WEBVTT
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(organ music)
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(choral singing)
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(organ music)
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I greet you this morning in the name and spirit
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of Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Surely this is none other than the house of the Lord
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where we gather to worship God,
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to have fellowship with one another,
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and to hear anew of the goodness of the Lord
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through the words sung and proclaimed on this holy day.
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Let us now, having sung praise to God,
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confess our sin in the company of one another
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and before the presence of our gracious God.
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Let us pray.
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Almighty and most merciful Father,
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we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep.
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We have followed too much the devices and the desires
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of our own hearts.
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We have offended against thy holy laws.
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We have left undone those things
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which we ought to have done.
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And we have done those things
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which we ought not to have done.
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But thou oh Lord have mercy upon us.
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Spare thou those oh God who confess their faults.
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Restore thou those who are penitent
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according to thy promises declared unto mankind
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in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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And grant oh most merciful Father, for his sake,
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that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous,
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and sober life to the glory of thy holy name.
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Amen.
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(soft organ music)
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No other foundation can anyone lay
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than that which is laid,
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which is Christ Jesus our Lord.
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The Christ who says come unto me
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all ye who labor and are heavy laden.
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And then gives us this promise.
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I will give you rest.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, as we have confessed our sins,
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I declare your sins forgiven.
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May you this day find rest for your souls.
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Let us give thanks for God is good,
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and God's love is everlasting.
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(congregation recites prayer)
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Amen
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May I welcome you to Duke Chapel
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on this cold, wintry February morning.
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A day and a time when indeed it is good
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to come into the house of the Lord.
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And May God's spirit touch your spirit
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and meet some very special personal need
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which is yours on this day.
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We welcome you in the name and spirit of Christ
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to this place and to this glorious service of worship.
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Immediately following this service,
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at approximately 12:05, we will observe our first Sunday
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of the month communion service
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in the memorial chapel to your left.
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If you care to share in the blessed sacrament
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of our Lord's supper with us,
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we invite you to remain for that brief, liturgical service
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at that time.
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On the back of the bulletin today,
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you will find a listing
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of many agencies and causes
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to which the offerings of Duke Chapel are given.
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I don't know how you feel,
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but it is reassuring to me
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to think about the extensive and extended ministry
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which takes place through the gifts
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of those of us who are privileged to worship in this chapel.
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You may want to take a moment
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either now or after the service
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and look over the list of those places,
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those causes, to which our offerings go.
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There are many persons of need
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and with special concerns
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who benefit from the gifts which we give to God
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in this place.
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I invite you to look over that list,
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and I invite you also to remember it
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when the time of giving our offering comes.
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One of the real delights that those of us
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who are in the Duke community have had thus far this year
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has been that of having Bishop and Mrs. Kenneth Goodson
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back at Duke with us.
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Bishop Goodson retired from active service
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in the episcopacy in July of last year
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and became officially bishop in residence
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on the faculty and staff of the divinity school
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here at Duke.
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I have heard nothing but words of praise and commendation
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about his presence and his ministry
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among the students, the faculty, and the staff
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in the divinity school since he has been here.
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Indeed about his ministry
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in the entire university community.
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Bishop Goodson is one who is known as a man
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who loves the church, who loves the ministry,
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whose life has been totally and completely committed
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to Christ and to ministry
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in the name and spirit of Christ.
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As a matter of fact, he's a man who is known by his loves.
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His love for North Carolina and the people
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with whom he grew up
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and the people whom he has not forgotten
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but still loves very much, his family,
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and those near and dear to him here.
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His love for the church.
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His love for the ministry and for all young men and women
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who commit their lives to ministry.
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His love of Duke University.
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He has served on the Board of Trustees here
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for a number of years,
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and is now a member of the Board of Trustees
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through the Duke Endowment.
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He is known as a gifted and effective preacher,
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having preached before congregations and churches
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throughout this country.
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And at one point, having served an extended period of time
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as a preacher on the Protestant Hour.
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Ken, we're delighted to have you and Martha back at Duke.
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And this morning, we look forward to the word of God,
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which you, by the grace of God, will bring to us.
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Welcome, and blessings on you.
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Let us pray.
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Heavenly father, we thank you this morning
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for the privilege and the joy
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of coming before you in prayer.
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Father, we ask that for us each one of us
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personally this morning, that would fulfill your promise
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that you gave in Isaiah 55,
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that so shall it be that when your word goes forth,
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it shall not return to you void or empty.
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But it shall accomplish the purpose for which you sent it
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and succeed in the manner in the matter
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for which you sent it.
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Father, we ask this morning that
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the word would impact our hearts,
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it would not return empty,
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but would accomplish the purpose in our lives
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for which you sent it.
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We would ask, heavenly father, that we would,
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through the service and through your word,
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come to know you and not just merely know things about you.
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And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.
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The epistle lesson is from I Corinthians chapter 13,
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a very beautiful passage called the love passage.
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If I speak in tongues of men and of angels
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but have not love,
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I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
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And if I have prophetic powers,
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and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
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and if I have all faith
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so as to remove mountains, but have not love,
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I am nothing.
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If I give away all that I have,
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and if I deliver my body to be burned,
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but have not love, I gain nothing.
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Love is patient and kind.
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Love is not jealous or boastful.
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It is not arrogant or rude.
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Love does not insist on its own way.
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It is not irritable or resentful.
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It does not rejoice at wrong things,
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but rejoices in the right.
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Love bears all things, believes all things,
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hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love never ends.
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As for prophecies, they will pass away.
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As for tongues, they will cease.
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As for knowledge, it will pass away.
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For our knowledge is imperfect,
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and prophecy is imperfect.
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But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
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When I was a child, I spoke as a child.
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I thought like a child.
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I reasoned like a child.
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When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
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For now we see as in a mirror dimly,
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but then face to face, now I know in part,
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then I shall understand fully,
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even as I have been fully understood.
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So faith, hope, and love abide.
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These three, but the greatest of these is love.
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Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson.
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Amen.
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(organ music)
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(choral singing)
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Will the congregation please stand
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for the reading of the gospel lesson.
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Gospel lesson this morning is from Luke chapter 2.
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And when they had performed everything
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according to the law of the Lord,
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they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth,
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and the child grew and became strong,
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filled with wisdom,
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and the fave of God was upon him.
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Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year
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at the feast of the passover,
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and when he was 12 years old,
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they went up according to custom.
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And when the feast was ended, as they were returning,
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the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.
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His parents did not know it,
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but supposing him to be in the company,
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they went a day's journey.
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And they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances.
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And when they did not find him,
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they returned to Jerusalem seeking him.
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After three days, they found him in the temple,
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sitting among the teachers, listening to them,
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and asking them questions.
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And all who heard him were amazed
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at his understanding and his answers.
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And when they saw him, they were astonished.
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And his mother said to him,
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"Son, why have you treated us so?
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Your father and I have been looking for you anxiously."
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And he said to them, "How was it that you sought me?
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Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?"
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And they did not understand
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the saying which he spoke to them.
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And he went down with them and came to Nazareth
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and was obedient to them,
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and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
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And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature
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and in favor with God and man.
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(organ music)
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(choral singing)
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As I have said once before
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when I stood in this place at commencement time,
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and if you have ever been a student at Duke University
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for an hour, the chapel stands alone as a building
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unlike any other building,
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in all of America.
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If there's an unquestioned honor and
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a frightening experience to be asked
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to stand and preach from a pulpit
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in front of which you so long sat
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and listened to others speak.
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And I do it with an unusual joy
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but with a kind of a frightening joy,
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for I know where I am
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and what at this moment I am supposed to be doing.
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My comfort, I guess, if there is any at this moment
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is to see in the congregation
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members of the student body of the divinity school
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who have informed me that
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they all know how to do it better than I do,
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but they have come to help me get through this hour.
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Their presence is greatly appreciated.
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In addition to that, there are new friends now
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who belong to the faculty
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who scattered in among you
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to bring me rescue whenever I needed.
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It is,
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It is more than I deserve to have them here,
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but it is not more than I need.
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I am grateful to these kind and warm words of Bob Young's.
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We have been friends over the whole course of his ministry
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and over much of mine, but all of his.
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And I count it a great honor to be given
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one of the Sundays out of a schedule
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that actually belongs to him.
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There is an unusual relationship in my life
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to Duke University.
270
00:34:37.053 --> 00:34:39.277
When were living in the city of Charlotte,
271
00:34:39.277 --> 00:34:42.777
and I was serving in its first church.
272
00:34:42.777 --> 00:34:45.230
The sexton of our church happened to be a very close
273
00:34:45.230 --> 00:34:47.702
and a very dear friend.
274
00:34:47.702 --> 00:34:50.170
And one day when he was doing over my office,
275
00:34:50.170 --> 00:34:52.910
a stranger came in to see me,
276
00:34:52.910 --> 00:34:56.701
and Monroe McGriff told him that I was not there.
277
00:34:56.701 --> 00:34:58.057
He said he needed to come back and see me,
278
00:34:58.057 --> 00:35:00.300
and he wondered what kind of a man I was.
279
00:35:00.300 --> 00:35:03.486
And the sexton proceeded to tell him.
280
00:35:03.486 --> 00:35:05.430
And he said, well could you condense it?
281
00:35:05.430 --> 00:35:06.760
What does he believe in?
282
00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:10.537
And Monroe told him, he believes in three things.
283
00:35:10.537 --> 00:35:12.356
The Duke Blue Devils, the New York Yankees,
284
00:35:12.356 --> 00:35:14.216
and the Methodist church.
285
00:35:14.216 --> 00:35:15.638
(audience laughter)
286
00:35:15.638 --> 00:35:17.293
And the embarrassing part about it all was
287
00:35:17.293 --> 00:35:19.198
that he put it in that order.
288
00:35:19.198 --> 00:35:21.970
(audience laughter)
289
00:35:21.970 --> 00:35:23.640
But within or without that order,
290
00:35:23.640 --> 00:35:25.450
I come to you with great joy.
291
00:35:25.450 --> 00:35:29.025
Would you bow your heads for a moment?
292
00:35:29.025 --> 00:35:32.360
It is a quiet time.
293
00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:34.302
And though a human voice will be speaking,
294
00:35:34.302 --> 00:35:39.302
let a voice far beyond the human be heard.
295
00:35:39.390 --> 00:35:40.840
Let the words of our mouths
296
00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:44.270
and the meditations of our hearts
297
00:35:44.270 --> 00:35:47.887
may be acceptable, dear God,
298
00:35:47.887 --> 00:35:49.820
in your sight.
299
00:35:49.820 --> 00:35:51.907
Amen.
300
00:35:51.907 --> 00:35:54.890
On a sabbath day on the year 1847,
301
00:35:54.890 --> 00:35:58.165
a man with a name of Henry Francis Lyte
302
00:35:58.165 --> 00:36:02.448
preached the final sermon in the wee church of Scotland,
303
00:36:02.448 --> 00:36:03.650
and said goodbye to his parishioners.
304
00:36:03.650 --> 00:36:06.360
He had been their minister for more than 50 years,
305
00:36:06.360 --> 00:36:08.337
and the doctor had told him that his health was collapsing
306
00:36:08.337 --> 00:36:11.390
and that he needed to go away to the French Riviera,
307
00:36:11.390 --> 00:36:14.222
and there in the sunshine and the salt air,
308
00:36:14.222 --> 00:36:17.690
he may be able to regain his health.
309
00:36:17.690 --> 00:36:19.150
The congregation stood there
310
00:36:19.150 --> 00:36:20.627
and looked at him after the service
311
00:36:20.627 --> 00:36:21.950
and the communion was over
312
00:36:21.950 --> 00:36:25.890
and watched him as he made his way down across the garden
313
00:36:25.890 --> 00:36:27.340
and down to the edge of the lake
314
00:36:27.340 --> 00:36:30.683
that was to take him out to the open sea.
315
00:36:30.683 --> 00:36:31.820
They stood there and watched him
316
00:36:31.820 --> 00:36:33.210
as he went away in a little boat,
317
00:36:33.210 --> 00:36:35.730
and as long as they could see the white handkerchief
318
00:36:35.730 --> 00:36:38.370
of Henry Lyte waving from the boat,
319
00:36:38.370 --> 00:36:40.240
and as long as they could wave their own,
320
00:36:40.240 --> 00:36:44.458
they were saying mutual goodbyes to each other.
321
00:36:44.458 --> 00:36:47.410
When it was done, they turned and walked away again,
322
00:36:47.410 --> 00:36:49.660
never knowing whether or not they would ever
323
00:36:49.660 --> 00:36:52.738
see their minister again.
324
00:36:52.738 --> 00:36:55.969
The first night on the way to the French Riviera,
325
00:36:55.969 --> 00:36:59.129
the ship stopped on the northern coast of France,
326
00:36:59.129 --> 00:37:00.397
and the tourists decided
327
00:37:00.397 --> 00:37:02.420
they would like to put up for a couple days,
328
00:37:02.420 --> 00:37:03.820
and do a bit of looking around
329
00:37:03.820 --> 00:37:05.240
on the northern coast of France,
330
00:37:05.240 --> 00:37:07.788
which they proceeded to do.
331
00:37:07.788 --> 00:37:09.700
When they came down for breakfast
332
00:37:09.700 --> 00:37:11.880
on the morning of the second day,
333
00:37:11.880 --> 00:37:15.230
everybody answered to the roll call and formally made
334
00:37:15.230 --> 00:37:18.656
except Henry Francis Lyte.
335
00:37:18.656 --> 00:37:20.383
They didn't really know where he was or what he was doing,
336
00:37:20.383 --> 00:37:23.400
they only knew he was late and he didn't come for breakfast.
337
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:24.850
And they waited for a little while,
338
00:37:24.850 --> 00:37:26.120
and Dr. Lyte didn't come.
339
00:37:26.120 --> 00:37:28.537
And finally they sent someone up to his room,
340
00:37:28.537 --> 00:37:30.982
who knocked lustily at the door,
341
00:37:30.982 --> 00:37:33.850
and there came no response.
342
00:37:33.850 --> 00:37:35.820
The innkeeper was immediately summoned,
343
00:37:35.820 --> 00:37:37.860
and they went upstairs again and knocked at the door
344
00:37:37.860 --> 00:37:39.320
and no response.
345
00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:41.000
The innkeeper took his key, of course,
346
00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:43.160
that he had, unlocked the door, and walked in,
347
00:37:43.160 --> 00:37:46.090
and there lying across the bed dead was the body
348
00:37:46.090 --> 00:37:49.415
of Henry Francis Lyte.
349
00:37:49.415 --> 00:37:52.430
In his hand was the last bit of verse that he ever wrote
350
00:37:52.430 --> 00:37:55.140
for a hymn, and it's in our hymn book today.
351
00:37:55.140 --> 00:37:57.170
We don't use it anymore
352
00:37:57.170 --> 00:38:00.620
for we rather delegated it to be used
353
00:38:00.620 --> 00:38:03.966
only at funeral times.
354
00:38:03.966 --> 00:38:05.360
And it really wasn't for that reason
355
00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:06.270
that he wrote it at all.
356
00:38:06.270 --> 00:38:09.380
He wrote it as an unusual affirmation of his own soul
357
00:38:09.380 --> 00:38:10.990
and of his own life,
358
00:38:10.990 --> 00:38:13.300
but when they took it out of his hand, there it was.
359
00:38:13.300 --> 00:38:16.660
It's a beautiful thing that every church knows of course,
360
00:38:16.660 --> 00:38:18.140
Abide With Me.
361
00:38:18.140 --> 00:38:20.880
Fast falls the even time.
362
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:24.367
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide.
363
00:38:24.367 --> 00:38:27.761
If you'll remember that lovely old hymn, Abide With Me,
364
00:38:27.761 --> 00:38:29.175
you will remember that
365
00:38:29.175 --> 00:38:31.897
in the second or the third stanza of it
366
00:38:31.897 --> 00:38:33.579
there is a line that says,
367
00:38:33.579 --> 00:38:36.595
"Change and decay,
368
00:38:36.595 --> 00:38:40.695
"and all around I see."
369
00:38:40.695 --> 00:38:42.200
Every now and again I have a feeling
370
00:38:42.200 --> 00:38:45.800
that these words might be written over every generation
371
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:46.960
in human history.
372
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:50.200
Change and decay and all around I see.
373
00:38:50.200 --> 00:38:52.060
There are a good many people in the world today
374
00:38:52.060 --> 00:38:55.050
who would say you can write that underneath the lines
375
00:38:55.050 --> 00:38:57.610
of the 20th century and that would serve
376
00:38:57.610 --> 00:39:01.083
to categorize all of us.
377
00:39:01.083 --> 00:39:03.174
I don't know how it has been with you lately,
378
00:39:03.174 --> 00:39:07.400
but the last months have been unusually difficult for me.
379
00:39:07.400 --> 00:39:10.510
I really don't know how to handle the world
380
00:39:10.510 --> 00:39:14.243
in which I find myself living.
381
00:39:14.243 --> 00:39:17.068
I've celebrated in this building this week
382
00:39:17.068 --> 00:39:18.950
and in other buildings across Durham.
383
00:39:18.950 --> 00:39:21.360
And while our fellow citizens have been
384
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:22.980
doing it across the world,
385
00:39:22.980 --> 00:39:25.160
with the release of the hostages
386
00:39:25.160 --> 00:39:28.350
and my own prayer for welcome of them home.
387
00:39:28.350 --> 00:39:30.750
But I do not understand the kind of a world
388
00:39:30.750 --> 00:39:33.629
in which that could happen.
389
00:39:33.629 --> 00:39:36.750
I do not understand the collapse of international law.
390
00:39:36.750 --> 00:39:38.570
I do not understand the breakdown
391
00:39:38.570 --> 00:39:41.840
of every accepted form of international behavior
392
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:45.240
to which all civilized nations have agreed.
393
00:39:45.240 --> 00:39:48.198
I do not understand.
394
00:39:48.198 --> 00:39:50.490
I read with an unusual interest in the paper
395
00:39:50.490 --> 00:39:52.420
in the financial section
396
00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:54.707
where most ministers are total strangers,
397
00:39:54.707 --> 00:39:56.450
and I being one of them,
398
00:39:56.450 --> 00:39:57.950
that the prime rate is going down,
399
00:39:57.950 --> 00:40:00.490
and I'm unusually glad that it's going down.
400
00:40:00.490 --> 00:40:02.738
But they tell me it's good for the life of the country,
401
00:40:02.738 --> 00:40:07.649
but I do not understand why it is so high.
402
00:40:07.649 --> 00:40:09.740
I live in a world of which I am having
403
00:40:09.740 --> 00:40:13.550
an unusually large bit of difficulty overcoming.
404
00:40:13.550 --> 00:40:17.680
I do not understand high prime interest rates.
405
00:40:17.680 --> 00:40:21.030
I do not understand inflation.
406
00:40:21.030 --> 00:40:24.211
We not only have our house in Durham,
407
00:40:24.211 --> 00:40:26.898
but we also own a house in Richmond,
408
00:40:26.898 --> 00:40:31.898
and once every month I am reminded of the unusual cost
409
00:40:32.326 --> 00:40:34.340
and I do not understand what's happening.
410
00:40:34.340 --> 00:40:36.400
I do not understand what's going on.
411
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:39.420
I feel a bit every now and again like the young boy
412
00:40:39.420 --> 00:40:42.570
in AA Milney's poem. Do you remember it?
413
00:40:42.570 --> 00:40:44.960
"I think I am a muffin man,
414
00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:46.190
"but I haven't got a bell.
415
00:40:46.190 --> 00:40:50.910
"I haven't got the muffin things that muffin people sell.
416
00:40:50.910 --> 00:40:55.870
"Perhaps I am a postman or I think I am a train.
417
00:40:55.870 --> 00:40:59.440
"I'm feeling rather funny and I don't know what I am,
418
00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:01.473
"but round about and round about,
419
00:41:01.473 --> 00:41:05.727
"and round about I go."
420
00:41:05.727 --> 00:41:06.640
I don't know how it is with you.
421
00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:08.007
I only know it with me,
422
00:41:08.007 --> 00:41:10.808
it's been an unusually difficult time.
423
00:41:10.808 --> 00:41:12.180
And when Henry Lyte says
424
00:41:12.180 --> 00:41:15.250
change and decay in all around I see,
425
00:41:15.250 --> 00:41:20.110
I cannot really accept it, but I am tempted
426
00:41:20.110 --> 00:41:21.534
living in a world of change,
427
00:41:21.534 --> 00:41:23.870
that if there isn't any longer any room
428
00:41:23.870 --> 00:41:25.460
to dispute that.
429
00:41:25.460 --> 00:41:28.460
Not long ago in a class where I was a poet,
430
00:41:28.460 --> 00:41:30.250
one of the young people in the class asked me
431
00:41:30.250 --> 00:41:34.718
what I thought was the largest single happening
432
00:41:34.718 --> 00:41:36.807
of my boyhood.
433
00:41:36.807 --> 00:41:39.145
I know what it was.
434
00:41:39.145 --> 00:41:42.162
Seems so long ago, seems so far away.
435
00:41:42.162 --> 00:41:46.843
But I remember in 1927 the largest single announcement
436
00:41:46.843 --> 00:41:49.456
that I ever heard in my life.
437
00:41:49.456 --> 00:41:51.937
And the afternoon paper in the little town
438
00:41:51.937 --> 00:41:54.250
in North Carolina where I was born and raised
439
00:41:54.250 --> 00:41:56.347
carried a headline that said
440
00:41:56.347 --> 00:41:59.872
"The Flying Fool
441
00:41:59.872 --> 00:42:03.764
Lands in Paris".
442
00:42:03.764 --> 00:42:05.530
But in northern Virginia,
443
00:42:05.530 --> 00:42:08.250
I have friends who commute to Berlin
444
00:42:08.250 --> 00:42:11.650
every week for their work.
445
00:42:11.650 --> 00:42:12.930
The old order has changed,
446
00:42:12.930 --> 00:42:14.950
it's yielded a place to the new.
447
00:42:14.950 --> 00:42:16.420
Nothing unusual about that.
448
00:42:16.420 --> 00:42:18.294
You can do the same kind of thing.
449
00:42:18.294 --> 00:42:22.998
We were changed in transportation.
450
00:42:22.998 --> 00:42:24.840
We've changed in our way of doing things.
451
00:42:24.840 --> 00:42:28.830
We've changed in almost in every single way that I know.
452
00:42:28.830 --> 00:42:30.650
And you can go on and on and on
453
00:42:30.650 --> 00:42:32.980
with an endless list of the changes
454
00:42:32.980 --> 00:42:34.410
that we've made in our own life.
455
00:42:34.410 --> 00:42:36.460
All I'm saying to you is that
456
00:42:36.460 --> 00:42:41.460
we live in a world of unusual change.
457
00:42:42.035 --> 00:42:44.440
And with change there always comes complexity,
458
00:42:44.440 --> 00:42:46.770
and with change there always comes doubt,
459
00:42:46.770 --> 00:42:49.850
and with change there always comes a bit of insecurity.
460
00:42:49.850 --> 00:42:51.390
And we're beginning to wonder about
461
00:42:51.390 --> 00:42:55.290
is there anything on earth that isn't going to change?
462
00:42:55.290 --> 00:42:57.180
Or must we adapt ourselves
463
00:42:57.180 --> 00:43:01.200
to a constantly changing lifestyle.
464
00:43:01.200 --> 00:43:03.280
We are not the only people who've ever asked
465
00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:05.020
that question of ourselves.
466
00:43:05.020 --> 00:43:07.230
The Corinthians ask it over and over again.
467
00:43:07.230 --> 00:43:10.030
Paul had been down to Corinth to speak,
468
00:43:10.030 --> 00:43:12.363
and he had converted many,
469
00:43:12.363 --> 00:43:16.396
led many of the people in Corinth to Christ,
470
00:43:16.396 --> 00:43:19.946
and they had become members of the church.
471
00:43:19.946 --> 00:43:22.720
They simply didn't understand all of it.
472
00:43:22.720 --> 00:43:25.524
They didn't really understand the relationship
473
00:43:25.524 --> 00:43:28.160
that ought to exist between what a man believes
474
00:43:28.160 --> 00:43:32.183
and how a man lives.
475
00:43:32.183 --> 00:43:35.067
They didn't really understand the relationship
476
00:43:35.067 --> 00:43:40.045
between my commitment and my ethics.
477
00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:45.000
They really weren't sure in their own minds
478
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:46.520
how much difference one's commitment
479
00:43:46.520 --> 00:43:47.450
to Christ ought to make,
480
00:43:47.450 --> 00:43:49.290
and so they began to write to Paul,
481
00:43:49.290 --> 00:43:52.070
and Paul began to write to them back.
482
00:43:52.070 --> 00:43:54.309
We have only two letters to the Corinthians
483
00:43:54.309 --> 00:43:55.760
in the New Testament,
484
00:43:55.760 --> 00:43:58.270
but it'll always have that kind of a sneaking feeling
485
00:43:58.270 --> 00:44:00.329
that somewhere hiding around
486
00:44:00.329 --> 00:44:03.112
there ought to be another dozen letters, David,
487
00:44:03.112 --> 00:44:05.128
from the Corinthian church.
488
00:44:05.128 --> 00:44:06.883
I don't think you can satisfy
489
00:44:06.883 --> 00:44:10.974
the Corinthians with two letters.
490
00:44:10.974 --> 00:44:13.746
And finally out of their desperation
491
00:44:13.746 --> 00:44:16.930
and out of their unusual ability to come to terms
492
00:44:16.930 --> 00:44:19.600
with life, they are bound to have written Paul
493
00:44:19.600 --> 00:44:22.750
a letter and said are there any permanent things?
494
00:44:22.750 --> 00:44:24.950
Are there any everlasting things?
495
00:44:24.950 --> 00:44:29.950
Are there any unchanging things?
496
00:44:30.636 --> 00:44:35.052
Or do I have to accommodate myself to a world of change
497
00:44:35.052 --> 00:44:36.830
in which nothing any longer will be permanent?
498
00:44:36.830 --> 00:44:39.610
Nothing any longer will be stable?
499
00:44:39.610 --> 00:44:42.343
Nothing any longer,
500
00:44:42.343 --> 00:44:45.664
will have character?
501
00:44:45.664 --> 00:44:48.310
One of our ministerial students who serves a church
502
00:44:48.310 --> 00:44:50.170
up in the southern part of Virginia
503
00:44:50.170 --> 00:44:52.840
sent me the other day a copy of his bulletin.
504
00:44:52.840 --> 00:44:54.370
He quoted an old friend of mine
505
00:44:54.370 --> 00:44:55.840
and a new friend of his.
506
00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:58.170
A man by the name of Collin Morris,
507
00:44:58.170 --> 00:45:01.070
British preacher who I've known for many, many years
508
00:45:01.070 --> 00:45:03.860
and with whom I share a very warm friendship.
509
00:45:03.860 --> 00:45:05.800
There came a time of unusual doubt
510
00:45:05.800 --> 00:45:07.750
in the mind of Collin Morris
511
00:45:07.750 --> 00:45:09.423
that nothing was going to be permanent,
512
00:45:09.423 --> 00:45:12.370
that nothing was going to remain stable,
513
00:45:12.370 --> 00:45:16.400
and nothing would remain as it ought to be.
514
00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:18.672
And in his depression,
515
00:45:18.672 --> 00:45:22.817
and almost a state of surrender,
516
00:45:22.817 --> 00:45:25.280
Collin Morris came down the steps one morning
517
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:27.640
in the apartment building where he was living in London
518
00:45:27.640 --> 00:45:31.480
and stopped to say a word to a kindly old man
519
00:45:31.480 --> 00:45:35.321
who shared a first floor apartment.
520
00:45:35.321 --> 00:45:40.183
"Is there anything established?" said Collin Morris
521
00:45:40.183 --> 00:45:42.276
to the old man.
522
00:45:42.276 --> 00:45:47.202
"Anything that isn't going to change?"
523
00:45:47.202 --> 00:45:49.260
The old man helped himself up out of the chair
524
00:45:49.260 --> 00:45:50.850
and walked over to his bed,
525
00:45:50.850 --> 00:45:54.480
and on a table by his bed took a tuning fork
526
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:57.460
and hit it across the poster of the bed
527
00:45:57.460 --> 00:45:59.570
and said to Morris, "Listen to that.
528
00:45:59.570 --> 00:46:01.297
Did you hear it?"
529
00:46:01.297 --> 00:46:04.435
"I heard it," said Collin Morris.
530
00:46:04.435 --> 00:46:07.579
"It is middle C," he said.
531
00:46:07.579 --> 00:46:10.895
"It was middle C yesterday,
532
00:46:10.895 --> 00:46:13.543
it is middle C today,
533
00:46:13.543 --> 00:46:17.361
it will be middle C tomorrow.
534
00:46:17.361 --> 00:46:22.340
That's good news."
535
00:46:23.938 --> 00:46:26.730
And now abideth three things Paul said to the Corinthians,
536
00:46:26.730 --> 00:46:28.520
maybe there are more.
537
00:46:28.520 --> 00:46:31.410
Only historically we brought these three into our own minds.
538
00:46:31.410 --> 00:46:33.390
Now abide three things.
539
00:46:33.390 --> 00:46:38.390
Now abide faith.
540
00:46:38.707 --> 00:46:41.493
Seber Teasdale once said that somewhere,
541
00:46:41.493 --> 00:46:46.000
one by one, like leaves falling off of a tree,
542
00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.500
the things in which she had believed and given herself
543
00:46:48.500 --> 00:46:49.680
were beginning to fall away
544
00:46:49.680 --> 00:46:52.342
so that she no longer believed anything,
545
00:46:52.342 --> 00:46:56.770
and she no longer had any place to stand.
546
00:46:56.770 --> 00:46:58.069
What a horrible experience it is
547
00:46:58.069 --> 00:47:00.370
in the mind of a human life
548
00:47:00.370 --> 00:47:04.457
when no longer there is faith.
549
00:47:04.457 --> 00:47:07.210
It's never a question of faith or no faith,
550
00:47:07.210 --> 00:47:09.160
but of faith in what?
551
00:47:09.160 --> 00:47:10.837
Of faith in whom?
552
00:47:10.837 --> 00:47:14.681
In whom should you put your trust?
553
00:47:14.681 --> 00:47:17.363
Vital religion and much of it is there
554
00:47:17.363 --> 00:47:21.099
is ultimately based upon an adventuresome faith.
555
00:47:21.099 --> 00:47:23.270
The faith at the heart of things,
556
00:47:23.270 --> 00:47:27.508
there is a God who understands and who cares.
557
00:47:27.508 --> 00:47:30.547
The faith that life has meaning and purpose.
558
00:47:30.547 --> 00:47:32.440
The faith at the cross of Jesus Christ
559
00:47:32.440 --> 00:47:35.090
is no mere incident or accident,
560
00:47:35.090 --> 00:47:38.197
but the revelation of what is ultimate
561
00:47:38.197 --> 00:47:42.990
in the affairs of the world.
562
00:47:42.990 --> 00:47:45.537
A schoolboy was asked to give a definition of faith.
563
00:47:45.537 --> 00:47:47.540
"Faith," he replied,
564
00:47:47.540 --> 00:47:51.563
"is believing in what you know ain't so."
565
00:47:51.563 --> 00:47:52.470
It isn't faith.
566
00:47:52.470 --> 00:47:55.915
It has never been faith.
567
00:47:55.915 --> 00:48:00.875
Faith is betting your life on what you know is so,
568
00:48:00.875 --> 00:48:03.508
so that by reason,
569
00:48:03.508 --> 00:48:08.135
and experience and tradition
570
00:48:08.135 --> 00:48:10.826
and scriptures,
571
00:48:10.826 --> 00:48:15.826
you can discover more of what's so.
572
00:48:15.850 --> 00:48:20.707
Edison St. Vincent Millay did it so beautifully in a poem,
573
00:48:21.765 --> 00:48:25.876
not truth but faith it is that keeps the world alive,
574
00:48:25.876 --> 00:48:28.330
if all at once faith were to slacken
575
00:48:28.330 --> 00:48:30.596
then unconscious faith which I know
576
00:48:30.596 --> 00:48:34.345
must be the cornerstone of all believing.
577
00:48:34.345 --> 00:48:37.390
Birds now flying fearlessly across the sky
578
00:48:37.390 --> 00:48:40.100
would drop in horror to the ground
579
00:48:40.100 --> 00:48:45.090
and fishes would drown in the depths of the sea.
580
00:48:46.470 --> 00:48:51.464
I live by faith.
581
00:48:51.464 --> 00:48:56.464
They might've been able to have shaken Job
582
00:48:57.154 --> 00:49:00.872
had he not been able to say,
583
00:49:00.872 --> 00:49:05.869
"I know that my redeemer liveth."
584
00:49:07.500 --> 00:49:09.180
Not only does faith abide,
585
00:49:09.180 --> 00:49:11.920
not only are you going to have to come to terms with it,
586
00:49:11.920 --> 00:49:16.920
in addition to faith abiding, love abides.
587
00:49:17.070 --> 00:49:18.680
Every now and again I get a little weary
588
00:49:18.680 --> 00:49:20.592
about using the word love.
589
00:49:20.592 --> 00:49:23.200
Not very long before we came to Durham,
590
00:49:23.200 --> 00:49:26.960
Miss Goodson and I came in one night from a late trip,
591
00:49:26.960 --> 00:49:28.960
1:00 or 2:00 o'clock in the morning,
592
00:49:28.960 --> 00:49:30.620
and we'd been riding across Virginia
593
00:49:30.620 --> 00:49:33.126
doing the life of the church.
594
00:49:33.126 --> 00:49:35.231
And having grown up in a small town,
595
00:49:35.231 --> 00:49:38.060
I said to Nora before we went to bed,
596
00:49:38.060 --> 00:49:42.881
"Let's go check the main drag."
597
00:49:42.881 --> 00:49:47.301
Did you never go check the main drag?
598
00:49:47.301 --> 00:49:49.770
You know, you just want to go take a look at the town,
599
00:49:49.770 --> 00:49:51.773
see that everything is there.
600
00:49:51.773 --> 00:49:54.553
In Richmond, when you check the main drag,
601
00:49:54.553 --> 00:49:57.575
you go in Monument Avenue, and you turn at Miller Roads
602
00:49:57.575 --> 00:50:00.373
and Tallheimers and you go back down Broad Street,
603
00:50:00.373 --> 00:50:02.467
and if all is well, you go to bed.
604
00:50:02.467 --> 00:50:04.177
You checked the main drag.
605
00:50:04.177 --> 00:50:07.903
(audience laughter)
606
00:50:07.903 --> 00:50:12.900
Just next to Miller Roads, which is the paladium
607
00:50:12.900 --> 00:50:16.015
in the center of our city,
608
00:50:16.015 --> 00:50:18.460
there is Lowes Theater now being converted
609
00:50:18.460 --> 00:50:21.763
into a community opera house.
610
00:50:21.763 --> 00:50:25.338
The marquis was burning wildly,
611
00:50:25.338 --> 00:50:29.231
late at night after 1:00.
612
00:50:29.231 --> 00:50:32.395
And on the marquis there were these words,
613
00:50:32.395 --> 00:50:37.249
"Mighty Love Drama
614
00:50:37.249 --> 00:50:42.080
Rated X."
615
00:50:42.080 --> 00:50:44.827
It's not love.
616
00:50:44.827 --> 00:50:46.140
The Greeks had a word for it,
617
00:50:46.140 --> 00:50:50.163
but it never got into the scriptures.
618
00:50:50.163 --> 00:50:54.521
It's dirt and filth
619
00:50:54.521 --> 00:50:56.612
that would appeal to a part of me
620
00:50:56.612 --> 00:51:01.612
that they have no right to do.
621
00:51:02.380 --> 00:51:04.782
It won't abide.
622
00:51:04.782 --> 00:51:07.070
Now abides love, the kind of love that exists
623
00:51:07.070 --> 00:51:10.510
between a husband and his wife,
624
00:51:10.510 --> 00:51:15.406
between a father and his daughters,
625
00:51:15.406 --> 00:51:19.111
between a mother and her sons.
626
00:51:19.111 --> 00:51:20.440
The kind of love without which
627
00:51:20.440 --> 00:51:22.580
a home has no stability, no life,
628
00:51:22.580 --> 00:51:26.956
no permanence, no future.
629
00:51:26.956 --> 00:51:30.217
They will still be talking about it.
630
00:51:30.217 --> 00:51:33.931
Now abideth love, but there is a deeper love.
631
00:51:33.931 --> 00:51:38.260
A love that is known as agape love.
632
00:51:38.260 --> 00:51:41.603
How important is the love that you have for God.
633
00:51:41.603 --> 00:51:44.550
How important is the love that you have for your home.
634
00:51:44.550 --> 00:51:47.560
How important is the love that you have for your child.
635
00:51:47.560 --> 00:51:52.560
How important is the love that you have for your neighbor.
636
00:51:53.320 --> 00:51:58.147
But the great love of which Paul wrote to them
637
00:51:58.147 --> 00:52:02.430
was not the love that I have for God,
638
00:52:02.430 --> 00:52:05.871
but the unusual, unchanging,
639
00:52:05.871 --> 00:52:08.821
unswerving love
640
00:52:08.821 --> 00:52:13.768
that God has for me.
641
00:52:16.717 --> 00:52:21.075
"I love you this much,"
642
00:52:22.308 --> 00:52:27.286
said God.
643
00:52:28.590 --> 00:52:32.922
We have seen a nation this week
644
00:52:32.922 --> 00:52:37.922
come nearer to understanding the meaning of joy
645
00:52:37.970 --> 00:52:41.403
and the joy of love,
646
00:52:41.403 --> 00:52:46.403
that we have known in a long time.
647
00:52:47.180 --> 00:52:52.180
Who rejoices in liberation?
648
00:52:52.210 --> 00:52:57.204
The gospel, God.
649
00:52:58.630 --> 00:53:01.486
It will never change.
650
00:53:01.486 --> 00:53:06.002
It will not wash out,
651
00:53:06.002 --> 00:53:09.874
but will be everlasting.
652
00:53:09.874 --> 00:53:13.831
Now abides faith, love,
653
00:53:13.831 --> 00:53:17.118
and now abides hope.
654
00:53:17.118 --> 00:53:19.390
Dennison wrote to his friend, Arthur Halem, once
655
00:53:19.390 --> 00:53:21.552
and said, "I write to remind you
656
00:53:21.552 --> 00:53:26.217
of the mighty hopes that keep us alive."
657
00:53:29.300 --> 00:53:32.303
Tucked away in my files of the year,
658
00:53:32.303 --> 00:53:35.380
in my files of my ministry in my life
659
00:53:35.380 --> 00:53:38.410
are letters written by young men in my church
660
00:53:38.410 --> 00:53:40.070
down in the country
661
00:53:40.070 --> 00:53:43.923
who happen to have been the squadron leader
662
00:53:43.923 --> 00:53:48.855
that did the reconnaissance flight over Hiroshima.
663
00:53:50.010 --> 00:53:53.750
That night in a tent in Okinawa,
664
00:53:53.750 --> 00:53:55.817
he wrote his minister,
665
00:53:55.817 --> 00:53:58.258
"I hope,
666
00:53:58.258 --> 00:53:59.816
"I hope,
667
00:53:59.816 --> 00:54:03.575
"I hope
668
00:54:03.575 --> 00:54:08.063
that it never happens again."
669
00:54:08.063 --> 00:54:11.600
You see, if we live by faith,
670
00:54:11.600 --> 00:54:15.542
if we understand the meaning of love,
671
00:54:15.542 --> 00:54:20.457
if we live by hope.
672
00:54:20.457 --> 00:54:24.304
It was middle C yesterday,
673
00:54:24.304 --> 00:54:26.710
it is middle C today,
674
00:54:26.710 --> 00:54:31.536
it will be middle C tomorrow.
675
00:54:34.420 --> 00:54:36.390
We were speaking about this lovely part
676
00:54:36.390 --> 00:54:38.100
of the world last night.
677
00:54:38.100 --> 00:54:42.796
We used to do our vacations years ago in New Hampshire.
678
00:54:42.796 --> 00:54:46.310
And we went so long ago that the highway system
679
00:54:46.310 --> 00:54:48.730
of New Hampshire was more primitive
680
00:54:48.730 --> 00:54:52.865
and more beautiful than now.
681
00:54:52.865 --> 00:54:56.020
We were there during the days of the second World War
682
00:54:56.020 --> 00:54:59.928
on a vacation with all our children.
683
00:54:59.928 --> 00:55:01.160
The only newspaper that came in
684
00:55:01.160 --> 00:55:04.060
was a paper published in the little community
685
00:55:04.060 --> 00:55:06.272
of Portsmith, New Hampshire,
686
00:55:06.272 --> 00:55:10.190
which is the largest submarine base
687
00:55:10.190 --> 00:55:14.700
that the Navy has.
688
00:55:14.700 --> 00:55:16.880
During the latter days of the second World War,
689
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:19.680
the Navy was experimenting with a new submarine
690
00:55:19.680 --> 00:55:24.226
that they chose to call the S-4.
691
00:55:24.226 --> 00:55:25.570
And when they did whatever you need to do
692
00:55:25.570 --> 00:55:28.641
to make a submarine and had it all done,
693
00:55:28.641 --> 00:55:33.445
they took it out about 10 or 11 miles
694
00:55:33.445 --> 00:55:35.950
into the Atlantic, off of the nine-mile coast
695
00:55:35.950 --> 00:55:40.024
of New Hampshire
696
00:55:40.024 --> 00:55:44.364
for an experimental run.
697
00:55:44.364 --> 00:55:45.920
And they did whatever you got to do
698
00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:48.920
to make a submarine sink.
699
00:55:48.920 --> 00:55:53.917
And it went to the bottom of the sea.
700
00:55:55.020 --> 00:55:55.853
And I know,
701
00:55:55.853 --> 00:55:59.900
I know I know that they did whatever you've got to do
702
00:55:59.900 --> 00:56:04.826
to make a submarine rise,
703
00:56:04.826 --> 00:56:09.826
and it was at this point that it failed.
704
00:56:10.418 --> 00:56:13.646
And for 28 years,
705
00:56:13.646 --> 00:56:17.545
the 84 men who were in the S-4
706
00:56:17.545 --> 00:56:22.528
stayed in their watery graves.
707
00:56:22.528 --> 00:56:24.640
Before giving up, the Navy did everything it knew
708
00:56:24.640 --> 00:56:29.640
to affect a rescue to be sure.
709
00:56:29.760 --> 00:56:32.260
And finally the last thing they did
710
00:56:32.260 --> 00:56:35.740
was to go out on Cape Code to Provincetown
711
00:56:35.740 --> 00:56:40.352
and find an old diver
712
00:56:40.352 --> 00:56:44.400
and send him to the floor of the sea
713
00:56:44.400 --> 00:56:48.973
to do a reconnaissance trip.
714
00:56:48.973 --> 00:56:51.918
He got there.
715
00:56:51.918 --> 00:56:56.888
By instrumentation, he found the S-4,
716
00:56:56.888 --> 00:57:00.835
and he walked about it and about it.
717
00:57:00.835 --> 00:57:04.728
And while he was walking,
718
00:57:04.728 --> 00:57:08.694
he heard a rhythmic knocking
719
00:57:08.694 --> 00:57:12.069
from inside the ship.
720
00:57:12.069 --> 00:57:14.960
It obviously was the telegrapher,
721
00:57:14.960 --> 00:57:18.138
the radio man,
722
00:57:18.138 --> 00:57:19.970
and the old diver put his helmeted head
723
00:57:19.970 --> 00:57:23.186
up against the ship,
724
00:57:23.186 --> 00:57:28.186
and on the inside somebody was beating it out.
725
00:57:28.980 --> 00:57:33.980
An I, and an S,
726
00:57:34.641 --> 00:57:37.474
and a T, and an H,
727
00:57:37.474 --> 00:57:42.469
and an E, and an R, and an E,
728
00:57:43.600 --> 00:57:48.600
and an A, and an N, and a Y,
729
00:57:49.231 --> 00:57:54.162
and an H, and an O, and a P, and an E.
730
00:57:57.757 --> 00:58:01.698
"That," said Alford Lockock once,
731
00:58:01.698 --> 00:58:06.697
"is the biggest single question of the 20th century.
732
00:58:06.697 --> 00:58:11.692
Is there any hope?"
733
00:58:17.348 --> 00:58:20.848
And the old diver didn't know.
734
00:58:20.848 --> 00:58:23.178
He knew nothing about political science
735
00:58:23.178 --> 00:58:26.696
and could've given him no classroom lecture
736
00:58:26.696 --> 00:58:30.718
on what tomorrow may have,
737
00:58:30.718 --> 00:58:35.715
but he asked for all the power the mother ship had,
738
00:58:35.715 --> 00:58:37.430
and he threw back his air hammer,
739
00:58:37.430 --> 00:58:41.177
and beat out against the hull of the S-4,
740
00:58:41.177 --> 00:58:45.599
the only message he knew,
741
00:58:45.599 --> 00:58:49.551
"Is there any hope?"
742
00:58:49.551 --> 00:58:54.508
and the Portsmith paper said that he responded
743
00:58:54.508 --> 00:58:58.383
with a J, and an E,
744
00:58:58.383 --> 00:59:03.351
and an S, and a U, and an S,
745
00:59:04.610 --> 00:59:09.160
and a C, and an H, and an R,
746
00:59:09.160 --> 00:59:14.154
and an I, and an S, and a T.
747
00:59:15.100 --> 00:59:20.084
It was the only hope he knew.
748
00:59:23.190 --> 00:59:27.092
Charles A. Ellwood once said in this institution
749
00:59:27.092 --> 00:59:31.105
that we have finally come to that spot
750
00:59:31.105 --> 00:59:36.105
that we realized he is the only solvent personality
751
00:59:36.250 --> 00:59:41.250
in the world's bankruptcy.
752
00:59:42.010 --> 00:59:46.386
Paul wrote it to the Corinthians,
753
00:59:46.386 --> 00:59:51.013
and he also wrote it to Duke.
754
00:59:51.013 --> 00:59:56.003
Now abideth faith.
755
00:59:56.003 --> 00:59:59.687
No way to make it without it.
756
00:59:59.687 --> 01:00:03.858
Now abides that unusual quality of love
757
01:00:03.858 --> 01:00:08.858
without which life has no meaning.
758
01:00:08.870 --> 01:00:13.091
Now abides hope.
759
01:00:13.091 --> 01:00:17.224
The hope that is born
760
01:00:17.224 --> 01:00:22.070
out of a deep commitment
761
01:00:22.070 --> 01:00:26.921
to Jesus Christ.
762
01:00:26.921 --> 01:00:28.544
In the name of the father and the son
763
01:00:28.544 --> 01:00:30.352
and the holy spirit,
764
01:00:30.352 --> 01:00:35.334
Amen.
765
01:00:37.782 --> 01:00:40.282
(organ music)
766
01:01:06.991 --> 01:01:09.741
(choral singing)
767
01:03:31.330 --> 01:03:33.090
Having heard the word proclaimed,
768
01:03:33.090 --> 01:03:37.330
let us now with one voice affirm what we believe.
769
01:03:37.330 --> 01:03:41.840
We believe in God who has created and is creating,
770
01:03:41.840 --> 01:03:44.860
who has come in the truly human Jesus
771
01:03:44.860 --> 01:03:47.660
to reconcile and make new,
772
01:03:47.660 --> 01:03:51.380
who works in us and others by the spirit.
773
01:03:51.380 --> 01:03:53.140
We trust God.
774
01:03:53.140 --> 01:03:55.840
Who calls us to be the church
775
01:03:55.840 --> 01:03:58.820
to celebrate life and its fullness
776
01:03:58.820 --> 01:04:01.370
to love and serve others
777
01:04:01.370 --> 01:04:04.350
to seek justice and resist evil
778
01:04:04.350 --> 01:04:08.020
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.
779
01:04:08.020 --> 01:04:10.540
Our judge and our hope.
780
01:04:10.540 --> 01:04:14.880
In life, in death, in life beyond death
781
01:04:14.880 --> 01:04:16.970
God is with us.
782
01:04:16.970 --> 01:04:18.800
We are not alone.
783
01:04:18.800 --> 01:04:20.633
Thanks be to God.
784
01:04:21.530 --> 01:04:23.417
The Lord be with you.
785
01:04:23.417 --> 01:04:24.380
And also with you.
786
01:04:24.380 --> 01:04:25.363
Let us pray.
787
01:04:32.960 --> 01:04:35.370
Gracious Lord, our God, we pause this moment
788
01:04:35.370 --> 01:04:37.423
to give thee thanks.
789
01:04:39.400 --> 01:04:42.060
Thanks for all those things which come from thee
790
01:04:42.060 --> 01:04:43.593
which abide forever.
791
01:04:44.680 --> 01:04:48.223
Faith, love, and hope.
792
01:04:49.730 --> 01:04:53.530
Thanks be unto thee oh Lord, our God,
793
01:04:53.530 --> 01:04:57.890
for these most priceless, precious, unchanging gifts
794
01:04:57.890 --> 01:05:01.653
which will sustain us in this day and forever.
795
01:05:03.066 --> 01:05:05.550
Thanks be unto thee oh Lord, our God,
796
01:05:05.550 --> 01:05:08.700
especially for the gift of thy son
797
01:05:08.700 --> 01:05:12.110
our blessed savior, even Jesus, the Christ
798
01:05:13.220 --> 01:05:17.990
who has come, is come, and is to come
799
01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:21.380
to give to us the fullness of life,
800
01:05:21.380 --> 01:05:24.763
which thou has promised to all thy children.
801
01:05:25.800 --> 01:05:28.650
Hear us now oh Lord, our God, as we give thee thanks
802
01:05:28.650 --> 01:05:32.480
for life, for health, for beauty,
803
01:05:32.480 --> 01:05:35.390
the beauty of this place, the beauty of friends,
804
01:05:35.390 --> 01:05:40.390
the beauty of family, and the beauty of thy word
805
01:05:40.840 --> 01:05:42.913
so richly shared.
806
01:05:44.450 --> 01:05:46.750
And now hear us oh God as we offer prayers
807
01:05:46.750 --> 01:05:49.023
of intercession for the needs of others.
808
01:05:49.929 --> 01:05:53.023
Be thou near and dear to all who suffer.
809
01:05:54.220 --> 01:05:55.700
All here this morning,
810
01:05:55.700 --> 01:05:59.770
all here in our hospital on this campus,
811
01:05:59.770 --> 01:06:02.390
and all around the world.
812
01:06:02.390 --> 01:06:05.910
All here and everywhere whose hearts are heavy,
813
01:06:05.910 --> 01:06:09.313
who know the pain and loneliness of death and loss.
814
01:06:10.570 --> 01:06:13.640
All here and everywhere whose lives bear the marks
815
01:06:13.640 --> 01:06:16.353
of stress and strain and tension.
816
01:06:17.460 --> 01:06:22.070
All here and everywhere who seek relief from pressure,
817
01:06:22.070 --> 01:06:27.010
release from pain, strength in weariness,
818
01:06:27.010 --> 01:06:29.473
direction in waywardness.
819
01:06:31.188 --> 01:06:34.530
Be very close oh Lord, our God
820
01:06:34.530 --> 01:06:37.543
to comfort those who need love to support them,
821
01:06:38.630 --> 01:06:42.273
those who have had love misused upon them,
822
01:06:43.110 --> 01:06:47.903
those who know not where to turn to find new life and love.
823
01:06:48.800 --> 01:06:51.453
Indeed oh Lord, our God, be thou our way,
824
01:06:52.330 --> 01:06:54.723
our truth and our life.
825
01:06:56.190 --> 01:06:59.810
Come near oh blessed, living spirit.
826
01:06:59.810 --> 01:07:03.393
Grant us to receive all thy gifts with gratitude,
827
01:07:04.230 --> 01:07:06.470
and shed abroad in our hearts now
828
01:07:06.470 --> 01:07:09.170
thy most perfect gift of love
829
01:07:10.190 --> 01:07:13.853
that we may be filled with faith and hope.
830
01:07:14.960 --> 01:07:18.730
And may we always be mindful of the needs of others
831
01:07:18.730 --> 01:07:21.400
freely, ready, and willing to give
832
01:07:21.400 --> 01:07:24.833
oh Lord, our God, even as we have received.
833
01:07:25.910 --> 01:07:28.300
Hear us as we pray.
834
01:07:28.300 --> 01:07:31.350
As our Lord has taught us, saying,
835
01:07:31.350 --> 01:07:34.830
Our father, who art in heaven,
836
01:07:34.830 --> 01:07:36.283
hallowed be thy name,
837
01:07:37.360 --> 01:07:40.850
thy kingdom come, thy will be done
838
01:07:40.850 --> 01:07:42.733
on earth as it is in heaven.
839
01:07:43.670 --> 01:07:46.700
Give us this day our daily bread
840
01:07:46.700 --> 01:07:49.210
and forgive us our trespasses
841
01:07:49.210 --> 01:07:52.960
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
842
01:07:52.960 --> 01:07:55.720
And lead us not into temptation,
843
01:07:55.720 --> 01:07:57.243
but deliver us from evil.
844
01:07:58.116 --> 01:08:00.857
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
845
01:08:00.857 --> 01:08:04.177
and the glory forever.
846
01:08:04.177 --> 01:08:05.010
Amen.
847
01:08:08.876 --> 01:08:11.376
(organ music)
848
01:09:03.012 --> 01:09:05.512
(flute music)
849
01:09:08.713 --> 01:09:11.630
(operatic singing)
850
01:14:10.520 --> 01:14:13.270
(choral singing)
851
01:15:12.930 --> 01:15:16.040
Grant we beseech thee, almighty God.
852
01:15:16.040 --> 01:15:21.040
That all of our gifts being dedicated fully to thy service
853
01:15:22.180 --> 01:15:25.320
may be used for the good of thy holy church
854
01:15:25.320 --> 01:15:28.510
and for the blessing of all thy people
855
01:15:28.510 --> 01:15:31.334
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
856
01:15:31.334 --> 01:15:32.167
Amen.
857
01:15:34.814 --> 01:15:37.314
(organ music)
858
01:18:43.740 --> 01:18:47.263
The grace of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
859
01:18:48.780 --> 01:18:49.823
The love of God.
860
01:18:51.560 --> 01:18:54.610
The communion and fellowship of the holy spirit
861
01:18:55.940 --> 01:18:56.850
be with you
862
01:18:57.760 --> 01:18:59.630
and with those whom you love
863
01:19:00.600 --> 01:19:03.703
this day and forever.
864
01:19:06.390 --> 01:19:09.140
(choral singing)
865
01:19:30.613 --> 01:19:33.113
(organ music)