Clyde O. Robinson, Jr. - "Recovering Our Hearing" (August 6, 1978)

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-	Duke University Chapel service of worship	0:05
	August 6, 1978.	0:08
	(organ music)	0:13
	(choir singing)	12:31
	(organ music)	13:02
	(congregation singing)	13:35
-	Let us corporately confess our sins.	16:05
	Lord you made the world and everything in it.	16:11
	You created the human race of one stock	16:15
	and gave us the Earth for your possession.	16:18
-	Break down the walls that separate us	16:22
	and unite us in a single body.	16:25
-	Lord, we have been divisive in our thinking,	16:30
	in our speech and in our actions.	16:33
	We have classified and imprisoned one another.	16:37
	We have fenced each other out by hatred and prejudice.	16:41
-	Break down the walls that separate us	16:46
	and unite us in a single body.	16:49
-	Lord, you mean for us to be a single people,	16:53
	ruled by peace, feasting in freedom,	16:57
	freed from injustice, truly human, men and women,	17:01
	responsible and responsive in the life we lead,	17:07
	the love we share, the relationships we create.	17:11
-	Break down the walls that separate us	17:16
	and unite us in a single body.	17:20
-	Lord, we shall need ever new insights into the truth,	17:25
	awareness of your will for all humanity,	17:29
	courage to do what is right, even when it is not allowed,	17:34
	persistence in undermining unjust structures	17:39
	until they crumble into dust,	17:43
	grace to exercise a ministry of reconciliation.	17:46
-	Break down the walls that separate us	17:51
	and unite us in a single body.	17:54
-	Lord, share out among us the tongues of your spirit	17:59
	that we may each burn with compassion	18:04
	for all who hunger for freedom and humanness,	18:07
	that we may be doers of the word	18:10
	and so speak with creditability	18:13
	about the wonderful things you have done.	18:16
-	Lord, direct in us we would not discern	18:20
	and equip for us the service and reconciliation	18:24
	and liberation in your world.	18:28
-	Let us now each make our own personal confession	18:33
	to almighty God.	18:36
	The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance	18:53
	that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.	18:57
	Our sin we have acknowledged.	19:02
	Our desire for forgiveness we have declared.	19:05
	Our longing for amendment we have proclaimed.	19:10
	Praise God for his miracles of pardon,	19:14
	restoration and strengthening in righteousness.	19:17
	To him be all honor and glory, amen.	19:22
	Let us give thanks for God is good	19:30
	and God's love is everlasting.	19:34
-	Thanks be to God who creates us.	19:37
	Thanks be to God whose tender love redeems us.	19:40
	Thanks be to God whose presence sustains us.	19:45
-	I am sure many of you	19:56
	will want to greet our guest minister	19:57
	at the end of the service today	19:59
	and I would ask that you	20:01
	would move to the rear of the chapel	20:03
	and greet him near the front door	20:05
	as we will be having a communion service	20:08
	in the memorial chapel immediately following the service.	20:09
	Let us pray.	20:16
	Prepare our hearts O Lord to accept thy word.	20:24
	In this moment guide us by thy holy spirit	20:29
	so that in thy light we may have vision,	20:36
	in that truth we may find freedom,	20:41
	and in they will we may discover thy peace	20:47
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	20:52
	The reading from the Old Testament	21:00
	is from the 11th chapter of Genesis, verses one through 10.	21:02
	And the whole earth was of one language,	21:10
	and of one speech.	21:14
	And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,	21:16
	that they found a plain in the land of Shinar;	21:19
	and they dwelt there.	21:23
	And they said one to another,	21:25
	Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.	21:27
	And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.	21:34
	and they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower,	21:40
	whose top may reach unto heaven;	21:47
	and let us make us a name,	21:50
	lest we be scattered abroad	21:52
	upon the face of the whole earth.	21:54
	And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower,	21:57
	which the children of men built.	22:01
	And the Lord said,	22:04
	behold, the people is one, and they have all one language;	22:07
	and this they begin to do:	22:13
	and now nothing will be restrained from them,	22:16
	which they have imagined to do.	22:18
	Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language,	22:21
	that they may not understand each other's speech.	22:27
	So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence	22:32
	upon the face of all the earth:	22:35
	and they left off building the city.	22:38
	Therefore is the name of it called Babel;	22:41
	because the Lord did there	22:45
	confound the language of all the earth:	22:47
	and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad	22:50
	upon the face of all the earth.	22:53
	These are the generations of Shem:	22:56
	Shem was an hundred years old,	23:00
	and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.	23:02
	May God bless the reading of his holy word.	23:07
	(organ music)	23:14
	(choir singing)	23:54
	Our minister of the word this morning	25:46
	is no stranger to the Duke community,	25:47
	the Reverend Clyde O. Robinson Jr.	25:50
	served as Presbyterian Campus Minister here at Duke	25:52
	from 1966 to '69	25:56
	during which time he performed a significant ministry	25:59
	to both students and faculty.	26:03
	His formal education was at Davidson College	26:06
	and Union Theological Seminary in New York	26:09
	followed by pastorates in Raleigh and Winston-Salem.	26:12
	Since 1969 Clyde as served as Eastern Region Secretary	26:17
	for the United Ministries in Higher Education	26:22
	bringing his expertise and wise counsel	26:26
	to that area of the church's life.	26:29
	We welcome Clyde Robinson back home	26:32
	and we look forward to his preaching this morning.	26:35
	The New Testament lesson is from the second chapter	26:40
	of the book of Acts.	26:43
	When the day of Pentecost had come,	26:49
	and they were all together in one place,	26:51
	Suddenly a sound came from heaven	26:54
	like the rush of a mighty wind,	26:56
	and it filled all the house where they were sitting.	26:59
	And there appeared to them tongues as of fire	27:03
	distributed and resting on each one of them.	27:06
	And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit	27:10
	and began to speak in other tongues	27:15
	as the Spirit gave them utterance.	27:17
	Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem	27:21
	Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.	27:24
	And at this sound the multitude came together,	27:29
	and they were bewildered,	27:33
	because each one heard them speaking in his own language.	27:35
	And they were amazed and wondered, saying,	27:41
	"Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?	27:44
	"And how is it that we hear,	27:49
	"each of us in his own language?	27:50
	"Parthians and Medes and Elamites	27:53
	"and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,	27:56
	"Pontus and Asia,	28:01
	"Phrygia and Pamphylia,	28:03
	"Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene,	28:05
	"and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,	28:09
	"Cretans and Arabians-	28:13
	"we hear them telling in our own tongues	28:15
	"the mighty acts of God."	28:17
	And were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,	28:21
	"What does this mean?"	28:24
	And then there follows the sermon of Peter,	28:28
	proclaiming the mighty works of God	28:31
	and the sermon ends with the words,	28:34
	"Let all the house of Israel therefore	28:38
	"know assuredly that God has made him	28:40
	"both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."	28:44
	Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart,	28:50
	and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,	28:54
	"Brethren, what shall we do?"	28:57
	And Peter said to them,	29:00
	"Repent and be baptized every one of you	29:02
	"in the name of Jesus Christ	29:06
	"for the forgiveness of your sins,	29:08
	"and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.	29:10
	"For the promise is for you and for your children	29:14
	"and for all who are far off,	29:18
	"everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him."	29:20
	And he testified with many other words	29:24
	and exhorted them, saying,	29:27
	"Save yourselves from this crooked generation."	29:29
	So those who received his word were baptized,	29:33
	and there were added that day about three thousand souls.	29:38
	And they devoted themselves	29:42
	to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,	29:44
	to the breaking of bread and the prayers.	29:47
	And fear came upon every soul,	29:51
	and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.	29:54
	And all who had believed were together	29:58
	and had all things in common.	30:00
	And they sold their possessions and goods	30:04
	and distributed them to all, as any had need.	30:07
	And day by day, attending the temple together	30:11
	and breaking bread in their homes,	30:14
	they partook of food with glad and generous hearts,	30:17
	praising God and adding favor with all the people.	30:21
	And the Lord added to their number day by day	30:26
	those who were being saved.	30:29
	Thanks be to God for his glorious word.	30:34
	(organ music)	30:39
	(choir singing)	30:51
-	It's been nearly 10 years now	31:56
	since I began to wander the southeast	31:58
	like an itinerant bureaucrat	32:01
	and throughout all those years	32:06
	I've remembered Robert Frost's words	32:08
	about home being that place where	32:11
	when you have to go there, they have to take you in.	32:15
	I guess, in spite of the fact that	32:19
	Duke University is not my school,	32:21
	nor is the divinity school my theological school	32:24
	nonetheless this has been home for me	32:29
	and in the person of people like Fran Philips	32:31
	and Helen Crotwell and Bob Young	32:35
	and numbers of other friends, I have over those years	32:38
	found that kind of support and strength	32:41
	that becomes doubly and triply important	32:45
	if your life is spent in being a consultant and a helper,	32:48
	but one who fundamentally really has no home.	32:53
	It is therefore good to be here with you this day.	32:58
	I've rarely ever laughed so hard,	33:05
	or come so close to crying	33:08
	as I did Friday night a week ago.	33:10
	A couple in another state	33:15
	in whose home Louise and I were staying	33:17
	told us the story of how they had	33:20
	put their wallpaper on their kitchen ceiling	33:24
	and of how close they had come that night, respectively,	33:27
	to homicide.	33:31
	As one might expect of thoughtful, professional people,	33:34
	they had approached that job	33:39
	knowing that it would be onerous,	33:41
	with great intentionality and careful planning	33:43
	in which they had systematically assessed	33:47
	their respective skills and talents	33:49
	and assumed appropriate individual responsibilities	33:52
	within the larger task.	33:55
	Specifically, that meant that	33:58
	the short one was to cut the paper	34:00
	and spread the paste on it,	34:02
	and the tall one was to do the measuring	34:05
	and then apply the paste covered paper to the ceiling.	34:08
	As they tell the story, things went very well for a time.	34:13
	The measuring, the cutting,	34:17
	and even the application of the paper	34:19
	moved along uneventfully over about half the ceiling,	34:21
	and then it happened.	34:26
	The paster had been a bit to sparing with the paste	34:29
	and the paper began to peel down from the ceiling	34:33
	behind the paperer.	34:35
	The short one was too short	34:38
	to reach the ceiling to repaste the paper	34:39
	and so the tall one,	34:43
	standing on the only available stool that could be reached	34:44
	was quickly draped both fore and aft	34:48
	like a Christmas package	34:50
	in sticky green and yellow floral design,	34:54
	no bow, but well wrapped.	34:57
	Communication, they say, initially intensified,	35:00
	and then quickly broke down all together	35:05
	and the project was abandoned until, as they say,	35:08
	the stars were more auspicious.	35:10
	Now we laughed, but it was partly to keep from crying	35:15
	because we remember in our family,	35:19
	all too well that night some six years ago	35:21
	when we decided to cut a mail slot in the front door	35:24
	and ended up 30 minutes later	35:28
	sitting in the entrance hall floor yelling, screaming,	35:30
	and physically struggling	35:33
	for the control of an electric drill.	35:35
	We, our ceiling papering friends,	35:39
	and, I suspect, most of you	35:43
	know all too well at least at one maybe superficial level	35:46
	the human dynamics that inform the story	35:51
	of the Tower of Babel	35:54
	that Fran read in our hearing a few minutes ago.	35:56
	The story is a parable in that it represents	36:01
	a single point of truth about humankind,	36:06
	about our mothers and our fathers, about you and me.	36:10
	How in our pride and our fear	36:14
	we lost the ability to hear one another	36:16
	and became alienated and separated.	36:20
	You remember how the story goes,	36:26
	come let us build a city	36:29
	and a tower with its top in the heavens,	36:31
	and make a name for ourselves,	36:35
	or we shall be dispersed all over the earth.	36:37
	A tower with a top in the heavens,	36:42
	a name for ourselves.	36:46
	Do you hear the pride?	36:50
	That quality that draws its identity from the superlative?	36:53
	Biggest, best, most beautiful,	36:59
	fastest, strongest?	37:02
	And of course they were, oh, they were indeed.	37:06
	Shinar your remember,	37:11
	is another name for the land of Babylon.	37:13
	And Babylon in its day was the acme of the civilized world.	37:17
	Most likely you recall	37:22
	its political and military reputation.	37:24
	There is within the Scripture lesson this morning	37:27
	reference to their advance technology.	37:30
	They molded their bricks	37:32
	and bound them together with slime, with bitumen.	37:34
	There's ziggurats, their towers,	37:39
	huge pyramidal towers rising often seven terraces	37:42
	from the center of the temple area,	37:46
	crowned with shrines	37:49
	where the religious and cosmological expression	37:51
	of the height to which	37:56
	they thought their civilization had risen.	37:57
	In their pride they saw themselves as having,	38:02
	by their virtue and their accomplishment,	38:05
	almost ascended to heaven	38:09
	and become nearly as gods.	38:12
	They were a proud, a proud people.	38:16
	And we know too well from our experience and from the record	38:22
	that pride makes it hard to hear.	38:25
	There is in pride a kind of	38:30
	preoccupation with being better than,	38:31
	and therefore with demeaning, scorning,	38:35
	emphasizing the distance from, the difference,	38:39
	maintaining the chasm them that separates the best	38:44
	which somehow, inexplicably,	38:48
	is usually associated with ourselves	38:51
	from the smallest, the ugliest, the slowest,	38:55
	the weakest, the worst.	38:59
	How can we hear what we cannot stoop to notice?	39:04
	How can we listen to those who are beneath us	39:10
	and somehow not worthy of us?	39:13
	And beneath Babylon's beauty was cruelty and oppression,	39:19
	the violence and the vice	39:23
	by which it was sustained in power.	39:25
	Beneath Babylon's beauty were	39:28
	the unheard cries of the people it had despised	39:30
	and exploited and ground under foot like dust.	39:34
	We may get something of the flavor	39:40
	if we hear the words that David McCullough wrote recently	39:45
	in his book about the building of the Panama Canal	39:48
	called The Path Between The Seas,	39:52
	in which he reminds us how easy it is	39:55
	not only not to hear those we think to be beneath us,	39:58
	but also how simple it is not even to see them.	40:03
	He writes, in the popular picture of life	40:07
	in the canal zone as it emerged	40:12
	in hundreds of magazines and newspaper articles,	40:14
	that vast force of black men and women	40:18
	who were doing the heaviest, most difficult physical labor,	40:21
	some 25,000 or 30,000 human beings,	40:25
	they don't even know how many there were,	40:30
	could be but very faintly seen.	40:33
	As individuals they had no delineation whatsoever.	40:37
	They were there only as part of the workaday landscape.	40:41
	That they too were making a new life in an alien land,	40:45
	that they too were raising families,	40:50
	experiencing homesickness, fear, all too often illness,	40:52
	or even exhilaration in the success of the work,	40:57
	was almost never inferred.	41:00
	In the United States the public had little if any conception	41:04
	of the part played in the Panama is by pioneers	41:08
	who were neither American nor white,	41:11
	or how very small numerically	41:15
	the white American force was by contrast.	41:18
	To judge by many published accounts,	41:23
	the whole enormous black underside	41:26
	of the Panamanian zoning and caste system	41:29
	simply did not exist.	41:33
	When I read that I wondered	41:37
	if, had we been able to hear them all these years,	41:40
	and I never even thought about their being there,	41:44
	would we have heart them saying,	41:48
	if we had been able to hear them,	41:49
	we bought it with our malaria ridden bodies,	41:52
	we built it with our calloused hands,	41:57
	we, not you, own it.	42:00
	Would have brought a different note	42:04
	into the discussions of the year past.	42:06
	But in fact we neither heard nor saw them,	42:10
	they were dismissed in our prideful nationalism	42:13
	and they were as unseen	42:17
	as have been the ethnic under classes in our cities,	42:19
	noticed only to pity at best,	42:23
	to exploit at worst,	42:26
	and always, somehow, to fear.	42:29
	For you see, fear so often accompanies pride,	42:35
	it did in Babylon, the record tells us,	42:40
	I suspect it does for most of us.	42:44
	The Babylonians stood with wagon circled against dispersal.	42:48
	They feared the uprisings of those that they had oppressed.	42:54
	They feared the onslaught of rival nations,	42:57
	they were always on the looking for their weak spot.	42:59
	And then too,	43:04
	prideful nations are filled with prideful people	43:05
	who, somewhat like high school seniors,	43:09
	each compete with the other for the superlatives,	43:12
	each being fearful of being surpassed.	43:15
	And so within that society there was a sense of	43:19
	there being danger within the camp as well as without.	43:21
	I think most of us know what that's like too.	43:27
	If you're like I,	43:31
	then we all have been reared and schooled,	43:33
	most of us at least, on competitiveness.	43:36
	The slogans of our political campaigns	43:40
	again reflect our fears about our national security,	43:42
	about our schools, about our neighborhoods,	43:47
	and now as Proposition 13 so clearly indicates,	43:51
	about our standard of living and our pocketbooks.	43:56
	I believe that both our difficulty in hearing	44:01
	and our fear of those who are different from us	44:05
	are dramatically and tragically underlined	44:09
	by the remarkably different emotional responses	44:12
	that we made 10 years ago to the deaths at Kent State,	44:17
	who were our kind of people,	44:22
	as opposed to those that occurred at Jackson State,	44:25
	which somehow in the media and in our hearts	44:28
	was never quite the same.	44:31
	Or the different kind of response that we make	44:34
	when we're reminded as we have been this year	44:37
	about the genocide of the European Holocaust	44:41
	as over against that response we make	44:45
	to the genocide in present day Cambodia.	44:48
	Why is it that we hear one cry	44:53
	and do not hear another?	44:57
	Why do some differences seem to make such a difference?	45:00
	Somehow those we have diminished or dismissed	45:06
	we do not hear,	45:10
	we do not know, we only fear.	45:12
	The ancient biblical writer explains	45:19
	the babble of languages to be heard around the globe	45:22
	and the scattering and alienating of the nations	45:27
	as God's act of judgment upon prideful people.	45:31
	Here they are he says in the passage in Genesis,	45:38
	one people with a single language	45:42
	and now they have started to do this,	45:45
	henceforward nothing they have a mind to do	45:49
	will be beyond the reach.	45:52
	Come, let us go down and confuse their speech,	45:55
	so they will not understand what they say to one another.	45:58
	The parable of the tower then,	46:03
	tells us how it is with people	46:05
	whether they be in families trying to work together	46:08
	to make their homes more attractive or functional	46:10
	or in nations corporately seeking to elevate the power	46:15
	or even the beauty of their slice of civilization.	46:18
	One commentary put it like this:	46:24
	humankind's noblest endeavors are bound to fail	46:27
	and its high-souled idealism is doomed to vanish	46:31
	in face of the harsh reality of its own twisted nature.	46:34
	Whatever we set our hand to	46:40
	becomes distorted by our lust for power,	46:42
	by our uncontrollable vanity,	46:46
	by our overweening pride.	46:49
	The dice are loaded against us,	46:52
	not by our stars or our fate	46:54
	but by our corrupt will.	46:59
	So at the end of the story of the Tower of Babel	47:03
	in the 11th chapter of Genesis	47:06
	there is a kind of dark depression	47:10
	that judges the possibilities of humankind.	47:14
	Not hearing one another, we cannot come together.	47:19
	Separated by pride and fear,	47:23
	we argue and struggle and war with one another.	47:26
	But into the dark despair	47:35
	represented by the parable of the Tower of Babel,	47:38
	thank God,	47:40
	there shines the light of new possibility	47:42
	a light that beams out of the story of Pentecost.	47:46
	Again, you remember the scene.	47:51
	The disciples are in Jerusalem following the crucifixion	47:53
	and their experience of the risen Christ.	47:57
	Pentecost, the Jewish Feast of Weeks, has come.	48:01
	Suddenly and dramatically,	48:04
	the promised gift of the spirit is fulfilled,	48:07
	and in that cosmopolitan crowd,	48:10
	people from Rome to Mesopotamia,	48:13
	that is from all parts of the known world,	48:15
	heard the ecstatic utterances of the disciples	48:18
	in their own language.	48:20
	They heard, they understood,	48:23
	they responded with empathy and enthusiasm.	48:26
	Think how different the story is from story of the tower.	48:31
	There's no talk recorded for us about their achievement	48:36
	or their self preservation,	48:41
	the focus instead is on what God has done in the life	48:44
	and death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.	48:47
	They're pictured as being amazed and perplexed,	48:51
	but there seems to have been no fear	48:54
	in spite of extraordinary experience.	48:55
	Those who gather around the apostles	48:59
	are pictured as being open to one another,	49:01
	able to acknowledge their sin,	49:04
	oh how threatening that is,	49:07
	and to turn away from it, they are unintimidated	49:09
	by the sarcastic contempt of the larger crowd.	49:13
	And far from becoming confused,	49:17
	or misunderstanding one another,	49:19
	or coming near to being scattered,	49:21
	they hear one another.	49:24
	No longer blocked by pride or fear	49:27
	they begin to meet together	49:30
	and to build a common life.	49:31
	Remember the things they do.	49:35
	They listen to the apostles teach.	49:38
	And I thought, you know, humble people	49:42
	can sit at the feet of those from whom they can learn	49:45
	and not feel put down	49:47
	unlike prideful people.	49:50
	They shared the common life,	49:53
	that is to say they began to discover	49:55
	how to look for what binds people together,	49:58
	rather than for what separates them and drives them apart.	50:02
	They broke bread together	50:06
	and you can be sure that no one sat below the salt.	50:08
	And they prayed,	50:13
	somehow bowing for the creator God	50:15
	punctures all the balloons that pride can inflate.	50:19
	And again, and not surprisingly,	50:24
	the recovery of hearing that they experienced	50:27
	seemed inexorably to issue in compassion	50:31
	and in that biblical perspective	50:35
	that defines and understands justice	50:37
	as the meeting of the needs	50:41
	of the least of our brothers and our sisters.	50:43
	We read and you remember	50:48
	that all whose faith had drawn them together	50:50
	held everything in common.	50:53
	They would sell their property and possessions	50:56
	and make a general distribution	50:59
	as the need of each required.	51:01
	Now those words don't necessarily represent	51:06
	a biblical prescription	51:09
	for how society ought to be organized,	51:10
	but they do tell us	51:14
	that when pride and fear disappear,	51:15
	and the gifts of hearing and unity are received,	51:19
	the focus in the lives of individuals	51:24
	and in the life of the community	51:27
	shifts and need begins to matter the more	51:29
	even as ownership begins to matter the less.	51:35
	Pentecost then, I would propose, is a paradigm.	51:41
	A paradigm of the turning upside down of the Tower of Babel.	51:46
	William Neil put it this way:	51:51
	whereas by pride and perversity	51:55
	human beings are unable to understand their neighbors	51:59
	and to cooperate with them	52:02
	in building up a civilization that will last,	52:03
	by the power of the spirit,	52:07
	the curse of Babel is reversed	52:11
	and people of all nations find themselves	52:14
	bound by a common understanding of God's will in Christ.	52:17
	In that paradigm, the story of the birth of a new community	52:23
	of those whose hearing has been restored	52:27
	there is, I believe, hope for you and me,	52:30
	for our families and for the nations of the world.	52:33
	Now let me say that again	52:40
	because sometimes the point is missed.	52:41
	The hope carried in the story of Pentecost	52:46
	is not hope just for isolated individuals	52:50
	who are saved out of the world,	52:53
	or even for the Christian community, that is for the church.	52:56
	Rather it is a universal hope,	53:00
	or a hope for the universe,	53:02
	for the entire created order.	53:05
	Hear what Paul says in his letter	53:09
	to God's people in Colossae.	53:11
	He says: the Son is the image of the invisible God,	53:14
	his is the primacy over all created things.	53:20
	In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,	53:24
	even thrones and sovereignties and authorities and powers.	53:27
	The whole universe was created through him and for him.	53:32
	Through him God chose to reconcile	53:39
	the whole universe to himself, making peace	53:41
	through the shedding of his blood upon the cross,	53:46
	to reconcile all things, whether on on heaven or in earth,	53:49
	through him alone.	53:53
	All things reconciled,	53:56
	peace for the whole universe	53:58
	through the sacrifice of Christ.	54:01
	In the New Testament the word for peace	54:04
	carries forward the Old Testament notion of shalom	54:07
	which connotes a state of wholeness	54:12
	that touches all of life, health, prosperity, security,	54:15
	society and nature in harmony,	54:20
	people standing in covenant before God.	54:22
	The images that come to mind are the lion and lamb	54:25
	peacefully sleeping side by side.	54:28
	The notion of plowshares being made out of swords	54:31
	and spears being turned into pruning hooks.	54:35
	The vision of peace, I would submit,	54:39
	represents God's intention not just for individuals,	54:42
	not just for the church,	54:47
	but for the whole created order.	54:49
	I believe that God is at work in the church and in the world	54:52
	to bring that vision, which was glimpsed at Pentecost,	54:55
	which is sometimes approximated in the church	54:59
	and sometimes elsewhere, into fulfillment.	55:01
	Rachel Henderlite,	55:06
	who is the president of the Consultation on Church Union,	55:08
	I believe had that vision before her when she said recently:	55:12
	there is the flow of life and love from God to the world	55:16
	that moves to Christ then.	55:20
	And then if the church be ready,	55:23
	it moves through the church to the world	55:24
	binding all together into one family.	55:26
	This is the unity we seek.	55:29
	The church's mission	55:32
	is to tell the world about this love of God,	55:35
	and to call them into this unity with God.	55:38
	The church's oneness is a sign	55:42
	of the coming oneness of humankind,	55:44
	which in turn is dependent on the love of God	55:47
	and is a response to the love of God.	55:50
	Duke's professor John Westerhoff	55:54
	I believe was caught by the same hope	55:57
	when, while being honored at Saint Andrews College	56:00
	here in North Carolina recently he said:	56:03
	our mission should be clear.	56:06
	It is to risk living in and for a vision,	56:09
	a vision for the world in which God's kingdom of peace,	56:13
	justice, liberation, equity, unity	56:18
	and the well-being of all has come.	56:23
	A vision of the church truly Catholic, truly reformed,	56:27
	a church which is a sign, a symbol,	56:31
	a paradigm of the gospel.	56:34
	That gospel, that good news, I tell you,	56:38
	says that we are ultimately heard,	56:44
	that we can hear, that we have no need for our pride,	56:47
	that our fears are unfounded.	56:53
	It challenges our sectarianism, our provinciality,	56:56
	the denominational complacency that is so much in the way,	57:02
	the chauvinism that separates us one from another.	57:06
	It calls us to work for unity in the church	57:11
	for the sake of humankind.	57:14
	It calls us to be stewards of the created order,	57:16
	rather than exploiters.	57:19
	It calls us to listen for the cries of others	57:22
	and to give ourselves to the cause of peace and justice.	57:26
	Therefore let us pray.	57:32
	Open our ears, O God	57:42
	that we may hear one another	57:44
	and in that hearing experience	57:48
	what it means to live in relationship and in peace.	57:51
	And then push us out, God,	57:57
	and make us to be advocates for the unity of humankind	57:59
	and for peace and justice around the world.	58:05
	For we know that Christ died not just for us or our kind,	58:09
	but that the world might be reconciled unto you.	58:14
	Through Jesus Christ, amen.	58:20
	(organ music)	58:26
	(choir singing)	58:49
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:00:30
-	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	1:00:34
	who has come in truly human Jesus	1:00:40
	to reconcile and make new,	1:00:43
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	1:00:47
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	1:00:51
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	1:00:56
	to love and serve others,	1:00:59
	to seek justice and resist evil,	1:01:02
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	1:01:06
	our judge and our hope.	1:01:10
	In life, in death, in life beyond death	1:01:13
	God is with us.	1:01:18
	We are not alone, thanks be to God.	1:01:20
-	The Lord be with you.	1:01:26
-	And with you too.	1:01:29
-	Let us pray, be seated.	1:01:31
	Almighty God, creator of the universe,	1:01:47
	we give you thanks for all that you have made.	1:01:52
	For the rain which waters the earth,	1:01:58
	for the summer season which provides fresh food to eat,	1:02:02
	for all your works which fill our senses	1:02:08
	with your goodness and loving kindness,	1:02:11
	we would now draw near and consecrate ourselves to your word	1:02:16
	and to your perfect will.	1:02:21
	Enlighten our hearts to know you	1:02:26
	and love you.	1:02:29
	Give us strength to do what we have to do	1:02:33
	and do not remember the sins we commit.	1:02:38
	Remember how easily we fall,	1:02:45
	your followers are weak by nature, weak in ability,	1:02:49
	and the evil in us is hidden.	1:02:55
	Save us from frequent alienation	1:03:00
	and estrangement from drawing near to you.	1:03:03
	Strengthen us with your strength.	1:03:09
	Give to us all the light of your consoling presence.	1:03:13
	Conform us to the truth of your word in faith	1:03:20
	and keep us obedient	1:03:25
	to the teaching of our Lord, Jesus Christ.	1:03:27
	God, creator and savior,	1:03:33
	you have gathered the church of your Christ	1:03:37
	from the whole world.	1:03:39
	Support her that she may everywhere bear witness faithfully.	1:03:42
	By your grace enable us to go from this service of worship	1:03:50
	to serve you in both comfortable and difficult places.	1:03:55
	We believe that you are the true salvation	1:04:02
	of our brothers and sisters who are oppressed.	1:04:05
	Deliver all who are in prison for their faith	1:04:10
	in Russia, in the Middle East, in Mexico,	1:04:14
	yes, even here in our own country and in this city.	1:04:21
	Help us to heed the words of Christ himself,	1:04:28
	to minister to all in bondage of any kind.	1:04:32
	Comfort all who have lost heart,	1:04:40
	whose days are dark and despairing.	1:04:43
	Lift up all who are lonely and abandoned	1:04:48
	so that they may acknowledge your living, loving presence.	1:04:52
	Grant peace to persons now physically ill	1:05:00
	and especially to those who are dying.	1:05:05
	May they know your great compassion	1:05:10
	and experience the power of your resurrection.	1:05:13
	Teach us how to reveal the love of Christ	1:05:19
	to those who have lost health and hope in these days.	1:05:21
	Oh God, we pray for peace in our world,	1:05:32
	for all persons in power,	1:05:36
	that they may use their authority	1:05:39
	to become servants of justice	1:05:41
	so that peace may reign among the nations of the world.	1:05:45
	We ask that they, and we,	1:05:51
	may continually gain a deeper reverence for human life,	1:05:54
	for relationships lived in harmony with each other	1:06:01
	and with you	1:06:05
	so that we can truly become ministers of reconciliation	1:06:07
	wherever we are.	1:06:12
	Dear Lord, creator of all,	1:06:17
	accept the prayers offered this morning	1:06:21
	by the church of Christ.	1:06:24
	Bring us all to your kingdom.	1:06:28
	Power and transform us by your grace.	1:06:32
	Gather us into the unity of your love.	1:06:36
	Through Christ, your son,	1:06:41
	who has taught us to pray together,	1:06:44
-	Our Father, who art in heaven,	1:06:48
	hallowed be thy name,	1:06:52
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done	1:06:54
	and earth as it is in heaven.	1:06:58
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:07:02
	and forgive us our trespasses,	1:07:05
	as we forgive who trespass against us,	1:07:08
	and lead us not into temptation	1:07:12
	but deliver us from evil	1:07:15
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	1:07:18
	and the glory forever, amen.	1:07:22
	(organ music)	1:07:34
	(choir singing)	1:09:50
	(organ music)	1:12:10
	(congregation singing)	1:14:06
-	Almighty God,	1:15:09
	for our very lives we give thanks.	1:15:12
	Use these evidences of the work of our human hands	1:15:15
	and use us in thy service for thy glory, amen.	1:15:19
	(organ music)	1:15:30
	(congregation singing)	1:16:16
	Let us pray.	1:19:38
	Now to him who is able to strengthen you	1:19:41
	according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,	1:19:44
	according to the revelation of the mystery	1:19:49
	which was kept secret for long ages	1:19:51
	but is now disclosed	1:19:54
	and through the prophetic writings	1:19:56
	is made known to all nations,	1:19:57
	according to the command of the eternal God	1:20:00
	to bring about the obedience of faith,	1:20:02
	to the only wise God be glory forever	1:20:06
	through Jesus Christ, amen.	1:20:09
	(choir singing)	1:20:17
	(organ music)	1:21:23
	(chattering)	1:24:06

Item Info

Title:

Clyde O. Robinson, Jr. - "Recovering Our Hearing" (August 6, 1978)

Description:

The parable of the Tower of Babel demonstrates the propensity of human pride to drive us apart and pit us in opposition toward one another. At the root of that prideful division is an inability to truly hear and listen to one another. Yet, through the event of Pentecost, that reality is turned upside down, and the possibility of unity is once again opened up. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:56. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 58:24.
Key quotation: “Not hearing one another, we cannot come together. Separated by pride and fear, we argue and struggle and war with one another. But into the dark despair represented by the parable of the Tower of Babel, thank God, there shines the light of new possibility, a light that beams out of the story of Pentecost.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4nv99s01

Date:

August 6, 1978

Speaker:

Robinson, Clyde O., Jr.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0970
ref7149_n6a
uachapelsermaud
duke:320812
dcrau001850
ark:/87924/r4nv99s01
2d15cd5c-3819-4361-b815-faf733310937

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

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Clyde O. Robinson, Jr. - "Recovering Our Hearing" (August 6, 1978)

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