Dr. John R. Claypool Sermon, 1966-09-11The Worth Of A Man

some time ago i was driving through the downtown of louisville kentucky and i stopped for traffic light this land on fall itself will form a rare was typical of any busy intersection no way into my right was a brand new cadillac one most expensive cars that money could buy no line to my left was a big trial at stripe that must have cost thousands of dollars on each one of the condos move vital pieces of business real estate and walking across in front of all this saying was one of the most pathetic looking human beings i have ever saying she was all in her face was drawn with a surprise and it's a massive her clothes were a conglomeration of rags it looked as if he had not paid for at least a week she was walking with a decidedly up pulling one foot slowly behind the other one a stark contrast he was to all the other audience and that same and as i sat there and looked at all of those things it suddenly occurred to me that

if i were driving out of this particular corner and suddenly realize that my rights were not working and knew that i was going to have to get something that i have to stop i need inspectors way what i would do i would even put a cadillac or the trailer truck all one of the pieces of property i would do anything to avoid hitting that woman's other question i want as this morning is why would i decide in this question i imagine every one of you here this morning would do the same thing in its website that you would not even have to thank you would act instinctively because we all have people embedded with earnestly idea that of all the bad years our human personality is the highest this is something you do not even have to consider it is part and parcel of the very western way of looking at the names yet this morning i would dare to ask about the roots of that assumption why is it that a

person is more valuable than all kinds of property by what incredible scale of values would have that data have chosen to destroy a cadillac or a trailer truck or a building rather than destroy wine wretched looking at a woman with nor have they like that this which is so foundational to our way of life needs to be examined in terms of its roots we need to find out why it is that we behave so this way why it is that we have come to play in all of our western institutions that of all earthly bag is a human personality is the highest i would ask your attention this morning as we take nothing for granted and try to go to the dance and ask ourselves why is this so several lapses that could be given to this question for example we might well

ants are one human personality is the highest of art with ideas because he or she is the most attractive thing there is and the world as a measure of truth to this i don't think any of us would deny that there is something very fascinating something intriguing about the human factor i don't recall ever having heard of a bright piece of leverage you're there was written simply about things and taro on earth is a framework of background but it takes human characters to give life to fiction author drama artistry is what a man dollars that same still hold the greatest attraction for of the man and therefore we it might well say on human personality is the highest because in itself it is the most appealing and even though this has some truth to it i believe if you try to take this one idea and expand it and make it a foundation for a universal

conviction it simply will not stand the weight of this we say what is true as a re generality is not always throw in terms of concrete particulars like for example there's one man that was ripping across the street that set this arm and emotion in my mind i do not believe it by any stretch of the imagination you which are the most attractive of all of the entities that were present in fact if you had to spend an evening whether if you had been sustained close contact for a long time i daresay you might find her most unattractive it might be even bored or downright reports that forty years on driving up to that same my only point of reference was the attractiveness of the audience i would never have made the value judgment that is so basic to our way of life some man are attractive all man are not and if you have

nothing deeper as a reasonable value judgment than the innate appeal of a person you're confection is going to try and you are alike to some man but not all man as if they were the highest of all earthly barons or then again another answer they could be given to that question is that a human being is the highest of all bad news because of the unique power it is able to wield in our world so once again we have a measure of truth year who would deny that a man can do things that metairie audience cannot do a man can play the men can act a man can create a man can unlock the mysteries of those ago on a level we might well say that the worth of a man is rooted and the ability of a man isn't the very presence of a time a demand nuclear energy a

testimony to the unique power that man possessed use air we are having a lot of his vast amount of energy the navajo are all is wondering what we're going to do when all of the power over which we had gained control dr foster it wants from this very appropriate frame the question that might be the most momentous issue of our plan can the cap their land controlled what the mind of a man who's discovered that yes there is immense power in the ability a unique distinctiveness of man's power but is this the true foundation of why he of all earthly values is the highest once again i think you find as we did in terms of attractiveness that what is true of song is not true of all some men are achievers some man can demonstrate that they have great power but all human brains do not have this camp of

creativity like again of this and one when limping across the street y c the most powerful and today a lot of the objects that i was working at there again if i had made my decision on the basis of ability no matter what level you might be coming at it you would not have come to the judgment that she must be saying at the expense of everything else what man is the foundation of this foundational idea in western thoughts on what can you base the universal conviction that all earthly values a human personality is the highest my friends it is my study conclusion that it's only in the religious dimension that you find an adequate foundation on the conviction that we're talking about i do not believe as long as you look at what a man is inherently all what they can do to

protect your way that you will have evidence enough to support you in judging every man to be the most valuable it is only when you come at the matter from another direction looking at mann not from what he ayers looking at him from some point of reference it is only band that his role unique as his role that deal can be substantiated in the status enjoy what it is not what my and ears and does that is the wreckage of his unit mans it is the end what god is what god has in what is my career has to say about him perhaps at you know a sprite mark on by relating to something that happened in our own family a few years ago i was out in our backyard washing the family car and latino children than age five and three

came out and asked if they could help me with the job are not only granted them up emotion i even said that if they get a good job i would pay them ten cents apiece for their work and so they did help me and after we finish the job i went back inside and i was playing at the supper i remembered my promise as i raced in my pocket and i found that only had one that i had a nickel and a lot of loose change so they're thinking a great deal about it i went down to the supper table i put a dime in front of one of their plates and a nickel and five and he's in front of the other one as soon as a child and saw this arrangement there was a howl of protest i was accused of having been very and fire a settlement that you gave parsnips and you only gave me was in the midst of all this term all i asked for the floor and began to defend myself as a very basic way you are not understand i've played exactly the same amount you save this coin is worth ten is gone is

worth bank based on the just war with that brought my little five year old boy looked me dead in the eye and he said why why is this one were jammed and this one were fired and they saw the war was you know i'd never given much thought to a currency valuation it had never come to me why it was that we use it down because we're the nickel that way and suddenly left in my mind and here we have a case of the clarinet and not inherent value you know are consummate today nametag services doesn't amount to much like i expected you would melt down a dam in a nickel and danny aiello what the difference would be at in terms of their substance if you want to know why they are worth what they are you have to go to the over arching authority who made those call him ms and has deep quiet down to

have certain that it is because of the united states treasury department and the time is worth ten and that was worth a penny is worth a lot mr frans by the very same process that they call i and reduce its valuation you come through the humid valuation of man then he is in the highest of all earthly series by the same way that this is a barren rest on the declaration of the united states government so the statement on miami is the highest of all right yeah rats on the declaration and this is the consistent testimony of the whole biblical revelation ryder bb eight psalm was pondering this very question that concerns us this morning he was considering what the heavens the stars and in the midst of all of that cosmic vastness he began to wonder about a human being like diesel

what does a man i'm not to end this kind of create your own what is man's that you know i see related to everything else and i want you to notice the answer that was given in our text this morning for its so significant thou have made him a little less than guarded and half crown with war or an honor and a key word there is the pro know vile it is what god did it is what the micro department to be that is the basis of his uniqueness amanda's not have some candid and the planet x let's do what god comes to him and places him for it rather a man is made by god and evacuated by god and it is in this source that you have the abiding foundation of why all of all earthly bad news a man is the

highest i think this is why jesus must've gone delighted is great summary of the law as he did you will recall that he said first of all a man must love god with all this man and soul and heart and stray on live than whether he have a reason to love his neighbor as himself and other words until i my god my ultimate point of reference until palau he is lard is way this system of bad news to become my cry carrion i really have no motivation for loving these other human beings and elevating them to the highest place of respect you say if i respond only to a man in terms of what he is or in terms of what he does he may well not be lovable he may well not have any ammo what i conclude the wrist and if that is my only source of motivation i

would soon get discouraged by some of the and lovable people and i will cut off relationships with those who are unattractive but if i had given myself first of all to the love of god and have let all of my competitors become mastered by his way of looking at things then i say my aunt different eleven what he is or what he is i seen him in his declared that europe and i relate to him accordingly gazes not only spoke about this is he formulated a lot this is the way he acted out his daily life is jesus won about doing good it was not because he thought man where angels straining clouds of war a lovable creatures that was so attractive in themselves know jesus knew perhaps better than anyone how and lovable how ungrateful how

vicious how insensitive men can sometimes be on occasion he got so indignant and what men dead then he's added some men got what ideas are they should have a millstone put around their neck and the cast into the sea if you're on electing of what a man is inherent way audie can do to protect your way he can be unlawful but jesus in the face of that knowledge never the last approached every man with a steadfast creative redemptive love for it to get the strength to do it it came because of his law that he saw all man in the light of god's evaluation and on this basis he was able to love with a steadfast love and i celebrated encounter between a lot in this american prostitute at the well of jacob was it not the love of god that eliminates unexploited this encounter for example

when the disciples came back and saw jesus talking with this person that were puzzled that is she laughed they say while you spending so much time with a croissant and savory woman of the streets jesus answered with perception my major is to do the well of him that second mate and to accomplish his work he was saying what i'm doing here is not just to be explained how assad la what i am doing hair is rooted in the divided perspective i am concerned for her and not because of hard and it up at all but because god is concerned he has declared her the highest of it is it is because of that i am concerned for her and that allowed suggest that the online abiding foundation for this classic western principle and although that is it worth a

human personality is high is the only adequate foundation is what god the ground of all being the overarching i thought it has made all planes it is in his declaration now have made him a little less than guarded crown him with glory and honor it is because one loves god with all its capacities and he finds throughout his neighbor as himself therefore man like collins have a declared that and not an inherent value however this morning i have a deeper purpose in preaching the storm and then simply trying to answer historical question it's important that we understand the roots of our behavior of where all of our social thinking comes from ultimately and yes i can even deeper purpose or worshiping congregation is to comment or i was a

fear that the true about which we speak is perhaps the most crucial and made into of all foundational by hate your principles if we're going to make that challenge of the last half of the twentieth century i don't have to labor to this group that our world has dramatically strong in this century because of technology we can no longer solve our problems base yuli we can't move away from people that we don't like and live in isolation know our world has shrunk and to the size of a neighborhood we now know in every part of the world what happens in any part and the exploding population means that more and more of those are heading to live closer together sciences st joe that that proximity is becoming the spate of our human spacesuits now can the charts late to it that

there's approximately can be built and to community i daresay that the greatest problem that is placing us at the deepest level is hack and so many others' lives so close together and live in meaningful community i pause it becomes important in this setting how we see other people how we regard home and how we relate to that i have a deep conviction if we don't have any day parade sauces for this challenge than the humanistic ones namely that a man is appealing about what he is our man is attracted by what he didn't do if these are our own the well's out of ways to draw strength they're going to run dry and we're not going to have the motivation to do what we need to do is it a problem of today's all the population is that you dont just have the beautiful people put in about two you don't just have an attractive

focus your neighbor or your newer ones all sought same conditions of men are about to and if you don't have some day parade is an inhuman attractiveness our human ability you're going to watch yourself off in isolation you're going to become part of the problem and then a part of the answer all my as we come to say man and the light of the divine value system only as we've come to regard a man in the same processes we regard the value of a call and that is according to the valuation of the overarching i thought it made him are we going to have the power to make the challenge of our new urban overpopulated age and learned to make of proximity all rural community of respect in law it's aimed to me that we should already have

learned the lesson that relationships that are based solely on what a man is so warm and those are always say a croatian she ups and never live up to the needs of the time for example every prejudice that dogs every section of school is ultimately rooted in the fact that man looked at what a person is a name so and with no hard nation they say i'm better they're worse i like some things better than other and so we want our solos often hostility i read a novel one time about a man who had a fixation against rigid he could have a relationship with anybody else pretty well what if a person with a red haired came along he just absolutely fell apart and he treated those people differently than he treated anybody else that we smile just doesn't say that you've read it a sick person but show me a place in this call this morning where a man had not learned the

car of scan the occasion of relating to a man in a different way than they would really normally if we might quantum man is primarily our relationship will never be what it needs to be for the essential in a miami is not what he is what his miter has declared it then again if we're like to ban on in terms of what they do and weeping quietly let their actions become the occasion of i despise him home and warning to destroy them in the sermon on the mount jesus as the most perceptive word where he describes the process that builds up tomorrow he says that if you get angry with your brother or if you get a despising him solidly like to spend on in which is what the worker it manes are if you get to the place that you think he's hopeless offload an idiot and it's not that little step until you willing to kill an interactive now to me that all of this is the

implicit assumption then what does the anger you is the most important thing about it if you can separate what a man is in god's declaration from what he does then you're safe from that sadness of relating to something that is not most essential and the personhood of another cannot we say gregg who are still alive and teachings of christ and the church back to say every man in god's evaluation and i liked every man not as he appears worthy but as we know god declares him to be worth it and then to attract or how hampshire respect to trade him injustice and concerned this is no way to live together this is the pattern of community the only hope for any city the only hope

for art and of war us aviation a christian teaching back of one of the great romances of the new testament as you might know there was in the second century of bishop of emphasis by the name of all nasa most and it is a bad tradition that it was this one who first collected the writings of paul and it was those problems that became such a large part of our new testament where you may wonder while nasa most would bother to collect the correspondents of paul and again tradition has it that this bishop was the same for nasa most are runaway slave about whom paul had written his own sort of volume and your member there that process that he had met his boy when he had run away to the big city of emphasis and some have been able to lead him to jesus christ and now it was sending him back to file a man hoping that is ana would not kill him but that he would forgive him and release him from his servitude and yet paul had been as an

assistant is is probably what happened and this is the first step of a man stepping out of slavery until he would one day become a bishop to me it's a wonderful thing to realize that pause and france might never have been what it is today his letters might have been lost in scattered if he hadn't as an aged imprisoned apostle then sensitive to a little runaway slave on so insignificant in a parent's so unattractive in terms of ability just a runaways were a lot because paul love god with all his car that he had found a reason to be concerned if one full of alaska and the lease and he fanned into flying that very very unlikely looking person and it was on nasa most that became his way today in a warren on the possible

that if we could live with their sensitivity toward every night realizing that back of every face barry's want that god has evaluated high then all the property of manhattan and if we could move toward those in the image of god and creatively a redemptive lake in labeling worry we could become part of the answer in this day and out of our love homeland we can give the basis for trying to communicate in the midst of so much proximity which brings me by actor where the sermon started there i am sitting at a busy intersection the cadillac on the right a trailer truck on the left that you know pieces of business property and apathetic looking little one lacking across the street in front of this if i was speeding up to this place what would i do when i get the

cadillac when i get the trailer truck when i hit about saying yes i would find it at any one of those things why do you keep from getting that person nyc the highest of all those of it is not in fact eu not because he had the most how we're know the ultimate reason is that the over arching authority who made her and all those danes has declared her to be the hackers for the same reason that a necco is worth five sets i human brain is worth the most because of the declaration of god we have always taken this truth for granted my god help us not to believe with new conviction voice to do

it the term biker of all things we thankfully out of time merciful of ai concern for thy love which gives us about young we pray that as we have heard this good news about ourselves that we might know that this relates to all conditions and sorts of man therefore deepen our love would be that we may have the power to love our neighbor through christ our lord we pray amen