Jorge Lara-Braud - "The Agony of a New Creation" (May 9, 1971)

Download
- Rights
- No Re-Use
  In Copyright
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP3
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r46m3748t?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r46m3748t
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(melodic singing)	0:03
	(inspiring music)	0:35
	(inspiring music with melodic singing)	1:10
-	Friends, brothers, and sisters, may we now approach	4:22
	the throne of grace in search of the grace we need.	4:28
	Let us pray.	4:35
	Almighty father, we come with our prayers of confession,	4:38
	acknowledging that we sometimes grow tired of confessing.	4:44
	During the past year, as we have tried to be honest to God	4:49
	from time to time, we have had to admit	4:53
	that we were once again sinners.	4:57
	But Lord, we are in need of your grace because we got tired	5:01
	of the wrong act.	5:06
	We grew weary of confessing our sins	5:09
	when we should have grown tired of the reality of sinning.	5:11
	So help us when we are weary to be correctly weary.	5:18
	Also, oh Lord, we have been prone to take hold	5:23
	of life's tragedies by the wrong handle,	5:27
	to show our concern too late.	5:30
	We have a tendency to give charity to the poor	5:34
	but do little to cure the causes of poverty.	5:37
	We wring our hands when coal miners are killed	5:42
	but go on year after year doing little	5:45
	to make the mines safe.	5:48
	We will even spend our money, oh God, to repair the damage	5:51
	of violence in our cities but we will not spend our money	5:55
	to remove the causes of violence.	6:00
	We are indeed sinful.	6:04
	We will sympathetically attend the funeral	6:08
	when a friend is killed in a wreck but allow the causes	6:10
	of wrecks to go uncorrected and will even defend	6:15
	the right of drivers to cause wrecks.	6:18
	We decorate the graves of our young men	6:22
	whose bodies are shipped home from the war	6:24
	but we do not make peace a priority	6:28
	and we laugh at those who take peace seriously.	6:33
	Oh God, we are more prone to help the undertaker	6:39
	bury the dead than we are to aid the physicians	6:43
	in curing the sick.	6:47
	Oh God, we confess that we are sinners,	6:50
	that our general approach to the problems of society	6:54
	is not only stupid but very wrong.	6:58
	And we pray thee to cure us of our wrongness	7:02
	and our stupidity, to forgive us our sins	7:05
	through Jesus Christ, our lord.	7:10
	Amen.	7:13
	We would indeed be hopeless as well as contrite	7:18
	in the presence of a righteous God	7:23
	were it not for the fact that he has assured us in his word.	7:26
	God is not willing that any should perish	7:30
	but that all should come to repentance.	7:34
	And when we come to repentance, he is faithful and just	7:37
	to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all uncleanness.	7:41
	Amen.	7:47
	(inspiring music)	7:50
	(inspiring music with melodic singing)	9:11
-	I shall read from Romans, chapter eight, verses 18 to 27.	14:49
	"I consider that the sufferings we now endure,	14:56
	"they are no comparison with the splendor as yet unrevealed	14:59
	"which is in store for us.	15:03
	"The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight	15:06
	"of the sons of God coming into their own,	15:11
	"for the creature was made subject to imperfection	15:17
	"not by its own choice but because of him who made it so.	15:20
	"Yet always there was hope.	15:26
	"And hope is that in the end, the whole of created life	15:30
	"will be rescued from its bondage to decay	15:35
	"and gain the glorious freedom of God's children."	15:39
	Up to the present, we know, the whole created universe	15:46
	groans in all its parts as if in the pangs of childbirth.	15:51
	And not only they but even we Christians who have the spirit	15:56
	as a foretaste of the future, even we ourselves	16:01
	are groaning inwardly while we wait for the redemption	16:05
	of our bodies, which will mean that at last,	16:10
	we have realized our full sonship in him	16:13
	for we are saved by hope.	16:17
	But hope always means waiting for something	16:21
	that we do not yet possess, for a man	16:25
	who already has something doesn't need to hope	16:28
	and trust that he will get it.	16:32
	And if we are hoping for something still unseen,	16:35
	we keep on patiently waiting for it.	16:40
	And in like manner, the spirit of God not only maintains	16:45
	this hope within us but helps us in our present limitations	16:49
	for we do not know what prayer to offer,	16:57
	nor how to offer it worthily as we ought.	17:00
	But the spirit himself intercedes	17:04
	on our behalf with inexpressible yearnings.	17:07
	And God, who searches our inmost being,	17:13
	knows what the spirit's meaning is because he pleads	17:17
	for God's own people in God's own way.	17:22
	(inspiring music with melodic singing)	17:30
-	The Lord be with you.	18:11
	Let us pray.	18:15
	Now may we join together our hearts and our voices	18:23
	in our unison prayer of thanksgiving.	18:26
	Let us pray.	18:29
	Heavenly father, the giver of every good and perfect gift,	18:31
	we thank you for our creation in your own image,	18:35
	for your preserving mercy every day of our lives,	18:40
	for the protection and comfort of our homes,	18:44
	for all who love us and whom we love,	18:47
	for healing in sickness, deliverance in danger,	18:51
	and strength in sorrow, for the work given us to do	18:55
	and the ability with which to do it,	19:00
	for the uncounted mercies of your mindful providence,	19:03
	and above all for the coming of your beloved son	19:07
	into the world, for the gracious words he spoke,	19:10
	for the kind work he did, for his bitter passion	19:15
	and atoning sacrifice on the cross,	19:19
	for his mighty resurrection from the dead.	19:23
	We express our gratitude for the means of grace,	19:26
	the inward dwelling of your spirit, and the life eternal.	19:30
	Amen.	19:35
	Heavenly father, we offer our prayers for our fellows	19:38
	and ourselves, that our needs may be met	19:42
	by the abundance of thy grace.	19:46
	May understanding be given to those who are now wrestling	19:50
	with the choice of a life's vocation.	19:54
	Grant unto them the grace of patience	19:59
	and at last a firm and resolute mind.	20:01
	We intercede for those who are planning marriage	20:06
	and a home for those who are new in marriage,	20:10
	for those who have young children,	20:15
	for the family whose baby was baptized today.	20:18
	We offer unto thee our earnest petitions for the sick,	20:23
	those who are in the hospital and those at home,	20:27
	especially for the member of our choir,	20:31
	Levana Car, in the hospital.	20:33
	We pray for those who care for the sick.	20:36
	We intercede for the confused, for the bereaved,	20:39
	for the lonely, for the person who is on drugs,	20:43
	the person who is on alcohol.	20:50
	Oh God, while we are assembled here for worship	20:53
	and for spiritual profit, enable us by thy grace	20:56
	to gain higher ground.	21:00
	Grant unto us the gift to see ourselves as others see us.	21:03
	More importantly, give us vision to see ourselves	21:08
	as Christ views us.	21:11
	Bless us with hearts that are intelligently dedicated	21:15
	to the right, not because of the fear of Hell	21:18
	but because we feel the grip of honor.	21:22
	Help us to stand courageously for justice and for decency	21:26
	and thereby be useful in overcoming man's inhumanity to man.	21:32
	Oh Lord, we lift our thoughts to thee in prayer	21:39
	for the church which has been given us	21:41
	by our lord, Jesus Christ.	21:44
	Deliver it from the personal ambitions of its leaders	21:47
	and from the apathy of its followers.	21:51
	May it be united in spirit and in truth.	21:56
	May it escape the corrosion of the spirit of sectarianism,	22:01
	denominational independence, and pride.	22:06
	Deliver its bishops from arrogance and pompousness.	22:10
	Deliver its scholars from pride and sophistry	22:15
	and bringing much labor to small points.	22:19
	Deliver its pastors from a possessive attitude	22:22
	toward their churches and deliver the members from prejudice	22:25
	and a closed mind, that thy church in this day	22:30
	may be what would be pleasing to Christ,	22:35
	who was the friend of sinners and the friend of every man.	22:39
	And now help us to make our own truly the prayer	22:45
	which he has taught all his disciples to pray,	22:49
	saying our father who are in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.	22:52
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	22:58
	on Earth as it is in Heaven.	23:01
	Give us this day our daily bread.	23:04
	And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	23:07
	who trespass against us.	23:10
	And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,	23:13
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	23:17
	and the glory, forever.	23:20
	Amen.	23:23
-	My dear brothers and sisters, I bring you greetings	23:46
	from the distant hinterlands of Texas	23:53
	and from my brothers and sisters	23:59
	south of the Rio Grande in Latin America.	24:03
	It is in the overlapping of these two great societies	24:08
	that some of us labor these days in an attempt	24:16
	to infect people with hope about a new order	24:24
	of things to come in which we will not be in distress,	24:32
	in which we will no longer have to victimize one another.	24:39
	This is Mother's Day.	24:48
	I wish that when I received the invitation to speak	24:50
	in the Duke University chapel some two or three months ago,	24:55
	I had been cognizant of the fact	25:01
	that it was to be Mother's Day and the sermon	25:03
	might have reflected it.	25:07
	It will not.	25:09
	In fact, the sermon is going to be a little bit heavy.	25:11
	It has to do with an agony, the agony that many of us feel	25:17
	because we sense that we are standing on nothing more secure	25:28
	than shifting sands because something new	25:37
	is coming into being.	25:41
	The old is passing away.	25:43
	Behold, the God of creation is the God who continues	25:48
	to make all things new.	25:57
	But we can't be romantic about this newness.	26:02
	It is coming in with a great deal of resentment	26:07
	by those who are used to being in control.	26:12
	It is coming with a great deal of anger	26:19
	by those who have been waiting patiently to be heard	26:23
	and to be vindicated.	26:29
	How in congress it appears to me to be talking about	26:36
	these things today in the incredible beauty	26:43
	of this sanctuary and the peacefulness,	26:48
	the majesty of the landscape that surrounds this campus.	26:54
	It would seem to me that if I were living in this community,	27:04
	it would take a great deal of prophetic insight,	27:11
	a great deal of deliberate acquaintance	27:18
	with those who do not live here and whose existence	27:24
	is itself the kind of expectation and the kind of agony	27:31
	that are the signs of a historical moment	27:41
	of something familiar, not terribly tolerable,	27:47
	that is going away to have its place taken	27:52
	by something that at least is promising,	27:57
	at least is hopeful, and brings on its wings	28:00
	the intimation of a new day of brotherhood.	28:08
	You have heard the reading of the scripture this morning.	28:16
	Saint Paul was writing at a time when he	28:20
	and his fellow Christians knew that they were at the end	28:28
	of an era and the beginning of a quite different one.	28:37
	The outline, the silhouette of the new thing	28:46
	could barely be discerned.	28:50
	And it was necessary for him to speak words of realism	28:53
	and of hope to his fellow Christians.	29:00
	I think we need to do the same thing today.	29:04
	A few weeks ago in Geneva met for the first time	29:10
	the International Advisory Committee to combat racism.	29:20
	I had looked forward to that first meeting because at last	29:29
	the churches of the World Council were to meet head on.	29:35
	One of the most shameful sins that Greek Christians	29:43
	have tolerated, one of the most devastating indignities	29:50
	that one small minority in the world has visited upon	29:58
	an innocent, helpless majority.	30:04
	But I realized that among the 25 of us,	30:09
	not all of us were blacks.	30:15
	There was a man from Japan.	30:20
	And I wondered what is the problem of racism in Japan?	30:23
	Then I heard there is a Korean minority in Japan.	30:29
	They are the blacks or at least the Mexican Americans	30:37
	of that prosperous nation.	30:43
	I saw a fellow Latin American from a country	30:46
	in South America.	30:51
	And I would like to use the expression that he used	30:53
	when I asked him, "Gonzalo, how are things in your country?"	31:00
	Of course the conversation was in Spanish.	31:07
	And the reply was, "Jorge, (speaking Spanish).	31:10
	"In my country, even the trees are creaking."	31:22
	Saint Paul, in writing the passage read a moment ago,	31:35
	felt not only that the trees were creaking	31:40
	but that the whole of creation was groaning	31:44
	into avail us in the midst of the birth pangs	31:48
	of child at birth.	31:54
	When something new, completely new, was about to displace	31:56
	the old and those who were going to get caught	32:01
	in this passage from the old to the new,	32:04
	were going to suffer sufferings unspeakable.	32:08
	And that's why he has to say immediately, "The sufferings	32:15
	"that we endure today are in no way to be compared	32:19
	"to the glory that is to be revealed to us."	32:24
	But the implication is very clear.	32:29
	That kind of glory is not going to be shared	32:33
	by those who want to be safe, who want to sit it out,	32:37
	who want to have no part of it.	32:45
	That glory can only come to those who live	32:48
	in the middle of the vortex and there live	32:52
	at the boundary of human possibility.	32:58
	There they know how limited the human condition is.	33:01
	And they have to cry in agony to the God of the universe.	33:05
	Come down and do your new thing.	33:12
	This time, unlike the time of Saint Paul,	33:20
	it is not just the Mediterranean world that is passing away.	33:25
	Rather, it is the fabric of life in six continents,	33:29
	which is being rent asunder because millions	33:34
	and millions of people will no longer tolerate	33:39
	the brutal conditions to which they have been reduced.	33:46
	The words of the Magnificat are being used in ghettos	33:51
	and barrios of the United States, in favelas and colonias	33:57
	of Latin America, in the preservations and reservations	34:07
	and equivalent separationist techniques of Africa,	34:15
	among the beleaguered peoples of Asia and the Middle East,	34:24
	among the young, the women of advanced societies.	34:32
	The words of the Magnificat.	34:38
	The mighty are being put down from their thrones.	34:41
	Those of low degree are being exalted.	34:45
	The hungry are being filled with good things.	34:49
	The rich are being sent empty away.	34:53
	But as Christians, like Saint Paul,	35:02
	we cannot glorify this massive change	35:08
	that is already being experienced in some parts of the world	35:18
	and constitutes the inevitable promise	35:22
	of the future to come.	35:27
	We cannot be romantic about it because any kind	35:29
	of massive dislocation of societies as we know them,	35:35
	no matter how unjust those societies may be,	35:39
	will bring untold suffering.	35:43
	And countless innocent people are going to be trampled	35:49
	upon under the feet of both the lingering oppressors	35:52
	and the would-be liberators.	36:00
	I do not see, my dear brothers and sisters,	36:05
	how a contemporary Christian who watches TV	36:08
	or who in person has been present at the demise	36:13
	of an old order, can be sanguine or excited	36:17
	at the sight of burning villages, of devastated cities,	36:31
	of mutilated bodies, or unrestrained carnage.	36:37
	If a Christian is going to be involved in bringing about	36:45
	or in helping in the action of God's bringing about	36:52
	a new world, it will have to be in a attitude	36:56
	of profound agony, of the kind of suffering	37:03
	that Saint Paul talks about in this passage.	37:07
	It is the kind of suffering that is enlarged	37:12
	by the knowledge that the Christian has,	37:20
	that humanity has magnificent possibilities	37:23
	because we have seen them become reality	37:28
	in that beautiful,	37:34
	that enthralling, that simple	37:40
	Galilean carpenter, a first-century Jew, Jesus of Nazareth.	37:48
	When we see him, we know what is possible for us.	37:58
	When we see ourselves, we are struck by the contradiction.	38:02
	Oh, how selfish we are.	38:07
	Oh, how self-loving we are.	38:10
	Oh, how provincial we are when we live	38:15
	only within the context of those who think like us,	38:19
	who look like us, who have status like us.	38:24
	This is the peculiar suffering of the Christian these days.	38:32
	He knows the situation could be much more different.	38:36
	But he also knows that the sin of egoism	38:41
	makes possible intolerable situations.	38:46
	It makes possible a nation with 6% percent of the population	38:50
	of the world consuming more than 50%	38:57
	of the nonrenewable resources of that world.	39:03
	That is intolerable.	39:08
	It has to change.	39:10
	The sin of egoism makes possible the richest nation	39:13
	in the world taking $2 out for every dollar it invests	39:20
	in underdeveloped nations.	39:26
	That is intolerable and it must change.	39:30
	It is a sin of egoism that makes possible	39:34
	50% of the Latin American income going to a privileged	39:40
	irresponsible 4% of the population.	39:47
	That is intolerable and it must change.	39:51
	It is a sin of egoism that makes possible	39:55
	for brutally racist regimes in Africa	39:59
	imposing horrendous conditions of life	40:08
	on their black majorities, apparently with impunity	40:15
	and with the consenting silence	40:20
	of the powerful nations of the world.	40:24
	That is intolerable and it must change.	40:27
	And it will change.	40:32
	It will change because God has decreed that a new order	40:33
	will come into being.	40:42
	And he has infused the whole creation with a longing	40:45
	for something that will bring those who formerly hated	40:54
	each other as lovers of one another.	40:59
	He has infused this creation with a holy discontent	41:03
	so that even now it grows in expectation of that thing	41:07
	which is almost there but it has not quite arrived,	41:13
	which has to be helped in some kind of midwifery	41:16
	in order that its arrival will be accelerated.	41:20
	The world is very impatient.	41:25
	And if you were working with Mexican Americans in Texas,	41:27
	if you were working with blacks in Chicago	41:30
	or in some city of North or South Carolina	41:33
	not too far from here, if you were working	41:38
	with the liberation movements of South Africa,	41:40
	if you were working with some of the beleaguered	41:44
	Chinese community of the far east, or if you were working	41:48
	with some of these terribly disenchanted young ones	41:57
	who are very responsible people but who can no longer see	42:01
	the hypocrisy of the older generation,	42:05
	then I think you would be able to understand	42:08
	why Saint Paul says, "Yes, we've grown	42:11
	"along with the creation, waiting for the revealing	42:17
	"of a new humanity which he calls the children of God."	42:23
	It is for that reason that we can be hopeful	42:29
	because Saint Paul says that within this terribly	42:32
	painful experience of the old passing away	42:38
	and the new coming in, creation has already in advance	42:41
	by God been subjected to the limit of futility	42:48
	or as the text that was read this morning	42:53
	put it, imperfection.	42:55
	The world cannot be allowed by God to do more harm to itself	42:58
	than the limits that God has put before it.	43:04
	So that even as we anticipate some rather terrible things	43:08
	happening in the passage from the old to the new,	43:14
	we have this one assurance.	43:18
	God will not allow the evil of men against men to go beyond	43:20
	the limit of futility, where that very evil	43:24
	becomes its own demise.	43:28
	This is one of the hopes.	43:33
	And the other hope is that in the emergence	43:34
	of this new order, we are going to see the promise	43:38
	of the future when a new humanity	43:43
	of the children of God arise.	43:46
	And they are themselves in the manner of their life,	43:48
	in the manner of their rhetoric,	43:55
	in the manner of their hope, they are the harbinger	43:57
	of that new order that God is bringing about.	44:04
	I believe that the clear implication of Saint Paul's message	44:13
	is that these children of God, who are going to be	44:18
	in some way replicas of the man of Nazareth	44:23
	or otherwise they would not be children of God,	44:27
	will so act that first they will challenge	44:33
	every human activity that harms,	44:42
	that brutalizes, that devastates.	44:52
	It is these children of God who are going	45:02
	to say, "No, no, no," to the old order that pampers the few	45:05
	and devastates the many, depending on whether our fellow man	45:16
	has a certain color, a certain nationality,	45:21
	a certain ideology, a certain sex, or a certain status.	45:24
	The children of God will have to say "No, no, no."	45:30
	But they are going to do more than that.	45:34
	They are going to be themselves the expression of egoism	45:37
	passing away and fraternity taking its place.	45:42
	One of the things that keeps coming as a hounding question	45:50
	everywhere I travel is will this passage to the new order	45:55
	be attended with a great deal of violence?	46:04
	It is at this point also that a Christian	46:09
	has got to be very responsible in answering that question.	46:11
	If you live in the United States	46:17
	and if you have compared the possibilities for redress,	46:23
	for correction, in the light of other societies	46:32
	in the world, you have to appear before God	46:38
	as people entrusted With enormous possibilities for good,	46:49
	active in the very system of government of this country,	46:57
	which have not been used even remotely	47:01
	to their full potential.	47:05
	As one who comes from another society,	47:11
	every once in a while I am awed by the possibilities	47:15
	of bringing in the new order in a society	47:23
	like that of the United States with a minimum of strife	47:26
	and with a minimum of what I call counter-violence	47:32
	because what people are resisting is a great deal	47:37
	of legal violence, perpetrated in the name of law,	47:41
	security, order, or the national interest.	47:45
	But recently, when the court handed down a decision	47:51
	that makes possible for a large community in this state	47:59
	to create the objective conditions	48:06
	by which a whole new generation of children of God	48:08
	will live together on a plane of equality.	48:14
	I say thank God.	48:18
	Thank God for the judicial system of this country.	48:22
	When I have seen some of my beleaguered Mexican Americans	48:26
	in Texas totally disenchanted with the institutions	48:30
	being given the opportunity to test	48:39
	their equality before the courts.	48:44
	And what is even better, to be upheld	48:47
	in their rightful cause by those very courts	48:51
	once considered the enemy.	48:54
	I talk to the person who has so been redressed.	48:57
	And he says to me, "You know, we can still bring about	49:01
	"a new thing in this country without having to take weapons	49:07
	"in order to make it possible."	49:12
	I hope, my dear brothers and sisters,	49:17
	that you are going to take, one of these days,	49:21
	a very serious look at the incredible possibilities	49:25
	of this system of government, which can take	49:31
	the most insignificant citizen and not pamper him	49:37
	but give him the tools with which his cause can be upheld	49:45
	if indeed it be just and human.	49:55
	And the reason why I say that is because this country,	49:58
	more than any other today, is determining how long	50:05
	or how short the vindication of the faceless poor	50:14
	is going to be in the rest of the world,	50:25
	for there is no country that has quite the influence	50:28
	to determine world affairs as this particular one.	50:32
	And unless justice is obvious in the domestic affairs	50:37
	of the country, Latin Americans and Asians and Africans	50:43
	and Near Easterners	50:48
	and Chinese and Russians	50:57
	cannot be terribly confident about the passage	51:00
	from the old to the new.	51:05
	I also say this.	51:08
	Because some of my very best friends in Latin America,	51:11
	thoughtful Christians, who have exhausted	51:17
	every single recourse to establish just societies	51:20
	are leaving for the mountains, are taking up weapons,	51:30
	and have come to the conclusion	51:35
	that the only efficacious way of protecting the poor	51:38
	against their present exploitation is by taking up arms.	51:41
	A recent martyr, a young Bolivian Christian, has written,	51:49
	"I believe that the fight for liberation is rooted	51:57
	"in the prophetic line of salvation history.	52:01
	"And don't over-pious Christians tell me otherwise.	52:06
	"The oft-betrayed whip of justice will fall	52:13
	"on the exploiter, that false Christian who forgets	52:18
	"that the force of his love ought to drive him	52:22
	"to liberate his neighbor from sin.	52:25
	"Yes, from sin, which is the lack of love."	52:28
	And he goes on to say, "We believe in a new man made free	52:35
	"by the blood and the resurrection of Jesus.	52:40
	"We believe in a new Earth where love	52:43
	"will be the fundamental law.	52:46
	"This will only come about however by breaking	52:49
	"the old patterns based on egoism.	52:52
	"We don't want patches.	52:57
	"New cloth cannot be used to mend old garments.	53:00
	"Neither can your wine be put into old wine skins.	53:04
	"Conversion of a Christian implies an inner violence,	53:08
	"which is then violently against any kind of exploitation.	53:13
	"May both men and the Lord judge the rectitude of our step.	53:17
	"At least no one can imply that we Christian guerrilla	53:23
	"are searching for profit or for comfort.	53:27
	"Those are precisely the things which we do not find	53:31
	"in this struggle and it is precisely those things	53:34
	"that we leave behind for the liberation of our fellow man."	53:38
	I do not want to be romantic about this quotation	53:44
	from Francisco Nestor Pass, a man a little younger than I	53:48
	who was just killed a few weeks ago	53:53
	because this was the only way in which he could say,	53:56
	"No, no, no," and to put himself on the side of the God	54:00
	who makes all things new.	54:09
	It is an agony to know that we are heading	54:16
	for that new creation.	54:20
	We don't know what it's going to look like.	54:22
	But we know one thing.	54:24
	That system or tradition of life to which we are accustomed,	54:27
	it's no longer ours.	54:32
	It is in the God who makes all things new.	54:34
	What he will bring we do not know.	54:38
	But we can be sustained in hope that this world	54:42
	is not left to its own imaginations or to its own wits.	54:45
	It is God who still is in control.	54:52
	It is God who has already presented himself among us to say,	54:55
	"This is what humanity can do."	55:00
	For that reason, as painful as the new day may be,	55:05
	we can say (speaking foreign language).	55:14
	Even the trees are creaking.	55:18
	But through the cracks of that human tree,	55:21
	we can see God raising a new humanity of children of God,	55:25
	the midwives of the new creation.	55:31
	And if it is his new creation, then we can be saved	55:35
	by that kind of hope.	55:40
	Let us pray.	55:42
	Oh God, forgive us when we allow	55:45
	our positions to possess us.	55:52
	Forgive us when in the comfort	55:58
	gained because of honest labor,	56:04
	we forget that we do not live in just societies.	56:09
	Oh God, forgive us for being patient with injustice.	56:17
	Oh God, forgive us for being romantic	56:22
	when people innocently get trampled upon	56:26
	by even their would-be liberators.	56:31
	Help us through this dark night of the universal soul	56:35
	with the light of the spirit that guides	56:44
	and the example of a humanity that we can imitate.	56:48
	For we pray in the name of him whose spirit	56:53
	has been given us and whose humanity we already share in,	56:55
	even Jesus Christ, our lord.	56:59
	Amen.	57:02
	(inspiring music)	57:05
	(inspiring music with melodic singing)	57:43

Item Info

Title:

Jorge Lara-Braud - "The Agony of a New Creation" (May 9, 1971)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r46m3748t

Date:

May 9, 1971

Speaker:

Lara-Braud, Jorge

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0571
ref6345_vlb
uachapelsermaud
duke:628057
dcrau002558
ark:/87924/r46m3748t
fde5ea84-c087-480a-a73e-c0d52f75d03f

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

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.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Jorge Lara-Braud - "The Agony of a New Creation" (May 9, 1971)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives