Charles E. Shannon - "Here's Something to Believe In" (August 12, 1979)

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-	Duke University Chapel service of worship,	0:05
	April 12, 1979.	0:07
	(organ music)	0:12
-	They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.	10:05
	They shall mount up with wings like eagles.	10:11
	They shall run and not be weary.	10:13
	They shall walk and not faint.	10:16
	Let us pray.	10:20
	Oh Lord our God, God of Abraham and Sarah,	10:24
	Miriam and Moses, Jesus and Mary, God of us all.	10:29
	How good it is, oh Lord, to gather in this place	10:38
	to worship you, for you come to us	10:41
	at the point of our bewilderment and our need.	10:44
	You affirm our goodness and our worth,	10:48
	and you touch our lives with the strength and mercy	10:52
	which comes only from your hand.	10:56
	Come now, oh Lord, as we wait with eager expectation	11:00
	for the word and the experience that you have	11:05
	for us this day.	11:08
	Hear us, for we pray in the name and in the spirit	11:10
	of Jesus Christ our Lord.	11:13
	Amen.	11:16
	("Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty)	11:19
	(congregation's singing drowned out by the organ)	11:57
-	Be seated.	14:50
-	Grace and peace be unto you, my friend,	14:59
	with confidence and assurance that God will hear	15:03
	and answer our prayer.	15:07
	Let us now confess our sin to the Lord our God.	15:10
	Let us pray.	15:14
	Most holy God, creator and judge of all nations and people,	15:16
	we acknowledge and confess the many sins	15:22
	which we have committed by thought, word and deed,	15:25
	against you and against our neighbors.	15:30
	We have listened to your word,	15:33
	but we have heard only what we wished to hear.	15:36
	We have praised you with our lips, but we	15:39
	have not glorified you with our lives.	15:42
	We have feigned love but harbored hate.	15:46
	We have attended to our families but not to strangers.	15:50
	We have preached forgiveness but exercised vengeance.	15:55
	We have helped the needy but only when convenient.	16:00
	We have judged others, but we have not judged ourselves.	16:05
	Gracious God, whose mercy is higher than the heavens,	16:10
	wider than our wanderings and deeper than all sin,	16:15
	receive back to yourself your bewildered	16:21
	and broken children.	16:24
	Forgive our disobedience, and strengthen us	16:26
	by your holy spirit that we may hereafter	16:30
	love and serve you in newness of life	16:34
	to the honor and glory of your name	16:37
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	16:40
	Amen.	16:44
	Let us continue with our personal confession to God.	16:45
	Let us hear these words of assurance	17:16
	from the Lord our God.	17:19
	This saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance	17:21
	that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.	17:27
	Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that person	17:32
	becomes a new creation.	17:34
	The old has passed away.	17:38
	Behold, the new has come.	17:40
	With forgiveness and wholeness of heart now present with us,	17:44
	let us rejoice and celebrate the new life	17:48
	that Christ offers to each of us.	17:51
	Amen and amen.	17:54
	May I say a word of welcome to you today?	18:01
	And for those of you who may be visiting here	18:06
	for the first time, if you think it's warm this morning,	18:07
	this is the coolest Sunday we've had all summer.	18:10
	We are delighted to have you	18:13
	together in this place to worship	18:16
	the Lord God Almighty, to share in fellowship	18:19
	with one another, and to receive the word	18:23
	which God has to offer us on this very day.	18:25
	Those of you of the university community	18:31
	will want to know that Father Bruce Shepherd,	18:34
	the Episcopal chaplain, is back in the hospital.	18:36
	He is in room 2124 Minot and is in rather serious condition.	18:41
	I invite you to remember him in your prayers,	18:48
	if you will, to write him a note or, in some way,	18:53
	to express your love and concern to him.	18:58
	I am sure any such expression will mean much to him	19:02
	during these very difficult days.	19:06
	Tonight at seven o'clock, Mr. Thomas Harmon,	19:10
	the university organist at the University of California	19:15
	at Los Angeles will present an organ concert	19:18
	here in the chapel on the Benjamin N. Duke Memorial Organ.	19:22
	You are invited to come and are invited to bring	19:27
	others with you or to tell others to come	19:30
	and share in this concert,	19:32
	the last one for the summer season.	19:33
	There is no charge, and all are invited to come	19:36
	and be a part of it.	19:39
	This really is a welcome home to	19:41
	Dr. and Mrs. Charles Shannon,	19:44
	who were married in Duke Chapel some few years ago.	19:46
	Mary is a native of Durham and is back home	19:51
	with some of her family today.	19:55
	Dr. Shannon received his undergraduate and divinity	19:58
	degrees from Duke University and has served many	20:00
	of the most outstanding, most significant churches	20:03
	in the western North Carolina Conference	20:07
	of the United Methodist Church.	20:09
	He is a friend of Duke, one who loves this university	20:11
	and the divinity school and all that they stand for.	20:14
	He has been a significant voice and leader	20:17
	in the affairs of the United Methodist Church	20:20
	and the Western North Carolina Conference	20:23
	for a number of years.	20:24
	Charlie, we welcome you and Mary back to Duke,	20:27
	and, in just a few moments, we'll hear	20:30
	gladly and gratefully and expectantly the word	20:33
	of God as you bring it to us today.	20:36
	We're glad to have you with us.	20:39
	And now let us offer to God a prayer as we hear	20:47
	the reading of the word.	20:50
	Let us pray.	20:53
	Oh Lord, your word, true and lively,	20:56
	is ever with us and among us.	21:02
	Speak now, oh God, through this reading	21:06
	and through our hearing, that we may feel	21:08
	and know your presence and your word,	21:11
	comfort, confront and challenge us, we pray,	21:15
	through Jesus Christ Our Lord.	21:20
	Amen.	21:24
	The scripture lesson for this morning is taken	21:27
	from the Old Testament, Psalms 95:1-7,	21:29
	words familiar to us all.	21:34
	Let us hear the word of God.	21:37
	Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.	21:41
	Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.	21:45
	Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.	21:50
	Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.	21:54
	For the Lord is a great God	21:58
	and a great king above all gods.	22:01
	In his hands are the depths of the earth.	22:05
	The heights of the mountains are his also.	22:08
	The sea is his, for he made it.	22:11
	For his hands formed the dry land.	22:15
	Oh come, let us worship and bow down.	22:18
	Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker,	22:24
	for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture	22:28
	and the sheep of his hand.	22:36
	May God bless unto our hearing and understanding	22:40
	the message of these words.	22:44
	Amen.	22:47
	(organ music)	22:50
	(congregation's singing drowned out by the organ)	23:04
-	It is always for me a joy to be at Duke,	24:02
	for, in coming back, I have so many pleasant memories,	24:09
	not least among them, the experiences which I had	24:15
	here while a student many years ago.	24:22
	I shall never forget the first time I stood	24:28
	in this significant pulpit.	24:31
	For about four or five rows in front of me	24:35
	at that time,	24:39
	sat Dr. William Preston Few.	24:41
	And over to his left,	24:47
	Dr. Fowlers, both of whom	24:51
	were in the administration of the university.	24:53
	And I suppose, in some ways, I stand here today	24:59
	with quiverings of the emotion not unakin	25:04
	to that first occasion,	25:10
	almost 40 years ago.	25:13
	What a joy it is to come back home.	25:17
	And particularly today to come and share with you	25:23
	some convictions that are mine	25:27
	and are appropriate for this day.	25:31
	Wherever and whenever the followers of Jesus	25:38
	gather for worship, somewhere in that	25:43
	service of worship,	25:48
	generally, there is an affirmation of faith.	25:49
	And, most of the time, it contains a reference	25:54
	to Almighty God.	25:59
	We shall presently be using a creed, not including	26:02
	that particular phrase but, already in this service	26:07
	of worship, we have been reminded of Almighty God	26:11
	as our minister	26:15
	who presides so very capably,	26:19
	Dr. Young has spoken of Almighty God,	26:22
	whom we have come to worship and adore together.	26:28
	Now, whether we are using the Apostle's Creed	26:34
	or a modern affirmation of our faith,	26:40
	or whether we turn to one a little bit older,	26:45
	the Nicene Creed, if you are familiar with those	26:48
	versions, you will remember that in each of them	26:53
	we refer to our belief in Almighty God.	26:56
	We say that, we affirm that, in our creeds.	27:06
	If that were not enough, usually and, certainly	27:12
	here this morning, we affirm it by our hymns of praise.	27:17
	Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.	27:24
	We sang it together.	27:29
	We sang it lustily.	27:31
	Or we could have sung "I Sing the Almighty Power of God."	27:34
	Or, again, one that I've come to like so much,	27:40
	Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.	27:44
	What I'm reminding you is this, that when we	27:49
	come together for worship,	27:51
	generally, we affirm	27:55
	our belief in an Almighty God.	27:57
	We affirm that by our creeds and through our hymns.	27:59
	And I suppose as our voices in moments like those	28:07
	are raised together, we are uttering big and brave	28:12
	and grand and majestic affirmations,	28:17
	which have been used by people of all ages.	28:21
	In saying those things,	28:27
	aren't most of us wistfully expressing a longing	28:32
	deep within us, saying that we want to believe	28:36
	what we are saying?	28:42
	Now, let's be honest with each other.	28:46
	Do you really believe that God is almighty?	28:50
	If so, why have so many of us become fearful	28:56
	about the world in which we live?	29:00
	And why have we found ourselves so many times	29:06
	without an abiding faith	29:09
	that brings anchor for our souls?	29:12
	Could it be, I'm asking you, that our creeds,	29:19
	as magnificently stated as they have come to be,	29:24
	are the longings of our heart?	29:29
	Could it be that our hymns of praise	29:33
	are expressing a deep desire latent within us	29:37
	that we want to believe, but we still haven't	29:40
	come quite to the place that we can hold onto it?	29:43
	For me, and I dare believe for you, that a lot of time	29:48
	it's a yearning, expressed hopefully, wistfully,	29:52
	we want to believe, but we see so many things	29:57
	that keep us	30:01
	from believing	30:04
	in an Almighty God.	30:07
	I suppose this is a part of the credibility gap	30:09
	that exists all about us.	30:13
	But whether we look up to heaven or we	30:17
	turn our seeking toward Washington,	30:19
	we find, do we not, that demolition squads	30:25
	have been at work in the realm of faith,	30:30
	in the realm of our institutions, in the realm	30:35
	of our personal relationships.	30:37
	And some of the things which we believed one time	30:42
	were solid and secure and enduring now take on	30:45
	the character and the appearance of impermanence.	30:50
	May I illustrate it?	30:55
	Look at the American home,	30:58
	an institution with which	31:02
	every one of us is associated.	31:04
	And look at the crumbling effects of the standards	31:11
	of morality of our day.	31:14
	Homes in which purity is scoffed at.	31:19
	Homes in which fidelity is questioned,	31:24
	and discipline is not followed, and selfishness,	31:26
	rather than love, is the rule	31:30
	of the hour.	31:35
	Why, even the validity as well as the integrity	31:38
	of marriage as an institution is being questioned	31:43
	by people of our nation today.	31:46
	The American home, you see, which once	31:51
	we believed held all of the values	31:54
	sacred to so many of us is now a little uncertain	32:00
	for every one of us.	32:08
	Or when we look toward Washington,	32:13
	remembering our heritage as an American people,	32:17
	we find little to give us confidence or courage.	32:21
	Censure of elected members, corruption in agencies	32:25
	and departments, some of us wonder if the General	32:29
	Service Administration, with its	32:32
	$100 million	32:35
	fraud will ever find the answer for its problems.	32:39
	Demolition squads, you see, are at work.	32:45
	We want to believe in the validity of our institutions,	32:49
	even our American way, the government itself.	32:52
	And we remember that some of the promises	32:56
	of our well-respected and loved	33:00
	elected officials	33:04
	either are forgotten or are not carried out	33:08
	in their intended way.	33:14
	And what effects institutions such as the home	33:18
	or the government of our nation also, you see,	33:20
	affects the church to which we find ourselves	33:23
	attached, either here on the university	33:27
	community or back home.	33:29
	I don't suppose, Dr. Young, that there's	33:33
	a denomination in all of Protestantism that	33:36
	hasn't experienced over the last several years	33:41
	a great deal of descension and division	33:45
	because of pronouncements and proposals	33:50
	of many of its boards and agencies.	33:53
	And we who are back out there on the front	33:57
	of the local parish find so many of the laity	34:00
	saying if this is what the church is involved in,	34:03
	I want none of it at all.	34:08
	So, you see, when one begins to look at cherished	34:13
	institutions,	34:18
	something has been at work,	34:21
	a demolition squad.	34:24
	And the things that we once believed in	34:27
	no longer do we find we are able to hold on to	34:29
	with a sense of security.	34:34
	Now, what's true in those realms certainly is true	34:38
	in the realm of personal relationships.	34:40
	As a minister of a rather large parish over in Greensboro,	34:44
	I seldom move through a week in which I don't	34:48
	have somebody come in and share with me	34:50
	something of the broken relationships	34:53
	which they've experienced,	34:56
	of confidences that have been broken and lost.	35:00
	They come to share their disenchantment with life itself,	35:05
	their disappointments over lost ideals.	35:09
	Frequently I hear it expressed this way.	35:15
	"I don't know if I can ever believe in anything	35:19
	or anybody anymore."	35:24
	Yes, you see, whether we're thinking about these	35:28
	organizations that affect us intimately or our	35:33
	personal relationships, you and I have had a lot	35:35
	of questions raised in recent months	35:40
	and in the last few years.	35:44
	Do we have something to believe in?	35:48
	Can we really say that God himself is almighty?	35:51
	Do our creeds, do our hymns of praise, hold	35:57
	the allurement for us, the invitation, which once they held?	36:00
	Recently, I've turned to read again the book of Revelation.	36:07
	And, this time, I've been reading the translation	36:12
	by Dr. William Barclay.	36:15
	You remember something about the book.	36:19
	Written during the reign of Domitian, near the end	36:23
	of the first century in the Christian era,	36:28
	the purpose of which, it seems to me, was to bring	36:32
	encouragement and hope, to reemphasize again	36:35
	for its reader a note of faith and triumph.	36:40
	The writer was saying, although he referred to a number	36:46
	of visions and symbols, basically he was saying	36:50
	something like this.	36:54
	Hold onto your faith.	36:55
	The world is not going to pieces.	36:58
	Evil will not emerge victorious.	37:01
	Have faith.	37:05
	God is still on his throne.	37:07
	And so I come to share with you the text	37:10
	of the morning from Dr. Barclay's translation	37:13
	of the book of Revelation.	37:18
	"Alleluia!	37:20
	For the Lord our God, who holds all things	37:22
	in his control has begun to reign."	37:26
	It's a portion of the 19th chapter.	37:32
	Let me read it again for you.	37:35
	"Alleluia!	37:37
	For the Lord our God who holds all things	37:39
	in his control has begun to reign."	37:42
	Here's something to believe in.	37:47
	Now, it seems to me that St. John the Divine,	37:53
	writer of the book of Revelation, was saying	37:56
	two or three things that we ought to take with us	37:59
	and make applicable to our faith.	38:03
	He's saying, first of all,	38:08
	somebody is in charge.	38:11
	It's hard to believe, isn't it,	38:16
	when we think about our world,	38:19
	to say that somebody's in charge?	38:21
	Driving over from Greensboro this morning,	38:25
	listening to broadcasts of national news and world events,	38:28
	I heard stories of earthquake,	38:36
	of death and destruction	38:42
	in several other places across the face	38:43
	of our world, God's world.	38:46
	And, as I was listening to the radio,	38:51
	I was wondering how I should react to that	38:53
	when I'm sharing with you here something to believe in,	38:56
	and I had planned to say to you that someone	39:00
	is in charge of the world.	39:04
	Natural disasters, floods and tornadoes,	39:08
	world hunger, the plight of the boat people,	39:13
	Mideast problems, crash of airlines, you name it.	39:18
	The problems of energy itself.	39:24
	And you would say it's hard to believe, preacher,	39:27
	that somebody is in charge of this world.	39:29
	Recently, I went over to Winston-Salem,	39:35
	where our church, the United Methodist Church,	39:37
	is in the process of building a home for aged people.	39:42
	It's been my privilege to work in that project now	39:49
	for the better part of two years, in its planning	39:51
	stages as well as now in the days of its construction.	39:55
	The director of the home, Dr. Jules Spock,	40:02
	and several of us went out on the construction site.	40:05
	And I was amazed to see how the steel girders,	40:10
	which had risen two, three stories in height,	40:14
	were now being encased	40:19
	by lumber and brick and mortar.	40:22
	I saw trucks with the name of a plumbing firm	40:27
	on the side or that of an electrical contractor.	40:31
	I saw trucks that were representing insulation firms,	40:37
	where the units had already been finished to the point	40:44
	that insulation could be installed.	40:46
	I saw cement mixers unloading their large	40:50
	loads of molten driveways.	40:55
	I saw a bulldozer in one instance working	41:00
	to bring the landscaping more in harmony	41:03
	with what we had hoped for.	41:07
	And I said to Dr. Spock, "This confuses me.	41:09
	I see so many things going on.	41:14
	I wonder how anybody ever knows what's taking place."	41:17
	I feel, incidentally, the same way every time	41:22
	I come by Duke Hospital, the north unit	41:25
	that's under construction.	41:28
	I wonder if, I really wonder if anybody knows	41:30
	what's taking place.	41:34
	How do they get it all together?	41:35
	But Dr. Spock, as he was showing me	41:38
	around the construction site in Winston-Salem,	41:41
	pointed over to our right,	41:44
	a little unit that looked something like a mobile home.	41:48
	And he said, "Charlie, inside that building	41:51
	the superintendent of construction is on duty	41:57
	the better part of 10 hours every day,	42:00
	and he knows how to read the blueprints.	42:05
	He knows the detailed specifications.	42:10
	He knows what's going on.	42:14
	He's in contact with the various subcontractors	42:16
	and the general contractor.	42:21
	The general superintendent is in charge.	42:24
	He knows what's going on."	42:27
	I went out on my porch in Greensboro this morning	42:32
	to pick up the Sunday morning paper.	42:35
	Just to the left of the door, there's a dogwood tree,	42:39
	and I noticed that during the night, hundreds	42:44
	of its leaves had fallen.	42:47
	And there on the steps and across the stoop	42:49
	of the house, there was almost a covering of leaves	42:51
	that were yellow, indicating that	42:59
	the seasons were changing.	43:03
	As I picked up the newspaper and went back in to read it,	43:06
	I could recall that there was a day, not many months	43:09
	ago, when there were no leaves at all on that tree.	43:13
	There were only blossoms.	43:17
	I remembered that last winter it was bare	43:21
	without any foliage at all.	43:24
	And now the leaves were falling, and I could	43:26
	believe that the time would come again	43:30
	when the blossoms would come out, and the leaves	43:32
	would be green and lend their beauty to all	43:35
	who came that way.	43:38
	What am I saying?	43:41
	Somebody is in charge of this world.	43:42
	I like Babcock's hymn, "This Is My Father's World."	43:46
	We'll sing it before we've gone from here today.	43:50
	"Though the wrong seems oft so strong,	43:54
	God is the ruler yet."	43:57
	Here's something to believe in.	44:00
	Alleluia!	44:03
	For the Lord our God who holds all things	44:04
	in his control has begun to reign.	44:06
	He's a God who is in charge.	44:10
	But I want to know something else about this God	44:17
	who holds all things in his control.	44:20
	He's in charge, yes.	44:23
	That I believe.	44:25
	I like to remember that this God who holds	44:28
	all things in his control	44:31
	is a capable God.	44:34
	I think I can best illustrate it this way.	44:39
	A few years ago, in my pastorate,	44:43
	a family of a young preschool boy had taken	44:49
	the lad to the local hospital where he was	44:54
	being hospitalized because he had experienced	44:58
	three or four severe seizures in the early	45:02
	morning hours one day early in the week.	45:07
	The mother, who was	45:14
	so fearful that he would	45:18
	experience another seizure while he was there	45:20
	in the hospital room alone, determined	45:23
	in her own mind that she would not leave him.	45:27
	She had a cot brought into the hospital room.	45:31
	Day in and day out, she was there,	45:36
	along with the nurses	45:41
	who came in and the doctors who visited, to care	45:42
	for the little five year old.	45:45
	Five days I suppose had gone by,	45:49
	and she was beginning to tire.	45:51
	She'd been there 24 hours a day.	45:54
	Even food she had had brought in by other	45:56
	members of her family.	45:59
	And when people, friends, would come by	46:01
	and say to her, "You need to get out for a few	46:03
	minutes or for a couple of hours."	46:05
	She would say to them, "I'm going to stay here	46:07
	and take care of my little boy."	46:10
	"You'd not understand,"	46:13
	she would tell so many people,	46:15
	and that went on for five days, as I recall,	46:19
	until, on the fifth day,	46:22
	a registered nurse,	46:27
	a friend of the family for many years,	46:28
	came by and said to her, "You must leave the hospital room	46:31
	at least for a few hours."	46:35
	And she assured the mother that she too	46:38
	had children that she had been related to many	46:41
	cases of illness similar to this.	46:46
	She said to her, "I'll know what to do if your	46:49
	child experiences a seizure.	46:52
	Leave the hospital room, and I'll care	46:55
	for your son while you're gone."	46:58
	And the mother left, because she could leave	47:00
	with somebody capable in charge.	47:04
	I like the old American folk song.	47:09
	"He's Got the Whole	47:14
	World in His Hands."	47:15
	We used to sing it.	47:16
	You remember?	47:17
	And then some of its stanzas were intriguing.	47:20
	"He's got you and me, brother, in his hands,"	47:24
	referring to the hands of God.	47:27
	"He's got the whole world in his hands.	47:32
	He's got the little bitty baby in his hands."	47:34
	Here's something to believe in.	47:39
	For the Lord our God who holds all things	47:42
	in his control has begun to reign.	47:45
	Somebody is in charge.	47:51
	Somebody capable is in charge.	47:54
	But let me say one more thing.	47:57
	Somebody is in charge.	48:01
	Somebody capable is in charge.	48:02
	But, also, and here's the important note	48:04
	it seems to me, somebody compassionate,	48:07
	compassionate is in charge.	48:13
	Aw, to me, one of the most inviting words	48:18
	in all of the New Testament	48:22
	is the word compassion.	48:26
	And every time I come upon the story of the Prodigal Son	48:31
	or turn to the story of the Good Samaritan,	48:37
	that word stands out in bold relief,	48:41
	for it's the most descriptive word that is given	48:47
	us in those stories about a God who cares	48:50
	for his creation.	48:54
	And, you see, that's why after almost 40 years	48:59
	in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ,	49:02
	aware of what's been taking place in our world,	49:06
	aware of the evil that dogs the lives of so many of us	49:10
	and the heartaches that beset us.	49:15
	That's the reason I can stand here this morning	49:18
	and say to you somebody is in charge.	49:20
	Somebody capable is in charge.	49:24
	But, most of all, we have hope	49:26
	because somebody compassionate is in charge.	49:30
	This God of ours is like the father who waits	49:37
	for a wayward son.	49:42
	A wayward son who has degraded himself.	49:45
	A wayward son who has violated so many	49:50
	of his father's commands and wishes,	49:53
	but a wayward son who comes back home	49:56
	and finds a compassionate father,	50:00
	who planned a barbecue for the boy and his friends.	50:05
	Isn't that glorious?	50:11
	Somebody is in charge who's compassionate.	50:14
	He's like the Good Samaritan who found	50:19
	the wounded man beside the road	50:22
	and picked him up	50:27
	and put him on his own beast and took him to an inn	50:28
	and there paid the innkeeper for several day's care	50:34
	and said to him, "Whatever else you spend,	50:38
	I'll pay you when I come this way again."	50:40
	He had compassion on him.	50:45
	Oh, my dear friends, this is the message	50:49
	that I want to hear proclaimed from the housetop	50:51
	and from our pulpits today, not about a God who	50:55
	acts out of vengeance	50:59
	or whose justice alone is emphasized.	51:03
	Here's something to believe in.	51:11
	Alleluia!	51:15
	For the Lord our God, who holds all things	51:16
	in his control has begun to reign.	51:21
	My dear friends, the question for every one of us	51:28
	is this:	51:32
	Is this God who holds all things	51:35
	in his control reigning	51:39
	in our life?	51:43
	May God make it so for every one of us.	51:48
	Let us pray.	51:56
	Almighty and ever living God, with gratitude	52:01
	for your presence among us, we lift our prayer	52:06
	of thanksgiving and our petition, Oh Lord, that	52:12
	you would strengthen the beliefs that we have	52:18
	and, by a personal relationship with thee,	52:23
	give us courage to be the church of the living God	52:27
	in this our day and your day.	52:34
	Hear us, we pray, through Christ our Lord.	52:37
	Amen.	52:42
	(organ music)	52:47
	(congregation's singing drowned out by the organ)	53:30
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	56:04
-	We believe in God who has created and is creating	56:09
	Who has come in the truly human Jesus	56:14
	to reconcile and make new.	56:17
	Who works in us and others by the spirit.	56:20
	We trust God, who calls us to be the church,	56:25
	to celebrate life and its fullness, to love	56:30
	and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil.	56:34
	To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	56:40
	our judge and our hope.	56:44
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	56:47
	God is with us.	56:53
	We are not alone.	56:55
	Thanks be to God.	56:57
-	You may be seated.	57:01
	The Lord be with you.	57:08
-	And with your spirit.	57:10
-	Let us pray.	57:12
	Oh thou, who art our maker and our God,	57:16
	because we can only learn to pray by praying,	57:21
	we dare to bring thee now our prayers,	57:25
	unfinished, unpolished as they are.	57:29
	We would, first of all, Oh God, offer thee	57:35
	unbounded praise and thanksgiving.	57:37
	We thank thee for life and light and all things good.	57:41
	We thank thee for the good earth,	57:48
	rich in mineral wealth and resplendent in beauty.	57:50
	We thank thee for soft, gentle rains and cool,	57:55
	refreshing breezes, for time and its flow,	58:00
	the seasons in their march and the stars	58:04
	in their courses.	58:08
	We thank thee for our names and those who	58:10
	know us by them.	58:13
	We thank thee for skills of mind or hand	58:16
	that render us employable.	58:19
	We thank thee for folks about us who care	58:23
	what we think and how we feel.	58:26
	We thank thee for memory and hope,	58:30
	encouragement and praise and all such	58:33
	invisible forces which enhance the gift of life	58:37
	and stretch us to greater effort.	58:42
	Oh God, there are blessings that come to us	58:46
	so clearly marked that even in our most	58:48
	disgruntled mood, they compel our thanks.	58:51
	But we would also now reflect upon mercies	58:57
	that have come to us disguised or reached	59:00
	us in roundabout ways.	59:03
	We think of an unwelcomed illness that shifted	59:06
	the center of our trust from self to thee.	59:09
	We think of new people who entered our life	59:14
	without our willing or wanting, and, in time,	59:17
	expanded our horizons and made us the better	59:21
	for our friendship.	59:23
	We remember some prize that toppled from our grasp	59:26
	as we strained to reach it, causing us to change	59:29
	course, and, in the changing, to discover life itself.	59:33
	We remember long nights of heavy-hanging doubt	59:39
	that issued in a wiser, sturdier faith.	59:43
	For these and other backdoor mercies,	59:48
	we give thee thanks, dear God.	59:51
	And in our unpolished, unfinished prayers	59:55
	to thee this day, most high and exalted God,	59:57
	we would offer also solemn petitions.	1:00:03
	We pray for all those who don't have enough,	1:00:09
	the hungry, the poor, the sick and the lonely.	1:00:14
	We pray for the unemployed, the unfulfilled	1:00:23
	and the unwanted.	1:00:28
	We pray for those who mourn, who suffer, who hurt.	1:00:31
	And, oh Lord, we also pray today for those	1:00:39
	among us and in the world around us who	1:00:41
	are burdened not by too little but by too much.	1:00:44
	We pray for those who have so much power	1:00:51
	that they have grown indifferent to the rights	1:00:53
	and claims of others and are fast becoming	1:00:55
	what they do not wish to be.	1:00:58
	We pray for those who have so much health	1:01:01
	that they cannot understand the sick	1:01:04
	or reckon more adequately with their own mortality.	1:01:06
	We pray for those who have so much wealth	1:01:11
	that they prize possessions more than people	1:01:14
	and worry into the night about losing what they have.	1:01:17
	We pray for those who have so much knowledge	1:01:22
	that they have grown proud and self-sufficient	1:01:25
	and lost the common touch.	1:01:30
	We pray for those who have so much virtue	1:01:32
	that they cannot see their sins or appreciate thy grace.	1:01:34
	We pray for those who have so much leisure	1:01:41
	that they move like driftwood on the surface of existence,	1:01:43
	lacking any cause larger than themselves.	1:01:48
	And finally, oh Lord, in our broken and incomplete way,	1:01:52
	we would pray for thy church throughout the world,	1:01:57
	where it is strong, make it gentle.	1:02:02
	Where it is weak, make it strong.	1:02:05
	Where it is honored, make it humble.	1:02:09
	Where it is persecuted, make it proud.	1:02:12
	Where it is wrong, overrule it.	1:02:16
	Where it is right, make it stand.	1:02:20
	Almighty God, hear our prayers, both spoken	1:02:25
	and unspoken, unfinished and unpolished	1:02:30
	as they are, for they are offered in the name	1:02:34
	of Jesus the Christ, our Lord and our Savior,	1:02:38
	the one who completes in us your new creation.	1:02:42
	And the one who taught us to pray, saying.	1:02:48
	Our father, who art in Heaven	1:02:52
	hallowed be thy name.	1:02:55
	They kingdom come, thy will be done,	1:02:57
	On earth, as it is in Heaven.	1:03:01
	Give us this day our daily bread,	1:03:04
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:03:07
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:03:10
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	1:03:14
	For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.	1:03:20
	Amen.	1:03:27
	(organ music)	1:03:34
	(organ music)	1:10:05
	(Congregation's singing drowned out by the organ)	1:10:51
	Almighty God, receive these offerings	1:11:50
	which we bring and enable us with all our gifts	1:11:53
	so to yield ourselves to you that with body,	1:11:58
	soul and mind we may truly serve you,	1:12:02
	and, in your service, find our deepest joy.	1:12:07
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	1:12:11
	(organ music)	1:12:18
	(congregation's singing but drowned out by the organ)	1:12:40
	Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself	1:14:42
	and God our father, who loved us and gave us	1:14:46
	eternal comfort and good hope through grace	1:14:49
	comfort your hearts and establish them in every	1:14:54
	good work and word.	1:14:57
	Amen.	1:15:00
	(organ music)	1:15:03

Item Info

Title:

Charles E. Shannon - "Here's Something to Believe In" (August 12, 1979)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 24:02. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 51:53.
The preacher comforts listeners who struggle to believe, offering a refrain and several examples to counter this doubt: "Here's somthing to believe in." (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "Could it be that our hymns of praise are expressing a deep desire latent within us that we want to believe, but we still haven't come quite to the place that we can hold onto it?"

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4j38kz15

Date:

August 12, 1979

Speaker:

Shannon, Charles E.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Revelation

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1178
ref7285_x2q
uachapelsermaud
duke:320845
dcrau002041
ark:/87924/r4j38kz15
b6f800e6-54ef-405e-9b2c-a0097d58c213

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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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:

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In Copyright

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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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Charles E. Shannon - "Here's Something to Believe In" (August 12, 1979)

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Duke University Archives