Waldo Beach - "The Blessings of Austerity" (August 21, 1977)

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-	Duke University Chapel, service of worship	0:04
	August 21st, 1977.	0:07
	(incidental music)	0:10
	(gentle piano music)	0:20
-	To each of you loved of God	10:30
	and called to be Christ men and women,	10:32
	grace and peace from God, the Father,	10:34
	and from our Lord, Jesus Christ.	10:37
	Let us pray.	10:40
	Oh Lord, our heavenly Father	10:43
	at the beginning of another week,	10:46
	we come to you for help and light.	10:48
	We adore you whose name is love,	10:52
	whose nature is compassion, whose presence is joy,	10:55
	whose word is truth, whose spirit is goodness,	11:01
	whose holiness is beauty, whose will is peace,	11:07
	whose service is perfect freedom,	11:13
	and the knowledge of whom standards are eternal life.	11:16
	Unto you be all honor and glory	11:21
	through Jesus Christ our Lord,	11:24
	Amen.	11:26
	(gentle piano music)	11:29
	We come today to accept God's mercy and forgiveness.	14:39
	To prepare for that gift,	14:43
	let us confess our sins and failures.	14:45
	Let us pray.	14:48
	Oh God,	14:51
-	Forgive us for the way we sanctified vantages	14:52
	and elevate our selfish needs.	14:56
	We make our way of life the test of all societies	14:59
	and scorn all other styles.	15:04
	We seek your blessing and avoid your judgment,	15:07
	and make you in the image of our wish	15:12
	For our presumptions Lord, have mercy on us all.	15:15
	Amen.	15:20
-	Who is like unto God who pardons iniquity	15:46
	and passes over transgressions?	15:49
	He does not retain His anger forever	15:52
	because He delights in steadfast love.	15:55
	He will again have compassion upon us,	15:58
	He will tread our iniquities underfoot.	16:02
	He will cast all our sins into the depths of the seas.	16:05
	(gentle piano music)	16:14
	(choral cathedral music)	17:02
	♪ Amen ♪	18:48
	I'm reading in the fourth chapter	19:13
	of the letter to the Philippians	19:14
	from verse 8 through verse 13.	19:17
	Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,	19:22
	whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,	19:26
	whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence,	19:32
	if there is anything worthy of praise,	19:36
	think about these things.	19:39
	What you have learned and received and heard,	19:41
	and seen in me, do	19:44
	and the God of peace will be with you.	19:47
	I rejoice in the Lord greatly,	19:50
	that now at length you have revived your concern for me.	19:53
	You were indeed concerned for me,	19:58
	but you had no opportunity.	20:01
	Not that I complain of why,	20:04
	for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.	20:06
	I know how to be abased and I know how to abound.	20:12
	In any and all circumstances,	20:17
	I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,	20:19
	abundance and want.	20:24
	I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.	20:26
	May God richly bless the reading and the hearing	20:30
	of this portion of His holy word.	20:33
	(choral cathedral music)	20:38
	Let us affirm what we believe.	21:26
-	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	21:30
	who has come and the truly human Jesus	21:35
	to reconcile and make new	21:39
	who works in us and others by the Spirit.	21:42
	We trust God who calls us to be the church	21:47
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	21:52
	to love and serve others,	21:55
	to seek justice and resist evil,	21:58
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen	22:02
	our judge and our hope.	22:07
	In life, in death, and life beyond death, God is with us.	22:10
	We are not alone.	22:18
	Thanks be to God.	22:20
-	The Lord be with you.	22:24
-	And also with you.	22:26
-	Let us pray.	22:28
	Oh God, we are here today for many reasons.	22:46
	Certainly for all of us,	22:52
	it is a time to acknowledge that we are yours.	22:54
	We come into this service now	23:00
	from a world that beckons us to be elsewhere	23:02
	and tries to make us believe that acceptance	23:07
	comes by power and prestige.	23:10
	We see how efficiently the world conducts its business	23:16
	and its research,	23:19
	and the comparison dampens our enthusiasm	23:22
	when we see the manner in the unchanging attitude	23:25
	with which the work of the church is done.	23:29
	We see the confidence of the world	23:34
	and the apparent weakness of the church.	23:37
	Then our spirits cry out for help.	23:41
	We come knowing somehow that the world cannot sustain us	23:47
	and that our enthusiasm will be renewed,	23:53
	and our spirits will be enhanced	23:57
	by the indwelling of your Spirit.	24:00
	We bring our lives polluted by the sins of greed, anger,	24:05
	and mistrust,	24:12
	darken by fear, anxiety, and indifference,	24:15
	hurt by sickness, disease, and death,	24:21
	defeated by doubtfulness, misgivings, and failures.	24:28
	We bring our lives	24:35
	because we have been promised forgiveness of sins,	24:36
	the light in the place of darkness,	24:40
	strength to bear the hurt	24:44
	and yes, victory over defeat.	24:49
	We now ask of you the fulfillment of these promises.	24:53
	Use the participants in this hour to lead us.	25:00
	And submitting our lives to the workings of your Spirit,	25:06
	we believe that as we leave this service	25:10
	we'll be fortified to more nearly live in accordance	25:14
	with your divine purposes.	25:18
	Bless us, oh Lord, in this hour	25:22
	and let us depart to serve you.	25:26
	Our prayer is offered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,	25:29
	who taught us that when we pray to say, our father	25:34
-	Who art in heaven,	25:39
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	25:41
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	25:47
	Give us this day our daily bread.	25:52
	And forgive us our trespasses	25:55
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	25:58
	And lead us not into temptation,	26:02
	but deliver us from evil.	26:06
	For thine is the kingdom and the power,	26:08
	and the glory, forever.	26:12
	Amen.	26:15
-	So far today, most of us gathered here	26:28
	have arisen from sleep in our air-conditioned homes,	26:33
	showered and clean-shaven by electric shaver.	26:39
	And after breakfast having put the breakfast dishes	26:46
	and the automatic dishwasher	26:49
	using cumulatively, I don't know how many kilowatts of power	26:52
	and several 100 gallons of water	26:59
	have driven over to the Duke campus to this chapel	27:02
	using not much gas individually,	27:08
	but altogether, perhaps $500 worth, here and to home	27:13
	and the day has hardly started.	27:21
	These are not vicious actions, they're very high-minded.	27:26
	We're going to worship in the Duke Chapel.	27:33
	What could be more Christian behavior than that?	27:37
	Yet now change the camera lens focus	27:43
	from this close up out to infinity,	27:48
	to how things would look from afar off	27:54
	from a transcendent perspective.	27:58
	While I am speaking to you now,	28:02
	an eight-year-old child in a village	28:07
	of the sub-Sahara desert in Africa	28:10
	is walking three miles through baking heat	28:14
	from the nearest well	28:19
	carrying the single bucket of water,	28:21
	which must do for the drinking and cooking	28:24
	and washing needs of her family six, eight members	28:27
	for the night.	28:34
	And now, when it is dawn	28:37
	in the city of Kolkata in India	28:41
	an ox-drawn cart moves slowly through the back alleys.	28:45
	Onto the cart are thrown the corpses of the infants	28:53
	and the aged people who have died during the night.	28:59
	(clears throat)	29:04
	The world around, (clears throat) 10,000 people die everyday	29:06
	from starvation and the diseases coming from malnutrition.	29:16
	Viewed in this perspective,	29:24
	the contrasts are startling	29:27
	and my actions not quite so morally innocent.	29:30
	I use up in one day 50 times,	29:36
	the amount of energy consumed by a child in Rhodesia.	29:39
	The cars and trucks on the New Jersey Turnpike	29:47
	in one minute,	29:50
	use up more energy than is consumed	29:52
	by the whole nation of Zaire in one day.	29:55
	Americans constitute 6% of the world's population.	30:01
	They use 40 to 50% of the world's natural resources.	30:04
	Cushioned off as we are from these dark realities,	30:12
	we are not bothered in conscience by such contrasts.	30:17
	I'm reading The New Yorker.	30:24
	There's an ad early on of the Save the Children Federation	30:29
	a picture of a wistful, forlorn African child.	30:35
	The caption.	30:40
	You can help save this child's life by sending in $15	30:43
	or you can turn the page.	30:48
	What do I do?	30:53
	I turn the page.	30:54
	To behold an ad for a man's suede jacket, $275.	30:58
	True, I turn that page also,	31:05
	but the face of the child does not haunt my dreams.	31:10
	It's so cozy in here in my nice nest of things.	31:17
	I'm so preoccupied with them	31:25
	with turning the thermostat, just so for my comfort	31:28
	that I can conveniently close out any consideration	31:34
	of human need from afar off.	31:38
	My wellbeing depends on having the maximum amount of things	31:43
	to assure convenient and pleasurable living.	31:48
	If you don't believe this,	31:54
	hang around the dormitory driveways on campus next weekend	31:57
	when parents arrive to bring the freshmen class.	32:04
	They come with station wagons full to the brim	32:11
	and piled high on top.	32:15
	Of late years, I've seen a few U-Haul trailers	32:19
	loaded with cushions, stereos,	32:25
	electric dryers, baggage, et cetera,	32:29
	presumably all indispensable in a bare survival kit.	32:33
	That's rather different from when Thomas Carlyle	32:41
	walked some 80 miles from an on his home in Scotland,	32:44
	carrying his luggage on his back	32:51
	to enroll at the University of Edinburgh as a freshman.	32:56
	How does the word of God speak to us in this situation?	33:03
	To look at this from under the sign of the cross,	33:10
	the word is both one of judgment and radical criticism	33:16
	and the word of grace and redemption	33:21
	into a different lifestyle.	33:27
	From the perspective of the Christian faith,	33:31
	there is a moral cost to this high living,	33:35
	even though we take it for granted	33:40
	with hardly a twinge of conscience.	33:44
	These apparently benign ways of our lifestyle	33:49
	prove not to be so noble after all	33:55
	when one thinks of the needs of the family of man,	34:00
	which our comforts deny to them by benign neglect	34:05
	are high consumerism, prodigal waste	34:15
	are enormous consumption of energy	34:21
	are not bought without moral costs.	34:27
	America loses about two thirds of the energy it consumes.	34:31
	Half of that in the inefficiency of machinery,	34:39
	but half of that loss	34:45
	equivalent to 12 million barrels of oil a day is waste.	34:46
	But we are charged by the Christian faith	34:57
	to be stewards of the Lords earth,	34:59
	to till and keep the precious, but precarious garden,	35:04
	to use the resources of ground and forest	35:11
	and ocean responsibly.	35:14
	Yet now, the dire consequences of our misuse of the earth	35:18
	in plundering it's unreplenishable resources	35:25
	to sustain high productivity	35:31
	are beginning to loom, dark, and close in the energy crisis.	35:35
	We have already reached beyond the limits to growth,	35:44
	though we can't really believe it.	35:49
	After the gas shortage a couple of years ago,	35:55
	people went right back to more energy consumption, big cars.	35:59
	Well, we say, "There's enough gas left to get me home."	36:06
	Posterity, why should I care for posterity?	36:13
	I'll not be around to see them suffer from my waste	36:21
	and any way, they'll figure out some technical device	36:26
	to get by.	36:31
	And so our selfish excuses twist and turn,	36:33
	but they cannot avoid the judgment of God	36:39
	in His inexorable rule	36:43
	whatsoever you sow, you shall reap.	36:46
	If we continue to defy the laws of the stewardship of earth,	36:51
	the doom for our culture is sure.	36:58
	The negative critique of the gospel appears at another point	37:05
	that is in the distortion of our values	37:10
	possessed by our possessions as Thoreau put it,	37:17
	or as his friend Emerson said,	37:23
	"Things are in the saddle and ride mankind."	37:25
	And these two seers lived more than a century ago.	37:31
	What would their comments be now,	37:38
	should they walk through South Square Mall?	37:41
	The radical criticism of our distortion of values	37:48
	is found in the haunting questions of Christ,	37:52
	"Which of you by being anxious for things	37:57
	can add one cubit to his span of life?	38:02
	Why be anxious about clothing, do not be anxious	38:06
	saying, 'What shall we eat, what shall we drink,	38:11
	what shall we wear?'"	38:16
	The curses of prosperity	38:20
	derive from our desperate anxiety about things	38:24
	in the distortion and values,	38:29
	which are preoccupation with acquisition	38:32
	and high consumption produce.	38:37
	We lose the nonchalance of faith,	38:43
	the serenity of the lilies of the field.	38:47
	And our preoccupation anesthetizes us	38:54
	to the needs of those neighbors in the family of man,	38:58
	that child in the sub-Sahara desert	39:04
	or in the Harlem ghetto or in Soweto.	39:08
	Our prosperity may make us well-rounded persons,	39:16
	but a very short radius of moral concern.	39:24
	On the other hand, the positive word of the gospel,	39:30
	the word of grace and redemption	39:37
	can be found in our text from Philippians.	39:42
	Saint Paul writes,	39:47
	"I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.	39:50
	I know how to be abased and how to abound.	39:56
	In any and all circumstances,	40:00
	I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,	40:03
	abundance and want.	40:09
	I can do all things in Him who strengthens me."	40:13
	Saint Paul had been emancipated from a dependence on things.	40:21
	He is nonchalant, serene, steady,	40:28
	whether hungry or full.	40:33
	Why?	40:35
	Because he had the inner resources of spirit	40:38
	that empowered him to transcend every reliance	40:43
	on material things for his livelihood.	40:47
	He was freed to show forth the new spirit	40:51
	of God's love in Christ.	40:55
	He had learned the secret of abundant living.	40:59
	Christianity has rightly been called the most materialistic	41:06
	of all the major faiths.	41:12
	It does not despise things as bad, food, clothing, shelter,	41:16
	creature comforts.	41:24
	These are a part of the good life,	41:26
	but they are be used as means and not worshiped as ends,	41:32
	for that becomes idolatry.	41:40
	Don't get me wrong here,	41:46
	I make no Christian brief against technology.	41:49
	Look what it has done to bring human healing in medicine	41:55
	and safety in education,	42:01
	the riches of history and culture at the turn of a knob.	42:04
	And I must confess, if I were a member	42:12
	of the board of trustees of Duke University,	42:15
	I'd gladly vote, yes	42:19
	(clears throat)
	to award an honorary degree to the person	42:23
	who might invent a battery run air conditioner	42:26
	to be sewn inside academic gowns	42:32
	for all May or June outdoor commencements	42:35
	in southern universities,	42:37
	or for our preachers in the Duke Chapel during August.	42:43
	The quality though of good human community	42:51
	does not depend on things on technology,	42:58
	nor does technical skill it's assure in itself	43:02
	the good life.	43:06
	This point might be illustrated negatively	43:09
	and what happened in New York City on July 15th.	43:12
	The tragedy of the 20-hour blackouts there	43:17
	was not so much the failure of electric power,	43:22
	but the failure of moral power,	43:27
	moral controls in time of crisis,	43:31
	the burglaries and destruction of property	43:36
	where a 3,800 persons were arrested for looting.	43:40
	If we view our lifestyle from the Christian perspective,	43:48
	we can discern, not only the curses of prosperity,	43:53
	but the blessing in austerity.	44:00
	The burning moral imperative	44:06
	for anyone of Christian humanitarian conscience	44:09
	who faces the energy crisis,	44:16
	the destruction of the environment,	44:19
	the pollution of air and water,	44:22
	the imperative is to adopt a simpler life style.	44:26
	The new asceticism requires daily decisions	44:34
	for conservation of energy, cutting back on waste,	44:39
	recycling glass, paper, aluminum,	44:45
	even furniture and clothing through the Goodwill Industries	44:50
	or the Nearly New Shop.	44:55
	A woman wrote a good letter	45:00
	to the local newspaper the other day,	45:01
	describing the merits of her solar	45:03
	and wind-powered clothes dryer,	45:07
	a clothes line in her backyard.	45:12
	Well, you say,	45:16
	"Each little decision to turn off the light switch	45:20
	is minuscule	45:24
	like a teaspoon full of water added to	45:29
	or taken from Lake Michigan."	45:31
	Yes, but cumulatively, the many decisions	45:37
	for conserving energy	45:41
	can turn the rising line of energy consumption down.	45:44
	President Carter's energy program, imperative as it is,	45:52
	needs to be matched by a public will to cut back	45:58
	to live more simply.	46:01
	We can't survive just by a program of legislation	46:03
	engineered in Washington.	46:09
	There are blessings in austerity,	46:17
	physical blessings,	46:22
	simpler diet, the loss of excess weight, better health	46:24
	as thetic blessings.	46:31
	When you escape the car and walk or ride a bike	46:36
	or jog,	46:43
	you notice things you can't see or hear in a car,	46:44
	but the chief blessing is a moral one.	46:50
	For a reduction in our American consumption of energy	46:55
	and the resources of earth	47:00
	make available more of its yield	47:03
	to help to meet the mounting crisis of world hunger,	47:08
	both through voluntary sources like Church World Service	47:13
	and governmental measures or international economic aid.	47:19
	The moral the ground for the new asceticism	47:27
	is not that I suggest of the old asceticism,	47:33
	that is the denial of the body	47:39
	to prepare the soul for heaven,	47:42
	nor is it the Yankee reason for a frugality to gain wealth.	47:46
	No.	47:53
	The Christian moral reason	47:55
	for adopting simplicity of lifestyle	47:57
	is that thereby one may fulfill responsibility	48:01
	to the far neighbor,	48:06
	far in time and in space	48:10
	in obedience to the gospel in junction	48:16
	to feed the hungry and clothe the naked	48:20
	and find their from the richest blessing of all.	48:27
	And that means the redistribution of the world's resources	48:34
	on a more equitable basis.	48:41
	As one westerner put it,	48:45
	a delegate to the Nairobi conference	48:50
	of the World Council of Churches,	48:53
	"We must learn to live more simply	48:58
	that others may simply live."	49:05
	Let us pray.	49:13
	Almighty God,	49:20
	trouble us by thy word of judgment	49:24
	and inspire us by thy grace	49:30
	to learn to live more simply that others may simply live.	49:37
	In Christ's name we pray.	49:48
	Amen.	49:55
	(gentle piano music)	49:59
	(choral cathedral music)	50:45
-	You may be seated.	53:31
	Let us continue to worship God	53:36
	as we present unto Him our gifts and our tithes.	53:38
	(gentle piano music)	53:53
	(gentle piano music)	57:49
	(choral cathedral music)	58:27
	♪ Alleluia alleluia ♪	58:40
	♪ Alleluia ♪	59:03
	♪ Alleluia ♪	59:07
	♪ Alleluia ♪	59:10
	♪ Alleluia ♪	59:13
	Accept Lord, the offerings your people make to you	59:34
	and grant that the work to which they're devoted	59:39
	will prosper under your guidance	59:41
	for the glory of your holy name	59:44
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord,	59:46
	Amen.	59:49
	(choral cathedral music)	59:52
	And the peace of God, which passes all understanding	1:02:52
	keep your hearts and minds and the knowledge and love of God	1:02:57
	and of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,	1:03:01
	and the blessing of God almighty the Father,	1:03:04
	the Son, and the Holy Spirit	1:03:07
	be among you and remain with you always.	1:03:09
	Amen.	1:03:14
	(cathedral orchestra music)	1:03:18

Item Info

Title:

Waldo Beach - "The Blessings of Austerity" (August 21, 1977)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r47h1jp0c

Date:

August 21, 1977

Speaker:

Beach, Waldo

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0912
ref7027_9y2
uachapelsermaud
duke:628628
dcrau002856
ark:/87924/r47h1jp0c
bee9460f-584d-4087-866c-42baf5aef4ad

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Durham (N.C.)

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

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CC BY-NC 4.0

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Waldo Beach - "The Blessings of Austerity" (August 21, 1977)

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