7/17/66

Almighty and Eternal God, thou in whom we live and move and have our being,
we lift up ovr heatts unto thee in praise and adoration. We rejoice that

in thine infinite mjesty thou art like a fatBer to us, that thy love

binds us to thee and to each other, We rejoice, our father, that thou

hast made thyself known to us, that in Jesus Christ thou hast come to
redeem us and call us to be thy people. We rejoice in the opportunity to
serve thee in thy church, with the assurance that thou art peesent when-
ever we gather in thy name. So awaken us to thy presen this evening: in
trhis hour of worship, speak thy word to us: grant us beleiving and
obedient hearts and lead us to new life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

O thou, who art the sovereign Lord of all nations and all peoples, we

come before thee in shanme and sorrow. Once again we féwnd ourselves
caught in the ambiguity of war: once again we are aware of the fractures
oneness of thy children. We confess our involvement in the sin of man - tha
Sin which makes peace impossible, We confess that we have not found peace -
nor practiced good will, even with our neighbors. In humility, our father,
we pray for all those involved in the conflict in Viet Nam. Give thy

gifts of wisdom and responsibility to our President and his advisers:

give courage to those who fight and die: give comfort to their loved ones.
Heal the sickness of hatred which war prompts within us: give strength

to men of good will who strive for peace and justice and liberty, through
Jesus Christ, who was and is the eternal Pronwe of Peace,

O thou who lovest the world with an everlasting love, we pray for
thy suffering children. Help us to l®arn responsibility: prod us to
acknowledge that we are our brother's keeper. Guide,us that in all things
we might love and care for others, even as thou hat¢¢ loved and cared for
us, through Jesua Christ our Lord,

Our Father we are grateful to thee for thy goodness and mercy towards us.
Send thy Holy Spirit among us that we might grow in faith: that we might
experience newness of life springing forth in our midst, Enliven us with
conviction and courage, that we might answer thee in unselfish service ands
sacrificial love. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ * who
reigneth with thee and the Holy SPirit, one God world without end. Amrn

* AM who taught his disciples to pray saying -

What ought a winister say to his congregation on his fi rst Sunday in the pulpit? |

This is the question that has been bothering me for some time now = and to which

I have given a great deal of thought. | shoud it be a mild sermon = one that will
offend no cnet or should it be a courazeous stand ona controversial issue? \Should

it be a general review of the individual$s theology = or a specific probe into on@

aspect of that theology?\Should it be a proclaimation or an admonition? Should it

be a meek sermon or a bombastic onet\1 have had two ronths to reflect on my
prdicament and I confess that I have hot discovered a satisfactory solution,

I am aware that among the many motives and feelings accompanying you in worshi P

tp this morning , there is a strong element of curiosity, ou want to hear what the
new man is 1ike,| You are aWALe y of course, of my very natural motives to be sharp
this morning - and my hope thet you will be here again next week, | Mis subteranea "\
dialogue between us only complicates things.

Hopefully, in and through it all, there is a desiie on your part to »:egin to

know me and my rind. \Hopefuly one of the reasons you came this morning was to

discover how I feel about the church: \what I feel its role ought to ve \how I

see the task of the layman in 1966. \ an: gssuming this about you = and so I have

set out only to begin = to briefly and generally lay a foundation for what I

pray will be an effective and faithful ministry together with you,

Not long ago I happened upon a television program, on which a minister was
being interviewed. \The Rev. Bem Richardson was his name and I learned that he

had recently quit the parish ministry and divorced himself from the institutional

church,

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4

What A MAN Can Believe

3. God Breaks In September 4, 1966 Communiob
Exodus 3: 1-12
Acts 9:1-9

When was the last time you thought about God? What kind of thoughts
were they?|What images and forms did your thoughts take? | Were your xhaughs
feelings culteelctin 6 or fearful; inquisitive or guilty? | If you pursue
these rather personal questions, briefly but honestky, I believe that
it will become obvious that no one spends _much time thinking about God -
and that when we do give the matter some thought it is so remote, so
thoroughly divorced from the matters which really concern us that we can't
truly say our thoughts have any form or structure - or that that they'
elicit tery strong feelings of any type.

You see, the mere thought of God ts one of the most aes sre eae Pee

Cay 7 ar

eee? our mands are se of ‘thinking: ‘and today it ee eeu -2

thougat which elses no pr thinks ———-or- betéen 8said,—a-thoveht which
glmost no one takes seriously.
Of course it never has been easy, and today there are many barbiers

to thinking about God that ere pectiliar to our generation.\ There is the

\

traditional conflict between science and religion. \I don't mean the clash
. ned :
between the Bible and Anthropology, for that exists in only the most

narrow minds, whether they belong to the fundamentalist or £0 the scientist

ee whom the sum of reality can be contained in an equation. \t mean the

all-pervading faith of modern man in science genrally: a faith nutured by

fantastic accomplishments in outer space, in medical technology, in all
areas of our common life.\ It is a faith we all have - and it leaves
little room for God. |

There is the growing feeling of self-suffiency peculiar to our age:
a feeling that expresses itself best in the image of the rugged American
individualist, a tis who wate nothing and no one to help him fulfill his
potential, There is the urgent materialsim of our age:a sub religion

that shouts from every televidion commercial, every bill board, every

a baby ina humble stable. The God who broke into the chaotic life or

first century Palestine, teaching, healing, loving, forgiving, dying.

ee is the God the church holds out to 4 world that can no longer beleive.
If he is a consistant Godm he has not changed. That means his

nature ixs still to be breaking into human life. It meanas that he comes

into our world - our lives and calls us, unlikely people that we @#re, to do

most unlikely things That, I beleive, is a radical thought, one which

j + ve % . i
very few are willing to take seriously. |".

It means, on the broad scale that Goa is in some way very deeply
involved in Viet Naw, It means he breaks in - in the slums, Perhaps
at the Gary Neighborhood House; it means he is real in the Steel Mill, the
kitchen and class room, It means that he is very mush involved in the
liberation of enslaved people, whether those people langusih behand the
iron cubtain - or in a Negrtte Ghetto.\ That, of course, is a very alien
thought. And yet I continue to wonder how it is possible to beleive in
this Biblical God and not at least_ think it every time another step is takes
to liberate a captive people.

On a personal level it means that God is not a remote deity to be
addressed once a week in the liturgical repeating of the Lord's Prayer -
but a partner,a fellow participant in our life. \Not the God out there -
put the God here - the God aphily described by Malcolm Boyd as the one
present in the traffic jam and the hurried morning schedule,

He is a God who still calls mento serve and act and do: not all men
dramatically like Moses and the burning bush and Paul and the tright
blinéing light: but all men, mostly quietly to serve and love and
sacrifice in small, inconspicuous ways.

I think a man can beleive that God does break in.\I think I have
learned this in six years as your peatex., When I look at myself - and it
is objectively unlikely that I should be a minister a not something else:

when I look at many of you - and it is equally unlikely that mapy of you

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BAS LIS.

substi Ow ts e\ves es Sor uice Xe