Robert B. Munger; Pastor Wrote Well-Known Sermon

Robert Boyd Munger, a Presbyterian minister and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, who wrote the widely used sermon “My Heart, Christ’s Home” a half-century ago, has died at the age of 90.

Munger died Friday in Pasadena.

Written in 1954 when Munger was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, the classic sermon has been quoted and distributed by numerous clergy, including his friend, evangelist Billy Graham. About 10 million copies have been printed over the years.

Munger rooted his sermon, which struck a chord with many Christians, in biblical text, including Revelation 3:20, in which Christ says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

In the sermon, the pastor relates: “One evening I invited Jesus Christ into my heart. . . . He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire on the hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness and He filled the emptiness with His own loving, wonderful fellowship.”

As host, Munger describes leading Christ through the figurative library, dining room, drawing room, workshop, rumpus room and locked secret closet of his heart. The guest helps the host sweep away all the clutter keeping him from being a good Christian--trashy literature, worldly goods and gluttonous fare, unsavory friendships and sleazy amusements, ineptness and old hatreds.

At the end of the sermon, the grateful host signs over the title of his heart/home to his guest for safekeeping and vows to remain with Christ “as houseboy and friend.”

The sermon captured many of Munger’s lifetime beliefs and teachings. Widely traveled, he did extensive missionary work in rural India, the Middle East and Central America. Back home, he often lectured about the dangers he saw abroad caused by Americans’ “export of materialism” rather than any meaningful attempt to spread Christianity.

“If we, as Christians, were half as zealous,” he said in 1954 at the height of America’s anti-communist era, “in propagating the Scriptures as the Communists are in propagating the writings of Karl Marx, there would be a different world before us.”

Born in Santa Cruz, Munger earned degrees from UC Berkeley and Princeton Theological Seminary. After his ordination as a United Presbyterian minister, he served as pastor of South Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles from 1936 to 1945, the Berkeley church from 1945 to 1962 and University Presbyterian Church of Seattle from 1962 to 1969.

At that time, he began teaching evangelism and church renewal at Fuller, where an endowed chair was named in his honor.

Although Munger was best known for the particular sermon, he also wrote several books on theology, including “What Jesus Says” in 1955, “New Life to Live” in 1973 and “Jesus, Man of His Word” in 1974.

Munger is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former clinical psychologist Edith Borkgren; two daughters, Monica, and Marilyn Brown; and two grandchildren.