be increased among all peoples.	55:35
	Bless the schools of the church,	55:39
	and all colleges and universities and centers of research,	55:43
	that those who teach in them,	55:48
	particularly those who teach and study at this university,	55:50
	might find wisdom in their endeavors,	55:57
	and that our common life may be conformed	56:01
	to the rule of your truth.	56:04
	Sanctify our homes with your presence and joy,	56:07
	be with our families.	56:11
	Let your blessing rest upon seed time and harvest	56:14
	with all human commerce and industry,	56:18
	be with all who lay their hands to any useful task,	56:22
	give them just rewards for their labor	56:28
	and the knowledge that their work is valuable in your sight.	56:30
	Comfort with grace of your Holy Spirit	56:36
	all those who sorrow,	56:39
	who are in sickness or adversity,	56:42
	particularly those in Duke hospitals.	56:44
	Remember those who suffer persecution	56:49
	for the sake of the gospel,	56:51
	and to all grant a measure of your love,	56:54
	taking hurting ones into your tender care.	56:57
	All these things and whatever else you see	57:02
	that we need that we do not see,	57:07
	grant us, loving God,	57:11
	for the sake of him who died and rose again	57:14
	and now lives and reigns with you	57:16
	in the unity of the Holy Spirit,	57:19
	one God forever, amen.	57:21
	And now, as a grateful people,	57:27
	let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	57:29
	(organ music)	57:37
	(choir singing)	59:45
	Gracious God, you have been so good to us	1:07:20
	that it is our pleasure to offer ourselves	1:07:24
	and these gifts in your service	1:07:27
	as our gratitude and thanksgiving	1:07:30
	for all the blessings that you have bestowed upon us.	1:07:33
	And as we do so, we pray our Father who art in heaven,	1:07:37
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	1:07:43
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,	1:07:46
	give us this day our daily bread,	1:07:50
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:07:53
	as we forgive those who've trespassed against us.	1:07:55
	Lead us not into temptation,	1:07:59
	but deliver us from evil,	1:08:01
	for thine is the kingdom	1:08:03
	and the power and the glory forever, amen.	1:08:05
	(organ music)	1:08:12
	(choir singing)	1:08:53
	Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	1:12:39
	the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	1:12:43
	be with you now and always.	1:12:46
	(choir singing)	1:12:55
	(organ music)	1:14:11

Item Info

Title:

David C. Steinmetz - "For the Sake of the Gospel" (February 7, 1988)

Description:

The act of communicating the Gospel to the world, like all acts of teaching, requires an act of cultural translation that is unique to each particular situation (to the Jews, Paul became a Jew; to the weak, he became weak). However, this must never be mistaken to mean that we must conform the message of the Gospel to the pattern of the world in order that it be palletable to our audience. As Paul sees it, we are obliged to accomodate but forbidden to conform. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 23:58. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 49:06.
Key quotation: “The task remains for us as for Saint Paul to adjust to the world without conforming to it, to speak every vernacular without losing our native tongue, to see from alien perspectives without blurring our own vision, to become everything in turn to men and women of every sort without abandoning our identity.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48w38h72

Date:

February 7, 1988

Speaker:

Steinmetz, David C.

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0070
ref8446_une
uachapelsermaud
duke:321657
dcrmv001070
ark:/87924/r48w38h72
e32e6e69-f20f-4b6e-b7ea-b6816d0c5318

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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David C. Steinmetz - "For the Sake of the Gospel" (February 7, 1988)

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