Paula E. Gilbert - "Children of Babel or Heirs of Pentecost?" (June 7, 1981)

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	(organ music with inaudible lyrics)	0:04
-	On this holy day of Pentecost,	5:05
	we welcome you to this service of worship in Duke Chapel.	5:07
	May it be for each one of us here present or sharing	5:12
	by radio, a time for a fresh outpouring of God's grace	5:16
	and a new dedication of our lives.	5:22
	Spirit of life in this new dawn, give us the faith	5:25
	that follows on, letting thine all pervading power	5:30
	fulfill the dream of this high hour.	5:34
	Will you be seated and join	5:39
	this unison prayer of confession?	5:41
	Almighty god who sent the power of the Holy Spirit	5:48
	to unify the church and to give life to our work	5:53
	and worship, we confess that we have resisted your spirit.	5:57
	We have prized those things which divide us,	6:02
	worked hard to maintain the barriers of race, status	6:06
	and class which keep us apart and we have allowed	6:10
	the fire of discipleship to become dead ashes.	6:15
	Stir us up, oh god, forgive our cold indifference to you	6:20
	and to the world, renew the gift of your spirit	6:26
	and fill us once again with a burning desire to be	6:30
	your faithful people, through Jesus Christ, our lord.	6:34
	(organ music)	6:42
	If we have taken for granted the beauty of this world,	7:19
	the love of family and friends, our right to health	7:23
	and education and freedom, forgive us lord.	7:28
	If we have grabbed more than we have given,	7:33
	if we have complained more than we have offered thanks,	7:36
	if we have destroyed more than we have built, forgive us,	7:41
	lord, if we have forgotten thee in the frantic service of	7:46
	self, send down thy tongues of fire once more	7:51
	to warm our cold hearts and lighten our dull minds	7:54
	and lead us to more faithful	8:01
	living out of our highest dreams.	8:02
	Let us give thanks for God is good and god's love is	8:08
	everlasting, thanks be to god who's love creates us.	8:14
	Thanks be to god who's mercy redeems us.	8:19
	Thanks be to god who's grace leads us into the future, amen.	8:23
	In keeping with our custom on the first Sunday of each	8:36
	month, the sacrament of holy communion will	8:39
	be conducted by Leslie Marsicano and David Meriweather	8:42
	in the Memorial Chapel to my right immediately	8:47
	following the regular service of worship this morning.	8:50
	All of you are invited to remain	8:54
	to partake of the lord's supper.	8:57
	The funeral service for Dale Lee Walker,	9:02
	Duke graduate and law student will be held in this chapel	9:05
	at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning,	9:10
	Monday morning here in Duke Chapel.	9:14
	Our preacher for this morning's service, Paula Gilbert	9:19
	is director of admissions and student affairs	9:23
	in the Divinity School of Duke University.	9:26
	Those of us who know her as student, colleague and friend	9:30
	are profoundly grateful for her quiet, gracious	9:35
	and effective service in the divinity school	9:39
	and we are proud to share her ministry	9:42
	with a wider community this morning.	9:46
-	Let us pray.	9:58
	Oh god, who according the promise of Jesus Christ your son	10:02
	gives in the spirit of truth to your people	10:07
	grant that the spirit may teach us all things,	10:10
	guide us into all truth, open to us the scriptures	10:14
	and take the ways of Christ and show them to us.	10:19
	For your name's sake we pray, amen.	10:22
	The old testament lesson is from Genesis chapter 11	10:28
	verses one through nine, this and the following readings	10:33
	from the New English Bible.	10:37
	Once upon a time all the world spoke a single language	10:41
	and used the same words, as men journeyed in the east,	10:45
	they came upon a plane in the land of Shinar and settled	10:50
	there, they said to one another, come let us make bricks	10:54
	and break them hard, they used bricks for stone	10:59
	and bitumen for mortar, come, they said.	11:03
	Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with it's	11:07
	top in the heavens and make a name for ourselves	11:10
	or we shall be dispersed all over the earth.	11:14
	Then the lord came down to the city and tower which mortal	11:18
	men had built and he said here they are, one people	11:22
	with a single language and now they have started to do this.	11:26
	Hence forward, nothing they have a mind to do will be	11:31
	beyond their reach, come, let us down there and confuse	11:35
	their speech so that they will not understand what	11:40
	they say to one another, so the lord dispersed them from	11:44
	there all over the earth and they	11:48
	left off building the city.	11:50
	That is why it is called Babel because the lord there	11:53
	made a Babel of the language all over the world.	11:57
	From that place, the lord scattered men all over the face	12:00
	of the earth, here ends the reading of the old testament.	12:04
	The new testament lesson is from Acts chapter two,	12:09
	verses one through 21, while the day of Pentecost was	12:13
	running it's course, they were all together in one place	12:20
	when suddenly there came from the sky a noise like	12:24
	that of a strong driving wind which filled the whole	12:27
	house where they were sitting and there appeared to them	12:31
	tongues like flames of fire dispersed among them	12:35
	and resting on each one and they were all filled with	12:38
	the holy spirit and began to talk in other tongues	12:42
	as the spirit gave them power of utterance.	12:45
	Now there were living in Jerusalem devout Jews	12:49
	drawn from every nation under heaven and at this time,	12:52
	the crowd gathered all bewildered because each	12:56
	heard his own language spoken, they were amazed.	12:59
	And in their astonishment exclaimed, why,	13:03
	they are all Galileans, are they not?	13:06
	These men who are speaking, how is it then	13:08
	that we hear them, each of us in his own native language?	13:11
	Parthians, Meads, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia,	13:16
	of Judea and Cappadocia, of Pantos and Asia, of Frigga	13:21
	and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the district of Libya	13:25
	around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes,	13:30
	Cretans and Arabs, we hear them telling in our own tongues	13:36
	the great things that god has done.	13:40
	And they were all amazed and perplexed saying to one	13:43
	another, what can this mean, others said contemptuously	13:47
	they have been drinking but Peter stood up with the 11,	13:52
	raised his voice and addressed them, Fellow Jews	13:57
	and all you who live in Jerusalem, mark this	14:01
	and give me a hearing, these men are not drunk as you	14:05
	imagine for it is only nine in the morning.	14:09
	No this is what the prophet spoke of.	14:13
	God says, this will happen in the last days.	14:16
	I will pour out upon everyone a portion of my spirit	14:20
	and your sons and daughters shall prophesy.	14:24
	Your young men shall see visions and your old men	14:28
	shall dream dreams, yes, I will endo even my slaves,	14:32
	both men and women with a portion of my spirit	14:38
	and they shall prophesy and I will show potence in	14:42
	the sky above and signs on the earth below,	14:46
	blood and fire and drifting smoke.	14:50
	The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood	14:54
	before that great resplendent day, the day of the lord	14:58
	shall come and then everyone who invokes the name of the	15:02
	lord shall be saved, here ends	15:08
	the reading of the new testament.	15:10
	(organ music with inaudible choir singing)	15:23
-	The congregation will please stand for the	20:13
	reading of the Gospel lesson.	20:16
	The Gospel lesson is from John, the 15th chapter,	20:23
	26 through 27 and the 16th chapter verse four through 11.	20:27
	But when your advocate has come whom I will send you	20:37
	from the father, the spirit of truth that issues from	20:41
	the father, he will bear witness to me.	20:45
	And you also are my witnesses because you have	20:49
	been with me from the first.	20:52
	I did not tell you this at first	20:55
	because then I was with you.	20:57
	But now I am going away to him who sent me.	21:01
	None of you ask me where are you going, yet you	21:05
	are plunged into grief because of what I have told you.	21:08
	Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is	21:12
	for your good that I am leaving you.	21:16
	If I do not go, your advocate will not come.	21:19
	Whereas if I go, I will send him to you.	21:23
	When he comes, he will confute the world	21:27
	and show where right and wrong and judgment lie.	21:30
	He will convict them of wrong by their refusal to	21:33
	believe in me, he will convince them that right is on my	21:37
	side by showing that I will go to the father when I	21:41
	pass from your site and he will convince them of	21:45
	divine judgment by showing that the	21:48
	prince of this world stands condemned.	21:51
	Here ends the reading from the Gospel lesson.	21:55
	(organ music with inaudible choir singing)	21:59
	Be seated.	22:53
	Will you join me in prayer?	23:02
	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	23:09
	be acceptable to you, oh lord, our rock of	23:14
	salvation and our redeemer, amen.	23:17
	We are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord.	23:29
	We are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord.	23:35
	And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.	23:40
	And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.	23:45
	Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.	23:50
	These words come from a folk tune of the late 1960s.	23:56
	I can remember the first time that I ever heard it	24:01
	and the first time that I ever sang it.	24:04
	The day was the annual fall rally of the youth	24:07
	at the Alabama West Florida Annual Conference.	24:10
	Hundreds of teenagers sat on the dusty floor of a camp's	24:14
	gymnasium, above us,	24:18
	stretched from end to end	24:22
	and from corner to corner in the rafters was a huge	24:24
	length of white paper arranged so as to give some	24:28
	semblance of a mammoth dove's head and the outstretched	24:32
	wings and the long body finally culminating the tail.	24:36
	Under this symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit,	24:42
	all of us youth from Alabama and from Florida,	24:46
	from big cities and from communities too small to	24:51
	bear the name of a town, male and female,	24:53
	black and white,	24:58
	all of us sang holding one another's hands,	24:59
	we are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord.	25:03
	One in the spirit, one in the lord.	25:11
	Do you and I know this oneness spoken of in the song?	25:16
	Do we experience unity and community in our day to day lives	25:20
	or is it that we know disunity, is it that we truly live	25:25
	in the midst of alienation and separation and estrangement,	25:29
	of hopelessness and fear,	25:34
	are we the children of Babel?	25:38
	Or do we stand in the midst of Pentecost?	25:41
	Genesis, the first book in the bible is a fascinating work.	25:46
	Scholars tell us that the first 11 chapters composed a	25:50
	body of tales and legends that is best described	25:54
	as a kind of prime evil history.	25:57
	This is where we encounter Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel,	26:00
	Noah and the flood and the tower of Babel.	26:05
	Many would discount these tales as being near fanciful	26:09
	stories, lacking salty or sophistication and evidencing	26:12
	simply primitive elements of religion.	26:18
	But the once upon a time of the story of the tower of Babel	26:22
	is actually the arresting beginning of a myth that	26:26
	conveys timeless truth which we and all our sophistication	26:29
	and affluence and prosperity would do well to heed.	26:34
	The storyline is a rather simple one requiring	26:40
	no more than nine verses for its telling.	26:43
	A people settle in a plane and begin to build a city	26:46
	and a tower out of the most permanent materials at hand.	26:50
	The city arises as a sign of their self reliance	26:55
	and the tower as a sign of their will to fame.	26:58
	Yahweh who sees the city and the tower for what they really	27:03
	are, a symbol of the rebellion against god and of human	27:07
	pride, Yahweh visits the city and breaks up the unity of	27:11
	the people by destroying the unity of their language.	27:15
	No longer able to understand one another,	27:20
	the people scatter across the face of the earth	27:23
	and become individual nations with a host of languages.	27:25
	Perhaps it's not too far fetched to say that every human	27:33
	civilization is the tower of Babel in the eyes of God.	27:37
	Men and women and every age and every place with	27:41
	restless minds and adventurous spirits stick to	27:45
	conquer space and time and to uncover knowledge of	27:48
	life's most hidden secrets, ambitions takes over though	27:51
	and eventually it runs rampant.	27:56
	The time comes when we no longer see ourselves in	27:59
	our own true place as parts of creation	28:02
	but we begin to pose as creators and rulers of life.	28:05
	As Colin Morris notes, our gravest sins are byproducts	28:10
	of our greatest achievements and not our most bestial acts.	28:14
	It is altogether fitting that the tower of Babel	28:19
	should take the form of a tower with its top in the heavens.	28:22
	There is more to be found in the story than this.	28:29
	There is also the ironic observation regarding the	28:32
	punishment for ambition that civilizations and peoples	28:35
	are cut down to size whenever they develop the	28:39
	symptoms to Titanism or giantism.	28:41
	Reinhold Niebuhr puts it this way,	28:45
	a civilizations or a people's most impressive monuments	28:48
	to its own greatness invariably become memorials to the	28:51
	death of the achievements they were meant to celebrate.	28:56
	Consider if you will the pyramids of Egypt.	29:01
	They were hardly completed before the civilization	29:04
	they symbolized had decayed and perished	29:06
	and the Justinian code which was to represent the	29:11
	very best Roman law came to final form only as	29:13
	the Roman empire itself was in ruins.	29:18
	Even so, the builders rationalization for the tower of	29:23
	Babel was to make a name for ourselves or we shall	29:26
	be dispersed across the earth but in the end,	29:31
	that is exactly what did happen.	29:36
	They were scattered across the earth.	29:38
	One last note about the nature of the punishment	29:43
	of the story of the tower of Babel,	29:45
	not only are the people scattered but their single	29:48
	languages confused into many languages and they are	29:50
	unable to communicate, relationships are severed by the	29:54
	barrier of language and where once there was unity	29:58
	and harmony, now there is only disunity and disharmony.	30:01
	The implication in the myth seems clear.	30:07
	When we cease to honor god and to worship god	30:10
	as creatures of god's creation and begin to seek to	30:12
	become god, then we displace the true center of	30:16
	our existence and become divided, giving our	30:20
	allegiance to a multitude of other things.	30:23
	No togetherness here, no unity or harmony	30:27
	and certainly no sense of oneness such as	30:32
	was portrayed in the song with which I began.	30:34
	Is Babel to be our only destiny?	30:39
	Let me return to the song.	30:43
	We are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord.	30:46
	There is a counterpart to Babel.	30:52
	It is the Pentecost experience that is detailed	30:55
	in the second chapter of the book of Acts.	30:57
	The disciples gathered together in one place	31:00
	are filled with the holy spirit and in that hour,	31:04
	men and women rediscover a universal language.	31:08
	The New English Bible records it this way.	31:13
	At this sound the crowd gathered all bewildered	31:16
	because each one heard his own language spoken.	31:19
	They were amazed and in their astonishment exclaimed,	31:23
	why they are Galileans, are they not, these	31:28
	men who are speaking, how is it then that we	31:31
	hear them, each of us in his own native language?	31:34
	Parthians, Meads, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia,	31:38
	of Judea and Cappadocia, of Pantos and Asia,	31:43
	of Frigga and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the districts	31:46
	of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome,	31:49
	both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.	31:53
	We hear them telling in our own tongues	31:56
	the great things which god has done.	31:59
	And they were all amazed and perplexed saying to	32:04
	one another, what can this mean?	32:08
	What then does this event of Pentecost mean?	32:16
	No more or no less that the curse of Babel has been	32:19
	canceled, men and women are no longer divided	32:23
	and alienated but are once again brothers and sisters	32:27
	because they have been joined together in Christ	32:31
	who died and rose for all.	32:34
	And someone has written, the infinite distance between	32:37
	God and man which Babel could not bridge has not merely	32:41
	been spanned, it has been abolished by	32:45
	and in through Jesus.	32:50
	Creation is reconciled to God and creatures are	32:54
	reconciled to one another,	32:57
	to sing we are one in the spirit.	33:00
	We are one in the lord is to lay claim to the experience	33:03
	of Pentecost in all its mystery and in all it's power.	33:07
	The picture of Pentecost given to us by the author of Acts	33:15
	is one full of wonders and strange happenings.	33:19
	There is that sound from the sky like that of crushing wind.	33:23
	And there are those tongues like flames of fire	33:27
	which appear and come to rest	33:30
	upon the heads of the disciples.	33:31
	There is ectatic utterance that allows each person	33:34
	of the crowd gathered to hear pronouncements concerning	33:37
	God's mighty works and his or her own native language.	33:40
	But if we focus on these details alone,	33:46
	I think we miss the real point of the Acts account.	33:50
	We miss encountering the risen Christ gift to	33:54
	the church of the Holy Spirit but if we do move	33:57
	to look at the presence of the Holy Spirit,	34:02
	what is it that we see?	34:05
	The thoughts of Leander Keck, a Biblical scholar	34:09
	and Dean of the divinity school at Yale perhaps	34:12
	can guide us at this point.	34:14
	In studying this passage, he suggest a working	34:17
	definition of the Holy Spirit that can take you	34:19
	and I beyond being embarrassed by the workings of the	34:22
	Holy Spirit and beyond being afraid of the activity	34:25
	of the spirit, he writes,	34:29
	the Holy Spirit is god	34:32
	present as power with his people.	34:35
	First, the Holy Spirit is god present.	34:42
	Often I suspect, we think of the Holy Spirit as some	34:46
	kind of impersonal force reaching into our lives	34:50
	and swaying our consciences but this is not the case.	34:53
	The Holy Spirit is god himself making Jesus known to us,	34:58
	not simply as some first century Jewish teacher of	35:04
	moral behavior but as the reality of the one who is the	35:07
	savoir and who summons you and me to obedience.	35:11
	The Holy Spirit makes Jesus known to us in personal	35:16
	relationship, secondly,	35:20
	the Holy Spirit is God present with his people,	35:24
	while the Spirit is present and available	35:29
	to each of us in a unique way, the spirit	35:32
	is confessed only within the church.	35:35
	Certainly the spirit relates the individual not only to	35:39
	god and Christ but to other believers as well.	35:42
	Notice how in this passage the spirit comes down upon	35:47
	the disciples when they are gathered together in one place.	35:49
	But finally the Holy Spirit is god present as power.	35:55
	This power is not so much sheer force as it is the	35:59
	enabling presence of God.	36:02
	The Pentecost makes this very point.	36:05
	For the decent of god's spirit enables the apostles to	36:07
	communicate the gospel effectively.	36:11
	The spirit is not given in order for the disciples	36:14
	to become some of kind of political administrators of	36:17
	a restored Israel, rather, they are to be the empowered	36:20
	witnesses to the death and the resurrection of Jesus.	36:24
	If the Holy Spirit is god present as power with his people,	36:31
	then we can sing joyously and triumphantly because we	36:36
	know the words are true, we are one in the spirit.	36:38
	We are one in the lord	36:43
	but if we are one in spirit	36:46
	and one in the lord, we cannot just sit idly by while	36:48
	we are in this world, twiddling our thumbs, self satisfied	36:52
	and smug that we have been possessed by the spirit.	36:55
	In truth of fact, we are neither possessed by the spirit	36:59
	for all time, nor do we possess the spirit.	37:02
	For scripture reminds us, the spirit flows where it will.	37:06
	The book of Acts makes it clear that the first days of the	37:12
	church knew trouble as well as peace, experience disloyalty	37:14
	as well as loyalty and suffered arguments in the midst	37:18
	of the company of the faithful.	37:22
	Rather as I work my way through scripture and the pages	37:25
	of Christian tradition and history, I have to include	37:28
	inescapably that the gift of the spirit, if it means	37:32
	anything at all, it means changed lives	37:36
	and a changed world.	37:40
	The song puts it this way, we will walk with each other.	37:43
	We will walk hand in hand.	37:48
	We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.	37:50
	And together we'll spread the news that god is in the land.	37:56
	We will work with each other, we will work side by side.	38:01
	We will work with each other, we will work side by side.	38:06
	And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride	38:11
	and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.	38:16
	Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.	38:20
	The gift of the spirit radically alters a person's	38:26
	private life and his or her dealings with other people.	38:28
	A scripture tells us, a spirit produces fruit,	38:33
	love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness	38:37
	faithfulness and self control.	38:41
	But equally the spirit calls us each and all to exert	38:44
	leadership in the community we live in,	38:48
	in the nation we call our own and in the world that	38:50
	we know is filled with oppressors and oppressed.	38:54
	A Bishop of United Methodist Church remarked	38:59
	upon what he terms the tradition of passivity	39:01
	which afflicts the church of today.	39:04
	He writes those who say we cannot do anything about	39:07
	the larger affairs of community life	39:11
	are either fatalist or predestinarians.	39:13
	In other words, they adopt a do nothing attitude.	39:17
	Those who say we need not do anything about these	39:22
	larger affairs believe god will work out everything	39:25
	regardless of what we will do.	39:29
	And those who say that we should not do anything	39:32
	about the larger affairs assume that otherwise we	39:34
	would be tampering with God's prerogatives.	39:37
	Thus out of a kind of false piety, they do not hear	39:41
	the spirit summons to responsible living in community.	39:44
	It seems to me that there are weighty matters of plenty in	39:51
	today's world but the gospel of Christ would have us	39:55
	address, war and peace, racial prejudice,	39:58
	sexual discrimination, pollution, capital punishment,	40:03
	battered wives and battered husbands and abused children	40:07
	are just a few that come quickly to mind.	40:10
	The spirit does not guarantee us any easy answers.	40:14
	Only that when we receive it in all it's power,	40:17
	we will be given the strength to seek out answers,	40:21
	to persevere in proclaiming the gospel to all the world.	40:24
	When the church trusts god's presence and power	40:30
	in order to risk actualizing the life it talks	40:33
	about on Sunday mornings and in mid week board meetings,	40:36
	then it will not retreat from the problems of society,	40:40
	from issues such as war and peace, racism and equality.	40:43
	The quality of life will change only when the church	40:48
	moves beyond expressing opinions	40:52
	and begins to live in action.	40:54
	In the end, there are but two choices.	41:02
	One can either live within the shower of Babel	41:06
	or one can await the coming of the Holy Spirit that	41:09
	will enable each of us to be led by Christ	41:12
	and to led others to a world of unity and harmony	41:15
	and final reconciliation, to us, this morning,	41:19
	the story of Pentecost beckons.	41:24
	Dare we to join the disciples?	41:28
	Risking to wait upon the power of the Holy Spirit	41:31
	and affirm by means of the lives we live,	41:34
	we are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord.	41:37
	Dare we?	41:44
	All praise to the father to whom all things come.	41:49
	And all praise to Christ Jesus, his only son.	41:52
	And all praise to the spirit	41:57
	who makes us one,	41:59
	amen and amen.	42:02
	(organ music with inaudible choir singing)	42:09
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	45:19
	We believe in god who has created and is creating,	45:22
	who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile	45:28
	and make new, who works in us or in others by the spirit.	45:32
	We trust god who calls us to be the church,	45:38
	to celebrate life and its fullness, to love and serve	45:43
	others, to seek justice and resist evil,	45:48
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	45:53
	our judge and our hope, in life, in death, in life	45:57
	beyond death, god is with us, we are not alone.	46:03
	Thanks be to god, the lord be with you.	46:09
-	And also with you.	46:14
-	Let us pray.
	Oh god, who doth send thy holy spirit whenever thy	46:26
	children lose heart and faith, grant us new visions of	46:29
	what this world might be if we would heed thy word.	46:34
	We have drawn together to worship in this manner	46:40
	and in this place because we believe that somehow	46:43
	in ways past human understanding, the ultimate power	46:47
	and purpose of the universe has been made known to us	46:52
	in Jesus of Nazareth, around this diverse and fascinating	46:56
	globe, millions are gathered today to praise thy name.	47:02
	In massive cathedrals and in cinder block chapels,	47:07
	in the shanty towns of South Africa and in newly	47:12
	reopened churches of China still suaved in bamboo	47:16
	scaffolding, through this common witness, we give	47:19
	thanks that the death of Jesus Christ did not end the	47:25
	vision of hope or the example of love.	47:28
	Grant us oh lord, a fresh Pentecost.	47:35
	Send healing flames of compassion into the battlefields of	47:39
	Ireland and the Middle East, into the hospitals and homes	47:44
	of suffering and sorrow, including the family	47:51
	and friends of Dale Lee Walker.	47:55
	Into the refugee camps of Somalia and Thailand,	47:59
	into dark cellars of temptation or despair,	48:04
	into the halls of Congress and the state Legislatures,	48:09
	into our hearts as we go about our daily routines.	48:14
	Keep us ever mindful that the rushing of a mighty wind	48:20
	in the midst of these first disciples was but a momentary	48:23
	impression but that it was followed by many wonders	48:27
	and signs, the sharing of all their possessions,	48:32
	the breaking of bread and the prayers, the persuasive	48:36
	witness of dedicated lives, make us worthy disciples	48:40
	as we go forth from this hour of worship, to translate	48:47
	our dreams and visions into service.	48:51
	Oh spirit of the living god, thou light and fire divine,	48:56
	descend upon thy church once more and make it truly thine.	49:02
	Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness	49:08
	and peace till Christ shall dwell in	49:13
	human hearts and sin and sorrow cease.	49:16
	In his name and in his words, let us pray together.	49:23
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	49:29
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in	49:35
	heaven, give us this day our daily bread	49:40
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive	49:45
	those who trespass against us.	49:48
	Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,	49:52
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	49:57
	and the glory forever, amen.	50:00
	(organ music with inaudible choir singing)	50:12
	Oh lord as thy disciples responded to the coming of	55:34
	thy holy spirit, with praise and gratitude	55:38
	and the sharing of gifts, so we pledge our possessions	55:42
	and promise our lives in they service, remembering	55:47
	that all that we have and all that we are has	55:51
	been a trust, oh lord, from thee, amen.	55:56
	(organ music with inaudible choir singing)	56:02
	Breathe on us, wrath of god.	59:28
	Fill us with life anew that we might love what	59:31
	thou dost love and do what thou would do.	59:34
	Through the love of god, the grace of our lord, Jesus	59:39
	Christ and the power of the holy spirit, amen.	59:42
	(choir singing inaudibly)	59:50
	(organ music with inaudible chatter)	1:00:25
	(inaudible chatter)	1:06:23

Item Info

Title:

Paula E. Gilbert - "Children of Babel or Heirs of Pentecost?" (June 7, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 23:02. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 42:06.
Because individual arrogance causes disunity, people should not rely solely on their own abilities and take sole credit and pride in their own achievements but trust in the Lord to guide them. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “In the end, there are but two choices: One can either live within the shadow of Babel or one can await the coming of the Holy Spirit that will enable each of us to be led by Christ and to lead others to a world of unity, harmony, and reconciliation.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4nz81547

Date:

June 7, 1981

Speaker:

Gilbert, Paula E., 1952-

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1160
ref7538_bgq
uachapelsermaud
duke:320703
dcrau002037
ark:/87924/r4nz81547
efe987b3-c6ea-44ed-9019-7465bd090feb

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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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Paula E. Gilbert - "Children of Babel or Heirs of Pentecost?" (June 7, 1981)

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