J. Michael Laidlaw - "Letting the Stones Proclaim" (September 11, 1983)

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	(lively organ music)	0:03
	(lively organ music)	0:37
	(upbeat instrumental music)	2:22
	♪ Beautiful savior ♪	5:44
	♪ Lord of our nations ♪	5:51
	♪ Son of God ♪	5:58
	♪ And Son of man ♪	6:03
	♪ Glory and honor ♪	6:12
	♪ Praise, adoration ♪	6:19
	♪ Now and forevermore be thine ♪	6:26
	♪ Now and forevermore ♪	6:40
	♪ Be thine ♪	6:53
	(lively organ music)	7:05
	(congregation sings)	7:41
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:14
	(congregation sings)	8:18
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:45
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:50
	(congregation sings)	8:55
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:24
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:27
	(congregation sings)	9:33
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	10:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	10:05
	(lively organ music)	10:12
	(choir sings)	11:04
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:31
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:35
-	Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you this day	11:48
	in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.	11:53
	If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in is,	11:59
	let us therefore bow before God,	12:05
	offering now our confession.	12:08
	Let us pray.	12:11
	Lord God.	12:19
-	We confess that we are unready for your kingdom	12:20
	of love and peace to be established among us.	12:24
	We still turn aside from other's suffering,	12:28
	we still postpone caring for your creation.	12:32
	We still tolerate war and take too lightly	12:36
	the burdens of making peace.	12:40
	Forgive us, oh God, our unreadiness,	12:43
	awaken us again to your presence among us	12:47
	and make of us signs of the coming victory	12:51
	of your mercy through Jesus Christ,	12:54
	child of your love,	12:58
	brother to our hopes.	13:00
	Amen.	13:03
-	As far as the east is from the west,	13:41
	so far has God removed our transgressions from us.	13:44
	Let us give thanks for God is good	13:50
	and God's love is everlasting.	13:52
-	Thanks be to God whose love creates us.	13:55
	Thanks be to God whose mercy redeems us,	13:59
	thanks be to God whose grace leads us into the future.	14:04
	We welcome you to this service of worship	14:11
	on this Sunday, the 16th Sunday after Pentecost.	14:13
	If you are a visitor in our midst this morning,	14:18
	we are particularly grateful	14:20
	that you have joined with us.	14:22
	We pray that you will feel welcomed	14:25
	as a member of this congregation	14:27
	and that you will meet God	14:30
	in this service of worship.	14:32
	The flowers on the altar this morning	14:36
	were given by the university	14:38
	in memory of Frederick C. George.	14:40
	The memorial service for Dr. George	14:44
	will be this afternoon at two o'clock here in Duke Chapel.	14:46
	Our preacher for this morning	14:55
	is the Reverend John Michael Laidlaw.	14:57
	Last year Mike served as Presbyterian campus minister	15:00
	here at Duke.	15:04
	Those of us on the religious life staff	15:06
	who had the opportunity to work with him	15:08
	in that capacity are delighted	15:10
	that he has been asked to serve this year	15:13
	during this academic year	15:15
	as assistant minister to the university.	15:17
	Mike is a compassionate and challenging colleague	15:21
	and minister and we are fortunate to have him	15:24
	in our midst.	15:27
	His sermon topic for today	15:30
	is Letting the Stones Proclaim.	15:32
-	Let us pray.	15:43
	Oh Lord our God, you have given your word	15:46
	to be lamp unto our feet	15:49
	and a light unto our path.	15:50
	Grant us grace to receive your truth	15:52
	and faith and love that by it	15:54
	we may be prepared and to every good word	15:56
	and work to the glory of your name	15:58
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	16:01
	Amen.	16:03
	The Old Testament lesson is from Joshua chapter four	16:05
	verses one through eight.	16:08
	When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan,	16:10
	Yahweh spoke to Joshua.	16:12
	Choose out 12 men from the people,	16:14
	one man from each tribe	16:16
	and give them this command,	16:19
	take from here from mid Jordan 12 stones,	16:21
	carry them with you and set them down	16:24
	in the camp where you pass the night.	16:26
	Joshua called the 12 men he had marked out	16:28
	among the Israelites, one man for each tribe	16:31
	and told them, pass on before the Arc of Yahweh,	16:33
	your God into mid Jordan	16:36
	and each of you take one stone on his shoulder,	16:38
	matching the number of the tribes of Israel	16:41
	to make a memorial of this in your midst	16:43
	for when in days to come	16:46
	your children ask you, what do these stones means for you?	16:47
	You will tell, the waters of the Jordan separated	16:50
	in front of the arc of the covenant of Yahweh	16:53
	and when it crossed the Jordan,	16:56
	the waters of the rivers vanished.	16:57
	These stones are an everlasting reminder of this	16:59
	to the Israelites.	17:02
	The Israelites did as Joshua told them.	17:03
	They took 12 stones from mid Jordan	17:06
	to match the number of the tribes of Israel	17:07
	as Yahweh had told Joshua.	17:10
	They carried them over to the camp	17:12
	and set them down there.	17:13
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	17:15
	The epistle lesson is from 1 Timothy chapter one	17:18
	verses 12 through 17.	17:21
	I thank Christ Jesus our Lord	17:24
	who has given me strength	17:26
	and who judged me faithful enough	17:27
	to call me into his service	17:29
	even though I used to be a blasphemer	17:30
	and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith.	17:33
	Mercy, however, was shown me	17:36
	because until I became a believer,	17:38
	I had been acting in ignorance	17:40
	and the grace of our Lord filled me with faith	17:42
	and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.	17:44
	Here is a saying that you can rely on	17:46
	and nobody should doubt,	17:48
	that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.	17:50
	I myself am the greatest of them	17:54
	and if mercy has been shown to me,	17:56
	it is because Jesus Christ	17:57
	meant to make me the greatest evidence	17:59
	of his inexhaustible patience	18:01
	for all the other people who would later have	18:03
	to trust in him to come to eternal life.	18:05
	To the eternal King, the undying, invisible	18:08
	and only God, be honor and flory forever and forever.	18:10
	Amen.	18:14
	Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson.	18:15
	(tranquil organ music)	18:26
	(choir sings)	18:36
	Will the congregation please stand	20:28
	for the reading of the gospel lesson.	20:30
	The gospel lesson is from Luke chapter 15	20:36
	verses one through three, and 11 through 32.	20:39
	The tax collectors and the sinners meanwhile	20:43
	were all seeking his company to hear what he had to say	20:45
	and the Pharisees and the scribes complained.	20:48
	This man, they said, welcomes sinners	20:51
	and eats with them, so he spoke this parable to them.	20:52
	A man had two sons.	20:57
	The younger said to his father,	20:59
	father, let me have the share of the estate	21:00
	that would come to me.	21:02
	So, the father divided the property between them.	21:04
	A few days later, the younger son got together everything	21:07
	he had and left for a distant country	21:10
	where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.	21:12
	When he has spent it all,	21:15
	that country experienced a severe famine	21:16
	and now he began to feel the pinch.	21:18
	So, he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants	21:21
	who put him on his farm to feed the pigs	21:25
	and he would willingly have filled his belly	21:27
	with the husk of the pigs were eating	21:29
	but no one offered him anything.	21:31
	Then he came to his senses and said,	21:34
	how many of my father's paid servants have more food	21:36
	than they want and here I am dying of hunger.	21:38
	I will leave this place and go to my father and say,	21:40
	father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.	21:44
	I no longer deserve to be called your son,	21:47
	treat me as one of your paid servants,	21:49
	so he left the place and went back to his father.	21:51
	While he was still a long way off,	21:54
	his father saw him and was moved with pity.	21:56
	He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms	21:59
	and kissed him tenderly.	22:01
	Then his son said, father,	22:03
	I have sinned against heaven and against you.	22:05
	I no longer deserve to be called your son	22:07
	but the father said to his servants,	22:09
	quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him,	22:11
	put a ring on his finger	22:14
	and sandals on this feet.	22:15
	Bring the calf we have been fattening and kill it.	22:17
	We're going to have a feast,	22:19
	a celebration because the son of the mine was dead	22:21
	and has come to life, he was lost and is found	22:23
	and they began to celebrate.	22:26
	Now the elder son was out in the fields	22:28
	and on his way back, as he drew near the house,	22:30
	he could hear the music and dancing.	22:33
	Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about.	22:35
	Your brother has come, replied the servant	22:38
	and your father has killed the calf we had fattened	22:39
	because it has gotten him back safe and sound.	22:41
	He was angry then and refused to go in	22:44
	and his father came out to plead with him	22:46
	but he answered his father in this way.	22:48
	Look, all these years I have slaved for you	22:51
	and never once disobeyed your orders	22:53
	yet you never offered me so much as a kid	22:55
	for me to celebrate with my friends.	22:57
	But for this son of yours	23:00
	when he comes back after squalling up your property,	23:02
	he and his women, you kill the calf we had been fattening.	23:05
	The father said, my son,	23:08
	you're with me always and all I have is yours	23:10
	but it was only right we should celebrate	23:13
	and rejoice because your brother here was dead	23:15
	and has come to life.	23:17
	He was lost and is found.	23:18
	Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson.	23:21
	Amen.	23:24
	(lively organ music)	23:25
	(congregation sings)	23:33
-	Praying together as a community of faith.	24:33
	Provide us now, oh Lord,	24:38
	the gifts of discernment and awe	24:40
	that we may hear your word	24:44
	since your presence	24:47
	and most fully experience your creation.	24:50
	In the name of Jesus, the Christ,	24:56
	amen.	25:01
	Some time ago my wife and I experienced	25:09
	a reunion of deep meaning.	25:12
	With Dr. Thomas Greer,	25:15
	friend, fellow learner,	25:18
	brother skeptic,	25:23
	comrade in love,	25:25
	fraternal faith pilgrim,	25:28
	keeper of the angst of the world.	25:31
	To know Tom is to love him, that's inevitable	25:35
	but to be with him is to be in the presence	25:40
	of a strange and remarkable restlessness.	25:43
	It is, I believe, the sort of divine discontent	25:49
	that marked the life of yet another faith pilgrim,	25:54
	that Hebrew who Yahweh decided	25:58
	was best called Abraham.	26:01
	As Tom and Susan and I	26:06
	savored numerous post-birth pre-death experiences,	26:08
	our own, others,	26:14
	nobody's in particular,	26:17
	we were moved to ask	26:20
	not once only,	26:22
	nor twice nor even thrice as I recall	26:24
	but a multitude of times about a multitude of places	26:27
	why, why did we leave that place?	26:32
	Sitting in the middle of an old utopia,	26:38
	you know what utopia means, don't you?	26:42
	It translates nowhere.	26:44
	But we were there in that old nowhere	26:48
	and our presence and our conversation	26:52
	carried meaning that day	26:55
	that even we did not yet know.	26:57
	Why did we leave that place	27:01
	and that place also and still that place?	27:04
	And just as important,	27:10
	why did we go to wherever it was that we went	27:12
	when we left wherever it was that we were?	27:16
	Why did we leave?	27:20
	The question has about it, you see,	27:23
	a stubborn quality,	27:27
	refusing to yield to superficial reply.	27:30
	For that reason and because of this particular time	27:35
	in our lives together,	27:40
	I turn the question around	27:43
	and I ask each of you,	27:46
	why did you leave that place which you left	27:49
	and why did you come to this place	27:53
	and why in time will you leave here	27:57
	and go wherever it is that you will go	28:00
	only no doubt to leave again?	28:04
	What does all of this movement mean?	28:08
	Or does it mean anything at all,	28:12
	anything more than a university's blessing	28:14
	and in time a dollar or two	28:16
	and maybe, maybe the winning of your true love's heart.	28:18
	The Bible acknowledges it early on.	28:26
	Existence repeatedly confirms it	28:29
	and sometimes, sometimes in our more lucid,	28:33
	honest careless moments, we too blurt it out.	28:37
	Life is a journey.	28:41
	Life is a pilgrimage to live,	28:45
	to live is to move.	28:50
	And sometimes it's a movement that is grand and obvious	28:54
	as when we marry, for example	28:59
	or when we come to the university for the first time	29:02
	or leave it for the last time	29:05
	or when we labor ourselves out of our mother's womb,	29:07
	movement, grand and obvious and terrifying.	29:10
	Sometimes the movement is almost inconspicuous	29:17
	but still it terrifies even as it causes us enormous joy	29:22
	as when we see or feel those first faint	29:29
	but distinct prenatal thrashings about	29:33
	and well that it should terrify	29:38
	when we think of all that it might mean,	29:41
	all that it surely will mean.	29:45
	To be alive is to be on the move, that's all.	29:49
	Life is not stasis,	29:53
	not even when we ache for it to be so.	29:57
	Not even when in a fit of nostalgia	30:01
	we try to make it so.	30:03
	Whether it's the rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem	30:08
	or you and me heading toward Duke	30:12
	or an impatient son cashing his bonds,	30:16
	selling his portfolio	30:21
	and heading off to the far country	30:23
	to be alive, to be alive	30:26
	is to be on the move.	30:29
	Why?	30:33
	Why, for God's sake?	30:34
	For what purpose?	30:37
	To what end?	30:39
	I said an old Baptist prophet to anyone cared to listen,	30:44
	Jesus is the name of our species	30:48
	which was Carlisle Marnie's way of saying	30:56
	what whoever it was that wrote the letter	30:59
	to the Christian church as Ephesus	31:00
	was saying when he wrote,	31:02
	so shall we all at last attain to the unity	31:05
	inherent in our faith and our knowledge	31:09
	of the son of God	31:11
	to mature humanhood measured by nothing less	31:13
	than the full stature of Jesus Christ.	31:17
	Mature humanhood.	31:23
	Jesus is the name of our species.	31:26
	This, this I believe more than anything else	31:32
	is at the heart of all our scamper and scurry,	31:36
	all of our movement to this place and to that place	31:39
	which is another way of saying	31:44
	that the answer to our question that day	31:46
	which hounded Tom and Susan and me well beyond that day	31:49
	was that we leave one place and go to another	31:54
	in order to become whatever it is	31:57
	that we must become to be fully human,	31:59
	to be human beings.	32:05
	As a matter of ego pride,	32:10
	as a matter of ego pride,	32:13
	I do wish that we had been quick enough	32:14
	and clever enough that day	32:16
	to declare that and to realize it consciously	32:19
	as I'm sure that we did realize it then unconsciously	32:22
	but I'll settle for knowing it late	32:28
	rather than not knowing it at all, thank you.	32:30
	But of course,	32:35
	of course, our answer opened us	32:38
	to a further question as all genuine answers seem to do.	32:40
	And that question is this,	32:46
	what, what does it mean to be human?	32:50
	Well, among other things,	32:56
	to be human means this,	32:59
	it means to be in relationship,	33:02
	to exist with.	33:06
	How impoverished is the philosophy of life	33:09
	and those who embrace the philosophy of life	33:13
	that somehow we become most fully ourselves	33:17
	as we live separated from others,	33:20
	distanced from others,	33:23
	in fact, in fact, authentic personhood emerges	33:28
	only as we touch and are touched by other persons,	33:32
	family, friends, strangers,	33:37
	even the seagull and the wind and God.	33:42
	I become who I am and I learn who I am	33:47
	only as these impinge on my life	33:51
	and I on theirs.	33:54
	And impinge not in any small way either	33:57
	but in such a way that my senses are filled	34:00
	to overflowing and our passions, theirs and mine	34:03
	are stirred by one another.	34:07
	To be human means to exist with	34:11
	and it means also to exist for.	34:19
	For whom, for whom?	34:23
	Well, for ourselves of course	34:25
	and for Emily and Tom and Paul	34:28
	and our other friends,	34:30
	for them certainly	34:32
	but also for that nameless one	34:34
	whose name I don't know,	34:38
	whose name I avoid knowing,	34:41
	whose name I don't even want to know.	34:43
	That nameless one with the smell of stale beer	34:47
	on his breath and urine on this trousers	34:50
	and the twinkle in his eye long gone, long dead.	34:54
	And for that familiar one whose dress	35:01
	has been the dress that she's worn for days now	35:03
	and whose face we've known for years now	35:07
	and whose name we just might recall	35:12
	if we but put our minds to it,	35:15
	just might remember if we're pressed	35:17
	and whose strange and garbled mutterings	35:21
	to no one in particular and to everyone	35:25
	cause us great amusement.	35:28
	That one for whose presence among us,	35:33
	we're at once grateful and embarrassed,	35:35
	grateful because when the world is laughing at her,	35:39
	it's not laughing at us,	35:43
	embarrassed because we know, we know somewhere	35:45
	within ourselves at what cost she lives each day	35:48
	and survives each night.	35:55
	For ourselves, yes and for our friends	35:58
	but to be human is to exist	36:01
	also for those whom the Bible calls	36:03
	for want of a better name, the wretched,	36:06
	the wretched of the Earth.	36:09
	Having said this,	36:15
	I want to say too, need to say	36:17
	that to be human,	36:20
	to be human is to be alive to the comic around us	36:23
	no less than to the pathos around us,	36:26
	for to sense the comic quality of things	36:30
	I believe is to discover that humor and laughter	36:33
	is born of God no less than the universe	36:36
	is born of God.	36:39
	In this place, this place that is a grand	36:44
	and gothic statement of itself,	36:48
	in this place which sometimes dwarfs us	36:51
	and intimidates us, even here	36:54
	there's a sense of humor,	36:58
	hiding perhaps, lurking in the rafters perhaps	37:01
	but here, here nevertheless.	37:07
	Abraham, for example, standing new papa proud	37:12
	among these brilliant windows,	37:16
	Isaac the son of his old age sitting on Sarah's lap	37:20
	and Sarah looking for all the world	37:26
	like a stern Calvinist	37:29
	but not Abraham.	37:32
	No, he stands up there proud,	37:35
	beaming, alive to the miracle of it all	37:39
	and he catches Isaac's eye	37:45
	and with an eye of his own	37:49
	he gives Isaac a bold	37:50
	and naughty and knowing wink.	37:53
	There is mischief here,	38:00
	laughter here, a reminder I think	38:03
	that God calls us to take ourselves seriously enough	38:08
	but not too seriously lest we somehow get	38:13
	in our own way and the way of the world,	38:18
	not to mention God's way	38:21
	and miss the joy of things	38:23
	and the surprise in it all.	38:28
	And too, even as you and I are open to all of this,	38:34
	we likewise need to be open to the sacred dimension	38:40
	of all of creation	38:43
	which is to say alive	38:47
	to the sacramental character,	38:50
	alive to the sacramental character	38:52
	of all things and all people.	38:55
	For me to be conscious of the divine dimension	39:00
	of all reality is to be aware	39:03
	that the God in whom I live and move	39:06
	and have my being is the very God	39:09
	in whom all live and move	39:13
	and from whence comes every being.	39:16
	In the beginning, said an ancient poet,	39:20
	in the beginning, God created	39:24
	and God saw everything that he had made,	39:26
	everything that he had made	39:30
	and behold it was very good.	39:32
	Why on earth did we leave that place	39:42
	and why did we come to of all places this place	39:47
	and why in time will we leave this place?	39:52
	Well, well, if we're honest,	39:57
	we do all of this in order to become human beings.	40:00
	Oh, we're tempted to settle for less sometimes.	40:05
	Sometimes we do settle for less,	40:09
	power, a bank account,	40:12
	a pat on the back, a place in the system,	40:16
	some husks for the pigs,	40:19
	we do settle for less, God knows,	40:21
	we do settle for substitutes	40:23
	but the craving, the craving will not go away.	40:27
	It does not cease.	40:30
	A curious son went on a journey	40:35
	and on that journey,	40:39
	the Revised Standard Version puts it best I think,	40:43
	on that journey it says,	40:46
	he came to himself.	40:49
	Jesus is the name of our species.	40:54
	In other words, Jesus became what we are	40:58
	that we might become who he is,	41:02
	a human being.	41:06
	And what does it mean to be human?	41:08
	Well, among other things, it means to live with	41:10
	and to live for	41:14
	and to live consciously,	41:16
	conscious of the comic and conscious of the sacred	41:19
	and I say this as if they're separate somehow	41:26
	which they are not.	41:29
	And to be alive is to be on a journey,	41:32
	a journey into the fullness of our humanhood.	41:36
	That's what the younger son was up to,	41:40
	that's what we're all up to.	41:43
	Movement and discovery and growth	41:46
	measured by nothing less, nothing less	41:53
	than the full stature of Jesus Christ.	41:58
	Each of these things you have heard me say	42:07
	yet in the end it is you	42:11
	who must discover and determine their validity.	42:14
	At once I pity you and envy you	42:20
	that pilgrimage of discovery.	42:22
	In the meantime though, in the meantime I wish for you,	42:27
	I wish for you tulips and tears,	42:31
	laughter and disappointment,	42:35
	cherry blossoms and blackberry winters,	42:39
	poets and unicorns,	42:43
	satellites and seashells,	42:46
	learning and teaching, climbing and falling,	42:49
	whispered intimacies, and oceans roar	42:53
	and I pray, I pray that these will be lived	43:00
	in a season with God Shalom as its destiny	43:04
	and the agape of God	43:10
	as its center.	43:12
	In the the name of the Christ, amen.	43:17
	(lively organ music)	43:27
	(congregation sings)	43:57
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	46:04
-	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	46:08
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	46:12
	to reconcile and make new,	46:15
	who works in us and others by the Spirit.	46:18
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	46:22
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	46:27
	to love and serve others, to seek justice	46:30
	and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	46:34
	our judge and our hope.	46:39
	In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us,	46:42
	we are not alone.	46:49
	Thanks be to God.	46:51
-	The Lord be with you.	46:53
-	And also with you.	46:55
-	Let us pray.	46:57
	Most holy God,	47:07
	you whom we experience as creator,	47:08
	comforter and nurturer,	47:12
	we bow before you now,	47:15
	grateful for this time apart	47:17
	from the busy schedules and constant pressures	47:19
	which seem to control us.	47:23
	This past week has bombarded us	47:25
	with too much to absorb,	47:29
	too much to make sense out of.	47:31
	We grieve with families and friends,	47:35
	of passengers on a Korean Airlines,	47:38
	killed in a senseless act of destruction.	47:41
	We wonder what it must feel like	47:46
	to be one of those family members grieving	47:48
	and angry and helpless.	47:51
	We pray for them as they live with their grief	47:55
	asking that you be their comforter	47:58
	and that your people may reach out to them	48:01
	to share in their grief	48:04
	and to be their support.	48:06
	We wonder what is happening in our world, oh God	48:09
	when tensions between nations rise to the point	48:12
	that 269 innocent people	48:16
	have to die as a result of those tensions.	48:19
	When young soldiers and civilians.	48:23

-	Today in Lebanon, supposedly protected	0:03
	by a peacekeeping force	0:06
	and when untold numbers are silently wisped away to prison	0:08
	in countries whose leaders demand	0:13
	that there be no dissenting opinions,	0:16
	we are aware that most of us	0:19
	are still insulated from such terrors	0:21
	but at times the fears reach terribly close to home.	0:25
	We do pray for such a world, oh God.	0:30
	We pray for the leaders of our world,	0:34
	for President Reagan, for those with power	0:37
	in Russia and Lebanon, in Israel,	0:41
	in Chile, in Nicaragua and El Salvador,	0:45
	give them wisdom as they govern	0:49
	and though we may feel hopeless	0:53
	as we pray, we still pray	0:55
	knowing that you are our hope	0:58
	and that it is possible through you	1:00
	for people to change direction	1:03
	and desire to seek peace and justice in this world.	1:06
	Sometimes, oh God, our own personal concerns bombard us	1:12
	so that we can hardly hear the news from beyond.	1:16
	There are those in our very midst	1:20
	who grieve because of the loss of loved ones.	1:22
	Be to them the God who comforts and sustains.	1:26
	There are those who are fearful	1:30
	because of unusual stress or illness,	1:32
	their own or that of loved ones.	1:35
	Oh God, we know you to be a God	1:38
	who is healer and nurturer.	1:41
	Be with those who suffer.	1:44
	There are students and faculty, administration	1:48
	and staff at this institution	1:51
	who are beginning a new year now	1:52
	with its challenges, its excitements,	1:54
	its demands and its tensions.	1:57
	Be with all of those	2:01
	who are experiencing this new beginning	2:02
	whether they meet it fear	2:05
	or with excitement or with a little of both.	2:07
	May they know you to be the one	2:11
	who is always present,	2:13
	who sustains through the everyday demands	2:15
	which seem never to leave us.	2:18
	In the midst of all of this, oh God of love and peace,	2:21
	we pray for that peace that passes all understanding.	2:25
	We give thanks for this place of worship	2:30
	and this people gathered here in your name	2:32
	and we are aware of the nurture	2:37
	which comes from such community.	2:39
	We give thanks for family and friends	2:42
	and the important places	2:45
	which they have in our lives.	2:47
	In a time when so much is undependable,	2:49
	we give thanks for the rising	2:53
	and setting of the sun,	2:55
	the blue of the sky,	2:57
	the coming and going of the seasons,	2:59
	and the beauty which is present in each season of the year.	3:03
	Give us eyes to see and ears to hear your presence	3:07
	in the world.	3:11
	May we be childlike enough	3:13
	still to recognize the wonder in nature	3:15
	and may we be sensitive enough	3:19
	to find you in the faces of others	3:21
	whom we encounter	3:24
	and this day, oh God	3:27
	for the gift of life	3:29
	and the opportunity to move	3:32
	toward being fully human,	3:33
	we give thanks.	3:36
	In the name of Him who showed us most perfectly	3:38
	how to live, Jesus the Christ,	3:42
	we pray the prayer which he taught us saying.	3:46
-	Our Father, who art in heaven,	3:50
	hallowed be thy name,	3:53
	thy kingdom come,	3:55
	thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.	3:57
	Give us this day our daily bread	4:01
	and forgive us our trespasses	4:03
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	4:06
	and lead us not into temptation	4:10
	but deliver us from evil	4:12
	for thine is the kingdom	4:15
	and the power and the glory forever.	4:17
	Amen.	4:21
	(tranquil organ music)	4:27
	(choir sings)	5:33
	(lively organ music)	12:20
	(congregation sings)	12:40
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	12:52
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	12:54
	(congregation sings)	13:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:12
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:15
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:18
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:21
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:25
-	We bring and dedicate this part	13:45
	of what we have, creator God.	13:47
	Use it to spread peace and justice	13:50
	and the good news of your love in every land.	13:54
	Remind us that you also ask of us	13:58
	as you ask of your covenant people so long ago	14:02
	that we do justice	14:06
	and love mercy and seek always to walk humbly with you.	14:08
	Amen.	14:15
	(lively organ music)	14:19
	(congregation sings)	14:58
-	Go in peace knowing	18:30
	that neither life nor death nor things on this Earth	18:32
	nor things beyond this Earth,	18:36
	nor anything in all creation	18:39
	can separate you from the love of God.	18:42
	♪ Amen ♪	18:55
	♪ Amen ♪	19:05
	♪ Amen ♪	19:16
	♪ Amen ♪	19:26
	♪ Amen ♪	19:31
	♪ Amen ♪	19:43
	♪ Amen ♪	19:59
	(lively organ music)	20:24
	(tranquil organ music)	21:53
	(lively organ music)	24:15

Item Info

Title:

J. Michael Laidlaw - "Letting the Stones Proclaim" (September 11, 1983)

Description:

Constant movement and change is a ubiquitous experience of human life. To be alive is to be on a journey toward becoming truly human, and to be human is to be with others in relationship, to live for the sake of others––friends, family, and the wretched of the earth––and to be conscious of the comic and the sacred in all of life. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 24:33. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 43:22.
Key quotation: “To be alive is to be on a journey, a journey into the fullness of our humanhood. That’s what the [prodigal] son was up to, that’s what we’re all up to: movement and discovery and growth, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Jesus Christ.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4cv4c62t

Date:

September 11, 1983

Speaker:

Laidlaw, J. Michael

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0168
ref7859_o2h
uachapelsermaud
duke:321195
dcrau001159
ark:/87924/r4cv4c62t
8823a2e0-d584-43b7-83a8-19dd67458d5e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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J. Michael Laidlaw - "Letting the Stones Proclaim" (September 11, 1983)

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