Lloyd R. Bailey - "An Immense Journey: From Star Stuff to Child of God" (April 29, 1984)

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	(tonal singing)	0:03
	(orchestral music)
	(operatic music)	2:39
	(orchestral music)
	(tonal singing)	10:09
	(orchestral music)
	(mellow organ music)	13:53
	(mellow organ music)	14:59
	(tonal singing)	15:33
	(organ music)
-	Blessed be God and our Lord, Jesus Christ.	19:05
	By God's great mercy, we have been born anew	19:09
	to a living hope, through the resurrection	19:13
	of Jesus Christ from the dead.	19:16
	The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance	19:20
	that Christ, Jesus, came into the world	19:25
	to save sinners.	19:28
	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just	19:30
	to forgive our sins and cleanse us	19:35
	from all unrighteousness.	19:38
	Let us pray.	19:41
	Be seated.	19:45
	Almighty God who brings life out of death	19:57
	and light out of darkness,	20:00
	and whose love is the final fact of human history	20:03
	we confess that we do not always live	20:07
	as if life has conquered death,	20:10
	as if love reigns over hatred.	20:13
	Depression and anxiety have pressed in upon us,	20:16
	guilt and despair imprison our spirits,	20:20
	hatred and loneliness deprive us of life and love.	20:24
	Oh God, mercifully heal our distorted way of living.	20:29
	Free us by your forgiving love.	20:34
	May the resurrection of Christ fill us	20:37
	with hope of a new beginning.	20:40
	Through him we live again for you	20:42
	and for each other.	20:45
	In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,	20:47
	Amen.	20:50
	For as the Heavens are high above the earth	21:18
	so great is God's steadfast love toward those	21:21
	who fear God as far as the east is from the west,	21:25
	so far does God remove our transgressions from us.	21:30
	Let us then give thanks for God is good	21:35
	and God's love is everlasting.	21:38
	Thanks be to God whose love creates us.	21:42
	Thanks be to God whose mercy redeems us.	21:45
	Thanks be to God whose grace leads us into the future.	21:50
	We welcome you this beautiful morning	21:57
	to worship here with us in Duke University Chapel.	21:59
	It is the second Sunday of Easter and it is also	22:04
	for 1984, Duke University Employee Day	22:08
	and Family Festival.	22:12
	We are very pleased to have as our special guest	22:15
	this morning, seated in the chair sections	22:19
	up here in the front, in the nave, our Presidential	22:23
	award winner and also our honorable mention	22:27
	award winners for the Presidential selection this year	22:32
	for Duke University employees.	22:37
	We know that guests and family members	22:40
	and colleagues from departments have joined DU,	22:43
	we celebrate each of you in your work,	22:47
	we honor what you do among us and for us,	22:50
	and we're very glad that this day has begun here	22:54
	in the chapel, a day of celebration and festivity	22:57
	for Duke.	23:01
	We are especially pleased to have with us	23:04
	this morning, Irene Burris, who is the Presidential	23:06
	Award winner.	23:11
	Irene works in the housekeeping employee section	23:13
	in The Divinity School.	23:17
	Other award winners are here with their families.	23:20
	The awards will be presented by President Sanford	23:24
	at a special luncheon honoring the nominees	23:28
	following our worship service today.	23:31
	We welcome you and are very glad that you are here	23:34
	with us today.	23:37
	Our guest choir this morning are The Chamber Singers	23:42
	from UNC Wilmington campus.	23:46
	Their director is Dr. Joe Hickman.	23:49
	And we're very glad that they have already blessed us	23:52
	with their music.	23:56
	We look forward to their participation now	23:57
	and the rest of our service of worship.	24:00
	We are honored today to have, as our guest preacher,	24:05
	Dr. Lloyd R. Bailey.	24:09
	Dr. Bailey is the Associate Professor of Old Testament	24:12
	in The Divinity School here at Duke.	24:16
	Dr. Bailey, in his ministry has served	24:20
	in the Parrish and in teaching.	24:23
	His degrees are from Union Theological Seminary	24:26
	in New York and Hebrew Union College Jewish	24:30
	Institute of Religion.	24:34
	Dr. Bailey is well known among the students	24:37
	and colleagues in The Divinity School,	24:40
	for being an inspire teacher, a teacher who puts	24:43
	life into the story and truth	24:47
	of the Old and New Testaments.	24:50
	We are very glad to have him with us.	24:52
	And we look forward to the sermon that he will share.	24:55
	The sermon title today is,	24:59
	An immense Journey From Star Stuff	25:03
	to Child of God.	25:07
	(clears throat)	25:16
-	Let us pray.	25:19
	Fulfill now, oh Lord, we pray you.	25:23
	Your gracious promise that your word shall not	25:26
	return to you empty, but shall accomplish	25:29
	that which you purpose and prosper toward the end	25:32
	for which you have sent it.	25:36
	In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior,	25:38
	Amen.	25:43
	The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis	25:47
	chapter 12, verses one through three.	25:50
	Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country	25:54
	and your kindred and your father's house,	25:57
	to the land that I will show you,	26:01
	and I will make of your great nation,	26:03
	and I will bless you and make your name great.	26:06
	So that you will be a blessing.	26:10
	And I will bless those that bless you	26:12
	and I will curse those who curse you.	26:15
	And by you, all the families of the earth	26:18
	shall bless themselves.	26:21
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	26:24
	The New Testament lesson is from Revelation	26:28
	chapter 21, verses one through four.	26:31
	Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.	26:36
	For the first heaven, a first earth had passed away,	26:39
	and the sea was no more.	26:43
	And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,	26:46
	coming down out of heaven from God,	26:50
	prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband,	26:52
	and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,	26:56
	behold, the dwelling of God is with men.	26:59
	He will dwell with them and they shall be his people.	27:04
	And God himself will be with them.	27:09
	He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.	27:12
	And death shall be no more.	27:17
	Neither shall there be mourning nor crying	27:19
	nor pain anymore.	27:24
	For the former things have passed away.	27:27
	Here ends the reading from the New Testament lesson.	27:30
	(operatic singing)	28:07
	(organ music)
-	Will the congregation please stand	31:23
	for the reading of the gospel lesson.	31:24
	The gospel lesson is from John, chapter 20,	31:34
	verses 19 through 29.	31:37
	On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,	31:41
	the doors being shut where the disciples were.	31:45
	For fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them	31:48
	and said to them, "peace be with you!"	31:53
	When he had said this, he showed them his hands	31:57
	and his side.	32:00
	Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.	32:02
	Jesus said to them again, "peace be with you!	32:06
	"As the Father has sent me even so I send you."	32:11
	And when he said this, he breathed on them	32:16
	and said to them, "receive the Holy Spirit.	32:20
	"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.	32:27
	"If you retain the sins of any, they are retained."	32:31
	Now Thomas, one of the 12, called a twin,	32:37
	was not with them when Jesus came.	32:40
	So the other disciples told him,	32:44
	"we have seen the Lord."	32:46
	But he said to them,	32:49
	"unless I see in his hands the print of the nails	32:51
	"and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."	32:54
	Eight days later his disciples were again in the house	32:59
	and Thomas was with them.	33:03
	The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them.	33:05
	And said, "peace be with you!"	33:10
	Then he said to Thomas, "put your finger here	33:14
	"and see my hands.	33:18
	"And put your hand and place it in my side.	33:21
	"Do not be faithless but believing."	33:25
	Thomas answered him, "my Lord, my God."	33:30
	Jesus said to him, "have you believed because	33:36
	"you have seen me?	33:40
	"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."	33:43
	Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson.	33:49
	Amen.	33:52
	(tonal singing)	33:54
	(organ music)
	Before beginning the sermon, I must express	35:06
	my joy at being here on this day among all others.	35:09
	On which my friend, Irene Burris is honored.	35:13
	And those other people who have served	35:17
	this university well and faithfully.	35:20
	I see her everyday and know her to be	35:23
	a good and Christian woman, worthy of all honor.	35:26
	What are we to make of the Bible in a scientific age?	35:34
	What is there about it that can still engage us	35:41
	in a significant way,	35:43
	since it comes to us	35:47
	from an age that is radically different from our own?	35:48
	Here is one illustration of the problem.	35:53
	The authors of the Bible do not seem to realize the	35:58
	inner connectiveness of events in the physical world.	36:02
	Each happening therefore in the realm of nature	36:07
	maybe independent of any other.	36:10
	It arises not by natural law,	36:14
	not because something went before,	36:18
	but by the will of the divine being.	36:21
	Thus one could not have said in the period of the Bible,	36:27
	"it is raining"	36:30
	as if one knew about evaporation and condensation,	36:32
	one could only have said, as they did,	36:37
	that God is causing it to rain.	36:39
	There is thus no sense of that closed inner connectiveness	36:46
	which the bleaks denote	36:51
	by the word, Cosmos.	36:52
	What then, are we to make of this message	36:57
	in an age of science?	36:59
	Or more to the point, what is its message?	37:03
	Shall we on the one hand reject it as a mere	37:08
	datum of history?	37:10
	An interesting statement of how things once were but	37:13
	which we modern persons come of age	37:16
	can no longer accept.	37:18
	That is the response of secular humanism.	37:22
	Or shall we, at the other extreme, try to accommodate	37:28
	science to the Bible?	37:31
	And thus try to salvage the Bible in its totality.	37:34
	Shall we for example search for evidence	37:39
	that the earth is really only a few thousand years old	37:41
	and that humans did not evolve from the lower creatures?	37:46
	That is the point of view of modern creationism.	37:51
	This dilemma is especially interesting and demanding of me.	37:57
	And this is because of my particular history.	38:01
	Before I got into this theology business,	38:05
	I was trained as a physicist here at Duke University.	38:07
	And consequently, I have tried to live responsibly	38:13
	in both realms.	38:16
	It may not surprise you, therefore, that I will suggest	38:19
	a point of view that is between the two extremes	38:22
	that I have just mentioned.	38:26
	For some of you, this will be an unusual sermon.	38:29
	It will quote with approval, both the Astronomer Carl Sagan	38:34
	and the author of the Book of Genesis.	38:39
	And that is foreshadowed in the sermons topic,	38:43
	our title, which is:	38:45
	"And the Immense Journey From Star Stuff to Child of God."	38:47
	It will attempt not merely to reflect upon this problem	38:54
	but to exhort you to live in accordance	38:57
	with the Bible's agenda.	39:00
	We began by hearing two formative texts from scripture.	39:05
	One from Genesis and one from Revelation.	39:10
	One a projection and the other a conclusion.	39:14
	And thus the sermon will attempt to put forward	39:19
	the center of the Bible's agenda, as we would say	39:21
	in the mountains of North Carolina where I grew up,	39:25
	from kiver to kiver.	39:27
	And so we begin.	39:30
	We are participants, all of us,	39:34
	in a vast experiment.	39:37
	And we will not live to see how that experiment	39:41
	turns out.	39:43
	But we have already bet out lives	39:46
	on what the outcome will be.	39:48
	I conclude this about you from the fact	39:51
	that you are here this morning.	39:53
	When you could've chosen to be somewhere else.	39:57
	The preconditions of this experiment	40:02
	were a long time in the making.	40:04
	The beginning was some 15 billion years ago.	40:07
	As the Astronomer Sagan would say, billions and billions	40:12
	of years ago.	40:16
	It began in a universe that contained huge clouds	40:19
	of formless matter.	40:23
	And much of the universe is still like that,	40:26
	with vast clouds of hydrogen gas,	40:29
	matter in its simplest natural state.	40:33
	And then those clouds began to collapse	40:38
	under gravitational and electrical pull	40:40
	to thicken under their own weight.	40:43
	Particles in the clouds were pushed closer together.	40:46
	Tremendous pressures and heat were generated.	40:51
	Heavier elements were forged into being,	40:55
	light was emitted,	40:58
	and the stars began to turn on.	41:01
	In a modest sized star, such as our own sun,	41:06
	there is just enough light or power to convert	41:10
	hydrogen into simple helium.	41:13
	But in massive stars, there is enough power	41:16
	to press carbon and even iron into being.	41:19
	And then some of those stars exploded,	41:25
	we can still see them through telescopes	41:28
	and we call them supernovae.	41:30
	The result was that those heavier elements	41:33
	bred in the interior of giant stars.	41:36
	Those heavier elements were spewed across space	41:38
	and thus they became available for reassembly	41:42
	in the bodies of second	41:45
	and smaller generation of stars.	41:48
	Our sun and its planets congealed from such	41:53
	prior star stuff, perhaps five billion years ago.	41:56
	And thus they now contained everything	42:01
	that would be necessary for the creation of life.	42:03
	And there you have it in simplified form,	42:08
	the way the astronomers tell it.	42:10
	Their basic questions are, how long did it take?	42:13
	Under what conditions did it happen?	42:18
	And by what processes did matter evolve	42:22
	so that things can be explained	42:25
	as we find them now?	42:27
	The Book of Genesis, needless to say,	42:32
	has quite a different perspective.	42:34
	The questions of the astronomer are of little	42:37
	concern to it.	42:39
	And thus Genesis should not be taken	42:41
	to contradict the astronomer.	42:43
	Rather, its central concern is with the meaning	42:46
	and with the source of meaning.	42:50
	Genesis proposes that the events of creation	42:54
	were not random.	42:56
	Not accidental.	42:58
	And this is so because a single purpose	43:01
	was at work.	43:03
	A purpose which the text calls,	43:06
	God.	43:09
	This theological perspective is not concerned	43:12
	with how long the process took or even	43:15
	with whether there as an absolute beginning or not.	43:18
	It merely reports that there was formless matter,	43:22
	that there was chaos and that the deity began	43:25
	to act upon it.	43:29
	And thus the first three chapters of your Bible	43:32
	maybe translated accurately as follows:	43:34
	"When God began to create the heavens and earth,	43:39
	the earth being unformed and void with darkness	43:43
	over the surface of the deep.	43:47
	And with a mighty wind swooping	43:49
	over the surface of the seas,	43:51
	God said, "let there be light."	43:54
	And there was light."	43:57
	Meaning results because God was at work,	44:02
	otherwise there would only remain meaninglessness.	44:04
	Chaos, formlessness.	44:08
	The stage is not yet set for our experiment	44:13
	but almost.	44:15
	Here is what happens next according to the chemist	44:18
	and the biologist.	44:21
	We now have an earth that is congealed from previous	44:24
	generations of star stuff.	44:27
	It is bathed in the light of the sun	44:31
	and its atmosphere re-stimulated by violent,	44:34
	electrical storms.	44:36
	Subjectivity aids in the formation of molecules	44:40
	as we can still demonstrate in the laboratory.	44:42
	The molecules can be torn apart and recombined	44:46
	in new ways.	44:50
	About four billion years ago, the carbon-based	44:53
	molecule had learned to separate and reproduce itself.	44:55
	And thus an element reform of life had begun.	45:00
	A billion years later and the first cellular	45:05
	organisms are on the scene.	45:07
	Another billion years pass and the organisms	45:11
	have learned the joys of sex.	45:13
	I supposed it had to happen sooner or later.	45:17
	But it was the slowest adolescence on record.	45:20
	Something that every parent prays for.	45:22
	Subjectivity, sexual, allowed for the exchange	45:28
	and the intermingling of genetic information.	45:31
	And thus lifeforms could grow more complex.	45:34
	Another billion years passed, it's a mere billion	45:39
	years ago now, and the earth begins to green up.	45:42
	Algae now are the most advanced life form on earth.	45:47
	And they spread and they filled the seas	45:51
	and produced oxygen for an atmosphere as we now know it.	45:54
	And this makes possible a sudden explosion of life,	45:58
	the so called Cambrian explosion, first in the seas,	46:01
	and then on the land, and finally in the skies.	46:06
	Fish are succeeded by amphibians and then reptiles	46:12
	and then mammals and birds and finally primates.	46:16
	There has been some debate in recent days	46:21
	about the specific mechanism for change	46:23
	and especially about its pace.	46:26
	Is there punctured equilibrium or not?	46:28
	Nonetheless, there you have it	46:31
	in simplified form.	46:34
	About all those activities, the Bible has	46:38
	very little to say.	46:40
	It seems content to say that it was God	46:42
	who arranged for the seas and the earth	46:45
	to become populated with living creatures.	46:48
	It was not a meaningless, accidental sequence of events.	46:51
	Contrary to what some modern persons may think.	46:56
	And it was not the result of a multitude of divine forces,	47:01
	Gods of sky and earth and sea.	47:04
	Contrary to what some ancient persons thought.	47:07
	Rather, it was the working out of a single divine will.	47:12
	Now the pace of biological development quickens.	47:17
	Only a few million years ago when human beings	47:22
	emerge on the earth.	47:25
	Ultimately the molecules in their bodies and in yours	47:27
	were bred in the interior of stars.	47:32
	To quote again, the Astronomer Sagan,	47:37
	"we're all made of star stuff."	47:40
	Again, Genesis has a different, though not	47:46
	contradictory perspective,	47:49
	it is not a matter of Genesis verses geology.	47:52
	But Genesis beyond geology.	47:55
	Our scripture is not concerned primarily	48:00
	with our molecular development.	48:02
	It is concerned with our moral accountability.	48:04
	God's life force had animated all those creatures	48:09
	as well as the human one.	48:12
	But of us alone, does the deity have expectations.	48:14
	And require accountability.	48:18
	Of the human creature alone does God say,	48:21
	"you shall,"	48:23
	"you shall not."	48:26
	This creature says the text mysteriously	48:29
	is created in the image of God.	48:32
	And so at last we have come to that precondition	48:38
	that will make the experiment necessary.	48:41
	And the problem is--	48:44

	Of this human creature to its own environment.	0:03
	We humans are haunted by our finitude.	0:07
	We are hostile to the other creatures and to each other	0:11
	and we seem bent on self-destruction.	0:15
	The human creature is torn by warfare	0:20
	between its brain and its heart,	0:22
	between its emotions and its reason,	0:25
	between feeling and knowing.	0:28
	Even if we know what we should do,	0:32
	we find ourselves unable or unwilling to do it.	0:34
	If we are indeed made of star stuff,	0:40
	our performance has been far from stellar.	0:43
	And on that, the scientist and the theologian will agree.	0:46
	Why were human beings created some Joker has asked,	0:51
	and then supplied his own answer?	0:54
	Simply in order to provide the other creatures	0:58
	with a bad example.	1:00
	Why human beings are like this?	1:04
	and what is to be done about it? is a pressing problem	1:06
	It is literally a matter of life and death	1:10
	for the race itself.	1:13
	For some biologist, the fault of human beings	1:17
	lies in the evolution of the human brain.	1:21
	Evolution, so to speak, has left us with a loose screw.	1:26
	Rather than developing uniformly,	1:30
	the brain seems to have developed in layers	1:32
	as new abilities were needed.	1:35
	There was first the brain stem	1:39
	which lies very deep back inside our skull.	1:43
	It controls our respiration and our heartbeat.	1:48
	Those involuntary actions that are vital to life.	1:51
	And then above that is an area that developed	1:57
	only in the age of reptiles	2:01
	and its values are aggression,	2:04
	and territorial possessiveness,	2:07
	and a blind drive toward procreation.	2:09
	This part of the brain treasures those things	2:15
	that are reptile treasures and it urges us to act	2:17
	in just that same way.	2:21
	Above that is an area that did not expand	2:25
	until millions of years later during the age of mammals.	2:28
	Its forte is not to blind urges of the reptile,	2:32
	but the urges of the mammal.	2:35
	Feelings, emotions,	2:39
	social hierarchies,	2:41
	care for the young.	2:45
	These two parts of our brain used to be called	2:48
	the visceral brain because they direct us to the viscera.	2:51
	They control courage which we call guts.	2:57
	They translate fear into sweat	3:01
	and they affect our kidneys and our bowels.	3:04
	They convert loss of a loved one into a broken heart.	3:08
	Lying above those areas is a region that expanded	3:15
	only in higher primates, it is the cerebral cortex.	3:18
	The new brain.	3:24
	It is what gives us self-awareness.	3:27
	As the poet Robert Burns put it, the power to see ourselves	3:31
	as others see us.	3:34
	It makes use of reason and of language.	3:37
	It is this portion of the brain that gives us the power	3:41
	and the potential to rise above	3:44
	our animal concerns in nature,	3:46
	but it must do so in competition with those other	3:49
	lower parts of the brain	3:52
	and it falls under the power of the lower brain.	3:54
	Thus the new brain may rationalize and justify	3:59
	that base behavior toward which the lower brain urges us.	4:02
	And when that happens, as the prophet Isaiah put it,	4:07
	we will call evil good	4:11
	and we will twist goodness into something evil.	4:14
	No wonder then that we are torn between	4:19
	what we know to be right on the one hand	4:21
	and what we want to do on the other.	4:23
	It is a misfortune of our biological development	4:28
	that we can say, my head tells me to do one thing	4:30
	and my heart another,	4:35
	as one modern researcher has put it.	4:39
	When a psychiatrist tries to bring us to self-understanding,	4:42
	it is like asking a crocodile and a horse and a primate	4:47
	to stretch up together on the couch	4:53
	and to converse with each other.	4:54
	The three parts of the brain speak a different language	4:58
	and have different values.	5:03
	The bible's view of this human predicament	5:07
	is pretty much the same.	5:09
	Genesis depicts the human creature as ego-centered,	5:12
	as vindictive torn by inner conflicts.	5:15
	And it attributes this not to human biology	5:20
	as if we were innocent victims of evolution,	5:22
	but to the human will	5:26
	and thus it makes us guilty.	5:29
	Just how the creature got this way,	5:33
	the text does not yet speculate.	5:36
	What is to be done about this lamentable state of affairs,	5:41
	about this maladjusted creature that has the audacity	5:44
	to call itself homo sapiens, wise man?	5:48
	A creature which desires in the words of Genesis	5:56
	to become like God.	5:59
	The answer depends upon whom you ask.	6:04
	One suggestion is that we ought to appeal	6:09
	to the creature's lower brain where it really lives	6:11
	through threats and punishment.	6:15
	Keywords to this approach are swift justice,	6:19
	strict law enforcement,	6:23
	teach them a lesson they won't forget.	6:26
	The Book of Genesis had already rejected that solution	6:31
	before the story even get started.	6:35
	It talks of a great flood which destroyed the entire earth	6:37
	and provided for a new beginning,	6:40
	but that new beginning turned out not to be a cure all.	6:45
	Humans would remain rebellious	6:49
	and God would never again resort to messy punishment	6:51
	in order to deal with creatures.	6:55
	For others, the solution to the problem lies an appeal	6:59
	to the new brain.	7:02
	Keywords in this solution to the problem include	7:05
	act from enlightened self-interest,	7:08
	the greatest good for the greatest number, and	7:11
	be reasonable.	7:15
	The means of salvation is to be found	7:19
	in the public school system.	7:20
	But as someone has said	7:24
	we are a mentally sick race	7:26
	and as such we are deaf to logical persuasion.	7:31
	For yet others including biologists,	7:38
	the only possible solution lies in pharmacology.	7:41
	We need to understand the chemistry	7:45
	and the functions of the brain,	7:47
	and then with the use of proper drugs	7:49
	perhaps we can bring the parts of the brain into balance.	7:51
	We must drug the croc and the horse that lies within us	7:54
	and then we can be unified human beings.	7:59
	A different approach is found in Genesis.	8:05
	It has moved very quickly over creation	8:10
	and over the arrival of humans on the scene of history.	8:12
	You might say that it displays very little interest	8:16
	in what Charles Darwin called The Origin of Species.	8:19
	Instead, it quickly grasps the problem	8:24
	created by the rebellious human	8:26
	and it cites a number of ways with which	8:30
	their potential for evil is to be limited.	8:33
	The length of the human lifespan is reduced to a minimum.	8:37
	It is unfitting that such creatures should live	8:41
	for long periods of time, says Genesis six.	8:43
	And humans are separated from each other to reduce	8:48
	the potential for mass destruction, says chapter 11.	8:53
	That having been said, the bible at last,	9:00
	turns to its real agenda what is to be done	9:01
	for this creature that has rejected its bounds?	9:03
	The response is found in the first of our Scripture lessons.	9:08
	God appeals to Abraham and to Sarah	9:12
	to set out on an immense journey to a foreign land.	9:14
	They are to found there a community	9:18
	and thus to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.	9:21
	It is an immense journey that will lead Israel	9:25
	to the synagogue in the church in the present.	9:29
	It is the beginning of an experiment	9:34
	that will not be completed in Abraham's lifetime.	9:35
	It will involve not only his generation,	9:39
	but an untold number of those which would arise after him.	9:43
	It is an experiment that is still in progress	9:47
	in which you participate	9:50
	and one whose success is not yet assured.	9:53
	The basis of this new community's appeal,	9:58
	how it is that it will be a blessing to others	10:01
	is not stated in this initial text.	10:04
	We are merely told that Abraham set out, that he obeyed	10:07
	and that God considered that a meritorious act.	10:11
	We are also told that God preserved this undertaking	10:16
	even when Abraham betrayed it.	10:19
	As for example when he gave away his wife to the pharaoh.	10:22
	And with no Sarah, there will be no Isaac.	10:27
	There will be no next generation.	10:29
	There will be no Israel.	10:30
	There will be no synagogue.	10:31
	There will be no church.	10:33
	But the wife is restored because the deity	10:37
	is firmly committed to this idea of a new community	10:40
	and strives passionately to preserve it for the task ahead.	10:43
	It is only at the time of Moses and Joshua 500 years later	10:49
	that the nature and purpose	10:54
	of this new undertaking is laid out.	10:55
	There is to be a sociological answer	10:59
	to the human predicament.	11:01
	What we see there is the formation of a radical alternative	11:04
	to society as human beings have structured it.	11:08
	There is to be through this community a haven	11:12
	from the tyranny of human political oppression.	11:14
	A haven from economic abuse and from social stratification.	11:18
	We hear an appeal for the actualization of life to the full,	11:23
	life as it could be,	11:28
	life as the deity intended it to be.	11:30
	And what we are offered is not merely an ideal,	11:35
	but a structure by which that ideal is to come to reality.	11:38
	The Gospel comes with its own delivery system.	11:43
	What is done is to appeal to experience.	11:49
	We ought to have learned from the past.	11:53
	We have experienced life as it naturally is	11:57
	and we ought not to have liked it.	11:59
	And thus we should be able to see the merits	12:02
	of a different approach.	12:04
	Thus Israel is a word of freedom to the slave,	12:07
	security for the landless,	12:11
	acceptance for the alienated and the stranger,	12:13
	justice for the wronged,	12:17
	protection for the powerless.	12:19
	Israel is a religion who sociology was in many respects	12:23
	unique in the ancient world.	12:27
	As one recent writer has put it,	12:31
	Yahweh was such a different God because Yahweh was the God	12:33
	of such a different people.	12:37
	The response to this experiment has been mixed	12:43
	from the beginning to the present.	12:47
	On the social level, it has been opposed by those	12:50
	who saw it as a threat to existing structures, and it is.	12:53
	For the Pharaoh, it meant the loss of a labor force.	12:57
	For the city state rulers in Palestine, it implied	13:01
	an upheaval of the traditional socio-economic order.	13:04
	For the kings of Israel,	13:09
	it provided the potential for rebellion	13:10
	if they betrayed the ancient ideals of the community.	13:12
	To the successive empowers which ruled the Near East,	13:19
	it ensured a group of non-conformists	13:22
	who refused to accept the values of the dominant culture.	13:26
	The bible thus has fueled a persistent dissatisfaction	13:32
	with the status quo.	13:36
	A longing for a world that could be because	13:38
	it remembers a world that once was.	13:41
	And thus it was the prophets painted an alternative	13:47
	to present reality in words such as these.	13:51
	And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares	13:56
	and their spears into pruning hooks.	13:59
	Nations shall not lift up sword against nation,	14:02
	neither shall they learn war anymore.	14:05
	Let justice row down like waters and righteousness	14:09
	like an ever flowing stream.	14:12
	And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,	14:17
	and the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.	14:21
	And I saw the holy city of New Jerusalem	14:26
	coming down out of heaven	14:28
	for the former things had passed away.	14:31
	The world then is a testing ground	14:36
	for two competing systems:	14:38
	that of Israel versus Canaan,	14:41
	that of the Judean exiles versus their Babylonian captors,	14:46
	that of the early church versus the Roman Empire,	14:51
	that competition still rages in the remotest settlements	14:56
	on earth and in the city of Durham.	14:59
	The response to this experiment on the individual level	15:05
	has not been uniformly positive either.	15:08
	What it does is to pose a challenge to the lower brain.	15:12
	It urges restraint rather than aggression.	15:17
	It limits our power to possess and to keep.	15:21
	It extol selflessness rather than domination.	15:25
	It is the nemesis of the human ego.	15:30
	It tells us that we are creatures and not God.	15:34
	It says that death was willed for us	15:37
	and properly so because we are dust	15:40
	and to dust we must return.	15:44
	It is a risky experiment because it relies to some extent	15:49
	upon the very creatures that it is designed to transform.	15:52
	And thus, there are moments when its success	15:58
	hung precariously in the balance,	16:00
	but star stuff can become a child of God	16:05
	and it can arise to the occasion.	16:09
	God can use it even when it is unaware.	16:12
	Thus the community began insignificantly	16:16
	when Abraham and Sarah, single individuals, set out.	16:19
	It depended upon a foreigner, Pharaoh,	16:23
	when Abraham gave his wife away.	16:26
	It depended upon a little girl, Miriam,	16:30
	as she watched over her baby brother	16:32
	as he floated down the Nile.	16:33
	It rested with an Egyptian princess	16:36
	as she decided what to do with this outlawed child.	16:39
	It was held in abeyance for 40 years as those former slaves	16:44
	wandered in the wilderness and an entire generation	16:48
	had to die and get out of the way	16:51
	before the kingdom could advance.	16:54
	It risk oblivion when it went into exile in Babylonia.	16:58
	And much of its future rested on a helpless child	17:03
	in a manger in Bethlehem.	17:06
	In this struggle, one is not able to know	17:13
	what a given moment the ultimate importance	17:16
	of your seemingly insignificant action.	17:18
	Who could have imagined when Joseph was sold into Egypt	17:23
	that it would become the occasion	17:26
	for the salvation of his brothers	17:28
	and thus for the entire experiment?	17:31
	He says to his brothers, as for you,	17:34
	you meant evil against me, but God used it for good	17:37
	to bring about that many people	17:42
	should be kept alive as they are today.	17:44
	And who could have imagined	17:49
	when Samson set out to go into town	17:50
	to have a wild Saturday night that God would work	17:52
	for the liberation of the people through it?	17:55
	And thus the narrator in the Book of Judges says,	18:00
	his father and his mother did not know	18:02
	that it was from the Lord	18:04
	for God was making an occasion against the Philistines.	18:06
	And who could have imagined when the maiden Esther	18:12
	became the wife of Xerxes, king of Persia	18:14
	that it would ensure the survival of the people of God.	18:19
	And thus her uncle advised her to accept that status	18:25
	since as he said,	18:28
	who knows whether you have come to the kingdom	18:29
	for just such a time as this.	18:33
	And so we do not know what role we will play	18:40
	in the resolution of this conflict,	18:43
	but we may be sure that our modest contribution	18:47
	can affect the remote future.	18:50
	Hear then what Paul said	18:55
	to the ordinary citizens of Corinth.	18:56
	Not many of you are wise according to worldly standards,	19:00
	not many are powerful,	19:04
	not many are of noble birth,	19:07
	but God chose what is foolish in the world	19:11
	to shame the wise.	19:14
	God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.	19:17
	God chose what is lowly and despised in the world,	19:23
	near nothingness,	19:26
	to overthrow the existing order.	19:28
	What we do know is that sooner or later,	19:34
	one side or the other in the struggle will win.	19:37
	Ultimately, either the kingdom of God must prevail	19:44
	or hell will prevail	19:46
	and we will destroy ourselves.	19:48
	And I have bet my life and so have you	19:53
	and if not urge you to do so	19:56
	on who or whom the winner will be.	19:58
	My last word for you is a prayer from the synagogue,	20:04
	2,000 years old.	20:06
	May God bless you, brothers and sisters.	20:09
	Now there is a phrase that does not come	20:15
	from that ancient ritual.	20:17
	Star stuff, changed into children of God.	20:19
	May God bless you	20:23
	and may that kingdom come speedily in your lifetime	20:25
	and very soon.	20:30
	Hallelujah.	20:32
	Amen.	20:33
	(solemn organ music)	20:38
	(voices drowned by music)	21:00
-	As the people of God, let us affirm	22:38
	what we believe.	22:40
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	22:43
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	22:48
	to reconcile and make new,	22:51
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	22:54
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	22:58
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	23:03
	to love and serve others,	23:06
	to seek justice and resist evil,	23:08
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	23:12
	our judge and our hope.	23:16
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	23:18
	God is with us, we are not alone.	23:23
	Thanks be to God.	23:27
	The Lord be with you.	23:29
Congregation	And also with you.	23:31
-	Let us pray.	23:34
	Oh God grant to us to share in the life	23:47
	and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.	23:51
	Grant that through him and with him	23:56
	we may die to sin and live to righteousness.	23:59
	Grant that through him and with him our old self may die,	24:04
	and the new self victorious over sin	24:09
	and lovely with goodness may be created.	24:13
	Grant that through him and with him	24:17
	we may become a new creation	24:20
	in which the old things have passed away,	24:22
	and in which everything has become new.	24:26
	And grant that we may be so one with our risen Lord	24:30
	that when life ends for us in this world	24:35
	we may know that death is the gateway to eternal life.	24:39
	Make us quite certain that when we die	24:45
	we will live again.	24:49
	Deliver us from the fear of death	24:51
	and make us to know that death	24:55
	is not the end but the beginning of life,	24:57
	not the twilight but the dawn,	25:01
	not the midnight but the breaking day.	25:04
	So grant us the certainty that beyond death there is life,	25:09
	where the broken things are mended	25:15
	and the lost things found,	25:18
	where there is rest for the weary and joy for the sad,	25:21
	where all we have hoped and willed of good shall exist,	25:27
	where the dreams will come true	25:33
	and the ideal will be realized,	25:36
	where we shall be forever with our Lord.	25:40
	So grant us this Easter certainty	25:44
	that life is stronger than death	25:48
	for we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord	25:51
	who taught us to pray saying	25:55
	Our Father who art in heaven,	25:58
	hallowed by Thy name,	26:01
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done	26:03
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	26:06
	Give us this day our daily bread	26:09
	and forgive us our trespasses	26:12
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	26:15
	and lead us not into temptation	26:18
	but deliver from evil,	26:21
	for Thine is the kingdom, and the power,	26:23
	and the glory forever.	26:27
	Amen.	26:29
	(solemn choir music)	27:03
	(solemn choir music)	31:35
	Open wide your hands, O God,	33:15
	to receive these gifts of ourselves and our service	33:18
	for Your creation and Your people across the Earth.	33:23
	In Christ's name we pray.	33:27
	Amen.	33:29
	(solemn organ music)	33:33
	(voices drowned by music)	34:01
	And now the peace of God which passes all understanding,	35:58
	keep your hearts and minds	36:04
	in the knowledge and love of God	36:06
	and of His son Jesus Christ our Lord,	36:09
	and the blessing of God Almighty,	36:13
	redeemer, creator, sustainer,	36:17
	be among you and remain with you always.	36:20
	Amen.	36:25
	(solemn music)	36:27
	♪ Amen ♪	36:30
	♪ Amen ♪	36:35
	♪ Amen ♪	36:40
	♪ Amen ♪	36:44
	♪ Amen ♪	36:53
	♪ Amen ♪	37:00
	♪ Amen ♪	37:13
	(solemn organ music)	37:38
	(indistinct chatter)	42:15

Item Info

Title:

Lloyd R. Bailey - "An Immense Journey: From Star Stuff to Child of God" (April 29, 1984)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 35:34. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 20:33.
What are we to make of the Bible in this scientific age? His response is to provide a middle point between secular humanism (creation as a no-longer-acceptable ancient part of history) and modern creationism (natural law only happens by the will of God). He interweaves biological, chemical and astronomical accounts for the formation of the world alongside the Genesis account. Then concludes that scientists and theologians agree on this: the problem of evil in humanity. The Bible’s response to this is to show that God creates a community of people and is faithful to this community. The experiment begins with Abraham and hasn’t stopped until today. God has given humans power in which their choices can have significant effects in the outcome of the experiment. At the end, we are the ones to choose who to side with: evil or God (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "Again, Genesis has a different, though not contradictory perspective, it is not a matter of Genesis verses geology. But Genesis beyond geology. Our scripture is not concerned primarily with our molecular development It is concerned with our moral accountability.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4c24r24m

Date:

April 29, 1984

Speaker:

Bailey, Lloyd R.

Liturgical Calendar:

Easter

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Chapter and Verse:

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0206
ref7933_4sb
uachapelsermaud
duke:320375
dcrau001194
ark:/87924/r4c24r24m
c431d323-e713-43ac-8c75-ae4631cd1e74

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Lloyd R. Bailey - "An Immense Journey: From Star Stuff to Child of God" (April 29, 1984)

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