David H. C. Read - "Knowledge - With Room for Wonder" Baccalaureate Service 11:00 am (May 9, 1987)

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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

Item Info

Title:

David H. C. Read - "Knowledge - With Room for Wonder" Baccalaureate Service 11:00 am (May 9, 1987)

Description:

The questions of knowledge which the Scriptures seek to address are not merely a matter of scientific fact. While modern science is a great gift to human understanding, we run the risk of losing a sense of wonder and mystery about life if we believe that everything can be explained. The Christian faith requires we open ourselves up to the wonder and mystery of life. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 17:54. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 44:48.
Key quotation: “If we are never astonished, made to wonder, then we are terribly impoverished.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0nb3p

Date:

May 9, 1987

Speaker:

Read, David Haxton Carswell

Biblical Book:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0394
ref8338_11k
uachapelsermaud
duke:320686
dcrau001353
ark:/87924/r4gf0nb3p
8038783d-b555-4275-a026-bd254aa9c8f6

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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

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David H. C. Read - "Knowledge - With Room for Wonder" Baccalaureate Service 11:00 am (May 9, 1987)

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