National Radio Pulpit; 3/30/71

it's been the resurrection of jesus christ is more than a doctrine to be affirmed by the orthodox it is more than an isolated event to be recall each year and spring think of the resurrection as a place to live as a source of perspective and power the national broadcasting company and its independent affiliated stations present the national radio or in cooperation with the national council of the church as a prize ms t campbell minister of the riverside church new york city today's topic this side of

easter a good place to live that your gamble next to what's your name the question most frequently asked us over a lifetime is where do you live the expected reply usually includes our house number a street a city as state and five zip code digits the same question might be asked in a philosophical sense where do you live i don't live anywhere i merely exists where do you live why i live wherever i am robert self will said not where i believe but where i love i live we all have more than one address we have a literal address that marks out our home our place are residents what we also have an address that indicates where we live philosophically religiously spiritually that

is we are at home with a certain outlook on life a black as van buren puts it it is here that our motivation for life is generated and our value judgments or form using the life of jesus as a model i should like to suggest three places that cover pretty well where most men live to live and one is to reject the other two somewhere between bethlehem and palm sunday that is they live on the conviction that life is basically inconclusive this is the view that sees life as a puzzling mix of good and evil love is capable of significant achievement but haiti also has its victories there are good samaritans on the jericho road but there are also a belligerent bandits and indifferent churchmen this is the way it was during most of jesus' life that his birth there was tenderness loyalty and faith but there was also an irate herod

the death of many children on the flight into egypt over the years of his public ministry things happen that both cheered and chilled the heart a tax collector went straight a prostitute was forgiven hungry crowds were fed many sick were killed the love of god was when some we expounded and faith was engendered in many art so strong in fact was jesus appeal and so why is following at one point that his enemies were heard to exclaim behold the world has gone after him but while this was going on rome's military presence control the world john the baptist was beheaded judas purpose in his heart to betray his master angry farmers ryan jesus out of gather and religious leaders put their heads together to plot his death for those who live between bethlehem and palm sunday history is at best a

tossup or worse john steinbeck said everything in life is seven to five against is the board white with black squares are black with white squares who knows for every schweitzer and lumber a day there is a hitler in berlin eventually those who live here succumb to this interest and cynicism the world is filled not with angels what angles men are capable of prodigious output when convinced that their exertions have a purpose when a sense of purpose is lacking nothing seems worthwhile a woman would not long continues sewing if she were convinced that are afraid like they're not and are stages would not hold it is not a work that kills what work without purpose this is why the psalmist cried in desperation established well the work of our hands upon us

yet the work of our parents established loud it if history is an inconclusive yes no with what shall we fired up the will for meaningful achievement in the world i've always felt sympathy for the telephone operator in james green cousins the last adam for herself may never expected things to be very good as long as she lived she more or less expected to realize that whatever was was a pity and how much better it would've been if but worse there are some who live between palm sunday and good friday they live with the conviction that evil has the upper hand but first palm sunday was deceptive for a few hours it appear that the future was with a galilean so matt hope was crushed as it became increasingly apparent in the days that followed that jesus was on a collision course with

death longstanding enemies bury their differences to destroy him the power of church and state conspired to do him in he's betrayed and denied by his friends maraniss is released and jesus condemned the ranks of the faithful are scattered shouts of hose on and on sunday colonel in the cries of crucify him five days later eventually across is raised and we may be sure that no one was calling that date christ died good friday when it happened nothing ultimately matters if the brightest light the man has ever known can be snuffed out by the culture of greece the law of rome and the pressures of a noble monotheistic tradition what i hope is they're all is that it presently we fall into what paul goodman describes as though nothing can be done disease spare is the only

response so doctors such despair in our time that a distinguished professor in new york city recently suggested that we need a new science in this mad world the science of victim of it such a discipline would study why certain people become victims and why society responds to crime the way it does the questions wrong why do young men die on the battlefields of indochina for the blunders of the eric holder's why this army caviar while millions cry for bread why do our cities begged for money while moon shots are easily financed why is freedom our hope and not a reality for tens of thousands of blacks in america why do we imposed communism and perpetuate the injustices on which it feeds why are the penalties of the law delayed for the rich and speedily enacted for the poor the goodies ever being crucified on a thousand

different hills such considerations would make atheists of a soul are atheism is not the product of reason it is the sad conclusion that which we are driven when we glimpse the calories of the world man are not argued out of faith and god they are shaken out if we believe that good friday summarizes his three and there is nothing left for us except short range hedonistic goals and total immersion in matters that concern immediate livelihood and speaker i am going fishing truth for ever on the scaffold wrong for over on the throne but thank god there is yet another place to live we can live this side of easter the apostles' creed declares that on the third day he

arose again from the dead st paul and his classic brief on the subject said for i delivered to you as a first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture the resurrection of jesus christ is more than a doctrine to be affirmed by the orthodox it is more than an isolated event to be recall each year and spring think of the resurrection as a place to live as a source of perspective from power it is not only the case that christ died for us he rose for us to we are related to that event he represented us in his dying and it is rising again as the olympic athlete carries the fortunes and colors of his native land so jesus the son of man acted for us all

moreover he personifies for us the trustworthiness of the promises of god i like the way the new english bible gives a second corinthians one twenty and speaks of christ as lee yes pronounced upon god's promises every one of them that is why when we give glory to god it is through jesus christ that we say mm the easter event as meaningful the world the resurrection of jesus christ was not simply a triumph of the church it was a triumph for man how unfortunate that we're prone to think of easter and the event behind it as a peculiar possession of the faithful we're coming to see that there are cosmic implications and the fact that death could not hold christ too often we have assumed that the church was an end in itself forgetting that a bass the church is a

means to a larger and the kingdom of god which in turn embraces all of human story this is what the lutheran theologian call bratton describe so clearly when he writes the first generation of christians were fired by hopes for the kingdom the second wave of christianity built the church as an interim device while waiting for the kingdom later generations identified the two today the task is to reactivate the christian hope by pointing to the kingdom of god whose biblical images have been blurred in the history of christie yeah that hit by rising from the dead jesus tried the future open for man and opened man two and for that future the whole ego is before you into galilee this is not a static doctrine here is a living presence like a moving point before us pulling us into the future the light

that comes to us from that empty tomb suffuses all of history good and evil are not at a standstill it is not the case that good has been defeated and that wrong has trial god is in control your efforts in mind however ambiguous in a given situation add up to something durable this is the nourishment i gained from that bit of dialogue in george eliot's middle march where does this is what i have a belief of my own and that comforts me what is that said will rather jealous of the belief that by desiring when he's perfectly good even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would we are part of the divine power against evil widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness

narrow are but we ought to bear in mind that easter holes meaning for us as individuals to frankly i'm other this made that much of the literature coming out these days seems to be an attentive to man's need to know that there is more to come but his personal identity will be sustained beyond one is grateful for books the tale of a dynamic process going on in the world one is glad to have his feeling confirm that history is moving somewhere in the physical sciences their testimony to a cosmic purpose gradually unfolding but many who write in this vein seem almost totally indifferent to the place of the individual in this grand design i speak is one concern about this light pascal speaks for me when he observes that we spend all our liars trying to take our minds off

death i am in pain to know whether there is more to come not only for the race but for me this concern is heightened when i consider that i belonged to a species in which the mortality rate is one hundred percent i confess that i am not especially uplifted at the sighting of the proverb when the writers dive a living for their example lambs she won feel elation at the prospect of becoming compost for the flowering of civilizations yet unborn st paul who understood the cosmic dimensions implied in the resurrection of jesus never forgot the personnel to me to live is christ he said and to diet is game to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord i know i have believed and i am

sure that he's able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me lord tennyson believe that a funeral should reflect a happy wonder of a door flung wide open not the melancholy of a door slammed solemnly shot and eight when tennis and was buried in westminster abbey the organ peeled with candles placed in the coffin was covered with a paw lot of black than white and two and the phrase that he had inherited from the centuries there was embroidered across the paul those words witchey at age eighty one october day three years before he died for though from out the borne of time and place the flood may bear me far i hope to see my pilot face to face when i have crossed the bar where do you live this is my easter

question do you do you live in cynicism between bethlehem and palm sunday do you live in this spare between palm sunday and good friday or do you live in hope this side of easter is there is more than a nice place to visit it's a good place to live it is possible today by an act of faith to change your address and come to know the joy of living not simply in nineteen seventy one but in an obama may my deans seventy one how wm for the lord god omnipotent ride half will wind it's been

this is these a point this week he's been

ms boden head a pro these

days he's been let us pray capture are vagrants loyalties and are wandering hearts oh god abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent and we have need of the we humbly pray in jesus holy name amen it is

researcher if you would like a copy of today's talks and others in this series by dr campbell right to the national radio pulpit post office box three six so new york won more gold to seven or to this nbc station the churches in your community invite you to participate in those services of the worship of god they grossly speaking it's pre recorded program has been an nbc public affairs presentation in cooperation with the national council of the churches of christ ah in the

push back fb