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This is Glendale Presbyterian Church People Moving Power. This tape includes the reading of scripture and a message by Reverend Dr. Bruce W. Thielman titled "Notable Excuses I Have Used." At the conclusion of side number one of this cassette, be sure to turn immediately to side number two for the remainder of the message. This tape is copyrighted and all rights are

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reserved. Any public or commercial use in full or in part requires the advanced written permission of the Reverend Dr. Bruce W. Thielman. The private use of this material for the spiritual gain of yourself or others is heartily encouraged. As it is recorded in the gospel according to Luke, the tenth chapter beginning at the 25th verse, "And behold a lawyer stood up to put him to the

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test saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the law? How do you read?' And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, 'You have answered right. Do this and you will live.' But he,

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desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' Jesus replied, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,

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passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, 'Take care of him and whatever

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more you spend I will repay you when I come back. Now which of these three do you think proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' And he said, 'The one who showed mercy on him.' And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise.'" May God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his holy word and to him be the honor and praise forever. Let us pray.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Well this morning you're looking at the world's largest ecclesiastical peacock. How do you like it? I got back late last night from this adventure in the East. It was an exciting time but it was also a very serious time. It was serious not because I take the degree Doctor of Divinity

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honoris causa to be so serious. I don't know whether you know it or not but policemen use identifying letters on their report forms. DOA, dead on arrival, OD, overdose, MO, modus operandi. Do you know what DD stands for on a police record form? Drunk and disorderly. One of my professors said a long time ago that a DD degree is much like a pig's tail.

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It's an unnecessary curlicue added onto the end which does nothing whatever to affect the quality of the ham. So I'm not made serious by the degree as such but I was made very serious by the fact that the kind generosity of this fine school in the East in giving me this honor constitutes a kind of watershed in my ministry. I'm at about the halfway point

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given the normal course of events in a life ministry and as I pause to think back over what has been, I found myself led to be very serious. I didn't give myself to tallying victories or to try to run some kind of subtotal on defeats. Instead I was led to think very seriously about all the things I failed to do. Not so much the things I've done wrong

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but the things I haven't done at all. Now I suppose it may seem odd to you that I should choose to talk about this on what is essentially a happy occasion. It does seem odd to be speaking of yourself in these terms. In literature we look at a character like Billy Budd in Melville's novel as being kind of out of it or Prince Mishkin in Dostoyevsky's The Idiot.

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We're not given to expressing our inner feelings very well. As a matter of fact the natural state for us is one of concealment and that is so much the case that we have devised methods to assist people in revealing what's inside of them. We will, for example, get them drunk or we'll ask them to tell us about their dreams or we'll give them ink blots to look at and

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report upon. Well I would suggest a new method. Give them a D.D. degree. That makes you think back too. And as I have thought of myself in terms of my ministry, one word of scripture has come to me repeatedly with ever-growing power. It's a verse I never paid much attention to before. It's hidden right in the middle of the parable of the Good Samaritan read

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in your hearing just a moment ago. It's the 31st verse and it reads, "Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side." Going down the road is a very literal way in which to describe this scene. Jerusalem sits at 2,000 feet above sea level, Jericho 1,000 feet below it. And the 20 miles in between

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is a winding road which goes through treacherous mountainous regions, penetrated at many points with big limestone caves in which bandits would quite frequently hide. The road was commonly called in those days the Way of Blood or the Bloody Pass. So many were beaten and robbed there. And that's what happens to this man traveling on the road. He's overtaken

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by bandits, they beat him, they rob him, they strip him, and they leave him dying by the side of the road. And then into the story Jesus inserts this verse which has been imposing itself upon me. "Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him," that is this victim lying there dying, "he passed by on the other side." And the question

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of course is why? And I know the answer to that question. At least I know why this priest has so often passed by on the other side. There is the possibility first of all that the priest passed by on the other side because when he looked over at the man he decided he was too far gone to help, beyond his capacity. That's an easy rationalization into which

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I find myself falling quite regularly. Well I'd like very much to be able to do something about that situation, but you see it is beyond me. I cannot possibly begin to cope with it. He's just too far gone to help. You know people hide their assets even from themselves. I've given a lot of thought recently to why folks don't try to really understand themselves

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better and I've come to certain conclusions. One reason we don't do it is because nobody else does it either and we don't want to be too different from our peers. And one reason we don't do it is that we're afraid we might find something ugly and hideous, something we wouldn't want to admit hiding down inside of us somewhere. And one reason we don't do

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it is because it appears to us to be rather selfish. I mean after all a man is not supposed to be focusing upon himself, he's supposed to be focusing on other people. But more basic than any of these reasons I submit is this. We're really afraid to search out our insides because of the good we might find there. Because of the capacities, the abilities, the blessings

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which God has hidden down inside of us, which if we were honestly to confront them, recognize them and utilize them would force us into ministry to people at whom we now can look and say easily, "Oh, too far gone for me to help." In my own spiritual life I have at least progressed enough to not believe most of the things that you say about me. Some

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of you say I am somehow spiritually special and I know that I fall asleep when I'm saying my prayers. And some of you say an exceptional administrator and I know that most of my plans look like Jericho after the trumpets were blown. And some of you say he has courage and I know that I have never really paid the price of being a prophet. I'm at least spiritually

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sophisticated enough not to believe those things. But I haven't gotten to the place yet in my own spiritual life when I can avoid this "too far gone to help" excuse. On Monday morning when I'm burying a sermon which has never really lived, or when I have to go to a mother and tell her that her daughter is not going to get better, or when I have to

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hold the hand of a little boy and explain to him why his father can't stay on the wagon, or when I have to go to a staff member who's dreaming about a program and say to him, "The program cannot be because we don't have the wherewithal with which to make it be." In instances like that I find myself retreating too readily and too quickly into saying, "Well,

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this is beyond me. I just can't do it." Strange that I, a minister of Jesus Christ, should say something like that. For Jesus Christ, you remember, was the one who never thought anybody was too far gone, be it liar or lunatic or leper. He never said to anyone, "You're too far gone." Well, maybe you can't identify with this. Maybe you don't really, really

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stand with me as I say this because the problem isn't yours. Maybe you've never passed by on the other side because of this. Maybe you've never said, with authentic tears, because you really feel bad about it, "Well, I'd like to help, but you see, there's just nothing I can do. It's just beyond me now." Maybe you've never been asked to take on some tough

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task and turned away from it because of the heart trouble that I'm talking about. The trouble is, you see, we're not willing to send our heart to really see, even when the journey is only as wide as the Jericho Road. Well, if instead of going south to Jericho, you turn north and follow that road, you'll come to a place where, by the side of the

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road, there's a hill called Calvary. And on it, you'll see a man named Pontius Pilate standing looking up at a dying lover. And he says, "Now, surely you understand that I wanted to be of assistance, but the case had gone too far. You must recognize that there are even some things that a Roman governor cannot do. I would have liked to have done

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something, but my capacities are too limited. There was just no reason for me to try." And Jesus, this one who never gave up, just hangs there, hot in the sun, swarming with flies. Another reason why that priest might have passed by is this, the pressure of other things. I mean, he had to get back to Jericho. He had finished his responsibilities in Jerusalem,

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and it was important to get back to his local parish. His people were waiting for him there. They expected him. And now this interruption occurred, and that's what it was. Remember, Jesus said, "Now, by chance, a certain priest, just a chance, just a coincidence, just a freak incident that happened on the road, and you just can't let interruptions take

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you away from the main business of life. There are certain priorities that must be met. Don't we believe that first things must come first?" Wasn't it the noted Christian philosopher, Elton Trueblood, who said that the man who is always available is not worth very much when he is available? So we should not let ourselves be deterred by every little thing

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that happens within the compass of our view. I have a friend in the ministry in New England. His name is Stephen Bronson. And one day this last winter, he chanced to pass an Oriental student on Commonwealth Avenue. It was early in the evening. The boy stopped to talk to him. He talked with him only for a minute

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or two because he had another appointment. They made arrangements to meet some later time. The Oriental boy continued down the street. He walked past the chapel where all the Christians were coming out laughing and talking, having been there at the cross and the altar. And he came eventually to the 17-story Arts and Education building. He stood looking

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at it all the way to its top. He walked up and opened the door, and no one noticed that his hand was shaking as he opened the door. He went to the elevator and pressed the button, got on and pressed the button for 17. And no one on the elevator took time to talk to him. And when he got off at the 17th floor, he walked to the nearest window and hurled

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himself to his death. Well, you couldn't expect my minister friend to stand there and talk with him on Commonwealth Avenue. He had another appointment. He made arrangements to meet the lad next week. You can't just stop, can you, every time someone comes and wants to intrude into the order

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of events you have planned. And as a minister of Jesus Christ, I think of him and of how often he was interrupted. How little children came climbing into his lap. How greedy mothers came trying to seek good positions for their children. How disciples came with theological questions and Pharisees came to argue. How the sick came to be healed. He was forever

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being interrupted, and yet I find no place where he put anyone off. I do not find him ever so spreading his sympathy that his sense of responsibility paled into nothingness. The problem, of course, is we don't have enough time. That's the real difficulty. If you're a youngster, well, you've got to spend time playing. And if you're a high school student,

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well, the first priority is school and the homework that comes after it. And if you're in college, well, there's the degree to be attained and after that a job to be one. A young couple, well, you're building a home and bringing children into the world. A businessman, well, many people's jobs depend upon the decisions that you're making. They're important. A middle-aged

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woman, well, you've got your church work in which you are significantly involved. Grandmother, well, she's got to have enough time to spend with the grandchildren. The sick, well, they don't have the time. They're resting to get well. The well, well, they don't have the time. They're resting so they'll never get sick. The dying, well, the dying, they never

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have enough time. The fault is God's, you see. God hasn't given us enough time. If he only would have arranged things in some different way in order that we might have the hours and the day that are necessary to reach out to all these people who with filaments of need touch our lives.

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It's God's fault, you see. If he only... But if you say it's God's fault, then how do you account for the Samaritan? Didn't the Samaritan have pressures also? Weren't there demands on the Samaritan's time? Didn't he have responsibilities, priorities? And yet he found the time to stop. Maybe the point is that we all have enough time, in fact, exactly the right amount of

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time. Maybe each one of us has precisely to the minute the time that God would have us have. The difficulty is that we haven't learned how to use the time that is ours. Here's a Sunday school curriculum in which they're trying to explain the very exalted word which the Bible uses for love. It's the word agape. If you transliterate it into English,

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it's spelled A-G-A-P-E. And in order to give the meaning of the word, they've tried to develop it as an acrostic. A, always, G, give, A, all, P, people, E, everything. Always, give, all, people, everything. I shared that with a minister friend of mine, and he said, "Why, if I believed that and practiced that, I'd go mad." And maybe that's what love is,

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some kind of madness. If that's true, then I stand before you this morning eminently sane. But if you don't go south to Jericho, but turn north along that road, you'll come to a place, it too is by the side of the road, and it's called Calvary. And there a man named Judas stands. And looking up at a dying lover, he says, "Now, I believe in what you are trying

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to do. I really understand it to be important, and I would have liked to have been of assistance. But you see, first things have to come first, and what we have to do is get rid of the Romans. You can't expect any of these altruistic concerns of yours to have any real success in our country until we get rid of those despised conquerors. That's the thing that we have to do first.

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And you know, Lord, like I said before, first things have to come." And Jesus, this one who always had time, just hangs there, breath coming in gasps now, and the clouds gather, and it shadows. So you can't see Jerusalem or Jericho anymore. All you can see is the road. Or maybe the reason that priest passed by so long ago was this. He was worried about

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profaning his role. See, there were certain ritualistic laws which said if you got human blood on you and you were a priest, you were rendered impure. You could not enter into the liturgy of worship. And maybe that's the reason he didn't want to touch this bleeding fellow, because it would foul him and he would not be able to carry out the religious functions

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which were his. Maybe his problem was his role. Now, I can identify with that. I have problems with my role. My principal problem is that I keep confusing myself with my role. Someone says, "Who are you?" I say, "Bruce Thielman." That's just a combination of letters. That means nothing. So they say to me again, "Who are you?" And I say, "I'm a United

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Presbyterian minister." But you see, I'm not a United Presbyterian minister. That's only the role that I have in life. I am distinct from my role. Say to most people, "Who are you?" And they say, "I'm a teacher. I'm a businessman. I build things. I tear things down. I'm a student." You're none of these things. These are things that you do, but

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you yourself are separate from the role which is yours, and we spend so much time protecting the role and so little time looking at what we really are. People help me do this. People help me believe that I am my role. Like the man who said to me about a month ago, "I don't care if my preacher has a glass of beer. I don't even

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care if he tells a cute story, but I always want my minister to be right up there, just a step or two above me. I always want him to be right up there." So I play the role right up there. Then be afraid of fouling your role. He spent hours with prostitutes and thieves and hypocrites.

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The violent and the vicious, he had upon him all the time the power to do what he wanted to do. He had upon him all the time the stink of the socially unclean. Can't you identify at all with us in this? Are there really three sexes, men, women, and preachers, or is this your problem too? I mean, is there a black man in your office

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that you like a lot, but you don't bring him home because, well, it might somehow smear your reputation in the neighborhood. There's that girl who had a baby out of wedlock. Now, nice girls don't do things like that. So you don't associate with that girl, do you, girls, because, well, you don't want to be known as one who...

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And then there's the fellow who's a homosexual. He's horribly bent inside. He's living in the midst of his own hell. He thinks it's a secret, and it isn't a secret. But you don't go near someone like that, do you, lest anyone think, you know, well, maybe you too are one. And here's a son and a father who are in conflict, and the father is right, but you don't want

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to stand with the father because you don't want to lose your in with the son and all of the other sons and daughters. And maybe the son is right, but you don't want to stand with the son because then the in with the father and all the other parents is lost. There are the Barragans, and we look at the Barragans and we say, well, I have certain

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sympathy with them. I get a little bit uptight inside at a country which gets disturbed when people burn paper draft cards, but doesn't seem to be deeply troubled when people are burning other people's flesh, especially when that flesh is yellow. And it happens 5,000 miles away, but we can get along without mentioning the Barragans, can't we? We erect a kind of

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character armor that separates what we really are from the role that we play. It was Polonius who said it in Hamlet, "Isn't this the way the speech goes? And this above all else, to thy role be true, and it follows as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to thyself." That's a lie. He never said it. If you don't go south to Jericho, but turn

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north, there's a place that too is by the side of the road called Calvary, and you'll see a man named Peter standing there looking up at a dying lover. And he says, "Now, Lord, do you understand that I was really your disciple? My allegiance still belongs to you. The reason that I denied you was, well, there wasn't much point in me getting my hands dirty too.

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Someone had to stay clean. Someone had to be around to help the other Christians. After all, who is going to lead the church if someone like myself doesn't take on the task? And that means, of course, that I have to stay pure. You know, Lord, a man is known by the company he..." And Jesus, this one who picked up everybody and didn't care, and didn't care

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who saw him, he just hangs there, hollow now, hollow eyes, hollow armpits, hollow ribcage, hollow now. And his blood flows more slowly. And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith and I'm going to be a man of faith and I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith and I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going

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to be a man of faith and I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith and I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going

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to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." And he says, "I'm going to be a man of faith." Now I know there are only bad guys who know it and bad guys who don't know it. That is people who admit they are afraid and those who are afraid even to admit they are afraid. Or maybe this isn't you. Maybe you're not the kind of person who

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will quite easily write a check because you're unwilling to go yourself. Ready at the drop of a hat, send enough to show you really care, but never go personally. Maybe you're not that parent here this morning who thinks about his son or daughter so soon to be graduated, thinks of all he or she is given, all the opportunities, the generosities, the blessings,

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and then recognizes that the one gift is the key to every room of the heart. The one thing ungiven is the gift of vulnerability. Running the risk of letting your kid put his hand into the darkest corners of yourself and find you painfully and love you. They say there is in heaven, back in a remote corner, a gray pool which is filled with all the tears of

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men. They flow into it every hour of every day. They say that if you go there, you will find that some come and weep their tears into the pool and then bending down, take some of the tears and with them wipe their eyes. And it is said that those who so love and cry and those who so let themselves be loved that others cry, sing the sweetest songs in

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all of heaven. That's what they say. Of course, I wouldn't know. But if you don't go south, if instead you go north, there's a place by the side of the road called Calvary where a centurion stands looking at a dying lover and he says to him, "I would have liked to have helped, but you understand I'm under orders and if I had disobeyed my orders, I

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would have been punished and quite frankly, I'm afraid of being hurt. I would have liked to have made it easier for you, but, well, you get the point." And Jesus hanging there, this one who risked everything and so now dies, looks at him. The game of the soldiers is over and the crowd has drifted away because this is the part of the crucifixion of what

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might be seen. They're dying. They're afraid of that. So it's quiet on the hill. Just room enough for you and me. I know you think it's strange that when such a happy thing happens I should take you to a place called cross, but you see I don't have any other place to take you. And I stand looking up at him and I say, "If you would curse me because of what

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I failed to do, if you would somehow judge me or punish me, if you would inflict some awful pain upon me, these things I think I could bear, but that you hang there silent while I stand here with all my broken promises at my feet, all the promises that young graduates are making across the land now, you know. I will grow up to be worthy and honorable.

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No institution will ever bend me under its sway. No organization will ever dominate my life. I will be the perfect husband. My children will look up at me with honor. I will never lie. I will stand for decency and truth. I will heal those who are broken. I will lift up those who have fallen down. I will stand for courage and honesty and industry

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and truth. I made all those promises again and again. And they lie at my feet and I look up at him and I say, "Is it hard to cope with because I've hung you there or is it hard to cope with because you're hung up on me? That's what I find so hard to confront your love at a time like this, to see the goodness that still comes. When I see it, I want to

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die with you." I cry out like Horatio, "Let the embed of plague prick my heart. Let me take the cup of poison and drink it in one swallow. Let me march to the cadence of the fell Sergeant Dent." And he looks at me and says what Catholic said to Horatio, "If thou didst ever hold me in thine heart, absent thee from felicity awhile, and in this harsh

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world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story." So I go out again to tell the story. That's the way the parable ends. "Go and do thou likewise." And I pick up all the pieces and I say, "Well, I'll try again because it's here at the cross I'm judged, but it's here at the cross I'm forgiven. Here the truth makes my untruth look like nothing, and here

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the grace gives me the power to try once more." So let's head south for Jericho, folks. Only remember, you'll never make it unless you go north to Calvary. No one ever really goes south without a Savior, without this Savior. Let us pray. O Lord, bless us and keep us. O Lord, make thy face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. O Lord, lift up

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the light of thy countenance upon us and give us and all those whom we love and all those whom nobody loves thy peace. Enjoy each other in love, and share Jesus with us. Enjoy Jesus with us. Share Jesus with us.

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