C. Eric Lincoln - "The Dilemma and the Dream" (January 22, 1978)
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Transcript
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- | Duke University Chapel, service of worship, | 0:04 |
January 22nd, | 0:07 | |
1978. | 0:08 | |
(suspenseful organ music) | 0:13 | |
(intense organ music) | 3:07 | |
(suspenseful organ music) | 3:11 | |
(intense organ music) | 5:12 | |
(suspenseful organ music) | 5:17 | |
(intense organ music) | 5:53 | |
(silence) | 6:08 | |
(soft organ music) | 6:19 | |
(silence) | 11:09 | |
(soft choir music) | 11:29 | |
(intensifying choir music) | 11:53 | |
♪ Glory and honor ♪ | 11:57 | |
♪ Praise and adoration ♪ | 12:03 | |
♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 12:09 | |
♪ Be thine ♪ | 12:15 | |
♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 12:19 | |
♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 12:24 | |
♪ Be thine ♪ | 12:32 | |
(intense organ music) | 12:46 | |
(Fairest Lord Jesus) | 13:00 | |
(organ music drowning out choir singers) | 13:19 | |
Female Speaker | Will you be seated please? | 16:39 |
When we are beside ourselves, out of sorts. | 16:46 | |
Out of tune with those around us, | 16:51 | |
falling flat. | 16:54 | |
It is then that it is good to come before God, | 16:56 | |
and confess our sins. | 16:59 | |
Let us pray. | 17:01 | |
Oh God of truth, of justice, | 17:04 | |
and of deep searching, demanding love. | 17:08 | |
(parishioners speak in unison) | 17:11 | |
We thank you this morning, | 17:12 | |
that you put us to the test, | 17:14 | |
that you have and still do, | 17:17 | |
set before us opportunities to stand for what is right, | 17:20 | |
and good. | 17:25 | |
Pure and lovely. | 17:26 | |
That you beset us, behind and before, | 17:29 | |
with challenges and the call to high adventure. | 17:33 | |
Where the stakes are life or death. | 17:38 | |
Forgive us that most of the time we are quite content | 17:41 | |
to share wealth and power of this land, | 17:45 | |
while other people still perish. | 17:50 | |
Forgive us that most of the time we fail to even | 17:52 | |
recognize the idols. | 17:57 | |
So well disguised are they, | 18:00 | |
success, comfort, security, prestige and gracious living, | 18:03 | |
that we worship them without realizing that our lives | 18:10 | |
are becoming empty and lost. | 18:14 | |
Make us aware again Lord, of our false worship, | 18:17 | |
those deep, often subconscious longings that | 18:22 | |
lord it over our lives. | 18:27 | |
And then stand with us in the fiery furnace, | 18:30 | |
that when we are tested, our draughts might flare away, | 18:33 | |
and your image in us remain pure and clear. | 18:39 | |
And grant us Lord, no more than the privilege of | 18:44 | |
following in your footsteps, through Him who led the way | 18:48 | |
for all, Jesus your Son, our Savior. | 18:53 | |
(silence) | 18:59 | |
The mercy of God is everlasting, | 19:31 | |
such is the witness of our faith. | 19:34 | |
Now every moment our past is forgiven, accepted. | 19:37 | |
Our future is open, our present is offered to us afresh. | 19:43 | |
That is the truth that sets us free. | 19:50 | |
Amen. | 19:53 | |
(organ music) | 19:56 | |
♪ Glory be to our redeemer ♪ | 20:05 | |
(organ music drowning out choir) | 20:15 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:42 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:44 | |
Female Speaker | Will you be seated. | 20:57 |
We welcome Dr. Eric C. Lincoln as the morning preacher, | 21:05 | |
and we are grateful that he is here with us, | 21:09 | |
and among us. | 21:13 | |
May I call your attention please to the lectures tonight, | 21:15 | |
at eight o'clock in the Divinity School's student lounge, | 21:18 | |
as part of the program on the Holocaust | 21:23 | |
and Jewish Christian understanding, | 21:25 | |
Dr. Taylor Cole will be speaking on German resistance, | 21:28 | |
and Dr. Robert Osborne on Dietrich Von Hopper. | 21:33 | |
All are welcome to attend and participate. | 21:37 | |
There is one mistake in the bulletin today. | 21:41 | |
The Methodist Student Fellowship which meets regularly at | 21:45 | |
six o'clock will meet tonight in the | 21:48 | |
Divinity School lounge at five o'clock. | 21:50 | |
At five o'clock this evening. | 21:54 | |
Terry Sanford will be the guest speaker. | 21:56 | |
Let us pray. | 22:00 | |
Oh Lord. | 22:04 | |
Open up our hearts so that we might hear your word. | 22:05 | |
Amen. | 22:10 | |
(steps) | 22:13 | |
Male Speaker | Will you please stand | 22:21 |
for the reading of the scripture, please? | 22:22 | |
The scripture reading this morning is from the | 22:31 | |
I Corinthians, chapter 13, verses one through eight. | 22:33 | |
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, | 22:39 | |
but have not loved, | 22:43 | |
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. | 22:45 | |
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all | 22:49 | |
mysteries and all knowledge, | 22:53 | |
and if I have all faith, | 22:55 | |
so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. | 22:57 | |
If I give away all I have, | 23:02 | |
and if I deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, | 23:04 | |
I gain nothing. | 23:09 | |
Love is patient and kind. | 23:12 | |
Love is not jealous or boastful. | 23:15 | |
It is not arrogant or rude. | 23:17 | |
Love does not insist on it's own way. | 23:20 | |
It is irritable or resentful. | 23:23 | |
It does not rejoice in wrong, but rejoices in the right. | 23:26 | |
Love bares all things, believes all things, | 23:31 | |
hopes all things, endures all things. | 23:35 | |
Love never ends. | 23:39 | |
As for prophecies, they will pass away. | 23:41 | |
As for tongues, they will cease. | 23:45 | |
As for knowledge, it will pass away. | 23:48 | |
This ends the scripture reading. | 23:51 | |
May the Lord be with you. | 23:54 | |
(intense organ music) | 23:58 | |
♪ I will sing ♪ | 24:41 | |
♪ Unto the Lord ♪ | 24:45 | |
♪ As long as ♪ | 24:50 | |
♪ I breathe ♪ | 24:55 | |
♪ I will sing ♪ | 25:00 | |
♪ Unto the Lord ♪ | 25:05 | |
♪ As long as ♪ | 25:09 | |
♪ I breathe ♪ | 25:14 | |
♪ I will praise my God ♪ | 25:20 | |
♪ I will praise my God ♪ | 25:23 | |
♪ I will praise my God ♪ | 25:26 | |
♪ While I have my life ♪ | 25:29 | |
♪ And my being ♪ | 25:38 | |
♪ I will praise my God ♪ | 25:42 | |
♪ While I have my life ♪ | 25:47 | |
♪ And my being ♪ | 25:52 | |
♪ My soul ♪ | 25:59 | |
♪ My soul ♪ | 26:00 | |
♪ My soul ♪ | 26:03 | |
♪ Shall be sweet ♪ | 26:04 | |
♪ My soul my soul my soul my soul ♪ | 26:08 | |
♪ Shall be sweet ♪ | 26:14 | |
♪ My soul shall be ♪ | 26:19 | |
♪ In my Lord ♪ | 26:23 | |
♪ My soul shall be ♪ | 26:28 | |
♪ In my Lord ♪ | 26:33 | |
♪ My soul shall be ♪ | 26:39 | |
♪ In my Lord ♪ | 26:43 | |
♪ My soul shall be ♪ | 26:48 | |
♪ In my Lord ♪ | 26:51 | |
♪ As for sinners ♪ | 27:01 | |
♪ They shall be consumed ♪ | 27:03 | |
♪ In a fiery earth ♪ | 27:08 | |
♪ As for sinners ♪ | 27:12 | |
♪ They shall be consumed ♪ | 27:15 | |
♪ In a fiery earth ♪ | 27:22 | |
♪ As for sinners ♪ | 27:25 | |
♪ They shall be consumed ♪ | 27:28 | |
♪ On a fiery earth ♪ | 27:32 | |
♪ And my ♪ | 27:39 | |
♪ Meditation ♪ | 27:42 | |
♪ Of Him ♪ | 27:46 | |
♪ I praise my Lord ♪ | 27:53 | |
♪ I praise my ♪ | 27:58 | |
♪ I praise my Lord ♪ | 27:59 | |
♪ God praise my Lord ♪ | 28:07 | |
♪ Of my soul ♪ | 28:12 | |
♪ God praise my Lord ♪ | 28:18 | |
♪ Of my soul ♪ | 28:23 | |
♪ God praise my Lord ♪ | 28:29 | |
♪ Of my soul ♪ | 28:36 | |
♪ Praise ♪ | 28:44 | |
♪ The Lord ♪ | 28:49 | |
(silent) | 28:57 | |
Dr. Lincoln | Here now if you will, | 29:17 |
the words of the prophet. | 29:19 | |
He has told the old man what is good. | 29:21 | |
And what does God require of thee. | 29:26 | |
But to do justice, | 29:30 | |
love, mercy, | 29:33 | |
and to walk humbly with thy God. | 29:35 | |
Oh God our gracious heavenly Father. | 29:41 | |
Thou who are the common Father of all mankind. | 29:44 | |
Thou in whose name we are gathered here, | 29:50 | |
come thou among us this morning. | 29:56 | |
Touch us with thy wisdom and thy compassion | 29:59 | |
and with thy love. | 30:02 | |
Encourage us that we may learn more readily | 30:05 | |
and pursue more steadfastly, | 30:11 | |
the role that thou has laid out for all men. | 30:16 | |
That we may know justice. | 30:21 | |
That we may know compassion. | 30:23 | |
That we may know humility. | 30:26 | |
That we may recognize in each other the image of God, | 30:28 | |
to the glory of thine own kingdom. | 30:33 | |
Amen. | 30:37 | |
I want to talk to you today about dreams. | 30:45 | |
First of all a grand dream. | 30:53 | |
And then a small dream. | 30:57 | |
And I want to talk to you about the dilemma | 31:01 | |
which is occasioned by such dreams. | 31:05 | |
And then I wanna talk even further with you. | 31:11 | |
I wanna talk about men. | 31:14 | |
I want first to talk about a man who helped us to | 31:17 | |
articulate a small dream. | 31:22 | |
A man who can help us restore | 31:27 | |
confidence in the grand dream. | 31:31 | |
And I want to talk about nine men, and a woman, | 31:35 | |
whose dreams and whose freedom have been interrupted. | 31:39 | |
I shall not be long. | 31:47 | |
For the man I want to talk about, men I want to talk about, | 31:50 | |
bear the impress of the dreams. | 31:58 | |
And the dreams are the source of the dilemma, | 32:02 | |
and the dilemma persists, because there is | 32:06 | |
in our lives a missing quotient. | 32:11 | |
A critical missing quotient. | 32:14 | |
Without this CMQ, | 32:17 | |
human dilemmas can not be resolved, | 32:21 | |
and dreams turn to cynicism, | 32:25 | |
and to doubt. | 32:29 | |
What is this critical missing quotient? | 32:32 | |
This CMQ? | 32:37 | |
You have heard it described just a few minutes ago | 32:40 | |
in Corinthians. | 32:43 | |
It is love. It is love! | 32:45 | |
It is love that is patient. | 32:49 | |
Love that is kind. | 32:52 | |
Love that envies no one. | 32:54 | |
Love that is never boastful. | 32:58 | |
Love that is not conceited. | 33:01 | |
Love that is not rude. | 33:04 | |
Love that is never selfish. | 33:06 | |
Love that is not quick to take offense. | 33:09 | |
Love that keeps no score. | 33:13 | |
Love that is not self righteous. | 33:16 | |
Love that delights | 33:19 | |
in the truth. | 33:22 | |
Love that delights in the truth. | 33:24 | |
In short, love that encompasses humility, | 33:28 | |
and decency, | 33:34 | |
even magnanimity, and justice, and grace. | 33:36 | |
Love that recognizes our common imperfections. | 33:43 | |
Our common possibilities, | 33:49 | |
our common right to share. | 33:53 | |
To share as fully as we may, | 33:56 | |
this life given us by our common Father. | 33:59 | |
Without the evil impediments that hatred, | 34:03 | |
and hostility, and selfishness, | 34:08 | |
and abject human perversity, | 34:12 | |
so often introduce. | 34:15 | |
Love. | 34:20 | |
Love is the CMQ which must be restored. | 34:22 | |
Which has to be restored to this society! | 34:28 | |
If ever we are to know tranquility, | 34:31 | |
if ever we are to rest easy, in our beds. | 34:35 | |
It is because our love has been so tenuous, | 34:40 | |
and so sterile, and so selective, | 34:44 | |
and therefore so meaningless and imperfect, | 34:48 | |
that a man had to die. | 34:53 | |
And that was 10 years ago this month. | 34:57 | |
A man died, who ought not to have died. | 35:00 | |
Not because he was a black man. | 35:06 | |
But because he was a good man. | 35:09 | |
He ought not to have died not because he had a dream. | 35:13 | |
But because the dream he had was so critical for people | 35:18 | |
who seemingly have forgotten how to dream. | 35:22 | |
For a nation whose dreams have lost their meaning. | 35:25 | |
Not because he was a Christian. | 35:31 | |
But because in being truly Christian, | 35:33 | |
he exemplified what Christianity ought to be, | 35:38 | |
and what Christianity can be. | 35:42 | |
Not because his death was a personal loss for those | 35:46 | |
who knew him, and who loved him. | 35:49 | |
But because his dying was a national tragedy, | 35:52 | |
for those who believe in the promise of America. | 35:58 | |
And because his death was a national triumph, | 36:02 | |
for those who would deny that promise. | 36:07 | |
While the promise of America is the American dream, | 36:10 | |
this is the grandest dream of all, | 36:15 | |
but for too many Americans it was a dream that was never | 36:20 | |
meant to be. | 36:26 | |
There are killers of the dream. | 36:28 | |
And for the killers of the dream the routine expression | 36:33 | |
of the American way of life reaches it's highest | 36:36 | |
perfection in the denial of life, in the denial of liberty, | 36:39 | |
or the reasonable chance to pursue happiness, | 36:44 | |
so far as other Americans are concerned. | 36:50 | |
Our greatest tragedy is that the people | 36:55 | |
we seem to be always killing, | 36:59 | |
are the people whose dreams | 37:04 | |
we seem to find most troubling. | 37:06 | |
Dreams that refuse to articulate with the prevailing | 37:10 | |
way with doing things here in America. | 37:14 | |
And so we kill the John Kennedy's, the Malcolm X's, | 37:19 | |
the Martin Luther King's, | 37:23 | |
and whomever else for that matter, | 37:24 | |
dares to dream against the grain of the way things are. | 37:27 | |
We kill the dreamers to get at the dream | 37:33 | |
in the childish belief that dreams die with the man, | 37:37 | |
but not so! | 37:41 | |
Not so. | 37:43 | |
Dreams die hard, dreams have a life of their own. | 37:44 | |
For no matter the name of the dreamer, | 37:48 | |
once the dream has been spoken, | 37:52 | |
it belongs to the people. It lives in the people. | 37:56 | |
And it can only die if the people reject it, | 38:00 | |
or if the people themselves are exterminated. | 38:04 | |
So let it be known, | 38:11 | |
that whomever would kill a dream, | 38:13 | |
must be prepared to first kill all the people who | 38:17 | |
believe in it. | 38:21 | |
Or else to so narcotize them with circuses, | 38:23 | |
or dull them with counterfeits that they forget the dream | 38:27 | |
and the dreamer, and succumb to illusion, | 38:31 | |
and deceit. | 38:37 | |
But the nations who have traveled that road, | 38:39 | |
have inevitably paid the price, | 38:43 | |
for when the people lose their dreams, | 38:46 | |
they lose their confidence. | 38:49 | |
And when they lose their confidence, | 38:52 | |
they lose their self respect. | 38:54 | |
And when they lose their self respect, | 38:57 | |
their freedom can be taken away from them. | 39:00 | |
This nation of ours was built on a dream. | 39:04 | |
Should we not be cheered by the recollection that America | 39:10 | |
had its very beginnings in a dream that was | 39:13 | |
a commitment to moral and religious perfection, | 39:17 | |
rather than to the common pragmatics of politics. | 39:21 | |
And the preeminent American dream is symbolized by | 39:26 | |
that so called errand into the wilderness, | 39:30 | |
which brought the courage and zeal, | 39:34 | |
and the ethical Christian commitment to the bleak | 39:37 | |
shores of Massachusetts Bay. | 39:41 | |
And that this Christian commitment embraced the notion, | 39:44 | |
embraced the notion of a righteous empire. | 39:48 | |
A city to be set on a hill as it were. | 39:52 | |
A city which would be the model of faith and practice | 39:55 | |
for all men in all times to come. | 39:58 | |
And so pervasive and so enduring has been this notion | 40:02 | |
of American religious manifest destiny, | 40:07 | |
that for the three hundred years after it was first voiced, | 40:10 | |
a president, President Woodrow Wilson it was, | 40:15 | |
could announce without a trace of blush that America | 40:19 | |
was born a Christian nation for the purpose of exemplifying | 40:25 | |
to the nations of the world, | 40:30 | |
the principles of righteousness found in the word of God. | 40:32 | |
There is implicit in Mr. Wilson's dictum, | 40:39 | |
how ever inadvertent it may be, | 40:43 | |
the notion that there is a higher calling, | 40:45 | |
above the pragmatics of politics, | 40:49 | |
and beyond the convenience of social convention. | 40:52 | |
But today, today we are less certain | 40:57 | |
of what we believe. | 41:01 | |
And we are considerably less zealous in the pursuit | 41:04 | |
of the realization of the American dream. | 41:07 | |
And as the bicentennial of this nation, | 41:11 | |
this nation which was established under God, | 41:13 | |
for the elevation of man. | 41:16 | |
As the bicentennial fades into history, | 41:19 | |
the drums of celebration are muted. | 41:23 | |
And the banners proclaiming our national greatness, | 41:27 | |
have been furrowed and put away. | 41:30 | |
Put away without real conviction that there was | 41:34 | |
all that much to shout about in the first place. | 41:39 | |
Those of doubtful and sober minds, | 41:43 | |
turn to introspection. | 41:47 | |
And those who believe in the righteousness of God, | 41:50 | |
wonder at the limits of patience and tremble | 41:53 | |
in the anticipation of his justice. | 41:57 | |
And though we search and research, | 42:00 | |
the accumulated records of 200 hundred years | 42:03 | |
of our national comportment, we find in those records | 42:06 | |
no compelling reasons for solace, | 42:11 | |
or for satisfaction. | 42:15 | |
It seems clear. | 42:18 | |
It seems clear that somewhere America has gone wrong. | 42:21 | |
It seems clear that what began as magnificent endeavor | 42:27 | |
of brave and determined men and women, | 42:31 | |
to show forth the glory of God, | 42:33 | |
and the potential of man, | 42:36 | |
seems now to have found it's later in a world full | 42:37 | |
of doubt about both. | 42:41 | |
In our public and private retreat from responsibility, | 42:46 | |
we have deliberately blurred the lines | 42:52 | |
and confused the boundaries by means of which civilizations | 42:55 | |
have characteristically sought to order human behavior, | 42:59 | |
and to give it constructive direction. | 43:04 | |
In our efforts to avoid choosing right from wrong, | 43:08 | |
we are made up and down indistinguishable. | 43:15 | |
If all corners are round, | 43:18 | |
as we have declared them to be, | 43:21 | |
then human morality no longer has any meaning, | 43:24 | |
and we act, and one act as good as another, | 43:28 | |
so long as it is convenient. | 43:33 | |
No one can be held accountable if the conditions | 43:36 | |
of accountability are sufficiently confused, | 43:41 | |
or if there's no way to determine the place where | 43:45 | |
the good and the not good, the true and the not true, | 43:49 | |
the beautiful and the ugly, | 43:54 | |
separate and depart from each other. | 43:57 | |
It seems clear that something has gone wrong | 44:01 | |
with this nation under God, | 44:07 | |
and that we have known about it, | 44:10 | |
for longer than we care to admit. | 44:13 | |
There are many things wrong with America, | 44:18 | |
but I want to talk about just one of them. | 44:22 | |
At about the time the staging for the | 44:26 | |
World War II Holocaust was shaping up, | 44:28 | |
and being completed and the players were taking | 44:32 | |
their stations behind the flimsy curtains, | 44:35 | |
of international diplomacy. | 44:37 | |
Who knows, perhaps was some premonition about | 44:40 | |
how changed the world was going to be, | 44:43 | |
once the war was over. | 44:46 | |
At about this time America had become increasingly | 44:48 | |
apprehensive about how well, or how ill, | 44:53 | |
we were managing our moral and political contradictions | 44:57 | |
at home. | 45:00 | |
And so accordingly we called in a great, | 45:02 | |
Swedish social scientist named Gunnar Myrdal, | 45:05 | |
who after reading the statistics | 45:09 | |
and scouring the country to observe the | 45:12 | |
American way of life first hand, | 45:14 | |
he advised us in a lengthy sociological treatise, | 45:17 | |
that America had a problem. | 45:21 | |
The problem, he said was in the heart of America. | 45:25 | |
It was the exclusion of some Americans from reasonable | 45:31 | |
participation in the common values of American life | 45:34 | |
which were open to other Americans. | 45:38 | |
The problem, said he, created a dilemma. | 45:42 | |
And the dilemma was that our national behavior | 45:47 | |
was grossly inconsistent with the American creed, | 45:51 | |
and the American dream, | 45:56 | |
in which we allegedly believed. | 45:59 | |
And this made of us a nation of schizophrenics. | 46:04 | |
A very unhealthy state of national existence. | 46:08 | |
And just 10 years ago, following one the bloodiest | 46:13 | |
and most destructive interludes in our unfortunate | 46:17 | |
racial history, | 46:20 | |
the National Advisory Commission On Civil Disorders | 46:22 | |
reported to President Johnson in these words, | 46:25 | |
this is our basic conclusion, | 46:29 | |
our nation is moving toward two societies, | 46:31 | |
one black, and one white, separate and unequal. | 46:35 | |
And just four years ago, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, | 46:40 | |
the President of Notre Dame, | 46:44 | |
warned in an address at Yale University, | 46:46 | |
that the fast pace of progress in the 60s, | 46:49 | |
has been slowed in the 70s. | 46:54 | |
Said he, new banners of ethnicity are being waved. | 46:57 | |
Idealism has been replaced by political pragmatism. | 47:02 | |
Leaders are following instead of leading. | 47:06 | |
The slow down and the slip back have begun. | 47:09 | |
And they are led by the most powerful officials | 47:13 | |
in the land. | 47:15 | |
We have come down from a high peak in our history | 47:17 | |
said Father Hesburgh, and are presently in a valley. | 47:20 | |
And yet, with all the burden of ingrained prejudice | 47:24 | |
and hatred, I believe that our age more than any other | 47:28 | |
knows that this is wrong. | 47:34 | |
If there are any who would doubt | 47:38 | |
that the problem persists, | 47:40 | |
hear the words of Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare | 47:42 | |
Joseph Califano, | 47:46 | |
and the current issue of US news and world reports. | 47:49 | |
Say's he, | 47:52 | |
it astonished me that with all the progress | 47:54 | |
we made in the last 15 years, we still are plagued in almost | 47:57 | |
every aspect of our society with the issues of race. | 48:02 | |
It exists in education, in employment, in healthcare, | 48:07 | |
and in housing. | 48:11 | |
Racism the secretary said, is the most difficult | 48:14 | |
domestic problem this country faces. | 48:19 | |
It seems clear that the problem persists. | 48:25 | |
What is not so clear, is what we intend to do about it. | 48:28 | |
It is time, I believe, | 48:34 | |
to get on with the realization of a grand dream | 48:37 | |
that never was. A dream that could have been. | 48:42 | |
We must not be content, | 48:47 | |
to live perpetually in the shadow of that dream. | 48:50 | |
Nor must we in our weakness and despair, | 48:55 | |
consign it to destruction. | 49:00 | |
It is time now for the high principles which brought | 49:04 | |
our founding fathers here in the first place | 49:08 | |
to be brought out of hiding. | 49:12 | |
Time to shake off the shackles of accommodation | 49:14 | |
to chauvinism, time to lift the torch of conviction. | 49:17 | |
Time to get on with the process of humanizing | 49:22 | |
the social order. | 49:25 | |
It is time to ask ourselves in all seriousness | 49:27 | |
what happened to the promise that was America? | 49:32 | |
If we have done evil, God made of creatures of free will | 49:37 | |
so that we can repent from that evil. | 49:42 | |
We have had many chances, but some day the patience | 49:47 | |
of God may run out. | 49:51 | |
Just 10 years ago, divine providence offered us a way out. | 49:55 | |
A higher way in perfect countenance with all our | 50:01 | |
professions about Christian love and brotherhood, | 50:06 | |
and a just and humane society. | 50:09 | |
For from the legions of the disinherited, | 50:13 | |
there rose a prophet, a black man, | 50:16 | |
a black American, who had known the jack boot | 50:19 | |
of oppression, but whose chosen response, | 50:23 | |
was the gospel of love. | 50:27 | |
He was a lonely man, but a wise man. | 50:31 | |
He was full of dreams, dreams for the future | 50:36 | |
of the country he loved so much, | 50:40 | |
the country he longed to see set right. | 50:43 | |
His dream was not a grand dream, it was a small dream. | 50:47 | |
A small dream in perfect harmony | 50:51 | |
with the grand dream he believed in because | 50:55 | |
this is the dream that America had sold to him. | 50:58 | |
Yes his name was Martin Luther King Jr. | 51:04 | |
And he came teaching peace and preaching forgiveness, | 51:07 | |
and showing by precept his own commitment to everything | 51:11 | |
he asked America to do. | 51:16 | |
He was a man who came neither to the Jew, | 51:18 | |
not the gentile, not to the blacks, not to the whites. | 51:21 | |
But to all who believed in and all who stood in fear | 51:24 | |
of divine judgment. | 51:30 | |
And wherever he went, good men who had reached the end | 51:32 | |
of their endurance, forsook the notion of violence, | 51:37 | |
laid down their weapons, and accepted the violence | 51:41 | |
others heaped upon them. | 51:45 | |
Blacks and whites together, a determined, | 51:49 | |
little band of believers in the Fatherhood of God | 51:54 | |
and the brotherhood of man, may have brought America kicking | 51:57 | |
and screaming to the very edge of her fountain of | 52:02 | |
redemption, | 52:06 | |
but America balked at the moment of truth. | 52:08 | |
She saw the waters, but drank not there of. | 52:12 | |
But in that remarkable resurgence of Christian idealism, | 52:17 | |
the same idealism which made America, | 52:23 | |
a man died. | 52:27 | |
A man died who should not have had to die. | 52:30 | |
Martin Luther King is dead. | 52:35 | |
A target of the hatred he struggled to displace with love. | 52:38 | |
A statistic of the violence he tried to teach America | 52:43 | |
to endure. | 52:47 | |
His memory is enshrined in the hearts of those touched | 52:49 | |
by his sacrifice, and encouraged by his death. | 52:52 | |
And yet, it is my sad duty to report, | 52:57 | |
that his action fades steadily from the working agendas | 53:03 | |
of social change. | 53:08 | |
If anyone has ever exemplified in his personal life | 53:11 | |
what America in her most generous fantasies has | 53:17 | |
always claimed to be, | 53:20 | |
there is Martin Luther King Jr. | 53:22 | |
And Martin Luther King is dead. | 53:27 | |
How many more will have to die. | 53:30 | |
Caught in the backlash of it all, | 53:35 | |
nine young men languish in the jails of North Carolina. | 53:40 | |
The state which wants to be known as first in freedom. | 53:46 | |
One young woman, freed on parole, | 53:50 | |
struggles to put her life | 53:56 | |
back together under an awesome cloud. | 53:57 | |
And a young Governor struggles to come | 54:03 | |
to the right decision on a problem | 54:08 | |
he inherited with the Governor's job. | 54:11 | |
How unfortunate it is, that this simple issue | 54:16 | |
of human rights should be converted into | 54:21 | |
a political issue, | 54:26 | |
and that the Governor must be burdened with the gratuitous | 54:28 | |
advice of wise men and fools alike. | 54:32 | |
Perhaps the most pathetic case of all, | 54:38 | |
is the black politician running for office, | 54:42 | |
who has announced that he would deny the 10 their freedom, | 54:46 | |
not on the basis of their guilt or innocence, | 54:50 | |
but because in his words, the prosecution | 54:55 | |
out-slicked the defense. | 54:59 | |
Political scavengers come in all signs, | 55:04 | |
all sizes, shapes and colors, | 55:09 | |
and it is always the least responsible | 55:12 | |
would be leadership that grovels for the greasy | 55:15 | |
gratuities of the least responsible, | 55:20 | |
element of the electorate. | 55:23 | |
But whatever color, it doesn't make any difference. | 55:26 | |
But if justice by out-slickery, | 55:29 | |
is the best we can hope for | 55:33 | |
in this fate and in this society, | 55:35 | |
then Watergate has taught us nothing, | 55:39 | |
and the out-slickers we sent to jail in that sordid affair | 55:42 | |
should instead have been hailed as heroes. | 55:48 | |
America deserves better than that, | 55:53 | |
and so does the state of North Carolina. | 55:57 | |
As for our Governor whose task it is | 56:03 | |
to make a decision on tomorrow, | 56:08 | |
a man who has shown encouraging signs of political | 56:13 | |
independence and maturity in other matters. | 56:16 | |
My prayer is, | 56:21 | |
that God will give him the strength for statesmanship, | 56:23 | |
statesmanship, give him the strength for statesmanship, | 56:29 | |
needed for the long haul, | 56:34 | |
and that he will rise above the | 56:38 | |
ad hoc political expediency. | 56:41 | |
Governor Hunt can go a long way in restoring the people's | 56:47 | |
confidence in the American dream. | 56:52 | |
But if there is a moment of falter, | 56:57 | |
let him reread the story | 57:01 | |
of the kingdom of Israel. | 57:05 | |
The kingdom which had enjoyed | 57:08 | |
such extraordinary pride | 57:13 | |
and success under the leadership of David and Solomon. | 57:15 | |
But which at the death of Solomon stood at the crossroads, | 57:22 | |
and the son of Solomon who ascended to the throne, | 57:27 | |
had the opportunity | 57:33 | |
of restoring the unity of the people | 57:36 | |
and getting on with the destiny of the kingdom. | 57:40 | |
But, the kingdom had gotten into the habit of favoring | 57:45 | |
the tribe of the ruler. | 57:52 | |
And when the 10 tribes from the North met with the | 57:56 | |
young King Rehoboam who had ascended the throne after | 58:01 | |
Solomon, they put to him | 58:04 | |
a simple request. | 58:09 | |
They said, your father, | 58:11 | |
made our yoke heavy, | 58:15 | |
therefore lighten it just a little bit, | 58:19 | |
and we will serve you faithfully. | 58:23 | |
And so Rehoboam told them to go away for three days | 58:28 | |
while he thought about it. | 58:31 | |
And in the interim he took counsel with the old men, | 58:34 | |
the elders, the wise men, | 58:38 | |
and they said to him, | 58:42 | |
if you will be a servant to the people, | 58:46 | |
and if you will serve them fairly and justly, | 58:49 | |
speak some good words to them, | 58:53 | |
and they will be your servants forever. | 58:56 | |
And then Rehoboam took counsel | 59:00 | |
with another element. | 59:05 | |
And they said to him, | 59:08 | |
tell those people, | 59:11 | |
that your father's thigh was not so much | 59:15 | |
as your little finger. | 59:18 | |
And so when the counsel was convened again, | 59:21 | |
Rehoboam said to those who | 59:26 | |
petitioned him for redress, | 59:28 | |
my father made your yoke heavy, | 59:33 | |
but will add to your yoke. | 59:37 | |
My father chastised you with whips, | 59:40 | |
but I will chastise you with scorpions. | 59:43 | |
And in anger and despair, | 59:49 | |
those who had come seeking peace, seeking redress, | 59:53 | |
and seeking to have a part in an united kingdom, | 59:58 | |
said to each other, | 1:00:04 | |
what part have we, | 1:00:07 | |
in this kingdom? | 1:00:11 | |
Let us return to our tents and look after our own house. | 1:00:14 | |
And so it came to pass, | 1:00:20 | |
that the kingdom of Israel was divided, | 1:00:23 | |
and it has never to this day | 1:00:28 | |
been restored. | 1:00:33 | |
Meanwhile, for us, | 1:00:37 | |
the wheel turns, | 1:00:40 | |
and we move on down the road to a fate that seems | 1:00:43 | |
predictable, the millions we paid to preserve our | 1:00:45 | |
narcosis beguile us with vaunted examples of progress, | 1:00:51 | |
and statistics of achievement. | 1:00:55 | |
But in the streets of the ghettos, | 1:00:59 | |
we see for ourselves the persistence of misery | 1:01:01 | |
and frustration. | 1:01:06 | |
And in the faces of the people, | 1:01:08 | |
we see too often the same old hatred's, the same old doubts, | 1:01:11 | |
the same old determination to hold the line, | 1:01:16 | |
hold the line, hold the color line. | 1:01:20 | |
And we know intuitively as we know experientially, | 1:01:24 | |
that the only real change is the date on the calendar. | 1:01:29 | |
The fulfillment of the dream, | 1:01:34 | |
is not yet. | 1:01:37 | |
And we long for the dreamer to tell us again, | 1:01:40 | |
that the dream can be. | 1:01:45 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:01:48 | |
Pray with me and hold my hand, | 1:01:52 | |
and help me still the turbulence, | 1:01:56 | |
the agitation that shakes me, | 1:01:59 | |
when I walk the streets of Boston, | 1:02:03 | |
where once you drew your strength. | 1:02:06 | |
Oh see how quickly there the people have forgotten. | 1:02:09 | |
The elephants of outrage that freedom in the South | 1:02:13 | |
was such a paltry thing. | 1:02:16 | |
And see how strangely there, | 1:02:19 | |
the people now resent, | 1:02:22 | |
that freedom in the North should put them to the test. | 1:02:25 | |
Do you hear the mothers crying in the streets? | 1:02:29 | |
Hail Mary, burn the buses. | 1:02:33 | |
Hail Mary, kill the niggers. | 1:02:36 | |
Hail Mary, | 1:02:39 | |
keep our school's white. | 1:02:41 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:02:46 | |
For down in your native Georgia, | 1:02:49 | |
where your name, and where your dream, | 1:02:51 | |
and where your followers, | 1:02:53 | |
made a Georgia boy a President of these United States, | 1:02:55 | |
see how boldly there, | 1:02:59 | |
the Christians in his church turn the locks | 1:03:03 | |
and fired the preacher, | 1:03:07 | |
and split that twice born congregation, | 1:03:09 | |
when your dreamed knocked at the church house door. | 1:03:13 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:03:18 | |
Teach us as once you taught us, to forgive. | 1:03:20 | |
Teach us as once you taught us, to endure. | 1:03:26 | |
Teach us as once you taught us, | 1:03:30 | |
that love is the price of freedom. | 1:03:33 | |
For we are not assured. | 1:03:36 | |
The friends we used to know have long since | 1:03:39 | |
quit the scene. | 1:03:42 | |
The responsible people, the proper Bostonians, | 1:03:44 | |
whose names gild the log of the Mayflower, | 1:03:47 | |
are silent and remote and retirement from the cause. | 1:03:50 | |
Who marched with you in Selma keep to their tents | 1:03:55 | |
in Boston, and in a hundred other cities where | 1:03:58 | |
hunger is, and hatred is, and jobs are not. | 1:04:01 | |
They are no voices raised to give the people hope. | 1:04:06 | |
Appoint the way. | 1:04:09 | |
There are no shelters raised to give the people respite | 1:04:11 | |
from the strife. | 1:04:15 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:04:17 | |
See how the famous churches, | 1:04:20 | |
see how the great Cathedrals that seized your public | 1:04:22 | |
moment to gild their own pretensions are shuttered | 1:04:26 | |
from the cause and voiceless in their guilt. | 1:04:31 | |
For whom and for what, is the tolling of the bells. | 1:04:36 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:04:43 | |
See how your followers, | 1:04:46 | |
who sought to establish your truth, | 1:04:49 | |
now languish in the jails of North Carolina. | 1:04:54 | |
The state that is first in freedom. | 1:04:59 | |
Come back Martin Luther King. | 1:05:04 | |
The dreamers you left with your dream, | 1:05:09 | |
wake not to the task of the dreaming. | 1:05:12 | |
The dream languishes, the cock crows. | 1:05:16 | |
When shall we overcome. | 1:05:23 | |
Oh God our heavenly Father, | 1:05:27 | |
let us know we shall overcome. | 1:05:32 | |
That we shall overcome our fear. | 1:05:35 | |
That we shall overcome our hatred. | 1:05:39 | |
That we shall overcome our hostility. | 1:05:43 | |
That we shall overcome our selfishness. | 1:05:46 | |
That we shall overcome our division. | 1:05:49 | |
That we shall overcome our reluctance | 1:05:53 | |
to call every man brother. | 1:05:57 | |
Oh God, be thou with the Governor of this State, | 1:06:02 | |
today and in the next hours as he comes finally | 1:06:07 | |
to a decision about human love, | 1:06:11 | |
and human justice, and human freedom. | 1:06:15 | |
Make this man a greater man than he ever knew | 1:06:20 | |
he could be. | 1:06:25 | |
Give him the courage to restore, | 1:06:28 | |
to these American citizens | 1:06:33 | |
their full freedom. | 1:06:36 | |
Give him the courage to encourage | 1:06:39 | |
our continued belief in the American dream. | 1:06:45 | |
For we are not assured. | 1:06:50 | |
Bless us dear God, | 1:06:54 | |
and keep us, | 1:06:57 | |
as we venture into this new year behind the curtain | 1:06:59 | |
of which their are mysteries yet unbound. Amen. | 1:07:04 | |
(organ music) | 1:07:20 | |
(parishioners singing faintly) | 1:08:03 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:01 | |
Female Speaker | Let us affirm what we believe. | 1:11:10 |
(parishioners speak in unison) | 1:11:13 | |
We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 1:11:13 | |
has come in the truly human Jesus, | 1:11:19 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 1:11:22 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 1:11:25 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 1:11:29 | |
to celebrate life in its fullest, | 1:11:34 | |
to love and serve others, | 1:11:37 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 1:11:40 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified vision, | 1:11:43 | |
our judge and our hope. | 1:11:47 | |
In death, in life beyond death. | 1:11:50 | |
God is with us, we are not alone, | 1:11:55 | |
thanks be to God. | 1:11:59 | |
(parishioners stop speaking) | 1:12:01 | |
The Lord be with you. | 1:12:01 | |
Parishioners | And with you. | 1:12:03 |
Female Speaker | Let us pray. | 1:12:05 |
Off and running again God. | 1:12:26 | |
And though we're only two weeks into the term | 1:12:29 | |
I found myself already into the thick of it, | 1:12:32 | |
behind in reading and in correspondence. | 1:12:35 | |
Days that are chockablock God before I've had a chance | 1:12:40 | |
to say good morning. | 1:12:43 | |
Too many meetings, too much coffee. | 1:12:45 | |
And even a Saturday afternoon at the library mapped out | 1:12:49 | |
nicely becomes a pressure pot because there's simply | 1:12:52 | |
too much to be accomplished. | 1:12:56 | |
Slow us down God. | 1:12:59 | |
Our prayer is one of supplication, | 1:13:03 | |
a prayer first for ourselves, that we may be steadied | 1:13:07 | |
in our endeavors, centered in you. | 1:13:12 | |
Lead us to the understanding that education is not | 1:13:20 | |
just for education's sake, but for a widening | 1:13:23 | |
and a deepening, | 1:13:27 | |
a moving toward you, | 1:13:31 | |
so that you might lead us out beyond ourselves. | 1:13:35 | |
Lead us in hope, to those who are in chaos. | 1:13:43 | |
Lead us in compassion to those who know not love. | 1:13:52 | |
Lead us in mercy to those who had been crushed. | 1:14:02 | |
Lead us in justice, to those who are broken down. | 1:14:10 | |
Lead us out God to live your word. | 1:14:18 | |
In the name of the one who is the word, | 1:14:22 | |
and who taught us to pray, | 1:14:25 | |
our Father who art in heaven. | 1:14:27 | |
(parishioners speak in unison) | 1:14:31 | |
Hallowed be thy Name, | 1:14:31 | |
thy kingdom come, | 1:14:33 | |
thy will be done, | 1:14:36 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:14:38 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 1:14:41 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 1:14:44 | |
as we forgive those | 1:14:46 | |
who trespass against us. | 1:14:50 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 1:14:53 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 1:14:56 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. | 1:14:58 | |
Amen. | 1:15:03 | |
(organ music) | 1:15:06 | |
♪ I will not be shaken ♪ | 1:17:39 | |
♪ I will not be shaken ♪ | 1:17:47 | |
♪ He who is love ♪ | 1:17:58 | |
♪ I will not be ♪ | 1:18:09 | |
♪ I will not be ♪ | 1:18:16 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:21 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:25 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:35 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:41 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:46 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:50 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:18:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:21 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:26 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:35 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:40 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:45 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:49 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19:57 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:20:07 | |
(organ music changes tempo) | 1:20:25 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 1:20:45 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:20:57 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:20:59 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 1:21:04 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:21:15 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:21:18 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:21:22 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:21:25 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:21:29 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:21:37 | |
Female Speaker | For our creation and preservation, | 1:21:51 |
and all the blessings of this life, | 1:21:55 | |
we thank and praise you great God. | 1:21:57 | |
And especially for the gift, Jesus the Christ, | 1:22:02 | |
who is the means of our grace and the hope for our glory. | 1:22:07 | |
Amen. | 1:22:12 | |
(suspenseful organ music) | 1:22:17 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 1:22:57 | |
Go in peace now. | 1:26:38 | |
And may the God of peace go with each one of you, | 1:26:39 | |
Amen. | 1:26:43 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:26:49 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:26:53 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:26:59 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:27:04 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:27:14 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:27:21 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:27:29 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:27:42 | |
(intense organ music) | 1:28:04 |