Carl W. Bieneman - Morning Service (October 24, 1976)
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| (gentle organ music) | 0:05 | |
| (footsteps) | 7:53 | |
| (gentle organ music) | 8:00 | |
| - | Come let us worship God. | 12:07 |
| Let us rejoice in the presence of God's sustaining spirit, | 12:10 | |
| especially in the times of our grief and sorrow. | 12:16 | |
| Let us give thanks before God | 12:21 | |
| for the life and presence and continuing influence | 12:25 | |
| of Carl Benemann. | 12:32 | |
| Let us all pray. | 12:35 | |
| Almighty God, our father, from whom we come | 12:38 | |
| and unto whom our spirits return | 12:44 | |
| thou has been our dwelling place in all generations | 12:48 | |
| thou art our refuge and strength | 12:53 | |
| our very present help in trouble | 12:56 | |
| grant us thou presence in this hour. | 13:00 | |
| And so (indistinct) | 13:03 | |
| so to put our trust in thee | 13:05 | |
| that our spirits may grow calm | 13:08 | |
| and our hearts be comforted | 13:11 | |
| lift our eyes beyond the shadows of earth | 13:14 | |
| and help us to see the light of eternity. | 13:18 | |
| So may we find grace and strength | 13:22 | |
| for this and every time of need | 13:25 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 13:29 | |
| Amen. | 13:32 | |
| (footsteps) | 13:35 | |
| - | The readings from the Old Testament will be Psalm 23 | 13:45 |
| and Psalms 121. | 13:49 | |
| The Lord is my shepherd; | 13:51 | |
| I shall not want. | 13:52 | |
| He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. | 13:54 | |
| He leadeth me beside the still waters. | 13:56 | |
| He restoreth my soul. | 13:59 | |
| He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness | 14:01 | |
| for his name's sake. | 14:03 | |
| Yae, though I walk through the valley | 14:04 | |
| of the shadow of death. | 14:06 | |
| I will fear no evil | 14:07 | |
| for thou art with me | 14:09 | |
| thy rod and thy staff | 14:10 | |
| they comfort me. | 14:12 | |
| Thou preparest a table before me | 14:13 | |
| in the presence of mine enemies. | 14:15 | |
| Thou anointest my head with oil; | 14:17 | |
| my cup runneth over. | 14:19 | |
| Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me | 14:21 | |
| all the days of my life. | 14:24 | |
| And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. | 14:26 | |
| I lift up my eyes to the hills | 14:30 | |
| from whence does my help come? | 14:32 | |
| My help comes from the Lord, | 14:35 | |
| who made heaven and earth. | 14:37 | |
| He will not let your foot be moved. | 14:39 | |
| He who keeps you will not slumber. | 14:41 | |
| Behold who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. | 14:43 | |
| The Lord is your keeper. | 14:48 | |
| The Lord is your shade on your right hand. | 14:49 | |
| The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. | 14:52 | |
| The Lord will keep you from all evil. | 14:56 | |
| He will keep your life. | 14:58 | |
| The Lord will keep your going out | 15:00 | |
| and your coming in, | 15:02 | |
| from this time forth and forever more. | 15:03 | |
| (footsteps) | 15:10 | |
| - | I read this morning from Matthew 5:4 | 15:19 |
| John 14:1-7. | 15:22 | |
| "Happy are those who mourn, | 15:27 | |
| God will comfort them. | 15:30 | |
| Let not your hearts be troubled. | 15:32 | |
| Believe in God. | 15:35 | |
| Believe also in me | 15:36 | |
| in my father's house are many rooms. | 15:38 | |
| If it were not so | 15:42 | |
| would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. | 15:44 | |
| When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. | 15:48 | |
| And will take you to myself that I may be with you. | 15:52 | |
| You know, the way that I am going. | 15:57 | |
| And Thomas said to him, | 15:59 | |
| 'Lord we do not know where you are going, | 16:02 | |
| how can we go that way?' | 16:05 | |
| And Jesus said to him, | 16:09 | |
| 'I am the way that truth and the life. | 16:11 | |
| No one comes to the father | 16:15 | |
| but by me, if you know me | 16:17 | |
| you have known my father also, | 16:21 | |
| hence forth you know him and have seen him.'" | 16:24 | |
| And from John the fifth chapter, the 24th verse, | 16:29 | |
| "Truly truly I say to you, | 16:34 | |
| he who hears my Word and believes Him who sent me | 16:37 | |
| has eternal life. | 16:41 | |
| He does not pass into judgment | 16:43 | |
| but has passed from death to life." | 16:46 | |
| (footsteps) | 16:52 | |
| - | From the day that Carl stepped onto the Duke campus | 17:04 |
| he knew he wanted to be a Delt. | 17:08 | |
| He came to school as a January freshman | 17:10 | |
| and after just three days of rush | 17:13 | |
| he accepted a bid to join our fraternity. | 17:16 | |
| This fact was significant | 17:20 | |
| because it showed that whenever Carl knew what he wanted, | 17:22 | |
| he went out after it. | 17:26 | |
| And usually he got it. | 17:28 | |
| He achieved because he had the personality | 17:30 | |
| and the intelligence to achieve. | 17:33 | |
| Our fraternity realized he possessed these qualities. | 17:36 | |
| We elected him president because we knew he was bright. | 17:40 | |
| We knew he could be trusted. | 17:44 | |
| We knew he was responsible | 17:46 | |
| and we knew he loved the fraternity. | 17:48 | |
| But most of all, | 17:52 | |
| we elected him because we liked him very much. | 17:53 | |
| He was our friend. | 17:57 | |
| Carl's leadership lives on in the fraternity. | 18:00 | |
| His influence goes far beyond the rules and policies | 18:03 | |
| that were established under his guidance. | 18:07 | |
| I know it certainly lives on in me | 18:10 | |
| whenever I face a problem concerning the fraternity. | 18:14 | |
| I always try to remember what Carl had done | 18:18 | |
| when he'd faced a similar situation. | 18:20 | |
| And many, many times I follow his precedent. | 18:23 | |
| It's this passing on ideas between officers | 18:27 | |
| which will make Carl's influence last long after | 18:31 | |
| all of us here graduate. | 18:35 | |
| No doubt being president was important to Carl | 18:37 | |
| but he did not consider himself the Delt president. | 18:41 | |
| Rather, he thought of himself as a brother, | 18:45 | |
| one of the boys. | 18:47 | |
| Last spring at the senior banquet, | 18:50 | |
| I was most interested to hear what Carl, | 18:52 | |
| being past president, would have to say. | 18:54 | |
| Carl made no mention of his presidency. | 18:58 | |
| Instead he alluded to the times when he messed around | 19:01 | |
| with the guys in the hall, | 19:04 | |
| when he went out for a few beers. | 19:06 | |
| And when he double dated with some of the other brothers. | 19:09 | |
| In these ways, | 19:13 | |
| Carl's influence lives on in all of us. | 19:15 | |
| Carl's life | 19:19 | |
| And our lives touched in a meaningful way. | 19:21 | |
| And even though we can't understand | 19:24 | |
| why his life was cut so short | 19:27 | |
| we are most thankful for the quality of the years | 19:29 | |
| he spent and gave to us. | 19:31 | |
| (footsteps) | 19:36 | |
| - | Well, needless to say, I gave a lot of thought | 19:49 |
| to what I wanted to say today at Carl's memorial service. | 19:51 | |
| I didn't know whether to make it | 19:55 | |
| deeply serious, religious | 19:57 | |
| hopefully not overly emotional. | 20:01 | |
| And then I decided, well | 20:03 | |
| the best way to do it | 20:04 | |
| would be just to say exactly what I thought | 20:06 | |
| Carl would want to be said about him. | 20:08 | |
| And knowing Carl, | 20:10 | |
| the most important thing | 20:13 | |
| to him it seemed to me was just his zest for having friends. | 20:16 | |
| He had a million of them | 20:20 | |
| and he just thrived on knowing people. | 20:22 | |
| He always had a perfect idea of fun things to do | 20:25 | |
| ways to goof off and just knew what to say to everybody. | 20:29 | |
| Everybody had the best time with him. | 20:33 | |
| Whenever I hear the song, "Wake Up, Everybody." | 20:42 | |
| It reminds me of him so vividly | 20:44 | |
| by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes | 20:46 | |
| not only what the song says | 20:48 | |
| but just I can see his singing it. | 20:52 | |
| Just in fun times, like in Bimini | 20:54 | |
| where we all were about 15 of us, | 20:57 | |
| spend spring break in The Bahamas, | 20:59 | |
| I can just see him, | 21:01 | |
| you know, going down one street that they had just singing, | 21:03 | |
| wake up everybody just going like this. | 21:05 | |
| It was just so much like him. | 21:07 | |
| He says, wake up everybody, | 21:08 | |
| no more sleeping in bed. | 21:11 | |
| It was the epitome of his outlook. | 21:12 | |
| Don't waste time. | 21:16 | |
| Make the most out of every minute. | 21:17 | |
| That's exactly the way he lived. | 21:19 | |
| That's, he contributed so much to me. | 21:20 | |
| And just making me realize the necessity of doing that. | 21:23 | |
| Just don't waste time. | 21:27 | |
| Okay, I guess we'll have something different | 21:34 | |
| that reminds us of Carl. | 21:37 | |
| To the Delts, | 21:39 | |
| he'll be the most cogent president we ever had. | 21:40 | |
| Last night | 21:43 | |
| I missed him at the party | 21:45 | |
| and you know, he would've among the shoulder dancing crowd. | 21:47 | |
| Would've instigated it. | 21:50 | |
| Would have fun. | 21:51 | |
| I did miss him, thought about him. | 21:54 | |
| Told Susie Beck who is there, | 21:57 | |
| that the party wasn't the same without him. | 21:59 | |
| It was fun. | 22:02 | |
| It was a blast and everything, but we all missed him. | 22:03 | |
| I know we did. | 22:06 | |
| This is short. | 22:08 | |
| Well, My memory slips me, but I know his birthday is | 22:12 | |
| would be in a day or two. | 22:17 | |
| Would've been 22. | 22:19 | |
| When was it Mrs. Benemann? | 22:21 | |
| 25th, it Would've been tomorrow. | 22:24 | |
| So closing, just think thing to do would just to be, | 22:27 | |
| offer personal prayer for him, just to thank God that | 22:31 | |
| Carl shared part of his life with us and we with him. | 22:37 | |
| And that we're all fortunate to be alive | 22:41 | |
| here to remember Carl. | 22:43 | |
| So why don't we all just take a minute to pray | 22:45 | |
| Miss Carl? | 22:54 | |
| I think everybody thinks that. | 22:55 | |
| So Miss Carl. | 22:57 | |
| (footsteps) | 23:02 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 23:12 |
| Oh, holy and loving God. | 23:16 | |
| We still grieve. | 23:20 | |
| We are saddened by the death of Carl | 23:23 | |
| so sudden and so early in his life. | 23:26 | |
| We bow before the mystery of all of our lives. | 23:33 | |
| The wonder of our birth, the limits of our finitude | 23:37 | |
| and the incredible power of your love and of human love. | 23:45 | |
| We pause now to remember Carl, | 23:53 | |
| to give thanks for his life | 23:56 | |
| and for his family, which nourished him | 24:00 | |
| and for the leadership which he gave to this community. | 24:04 | |
| For his responsibility, | 24:09 | |
| his brilliance, | 24:13 | |
| his humility. | 24:15 | |
| His ability to enjoy life. | 24:19 | |
| His ability to be a friend. | 24:23 | |
| We are grateful for are all that he meant to his family, | 24:28 | |
| to his friends | 24:33 | |
| to his fraternity | 24:35 | |
| and to his fellow students. | 24:37 | |
| And we pray you to continue to give to us | 24:41 | |
| your loving spirit, | 24:48 | |
| that we may continue to be healed. | 24:50 | |
| And that our hope may be sustained. | 24:54 | |
| We trust you, oh God. | 24:59 | |
| Even when things look bleakest. | 25:02 | |
| You have given us life with meaning and purpose. | 25:06 | |
| And we know you are the same loving God | 25:11 | |
| from whom we can find strength to live through | 25:14 | |
| all of our tragedies. | 25:17 | |
| We are sustained by your promise that nothing | 25:20 | |
| can separate us from your love, | 25:26 | |
| nothing in this life | 25:29 | |
| and not even death. | 25:33 | |
| And for this, we rejoice and give you thanks. | 25:36 | |
| Bless us, oh God. | 25:41 | |
| Heal us oh God. | 25:44 | |
| Support us for we pray in the name of Jesus of Christ | 25:47 | |
| who knew grief and pain and death | 25:55 | |
| And yet showed us that death is not the final word. | 26:01 | |
| And now may the faith which strengthened and sustained Carl | 26:11 | |
| and gave his life meaning and joy | 26:17 | |
| bring true joy to you. | 26:21 | |
| And may the hope, which carried him through every day | 26:25 | |
| and is present with him even now | 26:29 | |
| be very present with you. | 26:33 | |
| And may the love which was given to Carl | 26:37 | |
| and shared by him | 26:41 | |
| be also very close to each one of you this day and evermore. | 26:44 | |
| And may God's grace and love sustain and support you | 26:53 | |
| from this moment throughout the rest of your life. | 26:58 | |
| Amen. | 27:02 | |
| And amen. | 27:03 | |
| (footsteps) | 27:08 | |
| (organ music) | 27:12 |