Dr. James T. Cleland Sermon, 1962-08-12, The Way At The River Kwai

let us pray let the words of my mouth and the medications of our hearts be acceptable in the eye so i owe a lot of spring and our redeemer all man do you recall back in nineteen fifty four the publication of the novel the bridge over the river kwai does the story of the building of a wooden bridge by british prisoners of war on the side and the bottom up the border to carry the railroad which would enable the japanese invaded india

do you remember of the triangular contest involving the sadistic japanese colonel who had to have the bridge the militarily ritualistic british colonel who supervised it's building and the cloak and dagger boys from calcutta who wanted to blow it up if you did not read the book perhaps you saw the movie with so alec guinness as colonel nicholson your feet right now probably tapping out the rhythm of its theme song colonel bogey tiny layoffs the organist played colonel bogey for dr be often to be voluntary but that would be almost as envious of requests

as the student who wanted the sweetheart of sigma chi played on the organ at ease waiting i just re read the book and i would like jury see the movie now the river kwai flowed into the chapel this spring for the channel of i guess preacher's sermon he illustrated the theme every sermon with two or three stories from a volume published this year by ernest gordon untitled through the valley of the quiet i'd read that book recently and it is the text of the sermon through the valley of the quiet ought to be a bestseller

it is a spellbinding whereas the bridge over the river kwai is fiction though based on the author's personal experiences in prison camps in indochina and malaria this on the volume is a biographical narrative of three and a half years it's whose inhabitants actually build the barrier it is written by one who was a professional soldier an officer in the other violence following islanders now let me give you a resume of what happened at the river kwai the background gently sense into a three paragraphs of gordon's and i quote during the four years they were in

control the japanese military violated every civilized oh they murdered prisoners over played by ben obtain shorting drowning or decapitation they murdered them come into play by watching them beyond human endure mounts starving them torturing them and denying the medical care the survivors built the bench and willingly says the offer at bayonet point and i'm not the bamboo lash taking any risk to saboteurs the operation whenever the opportunity arose lying in the death house which was the

prisoners name from a camp hospital garden warbler heard two medical officers discussing his own case he's had the works malaria this and for a battery battery plus some kind of blood infection we can identify or yes he's also had an appendectomy and on top of that a bad case of diphtheria which left him without the use of his legs that is the battle royal know the first reaction to have this kind of existence on the part of the prisoners was an upsurge of religion church services bible reading right where it didn't last

thought it didn't work god declined to be used as a personal expedient a counter reaction words are widespread self centered nest which revealed itself in selfishness hatred and fear gordon calls it the law of the jungle man stole from one another they curse so creatively but they constructed whole sentences in which every word was a curfew yet the strongest still die the wily us and the cleverness perished with the week gordon wrote a letter to we spent and saying goodbye and then

things began to happen which are told ah been a chapter entitled medical by the river kwai some of martin's friends built a mohawk where he could sweat out his illnesses in peace what if necessary di inquire an englishman by the name of dusty miller well remember that name dusty miller came voluntarily and daily to create gardens shook treat ulcers with the help of another soldier of the officer was nursed back to life and then start reserve voluntarily martyrdom began to be whisper that was a soldier who'd died of starvation

because he gave his rations to a sick friend there was the soldier who confessed and confessed to have to be in quotation marks confessed that he had stolen and that will have to be in quotation marks a missing shovel because he noticed that the god was ready to shoot down every man in the squad because one shovel was missing and he stepped forward and said i stole the shovel and the guards shoot them to the ground and killed him on the spot where he stood and when the tools were counted at the guard house no show was missing but listen to the ending of that story admiration for the argyle transcended hatred for the japanese garden

an australian was decapitated because he was caught outside the prison fence trying to buy medicine from the natives to help his sitcom modern us his last words to the educated chaplain where she'll the padre isn't as bad as all that i'll be all right and that's a lot of the jungle was denying the law of the jungle is not a law firm and because man cannot become obese though he may become less than a beach a garden thought about this the puzzled to find a common denominator the two soldiers who i cared for him were both christian butt and one was methodist and the other was roman catholic

was there any word which link them with the others who had given up the law of the jungle would it be london does love of neighbor had any relation to love of god to love from god well a new kind of life began in the camp a discussion of that it was started by the us trillions to find out what christianity was all about gardening was asked to lead it because he was a university math but he was asked to lead on one understanding the lads won't stand for any sunday school stuff they want the rio dingell well they got that last group in two the

jungle university with a curriculum which offer courses in history economic its philosophy mathematics several of the sciences and at least nine languages including latin very russian and sanskrit mr west for the theater artificial legs were made for the landless who in cotton made legs from the other legless man painted car and spit again exhibition they invented drugs and an effect it says the manufacturer surgical instrument they have a common respect even for the good instead of being chopped into a common pit each corpse received a

person or burial with a letter across mr wittman a casual a while play a church was built ramps built the wrong word because it was an open air church which was all dollars there are pickled at the church of the captivity it aboard his words about the church was a fellowship of those who are caving in freedom and love to acknowledge that weakness to seek a presence and to pray for their fellows nothing about praying for themselves or nothing they tried that they hadn't worked in previous still

prefer others the confession of jesus christ as lauren was the one requirement of membership the church was made up of methodists baptists episcopalians presbyterians congregational his son former agnostics sound like riverside on the duke chapel when the end of the war came well let me quote gardening and the incoming lawmakers where so infuriated by what they saw that they wanted to show the japanese gardens on the spot only the intervention of the victims prevented them kept hers where spam by their captives not an iphone and

i aloof on a limb this strike save these exhausted but forgiving man and all this happened at a prisoner of war or a lot of applause but i read this book two passages from the new testament surfaced from my subconscious memory the two which fought on our morning lesson let me quote one verse from each of the passages hoping that you will spot the noun which is common to both messages the first from acting teacher we know that you walk through and teach in the way

of god to fully that was sent to jesus probably in such as in the other paul asked the high priest ford lectures to the synagogues at the mosque this so that may be found and need belonging to the way men are when he might bring them bound to joseph the noun common for these passages is way w a y one never been many new testament names from a christian man out of life from the walkman conversation of those who sought to understand and implement the will of god and through the teaching of jesus the way with a

capital w becomes a destination fog shirt in the new testament lineup jesus had called himself the way and the church is supposed to be the body of christ are such you wade has two complimentary and interacting aspects one is theological its view of god who as conceived of analog it really as a father rather than as a king or a joint the other is ethical the day by day living here on earth which is where the odd and satisfactory to god conceived of as a father which transfers are some people with theological for other people that

ethical but both groups would agree that both aspects are necessary on a pop up explication an application of the way some believe force and that second one otherwise action leads to really faith and works works and fate never independent always interdependent had ever thought of john wesley his followers as the people of the way isn't that what method this means the greek word for no way is what does a show derives methodist is properly now top hotdogs after the way according to the

way that name was originally given to their religious association at oxford founded by john charles was a bike other students in the region it's no longer term of division christians are people of the way in jerusalem in damascus at oxford on the banks of the river kwai now i can almost hear your reaction to all this such a way of life maybe possible impact is possible in a closed society especially one which is small and the editor and wesleyan is wholly plop and a prison camp from which they seem to be the only escape it's possible in the orders of the

roman catholic church it's possible in the sale groups of some protestant church but it is involves unfeasible brother christian who hester live in contact with the well as most of us after exist i you know the critic as a case we could document that from the last chapter of gordon's book hit a tongue for what role in which he was a stranger the whole point of terror in a glasgow hotel in scotland told him that his war staying luggage could not be left in the war the blood and the mud would upset the sensibilities of civilians his first impressions of civilian

life where they realize issue now he trims fear is an marlo cynicism here is his description of the church in scotland after my return and i had gone to church every sunday but what i saw and heard depressed me the sermons belong to a different age they suggested victorian parlors elderly people dressed in black horse hair chairs and then to my customers we had seen a vision of fatah what eisenstein and caught a glimpse of the city of god in all of its beauty and that's a picture of the church in scotland

i know oh the kodak has an argument but there's another argument the way he was adopted in the first century and by wesley and at the river kwai as the only method of transforming existence into life of matter more forcing ugliness into beauty of creating harmony part of this guard and we really living in a much healthier situation today what can we do oh there is little if any one of us can do about what old problems about impersonal social relations but there's much that we can do within them the

alumni of the quiet and the other prison camps knew that some of them entered the ministry to share with the church the vision they had seen in thailand others became a local members of their churches for the same reasons others are by intention teachers welfare officers doctors in worship auden were they wanted to be in contact with people to share the good news they had discovered in prison it takes on the way a cup of cold water a second visit a piece of clothing to get one into the kingdom if they are given in love

that is the way and yet rather than lest we leave this house of god with iran a rosy glow on a cynical smile there is one other thing to be said you recalled dustin miller who voluntarily baig gardens ones what happened to him martin asked that question to when he was finally release but what about mailer he got the net one officer said in charge of his party down on him what had he done wrong that was it he hadn't done anything wrong then he couldn't because he couldn't break them you

know holly was i'm good man if ever there was one that's why he hated him or didn't do to him you stroll through a tray being declassified the way it is not to walk in a rosy glow that is a little far the senate this my lap it is a way which we believe leads to the new jerusalem but across may be a way station on if it's not go away phut idealists it is a way for the realists act christian had

better be a realist about god and about these films there's a note to be added to this or you know what that offer is now doing he was a professional soldier in a highland regiment he is an arab and being of the chapel at princeton university let us pray for god who has set lost in the midst of strenuous days do just that we are always by soldiers

but we may serve under the banner of love and walk in the way of love as the dice on even jesus christ our lord army it's been the

pope from the radio television executive society luncheon at the roosevelt hotel in new york city you have heard a recorded address by dr franz josef strauss gentle minister for defense and the federal republic of germany after strauss address was titled the german contribution to the north atlantic treaty organization and was recorded by riverside radio wypr in new york city and distributed by the national association of educational broadcasters this is the enemy be radio network ms ba