Robert T. Young - "What Happens if Peace Breaks Out?" (October 8, 1978)
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| (hymnal singing) | 0:03 | |
| - | Duke University Chapel, | |
| service of worship. | 0:05 | |
| October 8th, 1978. | 0:08 | |
| (organ music) | 0:19 | |
| (organ music) | 5:04 | |
| (organ music) | 7:37 | |
| (organ music) | 9:43 | |
| (organ music) | 10:39 | |
| (organ music) | 11:18 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 14:37 | |
| (organ music) | 16:12 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 16:35 | |
| - | May I greet you in the name of our lord and savior, | 20:05 |
| Jesus Christ and welcome you to Duke Chapel. | 20:07 | |
| There are people standing today, if you can move | 20:11 | |
| to center of the aisle and provide some seating, | 20:14 | |
| it will be a courtesy genuinely appreciated. | 20:17 | |
| Let us humbly confess our sings to almighty God, | 20:38 | |
| praying that he will make us to know the faults | 20:42 | |
| we have not known. | 20:45 | |
| And that he will show us the harmful consequences | 20:47 | |
| of those things in us | 20:50 | |
| which we have not cared to control. | 20:52 | |
| Let us pray. | 20:56 | |
| You have made a covenant with us, | 20:59 | |
| but we have turned it into law. | 21:01 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 21:05 | |
| You have given us the promise of faith, | 21:08 | |
| but we have turned it into the privilege of possession. | 21:12 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 21:16 | |
| You have spoken to us in the language of love, | 21:19 | |
| but we have turned it into the language of logic. | 21:24 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 21:28 | |
| Oh God, | 21:56 | |
| the God of all goodness and grace, | 21:58 | |
| who art worthy of a greater love | 22:01 | |
| than we can either give or understand. | 22:02 | |
| Fill our hearts, we beseech thee | 22:07 | |
| with such love toward thee that nothing | 22:11 | |
| may seem too hard for us to do or suffer | 22:13 | |
| in obedience to thy will. | 22:16 | |
| That we may become daily more like thee | 22:20 | |
| and dwell more and more in delight of thy presence. | 22:24 | |
| Through the grace and mercy | 22:30 | |
| of our lord, Jesus Christ. | 22:34 | |
| Amen. | 22:37 | |
| In the name of Jesus Christ, | 22:40 | |
| your sins are forgiven. | 22:43 | |
| Let us give thanks. | 22:48 | |
| For God is good and God's love is everlasting. | 22:50 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 22:55 | |
| Amen. | 23:07 | |
| A special word of welcome to all who are part of the | 23:11 | |
| family of Duke and come to this worship service as parents. | 23:13 | |
| We're glad you are here. | 23:18 | |
| May we call attention to that brochure that invites | 23:20 | |
| you to be a friend of Duke Chapel. | 23:23 | |
| Friends is a word that suggests interest and enrichment. | 23:27 | |
| Your personal participation in the friends of Duke Chapel | 23:31 | |
| will provide enrichment to the chapel | 23:35 | |
| to all the friends and to all others who seek meaning | 23:38 | |
| and hope through the ministry of Duke University. | 23:41 | |
| May I also call attention to the organ recital | 23:48 | |
| scheduled for 7:00 p.m. | 23:52 | |
| In the chapel this afternoon, | 23:54 | |
| Jane L. Lynch, | 23:57 | |
| Associate Organist here at Duke | 24:00 | |
| will be offering the recital. | 24:03 | |
| You're invited to be here. | 24:04 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 24:18 |
| Prepare our hearts, oh lord | 24:23 | |
| to accept your word. | 24:26 | |
| Silence in us any voice but your own. | 24:29 | |
| That hearing we may also obey your will | 24:33 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our lord. | 24:37 | |
| Amen. | 24:41 | |
| The Old Testament lesson is from the fourth chapter | 24:43 | |
| of Micah, verses one through five. | 24:46 | |
| It shall come to pass in the latter days | 24:51 | |
| that the mountain of the house of the lord | 24:54 | |
| shall be established as the highest of the mountains | 24:57 | |
| and shall be raised up above the hills | 25:01 | |
| and people shall flow to it and many nations shall come | 25:04 | |
| and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the lord, | 25:08 | |
| to the house of the God of Jacob. | 25:13 | |
| That he may teach us his ways | 25:16 | |
| and we may walk in his paths. | 25:19 | |
| For out of Zion shall go forth the law | 25:21 | |
| and the word of the lord from Jerusalem. | 25:24 | |
| He shall judge between many peoples | 25:27 | |
| and shall decide for strong nations afar off | 25:30 | |
| and they shall beat their swords into plowshares | 25:34 | |
| and their spears into pruning hooks. | 25:37 | |
| Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. | 25:40 | |
| Neither shall they learn war any more. | 25:43 | |
| But they shall sit every man under his vine | 25:47 | |
| and under his fig tree | 25:50 | |
| and none shall make them afraid. | 25:52 | |
| For the mouth of the lord of hosts has spoken. | 25:55 | |
| Here ends the reading from the Old Testament, | 25:59 | |
| amen. | 26:02 | |
| (organ music) | 26:07 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 27:35 | |
| The epistle lesson is from the fourth chapter of James, | 35:15 | |
| verses one through 12. | 35:21 | |
| What causes wars and what causes fightings among you? | 35:27 | |
| Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? | 35:32 | |
| You desire and do not have so you kill | 35:37 | |
| and you covet and cannot obtain. | 35:42 | |
| So you fight and wage war. | 35:45 | |
| You do not have because you do not ask. | 35:49 | |
| You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly | 35:53 | |
| to spend it on your passions. | 35:58 | |
| Unfaithful creatures, | 36:00 | |
| do you not know that friendship with the world | 36:03 | |
| is enmity with God? | 36:06 | |
| Therefore whoever whishes to be a friend of the world | 36:08 | |
| makes himself an enemy of God. | 36:12 | |
| Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, | 36:16 | |
| he yearns jealously over the spirit | 36:19 | |
| which he has made to dwell in us? | 36:22 | |
| But he gives more grace. | 36:26 | |
| Therefore, it says, | 36:28 | |
| God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. | 36:30 | |
| Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. | 36:35 | |
| Resist the devil and he will flee from you. | 36:38 | |
| Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. | 36:42 | |
| Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts, | 36:47 | |
| you men of double mind. | 36:51 | |
| Be wretched and mourn and weep. | 36:53 | |
| Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy | 36:57 | |
| to dejection. | 37:00 | |
| Humble yourselves before the lord | 37:02 | |
| and he will exalt you. | 37:04 | |
| Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. | 37:07 | |
| He that speaks evil against a brother | 37:10 | |
| or judges his brother, | 37:13 | |
| speaks evil against the law and judges the law. | 37:15 | |
| But if you judge the law, | 37:19 | |
| you art not a doer of the law but a judge. | 37:21 | |
| There is one lawgiver and judge. | 37:25 | |
| He who is able to save and to destroy. | 37:28 | |
| But who are you that you judge your neighbor? | 37:32 | |
| Here ends the reading from the epistle. | 37:37 | |
| All praise and glory be to God. | 37:40 | |
| Amen. | 37:43 | |
| (organ music) | 37:45 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 38:01 | |
| - | Around the year 750 BC, | 38:58 |
| Micah wrote, | 39:02 | |
| and they shall beat their swords into plowshares | 39:06 | |
| and their spears into pruning hooks. | 39:09 | |
| Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. | 39:14 | |
| Neither shall they learn war anymore. | 39:18 | |
| Around the year 30 AD, Jesus said, | 39:24 | |
| Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called | 39:29 | |
| the children of God. | 39:34 | |
| Around the year 100 AD, James wrote, | 39:38 | |
| what causes wars? | 39:42 | |
| You desire and do not have, so you kill. | 39:44 | |
| You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and wage war. | 39:49 | |
| Do you suppose it is in vain that the Scripture says | 39:55 | |
| God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble? | 39:58 | |
| Around the year 1200 AD, | 40:05 | |
| St. Francis of Assisi prayed, | 40:08 | |
| Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. | 40:10 | |
| Where there is hatred, let me sow love. | 40:15 | |
| Where there is injury, pardon. | 40:19 | |
| Where there is doubt, faith. | 40:21 | |
| Where there is despair, hope. | 40:24 | |
| Where there is sadness, joy. | 40:27 | |
| Where there is darkness, light. | 40:30 | |
| Around the year 1950 AD, Bernard Barouk advised, | 40:34 | |
| Better to have pain as the price of peace | 40:40 | |
| than to have death as the price of war. | 40:44 | |
| In the year 1964, Norman Cousins wrote, | 40:51 | |
| we live today in a world conditioned and prepared for war | 40:56 | |
| but war is the one thing we cannot endure. | 41:01 | |
| Around the year 1970, | 41:09 | |
| G. Lo Dickinson said it for me | 41:12 | |
| and perhaps for many others, | 41:15 | |
| my theme, he wrote, may be put in one sentence. | 41:17 | |
| If mankind does not end war, | 41:21 | |
| war will end mankind. | 41:24 | |
| And in the year 1978 AD, as a matter of fact, | 41:30 | |
| two weeks ago today, these words were spoken by | 41:33 | |
| Prime Minister Menachem Begin, | 41:37 | |
| Peace, he said, now celebrates a great victory. | 41:41 | |
| How beautiful it is, through the efforts of a Jewish | 41:50 | |
| Prime Minister of Israel, | 41:55 | |
| a Muslim President of Egypt | 41:58 | |
| and a Christian President of the United States, | 42:01 | |
| it seems that as President Carter put it, | 42:05 | |
| our prayers for peace have been answered far beyond | 42:09 | |
| any expectations. But there's another side to this. | 42:14 | |
| Most of us have thought | 42:19 | |
| not of the consequences of what happens if peace breaks out | 42:22 | |
| but have thought of the consequences to the question, | 42:28 | |
| what happens if war breaks out but | 42:30 | |
| then have we really? | 42:34 | |
| We have weapons that will kill our enemies instantly. | 42:36 | |
| The only problem is that if we use our weapons, | 42:40 | |
| our enemies will also use their weapons | 42:43 | |
| to kill us instantly. | 42:46 | |
| Therefore, we live today in a balance of terror | 42:48 | |
| and the only way that we can avoid being driven mad by this | 42:53 | |
| ominous threat to our existence, I believe, | 42:57 | |
| is to try not to think of it at all | 43:01 | |
| and yet, think of it we must. | 43:05 | |
| As of today, according to fairly accurate reports, | 43:09 | |
| we have some 2,000 intercontinental ballistic missiles | 43:12 | |
| and over 600 long range bombers with a total destructive | 43:16 | |
| power enough to rain the equivalent of 20 tons of TNT | 43:20 | |
| on every living Russian citizen. | 43:25 | |
| And Russia has at least enough explosives aimed and ready | 43:30 | |
| to pour the equivalent of 10 tons of TNT | 43:34 | |
| on every living American citizen. | 43:38 | |
| And we have in process, in this country of ours, | 43:42 | |
| the cruise missile, the trident submarine, | 43:45 | |
| the neutron bomb, the MX mobile missile | 43:48 | |
| and on, and on. | 43:52 | |
| All of us, I have an idea, have heard about | 43:55 | |
| first, World War I and then about World War II when | 43:58 | |
| those were being waged have heard that it was said | 44:03 | |
| that each of those was the war to end all wars. | 44:06 | |
| Unfortunately, it was not true. | 44:11 | |
| But if world war comes again, | 44:14 | |
| it will be not the war to end all wars | 44:16 | |
| but the war to end all. | 44:19 | |
| Thus, I believe we do not have any option in today's world. | 44:25 | |
| We cannot endure war, peace must break out. | 44:29 | |
| A belayed and beloved friend and giant of a preacher, | 44:36 | |
| Carlyle Marney once warned, uncertain of peace, | 44:39 | |
| we prepare for war until finally and inevitably | 44:43 | |
| the only thing left to do is to fight. | 44:47 | |
| Here the old adage holds true. | 44:50 | |
| Anything you prepare for, you get. | 44:52 | |
| Douglas MacArthur, World War II hero. | 44:58 | |
| Now being portrayed with his life | 45:02 | |
| in the movies, also warned us, | 45:05 | |
| War, he said, has become a Frankenstein | 45:10 | |
| to destroy both sides. | 45:12 | |
| If you lose, you are annihilated. | 45:14 | |
| If you win, you stand only to lose. | 45:17 | |
| No longer does war possess the chance of a winner | 45:19 | |
| of a duel. | 45:22 | |
| War now contains the germs of double suicide. | 45:24 | |
| This must be one reason that Dag Hammarskjold, | 45:30 | |
| as he assumed the office of Secretary General of the | 45:32 | |
| United Nations reminded us, the greatest prayer of | 45:35 | |
| humanity is not a prayer for victory | 45:38 | |
| but it's a prayer for peace. | 45:41 | |
| Ours, he says, is a task of reconciliation. | 45:46 | |
| Could this be, should this be, | 45:50 | |
| is it possible for this to be the watch word, | 45:53 | |
| the byword, the slogan, | 45:56 | |
| the objective, indeed the task of the | 45:57 | |
| Christian church today? | 46:00 | |
| Namely the task of reconciliation of reconciling the world | 46:02 | |
| unto itself, of helping peace to break out in our time | 46:07 | |
| of saying, and believing and singing and working. | 46:12 | |
| Let there be peace on Earth, oh Lord, and let it begin | 46:15 | |
| with me. | 46:19 | |
| Or of singing as the old spiritual has it, | 46:21 | |
| I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield, | 46:25 | |
| I ain't gonna study war no more, | 46:27 | |
| ain't gonna study war no more. | 46:30 | |
| Ain't gonna study war | 46:32 | |
| no more. | 46:35 | |
| For over 3,000 years of recorded history now, | 46:38 | |
| we know how men and women have longed for peace, why? | 46:41 | |
| Why do we want peace? | 46:46 | |
| You say that's a stupid question. | 46:49 | |
| We want peace simply because war is hell. | 46:53 | |
| Some of you in this congregation this morning | 46:57 | |
| know about that much better than I do | 47:00 | |
| but we can all read and hear and observe the costs of | 47:03 | |
| human suffering when war is waged. | 47:06 | |
| We all suffer, we all lose, | 47:08 | |
| we all are maimed when war is fought. | 47:11 | |
| President Eisenhower just before leaving office, | 47:15 | |
| spoke poignantly of the costs of war | 47:18 | |
| and of the costs of preparing for war. | 47:21 | |
| He said, Every gun that is made, | 47:23 | |
| every worship that is launched, | 47:26 | |
| every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, | 47:28 | |
| a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. | 47:31 | |
| Those who are cold and not clothed. | 47:34 | |
| This world in arms is not spending money alone, | 47:37 | |
| it is spending the sweat of its laborers, | 47:41 | |
| the genius of its scientists and the hopes of its children. | 47:44 | |
| This is not a way of life at all; it is humanity | 47:49 | |
| hanging from a cross of iron. | 47:53 | |
| If we want peace, | 48:00 | |
| if war is tragic and costly and full of hell and horror | 48:02 | |
| and if human beings have always longed for peace | 48:08 | |
| why do we not have it? | 48:11 | |
| Some of have said that war is the sport of kings. | 48:14 | |
| Well if that is true, | 48:19 | |
| if war is the sport of kings then it has been the scourge | 48:22 | |
| of the common people. | 48:26 | |
| The presidents, the prime ministers, the kings, | 48:28 | |
| the generals, the powerful business and military | 48:31 | |
| and political leaders | 48:33 | |
| are the ones who make the decisions, yes. | 48:35 | |
| But it is the average man and woman who pays, | 48:39 | |
| who fights, who suffers and who dies. | 48:42 | |
| Others control and grow wealthy and remain aloof. | 48:47 | |
| Thus, why do we not have peace? | 48:54 | |
| Perhaps it is indeed just for that reason, | 48:57 | |
| namely that those who make the decisions do not fight | 49:00 | |
| the battles, those who fight the battles, indeed, have | 49:03 | |
| no power, they are simply subjects and they can only | 49:07 | |
| succumb and serve. | 49:10 | |
| This may be one reason, my friends that Sadat and Begin | 49:13 | |
| are willing to risk and to work for peace. | 49:16 | |
| They have fought the battles. | 49:19 | |
| Both have been involved in underground movements | 49:22 | |
| and know firsthand the horrors of war and they may | 49:24 | |
| genuinely want peace for just that reason. | 49:28 | |
| Peace to begin with them. | 49:32 | |
| Why is there no peace? | 49:38 | |
| Why is it we cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace? | 49:40 | |
| Is it the deep longing, the plaintiff, painful | 49:45 | |
| pleading of our individual and collective soul | 49:49 | |
| that keeps crying out and praying for and longing | 49:52 | |
| for peace to come, peace to break out? | 49:56 | |
| Is it that we know there is another way, | 49:59 | |
| a better way? | 50:02 | |
| One of the most touching scenes in all of Scripture, | 50:06 | |
| I believe, is recorded in the 19th chapter of the gospel | 50:08 | |
| according to St. Luke. | 50:11 | |
| Jesus was coming into Jerusalem and Luke writes, | 50:13 | |
| And when he drew near the city, he wept over it saying, | 50:18 | |
| would that even today, | 50:23 | |
| you know the things that make for peace. | 50:25 | |
| Jerusalem, the city whose name popularly meant, | 50:31 | |
| vision of peace. | 50:34 | |
| Jerusalem, he cried, he wept, would that even today | 50:37 | |
| you knew those things which make for peace today | 50:41 | |
| as our Lord looks, indeed, as he comes, | 50:45 | |
| I am sure that he weeps as he draws near again to Jerusalem, | 50:48 | |
| to Cairo, to Beirut, to Belfast, | 50:53 | |
| to Managua, and Leon, Nicaragua, | 50:57 | |
| to Damascus, to Salisbury and Johannesburg, | 50:59 | |
| to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, | 51:03 | |
| Tel Aviv, Oman, Detroit, New York, Durham. | 51:05 | |
| Would that even today, Jesus says, as he weeps over us, | 51:13 | |
| we knew the things that make for peace. | 51:17 | |
| And so what happens, my friends, | 51:21 | |
| if peace breaks out? | 51:25 | |
| First of all, I think we will humble ourselves. | 51:28 | |
| James tells us God opposes the proud, but He gives grace | 51:33 | |
| to the humble. | 51:38 | |
| Perhaps, just perhaps, the tragedy and the trauma | 51:41 | |
| of the past 25 years are beginning to make us in these | 51:45 | |
| United States, something of a humble people. | 51:50 | |
| We do not own the world. | 51:55 | |
| The Earth is not ours to exploit or dominate | 51:58 | |
| or despoil and to leave empty. | 52:01 | |
| Perhaps the Korean War, the Civil Rights battles, | 52:05 | |
| the Vietnam tragedy, the oil embargo, | 52:08 | |
| the Watergate debacle, and many other unforgettable | 52:11 | |
| moments in our recent past really are making us | 52:14 | |
| painfully aware of the prideful, sinful bent in us and | 52:17 | |
| as individuals and as a people. | 52:22 | |
| Perhaps it is time for us as the Christian church, | 52:28 | |
| maybe even for us as a nation to be brought to our knees. | 52:33 | |
| Brought to our knees in prayer, yes, | 52:40 | |
| but also in admitting that we have made some mistakes, | 52:43 | |
| some errors. | 52:46 | |
| In the Caribbean, in Central America, | 52:49 | |
| in South America, in Africa, | 52:52 | |
| in Southeast Asia, in our own land | 52:54 | |
| and in other parts of the world. | 52:57 | |
| Ours is, indeed, a great nation, great people, | 52:59 | |
| great leaders, great humanitarian concerns, | 53:02 | |
| but never let us think | 53:05 | |
| that we are so great that we cannot err. | 53:07 | |
| Greatness is not a matter of always being right. | 53:11 | |
| Greatness is a matter of always searching and struggling | 53:16 | |
| for the right and of being willing to admit and repent | 53:21 | |
| when we are wrong. | 53:25 | |
| What happens if peace breaks out? | 53:29 | |
| We bind ourselves to one another, one world, | 53:32 | |
| one people, one people under God, one way. | 53:35 | |
| The powerful, beautiful, prophetic vision of Micah | 53:40 | |
| 4:1-6 is one of history's first glimpses | 53:44 | |
| of one world of justice and law and peace. | 53:49 | |
| Here Micah writes about an era of universal peace | 53:53 | |
| and what a majestic vision it is of what life can be. | 53:57 | |
| God will judge among all the peoples, he says, | 54:02 | |
| but God will particularly rebuke the strong nations. | 54:05 | |
| Then we have | 54:10 | |
| the most brilliant, beautiful, | 54:13 | |
| the first call for disarmament in the history of the | 54:16 | |
| world's thinking. | 54:20 | |
| This is the classic plea of all time, I believe. | 54:23 | |
| Nothing and no words seems ever to have been uttered | 54:27 | |
| to surpass these words of Micah, here a vision of the | 54:31 | |
| death-dealing, destructive weapons of war are transformed | 54:35 | |
| into symbolic and real tools for peace and health | 54:40 | |
| and healing and life. | 54:44 | |
| Then the reign of peace. | 54:49 | |
| No one will lift up sword. | 54:52 | |
| No one will even learn of war anymore. | 54:54 | |
| What a plea, what a prayer, | 54:58 | |
| what a poem, | 55:00 | |
| what a dream. | 55:02 | |
| They shall beat their swords into plowshares | 55:04 | |
| and their spears into pruning hooks. | 55:07 | |
| Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, | 55:10 | |
| neither shall they learn war anymore. | 55:13 | |
| What happens if peace breaks out? | 55:19 | |
| I believe we respond too, we acknowledge | 55:23 | |
| and we begin to fulfill God's will and God's desire | 55:27 | |
| for peace for all the peoples of the world. | 55:31 | |
| As someone has beautifully put it, | 55:36 | |
| the whole world awaits the greatest revolution of all, | 55:39 | |
| the one which sets persons free from their pride, | 55:42 | |
| and hatred and greed and unites them in obedience | 55:46 | |
| to the living God. | 55:50 | |
| The birth of Christ was announced by the angels | 55:54 | |
| with the words, peace on Earth, | 55:58 | |
| goodwill toward all people. | 56:03 | |
| Jesus said, just before he left this Earth, | 56:06 | |
| Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. | 56:09 | |
| He also said, Love your neighbor. | 56:13 | |
| As a matter of fact, he said, Love even your enemies. | 56:15 | |
| Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be | 56:21 | |
| called the children of God. | 56:24 | |
| Jesus cried plaintively, would that even today you know | 56:26 | |
| the things that make for peace. | 56:31 | |
| I believe that we can and we must | 56:35 | |
| continue to help bring peace to our world in our time, | 56:40 | |
| in this time today. | 56:44 | |
| By prayer, | 56:48 | |
| by protest, | 56:50 | |
| by pleading whatever is necessary to bring peace | 56:52 | |
| to the peoples of the Earth. | 56:56 | |
| There is no choice. | 57:01 | |
| We have no option. | 57:04 | |
| There is one alternatively, | 57:07 | |
| to seek diligently, earnestly, | 57:10 | |
| endlessly for peace in this day. | 57:13 | |
| If we do, | 57:18 | |
| I believe we can remove the dark, dismal, | 57:21 | |
| depressing, death filled threat of nuclear holocaust. | 57:26 | |
| Now even worse than that, the threat of the neutron bomb. | 57:31 | |
| If peace really breaks out | 57:36 | |
| I believe even that we can remove the cloud of doom | 57:41 | |
| and doubt and despair and futility | 57:46 | |
| which hangs over my two daughters and my two sons. | 57:51 | |
| And remove that cloud from over you, | 57:57 | |
| children and young people | 58:01 | |
| and even over your children, parents. | 58:05 | |
| We can even remove that cloud from all God's children | 58:10 | |
| so that children today, all God's children may live in hope. | 58:13 | |
| Have you, my parents this morning, ever looked at your | 58:17 | |
| son or daughter and wondered if he or she would have life | 58:21 | |
| cut short for some futile or fruitless cause? | 58:25 | |
| I have. | 58:32 | |
| And if peace breaks out, my friends, | 58:37 | |
| that cloud can be removed. | 58:41 | |
| I believe we can also move toward ending starvation | 58:47 | |
| and hunger and malnutrition and disease | 58:51 | |
| and senseless and needless death | 58:54 | |
| as we beat our swords into plowshares. | 58:57 | |
| The starving can eat, | 59:01 | |
| the hungry can be fed, | 59:02 | |
| the naked can be clothed, | 59:03 | |
| the sick can be made well if peace can really break out. | 59:05 | |
| Probably no one else or maybe very few of you in this | 59:10 | |
| congregation this morning knows what among many other things | 59:13 | |
| lies in the tunnels and underneath this chapel. | 59:17 | |
| Let me tell you what's there. | 59:22 | |
| Put there about 20 or 25 years ago, | 59:24 | |
| I don't know exactly when. | 59:27 | |
| But put there a number of years ago | 59:29 | |
| was food, | 59:33 | |
| water, | 59:35 | |
| drink | 59:37 | |
| to sustain life in case of an atomic attack. | 59:39 | |
| If peace breaks out then, my friends, that food, | 59:45 | |
| symbolically and practically and realistically | 59:49 | |
| can be brought out of those tunnels and spread across | 59:52 | |
| the face of this Earth so that God's children | 59:56 | |
| no longer die of starvation. | 59:58 | |
| The book of Revelation which I had never really read | 1:00:04 | |
| all the way through until just this summer, | 1:00:08 | |
| ends with a beautiful vision. | 1:00:12 | |
| A vision of a new heaven and a new earth. | 1:00:16 | |
| A new Jerusalem, a new vision of peace, if you will, | 1:00:18 | |
| come down to Earth, a new community of God's people, | 1:00:22 | |
| a people transformed and made one people. | 1:00:26 | |
| John saw, and I quote from Revelation, | 1:00:31 | |
| John saw in his vision the river of the water of life | 1:00:34 | |
| flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb | 1:00:38 | |
| and he also saw the tree of life | 1:00:42 | |
| and the leaves of the tree of life were for the healing of | 1:00:45 | |
| all the nations. | 1:00:49 | |
| John also talked about how this would happen soon, | 1:00:53 | |
| soon, soon, very soon, he said. | 1:00:56 | |
| The healing of all the nations, | 1:01:00 | |
| that's what happens when peace really breaks out. | 1:01:02 | |
| Soon, oh God, may it be soon, | 1:01:06 | |
| for surely when we bind ourselves unflinchingly, | 1:01:10 | |
| unreservedly, unfalteringly to the lamb, | 1:01:15 | |
| then peace can break out for here is the one | 1:01:18 | |
| who makes all things new | 1:01:23 | |
| and where and when this happen, | 1:01:27 | |
| he, he is King of kings | 1:01:30 | |
| and Lord of lords | 1:01:35 | |
| for ever and ever and ever. | 1:01:37 | |
| Hallelujah, hallelujah, | 1:01:41 | |
| hallelujah. | 1:01:45 | |
| Amen. | 1:01:49 | |
| (organ music) | 1:02:00 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:02:48 | |
| - | Let us affirm what we believe. | 1:05:21 |
| We believe in God | 1:05:25 | |
| who has created and is creating. | 1:05:27 | |
| Who has come in the truly human Jesus | 1:05:31 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 1:05:35 | |
| Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 1:05:38 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church. | 1:05:42 | |
| To celebrate life and its fullness. | 1:05:47 | |
| To love and serve others. | 1:05:51 | |
| To seek justice and resist evil. | 1:05:54 | |
| To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 1:05:57 | |
| our judge and our hope | 1:06:02 | |
| in life, in death, | 1:06:04 | |
| in life beyond death, | 1:06:07 | |
| God is with us. | 1:06:10 | |
| We are not alone. | 1:06:12 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 1:06:14 | |
| - | The lord be with you. | 1:06:28 |
| (congregation in unison) | 1:06:30 | |
| Let us pray. | 1:06:32 | |
| Oh God, who art the parent of all, | 1:06:40 | |
| grant thy blessing upon us who are gathered here | 1:06:44 | |
| and upon the multitudes of every name who are joined | 1:06:48 | |
| with us in one household of faith | 1:06:52 | |
| throughout the whole world. | 1:06:54 | |
| We offer unto thee, oh God, our thanksgiving | 1:06:58 | |
| and we come to pay our vows to the most high. | 1:07:02 | |
| We remember the fathers and mothers of faith | 1:07:11 | |
| from the beginning of the world. | 1:07:14 | |
| All who have wrought righteousness and peace, | 1:07:16 | |
| even down to this present day, | 1:07:21 | |
| grant unto us, oh God, | 1:07:24 | |
| that we may have our part and lot | 1:07:27 | |
| with all thy saints. | 1:07:30 | |
| We remember all whom we love and who love us. | 1:07:36 | |
| Both those who are with us today and those away. | 1:07:40 | |
| Those who now sleep in death | 1:07:46 | |
| and those whose earthly life still blesses us. | 1:07:49 | |
| Thanks be to thee, oh God, for their benediction | 1:07:55 | |
| upon our lives and established thou the work of their hands | 1:07:57 | |
| and keep us in one spirit with them. | 1:08:03 | |
| We remember, oh God, those in distress. | 1:08:10 | |
| Those who suffer in body, in mind or the state. | 1:08:13 | |
| Those who struggle for justice, now finds them in prison | 1:08:18 | |
| and in bonds. | 1:08:22 | |
| As bound with them and the sufferers with all refugees | 1:08:25 | |
| and with all who are in bondage. | 1:08:31 | |
| We would bear them in our hearts and pray for their relief. | 1:08:34 | |
| Teach us, oh God and lead us through all life's ways | 1:08:39 | |
| to an awareness of thy love, | 1:08:43 | |
| and truth and care. | 1:08:46 | |
| We remember our enemies. | 1:08:54 | |
| If there be any who have injured us | 1:08:58 | |
| or cherish hatred against us, | 1:09:01 | |
| we pray thee to turn their hearts and ours | 1:09:07 | |
| that we may live peaceably with all our | 1:09:12 | |
| brothers and sisters. | 1:09:14 | |
| If there be any whom we have wronged, | 1:09:18 | |
| move us to make amends | 1:09:22 | |
| and to seek forgiveness at their hands | 1:09:25 | |
| and may we freely forgive all who have wronged us | 1:09:29 | |
| but grant us grace to surrender ourselves wholly | 1:09:34 | |
| unto thee, oh God. | 1:09:37 | |
| That we may find the ways of peace, | 1:09:39 | |
| the things that belong to our peace. | 1:09:42 | |
| Yay, that inward peace | 1:09:45 | |
| which the world can neither give nor take away. | 1:09:48 | |
| We remember the whole family of men and women. | 1:09:57 | |
| We pray thee that the spirits of all flesh | 1:10:01 | |
| may taste of thy grace and all the ends of the Earth | 1:10:04 | |
| may see the salvation of our God. | 1:10:08 | |
| May the faith that makes faithful, | 1:10:12 | |
| the hope that endures, | 1:10:14 | |
| the love that triumphs | 1:10:17 | |
| and the peace that passeth all understanding. | 1:10:20 | |
| Be with us now always, | 1:10:23 | |
| through Jesus Christ our lord. | 1:10:26 | |
| Who hath taught us when we pray to say, | 1:10:29 | |
| our father who art in heaven, | 1:10:33 | |
| hallowed be thy name. | 1:10:36 | |
| Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 1:10:38 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:10:42 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 1:10:45 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those | 1:10:48 | |
| who trespass against us. | 1:10:53 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 1:10:55 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 1:10:58 | |
| For thine is the kingdom | 1:11:00 | |
| and the power | 1:11:02 | |
| and the glory forever, amen. | 1:11:04 | |
| (organ music) | 1:11:19 | |
| (organ music) | 1:13:07 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:13:16 | |
| (organ music) | 1:19:12 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:19:31 | |
| Oh mighty God, | 1:20:30 | |
| thou who art the source of all our comfort | 1:20:32 | |
| and all our joy, | 1:20:35 | |
| receive these our gifts | 1:20:37 | |
| and ourselves | 1:20:40 | |
| as we dedicate them anew unto thee. | 1:20:42 | |
| Consecrate in us, oh God, | 1:20:47 | |
| the experience and resolve of this hour | 1:20:51 | |
| and give us those things that belong to our peace | 1:20:55 | |
| through Christ our lord, amen. | 1:20:59 | |
| (organ music) | 1:21:07 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:21:45 | |
| And now may the love of God, | 1:24:49 | |
| the grace of our lord, Jesus Christ, | 1:24:52 | |
| the peace and fellowship of the holy spirit | 1:24:55 | |
| be with you this day and forevermore, amen. | 1:24:58 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:25:06 | |
| (organ music) | 1:26:13 |