D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "A Necessary Tension" (February 6, 1972) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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Hear us, we ask Our Father

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as we lift our prayers

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of adoration and of praise.

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Oh Lord, thy majesty is shrouded in mystery

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and thy ways are far beyond our knowing.

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Yet thou has come to us,

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in Jesus of Nazareth,

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and has offered us

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thy graceful and faithful love.

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And has caused us to live

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and to come before thee

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in rightful worship.

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We praise thee Oh God,

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and we acknowledge thee to be our Lord.

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Thou hast made of one blood,

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all the nations of mankind oh God,

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and thou has placed us upon this earth as our home.

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Thine is the providence by which age, after age,

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the families of mankind have been fed.

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Thine is the justice,

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which amidst the turmoil of history

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has given it a course and a direction.

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Thine is the mercy by which men

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has reached out to his fellow man,

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with healing that binds up the broken heart,

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the torn body and the disturbed mind.

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Thine is the love, oh Lord,

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that brings light to every day of our lives.

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and close friendships

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and associations where openness and trust

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enable us to speak comfortably to each other.

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And especially, in our own homes and families

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where love protects us

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against all our foes

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as we with each other, share the love,

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which thou alone dost impart to us.

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Oh God, invisible and eternal,

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thou of 100 names,

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but ever the same in mercy and in love.

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To know thee is life,

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to serve thee is freedom,

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to enjoy thee as a kingdom,

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to praise thee as the joy

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and happiness of our souls.

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Therefore, oh God,

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we praise and bless and adore thee.

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We worship thee, we glorify thee.

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We give thanks to thee our God,

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for thy great glory.

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Almighty God, our heavenly father

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who stand us both beyond the darkness and the light.

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Who are hidden by the names we given to thee,

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and who movest in mystery

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to touch us to life.

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Grant us in this hour,

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the glory and the power of thy presence.

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Breakthrough, the safe customs of our praise.

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Turn back the thin devices of our devious fears.

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And let us hear thy word reverberate,

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in the high places of our hearts.

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And in the depths of our need.

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Oh most merciful God, our father,

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here at this place, we hear thy word,

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that tells us what we were meant to be.

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We stand before the one who created us

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and has given us life, even thee our God.

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And here, before the call and the presence of thy holiness,

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we face our weaknesses,

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our discouragements and our sins.

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We say we are a people who would be men and women

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who see things as they are

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and who call things by their right names, oh God,

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whose work is valid and whose world is whole.

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But the line from the inner integrity of our hopes,

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to the daily chronicle of our lives and the world

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has become frayed and unclear and tattered.

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As persons, some of us have been shoddy,

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dishonest, and lazy.

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Drifting into isolation,

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we have forgotten who we are.

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Torn by conflicting loyalties,

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we have become confused about our mission in the world.

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Succumbing to the tyrannies of our time.

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We have let integrity and hope and faith

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slip over to the border of our lives.

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By our own fault, oh God,

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we have abandoned the fountain of waters

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and built broken reservoirs, which hold no waters.

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We speak well of love.

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And we curse our enemies.

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We take pride in our freedom,

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even as we slide into new slaveries.

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We cry out against exploitation,

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as we exploit ourselves and our neighbors.

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We confess before thee, oh God,

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that we have daily denied our discipleship.

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We have worshiped at our small

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plastic alters of career,

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of money, of prestige, of race,

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and of nationalism.

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And our gods have become idols and demons,

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which threaten to devour us.

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All mighty God, our father,

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have mercy upon us and restore us

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to the joy of thy salvation.

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We open our hearts unto thee in repentance,

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asking for thy grace, thy forgiveness

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and thy restoration, oh God, our Father.

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Remembering the ancient promises

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to thy people of Israel,

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to whom thou sits through the prophet.

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If my people which are called by my name,

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shall humble themselves and pray,

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and seek my face,

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and turn from their wicked ways,

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then will I hear from heaven

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and will forgive their sin

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and will heal their land.

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May it so be in our lives, and in our time.

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Amen.

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May we continue to worship,

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as we render unto God our prayers of Thanksgiving

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by using the Psalter, number 575.

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Let us offer unto God,

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our prayer of Thanksgiving.

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Praise is due to thee oh God in Zion,

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and to thee shall vows be performed.

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All thou who hear us prayer,

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to thee shall all flesh come on the count of sins.

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When our transgressions prevail over us,

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thou dost forgive them.

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Blessed is he whom thou dost choose

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and bring near to dwell in thy courts.

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We shall be satisfied with the goodness

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of thy house by holy temple.

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By dread deeds, thou dost answer us with deliverance,

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oh God, of our salvation,

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who art the hope of all the ends of the Earth

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and of the farthest seas,

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who by thy strength has established the mountains,

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being girded with might.

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Who dost still the roaring of the seas,

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the roaring of their waves,

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and the tumult of the peoples.

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So that those who dwell at Earth's farthest bonds

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are afraid of thy signs.

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Thou make us the outgoings in the morning

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and the evening to shout for joy.

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Thou visitest the earth and waterest it

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thou greatly enrichest it.

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Thou providest their grain

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for so thou has prepared it.

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Thou waterest its furrows abundantly,

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settling its ridges,

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softening with the showers

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and blessing it's growth.

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Thou crownest the year with thy bounty,

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the hills skirt themselves with joy.

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The meadows clothed themselves with flocks,

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the valleys deck themselves with grain

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and they shout and sing together for joy.

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♪ Children of the Heavenly Father ♪

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♪ Safely in His bosom gather ♪

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♪ Nestling bird nor star in heaven ♪

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♪ Such a refuge e'er was given ♪

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♪ God His own doth tend and nourish ♪

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♪ In His holy courts they flourish ♪

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♪ From all evil things He spares them ♪

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♪ In His mighty arms He bears them ♪

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♪ Praise the lord in joyful numbers ♪

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♪ Your Protector never slumbers ♪

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♪ At the will of your Defender ♪

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♪ Ev'ry foe man must surrender ♪

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♪ Though He giveth or He taketh ♪

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♪ God His children ne'er forsaketh ♪

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♪ His the loving purpose solely ♪

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♪ To preserve them pure and holy ♪

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Hear the word of God.

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Two days later,

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there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee.

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Jesus mother was there

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and Jesus and his disciples

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had also been invited to the wedding.

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When all the wine had been drunk,

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Jesus' mother said to Him,

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they are out of wine.

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You must not tell me what to do, woman,

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Jesus replied,

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my time has not yet come.

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Jesus mother then told the servants,

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do whatever he tells you.

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The Jews have religious rules about washing.

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And for this purpose,

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six stone water jars were there.

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Each one, large enough to hold between 20 and 30 gallons.

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Jesus said to the servants,

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fill these jars with water.

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They filled them to the brim

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and then he told them,

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now draw some water out

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and take it to the man in charge of the feast.

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They took it to him and he tasted the water,

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which had turned into wine.

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He did not know where this wine had come from,

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but the servants who had drawn out the water, knew.

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So he called the bridegroom and said to him,

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everyone else serves the best wine first.

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And after the guests have drunk a lot,

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he serves the ordinary wine,

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but you have kept the best wine until now.

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Jesus performed his first of his mighty works

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in Cana of Galilee.

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There he revealed his glory

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and his disciples believed in him.

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After this, Jesus and his mother,

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brothers and disciples, went to Capernaum

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and stayed there a few days.

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It was almost time for the Jewish feast of Passover.

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So Jesus went to Jerusalem.

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In the temple,

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He found men selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons,

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and also the money changers sitting at their tables.

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He made a whip from the cords

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and drove all the animals out of the temple,

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both the sheep and the cattle.

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He overturned the tables of the money changers

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and scattered their coins.

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And he ordered the men who sold the pigeons.

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Take them out of here,

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do not make my father's house, a market place.

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His disciples remembered that the scripture says

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my devotion for your house Oh God,

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burns in me like fire.

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The Jews came back at him with a question.

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What miracle can you perform to show us

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that you have the right to do this?

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Jesus answered, tear down this house of God.

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And in three days I will build it again.

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You are going to build it again in three days,

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they ask him.

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It has taken 46 years to build this temple.

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But the temple Jesus spoke of was his body.

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When he was raised from death therefore,

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his disciples remembered that he had said this

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and they believed the scripture.

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And the words that Jesus had said.

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(gentle uplifting music)

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The Lord be with you.

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And also be with you.

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Let us pray.

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Let us offer unto God,

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our prayers for others and for ourselves.

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O mighty God who has committed to thy people,

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the ministry of intercession.

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Hear us as we pray for others

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and grant that our hearts

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may be so filled with peace

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and with the charity

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that we may be fit instruments

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of thy will for our neighbors need.

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Let us offer a prayer for the whole church of God

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throughout the world.

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Most, gracious Father,

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we humbly beseech thee for thy church, universal,

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wherever it exists in this ecumenical world,

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fill it with all truth we ask.

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And in all truth, all peace

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where it is in error, reform it,

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where it is in want, furnish it,

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where it is right, strengthen and confirm it.

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And where it rent asunder by divisions,

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we asked for thy healing presence

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and the searing presence of thy grace.

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O Lord, we call on thy spirit,

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and we ask thy presence and thy power

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for the sick and the suffering

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in mind and in body.

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For those who are made slaves by disease,

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by drugs, by fear or by affluence,

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may your love penetrate their condition,

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quench their hunger and bring peace.

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We pray for those who are dying and have died this day.

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Oh God, our father,

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whether they're in despair,

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in bitterness or in tranquility and hope,

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we ask for them, our brothers

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and sisters thy eternal peace.

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We call on thy spirit,

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and we ask thy presence and thy power

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O Lord, for all who are poor and hungry,

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for outcasts and exiles,

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prisoners and victims of war

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throughout this world.

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May thy love penetrate their condition

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and quench their hunger and bring peace.

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God, our father, we come to thee,

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with our own needs and petitions,

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a strange mixture of common men and women.

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Few among us are truly good.

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Some of us are truly evil who bear your name,

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but most of us are never either,

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but like most men in most places.

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Some of us are here for love of thee and our brothers.

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But most of us out of a restless curiosity

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for want of a better temple.

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We are men and women of moderation

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in both virtue and in vice.

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Which is to say,

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we maintain appeal neutrality.

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We have an allergy to risk.

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We don't often feel,

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but then we don't often try.

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Help us O God in our need of new vision,

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and of a new life.

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Help us O God,

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that we may always be men of thy provenance

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having the courage to place ourselves

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in the church while placing ourselves

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in the world.

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Neither is rebels

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nor is idle servants

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nor vagrant innovators,

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but as true witnesses of thy love.

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As sources of life, of vision,

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of prophecy, of the service of the truth in our own time.

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Grant us thy grace O Lord

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that we may constantly explore

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and enlarge the known frontiers

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of the community of love wherever we find it.

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That visible geography of spirit

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so that the church, the people of God,

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is not a limbo of the restless disembodied,

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but a true community of incarnate consciousness.

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Help us by this worship O Lord,

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to always stand firm at the side of the living,

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sowing in this sin contaminated air

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and invisible pollen of joy,

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and courage and gentleness each to the other.

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As prophets from above,

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as servants from within,

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teachers who are willing to be taught,

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men and women of communion,

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men and women who are listeners,

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agents of faith and the transcendent,

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but a faith that always includes the world.

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Push us from these halls of worship

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toward the narrow door of service and commitment.

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After the image of Christ we ask,

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may we know that while there is a lower class

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as Christians, we are in it

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while there is a soul in prison

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as Christians, we are not free

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while the earth is polluted

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as Christians, we are unclean.

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Wherever bombs fall,

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as Christians, our wholeness is wounded.

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So send us forth from this place

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as agents of reconciliation,

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enable us to walk through this time of confusion

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and of wars like kings with gladness

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and with joy and with faith.

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The principalities and powers

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vast and mighty cast their shadows of anxiety

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over every path.

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Give to the people of God,

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the quiet confidence of our own integrity, we ask,

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that we may work while at this day,

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never fearing the consequences of our devotion

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to the way of law

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or the judgment of an uncertain future.

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Through Jesus Christ,

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who called us into this community

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and gave us a gospel

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and gave us the courage to come before thee,

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praying together as his people,

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Our Father who art in heaven,

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hallowed be thy name,

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thy kingdom come,

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thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day, our daily bread

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us

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and lead us, not into temptation,

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but deliver us from evil

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for thine is the kingdom

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and the power and the glory forever.

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Amen.

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Let us pray.

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May the words of my mouth

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and the meditations of our hearts

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be acceptable in thy sight.

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Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.

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Amen.

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Just about a week ago,

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a lady named Ms. Carole Faraci

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astounded a white house gathering

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in honor of the founders of the Reader's Digest

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by addressing the president of the United States

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and denouncing the war in Vietnam.

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The guests who included Bob Hope,

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Billy Graham and Mrs. Martha Mitchell among others

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were doubtless as shocked by this

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as were those of us who saw it later

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on the evening television news.

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Out from among the Ray Conniff Singers,

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stepped a prophet or a prophetess.

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And one might ask facetiously

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are the Ray Conniff Singers

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also among the prophets.

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Most of the audience was angered,

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but apparently, satisfied when Ms. Faraci

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was hustled rapidly and unceremoniously

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out of the auditorium.

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Although Mrs. Mitchell was reported to have said,

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she ought to be torn limb from limb.

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Fortunately this did not happen.

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Only slightly less astounding

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than Ms. Faraci's audacity,

27:47

were her references in her brief denunciation

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or declamation to Mr. Nixon's church attendance.

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Her invoking of the name of Jesus Christ

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against the war in Vietnam.

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Her blessing of the Berrigan brothers

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and Daniel Ellsburg.

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One recalled at least Eartha Kitt's

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denunciation of the war

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in the presence of Mrs. Lyndon Johnson,

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if not Nathan, before David

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and Micaiah ben Imlah before the court of Ahab.

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Now, whatever might be said about the effectiveness

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or appropriateness of this act,

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one had to admit that it was a very goody performance.

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And what of invoking the name of Jesus Christ

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over all of this?

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Doubtless for Mrs. Mitchell

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and millions who agree with her,

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it simply added blasphemy

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to effrontery.

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For many others,

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it seemed entirely right and appropriate.

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Now, Ms. Faraci I understand,

29:18

later conceded that she was not in fact,

29:20

particularly religious.

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But her linking of the president's church attendance,

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the name of Jesus

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and the heroes of the Roman Catholic peace movement

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cast up in a graphic way.

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The issues that now confront

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and divide Christians and the church.

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What does it mean to be a Christian?

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What is the truth or essence of Christianity?

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Who is Jesus?

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Where is He?

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What does he have to do with the war?

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The Berrigan brothers?

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The draft and Mr. Nixon's church attendance?

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Our texts for the morning is the second chapter

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of the gospel according to John,

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which recounts the wine miracle of Cana

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and Jesus cleansing of the temple.

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It is now the season of epiphany in which the church

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celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the nations.

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The narratives of both these incidents recounted,

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then in the second chapter of the gospel of John,

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are traditionally read during the season of epiphany.

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And the association of the miracle

30:45

at Cana with the epiphany

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is particularly strong

30:49

in the traditions of the church.

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Here, Jesus first manifests his glory

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and his disciples believe in him,

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as the scripture says.

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The miracle itself is in fact,

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a rather odd one among the miracles of Jesus.

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Most of Jesus' miracles are healings

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or demon exorcisms.

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A few portrayed Jesus rescuing people

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from physical danger or from debt.

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Here, he responds to a situation

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that seems to be at worst an embarrassment.

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When you out of slits, you're out of beer.

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Not to worry, Jesus makes it all right in a moment

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by converting six large jugs full of water

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into, well over a hundred gallons of wine.

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You don't believe that?

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Well, as a matter of fact,

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there's room for skepticism,

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but John's point is not that Jesus

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produces the highest quality of vintage wine,

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but rather that he fulfills and restores

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disappointed human expectation.

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The water of purification

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does not suffice.

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The original wine is exhausted.

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The most one could expect now

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is second rate stuff.

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But contrary to all expectations,

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Jesus provides the finest fruit of the vine.

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And after the other wine is exhausted.

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Quite unexpectedly,

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he affirms natural human hopes.

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Quite possibly, we should understand

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that the wine itself is symbolic.

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It is the divine affirmation of life.

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The affirmation that bestows life

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on despairing and dying men.

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Now this epiphany story

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embodies a view of Christ.

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At a certain level,

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He is a wonder worker,

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a divine figure,

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a man possessing uncanny power.

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This Christ has always been popular.

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He's still popular today.

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We very sophisticated Christians

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who scarcely expect that Christ worked miracles

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or scarcely believe that Christ worked miracles,

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much less expect that he may work one for us,

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might well remember that among his followers,

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we are still in all probability, a minority.

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And yet the story wants to say more than that,

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Jesus can do more than we ask or think in a worldly sense.

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It means to say that he affirms

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man's deepest desire and intentionality.

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He has come that we may have life

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and have it more abundantly.

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And he bestows this life without restraint.

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He bestows it lavishly upon us all,

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upon Mr. Nixon,

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the Ray Conniff Singers,

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Carol Faraci, the radical priests

34:09

and Mrs. Mitchell as well.

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In Christ, we see God's graciousness demand, his goodness.

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And this goodness is free,

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prevenient, that is God is good to us

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before we are good to him.

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But wait, that God and that Christ

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are glorious, splendid, in fact too glorious.

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The world is not such a place

34:48

as to encourage belief in them.

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If Christ has affirmed us so lavishly and lovingly,

34:53

why do we still hurt?

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Or perhaps more to the point,

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why do we not hurt?

35:04

When by rights we should.

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Why do we continue to enjoy affluence and ease

35:09

when in this rich countries,

35:12

children still go hungry

35:14

and people in Vietnam and East Pakistan,

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Northern Ireland die.

35:21

The epiphany of Christ

35:27

who simply blesses things the way they are,

35:30

is and always has been

35:34

a pleasant prospect.

35:37

So the people are deeply shocked

35:40

and offended at the suggestion that

35:42

Christ may also be among the dissidents,

35:44

stirring up trouble, so to speak.

35:48

Yet, John is not satisfied

35:54

that Christ should appear only at a wedding feast

35:55

to enhance the enjoyment of the guest.

35:58

He does that, says John,

36:01

he affirms life and the poignant human desire

36:03

that it should have meaning and purpose.

36:06

Yet at the same time,

36:11

he stands over against our ways

36:13

of affirming, hoarding and ultimately

36:15

squandering our lives.

36:19

John is not satisfied to present Jesus

36:24

at a wedding in Cana only.

36:27

Alongside this epiphany story,

36:32

he places another one,

36:34

the story of Jesus cleansing of the temple.

36:36

All the other gospels,

36:41

report that this event that occurred,

36:42

on Jesus' final visit to Jerusalem.

36:44

And they're probably right.

36:49

So John deliberately places the story here

36:51

at the beginning, rather than at the end.

36:55

But in doing so, he does not really falsify

37:01

the history of Jesus.

37:05

Rather, he exposes its deepest truth.

37:07

Jesus affirms life.

37:11

But at the same time,

37:14

he challenges what we make of it.

37:15

Thus, He becomes a judge as well as a savior.

37:19

John shows how Jesus challenges,

37:24

the corruption that the house of God

37:26

and in doing so, he suggests that

37:29

he challenges our corruption of religion,

37:31

whether on television or in the media

37:36

or in duke chapel.

37:39

He challenges us most acutely

37:42

when we deem ourselves religious.

37:45

And in this challenge,

37:49

he risks himself,

37:51

destroy this temple,

37:54

this word of Jesus points forward to his own death

37:58

from which no supernatural powers

38:02

are in bulk to save him.

38:04

His protest exposes him to the wrath of the gods

38:07

who preside over the status quo

38:11

and Jesus succumbs.

38:14

He gives his life for his friends

38:18

as the gospel of John says.

38:21

And he suggests that those who are his friends

38:24

will prove themselves to be such

38:27

by a similar self-giving.

38:31

So near the beginning of his gospel,

38:37

John describes in a skillful way

38:41

in dramatic scenes,

38:45

the tension that stands at the heart of Christian faith.

38:48

Moreover, he traces this tension back to Jesus himself.

38:53

And as much as John may paint

38:59

over the historical Jesus with the colors

39:01

of Christian faith and Christian theology.

39:04

In this, he is essentially correct.

39:07

Not only theologically, I think,

39:10

but also historically.

39:12

The Jesus whom we know from the other gospels

39:15

also embodies this tension.

39:18

On the one hand, unlike John the Baptist,

39:21

he is not an ascetic.

39:25

He comes eating and drinking

39:27

much to the displeasure of some pious people.

39:30

On the other hand,

39:34

he challenges and judges the status quo

39:35

and those who are satisfied with it.

39:38

And finally they kill him.

39:41

After he is done to death by them,

39:45

his disciples proclaimed their faith,

39:48

that he has risen from the dead

39:50

and indeed offers forgiveness to them.

39:52

And to those who have killed him,

39:55

the final word of Jesus is yes to mankind

39:58

and to life, not no.

40:02

In this sense Christ,

40:06

is ultimately relieved of the tension

40:08

between affirmation and judgment.

40:12

But in this world, he was and is to the end

40:17

involved in this tension.

40:22

In fact,

40:28

I think it is not inaccurate to say

40:31

that his ministry was defined by it.

40:33

Now the temptation of Christians,

40:41

is and I suppose always has been,

40:45

to relieve this tension

40:49

and to relieve it prematurely.

40:51

It's easier either to affirm the world

40:55

or to reject it,

40:59

than to live in critical tension with it.

41:01

And in the New Testament,

41:06

there is already evidence of this.

41:07

Some Christians seem to go on

41:11

living easily and happily in the world,

41:12

accepting its ambiguities and evils

41:14

as though Christ had not judged it.

41:17

Others reject the world and completely withdraw

41:20

from marriage from gainful employment,

41:23

from civil responsibility.

41:28

Later on, one sees the church affirming

41:31

and adopting and adapting the institutions

41:34

and power structures of the world

41:37

to the extent that its own identity becomes questionable.

41:38

And this process is perhaps easier to see

41:45

in the age of Constantine

41:47

and in the medieval church

41:49

than it is in the age of prayer, breakfast

41:51

and white house worship services.

41:53

And yet it is as real now,

41:56

as it was then.

42:00

Conversely, the impulse that led some people

42:04

in the apostle Paul's time

42:06

and in his churches to give up their wives and jobs.

42:08

And the belief that they had already entered into glory

42:12

or were about to, has never ceased.

42:14

The rejection of this world in favor of the next,

42:19

or simply in revulsion from it,

42:22

is thoroughly understandable.

42:25

And it has doubtless played a role

42:28

in the rise of monastic,

42:30

the rise of gnostic heresy

42:33

at the fringe of the church,

42:35

or even in the rise of monasticism

42:37

within the church.

42:39

Various present day sex reflect this outlook,

42:42

it is arguable also that certain forms

42:47

of Christian social protest

42:49

contained within them the seeds of such a negative attitude.

42:52

So Christians frequently seemed to go overboard

42:58

in the one direction or in the other.

43:01

And that is entirely understandable,

43:05

for it is not easy to live intentionally.

43:07

When men hope for the world to come,

43:11

for heaven or for eternal life,

43:13

they express a natural and valid longing

43:16

for an ultimate resolution of the tension

43:18

in an affirmation of all

43:21

that is valid in life and in the world.

43:23

But to expect such a resolution within this life

43:27

or within this world is to cherish

43:30

a vain and delusive hope.

43:33

If we are to live in this world

43:36

and we must,

43:38

we have no other world to live in.

43:39

How may we deal with this tension?

43:42

Now, I am very much tempted to say to you

43:48

that we should strike a nice balance

43:53

between affirming the world

43:57

and rejecting it or judging it.

44:00

And that would be I suppose,

44:05

a certain truth in saying this.

44:07

And if we were able to agree

44:11

on some such resolution of this problem.

44:12

We might then leave the chapel consoled

44:16

in the thought that we must neither

44:18

affirm the world uncritically

44:20

nor rejected uncompromisingly.

44:22

And that sounds like a rather neat

44:27

and reasonable solution,

44:28

but possibly, just possibly

44:31

there are times when we should reject it

44:33

or other times when we should affirm it.

44:37

And moreover,

44:42

to live with such a comfortable abstraction

44:43

could be in fact,

44:48

to surrender to the gods of whatever is

44:50

or whoever is the stronger.

44:55

People in the university,

44:59

people like ourselves,

45:01

feel comfortable with abstractions

45:03

and rightly so, for in a certain sense,

45:06

abstractions are our business and they have a value

45:08

and in some cases, even a utility.

45:12

And yet life itself,

45:17

life itself has to be lived at the level

45:20

of the concrete and the specific.

45:23

And that is disquieting,

45:26

for example,

45:31

it was easier for all of us

45:33

in this intellectual and liberal community

45:36

to accept the abstract idea of school integration

45:40

than to accept the fact of our predominantly white children

45:44

going to predominantly black public schools.

45:49

When we are realistic, we know that life places,

45:56

hard choices before us,

45:59

which cannot be finally dealt with

46:02

at a purely abstract level.

46:05

If I could only show you how to strike some balance

46:12

between affirming what is

46:16

and standing in judgment over against it,

46:19

then perhaps those of us who have opposed the war in Vietnam

46:22

might reassure ourselves that our form of action

46:26

or inaction has been wiser

46:30

than the civil disobedience of the Berrigan brothers.

46:33

Not to mention the impertinence of Ms. Faraci,

46:37

maybe it has been,

46:43

I can't answer a question such as that for you,

46:46

but only for myself.

46:51

Yet I would not want any one of us

46:54

to easily, to assume that our way of living

46:57

with the tension to which Jesus calls us

47:00

is better than theirs.

47:02

For when we act and speak in judgment upon this world

47:05

and do so in the conviction

47:10

that this world is not what it ought to be or can be.

47:12

We do not reject the world,

47:16

but rather affirm it.

47:20

But when we withdraw,

47:23

when we withhold ourselves,

47:26

when we rise above the tumult,

47:30

when others per force must live in it.

47:33

When we retreat into the abstract,

47:37

when others are bleeding in the concrete

47:41

or on the concrete.

47:44

What then do we really do?

47:46

We do not then affirm the world that God has given us.

47:51

We really reject it.

47:57

Is this right for us as Christians?

48:04

Is it right by any accounting?

48:12

In fact, in the long run,

48:18

is it even possible?

48:23

Jesus helped celebrate a wedding feast

48:28

and then assaulted some people in the temple.

48:32

What kind of Christ was that?

48:38

Probably the only kind for a world like that.

48:43

And the only kind for a world like ours,

48:51

let us pray.

48:57

Oh God, give us the strength

49:06

to change the things we can change,

49:09

the patience to accept the things we cannot change

49:13

and the wisdom to know the difference.

49:18

But if we find ourselves complacent in that wisdom,

49:21

may we have courage to question

49:25

whether it comes from you.

49:28

In Christ's name,

49:32

Amen.

49:34

(gentle uplifting music)

49:38

(organ drowns out choir)

50:20

-

Receive, Oh Our Father, God,

1:01:03

these goods of our labor

1:01:06

and the service of our lives

1:01:10

to be used according to thy will.

1:01:12

And send us forth, we ask, Oh Lord,

1:01:16

from this place of worship

1:01:18

and this time of consecration,

1:01:21

a graceful ministry of joyous affirmation

1:01:24

and courageous prophecy

1:01:31

through the spirit of Christ,

1:01:34

Our Lord.

1:01:36

Depart now to be God's people in the world,

1:01:41

and may you have peace

1:01:44

with the deep restlessness of God,

1:01:46

love for all the struggles that lie ahead

1:01:50

and always joy to fill the cup of all your celebrations.

1:01:54

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:07

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:16

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:23

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:31

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:35

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:38

♪ Amen ♪

1:02:52

D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "A Necessary Tension" (February 6, 1972)

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1. D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "A Necessary Tension" (February 6, 1972)

Duke University Archives

D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "A Necessary Tension" (February 6, 1972)

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Duke University Archives