James T. Cleland - "If I Sat Where You Sit" (September 12, 1971)
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| (choir singing) | 0:03 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 1:13 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 2:02 | |
| - | Beloved, we not only have need of prayer in general, | 2:23 |
| we have need of prayer in particular, | 2:28 | |
| because we are sinners, | 2:31 | |
| in need of the forgiveness of God. | 2:34 | |
| Because of that, | 2:37 | |
| both by our unison prayer spoken | 2:39 | |
| and by our prayer that will be sung, | 2:41 | |
| let us confess our sins to God and ask his forgiveness. | 2:45 | |
| Let us pray. | 2:49 | |
| Oh righteous Father, | 2:51 | |
| before who's holiness, our hearts tremble. | 2:53 | |
| We humbly confess the many sins | 2:57 | |
| with which we have dishonored Thy name. | 2:59 | |
| Our shortcomings in faith, obedience, and love. | 3:03 | |
| We confess that we have failed to love our enemies, | 3:07 | |
| and to do good to those who hate us. | 3:11 | |
| We have pointed to the speck in our brother's eye, | 3:14 | |
| but have not noticed the log in our own eye. | 3:18 | |
| We often have behaved as badly as those | 3:21 | |
| who are not of the household of faith. | 3:24 | |
| We pray thee to forgive us our sins, | 3:27 | |
| and to enable us to make a gracious witness | 3:30 | |
| for Christ in the world. | 3:33 | |
| We pray in his name. | 3:35 | |
| Amen. | 3:38 | |
| (church organ music) | 3:43 | |
| (choir singing) | 3:50 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 4:25 | |
| (choir member singing) | 4:58 | |
| (choir singing) | 5:43 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 6:37 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 7:14 | |
| - | In a world of sinful men, | 8:06 |
| where love is more a word than a reality, | 8:10 | |
| it is very assuring, | 8:14 | |
| to have a reliable message from God | 8:16 | |
| breaking in upon us, | 8:21 | |
| saying that love with Him toward us | 8:24 | |
| is more a reality than a word. | 8:28 | |
| This love was made flesh, | 8:32 | |
| in the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. | 8:35 | |
| in John 3:16, we read these words. | 8:40 | |
| "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, | 8:44 | |
| that whoever believes on him might not perish, | 8:50 | |
| but have everlasting life." | 8:55 | |
| Amen. | 8:58 | |
| (church organ music) | 9:01 | |
| (church organ music continues softly) | 9:52 | |
| - | Today's lesson is taken from the sixth chapter of Micah, | 10:13 |
| verses six through eight, | 10:17 | |
| and from the 22nd chapter, | 10:20 | |
| of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, | 10:22 | |
| verses 34 through 40. | 10:25 | |
| "With what shall I come before the Lord, | 10:30 | |
| and bow myself before God on high, | 10:32 | |
| shall I come before him with burnt offerings, | 10:36 | |
| with calves a year old? | 10:39 | |
| Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, | 10:42 | |
| and with 10 thousands of rivers of oil? | 10:46 | |
| Shall I give my first born for my transgression? | 10:50 | |
| The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. | 10:54 | |
| He has showed you, oh man, what is good, | 10:59 | |
| And what does the Lord require of you, | 11:02 | |
| but to do justice, and to love kindness, | 11:05 | |
| and to walk humbly with your God. | 11:10 | |
| But when the Pharisees heard | 11:18 | |
| that he had silenced the Sadducees, | 11:20 | |
| they came together and one of them, a lawyer, | 11:22 | |
| asked him a question to test him. | 11:27 | |
| 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' | 11:31 | |
| And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord, your God, | 11:36 | |
| with all your heart, and with all your soul, | 11:41 | |
| and with all your mind, | 11:45 | |
| this is the great and first Commandment. | 11:47 | |
| And the second is like it. | 11:51 | |
| You shall love your neighbor as yourself. | 11:54 | |
| On these two commandments, | 11:58 | |
| depend all the law and the prophets.'" | 12:00 | |
| (church organ music) | 12:06 | |
| (choir singing) | 12:15 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 12:48 |
| Congregation | And also with you. | 12:51 |
| - | Let us pray. | 12:52 |
| Our gracious heavenly Father, | 13:02 | |
| we lift up to your throne of grace, | 13:05 | |
| our prayers of thanksgiving. | 13:08 | |
| Today, if home and families seem far away for many of us, | 13:11 | |
| we are grateful that your presence is closer | 13:18 | |
| than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. | 13:21 | |
| If we have been disappointed, | 13:26 | |
| because someone we trusted has betrayed our trust, | 13:28 | |
| we are thankful that we can rely upon your faithfulness, | 13:33 | |
| your truth, and your promises. | 13:37 | |
| Oh God, if we have known illness, | 13:42 | |
| we are grateful that we have also experienced health. | 13:46 | |
| And we thank you for the healing power | 13:50 | |
| of the great physician who is strong to save. | 13:52 | |
| If our country has been involved in wrong policies, | 13:59 | |
| we thank you that your spirit has raised up | 14:04 | |
| dissenting voices to call it back | 14:07 | |
| to the paths of righteousness. | 14:09 | |
| If there have been dark times of strife | 14:14 | |
| and bigotry in our own land, | 14:16 | |
| we are thankful that there have also been bright times | 14:20 | |
| of justice and brotherhood, | 14:23 | |
| when truth and love have prospered. | 14:26 | |
| Oh Lord, although there have been young people | 14:31 | |
| who have desecrated every sacred principle | 14:34 | |
| of Christian faith and practice, | 14:37 | |
| we thank you that there are also thousands of young people, | 14:40 | |
| who are willing to suffer a ridicule to bear witness | 14:45 | |
| to the Man of Galilee and his way. | 14:48 | |
| We come now to you in prayer for our loved ones, | 14:55 | |
| and for those in hard places, | 14:59 | |
| who cannot do well without your grace. | 15:02 | |
| We pray for those who bear the heavy duty | 15:06 | |
| to make choices for all the people in government. | 15:09 | |
| For those who must accept the responsibility | 15:14 | |
| for the ship of state, | 15:17 | |
| for those who guide the church, | 15:20 | |
| for those whose decisions affect the economy, | 15:23 | |
| for the leaders of our university, | 15:28 | |
| for the officers of student government, | 15:31 | |
| and those who influence their fellow students. | 15:34 | |
| Our Father, we intercede for all who are in distress. | 15:39 | |
| Those who are sick or injured. | 15:42 | |
| We pray, especially for the recovery | 15:46 | |
| of our neighboring Carolina football player, Bill Arnold. | 15:49 | |
| We pray for those who are in grief. | 15:54 | |
| Those who see their past mistakes closing in upon them. | 15:57 | |
| We pray for the lonely, for the bitter, the defeated. | 16:01 | |
| Give them strength, give them love. | 16:06 | |
| May they find wisdom and a sense of direction. | 16:10 | |
| Now we pray for those who are newly married, | 16:16 | |
| and those about to be married. | 16:19 | |
| We joyfully ask your blessing upon the marriage | 16:22 | |
| of our Duke students today. Nancy Coble, Fred Damon. | 16:24 | |
| And now we offer our prayers for ourselves, | 16:31 | |
| that we may have a creative balance in life. | 16:35 | |
| Grant onto us, a kind of faith which is not blind to facts. | 16:39 | |
| But may we not become so absorbed with the glitter of facts | 16:45 | |
| that we overlook our need for faith. | 16:49 | |
| Give us a proper concern for our own welfare, | 16:53 | |
| that we may eat the foods that are good for us, | 16:57 | |
| get sufficient rest, take care of our health. | 17:00 | |
| But may we not become so preoccupied with ourselves | 17:05 | |
| that we shall neglect to love our neighbor as ourselves. | 17:08 | |
| Teach us how to plan for successful achievement | 17:14 | |
| in worthwhile things. | 17:17 | |
| But, oh God, deliver us from a worship of success, | 17:20 | |
| which destroys our perspective when we lose. | 17:23 | |
| We pray for devotion to noble and high sexual ethics, | 17:28 | |
| so that we may not disobey your will by adultery | 17:34 | |
| or fornication, | 17:37 | |
| but give us a wholesome view of sex, | 17:39 | |
| to see it as clean and good as you have made it, | 17:43 | |
| and declared it to be. | 17:46 | |
| Enable us oh God, to find the proper percentage | 17:49 | |
| of work and play in our lives, | 17:52 | |
| so that we may not become drudgerous by overwork, | 17:56 | |
| or profligate by making continual holiday. | 18:00 | |
| Grant us a willingness to change our ways, | 18:05 | |
| which is not blind to the values of tradition | 18:08 | |
| that ought to be conserved, | 18:10 | |
| but we pray you to keep us from a nervous loyalty | 18:14 | |
| to the past that cannot see your spirit | 18:17 | |
| leading us into new patterns of obedience. | 18:19 | |
| We pray for a spirit of faith, | 18:25 | |
| which will deliver us from anxiety and fear, | 18:28 | |
| but enable us to be alert to the harmful consequences | 18:32 | |
| of wrong choices and unwise actions. | 18:35 | |
| In all things give us the mind and spirit of Jesus, | 18:40 | |
| for we make our prayer in his name, | 18:45 | |
| remembering the words he has taught us to use, saying, | 18:47 | |
| Our Father who art in heaven, | 18:51 | |
| hallowed be Thy name, | 18:54 | |
| Thy kingdom come, | 18:56 | |
| Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. | 18:58 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread, | 19:02 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 19:05 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 19:07 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 19:11 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 19:13 | |
| For Thine is the kingdom, | 19:16 | |
| and the power and the glory forever. | 19:17 | |
| Amen. | 19:21 | |
| The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 19:44 | |
| What does one sermonize about, | 19:53 | |
| at the university service of worship, | 19:57 | |
| on yet another official | 20:01 | |
| opening Sunday? | 20:04 | |
| What does one want to say? | 20:07 | |
| What should one say? | 20:11 | |
| What does one hope to say? | 20:14 | |
| And yet are these the right questions for me, | 20:20 | |
| the preacher to ask? | 20:24 | |
| Should they not be, | 20:28 | |
| what do you in the congregation want me to say? | 20:31 | |
| What do you in the pew think I ought to say? | 20:37 | |
| what do you hope I shall say? | 20:44 | |
| That is a better approach. | 20:50 | |
| Because the question which the pulpiteer | 20:54 | |
| must always keep in mind any Sunday, | 20:58 | |
| every Sunday is, | 21:03 | |
| if I sat, | 21:06 | |
| where you sit, | 21:08 | |
| what then? | 21:11 | |
| Therefore, let me share with you, | 21:14 | |
| what I think I would like to hear from the pulpit | 21:17 | |
| at this opening service of worship, | 21:20 | |
| in yet another academic year | 21:24 | |
| on the assumption that I sit in the pew. | 21:28 | |
| That I sit where you sit. | 21:32 | |
| Let me begin in this way. | 21:37 | |
| Two Cockneys stopped to look at the notice board | 21:41 | |
| in front of a London church. | 21:45 | |
| It announced the sermon subject for the following Sunday. | 21:50 | |
| "Is there a God?" | 21:55 | |
| Is there a God? | 21:59 | |
| Having perused it, one Cockney turn to the other and said, | 22:03 | |
| "Cor blimey, | 22:08 | |
| wouldn't it be something, | 22:11 | |
| if he said that they're ain't?" | 22:13 | |
| Cor blimey, wouldn't it be something, | 22:17 | |
| if he said that there ain't? | 22:20 | |
| Despite the "Death of God" theologians, | 22:25 | |
| the existence of God is axiomatic, | 22:29 | |
| in Christian preaching, | 22:33 | |
| as in Hebrew and Muslim preaching. | 22:36 | |
| God is the hub, the center of religious faith. | 22:40 | |
| Yet, I would ask from the pew, | 22:47 | |
| who, | 22:51 | |
| what is God? | 22:53 | |
| And if the preacher were wise, | 22:58 | |
| he would not start with a Christian definition. | 23:01 | |
| He would suggest perhaps, that God, G-O-D, | 23:07 | |
| is the "more than self," | 23:12 | |
| to which one commits himself. | 23:15 | |
| The "more than self" to which one commits himself. | 23:20 | |
| It, | 23:26 | |
| he, | 23:27 | |
| is the object of worth | 23:28 | |
| to which one renders willing allegiance. | 23:31 | |
| Now, if that would be true, | 23:37 | |
| then the God who is real to us, | 23:40 | |
| is not always the official deity | 23:44 | |
| to whom we pay traditional, | 23:47 | |
| cultural lip service. | 23:51 | |
| Let me give you for instance, | 23:55 | |
| there was a distinguished university chaplain | 23:59 | |
| who has preached from this pulpit, | 24:02 | |
| and whose name has appeared in the daily press | 24:06 | |
| fairly regularly because of his stand | 24:08 | |
| on the Vietnam situation. | 24:12 | |
| I asked him one day, | 24:15 | |
| what were the happiest years of your life? | 24:17 | |
| His reply was, | 24:23 | |
| "That is a nasty question, | 24:25 | |
| but I'll answer it. | 24:30 | |
| The years I served in the army, | 24:33 | |
| in World War Two." | 24:37 | |
| I know what he meant. | 24:40 | |
| Then he was young, | 24:43 | |
| strong, | 24:45 | |
| completely committed to the overthrow of Hitler's Reich. | 24:47 | |
| That obscene despotism. | 24:54 | |
| The Allied cause was the "more than self," | 24:58 | |
| to which he was willing to give his life, | 25:02 | |
| and death, if necessary. | 25:06 | |
| For the Allied cause was more important, | 25:10 | |
| than his own self. | 25:13 | |
| Throughout the war, | 25:16 | |
| the Allied cause, | 25:19 | |
| was his real God. | 25:22 | |
| Now most of us have such a God, | 25:25 | |
| to whom our loyalty is freely given, | 25:28 | |
| truth, | 25:32 | |
| beauty, | 25:34 | |
| goodness, | 25:35 | |
| race, | 25:37 | |
| color, | 25:39 | |
| class, | 25:41 | |
| nation, | 25:42 | |
| humanity, | 25:44 | |
| even self. | 25:46 | |
| And the result? | 25:48 | |
| Is happiness. | 25:50 | |
| Sometimes it is blessedness. | 25:52 | |
| However, this is a Christian chapel. | 25:57 | |
| The God worshiped here, | 26:01 | |
| is the God of the Judeo-Christian faith, | 26:04 | |
| the God of the Old and New Testament, | 26:08 | |
| the God of lawgiver, | 26:12 | |
| prophet, | 26:15 | |
| priest, | 26:16 | |
| scribe. | 26:18 | |
| The God primarily revealed for us | 26:20 | |
| in Jesus, | 26:23 | |
| and by his followers. | 26:25 | |
| The prophet of Nazareth who is called by many names, | 26:29 | |
| Messiah, | 26:33 | |
| Son of God, | 26:35 | |
| Word of God, | 26:37 | |
| Lord of the cult. | 26:39 | |
| The superstar who became incarnate | 26:41 | |
| in a Jew from north Israel in the first century. | 26:45 | |
| He has molded the Christian view of God. | 26:50 | |
| If I sat in the pew in the Duke chapel, | 26:56 | |
| I'd want to hear about him, and about his teaching, | 26:59 | |
| because I have been told, | 27:06 | |
| that self-commitment to him and his good news, | 27:08 | |
| results in the happiness, which is blessedness. | 27:14 | |
| His view of God | 27:19 | |
| should be central in our worship. | 27:22 | |
| Years ago, | 27:27 | |
| a minister in one of the churches in a New England town | 27:29 | |
| was preaching at a children's service. | 27:34 | |
| He asked what he meant to be a rhetorical question. | 27:38 | |
| What is it that lives in a tree, | 27:45 | |
| that has a furry body, | 27:49 | |
| a bushy tail, | 27:52 | |
| beady eyes, | 27:54 | |
| and whiskers? | 27:56 | |
| And the six year old boy in the front seat, | 27:59 | |
| vociferously answered him, | 28:03 | |
| "God." | 28:06 | |
| The reaction was varied. | 28:11 | |
| The lad's father walked down the aisle, | 28:15 | |
| took his son by the ear and led him out. | 28:18 | |
| The father told me the rest of the story. | 28:23 | |
| Outside, he lifted up his hand and asked a question, | 28:28 | |
| "Why did you say that?" | 28:32 | |
| And the boy answered, "Daddy, | 28:36 | |
| I knew he was talking about a squirrel, | 28:39 | |
| but he ought to be talking about God, | 28:43 | |
| up there in the pulpit." | 28:47 | |
| And the father brought his hand down, | 28:51 | |
| shook hands with his son, and they walked home. | 28:53 | |
| We ought to be talking about God up here. | 28:58 | |
| That is what the pew has a right to hear about. | 29:04 | |
| To expect. | 29:09 | |
| There is however, another aspect of religion, | 29:12 | |
| which is of prime interest to the pew. | 29:15 | |
| People, | 29:19 | |
| persons, | 29:22 | |
| the self of each one of us, | 29:24 | |
| that was clearly pointed out in last Sunday's sermon | 29:28 | |
| by the chaplain and C.G. Newsome. | 29:32 | |
| The definition of pure religion | 29:37 | |
| according to more than one New Testament writer, | 29:39 | |
| is being involved, | 29:43 | |
| in concern for others. | 29:45 | |
| People are important. | 29:50 | |
| People are top priority. | 29:53 | |
| People are a large part of the business of religion. | 29:56 | |
| Now I am a person among people, | 30:04 | |
| and I want to hear about me from the pulpit. | 30:10 | |
| I want to know what I am, | 30:16 | |
| in the eyes of God, | 30:20 | |
| and what I may be because of him. | 30:24 | |
| Because I'm a fairly mixed-up person much of the time, | 30:29 | |
| but one redeeming factor is that I'm in fairly good company. | 30:37 | |
| It was none other than Paul, a varsity saint, | 30:44 | |
| who anguished over the war | 30:49 | |
| that was constantly being waged inside of him, | 30:51 | |
| the good that I would, | 30:55 | |
| I do not. | 30:58 | |
| But the evil, which I would not, | 31:01 | |
| that I do. | 31:04 | |
| And I want to know what I can do about it. | 31:08 | |
| In fact, | 31:12 | |
| I really want to know, | 31:14 | |
| what God can do about it. | 31:17 | |
| Paul thought that God could do something. | 31:22 | |
| And that the spirit of Jesus, the Christ | 31:27 | |
| had something to do with it. | 31:31 | |
| Jesus showed that in his lifetime, | 31:34 | |
| with people like the woman at the well, | 31:37 | |
| and the woman caught in adultery, | 31:42 | |
| and Martha, the busybody, | 31:47 | |
| and Zaccheus, the tax collector, | 31:52 | |
| and Thomas the doubter, | 31:56 | |
| and Nicodemus the rabbi, | 32:01 | |
| and Peter the stormy fisherman. | 32:06 | |
| Maybe he can do something with me, | 32:11 | |
| if I let him. | 32:18 | |
| Both the Old and New testaments | 32:22 | |
| refuse to separate our relationship with God | 32:24 | |
| from our relationship to other people, | 32:29 | |
| the Ten Commandments discuss our kinship with God | 32:35 | |
| in the first four requirements. | 32:41 | |
| And our kinship with our fellows in the other six. | 32:46 | |
| Micah's description of what is required of us, | 32:54 | |
| which was part over the morning lesson, | 32:58 | |
| Micah's description is that, | 33:03 | |
| we live in quiet fellowship with God, | 33:05 | |
| and be just, | 33:11 | |
| and kind to our fellows. | 33:13 | |
| Jesus put his imprimatur on this two-fold relationship. | 33:19 | |
| When he answered the lawyer's query, | 33:24 | |
| "Master, | 33:28 | |
| what are we to consider the Lord's greatest commandment?" | 33:30 | |
| And Jesus said, | 33:38 | |
| "Love the Lord, your God, | 33:41 | |
| with all your heart, | 33:44 | |
| with all your soul, | 33:46 | |
| with all your mind, | 33:49 | |
| that is the greatest commandment. | 33:51 | |
| It comes first. | 33:55 | |
| The second is like it. | 33:59 | |
| Love your neighbor as yourself." | 34:03 | |
| Everything, note that, | 34:09 | |
| everything in the law and the prophets, | 34:12 | |
| hang on these two commands. | 34:17 | |
| Wasn't it Abraham Lincoln, | 34:25 | |
| who said about that summary of Jesus? | 34:27 | |
| If the church would ask simply for assent | 34:33 | |
| to the Savior's statement of the substance of the law, | 34:38 | |
| that church, | 34:43 | |
| I would gladly unite with. | 34:46 | |
| If the church would ask simply for assent | 34:51 | |
| to the savior's statement of the substance of the law, | 34:54 | |
| that church, | 35:00 | |
| would I gladly unite with. | 35:02 | |
| Now, Duke chapel has not been unmindful | 35:07 | |
| of this double commandment. | 35:10 | |
| It has sought to offer God, | 35:15 | |
| our worship, | 35:19 | |
| worthy of him in this church of stone. | 35:21 | |
| And it has annually given, | 35:28 | |
| more than half of your offerings | 35:32 | |
| to the Edgemont community center, | 35:36 | |
| almost ever since the chapel was opened. | 35:40 | |
| It still does. | 35:45 | |
| It cares for people because they are God's people. | 35:47 | |
| It brings its gifts, your gifts to the altar, | 35:53 | |
| remembering, not forgetting, | 35:57 | |
| it's brothers and sisters at the other end of Durham. | 36:01 | |
| In the pew, I would want to hear about myself | 36:09 | |
| and my brethren, | 36:14 | |
| because we are all God's people. | 36:17 | |
| There's the third method that I would like to hear about. | 36:25 | |
| If I sat in the pew. | 36:29 | |
| The format, | 36:32 | |
| the content, | 36:35 | |
| the raison d'etre for the Duke order of worship, | 36:38 | |
| at 11:00 AM, | 36:43 | |
| does it express our recognition of the centrality | 36:47 | |
| of the Father God? | 36:52 | |
| Does it seek to shed light on my personal, | 36:55 | |
| social, even political problems? | 36:59 | |
| In the last two years, this service | 37:04 | |
| has more consciously tried to cooperate | 37:07 | |
| with the architecture, | 37:10 | |
| which is traditionally the habitation of a formal, | 37:13 | |
| ceremonial, | 37:19 | |
| colorful ritual. | 37:21 | |
| This building suggests a medieval cathedral | 37:24 | |
| rather than a Quaker meeting house | 37:30 | |
| or a Methodist tabernacle. | 37:33 | |
| It's not readily conducive | 37:37 | |
| to being turned into a storefront church, as in Harlem, | 37:40 | |
| unless the store be thought of in terms of Macy's, | 37:47 | |
| or Wanamaker's, or at least Belk-Leggett's. | 37:51 | |
| If it be wise to cooperate with the inevitable, | 37:58 | |
| it's even wiser to do it with dignity, | 38:04 | |
| discipline, and understanding. | 38:10 | |
| Now within this drama of worship, | 38:14 | |
| there is a place for more participation from the pew. | 38:17 | |
| We should use more litanies, | 38:24 | |
| more responses, | 38:27 | |
| an affirmation of faith. | 38:29 | |
| A unison reading. | 38:33 | |
| The service is so dependent on the organ and the choir | 38:36 | |
| for its earned reputation, | 38:40 | |
| that one hesitates to change any portion of their work. | 38:43 | |
| Yet, just this past week, the chaplain, | 38:49 | |
| the choral director and I, | 38:51 | |
| talked of locating within the service, | 38:54 | |
| any given anthem in accordance with its content. | 38:58 | |
| We did that this morning. | 39:06 | |
| The choir sang the "Kyrie," | 39:09 | |
| asking for mercy after the prayer of confession. | 39:13 | |
| So the anthem from may take the place | 39:21 | |
| of the prayer of confession, or the words of assurance, | 39:23 | |
| or the prayer of Thanksgiving. | 39:27 | |
| Now the Duke service is good, | 39:30 | |
| but as has been said before from this pulpit, | 39:33 | |
| the good is the enemy of the better, | 39:37 | |
| as well as of the bad. | 39:42 | |
| From the pew, I want, | 39:46 | |
| always to hear God, high and lifted up, | 39:49 | |
| in the Duke service. | 39:55 | |
| Moreover, | 39:57 | |
| I wish the pulpit would turn more often to layman, | 39:59 | |
| especially from the faculty, | 40:05 | |
| male and female, to interpret what our faith means | 40:07 | |
| for the living of these days. | 40:12 | |
| Good to know that the new Dean of the law school | 40:16 | |
| will be the preacher here on Layman's Sunday. | 40:21 | |
| But there is another member of that faculty | 40:26 | |
| with an international reputation as a churchman, | 40:30 | |
| and as a preacher, | 40:35 | |
| whom we've never had here in the pulpit, | 40:38 | |
| and whom we are ought to lay possessive hands on, | 40:41 | |
| and we can add to them a surgeon, a physician, | 40:46 | |
| a physicist, a psychiatrist, | 40:50 | |
| so that, we might well have a Layman's Sunday each month. | 40:53 | |
| In fact, there is a Duke political scientist | 41:00 | |
| who I'd like to see turned loose on Mother's Day. | 41:04 | |
| Now, one outcome might be that his sermon | 41:11 | |
| would end all Mother's Day's sermons, | 41:15 | |
| at Duke for several years, | 41:19 | |
| or else, cause the retirement of the Dean of the chapel | 41:23 | |
| a year in advance of the scheduled date, | 41:27 | |
| but I'm willing to risk it. | 41:31 | |
| I'm even enthusiastic about the invitation. | 41:35 | |
| Our laymen on the faculty, | 41:39 | |
| of both sexes, | 41:42 | |
| have served as well in the three-hour service | 41:44 | |
| on Good Friday. | 41:48 | |
| They could serve as equally well on Sunday at 11:00 AM | 41:50 | |
| and give us new insights, | 41:56 | |
| on the good news of God and his Christ. | 41:59 | |
| Yes, if I sat where you sit, | 42:03 | |
| I would want the order of service explained, | 42:07 | |
| elucidated, implemented, | 42:11 | |
| so that I might join in it with discernment. | 42:16 | |
| If I sat where you sit, these are the three requests | 42:22 | |
| I would make of the university service of worship. | 42:25 | |
| Tell me about God. | 42:30 | |
| Remind me of what this means for me personally, | 42:34 | |
| inform me in the communities of the church, | 42:39 | |
| the university, our society, the nation, the world, | 42:42 | |
| and set all this in a service worthy of God, | 42:47 | |
| one which is the air of a noble tradition, | 42:54 | |
| but is not constricted by it. | 42:57 | |
| One which makes sense, | 43:02 | |
| and is understanded of the people. | 43:05 | |
| Then I may come willingly | 43:11 | |
| to the university service of worship. | 43:13 | |
| I may even echo the words of the Psalmist when he said, | 43:17 | |
| "I was glad when they said unto me, | 43:22 | |
| let us go into the house of the Lord." | 43:27 | |
| For me, the house, | 43:32 | |
| which is called the Duke chapel. | 43:35 | |
| Let us pray. | 43:41 | |
| This our chapel is one of Thy houses, | 43:48 | |
| oh God, | 43:52 | |
| for it was set apart to Thy glory. | 43:54 | |
| Grant that what is said, | 44:00 | |
| and sung, | 44:03 | |
| and done here, | 44:05 | |
| may always was be worthy of Thee, | 44:07 | |
| and heartening to those who worship. | 44:11 | |
| For Thou art our God, | 44:17 | |
| and we are Thy people. | 44:22 | |
| Amen. | 44:25 | |
| (church organ music) | 44:28 | |
| (choir singing) | 44:50 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 45:38 | |
| (soft church organ music) | 46:17 | |
| (soft church organ music continues) | 47:11 | |
| (soft church organ music continues) | 48:11 | |
| (choir singing) | 49:13 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 50:13 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 51:13 | |
| (choir singing continues) | 52:04 | |
| (church organ music) | 52:17 | |
| (choir singing) | 52:39 | |
| - | Almighty God, We dedicate this money | 53:37 |
| to the upbuilding of the Edgemont community center, | 53:41 | |
| and to the other causes in our budget to which it shall go. | 53:44 | |
| But more broadly, we dedicate this money and ourselves | 53:49 | |
| to the glory of Jesus Christ, in his name. | 53:53 | |
| Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 54:02 | |
| (choir singing) | 54:11 | |
| (church bell ringing) | 55:07 | |
| (church organ music) | 55:25 | |
| (people clamoring) | 56:03 | |
| (indistinct conversations) | 56:15 |
