Transcript
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: The hour comes, and now is when those who have gathered together shall worship God in Spirit and in truth. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us worship God.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Let us pray. We come to You, O mighty God, not because we must, but because we may. We come in freedom to praise You and to take our place in life as human beings, created from dust, yet called to be women and men of Spirit and vision. Our lives have, as part of their context, the turmoil of violence, the frustration of uncertainty,
and the anguish of the suffering of the innocent. Touch us by Your Spirit that we may be keenly sensitive to the needs of our times, and bold enough to respond to them, according to each of our own talents and abilities. Show us where You would have us go, as we now turn to the reading and preaching of Your word. Let it touch our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. The first lesson comes to us from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter five. Hear the Word of God. "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note. Search for quarters to see if you can find a person, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her. Though they say, 'As
the Lord lives,' yet they swear falsely. O Lord, do not your eyes seek for truth?" From the letter of Paul to the Ephesians, we have these words in the sixth chapter. "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins
with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace. Besides all these, taking the shield of faith with which you can clench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end,
keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak." This is the Word of the Lord.
CONGREGATION: Thanks be to God.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: A half century has not eroded the power of the Barmen Declaration. This courageous witness of a small company of Christians over against a brutal Nazi regime and its demonic ideology of race and nation still evokes our respect and gratitude. Precisely because of its towering stature, however,
Barmen may leave us convinced that the evil confronted then is far greater than we shall ever have to fight, and the faith confessed then, far stronger than we could ever expect to have. Is there any road from Barmen to Princeton? The answer to that question is yes.
We know there is such a road, because it was traveled 20 years after Barmen by a Princeton Seminary president, theologian, and churchman, John A. Mackay. The spirit of Barmen, the spirit of prophetic Christian faith, spoke eloquently through a document which Mackay wrote, known as the Letter to Presbyterians.
Barmen comes home to Christians in America in this letter. Close study shows an unmistakable family resemblance between the Barmen Declaration of 1934 and the Letter to Presbyterians of 1954. They were both composed in times of national crisis. They were both bold rejections of idolatrous
and totalitarian claims on human life. They were both ringing affirmations that Christians have only one ultimate loyalty, and that is to trust and serve a living God whose supreme self-revelation is in Jesus Christ. Their respective authors, Karl Barth and John Mackay, were uncommonly strong Reformed
theologians and churchmen, with a passion for the reign of God in every sphere of life. Mackay's Letter to Presbyterians was the first comprehensive, public challenge of a leading American churchman to the smear tactics, the character assassination, and the hysterical and self-righteous anti-communism
of McCarthyism. In Senator Joseph McCarthy, the fascist spirit found a voice with an American accent, and it called forth the spirit of Barmen from an outraged John Mackay. The letter contains three theses. First, that the Christian Church has a prophetic
function to fulfill in every society and in every age. Second, that the majesty of truth must be preserved at all times and at all costs. And third, that God's sovereign rule is the controlling factor in history. Each of these theses deserves careful reflection, but in the brief time we have this
morning, I want to concentrate on the second affirmation, and especially on its beautiful phrase "the majesty of truth." In Mackay's judgment, McCarthyism savagely violated the majesty of truth. In the name of propaganda value, opportunism, national security,
and patriotism, the truth was being desecrated. In the land of the free, the truth was being taken captive. Left unchallenged, that assault on truth spelled ruin for a free society, a robust culture, and a faithful church. Mackay was
no lover of communism any more than was Karl Barth. Both believed that while communism represented in important respects a divine judgment on the excesses of capitalist societies, communism was destined to have, in Mackay's words, "its own coming rendezvous with God and the moral order." But what both
Mackay and Barth feared more than communism was a fanatic and cruel anti-communism, which, in its bloated self-righteousness, showed contempt for anyone who deviated in the least from the prescribed tests of patriotism, and was prepared to trample the majesty of truth and the lives of innocent people in favor of its self-serving
aims. The majesty of truth. This is a phrase that is vintage Mackay. A master of images. Mackay often spoke of truth as a banner to be held high, a belt to be worn in the struggle against the falsehood that hides self-deception, hypocrisy, greed, and
injustice. In the darkest days of the Second World War, Mackay wrote an Easter message for the New York Times Magazine, reminding the American people at war that we bore some responsibility for the ordeal by fire which the world was now going through. That honesty demanded penitence as we prosecuted the war,
and a spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity for all victims of the war. This would be to participate in the power of the resurrection of Christ. The majesty of truth. In the postwar period, outrage by the inability of American foreign policymakers to transcend a merely militaristic response to the social unrest
and revolution in Latin America, Mackay, an expert in Latin American history, culture, and religion, declared that the time for a Barmen Declaration in America was fast approaching. The truth that the revolution in Cuba -- and no doubt, today, he would also add Nicaragua -- was generated more by poverty and injustice than by communist conspiracy had to be recognized.
The majesty of truth. When a prophetic interpretation of Christian faith, represented then by Reinhold Niebuhr, and a pietistic interpretation of Christian faith, represented then by Billy Graham, seemed unable to address each other with civility and openness, Mackay -- who else but Mackay? -- brought the two parties together for dialogue at [Springdale?].
The majesty of truth. When zealous but unthinking Princeton Seminary students threw so-called gospel bombs -- packets of Scripture verses -- into the open windows of dormitories at Princeton University, Mackay, who believed deeply that the communication of Christian truth demanded personal and
respectful, face-to-face engagement between people, told his seminarians that we are called to be fools for Christ, but not damn fools. The majesty of truth. I mention all this to emphasize that when John Mackay spoke out in a letter to Presbyterians for the
majesty of truth, against the rumors, the innuendos, distortions, and fabrications that typified the tactics of McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, it was no ad hoc political maneuver, no debate gimmick. Witness to the majesty of truth was integral to the man and his theology. That we are to recognize the truth
of the moral ambiguity of our own lives, both as individuals and as a nation. That we are to acknowledge the truth that the judge and savior of history is God, and not we ourselves or our nation. That in the name of Christ, who is the truth, we are summoned to be ever-ready for the miracle of reconciliation that may transpire by God's
grace between ourselves and our enemies, when we are willing to engage them in open, face-to-face conversation and negotiation. For John Mackay, McCarthyism was demonic because it made a mockery of the majesty of truth. Shortly after the publication of the Letter
to Presbyterians, Mackay received a letter from a German pastor which contained these words: "Had our church in Germany, in the first days of Adolph Hitler, warned in as clear and fundamental a way as you have done today in America, we would have been spared much unspeakable suffering and guilt."
Barmen, 1934. The Letter to Presbyterians, 1984 -- 1954. And in 1984, Karl Barth and John Mackay would surely admonish us. Let there be no nostalgia and no romantic hagiography. Let the church bear prophetic
witness today to the majesty of truth and to the sovereignty of a just and gracious God over all of history. In 1984, as in 1934 and 1954, as John Mackay so often said, let the church be the church. Let us pray.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, give us the humility before truth which preserves our humanity, and guide our nation and all nations of the world into the way of justice and peace, that Your kingdom and Your righteousness may be manifest in all the earth. Amen.
CONGREGATION: Amen.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: Graceful Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
CONGREGATION: Amen.
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