Juanita Bass Wright - "No Compromise" (April 13, 1980)

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-	Sunday worship service, April 13, 1980, Duke Chapel.	0:04
	(organ music)	0:10
	(choir singing)	17:00
-	Let us worship God.	22:54
	Our help is in the name of the Lord	22:56
	who made heaven and earth.	22:59
	Come, let us worship and bow down.	23:01
	Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker,	23:04
	for He is our God and we are the people	23:08
	of His pasture and the sheep of his hand.	23:11
	If we claim to be sinless, we deceive ourselves	23:16
	and are strangers to the truth.	23:19
	But if we confess our sins, God is just	23:23
	and may be trusted to forgive our sins	23:26
	and cleanse us from every kind of wrong.	23:29
	Let us join, therefore in the prayer of confession.	23:34
	Oh Lord, here this our prayer of confession.	23:50
	For not thinking deeply, for being too intense,	23:54
	for being inattentive to the word	23:59
	of God and your voice, oh god,	24:02
	for thinking we have the whole truth,	24:05
	for the lack of feeling and intercession	24:08
	for the needs of our families, the oppressed, the hungry,	24:11
	those in temptation and those without hope,	24:16
	for an uncritical attitude to our	24:21
	own involvement in the society of affluence,	24:24
	for ignoring others around us,	24:28
	taking ourselves too seriously, for sins of exhibition,	24:31
	for sins of inhibition, for a failure to think and pray	24:37
	and act deeply for the mission and unity of the church,	24:43
	for trying to imprison you in words and institutions.	24:48
	Oh Lord, forgive what we have been.	24:53
	Sanctify what we are and order what we shall be	24:56
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	25:01
	Let each of us meditate and confess our personal sins.	25:06
	Amen.	25:30
	Hear the good news.	25:32
	This statement is completely reliable and should be	25:34
	universally accepted that Christ Jesus entered the world	25:37
	to rescue sinners and He personally bore our sins	25:42
	in His body on the cross so that we might be dead to sin	25:47
	and be alive to all that is good.	25:51
	And so I declare unto you, that in His name we are forgiven.	25:54
	Let us give thanks for God is good	26:04
	and God's love is everlasting.	26:06
	(audience responding)	26:10
	We welcome you to Duke Chapel this morning	26:26
	on this first Sunday after Easter for worship.	26:28
	I would call your attention to the announcements	26:33
	in the bulletin, and like to say welcome to Juanita Wright	26:35
	who has been our assistant minister to the university	26:42
	the last several months.	26:46
	We welcome also, helping in worship this morning,	26:48
	her husband, the Reverend Elliot Wright.	26:52
-	Let us pray.	27:08
	Prepare our hearts, oh God, to accept your word.	27:12
	Silence in us any voice but your own.	27:17
	That hearing, we also may obey your will	27:21
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	27:24
	Amen.	27:27
	The epistle lesson is from Revelation,	27:31
	chapter two, verses 18 through 29.	27:35
	Unto the angel of the church of Thyatira write:	27:43
	the words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame	27:49
	of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze,	27:53
	I know your works, your love and faith and service	27:59
	and patient endurance, and that your latter works	28:04
	exceed the first.	28:08
	But I have this against you that you tolerate the woman	28:11
	Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is	28:16
	teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality	28:20
	and to eat food sacrificed to idols.	28:25
	I gave her time to repent, but she refused	28:29
	to repent of her immorality.	28:33
	Behold, I will throw her on a sick bed	28:36
	and those who commit adultery with her,	28:40
	I will throw into great tribulation	28:43
	unless they repent of her doings	28:46
	and I will strike her children dead	28:49
	and all the churches shall know that I am He	28:53
	who searches mind and heart, and I will give	28:56
	to each of you as your works deserve.	29:00
	But to the rest of you in Thyatira	29:05
	who do not hold this teaching,	29:08
	who have not learned what some call	29:10
	the deep things of Satan, to you I say,	29:13
	I do not lay hold upon you any other burden.	29:17
	Only hold fast what you have until I come.	29:21
	He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end,	29:27
	I will give him power over the nations	29:31
	and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.	29:34
	As when earthen pots are broken in pieces,	29:38
	even as I myself have received power from my Father	29:42
	and I will give him the morning star.	29:47
	He who has ear, let him hear what the	29:52
	spirit says to the churches.	29:55
	Here ends the reading from the epistle.	30:00
	Amen.	30:04
	(organ music)	30:17
	(choir singing)	30:26
	Will the congregation stand for the	32:00
	reading of the gospel lesson.	32:02
	We read the holy Gospel from the	32:12
	20th chapter of the Gospel according to John,	32:14
	verses 19 through 31.	32:18
	On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,	32:24
	the doors being shut where the disciples were	32:28
	for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them	32:32
	and said to them, Peace be with you.	32:37
	And when He had said this,	32:42
	He showed them His hands and His side.	32:44
	Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.	32:48
	Jesus said to them, again, Peace be with you	32:52
	as the Father has sent me, even so I send you.	32:56
	And when He had said this, He breathed on them	33:01
	and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.	33:05
	If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.	33:10
	If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.	33:15
	Now, Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin,	33:20
	was not with them when Jesus came.	33:25
	So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord,	33:28
	but he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the prints	33:33
	of the nails and place my finger in the marks of the nails	33:38
	and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.	33:42
	Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house	33:49
	and Thomas was with them.	33:53
	The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them	33:55
	and said, Peace be with you.	33:59
	Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here	34:03
	and see my hands, and put your hand and place it on my side.	34:06
	Do not be faithless, but believing.	34:12
	Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.	34:16
	Jesus said to him, Have you believed	34:21
	because you have seen me.	34:25
	Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe.	34:28
	Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence	34:33
	of the disciples which are not written in this book,	34:36
	but these are written that you may believe that	34:40
	Jesus is the Christ, the son of God,	34:43
	and that believing, you may have life in His name.	34:47
	Here ends the lesson from the holy Gospel.	34:54
	Praise be to God.	34:57
	(organ music)	35:00
	(choir singing)	35:09
-	Those of you who are familiar with	36:09
	the preaching schedule for Duke Chapel,	36:11
	will know that the Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray,	36:14
	Episcopal priest from Alexandria, Virginia	36:17
	should be standing here in my place at this moment.	36:20
	However, Doctor Murray suffered a heart attack	36:24
	at the end of January and has had to cancel all	36:27
	speaking and preaching engagements through the end of April.	36:30
	I would ask that you remember Doctor Murray in your prayers.	36:35
	Today has been designated in the	36:41
	ecumenical circles as Peace Sunday.	36:43
	Therefore, I greet you in the name of the Prince of Peace	36:48
	who declared, Holy are the Peacemakers,	36:53
	and invite you, each one of you,	36:57
	to enter the struggle for peace,	37:00
	for shalom in today's world.	37:03
	Using the imagery of Isaiah,	37:07
	let us call warriors to become farmers	37:12
	as we forge swords and spears	37:14
	into plows and pruning hooks.	37:17
	Let us answer the call to become messengers of peace	37:22
	in a world of strife, and messengers of strife	37:27
	in a world of false peace.	37:32
	Let us pray.	37:35
	Oh Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations	37:39
	of our hearts be acceptable in your sight this day.	37:43
	Amen.	37:50
	When Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite,	37:56
	the most lethal weapon of war since gunpowder,	37:59
	died in 1896,	38:04
	he left his fortune, as we all know,	38:07
	in trust for prizes to honor people	38:10
	who bring great benefit to humanity.	38:14
	One of those annual awards is the Nobel Peace Prize	38:18
	to be given to the person who shall have done the most or	38:23
	best work for fraternity among nations	38:27
	for the abolition or reduction of standing armies,	38:30
	and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.	38:35
	Since the first Peace Prize was awarded in 1901,	38:41
	65 individuals and several private organizations	38:46
	have been recipients.	38:50
	Meanwhile, there have been two world wars,	38:53
	untold numbers of civil conflicts,	38:58
	huge standing armies as permanent fixtures,	39:02
	trillions and trillions of dollars spent	39:07
	in the military industrial complex, and atomic power,	39:09
	a weapon of war to make dynamite seem like paper caps.	39:14
	Some kind of record for working toward fraternity	39:21
	among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies	39:25
	and the holding and promotion of peace congresses.	39:30
	Some kind of record.	39:35
	Granted, the League of Nations was formed,	39:38
	followed by the United Nations,	39:42
	where members agreed to take effective collective measures	39:45
	for the prevention and removal of threats to peace.	39:49
	But since World War Two,	39:53
	nations have battled nations	39:58
	in Korea, Indochina and the Middle East,	40:00
	and states have invaded neighboring states	40:04
	at the drop of a hat, it seems.	40:07
	No, our recent history has not been,	40:10
	indeed is not pretty.	40:15
	Just listen to the headlines found on one page	40:20
	of the New York Times for April the first.	40:23
	Soviet war ships appear off the Japanese coast.	40:28
	Assassination in Turkey sets off gunfight	40:33
	between right and left.	40:37
	A new Chad faction is drawn into the civil war.	40:39
	Tanzanian troops leave Uganda, sources report.	40:45
	And elsewhere in that same paper,	40:51
	were stories about the ravaging of the Salvadoran town	40:53
	of Bishop Romero, who had fought for justice	40:57
	and who was recently martyred for his efforts.	41:00
	A story about the death of leftists in Argentina	41:04
	and about Afghan insurgents killing 75 government troops.	41:09
	From a study of those headlines and those stories,	41:18
	one would assume that the United States	41:22
	is immune from violence and war.	41:25
	Not so.	41:28
	Not so.	41:30
	Recent events have called forth	41:33
	preparations for war in this country.	41:35
	The seizure of hostages in Iran,	41:38
	the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and daily reports	41:41
	of unrest from many parts of the world that seem	41:45
	a threat to our national interests.	41:48
	Congress debates enormous increases in the military budget.	41:51
	New scenarios are being developed by the Pentagon	41:56
	for confrontation with the Soviet Union.	41:59
	The president calls for registration	42:03
	of our young adults.	42:06
	We Americans who have long thought that our economic system	42:10
	was sacrosanct and that our foreign policy was	42:15
	above reproach because it has always been a product	42:18
	of benign goodwill, are feeling somewhat insecure	42:21
	in the light of rampant inflation and a foreign policy	42:26
	that has been exposed as self serving.	42:31
	And so we turn as we seek security,	42:36
	as we anticipate national disaster,	42:40
	to what seems best able to protect us,	42:43
	to what represents power.	42:48
	Power, we automatically assume,	42:52
	is the military industrial complex	42:55
	and those persons who question presidential decisions	42:59
	or military priorities	43:02
	are seen as disloyal to the nation	43:05
	and even un-Christian as well.	43:08
	We have established a creed for being a good American,	43:15
	to which Christians in this country,	43:18
	for the most part, hole heartedly subscribe.	43:20
	And the creed goes like this:	43:23
	We believe in a beneficent God who resembles Uncle Sam,	43:27
	in eternal life for our way,	43:32
	and happiness for good people,	43:36
	and punishment of the bad,	43:38
	and in the sanctity of the laws of this nation.	43:41
	But within that creed, my friends,	43:46
	no mention is made of Jesus Christ,	43:49
	of the cost of discipleship,	43:52
	of love, of justice, or demands of the cross	43:55
	and the promise of new life.	43:59
	And when we reduce our faith to a recital of the creed	44:03
	and equate grace with prosperity,	44:07
	we have a situation of compromise,	44:10
	a blending of qualities of two different things.	44:14
	A committal to something derogatory,	44:18
	hazardous or objectionable.	44:21
	Compromise.	44:26
	What some of the Christians at Thyatira were guilty of,	44:28
	according to John in the portion of his letter	44:31
	addressed to the church	44:33
	in that town of Asia Minor.	44:35
	John recorded his revelation in the late 90s A.D..	44:39
	on Patmos, an island off modern Turkey,	44:43
	to which he had been exiled for testifying to	44:48
	Roman authorities that he was a Christian	44:52
	and for refusing to engage in emperor worship	44:55
	and the deification of Rome,	44:59
	as was the practice of his time.	45:01
	It was a battle of wills with Domitian,	45:05
	who as emperor,	45:08
	insisted that he be worshiped.	45:10
	John was not alone in his stand.	45:14
	Many Christians were joined in the struggle.	45:17
	John's letter to the church of his day	45:21
	was a call to remain faithful,	45:24
	a call to hope in the face of impossible odds,	45:27
	pervasive evil.	45:31
	Most of the time, we Americans don't know how to hope	45:35
	unless we're winning, but the revelation strongly conveys	45:39
	the message that remaining faithful to God	45:44
	is the ultimate victory, and our hope,	45:48
	not that we've won the battle.	45:52
	The city of Thyatira	45:58
	is located at a crossroads.	46:00
	Living there were many traders, artisans and crafts people,	46:03
	some of whom wielded a good bit of power.	46:09
	Individuals had to belong to the craft guild	46:13
	to practice a certain trade and had to participate	46:16
	in meetings and ceremonies of the guild	46:19
	that often took place in pagan temples	46:22
	where animals were sacrificed to pagan gods	46:25
	and then eaten by members of the guild.	46:28
	If Christians did not participate,	46:33
	they had no way to earn a living, but if they did,	46:35
	they were being unfaithful to the Lord.	46:39
	However, a prophetess John called Jezebel,	46:44
	maintained one could be a practicing guild member	46:48
	so long as one remained a Christian on the inside.	46:52
	She had figured out how to blend qualities	46:57
	of two different things,	47:00
	to compromise.	47:03
	John recognizes the problem of Thyatira	47:06
	and notes that in spite of it,	47:10
	the church is still making progress.	47:12
	But he also lodges a complaint about their encouragement	47:16
	of the woman Jezebel, who is luring away the Christians	47:19
	to commit the adultery of eating food	47:22
	sacrificed to idols.	47:26
	We should note here that in the Old and New Testaments,	47:29
	often the words fornication and adultery are used	47:33
	not as descriptions of sexual immorality,	47:37
	but as symbols of the sin of idolatry.	47:40
	The son of God promises a rather severe	47:46
	punishment for Jezebel.	47:49
	I have given her time to reform,	47:52
	but she is not willing to change her adulterous life.	47:54
	Now I am consigning her to bed, and all her partners	47:58
	in adultery to troubles that will test them severely	48:02
	unless they repent of their practices.	48:06
	And I will see that her children die	48:09
	so that all the churches realize that it is I who search	48:12
	heart and loins and give each one of you	48:15
	what your behavior deserves.	48:18
	Those who remain faithful in the face	48:22
	of economic bankruptcy, however,	48:24
	are promised the morning star,	48:26
	a symbol of power and resurrection.	48:29
	Now, if the situation of the Thyatira Christians	48:34
	does not seem immediately familiar to us,	48:38
	it's because many of us don't have to	48:42
	belong to guilds to make a living,	48:44
	and labor unions don't sacrifice to idols.	48:47
	Not in a religious sense anyway.	48:50
	Although I suspect the people in New York City	48:54
	were beginning to feel like sacrificial lambs	48:57
	by Friday of this past week.	49:00
	But I'm not attempting to make judgements	49:03
	about our labor unions.	49:05
	Our problem this morning is much larger than that.	49:08
	Our problem is indeed one of idolatry.	49:12
	Of seeking our security in the very things that destroy,	49:16
	that kill,	49:20
	kill the earth,	49:23
	kill people,	49:25
	kill love.	49:26
	Evil pervades the fabric of our society	49:30
	in subtle and devious ways,	49:32
	and so we identify with the problem at Thyatira.	49:35
	Let me be more specific.	49:40
	We too, have our false prophets who call us,	49:44
	who tell us we're doing the right thing.	49:47
	Their calls are expressed in the cries of	49:50
	America, love it or leave it.	49:53
	My country, right or wrong,	49:58
	and I love my country	50:03
	more than I love my church.	50:04
	Idolatry, my friends, idolatry.	50:09
	The false prophets come from the right	50:14
	and they come from the left.	50:16
	There was a cartoon of two urban revolutionaries	50:20
	that circulated in the early 1970s.	50:22
	Some of you probably saw it.	50:25
	The caption under the cartoon read,	50:28
	We are advocates of the abolition of war.	50:30
	We do not want war, but war can only be abolished	50:35
	through war, and in order to get rid of the gun,	50:39
	it is necessary to take up the gun.	50:42
	The statement of one U.S. Army Major became almost a cliche.	50:47
	We had to destroy the city in order to save it,	50:53
	he said, following the destruction of a Vietnamese village.	50:56
	A committal to something derogatory,	51:02
	hazardous or objectionable.	51:06
	Compromise.	51:10
	And if we answer the call to compromise,	51:14
	then we too are guilty of the same sin.	51:16
	Why?	51:20
	Because you and I who sit in this place,	51:22
	professing our faith in Jesus Christ,	51:26
	are not primarily Americans nor citizens	51:29
	of any other nation, but Christians,	51:32
	those who in theory, anyway, seek first	51:36
	the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.	51:40
	We move under the Lordship of Christ.	51:44
	Our National Cathedral is not the Pentagon,	51:48
	nor is Mars our God.	51:52
	But listen to what we're being asked to endorse.	51:57
	The U.S. 1981 budget,	52:02
	which amounts to roughly $612 billion,	52:07
	is a reduction of $15 billion from that first proposed.	52:11
	Yet the defense budget accounts for	52:16
	almost one half of all federal spending.	52:19
	It's net increase over 1980 is $4.3 billion,	52:25
	and that increase and the cuts	52:31
	come at the expense of aid to the disadvantaged,	52:35
	in health and human services,	52:39
	in community development funds and public service jobs,	52:41
	and in federally subsidized jobs for young adults.	52:46
	Already,	52:52
	the U.S. nuclear arsenal is capable of destroying	52:54
	every Soviet city of over 100,000 inhabitants	52:57
	thirty five times,	53:02
	and the U.S.S.R. can destroy our major cities	53:05
	twenty times.	53:10
	Yet, we have in this country 25 million people	53:13
	who are malnourished and 10 million children	53:18
	who have never seen a doctor.	53:22
	In 1979, eight million children in the world	53:26
	died as a result of hunger and illnesses	53:32
	related to malnutrition.	53:35
	Compromise.	53:38
	The blending of qualities of two different things.	53:41
	Our reliance on things military	53:50
	is not our only sin of idolatry.	53:52
	We could list idols forever, not the least of which	53:55
	is inherent in our racism,	53:59
	our idolization of the white race	54:03
	at the expense of all others.	54:05
	And at the risk of sounding trite and repetitious,	54:10
	I would also remind us that idolatry and compromise	54:14
	abound in our personal lives as well.	54:18
	For we have succeeded in building compartments for religion	54:23
	that allow little spill over into other areas of life,	54:26
	at least in ways that keep us faithful.	54:30
	We separate ourselves from those Christians	54:34
	who do not express our brand of theology,	54:37
	thus idolizing our way of believing rather than	54:40
	worshiping the one in which we believe.	54:44
	It's not always convenient to act like a Christian.	54:49
	Being faithful gets in the way	54:53
	of what we'd like to do sometimes,	54:55
	so we may separate our Christianity into a slot for Sunday	54:58
	or another convenient time during the week.	55:03
	Our work or vocational life into a slot	55:06
	for Monday through Friday.	55:08
	Our leisure for weekends.	55:11
	Our politics for election days two or three times a year.	55:13
	Our efforts at improving the world for a time	55:18
	when there is a slogan or a cause with which we resonate.	55:20
	You see, we don't let our faith permeate	55:26
	all those other slots and really affect the way we live.	55:28
	Or if we do, somehow we're able to blend qualities	55:34
	of two different things like Christianity and work,	55:38
	or Christianity and war, or Christianity and racism	55:43
	so that the blend is acceptable to the world.	55:48
	And we find ourselves in a situation of compromise.	55:51
	But according to Jezebel, that's okay,	55:57
	so long as you remain Christian	56:01
	on the inside.	56:03
	It is true that things have changed since John's time.	56:10
	Not only did Domitian die, but so did all the others	56:15
	who persecuted the church.	56:20
	Eventually, in the fourth century,	56:23
	Constantine and his successors turned the situation around.	56:25
	Becoming a Christian no longer meant choosing	56:31
	to be an outcast of society,	56:33
	but a respectable citizen.	56:36
	After the Empire became the ally of the church,	56:39
	some attacked the book of Revelation because it called	56:43
	Rome a harlot and did not show	56:45
	great respect for the civil authorities.	56:48
	John's visions and warnings and calls to be faithful	56:52
	seemed valuable for a time of persecution,	56:55
	but not for a time like today.	57:00
	A time of freedom to preach of tax exemption for the church	57:02
	and of Christians in high places.	57:07
	Yet, John's words are just as applicable	57:12
	in our situation,	57:16
	for he repeatedly warns us of the danger of compromise.	57:18
	And even Jezebel was given the opportunity to repent	57:24
	and reform and take her place among the faithful.	57:28
	So to, are we, by a God who made the ultimate sacrifice	57:33
	to turn us to faithfulness, a way that calls for	57:38
	peace and justice and love	57:42
	for all humankind.	57:46
	No, the struggle did not end	57:49
	when Christianity became respectable.	57:52
	On the contrary,	57:56
	it simply shifted to another flame.	57:58
	Now we are tempted to worship the power of evil,	58:01
	not because there is persecution,	58:05
	but because there is so much ease.	58:08
	The Bible tells about God's call for love and justice	58:13
	and peace among races and nations,	58:16
	but we often find that to speak the word or take the action	58:19
	required by such knowledge would endanger our standing	58:24
	in society or among our colleagues.	58:28
	With our greed and our waste, we are cursing the earth	58:32
	and its inhabitants which God intends to bless.	58:37
	We know these things	58:42
	and we also know from the book of Revelation	58:44
	that we will	58:47
	that we will bear either the mark of evil or of good,	58:48
	that we will worship Satan or the land,	58:54
	that we will be among the Pagans and false prophets	58:59
	or receive the morning star.	59:04
	Which will it be?	59:08
	Which will it be?	59:12
	The question is as simple as that.	59:15
	The question is also	59:21
	as difficult as that.	59:23
	Let us pray.	59:28
	Oh God,	59:32
	turn our hearts to hope.	59:34
	Hope that comes because we are a faithful people	59:37
	who have turned from our idolization of human efforts	59:41
	to save us again to you.	59:44
	We want to love you and we know that we do that	59:48
	by loving humankind as ourselves.	59:51
	Our resolve is to follow you.	59:55
	Guide us, we pray.	59:59
	In the name of the one whose name we bear.	1:00:01
	Amen.	1:00:06
	(organ music)	1:00:10
	(choir singing)	1:00:56
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:03:32
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	1:03:36
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	1:03:41
	to reconcile and make new,	1:03:45
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	1:03:48
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	1:03:52
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	1:03:57
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	1:04:00
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	1:04:06
	our judge and our hope in life and death,	1:04:10
	in life beyond death.	1:04:16
	God is with us.	1:04:18
	We are not alone.	1:04:20
	Thanks be to God.	1:04:22
	Amen.	1:04:24
	The Lord be with you.	1:04:26
	(audience responding)	1:04:29
	Let us pray.	1:04:30
	Holy God, our judge and our redeemer,	1:04:41
	on this first Sunday after Easter,	1:04:45
	now that we have consumed the brightly colored eggs	1:04:49
	which symbolize the resurrection and new life,	1:04:53
	help us not to be consumed by business as usual.	1:04:57
	Help us to continue to experience the presence	1:05:04
	of the risen Christ in events, not festive, but mundane.	1:05:07
	Help us to recognize the living Christ in other persons too.	1:05:16
	Help us to perceive them, all of them,	1:05:22
	as your beloved children.	1:05:27
	As possible vehicles for the Holy Spirit,	1:05:29
	grant that we may entertain the astonishing notion	1:05:33
	that those whom we find unattractive, unacceptable,	1:05:39
	perhaps even repulsive, you love.	1:05:43
	Both as individuals and as citizens of a nation,	1:05:50
	we are anxious as we face, uncertain, threatening times.	1:05:55
	Make us humble so that we will continue to bless your name	1:06:02
	through bad times as well as good,	1:06:08
	and may the prophets declaration of steadfast faith be ours.	1:06:12
	Although the fig tree does not blossom and the vines	1:06:18
	bear no fruit, although the olive crop fails	1:06:23
	and the orchards yield no food, although the fold is bereft	1:06:27
	of its flock and there be no cattle in the stalls,	1:06:33
	yet, even yet, let us exalt in thee,	1:06:37
	the god of our deliverance.	1:06:43
	Grant us peace, but for it the courage to love our enemies.	1:06:47
	Heal us, we pray by using these,	1:06:55
	our hands and wills to perform mercy.	1:06:59
	Guide us in every aspect of life to do your will.	1:07:05
	As Jesus prayed, so let us pray.	1:07:10
	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	1:07:13
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth	1:07:19
	as it is in heaven.	1:07:24
	Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our	1:07:26
	trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:07:30
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	1:07:35
	For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.	1:07:41
	Amen.	1:07:46
	(organ music)	1:07:52
	(choir singing)	1:09:10
	Holy Lord God, help us to remember	1:13:43
	that we are only stewards of your bounty.	1:13:47
	Help us to use it for the alleviation of hunger	1:13:51
	and suffering, and let us dedicate	1:13:55
	our entire selves to your service.	1:13:58
	In Jesus' name we pray.	1:14:01
	Amen.	1:14:03
	(organ music)	1:14:25
	(choir singing)	1:15:03
-	As we go from this house of worship to do our work,	1:18:17
	may God grant that we have the strength and the courage	1:18:21
	not to compromise the good news which we have received.	1:18:25
	And now may the love of God, the grace of His son	1:18:30
	Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	1:18:34
	be and abide with us now and forevermore.	1:18:37
	Amen.	1:18:42
	(choir singing)	1:18:44
	(organ playing)	1:19:55

Item Info

Title:

Juanita Bass Wright - "No Compromise" (April 13, 1980)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 36:09. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:06:00.
Celebrating Peace Sunday, Rev. Bass Wright criticizes the war in Vietnam and the US' military spending and calls it idolatry. She connects John's letter to the Christians at Thyatira with the situation Christians are going through today. Just like John warns Christian against compromising their beliefs with the idolatry of the land, so does Rev. Wright warns the audience to not compromise their Christianity with the idolatry of war, and racism. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "the struggle did not end when Christianity became respectable, On the contrady, it shifted to another flank. Now, we are temped to worship the power of evil, not because there is persecution but because there is so much ease. The Bible tells us about God's call for love and justice and peace among races and nations, but we often find that to speak the word or take the action required by such knowledge would engander our estanding in society or among our colleages. With our greed and our waste we re cursing the earth and its inhabitants which God intends to bless. We know these things. And we also know that from the book of Revelation that we will bear either the mark of evil or of good, that we will worship Satan or the Lamb...which will it be?"

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4zc7s85q

Date:

April 13, 1980

Speaker:

Wright, Juanita Bass

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1087
ref7386_iu6
uachapelsermaud
duke:321237
dcrau001966
ark:/87924/r4zc7s85q
82992a16-f7d0-4a89-8e53-390baf6dbe8a

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Juanita Bass Wright - "No Compromise" (April 13, 1980)

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