David H. C. Read - "Knowledge - With Room for Wonder" Baccalaureate Service 11:00 am (May 9, 1987)
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Transcript
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(muffled choral music) | 0:08 | |
♪ Lord God of nations ♪ | 0:17 | |
♪ Son of God and ♪ | 0:25 | |
♪ Son of man ♪ | 0:33 | |
♪ Lord (muffled speech) ♪ | 0:39 | |
♪ Praise God adoration ♪ | 0:50 | |
♪ Now and forever more ♪ | 0:56 | |
♪ (muffled speech) ♪ | 1:03 | |
♪ Now and forever more ♪ | 1:09 | |
♪ The Light ♪ | 1:18 | |
(organ music) | 1:43 | |
(muffled choral music) | 2:13 | |
Preacher | Let us confess our sin | 6:40 |
before God and one another. | 6:41 | |
Be seated. | 6:43 | |
Let us pray. | 6:58 | |
Most merciful God, | 7:00 | |
we confess that we have sinned against you | 7:02 | |
in thought, word and deed, | 7:04 | |
but what we have done and what we have left undone. | 7:08 | |
We have not loved You with our whole heart. | 7:13 | |
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. | 7:16 | |
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. | 7:20 | |
For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, | 7:24 | |
have mercy on us and forgive us | 7:26 | |
that we may delight in Your will | 7:30 | |
and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your Name, Amen. | 7:33 | |
For it is the Heavens are high above the Earth, | 7:41 | |
so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. | 7:44 | |
As far as the east is from the west, | 7:47 | |
so far does He remove our transgressions from us. | 7:53 | |
Amen. | 7:55 | |
We welcome you to this baccalaureate service | 8:01 | |
at Duke University's 135th commencement. | 8:03 | |
At the conclusion of this service, | 8:09 | |
we would ask the congregation please remain in place | 8:11 | |
until all of the graduates have recessed out of the chapel. | 8:14 | |
Our lector for today's service | 8:21 | |
replaces president Brodie who is meeting | 8:25 | |
with the trustees at this time. | 8:29 | |
Our lector is University Marshall | 8:31 | |
and Distinguished Service Professor, Dr. Pelham Wilder. | 8:34 | |
Our preacher for this baccalaureate | 8:36 | |
is no stranger to Duke Chapel; | 8:41 | |
he is a master preacher and a gifted writer. | 8:44 | |
He is Dr. David H.C. Read, | 8:48 | |
Senior Minister of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church | 8:51 | |
in New York. | 8:53 | |
We welcome him back to the chapel and to this great service. | 8:55 | |
Pelham | Let us pray. | 9:09 |
Open our hearts and minds, o, God, | 9:11 | |
by the power of Your Holy Spirit | 9:15 | |
so that as the Word is read and proclaimed, | 9:16 | |
we might hear with joy what You say to us this day, Amen. | 9:20 | |
The first lesson is from Proverbs. | 9:27 | |
"Three things are too wonderful for me, | 9:30 | |
"four, I do not understand. | 9:34 | |
"The way of an eagle in the sky, | 9:37 | |
"the way of a serpent on a rock, | 9:40 | |
"the way of a ship on the high seas | 9:43 | |
"and the way of a man with a maiden." | 9:46 | |
Here ends the reading of the first lesson. | 9:50 | |
(organ music) | 10:02 | |
(muffled choral music) | 10:18 | |
The congregation will please rise | 13:56 | |
for the reading of the Gospel. | 13:58 | |
The Gospel for the morning is from St. Matthew. | 14:06 | |
"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain | 14:11 | |
"and when he sat down, his disciples came to him | 14:14 | |
"and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, | 14:18 | |
"blessed are the poor in spirit, | 14:24 | |
"for there's is the Kingdom of Heaven. | 14:25 | |
"Blessed are those who morn, for they shall be comforted. | 14:26 | |
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. | 14:28 | |
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, | 14:33 | |
"for they shall be satisfied. | 14:38 | |
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall attain mercy. | 14:41 | |
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. | 14:43 | |
"Blessed are the peacemakers, | 14:48 | |
"for they shall be called the sons of God." | 14:50 | |
The Gospel of our Lord, Amen. | 14:54 | |
(organ music) | 14:56 | |
(muffled choral music) | 15:07 | |
Please be seated. | 16:01 | |
The Epistle is from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. | 16:10 | |
"So that we may no longer be children, | 16:15 | |
"tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind | 16:17 | |
"of doctrine by the cunning of man | 16:20 | |
"and by their craftiness and deceitful wiles, | 16:23 | |
"rather speaking the truth and love, | 16:27 | |
"we are to grow up in every way into him, | 16:30 | |
"who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body, | 16:33 | |
"joined and knit together by every joint | 16:37 | |
"by which it is supplied, | 16:40 | |
"when each part is working properly makes bodily growth | 16:41 | |
"and upbuilds itself in love. | 16:44 | |
"Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord; | 16:46 | |
"that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do. | 16:49 | |
"In the futility of their minds, | 16:55 | |
"they have darkened in their understanding, | 16:57 | |
"alienated from the life of God | 17:00 | |
"because of the ignorance that is in them | 17:03 | |
"due to their hardness of heart. | 17:05 | |
"They have become calloused and have given themselves | 17:08 | |
"up to licentiousness, | 17:11 | |
"greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. | 17:15 | |
"You did not so learn Christ. | 17:18 | |
"Assuming that you have heard about him | 17:20 | |
"and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus." | 17:23 | |
Here ends the reading of the epistle lesson. | 17:29 | |
David | Let the words of my mouth | 17:40 |
and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable | 17:42 | |
in Thy sight, O, Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. | 17:45 | |
It is a special joy for me to be back on this lovely campus | 17:53 | |
and in particular, to share and worship | 17:59 | |
in this beautiful chapel | 18:02 | |
and it is my privilege to preach, | 18:05 | |
particularly to those who are today graduating. | 18:09 | |
My theme, as you may read is | 18:15 | |
knowledge with room for wonder. | 18:19 | |
And you'll be relieved to know that I'm not going | 18:23 | |
to go in to a disquisition about knowledge. | 18:25 | |
I'm not like the famous scholar in Balliol, Oxford | 18:30 | |
who was reputed to say, "I am the master of this college. | 18:34 | |
"What I don't know isn't knowledge!" | 18:39 | |
I'm not I hope to be inflicting upon you | 18:42 | |
what my own particular definition of what knowledge is | 18:48 | |
but here you are going out | 18:51 | |
from this institution | 18:54 | |
with the knowledge that you have acquired | 18:57 | |
over these four years and I'm sure it can't be said | 18:59 | |
of Duke, as has been said of | 19:04 | |
some institutions of knowledge, | 19:08 | |
that the reason why a university is called | 19:11 | |
a repository of knowledge and wisdom | 19:16 | |
is that the freshman brings so much in | 19:19 | |
and the graduate takes so much out. | 19:23 | |
(audience laughter) | 19:26 | |
You, rather, I think are in the position of giving | 19:30 | |
thanks to God today for what you have acquired | 19:32 | |
during these years and now commences | 19:37 | |
the growing up with it | 19:42 | |
of which we have heard. | 19:45 | |
I have a text like any descent presbyterian preacher | 19:48 | |
and the text comes from a rather surprising couple | 19:52 | |
of verses in the Book of Proverbs which you have just heard. | 19:55 | |
"Three things are too wonderful for me, | 19:59 | |
"four, I do not understand; | 20:03 | |
"the way of an eagle in the sky, | 20:06 | |
"the way of a serpent on a rock, | 20:09 | |
"the way of a ship on the high seas | 20:12 | |
"and the way of a man with a maiden." | 20:14 | |
Some might want to take this old writer by the hand | 20:20 | |
and explain all this for him. | 20:24 | |
"Too wonderful I don't understand." | 20:28 | |
Of course, you lived a long, long time ago, | 20:33 | |
whoever you were. | 20:35 | |
You never heard of aerodynamics or biological mutations | 20:36 | |
or astrophysics or chromosomes and genes. | 20:40 | |
Everything was mystery to you, old man. | 20:44 | |
It was wonderful? Of course, you couldn't understand. | 20:48 | |
But now that we know all about it, | 20:52 | |
now that we, as the theologians used to tell us 20 years go, | 20:54 | |
have come of age, | 20:59 | |
although I don't see many signs out in our world, | 21:01 | |
wouldn't you like, we would say to this man, | 21:05 | |
"Wouldn't you like to have me explain to you | 21:08 | |
"these questions which are to wonderful for you?" | 21:12 | |
The way of an eagle in the sky, for instance, | 21:15 | |
nothing wonderful about that, you know. | 21:18 | |
It's all a question of air displacement, | 21:21 | |
given the weight of the bird, the span of the wings, | 21:25 | |
then of relatively slight lateral motion will suffice | 21:28 | |
to counteract the pull of gravity while speed, | 21:33 | |
elevation and direction are achieved by appropriate | 21:36 | |
muscular adjustments. | 21:39 | |
We know all about that. | 21:41 | |
(audience laughter) | 21:43 | |
But of course, as a primitive, heavier-than-air machine, | 21:44 | |
the eagle has long been outclassed, my dear man, | 21:48 | |
long outclassed by speed and efficiency by human artifacts | 21:52 | |
such as the rocket or the jet plane | 21:56 | |
which I don't understand anymore than you do | 22:00 | |
but somebody does and there's no mystery about it anymore! | 22:02 | |
(audience laughter) | 22:06 | |
Well, while the author of the Proverbs | 22:09 | |
was recovering from this, you could go on. | 22:11 | |
The way of the serpent of the rock, | 22:15 | |
oh yes, I see your difficulty, no legs, no wings. | 22:19 | |
How does he move? | 22:25 | |
Well, we can explain that to you, you know. | 22:27 | |
I found it in the encyclopedia. | 22:30 | |
Locomotion is effected by the passage of a series | 22:33 | |
of waves from the fore backwards, | 22:36 | |
each wave in its progress pressing against the surrounding | 22:39 | |
medium and forcing the animal forward, you see? | 22:42 | |
No, history, | 22:46 | |
if you still don't understand, you can add | 22:49 | |
the scales of the lower surface are enlarged | 22:52 | |
to form transverse, overlapping plates, | 22:55 | |
whose free edges directed backwards | 22:58 | |
and to each of these plates is attached a pair | 23:00 | |
of moveable ribs, it's true! | 23:03 | |
Got it? | 23:05 | |
Microscopes, you see, have show us a lot | 23:07 | |
that you didn't know anything about. | 23:10 | |
I could go on to tell you about the serpent, | 23:12 | |
you might say, more than you ever want to know, | 23:15 | |
how he manages to get along on a smooth rock. | 23:19 | |
That was your trouble, wasn't it? | 23:21 | |
When it's got about 300 ventral shields, | 23:24 | |
each of which can use any irregularity so | 23:27 | |
that progress is possible over almost any surface | 23:31 | |
that is not absolutely smooth. | 23:35 | |
You see, we know! | 23:37 | |
There's nothing wonderful about that serpent on the rock. | 23:39 | |
We can explain. | 23:43 | |
Next question. | 23:45 | |
Ah yes, the way of a ship on the high seas. | 23:46 | |
I suppose your difficulty is in understanding | 23:52 | |
how the little tub ever keeps afloat in a storm | 23:54 | |
and how it picks its way across the ocean | 23:58 | |
to the desired harbor. | 24:01 | |
I remember your colleague who write the Book of Psalms | 24:04 | |
having a similar difficulty: | 24:07 | |
"They that go down to the sea | 24:09 | |
"in ships that do business in great waters, | 24:11 | |
"Thee see the works of the Lord | 24:15 | |
"and His wonders in their deep." | 24:17 | |
But, you don't need to see any works | 24:20 | |
of the Lord or wonders. | 24:23 | |
Even in your day, the science of navigation | 24:25 | |
could explain how your little sailing ship | 24:28 | |
gets from hither to yon. | 24:31 | |
And now, of course, | 24:33 | |
we have the whole business under control. | 24:35 | |
A floating hotel of 80,000 tons can speed | 24:38 | |
through the high seas with an automatic pilot | 24:42 | |
to do all the steering and radar to do all the seeing. | 24:46 | |
There's no mystery anymore. | 24:49 | |
You and I may not understand it all, but someone does. | 24:52 | |
Now what was the last thing you mentioned? | 24:55 | |
Ah yes! | 24:58 | |
The way of a man with a maiden. | 25:00 | |
Ah, too wonderful! | 25:03 | |
You don't understand? | 25:05 | |
Now really, if there's one thing where we've made | 25:07 | |
great strides since your day is this business of sex. | 25:11 | |
You primitive people made such a mystery about it | 25:16 | |
with your rites and ceremonies, your poems and music, | 25:19 | |
your romantic illusions. | 25:24 | |
We have finally analyzed this man-woman relationship. | 25:26 | |
We know about the biological impulses behind it. | 25:32 | |
We're applying psychological methods | 25:36 | |
to determine its function in society. | 25:38 | |
We're on our way to rationalizing the sex act | 25:42 | |
or, perhaps, doing without it all together, | 25:45 | |
and are developing computers to help match | 25:48 | |
the right man and the right maiden. | 25:51 | |
A recent book based on an elaborate investigation | 25:54 | |
on the clinical conditions on the way of a man with a maiden | 25:58 | |
shows the way towards a complete understanding | 26:02 | |
of human sexuality. | 26:05 | |
You wouldn't need to wonder about it anymore, old man. | 26:07 | |
You'll understand, you'll know all about it. | 26:10 | |
Well, I know that none of you here really feel that way. | 26:14 | |
You're not foolish enough to imagine that there | 26:19 | |
are some things | 26:24 | |
that over the centuries | 26:27 | |
become completely lost. | 26:31 | |
Although we've made progress, obviously, | 26:36 | |
and discover lots of things used to be believed, | 26:38 | |
cannot be believed. | 26:41 | |
We're not naive enough to think that in questions, | 26:43 | |
deepest questions of life and meaning of life, | 26:47 | |
questions of ethics, | 26:50 | |
that these things have steadily grown stronger | 26:52 | |
and more powerful that we know so much more | 26:56 | |
than the Bible writers. | 26:58 | |
You have had enough study here of the Bible, I'm sure, | 27:01 | |
privately or publicly to realize | 27:05 | |
that the matters the bible deals | 27:08 | |
with are not technical questions | 27:10 | |
about how things are created in detail | 27:13 | |
but the great questions, | 27:17 | |
meaning, right, wrong. | 27:20 | |
We have to be realistic about those things. | 27:23 | |
We do know infinitely more about the physical universe | 27:26 | |
than the person who wrote the Proverbs. | 27:30 | |
We do know more about the nature of the universe, | 27:36 | |
the transmission of life, the mastery of the elements, | 27:39 | |
the functioning of the human body and psyche, | 27:43 | |
the advance of human knowledge has been extraordinary | 27:47 | |
since the Bible was written | 27:50 | |
and evermore so than in the last 50 years | 27:52 | |
and a preacher is rather foolish | 27:56 | |
when he launches in to any kind | 27:59 | |
of denegation of modern science. | 28:01 | |
I sometimes think I new definition of a hypocrite | 28:05 | |
is the preacher who composes | 28:09 | |
sermon denouncing modern technology | 28:14 | |
and he proposes it on an electric typewriter | 28:18 | |
and he dashes off in his car to a studio | 28:21 | |
to have it broadcast. | 28:23 | |
(audience laughter) | 28:25 | |
The liberating spirit of inquiry | 28:28 | |
has brought to this universe, to mankind, | 28:32 | |
a new era, a possible conquest of hunger and disease, | 28:36 | |
some control over the forces of nature | 28:42 | |
and that understanding has often been bought | 28:45 | |
at a great price, for science has its marters | 28:47 | |
as well as religion. | 28:51 | |
No, my purpose in this sermon is simply to raise | 28:53 | |
a huge question mark over against the idea | 28:58 | |
that our scientific understanding of things is sufficient, | 29:03 | |
is complete, and that therefore, we have arrived | 29:09 | |
at a point in the human story | 29:12 | |
where wonder and mystery, | 29:15 | |
the intuitions of the mystic, the vision of the artist, | 29:19 | |
the poet, the realm of the spirit | 29:24 | |
can all be rolled out as icing on the cake, | 29:28 | |
subjective influences. | 29:32 | |
The point is not that there are still some things | 29:35 | |
science cannot explain. | 29:38 | |
It would be a bold preacher to rest the case for religion | 29:40 | |
on the gap in the scientific picture | 29:43 | |
as that closes any book. | 29:47 | |
I'm confident that science will go on exploring | 29:50 | |
and investigating in every area, | 29:54 | |
even those we used to think belonged only | 29:58 | |
to morals and religion, | 30:00 | |
but we know that it's not just for human beings | 30:02 | |
to question off how we can do things. | 30:06 | |
It's not just a question | 30:09 | |
of something now being made possible. | 30:11 | |
It's also a question for all of us, | 30:14 | |
whether if a thing is possible, | 30:18 | |
it should be done or not done. | 30:20 | |
That's still our choice. | 30:22 | |
What we have to ask is whether this kind of explanation, | 30:26 | |
even if it seems to cover the sum-total | 30:31 | |
of human experience, offers an answer to the ultimate | 30:33 | |
questions that concern every thinking person. | 30:37 | |
We don't just want to know how, | 30:41 | |
we want to know why. | 30:45 | |
You can explain to the very limit of my capacity | 30:47 | |
the complexities of the atom, | 30:51 | |
the cellular structure of life, | 30:54 | |
the realm of the solar system, | 30:56 | |
the sweep of the galaxy, | 30:59 | |
still the infinities of time and space, | 31:01 | |
but I'm left asking what does it mean, | 31:05 | |
just as they asked long ago. | 31:11 | |
When I consider the work of our hands, what is man, | 31:14 | |
God mindful of him? | 31:17 | |
Is there anything behind the process. | 31:20 | |
Some say today that these questions are foolish. | 31:23 | |
They are just noises that you make | 31:27 | |
to indicate your disappointment. | 31:30 | |
But I find them raised not only by the middle age | 31:33 | |
and the old age, but particularly by a younger generation. | 31:38 | |
The search for meaning lies behind all kinds of things, | 31:44 | |
from demonstrations and trends in music | 31:50 | |
or even the question of suicide. | 31:54 | |
It's as though a generation | 31:59 | |
that has had everything explained has realized that, | 32:00 | |
ultimately, nothing has been explained at all on that level. | 32:04 | |
There are other ways of listening to the universe. | 32:11 | |
The telescope and microscope are not | 32:15 | |
the only avenues into truth. | 32:18 | |
There was a time when religious believers were accused | 32:22 | |
of having narrow minds | 32:25 | |
and there are indeed religious people | 32:28 | |
who live in a very little chamber of piety | 32:31 | |
from which they glare out suspiciously | 32:36 | |
at the ways of the modern world | 32:39 | |
and also we have to admit that churches in the past | 32:42 | |
have too often obstructed the path of knowledge, science, | 32:45 | |
have neglected the contribution to the arts, | 32:51 | |
fostered a timid and somewhat negative attitude to life, | 32:54 | |
but I suspect that we are going through a reversal just now. | 32:59 | |
We may be reaching the point where it is thorough | 33:04 | |
going secularist, the dogmatic rationalist, | 33:07 | |
who is being revealed as narrow minded. | 33:10 | |
Not long ago, a professor of English Literature wrote | 33:13 | |
to The New York Times to complain | 33:17 | |
about a Nobel Prize being awarded to Isaac Singer | 33:22 | |
and the ground of his complaint entirely was | 33:27 | |
that Singer happens to be a believer, a religious believer, | 33:30 | |
and how's that for atheist fundamentalism? | 33:36 | |
(audience laughter) | 33:40 | |
To limit one's convictions to that which is capable | 33:43 | |
of scientific explanation, to then attempt | 33:46 | |
to reduce every vivid experience | 33:50 | |
to mere computer fodder, | 33:54 | |
to interpret religious and moral insights | 33:56 | |
of the human race just in terms of subjective emotion, | 33:59 | |
that is narrow minded dogmatism, | 34:04 | |
a deliberate exclusion of a whole dimension of existence. | 34:07 | |
I think there is a revolt against this now | 34:12 | |
and that brings me back | 34:16 | |
to the eagle in the sky, the serpent on the rock, | 34:19 | |
the ship on the high seas | 34:24 | |
and the way of a man with a maiden. | 34:25 | |
So let's leave this lovely chapel for a moment | 34:28 | |
and let's leave this rushing world | 34:33 | |
with all that's happening in a clattering | 34:38 | |
of cities like New York. | 34:40 | |
Let's leave the libraries and laboratories | 34:43 | |
and come away for a moment, | 34:48 | |
dream ourself off, for instance | 34:51 | |
on some distant mountain peek, | 34:53 | |
sitting on a rock, looking over a sea of peaks | 34:57 | |
covered by the glinting sun | 35:00 | |
with the clouds drifting by and here comes the eagle | 35:04 | |
hovering, swooping, soaring, | 35:09 | |
gliding off into a distant speck on the far horizon. | 35:13 | |
Do we sit there thinking about aerodynamics? | 35:20 | |
Are we at that moment any wiser than the Bible writer | 35:25 | |
who found the way of the eagle in the sky | 35:29 | |
too wonderful for him? | 35:33 | |
Is what the artist sees | 35:37 | |
as he watches the curve of the flight | 35:40 | |
even of a common seagull | 35:43 | |
not more important to all of us, | 35:47 | |
a whole mountain of statistical research? | 35:51 | |
Can that moment, such a moment of wonder, | 35:55 | |
not open a window for us into the dimension of mystery | 35:58 | |
and of God that has | 36:04 | |
more meaning than a wilderness of factual knowledge? | 36:08 | |
I do not understand. | 36:13 | |
Feed me all the information that's tucked away | 36:17 | |
in a thousand microfilms and I still | 36:21 | |
would stand there and wonder | 36:25 | |
and I wonder about the serpent on the rock. | 36:27 | |
Now, I listen | 36:32 | |
to strange voices from past that come hissing | 36:36 | |
through the collective unconscious of mankind. | 36:40 | |
Primeval symbol of temptation, remember? | 36:45 | |
And then that healing snake that Moses raised | 36:50 | |
in the wilderness, | 36:53 | |
legend of the sea serpent, | 36:55 | |
betrayal of the serpent through the imagery of our dreams, | 36:59 | |
the poison, the illusion as the cunning, | 37:04 | |
as Cleopatra, that serpent of ol' Nile. | 37:10 | |
To the window opens into a strange world | 37:15 | |
where there are hopes, fears, | 37:20 | |
shapes of good and evil | 37:24 | |
and at such a moment, God can't speak to us. | 37:26 | |
If we are never transfixed by a single living creature, | 37:32 | |
a serpent on a rock, | 37:36 | |
an ant carrying its egg, | 37:39 | |
a fly moving on a windowpane | 37:42 | |
or the sheer improbability of a hippopotamus. | 37:46 | |
If we are never astonished, made to wonder, | 37:51 | |
then we are terribly impoverished. | 37:56 | |
There are times I don't want to know the facts. | 38:00 | |
I just wonder, do we really understand anymore | 38:02 | |
what it all means and the man who wrote the Proverbs? | 38:07 | |
Then that ship on the high seas, | 38:12 | |
what was it that aroused amazement? | 38:15 | |
I don't think it was the technical achievement. | 38:19 | |
He probably knew quite a bit, this old poet, | 38:23 | |
about rudders, sails, tides and winds. | 38:25 | |
More than I do! | 38:30 | |
I believe he was seized with a thought | 38:32 | |
that comes to us all, why? | 38:34 | |
Why does this earth-bound two-legged creature | 38:38 | |
called man or woman have the desire | 38:42 | |
to cut down trees and make a boat? | 38:47 | |
Why entrust themselves to the dark and menacing ocean? | 38:50 | |
Why do they do it? | 38:55 | |
Where are they going? | 38:57 | |
And why do they want to go? | 39:00 | |
Same questions come to us when we watch | 39:03 | |
some of our own fellow creatures blasting off | 39:06 | |
into space in a capsule. | 39:11 | |
For the achievement, we have the explanations | 39:17 | |
if we follow them. | 39:19 | |
No mystery about the calculations, the experiments, | 39:21 | |
the years of research, | 39:24 | |
but the mystery, the wonder, | 39:26 | |
the confession that we don't understand | 39:29 | |
comes with the deeper questions. | 39:31 | |
What strange compulsion has led the human race, | 39:35 | |
always, always through the centuries, | 39:40 | |
to explore and try to master the mystery | 39:47 | |
of his environment? | 39:50 | |
What of anything lies behind the evolution | 39:55 | |
of such a creature on this earth? | 39:58 | |
So do we want, really, to become the people | 40:04 | |
who claim to understand and everything, | 40:07 | |
and therefore, to understand nothing? | 40:09 | |
Can we still say that the mystery of man's existence, | 40:13 | |
his questing spirit is too wonderful for me, | 40:18 | |
I do not understand? | 40:21 | |
Then, not long ago a book was published | 40:24 | |
called "Human Sexual Response," | 40:29 | |
and a reply came in to the effect that | 40:33 | |
the reader wanted to found a society | 40:38 | |
for the preservation for the sweet mystery of life | 40:42 | |
and I feel sympathy for that comment. | 40:47 | |
All right, have the facts, sure. | 40:50 | |
There's too much ignorance and hush-hush about sex | 40:54 | |
and when I was a kid, | 40:56 | |
but what kind of life awaits a people | 40:59 | |
for whom the way of a man with a maiden | 41:03 | |
is entirely explainable in terms of glans | 41:06 | |
and genes and psychological data? | 41:09 | |
The Bible is plain enough about the facts of sex | 41:15 | |
but the way of a man with a maiden | 41:20 | |
is also seen in the dimension of wonder and mystery. | 41:23 | |
Yes, there are sex laws in the Pentateuch, | 41:29 | |
but thank God they are wise enough when they formed | 41:31 | |
the cannon of scripture to include the Song of Psalms, | 41:35 | |
that glorious love poem. | 41:40 | |
Into what kind of drab world are we moving | 41:43 | |
if sheer explanation takes over in this field | 41:47 | |
and the wonder and the poetry disappear? | 41:51 | |
As a Scot, I love | 41:55 | |
the verse of one of Burn's poems that goes, | 42:00 | |
"O, my love is like a red, | 42:04 | |
"red rose that's newly sprung in June | 42:07 | |
"and my love's like the melody | 42:11 | |
that sweetly played in tune." | 42:14 | |
And I don't want to sing instead, | 42:18 | |
"O, my love is like a chromosome | 42:22 | |
"that seeks the perfect suitor!" | 42:24 | |
(audience laughter) | 42:26 | |
"And my love will be chosen for me by an IBM computer." | 42:30 | |
(audience laughter) | 42:34 | |
No, let's preserve the mystery, | 42:38 | |
the revival of wonder. | 42:41 | |
Recognition of a dimension in life | 42:44 | |
that cannot be explained away. | 42:46 | |
I'm not suggesting to any of you here | 42:49 | |
that if you have doubts about the Christian faith, | 42:52 | |
the sense of wonder will eliminate them altogether. | 42:56 | |
No, but you'll find that if you keep open | 43:00 | |
with a sense of wonder to this mystery of life, | 43:06 | |
then some of the doctrines that you have heard | 43:11 | |
over the years will suddenly come alive. | 43:15 | |
You may have to say, | 43:22 | |
"Lord, I believe but I do not understand." | 43:23 | |
so that is my simple plea, | 43:28 | |
that you will keep open the mind, the spirit, | 43:31 | |
for what comes from the other dimension. | 43:36 | |
Here, brooding over the whole campus, | 43:39 | |
is this symbol of the majesty, | 43:43 | |
glory and the grace of God. | 43:46 | |
I hope as you who are graduating leave, | 43:51 | |
you will carry with you an inner shrine | 43:55 | |
where you may experience in the years to come | 44:01 | |
in a way perhaps that you haven't yet | 44:05 | |
what it means to be able to say with conviction, | 44:08 | |
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, | 44:11 | |
"Maker of Heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, | 44:14 | |
"His only Son, our Lord. | 44:18 | |
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life." | 44:21 | |
May it be so. | 44:26 | |
Let us pray. | 44:28 | |
Thanks be to thee, O, God, | 44:31 | |
for the mystery and wonder of life. | 44:32 | |
Make us every to be responsive | 44:35 | |
to Thy voice that comes to us | 44:38 | |
and guides and directs through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 44:41 | |
Amen. | 44:46 | |
(organ music) | 45:03 | |
♪ Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices ♪ | 45:51 | |
♪ Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices ♪ | 45:59 | |
♪ Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way ♪ | 46:16 | |
♪ With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today ♪ | 46:27 | |
♪ O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us ♪ | 46:42 | |
♪ With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us ♪ | 46:56 | |
♪And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed ♪ | 47:13 | |
♪And free us from all ills, in this world and the next ♪ | 47:26 |
(church choir singing over organ) | 0:30 | |
Female Speaker | Let us unite | 1:01 |
in this historic confession of the Christian faith. | 1:02 | |
Congregation | I believe in God, the father almighty, | 1:07 |
maker of heaven and Earth, and in | 1:10 | |
Jesus Christ his only son our Lord, | 1:13 | |
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, | 1:16 | |
birthed of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, | 1:19 | |
was crucified, dead and buried. | 1:24 | |
He descended into Hell. | 1:27 | |
The third day he rose again from the dead. | 1:29 | |
He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand | 1:32 | |
of God the father almighty. | 1:36 | |
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 1:38 | |
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, | 1:42 | |
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, | 1:47 | |
the resurrection of the body, | 1:50 | |
and the life everlasting, Amen. | 1:53 | |
Female Speaker | Please be seated. | 1:57 |
(church organ) | 2:32 | |
(choir singing) | 3:19 | |
(choir singing over organ) | 3:56 | |
(choir singing over organ) | 4:32 | |
(choir singing over organ) | 5:09 | |
(choir singing over organ) | 5:55 | |
Male speaker | Let us stand for the responsive prayer. | 7:38 |
Almighty God, as you have granted us a place | 7:46 | |
in this university, hallow to us now | 7:49 | |
this day, when we dedicate ourselves | 7:53 | |
to the life and work to which you have called us, | 7:56 | |
that we may remember with gratitude the families | 8:00 | |
and friends who have cared for us. | 8:03 | |
Congregation | We ask you this, oh God. | 8:06 |
Male Speaker | That in the life ahead, | 8:09 |
we may keep faith with those who have loved us, | 8:11 | |
and trusted us, and whose hopes follow us. | 8:13 | |
Congregation | We ask you this, oh God. | 8:17 |
Male Speaker | That we may enter with good courage | 8:20 |
and constant purpose upon the tasks which await us. | 8:22 | |
Congregation | We ask you this, oh God. | 8:26 |
Male Speaker | From all vanity and pride, | 8:29 |
as if our accomplishments were of our sole creation. | 8:31 | |
Congregation | Deliver us. | 8:36 |
Male Speaker | From neglect of the opportunities | 8:38 |
which are all about us, and from distrust | 8:40 | |
of our ability to meet the duties of each dawning day. | 8:43 | |
Congregation | Deliver us. | 8:47 |
Male Speaker | That the example | 8:50 |
of wise and generous people | 8:51 | |
who have gone before us in our families, | 8:53 | |
and here in this university, may save us | 8:56 | |
from folly and self indulgence. | 8:59 | |
Congregation | We ask you this, oh God. | 9:02 |
Male Speaker | More especially, | 9:05 |
as you would show to us your way of love, | 9:06 | |
in all that we do or say, that we should come to love | 9:09 | |
the Lord our God with our soul and mind and strength | 9:12 | |
and our neighbor as ourselves. | 9:16 | |
Congregation | We ask you this, oh God. | 9:19 |
Male Speaker | These things, and whatever else | 9:22 |
you see needful and right for us, | 9:24 | |
we ask in your holy name, Amen. | 9:28 | |
(church organ) | 9:36 | |
(congregation singing over organ) | 10:29 | |
(congregation singing over organ) | 11:12 | |
(congregation singing over organ) | 12:52 | |
(congregation singing over organ) | 13:43 | |
Now class of 1987, may the peace of God | 14:32 | |
go with you, and may the grace of God be with you | 14:37 | |
and remain with you always. | 14:41 | |
(choir singing) | 14:58 | |
(church organ) | 16:21 | |
(church organ) | 17:19 | |
(church organ) | 18:16 | |
(church organ) | 19:18 | |
(church organ) | 20:01 | |
(church organ) | 20:50 | |
(church organ) | 22:59 | |
(church organ) | 25:46 | |
(church organ) | 28:07 |