AMERICA~ WEDDED TO HER IDOLS

Robert E. Luccock

Our thought this morning takes its direction from three men: the prophet Hosea, the apostle Paul, and the English philosopher Francis Bacon. I wish by the miracle of an H.G. Wells "time machine" we could bring this unlikely trio to-gether and then have either David Frost or David Susskind moderate the conversation. It would be something to hear! Hosea, pioneer prophet in Israel eight centuries before Christ; Paul, who pioneered the Christian mission to Greece and Rome; Francis Bacon, pioneer of thought in the 17th century Age of Reason. Whatever else these men might find to talk about to one subject they would not be long in coming: idolatry, a matter that was front, center and urgent for all three.

Exactly 350 years ago this month, in fact ,117hile the Mayflower was in passage to the new

/ world, Francis Bacon published his Novum Organon, a philosophical work of enormous influence on Western thought, and of such primary importance to Bacon he wrote it first in Latin. With this sen-tence he begins one of the key passages:

"There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these, for dis-tinction's sake, I have assigned names---calling the first Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Marketplace; the fourth, Idols of the Theater."

To move back 25 centuries from Bacon to Hosea is to find idolatry awaiting our arrival. The most persistent problem that ever troubled the prophets of ancient Israel was the worship of idols by the people of God. In Hosea's fourth chapter the prophet delivers one of the most severe oracles ever served upon the nation of Israel, an attack in the name of JHWH upon the corruption of worshipping pagan gods and consul-

ting the creations of their own hands for wisdom and truth. He ends with this stinging indictment:

"Ephraim is wedded to idols, let him alone." (Hosea ~:17)

What a devastating dismissal: the nation is so far beyond saving, forget it!

Characteristic of St. Paul's concern to which we will come at the close, is his plea to the church at Corinth to "shun the worship of idols."

The question comes across the centuries from each of these men: are we also wedded to idols of our own? Prompted by these iconoclasts I hope this morning we can work at the.process of iden-tifying those idols which may have us bewitched

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under their spell, am! move ourselves, 1vherc need lie, f1·0111 idolatry to iconoclasm.

\v'hat .i.§. Idolatry?

Of COLll'Se we h,1ve to say right away what we mc•an by iclola try. For the Hebre1,s it was easy. TllC'y \,•ere people of the covenant:

"I am the Lorcl your Goel, who brnught you r;u t of the lane! of [gypt, out of the house of boml,1ge. "You shall have no other gods before me. " You shall not make yourself a ~ri·uvcn image, or any likeness of unything ..• you shull not bow tlmvn to them or sc1 ·ve them."

(Exodus 20: 2-4a) fnr Israel these first t\,O conunandments clcfine iclolatry. For 1\m,,rica it is different. 11/e have 110 God of our nation, .Ln the same sense that Israel knew Jl-!11/11. Because one does not 1,orship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacub, 01· Goel who is ratl1er of Jesus 1,hom some call tlw Christ, duecs not make him an American idolater. But for the person of Hebrew-Christian faith it is still idolatry to bm, dmm before gocls of our mm making. And for those 1,ho would call themselves neither JC'\vS nor Christians, but perh.ips humanists, the question remains 1,hethcr there is something in the essence of what 1s•c mean by ,\merica, however difficult that is to define, ~1at we betray by our 1,orship of things which subvert our being humun.

Gabriel \'ahani.an in his book ll'i.lit \1/ithout Idols, defines idolatry in one be.1utiful sentence: ·· (Id0l.1try is) tn clcvc1te the finite to the level of the infinite. tn ~ive to the tr.insitorv the status of the p~rmancnt and to .ittributc io mun (Jll,ilitiQS that 1dll c\QL'Qive him into denying his fjnitucle.·· Ive might put it anot her way: to be ~elided to idols is to ~ivc ultimate ancl absolute v;ilue :md commitment tn 1s•hat is reall\· onlv r,•L1tive and derivative. " "

I ha,·c invited Francis Bacon to this party so tlta t 1s·c can use one of his marvelous metaphors to illuminate the truth of Hosea's warning, I speak ol' the Idols of the Cave and invite vou tn come inside that metaphor~ old as Plat~, yet as con-temporary as the front page of this morning's paper. Let the image of the Cav_e play 1vi th your imagination.

Such Idols we can identify .1s systems of ideas, or commitments which \vC form in the dark caves of our parochic1l interest or circumscribed understand-ing, 1,hich we then invest with an almost absolute authority and stc1tus, and to 1s•hich we usually cling 1,1ith a religious tenacity. Fin.11 or univcrsc1l

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judgments made out of quite provincial experience, unassailable opinions formed on the basis of too limited knowledge, firm commitments given to claims loudly asserted but uncritically examined. We seem to live in a time when our ideologies have us in thrall, political, economic, racial, social, personal ideologies. To take but one iclolutrous consequence of such idolizing, consider the way we respond to people not as persons but as stereo-types of doctrinaire thinl,ing. They bec0mc fas-cists, pigs, or freaks; radiclibs or hardhats, middle Americans, male chauvenists or women's lib; or some other thing. Not persons but objects in an ideological system. \l/11ite society has done this to blacks for three hundred years. Much of society continues to do it to women. Many in America, some of them in hi~1 places, are doing it right now to students.

Russell Baker recently entitled one of his columns Only Whats Ride 1!.£ Front. He writes in satire on the people wl10 ride First Class on the big airline jets, revealing what goes on up there when the curtain has been dropped to shield rirst Class people from Economy prying. Everyone up there, it seems, must have a corporate identity: ~·r'm in insurance," "I'm in automobiles," .,I'm 1,•ith Ford," "I'm with Bank of America.'' The real question is ah,ays "Who you are with?" or "What are you in?" or "What do you do?"

"A few years ago, however ((vrites Baker) , on a flight between Seattle (I'm in airplanes) and Dallas (I'm with Consolidated Tax Shelters) there was a man with such u weak corporate iden-tity that when the passenger beside him asked who he was, he told him who he was. When the passenger asked, "Who arc you?tr the fellow 're-plied: "Being incurably romantic, I like to fancy myself a frustrated poet, but the fact, I am afraid, is that I um merely a fc1ilecl ideal-ist, made unduly melancl1oly by the passage of too many fruitless years, though not so melan-choly that I no longer love women, nor hate 1,'hat old men do to the young • • • ,.

'"The mc1n who had asl,ecl the question cried in panic, 'There is a passenger with us who will not say what organization he is with.' The stew-ardess urged everyone not to be alarmed but passengers were crowding into the aisles. .'mgry cries rung through the compartment, 'If he's got nothing to be ashamed of why doesn't he identify his burec1ucracy? ~lister, what are you?' asked an assistant to the executive secretary of a large chain of police shops.

"I'm not a what," the offender explained. "A what is u thing, or a part of a thing. A who is a person. I am a who.''

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"It was explained to that man that everybody hc1d to be a part of a thing to qualify for First Class. And that if anyone chose to ignore his whatncss out of .i false pride in a dubious whoness, they would rather not tc1lk to him. The whole flight was depressed all the way to Dallas."

He who has ears to hear let him hear! Maybe when .Y.Qg, hear it again it will concern college and university f.iculties with all the whatness of academic pedigree. Or mi.lybe when .Y.Qg_ hear it i.lgain it will concern students with all the whatncss of their prestige, status or political symbols.

Bacon was right when he took particular note of professional men (and here let him be upcli.ltcd to include professional women!) divines, lawyers, politicians, \,ho form attachments in the c.1ve to their respective sciences, attcichments that Ci.ln-not survive the strong li~1t of open air. It has been well saicl that what marks nur time is the., reappec1rancc of absolute theologies in the guise of contcmporal'y politics.

Idols of the Educi.lti.on Cc1ve

Bacon's words have prophetic urgency for Americc1n education. 1. Item: ideological fixc1tion. We in university faculties and administrations have been so easilv bewitched by our traditions, structures, proccdu~es, too limited in scope for a changing scene, but de-voutly defcmlcd--11/e have mc1de them an Idol of the Cave. 2. Item: shallow ideological conunitment. A not inconsiderable number of students toclav have at last cau~1t up with Henry Fore! who said sb years i.lgo, ""History is bunk:· Recently Dean Wal tcr Muelclei:, speaking out of yec1rs of engagement in the struggle fn1· justice and peace, reminded us, ''You cannot be a serious revolutionary and be i:.;norant about the heritage of our values and the history of the evils you are trying to correct as \,ell as the solutions that have been attempted. This re-sponse is not made to blunt your prophetic ze<ll, but onlv to s.ive vou from riotous foolishness. There i; such a thing as tl1c infantile sickness of leftism, as Lenin the revolutionary knew; there is such a thing as nihilism, which is rootless rejection o[ the status quo. The word r.iclical means going to the root, but a radical leader with-out historical roots is an empty radical, an arro-gant elitist unprepared to meet the consequences of the history he induces .. , Our cofTIITiitments may easily become an Idol of the Cave.

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3. Item: superficial ideological thinking. To abhor the violence of campus unrest, but legiti-mize the far more devastating violence in Inda-China is to see through the shadows of the cave darkly. Historically we recognize a difference between social disorder and international war. But for too long we have lived in undiscerning servitude to that sophistry, making it an Idol of the Cave!

The Idol of Progress

The warnings of Bacon c1nd Hosea also have prophetic urgency for that colossus so universally worshipped by Americans, the Idol of Progress. The idea of infinite progress in all departments, with its corollaries of unending :,,ri'owth, cxpi.lnsion and development--this may not be a peculii.lr idul 0f 0ur time, but it's tbreut has become critic.11 for our time and for the future. We live in a society thi.lt gloriif!ies the principles of progress i.lnd technocracy, worshipping thl!ir of [spring, just as the Isrcielites in Hosea's time glorified the pagan gods by worshipping tlw wnoclen artifc1ets made in the name of the Canaanite gods. The pro-phet's plea to Israel is to turn away from their harlotry with things of wood.

Latter clay prophets make the s.1me appeal to us. Such a prophet is George Wald, distinguished biologist of Harvard. "Our society is trained,,. he says, "to accept all technology as progress, or to look upon it as an aspect of fate. Should one do everything one can? The usual answer is 'Of course,' but the right answer is 'Of course not.,.,

We can hardly restrict this problem to in-dustry and government. Is it not your problem and mine when we wc1nt the things that can only be had at the price of idolatry--when we support the mi.lking of things to which we attc1ch ultimate value, and that ultimat-?ly violate the guulity and digni-ty of human life. Loring Mandel, the contemporary clramatist whose plays have sometimes brought radi-unt moments all too rare to the T\' wilderness, speaks with Hosea's spirit when he points out, ''As long as people buy the products and services that waste our minds and ecology, pollution pays. When broadcasters say they're giving the public what it wants, they're probably right. But so is Con Ed. So is Detroit. So is Proctor and Gamble. So is the Pentagon. And we're dying ... You've seen the girl nn TV surrounded by the 7000 glasses she has to wash, hearing the announcer say, ,. It's so nuch easier to reach for a paper cup. All you have to do is throw it away." No deposit, no return. We've made it one of the characteristic legends of our time. The tragedy is we put that legend not just on bottles but on people. No deposit on the people yet unborn or

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on people victimized by our idolatry whose dignity as human beings we rob, and no return from their humanity! As Charles Reich, the new folk hero of the Yale faculty, has put it, "The organization world has become sterile because it's replaced human needs with status needs."

The Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky recently published a poem written in memory and honor of a 20-year old girl who froze to death after trying to keep alive by reciting Mr. Voznesensky's poetry. I find the lines deeply disturbing but profoundly prophetic, a 1970 echo of Hosea:

Ice, ice grows beyond measure Accumulating guilt everywhere. Someday the ice will break Like a ruptured dam! The guilt of people to nature, The revenge of some guilt, The smoke of Dachau And the social tragedies. The waters will drown ---Not Noah, Not God's court, but man's own court, Everything that has been breathed and

accunulated Will move as a universal flood. No prayers will help. You will drown like kittens, And the polluted waters will be the witness, You, useless public figures Who dirty the defenseless sky! Alas, arrogant scum Exploiters of labor, Where will you hide yourself, when The flood Destroys your cities! You, in a miserable crowd Serving the bosses. The ice will move As an apocalypse. Destroyed fatherlands, Destroyed phonies, Destroyed humanity, Which destroyed itself. Like a messiah and judge In those angry years The 20-year old girl Will walk quietly on the waters. Keeping her ski boots dry, She will walk around the last little hill And kiss, as children do, What was once called the land of the people.

Although not all of the poet's symbols are clear, I nevertheless hear it as the judgment against any people who are wedded to their idols.

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How .£.fil! ~ divorce .Q!:U: idols?

America, wedded to her idols? You and I, wedded to our idols? How can we cast off their spell and divorce them? I know of only one way that idols can come down; that is to yield their place to a love that is both more hard-headed and tender-hearted than the love of idols. Idols appeal to the tender-minded but usually the hard-hearted. But a great love that will not be cabined in any parochial covenants, nor bound by any racial re-s·trictions, nor compromised by any patriotic shiboleths; a great love that reaches out to all people as persons, treating them tenderly and with dignity, a love that sends us out to chal-lenge political structures in the name of God and of humanity-~such a love does make all things new, and even takes the measure of our idolatries.

Such a love Hosea knew: a love that led Israel with cords of compassion, a love who eased the yoke on their jaws, who bent down to them and fed them." (Hosea 11:4-)

Such a love Christians have known in the Man for others, who came to give them life and give it more abundantly. Because such love breaks the power of idols, sending persons out not to save themselves but to give themselves in tenderness, in mercy and in justice for others, Paul can say, and Christians believe, "So through God you are no longer a slave but a son (and if Paul were here today even he might add, 'a daughter').

"Formerly, when you did not know God, you were under the authority of gods that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you revert to dead and sterile principles and consent to be under their power all over again?''

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This sermon was preached in Marsh Chapel Boston University on October 18, 1970. Additional copies available free.

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHIJl!O IN

Robert E. Luccock

Of whom do you thin~ when you sing the hymn, "For all the saints who from their labors rest"? The p eople in these chapel windows: John the Bap-tist , Peter, Paul, Francis? Someone you've heard about who never made it into stained glass? May-be s omeone that you knew personally?

I love to sing, ''When the saints go marching in," but if I think about it I have to ask, "With whom do I expect to be marching?" Just this week someone said to me of another person, "He's a saint." What did she mean? Sainthood is not one of the categories in which my friends think of me so I don't know how it would feel to be called a sai nt. What would you think if anyone called you a s aint? Would you consider it complimentary, or wou ld you be embarrassed? We •• , if no one ever ha s called you a saint, allow me to be the first: "Greetings to you, brothers and sisters, the saints in Boston University, here gathered in Marsh c'tia:--pel .11

This is Halloween, but that is no trick or tr eat greeting. Tomorrow is All Saints Day. And the saints we celebrate this morning are not in the wi ndows but in the pews. You who sit here now, tog ether with those who have sat here before you (a nd in millions of other pews in millions of other pla ces), and those who will assemble when all of us are gone. If I read my New Testament correctly, ~ are what All Sain~s Day is really all about.

Who are the Saints? -- ----Suppose we move inside the word and find out

wha t it means. We may start by reminding ourselves of the two common understandings of the word saint. Fii st, a definition from a church catechism:~ sa int is a person whose extra-ordinary holiness an d heroic virtue have attracted the notice of the un iversal Church, and who has been placed on the li st of God's chosen followers. A saint is one who now enjoys the beatific vision and has been present-ed by the Church for the public worship of the :fai thful." Obviously no one in the pews this morning an swers to that description, although several such pe isons look down on us from the clerestory windows.

The other common meaning of the word is simply a person who has shown extra-ordinary faith, hope, an d courage through hardship and temptation, and

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whose demonstration of character is exemplary. Some there may be here who meet those terms. These are what the word saint usually means. What we say here this moriil'iig will hardly change that. But I want to help us get inside another meaning of the. word, closer, I believe, to the New Testament. Not for the sake of semantics, but to freshen our awareness of who we really are.

The saints of whom Paul writes, and of whom the other epistles in the New Testament speak so often, were simply the people !?!_ ~- In fact this is the way the newer translations render the word hagios: "God's peopls." God's people at Corinth, at Ephesus, at Rome. We may say that the saints were the Lord's people, not because they were people of superior moral stature, though they may have been that (the last thing in the world they would have claimed for themselves, or perhaps even for each other.). They were God's people be-cause they believed themselves called by God to be followers of Christ with tioly res!insibilities. Just plain people who struggled w~h temptation and faith, as you and I struggle with our temptation and our faith, in all the ordinary places of life, and who made a faithful witness in what they were called to do. I like what Robert Louis Stevenson said: "Saints are just those who keep on trying." And we can bring that home to All Saints Day by adding, ''Those who keep on trying because they are the people of the Lord who keeps on trying with us." It sounds almost like an Avis version of sainthood: ~ !!l. ~- Maybe we need an Avis-Hertz model: We keep on trying because of where God has put us, ,!E ~ driver 1s !,!!! !.!!!! gifts !?!_ grace !2£ holy respansibilities. ,

At a discussion the other evening of who would be the 1971 saints the talk had not gone far when someone nominated Charlie Brown. What,/i natural for sainthood, a 20th century Everyman. Charlie Brown, the everlasting loser -- who but a saint would con-tinue to play after losing 113 games without a vi-c-tory. Charlie Brown keeps on trying, apparently the recipient of endless grace. Charlie Brown a saint. Besides, if you know your Catholic hierarchy of saints you recall that Lucy and Linus have already made it, and Schroeder is in stained glass in Ro-chester. It's time Charles was elevated. I'm will-ing to take the chance on whatever further creden-tials he might need.

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~~!!!?!~~-Listen to the salutation of one of Paul's let-

ters to the Church at Corinth, to all who are call-ed to be God's people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people every-where who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ••• •• (I Cor. 1:2) Does it ever occur to you that when the saints get to where they're going we may be in for quite a surprise when we discover how many different ways there are to call on the name of Jesus besides creeds and sacraments? What a great company is in the line of march. All Saints Day can bring us an unusual reinforcement of the glorious company with whom we walk.

This came vividly to my mind some years ago when I stood at the entrance to Hagia Sophia in Is-tanbul, that great cathedral, perhaps the most majes-tic ever raised in Christendom, built by Justinian in the 5th century. The pavement at the door had been worn into deep hollows by footsteps of millions of faithful worshippers across the centuries. To stand in those hollows for a moment and to reflect on the company of the faithful who had worn down those stones by their passing on their pilgrimage and their strength and their faith is for us.

But the saints have left footprints not only in stone, but also of the spirit. Whenever I face some kind of hard endurance in keeping faith with ~y commitments I think of someone who has gone on ahead of me. I sometimes think of her as St. Alice. Never in stained glass, Alice was a girl of twenty years, dying of cancer with bravery and patience, neither wanting nor trying to be a superstar of vir-tue or heroilllll, but trying to make the best of the gift of life for as long as she could. Just one of the people of God who kept on trying to be faithful to her faith because something precious had been given to her and to those who cared for her. I see footprints of her spirit beside me in the company. It helps.

Whenever I grow weary of well doing, frustrated and even bitter about the way it all goes I think of another who has gone on ahead. I hardly dare to think of him as St. Frank. With limited education Frank could never get much of the hang of a theolo-gical discussion; he was never seen much in church except when his wife dragged him. Hard of hearing, and with his idiosyncrasies, he grew irascible and crotchety. But somehow, as if in ccnpensation for his hearing handicap, Frank developed marvelous an-

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tennae of sensitibity. Whenever anyone was hurting, within human range of Frank, somehow he was at the back door or on some errand of assistance. Yes, St. Frank, cranky disposition and all. I never picture him in stained glass because he would bust out of the window, climb down and demand to know what we were all staring at, and why we couldn't find some-thing better to do. I find strange support in recog-nizing his footprints in the company of saints. For all of his deafness Frank heard the dr\DI\ beat of the Spirit of one who came to serve, and he kept trying to walk by that best. I heard it through him. It he-lps.

Amazing~-

The company of the sa_ints is really a far more fascinating assembly than these windows might lead us to imagine. Take, for example, St. Uncumber. (Anyone should be a saint just for having such a name.) No kidding, Uncumber is a real saint, with a statue in Westminster Abbey. I'm sure that when the women's liberation hears about her they will adopt her as their patroness saint. This lady, ori-ginally of royal Portugese descent, has the double distinction of being both a saintly and circus type. For she was a bearded woman as well as a benefac-tress of wives. Her particular power was to get rid of unsatisfactory husbands. She also seems to have had a curious and somewhat farmyard appetite, since the usual offering made by the distressed wives in search of conjugal relief was a gift of grain. Sir Thomas More observed that for a peck of oats she would provide a horse upon which an evil husband could ride to the devil. (Footnote: if any husbands here notice their wives stocking an inventory of grain, or WC!aring a me!dal to St. Unc11D1ber •• watch it. You've got big trouble.} Calle to think of it Uncumber is a great name for a saint of women's liberation •• A great company -- the saints.

~~~!!!!!2· I also see some footprints of the Spirit some-

what behind me on the journey: students, younger people, facing staggering problems and difficulties in a world of change that we older folk·cannot even imagine. I recognize their integrity, their ulti-mate concern for people, for justice, for peace and for the reconciliation of the broken human bonds of lite. I'm humbled, I'm encouraged, I'm made stronger

- s -to be in their nu.~ber in the com'.">Bny of the saints, because I have the sure feeling that they have found a source and a strength for life, the life that I identify "in the name of Jesus."

The lovely children's hymn puts it so well for all of us:

I sing a song of the saints of God ••• Patient and brave and true, Who toiled and fought and lived and died For the Lord they loved and knew •••

They lived not only in ages past, There are hundreds and thousands still, The world is bright with joyous saints Who love to do Jesus' will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or

at sea, In church, or in planes, or in shops, or at tea, •••

And I mean to be one to.

Simple? Of course. The whole story? By no means. But close to the New Testament? That I find easy and full of comfort to believe.

~_!!!Caesar's household.

To one particular text I turn for memorable in-sight on this Halloween. It comes at the very end of the letter to the Church at Philippi, which Paul ~resumably wrote from his Roman imprisoJDent. With these words the letter closes: "Greetings to all God I s people who belong to Christ Jesus. The bro-thers here with me send you their greetings, espe-c,.ially those who belong to the Emperor's palace." or, as an earlier translation has it, "especially those of Caesar's household." Follow your imagina-tion into that picture -- Saints in Caesar's house-hold.

One afternoon in Rome some years ago I s;:,ent a long while in the Colosseum, reflecting on the witness of God's people there: martyrs in that a-rena for their faith. I felt as though I should renove my shoes, for surely I was on holy ground. Then I crossed the short distance to Palatine Hill, to the ruins of one of the great imperial palaces, For a long time in the late hours of a Sunday after-noon we explored those massive ruins, incredibly pow-erful, imperial, even in their remains. As we walk-ed my imagination began to people those majestic halls with Caesar •s household, and Christian saints among them. God's people --- a presence, leaven, salt, even in the very houselM>ld of world~ power.

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Or, as the beautiful trans lat ion in the New Eng-lish Dible has it, "God I s people who belong to the imperia 1 establishment. 11

Docs not All Saints Day lay this uoon our ima-gination: this university, this city, ~his nation -- these in a real sense are the imperial cstab-lishr,,ents of our age and dwelling. l:loston Univer-sity is Palatine Hill for us. And are we not to he Goel 's )>POplP here, wherever in these households we mriy find ourselves in scholarship, in a dormitory o~ other communal life, in trying to shape a raore human life-style for that endless procession that sweeps up and down Commonwealth Avenue?

The New Testament is clear, it seems to me, that God's people are to he counselors or enablers to the conscience of every imperial establishment in which they live. Many will say, and with some force, that it is no business of Christians to in-form the conscience of a secular university. A secular university must heed its own secular coun-selors. For the resolution of that question a long search lies ahead of us. But may we not say, at least to start, that God's people are to herald the hwoanity of all the people who make up the univer-sity. And surely heralding the humanity of our brothers and sisters is near to the heart of what the Incarnation is about. That is to say, the~-~ of God are to bring into clear visibility the standards of Goel, as far as we can discern them in our Lord. Two things it might mean to be counselors of the conscience of a university or a city. (1) Will it not mean at least a compassionate presence to our brothers and sisters wherever we find them, whatever their questions, however great the burden of their needs. To~ there, and to stay there, in all the pain and struggle of growing into the full stature of humanity. Some time ago a delin-quent hoy was trapped and lost in an underground c<>ve. The whole community joined in the rescue effort; scores of people l"bored many hours in a close race against death. Upon coming out of the cave, and seeing so many people waiting and working for him, the boy said, "Gee, I didn't know all these people cared about me." (Question: would he say the same thing a ye~r later?) That's a symbol story, isn't it. In this city, jn this university are persons in all kinds of caves, caves of fear, caves of failure, caves of self-hatred, ancl caves of comnulsive behaviour of ,ill kinds. What a dif-ference it could m>1ke if the compassjonate ~resence of God's people were to bring to their awareness, ''Gee, I didn't !<now .all these people cvred." That's what All Saints is all about.

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(2) To be counselor o[ the conscience of a university wi11 always tnean at least this: asking the hard ethical questions in the conversations of the university and the controversies of the city. We listen to what the world 5s saying, anll we nresz the search for moral purposes "ml moral consequences to men and women of all that is said and c;one in our con1rnon life. Is this not the work for which our gos-pel equips us in Caesar's household?

For some, not for all but surely for some, to be counselor of conscience will rnean that fearful journey from Palatine Hill across to the Colosseum, that is, from the palace to the arena, where i~ confrontation and conflict the saints must resist the illegitimate, inhuman and immoral structures which imprison God's people everywhere.

It may b~ that in all these affairs the record of our failures is longer thao the record of our faithfulness. But when I call to mind God's people who have been into this thing before us, who are into it along side of us now, and, God willing, will be after us, I thank God and take courage. I want to ~een on trying to be in their number, for they have fou~d R grace and a strength for life, both now, Rnd at whatever end the saints may come.

This sermon was preached in Marsh Cha,>el, Boston University on October 31, 1971, by Dr. Robert E. Luccock, Professor of Homilet i.cs, B .ll. School of Theology, guest preacher. Additional copies :,vailahlc free.