- Duke University Chapel, service of worship, April 2, 1978. (church organ music) (solemn organ music) (uplifting orchestral music) (choir singing muffled) (church organ music) (choir singing drown out by organ music) 

- This is another day which the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad. This is another hour for ringing chapel bells, for playing chapel organs, and for the gathering of the chapel community. Let us be one in spirit and purpose. This is the moment appointed for confession. Let us search our hearts and open our hearts as we pray the unison prayer of confession and remain in silence for individual or personal confession. Let us pray. Have mercy upon us, oh Lord, you have made us to serve each other, and to become our true selves only as our lives are lost in love of others. Yet we forget others, and seek our own. Forgive our arrogance, forgive the needlessness by which we seek to establish our own life at the expense of others. In your presence, God, our hearts are moved to awe and gratitude, but also touched by a deep disquiet. All things are open before you, and no secrets are hid from your eyes. As we feel your eye upon us, our own eyes are clarified and we behold what we truly are. Forgive us for being so deeply involved in deceit, and in the secret betrayal of your love. And now let us hear these words of scripture. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us give thanks, for God is good, and God's love is everlasting. 

- Thanks be to God, for his forgiveness. Thanks be to God, who delivers us from evil. Thanks be to God, for the love and grace to sustain us. 

- Let us pray. Prepare our hearts oh Lord, to accept your word. Silence in us, any voice but your own, that hearing we may also obey your will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. The first lesson is from the second chapter of Acts, verses 42 through 47, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed were together, and had all things in common. 

- And they sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together, and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. The second lesson is from the first chapter of first Peter, versus three through nine. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew, to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are guarded through faith, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire. May we down with praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls. Here end the readings from the epistle, amen. ("Kyrie Eleison") ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison, Eleison, Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison, Eleison, Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison, Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison, Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison, Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Kyrie Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ ♪ Eleison ♪ 

- Will the congregation stand for the reading of the gospel lesson. This lesson is from the 20th chapter of John, versus 19 through 31. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. "As the Father has sent me, even so, I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe. Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house. And Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, "and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it "in my side, do not be faithless, but believing." And Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God." And Jesus said to him, "Have you believed "because you have seen me? "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And that believing, you may have life in his name. Here ends the reading from the gospel, all power and glory be to God, amen. (church organ music) (choir singing drown out by organ music) 

- Peace be with you, my brothers and sisters. The early Christians shared their possessions. There was not a person among them who was in need, amazing. And all the people were in awe at the signs and wonders brought about by these people. They met constantly to hear the apostles teach, to share the common life, to break bread, and to pray. After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to those who followed Him, and they continued the important work begun by Jesus. The power was transferred from Jesus to the early Christian community, the power was transferred from Jesus to the early Christian community. Here we are, the Sunday after Easter when we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. We meet together to worship, to care for those in need, to study the teaching of the apostles. The power has been transferred to us, it is ours now. Even so, we have often dismissed Luke's record in Acts of the account of the early Christians sharing, saying, that's unrealistic, selling their property, holding everything in common, never having a needy person among them. We have dismissed these passages, saying, they don't apply to us, times were different for those early Christians. It was possible for them to live that way because they were convinced that Jesus would return immediately to bring in the kingdom of God. And when that happened, they would be with God, and all of these possessions would be meaningless, of no use to them. And as a matter of fact, as Christians began to realize that Jesus was not returning as soon as they had expected, they began to take more heed for the morrow. They became concerned with survival in this world, and returned to accumulating material goods, even when Jesus had called this accumulation into question, saying it was a false way to survive or to find meaning in life. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth. It's difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Go, sell all you have and give to the poor. Take no thought for the morrow. Our culture encourages us to accumulate, to store, to save, to take much thought for the morrow. We live in a time which encourages individualism, and privitism, and because we do, the common life, the sharing with those in need is a hard word for us to comprehend, so we say, the early Christians shared what they did and what they had because they did not think that their world would survive for very long. But listen, we have an interesting reversal, for we live in a world that is in such a condition, that if we want to survive, if we want the world to continue then we must share out of our abundance with those in need. We have no choice. Recall the number of crisis situations that we live with. Urgent situations which call for us to develop a common life, to cooperate, to share our abundance. The critical shortage of food, of water, the fear of nuclear destruction, the shortage of energy, the stockpiling of arms, the pollution of our air, the destruction of our Earth, the division of our world. These urgencies are so great and so many, we stand deaf and dumb before their reality. As a culture we have stockpiled, not just arms to protect us from foreign enemies, but also material goods to protect us from starvation, from boredom, from extinction. Stockpiling for survival, and the irony is, we may not survive as a culture and as a world if those with abundance do not learn to share with those in need. The early Christians shared because they loved God and their neighbor, and because they did not think this world would be here much longer. We contemporary Christians share because we love God and love our neighbor, and because if we want this world to be here much longer, we need to share. After the crucifixion and resurrection, those who followed Jesus were enabled through the power of the Holy Spirit to continue the amazing work of Jesus. This is who we are. One week after celebrating the resurrection, we gather to worship, to hear the teaching of the apostles, to learn to share out of our abundance. Most of us grew up in an environment which encouraged us to accumulate, to stockpile. But we also grew up in an environment, in a culture, which taught us to share, to give, to respond to meaning. And we are caught between these two worlds, alternately living in one, and denying or romanticizing the other. If we prioritize or romanticize our sharing, we may not be equipped to sustain a life of sharing. As a child, someone gave me a sack of oranges, a very special gift. Being taught to share, I passed them around a large circle of people gathered. Everyone took one. When I was finished, the sack was empty, with not one orange left for me. So I went back around the circle with my sack, and collected all of the oranges. I had been taught to share, but I had not been taught how to respond to a limited world. A more recent experience called to my attention the possibility that I had been romanticizing sharing. Coming back from a conference in Atlanta over spring break, it seemed that everyone from Duke and the University of North Carolina had met in the Atlanta airport. Waiting for the 5:30 flight to Raleigh-Durham were all the people who, like me, had been wait listed on the three o'clock flight. Plus all those who had been confirmed on earlier flights but could not get a seat because the airlines had oversold the spaces. During this time I met a woman whose mother had just died. She was flying from Texas to Raleigh-Durham where someone was meeting her to drive her the 80 miles to her mother's home. They had expected her to be on the three o'clock flight. Now having just this fall, had the experience of trying to get a seat on a full plane so that I could join my family at the time of the death of my father, I knew that agony, and I remembered with appreciation the care the airlines had shown me. However, on this day, the airlines were overbooked. This woman had had a leisure seat on the three o'clock flight, and so she did not get on the 5:30 flight. I did, and I gave her my seat. I was glad I did, but I was surprised at the anger I felt when I was told that there was a good possibility that I would not get out of Atlanta that night. It was my choice, I had given up a confirmed seat on the 5:30 flight, I was tired of waiting and exhausted. I needed to get back for a meeting the next morning. But all of that didn't explain my anger. Reflecting on this experience made me wonder if at some time in my life I had been taught to expect to be rewarded for such sharing, and thus on some level I was expecting not only to be put on the next flight, but surely on a first class seat with a fancy meal. Perhaps my response was coming out of a romanticizing of sharing. If this is so, this experience certainly underscores the importance of the common life of Christians, of my need, of our need to be supported and also corrected from the illusions of romanticizing sharing, for I cannot, we cannot, be the responsible, loving people of God in isolation. We need the community to nourish us, to heal us, to enable us to respond to those in urgent need. Those whom God loves. The importance of the corporate nature of our Christian faith was graphically depicted to me in a discussion by Walter Week of Paul's image in the sixth chapter of Ephesians. Put on the whole armor of God that you might stand against the wiles of the devil. He described the type of armor that Paul referred to as covering 2/3 of your body, and 1/3 of your neighbor's body. And a person was then dependent on the neighbor on the right just as the neighbor on the left was dependent on that person. Alone, we cannot stand against our cultural influence, which encourages us to save, to hoard, to buy, to accumulate rather than living more modestly and sharing out of our abundance with those in need. We, as small communities, we as a nation, we need to be in community, protecting one another, that we may be the people of God in this world. After the resurrection there was a sense of awe everywhere at the many marvels and signs brought about through the work of the apostles. And today we rejoice and celebrate the signs and marvels of our contemporary apostles who have been able to withstand the pressure of the culture and share their abundance. One example is found in Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers. She is now 80 years old but still influences this important movement within the Christian church. In her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, she talks about beginning of the whole movement as a response to the Great Depression, the great hunger in the 1930s. She says, we were just sitting there talking when the lines of people began to form, saying, we need bread. We could not say, go, be filled. If there were six small loaves and a few fish, we had to divide them, there was always bread. The most significant thing about the Catholic Workers is poverty, some say. The most significant thing, others say, is community. We are not alone anymore. But the final word is love. We cannot love God unless we love each other. And to love is to know each other. We know God in the breaking of bread and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet too. Even with the crust, there is companionship. We have all known the long loneliness, and we have learned the only solution is love, and that love comes with community. It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on. And it is still going on. There are now 50 houses of hospitality generated by the Catholic Workers. Each day, some 200 to 300 destitute people visit the Bowery area of New York City to find, at St. Joseph's House, not only a warm meal, but an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance. Mary House is not too far from St. Joseph's and was opened to respond to the needs of the shopping bag women, those who slept in doorways, carrying their few earthly possessions in shopping bag. Serving the hungry, the homeless, the hopeless, such works of mercy are simple to the Catholic Workers movement, as is the discipline of prayer and worship. But we don't have to go to New York to note the signs and marvels of the Christian community. We know people, communities, who lovingly respond. A woman, greatly influenced by Dorothy Day, sold two antique chairs to contribute to the completion of an important project for another member of this community. A professor who takes a leave of absence without pay, and in order to work on the pressing problems of a limited world. Countless students and faculty members and town people who continue to chop wood long after the first glamor and dramatic appeal is over. And we rejoice and celebrate the dedication of you who worship in this community of worship, some of you regularly, others as visitors. But who always respond to an appeal for any special or urgent need. Hunger, the need for fuel, flood relief, or to help a family who is burned out. God calls us to share out of our abundance with those in need, whether our abundance is money or love or special skills or knowledge, or the ability to change the structure of institutions. Imagine now, a community changed from a competitive one to a sharing one, imagine being bound together by the armor of God, acknowledging that we cannot survive alone as persons or as a nation, but only as we protect and care for each other as persons, and as nations, are we enabled to respond to those in need and thus say, there is now no one in need in our world. John Mustival, who teaches in the divinity school, has envisioned a university as a community of people who are graded still, but are graded not by how much they have learned, but how much they have helped their fellow students learn. To be graded not by how much you have learned, but by how much you have helped someone else learn. What a change that would be, a cooperative community, not a competitive community. Here again, the lesson from Acts. And many signs and wonders were done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And then from the fourth chapter of Acts. And with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all, there was not a needy person among them. Let us celebrate and nourish the signs and wonders we find in our midst, let us pray. Oh God, help us to be open, that we might receive your spirit, may your Holy Spirit be a presence in our lives and form us into your people. Teach us to share with all people, the healing and forgiveness you have shared with us. Help us to work to cure the illness of our world, the hatred, envy, greed, and pride that keeps us apart. So that all can live in peace and be as you created us to be, children of your love and instruments of healing for one another. We pray in the spirit of Jesus the Christ, amen. (church organ music) (church hymn drowned out by organ music) 

- Let us remain standing for the affirmation of faith. 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, who works in us and others by the spirit. We trust God who calls us to be the church, to celebrate life and 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. (congregation response muffled) Let us pray. Let us earnestly represent before almighty God the needs of neighbors, some of whom live in isolation, who have not experienced a resurrection event, who have no personal awareness of signs and wonders, such as we of the Christian community know and take for granted. Let us pray for men, women, youth, and children to whom the present is confusing and the future frightening. Let us pray for friends tortured by uncertainty and indecision, for our other friends, wounded by disruption in family life and still others who are alarmed by the discrepancies between thoughts of justice and the realities of injustice. Into your hands, oh Father of all, we commit the sick, the lonely, the fearful, that they may be aware of your constant watch care and know your healing power. We pray for the hungry. We pray in particular for the peoples of Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria, and Liberia, now prominent in the news of the world. Grant that great benefit may follow the visit of the president of the United States to these lands, and that these and other developing peoples in Latin America and in Africa may soon be recognized as true children of God. Oh God, the protector of all who put their trust in your grace and power, increase and extend your mercy to all peoples of every race and nationality and creed, that all may so pass through things temporal that they lose not things eternal. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who has taught us also to pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be 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, amen. Before we continue the order of worship, let me ask you to look again at the page in today's printed folder headed by the word, announcements. Let me call specific attention to the announcement about the communion service, which will follow immediately after this service in memorial chapel, and to which you are invited. Let me also call attention to the Easter tide celebration, with music and dance, here in Duke chapel tonight, beginning at seven. And in a very special way I ask you to read again that announcement that appears in the rectangular box entitled special offering for hunger. In a moment, the offering plates will be before you, and you are asked to be generous and to take note of the special causes to which a part of today's offering will go. We continue with the worship of almighty God. ("Haydn: Missa in Augustis, Nelson Mass") (choir voices drown out by organ music) (church organ music) (muffled opera music) (choir singing muffled) (muffled opera music) (choir singing muffled) ("Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow") ♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise him, all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise him above, ye heav'nly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ 

- In gratitude for your abiding presence, oh God, and in appreciation for the extent of your favor and the mystery and glory of your continuing revelation, we dedicate our offerings to the relief of suffering and hunger in Durham and in Western North Carolina, and to the work of the Christian church across the world, amen. (church organ music) (organ music drowning out church hymn) 

- God bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace, amen. (choral music) ♪ Amen, amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (church organ music)