Sermon, 1968-10-20

as there is a story perhaps apocryphal nevada beginnings atheist close eye was caught by a sign in a bookstore that read simply god is nowhere the party's this sign brought it home and high and up above his daughters that unbeknownst to him this girl was taken by some concerned neighbors to

a nearby church school week after we presently she opened her life for the love of god and became a christian one evening she slipped this model from its frame and made one small change in the form of a vertical line the sinai is uno here it's one of our most girls conclusion we deliver the earth is the same of god's glory and god's work this is my father's world one where on earth is paulo and precisely what is it that god is about not always those who are quick to rise soon to pinpoint the

malign activity is there a war god is on our side are we in politics the framers our man our reporting some cause god is pushing to our job at ologies in conflict god is with us the face of history has been ravaged across the centuries like people without medical inclinations who were still at that they knew what god was up to he says however gave us warning against this that anyone says the new law here is the christ or low there it is you're not believe it four false christ's and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders song with the lead astray possible even they elect we must be aware of the law here long lairs

syndrome the tendency that delay easily identify the work on the place of god what has brought about can we really know or must we settle for a respectable agnosticism on the question that glow to the seventies and the work of god is found in many places in the scriptures but i think no where more clearly than in the twenty fifth chapter of the gospel of our lord according to st matthew there we find a parable of the last judgment in the great size the shape are separated from the goats on what basis skinned pigmentation theological or killed and the ability to grapple with big

questions no the separation is made on the basis of health that he's given or withheld from the underside years of life well hungary the first day a stranger the night and they imprisoned and the sick this is no exceptional passage neither on the grade i think of all of all their new testaments ally runs in the same direction they're offering where does that same the phone like giant bells in the carillon of old testament revelation those words are the sojourner or the stranger the fatherless and the widow now this for example these words from the ancient book of exodus

your soul not wrong a stranger or a press him for you are strangers in the land of egypt used a lot of clips and a widow or orphaned if you do have liked them and i cry out to me i will surely hear their cries and from the later part of the law from the book of deuteronomy the tenth chapter got executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and love the sojourner giving him food and clothing these words from the twenty fourth chapter of deuteronomy out to establish the same point when you read your harvest in your field and have forgotten crises in the field you shall not go back to getting it shall before the sojourner the fatherless and the widow up the lord your god may bless you and all the work of your hands when you beat your olive trees

you still not the war the bows again it shall before the sojourners the fatherless and the widow when you gather the greats of your vineyard you shall not believe it afterward it show before the sojourner the fatherless and the widow of profits okay we're along later and in particular the profits of the eighth century rang the changes on the same point our lord himself on that landmark occasion when he began his public ministry by reading from the scriptures chose to read these words the spirit of the march is upon me because he has anointed me to raise good news he has sent me to proclaim released to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty of those who are oppressed who proclaimed the acceptable year of the

lord one of the first actions of the infant church was to establish a border begins saw that the widows whose that indeed might be properly and adequately minister joe the early christians were enjoying to love one another video blog the wall man and especially those of the household of fate james was brave enough to attempt the definition of religion and it came out this way religion that is if you are in and if while before god and the father says this to visit our friends and widows in their affection and educate oneself and spain from the world the soldier or the fatherless the widow

these are the disenfranchised people got it would seeing which is often focus on the accidental or willful casualties of light these are god's little table not being on how are not big on monday not big on employees but they were caught we speak frequently about the dignity of man the word dignity i think used to wake we must make about the sanctity of man for the end for a matter of the deadline is upon these little people god cannot be patient

and other words god is at work with those who we are not likely or not willing to see because i asked a personal attentiveness here because that's not just a problem with what this a papal it is one of our unconscious devices to get out from under the convert people into problems and the stewardess mr morales academically donald made of birmingham commenting on the good samaritan says hall are only jesus condemns the deep blasphemy of arsenic preoccupation with problems when all the time there are no such things as problems there are only people people in the a preoccupation with problems is one of the occupational diseases of being a christian in the modern world a propensity for shutting

ourselves off from reality behind a smokescreen of words is the most insidious of the many syrians that so easily be set well hungary the thirsty the stranger the naked the sick they imprison this is our duck yet they are our business this is where god is and this is where we will be if we take got seriously but now the question how do we go about the business of ministry and the gods little people there are three ways basically that have unfolded in the course of christian history

it isn't aware that these three are not in conflict with each other they can all be opera to and should be at the same time historically however god's people have chosen to administer it to the little ones first live on the basis of personal helpful mass water along an adventure god's people have given themselves to what wordsworth once described as those little nameless and remember acts of kindness and of love outsiders set of those earliest christians behold how they love one another there is more of this person will attend a mass and love that goes on in any parish the needs they are

sometime i said like a preacher's sermon on the church the world can see it has been my experience in the ministry that as i make my pastoral wrongs i find more times than not that my people have already been there before me and that depressing home for the aged and that's a chrome in a hospital in that apartment where death has recently come but of course this sermon will never be preached for we are not the trumpet are goodness the left man must not know what the right hand is doing and yet beneath the surface of any parish there is this network of mutual concern when dr lewis now

cameron was about to leave his city of mortal in scotland he went over to say goodbye and square accounts with the town funeral director harry mccann they are after song farewell greetings dr cameron said i like to settle with you now for my bill the undertaker replied there is no bill your accounts are clear but not become a much you haven't really at all the general my little song mele gary mccraw me and said if you had to bear the sorrow surely i could bear the expense those little lame us i remembered it and regardless of the structure of the society in which we live starts kindness will never be

obsolete one way the second way might be described as a way of organized benevolence many of mann's needs are repetitive and therefore we have established particularly in the christian world agencies and service organizations one girl comes to the city of chicago from the farmlands and it is possible that really hurt your family in the big city when a thousand girls come from the farm country to the city in one month you get the wye w c a one bar at risk youth to be introduced to the disciplines of self reliance and the the wonders of me out of door the main event is going to pass and become a father to his son

when dozens of lies in a given community want this same kind of experience you get the boy scouts of america and so you find across this land and indeed across the world an elaborate system of organization this carefully built to carry the goodwill and that helpful mass of the community it is here that we find our homes for the ag our schools for orphans here we find our day nurseries and our private schools our hospitals infirmary is and all the rest the christian conscience having been sensitized and having couple bit sensitive or they reported inflation oh no ohio so that goodwill might be rendered dependable you know farm and constant

and while it is true that with organized benevolence we must always be careful not to become impersonal regarding people as objects are not a subject it is true that the spirit of jesus christ crew in his organized expressions the united planning across those are examples of this our actual laws but there's a third way a third way in which christian people i've sought to manage their true god little people and that is to attempt to change the structures that prado says the

hungry the first day a stranger that a kid the sick and in prison we are coming to recognize more and more in our time what we should've recognized long ago namely that structures are not literal they are not simply there and not one structures are less than righteous they can produce more casualties than the church will ever be able to minister to you what we mean by structure we recently established arrangements why way people live structures avenue of where people can live resign logan vote our public education is made available or withheld but the way the scale and the various

industries should very close songs should be drafted for a war in vietnam these are not the really violent and we must become paid enough to recognize that i have a very sharp impact upon the life not only have god's little people brought up on the life of every one of us eh robertson who happens to be the record of a world association for christian broadcasting fellowes of a young german prison officer under the y mari public will get this job under the nazis and also later under the british occupation and the federal republic this level my new a confessed to being

completely changed all of why new powers yemen kill him and buying your system this suggests that for the proper use of power education is not enough the system needs to be tackled and the powerpoint into the hands of the best of men radically examined though i hear someone saying and quiet protests but the early church did not of this when paul was a lie there were social evils on the world women were kept down slavery was rampant the war machinery of rome was widely known the tax system was oppressive and there is no place in the new testament where those

earliest christians were invited to try to change those structures mr wade i think deserve an honest answer and the answer is that our situation in this country is not comparable in any way to the situation of those christians and the roman empire they were a pathetic way small minority most of going up to eighty percent of them were slaves and so they have no money no vote they have no influence our relationship to this country is different from their relationship to romo while we have the power we have the vote we have the influence psalm sixty two percent of

us in this country claiming allegiance of the judeo christian tradition therefore we cannot simply sit back and say what are they going in washington hallway are other day and because we are we are responsible for the scriptures that either bless or white but white men around us i've been trying to illustrate what i mean let's imagine that next summer as you're driving toward your vacation haunt your take all those least ladder truck and woods are traveling a bunch of people who are basically and get an appearance as you study them crowded there in the back of his thought it belongs on you that these are migrant

workers coming around to pick potatoes as you make your way through a vacation place your conscience begins to gnaw away at you there you are in this comfort why just on the other side of that road are these people living in your meditation being paid a patent and so your conscious get you to the point where you have to do something you might decide an isolated or something in the way of personal helpful thus and so you buy some candy in a few games and order this migrant workers camp and the friend a child or two you might even go into the second stage and decide to avail yourself of some organized benevolence by relating some of

these boys and girls to the boy scouts or girl scouts or a nearby why it's but is it not throw that if you really cared about the plight of those people this would not be enough for you you would also become concerned about an animal's sanitation standards building codes minimum wage education i'm presently to indicate your sincerity you would be talking to other people about this and eventually would be making your way no although they are sacramento or lessons and eventually to washington dc we wish to do something more than merely put verbal band aids over the loans of people we will of necessity involve ourselves in

changing the structures from what they are to what they ought to be it is humbling we come to the church looking for some kind of refuge and find at the very place of refuge is disquieting i think it must've been easier to have been part of a minority that had no responsibility for che and it is today and the kind of position in which the american church finds itself today i'm convinced

however that when we become wise enough to involve ourselves in what is commonly called social action we are not leaving christ we are following christ forty eight is already there before us and however controversy although it may be we must be faithful to it this does not mean that we will always have a consensus as to what program we should back or what legislation we should desire what it does mean that we will be united and a common commitment didn't care what it to waddle up at the garden shows us a light this is where god

is hungary a stranger that make it to the sick we in prison and that is where we will be if we take our calling seriously the vibes we're right word i promised to pay by side with all the legends that famous and as much argue that it is mutts it have done it under one of the least phillies my brethren help us so hard to

stand with the environmentalist rate of the least diverse challenge the selfishness that we call proteins the state invested we call caution the attentiveness to others that we call tolerance so close as us oh god and that we may be agents of my nursery and by justice through jesus christ our lord a man you like a copy of dr campbell sermon god's little people ride to the blue rv our new york one below to seven that's w r b r u it's

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