C. Eric Lincoln - "The Dilemma and the Dream" (January 22, 1978)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  Educational Use Permitted
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP3
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40p0x53t?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40p0x53t
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

-	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

Item Info

Title:

C. Eric Lincoln - "The Dilemma and the Dream" (January 22, 1978)

Description:

Without love, dreams turn to cynicism. America has failed to live up to the dream it initially presented because of its lack of love. But the dream will not die unless the people give up on it, so we must not give up on the American dream. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 30:45. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:07:05.
Key quotation: “It is time, I believe, to get on with the realization of a grand dream that never was. A dream that could have been. We must not be content to live perpetually in the shadow of that dream. Nor must we, in our weakness and despair, consign it to destruction…It is time to ask ourselves in all seriousness, what happened to the promise that was America?”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40p0x53t

Date:

January 22, 1978

Speaker:

Lincoln, C. Eric (Charles Eric), 1924-2000

Biblical Book:

1 Chronicles

Chapter and Verse:

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0934
ref7071_to5
uachapelsermaud
duke:321109
dcrau001826
ark:/87924/r40p0x53t
ea7de5e6-902f-48e1-8f17-e48e32191eec

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection