David H. C. Read - "Knowledge - With Room for Wonder" Baccalaureate Service 5:00 pm (May 8, 1987)
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Transcript
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(organ music) | 0:01 | |
(choral music) | 9:29 | |
♪ Now and forever more, Gloria ♪ | 10:26 | |
♪ Now and forever ♪ | 10:36 | |
♪ Gloria ♪ | 10:46 | |
(organ music) | 11:00 | |
(choral music) | 11:41 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:11 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:14 | |
♪ Glory to God ♪ | 12:21 | |
(choral music) | 12:25 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:51 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 12:56 | |
(choral music) | 13:02 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 13:32 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 13:36 | |
(choral music) | 13:42 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 14:12 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 14:17 | |
(choral music) | 14:23 | |
♪ Jesus Christ is born ♪ | 14:39 | |
(choral music) | 14:43 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 14:54 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 14:58 | |
(organ music) | 15:05 | |
- | When we gather to worship, we remember that we | 15:09 |
are God's people who have preferred our wills | 15:12 | |
to God's will. | 15:14 | |
Therefore, let us begin this solemn service | 15:16 | |
by confessing our sin before God and one another. | 15:18 | |
Be seated. | 15:22 | |
Let us pray. | 15:36 | |
Most merciful God, | 15:38 | |
we confess that we have sinned | 15:40 | |
against you in thought, word, and deed | 15:41 | |
by what we have done and by what we have left undone. | 15:46 | |
We have not loved you with our whole heart. | 15:51 | |
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. | 15:54 | |
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent | 15:58 | |
for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ. | 16:01 | |
Have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight | 16:04 | |
in your will and walk in your ways | 16:08 | |
to the glory of your name, amen. | 16:11 | |
Born as high as the heavens are high above the earth, | 16:17 | |
so great is his steadfast love towards those | 16:20 | |
who fear him. | 16:22 | |
As far as the east is from the west, | 16:24 | |
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. | 16:27 | |
Amen. | 16:33 | |
I welcome you to this baccalaureate service | 16:36 | |
at Duke University's 135th commencement. | 16:41 | |
At the conclusion of this afternoon's service, | 16:45 | |
the congregation is asked to remain in place | 16:49 | |
until all the graduates have recessed from the chapel. | 16:52 | |
We are fortunate to have as our baccalaureate preacher | 16:58 | |
this year, the Reverend Dr. David H. C. Read, | 17:00 | |
Minister of Medicine Avenue Presbyterian Church | 17:05 | |
in New York. | 17:08 | |
He is a gifted writer, a distinguished preacher, | 17:10 | |
a frequent visitor to Duke Chapel, and we welcome | 17:15 | |
him back to the pulpit today | 17:18 | |
to bring us the baccalaureate sermon. | 17:20 | |
- | Let us pray. | 17:32 |
Open our hearts and minds, O God | 17:34 | |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 17:37 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 17:38 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 17:42 | |
Amen. | 17:47 | |
The first lesson is taken from Proverbs. | 17:48 | |
Three things are too wonderful for me, | 17:52 | |
for I do not understand the way of an eagle | 17:56 | |
in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, | 18:00 | |
the way of a ship on the high seas, | 18:04 | |
and the way of a man with a maiden. | 18:06 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 18:10 | |
(organ music) | 18:19 | |
(choral music) | 18:35 | |
♪ My heart and I shall be whole in the living heart ♪ | 19:11 | |
(choral music) | 19:26 | |
(organ music) | 20:17 | |
♪ The Lord, his majesty ♪ | 20:29 | |
(choral music) | 20:31 | |
♪ Oh God ♪ | 21:18 | |
(choral music) | 21:22 | |
- | The congregation will rise | 22:13 |
for the reading of the Gospel. | 22:15 | |
The Gospel lesson is taken from St. Matthew. | 22:21 | |
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, | 22:25 | |
and when he sat down, his disciples came to him | 22:28 | |
and he opened his mouth and taught them, | 22:31 | |
saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, | 22:33 | |
"for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. | 22:37 | |
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. | 22:40 | |
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. | 22:44 | |
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst | 22:48 | |
"for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. | 22:51 | |
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. | 22:55 | |
"Blessed are the pure in heart, | 23:00 | |
"for they shall see God. | 23:02 | |
"Blessed are the peacemakers, | 23:06 | |
"for they shall be called sons of God." | 23:08 | |
This ends the reading of the Gospel lesson. | 23:12 | |
(organ music) | 23:15 | |
(choral music) | 23:25 | |
You may be seated. | 24:21 | |
The Epistle is taken from Ephesians. | 24:28 | |
So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro | 24:32 | |
and carried about with every wind of doctrine | 24:36 | |
by the cunning of men, by their craftiness | 24:39 | |
and deceitful wiles. | 24:41 | |
While they're speaking the truth in love, | 24:44 | |
we are to grow up in every way into him | 24:48 | |
that is the head and to Christ, | 24:51 | |
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together | 24:55 | |
by every joint, which it is supplied | 24:58 | |
when each part is working properly, | 25:00 | |
makes bodily growth and up, builds itself in love. | 25:04 | |
Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord | 25:10 | |
that you must no longer live as the gentiles do | 25:13 | |
in the futility of their minds. | 25:16 | |
They are darkened in their understanding, | 25:19 | |
alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance | 25:22 | |
that is in them. | 25:25 | |
This, due to their hardness of heart. | 25:27 | |
They have become callous and have given themselves up | 25:30 | |
to licentiousness, greedy to practice | 25:33 | |
every kind of uncleanliness. | 25:36 | |
You did not so learn Christ, assuming that you | 25:39 | |
have heard about him and were taught in him, | 25:42 | |
as the truth is in Jesus. | 25:46 | |
This ends the reading of the Epistle. | 25:50 | |
- | Let the words of my mouth and the meditation | 26:02 |
of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. | 26:05 | |
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. | 26:08 | |
Amen. | 26:11 | |
It is a joy for me to be present once more | 26:14 | |
in this beautiful church and to have the responsibility | 26:17 | |
of speaking, particularly to those | 26:22 | |
who are about to graduate. | 26:25 | |
I have called this sermon | 26:29 | |
Knowledge with Room for Wonder. | 26:34 | |
I'm not going to say a great deal about knowledge. | 26:38 | |
You have been acquiring it steadily | 26:42 | |
for the last four years or so. | 26:44 | |
A cynic once said that the reason why a university | 26:48 | |
is known as a repository of knowledge and wisdom | 26:53 | |
is that the freshmen bring so much in | 26:58 | |
and the graduates take so little out. | 27:01 | |
(congregation laughing) | 27:04 | |
I am happy to believe that you are taking a lot out | 27:05 | |
from this great institution, but let me now | 27:09 | |
give you my text, as is our Presbyterian practice, | 27:12 | |
and the text comes from what you heard | 27:17 | |
in the Book of Proverbs. | 27:20 | |
Three things are too wonderful for me, | 27:23 | |
for I do not understand | 27:27 | |
the way of an eagle in the sky, | 27:30 | |
the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship | 27:34 | |
on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden. | 27:38 | |
Now, filled with our modern knowledge, | 27:44 | |
do you feel like taking the author of these verses | 27:50 | |
by the hand? | 27:54 | |
Too wonderful for me, I do not understand. | 27:56 | |
We say to him, poor man, he lived so long ago | 28:01 | |
that he never heard of aerodynamics | 28:05 | |
or biological mutations, or astrophysics, | 28:07 | |
or chromosomes, or genes, or whatever it is | 28:10 | |
that we have been studying today, | 28:13 | |
everything that was mystery to him. | 28:15 | |
It was wonderful because he could not understand. | 28:18 | |
Now that we know all about it, now that we | 28:24 | |
have come of age, as the theologians used to tell | 28:28 | |
us 20 years ago. | 28:31 | |
Although, I sometimes wonder if the world | 28:33 | |
is acting as mature people at the moment. | 28:35 | |
But now, wouldn't perhaps you like | 28:39 | |
to take this primitive Bible writer by the hand | 28:43 | |
and explain the four things that bothered him? | 28:46 | |
The way of an eagle in the sky, nothing wonderful | 28:50 | |
about that, you see, it's all a question | 28:53 | |
of air displacement given the weight of the bird, | 28:56 | |
the span of the wings, a relatively slight | 29:00 | |
lateral motion of the latter will suffice | 29:03 | |
to counteract the pool of gravity while speed, | 29:08 | |
elevation, and direction are achieved | 29:11 | |
by appropriate muscular adjustments. | 29:13 | |
Nothing mysterious about that. | 29:17 | |
However, as a primitive, heavier than air mechanism, | 29:21 | |
the eagle has long been outclassed in speed | 29:25 | |
and efficiency by human artifacts such as the rocket | 29:29 | |
and the jet plane, which I don't understand | 29:33 | |
anymore than you, but somebody does, | 29:36 | |
so there's no mystery about it. | 29:39 | |
(congregation laughing) | 29:41 | |
And while the author of the Book of Proverbs | 29:43 | |
is recovering from this, you go on. | 29:45 | |
The way of a serpent on a rock. | 29:49 | |
"Oh yes, I see your difficulty," we say. | 29:54 | |
No legs, no wings. | 29:56 | |
How does he moves? | 29:59 | |
But elementary zoology would soon explain that to you. | 30:01 | |
I looked it up and I read locomotion. | 30:06 | |
This is of the serpent, locomotion is affected | 30:11 | |
by the passage of a series of waves from the fore backwards. | 30:15 | |
Each wave in its progress pressing against | 30:19 | |
the surrounding medium and forcing the animal forwards. | 30:22 | |
If you still don't understand, I could add | 30:26 | |
that the scales of the lower surface are enlarged | 30:28 | |
to form transverse overlapping plates | 30:32 | |
whose free edge is directed backwards, | 30:35 | |
and to each of these plates is attached | 30:38 | |
a pair of movable ribs. | 30:40 | |
So now we say to this old poet, microscopes have shown | 30:44 | |
us a lot of things you didn't know about. | 30:49 | |
I could go on to tell you more about the serpent | 30:53 | |
than you would ever want to know. | 30:55 | |
The problem about the rock, for instance. | 30:58 | |
How does the serpent move on a smooth surface? | 31:01 | |
Well, it has about 300 ventral heels, I read, | 31:05 | |
each of which can utilize any slight irregularity | 31:09 | |
so that progress is possible over almost any surface | 31:13 | |
that is not absolutely smooth. | 31:17 | |
You see, there's nothing wonderful | 31:19 | |
about the serpent on the rock. | 31:21 | |
We can explain. | 31:24 | |
What's the next question? | 31:25 | |
Ah yes, the way of a ship on the high seas. | 31:27 | |
I suppose we say your difficulty is in understanding | 31:33 | |
how the little tub ever keeps afloat in a storm | 31:36 | |
and how it ever picks its way across the ocean | 31:40 | |
to the desired harbor. | 31:43 | |
I seem to remember your colleagues who wrote the Book | 31:46 | |
of Psalms having a similar difficulty. | 31:49 | |
They that go down to the sea in ships that do business | 31:52 | |
in great waters, they see the work of the Lord | 31:55 | |
and his wonders in the deep, but you don't need to see | 31:58 | |
any wonders or works of the Lord. | 32:02 | |
Even in your day, the science of navigation could explain | 32:04 | |
how your little sailing ship gets from hither to yon | 32:10 | |
and now we have the whole business so under control | 32:14 | |
that a floating hotel of 80,000 tons can speed through | 32:17 | |
the high seas with an automatic pilot | 32:21 | |
doing all the steering and radar doing all the seeing. | 32:24 | |
No mystery anymore. | 32:28 | |
You and I may not understand it all, but someone does. | 32:30 | |
Now what was that last thing you mentioned? | 32:33 | |
Ah, the way of a man with a maiden. | 32:36 | |
Too wonderful? | 32:40 | |
You don't understand? | 32:42 | |
Now really, if there's one thing in which we've made great | 32:44 | |
strides, it's in this business of sex. | 32:48 | |
You primitive people made such a mystery of it | 32:53 | |
with your rites, and your ceremonies, and your poems, | 32:57 | |
and your music, and your romantic illusions. | 33:00 | |
We have now finally analyzed this man/woman relationship. | 33:04 | |
We know all about the biological impulses behind it | 33:09 | |
and we are applying psychological methods | 33:13 | |
to discover its true function in society. | 33:16 | |
We are on our way to rationalizing the sex act | 33:21 | |
and we get further on that way every year. | 33:24 | |
We are developing, perhaps, computers to match | 33:29 | |
the right man and the right maiden. | 33:32 | |
A recent book based on an elaborate investigation | 33:35 | |
under clinical conditions of the way of a man | 33:39 | |
with a maiden shows the way towards | 33:42 | |
a complete understanding of human sexuality. | 33:45 | |
You won't need to wonder anymore. | 33:49 | |
You'll understand, you'll know all about it. | 33:51 | |
Well now, I know this isn't how you feel. | 33:55 | |
You've had a better education than that. | 33:59 | |
Let me be quite realistic. | 34:02 | |
We do know immensely more about this universe | 34:05 | |
than the man who wrote the Book of Proverbs. | 34:09 | |
We do know more, not only the nature of the universe, | 34:13 | |
but of the transmission of life, | 34:16 | |
the mastery of the elements, the functioning | 34:19 | |
of the human body and the psyche. | 34:22 | |
Sure, we know more. | 34:24 | |
The advance of human knowledge | 34:26 | |
has been extraordinary since the Bible was written, | 34:28 | |
and the understanding that modern science | 34:32 | |
has given us and the benefits it has become | 34:35 | |
furthering us and should not be scoffed at | 34:39 | |
by any passing preacher. | 34:43 | |
I sometimes think that the new definition | 34:45 | |
of a hypocrite is the preacher who composes | 34:48 | |
on an electric typewriter a sermon which he pushes | 34:52 | |
off in his car to deliver on the radio, | 34:56 | |
denouncing modern technology. | 35:00 | |
(congregation laughing) | 35:04 | |
My old teacher in Edinburgh, Professor Macintosh, | 35:05 | |
used to say that a preacher never looks more foolish | 35:08 | |
than when he starts attacking the scientists. | 35:12 | |
The liberating spirit of inquiry has brought man | 35:15 | |
to a new era in the conquest of hunger and disease | 35:18 | |
and in control of the forces of nature, | 35:23 | |
and this understanding has also been bought | 35:27 | |
at great price, for science has also has its martyrs. | 35:29 | |
My purpose this evening is simply to raise | 35:35 | |
a huge question over the idea | 35:40 | |
that a scientific understanding of things | 35:44 | |
is sufficient and complete, and that therefore, | 35:47 | |
we have arrived at a point in the human story | 35:51 | |
where wonder and mystery, | 35:54 | |
the intuitions of the mystic, | 35:58 | |
the vision of the artist, the whole realm of the spirit | 36:01 | |
can be ruled out as just a kind of icing on the cake, | 36:06 | |
as something that you can enjoy if you have a taste | 36:11 | |
for that sort of thing, but in no way an avenue | 36:14 | |
to the truth and a guide for the human mind. | 36:18 | |
My point is not that there are still some things | 36:24 | |
that science cannot explain. | 36:27 | |
You'd be a foolish person who rested a case | 36:29 | |
for religion on any gaps in scientific knowledge. | 36:31 | |
These gaps have a way of filling up | 36:35 | |
and confidence that science will go on exploring | 36:38 | |
and investigating in every area, even those we used to think | 36:41 | |
belonged only to ethics and religion. | 36:46 | |
The Bible puts up no keep out sign for the inquiring mind. | 36:51 | |
We are to ask though, | 36:58 | |
whether that kind of explanation, | 37:01 | |
even if it covered the whole, apparently the whole sum | 37:05 | |
of human experience, if it really offers or can offer | 37:09 | |
any answer to the ultimate questions | 37:15 | |
that every intelligent person asks. | 37:17 | |
We don't just want to know how, | 37:21 | |
we want, if possible, to know why. | 37:26 | |
You can explain to me to the limit of my capacity | 37:30 | |
the complexities of the atom, the cellular structures | 37:33 | |
of life, the rhythm of the solar system, | 37:38 | |
the sweet of the galaxies through the infinities | 37:42 | |
of space and time. | 37:45 | |
I'm still left asking, as you do, | 37:48 | |
what does it all mean, if anything? | 37:51 | |
Is there anything behind this process? | 37:55 | |
Some will tell you that such questions are foolish, | 37:58 | |
that they're a sign of middle or old age. | 38:03 | |
Yet I find them being raised more | 38:06 | |
by the younger generation than my own contemporaries. | 38:09 | |
Search for meaning going on, as you know, lying behind | 38:13 | |
all kinds of things from the eruption of demonstrations | 38:17 | |
to new trends in music, dance, poetry or grammar, | 38:20 | |
or even fashion. | 38:24 | |
It's as though a generation to whom everything | 38:26 | |
has been in process of being explained has realized | 38:30 | |
that ultimately, nothing has been explained at all. | 38:35 | |
There are other ways of listening to the universe. | 38:40 | |
The telescope and microscope are not the only windows | 38:45 | |
into truth, as I'm sure you have discovered. | 38:49 | |
There was a time when the religious believer | 38:55 | |
was accused of having a narrow mind | 38:57 | |
and there are indeed religious people who live | 39:00 | |
in a little chamber of piety from which they glare out | 39:03 | |
suspiciously at the modern world, and churches in the past | 39:08 | |
have too often obstructed the path of science, | 39:12 | |
neglected their contribution to the arts | 39:16 | |
and forced a kind of timid and negative | 39:19 | |
attitude to life. | 39:22 | |
But I suspect that we are now | 39:24 | |
in a very different situation. | 39:26 | |
Today, rather surprisingly, it is the thorough going | 39:29 | |
secularists and skeptic who is being revealed | 39:33 | |
as narrow minded, for to limit one's convictions | 39:38 | |
to that which is capable of scientific explanation, | 39:43 | |
to attempt to reduce every vivid experience | 39:48 | |
to computer foray, to interpret the religious | 39:52 | |
and the moral insights of a human race | 39:56 | |
purely in terms of subjective emotion is narrow minded | 39:59 | |
dogmatist, a deliberate exclusion | 40:03 | |
of a whole dimension, | 40:07 | |
and for me, the most important dimension of human life. | 40:09 | |
Not long ago, a professor from a university, | 40:14 | |
a professor, I think, of literature, | 40:18 | |
wrote an indignant letter to the New York Times | 40:20 | |
protesting against the award for Nobel Prize | 40:23 | |
in Literature to Isaac Singer purely on the grounds | 40:27 | |
that Singer is a religious believer. | 40:32 | |
Now there is atheist fundamentalism for you, isn't it? | 40:35 | |
And that brings me back to the eagle, | 40:40 | |
the serpent, the ship on the high seas, | 40:44 | |
and the way of a man with a maiden. | 40:49 | |
So let's leave our modern world | 40:52 | |
and laboratories, | 40:57 | |
the traffic, all the rest of it, and dream ourselves off | 40:59 | |
for a moment to some distant mountain peak | 41:04 | |
where we sit on a rock looking out over a sea of peaks | 41:08 | |
colored by the glinting sun as the clouds drift by | 41:14 | |
and here comes the eagle hovering, | 41:18 | |
swooping, soaring, | 41:21 | |
gliding off again to be a distant speck on the horizon. | 41:24 | |
Are we sitting there thinking about aerodynamics? | 41:30 | |
Are we at that moment any wiser than the Bible writer | 41:35 | |
who found the way of an eagle in the sky | 41:40 | |
too wonderful for him? | 41:43 | |
It's what the artist seEs as he catches | 41:49 | |
the curve in flight even of a common seagull, | 41:53 | |
not more important to us than a whole mountain | 41:58 | |
of statistical research. | 42:01 | |
And can that moment of wonder not open a window for us | 42:05 | |
into the dimension of mystery of God | 42:08 | |
that has more meaning than a wilderness | 42:12 | |
of factual information? | 42:15 | |
I do not understand. | 42:18 | |
You can feed me all the information tucked away | 42:20 | |
in 1,000 microfilms. | 42:23 | |
I would still stand there and wonder. | 42:25 | |
And I wonder too about the serpent on the rock. | 42:29 | |
I listen to strange voices from the past that come | 42:36 | |
hissing through the collective unconsciousness of man. | 42:41 | |
The primeval symbol of temptation. | 42:47 | |
Do you remember? | 42:49 | |
Then that healing snake that Moses lifted up | 42:51 | |
on the wilderness, the legend of the sea serpent, | 42:53 | |
the trail of the serpent through the energy | 42:59 | |
of our dreams. | 43:01 | |
There's the poison, the illusionist, the cunning, | 43:06 | |
this Cleopatra, that serpent of old Nile. | 43:12 | |
Now the window opens into a strange world, doesn't it? | 43:17 | |
Where the hopes and the fears, | 43:21 | |
shapes of good and evil, | 43:24 | |
and at such moments, God speaks. | 43:28 | |
If we are never transfixed by the wonder | 43:32 | |
of a single living creature, whether it's a serpent | 43:35 | |
on the rock or an ant carrying its egg | 43:39 | |
or a fly moving on the windowpane or the sheer | 43:43 | |
improbability of the hippopotamus, | 43:47 | |
if we are never so transfixed, | 43:51 | |
we are going to be terribly impoverished. | 43:53 | |
There are times we don't want to know the facts. | 43:57 | |
We just wonder. | 43:59 | |
And tell me, do we really understand anymore | 44:01 | |
what it all means than the man | 44:04 | |
who wrote that proverb many centuries ago? | 44:06 | |
The ship on the high seas. | 44:11 | |
Well, what was it that aroused this writer | 44:16 | |
to wonder in amazement? | 44:21 | |
I don't think it was technical achievement. | 44:22 | |
He probably knew quite a lot more than I do | 44:26 | |
about sails, and rudders, and tides, and winds. | 44:28 | |
I believe he was seized by the thought | 44:32 | |
that may come to pass from time to time | 44:34 | |
why, why has this earthbound, | 44:38 | |
two-legged creature | 44:43 | |
had the desire to cut down trees and make ships? | 44:46 | |
Why does he entrust himself to the dark | 44:51 | |
and menacing ocean? | 44:54 | |
Crazy! | 44:57 | |
Where is he going and what does he want to do? | 44:59 | |
For us, exactly the same questions come surging in | 45:05 | |
when we see on the television screen a capsule | 45:09 | |
blasting off into space containing | 45:13 | |
fellow men and women. | 45:18 | |
For the achievement, we have all the explanations. | 45:23 | |
No mystery about the calculations, the experiments, | 45:26 | |
the years of research that precede the launching, | 45:29 | |
but the mystery, the wonder, the contemplation | 45:33 | |
that we don't understand come then | 45:37 | |
with the deeper questions, don't they? | 45:39 | |
What strange compulsion has lead human beings | 45:44 | |
towards the mastery of their environment? | 45:50 | |
Where are we going, why do we want to go? | 45:55 | |
We get so accustomed to these things | 46:00 | |
that sometimes we stop asking these questions. | 46:02 | |
Are we going to become a race of people who understand | 46:07 | |
everything and therefore understand nothing? | 46:09 | |
Or can we still say about the mystery | 46:13 | |
of man's existence and his questing spirit, | 46:16 | |
it is too wonderful for me. | 46:20 | |
I cannot understand. | 46:22 | |
All right, we're not quite through though, are we? | 46:27 | |
Last, ooh, some years ago, | 46:30 | |
Life Magazine published a letter | 46:35 | |
from a lady concerning the book | 46:37 | |
called Human Sexual Response, and she said | 46:38 | |
that her reaction to the book was to plead | 46:43 | |
for a society for the preservation | 46:46 | |
of the sweet mystery of life. | 46:48 | |
Don't you ever feel that way? | 46:52 | |
All right, have the facts. | 46:55 | |
There was certainly too much ignorance | 46:57 | |
and hush, hush about sex in my youth, | 46:59 | |
but what kind of life awaits a people | 47:03 | |
for whom the way of a man with a maiden | 47:07 | |
is entirely explainable in terms of glands, | 47:09 | |
and genes, and psychological data? | 47:13 | |
The Bible is plain enough about the facts of sex, | 47:17 | |
but the way of a man with a maiden is also seen there | 47:22 | |
in the dimension of wonder and mystery. | 47:26 | |
You got the song of songs there in the Bible | 47:31 | |
as well as the sex laws of the (mumbles). | 47:34 | |
Into what drab world are we moving when wonder | 47:38 | |
and poetry disappear and mere explanation | 47:44 | |
or attempted explanation take the place? | 47:48 | |
As a Scotsman, I can't help in quoting this lovely verse. | 47:54 | |
Oh, my love's like a red, red rose | 48:01 | |
that's newly sprung in June. | 48:05 | |
Oh, my love's like the melody | 48:08 | |
that's sweetly played in tune. | 48:11 | |
Would you like instead to sing | 48:15 | |
oh, my love's like a chromosome | 48:19 | |
that seeks the perfect suitor? | 48:22 | |
(congregation laughs) | 48:24 | |
And my love will be chosen for me by IBM computer. | 48:25 | |
(congregation laughs) | 48:30 | |
Let's preserve the mystery. | 48:32 | |
Let's keep that sense of wonder alive, | 48:36 | |
the recognition of the dimension where life | 48:40 | |
cannot be explained away. | 48:43 | |
That's what makes us Christian, | 48:48 | |
that's what gives us the spiritual outlook on life | 48:51 | |
which I hope you will have and take with you. | 48:54 | |
I am not suggesting that just because there's wonder | 48:57 | |
and mystery you must accept everything the church | 49:00 | |
has to say about the being of God, the person of Christ, | 49:03 | |
or the work of the Holy Spirit. | 49:07 | |
I'm just telling you not to close the door. | 49:08 | |
That's all the Book of Proverbs is doing, | 49:14 | |
but it's very, very necessary. | 49:17 | |
And so, as I have spoken long enough, let me end | 49:22 | |
by just expressing the hope that you will carry with you | 49:27 | |
who are graduating tomorrow into that mysterious world | 49:32 | |
which grows more mysterious to me everyday, | 49:37 | |
something corresponding to this shrine, | 49:41 | |
this place which is a symbol of the wonder | 49:46 | |
and the glory of almighty God | 49:51 | |
and a sign of his care for us | 49:55 | |
that you will take with you, | 49:58 | |
this shrine that broods over your campus as an inner shrine | 50:02 | |
so that none of the strange | 50:08 | |
things that may happen to you | 50:13 | |
as you go into a new way of life will ever erase | 50:15 | |
from your mind the thought that there's a lot | 50:19 | |
that we cannot explain, and it is worthwhile | 50:23 | |
keeping that shrine alive in your heart. | 50:26 | |
Let us pray. | 50:30 | |
Grant to us O God, our renewed sense of wonder | 50:33 | |
in thine universe and a readiness to hear thy word | 50:37 | |
through Christ our Lord, amen. | 50:42 | |
(organ music) | 50:53 | |
(choral music) | 51:50 | |
- | Let us unite in this historic confession | 54:45 |
of the Christian faith. | 54:47 | |
- | [Woman And Congregation] I believe in God, | 54:50 |
the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth | 54:51 | |
and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, | 54:55 | |
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, | 54:59 | |
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, | 55:02 | |
was crucified, dead and buried. | 55:07 | |
He descended into hell. | 55:10 | |
The third day, he rose from the dead. | 55:12 | |
He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right | 55:15 | |
hand of God the Father almighty. | 55:18 | |
From this, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 55:21 | |
I believe in the Holy Ghost, | 55:25 | |
the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, | 55:27 | |
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection | 55:32 | |
of the body, and the life everlasting. | 55:35 | |
Amen. | 55:39 | |
Woman | Please be seated. | 55:40 |
(organ music) | 55:56 | |
(singing in foreign language) | 56:39 | |
Reverend | Would you stand for the responsive prayer? | 1:01:08 |
Let us pray, almighty God, that you have granted us | 1:01:20 | |
a place in this university hallowed to us now this day, | 1:01:24 | |
when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work | 1:01:29 | |
to which you have called us, | 1:01:32 | |
that we may remember with gratitude the families | 1:01:34 | |
and friends who have cared for us. | 1:01:37 | |
Congregation | We ask for your strength, O God. | 1:01:40 |
Reverend | That in the life ahead, we may keep faith | 1:01:42 |
with those who loved us and trusted us | 1:01:46 | |
and whose hopes follow us. | 1:01:48 | |
Congregation | We ask for your strength, O God. | 1:01:51 |
- | That we may enter with good courage | 1:01:54 |
and constant purpose upon the task which await us. | 1:01:56 | |
Congregation | We ask for strength, O God. | 1:02:00 |
- | From all vanity and pride, as if our accomplishments | 1:02:03 |
were of our sole creation. | 1:02:07 | |
Congregation | The Lord deliver us. | 1:02:09 |
- | From neglect of the opportunities | 1:02:11 |
which are all about us, and from distrust | 1:02:14 | |
of our ability to meet the duties of each dawning day. | 1:02:17 | |
Congregation | The Lord deliver us. | 1:02:21 |
Reverend | That the example of wise | 1:02:23 |
and generous people who have gone before us | 1:02:24 | |
and our families and here in this university | 1:02:27 | |
may save us from folly and self-indulgence. | 1:02:31 | |
Congregation | We ask for this, O God. | 1:02:35 |
- | More especially, that you would show us | 1:02:37 |
to your way of love in all that we do and say, | 1:02:40 | |
that we should come to love the Lord our God | 1:02:44 | |
with our soul and mind and strength | 1:02:46 | |
and our neighbor as ourselves. | 1:02:49 | |
Congregation | We ask it, O God. | 1:02:52 |
- | These things and whatever else you see | 1:02:55 |
needful and right for us, we ask in your holy name. | 1:02:57 | |
- | Amen. | 1:03:03 |
- | Amen. | |
(organ music) | 1:03:05 | |
♪ God of grace and God of glory ♪ | 1:03:50 | |
♪ On your people pour thy power ♪ | 1:03:56 | |
♪ Crown your ancient church's story ♪ | 1:04:03 | |
♪ Bring the bud to glorious flower ♪ | 1:04:09 | |
♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪ | 1:04:16 | |
♪ For the facing of this hour ♪ | 1:04:22 | |
♪ For the facing of this hour ♪ | 1:04:28 | |
♪ Lo the hosts of evil round us ♪ | 1:04:37 | |
♪ Scorn the Christ, assail his ways ♪ | 1:04:43 | |
♪ From the fears that long have bound us ♪ | 1:04:50 | |
♪ Free our hearts to faith and praise. ♪ | 1:04:57 | |
♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪ | 1:05:04 | |
♪ For the living of these days ♪ | 1:05:09 | |
♪ For the living of these days ♪ | 1:05:16 | |
♪ Cure your children's warring madness ♪ | 1:05:27 | |
♪ Bend our pride to your control ♪ | 1:05:31 | |
♪ Shame our wanton, selfish gladness ♪ | 1:05:38 | |
♪ Rich in things and poor in soul ♪ | 1:05:45 | |
♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪ | 1:05:52 | |
♪ Lest we miss your kingdom's goal ♪ | 1:05:58 | |
♪ Lest we miss your kingdom's goal ♪ | 1:06:05 | |
♪ Save us from weak resignation ♪ | 1:06:14 | |
♪ To the evils we deplore ♪ | 1:06:20 | |
♪ Let the gift of your salvation ♪ | 1:06:27 | |
♪ Be our glory evermore ♪ | 1:06:33 | |
♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪ | 1:06:40 | |
♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪ | 1:06:46 | |
♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪ | 1:06:53 | |
♪ Save us from weak resignation ♪ | 1:07:02 | |
♪ To the evils we deplore ♪ | 1:07:08 | |
♪ Let the gift of your salvation ♪ | 1:07:15 | |
♪ Be our glory evermore ♪ | 1:07:21 | |
♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪ | 1:07:28 | |
♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪ | 1:07:35 | |
♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪ | 1:07:41 | |
- | And now, class of 1987, may the peace of God | 1:07:53 |
go with you as you go forth and may the great love of God | 1:07:57 | |
be with you and remain with you now and always. | 1:08:01 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:08:08 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:08:19 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:08:29 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:08:37 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:08:56 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:09:09 | |
(organ music) | 1:09:31 |