William H. Willimon - "Advice" (September 6, 1987)
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Transcript
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(piano music) | 0:00 | |
- | Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord, | 0:35 |
Jesus Christ, we welcome you to this service of | 0:37 | |
worship at Duke University chapel on this 13th | 0:40 | |
Sunday after Pentecost which also happens to be the | 0:43 | |
opening Sunday for this new academic year. | 0:46 | |
We're always please and grateful to see many returning faces | 0:50 | |
coming back to school, and also glad to see many | 0:53 | |
new students, faculty, and staff. | 0:56 | |
We also recognize that many of you are visiting | 1:00 | |
campus for the first time, and if so, we wish you a | 1:02 | |
pleasant stay, and offer our assistance to you | 1:05 | |
here at the chapel, in any way that we may be of assistance. | 1:07 | |
We also extend greetings to our radio | 1:11 | |
and television audiences. | 1:13 | |
Our preacher for this morning is the | 1:16 | |
Reverend doctor William H. Willamen, | 1:17 | |
minister to the university. | 1:19 | |
Immediately following today's service, you are invited | 1:22 | |
to attend a coffee hour in the art gallery | 1:25 | |
beside Page Auditorium, sponsored by friends of the chapel. | 1:28 | |
`We look forward to making this a regular time of fellowship | 1:33 | |
after service each Sunday morning. | 1:35 | |
Please note the remaining announcements, | 1:39 | |
as they are printed in your bulletins. | 1:41 | |
And now let us continue our worship. | 1:44 | |
(choir singing) | 1:54 | |
(organ music) | 3:15 | |
(choir singing) | 4:05 | |
- | Lord of all power and might, | 9:09 |
the author and giver of all good things. | 9:12 | |
Graft in our hearts the love of your name. | 9:15 | |
Increase in us true religion. | 9:20 | |
Nourish us with all goodness. | 9:23 | |
And bring forth in us the fruit of good works. | 9:26 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives | 9:31 | |
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, | 9:34 | |
one God forever and ever, amen. | 9:37 | |
- | Let us pray. | 9:51 |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 9:54 | |
by the power of your Holy Spirit. | 9:56 | |
So that as the word is read and proclaimed | 9:59 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 10:02 | |
Amen. | 10:07 | |
The first lesson is taken from the book of Ezekiel. | 10:09 | |
The word of the Lord came to me. | 10:13 | |
Son of man speak to your people and say to them, | 10:16 | |
if I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land | 10:19 | |
take a man from among them and make him their watchman. | 10:24 | |
And if he sees the Lord coming upon the land | 10:29 | |
and blows the trumpet and warns the people, | 10:32 | |
then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet | 10:34 | |
does not take warning and the sword comes | 10:38 | |
and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. | 10:41 | |
He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning. | 10:46 | |
His blood shall be upon himself. | 10:51 | |
But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. | 10:54 | |
But if the watchman sees the sword coming | 10:58 | |
and does not blow the trumpet so that the people | 11:02 | |
are not warned and the sword comes and takes | 11:05 | |
anyone of them, that man is taken away in his iniquity. | 11:09 | |
But his blood, I will require at the watchman's hand. | 11:14 | |
So you, son of man, I have made a watchman | 11:19 | |
for the house of Israel. | 11:22 | |
Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, | 11:25 | |
you shall give them warning from me. | 11:27 | |
If I say to the wicked, oh wicked man, | 11:30 | |
you shall surly die and you do not speak | 11:33 | |
to warn the wicked to turn from his way, | 11:36 | |
that wicked man shall die in his iniquity. | 11:39 | |
But his blood I will require at your hand. | 11:43 | |
But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way | 11:47 | |
and he does not turn from his way, | 11:51 | |
he shall die in his iniquity | 11:54 | |
and you will have saved your life. | 11:56 | |
And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, | 11:59 | |
thus have you said. | 12:03 | |
Our transgressions and our sins are upon us | 12:05 | |
and we waste away because of them. | 12:09 | |
How can we live. | 12:11 | |
Say to them, as I live says the Lord God, | 12:13 | |
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. | 12:18 | |
But that the wicked turn from his way of life and live. | 12:21 | |
Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. | 12:26 | |
For why will you die, oh house of Israel. | 12:31 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 12:35 | |
(organ music) | 12:46 | |
(choir singing) | 12:59 | |
(organ music) | 17:45 | |
(choir singing) | 18:34 | |
- | In the first act of Hamlet, | 22:00 |
- | -that's Hamlet the play, not Hamlet the town | 22:05 |
in North Carolina-- | 22:07 | |
there's this scene where aging Polonius, | 22:10 | |
an old sentimental blow hard, | 22:13 | |
lectures his son Laertes. | 22:19 | |
Laertes is preparing to go on a journey to France | 22:25 | |
and perhaps remembering what sometimes happens | 22:28 | |
to 19 year olds in Paris, | 22:31 | |
Polonius does what fathers do so well. | 22:34 | |
He offers advice. | 22:36 | |
Most of what Polonius has to say to his son | 22:41 | |
is fairly innocuous. | 22:43 | |
In those days before the advent of dreaded | 22:44 | |
social diseases, there wasn't probably a lot | 22:47 | |
of parental advice to be given. | 22:50 | |
Such as always remember what Surgeon General Coop says. | 22:52 | |
But despite its vacuity, Polonius' speech | 22:57 | |
is a great favorite of Shakespeare lovers. | 23:00 | |
My high school English teacher read it to us | 23:05 | |
on the last day of class our senior year. | 23:08 | |
I even found its words written in large letters | 23:12 | |
in the cafeteria of the University of Indiana, | 23:15 | |
for students to meditate upon as they chewed breakfast. | 23:19 | |
Well as it turned out, Polonius' advice, | 23:23 | |
like a lot of advice that parents give their children, | 23:25 | |
does not bear up under much analysis. | 23:29 | |
Be thou familiar, he says, but by no means vulgar. | 23:33 | |
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. | 23:37 | |
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. | 23:40 | |
To thine own self be true and it must follow | 23:42 | |
as the night, the day thou cannot be fault to any man. | 23:45 | |
Now what is all that supposed to mean? | 23:51 | |
Laertes, like most 19 year olds politely stands | 23:54 | |
on one foot and then the other as his father | 23:58 | |
praddles on about neither a borrower | 24:01 | |
nor a lender be and as the night follows the day. | 24:03 | |
He's learned that parental advice doesn't usually harm, | 24:09 | |
as long as it's not taken seriously. | 24:14 | |
Can you imagine some of the things | 24:18 | |
your parents have told you, printed in large letters | 24:19 | |
over a university cafeteria? | 24:23 | |
Pick up your socks or you'll never get married. | 24:27 | |
Something like that. | 24:30 | |
No wonder that by the time most people reach your age | 24:33 | |
they have become fairly well inoculated to advice. | 24:35 | |
It's the self protected mechanism of the young | 24:39 | |
to protect them against the onslaughts | 24:42 | |
of the Poloniuses of the world. | 24:45 | |
Besides what could I tell you freshmen about college | 24:49 | |
that you don't already know. | 24:52 | |
You've already seen Rodney Dangerfield's movie. | 24:53 | |
You know what college is going to be like. | 24:55 | |
Generally, my advice to people your age is beware of advice. | 24:58 | |
And I say that not only because I found that that is | 25:03 | |
something with which you will agree, | 25:05 | |
but also because I've observed that bad advice | 25:08 | |
like don't sweat organic chemistry, | 25:12 | |
is always more popular than really good advice, | 25:16 | |
like worry about absolutely everything. | 25:19 | |
But I know that you don't come here on Sunday morning | 25:23 | |
for my advice. | 25:25 | |
But the question is will you sit for Paul's advice? | 25:29 | |
Here is Paul speaking to the church at Rome. | 25:33 | |
Let love be genuine. | 25:39 | |
Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. | 25:42 | |
Love one another. | 25:46 | |
Outdo one another in showing honor. | 25:48 | |
Never flag in zeal. | 25:50 | |
Be a glow with the spirit. | 25:51 | |
Serve the Lord. | 25:53 | |
Rejoice in your hope. | 25:53 | |
Be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer. | 25:55 | |
Contribute to the needs of the saints. | 25:58 | |
Practice hospitality. | 26:00 | |
Bless those who persecute you. | 26:03 | |
Bless and do not curse them. | 26:05 | |
Rejoice with those who rejoice. | 26:08 | |
Weep with those who weep. | 26:10 | |
Live in harmony with one another. | 26:12 | |
Don't be haughty, but associate with the lowly. | 26:13 | |
Never be conceited. | 26:17 | |
Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for | 26:19 | |
what is noble in the sight of all. | 26:23 | |
If possible, live peaceably with all. | 26:26 | |
Beloved, never avenge yourselves | 26:30 | |
but leave it to the wrath of God | 26:32 | |
for it is written, vengeance is mine. | 26:33 | |
I will repay, says the Lord. | 26:35 | |
No, if your enemy is hungry, you should feed him. | 26:38 | |
If he is thirsty, give him drink. | 26:41 | |
For by doing so you will heap burning coals | 26:43 | |
upon his head. | 26:46 | |
Do not be overcome by evil, but you overcome evil with good. | 26:47 | |
Owe no one anything except to love one another. | 26:52 | |
For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled | 26:56 | |
the law, the commandments. | 26:58 | |
You shall not commit adultery. | 27:01 | |
You shall not kill. | 27:02 | |
You shall not steal. | 27:03 | |
You shall not covet. | 27:04 | |
And any other commandment are summed up | 27:05 | |
in this one sentence. | 27:07 | |
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. | 27:09 | |
Now this all sounds like something your mother | 27:16 | |
might say to you, doesn't it? | 27:18 | |
Here is Saint Paul giving advice. | 27:20 | |
Don't do this, do that. | 27:23 | |
Don't do this. | 27:25 | |
And I dare say that for most people, | 27:28 | |
this is what they think religion is all about. | 27:30 | |
Don't do this, don't do that. | 27:34 | |
Advice. | 27:38 | |
Polonius giving advice to Laerties. | 27:41 | |
Saint Paul giving advice to the church at Rome. | 27:44 | |
Don't do this, don't do that. | 27:48 | |
Oh sure, for the first 11 chapters of his letter | 27:51 | |
to the Romans, Paul has preached grace, | 27:54 | |
he's talked about forgiveness. | 27:57 | |
About the unmerited, unrestrained love of God. | 27:59 | |
There is therefore now no condemnation for those | 28:03 | |
who are in Jesus Christ, Romans 8:1. | 28:06 | |
God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, | 28:10 | |
Christ died for us, 5:1. | 28:14 | |
God's love is for the righteous and for the | 28:18 | |
unrighteous Jew and Gentile because God shows no partiality, | 28:20 | |
Romans 2:1. | 28:25 | |
But at last Paul reveals his true colors. | 28:28 | |
Enough of this grace business. | 28:33 | |
Enough of this talk about acceptance | 28:34 | |
and forgiveness and love. | 28:36 | |
Now Paul at last gives us what he wanted to give us, advice. | 28:38 | |
Perhaps we think Paul said to himself, | 28:44 | |
I preached to them grace and acceptance and forgiveness. | 28:48 | |
I'm going to get a call from their mother tonight | 28:52 | |
saying, I send them over to the chapel. | 28:55 | |
What do they get? | 28:58 | |
They get talk of grace and forgiveness and accpetance. | 28:59 | |
They're gonna be running naked in the streets by tonight. | 29:03 | |
You do what preachers are supposed to do. | 29:06 | |
You tell them what God wants them to do. | 29:08 | |
You tell them what to do and what not to do. | 29:10 | |
Tell them what Surgeon General Coop says, you tell them. | 29:12 | |
But in preparing my advice for you today, | 29:18 | |
I made an interesting discovery. | 29:22 | |
My bible has Paul begin this section by saying, | 29:27 | |
"Let love be genuine." | 29:32 | |
But that isn't what Paul says in the original. | 29:36 | |
In the Greek, the opening verb is in the | 29:39 | |
indicative mood, not in the imperative. | 29:46 | |
In spite of the tone, Paul is not saying | 29:51 | |
let love be genuine. | 29:53 | |
Hold fast to what is good, hate what is evil. | 29:55 | |
Don't be conformed. | 29:56 | |
But in the Greek the opening verb is in the indicative. | 29:58 | |
It is, "Love is genuine." | 30:01 | |
It holds fast to what is good. | 30:04 | |
The verb is in the indicative, not in the imperative. | 30:10 | |
For 11 chapters of his letter to the Romans, | 30:17 | |
Paul has been using every means at his disposal. | 30:20 | |
Hymn and poem and argument and reason | 30:24 | |
to try to tell the Romans who they are. | 30:27 | |
He spends 11 chapters doing that | 30:32 | |
so he can have this one little chapter here | 30:34 | |
to tell them what they ought to do. | 30:36 | |
You are the first witnesses of a brand new age. | 30:41 | |
You are the first citizens of a totally new kingdom. | 30:44 | |
Then at the beginning of chapter 12 | 30:50 | |
comes that little Greek word, oun, | 30:52 | |
which is translated therefore. | 30:55 | |
And whenever you see therefore in one of Paul's letters | 30:57 | |
it's a tip off that you're going to shift gears | 31:00 | |
and now move into the implications | 31:03 | |
of what has gone before. | 31:05 | |
Therefore, he says, do not be conformed to this world. | 31:07 | |
You're part of a new world. | 31:12 | |
Therefore serve the Lord because the Lord has served you. | 31:15 | |
Therefore bless those who persecute you | 31:19 | |
just like the Lord blessed you even when you crucified him. | 31:22 | |
Therefore practice hospitality, | 31:28 | |
remembering how you were once a stranger | 31:31 | |
and you were received by the Lord. | 31:33 | |
See what Paul is doing here? | 31:38 | |
This is ethics. | 31:41 | |
But it's not ethics like we usually do ethics. | 31:44 | |
For here is an ethic based, not upon some moralizing | 31:48 | |
list of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts, | 31:52 | |
but an ethic based | 31:58 | |
upon who we really are | 32:02 | |
and God means us to be. | 32:05 | |
You see, there are two ways I think to go about | 32:10 | |
this matter of ethics. | 32:12 | |
One way is for the mother to sit the daughter down | 32:15 | |
on the edge of the bed and to say to her, | 32:17 | |
now you're getting ready to go off to college | 32:21 | |
and Duke is a big, strange, threatening place. | 32:23 | |
And we want you to go down there and do right. | 32:26 | |
We're spending a lot of money on you, | 32:28 | |
don't you disappoint us. | 32:30 | |
You go down there, you hit those books | 32:31 | |
and you study hard and don't you let us come down there | 32:33 | |
and find that you're not doing what you should be doing. | 32:35 | |
Another way is for the mother to sit the daughter | 32:41 | |
down on the side of the bed and to tell her | 32:45 | |
how proud she is of her. | 32:48 | |
That she is a person of gifts and strengths, | 32:52 | |
and she is so excited for this great | 32:57 | |
new experience for her. | 32:59 | |
Be who you are. | 33:04 | |
A parent stands at the door, bidding the child goodbye. | 33:09 | |
And the final benediction is, | 33:14 | |
now you remember, you get out there | 33:18 | |
and you act like somebody. | 33:19 | |
My sister says that she remembers as my mother | 33:22 | |
was bidding her farewell on a Saturday night | 33:24 | |
for some night of adventure, her words to her were, | 33:27 | |
remember now, you are somebody. | 33:31 | |
And I think with all of our bumbling parental advice | 33:39 | |
that's what we're trying to say to you. | 33:46 | |
That's what we want to say to you. | 33:50 | |
You're somebody, live like it. | 33:55 | |
At least I'm confident that that is what | 34:01 | |
Paul is saying here in his letter to the Romans. | 34:03 | |
Don't be conformed, he says to them, | 34:08 | |
because you don't need to be. | 34:11 | |
You're special. | 34:13 | |
You are somebody. | 34:16 | |
So many times we think of ethics as this | 34:19 | |
heroic attempt to answer what ought I to do. | 34:21 | |
What ought I to do in the matter of abortion | 34:26 | |
or sexual behavior or cheating or truthfulness. | 34:29 | |
What ought I to do? | 34:33 | |
But how in the world can you answer that question | 34:36 | |
without the prior question of who are you? | 34:39 | |
Who do you hope to be? | 34:43 | |
That's the prior and much more basic question. | 34:47 | |
In other words, in Christian ethics, | 34:52 | |
the indicative always precedes the imperative. | 34:54 | |
"You are" always precedes, "You ought." | 35:01 | |
Paul is expended 11 chapters in his letter to the Romans, | 35:10 | |
telling them who they are so now he can turn | 35:14 | |
to what they ought to do. | 35:19 | |
Love is genuine and it hates what is evil, | 35:22 | |
it holds fast to what is good. | 35:25 | |
It blesses those who persecute it, | 35:26 | |
doesn't repay evil with evil. | 35:28 | |
You are God's beloved, therefore... | 35:31 | |
I think the most ethically significant thing I could do | 35:37 | |
for you today | 35:40 | |
is not to give you a bunch of advice | 35:44 | |
on what you ought to do. | 35:47 | |
But the most ethically significant thing | 35:49 | |
I can do for you is simply to remind you of who you are. | 35:51 | |
And I bet that's the reason you came here | 35:56 | |
this morning anyway, even if you didn't know | 35:57 | |
that was the reason. | 36:00 | |
You have come here to remind yourself | 36:00 | |
of who you are, | 36:05 | |
because it is so easy to forget. | 36:09 | |
I remember my brief stay at Fort Bragg | 36:16 | |
during Army Boot Camp. | 36:21 | |
Not one of the more uplifting experiences of my life. | 36:23 | |
Prejudiced me against Fayetteville for the rest of my life. | 36:26 | |
But I remember the first day was one of the worst, | 36:30 | |
with hair cuts and meeting your sergeant | 36:35 | |
and running from here to there. | 36:38 | |
And finally the day ended and the lights were out | 36:40 | |
in the barracks and everybody was in the bunk. | 36:44 | |
And when all was silent you could hear somebody speaking, | 36:49 | |
somebody talking. | 36:52 | |
I'll always remember him, his name was Sweat. | 36:55 | |
That was his name, Sweat. | 36:57 | |
He was from the University of Tennessee, | 36:58 | |
ran track for them, I think. | 37:00 | |
He was saying his prayers. | 37:03 | |
Down beside his bunk, saying his prayers. | 37:06 | |
You can imagine how this display of piety | 37:08 | |
was greeted by his bunk mates. | 37:11 | |
What's the matter, Sweat? | 37:13 | |
You want your momma? | 37:14 | |
Look at Sweat, what's he doing? | 37:15 | |
And other things. | 37:17 | |
He kept right on praying. | 37:19 | |
When he got through, crawled back in his bunk, | 37:21 | |
rolled over, went to sleep. | 37:24 | |
Next night, lights out, there he was again. | 37:26 | |
Praying beside his bunk. | 37:29 | |
There were whistles and catcalls and comments, | 37:31 | |
but not as many. | 37:34 | |
Third night, there he was again. | 37:36 | |
This time only one person said anything. | 37:39 | |
And the night after that, when he knelt down | 37:43 | |
beside his bunk, nobody said anything. | 37:46 | |
But way over at the back when he got through | 37:51 | |
I heard somebody else say, amen. | 37:53 | |
Now I don't know what good that such | 37:59 | |
displays of piety do. | 38:04 | |
But I can testify to that the effect of all that, | 38:08 | |
we wouldn't have gotten down there with him. | 38:12 | |
No, we were too busy trying to fit in, | 38:14 | |
to go with the program, to do what was expected. | 38:16 | |
We all wanted to be good soldiers. | 38:19 | |
To do what we were told, to conform. | 38:21 | |
But at the end of the camp, we all elected Sweat | 38:27 | |
the best cadet in our platoon. | 38:33 | |
He really wasn't that good a soldier, | 38:36 | |
but he was the kind of person we wish we were. | 38:39 | |
Oh when we went off our parents didn't say something | 38:44 | |
to us like you need to fit in and you need to do | 38:47 | |
what the sergeant says and you do what's expected of you. | 38:49 | |
Parents don't have to tell you that. | 38:51 | |
No parent has to tell you to go with the flow, | 38:54 | |
to fit in with the crowd, to go along with everybody else. | 38:57 | |
We're born that way. | 39:00 | |
We're all born conformists. | 39:03 | |
He was to his own self true. | 39:08 | |
Well parents can be so loose with advice | 39:18 | |
because, on the whole, you don't take it anyway. | 39:21 | |
But every then and now you get some good advice, | 39:27 | |
and you listen. | 39:32 | |
And then I can tell you that that's | 39:35 | |
when parents really get nervous, | 39:36 | |
because then you wonder, gee, was I giving good advice | 39:38 | |
or was I just talking? | 39:41 | |
I can tell you as a preacher if there's one thing worse | 39:43 | |
than people not listening to a sermon is when they listen. | 39:45 | |
You meet them next Tuesday and they say, | 39:51 | |
you know that sermon, it just changed my life. | 39:52 | |
I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that | 39:55 | |
and then I find myself saying, now wait a minute. | 39:57 | |
I was just preaching. | 39:59 | |
It's when they listen. | 40:03 | |
And those are the ones you have to worry about. | 40:07 | |
A young man was telling me this summer about | 40:11 | |
his experiences in the church. | 40:12 | |
He, like Sweat, grew up in a little Baptist church | 40:14 | |
somewhere in Tennessee. | 40:17 | |
A fundamentalist church where they took the bible seriously, | 40:19 | |
they took it literally. | 40:23 | |
He grew up in this fundamentalist church. | 40:25 | |
They told him that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, | 40:28 | |
he believed it. | 40:31 | |
They told him that Moses held back the Red Sea. | 40:33 | |
He believed it. | 40:36 | |
Then when he was 18 or 19 he was off at college, | 40:39 | |
he got a letter from the president | 40:42 | |
asking him to register for the draft. | 40:44 | |
And he said he sat down and wrote a very polite letter | 40:48 | |
back to President Carter thanking him for his letter, | 40:50 | |
but saying that he would probably understand | 40:52 | |
that, as a Christian, he couldn't do this. | 40:56 | |
That Jesus had told him to turn the other cheek | 41:00 | |
and Jesus had told him not to take up the sword. | 41:02 | |
That Jesus had shown him how to die rather than to kill. | 41:06 | |
When word of his letter got back to that little church, | 41:13 | |
they kicked him out. | 41:17 | |
And he said to them, | 41:22 | |
where do you think I got all this stuff? | 41:24 | |
You're the ones that made me memorize the bible | 41:27 | |
back in third grade Sunday school class. | 41:30 | |
You taught me this stuff. | 41:31 | |
Didn't you tell me to take it seriously? | 41:34 | |
Who do you think I am? | 41:39 | |
Amen. | 41:44 | |
- | I invite you to join me in the litany for this year | 41:56 |
in the university. | 41:58 | |
Will you please rise. | 41:59 | |
God of Abraham and Isaac, of apostles and prophets | 42:05 | |
in every age you call people to work for you. | 42:09 | |
Showing justice, doing mercy, giving purpose | 42:12 | |
to a nameless humanity. | 42:16 | |
By your truth darkness is dispelled | 42:18 | |
and all people set free to mature in wisdom. | 42:21 | |
In pursuit of that truth, we now take our place | 42:25 | |
at Duke University. | 42:28 | |
Receive us unto yourself, oh God, use us | 42:30 | |
to accomplish your sacred intention. | 42:34 | |
Congregation | Amen. | 42:36 |
- | That in this place we will remember those parents, | 42:39 |
teachers, and friends who love us | 42:42 | |
and whose hopes follow you us here. | 42:45 | |
(congregation speaking) | 42:48 | |
That we may accept the responsibility of our freedom | 42:51 | |
and the burden of our privilege. | 42:54 | |
(congregation speaking) | 42:56 | |
That with courage we may doubt, | 42:59 | |
but that we will also place our doubts | 43:01 | |
in the larger faith of Jesus Christ. | 43:03 | |
(congregation speaking) | 43:06 | |
From insulating ourselves with books and words. | 43:09 | |
(congregation speaking) | 43:12 | |
From ignorance that feeds injustice. | 43:15 | |
From indifference that yields to cruelty. | 43:17 | |
And from blind loyalty to false values. | 43:20 | |
(congregation speaking) | 43:24 | |
From hopelessness that cripples us, | 43:26 | |
a self consciousness that paralyzes us | 43:28 | |
and from temptations that destroy us. | 43:31 | |
(congregation speaking) | 43:34 | |
Gracious God, in world where justice does not yet | 43:36 | |
roll down as waters, nor righteousness as a mighty stream, | 43:40 | |
where there is much knowledge but little wisdom, | 43:45 | |
we pray for this school, its students and faculty, | 43:48 | |
staff and administrators and for the task | 43:52 | |
in which we now unite. | 43:55 | |
Turn our efforts to good, that as our understanding | 43:58 | |
increases, our responsibility will deepen. | 44:01 | |
For the sake of the future that you give us to create. | 44:05 | |
(congregation speaking) | 44:09 | |
You may now be seated. | 44:12 | |
- | Now in the spirit of thanksgiving for the mercy | 44:22 |
of the Lord, let us offer our gifts and ourselves unto God. | 44:24 | |
(soft organ music) | 44:31 | |
(choir singing) | 49:05 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 51:49 | |
(choir singing) | 51:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 52:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 52:13 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:20 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 52:28 | |
Oh eternal God, creator of all that was | 52:39 | |
and is and is to come, diverse that we are | 52:42 | |
in age and outlook, we are one in our desire | 52:47 | |
to voice our gratitude unto thee. | 52:50 | |
We thank thee for our time and place in history | 52:53 | |
for a past which has nurtured us | 52:56 | |
and for a future which challenges us. | 52:59 | |
For friends and loved one who mediate thy loving care to us. | 53:02 | |
And for new truths which are revealed to us | 53:06 | |
through the church. | 53:09 | |
All they works praise thee and in that chorus | 53:10 | |
we gratefully join. | 53:13 | |
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ | 53:15 | |
who taught us to pray with confidence | 53:18 | |
our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name | 53:21 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 53:25 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 53:28 | |
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us | 53:30 | |
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 53:34 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 53:39 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, | 53:44 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 53:46 | |
(organ music) | 53:52 | |
(choir singing) | 54:27 | |
And now go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 57:50 | |
Hold fast to that which is good, | 57:54 | |
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. | 57:56 | |
And may the blessing of God, creator, Christ, | 57:59 | |
and Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore. | 58:03 | |
Amen. | 58:08 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:11 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:17 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:27 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:41 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:52 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 59:04 | |
(organ music) | 59:26 |