1 10 10 https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/c7d0ffefb32cc6e22e0ebf069cdb2c5b.pdf 2bc7827397ae938a73cdd6f23ccc34c7 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-545_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University If you haven't been reading all along, I'd say it will be a little more difficult in terms of time. So I thank you very much for your reading. Now, then, this is what Hosea says about Israel and then about Gomer, his wife. "Now, then, I will block up her path with a thorn hedge and bar the road against her till she cannot find her way. She will pursue her lovers and miss them, seek them and never find them. Then at last she will say, let me go back to my first husband. I fared better with him than today." Another excerpt, "I will make the vale of trouble a door of hope." Isn't that a good line? "I will make the vale of trouble a door of hope." Another, "Ephraim allows himself to be mixed up with foreigners." And then this choice piece of imagery, "Ephraim has become a cake unturned." Can't you get the figure? Done on the outside, raw on the inside. It's wonderful. [LAUGHTER] "Foreigners eat away his strength, unknown to him. Yet they will not return to their God." Another, "They sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind." You've heard that one, haven't you, even though we haven't read Hosea? "No stalk in their shoot. It bears no fruit." If fruit is bear-- if fruit is borne, a foreigner would devour it." And then this, "A prophet is a crazy fool. A man inspired is a man insane. The prophet is God's watchman." Another, "Because you relied on your chariots, on your hosts of warhorses, in your towns shall tumult rise and all your forts be crushed. I drove them with a harness of love." Isn't that wonderful? "But my people are now weary of revolting. They cry to me, Ephraim, how can I give you up? Israel, how can I let you go? I will not execute my anger, I will not ruin Ephraim again, for I am God, not man. Thus I who shepherded you in the desert, in that houseless land-- you fed and filled yourselves and grew proud and forgot [? Me. ?] Come back to your God, O Israel, for your faults have made you fall. I will be like dew to Israel. He shall blossom like a lily and strike roots down like a poplar." Isn't that interesting imagery? He will blossom like a lily, but his roots will be strong like a poplar, combination of goodness and innocence. Very interesting. "His branches shall spread out, his leaves fresh as an olive's, his scent like the scent of incense. Once more shall they live under my shadow, well-watered as a garden, flourishing like a vine, and fragrant as Lebanon's wine." Now Hosea is the second of the writing prophets, as we pointed out last Sunday. Unlike Amos, Hosea was a peasant. He was rural. He was, as it were, a dirt man, sensitive, poetic, gripped by 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu one terrifying passion and that was that Israel belonged to God and God belonged to Israel. His concern is with the apostasy of Israel and the way in which Israel had taken up idolatrous worship. Pitts Theology Library Emory University He is not particularly concerned, as Amos was, with righteousness, with the way the impersonal city dweller, the businessman, the traffic of city life tended to cause men to build power and securities for themselves in a secondary and tertiary manner, being cut off from having a face-toface contact with the misery that their operations had precipitated. We find nothing in him that says, let justice roll down like a river. He isn't concerned with social justice as such. But he is concerned with personal piety and the way in which that piety makes it possible for an individual to live a life worthy of God. His story's a very tragic one in some ways. He married a lady whose name was Gomer. She was the daughter of a man who was one of the leaders of the Bael cult. And their first child was born and he said, the name of this child shall be Jezreel for it is in the valley of Jezreel that Jehovah will wreak His vengeance upon Israel for violating the covenant and failing to be true to Him. And then it seems as if his wife became barren and the pattern of life in which she had lived-- the cultist, anti-religious experience which was a part of her history and development, in the time of her crisis came to her rescue. It's very interesting how the things that loom in their significance in times of crisis usually are the things that have been an intimate part of the process of your living. It's very interesting. And the things that you study and so forth will make a kind of veneer and you move on that level. But when the pressures begin to close in on you, the thing that you reach for is the thing that is the deepest part of your experience, the thing that has been the longest sustained part of your experience. I remember when I was in Divinity School, one of my very close friends was with a Japanese classmate. And he spoke English beautifully. And I shall always remember that when he preached his senior sermon and we were all listening, suddenly he began talking about something that plowed way down in him and without ever realizing it, he began preaching in Japanese, just like that. So when Gomer wanted another child and she couldn't have one, the behavior pattern with which she was familiar came to the rescue. So what did she do? She went to the temple of Bael and there in that ceremonial, the significance of which we do not quite understand at this far distance, but out of our conceit, we've called it temple prostitution, she conceived. It's very interesting, isn't it, this-- I don't want to get off on that aside, but it's interesting. I remember standing outside the [? Kahlighat ?] [? temple ?] in Bombay, either Bombay or Calcutta, one of them-- Calcutta, I guess [INAUDIBLE]-- anyway, one of them. And at the temple, the only Hindu temple in which there is animal sacrifice-- and hard by this temple, there's a thorn tree. And the thorn tree has tied on it all sorts of offerings. And I stood there watching one day and I saw a little Hindu lady, with trembling devotion, take from out of her sari a little precious package. And then with some words that I did not understand, she tied that package to the thorn tree as her offering, hoping that the god that 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu controls all of the processes of life, including the opening of the womb, would be merciful to her and let her have a child that she might keep her husband. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And that's what Gomer did. That's what she did. We can understand that. So this child that was born after that was given a certain name by the prophet and then another child was born in the same circumstances. But all that was deepest in Hosea also came to the rescue of Hosea in his crisis. And what was deepest in Hosea? That God, Jehovah, was the only true God and that Israel had had a private primary covenant with Jehovah and that any flirtation with other gods, other cults, whatever may be the nature of the extremity that drives a man-- any flirtation with any God other than Israel is idolatry, is violation of the love of God and the covenant and therefore, what Gomer had done was to put a Bael cult over against the worship of Yahweh and to draw on the vitality of that cult to fertilize her body and add shame to Israel. And she became a harlot, an outcast, in the love of her husband. And he could not forgive her not merely because she had borne other men's children, but because she had dared to insist that Bael could do for her what Jehovah couldn't. And if she's right-- if she's right, reasoned the prophet-if she is right, then the nerve center of my consent is paralyzed. If Gomer is right about Bael, then I am wrong about Jehovah. And if I'm wrong about Jehovah, then all of the meaning of life, all of the fateful significance of the covenant, all of the magic and mystery and beauty of the brooding Yahweh over the fluctuating Israelite means nothing. And so it was an issue on which [? tine ?] the very fate of a religious faith. There it is. Then whether it was a rationalization-- I suppose some modern students of psychology would say a lot of interesting things about why he said this or that, but that is beside the point. He tried to reduce his problem to a manageable unit. And I'll get to the heart of it in just a minute. How can this problem, this great problem I have, makes sense? And that's what we always try to do, isn't it? See, whatever your problem may be, however great your tragedy may be, if you can somehow pull it down to size, you can take care of it. But if you can't pull it down to size and it runs all over you, then it may actually dethrone your reason. But however terrible it is, if you can somehow reduce it to a manageable unit, then you can ride it rather than having it ride you. And that's what he was trying to do. How can I manage this? How can I think about it in a way that will keep me from being destroyed by it? Oh, said he, I'm being taught something about Israel in this. Look at Israel. She has behaved the very way Gomer has behaved. And what has God done? What has Jehovah done? Well, Jehovah is hurt, just as I'm hurt. And when he felt, you see, that Jehovah was hurt as he was hurt and for fundamentally the same reason, and that softened his hurt. Because Jehovah's shoulders were broader than his, and if somehow, he could shift a little of it over to Jehovah, then that's one way by which he could reduce it to a manageable unit. And of course, that is at once the secret of confessional, isn't it? It's very interesting. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu So he says that Jehovah looks upon Israel with the same sort of first anger, disgust, disdain, and then pity, then compassion because Jehovah loves Israel. And because Jehovah loves Israel, He can never let Israel go. And that's what he said. Because He loves Israel, He will not let Israel get altogether out of His hands. Pitts Theology Library Emory University But how can He keep Israel without condoning what Israel has done? That's His problem, you see. So He says, go back-- Jehovah says to Hosea, go back and get the lady. Take her from her misery and her sin. Re-establish her in your household. Reduce all of her exposures to other human beings to zero. And in the long quiet, let your love have a chance to work its way. Don't give her up. How can I do that, said the prophet? I'll be held up to ridicule and embarrassment and humiliation. But this is what you must do because this is what Jehovah is doing with Israel. Then out of the depths of his own struggling and the new and abiding insights that had been generated in his mind and spirit, he looks now for the first time really out upon Israel. And he goes from the little town into the city. And in the city, his little peasant soul was simply blasted. Of course in the little town where there wasn't anything else to do and the pressures were intimate and primary pressures, he could understand why the people would be worshippers of Bael. It was a fertility cult. But in the city, the sophisticated place where they were exposed to books and knowledge and all those things-- in the city, of course he would not expect to find it. And there in the city, he found everything. Not only did he find Bael worship, but he found that the leaders of the people, the priests, the politicians, the statesmen, all the guides of the social forces that determined the life of the people and defined the significance of that life-- that these people were at their very heart corrupt, full of panic and fear because they had drifted far away from the security, the emotional and the political and the intellectual security, that came from the awareness that they were Yahweh's people and they were worshipping Yahweh and being true to Yahweh when they separated from Yahweh. And a part of the social process itself became this radical departure from the genius of Israel. Then they floundered. They were people without a spiritual home. They were people without any sense of security. And what happened to them? They lost their nerve. And when they lost their nerves, then they began doing all sorts of things. And one of the things that they did was to try to let political alliances become a substitute for depending upon Jehovah-- Assyria, Egypt, running, knocking at every door. We can't stand alone in the presence of the menacing forces that surround us. We must have help. And the only way that we can get the help is to make these alliances. And we can establish out of our own security, our money, that sort of thing-- we can make it worthwhile to these other peoples to join with us against the common enemy. 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu What does that sound like? What does that sound like to you? What does it sound like? [INAUDIBLE]. Pitts Theology Library Emory University What does it sound like? And because so much emphasis, says Hosea, now-- this way back, you see, BC. Because of this emphasis upon the foreign alliances, Hosea says that all sorts of confusion chaos and upheaval turned up at home-- interesting-- because it said to the masses of the people that there was no longer any confidence in the genius of the people themselves and the religious and political doctrine out of which Israel was born. And if the leaders of Israel have no confidence in that, but must project their fears beyond their borders and hope to guarantee their security by these external alliances, then what happens to the little man who can only depend upon his job or his neighbor or his friend? The fundamental confusion of the prime movers of the state and the church cuts the ground from under the simple man who has nothing to depend upon in his environment but the stabilities of that environment guaranteed by those who hold in their hands the social process. And if they don't have any faith, then we are bankrupt. So Hosea says, won't you come back to first principles? It's an old story. It's as old as life. Won't you try to recover the lost radiance of a former commitment to God? And then he gets angry again and his mind just moves up and down like that, one time crying out against all of this apostasy and then another time saying, [? O, ?] how God loves Israel, God will not take his hand off Israel, and finally that shuttling back and forth between these two poles of emotion. At last he says, I see now how to reconcile my problem. God will not let Israel go. And yet God cannot condone Israel's sin. If he keeps Israel, does it mean that he condones Israel's sin? No. No. No. No. Perhaps the purpose of the suffering, of the punishment, is to redeem Israel and make it possible for Israel to win the right to be in the covenant. And out of Hosea then comes the great doctrine that love has a heart that is as warm as fire, but it works often in conjunction with a brain that is as cold as ice. Punishment for sin, the righteous God can't withhold that. It's a part of the moral order. But God can keep his hands on you and not let you go while the logic, the relentless logic of the operation of antecedent and consequence, works its way out in your life. Now, that's it. That's it. Do you see what he's saying? Do you see? And what it means for us? Have you said over and over again as you contemplated the present moment in human history that God must be evil to keep the world full of war? Have you thought that? It's the same problem that Hosea had. If life in Western civilization had unfolded in a manner-- please hear what I'm going to say. I'm almost through now-- if life in Western civilization as it has been for the past 100 years, 125 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu years-- if that life had not yielded, had not yielded world wars, there would be no integrity in the moral process itself. Wars do not spring full-grown like Minerva from the head of Zeus. Wars are the unfolding logic, the relentless movement, of social processes that end in that kind of disaster. And if that were not true, we could have no confidence in the morality of life. Pitts Theology Library Emory University But that does not mean that God is outside of it. But to me, the logic of history is that God is in history, guaranteeing the relentless movement, the pulse beat, the swinging of antecedent and consequence, of reaping and sowing, inherent in the process. No. That being the fact, as I think it is, it is my hope, my simple hope, that we will discover even in the midst of the carnage and the results of our own behavior some margin of wisdom that will be, deep within our social process, the symbol that God has not taken His hands off, not only off of America, but off the life of man on this planet. For if something happens to us, my friends, that destroys within us the faith that is as deep as life that the ultimate destiny of man is a good destiny-- if that is destroyed in us, then all of life, whatever may be our position in it, will be but a grinning skull and crossbones. But with that faith, we can work, struggle, and anticipate the redemptive process of the Spirit and the will of God. 6 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-545_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Internal Notes Notes for project team Edited - GL 6/9 Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Amos; The Message of Moses (Fellowship Church), 1952 May 25, Jun 1, Side B Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-545_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Hosea, 1952 June 1 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-06-01 Description An account of the resource In this second sermon on the prophets, Thurman talks about God's unwavering faithfulness to human beings even in the midst of hardship. Through Hosea's writings, Thurman illustrates the ways in which crisis tempts us into abandoning our faith in God, the true source of our security. Thurman suggests that God's punishment and redemption is carried out through the logic of cause and effect. The world is not full of war because God is evil, but because our social processes lead to war. Nevertheless, Thurman insists that we must hold the faith that "the ultimate destiny of man is a good destiny." Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/cdfe3b955aa5bcb6a903a0d1a944afa8.pdf 5858a87324c4d9675c3a2816f312f39b PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-559_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University If his counselor had taught him "with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge," and showed to God the way of understanding. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." Then, after talking about the majesty and the great creative power of God in a rather vastly impersonal all manner, suddenly he changes pace and breaks the thing down in terms of the greatest intimacy, an intimacy that is so tender that it almost breaks the heart. "Hath thou not known? Hath thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the end of the earth fainted not, neither is weary." He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." Why? Because the same God that measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, that meted out the heavens with the span, that comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure, and weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance is also the whisper in the human heart. Tremendous, isn't it? Well let's look at the Bible. Over about-- this really isn't a sermon but it's much-- perhaps it's even better than the sermon. "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant." Now this is-- you're familiar with this, many of you, because it's interesting. Even in the caption that's up at the top of this book. This is the King James version. Up at the top it says, Christ's passion foretold, that this has come down through one of the great traditions of Christianity that the prophet Isaiah was talking about Jesus Christ here. But it is very historic. It is very evident that he wasn't, but that's all right. We'll talk about that a little later. "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant." That's a beautiful portrait. "And as a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form, no comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should deny him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he hath done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him." What a curious combination of ideas. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It's he, the Lord hath put him to grief. "When thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Well, that's enough. It is impossible of course, to deal with the Deutero-Isaiah in a single sermon or single lifetime of sermon making. So I shall do two things this morning in connection with it. First, a simple statement of the historical picture that you might get a feel of the time and the mood. And what was the certain important aspects of the contemporary scene with which this unknown prophet had to deal and then lift out of the tremendously moving dynamics of his religious experience and his intellectual concept. What seems to me to be his timeless utterance for the human spirit, at least one of them. This unknown prophet of the exiles, the contemporary of Cyrus-- and Cyrus will be remembered in history as a young man with a great idea and a great passion of what a forerunner of empire dreamers who by their strong right arm and their swords and the shields and their armies lay waste the populations of the earth. That was Cyrus. A powerful man. What will happen in human history when we are able, in the normal pursuits of life, to provide the kinds of challenges that will exhaust the creative minds of great tempestuous human spirit so that the resources of those minds will be channeled in ways that are redemptive for the life of the race? What would happen when that-- It's a great tragedy that our civilization had no way by which we could channel a man like Adolf Hitler. It's extraordinary. Just think about it for a minute. That's of course an aside and off the point, but it's the same problem isn't it? Even in public school education. What is the problem in the public school classroom when you have a very able boy in the class, a very able girl you don't know what to do with them. That's the trouble. You don't know what to do, so you're always in trouble. I don't mean that everybody that gets in trouble is brainy. I don't mean that. But you see what I mean. We don't know how to structure a creative mind. We only know how to deal with mediocrity. So we make the creative mind again and again a malignant growth in society causing all kinds of confusion and chaos. Well anyway, Cyrus has such a mind, and he-the thing that I like about reading about him is the fact that he attacked the man who was supposed to touch anything and it became gold Croesus, you know. He laid siege to Croesus' empire. And Croesus said, well, he's just a little upstart. I won't pay any attention to him. And a year passed and another year passed, and he couldn't get out, couldn't get 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu any water, couldn't get any food so he gave up. Now at the time that Cyrus was moving across the pages of that particular aspect of history, there was stirring in the mind of a prophet, an unknown prophet of Israel, Deutero-Isaiah. Pitts Theology Library Emory University What was at first a throw back from the accumulated prophetic wisdom of Israel. Namely that Jehovah was related specifically and concretely to Israel and that the fate of Israel was wrapped up in the movement of Jehovah across the stages of human history. And if Jehovah did have an intimate relationship with Israel, then it must mean that Israel will be useful to Jehovah in carrying out his will and his words. How could Israel do this? Well Israel about Jerusalem is gone most of the Judites have been taken into captivity or all have been scattered-- the largest group being down in Babylon. They're everywhere. Now perhaps they have been scattered through the province of miners working, you see. They had been scattered in order that wherever they are, they might give to the people by whom they are surrounded the message of Jehovah. But they can't do that. As he thought about it, they can't do that because there is no central place, there is no spot from which may emanate this peculiar genius, this peculiar faith. A faith has to be embodied in some kind of concretion, some kind of symbol, some point of contact in space and time so that the believer can multiply his exposure to that contact. And by that multiplication, distill from the multiplicity of his contacts the spirit of the place. So they have to have Jerusalem or some place like Jerusalem. So the purpose of all of this movement among the peoples is to shape the kingdom so that Israel may be, the Judites may be released. And they can go back to Jerusalem, build the temple, reestablish the public worship of God. And then, with Jerusalem as the center, all of these people will move out to the ends of the earth carrying the message of Jehovah. Beautiful. And who is going to precipitate that? Cyrus. Does Cyrus know that he is an instrumentality of Jehovah? Not yet, but that's all right. He is. So Cyrus finally conquered almost everybody. And then the word went around that Cyrus was going to issue a decree that would permit the Jews to go back to Jerusalem. You see? And the prophet is beautiful in the words that he uses about it. What a wonderful thing it will be when, from the holy hill, there will be the beauty and the wonder and the glory of the reestablished temple. And then he becomes almost chauvinistic in is thinking about it. But Cyrus issues not a great big decree but a little decree. And the little decree set limitations upon the number of people, the size of the temple, all sorts of details that I mean are above you. And then after the first disappointment, the second disappointment was the fact that all of the Judites didn't want to go back to Jerusalem. He had assumed, you see, that everybody was home hungry, but they weren't. They had been living in Babylon and these other places, they'd settled down and established very happy communal relations. And they didn't want to go back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding something. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu So the prophet feels that all of his hopes have gone, that the people themselves only a handful. But as we look back over 27 centuries-- well it was about 27, 28 centuries ago when this happened, and the number that went to Jerusalem numbered about 40,000. And as we look back, that's a great number but the prophet in his enthusiasm and in his ecstasy was sure that that was just a handful of people in comparison to the hopes that he had. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And why didn't they go back? That was his problem. Why didn't they go back? If the relationship of the Jewish community to Jehovah is an automatic one, if to be a Jew is to be inspired by the mind and the will and the morality of God, then does it not follow automatically that all of these Jews would beat a path back to Jerusalem as soon as the ban was lifted. But the fact is that they did not. And the prophet had to face it, either his concept was wrong that there is an automatic moral relationship between being a Judite and Jehovah or the relationship between the Judite of a Jewish person at that period and Jehovah is a relationship that is contingent upon something that is not merely the accident of history. Well if that is true, then I must rethink my whole relationship. And that's what the prophet does. He says, aah, I see now that merely because a man is a Judite doesn't mean necessarily he's interested in Jehovah. He may not be. Then what is the difference between a Judite who is related to Jehovah and one who isn't? The difference is the difference in moral character. And now he is on the verge of a great discovery. If that be true, then the thing that relates the Judites to Jehovah is the quality of his heart, the attitude of his mind, the degree to which he follows the movement of the spirit of Jehovah in his heart. Then may that also not be the relationship of any other man to Jehovah. Do you see the corner that he turns? No you don't. Let's work here because we can't leave this until we get it because everything else is contingent upon it. You see, his thinking was at first that to be a Jew was equivalent to having an automatic spiritual relationship with Jehovah. You're born with it. In other words, you are birth right Judite. All right. Now if that is true, then when the ban is lifted so that all of these Jewish people that are scattered all over the world can go to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple then they wouldn't do it by virtue of their relationship, this automatic relationship with Jehovah. But the fact remains that they didn't do it. Why didn't they? And when the prophet dealt with the question, he had to revise his interpretation of what it means really to be related to Jehovah. In other words, he had to redefine what it meant to be a Jew. And now he arrives at a conclusion that a person is a Jew who is related spiritually in attitude of mind, in attitude of spirit to Jehovah, and not merely because he was born in a certain family or he belonged chronologically to a certain tribe and so forth and so on. Now the logic of that meant that if that be true, you see, that the thing that determines whether or not a man is a Jew is not his birth, not his roots, but his moral and spiritual awareness and character, then any man who has that awareness becomes, in the language of the prophet, a Jew. That's what he says over and over again. 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University All right. Now let's push it just a little further. Now if every individual stands in immediate candidacy to be related to Jehovah in that way-- because he stated it, every individual stands in immediate candidacy to become a Jew, then the relationship between Jehovah and all of the other peoples of the earth becomes a very interesting one. And that leads me to the heart of the next problem that he has to face. In some peculiar sense, if God is the God of Israel, then what about the other people that are not Israel? Is he their God too? If God makes the snow and the ice and the rain, if god moved in the mind of Cyrus and made Cyrus open put up all of this process in order that the movement of the message of Israel might be precipitated, then how can I combine that notion of an impersonal creator of the universe with the intimate private personal God of the human spirit? It is one of the central problems of religion that has never been solved, in terms of logic or metaphysics or even theology. And here it's stated all over again. You see? Just as you stated. Don't you state it for yourself? Doesn't it occur to you again and again that if God is the Creator of all the planets and the stars and all this process that is life, how can He be bothered with little me and my little problems and my little world? But, as a matter of fact, it doesn't make a great deal of difference whether I live or die. Few weeks tears will all be dry, life goes on as usual almost. It's the same problem. Now what does he do with it? What does he do with it? He says, in the passages that I read to you, he doesn't attempt to work it out in terms of logic. He doesn't seem to work it out in terms of metaphysics or any kind of dogma. But he at once moves into the realm of personal and private experience. He says, with my mind, I'm aware that there is a source of all of this. There is an order that generates all these things of which I am but one tiny microscopic part. At the same time, I'm also aware of the fact that there are moments when in my own heart there's a stirring. And when I'm tempted to give up, I don't give up quite. When I'm so weary that I can't stand any longer, somehow I stand. How to account for it I don't know. But both experiences of the human spirit and the individual are true experiences. That's as far as he gets. Then after the people did not come back and he is very discouraged and brokenhearted, he asked himself, what is the meaning of the Jewish people? What do they mean? Why was I given this insight? Why am I a part of a whole long line of men of insight? Well, what's the point of it? I don't know. Perhaps if it's true, as I believe it is, said the prophet that God broods over all of the peoples of the earth and all of nature since He cannot be partial you see, He can't be partial. He can't really care more for Israel than He cares for Egypt, Babylon. But the fact is Israel has had an intimate experience with him overall these years. And if Israel did not have this experience because God was partial to Israel, then that Israel had this experience must be a part of the divine plan. See how his mind works? Now if it is a part of the divine plan, then what part is it? Could it be that the role of Israel is to reveal to the minds of the peoples of the world what is the true nature of God. 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And wrestling with that concept, they are based out in the mind of Deutero-Isaiah clearly for the first time in the whole history of the Jewish community and for the first time in the history, as far as we are able to ascertain it, of the human race the concept of an ethical monotheism. And what does it say that there is one God? One God who is at one time once the God of the human heart, the God of human history, and the God of the world of nature. Pitts Theology Library Emory University One people have had a rather peculiar experience with him. And that experience is a functional one. And what is its function? To make available to the rest of the human race the moral quality of their own experience. But don't you know that if you do that, people will kill you? Don't you know that if you make it your business to be, as a result of some deeply lying spiritual compunction, if you make it your business to be the conscience of the nations, these other nations must become, as it is the will of God that they may become or they must compensate for their lack by laying the lash on you? It is the will of God, and as long as they resist that will, they will have to persecute you. And when they persecute you, don't hate them. Remember God laid this assignment upon you. And he has not given you any burden so heavy that you will not be able to bear it. And you will see that out of the stirring of that womb will come three great movements, symbolic movements of the quest of the human spirit for spiritual reality and the ethical backbone of civilization after civilization. So out of the spinning mind and turbulent heart of Deutero-Isaiah move Judaism. Here all history of the Lord thy God is one. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all my heart, soul, and strength. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Out of his stirring came Christianity with its insistence upon one God. And the human family regarded as bound together by love, tenderness, fellowship. Out of his stirring came Mohamedism. There is but one God says Mohammed, God! And Mohammed is his prophet. Out of the stirring in Deutero-Isaiah, the long march of the cycling series of struggles by which at last the individual becomes conscious of himself and therefore conscious of the things that are done against himself. And out of that movement, the whole genius of the democratic dogma. All the stirrings are right here. If you don't think so, read the books. And for that, you will be beaten with many stripes. I may say to you my friends that I cannot, with my mind nor with my spirit, positively apprehend the meaning of the miracle that the Jewish people represent in human history. I don't understand it. Even my mind and my emotions get all tied up. Hounded everywhere, persecuted. The whole Western civilization piled high with the whited bones of exhausted Israelites. In country after country, any roll call will reveal it to you. Now into the present moment, in our country and other countries of the world, suffering servant. That is the concept in Deutero-Isaiah that god lays upon you this. And it is the price that you pay because you have learned so much about him due to the long exposure that your spirits have had to the movement of his spirit. And therefore, you will have to be his instrument of redemption. 6 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University But if you-- and I'm through now, but if you don't do it, if you try to escape it, this will happen to you. You will escape everything but the suffering. If you stick to the concept, even the suffering, and you, as a people, will be redempted. For even the youth shall run and not fail. And the young men shall utterly fall, for they that tarry, tarry, tarry with God shall walk and not faint. 7 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-559_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Deutro-Isaiah; The Message of Jeremiah, part 1 (Fellowship Church), 1952 Jun 29, Jul 20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-559_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Deutero-Isaiah, 1952 June 29 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-06-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Description An account of the resource In this fifth sermon on the prophets, Thurman finds Deutero-Isaiah wrestling with what it means to be in relationship with God. The prophet is troubled by the notion that Jews are supposed to be in automatic relationship with Jehovah, and yet they do not act like it. Thus the prophet concludes that it is not tribe or lineage that makes one a Jew, but rather moral and spiritual character. Anyone can thus "become a Jew" as the prophet says. Those who have had this experience of God play the part of revealing the true nature of God to the world. For Thurman, the image of the suffering servant illustrates those who have been exposed to God's spirit and therefore suffer on God's behalf as instruments of God's plan to redeem the world. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/dd0fcc6aa953da52de7600ab1ef2b9be.pdf f9af54df568d0fbb6483e4ec92481500 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-560_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University Their appearance-- they have the same form, each with four faces and four wings, with limbs straight and gleaming like burnished bronze and with the soles of their feet rounded like the feet of cattle. Under their wings on the four sides of them were human hands. As for their four faces and wings, their wings touched one another. And their faces never turned as they moved. Each move, straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, all four had, in front, the face of a man-- on the right, the face of a lion-- on the left, the face of a bull, and the face of an eagle at the back. Their wings were stretched out-- one pair to touch the next creature-- the other pair to cover the body. Each moves straight forward. Wherever the spirit impel them to go, they went, never turning as they moved. Also, in the middle of the creatures, there was something moving to and fro, like glowing coals, like torches-- a fire that gleamed and flashed out lightning. As I gazed, there was a wheel on the ground beside each of the four creatures. The wheels were the color of topaz. And all four had the same shape arranged as if one wheel were inside the other wheel. When they moved, they moved in any direction that their four sides faced, never turning as they moved. The fellows and the spokes of the fore I saw were full of eyes all around. Wherever the creatures move, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the creatures rose from there, the wheels rolls with them. Wherever the spirit compel them to go, they went, for a living spirit was in the wheel. When the creatures moved, they moved. When the creatures stood still, they stood still. When the creatures rose from earth, they rose, for a living spirit was in these wheels and so forth. This is very interesting, isn't it? [INAUDIBLE] It would be quite an experience to spend the time simply reading excerpts from Ezekiel. He was a very, very amazing man. He's had a tremendous influence on art, religious art, and the Christian movement. I tried tremendous influence on prophecy. Several contemporary cults have been built around some of these visions of Ezekiel. His imagery was very impressive to the slaves when they came over, and were first brought face to face with the dramatic insights of the Israelitish mind-- one of the rather famous and celebrated spirituals. Ezekiel saw the wheel way up in the middle of the sky. The big wheel, something else, something else, and the little wheel was run by the grace of God. The wheels were alive. You [INAUDIBLE] Ezekiel all around. He's become a part of the lore of certain aspects of Protestantism with his figure of the valley of dry bones, and Satan very interesting-- a highly imaginative and the sermons drunk with poetry have been built around. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu What happens when these dry bones begin to rattle them? One bone hooks onto another one. And this is exciting. [LAUGHS] He has also influenced our sense of judgment. But it is he who says that the soul that send it, it should die. It's Ezekiel who does that. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Influence in a rather striking manner-- the imagination of Jesus of Nazareth. He refers to Himself, as I shall point out, subsequently. As Son of Man. And we hear that phrase ringing on the lips of Jesus of Nazareth. And I think-- the critics-- many of them disagree with that-- but that's all right. They read, and I read, so it's all right. Both Jesus of Nazareth and Ezekiel use the term, Son of Man in the same way, carrying, essentially, the same basic insight. Now, there are three aspects of Ezekiel's thinking about which I want to talk for a little while and think with you. If you want the details and the imagery and the beauty of it, read the book. I will not undertake to do that. But I want to lift out what seems to me to be three of the important insights. And this tremendous man who wrestled with the emotional disturbances that are almost uncanny. I wonder what a good clinical study of Ezekiel would reveal. This is very amazing-- don't undertake it, unless you know what you're doing. He had visions, hallucinations, as some people call it. And he had visions. He had fits, spasms, trances. He was so gripped by the sense of relatedness to the fate of his people and to Jehovah that his body became a living instrument in the hands of the violences of the spirit of God. A man like [INAUDIBLE] refers to him as a first fanatic in the Bible. But there is always an element of fanaticism in any kind of human action, isn't there? When you decide to act in the moments when that decision grips the mind and galvanizes the total personality into action, what happens? We pull down the curtain of all for the reflection. And we say, I wait as long as I can. But now, I can wait no longer. I act. And when I act, there's always a margin in the mind and in the personality that is unstructured that floats along that carries the intent that was generated before you pull the curtain down. Now, the thing that gripped Ezekiel was an awareness of the holiness of God. He reminds you, as you read his pages, of a man who is drunk with a sense of the holy. In his vision, and his first vision and in many others are Jehovah has deserted the temple. He has deserted the city. He is in the heavens. And why is he in the heavens? Because the earth has been polluted not by ordinary men, not by the garden variety of human beings. But the earth has been polluted by those with whom Jehovah has the covenant. The people who knew better have polluted it. And because they have polluted it, Jehovah decides that he moves up, because holiness, you see, cannot be brought into intimate primary contact without holiness. And that's the first problem is that he wrestles. And if I work at it, I may not get to the other two. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu But how can you make of one piece human experience if you have in your mind a concept of the sacred and the secular? How can the holy God make any contact, discover any meeting point with the unholy? It's a central problem not only of Ezekiel. It's a central problem of human thought, isn't it, of human experience? Pitts Theology Library Emory University How can the absolute make any contact with the limited? How can the universal still remain universal and make any touch with the particular? You experience it all the time, don't you? Or do you? Have you ever tried to put into words a great feeling that you have for somebody? How do you do? You select if you have time. You select very carefully a group of words. And you make those words say what you trying to say. And even as the words come out, what are you doing? You are busily trying to conjure up another set of words, because you know that that set of words didn't quite say it. But you do all the time, isn't it? Now, so that it is essentially the same problem. If God is holy, and if He deserted the holy place, the temple, because of the way in which the temple was profaned, how can He deal with human life and human beings, then, at the same time, maintain His sense of the holy? Now, that's His problem. Now how does He wrestle with it without getting too involved? We see in Ezekiel the beginning of the first great movement within the Jewish religion towards angels-- angelogy. Now, one of the functions that angels serve in the human imagination and in human thinking, angels make the contact with matter with the stuff. And they make it on behalf of the god who is too holy-- can't get the words-- too universal, too self-contained to be broken down into a little piece like a thing, for instance. So the angels do that. The angels are the messengers. That's what the word means-- messengers of God. They are the expression of God so that-- when I was a boy in Sunday school, very often, we would have the little penny picture cards with this golden text, and then a colored drawing or painting of the main point of the Sunday school lesson. And wherever there was anything from Ezekiel to the prophets and so forth and so on-- and Jehovah all brought into the picture. There was a picture of Jehovah. He was ancient and rather mature, as He sat on a throne and a nice beard, a look of timelessness in His face but suspended in mid-air. On the right and on the left were the angels who were the messengers. They were to do. They were to make the primary intimate face-to-face contact with the stuff, the limitation. Now, there's another problem connected with the holiness. And then I will leave it, because I must do these other two thing-- one or the other two things, anyway. How much responsibility does the individual have for maintaining a sense of the holy in him? How much responsibility is mine if is it true that there is a part of me that is holy that lives in the same house, my body, the mind with the parts of me that are not holy? If so, how may I resolve 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu those? Where do I draw the line within myself between that which is really sacred and that which is really secular? Pitts Theology Library Emory University Is one of these related to the other? Or there is a desert and the gulf between? Now, Ezekiel works that out in an interesting system of morality. For you see, he cuts across the idea that we mentioned in one of the prophets some time ago that in which he says, you cannot say that the parents have eaten sour grapes. And the children's teeth are on edge. You can't say that along with it that heredity, that the environment is not the decisive factor. The only decisive factor is the individual act. For in the act, there is the effort on the part of the human spirit to be whole-- to be one-- to galvanize the two parts-- the sacred and the secular-- to be the synthesis. That's what the act is. Therefore, the moral character of the act is ultimate and absolute and final. So he says, being consistent and after a fashion that if a man is a good man, and by a good man he means doing good acts. [THUMPING] And then in the twilight, the same man does a bad act in the whole sweep of the judgment of life. The only thing that counts is the last act. You select it. He says that all these other good acts, every day can't outweigh this one. [INAUDIBLE] has an idea about that. Do you remember in [INAUDIBLE] progress, his great pearly gates? And right in the threshold of the pearly gate, there's a trapdoor that goes straight to hell. [LAUGHTER] You might have your hands on the gate. And then, now, now, do you see why he does this? In the act, there is the synthesis of the person. And whatever is the quality of the given act is the final judgement of life upon the act. Oh, I won't try to deal with what I think about that. But I'm trying to have you understand what it is. Now, it works in reverse, you see, that I may have a whole series of bad acts. And each one carrying that sort of judgment. But here, now, in the twilight I get this one act-- this good act. And that good act, says Ezekiel, quoting his interpretation of the movement of the spirit of God in his own mind that good act counts in a way that all the bad acts don't, because the bad acts were yesterday. So on the basis that in one whole tradition in our faith we get the significance of the so-called death bed conversion-- interesting. Now, the thing that is behind all of this ethical problem is the impact of his idea of the holiness of God upon his mind and spirit, and how he tries to resolve it. But now, there's a secondary. And this brings us to the second thing. The secondary aspect of the bearing of the ethical import. And that is that the individual is responsible for what he does. Responsibility for your own actions-- a whole school of modern psychology has been built around that idea if you remember. How can you teach people to be responsible for what they do, even though they were created by an environmental, had a mother and father? 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu [LAUGHTER] Pitts Theology Library Emory University And it is one of the amazing of conveniences that modern psychology has given to us. And all people who are parents recognize this that I wouldn't be as I am if my father, my mother hadn't done so on and so and so at the top. And that may be true. I'm not saying it isn't true, so don't misunderstand me. [LAUGHTER] But I'm just saying, be very careful how we take advantage of it, because the human spirit being what it is-- we can't stand the risk of having anybody around on who we can hang these things, because it tends to postpone for ourselves the reckoning about which this prophet is insisting. Now, it is interesting how, at last, every insight, every vision that he had was finally broken down in terms of the prophet himself, and where he was living, and what he was doing. So, for instance, when he in exile suddenly found that he was in a society that had become, at least, temporarily a classless society for all of the people who had been taken into captivity while all of the professions and the classes that they represented when they were living in a stabilized society, those things meant nothing in captivity. They were just captive Jews. And the fact that one was rich in Jerusalem, or one was powerful. Or one was a prestige-bearing individual with highly developed skills that gave to him a unique place in the mind and the thinking of his followers-- all of that was irrelevant. You are now in Babylon-- just a captive. That's all. And, therefore, the movement of the experience of authentic democracy becomes operable in that situation forced as it was due to the movement of history. So to dramatize that, Ezekiel refers to himself not as the prophet, not as the anointed one of God. But he refers to himself as what? As Son of Man-- just a Son of Man. We all won-- just a Son of Man. So many years after, Jesus picks up the echo. And He refers to Himself Son of Man, not but we in our thinking have made the little s a capital S. But I feel confident that in His mind, it was a little s, just Son of Man. Now, you can see the logic of that in terms of the ethical concept you see of personal responsibility. If I'm responsible for what I do, then I'm responsible. I'm not responsible as a doctor. I'm not responsible as a social worker or as a housewife or as a son or a daughter. I'm responsible as, well, just as me. That's bad English, but you understand me. Is it just as me. I'm responsible. And what I am in terms of the pretensions of my life, I have a clearly defined. And accurate those potentials may be is irrelevant. I am responsible. I am an individual. And I rate being held responsible for what I do. And I do not seek to hide behind this, this, this, this, this, this. Well, that's pretty rugged. But that's what he's insisting upon. Now-- and these are the reasons for it-- now, there's just one more thing. Well, yes, just one more. And that is a personal problem that Ezekiel had going out of all of this thinking. He was 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu gifted. Boy, you read this. Even as we read it translation of a translation of a translation of a translation, it's still sings. Pitts Theology Library Emory University So what it must have been just listening to it is overwhelming. And people just flock to hear him, even though he was a prophet of doom. And they didn't like what he said. But they ignored that, because it was so good listening to it. And he thought at first that everybody who was goggle-eyed in front of him was goggle-eyed because of the impact of the spirit of the living God that he was talking about upon their mind. And it dawned upon him that they were just delighted with the way he talked. [LAUGHTER] If you will forgive an extremely personal reference-- but the first time I gave in California, oh, I worked up and down, because this was my moment, you see. And, then, finally, I arrived in Palo Alto. And then Sunday morning came. And I preached myself. The chaplain at that time was a wonderful man, Dr. Gardner. He said, at the end of the sermon, before the young people come to take you to the place where you're having lunch, I want to take you down to my cottage for, as he called it a spot of tea. He was this very nice Englishman. And we were walking down the road in Palo Alto with he had his arm in my arm. And he was telling me about the countryside in England and various other things. And then suddenly, he stopped talking to me and stopped walking, released my arm, squared my shoulders with both hands up like that and looked me straight in the eye balls. And he said, too beautiful-- too beautiful. Truth is rugged. Deckleridge-- it comes out in the hunks dripping. Then he said, young man, God has been very good to you. He's given you gifts. Don't show your ingratitude to Him by working over your gifts till you take all of the life out of them with polish. And then he released my shoulders to claw and picked up the thread of his conversation. [LAUGHTER] And I thought of it many times since. And then I read about Ezekiel's experience. And please, do not misunderstand the reference. I do not put myself in Ezekiel's category. But I know that the temptation is to let the beautiful turning of the freeze, the happy creative rendering of the word, divorce themselves from the movement of the spirit that generates the world. And the listener becomes so involved in the histrionics that the impact of the word dies before it ignites the spirit in you. Now, that was his prayer. That was Ezekiel's principle problem. And I realize that I should stop. And I'm going to stop in a minute. But not yet, because I am not going to preach on Ezekiel next Sunday. 6 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu So if you just give me another three minutes or four, I will finish what I have to say. The final thing with a reference to Ezekiel was the way he had to deal in a secondary manner with the ethical problem-- quite know how to put it. Pitts Theology Library Emory University But you see when Jerusalem fell, and when the chances for recovery, as he saw it, damned that he began dreaming about the restoration, the new temple, and the way he works it out as an architect and a mathematician-- I won't have time to go into that, and carrying out this idea of holiness with which he opens and closes-- he had to give comfort to the people. And he had to give them comfort in the land, which they can understand. But at the same time, [INAUDIBLE]-- it will not get him into difficulties with Babylon. Jewish problem? How can I say what I need to say to the captives, and at the same time, not make that condition worse than it is. Can I veil my words? Can I make certain false references? He deals with the problem in two or three ways. He uses a cipher. He refers to [INAUDIBLE] and Egypt and using the descriptive language that applied only to Babylon. And every Judah captive, who was listening to him, knew about whom he was talking. But his words said, [INAUDIBLE], Egypt. So the Babylonian Secret Service couldn't do anything with him, because he wasn't talking about Babylon. God, Magog, cause use of those two terms belong in that same category. And it poses a very fundamental problem. And I just present and have you live with it for a little while. If I am under a great threat and on behalf of a guaranteeing of my own existence, I resort to duplicity and hypocrisy. Does that make the duplicity less duplicit? It's a crucial problem. It isn't a simple problem. It's a crucial problem. If my life is in jeopardy, and I lie my way out, is there a different quality in the morality, because of the circumstances under which it took place? What about it? It is the persistent moral problem, an ethical problem. Wherever people are trying to live, the whole morality of underground doing the dictatorship ties in right here. Many people deal with the same problem in the way in which they have handled the loyalty oath that they've had to sign to get their paychecks to bring it home. Or as one of the prophets in the Old Testament, as he walks into the temple by his religious standards, his heathen king who is his employer. And as he walks before the throne, he has to genuflect his knee as an act of sacredness and holiness before a foreign god. And the prophet cries out in his agony and says, if when I walk into the house of ribbon and bow my knee before that altar, do not hold it against me or god of my fathers. What about it? Under what circumstances do you deliberately lay aside the insistence which you feel natively for integrity and rights? Because somebody you love is being threatened, because your life is in jeopardy, because a cause to which you are committed will go down into disintegration and 7 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu disaster, you think, if you do not prove false in the pressure that is placed upon you. What about it? What about it? Pitts Theology Library Emory University Ezekiel's answer-- I'll just say what I'm going to say in language that everybody want to hear can understand it and hope it'll be so veiled and involved that people who shouldn't hear and won't hear. What do you do when you're faced with that kind circumstance? And it is no answer to say that you're never faced with that kind of circumstance. You are almost every day of your life. How do you deal with it-- I wonder? 8 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-560_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Jeremiah, part 2; The Message of Ezekiel (Fellowship Church), 1952 Jul 28, Aug 11, Side B Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-560_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Ezekiel, 1952 August 11 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-08-11 Description An account of the resource In this eighth sermon on the prophets, Thurman gives a thorough exploration of Ezekiel. First, Thurman returns to the topic of responsibility through the lens of holiness. In Ezekiel, though environment affects our choices, we each must reckon with ourselves and our own actions. The action is ultimate in determining our holiness, and our good acts might save us from the weight of our bad acts. Thurman also suggests that we might bear responsibility, not through some profession, but simply as ourselves taking ownership of our own living. This includes when our lives are under great threat and consequence, which might compromise our moral commitments. Do we commit the sin of deceit when our lives are jeopardy? Or do we maintain our integrity? Thurman does not offer any clear answers, but asserts that we must all wrestle with the question, for it is the circumstance of our everyday lives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/21d8163b31fc3a0a29a48ab04d4bcdb9.pdf 0abeb69a6e7e2fb0490586ad52b6e1e7 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-561_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University --of the series that we have been working on having to do with the message of the prophets of Israel. It has been a very significant journey that we have been taking together. And I hope that, as a result of it, many fresh insights have come to us all and that we subsequently will draw rather heavily upon the written pages of the prophets as we try to think our way through the fitful days that stretch out immediately ahead of us. I want to read a little from the prophet, Micah. In the fourth chapter of Micah-- "But in the last days, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains. And it shall be exalted above the hills. And people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, 'Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord into the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'" [INAUDIBLE] locate that in one of the other prophets. I read it to you a few weeks ago. Well, I see. I'll say who he was a little later. "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it." "Every man under his vine and under his fig tree" is a passage you may recall from your history that it was quoted by George Washington when, on the occasion of his inauguration as President of the United States, a synagogue-- a Jewish synagogue-- through its leader, addressed a letter to the President congratulating him and congratulating the country, because they had finally come through a rather difficult time and established what seemed to them at that time to be the foundation of a new and creative experiment in government. And when George Washington answered this Jewish synagogue, he expressed his deep appreciation for the fact that they had so recognized the significance of this moment in American history. And then he said, "It is my wish that the future of America will be of such that every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make him afraid." I wonder, what would he say today? Could he quote that? But that is not on the point. Now there's one other passage I'd like to read that also has been on the lips of someone very recently. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression?" That references to child sacrifice. "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed the, o, man what is good. And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Who quoted that not very long ago? You remember? Well, I heard you. [LAUGHTER] Pitts Theology Library Emory University It's very interesting. Now, I would like to read Moffatt's translation of that same passage just for your own-- "How shall I enter the Eternal's presence and bow before the God of Heaven. Shall I come to him with sacrifices, with the yearling calves to offer? Would the Eternal care for rams in thousands of for oil flowing in myriad streams? Shall I offer my first born son for my sin, fruit of my body for guilt of my soul? Oh, man, he has told you what is good. What does the Eternal ask from you but to be just and kind and live in quiet fellowship with your God." The prophet, Micah, was a younger contemporary of Isaiah. And he was a bit like Amos, because he was a country boy. And Isaiah, of course, was city bred. And, if you bear that in mind as you read the prophets, much light will be thrown on the insights which they give. Because the attitude and the point of view of a city dweller is different from the attitude and the point of view of a non-city dweller. A city dweller has to struggle very hard for his individual survival. He is not cushioned by the group awareness that surrounds a person who lives in a simpler, more pastoral environment. And therefore, the city dwellers have to be very much more self-conscious. And, if the city dweller is more self-conscious than the rural dweller-- this is generally true-then it means that the city dweller is much more conscious of any impositions upon him. If he is more conscious of himself, he is therefore more conscious of everything that happens to him. So that always it is this self-consciousness on the part of the city dweller that, again and again, is responsible for the emphasis in the prophets on social justice, social inequalities, as contrasted with the emphasis of a more rural-minded prophet at another level of concern. Now the prophet, Micah, believed that people under stress and strain, when things are not going well, they are willing to make any kind of dramatic gesture to appease the gods. So he says, "Wherewith shall I come before God?" God is disturbed about me. He is not kind of disposed, because I have not been just. I have not been-- he lists all the things. So can I placate Him with offerings? Even 10,000 rivers of oil? Or if I sacrifice my own child, would that satisfy Him? It suggests something very interesting that I just wanted to look at for a second, and that is that, for the most part, human beings, even then and now, have not grown very much in the quality of their religious experiences. It's very hard to get beyond the stage of superstition in religion-- just straight superstition. Do you believe that? When your times are out of joint, when things are not going right with you, when event after event seems to disintegrate instead of holding together where you are concerned, when 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu everything you touch withers and turns to ashes, when all the tidings that float in your direction are bad tidings, your temptation is to try to placate the forces that you think control that. Isn't that true? You find yourself sometimes even reading the Bible-- just reading the Bible and learning how to pray in your way, dropping into a church. Superstition is what he's talking about. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now that's a superficial way to look at that, of course. And I do not mean to be ungracious. It suggests, however, that there is a recognition when we turn, in times of distress, to something that is more stabilizing than anything that we know. There is a recognition that life is not completely without morality. And if we can, with the thing that we relate what has happened to us, in terms of our private character-- [INAUDIBLE]. And it has taken the human race hundreds and thousands of years to move beyond that checkand-balance attitude, beyond the attitude of reward and punishment. And even Micah isn't quite beyond that, you see, for he insists that, what does God require but to do justly. And what is justice? But see, it's still in the category, you see, in that initial statement-- of reward and punishment, a balance. One of the earliest American social philosophers, the man who first wrote in the field of sociology in America, gave a definition for justice that has remained a part of the law of sociology, if not its insight, for a long time. And that is that the justice is the artificial equalization of unequals. Now think about it. The artificial equalization of unequals-- where there is inequality, it is built up so that it balances something over here. Where there is inequality that moves up this way, it is shaved down so as to fill in the gap over here. Now the concept has had a very interesting development. For, at one time, in all human relations, as far as Jehovah was concerned, there was the insistence on the part of the prophets that God, Jehovah, permitted, [? yay, ?] blessed and endorsed an attitude which says that, if I am injured by someone, then I am at liberty to injure my injurer to the limit of my strength and ability and his endurance. [LAUGHTER] And for hundreds of years, that was it. If you injured me, then I could pay you back as long as I have the will and the strength and you survived. And then there was the shift, a growth, a whole process. And we see it emerging in some of the codes-- something that is called the lex talionis, they call it. It's the eye-for-an-eye and the toothfor-a-tooth doctrine. If I put your eye out, then you may put my eye out. You see, that is a great advance over this other one, you see, that, if you put my eye out, then I can do everything to you as long as I have the strength and ability. But the lex talionis moves up a step, you see, a great step, long stride. It represents a whole growth of maturity of the human spirit, a deepening of an awareness of the meaning of life in terms that extend beyond the event in which human beings are involved. So an eternal note 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu begins to appear in human relations under this lex talionis, this balance. I will do to you what precisely you have done to me. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now the third step is a step that appears in the second part of what Micah has to say, to love mercy. And we find this expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, because all this review of the evolution of the doctrine of justice and human relations appears in the Sermon on the Mount in the same manner that I am describing it here. And Jesus insists, you see, that mercy is more important than justice. Micah says that [? this one ?] should love mercy, and if it loves mercy, then will it do justly? Or is mercy something that is in another category completely from justice? Under what conditions do you regard yourself as acting mercifully towards someone? Let's think about it. In your own experience, when you have done a merciful deed, what kind of deed is it? Is it one in which you could have been destructive, but you weren't, and you congratulate yourself because of your self-control? Is that being merciful? When you are merciful, what happens to the person who is on the receiving end of your mercy? Maybe that's the way we should look at it. Let's think about it now. What kind of test-- as seen through the eyes of the person who experiences your mercy, does it inspire ill will and contempt in him? Does it make him feel that it would be very much better if you had been unmerciful, because then, at least, he would have had his self-respect intact. Is that it means? Is there a difference between being merciful and being kind? Or are they one and the same thing? What about it? When you are kind, what are you? Is there ever an element of obligation in kindness? Can you be kind of someone because you are under some obligation to be kind to them? Or is there, in kindness, always the element that is stripped of all obligation? What about it? So then, when I'm kind, it is as when I'm merciful. Is it? That I confer upon the other person gratuitously without obligation the gracious act? Does kindness, does mercy mean dealing with individuals as if they were yourself? Or is that too narrow an interpretation? Does kindness mean dealing with people as if they were more than yourself? Or is kindness surrounding your relationship with little or big deeds that are gratuitous and obligation free and responsibility free so that, when I do this thing, not only is it true that I do not bind the recipient, but I release the receipt? Is that what we mean by it? One very subtle thing about mercy and about kindness is that, when someone has been kind to you, one thing is always true-- you can't ever pay them back. You can't repay the kind act. Have you ever tried? Because you see you can't establish any basis for measurement. When Oscar Wilde was being brought from the Court of Bankruptcy back to prison, handcuffed to this arm of the Sheriff, as they walked down the long corridor in this great place, the crowd 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu was milling all around. And they jeered and did all sorts of things, because Oscar Wilde was a very unpopular prisoner. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And then, when they came to the center of this stirring group of people, one man stepped out from the crowd, lifted his hat, held it at attention, and bowed his head until the prisoner and the Sheriff passed. And that silent act hushed the jeering crowd into silence. And Oscar Wilde, writing about it the next day from his prison, said, this simple act of unasked-for kindness, this gratuitous expression of a kind and gracious heart has made, to quote him, "the desert of my prison blossom like the rose." When someone has been kind to you, you can't repay it. And that is why there is something that has the element of the Eternal about kindness. For invariably, at long last, the kind act of which I have been a recipient multiplies itself in my spirit and expresses itself in this way and that way and the other way in a wide variety of relations that are not tied up at all with the individual who was kind to me. Now so the prophet, Micah says, "If you want to be pleasing to God, he said to his people, don't waste time with burnt offerings. Don't waste times making sacrifices of rivers of oil. Don't bow down before Jehovah and see all these things. There's only one thing that you need to do-- deal with your fellow man justly." And to be sure that there was clear understanding as to what he meant by that kind of justice, he said, "And to do it justly as men who love mercy, as men who are kind," so that you go around releasing people from prison in the way you deal with them. And then, finally, he said, "Walk humbly with God." Humbly with God-- just one word about that. How do you walk humbly with God? How do you? How do you walk humbly with anybody? By always measuring yourself by the other person? Or by pretending that you are really worse than you are? I remember, when I was when I was a boy, a rather elderly lady, in the presence of my grandmother, said something very nice about me, about the little speech that I had made in the children's day cantata. Well, you don't make a speech in a can-- well, anyway, it was-[LAUGHTER] It was something like that. And when she said this very nice thing to me, oh, I said, "Oh, Mrs. Murray don't say anything like that." My grandmother watched this performance. And then, when Mrs. Murray went on her way, my grandmother said, "I'd like to tell you something, and that is that, before life gets through with you, there'll be so many people who will say ungracious things about you that, whenever anybody wants to say any kind word about you, be sure to let them do it." [LAUGHTER] "And stop pretending that you don't enjoy it." 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu [LAUGHTER] Is that what they mean by humility-- always selling oneself at a discount in the open market? Is that humility? Or is that arrogant, pride, conceit, gripped by the deep notion that you can outsmart life. Interesting. Pitts Theology Library Emory University But is humility understanding what my equipment is, coming to grips with who I am, what I am as accurately and as fully as possible? A clear eyed appraisal of myself. And in the light of the dignity of my own sense of being, I walk with God. Step by step, he walks with me. This is I. With my weaknesses and my strengths, with my abilities and my liabilities, this is I, a human being, myself! And it is that that God salutes so that, the more I walk with Him, and He walks with me, the more I come into the full [? orb ?] significance of who I am and what I am. That is to walk humbly with God. What does God require of thee then, oh, son of man? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And that, perhaps, is the meaning of religion. Certainly, it is the meaning of a good life. 6 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-561_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Micah; The Religion of the Prophets (Fellowship Church), 1952 Aug 17, Sep 7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-561_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Micah, 1952 August 17 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-08-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Description An account of the resource "To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with that God." In this ninth sermon on the prophets, Thurman explores the notions of justice, mercy, and humility as they are recounted in Micah. We often think of justice as a balance sheet, the "eye for an eye" logic. But Thurman invokes Jesus who teaches that mercy is more important than justice. Mercy and kindness is an act that cannot be paid back, and in fact continues to multiply itself in the recipient. This, Thurman says, is what it means to do justly, "releasing people from prison in the way you deal with them." Lastly, Thurman goes against the idea that humility is deprecation; rather, true humility is a clear-eyed assessment of oneself, both weaknesses and strengths included. Together, justice, mercy, and humility form the meaning of religion and the meaning of a good life. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/fb68c90b76de1d90761579d2890c3116.pdf 7fbaede3e7efecbaa4cff363399ebeaf PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-561_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University The concern with religion and its meaning was for them rooted in two or three simple things, to which I would call your attention, because I think they may be basic to the whole religious quest to the human spirit. Technically, the first and important statement about the religion of the prophets is this-- a conception of the sovereignty of God. For them, God was present fact. In their experience, God represented for them righteous will. God was personal. Creator of the world, He was. And as righteous will-- bear in mind, now, the basic idea is the sovereignty of God; that's the hope on which they hung all this-- that God as righteous will expressed that will in a series of mighty events. The first event was the creation of the world, so that all through the prophetic literature, there is a sense of the movement of the first chapter of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Righteous will-- self-conscious, therefore, you see-- expressing himself in a series of events, one of which was the creation of the world. And in the creating of the world, time also was created. And the stage was set then for a series of other events connected one with the other. Now, many times, when we study the book of Genesis-- and this is not a discussion of the book of Genesis, as such. But many times, when we study the book of Genesis, we are puzzled, because we try to make of the book of Genesis a treatment of geology or one of these over long "ologies" about how the world was made. A theory of creation-- to make a scientific treatise out of it. And of course, we can't do that. We get into every kind of difficulty. Men have done wonderful things. They said the six days do not refer to six 24-hour periods, but they refer to six eons of human history-- anything to try and satisfy east and west at the same time. But the insistence of the book of Genesis is merely that the creation of the world was a divine act-- a mighty act. And in the creating of the world, the whole time-space process was set in motion. And once the time-space process is set in motion, then there is a climate-- an atmosphere-- in which antecedent and consequent, reaping and sowing, the logical process of events could be fulfilled. Now, another one of these mighty acts was the calling of Abraham and harassing Abraham's mind with a dream-- with a vision-- that caused the sand to burn hot under his feet always until he could get to some resting place-- some specially prepared place-- and that all of Abraham's seed would be blessed, and would multiply, and so forth. Another one of these events was the calling of Moses. And here, the prophetic movement begins to take shape, for the calling of Moses ties up intimately with what, from the point of view of the prophets, was one of the central events in human history, and that was the redeeming of the Jewish people from their Egyptian enslavement. Moses, inspired by this god who is the righteous will, which expresses itself in a series of mighty acts in human history, causes Moses to lead this little band of people out of their enslavement 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu into a promised land. And as a result of that event, and as an expression of its meaning, there emerged a peculiar relationship between the people who themselves were pulled out of captivity and the god who is the righteous will expressing himself in these events. Pitts Theology Library Emory University So the covenant, then, between God and His people becomes the centerpiece around which all of their religious experience and the prophetic fire of this long line of distinguished human spirits got its rise. The covenant was an agreement between this self-conscious righteous will-- this god- and a group of people. If you are true to the covenant, then you do show forth the fact that you are my people. If you are not true to the covenant, then you are welching on your word and on your agreement. Now, that's the thesis. I don't care which prophet you look at. He moves back and forth in that area. The covenant, which is a formal and informal agreement between the god who expressed himself in these mighty acts and the people, carrying with it mutual responsibility-- I will be your people, and you will be my people. I will be your God. Now, in order that you might know the meaning of the covenant, I will move in your minds and in your spirit, so that there will emerge in you a guide that will protect you-- pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day-- the external expression of that. There will turn up in your midst people who will guide you, lead you, a whole succession of people. But now sin, then, for the prophets became any deviation from the private, primary agreement between Israel and Jehovah. But now, if God is righteous will expressing Himself in human history in this way, then it suggests-- and this is the second thing in the religious insight of the prophet-- it suggests that there is no event that is outside of the scope and the inclusive concern of this god who expresses himself in a series of mighty acts. One of those acts is the covenant and the covenant people. Now, see what that does. It's a highly-- the prophets could not arrive at that position immediately, for, at first, you see, the covenant is something that belongs to me and to my people. And it belongs to us, because of a peculiar relationship between us and between God. Standing within that context, we can look over there at all the other people and say, well, I don't know how it happens that we're over here, but we are. And you over there, I'm sorry for you. I would like to-- I wish somehow you could be included with us, but you can't be. And we all like that, don't we? We like to feel that, in some way, we are peculiar. The thing that we enjoy because of this advantage, or that advantage, or this gift, or this-whatever it may be-- is ours in some exclusive sense. And the human spirit has never been able to settle that conflict, the conflict that arises between this deep conviction that the few there be in all the world who rate being saved, for instance, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the deeply lying conviction that is just as insistent that if, behind this fence, there is any meaning, it must be a meaning that also includes the other side of the fence. So between those two points, we are squeezed back and forth. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And Ishmael was no exception. Now, if we are God's people, you see, and the covenant is, in some peculiar sense, our covenant-- our relationship with God-- then our responsibility only is within this compound-- within this context. And we can't possibly have any responsibility for people outside. Pitts Theology Library Emory University So all the Deuteronomic codes, the laws-- for instance, loving your neighbor as you love yourself-- loving your neighbor meant your neighbor over on this side. Not over here, but over on this side. Let your land lie fallow for seven years, and then you free all the slaves. And if anybody comes during that period-- if anybody comes who's hungry, you feed him. If he needs, you give it to him-- all on this side. And be true to the covenant. And we've never been able to get rid of that in human history, have we? I don't know. But we can't get rid of the feeling that what is binding for my "we" group is binding in a way that does not reach over. Now, there were prophets then-- and this is the important thing-- there were prophets then who couldn't ever get outside this fence. And they felt-- if you read certain words of Amos, for instance, even though he was very revolutionary in some other ways-- read certain words of Jeremiah, certain words of Hosea-- even though Hosea pushes the boundary out in another direction-- any of the prophets, practically, you see that there is a big movement in their minds and spirits that resisted any insistence that what is discovered over on this side in the covenant relationship with history-- with God-- is ultimately significant for Israel only if it be significant for the rest of the world. So the movement catches up with us in the development of the Christian church. So the Christian church becomes what? In the New Testament, the Christian church becomes the group of people with whom this god-- who expresses himself in self-conscious acts of will, in mighty events in human history-- with whom this god has a peculiar relationship, so that, in the New Testament development, the church takes the place of Israel. In the Old Testament and with the prophets, Israel has this covenant with God. So the apostle Paul talks of what? A new covenant. What's he talking about? What's he mean? That God now has a relationship with a new group of people, namely the church, which relationship transcends His old relationship which He had with these old people. So the church then becomes the battleground for the same kind of struggle between exclusiveness and inclusiveness that we experience in the Old Testament and the prophets in Israel. So how does it express itself then? I remember when I was a boy-- maybe you will remember too when you were something else-- how, in my community, a man died, and he was not a member of the Church. And the minister of the church said, well, we can't bury you from the church. We can't bury you from the church, because you died out of Christ. Now, you should be buried, but not from the church. And then-- so he refused to do it. But there was an evangelist in the community who recognized that this was a golden opportunity. So he volunteered to take the sermon for this man. And when all the people gathered together at the church, and he preached his funeral, he preached the man in the hill. And he called attention to the fact that this is an object lesson. If you live out of the church, you die in your sins, and you go to hell. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Now, that is just the logic of the various levels of exclusiveness that we practice. It doesn't have to be in religion. But that's [INAUDIBLE]. The exclusiveness which the prophets felt as true Judites and the exclusiveness-- the inclusiveness, rather-- which they felt at moments when the movement of the spirit of God was triumphantly radical in them precipitated a conflict that moved straight down the center of Israel. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And the same now. Dear old Augustine, with that mighty mind of his, holding in its palm the mental stability of an empire, while the political expressions of that empire disintegrated. And how did he do it? He did it by insisting that the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God- the kingdom of God transcended the kingdoms of this world. And therefore, the kingdoms of this world may disintegrate, and collapse, and so forth, and so on. But if you are in this other kingdom, you will be salvaged. And out of that came-- quite logically and consistently-- a doctrine which is fundamental in Catholicism, even to this day, that the church-- which now is just equivalent to the community of Israel, you see-- the church-outside of it, there can be no salvation outside of it. So if you accept the church, then it means you accept the medicine of salvation. And the medicine of salvation is what? The sacraments-- baptism, this, this, this, this. And if you accept that medicine, then you are on this side. And what happens to people on the other side, who are outside of that? Go back and read the prophets. And at once you will see the struggle that the prophets had with reference to the ethical meaning of all kinds of human relationships in the context of this covenant. And transfer the same thing into the New Testament or into our own period in human history, and you will see the problem has remained essentially the same. Now, finally, even though the prophets did not consistently solve the problem, they recognized it. And you see what the problem is now. But one or two of the prophets spilled over and felt that the only meaning that the covenant had was at last expressed in spreading the boundaries of the covenant until it included the whole human race. And God, then, becomes not merely Jehovah, becomes not merely the god of the covenant with Israel, but the god of the whole universe who has a covenant with all of humankind and all of human history. And therefore, the logic of that is that since the creation of the world-- and I'm almost through now-- since the creation of the world was one of the mighty acts of God that precipitated this whole process, and since He is involved, then, in the world and all of the events of human history, which gives to human history a great meaning and a great dignity-- for how desolate is the human spirit if it feels that, in all of the ebb and flow of events, the individual or groups of individuals are stranded, isolated, and alone in the vastness. That's the desolation where men do not have this other position. Now, the prophets said, since God did this, this, this, this, then the redemption of the world is the concern of God. The redemption of the world is the concern of God. And how did the prophets deal with that? They dealt with it in terms of their interpretation of the meaning of the future. 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And what is the meaning of the future? The meaning of the future expresses itself in terms of the remnant. Pitts Theology Library Emory University So all the people may be apostate, but not quite all. There's always a remnant left, on the basis of which the one who precipitated these mighty events in human history can fasten his dream upon their minds. And they'll build again. And then, even though that civilization disappears, out of it will be another remnant. A remnant-- a growing edge, if you please. So the prophets felt that, even though they had a conscience about human history and about human sin, the redemption of the world was also to be one of the mighty acts of God, which is a very interesting thing. So all the pictures that you get-- even in the New Testament with the church, because the church picked up the same idea. The redemption of the world finally will be one of the mighty acts. And for Christian theology, again and again, it is regarded as the final act. And in the thinking of Jesus, you remember, the same sort of picture emerges. At the end of human history, the great judgment scene. All the people are there-- sheep on the right, goats on the left. The ultimate meaning of human history is never in the events of human history. But the ultimate meaning of human history is in the mind and the spirit of Him out of whose stirring movement the whole creative process emerged. Now, that means what? It means, you see, that you can decide that, since the remnant is in God's hands, God's going to do this anyway, guess there isn't any point in your doing anything. You can just sit it out. If you can just sit it out, then He'll do it. Now there's an abundance of material on that side, because when you examine your own life, you see many times that, after you've worked hard, exhausted everything you know to exhaust, the thing happens without your effort. And then sometimes, when you put forth every effort that you can to hold it back, it moves on. When you put forth every effort you know how to make it come to pass, it doesn't come to pass. The same movement expressed itself in our religious development. For any person who's acquainted with prayer, the meaning of prayer recognized at once that sometimes you fulfill all of the requirements of spiritual exercises. You get your spirit quiet, your mind in focus. Everything in you is in one moment of suspended waiting for the invasion of the spirit of God, and nothing happens. And then, at some other times, when your mind is full of all sorts of things, and you're just in one ball of chaos and confusion. And right in the midst of all of that churning disorder, a strange, new sense of meaning begins to gather together inside of you. And you feel warm, and whole, and clean, even though you know you're dirty. The movement of God-- so that, even in the dimension of the spiritual life, there is this x process. So the prophet insisted that everybody-- this is the cleverest insight of them all, I think-- clever in the true sense of the word-- everybody in any civilization, any community of Israel-- everybody stood in candidacy to be the remnant. So I'd better be careful, because I might be the remnant. Because who knows? I might be the one, the fruit of whose womb will be the creative remnant, the Messiah. 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And with that notion, you see-- with that notion-- the prophets placed a social responsibility upon the individual, even though the ultimate responsibility for the redemption of the world rested in the mind and on the heart of Him who, by a series of mighty events, created the world. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And so, whether we be Jew or Gentile, agnostic, atheist, freewheeler-- whatever we may be-every single fundamental moral and ethical concept that influences the thinking and the overtones of Western culture and civilization find somewhere within the restless minds of the prophets the stream that feeds them and sustains them. And I'm happy to be a part of a tradition so rewarding and so disturbing. 6 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-561_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Micah; The Religion of the Prophets (Fellowship Church), 1952 Aug 17, Sep 7, Side B Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-561_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Title A name given to the resource The Religion of the Prophets: Conclusion, 1952 September 7 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-09-07 Description An account of the resource In this concluding sermon on the Religion of the Prophets, Thurman highlights some key themes in the prophets. For Thurman, the genius of the prophets were founded upon the idea of the sovereignty of God. God is both fact and act, working in the unfolding of history. God has been expressed through creation, through Abraham's faith, through Moses' exodus, and ultimately through the redemption of the universe. The prophets called their people again and again to be in covenantal relationship with this God, and some spoke to make this relationship open to all of humanity. In the prophets, we hear the promise that God is our salvation, and that God might be working salvation out through us in our little senses of responsibility. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/ab51b30d3f5ef47f40ace5b96ea14681.pdf 99f8360252dac125ee9462cddfbf4a6f PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-545_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University Last Sunday, whether you did read Amos during the week, but in order that you may have a chance to redeem yourself, we will be discussing Hosea next Sunday. So you have another chance. Now I'd like to read just a little of Amos for atmosphere. "So now I will deal with you, O Israel, since thus I deal with you, prepare to meet your God. For what it is he who forms the mountains and creates the wind and reveals his inner mind to no man, he who makes the dawn and darkness, who marches over the heights of Earth. His name is the eternal god of hosts. He it is who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns black darkness into dawn and darkens day again into night, who summons floods and pours them on the Earth. His name, the eternal-- he flashes ruin on the mighty till their forts fall to the ground. Yours sacred festivals, I hate them. Your sacrifices, I will not smell their smoke. You offer me your gifts. I will not take them. You offer fatted cattle. I will not look at them. No more of your hymns for me-- I will not listen to your lutes. No, let justice well up like fresh water. Let honesty roll in full tide." Then another little place-- "Then the Lord eternal showed me this, a basket of ripe fruit. Then said he, Amos, what do you see? A basket of ripe fruits, said I. And the eternal said to me, so is the doom ripe for my people, Israel. Listen to this, you man who crushed the humble and oppress the poor, muttering, when will the new moon be over that we may sell our grain? When will the Sabbath be over that our corn may go on sale? Small you make your measures, large your weights. You cheat by tampering with the scales, and all to buy up innocent folk, to buy the needy for a pair of shoes, to sell the very refuse of your grain. The eternal has sworn by the pride of Jacob, never will I forget what you have done." Amos is the first of the writing prophets. And his period is a little beyond the middle of the eighth century. He was a shepherd and a cultivator of rather specialized mulberry fruit trees. And as a shepherd, he was psychologically much more independent of the group folk mind than was characteristic of those persons who were farmers and who were bound or tied to the soil. It would be a very interesting thing if we had time to trace it this morning, the influence on the history, on the fate of civilizations growing out of the particular kind of social background and orientation to which pivotal personalities in human history have been exposed. For instance, it is a very extraordinary thing that one of the centrally decisive factors separating Jesus of Nazareth from Paul of Tarsus was the fact that Paul was a city man and Jesus was a rural man. This is very interesting. We can work that to death. But by just working it a little bit, you can get some very interesting insight from it, so that a man who lives on a farm, whose fathers before him were there. And for generations, this plot has been the place where the family has lived and where the children were born and where they were buried and where there were marriages and all the other things, the whole life tied there. It is very difficult for such persons to think of themselves as being individuals. They define the significance of their lives in terms of the group, the rather narrow limitations of the family group 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu and its rootage. And of course, it is not an accident that no great sense of burning justice has arisen from the prophets, whose backgrounds were defined primarily in terms of their being wedded to the soil. Pitts Theology Library Emory University For you see, you have to become self-conscious. You have to be conscious of yourself before you become aware of injustice to yourself-- or you didn't see that-- [LAUGHTER] that if I have no sense of self-consciousness, if I have no self-awareness, if to me, I am not an individual, then I cannot be aware of what is happening to me as an individual. But the degree to which I become self-conscious in that sense, to that degree, are there exposures in my mind and personality to the things that happened to me? Before that, they happened to the clan. It is with reference to the clan that this or that takes place. We see. And I feel I'm spending too much time on this. But we see it in the development of Israel. Here is a man who goes out to battle. And he is ordered not to put-- to steal any of the things that he finds on the people who have been killed. And he comes across something like, say, a pretty pair of earrings or something. He says, well, that won't make any difference. So he hides that in his saddle bag and goes on about it amidst that. But because he does it, the whole clan suffers. He doesn't suffer as such except as he's a part of the clan. And we will watch as we study these prophets. We will watch the emergence of a sense of personal responsibility that cannot be present where there is no sense of persona, no personhood. Paul has much more to say about that, but let's go on with Amos. Amos has as some visions. He's taking care of his sheep, long watches in the night, thinking about a lot of things. And one of the things he begins thinking about is how God, how Jehovah, seems to be involved in the life of everybody, all the nations. It's not unreasonable that a shepherd who has a primary and sustained exposure to the stars would begin to feel that he is directly related, that all of life, all living things, all the vastness of the universe is under one comprehensive judgment of a universal God. It isn't so difficult for him to arrive at that judgment in the solitariness of his long watches. At any rate, Amos thinks about Tyre and all of the other countries around. And they are there under the judgment of Jehovah. And if they are under the judgment of Jehovah because Jehovah is the eternal and is the ground of all life and activity and is the creator of all of life, Israel is, in some unique way, under the judgment of Jehovah because Israel knows that it is under the judgment of Jehovah. The others are under the judgment but don't know it. And that knowledge gives to Israel a sense of responsibility. It should give to Israel a sense of responsibility that may not be present in the other nations so that we see emerging in Amos the thing that will follow us down to latest times, that the measure of a man's moral responsibility is somehow connected, we do not know in detail how, but is somehow connected with the knowledge, with the opportunity, with the exposure that he has to the truth. Now he comes into town to sell his goods, maybe some wool or something. And he is from Judah, you see? But he comes up to Israel, because Israel is very flourishing. And that's where the money is. I mean, that's where they've been doing all these things to get the money, robbing 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu people and squeezing the life out of the poor, shortchanging people, and putting extra weights, and cutting down on their mouths. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And where the women, he calls-- it's is very interesting. He calls these rich, leisurely ladies, he calls them cows of Bashan. You know, they are high-bred cows, [LAUGHTER] you know, wellbred and bloody cows. And they express the intensity of their position by keeping fires built under their husbands so that their husbands will be driven more and more, to squeeze more and more, to satisfy more and more. [LAUGHTER] And he watches this. And he is disturbed. Then he goes back, doesn't prophesy this first time. He just goes back with all these things burning in his mind. I wonder if they don't understand what they are doing. Perhaps they don't understand. I don't know I know. And then his visions come. He doesn't prophesy until he gets his visions. And we may speak of the visions in any way we wish. But I'd like to point out one or two of them and then go on to the basic idea and tie up. And I'll be through. He has a vision of a basket of summer fruit. Isn't that-- summer fruit, a basket of summer fruit, when it's the last go-around of the fruit. Israel is a basket of summer fruit that rather dead now. This is the last chance. Then he has another vision, a vision of Israel, of god standing at the altar, carrying out judgment against the nations of the Earth. And his judgment against Israel is far more devastating than his judgment against the others, because Israel has had a larger opportunity. He comes back to that again and again. And because Israel has had a large opportunity, judgment is more severe. Israel cannot say, but we didn't know. Israel cannot plead ignorance. It cannot plead limited opportunity. It can only say, we said no to life. So God in this vision hounds Israel. And of course, Israel tries to hide. And Israel can't hide. They run up on the mountain. He pulls them down there. And they go down a hill. And he picks them up. There's an echo of the 139th Psalm there. And then they get down in the sea. And there, he lets the serpent chew them. And then he defines it more in detail a little later on. Israel is like a man who flees from a lion and runs into a bear. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Now Amos takes that figure, that thing that belongs to the very heartbeat of the people. And this is the genius of the prophet, you see? He didn't bring something the way out from them. But he takes this thing that is a part of the indigenous ground of the life of the people, the very warp and woof of their thinking and feeling, thing they've worked over and worried over and believed in. He takes that and throws the shaft of the divine light upon it. And it becomes something transcendent that they've never seen before. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu So he takes this day of Yahweh and said, yes, there is a day of Yahweh. It is coming. Of course it's coming. But when the day of Yahweh comes, You will discover that Yahweh has kept books, not only on the people who've been doing things to you, but he always kept books on you. And what you thought would be a day of light will be a day of darkness, for there is no escape. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now what does all this mean? It means simply this, that it is so easy for people who are religious or for people who are secure in the pattern of their culture or their nation or their society to feel, that because of the favorable position in which they are located at a particular time interval in history, that the things, the judgments that apply to people who are not as favorably located do not apply to them, that I am favorably located because the universe is biased in my favor. That's what they felt then. That's what we feel this morning as we think about the hungry people in India, as we think about the Navajos in Arizona, as we think about South Africa, as we think about Indo-China, as we think about Russia. If we have all that we have, clean beds, all the food we can eat and more, power, money. If we have all those things, it must be because we have been favored. That's the most gracious thing we can think, that we have been favored. And then of course, that raises the immediate question. Why have we been favored and other people haven't been favored? And then we arrive at an inevitable conclusion perhaps that we have been favored and we are better. And the universe has discrimination and it knows what it's doing. And who am I to say that I am not worthy of this if the universe says I am? I mean, I just have one little opinion. Gee, I can't do anything about that. So I'll enjoy it. And what the prophet Amos says, that God hold you responsible, and you can't escape that responsibility, either in fear or in nationalism or any kind of arrogance or pride or might. Majesty, strength, or wisdom, you can't escape that responsibility. So if you try to get away from the lion, you meet the bear, and when you are sure you have escaped the bear and you are hiding in your little house, protected by your little acre, under the warmth and [INAUDIBLE] and security of your little flag, the snake bites. And you have to do finally, with ebbing strength and disintegrating powers, what God required you to do initially while your strength was fresh and your vitality was pulsing. Thus says the prophet. And I don't think either God nor human life has changed much since that time. [MUSIC PLAYING] 4 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-545_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Amos; The Message of Moses (Fellowship Church), 1952 May 25, Jun 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-545_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Amos, 1952 May 25 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-05-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Description An account of the resource Thurman begins with Amos in this sermon series on the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. The theme of responsibility rings throughout this sermon. Through Amos, Thurman suggests that if all nations are under the judgment of God, then Israel is uniquely under the judgment of God, simply because they have been made aware of God. Knowledge and opportunity is equated to responsibility. In the light of such knowledge, we should not think of ourselves as favored and thus better, but rather we should take up our responsibility before God. Thurman says that heavier judgment will come to those who seem to be favored because they cannot claim ignorance or lack of opportunity. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/82cce43ff41bb75ae2fe893eff4ab86a.pdf a06e02a29ca40736833c04370b1b06ee PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-546_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University --be working on the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah. And on the last, we will deal with the prophetic insight of Duetero Isaiah, which is second Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40. So if you are interested, will you read between our next Sunday then the first 39 chapters of Isaiah. And after next Sunday, read the rest of the book. I want to read just a few passages. Here, oh-- --a little while on two aspects of this. I suppose that that, in all fairness to the background material, I should say that the book of Isaiah is written by several authors, but you need not bother your minds with all of this. It is divided into two major sections. The first 39 verses having to do with the man who lived in one part of the eighth century. And the last chapters from 40 on have to do the man who lived in another period and another age, dealing with another problem. And within the first 39 chapters, there are several little poetic gems, prophecies, that obviously could not have been written by Isaiah, but are introduced into the composite from a point of view and from an historical moment that came long after Isaiah had lived and died. But we need not be bothered about that. The important thing is that the book has been preserved for us, and it is one of the great tidal waves in the religious history of the human race. Isaiah was an aristocrat. City-bred. Sensitive. Poetic. In the year that King [? Isaiah ?] died, one day when he was seated, he, referring to Isaiah, was seated in the temple, lost in meditation and in prayer. He does not tell us what was on his mind. The only thing that he records is that he was in the temple when something very tremendous happened. He had a vision. He had a moment. A moment when, like a flash of blinding light, the total meaning of human existence flashed upon his mind. It's a very interesting thing, these moments. And there is nothing more tragic I think in human life than to be visited by a moment without realizing it. The little poem-- well, it isn't really great poetry, but it's all right-- by Sarah Teasdale about the lady who's climbing the mountain. Oh, yes. The baby who's climbing the mountain. And she says, when I get up to the top, it will be very wonderful because I'll get a view as far as my eyes can reach. I will get pure mountain top air, and I'll have a sense of tremendous relief that I'm not valley-bound any longer. But the briars were always pulling on my gown. I must've crossed the crest some time ago, but the briars were pulling on my gown. And now, all of the rest of the way will be only going down. Cross the threshold, the crest. The moment. But I was so involved in details and tiddlywinks, that I didn't know it. It's interesting. Isaiah's moment came, and he was ready. And what happened in that moment? I wish I could tell you. It seemed as if, as he looked up towards the alter, that all of the temple-- the walls, the boundaries 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu pushed out and out and out and out, until at last they enveloped the entire ebb and flow of the life of man and existence. And there was God, seated at the central place. And His glory the wonder, the awe, the magic, the mystery, the [? shekyla, ?] the un-created light, filled everything. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And there were angels in this vision. Angels in the presence of this movement of pure holiness. Covered their face with their wings in his mind as the symbol of their humility. They covered their feet with their wings. And then, they flew away, filling all the space. And while all that was going on, Isaiah suddenly realized that he was a man who was dirty. Unclean. No one said anything to him about it. But the relentless enveloping of this holy light defined for him the limitations of his own life. I'm an unclean man. How do I know that I'm unclean? When I look at this. And then look at this. I don't need anybody to tell me. And not only am I unclean, and I am on the hunt, says Isaiah. I'm on the hunt for holiness, for the mind and the spirit of Jehovah. I want, I want God. I am a seeker. I'm searching. The sand is hot under my feet. And if it be true that I am unclean despite the way my soul is exercised for wholeness, that must be true of Israel that isn't even interested in the search. I am unclean. I dwell among people who are unclean. And then instead of running away, instead of hiding from the ravages of absolute purity and holiness, as Newman. You may recall, Newman makes the soul in The Dream of Gerontius. You remember how he flees from the presence of God when he realizes how whole God is, and how un-whole he is? And he says take me away, take me away. Let me go to some dark corner of the universe that I may be hidden. That my soul might gather itself together in recovery from the ravages of absolute purity. No, not Isaiah. Isaiah kept looking transfixed. And then something else happened. It seemed as if an angel took a live call from the altar, and put the live call on his lips. And purified. He didn't rate it. It happened. And then while he was still there, while he was still there, he heard a voice. And the voice said, who will go for us? Somebody must go to the people. Who will go? And then Isaiah said, here am I. Send me. How wonderful, to have a tremendous religious experience. A tremendous experience of illumination. And then while you are under the massive pressure of this fresh orientation, to get a job analysis. Wonderful. So that you can be the for instance. You can implement at once in detail against the background of your own equipment before the vision. You can implement the vision now in times that will be increasingly significant and relevant to your own living. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu He was a prophet already. And the voice said, his voice said to God, I'll go. I'll take the message. And then watch what happens. He said, tell the people to listen. But they aren't going to listen. Pitts Theology Library Emory University You will break your heart! You will turn your mind inside out! You will pour upon their indifference the priceless ingredients of your spirit! The only thing that I can offer you, says Yahweh, is a deep, profound, ever-cycling frustration. Tell them that they're going to be destroyed. Every town burned up. All the people taken into captivity. And on and on and on, he spelled out this doom. What would you have done? Here's your inspiration. Here's your great moment. And at last, you see clearly the vocational significance of your life. And then as you begin to define that vocational significance, it suddenly dawns upon you that you have been sent down a blind alley. Would you go anyway? Or would you say to yourself, I got my signals mixed? What would you do? All right. We will leave that section of Isaiah for the moment. And let's look at one other part of it, and that'll be all for this morning. He has a vision of a time when the world will be whole. And it is that vision that keeps him working, even as a political advisor to Hezekiah. All about political alliances in there, and we won't have time to deal with them this morning. But we hope to say something about them next Sunday. But his vision is a kind of utopian thing. But the interesting thing about his vision is this, part of which I read to you. Most utopias have to do with how wonderful it would be for human beings. That everybody will have a nice house, or the utopia during the one period our history, everybody will have a car in his garage. And everybody will have a store. And on that stove will be a pot, and in every pot there'll be a chicken. You remember that part of the political campaign? [LAUGHTER] That was the utopia. Utopias tend to deal always, you see, with what's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to you, or happen to you if you like me, and so forth? But now so together Isaiah's utopia. Listen! He says that there shall come a time when Yahweh will be in His holy mountain! And where is this holy mountain? Everywhere! And when he is there, what will happen? To the whole created world, what will happen to nature, for instance? Not to man. What will happen to nature? The lion and the lamb will lie down together. A little child will put his hand on the whole of an ass, and the ass will relax his self regarding impulse and not sting the child. What's he talking about? What are you talking about? When that time comes, something else will have already happened among mankind! And what is that? Mankind too, will lose its self regarding impose! It will reorientate all of its egocentric compulsion. It will lose, he will lose, his fear! And when he loses his fear, he will beat his swords into plowshares, and his spears into pruning hooks! And 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu It will no longer be necessary for man to study war! Not fight, but this ended these all struggle. They will study war no more. They will no longer take the creative resources of their minds and spirits, all of the things with which their lives have been blessed growing out of the way in which they have reduced all of the impersonal aspects of nature to manageable units of control and utility-- all of that becomes the instrument of their fears! Pitts Theology Library Emory University [? We have ?] [? for ?] [? this ?] [? studied ?] war. What have we done? What have we done with Adam? And now the top news is that there has emanated from a semi-garrulous congressman that we have the H bomb, and we are moving into the H era. Going beyond the atomic era to the H era. And what does that mean? Very interesting. Very simple, very terrifying. It means this. That the fruits of our minds, the fruits of our creative endeavors, are the vehicles of our fears! That's what it means. Therefore, we turn our back upon the right to the fruits of our minds. So the prophet Isaiah in his utopia, and then stopping. The prophet Isaiah, in his utopia, included all created thing. And they will not find peace among themselves until mankind finds peace. And he says that the symbol of it will be this. That the knowledge of God, the knowledge of God, will cover the Earth as the waters cover the sea. And I won't be afraid anymore. Even the snakes won't be afraid of me, and I won't be afraid of them. Little children can grow up with normal childhood experiences when that time comes. Even those whose minds are sick will be floated by the creative health of us all. And will not be a menace to themselves or to others. Do you believe a time like that will ever come? Do you really? If you do, then suppose you try to anticipate it right where you are today. 4 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-546_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Internal Notes Notes for project team Edited - GL 6/30 Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Isaiah, parts 1 and 2 (Fellowship Church), 1952 Jun 15, 22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-546_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Isaiah, Part 1, 1952 June 15 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-06-15 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Description An account of the resource In the third sermon on the prophets, Thurman explores the visions of Isaiah. Thurman describes Isaiah's first vision as encompassing "the total meaning of human existence." It is an experience of both illumination and vocation. The vision says something about the world and what he must do in it. The second vision is a utopian vision, seeing into a time when the world will be whole. Thurman describes this as a time without fear. In our current world, human creativity is the source of our fear. But in Isaiah's vision, humans no longer study war and instead use their creativity for nourishing life. Do we believe that a time like this will come? And if so, how do we live into it today? Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/8c15e45c541fdd2864148dfbe67831c4.pdf 323a2e9dbfc0d9d41948d21d7662b5c7 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-546_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University And immediately, or immediately and ultimately, are the only ground upon which the human enterprise can be validated and sustained. Simple. That's the first message, first part of it. And there follows from that, that religion is, in the mind of Isaiah, is identified with an attitude of the mind. Not the ceremonial. Not the ritual. It's curious, too, not the act. But it is that which structures the act, says Isaiah. And the third aspect of his message is the pride and arrogance, dependent upon human strength and human ability, is sin against God. Now, that's what he's insisting upon. I'd like to spell it out and break it down a little. But if the time runs out, you-- I have said it. The prophets of Israel were intimately tied up with the movements of the periods in which they lived. They were involved in the social process, which is very, very important to remember. They interpreted Israel and its relationship to God-- as to Jehovah-- as a primary and personal covenantal relationship. And it's very important to hold that in mind, that for reasons that we cannot quite understand even to this day, in some strange and fascinating and yet miraculous manner, this group of people regarded themselves as being in some initially unique relationship with the creator of their own lives and their little world and their little state. And we see the roots of it in the twilight of their history, in the covenant with Abraham. And that sense of covenant moves down across the pages of human history as a kind of Gulf Stream, giving a moderate temperature to all the surrounding landscape and countryside and continents. And we shall see when we deal with-- due to Isaiah-- how this idea of covenant with Israel, this peculiar personal relationship that Israel had with Hova finally becomes a relationship that all the world has with Jehovah. Now fundamental to this concept, you see, of the relationship of a group of people to God is an interesting and significant philosophy of history. It is a philosophy of history which says that God is inside the historic process. That he is not outside of it, manipulating it, or unmindful of it. It isn't like the 18th and 19th century British philosophers, who felt that God had wound the world up and set it on its way and he couldn't do anything until it ran down, so he could wait. The classic illustration-- example of it is in one of the novels, you remember? That-- Oh, the Forsyte Saga man. What's his name? Galsworthy, thank you. One of the novels published after the death of Galsworthy, this lady is complaining to her mother because her husband is-- everything that she wanted has disappeared from her. And now it seems that all is lost because her husband is losing his mind and life has become a barren waste for her. And she says to her mother, I wonder where God is in all this business. And then she says, oh, I forgot. He's-- he can't be bothered with me and my little troubles. Mother, can you imagine hearing God say to Gabriel, Gabriel, do you remember once upon a time, there was a little speck of stardust that went off around a certain section of the universe? 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And it was such a pretty speck of stardust that we thought we would put something on it. I wonder how is that fungus getting along? That fungus that we called man, you know? [LAUGHTER] Pitts Theology Library Emory University That idea. And the amazing thing is that when human events are regarded merely in terms of events, when there is no end served by the relentless logic of human history except the logic of the event, it is saying, you see, that all of the possible interpretation, that any aspect of human history can reveal is an interpretation that is locked in the agonizing grapple of the narrow bounds of antecedent and consequence. And that, in our time, is a rather dominating philosophy. It's a interesting kind of materialism. And it is also-- and I hope you will not misunderstand me-- but it is also the very important aspect of the philosophy of economic determinisms. Which is one of the basic insistences of Karl Marx logic. But we don't have to put up straw horses. Where do you stand on it? How do you interpret the events of your life? How do you measure? Do you live your life on the basis that all that there is to you and what you do is wrapped up in the movement, the isolated, circumscribed movement-pulse beat-- of your life? Now, if you do, then you know, you see, that the very nature of life is of such that it is-- that it is fixed. It is fixed. I started to say rationed. But it is fixed. It is finished. It is complete. And you know you can't do anything about anything anyway, so you don't try. What's coming to you, you're going to get. My name is there. I can't run anyway, it's there. That all the meaning of your life is wrapped up in the narrow time band of your antecedents and consequences. Now, there's another point of view. And this is the point of view of the prophet. And that is that human life, as well as the lives of nations, take place within a context that is dynamic. Dynamic. That always, when I am in the presence of any event, I am caught in an encounter with a series of potentials that spread out in the widest possible directions. And with the most amazing variety of variations. So that if I am alight in the presence of the events, I seek to deal with the event in terms not merely of what it says, what it looks like, but in terms of what seems to me to be the dynamics of the event, the potentials of the event. Do you deal with the events of your life in that way? Do you believe? Do you believe that life is really dynamic? Dynamic? That it is-- that it isn't quite finished yet? That not only are you involved always in a circling series of potentials, but that you are potential? You! Potential! And no time band, no time interval is able quite to contain you and the dynamics of your life and your situation. You believe that? I wonder. It seems, doesn't it-- think a little longer about it. It seems, doesn't it, that that's the way you deal with-- on one level of your experiencing, that's the way you deal with 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu events. Isn't it? Haven't you realized that with a reference to the simplest experiences of your life, that no single event is quite able to deal with all of you. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, let's think, now. Let's just think about it. We need not hurry. That no event is quite able to deal with all of you. Can you think of a single thing you have ever done in all of your life that was a complete and satisfactory representation of you? Can you think of anything? Is there anything that you have done, that the rest of us, you can say, well, this is it! I did it! And I am all present and accounted for in it! No. There's always some part of you that's spilled over, that can't quite get down in there, you know? Which means-- and that part that spills over, you see, becomes the next basis around which more potential of you begins to be generated. And then that spills over. And then-- is that true? I don't think a person who's sick can ever die until, somewhere in his organism, a decision is made, a conclusion is arrived at which says that all of me, the totality of my organism, is at last contained in the event. In the event. In the [INAUDIBLE] or whatever it is. Now, that's what the prophet Isaiah was telling his people. That you're running. You're running down to Egypt, trying to get them to sign a treaty with you. You're just running everywhere, getting all of these little states to organize themselves along with you in a revolt against Assyria. And you're so sure, so confident that all of the meaning of the events with which you are involved is wrapped up in the mere logic of the events themselves that you say to yourself-- and I didn't know until I studied this last time that the quotation is there-- you say to yourself, let us eat, drink, rejoice! Tomorrow, we die! Let us eat, drink, be merry. For tomorrow we die. It is all wrapped up in now. So what matters? We have repaired every one of the fences. We have done all that we can do, because there is no meaning in human history that cannot be included in the form of discursive logic of my mind and the event. That's what America thinks today, too. We can just get enough support in the world. We can go to line up enough people. We do not have to put our minds on the dynamics of this century, and the great, upward surging pulse of the stirrings, of the human spirit on this planet. We need not deal with the potentials. We need not concern ourselves with those dimensions of the contemporary scene, which point inevitably to the unfolding of the spirit of man as it reaches out for clean air to breathe, for room to move. There was a time when that's what we wanted, what we had to have, 150 years ago. But if we can do that in terms of the superficial events of the historic moment, we do not have to deal with the dynamics of the historic moment. Now, Isaiah didn't get very far with this. He tried to dramatize it. Three whole years and five months, he just walked around [INAUDIBLE] without any clothes on, just up and down so everybody could see him. And then they would say, well, why is that 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu strange man dressed that way? Then that would be a chance for the explanation to be given. An explanation would give him a chance to say his say. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now he said, the penalty for all of this, the penalty for depending upon man's strength merely is you depend upon man's strength. That's the penalty. Very interesting. What is the penalty? The penalty is that that's all you have. That's the penalty. Nothing tremendous about it. Just that's all you have. It's just as if in your own private life, you say, I don't need-- I don't need God. I don't need any-- I don't need any other dimension. All of my life is just right here. I see. Your tragedy is that that's all there is to you. It's just that, just that little bit, you know? I mean, that's the tragedy. The tragedy is that nothing ever happens! Nothing! You just shut off. And that was the tragedy of Israel. Now, two other little things I want to say about the prophet. The logic of his idea that God is involved in the historic process, you see, and therefore you relate yourself to God, not to the events. You relate yourself to God not, to the events. If you relate yourself to the events, you lose your mind. You just be ground to pieces. You can't take it. But relate yourself to the time, to the eternal, and then you ride with the whales! Or you go down, but it's all right. It's like the cascade eagle in Moby Dick, you know? The cascade eagle is the eagle that lives in the mountains. And when that eagle descends into the bottom of the gorge, he is higher than the highest soar above the plains. Because his gorge is in the mountains. That's it when you relate to the eternal. Now, therefore, everybody-- every event is relevant. And he takes his idea and turns it on Assyria. And the Assyrians do all this trouble, just killing people and wiping out. But what does he say about Assyria? Assyria is the avenging arm of Jehovah, that Assyria is the whip, the whip in the hands of Jehovah. And then a very curious thing happened to him, because human beings are such tremendous things. When Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem, then it got out of hand. It's all right to take all these cities of Judah and all of that. But what it laid siege to Jerusalem, then because you did that, you stopped being a whip and thought that you were the controller of the whip. And for that reason, you have to be punished. Now, the other thing that the prophets had to say in this connection. I will leave. I will give my message. I will seal my oracles and brood over a little group, whom he calls his pupils. And I will transmit the insistences in my mind and heart to these pupils who sense and understand. And they will be the growing edge in the historic process. It's very interesting. And he couples with that notion and that insistence, which he carried out, the idea that inasmuch as all of human history is in God's hands, and the creation of human life and all of life serves some purpose-- the significance of which I may not quite understand-- all of life, therefore, will not be destroyed. But there will be a remnant. 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And here, we get this great idea. See, what he says to-- what he decides to do with his little group of disciples, he's going to give to them, you see, the very kernel of his idea, the concepts themselves. So that there would be-- there would move down through the history of Israel this understanding, this insight, about which we are reading today. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, he was doing that. Now, on a wider canvas, God was doing something else to match it. And what was this God was doing? That there would be a remnant preserved. Everybody wouldn't be destroyed. There would always be a remnant. And that remnant would be the rallying point for the new age and the new period. Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades forever and forever when I move. Now, if you believe as Isaiah believed, then you know that the ultimate destiny of man is good. That the contradictions of life are not final contradictions. And that you will cast your vote on the side of the growing edge. 5 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-546_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-546_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Isaiah, Part 2, 1952 June 22 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-06-22 Description An account of the resource God acts in the process of history. This is the primary theme in Thurman's fourth sermon on prophets. Returning to Isaiah, Thurman says that history is more than the logic of cause and effect. History is more dynamic than this. Every event is an overflowing unseen with potential. When we limit ourselves to the surface-value of events, we undermine our own hope and security. In Isaiah, Thurman sees the prophet relating to God rather than the events of the world. Even in misfortune, God is in charge. Isaiah ends with the idea that God is invested in the human project, and will never give up; there will always be a remnant of God's people that begin a new age, and continue to urge human destiny towards the good. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/371dae4dadca12a6b71a22a5d9e94f8f.pdf 5bb70706c6a4b02b2a95a4bdd1588ec3 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-559_B.mp3 My anguish-- Pitts Theology Library Emory University I wanted to deal with the prophet this morning from within a context that is, in a sense, a departure from the general plan of our thinking for the series. For indeed, Jeremiah is a radical departure in some ways from the emphasis which has been characteristic up to this time. The basic criticism that thoughtful and even sensitive and disciplined minds have against the type of religion that is called mystical religion is this, that it is a religion of withdrawal from life. It is a religion that insists upon detachment, that winnows all of the meaning units of vitality out of the world in which one lives and finds the meaning of life, in all of its aspects, as a private, intimate, personal, solitary experience of the spirit. And therefore, because this emphasis in mysticism seems basically to be life denying-- you'll see the bearing of this on Jeremiah presently-- seems basically life denying, the conclusion, the inescapable conclusion is that mysticism is negative, negative. It's moving back this way, never this way, whereas ethics, morality is life affirming, is positive. And now, these sensitive minds come in with the-- well, the proper that, therefore, mysticism as a religion or as an aspect of religion is pessimistic about life. And if you want to retreat, take refuge in mystical religion. Now, that's their argument. And there's much to be said about it. But I've always felt from-- well, I don't know from what point-- that it overlooks this idea, it overlooks a very simple fact. And that is that all action, all activity, all positive expressions of the personality, therefore, all morality, all ethics must be sustained and supported by something that is dynamic, by something that continues to be creative. I don't know whether you remember the period in our social history, not too many years ago, the period of the tired radical. Do you remember that phrase? You've heard it, the tired radical. Now, what was a tired radical? A tired radical was one who had been moving out this way, moving out this way, positively working towards the re-creation of the society, the making over of social patterns, the purging of folkways and mores, and the reconditioning of the common mind and the common will around concepts that were more creative and significant than those to which they were devoted. And then he gave out of energy. He just gave out of energy. And first, his eyes became dull. And his mind became brittle, weary. And he said, well, what's the use? And he sat by the wayside to rest. Now, pull that in the background, and let's work for a little while on Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a country prophet. He was born in a little place. And he had the imagination of a country person. He revolted against all the traffic of the city. He belonged to the open spaces. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And therefore, when you read him, his lamentations are never for Jerusalem, never for the city. His lamentations are for the people, the people. He was shy, retiring, and seems to have been an introvert. He wanted to be by himself and enjoy his company. He didn't like conflict. He just wanted to be quiet, self-contained, modest Jeremiah. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And then he had an experience. God called him to be a prophet. And when he wrestled with God about it, he told God, you must have gotten your signals just a little mixed. You really don't mean me because I-- first of all, I don't like that kind of mixing and all the work that's involved with people. I don't like that. I find it very difficult to get along emotionally with people. And besides, I'm young. I'm just 21 or 2. And I-- I can't carry any message. As soon as anybody looks at me, they will say, well, he's scared to death, so he can't speak with any positive character. And God didn't pay very much attention to him, but paid a great deal. He said, you are the one I want. And I want you to do a job. Thee the angel calls as he calls no other. Thou hast thy day to live. Thou hast thy work to do. And no one can do for thee what God asks of thee to do. So Jeremiah, do they deed and live thy life. So Jeremiah did. He didn't have much choice. But always, he argued. And he is the first one of the inner arguing prophets. Always he argued. God told him to say certain terrible things to Israel. And Jeremiah insisted that these things go against my grain. I don't feel that-- I don't feel that way towards the people. And yet he-- God said, you do it. But don't you see that if I do that, if I say these things, that all the people will take it out on me, that they will persecute me, that they will try to kill me? Yeah, I know. What have I done that I had to be selected to do this? O that I had never been born. O that my mother's womb had been my tomb. And then, while he's in the midst of that struggle, he digs away at his own inward parts until, at last, he discovers that God is not only in the events, but that God is a movement in his, Jeremiah's, heart, and that if he, Jeremiah, does violence to the movement of God in his heart, then he will destroy all of the meaning of God in human history. And it is out of the confessions of Jeremiah that a whole new religious literature process emerges in Israel. Read the psalms, many of the psalms, and you will see that the psalms, so many of them, are doing creatively, with literature, with words, with sounds, with vicarious experiencing what Jeremiah did literally with his own inner struggles and conflicts. Now, in Jeremiah, then, we see two things that I want to emphasize. Then I'm through. The first that the clue to the outer world, this is commonplace, that the clue to the outer world is the inner world. Very simple. That the clue to the outer world is the inner world, that the battle is won or lost not in the traffic of events, but the battle is won or lost deep within the human spirit. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu "I laugh when you say," says the Hindu medieval mystic-- "I laugh when you say that the fish in the water is tasty. Do you seek the real, the true, the beautiful? Go where you will, from Benares to Mathura. If you have not found your own soul, the world is unreal to you." That's what he's saying. That's what he discovered. Pitts Theology Library Emory University It's the language of mysticism. But it is a language that is related to the traffic of the world. But the clue to the traffic is not in the traffic. The clue is within the human spirit. You know the story of a musk deer, the doe of which in the spring of the year is haunted by the order of musk. And he runs over streams and the hills, seeking always musk, his little nostrils dilating, his flesh pulsing with desire to find musk that haunts his nostrils, until, at last, he falls, exhausted, with his little head resting on his still more tiny paw to discover that the odor of musk is in his own skin. What he seeks yonder is here. Now that's the simple insight. And Jeremiah is the first of the prophets to come to grips with the essential aspects of this central problem of religion. How can I keep going when the going is difficult and exhausting? Is there something in the external experiences that will yield the clue to my need? Perhaps, says Jeremiah. But the real clue is not there. The clue is here. And many, many years after, there was another Jewish person struggling in a garden that we called Gethsemane. And you remember his struggle. It has echoes of Jeremiah. He says, Father, let the cup pass from me. I don't want to die. I have a mission yet to do. Nevertheless, "not my will but thy will." And what did he say? That even though as a result of the relentless logic of events, I must drink the cup, that my life faces me with an inevitable gesture, stripping me of alternatives. I'll drink the cup because the most important thing is not the change in the event. Please hear this. The most important thing is not the change in the event or events. As important as the change in the event or the events may be, the most important thing is what happens inside of you, who may be involved in the events. Now the second word that we get as we look at this aspect of Jeremiah's life is that every person who is involved in the stresses and strains of living-- and we are all involved in one way or another, perhaps not with the great sense of manifest destiny that a Jeremiah had. But each of us is involved at the level of his own awareness. And in the tensions of living, that hard by your road side, hard by your road side, where your traffic moves, where the lane of your traffic is crowded, you had better have a little room, a little house, a little spot in to which you may retreat so as to catch your breath, to get your compass re-adjusted, to define your terms again. You'd better have that. Whatever may be the nature of your activity, however crowded your life may be, however difficult and involved your life may be, you had better make provision for your temple of silence in to which you may go and get dusted off and cleansed a little and then on your way. For if you do not have that, there is no way by which you can keep the traffic of life from moving outside of you to inside of you. And when your soul becomes a mad highway, it is the end of the meaning of your living. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And your life becomes barren, and you don't know why. Your soul becomes crowded with despair and pessimism, and you don't know why. Nothing has meaning, and you don't know why. Your soul has become a highway with traffic going in all directions. And there is no place, no place, for catching a second wind. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, that's what Jeremiah found. And it need not be my place. It need not be the prophet's place. It must be your place so that in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, you can be there, even though your pace never slackens and your cares mount. And I am grateful to Jeremiah, with all of his tears and his anguish and his symbolism. I'm grateful that he has left a witness, a witness to the fact that nobody, nobody, is ever too full of responsibility, burdens, cares, problems, joys, or sorrows to be relieved of the personal necessity for discovering for himself a way, a way, of renewal and rebuilding. And if you don't do it, it's your fault, your fault, your fault. 4 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-559_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Deutro-Isaiah; The Message of Jeremiah, part 1 (Fellowship Church), 1952 Jun 29, Jul 20, Side B Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-559_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Jeremiah, Part 1, 1952 July 20 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-07-20 Description An account of the resource In this sixth sermon on the prophets, Thurman turns to Jeremiah and the topic of mysticism. Some see mysticism as retreat from the world, whereas ethics and morality seeks to make a way in the traffic of life. Thurman rejects this binary. The life of ethics has to be supported by something. Thurman suggests that outer battles are not won in the events, but deep in the transformations of human spirit. Our ethical struggles and moral difficulties will overwhelm us if we do not find a way to keep the outside chaos from penetrating our inner world. Mysticism is a necessity, for we each must make a way in our lives for renewal and rebuilding of our spirits. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/11dc7cc2c94fb9e6acaef6f92e1b6da0.pdf bff2f5011794c410319cb606ea574cac PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-560_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University He insisted that there was operating in human life law and order, a moral law and a moral order. And sometimes, it seems as if the God of Jeremiah is deeply involved in the operation of the moral law. And sometimes he seems to be standing outside of the moral law, watching it perform its deed and fulfill itself. For instance, he says that-- to Israel, as a part of Jeremiah's foreign policy, if I may mention such a word after the convention-[LAUGHTER] A part of Jeremiah's foreign policy was the insistence that Nebuchadnezzar was the living instrumentality, the utter embodiment of God. And that was true, says Jeremiah, whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was aware of the fact. That is that Nebuchadnezzar's personal knowledge of the destiny-dealing aspect of his behavior was, in a sense, completely irrelevant. For beyond the will of man, beyond the normal operation of all of the reflective processes of the human mind, and the human judgment, and the human will, and human skill, beyond all of that, surrounding it all is the mind of God. And when a man acts, thinking that he is acting out of a process which he himself created, and for which he is responsible, let him rethink his position. For he is thinking and acting as a result of a process, the ends of which he cannot comprehend and the origins of which he did not create. That's one of the central problems. And I don't know what the answer is. And I pose it, but I can't deal with it because I'm not mature enough. Do you see? Nebuchadnezzar, says Jeremiah, is the instrument of God. And if Jeremiah is the instrument of God, then the wise thing for Judah to do, for Israel to do, is to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. So when these prime ministers from Egypt and other places came to Jerusalem and they were having a meeting trying to decide whether or not Judah, Israel shall become a part of a military alliance, Jeremiah puts on a yoke and walks up and down outside of the place where this-- as a friend of mine says, outside of Number 10 Downing Street. But it's equivalent to number 10 Downing Street, for the prime ministers' meeting. Here is Jeremiah walking up and down with a yoke. And then one of the priests, representatives, took the yoke and broke it, and said, that's-- and Jeremiah went back to get more orders from God. And God told him, well, all right, put an iron yoke on your neck this time. See if he can break that. Now, if the events-- now, this is the problem. If the events of human life are the result of forces in operation that are not involved really in the private choices of ls, then whatever may be the collective resultant in any given situation in society cannot be thought of even in terms of 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu personal social responsibility. How can I be responsible, you see, if my behavior is merely the inevitable response which I give to forces over which I have no control anyway? With your permission, I'll leave it right there. But I will be back sometime, but not yet. Pitts Theology Library Emory University The second aspect of Jeremiah to which I call your attention is what to me is his completely unique contribution. I may say in passing that it is Jeremiah who introduced the phrase, "the grim reaper." The first time in literature as far as our records go, the first time that death is referred to as the grim reaper appears in the Jeremiah. It's interesting to find out. You discover that when you read the book. But his crucial contribution, it seems to me, is in the way in which he spiritualized religion. Now, that sounds like a contradiction in terms. He spiritualized religion. And he did it in an extraordinary manner. Because once again, he was dealing with an inevitable set of political and social circumstances. The people were taken out of Jerusalem into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. And of course, once, when Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege to Jerusalem, and everybody became frightened-- you know, when times are difficult, very often, people get frightened. You-- I guess they do. So all the people who had slaves freed their slaves while the enemy was knocking at the door. If there's anything I can do to get myself straight so as to move the enemy, I'll do it. So I'll free all these-- they freed all these slaves. And then a change in political events or something else, and the enemy moved on because of a disturbance in another section, and the siege was temporarily lifted. And so what did they do? They went and got all these slaves back, and said, come back, our situation has changed. A perfectly human thing to do. And Jeremiah watched that. And he said, that's all your values are? That's all religion means to you, that you fall on your knees and pray to God when you think that you've come to the end of the line? And then they were taken into captivity. And he said to them, God is where you are. God is not-you didn't leave God in Jerusalem because you've been taken into captivity. God is-- God is in Babylon. Of course, it sounds very simple to say that now. But that meant that the whole concept of the meaning of religion had turned the corner, that God is not confined to the soil of Israel. I remember when I was leaving home to go out to go to school when I was 14. My grandmother called me back to the steps. And I started away. And she said, remember, Howard, God is as close to Jacksonville-- I was going to Jacksonville, Florida. God is as close to Jacksonville as he is to Daytona. Daytona was the place where I was living, our home. He's as close to Daytona as He is to Jacksonville. In other words, because you are going up 110 miles, he can get up there as well. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu [LAUGHTER] Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, that's what Jeremiah was saying to these people. They were taken into captivity. And they were sure that they had left God back in Jerusalem, back in His familiar place. But Jeremiah said, no, God is not confined to a holy place. And the world is still trying to catch up with Jeremiah on that. We still don't believe that. God is not confined to a holy place. God is not confined to a holy people. God is not confined to a holy ritual. That's what Jeremiah say, that God is in the heart. And wherever you go, wherever you go, there He is. Now, the logic of that-- it brings me to the third thing about Jeremiah. The logic of that is that, if it be true, as Jeremiah insists and as Hosea before him, and as Micah, as you will see when we study him, and Ezekiel too for that matter-- if it be true that God is to be found and not confined, really, in the temple, or in this place or that place, but God is to be found in the human spirit, if that is true, then the logic of it is that God is native to the human spirit, native to the human spirit. Now, Jeremiah says that the birds know when to come and go. The birds understand the law of their being. And God is the law of the being of man. But man does not understand. He is not as smart as the birds. When I was visiting these friends in Canada, they have a dog, one of these-- a combination of a collie and a husky. And his name is-- well, he has a name. [LAUGHTER] They were telling me that four years ago-- the dog is now 5 and 1/2 years old. When the dog was a year and a half old, the family, and the mother and father went away for three weeks. And the day after they left, their son was to close up the house and go for three weeks on a camping trip. The friends came by to get the boy, the young fellow. And after he locked up the house, he remembered that he left his flashlight in the house. And he ran in the house to get his flashlight. And while he was looking for his flashlight, the dog slipped in to the doctor's office, and then the boy closed the door and went on about his business, not realizing that the dog was locked up in the house. And for 16 days, the dog was in the house without water, without food. And all the neighbors even put a [INAUDIBLE] to the little ham radio thing asking if this dog had been seen anywhere. When the family came back, here was the dog. And they put water down and food. And even though the dog hadn't eaten for 16 days, he didn't touch the food. He took just a little water. Then he'd lie down. Then he'd take a little more water. Then he'd lie down. It was the second day before he dared eat any food. Just a dog. Just a dog. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And when he was a puppy, and this happens that all these about the same dog. And he is just a dog. He's not-- your dog would do the same, I suppose. Pitts Theology Library Emory University When he was a puppy, he swallowed a needle. Like that, one of these big needles. And Dr. Hawking said that after he swallowed this needle, he went out in the yard, started eating dry grass, leaves. And the food that they gave him to eat, he only would only eat the bread. And for three days, he existed on a diet of roughage. And six months after that time, they found in his house the needle, all caked around it with this grass and so forth. Just a dog, sinking the roots of his consciousness down into the flow of his being and coming into direct primary contact at that level with the limitless resources of the universe. Now, Jeremiah says that God-- maybe God is a part of the warp and woof, the very structure, the very ground of human life. And therefore, if the individual sinks the shaft of his awareness down to the very grounds of his being, at the level of awareness that sustains the totality of his life, there he will find God. Not only God, he will find the will of God. For when the human spirit is stripped to whatever there is that is literal in us, when all of the levels of one specious desiring have been peeled away, naked and undisguised, without pretense, the human spirit stands bare. It is in that moment, that God speaks in a voice that is the voice of your own heart. Therefore, Jeremiah says-- can I stop now-- "A curse on him who depends upon man, who relies upon mere human aid, for he is like some desert scrub that never thrives, set in a solitary place in the steppes. But happy is he who relies on God, who has God for his confidence, for he is like a tree planted beside a stream, sending his roots down to the water. He has no fear of scorching heat. His leaves are always green. He goes on bearing fruit. And all around him is barren. And he looks out on life with quiet eyes." That is Jeremiah. And I thank God for him. 4 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource In this sermon series, Thurman covers the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the particular religious insight that they bring to the tradition. Thurman exchanges with the prophets on the topic of responsibility, the inclusiveness of our faith, the sovereignty of God who acts in and above history, and more. Thurman gives voice to each of the individual prophets whilst still extracting the unifying messages and challenges from their writings. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Rodell Jefferson III. AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-560_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette The Message of Jeremiah, part 2; The Message of Ezekiel (Fellowship Church), 1952 Jul 28, Aug 11 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-560_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Jeremiah, Part 2, 1952 July 28 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952-07-28 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-13627798.925371 4550756.1096806)) Description An account of the resource In this seventh sermon on the prophets, Thurman highlights two points found in the prophet Jeremiah. Firstly, Jeremiah presents us with the problem of history and responsibility. Often we think our actions as our own, set into motion by our own agency, but in truth we act as a result of processes unfathomable to us. What then is the place of responsibility when it seems we have no control? Thurman does not answer this question, but simply ponders. Secondly, Thurman says that Jeremiah spiritualizes religion in a groundbreaking way for his time. In Jeremiah we find that religion is not confined to a holy place, or people, or ritual – rather God is in the heart. God is found in the force that sustains our lives at the root, speaking to us through the voice of our own hearts, and the wisdom of our own bodies. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III.