Robert T. Young - "A Strange Joy" (May 4, 1975)

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	(soft pipe organ music)	0:03
-	Almighty and merciful God, our father,	2:22
	shed abroad thy Holy Spirit upon us,	2:27
	that our hearts maybe cleansed,	2:31
	our minds enlightened	2:34
	our affections kindled,	2:37
	so enabling us to offer acceptable worship onto thee,	2:40
	and to Jesus Christ thy son, our Lord.	2:46
	(harmonious choir music)	2:53
	(soft pipe organ music)	4:14
	(harmonious choir music)	4:37
	♪ Amen ♪	6:56
-	The author of the first epistle of John has written,	7:13
	"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,	7:19
	and the truth is not in us.	7:24
	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just,	7:27
	and will forgive our sins and cleanse us	7:32
	from all unrighteousness.	7:35
	If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar	7:38
	and his word is not in us."	7:43
	Let us there for join together	7:46
	in praying the prayer of confession.	7:48
	Oh Lord, you are before and after all things,	7:51
	the last of all the powers of this world,	7:56
	by whom and before whom everything exists, that exists,	8:00
	and in whose hands lie the mysteries of each yesterday,	8:06
	tomorrow, and today.	8:10
	We are those who knowing the wonder-filled awe	8:12
	of your presence, have lacked the courage of our awareness,	8:17
	vainly striving to hide ourselves from you.	8:22
	We are those who knowing that life is good,	8:26
	have murmured against our fate,	8:31
	abusing the world about us and all therein.	8:34
	Who, knowing that life is given to us only in the present,	8:38
	desperately cling to our false images about the past	8:43
	and our imagined fantasies concerning the future.	8:47
	Knowing that we are received in being, do not choose to be,	8:52
	knowing that we are mission, do not elect to be called,	8:57
	have mercy upon your children, oh Lord.	9:03
	Have mercy upon your children, oh Lord.	9:06
	Oh Lord, have mercy upon us.	9:09
	The apostle Paul has written that God shows his love for us	9:46
	in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.	9:51
	If we accept this, Paul says, "If we have died with Christ	9:56
	by putting away sin,	10:01
	we believe that we shall also live with him."	10:03
	So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin	10:07
	and alive to God in Christ Jesus, so be it.	10:11
	(soft pipe organ music)	10:22
	(harmonious choir music)	11:02
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	11:36
	♪ Among the people I will sing unto thee ♪	11:39
	♪ Among the nations ♪	11:45
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	11:48
	♪ Among the people I will sing unto thee ♪	11:51
	♪ Among the nations ♪	11:57
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	11:59
	♪ Among the people I will sing unto thee ♪	12:03
	♪ Among the nations ♪	12:09
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	12:11
	♪ Among the people I will sing unto thee ♪	12:15
	♪ Among the nations ♪	12:21
	♪ I will praise ♪	12:23
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	12:25
	♪ I will sing ♪	12:29
	♪ I will sing unto thee ♪	12:31
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	12:35
	♪ I will sing unto thee ♪	12:39
	♪ I will praise thee, oh Lord ♪	12:43
	♪ I will sing unto thee ♪	12:47
	♪ Glory be all over the earth and sea ♪	12:58
	(soft pipe organ music)	13:06
	♪ I will praise thee, praise thee ♪	13:14
	♪ Praise thee among the people ♪	13:18
	♪ I will praise thee, praise thee ♪	13:21
	♪ Praise thee among the people ♪	13:25
	♪ I will sing unto thee ♪	13:29
	♪ Oh God ♪	13:39
	♪ Become exalted, oh God ♪	13:44
	♪ Become exalted, oh God above the heavens ♪	13:47
	♪ Become exalted, oh God ♪	13:53
	♪ Become exalted, oh God above the heavens ♪	13:56
	♪ Let thy glory be all over the earth ♪	14:02
	♪ Let thy glory be all over the earth ♪	14:09
	♪ Over the earth ♪	14:17
	♪ Over the earth ♪	14:22
	♪ Over the earth ♪	14:27
	♪ Over the earth ♪	14:31
	♪ Amen ♪	14:41
	The Old Testament lessons are from Psalm 130,	15:02
	the first six verses and Psalm 63, the first verse,	15:06
	the third through the fifth verses.	15:10
	"Out of the depths I cry to thee, oh Lord.	15:14
	Lord, hear my voice,	15:17
	let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.	15:20
	If thou oh Lord should mark iniquities,	15:25
	Lord who could stand?	15:28
	But there is forgiveness with thee	15:31
	and thou mayest be feared.	15:34
	I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope.	15:37
	My soul waits for the Lord,	15:43
	more than watchmen for the morning."	15:45
	More than Watchmen for the morning.	15:48
	"Oh God, thou art my God, I seek thee,	15:55
	my soul thirsts for thee,	15:59
	as in a dry and weary land where no water is.	16:01
	Because thy steadfast love is better than life,	16:06
	my lips will praise thee.	16:10
	So I will bless thee as long as I live.	16:13
	I will lift up my hands and call on thy name.	16:16
	My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat,	16:21
	and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips."	16:24
	The epistle lesson is from Paul's letter	16:29
	to the Christians at Rome,	16:31
	chapter eight, verses 18 through 26.	16:34
	"I consider that the sufferings of this present time	16:40
	are not worth comparing with the glory	16:44
	that is to be revealed to us.	16:46
	For the creation waits with eager longing	16:49
	for the revealing of the sons of God,	16:52
	for the creation was subjected to futility,	16:55
	not of its own will,	16:58
	but by the will of him who subjected it in hope.	17:00
	Because the creation itself will be set free	17:05
	from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty	17:09
	of the children of God.	17:13
	We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail	17:15
	together until now, and not only the creation,	17:20
	but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit	17:24
	groan inwardly as we wait for the adoption as sons,	17:30
	the redemption of our bodies.	17:34
	For in this hope we were saved.	17:37
	Now hope that is seen is not hope,	17:41
	for who hopes for what he sees?	17:44
	But if we hope for what we do not see,	17:47
	we wait for it with patience.	17:51
	Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness,	17:54
	for we do not know how to pray as we ought,	17:58
	but the spirit himself intercedes for us	18:02
	with sighs too deep for words."	18:05
	May God bless this reading of his holy word.	18:10
	(soft pipe organ music)	18:13
	(harmonious choir music)	18:24
	♪ Amen ♪	18:51
-	Let us together affirm our faith in God.	18:59
	We are not alone, we live in God's world.	19:04
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	19:09
	who has come in the true man, Jesus	19:15
	to reconcile and make new,	19:19
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	19:22
	We trust him,	19:27
	he calls us to be his church, to celebrate his presence,	19:29
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	19:35
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	19:42
	our judge and our hope,	19:46
	in life, in death, in life beyond death,	19:49
	God is with us, we are not alone,	19:54
	thanks be to God.	19:59
	The Lord be with you.	20:01
-	And with thy spirit.	20:04
-	Let us pray.	20:06
	Let our first prayer be one of thanksgiving	20:15
	for the servants of the chapel.	20:19
	Almighty God whose house this is,	20:24
	we ask thy special blessing on many people	20:29
	as another academic year draws to a close.	20:34
	On those who have led the ministry of the word and of prayer	20:40
	at the lecture room and in the pulpit,	20:46
	on those who have made up the ministry of music,	20:50
	choir directors, organists, (indistinct), choristers,	20:55
	who rising early in the morning, lead our praise,	21:02
	voice our songs,	21:07
	make a joyful and harmonious noise unto thee on our behalf.	21:10
	On those who have often unexpectedly	21:19
	made up the ministry of service,	21:22
	the chapel monitor who with a twinkle in his eye	21:27
	and confidence in his asking, persuades enough worshipers,	21:29
	young and younger, male and female, to gather our offerings,	21:35
	to bring them to the thy son's table,	21:42
	making of it of an altar of thanksgiving.	21:45
	And with them we would remember the chapel hostesses,	21:50
	the secretaries, the maid, the janitor,	21:54
	the PA electrician,	22:00
	and the mechanical wizard who manages somehow	22:04
	to keep the organ alive from Lord's day to Lord's day.	22:08
	We ask thy blessing on the ministry of the pew,	22:14
	on all who have made our worship corporate	22:18
	by their presence, and their praying and praising	22:20
	and listening, bless them oh Lord,	22:27
	and bless them everyone.	22:31
	Reckon our second prayer be one of intercession	22:36
	for those who are all in trouble.	22:41
	Oh God the father, who has made of one blood	22:45
	all the nations of the earth,	22:49
	we pray that strength and courage abundant be given to all	22:52
	who work for a world of reason and understanding.	22:57
	We pray that the good which lies in every man's heart	23:03
	may day by day be magnified.	23:08
	We pray that men will come to see more clearly	23:12
	not that which divides them, but that which unites them.	23:15
	We pray that each hour may bring us closer	23:22
	to a final victory, not of nation over nation,	23:24
	but of man over his own evils and weakness.	23:32
	And all this we pray for Jesus Christ's sake.	23:37
	And let our third prayer be one of supplication	23:45
	at a time of examinations.	23:51
	Oh God of wisdom and of love, be with those of us	23:55
	who are now in the midst of examinations,	23:59
	help them to face their tasks with calmness,	24:05
	courage, and confidence,	24:09
	with knowledge, faithfulness and honesty,	24:13
	that they may do justice both to themselves	24:18
	and to their teachers, in the spirit of Jesus, the Christ	24:21
	who was called rabbi.	24:29
	And now let us pray together of the words	24:35
	which he taught his disciples, saying,	24:38
	"Our father who art in heaven,	24:42
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	24:46
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	24:51
	Give us this day our daily bread,	24:56
	and forgive us our trespasses	25:00
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	25:02
	and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	25:06
	For thine is the kingdom, and the power,	25:12
	and the glory forever, amen."	25:16
-	In the name of God, creator, redeemer and sustainer, amen.	25:40
	As I thought of the end of this academic year,	25:53
	and what might be appropriate as a theme	25:58
	for this last sermon before graduation weekend,	26:02
	I came across a prayer offered by Susanna H Wood,	26:09
	a prayer which she offered during her	26:17
	Radcliffe College graduation exercises recently,	26:19
	as she prayed among other words these.	26:24
	"Oh God, help us to prepare a kind of renaissance	26:28
	in our public and private lives.	26:33
	Let there be born in us a strange joy	26:38
	that will help us to live and to die and to remake	26:43
	the soul of our time."	26:48
	This morning I'd like for us to take three of those words,	26:53
	a strange joy, as the title, the idea,	26:56
	the thrust of some thoughts I would like to share with you.	27:01
	A strange joy, a strange joy.	27:06
	Dr. Colin, dean emeritus of this chapel	27:15
	and beloved by all in this university community	27:19
	and the community at large,	27:22
	in one of his early books wrote a line	27:25
	that I think is appropriate this morning.	27:28
	He said, "Sometimes life is a battleground,	27:33
	sometimes it is a veil of tears,	27:36
	but always life is a vigorous reality."	27:39
	How true it is.	27:46
	Life always a vigorous reality,	27:49
	and no other generation in all history	27:54
	knows the reality of life more than ours today.	27:56
	The high hopes, the heartbreaks,	28:01
	the visions realized, the dreams destroyed,	28:04
	the heights, the depths, the pain, the healing,	28:08
	the love, the hate,	28:14
	the hopes of peace, the horrors of war,	28:16
	the feasts of plenty, the famine of poverty.	28:20
	The pleas for acceptance and the cries of rejection	28:25
	by blacks and third world peoples,	28:28
	our own native Indian and other ethnic minorities.	28:31
	And now the rising up and the pushing down of women	28:35
	and their desires to be treated equally,	28:39
	real life, shocking, anxiety producing, despairing,	28:42
	flickering, is shown to us in living color	28:48
	on television newscasts and specials	28:52
	and even on the front page of Newsweek Magazine.	28:54
	Paul most aptly does describe us as he says,	29:00
	"For we know that the whole creation groans and travails	29:04
	for redemption."	29:08
	Thus this strange joy,	29:12
	for surely whatever joy you or I know today	29:16
	is indeed a strange joy.	29:19
	As a matter of fact, how dare one even think or write	29:22
	or talk of joy today, is it possible to do so?	29:25
	For as I'm merely entertain this idea of joy,	29:29
	all kinds of ambivalent feelings well up inside me,	29:32
	for how can one know joy, real joy,	29:36
	if we are in touch with life as it really is	29:39
	beyond us and around?	29:43
	Joy as we feed ourselves, building stuff	29:45
	and bulging not only today at lunch,	29:50
	but three meals a day and 400 million fellow human beings	29:52
	are starving right now	29:57
	and between 12 noon today and 12 noon tomorrow,	29:58
	10,000 fellow human beings will die from starvation,	30:01
	a strange joy.	30:06
	Joy, as the newspaper headline reads,	30:10
	"The war is over."	30:12
	And then we realize that over 50,000 of our fellow Americans	30:17
	died in Vietnam and Cambodia,	30:20
	that hundreds, literally hundreds of thousands of civilians	30:24
	and military Indochinese have been killed	30:28
	in the last 30 years there,	30:30
	that scores of thousands of Americans have been wounded	30:33
	and maimed and are still missing.	30:36
	Peace with honor, babies, orphans they are called	30:38
	because the war killed one or both of their parents.	30:45
	Babies airlifted, the war is over,	30:50
	a strange joy we know this Sunday,	30:55
	or as David Brinkley said one night this week,	30:59
	"This is the first time in 30 years	31:01
	that there has not been declared war taking place	31:04
	between two states or two nations	31:07
	somewhere on the face of this earth."	31:09
	A strange joy.	31:12
	Joy?	31:17
	As I, a white male in American culture	31:19
	with all the privileges and benefits that that alone offers,	31:22
	look around and see the blacks and women	31:27
	are still struggling for equal treatment	31:29
	and equal opportunity.	31:31
	Joy?	31:33
	How can I, a white male know anything but a strange joy?	31:35
	In the powerful movie still etched in my mind	31:43
	as clearly as if I saw it last evening,	31:48
	"The Autobiography of Jane Pittman"	31:51
	there's a moving poignant powerful scene.	31:53
	Jane was by this time in the movie	31:59
	an 80 or so year-old woman,	32:01
	and she was brought to the courthouse square	32:05
	one Saturday afternoon,	32:07
	I guess it was in the back of a pickup truck	32:09
	sitting in an old cane-bottom chair	32:11
	in the back of this old pickup truck.	32:14
	Brought downtown to some typical Southern small town,	32:17
	to the center of the town, to the courthouse square.	32:22
	She slowly climbed out of the back of her pickup truck,	32:25
	struggled with cane in hand as she made her way	32:31
	up the long, it seemed long, interminably long sidewalk	32:34
	leading up to the courthouse door itself.	32:38
	And as many whites gathered in twos and threes,	32:42
	you notice we always couple ourselves with someone else	32:44
	or some many other persons.	32:47
	As whites were gathered in twos and threes or more,	32:51
	she made her way up to the door of the courthouse.	32:53
	And there trembling, tottering,	33:00
	she bent over to drink from a water fountain.	33:03
	And then the cameras showed above the water fountain	33:08
	the words, "White only."	33:11
	The signs have come down, but we fool only ourselves	33:17
	my friends, if we think all is well	33:23
	because the white only or the colored only signs	33:26
	have come down.	33:31
	Joy, a strange joy.	33:32
	Joy as all around us there's hunger, starvation, ignorance,	33:37
	fear, hatred, racism, sexism, and indifference.	33:41
	And so you can see this morning,	33:44
	why I say that if you or I know any joy today,	33:50
	it is surely indeed a strange joy.	33:53
	On the office wall of a local psychiatrist	33:59
	is a statement worth sharing.	34:01
	Life is full of hardship and duress,	34:05
	for everything else, be thankful.	34:12
	I have a couple of clues that I want to suggest to you	34:20
	as to ways I think we can know today	34:24
	in the midst of our frustration and our helplessness,	34:28
	something of this strange joy that will sustain us.	34:32
	Clue number one, very simply continue to get in touch	34:37
	with your real self.	34:40
	Experience your own freedom and wholeness for touching,	34:44
	finding, knowing your real self is a strange joy,	34:48
	an exciting pilgrimage.	34:53
	Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian churchman	34:56
	who died just a few days before he would have been liberated	35:02
	just prior to the time he died wrote some words	35:05
	that have been entitled, Who am I?	35:09
	"Who am I?	35:12
	They often tell me I stepped from my cells confinement	35:15
	calmly cheerfully, firmly,	35:18
	like a Squire from his country house.	35:22
	Who am I?	35:26
	They often tell me I used to speak to my warders	35:28
	freely and friendly and clearly,	35:31
	as though it were mine to command.	35:34
	Who am I?	35:37
	They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune	35:39
	equably, smilingly, proudly,	35:42
	like one accustomed to win.	35:46
	Am I then all that which others tell of?	35:50
	Or am I only what I myself know of myself?	35:54
	Restless and longing and sick,	35:59
	like a bird in a cage,	36:02
	struggling for breath	36:04
	as though hands were compressing my throat,	36:05
	yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,	36:08
	thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,	36:12
	tossing in expectations of great events,	36:16
	powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,	36:19
	weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,	36:24
	faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.	36:29
	Who am I?	36:34
	This or the other?	36:36
	Am I one person today and tomorrow another?	36:38
	Am I both at once?	36:41
	A hypocrite before others,	36:43
	and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?	36:45
	Or is something within me still like a beaten army	36:51
	fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?	36:54
	Who am I?	37:00
	They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.	37:02
	Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine."	37:07
	Or in the words of the Psalmist,	37:14
	"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, oh Lord,	37:16
	oh God thou art my God.	37:19
	Early will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee,	37:22
	my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land	37:26
	where no water is."	37:31
	Part of the mystery, the meaning,	37:35
	the strange joy of life can be found as you get in touch	37:40
	with your real self.	37:46
	Meister Eckhart wrote, "To get at the core of God	37:49
	at his greatest,	37:52
	one must get into the core of himself at his least.	37:54
	For no one can know God who has not first known himself.	37:58
	Go to the depths of the soul,	38:03
	the secret place of the most high.	38:06
	To the roots, to the heights,	38:08
	for all that God can do is focused there."	38:11
	Go to the depths of your very own soul	38:17
	for all that God can do is focused there.	38:21
	Meaning of God, life and self is focused there	38:27
	in the depths of your being.	38:34
	Is this not our real longing,	38:38
	to get in touch with our real selves?	38:42
	As we move to a second clue,	38:48
	let me share with you some words	38:49
	about a very, very dear friend of mine.	38:52
	A great human being Dr. Carla Manly who wrote,	38:55
	"What if your real worth is in your being and having been	39:02
	and will be more than in your having or doing?	39:11
	What if your prime gift is a set of relations with others,	39:17
	brothers and sisters,	39:23
	and there is no thing which you must be?	39:25
	What if life really is a personal affair	39:29
	with people and children, a family,	39:32
	and not a professional affair at all?	39:35
	What if no rank or place or station	39:38
	can give us anything to keep?	39:41
	What if a life lived is my only word?"	39:44
	Your being, who you are, is your real worth,	39:52
	and to get in touch with yourself is a strange joy.	39:57
	The second clue to this strange joy	40:04
	then comes as we do see life as a personal	40:06
	and not as a professional affair	40:09
	so the second word is very simply touch somebody.	40:11
	Touch someone else.	40:19
	As you and I look around us at the vast major	40:23
	and serious problems confronting the human race,	40:27
	it's easy for us to get a sense of being overwhelmed,	40:29
	completely overcome by the vastness of them all.	40:33
	As we learned this year on this campus	40:37
	in trying to deal with even just a small part	40:39
	of the hunger problem,	40:42
	we began to ask, how do we get hold of it?	40:44
	What can I, you or I as an individual person do	40:47
	about any one of these major problems?	40:51
	Well, this clue may be overly simple.	40:54
	One suggestion is simply to touch someone.	40:58
	Touch somebody one at a time.	41:04
	There's much loneliness, pain, estrangement,	41:11
	hurting, around us.	41:17
	Last year for example, we interviewed 11 students	41:20
	in trying to select a student to preach here in the chapel.	41:23
	10 of those 11 students suggested that they would preach	41:29
	on a sermon dealing with our need for community,	41:33
	our lack of caring, the sense of being alone,	41:38
	the distances and separations and gulfs	41:42
	that keep us from each other.	41:45
	10 of 11 felt desperately that we need community,	41:49
	loving and caring right here on the Duke University campus.	41:53
	And I have an idea that that need	41:59
	applies to the community beyond.	42:01
	Best we can help share life with others	42:06
	and know something of a strange joy.	42:08
	Pearl Bailey the popular singer was being interviewed once	42:14
	and was asked how she feels about all the acclaim	42:16
	and the adulation that comes to her	42:20
	after she has done a performance	42:22
	and the people surge up around her?	42:25
	And the recorder went with her to her hotel room	42:28
	and strangely and interestingly enough,	42:30
	she had on an earlier occasion	42:33
	written out some of her reflections	42:35
	and some of her feelings	42:37
	and so she gave these to the reporter.	42:38
	"Why did they run to me?	42:42
	What are they seeking?	42:45
	Love.	42:47
	And without stretched hands it's given,	42:49
	the young smile and joke,	42:53
	the old look for hope.	42:56
	Whatever has been given must be shared by all,	42:59
	not relished, but shared.	43:02
	Love, she says, is so frighteningly beautiful.	43:05
	Why do they cry?	43:11
	Is it for me or for them?	43:13
	I choose to think it's for deliverance from despair.	43:16
	I see their souls and I hold them gently in my hands,	43:20
	and because I love them, they weigh nothing.	43:25
	God has set them there so gently I can enjoy their love.	43:28
	I feel a great healing power.	43:33
	So when they run up to the stage and we touch, I am healed,	43:36
	and so are they."	43:43
	Care about somebody, touch somebody, someone else,	43:46
	and know this strange joy	43:53
	to know the goodness of caring for,	43:57
	touching, loving someone else and oh, how we need it,	43:59
	how we do need it.	44:04
	Like the 18 year old Brooklyn college student	44:07
	who protested to us, her elders, when she said,	44:10
	"If the older generation is correct	44:13
	when they tell me that these are the best years	44:16
	of your life,	44:19
	then I'm not so sure that I wanna stay around for the rest."	44:20
	Or like a black friend of mine said one day,	44:26
	"Bob, you know these are trying times	44:31
	for blacks and whites?	44:34
	If you're black and you show some concern for whites	44:38
	and mix and mingle with them, you're called an Uncle Tom.	44:41
	If you're wide and you show some concern for blacks	44:45
	and you mix and mingle and try to help them,	44:48
	you're called a nigger lover.	44:50
	Why," he said,	44:53
	"why is it that we can't just love each other	44:54
	as we are for who we are?"	44:57
	Or as one of the black football players here was saying	45:03
	to some of us at lunch just a couple of weeks ago,	45:07
	we need to show more real love for each other.	45:13
	We're on this campus,	45:20
	if you whites mess around with us blacks,	45:21
	your white friends leave you alone.	45:23
	And if we blacks mix with you whites	45:29
	anywhere but on the football field,	45:31
	we catch it from other black students.	45:34
	This is the case so much so that a black student	45:38
	pledged the to fraternity,	45:42
	began to receive pressure from his black peers,	45:45
	and finally was forced to withdraw.	45:49
	We need each other,	45:58
	we need to give support and affirmation and acceptance	46:00
	to others, touch somebody and know this strange joy.	46:03
	Father Giovanni wrote these words in the 16th century,	46:14
	may they say something to you and to me.	46:21
	"I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.	46:26
	No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest	46:33
	in today,	46:37
	no peace lies in the future	46:39
	which is not hidden in this present little instant.	46:40
	The gloom of the world is but a shadow,	46:45
	behind it yet within our reach is joy.	46:48
	There is radiance and glory in the darkness	46:53
	could we but see.	46:56
	And to see, we have only to look.	46:58
	Life is so generous a giver,	47:02
	but we judging its gifts by their covering,	47:03
	cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard.	47:07
	Remove the covering,	47:11
	and you will find beneath it a living splendor woven of love	47:14
	by wisdom with power.	47:18
	Life is so full of meaning and purpose,	47:21
	so full of beauty beneath its covering,	47:25
	that you will earth but cloaks your heaven.	47:28
	Courage then to claim it, that is all.	47:33
	But courage you have,	47:38
	and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together,	47:40
	wending through unknown country, home."	47:46
	We are pilgrims together.	47:52
	Touch yourself, touch somebody, let us pray.	47:59
	Oh God, let there be born in us a strange joy	48:11
	that will help us to live and to die	48:20
	and to remake the soul of our time, amen.	48:24
	(orchestral music)	48:35
	(harmonious choir music)	49:11
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	52:09
	♪ Amen ♪	52:24
	(soft pipe organ music)	54:47
	("Praise God For What He Has Done For Me")	54:51
	♪ Amen ♪	57:26
	(soft pipe organ music)	57:42
	(harmonious choir music)	57:57
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	58:09
	(harmonious choir music)	58:16
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	58:29
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	58:35
	♪ Amen ♪	58:51
-	Oh God in whom we live and move and have our being,	59:01
	here we offer and present onto thee,	59:07
	our silver and our gold,	59:10
	the symbol of ourselves, our souls and bodies,	59:14
	our thoughts and our desires,	59:20
	our works and our deeds to be a reasonable,	59:24
	holy and living sacrifice unto thee	59:29
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	59:34
	(soft pipe organ music)	59:42
	(harmonious choir music)	1:00:15
	♪ Amen ♪	1:02:33
	May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly,	1:02:57
	may it keep you strong and tranquil	1:03:03
	in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	1:03:07
	♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪	1:03:16
	(soft pipe organ music)	1:03:39
	(congregation mumbling indistinctly)	1:11:35

Item Info

Title:

Robert T. Young - "A Strange Joy" (May 4, 1975)

Description:

Cleland questions the claim that Palm Sunday and the act of crucifixion was the happiest in his life, as he was fighting against some of the strongest powers on Earth. Rather, he makes note of Jesus's suffering and his difficulty in battling church and state. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "What has happened in that a new inspiration is in conflict with custom and habit, ecclesiastical and political. Assurance stands in oppositions to use and want. It is almost always difficult for ordinary goodness to know what to do with unusual goodness."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44f1rk3b

Date:

May 4, 1975

Speaker:

Young, Robert T., 1935-2009

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

Matthew

Chapter and Verse:

Matthew 21:1-11

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0766
ref6732_esu
uachapelsermaud
duke:628179
dcrau002735
ark:/87924/r44f1rk3b
82da4654-6c4d-46a4-9c63-ee8476a1a91d

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Robert T. Young - "A Strange Joy" (May 4, 1975)

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Duke University Archives