Stuart C. Henry - Baccalaureate Service for Advanced Degree Candidates (May 8, 1976)
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| (bright music) | 0:23 | |
| (choir sings) | 6:28 | |
| Preacher | Jeremiah writes, "Thus says the Lord. | 12:25 |
| Let not the wise glory in their wisdom. | 12:31 | |
| Let not the mighty glory in their might. | 12:36 | |
| Let not the rich glory in their riches, | 12:40 | |
| but let those who glory, glory in this. | 12:44 | |
| That they understand and know me, | 12:49 | |
| that I am the Lord who practices kindness, justice, | 12:53 | |
| and righteousness in the earth. | 12:58 | |
| And in these things, I delight," says the Lord. | 13:01 | |
| Together, let us offer to God and to one another, | 13:09 | |
| our prayer of confession. | 13:15 | |
| Oh God, in whose mystery we abide, | 13:19 | |
| and by whose mercy we are redeemed, | 13:23 | |
| we confess our sin against one another and against you. | 13:26 | |
| All our transgressions hidden and open, | 13:31 | |
| the evil done and the goodness left under. | 13:35 | |
| We have deceived ourselves about ourselves, | 13:39 | |
| and worn masks and not trusted in love. | 13:42 | |
| We confess that we have been careful with things, | 13:47 | |
| careless with persons, adept in taking, awkward in giving, | 13:50 | |
| in love with our fears and in fear of our loves. | 13:57 | |
| Forgive us for the times of our anger | 14:02 | |
| and the occasions of our stupidity, | 14:05 | |
| for the times of our cowardice | 14:08 | |
| and the places of our hesitation, | 14:10 | |
| for every time we did not love the goodness of persons | 14:13 | |
| nor praise your glory. | 14:17 | |
| Forgive us, lift us up and heal us this day | 14:20 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. | 14:25 | |
| Listen to this word from Paul. | 14:52 | |
| Now the works of the flesh are plain, immorality, impurity. | 14:57 | |
| But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, | 15:04 | |
| patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. | 15:09 | |
| As we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. | 15:16 | |
| May God's spirit of forgiveness and wholeness | 15:23 | |
| strengthen you and free you, amen. | 15:29 | |
| (choir sings) | 15:52 | |
| The lesson is from selected verses | 22:40 | |
| and the Acts of the Apostles, | 22:42 | |
| St. Paul's letter to the church of Rome | 22:45 | |
| and the Revelation to St. John. | 22:48 | |
| I read from the Revised Standard Version. | 22:51 | |
| How many signs and wonders were done among the people | 22:55 | |
| by the hands of the apostles? | 22:58 | |
| They were all together in Solomon's Portico. | 23:01 | |
| None of the rest dared joined them, | 23:03 | |
| but the people held them in high honor. | 23:06 | |
| But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, | 23:09 | |
| that is the party of the Sadducees, | 23:13 | |
| and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles | 23:16 | |
| and put them in the common prison. | 23:19 | |
| But at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors | 23:22 | |
| and brought them out. | 23:25 | |
| And someone came and told them, | 23:28 | |
| "The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple | 23:29 | |
| and teaching the people." | 23:33 | |
| And when they had brought them, | 23:35 | |
| they set them before the council | 23:37 | |
| and the high priest questioned them. | 23:39 | |
| But Peter and the apostles answered, | 23:42 | |
| "We must obey God, rather than man." | 23:44 | |
| When they heard this, | 23:48 | |
| they were enraged and wanted to kill them. | 23:49 | |
| But a Pharisee on the council named Gamaliel, | 23:52 | |
| a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, | 23:56 | |
| stood up and ordered the men to be put aside for a while. | 24:01 | |
| And he said to them, | 24:05 | |
| "Men of Israel, take care of what you do with these men. | 24:07 | |
| I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. | 24:11 | |
| For if this plan is of man, it will fail. | 24:15 | |
| But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. | 24:20 | |
| You might even be found opposing God. | 24:24 | |
| What then shall we say to this? | 24:28 | |
| If God is for us, who is then against us? | 24:31 | |
| He who did not spare his own son, | 24:36 | |
| but gave him up for us all, | 24:38 | |
| will he not also give us all things with him? | 24:40 | |
| Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? | 24:45 | |
| It is God who justifies, who is to condemn? | 24:49 | |
| It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, | 24:54 | |
| but who was raised from the dead, | 24:56 | |
| who is at the right hand of God, | 24:59 | |
| who indeed intercedes for us. | 25:00 | |
| Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? | 25:04 | |
| Shall tribulation or distress or persecution | 25:07 | |
| or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. | 25:11 | |
| Knowing all these things, | 25:15 | |
| we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. | 25:18 | |
| For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, | 25:22 | |
| nor principalities, nor things present, | 25:25 | |
| nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, | 25:28 | |
| nor anything else in all creation, | 25:32 | |
| will be able to separate us from the love of God | 25:35 | |
| and Christ Jesus, our Lord. | 25:37 | |
| Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. | 25:40 | |
| For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away | 25:44 | |
| and the sea was no more. | 25:47 | |
| And I saw the Holy city, new Jerusalem, | 25:49 | |
| coming down out of heaven from God. | 25:52 | |
| Prepared as a bride adorned for for her husband. | 25:55 | |
| And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, | 25:59 | |
| "Behold, the dwelling of God is with man. | 26:02 | |
| He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, | 26:06 | |
| and God himself will be with them. | 26:09 | |
| He will wipe away every tear from their eyes | 26:12 | |
| and death shall be no more. | 26:14 | |
| Neither shall there be mourning nor crying, | 26:16 | |
| nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." | 26:19 | |
| And I saw no temple in the city, | 26:24 | |
| for its temple is the Lord God, the almighty and the lamb. | 26:27 | |
| And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, | 26:32 | |
| for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb. | 26:36 | |
| By its light shall the nations walk, | 26:42 | |
| and the Kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. | 26:44 | |
| And its gate shall never be shut by day, | 26:48 | |
| and there shall be no night there. | 26:51 | |
| They shall bring into it | 26:54 | |
| the glory and the honor of the nations." | 26:55 | |
| Herehence the reading of the lesson. | 26:59 | |
| (bright music) | 27:02 | |
| (choir sings) | 27:12 | |
| We are not alone, we live in God's world. | 27:48 | |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 27:53 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 27:58 | |
| and make new. | 28:02 | |
| Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 28:04 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 28:08 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 28:12 | |
| to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 28:15 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 28:20 | |
| our judge and our hope. | 28:24 | |
| In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. | 28:26 | |
| We are not alone. Thanks be to God. | 28:33 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 28:38 | |
| Let us pray. | 28:41 | |
| It is good and glorious, oh God to give you praise. | 28:50 | |
| We thank you for the exalted experiences of life, | 29:00 | |
| especially for this graduation weekend, | 29:06 | |
| with its moments of affirmation, recognition, high honor, | 29:09 | |
| continuing challenge and our satisfaction | 29:14 | |
| and alter call to service. | 29:18 | |
| Oh God, continue to give us vision and make us bold, | 29:22 | |
| that we may live lives with high intentions, | 29:27 | |
| seek to keep our motives pure, | 29:31 | |
| search for newer meanings in life. | 29:34 | |
| Sell not our souls for gain of even the whole world. | 29:37 | |
| Yes, oh God, may we live by excellence | 29:43 | |
| and not by expediency. | 29:46 | |
| Good and gracious God bless each man | 29:50 | |
| and each woman who graduates from this university now. | 29:52 | |
| May degrees conferred and honors bestowed | 29:59 | |
| be accepted with genuine humility, | 30:02 | |
| for they have been bought with a price, | 30:06 | |
| the price of diligent study, | 30:09 | |
| long hours of research and writing, | 30:12 | |
| careful attention to prescribed expectation. | 30:14 | |
| The price of compassionate teaching, dialogue, intention | 30:19 | |
| of continuous struggle by professors and mentors. | 30:24 | |
| The price of love, time, money, support, understanding, | 30:29 | |
| and encouragement, which have come from mother, father, | 30:34 | |
| companion and friend. | 30:38 | |
| Send down your spirit, oh God, | 30:41 | |
| to touch the life and the spirit, | 30:44 | |
| the present and the future of those whom we honor this day. | 30:46 | |
| Oh God, take each of us now, mold us, make us, use us, | 30:53 | |
| give us lives with hard tasks to do, | 31:01 | |
| lives that will tax us and stretch us, | 31:06 | |
| lives that will strain our muscles | 31:09 | |
| and engage our minds, | 31:12 | |
| lives that will require all our powers of body, | 31:15 | |
| intellect and heart. | 31:19 | |
| Lives, oh God, above all, | 31:22 | |
| that will further your will of love, justice and peace. | 31:25 | |
| As we move toward ends we do not see, | 31:32 | |
| and journeys we do not know, | 31:38 | |
| may we do so with the full assurance | 31:42 | |
| of your continued love and strength and grace. | 31:46 | |
| May each of us know, oh God, | 31:53 | |
| that your grace indeed is sufficient for all things, | 31:56 | |
| and that through Christ who strengthens us, | 32:02 | |
| we can do all things. | 32:07 | |
| Hear these words, our prayers. | 32:12 | |
| Accept us now, oh God as we pray the prayer | 32:14 | |
| which our Lord has taught us saying, | 32:18 | |
| our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 32:21 | |
| Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 32:27 | |
| as it is in heaven. | 32:31 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread, | 32:33 | |
| forgive us our trespasses, | 32:36 | |
| as we get those who trespass against us. | 32:38 | |
| Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 32:42 | |
| for thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory | 32:47 | |
| forever, amen. | 32:50 | |
| In the name of the Father and of the Son | 33:15 | |
| and of the Holy spirit. Amen. | 33:19 | |
| A city is known by her citizens. | 33:31 | |
| Sparta is brave because her warriors are her walls. | 33:35 | |
| If Gotham be not wise, | 33:41 | |
| it is because the city is overrun with fools. | 33:43 | |
| How surely we measure a place by her people | 33:48 | |
| is plain in the shuttering recognition | 33:51 | |
| of a former residence | 33:54 | |
| when we return to the locus of our childhood. | 33:56 | |
| We cannot find what we seek, everything is changed. | 34:00 | |
| A house which seemed a mansion | 34:06 | |
| and intimidated us with its shadows | 34:09 | |
| when we were children is small now, | 34:11 | |
| shrunken and almost dilapidated. | 34:15 | |
| And the great tree under which we played in summer | 34:18 | |
| is meager somehow and mean. | 34:21 | |
| But most of all, though, | 34:25 | |
| we are stunned because the people have changed. | 34:26 | |
| Some have gone lost in death or oblivion | 34:31 | |
| and some which is worse, do not remember us nor we them. | 34:35 | |
| But even those whom we thought we knew are different, | 34:41 | |
| and not simply because they are older. | 34:44 | |
| Do we see them change | 34:49 | |
| because our eyes have grown kinder or cruel, perhaps? | 34:51 | |
| In any case, the spot that we knew has vanished, | 34:58 | |
| displaced by another. | 35:02 | |
| We no longer know our town because a place is known | 35:04 | |
| by the citizens who bear her name. | 35:10 | |
| And our town is now occupied by strangers. | 35:14 | |
| But if we know those who are the city, | 35:19 | |
| then we recognize the place. | 35:23 | |
| Though we come to it, but once or never, or in the twilight, | 35:26 | |
| or only in our dreams. | 35:32 | |
| For to know a city, is to know the citizens who live in it, | 35:35 | |
| for they are the city. | 35:40 | |
| A tale of three cities then is | 35:43 | |
| must be a tale of three citizens, and so we begin. | 35:47 | |
| Jerusalem is a city whose beginnings reach | 35:54 | |
| far beyond recorded history. | 35:57 | |
| Centuries before David paleolithic man | 36:01 | |
| roamed over her hills. | 36:04 | |
| The very origin and meaning of the name are uncertain. | 36:06 | |
| City of peace, foundation of peace, possession of peace, | 36:11 | |
| who can say? | 36:16 | |
| Here is something of peace though, | 36:18 | |
| and ironically, the city has burned little enough of it. | 36:22 | |
| The den of battle echos still through the groves | 36:27 | |
| of cedars and olive trees, | 36:30 | |
| where rivers of blood have already been shared. | 36:32 | |
| Mystic saying of Jerusalem as golden, | 36:36 | |
| a symbol of course, of all that was to come | 36:40 | |
| and awkwardly it was sometimes so, | 36:43 | |
| as in the days of Solomon and especially | 36:46 | |
| during the reign of Herod, the great. | 36:50 | |
| That crafty Idumaean, of whom his enemies said | 36:53 | |
| that he stole to the throne like a fox, | 36:57 | |
| ruled like a tiger and died like a dog, | 37:01 | |
| beautified his capital with splendid architecture | 37:05 | |
| and with Greek sculpture. | 37:09 | |
| For himself, he built a costly palace of grandeur with in | 37:11 | |
| and fair gardens with out. | 37:17 | |
| And rejecting the ancient temple of Zerubbabel | 37:19 | |
| erected another, | 37:23 | |
| a lordly one of white marble and gold, | 37:24 | |
| whose dazzling beauty clashed in the Eastern sunblind. | 37:28 | |
| But splendor though did not out-light the century. | 37:33 | |
| The Roman Titus and his soldiers reduced it to ashes. | 37:37 | |
| And yet paradoxically there was even in Herod's day | 37:41 | |
| an enduring excellence, | 37:46 | |
| not subject to the flaming brands of marching legions. | 37:48 | |
| It was the glory of wisdom, | 37:54 | |
| for Jerusalem had known much wisdom. | 37:57 | |
| Many had lived there who were exceedingly wise. | 38:00 | |
| Oblique light is thrown on the matter | 38:05 | |
| by the reminder that one of the Jewish symbols of beauty | 38:08 | |
| is an old man with long white hair. | 38:12 | |
| One who has survived in the struggle of life, | 38:17 | |
| the very incarnation of refined and enduring insight. | 38:20 | |
| Indeed, this great wisdom infiltrated Jewish life | 38:26 | |
| at every point. | 38:31 | |
| It could acknowledge wisdom's presence | 38:33 | |
| as the creative ager, | 38:36 | |
| when God separated the waters from dry land | 38:37 | |
| and made the world, | 38:40 | |
| and it recognized the continued indwelling eminence | 38:42 | |
| in all creation. | 38:46 | |
| The wisdom was sometimes realistic | 38:49 | |
| as in the observation that one who nags | 38:52 | |
| is as annoying as endlessly dripping water, | 38:55 | |
| or commonplace wisdom in the ethic caution | 38:59 | |
| against taking a strange dog by the ear. | 39:03 | |
| But the essence of Jerusalem's wisdom | 39:07 | |
| was how to come to terms with the universe. | 39:10 | |
| No matter how tragic or how trivial the necessity | 39:13 | |
| for doing so. | 39:17 | |
| One of the wisest of Jerusalem citizens was Gamaliel. | 39:19 | |
| President of the signage run, | 39:24 | |
| but supreme council and tribunal of the Jews | 39:26 | |
| in the early days of the Christian church. | 39:30 | |
| Known and respected, Gamaliel did not trade on his celebrity | 39:34 | |
| for this ruler was tolerant and urbane. | 39:39 | |
| And as one who had lived in good society long years, | 39:43 | |
| Gamaliel had established a truce with secular culture. | 39:48 | |
| Stricter Pharisees than he, when they went abroad, | 39:52 | |
| might veil their faces or even close their eyes, | 39:57 | |
| lest they look unworthily upon women. | 40:01 | |
| But Gamaliel did not scruple | 40:04 | |
| to look upon the daughters of Jerusalem, | 40:06 | |
| even those who were pagan. | 40:09 | |
| He looked at much else also. | 40:11 | |
| More perceptive than most, | 40:15 | |
| he understood how completely the Maccabean experiment | 40:18 | |
| and nationalism had failed. | 40:22 | |
| He knew how hopelessly the Roman (indistinct) | 40:25 | |
| ground upon the neck of Jerusalem. | 40:28 | |
| Moreover, the chosen people were scattered. | 40:31 | |
| And then the city, | 40:35 | |
| the temple, with it's religion of ritual was giving away | 40:36 | |
| to the synagogue as a center of worship. | 40:40 | |
| Prayer and the reading of the law | 40:43 | |
| were displacing the blood sacrifice | 40:46 | |
| and the light of the people. | 40:48 | |
| Very wisely, Gamaliel in his career, | 40:51 | |
| continued and refined that which his grandfather, | 40:54 | |
| the great Hillel had begun. | 40:58 | |
| Namely, the transformation of Judaism | 41:01 | |
| into the lofty, ethical system of our own day. | 41:05 | |
| Gamaliel was a student. | 41:09 | |
| And like any one of mind, | 41:12 | |
| he sought to solve the riddle of the ages. | 41:13 | |
| And like us, he chose the way of study, of reflection | 41:17 | |
| and research to achieve his end. | 41:22 | |
| But like his forefather Abraham, he also looked for a city, | 41:26 | |
| not knowing so much where it was to be found | 41:32 | |
| as being confident that when he had reached that point | 41:36 | |
| at which the mind was at rest, | 41:39 | |
| he would know that he had arrived. | 41:42 | |
| Gamaliel's is the wisdom of the citizen of Jerusalem. | 41:45 | |
| Although the quest is defined in theological terms. | 41:50 | |
| Typical of Gamaliel is the eminently sensible advice | 41:54 | |
| to the enemies of the early Christians | 41:58 | |
| recounted in the lesson. | 42:00 | |
| At first glance, it may sound prudential, | 42:02 | |
| but at core, it is wise beyond learning. | 42:06 | |
| "As to how to deal with the upstart followers | 42:11 | |
| of the Galilean," he said, | 42:14 | |
| "Let them alone, if they are of man, | 42:16 | |
| nothing will come of them. | 42:20 | |
| If they are a God, you cannot defeat them. | 42:22 | |
| And you do not want even accidentally | 42:26 | |
| to be found striving against the (indistinct). | 42:29 | |
| Exert your efforts in the search for wisdom, | 42:33 | |
| not in the strife against the (indistinct). | 42:36 | |
| So, the citizens of Jerusalem are ever sensible, | 42:40 | |
| reasoned and approach to the human situation | 42:45 | |
| and eminently practical. | 42:48 | |
| Thus does wisdom instruct her children. | 42:51 | |
| Now speaking metaphorically, | 42:55 | |
| we as members of the university committee are such citizens, | 42:57 | |
| or at least we should be. | 43:02 | |
| The distinction does not necessarily limit our goals, | 43:05 | |
| but it indicates our procedures. | 43:09 | |
| For our approach to life is intellectual, academic, mental. | 43:12 | |
| We like Gamaliel are intoxicated by the distilled wisdom | 43:18 | |
| of those who have gone before. | 43:23 | |
| We sipped through what others have fought and said, | 43:26 | |
| and so we write books about books about books. | 43:30 | |
| As scholars, we express the situation by our doubt | 43:34 | |
| that we can ever plan the depth of the knowable, | 43:39 | |
| we can only revere it. | 43:43 | |
| To state the matter theologically, | 43:45 | |
| mortals realize that they can never fully respond | 43:48 | |
| to the demand of the infinite, | 43:51 | |
| the wise citizen of Jerusalem, | 43:54 | |
| who has a theological band, | 43:57 | |
| affirms a belief that God will fulfill | 43:59 | |
| those who open their hearts to him. | 44:02 | |
| The reasonable scholar of Jerusalem | 44:06 | |
| says that the very search for truth is self-fulfilling. | 44:09 | |
| And yet it comes in the end to the same thing, | 44:14 | |
| for both are ultimately restricted to their own efforts, | 44:18 | |
| that is to the now. | 44:22 | |
| Both settle for what the finite man can accept and envision. | 44:25 | |
| It is not so much that the citizens of Jerusalem | 44:31 | |
| understand the universe | 44:34 | |
| as it is that they simply accept it. | 44:37 | |
| To do otherwise would not be sensible, | 44:40 | |
| make no mistake about that. | 44:43 | |
| There is however, | 44:45 | |
| more than wisdom in resolving the tension of our lives. | 44:47 | |
| How much more is evident in the life of one | 44:52 | |
| who sat at the feet of Gamaliel, a student of his. | 44:55 | |
| He was another citizen from another city, | 45:00 | |
| and his name was Paul. | 45:04 | |
| Tradition seems always to represent Paul as mature | 45:08 | |
| and perhaps he was born old, | 45:12 | |
| for we know him only as ancient, ageless, ascetic | 45:15 | |
| with bald head and prophet's beard, | 45:20 | |
| Justice Dura pictured him, | 45:23 | |
| piercing eyes stabbing our very souls. | 45:26 | |
| The portrait may be about our history and art, but of this, | 45:30 | |
| we can be certain the blazing (indistinct) | 45:34 | |
| natural enough for him who sat at Gamaliel's feet | 45:38 | |
| when he was still young, and his name was Saul. | 45:41 | |
| That fire became the incandescence of the convert | 45:45 | |
| which burned within him till his life's end. | 45:49 | |
| Unable to accept Gamaliel's paradox, | 45:54 | |
| he broke the antimony of compromise | 45:57 | |
| by which Hebrewism's unity | 45:59 | |
| had made room for both law and love. | 46:02 | |
| And with a certain fury of one who instinctively | 46:06 | |
| recognizes the enemy as a lover, | 46:09 | |
| he was outraged with the Christians | 46:13 | |
| who had deserted the law for love. | 46:15 | |
| And breathing out murder against the Christians, | 46:18 | |
| he set out for Damascus to search for the latest enemies | 46:22 | |
| of Judaism and bring them to justice. | 46:25 | |
| As he traveled over the harsh and ugly terrain | 46:30 | |
| that returned the noon day sun with a curse, | 46:34 | |
| he was struck to the ground, blinded by unnatural light | 46:37 | |
| and stunned by a voice which called him by name. | 46:42 | |
| "Saul, why do you persecute me?" | 46:47 | |
| And when terrified he asked, "Who are you?" | 46:52 | |
| The voice replied, "I am Jesus." | 46:57 | |
| And from that moment Saul was God driven, | 47:01 | |
| whether in retreat in the Arabian desert | 47:05 | |
| or speaking in a crowded market square. | 47:08 | |
| For 12 years or longer, | 47:11 | |
| he moved from place to place through Asia Minor and Greece, | 47:14 | |
| driven by a frantic immediacy to preach the gospel. | 47:18 | |
| Most likely he walked, | 47:23 | |
| having no more than a cloak upon his back. | 47:24 | |
| a staff in his hand, | 47:27 | |
| and perhaps a dried crust in his girdle, | 47:29 | |
| but nothing deterred him. | 47:32 | |
| As he dragged his weary body along | 47:35 | |
| the rocky road and through the thorny defiles, | 47:37 | |
| for he was a committed man. | 47:41 | |
| Five times he was lashed by the Jews, | 47:43 | |
| three times he was beaten by the Romans. | 47:47 | |
| Once he was stoned and left for dead. | 47:50 | |
| Thrice he was shipwrecked, | 47:52 | |
| once he flounded for a day and night in the sea, | 47:54 | |
| often a prisoner in the dank cells of the empire, | 47:57 | |
| hungry, thirsty, naked, cold, | 48:01 | |
| and nothing stopped him, | 48:04 | |
| nothing except a chopping block and headman's ax, | 48:07 | |
| for he was a committed man, not a wise man, | 48:12 | |
| not a citizen of Jerusalem. | 48:18 | |
| He even boasted being a fool for Christ. | 48:20 | |
| No, this one was a committed man, and his city, Rome. | 48:24 | |
| Not only was he a legal citizen of the Imperial City, | 48:32 | |
| a circumstance which proved disconcerting to a tribune | 48:37 | |
| on the point of examining him with the scourge. | 48:40 | |
| But he was a citizen of that greater city, | 48:44 | |
| that for which Rome is eternally symbolic. | 48:48 | |
| One always belongs to the city of the heart's sympathy. | 48:53 | |
| It is possible never to go beyond the confines of a village | 48:58 | |
| and still be a citizen of a far away place. | 49:04 | |
| Just as the inland poet knows what a wave must be | 49:08 | |
| without ever traveling to the sea. | 49:12 | |
| Rome has always been a city of commitment. | 49:16 | |
| Whatever else commitment involves, | 49:19 | |
| it demands the bonding of self to that | 49:22 | |
| which the heart acknowledges as superior. | 49:25 | |
| And moreover does Saul, with reference to the future | 49:29 | |
| as well as to the present. | 49:33 | |
| The idiom of the creed is protean, | 49:35 | |
| but the sentiment is constant. | 49:38 | |
| Rome's legendary heroes were farmers committed to nature, | 49:41 | |
| and that faithfulness by which seedtime | 49:47 | |
| ever follows harvest. | 49:50 | |
| In the tragic transition to empire, | 49:52 | |
| her sons and daughters did not alter their faith | 49:55 | |
| nor forget their farms. | 49:59 | |
| Since Cincinnatus left plow to become dictator, | 50:02 | |
| but after he had conquered the Aequians | 50:06 | |
| and delivered his people from danger, | 50:09 | |
| he returned to his farm. | 50:12 | |
| In pride, but with accuracy, | 50:15 | |
| Virgil saying that Rome's arts should be | 50:18 | |
| to govern with the rule of peace, | 50:22 | |
| to spare the weak and to subjugate the proud. | 50:24 | |
| And when Rome, at least in theory, became Christian, | 50:30 | |
| the symbol of lofty commitment was but intensified. | 50:35 | |
| The citizen of Rome is indeed | 50:40 | |
| the citizen of an eternal city, | 50:43 | |
| by commitment to that which is greater than self. | 50:46 | |
| Paul confessing, "I live yet not I but Christ lives in me," | 50:50 | |
| is a man committed. | 50:56 | |
| Yet although wisdom is committed, | 50:59 | |
| commitment is more than wisdom, at times, even unwise. | 51:03 | |
| It is the mad committed fool who says as Paul does, | 51:09 | |
| that nothing neither life nor death, nor principalities, | 51:14 | |
| nor powers, nor things present, | 51:20 | |
| nor things to come, | 51:22 | |
| nor anything in all creation can separate me | 51:24 | |
| from the love of God. | 51:28 | |
| By such confession, Paul, | 51:30 | |
| the fool boasting for Christ marked himself | 51:33 | |
| as a citizen of Rome and precisely for such commitment | 51:37 | |
| that transcended the boundaries of the Latin city | 51:42 | |
| or any city, Rome could not hold him. | 51:46 | |
| Before Paul was ever a citizen of Jerusalem or of Rome, | 51:50 | |
| and long after he was citizen of a city older than Baghdad. | 51:55 | |
| So must every pilgrim be who comes to himself, | 52:02 | |
| exiles from a garden, | 52:06 | |
| we are all of us homesick in our homes | 52:08 | |
| and strangers under the sun. | 52:13 | |
| And we lay our heads in a foreign land | 52:16 | |
| whenever the day is gone. | 52:18 | |
| Ultimately we must find our way to an older place than Eden, | 52:21 | |
| to a taller town than Rome. | 52:27 | |
| And that ancient site is the city of Mansoul | 52:30 | |
| Bunyan described it and depicts | 52:35 | |
| the capture of Mansoul by Daedalus. | 52:38 | |
| He tells of the siege and of the rescue by an army | 52:41 | |
| led by Emmanuel, who is the son of the builder of the city. | 52:45 | |
| There in peace and in recognition of our identity, | 52:49 | |
| is our rightful habitation. | 52:54 | |
| A modern author complains that the trouble | 52:57 | |
| with many of our generation | 53:00 | |
| is that they are not from anywhere, so much is true. | 53:01 | |
| Not simply because our mobile culture rarely allows us | 53:07 | |
| to remain in one spot long enough to put down roots. | 53:11 | |
| But sadly, because we refuse to acknowledge who we are. | 53:16 | |
| The city of the soul has been despoiled, | 53:24 | |
| an enemy has overturned out altars, | 53:27 | |
| extinguished our fires and profaned our tunes, | 53:31 | |
| but we are the enemy unwilling to admit ourselves. | 53:36 | |
| Exiles from Eden, we belong to no city. | 53:42 | |
| We are nobodies. | 53:46 | |
| Learning alone will not satisfy in the end, | 53:49 | |
| and commitment cannot be sustained | 53:53 | |
| unless we come to terms with ourselves. | 53:56 | |
| If no one ever goes to the stake | 54:01 | |
| for the sake of a logical conclusion, | 54:04 | |
| neither does anyone go to the stake unconsciously. | 54:07 | |
| Late in his career, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem | 54:12 | |
| and finally brought to Rome as an enemy of the state. | 54:16 | |
| He died a Martyr. | 54:21 | |
| We have no record of the trial. | 54:23 | |
| (indistinct) writing some 200 years afterward, | 54:26 | |
| reports that Paul was beheaded. | 54:30 | |
| And (indistinct), a little later says | 54:32 | |
| that he suffered martyrdom under Nero. | 54:35 | |
| Most likely as a Roman citizen, | 54:39 | |
| he enjoyed the doubtful honor of distinct execution. | 54:41 | |
| In any case, three centuries later, | 54:46 | |
| the church raised a (indistinct) over the place, | 54:49 | |
| where under (indistinct) | 54:53 | |
| the pious believe that Paul had found peace. | 54:56 | |
| Built and rebuilt, it still stands. | 55:00 | |
| The Papal Basilica of St. Paul beyond the walls. | 55:05 | |
| A parable this, for Rome did not, could not contain him. | 55:11 | |
| Paul was a world citizen and could be bound by no wall. | 55:17 | |
| There is also a tradition that where his severed head | 55:22 | |
| touched the earth, water sprang up, | 55:26 | |
| offering an Alexa to strengthen those | 55:30 | |
| who have come from Jerusalem and must onto Rome | 55:33 | |
| and far beyond to the uttermost parts of the earth. | 55:38 | |
| Inspired by his example, | 55:42 | |
| we participate in his spirit, | 55:45 | |
| and with him we search for a city. | 55:48 | |
| Socrates spoke of the ideal city in heaven | 55:51 | |
| with a pattern of it laid up, which he says, | 55:55 | |
| "He who desires may behold | 55:59 | |
| and beholding may set his house in order | 56:02 | |
| thus does the city of Mansoul know it's deliverance. | 56:06 | |
| When finally her citizen acknowledges the pattern | 56:10 | |
| and sets the house in order. | 56:15 | |
| We stand at the doorway of the infinite. | 56:18 | |
| At every single instant in our lives, | 56:23 | |
| for every moment of time is equidistant from eternity. | 56:27 | |
| Wisdom brings us to commitment | 56:32 | |
| and commitment is possible to the free citizen | 56:35 | |
| of the city of Mansoul. | 56:38 | |
| Liberation comes when we are rid of the besetting demons | 56:41 | |
| of our existence | 56:45 | |
| and fix our desire upon God, who made us for himself, | 56:47 | |
| for it is only the son of the builder who achieves | 56:53 | |
| that freedom, or as Paul expressed it, | 56:56 | |
| "To me to live, is Christ." | 57:00 | |
| The tale of three cities is but the tale of three citizens | 57:04 | |
| or more exactly, it is the tale of a single citizen | 57:09 | |
| in search of home. | 57:14 | |
| Puzzling over the riddle of time, | 57:16 | |
| we may well reside in cautious wisdom. | 57:19 | |
| Discovering that learning is not enough, | 57:23 | |
| and who can doubt it in the face of the chaos, | 57:27 | |
| which our technical knowledge has unleashed against us. | 57:30 | |
| We may make commitments to use our science | 57:34 | |
| for the sake of others, to use our understanding of beauty | 57:38 | |
| to make life bearable. | 57:42 | |
| We hope that such nobility will add the purple border | 57:45 | |
| of dignity to our robes, and it will, it will, | 57:48 | |
| but wisdom disappoints and commitment fades | 57:53 | |
| unless we come again to that fairer place than Eden, | 57:58 | |
| that taller town than Rome. | 58:03 | |
| Beloved, you are now citizens of Jerusalem. | 58:06 | |
| All of you knowledgeable, learned, | 58:11 | |
| and God bless and pity you. | 58:15 | |
| You may be citizens of Rome as well, | 58:19 | |
| committed to some noble purpose or high resolve. | 58:23 | |
| But if you fulfill your destiny, | 58:28 | |
| you must pass through the doorway to the infinite, | 58:31 | |
| leaving behind both Jerusalem and Rome, | 58:35 | |
| and fulfilling both, | 58:40 | |
| become free citizens of the city of Mansoul. | 58:42 | |
| Liberated from the past, strong for the present, | 58:46 | |
| and made adequate for whatever is to come | 58:51 | |
| by the builder of the city, | 58:55 | |
| the almighty whose image you bare, | 58:58 | |
| and for whom you were made. | 59:02 | |
| God speed you on your journey. | 59:05 | |
| All mighty God enlighten our minds, | 59:10 | |
| make firm our wills and attend us always. | 59:16 | |
| We're thine in dwelling spirit. | 59:21 | |
| Amen and amen. | 59:24 | |
| (choir sings) | 59:51 | |
| With that word of challenge and warning | 1:06:50 | |
| about the cities of wisdom and commitment and Mansoul | 1:06:57 | |
| still ringing in our ears, | 1:07:01 | |
| let me invite you to stand and join with me | 1:07:04 | |
| in a responsive prayer, both of thanksgiving and commitment. | 1:07:06 | |
| Let us stand and pray. | 1:07:10 | |
| Oh God, we rejoice now that not only have we learned | 1:07:19 | |
| and worshiped together, we also bring before you | 1:07:22 | |
| the symbols and the reality of our lives. | 1:07:27 | |
| (indistinct) | 1:07:31 | |
| We give thanks for the universe. | 1:07:45 | |
| For the earth. | 1:07:49 | |
| For communities and neighborhoods. | 1:07:53 | |
| For the revolutions which shake our world. | 1:07:59 | |
| For the power of our learning. | 1:08:05 | |
| For the perplexities which confront us. | 1:08:10 | |
| For our heritage. | 1:08:16 | |
| For the visions of this university's students, | 1:08:20 | |
| staff, and faculty. | 1:08:23 | |
| We are given the eyes of the spirit. | 1:08:28 | |
| The promise is to each of us, we may see, | 1:08:35 | |
| we may receive, we may love. | 1:08:39 | |
| (indistinct) | 1:08:43 | |
| Amen and amen. | 1:09:00 | |
| (bright music) | 1:09:02 |
| (harmonic music) | 0:04 | |
| (vocalizing harmony) | 0:15 | |
| (ambient church harmonizing) | 0:32 | |
| (harmonizing continues) | 1:02 | |
| (church bells ringing) | 1:12 | |
| (lively organ music) | 1:25 | |
| (lively organ music) | 1:43 | |
| (dramatic organ music) | 1:53 | |
| (child screeching) | 1:58 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 2:09 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 2:31 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 2:48 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 3:03 | |
| (intense organ music) | 3:15 | |
| (intense organ music continues) | 3:32 | |
| (intense organ music continues) | 3:54 | |
| (dramatic organ music) | 4:03 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 4:16 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 4:26 | |
| (dramatic organ music continues) | 4:32 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 4:46 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 4:58 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 5:10 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 5:24 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 5:43 | |
| (intense dramatic organ continues) | 5:50 | |
| (quiet audience rustling) | 6:27 | |
| (quiet audience rustling) | 6:43 | |
| (quiet audience rustling) | 7:04 |