Martin E. Marty - "The Usefulness of a Useless Vision" (November 6, 1983)

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	(slow organ music)	0:03
	(background shuffling)	0:51
	(slow organ music)	0:56
	(footsteps tapping)	2:55
	(dramatic organ music)	3:07
	(footsteps tapping)	7:27
	(spiritual organ music)	7:50
	(lively organ music)	12:25
	(uplifting organ music)	16:55
-	Let us join together in the call to worship.	21:14
	How lovely is your dwelling place?	21:24
-	Oh Lord of hosts.	21:27
-	My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.	21:29
-	My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.	21:34
-	Even the sparrow finds a home,	21:39
	and the swallow a nest for herself,	21:41
	where she may lay her young.	21:44
-	Near your alters, Oh Lord of hosts.	21:47
-	Blessed are those who dwell in your house.	21:49
-	And receive your grace.	21:53
-	Blessed are those whose strength is in you.	21:55
-	In whose heart are the highways to Zion.	21:59
-	Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.	22:02
-	Give ear, oh God of Jacob.	22:06
-	Behold our shield, oh God.	22:09
-	Look graciously upon me.	22:12
-	For a day in your courts	22:15
	is better than a thousand elsewhere.	22:17
-	I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God	22:20
	than dwell in the tents of wickedness.	22:24
-	For For the Lord God is a sun and shield,	22:27
	bestowing favor and honor.	22:30
-	No good thing does he withhold	22:33
	from those who walk uprightly.	22:36
-	Oh Lord of hosts.	22:38
-	Blessed is the one who trusts in you.	22:41
-	If we say we have not sinned	22:45
	we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.	22:48
	Let us, then, confess our sins	22:52
	in the presence of one another	22:55
	and before almighty God.	22:57
	Let us pray.	23:00
	Oh Lord of all seasons,	23:13
	author of our salvation,	23:15
	in the presence of saints living and dead,	23:17
	we declare our sin and seek your pardon.	23:21
	Our need is great.	23:24
	We are disobedient people.	23:26
	The gods of this age claim our allegiance.	23:29
	The values of this age have become the tenets of our faith.	23:32
	Afraid of death,	23:37
	we are yet careless with life.	23:39
	War is tolerated.	23:41
	People become but a means to an end.	23:43
	We betray the bold witnesses who have preceded us.	23:47
	Oh God, we regret our sin.	23:51
	Startle us now by your divine foolishness,	23:54
	by your outrageous grace, redeem us.	23:58
	And saving us, cause us to hunger for what is right	24:02
	to be merciful indeed and bring shalom	24:07
	to this, your creation.	24:10
	Through Jesus Christ our lord, amen.	24:12
	(background coughing)	24:26
	The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit.	24:46
	A broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.	24:51
	In the name of Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven.	24:57
	Amen.	25:02
	(tonal music)	25:09
	(lively orchestral music)	26:46
	(choral singing)	27:13
	(lively orchestral music)
	(coughing)	31:38
	(cheerful organ music)	31:43
	(operatic singing)	32:21
	(choral singing)	35:52
	(dramatic orchestral music)
	(operatic singing)	38:36
	(somber orchestral music)
	(operatic singing)	39:49
	(uplifting orchestral music)
	(tonal singing)	44:17
	(mellow orchestral music)
-	Let us pray.	45:33
	Oh Lord our God,	45:36
	you have given your word to be a lamp	45:38
	unto our path.	45:41
	Grant us grace to receive your truth	45:43
	in faith and love.	45:46
	That by it we may be prepared	45:49
	for every good word and work,	45:52
	to the glory of your name,	45:55
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	45:57
	Amen.	46:01
	The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah,	46:05
	chapter 26, beginning with the first verse.	46:08
	"In that day this song will be sung	46:12
	"in the land of Judah.	46:15
	"We have a strong city.	46:18
	He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.	46:20
	Open the gates, that the righteous nation	46:25
	which keeps faith may enter in.	46:28
	Thou doth keep him in perfect peace,	46:31
	whose mind is stayed on thee,	46:35
	because he trusts in thee.	46:38
	Trust in the Lord for ever,	46:41
	for the Lord is an everlasting rock.	46:44
	In the path of thy judgments, O Lord, we wait for thee,	46:48
	thy memorial name is the desire of our soul.	46:53
	My soul yearns for thee in the night,	46:58
	my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee,	47:02
	for when thy judgments are in the earth,	47:07
	the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.	47:10
	O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us.	47:15
	Thou hast wrought for us all our works.	47:20
	O Lord our God, other lords besides thee	47:23
	have ruled over us, but thy name alone	47:27
	we acknowledge.	47:31
	Thy dead shall live.	47:34
	Their bodies shall rise.	47:37
	O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy.	47:40
	For thy dew is a dew of light.	47:45
	And on the land of the Shades,	47:48
	thou wilt let it fall.	47:51
	Come my people, empty your chambers	47:54
	and shut your doors behind you.	47:58
	Hide yourselves for a little while	48:01
	until the wrath has passed,	48:04
	for behold the Lord is coming forth	48:07
	out of his place, to punish the inhabitants	48:09
	of the Earth for their iniquity.	48:13
	And the Earth will disclose the bloodshed upon her	48:15
	and will no more cover her slain.	48:20
	Here is the reading from the Old Testament.	48:26
	The New Testament lesson is from Revelation,	48:31
	chapter 21 beginning with the 22nd verse.	48:35
	And I saw no temple in the city,	48:41
	for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty	48:45
	and the Lamb, and the city has not need	48:48
	of sun or moon to shine upon it,	48:52
	for the glory of the Lord is its light.	48:55
	And its lamp is the land.	48:58
	By its light shall the nations walk,	49:02
	and the kings of the Earth shall bring their	49:05
	glory into it.	49:07
	And it's gates shall never shut day by day,	49:09
	and there shall be no night there.	49:14
	They shall bring into it, the glory	49:17
	in the honor of the nations.	49:19

-	Nothing unclean shall enter it	0:03
	nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood,	0:06
	but only those who are written	0:11
	in the Lamb's book of life.	0:14
	Here ends the reading from the New Testament lesson.	0:18
	(bright organ music)	0:30
-	The Gospel is from Matthew chapter five,	1:30
	verses one through 12.	1:33
	Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain	1:36
	and when he sat down his disciples came to him.	1:40
	And he opened his mouth and taught them saying,	1:44
	blessed are the poor in spirit	1:48
	for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.	1:51
	Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.	1:54
	Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.	1:59
	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness	2:05
	for they shall be satisfied.	2:09
	Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.	2:12
	Blessed are the poor in heart for they shall see God.	2:19
	Blessed are the peacemakers	2:25
	for they shall be called children of God.	2:26
	Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake	2:31
	for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.	2:35
	Blessed are you when men revile you	2:39
	and persecute you and utter all kinds	2:42
	of evil against you falsely on my account.	2:44
	Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.	2:48
	For so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.	2:53
	Here ends the reading from the Gospel lesson.	2:59
	Amen.	3:02
-	From the apocalypse revelation, this vision,	3:28
	then I saw a new heaven and a new earth	3:34
	for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away	3:38
	and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city,	3:42
	new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.	3:46
	What follows is then the text that you heard today.	3:52
	Dear friends,	3:56
	this Thursday, November 10th,	4:00
	is the 500th birthday of Martin Luther.	4:02
	This is a festival that comes around only every 500 years.	4:08
	(laughter)	4:12
	And thus I consider myself pridefully sinful	4:16
	in my self restraint in that I am not	4:22
	going to talk about him today.	4:25
	He has his chances this week,	4:28
	I get four with him in this city.	4:31
	He's a media hero.	4:34
	Last weeks Time, tomorrows Newsweek in US news.	4:35
	I read in the morning paper that Pope John Paul the Second	4:40
	will honor him with a sermon next month.	4:43
	Who am I in that great mass of witnesses?	4:46
	And, what is more, a good Lutheran	4:50
	should stick to the lectionary.	4:53
	The appointed festivals and text of the year	4:57
	and your bulletin today reminds you	5:00
	that this Sunday follows All Saints Day	5:02
	and is also known as All Saints Sunday.	5:06
	And why should we be so economical	5:10
	as to honor only one saint and he barely one,	5:12
	when we can have all saints before us.	5:17
	For on the terms of the Christian message	5:21
	you and I are also and equally	5:24
	to be seen as incorporated in this good news,	5:30
	this message that makes us saints.	5:34
	So we have the business before us of unfolding	5:38
	or unveiling, that's what apocalypse means,	5:41
	this text from Revelation which I'm calling,	5:46
	in a sense, a useless vision	5:49
	because it seems so remote from our world.	5:52
	Most people look at the language of vision in the Bible,	5:57
	Daniel, Revelation, Ezekiel,	6:02
	very much the way we, in the modern world, look at dreams.	6:07
	And for a moment, in the beginning of our attempt	6:12
	to crack this one open	6:15
	let's think of dream as an analogy or a metaphor	6:18
	or a comparison for vision.	6:21
	There are numbers of theories	6:25
	about the function of vision, dream.	6:27
	The best known in our time being	6:31
	that of Sigmund Freud who saw vision and dream	6:33
	as simply wish fulfillment and you could read	6:37
	this text about a new heaven and a new earth	6:42
	as a language of wish fulfillment	6:48
	on the part of believers who, through the ages,	6:52
	have had to live far from heavens in an old earth	6:55
	that is stubborn and intractable, and waring and foolish.	7:01
	But that theory doesn't stand up well.	7:08
	This weeks Times Literary Supplement,	7:12
	in a review of the Oxford Book of Dreams,	7:14
	I'm happy to say says,	7:17
	that Freud's view is now officially on its way out.	7:19
	And in the entire Oxford Book of Dreams	7:25
	only one can be described as wish fulfillment,	7:27
	the feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft who says,	7:31
	"dream that my little baby came to life again.	7:34
	"That it had only been cold and that we rubbed it	7:39
	"before the fire and it lived.	7:42
	"Awake and find no baby not in good spirits."	7:44
	And so on Sundays we have the dream	7:50
	of new heaven and new earth and Monday we awake	7:53
	and find no new heaven, no new earth	7:57
	and with her not in good spirits.	8:02
	A little closer are the theories about vision and dream	8:06
	that come from Carl Jung because he says	8:10
	the dream is that which connects the language	8:14
	of the conscious and the unconscious.	8:15
	And that's a little closer to what goes on here.	8:19
	For in the unconscious of the believing community	8:22
	are those great stories,	8:27
	memories of saints,	8:31
	heroines, heroes, martyrs, mentors.	8:34
	Those recalls of improbably stories and sacrifices	8:40
	that now and then, through the glass	8:46
	of a chapel like this, or the kind of music we've heard	8:49
	become part of our conscious life as well.	8:54
	The approach to dream that's currently most fashionable,	9:03
	I have this on the authority	9:08
	of the Times Literary Supplement and Psychology Today	9:09
	(laughter)	9:14
	is that of Sir Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison	9:16
	who believes that dreams are, in a sense,	9:20
	a part of a computer mechanism in the mind	9:25
	for mental housecleaning.	9:29
	They help us get rid of images	9:31
	that aren't too useful the rest of the day.	9:34
	They're called reverse learning.	9:38
	A damping out process that makes us	9:41
	more efficient the rest of the time.	9:44
	Could it be that the language of a new heaven	9:47
	and a new earth, and of a holy city	9:51
	that comes down in the middle of our world,	9:54
	and the light of God, the sun and shield,	9:57
	breaking in it ought to be damped out,	10:00
	discarded, unlearned,	10:05
	because it gets in the way of the practice	10:10
	and, if we just gather for an hour in a setting like this,	10:13
	get it all over with, get back	10:16
	to the real and practical world.	10:19
	But that same canonical text Psychology Today	10:24
	also says, others believe that dreams	10:27
	help consolidate memories and thus,	10:30
	this is the opposite of Sir Francis Crick	10:33
	and Graeme Mitchison's view.	10:35
	That dreams help consolidate memories	10:38
	and that fourth one would also work	10:40
	for what believers do when they gather	10:43
	and hear the vision, the unveiling,	10:45
	the revelation, the apocalypse.	10:48
	For there is, in our collective memory,	10:52
	a recall of the promise that ahead of us	10:56
	and coming toward us is always the activity	11:01
	of a God who would create new situations for us.	11:04
	So much for dream theory as it might apply	11:11
	and I hope that at least three of those four	11:13
	might help us crack open this text.	11:16
	Now what we have to remember is that very often	11:21
	this dream and vision language of Daniel, Ezekiel,	11:27
	and Revelation is taken literally	11:32
	by people many centuries later.	11:35
	They have often and again applied it to their own time.	11:38
	And, from one point of view, every later age	11:42
	can say they have often and again and always been wrong	11:45
	because they prophesied the immediate end of the world	11:51
	and the fact that we are here this morning	11:54
	is empirical evidence that they were wrong.	11:57
	Martin Luther, in the 16th century,	12:00
	pardon a reference to him, read this text	12:03
	and said that the whole book of Revelation	12:07
	is a prophecy against the pope, the antichrist	12:10
	who is now returning the favor	12:15
	and coming to preach Christ in a Lutheran church.	12:16
	So that can't have been right,	12:20
	though, indeed, the argument that gave rise	12:22
	to that name calling was, I would believe, a valid one.	12:25
	And so in our time, what the magazines would call	12:29
	the fashionable theory of the literal view,	12:33
	is to apply this book to our world	12:37
	which will soon be incinerated	12:41
	not improbably beginning in the Middle East	12:43
	at a place called Armageddon.	12:46
	The President of the United States this week, himself,	12:49
	confided to some friends who blabbed to the press	12:53
	that as he looked at the signs of the time	12:57
	he joined the fundamentalist, literalist,	12:59
	in sometimes thinking, with Lebanon, and Grenada,	13:01
	and Russia on his mind, that, like the book of Daniel	13:04
	I think he said, Armageddon	13:08
	as prophesied seemed to be coming.	13:12
	The not too nice newspaper reporter reminded the readers	13:15
	that it isn't in the book of Daniel it is in Revelation	13:19
	(laughter)	13:23
	but the President here I think was giving voice	13:27
	to a very widespread sense that now we have	13:29
	to have a literal reading of the new heaven	13:32
	and the new earth and the new Jerusalem	13:37
	that replaces the old Jerusalem.	13:39
	And so everything in this book	13:45
	can be seen literally in those terms.	13:47
	I read a track too recently on Revelation 13, seven	13:49
	which says that the universal product code	13:56
	on what you buy in the supermarkets,	14:00
	those little black lines that you can't read	14:01
	but the computer can, is a fulfillment	14:03
	of Revelation 13, seven that says	14:05
	no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark	14:09
	(laughter)	14:13
	that is the name of the beast and the number of its name.	14:15
	I take great comfort in the fact	14:22
	that the best selling book in our time,	14:23
	The Late Great Planet Earth, which is literal	14:25
	about Revelation has paid millions to its author	14:28
	and that he is investing, while telling us	14:32
	the world will end tomorrow, in longterm real estate.	14:34
	(laughter)	14:37
	But what these people do to serve us	14:43
	is to keep the images alive	14:46
	to remind us of end times and urgencies	14:49
	But we have been led through this all	14:54
	to say, again, what did this text originally say	14:56
	to the people to whom it was written.	15:00
	And maybe then we'll learn why through the ages	15:02
	All Saints speaks to us.	15:06
	For the past century the most serious Biblical scholars	15:09
	have said we'll get our best clues if we'll understand	15:12
	that the John of Patmos who had this vision,	15:17
	swept up by the Spirit of the Lord he says,	15:20
	and commanded to write a letter, wrote it, sent it,	15:24
	to be read in the churches	15:31
	which had in common, not saintliness,	15:35
	one of the churches was lukewarm,	15:39
	not heroism, but the need for a longterm vision.	15:43
	The message is that	15:49
	Christ the crucified is the victor.	15:51
	And in the middle of a world that looks	15:55
	far from any new heaven and is very much old earth,	15:57
	there is, therefore, then a promise, a future.	16:02
	The Roman empire, the enemies of these believers	16:09
	all conspired against them and they are to endure	16:14
	and have hope and that's why,	16:19
	because they were gifted to do so,	16:23
	we celebrate them today, All Saints.	16:25
	For this text is not only historical	16:30
	about people who suffered under the Romans,	16:32
	it discloses to us ways of thinking and being	16:36
	that we might not otherwise have entertained.	16:42
	The symbol of the new heaven and the new earth lives on	16:50
	among very practical people.	16:54
	I looked in books in print this week and noticed at least	16:57
	five books titled New Heaven,	17:00
	New Earth. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates,	17:04
	Anthropologist Kenelm Burridge,	17:09
	Historian Cushing Strout,	17:12
	has traced away, again and again,	17:15
	Americans in the light of that useless image,	17:17
	did useful things	17:19
	like work for the abolition of slavery.	17:22
	I saw a new heaven and a new earth.	17:27
	The Bible is coming to its end.	17:31
	Revelation 21, this chapter, behold I make all things new.	17:33
	The quality of the life of All Saints	17:39
	was to grasp this sense of newness.	17:43
	Arrance Blockam, Maverick Marxist,	17:49
	who stood outside the Bible admired it for what he called	17:51
	it's infatuation with the possible.	17:55
	That the God who raised Jesus from the dead	18:00
	is a Lord active in our broken world,	18:03
	in our fallible city.	18:09
	The usefulness of a useless vision,	18:13
	what does it mean for us?	18:16
	If we are not to be literal, and you could tell	18:18
	that I wasn't siding with that,	18:22
	and if we are not to be only historical,	18:23
	we have our own lives to live and we don't live in the past.	18:27
	We have our deaths to explain our fears to encounter,	18:32
	our hopes, our fighting off of chaos and meaninglessness,	18:37
	what's in it for us?	18:43
	A great German Catholic with an Italian name,	18:45
	Romano Guardini, once described	18:49
	the act we're now involved in, worship,	18:52
	in a very interesting phrase, and it applies to my title.	18:54
	He called worship (speaks foreign language)	18:59
	which means it's pointless but significant.	19:02
	It's pointless as far as the eight hour day is concerned.	19:07
	No new product comes from it.	19:11
	You can't look at something built because of it.	19:13
	And yet, and yet, it is significant.	19:17
	It signifies signs, points to,	19:22
	indicates, inspires	19:26
	modes of being that we would not have otherwise entertained.	19:30
	So let's close by looking at what this text	19:35
	you heard read today would have us entertain.	19:38
	I saw no temple in the city for its temple	19:43
	is the Lord, God, the Almighty and the Lamb.	19:46
	This vision that seems so useless	19:52
	comes to all saints, comes to you and me,	19:56
	with a recognition that in all circumstances	20:01
	God is Lord and Lord for us.	20:03
	Victor Franco, the death camp psychiatrist,	20:08
	observing people who were to die that day and new it	20:12
	and yet shared their last crust of bread	20:17
	and by word and gesture, imparted hope,	20:21
	said they prove that there is one freedom	20:26
	that cannot be taken away from us,	20:29
	the freedom to choose one's attitude in any circumstance.	20:32
	And this second last chapter of the Bible,	20:36
	this last vision says there's a reason	20:40
	in the Lordship of God.	20:45
	And that a day comes when the temple,	20:48
	places like this, set aside sanctuaries	20:51
	will no longer be needed for God is all in all.	20:54
	That all will be holy.	20:59
	Now, the world is still broken	21:02
	in Tillich's phrase,	21:08
	"the demonic pervades the structures of existence."	21:09
	But we are not to see the world, only God verses Satan,	21:14
	Christ verses antichrist,	21:17
	us good people and those bad people	21:19
	but to see the potential of God active everywhere.	21:22
	There is, in this useless vision, the useful sense	21:29
	that behind the windows of this world,	21:32
	behind all that we see, is this light of God	21:36
	and this world is to become evermore transparent to it.	21:41
	The city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it	21:45
	for the glory of God is its light	21:49
	and its lamp is the lamb.	21:52
	The reminder that sun and moon was, to this writer,	21:57
	a creation and that could pass	22:01
	but God's light could not pass.	22:04
	And the more this creation becomes transparent to that light	22:10
	the more likely we are to be	22:14
	good caretakers of the earth,	22:17
	responsible and caring about the people	22:21
	and the society around us.	22:24
	Society, by it's light shall the nations walk	22:27
	and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.	22:31
	And its gates shall never be shut	22:36
	by day and there shall be no night there.	22:38
	This useless vision tells us	22:41
	that in the middle of this world	22:43
	when nation wars against nation,	22:47
	God comes with the sign of Shalom,	22:50
	of peace, and it becomes useful as we grasp it.	22:53
	Harold Isaac says, "Around the world today	22:59
	"there is a massive, convulsive ingathering of peoples	23:01
	"into their separateness's and their over againstness's	23:05
	"to protect their pride and power in place	23:09
	"against the real or imagined threats	23:12
	"of other people who are protecting	23:14
	"their pride and power and place.	23:15
	"And Lebanon becomes a metaphor	23:18
	"for the world as we know it."	23:20
	But this vision tells us that we are always to respond	23:23
	to a day when all nations will recognize this power.	23:28
	And the all saints of all ages live and die in that peace.	23:34
	And nothing unclean shall enter that city	23:38
	nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood	23:41
	but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.	23:44
	Not the good guys and the good women	23:48
	who achieved so much but those who by grace	23:52
	let a vision like this break into the midst of their life.	23:55
	A new heaven, a new earth.	24:00
	Behold, I make all things new.	24:03
	Not a bad way, is it, to end a book called the Bible.	24:06
	Not a bad way to begin the week.	24:12
	In the name of the Father, and of the Son,	24:15
	and of the Holy Spirit, amen.	24:16
-	I have come to believe	24:35
	that one of the functions of a church historian	24:37
	is a sort of father or mother confessor	24:40
	to hear the sins of the church	24:45
	which is the body of Christ	24:49
	and those of us who have read and know Doctor Marty	24:52
	and his works know that that is a part of his function.	24:55
	But the remarkable thing about Martin Marty	25:00
	is his ability to love the church	25:03
	and to embrace the church even with his awareness	25:06
	of its blemishes, its faults,	25:10
	and also to celebrate its possibilities.	25:13
	We have heard Doctor Marty preach this morning	25:17
	with the spirit of a pastor	25:21
	and the love of one who knows the church	25:23
	for all that she has done and all that she can become.	25:26
	Doctor Marty, thank you and welcome to Duke.	25:30
	We look forward to your presences	25:33
	in our community in the days ahead.	25:35
	I want to take a moment to highlight for you	25:38
	some of the things which are happening	25:41
	at the university this week.	25:43
	We would like to thank, this morning,	25:46
	the Cleland Endowment Fund for their part	25:48
	in bringing Doctor Marty to the university	25:54
	and also for assisting us in having the instrumentalists	25:57
	which were a part of the Cantada this morning.	26:00
	We are indeed grateful to the Cleland committee	26:03
	and fund for their support of our work here.	26:07
	You will note also in celebration of the reformation	26:12
	the two Bach recitals which will be taking place,	26:16
	the Cantadas, one tonight at 8:15 here at Duke	26:20
	and one next Sunday evening	26:25
	at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill.	26:27
	Both concerts are open to you without charge.	26:31
	Also you will take note please	26:37
	of the Winterization project that is taking place.	26:38
	It is an act of ministry in which we	26:42
	at Duke University take part	26:46
	in which we reach out in ministry to the Durham community.	26:49
	We'll be meeting here next Saturday, November the 12th,	26:54
	at nine o'clock in the morning	26:57
	meeting in front of the chapel	26:58
	and going to the YMCA to get the equipment	27:00
	and the information that will be necessary	27:03
	and then from there to do the work of ministry.	27:07
	I urge you to make that a part	27:11
	of your day next Saturday.	27:14
	I have also been asked to announce	27:20
	that Doctor Marty will be speaking	27:22
	this afternoon at four o'clock in the film theater,	27:26
	the Bryan center, on a funny thing happened	27:30
	to Luther on his way to America.	27:32
	The lecture will be followed by a reception	27:37
	in the basement of the chapel.	27:40
	And those who are involved in that,	27:42
	the Lutheran community of this university,	27:45
	invite you to be present at the lecture,	27:48
	and also to join them at the reception afterwards.	27:51
	(bright organ music)	28:12
-	Grant us, oh Lord, the wisdom and the courage	34:52
	and the vision to be a people involved	34:59
	in ministry in this, your world	35:02
	that your kingdom may come.	35:05
	We do pray in your name, in your son's name,	35:09
	Jesus the Christ, our Lord, our Savior, amen.	35:13
	Let us unite together in this historic confession	35:32
	of the Christian faith.	35:35
All Together	I believe in God the Father, Almighty,	35:38
	maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,	35:41
	his only son, our Lord, who was conceived	35:45
	by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,	35:48
	suffered under Pontius Pilate,	35:52
	was crucified, dead, and buried.	35:54
	He descended into hell, the third day,	35:58
	he rose from the dead.	36:00
	He ascended into heaven and sitteth	36:03
	at the right hand of God the Father, Almighty.	36:05
	From then he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	36:09
	I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,	36:12
	the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,	36:17
	the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.	36:21
	Amen.	36:26
-	The Lord be with you	36:30
Audience	And also with you.	36:31
-	Let us pray.	36:33
	Praise to you our God who is everywhere yet has no place.	36:46
	Our God who carries time as a very little thing	36:51
	yet who fulfills all time.	36:54
	Our God who allows motion and chaos	36:57
	and varieties beyond name.	37:00
	Yet who so manages that the universe abides.	37:03
	Praise to you oh Lord, our God,	37:07
	who sends the snows and the melting rains,	37:10
	and the awakening spring.	37:14
	The long sun of summer, fire colors in the clamorous fall,	37:17
	our God who permits our histories,	37:22
	our God who summons the nations.	37:26
	Praise and thanksgiving to you oh God	37:29
	who intends us, informs us,	37:33
	forever sustains us.	37:38
	Oh God of the lyre and the oboe and the horn and the song	37:43
	who set your creation singing	37:50
	wherever it is touched by your grace.	37:51
	We give you thanks for the songs and sounds	37:55
	which tie generation to generation.	37:57
	Through the artistry of those who compose	38:01
	and those who perform.	38:03
	You shape the language that opens us to the past	38:06
	and overcomes the loneliness of our time in history.	38:10
	We yield our thanks for this blessing.	38:14
	Its power to set free and its power to heal.	38:18
	Its power to send forth and its power to gather together.	38:22
	Its power to unveil life and its power to celebrate life.	38:27
	Oh our one God who calls forth one faith,	38:36
	names us all in one baptism,	38:40
	we pray for the one holy Catholic and Apostolic church,	38:43
	for Catholic and Protestant, orthodox and unorthodox,	38:47
	evangelical and liberal believers	38:52
	who in their diverse and several ways	38:55
	give witness to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.	38:58
	As we share one teacher and redeemer	39:05
	let us share one spirit and purpose,	39:09
	that the new humanity that you are bringing to light	39:12
	will be seen in our common praise	39:16
	and quickened in our mutual efforts.	39:20
	Tenderous Lord, we pray	39:25
	for all who are sick, deprived, grieving.	39:27
	We pray for this earth and the need	39:32
	for peace among its peoples.	39:33
	The discomforted come to you.	39:37
	The grieving seek your comfort.	39:40
	Those deprived of their sustenance	39:44
	look to you for justice and restoration.	39:46
	Be, we pray, a presence of love to those in pain,	39:50
	a strength to those bereaved of indication to the oppressed.	39:54
	By your loving justice fill our deepest needs	40:02
	and to us all, bring the promise of the risen Lord.	40:06
	We have gathered, oh God, as a community of faith	40:12
	and we pray together that prayer	40:18
	which belongs to this community taught to us by Jesus,	40:19
All	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.	40:24
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,	40:29
	on earth, as it is in heaven.	40:33
	Give us this day our daily bread,	40:35
	and forgive us our trespasses	40:38
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	40:40
	And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	40:44
	For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,	40:49
	and the glory, forever, amen.	40:53
	(bright organ music)	40:59
-	Deep peace of the running wave to you.	45:27
	Deep peace of the flowing air to you.	45:31
	Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.	45:35
	Deep peace of the shining stars to you.	45:39
	Deep peace of the Prince of Peace	45:42
	to each of you, now and forever.	45:46
	In the name of the Father, and of the Son,	45:50
	and of the Holy Spirit.	45:53
	("Amen, Amen")	45:57
	(dramatic organ music)	47:27

Item Info

Title:

Martin E. Marty - "The Usefulness of a Useless Vision" (November 6, 1983)

Description:

Though the vision from Revelation of a new heaven and a new earth seems useless to us, because so remote from our everyday reality, it is useful in that it sustains for us the image of God's victory in Christ even while under the duress of empire. By sustaining this vision for the church, Revelation provides us with the strength to fight for a better world. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 2) 03:28. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 24:21.
Key quotation: “There is in this useless vision, the useful sense that behind the windows of this world, behind all that we see, is this light of God, and this world is to become ever more transparent to it.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4p844964

Date:

November 6, 1983

Speaker:

Marty, Martin E.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0177
ref7877_705
uachapelsermaud
duke:321151
dcrau001168
ark:/87924/r4p844964
9163ebf7-50ba-4f41-8e49-23d34ab472eb

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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