John Arthur Wilson III - "Foundations of Faith" (June 14, 1981)

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	(classical music)	0:04
	(distant choir singing)	2:17
	("Joyful, Joyful" played on organ)	3:41
	(choir singing "Joyful, Joyful", words obscured by echo)	4:24
-	Grace and peace be with you	8:00
	and with those whom you love.	8:02
	In the name of our Lord God who has called us to this place	8:06
	and to this holy hour of worship.	8:10
	May the love and peace of Christ our savior be with you.	8:13
	Please be seated.	8:19
	For as much as we all have sinned	8:27
	and fallen short of the glory of God,	8:30
	it is meet and right that we should confess	8:35
	our sin to God, acknowledge our own humanness	8:39
	and brokenness, to receive and know and experience	8:44
	the forgiveness and the new life which God in Christ	8:51
	offers to us.	8:56
	Will you join with me now as we offer to God	8:58
	this, our prayer of confession.	9:00
	Let us pray.	9:03
	Oh Lord our God, hear and receive our words	9:05
	of confession, we desire enlightenment	9:09
	but exercise greed.	9:13
	We strive for improvement but experience pride.	9:16
	We hope for immortality, but squander life.	9:20
	We talk about equality but harbor racist attitudes.	9:25
	We believe in righteousness, but twist it	9:31
	to self righteousness.	9:34
	We struggle for spirituality but give in easily.	9:36
	We listen to the word, but forget its significance.	9:41
	We entertain sacrifice, but balk	9:46
	at the actual practice of it.	9:49
	We say, preach, believe and profess one way of life,	9:52
	but we live, act and behave a different way	9:57
	of life altogether.	10:01
	Oh Lord, we pray that you will help us keep our deeds	10:03
	in line with our words.	10:07
	Hear our prayer through Christ our Lord, amen.	10:10
	(faint organ music)	10:17
	Jesus said come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden,	10:54
	and I will give you rest.	10:59
	Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,	11:02
	for I am gentle and lowly in heart.	11:06
	And you will find rest for your souls.	11:10
	In the name of Jesus Christ, I declare your sins forgiven.	11:16
	Amen.	11:23
	Let us give thanks, for God is good	11:25
	and God's love is everlasting.	11:29
	Thanks be to God by whose love we are created.	11:33
	Thanks be to God by whose mercy we are redeemed.	11:38
	Thanks be to God by whose grace we are led into the future.	11:43
	As we were planning for this alumni weekend	11:52
	we wanted it to be, we wanted to offer you a warm welcome.	11:58
	But not quite this warm.	12:05
	May I, as the minister to the university welcome those	12:09
	of you who are alumni back	12:14
	for this very special alumni reunion weekend.	12:16
	We're very pleased to have members of classes,	12:22
	every fifth year class from 1931 through 1976	12:25
	here for this very special weekend.	12:31
	And are particularly pleased to have many members	12:34
	of the half century club here.	12:37
	Regardless of what class you are a member of,	12:41
	we are delighted to have you back	12:46
	and trust that you know	12:48
	that you're welcome back home anytime.	12:49
	We're especially pleased to have members	12:54
	of various alumni classes who sang in the chapel choir	12:58
	back singing in the choir again this morning.	13:02
	So we welcome you and are glad for your contributions	13:05
	to this service.	13:08
	And also to welcome Mr. John Koskinen who is president	13:10
	of the General Alumni Association and is participating	13:14
	in the service of worship this morning	13:17
	representing all of you and all alumni of the university.	13:19
	May I remind you, in case you have not	13:25
	been made aware of it, of an organization	13:27
	that you may be interested in.	13:30
	For about four or five years now,	13:31
	we have had a group called the Friends of Duke Chapel.	13:34
	I would like to encourage you	13:39
	to join the Friends of Duke Chapel,	13:41
	if you're not already a member.	13:43
	There are membership cards at the narthex as you leave.	13:45
	We would be delighted to include you as a member	13:50
	of the Friends of Duke Chapel and keep in touch with you	13:53
	by various mailings that come from the Chapel.	13:56
	Our preacher for today is an alumnist of two classes	14:01
	of Duke University, the 1961 Duke University	14:06
	undergraduate class, the 1964 Duke Divinity School class.	14:11
	The Reverend A.J. Jack Wilson is a native of Raleigh,	14:18
	North Carolina and there probably are some friends	14:22
	and family of his here, and we're delighted to have you.	14:26
	Jack Wilson, so I am told by many persons,	14:31
	including the late Dr. James T. Cleland, Dean of the Chapel,	14:34
	Dr. Barney Jones, Dr. Tom Langford and other faculty members	14:40
	and by coach Bill Murray, was indeed one of the truly	14:45
	outstanding students at Duke University while he was here.	14:50
	He was a good student in his academic work,	14:55
	a leader in many ways on campus, one of the captains	14:58
	of the football team and a man whose Christian witness	15:02
	was felt throughout his stay here at Duke.	15:06
	His outstanding contributions have continued	15:10
	since that time as he served as a member of the religious	15:12
	life staff here at Duke.	15:16
	He served as assistant chaplain	15:19
	at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point	15:21
	and is now the director of pastoral services	15:24
	at the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute	15:27
	in Chattanooga, Tennessee.	15:30
	Jack, we welcome you back, back home.	15:33
	We're delighted to have his wife Kit	15:36
	and their daughter Katherine who's a member	15:38
	of the class of 1982 here with us also.	15:40
	Jack, we welcome you and we hear gladly the word	15:44
	which you bring to us today.	15:47
-	Let us pray.	15:56
	Oh Lord our God who by the entrance of your word	15:59
	gives light unto the soul pour down upon us the spirit	16:02
	of wisdom and understanding that being taught by you	16:06
	in holy scripture we may receive with faith	16:10
	the words of eternal life and be made wise unto salvation.	16:13
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	16:17
	The Old Testament lesson is Psalm 90.	16:21
	Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place	16:24
	in all generations.	16:27
	Before the mountains were brought forth,	16:28
	or ever thou hadst formed the earth in the world,	16:30
	from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.	16:33
	Thou turnest man back to the dust	16:37
	and sayst turn back oh children of men.	16:39
	For a thousand years in they sight are but as yesterday	16:42
	when it is passed or as a watch in the night.	16:45
	Thou dost sweep men away.	16:48
	They are like a dream, like grass which is renewed	16:50
	in the morning, in the morning it flourishes	16:53
	and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers.	16:56
	For we are consumed by thy anger,	16:59
	by thy wrath we are overwhelmed.	17:02
	Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,	17:05
	our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.	17:07
	For all our days pass away under thy wrath,	17:11
	our years come to an end like a sigh.	17:14
	The years of our life are three score and 10,	17:17
	or even by reason of strength four score.	17:20
	Yet their span is but toil and trouble.	17:23
	They are soon gone and we fly away.	17:25
	Who considers the power of thy anger?	17:29
	And thy wrath according to the fear of thee,	17:32
	so teach us to number our days	17:34
	that we may get a heart of wisdom.	17:36
	Return oh Lord, how long.	17:39
	Have pity on thy servants, satisfy us in the morning	17:42
	with they steadfast love that we may rejoice	17:45
	and be glad all our days.	17:49
	Make us glad as many days as thou has afflicted us	17:51
	and as many years as we have seen evil.	17:54
	Let thy work be manifest to thy servants	17:57
	and thy glorious power to their children.	18:00
	Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us.	18:03
	And establish thou the work of our hands upon us.	18:06
	Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.	18:09
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament, amen.	18:13
	(organ music)	18:21
	(choir singing, words obscured by echo)	18:43
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	22:16
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	22:24
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	22:28
	♪ hallelujah ♪	22:34
	♪ Lord (words obscured by echo) ♪	22:41
-	Will the congregation please stand	23:05
	for the reading of the Gospel lesson.	23:06
	The Gospel lesson is from Matthew, chapter seven	23:13
	verses 27 through 29.	23:15
	No one can serve two masters for either he will	23:18
	hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted	23:21
	to the one and despise the other.	23:24
	You cannot serve God and Mammon.	23:26
	Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,	23:29
	what you shall eat or what you shall drink	23:32
	or nor about your body, what you shall put on.	23:35
	Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?	23:38
	Look at the birds of the air.	23:42
	They neither sew nor reap, nor gather into barns,	23:44
	and yet their heavenly father feeds them.	23:48
	Are you not of more value than they?	23:50
	And which of you, by being anxious can add one cubit	23:53
	to his span of life?	23:57
	And why are you anxious about clothing?	23:59
	Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.	24:01
	They neither toil, nor spin, yet I tell you,	24:04
	even Solomon in all his glory was	24:07
	not arrayed like one of these.	24:09
	Here ends the reading from the Gospel lesson, amen.	24:12
	(organ music)	24:16
	(choir singing, words obscured by organ and echo)	24:24
-	Let us pray.	25:20
	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations	25:25
	of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight.	25:31
	Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer, amen.	25:39
	This has certainly been a weekend rich in experiences	25:52
	for all of us who have returned to the university	25:57
	for alumni weekend.	26:02
	It has been a time of revisiting with each other	26:06
	in the places that we once knew so well	26:09
	and have never forgotten.	26:15
	A lot of stories have been told over the past few days	26:19
	with just a little regression	26:24
	and quite a bit of exaggeration to keep it all interesting.	26:28
	I can remember many years ago, sitting on the bench	26:35
	in front of my dormitory on the main quad,	26:39
	listening to a group of old grads,	26:43
	repeating one story after another.	26:50
	And they went on into the early hours of the morning.	26:53
	And I was certain that they were fabricating	26:57
	at least half of what they were saying.	27:01
	But I think that was the same night the Phi Delts	27:06
	dropped a 16 pound shot put from their roof,	27:12
	through the middle of the Sigma Nu's ping pong table.	27:17
	And that is not an exaggeration.	27:24
	(audience laughing)	27:26
	It is amazing how we all become energized	27:31
	and rejuvenated when we return to those places	27:34
	where our lives have been affected in so many ways.	27:40
	Some of the most basic and lasting principles	27:46
	of how we each think and live were formulated	27:50
	and experienced as students in the classrooms,	27:55
	laboratories, dormitories and playing fields	28:00
	surrounding this magnificent chapel.	28:05
	And so it is appropriate, I think,	28:15
	that the university service of worship	28:16
	is an officially scheduled event for alumni weekend.	28:20
	Some of you may be attending this morning	28:26
	in order to re-experience	28:29
	what you once experienced.	28:36
	And you forgot about the heat.	28:39
	And to share it with your children and family.	28:42
	Others of you may be attending in order to experience	28:46
	what you never experienced as a student.	28:49
	And of course, some of you are present	28:56
	because you worship here on a regular basis.	29:00
	You are the ones who keep it going.	29:04
	I am here, grateful.	29:12
	Grateful for the opportunity to preach the sermon	29:18
	and deeply inspired by worshiping here once again.	29:22
	The greatest problem in preparing a sermon like this,	29:29
	is the decision about what to include in it.	29:34
	My own ministry has been far ranging,	29:38
	far ranging in extremes.	29:43
	From the majestic setting of this chapel	29:48
	and the cadet chapel at West Point,	29:52
	all the way to the plain wards of a psychiatric hospital.	29:56
	However, I decided that I wanted to preach	30:07
	on something that is basic to every human condition	30:10
	that I have encountered in my ministry	30:15
	and this led me quite naturally to a simple parable	30:19
	that Jesus told.	30:24
	He told the parable about the wise people	30:29
	who build their houses on a rock.	30:34
	And foolish people who build their houses	30:40
	on sand.	30:45
	Those of you who've lived around the mudslides	30:49
	of California and the sink holes of Florida	30:52
	may be particularly sensitive to this particular parable.	30:57
	But, of course, Jesus was talking about something	31:03
	much more important than houses and buildings.	31:06
	He used a basic principle of engineering to point out	31:13
	that when days of trouble come in human life,	31:17
	that life which is rooted and grounded	31:23
	on reliable and solid foundations of faith, will triumph.	31:27
	An individual may be battered by the winds of time	31:36
	and the many tempests of life which can rage with fury,	31:42
	you may creak and sway and lose your balance,	31:48
	and at times be swallowed up in darkness.	31:53
	But you will find the strength to stand	32:00
	and even to repair	32:07
	and rebuild yourself	32:10
	if the foundations of faith	32:16
	are deep and strong and stable.	32:19
	Now, what are they?	32:26
	These foundations?	32:29
	How do we build them?	32:32
	There are three dimensions of faith	32:36
	and they encompass the past, and the present and the future.	32:38
	The most basic level of faith begins with the historical	32:44
	affirmation that God reigns.	32:49
	That God reigns over all creation.	32:58
	It is the proclamation that this is God's world,	33:03
	and not our own.	33:08
	This faith has roots that reach deep into the past.	33:12
	To the earliest beginnings of Jewish belief.	33:17
	It is expressed in these ancient words of the Psalmist:	33:23
	"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.	33:28
	Before the mountains were brought forth,	33:33
	forever thou hast formed the earth and the world	33:38
	from everlasting to everlasting,	33:45
	thou art God.	33:49
	For these, for the Lord is a great God	33:55
	and a great king above all gods.	33:58
	In his hand are the depths of the earth,	34:01
	the heights of the mountains are his also.	34:04
	The sea is his, for he made it.	34:07
	For his hands formed the dry land.	34:11
	Oh come	34:16
	let us worship and bow down.	34:17
	Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.	34:23
	For he is our God.	34:29
	We are the people of his pasture,	34:32
	the sheep of his hand."	34:35
	So the Psalmist, you see, expressed this basic	34:40
	belief that God reigns in language and form,	34:43
	which has yet to be surpassed	34:48
	for its beauty and descriptiveness.	34:52
	And yet even these words only hint	34:58
	at the awesome	35:03
	nature of God	35:05
	who is beyond our ability to comprehend fully	35:08
	much less describe.	35:12
	One can appreciate the seven year old boy I know,	35:17
	though he's not seven now, but he was,	35:23
	who came home one day from the West Point Sunday School.	35:29
	I was in charge of that program, while I was chaplain there.	35:34
	We had 500 cadets teaching 150 children	35:40
	every Sunday morning.	35:43
	And so this one morning Johnny came home	35:46
	and his mother said, "Well, what did they teach you	35:48
	at Sunday School?"	35:50
	And he replied, "Oh, it was really something.	35:52
	We learned about Moses and how he had all this trouble	35:56
	when he led the people out of Egypt."	35:59
	And his mother said, "Well, tell me what happened."	36:02
	And Johnny said, "Well, they were blocked	36:07
	by this great big sea and the Egyptians were chasing them.	36:10
	So, Moses called all his commanders together	36:16
	and then he called in the army engineers.	36:20
	And they came in and they put down pontoon bridges	36:25
	all the way across the Red Sea.	36:29
	And all these people, they ran across that bridge,	36:32
	and then he called in the armored division.	36:36
	And he called in the B52s and the Huey helicopters	36:40
	and they chased all the Egyptians back home."	36:44
	And his mother said, "Now, Johnny you don't really	36:50
	expect me to believe that do you?"	36:54
	And he quickly shot back, "Well if I told you	36:59
	what they taught me in Sunday School,	37:02
	you'd never believe it."	37:04
	(audience laughing)	37:06
	Well, yes, the God of our faith	37:14
	is beyond our comprehension	37:19
	and yet over and over again in the biblical record	37:24
	and elsewhere, we find the accounts of people	37:26
	witnessing to God's acts and describing the fullness	37:30
	of God's glory as best their language would allow	37:35
	and acknowledging that God reigns.	37:42
	This foundation comes to us from out of the past,	37:49
	forged through centuries of human experience and expression.	37:54
	But then Jesus claimed, secondly,	38:02
	the affirmation that God reigns in all aspects	38:06
	of present life as well.	38:09
	And he expanded it to include himself.	38:13
	In a peculiar kind of way the reign of God was now seen	38:17
	as entering into the world,	38:22
	infusing itself	38:26
	into present human experience,	38:28
	through the life, death and resurrection of Christ.	38:31
	The kingdom of God was not a far off dream,	38:39
	but was beginning to dawn in the present.	38:42
	And it was ushered in through the cross	38:47
	which is the ultimate symbol that God has entered	38:49
	the world with grace and love.	38:53
	And so the eye of faith perceives that not only	39:01
	is there a God who has reigned from the beginning,	39:04
	but he is still God.	39:10
	Our God.	39:14
	My God.	39:18
	He undergirds the world and all creation	39:21
	and undergirds me	39:24
	through Christ the Lord.	39:27
	He has experience in what I experience.	39:31
	He knows me and calls me to be his own.	39:35
	This way the foundation of faith extends deep	39:44
	into the past, but they're also being built in the present	39:47
	within us by the transforming power of the living Christ.	39:52
	The evidence of this foundation is manifested	39:58
	in ethical character and spiritual qualities,	40:03
	such as humility, mercifulness,	40:10
	desire for righteousness,	40:15
	peace making and hope.	40:19
	It reaches into the core of our being	40:22
	and provides an incomparable resource of direction	40:27
	and strength and continues to be built	40:30
	in the interaction with the continuing demands of life,	40:34
	its joys and its sorrows,	40:38
	with the repeated experience of God's grace	40:42
	through Jesus Christ.	40:49
	A contemporary illustration of how this works	40:54
	is described in the words of a patient I have known.	41:00
	She wrote down her experience in this way.	41:06
	"When I came to the hospital, enough interest	41:11
	was taken in me to make me really try for a while.	41:13
	But I couldn't keep up my own end of it.	41:21
	and fast lost support.	41:24
	'You must help yourself,' they said.	41:27
	But there was no help in me.	41:31
	I finally lost contact.	41:37
	This was the death that I had feared	41:44
	worse than death.	41:47
	Months later, I awoke one morning	41:53
	and found myself back again.	41:57
	I knew it could be nothing I had done	42:02
	and I could pretty well be sure it was nothing	42:04
	anyone else had done either because it had been	42:08
	bigger than both of us.	42:10
	I remembered the prayer of my childhood,	42:14
	when I asked God to never leave me.	42:18
	And overcome, I could only whisper in awe	42:27
	and disbelief, 'You remembered.'	42:34
	It has been like coming into sunlight from the depths	42:41
	of the earth."	42:47
	Do you see how right in the middle of life's shifting	42:52
	sands, a foundation can be found?	42:57
	What strength and stability we can draw	43:02
	from the awareness that Christ the Lord	43:05
	is God with us.	43:08
	The rock of our salvation.	43:14
	Now thirdly, foundations of faith also relate to the future.	43:21
	There's abiding sense of hope which has no fear of defeat	43:28
	or sense of resignation.	43:33
	I can remember how ominous the future seemed	43:37
	when I filed into Page Auditorium with the rest	43:42
	of my freshmen class in early September 1957.	43:45
	Dean Barney Jones gave us	43:52
	the usual welcome	43:57
	and congratulated us on being admitted to Duke University.	43:59
	That was the good news.	44:06
	Then, he gave us the bad news.	44:10
	It was predictable that about 30% us would not be present	44:14
	in four years when the class graduated.	44:18
	Then he said, "Look at the person on your left.	44:23
	Now look at the person on your right.	44:30
	One of you will not be with us."	44:37
	Well, my anxiety was running at a pretty high level	44:45
	at that point, and it didn't help matters,	44:47
	that I was sitting at the end of the row.	44:50
	(audience laughing)	44:53
	The future can seem so fearsome and uncontrollable,	45:01
	but faith does not accept the idea that things	45:10
	cannot change or that progress is impossible.	45:15
	It does not cower in the face of injustice,	45:21
	or flinch at the powers of oppression in the world	45:24
	and in humanity.	45:30
	It does not accept as final, the devastation of life,	45:33
	which is the inevitable result of pride,	45:40
	idolatry and hatred.	45:47
	The essence of this hope is the conviction that God is	45:53
	the Lord of life, the past, the present	45:59
	belong to God.	46:04
	And so does the future.	46:07
	In 1714, shortly before the death of Queen Anne,	46:10
	all of England was anxious about the future	46:13
	because there was no apparent direct heir to the throne.	46:18
	And Isaac Watts, in this potentially chaotic situation,	46:23
	turned to the scriptures	46:28
	for support and courage	46:31
	and he came up with a paraphrase of Psalm 90,	46:37
	which has been described as one of the greatest	46:41
	hymns in our language.	46:44
	"Oh God, our health in ages past,	46:47
	our hope for years to come.	46:50
	our shelter from the stormy blast,	46:56
	and our eternal home."	47:00
	That's our foundation for the future.	47:03
	All that God began will be consummated	47:09
	and fulfilled in time.	47:13
	This hope is much more than an attitude based	47:16
	on careful calculation.	47:19
	It's a life orientation.	47:23
	It is a reason for being that is informed by faith,	47:28
	grounded in an inexhaustible source of goodness,	47:33
	the love of God.	47:39
	And it manifests itself in an assurance	47:42
	and a courage born out of the conviction	47:47
	that there is no power of destruction,	47:49
	there is no death so total that the living God	47:54
	cannot work through it to bring things	48:00
	to life and fulfillment.	48:03
	And so Jesus told a simple parable	48:12
	about the wisdom of establishing your life on foundations	48:19
	of faith which are true and valid.	48:23
	Why did I select this particular aspect of the Gospel?	48:31
	I chose it because I have found it to be accurate	48:38
	in my own life and in the lives of people	48:45
	who have allowed me to listen and learn	48:51
	about them during my ministry.	48:55
	I have seen the truth of that parable demonstrated	49:01
	in a wide range of people.	49:05
	Some who've reached the highest levels	49:09
	of personal and professional functioning	49:12
	and some who've become deeply troubled	49:16
	and dysfunctional.	49:21
	The parable is presented in a little more subtle form	49:26
	by Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts.	49:32
	Charlie Brown is down at the seashore	49:38
	and he's building the most elaborate castle built	49:41
	in the history of man.	49:45
	He spends all day building it with 13 doors, 52 windows	49:49
	and 10 towers.	49:53
	And just as he's putting the finishing touches	49:56
	on this magnificent castle,	50:00
	it begins to rain.	50:04
	And in the next frame, it's raining a little harder.	50:08
	And in the next frame, it's a total downpour.	50:12
	And in the final frame, Charlie Brown is sitting	50:15
	in a driving rain storm with a pile of sand	50:19
	in front of him.	50:23
	And he says, "There's a lesson to be learned here	50:26
	somewhere, but I don't know what it is."	50:31
	I think Charlie Brown knows the answer.	50:39
	He's pulling a reversal on us to get us	50:46
	to think and remember.	50:51
	I think we know the answer as well.	50:57
	The church of Jesus Christ proclaims foundations	51:02
	for living which can be trusted.	51:08
	It proclaims a Gospel of salvation which has stood	51:11
	the test of time,	51:15
	centuries of faithful proclamation	51:19
	have brought the message to us	51:23
	from the day of Pentecost	51:27
	until this moment,	51:31
	the spirit of God has moved	51:34
	to bring us assurance	51:39
	now and for the future.	51:44
	Thanks be to God	51:51
	who gives us our foundations.	51:55
	Amen.	52:03
	(organ music)	52:14
	(choir singing, words obscured by echo)	52:41
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	55:46
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	55:50
	who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile	55:55
	and make new, who works in us and others by the spirit.	55:59
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	56:05
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	56:09
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil.	56:13
	To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen our judge	56:18
	and our hope in life and death, in life beyond death	56:23
	we are not alone.	56:30
	We are not alone, thanks be to God.	56:32
	The Lord be with you.	56:36
	Let us pray.	56:40
	Oh Lord our God, you who created us	56:50
	and redeemed us for life.	56:54
	We come into your presence this special day	56:56
	with gladness and singing for when we look around	56:59
	at your creation outside of us and within us,	57:04
	we are overcome by your power and your wisdom.	57:09
	Oh God, we know too that we have fallen far short	57:14
	of the glory of your creation.	57:18
	For we confess that we have misused the earth	57:21
	and misdirected ourselves, our bodies and our spirits.	57:25
	On this day, oh God, we want to be your children anew.	57:31
	Your people who are not ashamed to call you our God	57:36
	or to claim Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.	57:41
	Oh God we ask that you renew your spirit within us today.	57:46
	Come and wipe away our tears of frustration that life brings	57:51
	and our moments of despair.	57:57
	Comfort our troubled hearts.	58:00
	Intercede in our relationships that we might act	58:03
	out of your divine love and sense of justice.	58:07
	Oh God free us from all oppressions which bind us,	58:12
	all yokes that keep us separated from one another	58:16
	and away from your presence.	58:20
	May we come to claim you ever anew as our God,	58:23
	you who love us as we are, come and help us to grow in grace	58:28
	to become faithful disciples, sons and daughters	58:34
	of your son Jesus Christ in this day and age,	58:38
	in this place, this day among family,	58:42
	and among these, our friends.	58:46
	For it is in faith and hope of your kingdom	58:49
	that is here that we pray in the name of Jesus	58:52
	who taught us to pray saying,	58:56
	Our father who art in heaven,	58:59
	hallowed be thy name	59:02
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done	59:05
	on earth as it is in heaven.	59:08
	Give us this day, our daily bread,	59:11
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	59:14
	who trespass against us.	59:18
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,	59:20
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	59:25
	and the glory forever, amen.	59:28
	(organ music)	59:48
	(woman singing, words obscured by echo)	1:00:22
	(choir singing, words obscured by echo and organ)	1:02:18
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:02
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:08
	(organ music)	1:04:19
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:09:00
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:09:21
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:09:27
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:09:34
	♪ Halle ♪	1:09:43
-	Oh God as we offer these gifts to you,	1:09:54
	help us also to be able to offer you ourselves,	1:09:58
	our minds, our spirits and our bodies	1:10:02
	and use them for your ministry in your world, amen.	1:10:05
	(organ music)	1:10:14
	(choir singing, words obscured by echo and organ)	1:10:47
-	Oh God may your grace, mercy and strength	1:13:23
	be with these and may we be instruments of God's grace	1:13:27
	to the world in which we live.	1:13:31
	Amen.	1:13:34
	(choir vocalizing)	1:13:43
	♪ Amen ♪	1:14:02
	(organ music)	1:14:15

Item Info

Title:

John Arthur Wilson III - "Foundations of Faith" (June 14, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 25:52. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 52:04.
In this three-point sermon, the preacher descirbes the foundations of our faith--past, present, and future, on which we depend, who is Jesus Christ. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "The future can seem so fearsome and uncontrollable, but faith does not accept the idea that things cannot change or that progress is impossible...The essence of this hope is the conviction that God is the Lord of life, the past, the present belong to God, and so does the future.""

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4br8mw6s

Date:

June 14, 1981

Speaker:

Wilson, John Arthur, III

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Matthew

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1162
ref7542_skk
uachapelsermaud
duke:320516
dcrau002039
ark:/87924/r4br8mw6s
ebb9a8c9-8574-4f8e-9000-ae770f17e0b7

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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