James T. Laney - "On Not Being Intimidated" (September 12, 1976) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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♪ Beautiful Savior! ♪

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♪ Lord of all the nations! ♪

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♪ Son of God and Son of Man! ♪

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♪ Glory and honor, ♪

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♪ Praise, adoration, ♪

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♪ Now and forevermore be thine ♪

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♪ Now and forevermore be thine ♪

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♪ Sing praise to God who reigns above, ♪

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♪ The God of all creation, ♪

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♪ The God of power, the God of love, ♪

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♪ The God of our salvation. ♪

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♪ With healing balm my soul is filled ♪

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♪ And every faithless murmur stilled ♪

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♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪

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♪ Let all who name Christ's holy name ♪

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♪ Give God all praise and glory; ♪

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♪ Let all who own his power proclaim ♪

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♪ Aloud the wondrous story! ♪

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♪ Cast each false idol from its throne, ♪

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♪ For Christ is Lord, and Christ alone ♪

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♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪

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♪ The Lord is never far away, ♪

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♪ But through all grief distressing, ♪

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♪ An ever present help and stay, ♪

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♪ Our peace and joy and blessing. ♪

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♪ As with a mother's tender hand, ♪

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♪ God gently leads the chosen band ♪

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♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪

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♪ Thus all my toilsome way along, ♪

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♪ I sing aloud thy praises, ♪

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♪ That earth may hear the grateful song ♪

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♪ My voice unwearied raises. ♪

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♪ Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, ♪

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♪ Both soul and body bear your part ♪

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♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪

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♪ Let all who name Christ's holy name ♪

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♪ Give God all praise and glory ♪

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♪ Let all who own his power proclaim ♪

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♪ Aloud the wondrous story! ♪

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♪ Cast each false idol from its throne, ♪

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♪ For Christ is Lord, and Christ alone ♪

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♪ To God all praise and glory ♪

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♪ Glory. ♪

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Let us bow our heads and our hearts.

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As we offer our confession to all nighty God.

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This morning Lord, we are afraid.

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We are afraid of your gospel, it's terrible.

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It is easy to hear it preached.

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It is relatively easy not to be shocked by it,

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but it is very difficult to live it.

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We are afraid of deluding ourselves Lord,

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we are afraid of being satisfied

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with our decent little lives.

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We are afraid of our good habits for,

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we take them as virtues.

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We are afraid of our little efforts,

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for we take them as progress.

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We are afraid of our activities,

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we think we are giving ourselves.

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We are afraid of our clever planning

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we take it for success.

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We are afraid of our influence,

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we imagine that it will change lives.

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We are afraid of what we give, it hides what we withhold.

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We are afraid, Lord.

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There are people who are poor than we,

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not so well educated, housed, heated, fed, cared for, loved.

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We are afraid Lord, for we do not enough for them.

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We do not do everything for them, forgive us.

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I should give everything.

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I should give everything until there's not a single pain,

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a single misery, a single sin in the world.

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I should give them all, Lord, all the time.

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I should give my life.

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Forgive me, Lord,

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Come now let us reason together.

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Say the Lord, for your sins be as Scarlet,

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they shall be white as snow, or they be red like crimson.

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They shall be as wool.

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Amen.

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Amen ♪

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Our scripture comes from Paul's letter to the Romans,

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the eighth chapter.

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It follows my friends that our lower nature

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has no claim upon us.

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We are not obliged to live on that level,

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If you do so you must die.

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But if by the spirit you put to death,

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all the pursuits of the body, then you will live

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for all who are moved by the spirit of God,

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are the sons of God.

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The spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery

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leading you back into a life of fear,

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But a spirit that makes us sons.

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Enabling us to cry, Abba father.

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In that cry the spirit of God joins with our spirit

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in testifying, that we are God's children.

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If children then heirs.

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We are God's heirs

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and Christ fellow heirs.

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If we share his suffering now

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in order to share his splendor hereafter.

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With all this in mind, what are we to say?

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If God is on our side, who is against us,

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he did not spare his son, but surrendered him for us all.

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And with this gift,

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how can he fail to lavish upon us, all he has to give.

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May God, add his blessing to this reading of his word.

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Will you join in the reading of the Psalms

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to found number 586,

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and will you stand for this reading.

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Hear my prayer, O Lord

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(congregation chattering)

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Do not hide thy a face from me in the day of my distress.

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(congregation chattering)

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My days are like an evening shadow.

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(congregation chattering)

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But thou O Lord art enthroned forever.

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(congregation chattering)

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Let this be recorded for a generation to come.

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(congregation chattering)

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That he looked down from his holy height

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(congregation chattering)

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To hear the groans of the prisoners

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(congregation chattering)

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That men may declare in Zion,

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the name of the Lord and in Jerusalem his praise.

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All doubt is lay the foundation of the earth.

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(congregation chattering)

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They will perish, but vow dust endure

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(congregation chattering)

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Thou changes them like raiment and they pass away.

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(congregation chattering)

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♪ Glory be to the Father, ♪

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♪ And to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ♪

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♪ As it was in the beginning, ♪

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♪ Is now, and ever shall be, ♪

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♪ World without end. ♪

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♪ Amen, Amen. ♪

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Let us affirm what we believe.

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We believe in God, who has created and is creating,

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who has come in the truly human Jesus

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to reconcile and make new.

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Who works in us and others by the spirit,

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we trust God who calls us to be the church

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to celebrate life and its fullness,

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to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,

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to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,

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our judge and our hope, in life, in death,

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in life beyond death, God is with us

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we are not alone, thanks be to God.

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The Lord be with you.

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(congregation chattering)

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Let us pray.

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We know, oh Lord, our God

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that in quietness and rest is our strength

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that those who wait upon you shall be renewed,

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shall mount up with wings as eagles,

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shall run and not grow weary, shall walk and not faint.

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We know that those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

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shall find life, know life

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and have life abundantly for now and forever,

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in the name and in the spirit of Jesus Christ

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we praise you, oh God, spirit from whom we come,

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Strength in whom we live and presence to whom we go

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Now abides faith,

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who God give to each of us,

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that faith that knows wholeness of life,

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that rejoices in both the problems

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and the possibilities of life

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That shrinks not from life's hard and demanding moments

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that sees and knows your presence

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in the night and in the day,

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that knows that all things work together for good,

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for those who love you.

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Now abides faith, hope, who God give us

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in the midst of trying and often overwhelming times

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a hope that is sure and secure

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that can believe when all around or doubting,

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can trust when all else has been shaken,

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can see light when all is dark and filled with shadow,

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can know promise when there is no word, no sign, no symbol,

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no assurance, save only that the Lord, our God

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is the ruler yet

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and will keep our going out and our coming in

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from this time forth and forever.

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Now abides faith, hope, love.

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The greatest is love,

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help us O God when filled with selfishness, shortsightedness

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and shallowness, to love and never count the cost,

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to care for the sin-sick and the dying

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to comfort the bereaved and the mourning,

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to walk with and wait with the lonely and the hurting,

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to care O God as our Lord told us to,

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for those who are hungry, thirsty, naked,

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in prison, alone and sick.

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May we O loving God

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know something of the joy of loving you with all our heart

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and soul and mind and strength and something of the goodness

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of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

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Hear us, not only in these words,

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but in every prayer that has been uttered

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and shared with you in these moments O God,

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as we pray now, the prayer, which our Lord taught us saying,

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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, thy will be done

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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, but deliver us from evil

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for thine is the kingdom, the power and glory,

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forever, amen.

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May I say welcome this morning,

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to this sacred time apart.

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To this first time of worship in the chapel,

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since classes have begun.

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And for those of you who are already three weeks behind,

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It is good to have you back.

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It is good to gather here, to worship God

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and to rub elbows and shoulders with one another.

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We look forward to many,

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many holy moments during this year ahead,

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We invite those of you who are here this morning

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to remain after the service on the courtyard,

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just south of the chapel here for an opening celebration,

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which you will have the opportunity to learn something

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about the work of the Duke University Parish Ministry,

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which includes the work of

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several religious groups on campus.

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There will be a light lunch, and I say it is light,

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but there will be a light lunch provided.

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But most of all, you will have a chance

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to find some places of service to the church,

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to Christ and to this community during the coming year,

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so, we hope you will join us.

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On Thursday evening... Thursday afternoon at five o'clock.

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We will have a meeting of those persons

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who would like to work this year

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as volunteers in some aspect of the chapels program,

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as ushers or volunteer attendance, doing a number of things.

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So if you are interested in working with us

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and we would like to have you,

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give us a call at the chapel office

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and give us your name and telephone number,

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but especially make a note that we meet at five o'clock

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on Thursday of this week

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and we'd like to have you come

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and share in some aspect of the ministry of the chapel,

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during this coming year.

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Our preacher for this morning comes from that little town,

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which is now an outskirts,

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or is a suburb of Plains, Georgia.

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Dr. James Laney has been since 1969,

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the Dean And Professor of Christian ethics

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At Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta.

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Having had the privilege of serving in the divinity school

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here for three years prior to becoming minister

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to the university.

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I know something of the work which he has done,

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Now the very highest esteem

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in which he has held in theological circles.

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It is our privilege this morning to welcome him.

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Not only as he comes to represent a sister institution,

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but as he comes as a committed churchman, writer,

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teacher, lecture, and preacher,

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and dear friend to many of us, Jim, we welcome you.

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And we pray God's blessing on you

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as you bring the word to us today.

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Thank you very much, Bob,

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for your gracious introduction,

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and for the invitation to be here at Duke Chapel

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at the beginning of this academic year.

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I must say that the size of the congregation

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and the magnitude of the nave are enough to make me go back

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and rearrange the topic of my sermon for this morning.

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What, in looking down the choir,

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who did such a magnificent job with that, Alleluia,

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I was reassured when I saw a couple of choir members

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with their shoes off.

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I'm glad to be here on this particular weekend

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when Duke beat Tennessee, I'm from the state of Tennessee,

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but my particular sympathies

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have always lain with Vanderbilt.

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So, I have a vicarious sense of victory over last night.

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And last but not least, I bring you warm greetings

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from peanut country.

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Back a month or so ago,

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I was in an airport someplace

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and was whiling away my time

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and my eye fell upon a paper bag.

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The title of it was "Winning through intimidation."

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Well, this appealed to my less than noble instincts,

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since sometimes I need to try to win over the faculty.

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So I bought it to read on the plane,

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found it a crushing bore and a big disappointment.

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It was really warmed over Benjamin Franklin,

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Updated into the 20th century,

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on how to get the jump on your competition in business

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by getting up early and preparing better

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and then eyeballing it.

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But as I pondered why, I had been attracted to the title,

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if not to the book,

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It occurred to me that intimidation,

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may be one of the most omnipresent feelings in modern life.

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Indeed, if we stop to think about our own fantasies

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and how television or fiction

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or the movies capitalize on them.

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We are always projected in situations

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that overcome intimidation.

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Whether it's a Kojak,

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who gives hope,

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not only in regard to intimidation,

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but to those of us like your chaplain and I who are balding,

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or colombo who himself appears to be intimidated,

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but then neatly turns the trick

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on those who would put him down and denigrate him,

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or whether it goes to the absurdity

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of a bionic woman or bionic man.

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In all of these projections,

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we see ourselves in situations

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where we are not under the thumb of intimidation.

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And if there is a sense in which

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we want to win by intimidation,

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God help us.

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It must be because many of us feel we may lose

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through being intimidated.

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Now, intimidation is not just being uneasy

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at the thought of a new challenge,

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our feeling weak need before some great event

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that is about to befall.

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A couple of years ago, for example,

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my wife and I bundle up our darling oldest daughter

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and strapped a bicycle to the top of our car

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and drove a thousand miles east to take her off to college.

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And we passed many other cars

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with bicycles strapped to the tops,

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and rather pale young women and men in the backseats.

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And as we got on up to the Berkshires in lower Massachusetts

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and passed a succession of such cars,

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our daughter turned to us and she said,

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I think with more than a note of mock seriousness,

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"Why don't we just make this our labor day trip

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and go back home?"

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Now, intimidation is not just the sense of awe

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that we feel before the new,

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intimidation that I'm speaking of

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is that kind of pressure upon us.

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A pressure from a will that is not clearly for us

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and may be against us.

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The attempt to discern the horizon of our lives.

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Maybe every morning in the attempt to determine

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whether the day is to be a good day,

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are the omens or the poor tense.

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Are they favorable?

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Shall I wear this outfit?

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What does my horoscope say?

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Or maybe some of us may even read the scriptures

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to determine what that may mean, but in any case,

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there's a sense that there are these forces

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that are arrayed over against us

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that may, just may seek our undoing

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and carry it to the ultimate extreme

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The pressure of such a will perceived to be hostile

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or aggressive, can literally split us in two.

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It's almost as though a wind came

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and the pillow were open

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and the feathers just fluttered about the sense of the loss

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of self possession or the diminishment of being,

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the very term etymologically of schizophrenia

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means split mind or broken heart,

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broken maybe beyond recall.

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From the pressure and the onslaught of a will upon one,

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that seems to be ones undoing.

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We live in a time that is very much aware of intimidation.

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And of course the tragedy is that governments

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have been able to use this against its people.

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Brainwashing is the most extreme form.

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I used not to think so seriously about

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the invasion of privacy,

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which wire tapping and eavesdropping posed.

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Thinking with a lot of people that

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if one had nothing to hide, what had one to fear.

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And then I began to realize that it is not so much

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what one is hiding, as it is that close presence

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that moves in upon one's own space

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and seems to violate one's very being and tends to undo us.

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And then I saw how horrible eavesdropping can be.

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And so on a Sunday morning like this,

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in South Korea, for example,

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where I once lived and worked,

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almost every major pulpit of that country

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will be accompanied nearby with a Korean CIA agent,

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conspicuously taking notes of the sermon and the worship.

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A form of brutal intimidation of the freedom of the pulpit,

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not to speak so much in political language,

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but the language of prophecy, of truth and of justice.

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So if this is the kind of intimidating world in which

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some of our friends have to live,

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in which all of us to some extent know,

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what is the opposite of intimidation,

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but we might call it goodwill,

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but goodwill has such a philosophical flavor,

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I'd like to suggest a biblical term,

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favor, to be in someone's favor is not to be intimidated.

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To have someone look upon us with a delight

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and a pleasure in our very being

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To acknowledge us with their eyes and to bathe and caress us

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as though it mattered that we were there

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by their countenance and their actions and their words

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to extend their favor upon us.

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A favor which can never be earned,

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but is always gratuitous free, a gift.

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To be in favor, to be in someone's favor,

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to feel and experience their favor

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is to be redeemed from intimidation.

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And if the world is heavy with a threat of intimidation

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for all of us, for one reason or another,

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then we can read the scriptures,

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both old and new testaments and realize

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that God is redeeming us from the pit of intimidation.

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That Jesus came to announce the favor of God,

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not merely in some abstract sense,

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not to give us counsel about how we might lead a good life

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or the pathway to heaven or the remedy for sins

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and transgressions already committed, possibly all of these,

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but over and over again, Jesus' words,

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his actions and his looks, convey the favor of God

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upon a people who knew only intimidation.

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Thus blessed are those who are poor and poor in heart,

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those who mourn, those who suffer,

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not some sort of ignorance of the real conditions

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under which these people live

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nor a blessing of those conditions that caused it.

54:27

But an affirmation that though those conditions exist,

54:33

they were not exempt or outside the favor of God,

54:37

which brought blessing.

54:42

Or the prodigal son, which so often is difficult

54:46

for us to understand merely because of our churlishness.

54:48

How could that father, favor the son with the robe

54:52

and the fatted calf and the ring,

54:59

all of the evidences that he had not fallen from grace,

55:01

Our churlish spirit asks it out of a sense

55:07

of purported justice.

55:10

But who of us who's ever known motherhood or fatherhood

55:15

has not known what it is to look upon our offspring

55:20

with favor, despite disappointment or hurt.

55:26

A favor, which is simply drawn out of us

55:35

by the very existence of that one toward whom we look

55:37

with this love and affection.

55:43

I think this is what Jonathan Edwards that presumably

55:47

do or divine of the 18th century in new England

55:50

meant when he spoke of consent to being.

55:54

Translated out of that vocabulary,

56:00

he meant the acknowledgement of the joy of the other

56:02

that God takes delight.

56:08

Now, theologically,

56:13

we ought to get the full implication of this.

56:14

It's not merely the forgiving of transgression,

56:17

the laying aside of our sin.

56:21

It isn't looking at us and saying,

56:23

well, all right, one more time,

56:24

a sort of exasperated patience,

56:29

which all too often has come from our experience

56:31

with our own parents.

56:34

It's the realization that God's favor

56:37

came with our very creation, he called us by name.

56:43

He knows that we are his and his favor extends

56:51

from generation unto generation.

56:56

And all that is subsequent to this is simply

57:00

a playing out of that basic relationship

57:03

that we have with the one who called us into being itself.

57:07

To begin to appreciate the revolution that this can cause

57:16

in our whole lifestyle and our understanding of who we are.

57:19

Constitutes the living out, of the Christian life today.

57:24

What are some of those implications?

57:32

Well, I think for those of us who live

57:36

in a university setting where tests and papers and grades

57:39

and performance are probably

57:45

the most fundamental way of life,

57:48

it is to say in the first instance,

57:51

and it ought to be said on the first major chapel

57:54

of the opening of the school year,

57:57

that living in God's favor

58:00

can never be taken from us or alienated.

58:01

That this is a given, which we cannot expunge from our lives

58:07

that we are made in his image.

58:11

We favor God in that colloquial sense of the term,

58:13

we favor the one who made us and he sees us as his own

58:16

and this means that we don't have to prove ourselves.

58:24

We don't have to prove ourselves.

58:30

We may do a lot,

58:33

we may manifest our capacities and we may hone them.

58:36

We may grow in wisdom and stature and all of that.

58:40

But none of this means that those tests demonstrate whether

58:44

or not we are acceptable.

58:47

We're set free from curse of the law

58:50

that we have to prove ourselves.

58:54

This is the glory of Paul, when he said,

58:58

"We have not been given the spirit of slavery

59:00

or of intimidation of civility to fall back

59:04

into that kind of lifestyle cowed.

59:09

But we have been given the spirit where in that spirit

59:15

testifies with ours, that we are God's children,

59:20

that we have his favor and that there is care

59:24

and affection between us.

59:29

We don't have to prove anything means that

59:32

we don't have to pretend because

59:34

it's when we're under the pressure of demonstrating that,

59:37

which we would like to show owe to others,

59:39

that we are tempted to magnify our accomplishments,

59:43

or maybe exaggerate what it is we've done.

59:49

And when we don't have to prove things,

59:54

we don't have to be quite so competitive

59:56

because we realize that while there will be some selected,

59:59

the most fundamental issues of life

1:00:03

are not at stake in that race.

1:00:05

My son goes to another university where like Duke

1:00:09

pre-professional pressure is all but overwhelming

1:00:14

for so many.

1:00:17

And the libraries are crowded and it's hard to get seats.

1:00:20

You almost have to stand behind the seat,

1:00:22

when he goes to the John, you get up and take it.

1:00:25

And he says that the word for the people

1:00:28

who study like that under that kind of pressure

1:00:31

and are thereby excluded from so much of the joy

1:00:37

of college life

1:00:41

is weenies.

1:00:44

I don't know whether you have this term down here,

1:00:47

but that's, that's the Ivy league term for 'em,

1:00:48

they're wienies.

1:00:50

There's a sense of spareness about it all.

1:00:54

There's no joy, an early old age is set in.

1:01:02

Well, I realize that there are stakes involved,

1:01:09

big stakes, but it is important for us to remember

1:01:12

that from the standpoint of the gospel,

1:01:17

the most fundamental relationship Is not on the line.

1:01:20

That we live in God's favor

1:01:25

and that a new freedom ensues from this

1:01:28

kind of incredible race that is set before us.

1:01:31

There's another implication that I think is important

1:01:37

out of which grows courage.

1:01:41

That is that when we've been set free with this knowledge,

1:01:45

that God favors us because we are his,

1:01:48

we don't have to be quite so impressionable.

1:01:54

Maybe that's what going to college entails in the long run,

1:01:58

a kind of distance and perspective on things that keeps us

1:02:03

from being overwhelmed one way or another too easily

1:02:06

and too quickly.

1:02:09

I'm reminded that several years ago,

1:02:11

John Hershey, the writer and novelist

1:02:16

had just been installed as a faculty member

1:02:20

at Yale university and after the ceremonies,

1:02:24

a reporter from The Daily News came up to him

1:02:29

and in that kind of breezy way that some reporters

1:02:33

from college, newspaper of fact said,

1:02:37

"Mr. Hershey, now that you're here as a writer

1:02:40

and prize winner, just what do you think you can bring

1:02:43

to a university like Yale?"

1:02:46

John Hershey looked that in with sort of a bemused patience

1:02:49

and he said, you can print this,

1:02:55

"I guess the one thing I can bring

1:02:59

is I don't have to be impressed."

1:03:00

Unquote.

1:03:02

Of course he was rather startle this young man

1:03:06

and Hershey went on to explain that that wasn't intended

1:03:10

as an aggressive remark,

1:03:12

as a put down on Yale, its traditions, its grander,

1:03:16

or upon any other such university, Duke, Harvard, any.

1:03:23

The idea is that a person who has disciplined himself

1:03:28

in observation and judgment and evaluation like Hersey,

1:03:31

could bring a sense of distance,

1:03:36

of not have to take everything at face value

1:03:41

at looking behind the appearances to the substance,

1:03:45

of having the courage to make judgements,

1:03:49

not put down judgements, personality judgements,

1:03:53

but judgements about events and importance and life.

1:03:58

And what else is education,

1:04:04

but the capacity to make those judgements wisely and well.

1:04:06

So there's a marvelous sense of freedom that comes

1:04:12

from the realization of God's favor, it's a security.

1:04:14

It takes away that anxiousness, that ridden prospect,

1:04:20

it gives us a distance on things and we can savor them

1:04:25

and appreciate them and evaluate them in perspective.

1:04:29

Maybe it allows us to attend to each other with favor,

1:04:34

to learn that the fulfillment of life and its richest

1:04:42

and deepest sense Is the capacity to extend favor to others.

1:04:43

Not favors and favoritism, but favor

1:04:50

to take time with each other, to learn, to love one another,

1:04:55

without it being merely a vehicle for sex,

1:05:03

to acknowledge one another.

1:05:08

Paul says that because of this favor of God,

1:05:12

he's convinced that nothing can come between him

1:05:16

and that creator God in Christ,

1:05:20

whether it's life or death or angels or principalities

1:05:24

or things to come or whatever

1:05:27

and it reminds me that within the last week or two,

1:05:32

one of our faculty's mother is dying.

1:05:35

She's a woman in her mid seventies,

1:05:41

really not that old in full possession of all of her

1:05:43

faculties and was told that she had inoperable cancer.

1:05:46

And so when one visits her in the hospital

1:05:53

and sees her son

1:05:58

and on occasion, her grandchildren about her bed

1:06:02

and the kind of quiet sense of favor that endows that room.

1:06:07

And to see this person who has great intellectual clarity

1:06:14

and at times can be very caustic,

1:06:19

holding his mother's hand and speaking, ever so gently,

1:06:23

but not in a sentimental or lachrymose way,

1:06:28

and you realize that you are in the presence

1:06:34

of a human manifestation of this favor,

1:06:37

that even death cannot expunge or annihilate that favor.

1:06:41

Now this is not a fairytale told to amuse people

1:06:51

who are not tough enough to live it out in the world.

1:06:55

This is the essence of the substance of life,

1:07:00

the structure of the universe is based upon this,

1:07:04

let us not beguile ourselves into thinking that the analytic

1:07:09

will deliver us.

1:07:13

For in our heart and mind's eye

1:07:17

there's a longing to know that favor

1:07:20

and to be given the grace to convey that favor

1:07:27

and then maybe we will know

1:07:33

what the kingdom of God is all about.

1:07:36

Let us pray

1:07:40

By your favor O God, bring us now to your kingdom,

1:07:50

that a new freedom and courage

1:07:57

we may know what it is to extend your favor

1:08:02

to those about us.

1:08:07

And so direct our lives that they may be seen to have been

1:08:10

a blessing of your favor upon those about us, in Jesus name.

1:08:17

Amen.

1:08:23

(orchestral music begins)

1:08:27

(orchestral music swells up)

1:08:44

(gentle piano music begins)

1:08:56

(gentle piano music continues)

1:09:11

♪ Father eternal, ♪

1:09:18

♪ Ruler of creation, ♪

1:09:22

♪ Spirit of life, which ♪

1:09:27

♪ moved ere form was made; ♪

1:09:32

♪ Through the thick darkness ♪

1:09:38

♪ covering every nation, ♪

1:09:42

♪ Light to man's blindness, ♪

1:09:46

♪ O be Thou our aid: ♪

1:09:53

♪ Thy Kingdom come, ♪

1:09:57

♪ O Lord, Thy will be done. ♪

1:10:01

♪ Races and peoples, ♪

1:10:10

♪ lo! we stand divided, ♪

1:10:15

♪ And sharing not our griefs, ♪

1:10:20

♪ no joy can share; ♪

1:10:25

♪ By wars and tumults ♪

1:10:30

♪ Love is mocked, derided, ♪

1:10:35

♪ His conquering cross no ♪

1:10:40

♪ kingdom wills to bear ♪

1:10:44

♪ Thy Kingdom come, ♪

1:10:50

♪ O Lord, Thy will be done. ♪

1:10:54

♪ Envious of heart, ♪

1:11:02

♪ blind-eyed, with tongues confounded, ♪

1:11:06

♪ Nation by nation ♪

1:11:12

♪ still goes unforgiven ♪

1:11:17

♪ In wrath and fear, ♪

1:11:22

♪ by jealousies surrounded ♪

1:11:26

♪ Building proud towers which ♪

1:11:32

♪ shall not reach to heaven ♪

1:11:37

♪ Thy Kingdom come, ♪

1:11:42

♪ O Lord, Thy will be done. ♪

1:11:46

♪ How shall we love Thee, ♪

1:11:55

♪ holy, hidden Being, ♪

1:11:59

♪ If we love not the ♪

1:12:05

♪ world which Thou hast made? ♪

1:12:10

♪ O give us brother ♪

1:12:15

♪ love for better seeing ♪

1:12:19

♪ Thy Word made flesh, ♪

1:12:25

♪ and in a manger laid: ♪

1:12:28

♪ Thy Kingdom come, ♪

1:12:35

♪ O Lord, Thy will be done. ♪

1:12:39

♪ Amen ♪

1:12:49

(soft piano music)

1:13:04

(soft piano music continues)

1:13:25

(soft piano music continues)

1:13:45

(soft piano music continues)

1:14:29

♪ O how amiable are thy dwellings ♪

1:15:08

♪ thou Lord of hosts! ♪

1:15:16

♪ My soul hath a desire and longing ♪

1:15:29

♪ to enter into the courts of the Lord ♪

1:15:37

♪ my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. ♪

1:15:44

♪ Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, ♪

1:16:01

♪ and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young ♪

1:16:08

♪ even thy altars, ♪

1:16:19

♪ O Lord of hosts, ♪

1:16:24

♪ my King and my God ♪

1:16:31

♪ Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ♪

1:16:40

♪ they will be always praising thee. ♪

1:16:49

(choir sings indistinctly)

1:17:12

(choir sings indistinctly)

1:17:24

(soft piano music)

1:17:55

(choir sings indistinctly)

1:18:05

(choir continues to sing indistinctly)

1:18:25

(piano drowns out choir)

1:18:34

♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪

1:19:40

♪ Praise Him all creatures here below ♪

1:19:47

♪ Alleluia, ♪

1:19:54

♪ Alleluia ♪

1:19:57

♪ Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts ♪

1:20:01

♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪

1:20:08

♪ Alleluia, ♪

1:20:15

♪ Alleluia ♪

1:20:18

♪ Alleluia, ♪

1:20:21

♪ Alleluia ♪

1:20:25

♪ Alleluia. ♪

1:20:28

♪ Amen ♪

1:20:41

Well, Lord, our God send down upon us, your holy spirit.

1:20:50

We pray to cleanse our hearts to hallow these our gifts

1:20:54

and to make perfect this offering of ourselves,

1:20:55

which we make to you through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

1:21:04

(piano music begins)

1:21:17

♪ God of grace and God of glory, ♪

1:21:59

♪ On Thy people pour Thy power. ♪

1:22:05

♪ Crown Thine ancient church's story, ♪

1:22:10

♪ Bring her bud to glorious flower. ♪

1:22:16

♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ♪

1:22:22

♪ For the facing of this hour, ♪

1:22:28

♪ For the facing of this hour. ♪

1:22:33

♪ Lo! the hosts of evil 'round us, ♪

1:22:43

♪ Scorn Thy Christ, assail his ways. ♪

1:22:48

♪ From the fears that long have bound us, ♪

1:22:54

♪ Free our hearts to faith and praise. ♪

1:23:00

♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ♪

1:23:06

♪ For the living of these days, ♪

1:23:13

♪ For the living of these days. ♪

1:23:18

♪ Cure Thy children's warring madness, ♪

1:23:26

♪ Bend our pride to Thy control. ♪

1:23:32

♪ Shame our wanton selfish gladness, ♪

1:23:37

♪ Rich in things and poor in soul. ♪

1:23:43

♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ♪

1:23:50

♪ Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal, ♪

1:23:56

♪ Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal. ♪

1:24:02

♪ Set our feet on lofty places, ♪

1:24:10

♪ Gird our lives that they may be, ♪

1:24:16

♪ Armored with all Christ-like graces, ♪

1:24:22

♪ In the fight to set men free. ♪

1:24:27

♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ♪

1:24:33

♪ That we fail not man nor Thee, ♪

1:24:39

♪ That we fail not man nor Thee. ♪

1:24:45

♪ Save us from weak resignation, ♪

1:24:53

♪ To the evils we deplore ♪

1:24:58

♪ Let the search for Thy salvation, ♪

1:25:04

♪ Be our glory evermore. ♪

1:25:10

♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ♪

1:25:15

♪ Serving Thee whom we adore, ♪

1:25:21

♪ Serving Thee whom we adore, ♪

1:25:27

The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

1:26:11

The love of God,

1:26:15

the communion and fellowship of the holy spirit be with you

1:26:18

and those whom you love this day and forever.

1:26:24

♪ Amen ♪

1:26:33

♪ Amen ♪

1:26:37

♪ Amen ♪

1:26:44

♪ Amen ♪

1:26:48

♪ Amen. ♪

1:26:58

♪ Amen. ♪

1:27:10

♪ Amen. ♪

1:27:20

(bell rings)

1:27:30

(bell rings)

1:27:35

(bell rings)

1:27:39

(piano music begins)

1:27:46

(piano music swells up)

1:28:32

(piano music continues)

1:28:51

(piano music swells up)

1:29:55

(piano music continues)

1:30:19

(piano music swells up)

1:31:02

(piano music ends)

1:31:50

(congregation clapping hands)

1:31:53

James T. Laney - "On Not Being Intimidated" (September 12, 1976)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives