Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 8, 1983)

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-	There's prudence in all these skills	0:03
	that you've accumulated.	0:05
	What do you think I asked President Samford	0:09
	to read that tricky first passage from Kings?	0:11
	Actually, it's a modern military example	0:17
	if you wanna see it that way.	0:20
	Here's the prophet and his servant up on a mountain	0:21
	surrounded by a battalion of troops are out to get them.	0:24
	Early in the morning as this, the servant wakes up	0:28
	and sees them and says to the prophet,	0:31
	what are we going to do?	0:33
	And the prophet says, Lord open his eyes	0:36
	to see the broad vision of all the hosts	0:40
	and powers of heaven the deeper powers	0:43
	of earth that prevail for us.	0:45
	And give him the perspective of an inner vision.	0:48
	And then very smartly they walk down	0:52
	dressed as ordinary peasants and pass	0:56
	through the troops and escaped.	0:58
	And there's your message.	1:00
	It fits the motto of this illustrious university, Duke.	1:03
	(speaking foreign language)	1:08
	I worked hard on that.	1:13
	Have the skill to see the obscure.	1:17
	And have the power to recognize the obvious.	1:23
	The servant was to see the vision of the powers of God	1:30
	we call providence working and that's what your education	1:33
	is all about, to see that which is beyond immediate sight.	1:37
	And the converse which is to be able to recognize	1:41
	the obvious when it walks right by you	1:44
	and with dull vision, fail to perceive	1:47
	the greatness in your own life	1:50
	and your own parents and your own professors.	1:51
	Abraham of our common heritage with Judaism	1:57
	and Muslim faith went out seeking a city	2:00
	in primitive times whose builder and maker	2:03
	was God and he never found it but he pursued his pilgrimage.	2:06
	And you and I will have to do that sometimes too.	2:12
	The last lesson was read from John who was	2:16
	in exile in prison on the island of Patmus	2:19
	60 miles westerly from Turkey.	2:22
	Today that's a tourist attraction.	2:25
	But when he wrote that revelation according to St. John	2:28
	he was thinking of the powers of the Roman Empire	2:31
	that held him in constriction and thought to pom power	2:34
	Christianity and hold it and crush it.	2:37
	And today, in the glory of this lovely jewel,	2:39
	the heritage of Duke University, liberal education,	2:43
	Christian ethics,	2:49
	the Roman Empire speaks not.	2:51
	And John holds before you the technique	2:55
	of living by an inner vision	2:58
	when things are rough and difficult.	3:00
	Men and women today are debating nuclear usage	3:05
	and you know that.	3:09
	And concurrent with this wild restlessness	3:11
	in modern men and women they are beginning	3:14
	again to debate excellence in education	3:16
	because we have gone through the valley	3:21
	of being average and mediocre in general.	3:23
	And underneath it all is a wild restless yearning	3:29
	for me and women to be full of meaning	3:32
	and to fulfill their personalities	3:35
	because there's something, do I dare say, divine	3:37
	in you students.	3:40
	A restlessness to emerge.	3:42
	My whole message then for all these powers	3:46
	and problems and temptations and techniques	3:49
	in the punch of history is live with the light	3:52
	of an inner vision beyond your day and year and time.	3:54
	And you will prevail and thank God	3:59
	for the pilgrimage of your life.	4:02
	Your parents probably know better than you,	4:05
	but Dante meant in one of this cantoes	4:07
	when he said, midway through my passage in life	4:10
	I found myself in a dark forest	4:13
	and the straightforward path was obscured.	4:16
	In aviation we call that flying blind.	4:20
	And there will come times like that for you	4:24
	and I hope you'll remember this glorious	4:26
	morning of baccalaureate, when you dedicate yourself	4:28
	to the inner vision, whatever be its description,	4:33
	to carry you through many good years	4:36
	to fulfillment and contribution to your generation.	4:39
	Let's work on it.	4:44
	If you live by the light of an inner vision	4:48
	you will discover a great power to help you	4:50
	salvage and amalgamate a philosophy of history	4:53
	and a perception of the transcendental.	4:58
	Unfortunately, young people, our generation has lost	5:01
	a sense of history, we've decried it.	5:05
	And we've utterly wiped out the aspect	5:08
	of the transcendent.	5:11
	We like to say we live for the now,	5:13
	but we live for the now and that's why	5:17
	we have this restlessness in society	5:19
	asking for the return of excellence.	5:21
	Excellence is reaching for the vision	5:24
	of the true and the good and the beautiful.	5:28
	And if you live in a vision like that,	5:31
	you will have more power because one,	5:33
	the immediate moment never gives true perspective.	5:36
	They run a lot of television shots	5:41
	near my church in New York City.	5:42
	They stage them if you want to know the truth.	5:44
	Most of the news casts are run through	5:47
	two or three times so they get it just right.	5:51
	And all you camera fans need to know that	5:54
	you know you can change the depth of field	5:58
	and a good single shot with a shallow depth of field	6:01
	does not give you the perspective.	6:04
	You need the long vision.	6:07
	I like to look at your license plates.	6:10
	What does it say?	6:12
	First in flight.	6:15
	That's interesting because on December the 17th,	6:18
	when these two sons of a Methodist bishop,	6:22
	what was their name?	6:26
	Was it Wright brothers?	6:28
	A little place called Kitty Hawk.	6:30
	And they flew an orange crate for about 19 seconds	6:33
	and the New York Times failed to send a reporter	6:38
	because it said, nothing will ever come of it.	6:41
	And today within 50 hours of Raleigh/Durham	6:45
	you can go anywhere on this globe by air.	6:49
	Because men and women said nothing will ever come of it.	6:54
	And men and women fail to see the import of the moment	6:58
	in its broad vision as when professor Goddard,	7:00
	with Charles Augustus Linburg set off their first	7:04
	rocket in the '30s and it went for a few seconds.	7:06
	Poof, about 30 yards.	7:10
	The neighbors asked them to move	7:14
	from Cambridge area down to New Mexico.	7:15
	And today there are over 2,000 space vehicles	7:18
	up in the sky with a capacity to photograph	7:21
	the program in your hand a 150 miles and read	7:24
	Duke University May the eighth, 1983.	7:27
	All that within the lifetime of your parents	7:32
	and people said, oh nothing will ever come of it.	7:34
	Poof.	7:36
	The perspective of life with the inner vision	7:40
	will give you strength and power.	7:42
	Further more than that it will give you	7:43
	a broader explanation because no single event	7:46
	can explain it.	7:49
	Today's the birthday of Jean Henry Dunat.	7:51
	Isn't that lovely?	7:56
	Who was he?	7:58
	Well he was out in Italy in August 1859.	8:03
	He was 31, I tried to figure how many years	8:08
	you'd have to wait till you're 31.	8:10
	But he was out on vacation and the two forces	8:13
	of France and Austria engaged in battle	8:16
	and then that summer afternoon 40,000 men	8:19
	lay wounded and dying in a thunderstorm	8:23
	and there were no medical attendants.	8:27
	And young 31 Jean Henry Dunat happened to be there	8:30
	in the carnage and ran into the little village	8:35
	of Sol Verino and commandeered the men and the women	8:39
	and the farmers there to bring out rags	8:43
	and sheets and towels.	8:46
	And bound up these morally wounded lying in the rain	8:47
	amidst the claps of thunder.	8:51
	That was the beginning of the whole Red Cross movement.	8:55
	On a thunderous afternoon for a 31 year old boy	8:59
	who became bankrupt in his aspiration,	9:05
	until a journalist heard the story years later	9:07
	and publicized it.	9:11
	And the public was then ready to have it picked up	9:12
	and it became what you take for granted,	9:16
	the Red Cross Movement.	9:19
	You never know, young people, that out of this class	9:21
	will come a breakthrough in science or art or religion.	9:24
	And it'll be long and it'll be painful	9:28
	and it'll be obscured.	9:30
	And if you don't have the inner vision to hang on to it,	9:32
	you'll quit and nobody does anything by ones self.	9:34
	Someone always is helping move it along.	9:39
	The other day we celebrated the anniversary	9:43
	of the Varizano Bridge in New York City	9:46
	because on April the 17th, 1524,	9:49
	that was the day when Varizano discovered	9:53
	the Varizano Bridge.	9:56
	And who cares about Varizano?	10:01
	Varizano was the most illustrious cartographer	10:04
	of his period.	10:08
	He started sailing in Carolina coast	10:10
	and went all the way up to Maine.	10:12
	And as he probed the bays, he discovered	10:15
	the great bay of New York harbor.	10:17
	It was his maps that made it possible	10:20
	for the Americo Vespucci to go up and down.	10:23
	And on his map came Henry Hudson,	10:28
	for whom the Hudson River is named.	10:31
	Men and women probed this great side of the globe.	10:33
	Science had taught for 400 years the earth was flat.	10:38
	These men with an inner vision observing	10:44
	the flatsome and jetsome off the coast of Europe	10:46
	with its pine and balsam thought there had to be	10:48
	something further and they probed.	10:51
	And found this great land.	10:55
	And you're the inheritors.	10:57
	And what are you going to find?	10:58
	Are you going to ride on everybody else's back forever?	11:00
	There's still probing to be done.	11:03
	Men and women move on steps of loved ones and parents	11:07
	and former scientists and research people.	11:11
	And I hold before you, keep your own inner vision alive,	11:14
	that you may build.	11:19
	Because God is in everything.	11:23
	God works to help men and women.	11:24
	Every event has its unseen possibility.	11:27
	As I think of the glory of your education	11:33
	I keep quoting to myself, T.S. Elliott in a play,	11:35
	the Yard of Sun, in which he says this powerful line.	11:39
	There is a reality which shall make faults	11:44
	much that we hold true today.	11:49
	Listen to that.	11:53
	There is a greater reality that will make faults	11:55
	much that we hold true today.	12:00
	Therefore we need to have eyes that see beyond.	12:04
	We need to have the courage to press through the darkness.	12:09
	We need to have the capacity to recognize	12:14
	the obvious as a key to something else.	12:17
	For example, there was electricity in the Garden of Eden.	12:19
	But no public utility.	12:24
	And you say, what a silly idea. I agree with you.	12:28
	But in your learning, when was the electromagnetic	12:31
	theory and discovery introduced	12:34
	between Eden and Duke, May eighth, today.	12:36
	It was there implicitly.	12:40
	And there are things in the world today	12:43
	that God wants to give to men and women	12:45
	who will live by an inner vision to see it developed.	12:47
	And God has a role for every one of you to perform.	12:52
	Even when you go through disappointment.	12:56
	A few months ago we celebrated a bus terminal	12:59
	dispatcher's retirement, isn't that a lofty theme	13:03
	to introduce on this high day.	13:06
	What's the moment of it?	13:09
	He had planned in the late '30s on his graduation	13:11
	to become an aspiring professor of biology	13:15
	with all the intrigue and discovery potential in that.	13:18
	And they weren't hiring teachers of biology.	13:23
	So he became a bus dispatcher.	13:28
	But he treated life sacramentally because he realized	13:33
	there was usefulness in it.	13:36
	And he was the one who controlled the ebb and flow	13:38
	of those hundreds, those hoards of commuters	13:40
	coming across the George Washington Bridge	13:44
	into New York City.	13:45
	And on the day of his retirement all traffic stopped	13:48
	and people jammed the plaza to pay tribute	13:51
	to a disappointed teacher of biology	13:57
	who took the rough nettle of life	14:00
	and became the best bus dispatcher for the teaming	14:03
	hundreds of people who make their creative living	14:07
	in Metropolitan New York.	14:10
	You have to live by the light of an inner vision	14:13
	if you wanna make a marriage work.	14:15
	If you wanna make a university shine like this.	14:18
	If you want to do something for your republic	14:22
	instead of sitting supinely by and crying.	14:24
	If you want to fulfill the meaning of your life.	14:29
	If you live with the light of an inner vision,	14:32
	you become like President Yule of William and Mary College	14:35
	in 1881 to 1888.	14:38
	The college was bankrupted.	14:43
	The students were dismissed.	14:46
	The faculty were put on unemployment.	14:48
	The doors banged open and closed in the wind's idleness.	14:52
	But every day for seven years President Yule	14:58
	and his solitude walked across the campus	15:01
	and rang the bell in the chapel in hope	15:03
	and dream and vision of today.	15:06
	When your sister university is a partner	15:11
	in the glorious cause of education.	15:15
	And my word to you, dear friends, in congratulation	15:20
	is hold the spark of your inner vision.	15:22
	As Renee Dubose, that great biochemist said,	15:26
	it isn't what you have in life.	15:31
	It's what you do with what you have.	15:34
	Hold the vision and may your life be a continuous	15:37
	education all your years in the light	15:40
	of God's vision of truth.	15:43
	Hold the vision within yourself that you may nourish	15:45
	yourself in the long creative process.	15:48
	Hold the vision of God's truth and love for you	15:52
	that you may serve your country in its spiritual need.	15:55
	And at the end of your days remember this baccalaureate	16:00
	and say with St. Paul, I was not disobedient	16:04
	to the heavenly vision I received at Duke.	16:08
	Let us pray.	16:14
	Thanks be to thee, oh God, for the joy and privilege	16:17
	of today and the promise of tomorrow through Christ.	16:20
	Amen.	16:24
	(tradition Catholic music)	16:30
-	Let us now affirm what we believe.	18:27
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	18:31
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	18:36
	to reconcile and make new.	18:39
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	18:42
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	18:46
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil.	18:49
	To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.	18:55
	Our judge and our hope.	18:59
	In life, in death, in life beyond death	19:01
	God is with us, we are not alone.	19:06
	Thanks be to God.	19:10
	The Lord be with you.	19:12
-	And with you.	19:14
-	Let us pray.	19:16
	Oh eternal God, before whose face the generations	19:29
	rise and pass away, age after age of the living	19:34
	seek you and find that of your faithfulness there is no end.	19:39
	You are the inspirer of every true prayer,	19:45
	the giver of all wisdom, the source of all truth,	19:48
	the beginning of all human freedom,	19:53
	the end of all human responsibility.	19:57
	Look oh God this day upon this, your community of learning.	20:00
	Let it ever remain faithful to you,	20:06
	to the truth as we come to know it in you.	20:08
	Keep us ever from surrendering truth	20:12
	or giving over freedom to those who in fear	20:16
	or faithlessness, tell us that we must fight evil	20:20
	with the tools of evil, falsehood with lies,	20:25
	or tyranny with the ways of tyrants.	20:29
	Let this, your university be a light of truth	20:32
	in a world of darkness.	20:37
	A witness to freedom in a world where many	20:39
	are enslaved to idols and to ideologies.	20:42
	A place where all people shall come to know the good.	20:46
	And to know you, the well spring of all good.	20:51
	Oh God, we pray for her graduates,	20:56
	those present, those who have gone before,	20:59
	and those who are yet to come.	21:03
	That in the midst of timid uncertainty,	21:06
	they may boldly stand for something.	21:09
	In the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal.	21:12
	In the midst of false prophets, they may look	21:17
	to your kingdom as the hope of the world.	21:20
	And that in the midst of careless ease,	21:25
	they may mount of up with wings as eagles,	21:28
	may run and not be weary.	21:31
	May walk and not faint.	21:34
	Hear our prayer as in praise and thanksgiving	21:36
	for all that we now have and hold.	21:41
	For we pray in the name of Jesus to taught us to pray	21:44
	saying, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	21:49
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done	21:55
	on earth as it is in heaven.	21:59
	Give us this day our daily bread	22:01
	and forgive us our trespasses	22:04
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	22:06
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	22:10
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	22:15
	and the glory forever.	22:18
	Amen.	22:20
	(tradition Catholic music)	22:31
-	Will you stand, please.	29:22
	Will you join with me now as we offer to God	29:29
	this our unison prayer of gratitude and hope.	29:32
	Let us pray.	29:38
	Almighty God, as you have granted us place	29:40
	and part in this university, hallow to us now this day	29:44
	when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work	29:48
	to which you have called us here.	29:52
	That we may remember with gratitude the families	29:55
	and friends who have cared for us.	29:57
	We ask your presence oh God.	29:59
	That in the life ahead of us we may keep faith	30:03
	with those who have loved us and trusted us.	30:06
	And whose hopes follow us, we ask your presence, oh God.	30:09
	That we may enter with good courage and constant purpose	30:14
	upon the tasks which await us.	30:18
	We ask your presence, oh God.	30:20
	From all sense of strangeness and loneliness	30:24
	and from the fear that we may fail or may find no friends.	30:27
	Good lord deliver us from neglect	30:32
	of the opportunities which are all about us.	30:35
	And from distrust of our ability to meet the duties	30:38
	of each dawning day.	30:41
	Good Lord deliver us.	30:43
	At the example of wise and generous people	30:46
	who have gone before us in our families	30:49
	and here in this university, may save us from folly	30:52
	and self indulgence, we ask your presence, oh God.	30:56
	Nor especially that you would show to us	31:01
	and to all people your way of love	31:05
	in a time when all of us desperately need to love	31:08
	and to be loved, we ask your presence, oh God.	31:12
	These things and whatever else you see needful	31:16
	and right for us, we ask in your holy name.	31:20
	Amen.	31:24
	(traditional Catholic music)	31:29
	And now my dear friends, fill your minds and your hearts	35:23
	with those things that are good and worthy of praise.	35:27
	Those things which are true, noble, right,	35:33
	pure, lovely, and honorable.	35:38
	Put into practice those good things	35:43
	which you have learned in this place.	35:47
	And the God who loves us, cares for us,	35:50
	and gives us peace will be with you now and always.	35:55
	(traditional Catholic music)	36:12

	(reverent organ music)	0:06
	(choir sings all together)	18:17
	(triumphant organ music)	19:35
	(choir sings all together)	20:11
	[Man] Grace, mercy, and peace be with you,	23:48
	from the Lord our God who has created us,	23:52
	who redeems us, and sustains us moment by moment, amen.	23:55
	With what shall we come before the Lord our God	24:02
	and bow ourselves before God on high?	24:05
	God has showed us, my friends, what is good and righteous,	24:09
	and what does the Lord require of us	24:15
	but to do justice, to love mercy,	24:18
	and to walk humbly before our God?	24:21
	With that awareness, let us now confess	24:25
	our sin to Almighty God, be seated, please.	24:28
	Let us pray.	24:41
	Oh holy God, to whose service we long ago	24:43
	dedicated our souls and lives, we grieve	24:47
	and lament before you that we are still so prone to sin	24:50
	and so little inclined to obedience.	24:55
	Attached to the pleasure of sense,	24:59
	negligent of things spiritual, prompt to gratify our bodies,	25:02
	slow to nourish our souls, greedy for present delight,	25:07
	indifferent to lasting blessedness,	25:13
	fond of idleness, indisposed for labor,	25:16
	soon at play, late at prayer, brisk in the service of self,	25:20
	slack in the service of others, eager to get,	25:27
	reluctant to give, lofty in our professions,	25:32
	low in our practice, full of good intentions,	25:36
	backward to fulfill them, severe with our neighbors,	25:41
	indulgent with ourselves, so eager to find fault,	25:46
	so resentful at being found fault with,	25:51
	so little able for great tasks,	25:55
	so discontented with small ones, so weak in adversity,	25:58
	so swollen and self-satisfied in prosperity,	26:03
	so helpless apart from you, and yet so little willing	26:08
	to be bound to you, oh merciful heart of God,	26:12
	grant us yet forgiveness for your holy name's sake, amen.	26:17
	The writer of the book of Hebrews declares to us,	26:48
	"Anyone who comes to God must believe that God exists,	26:50
	and God rewards those who search for the presence of God.	26:54
	The mercy of the Lord is new every morning,	27:02
	great is thy faithfulness, oh Lord, our God."	27:06
	And so, my friends, I declare unto you	27:11
	in the name of the Lord our God, we are forgiven.	27:13
	With that forgiveness now, let us give thanks,	27:19
	for God is good and God's love is everlasting.	27:22
	Thanks be to God, whose love creates us,	27:27
	thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us,	27:31
	thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future.	27:35
	On this beautiful Mother's Day morning,	27:41
	this high and holy moment in the life of Duke University,	27:44
	the highest and most holy weekend of the year	27:49
	for all of us here, let me welcome you	27:52
	to this baccalaureate service of worship	27:55
	here in Duke Chapel, we're pleased to have those of you	27:58
	who received degrees this day,	28:01
	we're also pleased and honored to have	28:03
	members of your families and friends,	28:06
	those who have loved you and supported you	28:10
	in various ways, for these years when you have been here,	28:13
	it is our privilege to have all of you in this place	28:19
	for this very special service of worship.	28:22
	May I say a word of congratulations to those of you	28:26
	who do graduate this afternoon?	28:29
	It is my wish and my prayer that your days here	28:32
	may have been both fruitful and enjoyable for you,	28:35
	and that life ahead, wherever that life goes for you,	28:40
	will be a blessing to you, and that you, in turn,	28:44
	will be of service to God and to your neighbor.	28:49
	Carl Sandberg has a word in which he says,	28:54
	"I have kept high moments, they go round and round in me."	28:57
	I hope that this high moment will be kept by you	29:05
	and that it will go round and round with you.	29:10
	It is our privilege today to have as the preacher	29:14
	for our baccalaureate services of worship,	29:17
	the Reverend Doctor Bryant Kirkland,	29:20
	a most distinguished churchman	29:23
	in the United Presbyterian Church	29:26
	and in the larger church, both in this country and overseas.	29:29
	Dr. Kirkland is presently the senior minister	29:35
	at 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City,	29:38
	a position, a place of ministry	29:41
	where he has served for 21 years.	29:44
	Prior to that time, and since that time,	29:47
	he has been widely known and acclaimed	29:50
	as a preacher, a teacher, and a writer.	29:53
	He is well-known through his writings	29:59
	and through preaching on radio and television	30:01
	and in his church in New York City.	30:03
	Dr. Kirkland, we are honored and pleased	30:07
	to have you here, sir, and we look forward	30:09
	to the word of God which you will bring to us	30:11
	later in the service today.	30:13
	God bless you as you come to bless us.	30:15
	[President Sanford] Let us pray.	30:24
	Almighty God, in whom are hid all the treasures	30:26
	of wisdom and knowledge, open our eyes	30:30
	that we may behold wondrous things out of your word,	30:33
	and give us grace that we may clearly understand	30:37
	and heartedly choose the way of your love, amen.	30:40
	The Old Testament lesson today is from 2nd Kings.	30:47
	"Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel,	30:54
	he took counsel with his servants saying,	30:57
	'At such and such a place shall be my camp.'	31:00
	But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel,	31:04
	'Beware that you do not pass this place,	31:07
	for the Syrians are going down there.'	31:10
	And the king of Israel sent to the place	31:13
	of which the man of God told him,	31:16
	so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.	31:18
	And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled	31:24
	because of this thing, and he called his servants	31:27
	and said to them, 'Will you not show me	31:30
	who of us is for the king of Israel?'	31:32
	And one of his servants said, 'None, my lord, oh king.	31:37
	But Elijah, the prophet who is in Israel,	31:39
	tells the king of Israel the words that you speak	31:43
	in your bedchamber.'	31:46
	And he said, 'Go and see where he is,	31:49
	that I may send and seize him.'	31:51
	And it was told him, 'Behold, he is in Dothen.'	31:55
	So, he sent there horses and chariots and a great army,	31:58
	and they came by night and surrounded the city,	32:03
	and when the servant of the man of God	32:06
	rose early in the morning and went out, behold,	32:09
	an army with horses and chariots were roundabout the city,	32:12
	and the servant said, 'Alas, my master, what shall we do?'	32:15
	He said, 'Fear not, for those who are with us	32:20
	are more than those who are with them.'	32:24
	Then Elijah prayed and said, 'Oh Lord, I pray thee	32:27
	open his eyes that he may see.'	32:30
	So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,	32:34
	and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses	32:36
	and chariots of fire roundabout Elijah."	32:41
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	32:45
	The epistle lesson is from Revelation, chapter 21.	32:50
	"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,	32:55
	and the first heaven and the first earth had passed away	32:58
	and the sea was no more.	33:01
	And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,	33:05
	coming down out of heaven from God,	33:07
	prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.	33:11
	And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,	33:15
	'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.	33:18
	He will dwell with them and they shall be his people,	33:23
	and God himself will be with them.	33:26
	He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,	33:30
	and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning,	33:33
	or crying, nor pain anymore,	33:37
	for the former things have passed away.'	33:40
	And he who sat upon the throne said,	33:43
	'Behold, I make all things new.'	33:46
	Also he said, 'Write this, for these words	33:48
	are trustworthy and true.'	33:51
	And he said to me, 'It is done.	33:55
	I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.	33:58
	To the thirsty, I will give water without price	34:02
	from the fountain of the water of life.	34:05
	He who conquers shall have this heritage	34:09
	and I shall be his god, and he shall be my son.'	34:12
	Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson.	34:17
	(reverent organ music)	34:32
	(choir sings all together)	35:14
	[President Sanford] Will the congregation please stand	39:51
	for the reading of the gospel?	39:54
	The gospel lesson is from Saint Matthew.	40:01
	"Then the disciples came and said to him,	40:06
	'Why do you speak to them in parables?'	40:08
	And he answered them, 'To you, it has been given	40:11
	to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,	40:15
	but to them, it has not been given,	40:17
	for to him who has, will more be given,	40:20
	and he will have abundance, but from him who has not,	40:24
	even what he has will be taken away.	40:28
	This is why I speak to them in parables,	40:31
	because seeing, they do not see, hearing, they do not hear,	40:34
	nor do they understand.	40:39
	With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah	40:41
	which says, you shall indeed hear but never understand,	40:46
	and you shall indeed see but never perceive.	40:50
	For this people's heart has grown dull	40:55
	and their ears are heavy of hearing	40:57
	and their eyes, they have closed.	41:01
	But blessed are your eyes, for they see,	41:03
	and your ears, for they hear.	41:07
	Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men	41:10
	long to see what you see, and did not see it,	41:13
	and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.'"	41:17
	Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson, amen.	41:22
	(reverent organ music)	41:28
	(choir sings all together)	41:36
	[Dr. Kirkland] President Sanford, eminent trustees,	42:32
	distinguished faculty, honored students,	42:37
	longsuffering parents.	42:40
	(crowd laughs)	42:42
	It's a great privilege in my heart to be here	42:45
	on this very important, moving day	42:47
	to celebrate with you your graduation.	42:50
	It's also a very heavy responsibility	42:54
	to try and say a fit word for your own personal aspirations,	42:57
	and to recognize in a secular society	43:02
	that many people wonder why have a baccalaureate?	43:06
	Baccalaureate is a remembrance that there's a depth to life	43:10
	beyond data gathering and our hypotheticating.	43:14
	There's a commitment of will and of spirit	43:19
	to the things that last.	43:22
	Therefore, my subject this morning	43:25
	is live in the light of an inner vision.	43:27
	In the Scriptures read by the President,	43:31
	you caught the two words, seeing and perceiving.	43:33
	So, if anybody asks you what he talked about,	43:38
	say he talked about seeing and perceiving	43:41
	and live in the light of an inner vision.	43:43
	I'm grateful for all the hospitality I've enjoyed	43:48
	up to this point, and I feel sorry for the people	43:51
	who have to hear baccalaureate three times.	43:54
	Live in the light of an inner vision.	43:59
	The Harvard Business Review says	44:02
	most cultures measure life by success,	44:04
	but true culture is measured by how people handle	44:09
	their disappointments and their defeats.	44:13
	In order to handle life's vagaries,	44:17
	one needs to live in the light of an inner vision	44:20
	beyond one's days and years.	44:23
	The American Dream was spoken by Vince Lombardi,	44:28
	who said the cliche, winning is everything.	44:32
	And most men and women think that's true.	44:37
	As I stand here on the line of the axis	44:42
	between two great winning basketball teams	44:45
	(crowd laughs)	44:50
	I am mindful that you only glory in winning	44:53
	when you have worthy opponents, someone has to lose.	44:57
	It would not be great for your rejoicing, as I understood,	45:03
	you were dancing in the streets throughout this triangle,	45:06
	if you had merely defeated Red Clay County High School.	45:10
	How do you handle these tensions and pressures	45:17
	in life that are bound to come?	45:19
	Your parents know them and some of you have tasted them,	45:21
	and you shall taste them.	45:24
	Winning is not everything.	45:27
	Out of the pain and suffering and the tumult of life	45:31
	comes the richness of it and the contribution.	45:34
	It's that maturity of wisdom we're groping after	45:38
	this morning as you dedicate yourselves	45:42
	in arts and sciences and medicine	45:44

Item Info

Title:

Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 8, 1983)

Description:

Only by living by the light of an inner vision will we be able to live full and purposeful lives. This vision will help guide us through the hills and valleys and the obscure darknesses of life. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 00:03. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 45:47.
Key quotation: “Live by the light of an inner vision.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4pr7n80z

Date:

May 8, 1983

Speaker:

Kirkland, Bryant

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0148
ref7819_zhs
uachapelsermaud
duke:320809
dcrau001139
ark:/87924/r4pr7n80z
7a34e664-8268-4302-b124-9b409a9923e9

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North Carolina
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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 8, 1983)

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1. Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service (May 7, 1983)

2. Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service 10:30 am (May 8, 1983)

Duke University Archives

Bryant Kirkland - Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 8, 1983)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives