Samuel Proctor - Sermon Untitled (May 29, 1994)

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	(organ music)	0:02
-	Good Morning. Welcome to worship	1:04
	at the Duke Chapel.	1:06
	I'm Brenda Curtin and today our preacher	1:08
	would be the Reverend Dr. Samuel Proctor,	1:12
	who is here in residence at the Duke Divinity School.	1:15
	Today marks Trinity Sunday in the life of the church.	1:20
	It's the time when the church celebrates	1:24
	the work of the Holy Spirit	1:27
	and emphasizes God at the same time	1:31
	in its Trinitarian aspect	1:34
	calling attention to God's threefold nature.	1:37
	I would like to draw to your attention	1:43
	that this afternoon at six o'clock	1:46
	there would be a recital, an organ recital in the chapel.	1:49
	All are welcome.	1:53
	This morning our first hymn is a hymn that is	1:57
	one that invites a congregational response.	2:02
	Please join in as we sing	2:09
	that the choir will sing it to a familiar tune.	2:11
	Thank you.	2:16
	(organ music)	2:20
-	[Everyone In Church] ♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty	3:02
	♪ Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. ♪	3:13
	♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty! ♪	3:23
	♪ God in three persons, blessed Trinity! ♪	3:34
	♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee, ♪	3:48
	♪ casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; ♪	3:58
	♪ cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, ♪	4:09
	♪ which wert and art and evermore shalt be. ♪	4:20
	♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide Thee, ♪	4:30
	♪ though the eye made blind by sin Thy glory may not see, ♪	4:43
	♪ only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, ♪	4:54
	♪ perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity. ♪	5:05
	(organ solo music)	5:16
	♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! ♪	5:28
	♪ All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth ♪	5:39
	♪ and sky and sea. ♪	5:44
	♪ Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty! ♪	5:51
	♪ God in three persons, blessed Trinity. ♪	6:02
-	Let us pray.	6:22
	Hallelujah God is in the midst of us.	6:26
	Therefore let us worship and rejoice.	6:31
	Let us give praise and thanks for the great benefits	6:35
	we have received at God's hand.	6:38
	Precious God we thank you for this opportunity	6:41
	to gather as a church to give praise	6:45
	and worship to your name.	6:48
	We pray O God that you would grant us those things	6:51
	that are necessary for our life and our salvation.	6:54
	We confess that we have sinned against you	6:59
	and your holy law	7:03
	and pray that you would look down upon us in compassion	7:05
	and mercy and forgive us and restore us	7:10
	according to your precious promises.	7:15
	Hear these our prayers in the name of the Father	7:18
	and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.	7:24
Congregation	Amen.	7:27
-	You may be seated.	7:29
-	Let us pray together the prayer for illumination.	7:41
-	[Everyone In Church] Open our hearts and minds oh God.	7:47
	by the power of your Holy Spirit	7:50
	so that is the word is read and proclaimed,	7:53
	we might hear your word joy this day. Amen.	7:56
-	The first lesson is taken from the letter to the Romans	8:06
	the eighth chapter verses 12 through 17.	8:10
	So then brothers and sisters we are debtors	8:18
	not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.	8:21
	For you if you live according to the flesh you will die.	8:25
	But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body	8:29
	you will live.	8:33
	For all who are led by the Spirit of God and children of God	8:35
	for you did not receive a spirit of slavery	8:40
	to fall back into fear	8:42
	but you have received a spirit of adoption.	8:45
	When we cry "Abba Father"	8:48
	it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit	8:51
	that we are children of God	8:55
	and if children then heirs, heirs of God,	8:58
	and joint-heirs with Christ.	9:01
	If in fact we suffer with him	9:03
	so that we may be also glorified with him.	9:07
	This is the word of the Lord.	9:11
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	9:13
-	The second lesson is taken from the book of Isaiah.	9:20
	The sixth chapter verses one through eight.	9:23
	In the year that King Uzziah died,	9:34
	I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty;	9:36
	and the hem of his robe filled the temple.	9:41
	Seraphs were in attendance above him;	9:45
	each had six wings: with two they covered their faces,	9:47
	and with two they covered their feet,	9:51
	and with two they flew.	9:54
	And one called to another and said:	9:56
	"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;	9:58
	the whole earth is full of his glory."	10:02
	The pivots on the thresholds shook	10:05
	at the voices of those who called,	10:08
	and the house filled with smoke.	10:10
	And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost,	10:14
	for I am a man of unclean lips,	10:17
	and I live among a people of unclean lips;	10:20
	yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"	10:24
	Then one of the seraphs flew to me,	10:27
	holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar	10:30
	with a pair of tongs.	10:33
	The seraph touched my mouth with it and said:	10:35
	"Now that this has touched your lips,	10:38
	your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."	10:41
	Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,	10:45
	"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"	10:48
	And I said, "Here I am; send me!"	10:53
	This is the word of the Lord.	10:57
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	11:00
	(organ music)	11:19
	(organ drowns out choir)	11:29
-	Today's Psalm is number 29 verses one through 11	16:59
	found on page 761 in the hymnal.	17:04
	Please stand in sing the Psalm en gloria responsively	17:07
	(organ music)	17:12
	♪ Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ♪	17:20
	♪ ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. ♪	17:25
Congregation	♪ Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name ♪	17:31
	♪ worship the Lord in holy splendor. ♪	17:38
-	♪ The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; ♪	17:44
	♪ the God of glory thunders, ♪	17:49
	♪ the Lord, upon many waters. ♪	17:53
Congregation	♪ The voice of the Lord is powerful; ♪	17:59
	♪ the voice of the lord is full of majesty. ♪	18:04
-	♪ The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; ♪	18:11
Congregation	♪ the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. ♪	18:17
-	♪ The Lord makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, ♪	18:24
	♪ and Sirion like a young wild ox. ♪	18:30
Congregation	♪ The voice of the Lord ♪	18:35
	♪ flashes forth flames of fire. ♪	18:39
-	♪ The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness, ♪	18:42
Congregation	♪ The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. ♪	18:46
-	♪ The voice of the Lord makes the oaks to whirl, ♪	18:53
	♪ and strips the forests bare; ♪	18:57
Congregation	♪ And in his temple all cry, "Glory!" ♪	19:01
-	♪ The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; ♪	19:08
	♪ the Lord sits enthroned as ruler for ever. ♪	19:13
Congregation	♪ The Lord gives strength to his people! ♪	19:20
	♪ May the Lord bless his people with peace! ♪	19:25
-	♪ O glory be to you creator and to Jesus Christ our savior ♪	19:33
Congregation	♪ and the Lord and Spirit, blessed is He. ♪	19:41
-	♪ As it was at a time began ♪	19:48
	(organ drowns out congregation singing)	19:52
	Please be seated.	20:02
-	The gospel is taken from John	20:16
	the third chapter verses one through 17.	20:18
	Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus,	20:26
	a leader of the Jews.	20:28
	He came to Jesus by night and said to him,	20:30
	"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher	20:34
	who has come from God;	20:37
	for no one can do these signs	20:39
	that you do apart from the presence of God."	20:41
	Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you,	20:44
	no one can see the kingdom of God	20:49
	without being born from above."	20:51
	Nicodemus said to him,	20:55
	"How can anyone be born after growing old?	20:56
	Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb	21:01
	and be born?"	21:04
	Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you,	21:06
	no one can enter the kingdom of God	21:09
	without being born of the water and Spirit.	21:12
	What is born of the flesh is flesh,	21:15
	and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.	21:17
	Do not be astonished that I said to you,	21:20
	"You must be born from above.'	21:23
	The wind blows where it chooses,	21:27
	and you hear the sound of it,	21:29
	but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.	21:30
	So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."	21:34
	Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"	21:37
	Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel,	21:42
	and yet you do not understand these things?	21:47
	"Very truly, I tell you,	21:50
	we speak of what we know	21:52
	and testify to what we have seen;	21:54
	yet you do not receive our testimony.	21:57
	If I have told you about earthly things	22:00
	and you do not believe, how can you believe	22:02
	if I tell you about heavenly things?	22:05
	No one has ascended into heaven	22:08
	except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.	22:11
	And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,	22:15
	so must the Son of Man be lifted up,	22:20
	that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.	22:23
	"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,	22:27
	so that everyone who believes in him may not perish	22:31
	but may have eternal life.	22:35
	"Indeed, God did not send his Son into the world	22:37
	to condemn the world,	22:41
	but in order that the world might be saved through him.	22:43
	This is the word of the Lord.	22:48
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	22:51
-	I thank God for this privilege	23:07
	of being with you here once again	23:09
	in this glorious chapel	23:12
	and for being a part of this Duke University community	23:15
	and fellowship as we worship together.	23:20
	You will notice on the program	23:26
	that there is no subject announced for this morning	23:29
	and that's because I was away after classes ended,	23:34
	away in New Jersey at my my home	23:39
	and they cannot find me	23:42
	to find out what my subject would be today,	23:45
	and I hope ernestly that that blank space	23:49
	is not indicative of what the sermon will really be.	23:52
	(congregation laughs)	23:56
	Matthew chapter 22, beginning at verse 15.	23:59
	you will find the basis for the message today.	24:06
	Then the Pharisees went	24:10
	and took counsel how to entangle him in his talk.	24:13
	And they sent their disciples to him,	24:19
	along with the Herodians, saying,	24:21
	"Teacher, we know that you are true	24:23
	and teach the way of God truthfully,	24:28
	and care for no man,	24:32
	for you do not regard the position of men.	24:34
	Tell us, then, what you think.	24:37
	Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,	24:41
	or not?"	24:46
	But Jesus, aware of their malice, said,	24:48
	"Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?	24:52
	Show me the money for the tax."	24:56
	And they brought him a coin.	24:59
	And Jesus said to them,	25:02
	"Whose likeness and inscription is this?"	25:03
	They said, "Caesar's."	25:07
	Then he said to them,	25:09
	"Render therefore to Caesar	25:11
	the things that are Caesar's,	25:13
	and to God the things that are God's."	25:15
	And the subject is rendering on to Caesar.	25:21
	This has to do with the relationship	25:27
	between the Christian and the state.	25:29
	What happens when we perceive the will of God	25:34
	to be one thing and the state seeming	25:36
	to be moving in another direction?	25:41
	How do we render to Caesar appropriately	25:45
	while standing likewise in the midst of the kingdom of God?	25:50
	It is clear from this passage in the Gospel of Matthew	25:56
	that the enemies of Jesus were trying	26:00
	to get him into deep trouble.	26:03
	They tried to get him to say	26:06
	that he had no obligation to Caesar.	26:08
	That he lived beyond and above the government of his day.	26:12
	They asked him what they owed to Caesar	26:17
	tempting him to say	26:21
	"Nothing. You owe Caesar nothing"	26:23
	And that would have meant trouble.	26:27
	He would have been accused	26:29
	of stirring up a revolt against the Emperor.	26:31
	But Jesus asked for this coin	26:35
	that you heard about and he asked	26:37
	"Whose face was stamped on the coin?"	26:38
	It was Caesars, of course.	26:42
	So he said "You rend onto Caesar what is Caesar's	26:43
	and unto God what is God's."	26:47
	In other words the master acknowledged	26:52
	the role and function of the state	26:54
	whether he liked it or not.	26:58
	We do not live in a vacuum we live in a fixed locus	27:00
	with given geometric parameters,	27:06
	a place with its own history	27:10
	and it has a government that controls it.	27:13
	And people who live within these parameters	27:16
	are under some kind of authority.	27:19
	So Jesus granted that	27:23
	and those of us who follow him face the same reality.	27:25
	Much that the government does	27:30
	and much that the state allows or disallows	27:32
	may displease us.	27:35
	But we are all realistic the presence of the state	27:38
	is a given for us.	27:42
	We're thinking about this primarily now	27:45
	because so many things are coming together.	27:47
	Tomorrow is a national holiday, Memorial Day,	27:51
	a time we remember those who have given their lives	27:55
	for this country.	27:58
	During 1994 we were celebrating	28:01
	the landing of the Allied troops in Europe	28:04
	in the beginning of the end of the war,	28:09
	that was fought to end all wars.	28:11
	This is the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower	28:13
	and the D-day landing.	28:18
	Then we've just had the funerals of Richard Nixon	28:21
	and Jacqueline Onassis,	28:24
	and we've heard all of those days reviewed over	28:26
	and over and over again on television.	28:29
	We've been told that we have come	28:33
	to the end of an era and all of that.	28:34
	And any sensitive person would be inclined therefore	28:38
	to raise the question,	28:41
	"Which way is the government going,	28:43
	which way is the state going	28:45
	and for a Christian what role do we have in all of this?"	28:47
	We recognize that we do need some arrangement	28:53
	for honoring personal property,	28:56
	for protecting us from theft and confiscation without cause.	28:59
	We need some agency to ensure the safety	29:04
	of the water we drink the air we breathe	29:06
	and the food we eat,	29:09
	however imperfectly this may be done.	29:10
	We need control of traffic,	29:14
	disposal of waste, transport of people,	29:16
	education of children, prevention of crime	29:20
	and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.	29:24
	And we cannot invent these arrangements	29:27
	every Monday morning.	29:29
	So the state the government has its place	29:31
	and function and fortunately for us,	29:35
	it is a democratic state.	29:38
	But there was another dimension to our being	29:41
	and here comes the problem,	29:44
	We're more than physical objects	29:46
	in a given locus in time and space.	29:48
	We have minds and wills and we are spiritual beings.	29:52
	We make choices we assess our options,	29:58
	we canvass our alternatives.	30:02
	We are spiritual and moral beings	30:05
	and we relate to realities beyond time and space.	30:07
	We have a natural hunger for God	30:12
	and a thirst for righteousness.	30:14
	So while we live under the state	30:16
	we live also under the reign of God as well.	30:18
	So we must respond to the claims of Caesar,	30:23
	and we must respond also to the claims of God.	30:27
	And it is this obligation of every one of us	30:31
	to understand how the two loyalties are binding upon us.	30:35
	The problem is what to do when what we believe	30:40
	to be the will of God is one thing	30:44
	and what we observe to be the trends in the state	30:47
	turn out to be something else?	30:50
	In Jesus day there were some people who withdrew	30:53
	from the whole problem.	30:56
	They were the Essenes, a small sect of people	30:57
	who went to the caves who withdrew from society.	31:01
	Paid no allegiance to any human.	31:06
	They paid no taxes they withdrew	31:09
	from all temple authority, the Essenes.	31:11
	And they went on living,	31:15
	honoring no earthly potentate.	31:18
	That may be possible for a few people	31:22
	but surely not an alternative for most of us.	31:25
	And there are no doubt some persons	31:29
	who would like to do that today.	31:31
	That's not our problem.	31:33
	Our problem is that there are some people	31:35
	who know that the authority is here	31:37
	and who have decided to live above the law.	31:40
	Who engage in lawless living as a career.	31:43
	Then there are those sad persons	31:47
	who live beneath the law	31:49
	who are not even counted,	31:52
	do not submit for any kind of registration,	31:54
	out of touch entirely.	31:58
	Do not benefit from any of the benefactions	32:00
	of the state at all.	32:03
	We have a class of unregistered, uncounted,	32:05
	non-enrolled, non-participating persons	32:09
	who live virtually beneath the law.	32:12
	In the book of Judges,	32:16
	there was a sentence that reminds us	32:18
	of what it is like to live	32:19
	without the benefit of some established order.	32:21
	It says "In that day there was no king in Israel	32:24
	and everyone did that	32:30
	which seemed to be right in his own eyes."	32:31
	I don't water live under any such arrangement as that.	32:35
	Chaos, everyone doing that which seems	32:39
	to be right in his own eyes.	32:41
	In our own time we have seen that kind of chaos	32:45
	when sovereignty is splintered	32:49
	when authority is absent and chaos reigns.	32:51
	Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi,	32:55
	and the Soviet Union after Gorbachev, chaos.	33:01
	So Jesus recognized the state.	33:05
	He recognized temple authority.	33:09
	"Render unto Caesar" said the master.	33:11
	Come now let us acknowledge that as Jesus taught	33:15
	we do have something to render to Caesar,	33:18
	and we should be exemplary in that.	33:21
	Our example as Christians and as citizen	33:24
	should be a model for others in civic and public behavior.	33:27
	We ought not to get so holy now	33:31
	and so far above other people in self-righteousness	33:35
	that we do not do our civic duty.	33:39
	In our case fortunately, the state is the people,	33:42
	it's all of us, it's all of us.	33:46
	We are the temporal body and we are the spiritual body.	33:49
	I remember in our church,	33:53
	we had a church and a corporation.	33:55
	Same people sitting there	33:59
	and on the third Wednesday night in July every year	34:00
	we had an annual church meeting.	34:04
	At that meeting we talked about prayer,	34:06
	the condition of the church,	34:08
	Bible training, visiting the sick and all of that.	34:11
	The state had no interest in that whatsoever.	34:14
	They didn't care if we jumped on one foot	34:17
	and spat over our left shoulder, made no difference.	34:19
	But when that meeting adjourned	34:23
	the same people sitting right there	34:26
	were called to order again.	34:27
	This time the Abyssinian Baptist Church incorporated meets,	34:30
	and oh the state had a lot to do with that.	34:35
	This had to do with our accounting procedures,	34:38
	had to do with bank accounts, mortgages,	34:41
	loans that we had made to build apartments for the poor.	34:45
	This was the legal meeting,	34:48
	same people meeting at one time as a family of God,	34:50
	meeting in another five minutes as a corporation.	34:56
	And so this is the way we are.	34:59
	And we ought to be just as dedicated	35:02
	when we are meeting as a corporation,	35:04
	as when we're meeting as a spiritual body.	35:07
	I remember how embarrassed I was when I was a boy,	35:10
	a local pastor in my hometown	35:13
	was seen walking around the streets with an umbrella	35:16
	and we all wondered why wasn't he driving.	35:19
	We found out that his license had been suspended.	35:22
	The preacher had been zipping through town at high speed	35:25
	and had had his license suspended	35:29
	because he had three or four speeding violations,	35:31
	and he was grounded.	35:35
	He thought of that as a joke and he laughed about it.	35:37
	He's gone home now but he'll never remember he'll never know	35:41
	that I thought of that as awful when I was a kid.	35:45
	That here this pastor is such a poor citizen	35:50
	that he speeds through the neighborhood	35:53
	and has his license suspended.	35:56
	That was no joke at all to me, even as a boy.	35:58
	Our country's in deep trouble now	36:03
	because we have so many young people with no civic sense.	36:06
	No awareness of a social contract,	36:09
	no loyalty to the body politic at all.	36:12
	And we grieve over this,	36:17
	but they have such poor examples	36:20
	at the very highest levels of government	36:22
	that we wonder if we haven't taught them	36:24
	how to be so disregarding of the body politic.	36:27
	We have a New York Supreme Court judge right now	36:31
	serving a jail term for harassing a former lover.	36:35
	One of the most embarrassing cases we had in New York.	36:40
	Now we have the head of a government committee,	36:44
	a powerful committee being indicted	36:47
	for whatever they call it, it amounts to stealing, really.	36:50
	Three candidates for the Supreme Court	36:54
	and a cabinet officer had to withdraw their names	36:56
	because they had not contributed social security	37:00
	contributions for housekeepers.	37:04
	These housekeepers were often persons	37:06
	who had just come to this country,	37:08
	who spoke English poorly, who needed the money,	37:10
	took these jobs for low wages, paltry pay	37:14
	and then were ending up with no Medicare,	37:18
	no old-age benefits, at the hands of people	37:21
	who went to the finest Ivy League universities	37:24
	in the country.	37:28
	That was a disgrace,	37:29
	and many of them were experts in the law.	37:32
	Christian citizens ought to be exemplary.	37:36
	Rend unto Caesar is no light matter.	37:39
	We ought to be teaching other people how to do it right.	37:42
	Jesus said "Give to Caesar what Caesar is due."	37:47
	It is elementary to be a good citizen	37:50
	as a part of our Christian stewardship.	37:53
	Part of being a good citizen also	37:56
	is to scrutinize the government.	37:58
	Not to roll over for dead and become a kind of spectator.	38:00
	Part of being a good citizen is to observe its ways,	38:06
	its assumptions, its goals and its implicit values	38:08
	in the light of our commitment to the kingdom of God.	38:12
	What a temptation it is to withdraw from the confusion	38:16
	and failure of the society	38:19
	and then retreat to our Walden pond somewhere,	38:22
	or to react in violent defiance	38:26
	like John Brown at Harpers Ferry,	38:28
	or to get lost on a Greek island drinking gin and tonic	38:31
	and snorkeling off the stern of an 80-foot yacht.	38:34
	There are all sorts of ways of escaping	38:39
	all sorts of ways of reacting to our unhappiness	38:42
	with the prevailing Authority.	38:45
	But Caesar is real, the state is a given,	38:47
	we must find out how best to render unto Caesar.	38:51
	One way to Rend under Caesars to keep trying	38:56
	and trying and trying, never giving up	38:58
	until we find better answers to our failures.	39:02
	Much better than whining,	39:05
	much better than giving name-calling,	39:07
	all of these ugly ugly labels we attach to people.	39:10
	Better than telephoning mean-spirited talk-show hosts	39:14
	and fueling an already inflammatory atmosphere	39:18
	with more hate and cynicism,	39:22
	we want to be a part of the answer	39:24
	not a part of the problem.	39:26
	"Render unto Caesar." Jesus was in earnest.	39:28
	If pornography on television is playing havoc	39:33
	with our values and seducing the generation	39:36
	to treat family life casually.	39:39
	And if freedom of speech allows such filth	39:42
	to pollute the airways we've got to keep on trying	39:44
	and we've got to find another answer for all of this.	39:48
	We've got to render unto Caesar constructively.	39:52
	We've got to go so far as to find out	39:56
	what products are sponsoring this filth.	39:58
	And we can make known our disgust	40:01
	and let those sponsors feel it where it hurts.	40:04
	When a young tennis star was found caught up in drugs	40:07
	her sponsors found it too risky to promote their products	40:10
	among the young with her name.	40:14
	We pray for her but all of this was withdrawn.	40:17
	Quiet passive acquiescence amounts to consent.	40:22
	Evil prosperous when good people do nothing,	40:27
	and some times that nothing may really be something.	40:30
	I kept hearing the name of Delta Airlines,	40:34
	on a very ugly program in our community in New Jersey.	40:38
	And I did not think that Delta wanted its name connected	40:43
	with all of that race baiting and ugliness.	40:45
	And what did I do?	40:50
	I sat down and wrote an eight page letter in hand	40:51
	writing to the president of Delta Airlines.	40:54
	And I told Delat Airlines what a wonderful reputation it had	40:58
	you know "Delta's ready when you are,"	41:02
	but I didn't want to see Delta Airlines' name	41:05
	connected with such filth and I told the president	41:08
	"You must not listen to this program,	41:11
	there are many ways to advertise your wonderful airline	41:13
	but hardly like this."	41:16
	Oh I got an answer from somebody	41:18
	in the public relations office saying	41:20
	"We contract out our advertising	41:22
	and we don't select the programs	41:24
	and bla bla bla bla bla"	41:25
	But I want to tell you something	41:27
	this Sunday morning May the 29th.	41:28
	I've not heard Delta's name	41:31
	connected with that program anymore.	41:33
	I don't know whether my letter did it or not,	41:35
	but all I know is I sent it	41:38
	and I haven't heard Delta's name on that program	41:41
	since I sent it.	41:44
	If we are troubled and terrorized	41:46
	by unemployed street rovers who are too poorly educated	41:48
	to be gainfully employed, too poorly reared	41:52
	to respect the space, the person,	41:54
	and the privacy, and rights of others.	41:57
	And too isolated and alienated to be reached with reason,	42:00
	then somebody special in our country,	42:04
	somebody in one of these big foundations,	42:08
	somebody buried in one of these departments,	42:11
	in a great university like Duke.	42:13
	One of the corporate teams somewhere ought to be able	42:16
	to huddle together and tell us	42:19
	what produces such anomalies in our society.	42:21
	This cannot remain a mystery forever.	42:25
	Somebody who's good in psychology and social theory	42:28
	and Social Work in urban studies ought to be able	42:31
	to couple up with somebody else	42:34
	and diagnose this cancerous condition	42:36
	and help us all to get at its roots.	42:39
	It is not worthy of Christians simply to sit down	42:41
	at cocktail parties and call names.	42:45
	Bright people like mice ought to be able to say	42:47
	"We can get to the bottom of this and let's do it."	42:50
	We need our brightest people to get a handle on this issue.	42:56
	Capital punishment that's one thing,	42:59
	building more jails that's one thing,	43:01
	passing tougher crime laws,	43:03
	but all of this is like treating the blisters	43:05
	and we need to get at the fever.	43:09
	There is the capacity among us to find these causes	43:12
	and if we can send a spaceship a world away	43:16
	into the distant horizon to find a malfunctioning camera	43:19
	and fix it, no highways, no road signs, nothing out there	43:23
	and we can send up through mathematical calculation	43:28
	a spaceship and find a camera fix it and come on back,	43:31
	on time, then we can find our way into the minds	43:35
	and value systems of a lost generation,	43:39
	and bring them to wholeness and meaning.	43:43
	We call now not only	43:46
	to live as citizens of the kingdom of God	43:49
	but to render unto Caesar	43:52
	and to take our place in solving these problems.	43:54
	Here we are inescapably members of a finite community,	43:57
	citizens of the state	44:01
	and participants in the dynamic society.	44:02
	The failure and weakness, the brokenness	44:05
	and fragmentation of that society,	44:07
	all of these things cry out to us.	44:09
	It is not just that we may have peace	44:11
	and can take some of the locks off the door	44:14
	and get rid of these ferocious dogs	44:16
	we've had to buy not just for that alone	44:18
	but there are lives out there being destroyed.	44:21
	And we want to concern, be concerned about any human life	44:25
	that is wasted without worth and significance.	44:28
	The temptation is to turn down the volume,	44:32
	draw the curtains shut out the news	44:35
	and then let chaos reign.	44:39
	But this is the real world and we must find a way	44:42
	to render unto Caesar constructively.	44:44
	This brings us to the next concern	44:48
	after we acknowledge what we owe to Caesar,	44:50
	we must end confess what we owe to God	44:52
	as citizens of both kingdoms,	44:55
	we have a dual obligation.	44:57
	And while we live in Caesar's kingdom	44:59
	we live also in God's kingdom.	45:01
	We live in the state standing body deep,	45:04
	in the necessities and challenges of the state	45:07
	but we also internalize the mind of Christ	45:10
	and we are in economy of heaven	45:14
	even while abiding here.	45:16
	So we don't come	45:18
	to our citizens' responsibilities empty-handed	45:19
	with no agenda of our own at all, oh no.	45:23
	We come as persons subscribing	45:27
	to the values of the kingdom of God.	45:30
	We have our own wish list, we are kingdom oriented	45:32
	and we must give witness to the truth that is in us.	45:37
	Rending unto Caesar is one thing	45:41
	but we are not through when we do that.	45:43
	We must go on and render unto God	45:45
	which is our higher calling.	45:48
	And you'd be surprised that when we rend unto God,	45:50
	sometimes we do an awful lot	45:54
	to help in our rendering unto Caesar.	45:56
	Many of you may recall something	46:00
	that was called crossroads Africa.	46:02
	A Presbyterian preacher Jim Robinson in Harlem	46:06
	got the idea of recruiting college students	46:10
	to go into needful places	46:14
	on the continent of Africa for six seven or eight weeks	46:17
	in the summertime and he led these students	46:22
	in doing teaching, agricultural work, health services	46:26
	and all of that, and students enjoyed it.	46:30
	Some of them went summer after summer.	46:34
	This was a preacher with a good and a positive idea	46:37
	to help out in a critical situation in the world.	46:42
	That's rendering unto God.	46:45
	But guess what, when the Peace Corps people heard about it,	46:48
	President Kennedy heard about it,	46:52
	Vice President Humphrey heard about it,	46:54
	they went and organized the Peace Corps	46:56
	and the next thing I knew I was recruited	46:59
	to work with the Peace Corps.	47:02
	And instead of me having 20 volunteers in Nigeria	47:03
	for six weeks, I had 795 for two years.	47:07
	And later as associate director of the Peace Corps,	47:14
	I had 16,000 in 38 countries.	47:17
	This is one of the finest parables I know of	47:21
	what it means when Christians render unto Caesar	47:25
	that which is Caesar's and then render unto God	47:29
	that which is God's,	47:32
	doing that marvelous original Christian thinking,	47:34
	approaching problems in the name of Christ.	47:37
	You'll be amazed at how a Caesar can change	47:40
	and follow the example of the kingdom of God.	47:43
	Well, we come now to our last consideration	47:49
	and that is one of these days if we keep working at it	47:53
	we want to be shocked.	47:57
	We want to see that when we render unto Caesar,	47:59
	it rend unto God, it may be the same rendering.	48:02
	We may be talking to the same issues	48:06
	and with the same results.	48:09
	I don't know how you feel about it	48:11
	but I can't get used to this idea	48:13
	of a new South Africa to save my life.	48:16
	It is just downright shocking to me.	48:19
	I may be stupid but I'm telling you	48:23
	I can't get used to it at all.	48:25
	Because there was a 300 year process	48:27
	of a minority in South Africa ruling 24 million people,	48:32
	a powerful majority.	48:37
	This was so indelible in the culture	48:39
	in the Africana brutal bond,	48:42
	the whole society rigged up around apartheid.	48:44
	Then the leader of the African National Party	48:48
	was in prison 28 years,	48:51
	over 10,000 still dark nights	48:55
	in prison watching through those bars.	48:59
	The Stars finding their places slowly every night.	49:03
	What on earth was he thinking about	49:07
	for 10,000 some odd nights in prison?	49:09
	A good man who done no wrong	49:13
	but who wanted to correct the wrong,	49:15
	it seems so impossible for one man	49:17
	to move something so huge,	49:20
	which is the whole state of South Africa,	49:22
	with its culture and its institutions.	49:24
	And we thought that if he ever did come out of jail,	49:27
	he would be blind or crazy or sick tubercular	49:30
	shaking unsteady and mind and body.	49:34
	But my soul he came out standing tall	49:38
	seventy years old,	49:42
	his mind as clear as a bell,	49:44
	organized his party,	49:48
	made a bid for an election was elected president.	49:50
	And then as president was not mad with anybody,	49:54
	he said we want to forget the past,	49:58
	he made the former South African president	50:01
	his deputy president	50:04
	and another opposing group deputy president.	50:06
	And said "Now let's show the world	50:09
	how to have a multicultural society	50:11
	with justice and fairness."	50:14
	You know one thing, if this had happened in Bible times	50:16
	it would have taken up six or seven books of the Bible.	50:20
	(congregation laughs)	50:23
	There was one exile of the Jews,	50:27
	that lasted seventy years	50:29
	and there were some eight books of the Bible	50:31
	dealing with the Exile.	50:34
	If this Nelson Mandela story happened	50:38
	1200 BC 2000 BC,	50:41
	all of our children would be reciting it in Sunday school.	50:44
	Right now	50:48
	it says something to us about what happens	50:50
	when the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Caesar	50:54
	are brought together by somebody's idealism.	50:57
	Somebody's fortitude, somebody's tenacity,	51:01
	somebody's imagination.	51:05
	Somebody rises up and transcends culture,	51:07
	transcends all of this temple authority,	51:11
	and reaches for something greater.	51:15
	Well we've been obsessed for a long time with a vision	51:18
	or what an ideal order ought to be, haven't we?	51:21
	Plato wrote about his Republic,	51:24
	it wasn't the way I would like to see things at all.	51:26
	Isaiah saw a vision of the lion and the lamb	51:30
	lying down together	51:32
	John of Patmos, or New Jerusalem four square with 12 gates,	51:34
	coming down from heaven.	51:38
	Hobbs had his vision of his Leviathan,	51:40
	and then Tennyson sang lyrically about Locksley Hall.	51:43
	But our blessed Savior Jesus Christ	51:48
	prayed as simply as possible.	51:52
	What did he say?	51:55
	"Thy kingdom come on earth	51:57
	as it is in heaven."	52:02
	Rendering unto Caesar, rendering unto God,	52:04
	these things converging with one marvelous obligation.	52:08
	"Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."	52:13
	May the lord bless you all.	52:17
	(organ music)	52:22
	(organ drowns out choir singing)	53:06
-	The Lord be with you.	58:55
Congregation	And also with you.	58:57
-	Let us pray.	58:59
	Precious God, you who by your word	59:11
	created order out of chaos.	59:16
	We thank you that you are the creator of all things.	59:22
	We thank you for your son Jesus	59:29
	who by his power and his might	59:32
	brings to us justice and peace.	59:38
	We praise you today for your blessed holy spirit.	59:42
	A spirit who grants us renewal and revival,	59:47
	and convicts us ever of righteousness.	59:53
	Lord in your mercy.	59:58
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	1:00:00
-	O God you have made us in your own image	1:00:03
	and redeemed us through your son.	1:00:06
	Look with compassion on us, as your family.	1:00:09
	Take away from us arrogance and hatred	1:00:15
	which infect our hearts.	1:00:19
	Break down the walls that separate us	1:00:22
	and unite us with bonds of love.	1:00:25
	Work through us in the struggle	1:00:30
	and help us O God as we remember today	1:00:32
	our brothers and sisters in South Africa and South America.	1:00:38
	Lord in your mercy.	1:00:46
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	1:00:48
-	Eternal God, in whose perfect Kingdom,	1:00:51
	no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness.	1:00:54
	No strength known but the strength of love.	1:01:00
	So spread abroad oh god your spirit	1:01:06
	that all peoples may be gathered under the banner	1:01:09
	of the Prince of Peace.	1:01:13
	Today as we pray for your peace in the world	1:01:15
	we remember our brothers and sisters in Rwanda,	1:01:19
	in Haiti, in Bosnia, in Herzegovina.	1:01:23
	Lord in your mercy.	1:01:30
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	1:01:33
-	Fellow God your church with all truth	1:01:34
	in all truth and with all peace.	1:01:38
	Purify it from all corruption and error	1:01:42
	and direct it in the ways of truth.	1:01:48
	Inspire us to witness so that by our lives	1:01:52
	we might truly Lord live a life	1:01:58
	that renders to the building up of your kingdom.	1:02:01
	Help us to be faithful stewards	1:02:07
	to that which you have committed us.	1:02:11
	Grant now O God, your peace in all that we do.	1:02:16
	Lord in your mercy.	1:02:22
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	1:02:24
-	We'll now have our offertory.	1:02:31
	Let us stand and sing together.	1:02:35
	Rather the choir will lead us in an anthem	1:02:45
	as we have our offertory.	1:02:47
	Let us prepare to give.	1:02:48
	(organ music)	1:02:52
	(organ drowns out choir singing)	1:04:14
	Gracious God we thank you for your many mercies.	1:12:24
	We realize oh god that we are unworthy,	1:12:30
	but we thank you that you in your grace,	1:12:35
	Have allowed us to come to you again.	1:12:39
	We give to you but a portion of all you have given to us.	1:12:42
	And now we return to you our most humble and hearty thanks.	1:12:48
	For your loving goodness, for your kindness, to all of us.	1:12:54
	We pray O God that you would continue	1:13:01
	to let your blessing pour down upon us.	1:13:04
	Today we thank you especially for our Savior Jesus Christ.	1:13:07
	We pray O God as we seek to live	1:13:13
	in that which he had taught us	1:13:16
	that you might be a constant guide.	1:13:19
	And now we pray all these things with thanks giving	1:13:22
	through Jesus Christ who taught us when we pray to say.	1:13:26
-	[Everyone In Church] Our Father, who art in heaven,	1:13:32
	hallowed be thy Name,	1:13:35
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	1:13:37
	on earth as it is in heaven.	1:13:41
	Give us this day our daily bread.	1:13:44
	And forgive us our trespasses,	1:13:46
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:13:48
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:13:52
	but deliver us from evil.	1:13:55
	For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,	1:13:57
	for ever and ever. Amen.	1:14:02
	(organ music)	1:14:05
	(organ drowns out choir singing)	1:14:51

Item Info

Title:

Samuel Proctor - Sermon Untitled (May 29, 1994)

Description:

Christians have dual citizenship, on earth and heaven, and, because of this, must learn how to render unto the State what belongs to the State and render unto God what is God's. Thus, as Christians, we must be exemplary citizens, while also pushing the State to look more like the Kingdom of God. One day we may be surprised to see that the two share the same concerns and our rendering is singular. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 23:07. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 52:21.
Key quotation: “Christian citizens ought to be exemplary. Render unto Caesar is no light matter. We ought to be teaching other people how to do it right.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40k26s2f

Date:

May 29, 1994

Speaker:

Proctor, Samuel

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0374
ref9422_okd
uachapelsermaud
duke:321385
dcrmv001356
ark:/87924/r40k26s2f
fbb976f8-5701-4609-b536-99c900a89054

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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

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