- What he had with Jesus of Nazareth. Little did he know at that moment that his name was to be the most oft-quoted name in human history, with a single exception to those who believed in that way of life. Somewhere in the course of his ministry, he had come to the little communities of Listowel and Derby. And had created the friendship of a dear old lady whose name was Lois, and whose daughter's name was Eunice. Eunice had a son whose name was Timothy, who took an unusual liking to Paul, after the breakthrough that normally comes from a young person, who eyes most anything religious with a kind of intellectual curiosity. Timothy saw in Paul the kind of authenticity that youth seeks to find in its allegories. And because of that sight of authenticity, they became the closest of friends. And when Paul left Listowel and Derby to go on out across history, Timothy asked if he might go along with him. And for the remaining years in the life of the old apostle, these two men redid the map of human experience. Now the old man sits down to write a letter. And his mind does what the mind of any old man would do. He remembers where he's been, and who he's seen, and who he knows. But it is an intimate letter to one whom he wants to carry on when he's gone. And he has reminded all who are close to him that the hour of his departure is at hand. I fought a good fight, I've kept the faith. It was about all that he had been able to keep. And now, in what was almost his final letter in his memoirs, he writes a letter to Timothy. Timothy who had been close to him as a son. To whom he addressed his notes, as Timothy, my son. And writes a letter to him and says a good many things. But among them he says are three things. Timothy my son, fight the good fight of faith. Lay whole on eternal life, and keep what has been committed to your trust, your care. The years will come and go, and you will, all you will soon forget all that was done on your baccalaureate weekend. But if anything is to be remembered, maybe the text deserves the place. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Keep what has been committed to your care. The common love that these two men had, one an old man and one a young man, the common love that they had for Jesus Christ, and the regard that they had for each other's qualities had so brought them together that it overcame all differences of age between them. Paul spoke as a father, Timothy listened as a son. And here is this experienced disciple nearing the end of his journey offering certain advice to a young preacher who comes to his moment almost of graduation, only yesterday he was young. And now Paul says I am old, I've seen a good bit in life. And I wanted to talk to you, Timothy, about it. For I have no desire, he would have said, to see happen to Timothy what had happened in the lives of other people. So there it is, fight the good fight of faith. Dr. Fosdick, who is the author of the recessional hymn that we should use in a few moments, said a good many years ago that every person, every man, every woman, has certain energies which it is their will to direct. The criticism which best fits most of us is that a lot of people have been listless and inactive. But the chief criticism is not their listlessness nor their inactivity. It is that they have been spent in the wrong direction. How terribly, Dr. Fosdick reminded us a generation ago, do we misuse our pugnacity, our ability to fight, our ability to be against, how terribly do we disuse it. Then he reminds us that pugnacity that is ill-used can be the cause of the world's destruction, while pugnacity that is well used can be the cause of the world's redemption. Here is Paul, writing to a young man, saying to him I want you to unite in a good fight. I want you to unite in a fight against disease. Unite in a fight against poverty. Unite in a fight against social ills. Unite in a fight against the stupid idea that we are safe if we have enough of the nuclear fission to protect us. What a difference it would make if we used our ability to fight in the things that need to be defeated. Well, there is Paul writing to him saying fight the good fight of faith. And he's counseling Timothy that whatever else he does, he has to fight out in his own life what manner of human being he's going to be. Whether he's going to be selfish, or whether he's going to be selfless. You endeavor to win in your own soul the larger battle which is going on in this world. I think this constitutes a challenge to every thinking human being. We're concerned about our own place, but not about the place of others. We're hurt by our own pain, but sometimes unaffected by the pain of others. We've all been fighting. But maybe not fighting in what Paul often referred to as the good fight of faith. It won't take you long in the world that is waiting to receive you to find out that it isn't always easy to believe. It isn't always easy to hold on. It isn't always easy to hold out. If Dietrich Bonhoeffer were here, he would talk to you for a few moments about the cost of discipleship. But they hung him for talking about it. Timothy, my son, fight the good fight. The good fight of faith. Not only was Paul reminding Timothy to fight the good fight of faith, he was reminding Timothy of another thing, to lay hold upon eternal life. I must confess to you that I did not come to talk about eternal life to a graduating class whose ages would average in the 20s. When I was in my 20s, I had no real interest in eternal life. Somehow or other, it looks a little more attractive to me now that I'm in my 70s. (audience laughs) It is in that kind of eternal life that Paul's talking about. What Paul is saying to Timothy, what are you going to do with your life? Have some worthy end, or some worthy prize in mind. Let it be something good, something decent, something solid, something everlasting. You will find that material possessions will prove to be unsatisfying. Set your heart, said Paul to Timothy, upon the prizes that nothing can destroy. Set your heart upon character. Set your heart upon communion with God. Set your heart upon love for your fellow man. A difficulty for people who are living, so many of us are living unsatisfactory lives. We want what we want. But when we get it, we don't want it at all. Professor Jung says that what we're really witnessing today is the head on fight between men who hold different views concerning the meaning of life. This can be illustrated by a poll that was taken on a single question examination in all the schools of France a couple of years ago. The question was, who in your mind is the greatest Frenchman ever to live? Well, I know who the greatest Frenchman ever to live, surely it would have been Napoleon Bonaparte, who brought Europe to its knees. And bathed it in blood. Who almost, like Alexander, cried because there were no more worlds to conquer. But when the examination was over, and the papers had been turned in, and the French scholars had examined them, the little emperor scarcely got a showing. Who was the greatest of all the Frenchmen? I saluted him this morning, when I looked at a carton of fresh milk. His name was Louis Pasteur. Robert Louis Stevenson said it in a fine way. That a man doesn't have a ghost of a chance to be remembered 50 years after his death unless he has been a servant of mankind. Lay hold upon eternal life, upon something good and something great, and something fine, and something clean, and something enduring. I guess it's part of that that the chapel says to me, as I leave my office in the Divinity School on those days that we're here, and walk over to the Union either or the Grand Center to have my lunch. I love to walk by the chapel. For it reminds me of some things that I don't want to forget. This building and all of its loveliness reminds me of the oldest continuing business there is on earth. Timothy, my son, lay hold upon eternal life, fight the good fight of faith. Keep what has been committed to your care. Timothy entered into a noble heritage. Paul wrote him a letter, and he said Timothy, my son, I remembered the faith that was in your grandmother Lois, is in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded it is in you. Those of us who would in the back, waiting on the processional to start, moved out of the way a bit. So that the parade of cameras could get a better view. For this is the graduating day of my son. Of my daughter. Keep what has been committed to your care. Your life has been committed to your care. The opportunity and the chance that you've got, and a free world, has been committed to your care. It is a noble heritage. You come now this day to graduate from one of the great universities in America. The greatest of scholarship. The tenderest of faculty relationships has been poured into you for four years or more. Keep what has been committed to your care. I was born and raised in a little town in the middle of North Carolina. A little county seat town of about 20,000 people. It had that when I was born. We've been hanging in, we've still got it. We pride ourselves on a good many things. But in my day, the proudest possession we had, my hometown built the first million dollar high school in North Carolina. It isn't much now. In money. But a million dollar high school, 50 years ago, all the modern conveniences we had, everything that you needed in a building we possessed. And we were the first. On Tuesday of this week, I'll take a minute off by myself, with the girl who shares my life, and I will remember my father. For on that day he would, had he been living, would be 118 years old. He grew up in a day in which the only education he could get was that done by an itinerant teacher who would come and put up a log house. So he had very little. He saw to it that his sons had it. But with a million dollar high school to a man who had never been to school, I said to him one day, wouldn't you like to ride out and let me show you the high school? So I rode him by all four of its sides. And showed him the beauty and the majesty of a million dollar school. And then I did something I've wished 100 times I hadn't done, until I got his answer. I said to him, old fellow, what would you have given to have gone to a school like that? To a man who had no training. He put his hand over on my knee and said, son, to whom much is given much will be required. I think that really is what I wanted to say to you. Timothy my son, congratulations. Fight a good fight of faith. Lay hold on something great. And keep what has been committed to your care. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. (liturgical organ music) (choir sings indistinctly) 

- Let us affirm what we believe. We believe in God, who has created and is creating, who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile and make new. We trust God, who calls us to be the Church, to celebrate life and its fullness, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and our hope in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone, thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. 

- And also with you. 

- Let us pray. Eternal God, before whose face the generations rise and pass away, we know that age after age of the living seek you and find of your faithfulness there is no end. For you are the giver of all wisdom, the source of all truth, the beginning of all human freedom, and the end of all human responsibility. Look now, oh God, upon this community of learning. Let it ever remain faithful to you, to the truth as we come to know it in you and in your son Jesus Christ. Keep us ever from surrendering truth or giving over freedom to those who in fear or faithlessness tell us that we must fight evil with tools of evil, falsehood with lies, or tyranny with ways of tyrants. Let this, your university, be a light of truth in a world of darkness, a witness to freedom in a world where many are enslaved, a place where all people shall come to know the good and to know you, the wellspring of all good. We pray for her graduates, those present, those who have gone before, and those who are yet to come. That in the midst of uncertainty, they may stand boldly for something. In the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal. In the midst of false prophets, they may look to your kingdom in Christ as the hope of the world. And that in the midst of careless ease they may mount up with wings as eagles, may run and not be weary, may walk and not faint. Hear our prayer as in praise and thanksgiving for all that we now have and hold, we pray in the name of Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen. (organ music) (choir singing indistinctly) 

- Let us stand and join together in the responsive prayer of gratitude and hope. Almighty God, as you have granted us place and part in this university, hallow to us now this day, when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work to which you have called us, that we may remember with gratitude the families and friends who have cared for us. 

- We ask your presence, oh God. 

- That in the life ahead of us, we may keep faith with those who have loved us and trusted us, and whose hopes follow us. 

- We ask your presence, oh God. 

- That we may enter with good courage and constant purpose upon the tasks which await us. 

- We ask your presence, oh God. 

- From all sense of strangeness and loneliness, and from the fear that we may fail or may find no friends. 

- May the Lord deliver us. 

- From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us, and from distrust of our ability to meet the duties of each dawning day. 

- May the Lord deliver us. 

- That the example of wise and generous people who have gone before us in our families and here in this university may save us from folly and self-indulgence. 

- We ask your presence, oh God. 

- More especially that you would show to us and to all people your way of love in a time when all of us desperately need to love and to be loved. 

- We ask your presence, oh God. 

- These things, and whatever else you see needful and right for us, we ask in your holy name, amen. (organ music) (choir singing indistinctly) 

- Go forth in peace and be of good courage. Hold fast to that which is good, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. And may the blessings of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (liturgical organ music) (audience applauds) (liturgical organ music) (audience chattering indistinctly)