Gilleasbuig MacMillan - "Your Father and My Father" Baccalaureate Service (May 7, 1978)

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	(soft organ music)	0:15
	(vibrant organ music)	1:13
	(vibrant organ music)	7:42
-	As you can see there are	11:06
	a number of people still standing.	11:08
	We don't want anyone to be too uncomfortable.	11:11
	But if you can make room for others to be seated,	11:16
	it would help.	11:20
	Let me ask you to move toward the center aisle,	11:20
	if you would, please.	11:23
	When we hear the word of God rightly,	11:51
	do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God,	11:55
	and love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,	12:02
	and love your neighbor as yourself.	12:06
	We know our lives	12:09
	and we know we fall short day by day.	12:12
	With this awareness, let us confess our sin	12:17
	before one another and in the presence of God.	12:23
	Let us pray.	12:27
	Oh God, in whose mystery we abide,	12:30
	and by whose mercy we are redeemed,	12:34
	we confess our sin against one another	12:38
	and against you,	12:41
	all our transgressions, hidden and open,	12:43
	the evil done and the goodness left undone,	12:47
	we have deceived ourselves about ourselves	12:51
	and worn masks and not trusted in love.	12:55
	We confess that we have been careful with things,	12:59
	careless with persons, adept in taking,	13:03
	awkward with giving, in love with our fears,	13:07
	and in fear of our loves,	13:11
	we confess before you that we are more prone to sin	13:14
	than to obedience, prompt to gratify our bodies,	13:18
	slow to nourish our souls,	13:23
	attached to the pleasure of sense,	13:26
	negligent of things spiritual,	13:29
	quick in the service of self,	13:32
	slack in the service of others,	13:35
	eager to get, reluctant to give,	13:38
	full of good intentions, hesitant to fulfill them,	13:42
	severe with our neighbors, indulgent with ourselves,	13:46
	helpless apart from you,	13:51
	yet unwilling to be bound to you,	13:54
	forgive us, lift us up,	13:57
	and heal us this day,	14:00
	we pray in your holy name.	14:03
	Amen.	14:05
	Now, as appropriate and needful,	14:08
	let us continue with our silent prayers of confession.	14:11
	The mercy of the Lord is new every morning.	14:34
	Great is thy faithfulness, oh Lord, our God.	14:39
	Anyone who comes to God must believe that God exists	14:44
	and responds to those who search for new life	14:48
	and new meaning.	14:52
	I declare unto you,	14:55
	in the name of the Lord our God,	14:57
	we are forgiven.	15:00
	Amen.	15:04
	(slow organ music)	15:14
	(choir vocalizes)	15:23
	(choir vocalizes)	20:12
-	The epistle for the morning is found in the first chapter	22:21
	of Acts, verses one through 12.	22:24
	In the first book of Thelossius, I've dealt with all	22:28
	that Jesus began to do and teach.	22:31
	Until the day he was taken up,	22:34
	after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit	22:36
	to the apostles whom he had chosen.	22:40
	To them he'd presented himself alive after his passion	22:43
	by many proofs.	22:47
	Appearing to them during 40 days	22:49
	and speaking of the kingdom of God.	22:52
	And while staying with them, he charged them not to depart	22:55
	from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father	22:59
	which, he said, you heard from me,	23:02
	for John baptized with water but before many days,	23:05
	you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.	23:10
	So when they had come together, they ask him, Lord,	23:14
	will you, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?	23:17
	And he said to them, it is not for you to know times	23:22
	or seasons which the father has fixed by his own authority.	23:25
	But you shall receive power with the Holy Spirit	23:29
	has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses	23:32
	in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria	23:36
	and to the end of the earth.	23:40
	And when he had said this, as they were looking on,	23:42
	he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.	23:46
	And while they were gazing into heaven as he went,	23:50
	behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said,	23:54
	men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?	24:00
	This Jesus who was taking up from you into heaven	24:05
	will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.	24:08
	Then, they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called	24:13
	Olivet which is near Jerusalem,	24:16
	a Sabbath day's journey away.	24:18
	Let the congregation rise for the reading of the gospel.	24:22
	The lesson is found in the gospel according to Saint John,	24:33
	chapter 14, verses 23 through 27.	24:37
	Jesus answered him, if a man loves me, he will keep my word	24:42
	and my father will love him	24:49
	and we will come to him and make our home with him.	24:51
	He who does not love me, does not keep my words	24:56
	and the word which you hear is not mine	25:00
	but the father's who sent me.	25:03
	These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.	25:06
	But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will	25:11
	send in my name, he will teach you all things	25:14
	and bring you the remembrance of all that I have	25:18
	said to you.	25:22
	Peace I leave with you.	25:23
	My peace I give to you, not as the world gives	25:25
	do I give to you.	25:30
	Let not your hearts be troubled,	25:32
	neither let them be afraid.	25:34
	Here endeth the reading of the lessons.	25:38
	Praise be to God, amen.	25:40
	(lively organ music)	25:43
	(choir vocalizes)	25:52
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	26:27
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	26:31
	who has come in the truly human, Jesus,	26:36
	to reconcile and make new.	26:39
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	26:42
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	26:47
	to love and serve others,	26:50
	to seek justice and resist evil,	26:53
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	26:56
	our judge and our hope.	27:00
	In life, in death,	27:03
	in life beyond death,	27:06
	God is with us.	27:08
	We are not alone.	27:10
	Thanks be to God.	27:12
	The Lord be with you.	27:15
	(audience murmurs)	27:17
	Let us pray.	27:18
	Oh, God.	27:29
	We pray to you now as members of one family.	27:34
	We believe that we are all your children.	27:39
	Fill us here and around the world	27:44
	with a deep sense of belonging.	27:48
	God, keep us aware that at our worst	27:53
	and at our best, we are brothers and sisters	27:55
	to one another, no more, no less.	27:59
	And that it is only in communion with each other	28:03
	that we fully live and truly praise you.	28:06
	We offer thanks now, oh, God,	28:12
	For these parents and family and friends	28:16
	who have supported these honored graduates,	28:20
	supported them with money,	28:23
	with words of assurance, and hope, and faith,	28:25
	and encouragement, with letters and with prayers.	28:29
	We give thanks for this time	28:35
	when we all can celebrate together.	28:39
	These words are offered, now, oh, God, for those	28:43
	who are ready to graduate from this university.	28:46
	For those who have studied the arts, literature,	28:50
	history, business, mathematics, science,	28:52
	religion or other matters,	28:55
	known only slightly to them a short while ago.	28:58
	For those who have found their studies rather easy	29:03
	all the way.	29:06
	For those who have had to struggle diligently.	29:08
	For whom night has often been as day,	29:12
	and day often as night.	29:15
	(audience laughs)
	For those, oh God, who have found the lab or library	29:19
	or study desk more familiar than their bed.	29:23
	(audience laughs)	29:27
	May insights gained	29:30
	have opened new possibilities of thought and action.	29:33
	May new knowledge have stimulated a yearning	29:38
	for more learning.	29:40
	May pain and hurt and disappointment have brought	29:43
	new strength and new resolve.	29:45
	May each one leave this place of religion and learning	29:49
	wiser, more inquisitive, more probing,	29:51
	more sensitive to self and to others,	29:56
	more eager to give, more concerned about serving	30:00
	than being served, more intent to find the truth,	30:04
	more closely his or her true self than ever before.	30:09
	And may all of us, oh God, know that there is a world	30:16
	beyond this place, a world of hunger, war, poverty,	30:18
	hypocrisy, and hurt.	30:22
	And may we care more about the world now than we ever have.	30:24
	Oh, God, help us to know ourselves	30:29
	and to know your power.	30:33
	Help us, on this day, to bring our helplessness	30:36
	to your strength, our ignorance to your wisdom,	30:38
	our sin to your purity, our need to your love.	30:42
	Accept us, oh God, for who we are	30:48
	and make of us, we pray, who we should be.	30:51
	And hear us now as we pray the prayer	30:55
	which our Lord has taught us saying:	30:57
	Our father, who art in heaven,	31:00
	hallowed be thy name,	31:04
	they kingdom come, they will be done,	31:06
	on earth as it is in heaven.	31:09
	Give us this day our daily bread	31:12
	and forgive us our trespasses	31:15
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	31:18
	and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	31:22
	For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,	31:27
	forever, amen.	31:32
	I'm sure you parents, especially, would not want to know	31:38
	that the graduates, this morning, are seated in exactly	31:45
	the same place they have been every Sunday morning	31:48
	for the last four years.	31:50
	(audience laughs)	31:53
	We are delighted to have you,	31:59
	parents, friends, guests with us	32:02
	on this very happy, holy,	32:06
	and high occasion.	32:09
	You honor us by your presence, we share a time	32:12
	of celebration together with those who will	32:15
	graduate this afternoon.	32:18
	Our preacher for today, the Reverend Gilleasbuig Macmillan,	32:21
	is no stranger to Duke, having preached on this pulpit	32:26
	on, at least, one occasion previously.	32:30
	He also is well-known in this area from having preached	32:33
	in other churches and having spoken at many conferences	32:37
	and retreats in this area.	32:42
	He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland	32:45
	with both MA and BD degrees with honors	32:49
	from that distinguished university.	32:52
	He serves as chaplain to her majesty, the queen,	32:56
	and is now the minister in that great and historic church,	33:00
	Saint Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh.	33:05
	We welcome him to this country again one one of his	33:08
	many frequent visits to the United States.	33:12
	Welcome him, especially, to Duke University	33:16
	and to Duke Chapel for this particular day.	33:18
	It is our privilege to have him,	33:22
	the Reverend Gilleasbuig Macmillan,	33:25
	as a baccalaureate preacher for the class of 1978.	33:27
	Mr. Macmillan.	33:33
-	Let us pray.	33:43
	May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	33:46
	be acceptable in thy sight.	33:50
	Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.	33:53
	Amen.	33:56
	Today is the Sunday after ascension day.	34:03
	If I were at home in St. Giles and not on this great	34:09
	festive occasion here with you,	34:12
	I have no doubt that my sermon would begin with these words	34:15
	with which I have begun this one.	34:19
	Today is the Sunday after ascension day.	34:22
	Nothing can detract from the many significances	34:28
	which people throughout the world will attach to this day	34:32
	for all sorts of personal and local reasons.	34:37
	Nothing can detract from the great significance	34:42
	which this university gives to this day	34:45
	and especially which those who are graduating today	34:49
	give to it.	34:53
	But I stand here as a Christian minister	34:57
	within the Christian church.	34:59
	If I have anything to contribute	35:02
	to the accumulated experience of this day,	35:04
	it will be that I am able to date this day	35:09
	within the Christian calendar.	35:12
	For I am not of much value to you as a random speaker	35:16
	presenting thoughts of his own imagining.	35:21
	I come out of a Christian religion which is not	35:26
	a personal faith or a private philosophy	35:30
	or an individual insight but a common memory.	35:35
	A community faith.	35:41
	A Catholic confusion.	35:44
	And it is precisely because of the very confusedness	35:49
	of Christianity	35:53
	that I find it helpful to impose upon you	35:56
	again the thought which some of you	36:00
	might regard as bizarre	36:03
	that I date this day as that Sunday after ascension day.	36:07
	It is high time that somebody put in a plea	36:12
	of defense for complexity.	36:17
	I do not believe that religion is better or truer	36:21
	the simpler it is.	36:27
	There are a great many religious hucksters around	36:31
	who would delude you into thinking that that were so.	36:35
	Any religion which could be rendered consistent	36:41
	by my mind would be inadequate for the mysteries of life.	36:44
	And I dare to hope that in this of all gatherings,	36:50
	there will be some who face the confusion and mystery	36:57
	of life not as problems to be solved by instant	37:02
	terminological tranquilizers	37:07
	but as gloriously perplexing elusive hints.	37:11
	Glimpses to be followed into further confusion.	37:18
	Mystery leading to grander mystery.	37:22
	For a religion which jumps at easy answers	37:28
	to great questions distorts life.	37:33
	Strangles experience.	37:39
	And stands in the way	37:44
	of that tingling awe	37:46
	which is the heart of authentic spirituality.	37:51
	In all the memories which the church has of Jesus,	37:56
	probably none more than that which is called	38:02
	his ascension into heaven,	38:06
	is so filled with mystery,	38:10
	confusion, and marvel.	38:13
	Any who wish to tell themselves ought to tell others	38:20
	as many, particularly those who would admit it do wish,	38:25
	that Christianity is largely a general benevolence	38:32
	advocated by an unusually good man	38:36
	must come to terms not only with the flabby tedium	38:42
	of such a claim.	38:45
	But also with the profound mystery	38:48
	of the church's memory of our Lord.	38:54
	We, therefore, meet,	38:59
	if we contemplate Christianity at all,	39:01
	contemplating it as community religion,	39:06
	and both of these concepts, apparently innocuous as they are	39:13
	pose a large and dangerous threat	39:20
	to the cultural air which we breathe	39:25
	and which we cannot choose not to breathe.	39:29
	It is communal and that challenges individualism.	39:35
	It is religious and that challenges secularity.	39:40
	The words I have taken as the title of this sermon	39:50
	are taken from words which Jesus is recorded as saying	39:57
	to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning:	40:02
	Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father.	40:05
	But go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto	40:11
	my father and your father,	40:14
	to my God and your God.	40:17
	I want to suggest to you	40:23
	that by thinking of this notion of Jesus putting together	40:27
	my father, your father,	40:32
	your father, my father,	40:35
	we can move slightly nearer	40:39
	some sort of glimpse	40:44
	of an integrating perspective	40:47
	which all of our lives need.	40:51
	And out of that, I want to make two comments,	40:56
	two points, two paragraphs, two themes.	40:59
	One about personal experience in religion.	41:04
	And the other about the relation of religion	41:08
	to human affairs.	41:12
	Let me begin what I have to say	41:16
	about personal experience in religion	41:19
	by suggesting that there is nothing simple or obvious	41:23
	or natural in claiming	41:27
	that the center and soul	41:31
	of every sphere, the ultimate mystery,	41:34
	the heart of all things	41:37
	can properly be called father.	41:39
	There is nothing obvious or sensible in that.	41:44
	Although, calling that ultimate mystery father	41:50
	is possibly more sensible	41:53
	than calling it God.	41:57
	I am more and more convinced	42:01
	that the word, God, constitutes one of the chief obstacles	42:04
	to authentic spiritual experience	42:08
	in the paths of some of the most honest people of our time.	42:12
	They hear religious people use the word God	42:17
	as if they were using it as something	42:23
	of which they could imagine.	42:26
	Much as they could talk about Uncle Fred.	42:31
	Or the Emperor Napoleon.	42:35
	Or Ms. Smith, the blonde librarian.	42:39
	And when our honest inquirer realizes that, although,	42:44
	when he hears the words Ms. Smith, the blonde librarian,	42:48
	he can picture something.	42:52
	But when he hears the word God, he can picture nothing.	42:55
	He, therefore, concludes that he must be an atheist.	43:00
	In fact, the atheists are not those	43:05
	who are ready to let the wind blow through their souls.	43:11
	The real atheists are those who imagine that they can	43:18
	trap the spark of life	43:22
	in the museum cases	43:26
	of their changeless, silent minds.	43:28
	All talk of that mystery	43:34
	is metaphor,	43:38
	and symbol, and simile,	43:40
	and hint, and glimpse.	43:44
	And one of these metaphors is God.	43:49
	And one of them is father.	43:52
	It would be apparently most unfair	43:57
	if in order to experience the center of things	44:01
	as father, you had to have had a good experience	44:06
	of a male, human progenitor.	44:12
	Because those who did not know their fathers	44:16
	or those who had cruel fathers,	44:21
	and, sadly, there are many,	44:25
	would, then, not be in a position to move	44:29
	from that experience to this experience,	44:32
	whatever it is,	44:37
	which Jesus seems to have spoken of.	44:39
	Of course, there are some who can move	44:44
	with a sense of pride and humble gratitude	44:47
	from an experience of their own parents	44:52
	to a deeper, more divine awareness.	44:57
	But a hundred years ago, George McDonald	45:02
	wrote these words, a little poem in dedication of a book	45:06
	to his father, words which I imagine	45:10
	any parent would be happy to receive.	45:15
	Thou hast been faithful to my highest need	45:19
	and I, thy debtor, ever, ever more,	45:24
	shall never feel the grateful burden sore,	45:29
	yet must I thank thee not for any deed	45:34
	but for the sense thy living self did breed	45:40
	that fatherhood is at the world's great core.	45:45
	But is that exceptional?	45:53
	And if it is, does it matter?	45:56
	Where is	46:00
	personal experience of the divine to be found?	46:02
	Let me make two points.	46:10
	The first is that if personal experience of the divine	46:13
	comes from human experience of life in its depth,	46:18
	that human experience	46:24
	cannot be confined to the relationship	46:27
	of a son or a daughter with a father.	46:30
	It must include other relationships,	46:33
	husbands and wives,	46:37
	children, mothers, sisters, brothers,	46:39
	friends or enemies.	46:41
	Although, that does not permit us to substitute	46:46
	for the word father, whenever we encounter it in scripture,	46:51
	other words like mother, or sister, or brother, or friend,	46:55
	or husband, or whatever you wish.	46:59
	Great metaphor is like great art,	47:02
	you don't tamper with it,	47:07
	you let it speak to you.	47:10
	And the recorded words of our Lord	47:14
	are both great metaphor and great art.	47:17
	My second point is this,	47:24
	that however much it is the case that we move	47:27
	from experience of human relationship in depth	47:33
	to an experience of the divine,	47:40
	that movement or that dependence	47:44
	is considerably limited.	47:47
	All religions are social memories	47:53
	more than individual discoveries.	47:59
	Even if it is a cardinal principle	48:04
	of our contemporary culture to deny that, I affirm it.	48:06
	We enter into the memory of the testimony	48:14
	of disclosures of the divine at some moments	48:20
	in the past and that is true of all religions.	48:25
	Even if personal experience is critical	48:32
	in our entering upon this memory.	48:38
	Nonetheless, it is not	48:42
	the final or normative experience.	48:46
	And for the Christian religion,	48:53
	it is more precisely to be said	48:59
	that any knowledge we have of the divine as father	49:05
	comes not from our satisfactory experience	49:10
	of sonship or daughtership,	49:13
	so much as from Jesus' experience	49:17
	and his sharing it with his church.	49:21
	To say my father and your father	49:30
	is to say something more	49:34
	than our father.	49:36
	For the mystery of the miracle whereby his followers	49:42
	could share in his experience	49:46
	of the divine	49:50
	as father is the heart of religion,	49:52
	mysterious and deep.	49:56
	Personal experience is much less a matter	50:01
	of individual discovery than most people think	50:06
	and much more and entering into a common memory.	50:10
	And those who offer personal experience of God	50:16
	in popularized Christianity usually offer	50:21
	a set of social attitudes and even	50:26
	a prescribed series of emotions,	50:30
	thereby demonstrating	50:34
	that by personal experience of God,	50:37
	they mean a group code.	50:41
	And this seems the right point at which to move	50:46
	to the relationship	50:51
	between religion and human affairs.	50:53
	Suppose it is the case	50:58
	that entering into the sophisticated complexity	51:03
	of Christian history, men and women here and there	51:06
	are capable of participating	51:11
	in that disclosure to Jesus	51:14
	which enable him to recognize the unknown and call it father	51:17
	what difference would it make?	51:23
	What difference does spiritual experience make	51:27
	to our distorted disillusion and fragmented world?	51:31
	Might it not even be the case that in many situations,	51:38
	spiritual experience appears to make people less human,	51:42
	less humane, not more?	51:49
	What is called religious experience has frequently	51:54
	been taken as an excuse for bigotry,	51:58
	close-mindedness, arrogance,	52:03
	devisiveness, smug,	52:07
	spiritual, frigid, fossilization.	52:11
	And in a world in which the cleverness of man	52:19
	is capable of extinguishing the last breath of life	52:23
	from this glorious planet,	52:29
	what can the trivializing little church have to offer?	52:33
	We cannot worship in one building together.	52:38
	We cannot agree together on one doctrine.	52:41
	We tear ourselves apart with small pursuits.	52:45
	What have we to offer?	52:48
	And it is tempting to say not our religion	52:52
	but Christian ethics.	52:56
	But Christian ethics are not so remarkable	53:00
	when you look at them.	53:02
	Christian ethics without Christian religion	53:04
	are not particularly distinguished.	53:07
	They don't have much edge on any sort of general purpose	53:10
	and imaginative benevolence.	53:14
	And I maintain that the world needs the church	53:18
	and needs it for religion.	53:23
	But that it needs it	53:25
	because the world needs	53:29
	a greater humanity than ordinary charity can give.	53:33
	We need to reach out our hands to our brothers and sisters	53:39
	of other places and races and backgrounds	53:43
	and cultures and interests.	53:45
	We need to break down our self-interest or person,	53:48
	or group, or nation, for there is no selfishness greater	53:52
	than that of nationalism.	53:57
	And we are not capable of doing it adequately	53:59
	simply by believing it to be necessary.	54:04
	That is one of the great necessities of our time.	54:08
	To break our naive confidence	54:13
	in decent, intelligible,	54:18
	intelligent humaneness.	54:21
	And that point came to me forcibly	54:26
	in a rather remarkable essay which I read for the first time	54:30
	a few weeks ago by the great Scottish writer,	54:33
	Robert Louis Stevenson,	54:40
	who, in 1890, wrote this letter, an open letter	54:43
	to a newspaper.	54:47
	He wrote it in Sydney, in Australia.	54:49
	It has the slightly peculiar title of An Open Letter	54:52
	to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu.	54:56
	The Reverend Dr. Hyde was a Presbyterian missionary,	55:02
	I think, possibly, an American	55:05
	who had written a previous letter to this newspaper	55:08
	attacking the memory	55:13
	of the recently dead Father Damien.	55:15
	Father Damien was a missionary to a leper colony	55:20
	in Hawaii a hundred years ago	55:26
	who went voluntarily to a leper island,	55:29
	lived alone with the lepers, healed them and cared for them,	55:33
	and buried them until, inevitably, he contracted	55:38
	the dreadful disease and, himself, died of it.	55:42
	Not surprisingly, his memory was revered	55:47
	but the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu	55:52
	wrote a letter to the paper saying that his memory	55:55
	was greatly overestimated.	55:59
	That he had gone to the leper island not because	56:03
	he had been sent but against orders.	56:06
	That he was a course fellow and vulgar.	56:08
	That he was not a man of culture.	56:12
	And, worst of all, that it was widely rumored	56:15
	that he was not pure in his relations with women	56:19
	and that, possibly, his contracting of leprosy	56:23
	had something to do with his vice	56:28
	and that made Stevenson's blood boil.	56:31
	He described Hyde's life in Honolulu	56:35
	a luxury with servants preaching a cultured gospel	56:40
	without sacrifice and comparing that	56:45
	with the saintly Damien.	56:50
	He speaks of John the Baptist	56:54
	who was hardly gentile.	57:00
	He speaks of Simon Peter and says he was most certainly	57:03
	an uncultured fisherman.	57:08
	There is no doubt at all that Stevenson regards Christianity	57:12
	as a matter of deeds and not of words only.	57:16
	But then, he comes to this	57:21
	most serious and somber slander	57:23
	which Hyde levels at Damien	57:29
	for breaking his vow of celibacy.	57:32
	And listen to what he says, the concluding words	57:37
	of this long letter.	57:41
	Is it growing at all clear to you	57:46
	what a picture you have drawn of your own heart?	57:49
	You had a father.	57:54
	Suppose this tale were about him.	57:56
	And some informant brought it to you proof in hand.	58:00
	I'm not making too high an estimate of your emotional nature	58:06
	when I suppose you would regret the circumstance	58:11
	that you would feel the tail of frailty the more keenly	58:15
	since it shamed the author of your days.	58:19
	And that the last thing you would do would be	58:23
	to publish it in the religious press.	58:26
	Well, the man who tried to do what Damien did	58:29
	is my father.	58:36
	And the father of the man in that bar,	58:39
	and the father of all who love goodness,	58:43
	and he was your father too,	58:49
	if God had given you grace to see it.	58:54
	Christianity stands or falls	59:02
	by this claim.	59:08
	That natural affection	59:12
	and ordinary humaneness	59:15
	are not enough, that more are needed	59:18
	to reach out our hands	59:23
	beyond the confines of those to whom it is comfortable	59:26
	to be kind.	59:31
	When Jesus spoke of his ascension saying,	59:35
	I go to my father and your father,	59:39
	he spoke in a picture	59:45
	of his human experience being identified	59:52
	with the heart of all reality	59:57
	and he said to these disciples, and you can share that.	1:00:00
	You can enter into the experience of the mysterious unknown,	1:00:07
	can call that mystery father	1:00:14
	and be drawn by that into a greater humanity	1:00:19
	of the heart and imagination	1:00:24
	than your own inclination will ever lead you	1:00:27
	in theory or mind.	1:00:31
	I dare to say to you who have been given so much	1:00:36
	that I hope you will constantly	1:00:42
	fight the temptation	1:00:45
	to reduce the great mysteries of life	1:00:49
	to simple solutions,	1:00:53
	that you will revel in the glorious, elusive,	1:00:57
	suggestive mystery of humanity,	1:01:01
	that you will enjoy tradition	1:01:07
	and be liberated enough	1:01:11
	not to need to invent all truth for yourself	1:01:14
	but be humble enough to catch a glimpse	1:01:21
	of the fringe of his garment	1:01:27
	who called the center	1:01:31
	father	1:01:34
	and said you could do the same.	1:01:37
	Amen.	1:01:41

	(church organ music)	0:03
	♪ Lord, thou hast been our refuge ♪	0:38
	♪ From one generation to another ♪	0:45
	♪ Ooh, God has been rejoiced ♪	0:50
	♪ Before the mountains were brought forth ♪	1:00
	♪ Or ever the earth and the world were made ♪	1:04
	♪ Thou art God from everlasting, and world without end ♪	1:09
	♪ Thou turnest man to destruction ♪	1:21
	♪ Again thou sayest ♪	1:28
	♪ Come again, ye children of men ♪	1:34
	♪ For a thousand years in thy sight ♪	1:40
	♪ Are but as yesterday ♪	1:45
	♪ Seeing that is past ♪	1:54
	♪ As a watch in the night ♪	1:59
	♪ As soon as thou scatterest them ♪	2:11
	♪ They are even as asleep and fade away ♪	2:17
	♪ Suddenly like the grass ♪	2:28
	♪ In the morning, it is green ♪	2:34
	♪ And groweth up ♪	2:40
	♪ But in the evening it cut down ♪	2:43
	♪ Dried up and withered ♪	2:48
	♪ For we consume away ♪	2:56
	♪ In thy displeasure ♪	3:03
	♪ And are afraid at thy wrathful indignation ♪	3:09
	♪ Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee ♪	3:16
	♪ And our secret sins in the light of thy countenance ♪	3:20
	♪ For when thou art angry all our days are gone ♪	3:24
	♪ We bring our years to an end ♪	3:32
	♪ As it were a tale that is told. ♪	3:39
	♪ The days of our age are threescore years and ten ♪	3:47
	♪ And though men be so strong ♪	3:54
	♪ That they come to fourscore years ♪	3:56
	♪ Yet is their strength then but labor and sorrow ♪	4:01
	♪ So soon passeth it away, and we are gone ♪	4:07
	♪ But who regardeth the power of thy wrath ♪	4:18
	♪ Feareth aright thy indignation ♪	4:31
	♪ And be gracious unto thy servants ♪	4:36
	♪ Oh satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon ♪	4:41
	♪ So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life ♪	4:49
	(church organ music)	5:08
	♪ Lord, thou hast been our refuge ♪	6:01
	♪ From one generation to another ♪	6:07
	♪ Before the mountains were brought forth ♪	6:23
	♪ Or ever the earth and the world were made ♪	6:25
	♪ Thou art God from everlasting and world without end ♪	6:30
	♪ Thou turnest man to destruction, again thou sayest ♪	6:36
	♪ Come again ye children of men ♪	6:43
	♪ For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday ♪	6:47
	♪ Seeing that is past as a watch in the night ♪	6:54
	♪ As soon as Thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep ♪	7:02
	♪ And fade away suddenly like the grass ♪	7:11
	♪ In the morning it is green and groweth up ♪	7:19
	♪ But in the evening it is cut down, dried up and withered ♪	7:26
	♪ For we consume away in Thy displeasure ♪	7:38
	♪ And are afraid at Thy wrathful indignation ♪	7:44
	♪ For when Thou art angry at our days are gone ♪	7:55
-	Now is our appropriate response to the word preached,	8:20
	and the word sung.	8:26
	Lets us all pray to God this responsive prayer	8:27
	of thanksgiving and commitment.	8:30
	Oh God, we rejoice that we have learned together,	8:36
	and have worshiped together,	8:41
	and we bring before you the symbols,	8:44
	and the reality of our lives.	8:46
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	8:49
	We give thanks for the universe.	9:05
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:08
	For the earth.	9:10
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:11
	For communities and neighborhoods.	9:15
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:17
	For the revolutions which shake our world.	9:22
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:25
	For the power of our learning.	9:29
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:31
	For the perplexities which confront us.	9:34
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:37
	For our heritage.	9:40
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:42
	For the visions of this university's	9:46
	student, staff, and faculty.	9:48
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:52
	We are giving the eyes of the spirit.	9:56
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	9:59
	The promise is to each of us, we may see,	10:04
	we may receive, we may love.	10:07
	(congregation murmuring prayers)	10:11
	Amen and amen.	10:30
	(church organ music)	10:34
	♪ Glory to thee ♪	11:13
	♪ For Thy will be divine ♪	11:17
	♪ He's here, oh glory ♪	11:23
	♪ Thy was his first-born son ♪	11:27
	♪ And be joined with our poor lives in all ♪	11:32
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:41
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:47
	♪ Glory to our God ♪	11:56
	♪ Here is the Lord of all ♪	12:00
	♪ For Thee, thee mountain ♪	12:05
	♪ Who, have heard Thy call ♪	12:10
	♪ And by my hand, the foes of me shall fall ♪	12:15
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	12:25
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	12:30
	♪ This might be the love he's washed with me ♪	12:39
	♪ Who was our servant ♪	12:49
	♪ And he might be free ♪	12:54
	♪ Oh, be my joy ♪	12:59
	♪ You had your power on me ♪	13:04
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:09
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:13
	♪ Oh, you my God, eternal and no foul ♪	13:22
	♪ Oh, you my chosen, over me just now ♪	13:32
	♪ And He will win ♪	13:42
	♪ For each of thee shall bow ♪	13:47
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:51
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:56
	♪ Let us rejoice ♪	14:05
	♪ I'm blessed with none that fall ♪	14:08
	♪ And he heard that Jesus loves his home ♪	14:14
	♪ And, you my God, eternal and no foul ♪	14:25
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	14:34
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	14:40
	♪ Amen ♪	14:47
-	Now, without bowing heads or closing eyes,	14:59
	now for you this blessing in the name of the spirit of God.	15:03
	The Lord bless you and keep you.	15:08
	The Lord maketh space to shine upon you,	15:11
	and be gracious unto you.	15:17
	The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you,	15:19
	and give you peace,	15:25
	now and forever more.	15:27
	♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪	15:37
	♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, amen ♪	15:45
	(church organ music)	15:57

Item Info

Title:

Gilleasbuig MacMillan - "Your Father and My Father" Baccalaureate Service (May 7, 1978)

Description:

Sermon start time: 33:43. Sermon end time: 01:01:42.
Religion is still necessary for the world to not think of your own personal experiences but to experience the common experience of the father God (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: I came out of a Christian religion, which is not a personal faith or a private philosophy, or an individual insight, but a common memory.

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4br8mw59

Date:

May 7, 1978

Speaker:

Macmillan, Gilleasbuig Iain

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0954
ref7111_m5o
uachapelsermaud
duke:320360
dcrau001834
ark:/87924/r4br8mw59
970e24a9-242f-4294-a6da-b37f08f38520

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Gilleasbuig MacMillan - "Your Father and My Father" Baccalaureate Service (May 7, 1978)

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Duke University Archives