W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1984)

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	(religious organ music)	0:03
	(people chattering faintly)	9:21
	(religious organ music)	10:09
	(choir singing in foreign language)	24:07
	(religious organ music)	25:31
	(choir singing in foreign language)	26:13
-	The genius of God, whom we gather to worship	30:01
	is revealed in the creation of atoms	30:04
	that attract and repel.	30:07
	In the creation of water that rises from the oceans,	30:10
	falls as snow upon the mountains,	30:14
	and runs as rivers upon the Earth.	30:17
	In the music and art and poetry	30:20
	that expose the sacred and nurture the human soul.	30:23
	In human yearnings for knowledge.	30:28
	In the urgings of the human heart to do justice.	30:31
	Gathering in this place of old stones	30:36
	and sacred memories,	30:40
	let us remember why we are here	30:43
	and who draws us to this place.	30:45
	Come by God's truth, let us be set free	30:49
	and to God let us honestly confess our sin.	30:53
	O holy God, to whose service we long ago	31:19
	dedicated our souls and lives,	31:23
	we grieve and lament before you	31:26
	that we are still so prone to sin.	31:29
	And so little inclined to obedience.	31:32
	Attached to the pleasure of sins,	31:36
	negligent of things spiritual.	31:39
	Prompt to gratify our bodies,	31:41
	slow to nourish our souls.	31:44
	Greedy for present delight,	31:47
	indifferent to lasting blessedness.	31:50
	Fond of idleness, indisposed for labor.	31:53
	Soon at play, late at prayer.	31:58
	Risk in the service of self,	32:01
	slack in the service of others.	32:04
	Eager to get, reluctant to give.	32:07
	Lofty in our professions,	32:11
	low in our practice.	32:13
	Full of good intentions,	32:15
	backward to fulfill them.	32:18
	Severe with our neighbors,	32:20
	indulgent with ourselves.	32:22
	So eager to find fault,	32:25
	so resentful at being found fault with.	32:28
	So little able for great tasks,	32:31
	so contented with small ones.	32:35
	So weak in adversity,	32:38
	so swollen and self-satisfied in prosperity.	32:40
	So helpless apart from you,	32:45
	and yet so little willing to be bound to you.	32:48
	O merciful heart of God,	32:52
	grant us yet forgiveness,	32:54
	for your name's sake, Amen.	32:57
	Who is in a position to condemn?	33:19
	Christ only, and Christ died for us.	33:22
	Christ rose for us.	33:27
	Christ reigns in power for us.	33:29
	Christ prays for us.	33:32
	If we are in Christ then we are new persons altogether.	33:35
	The past is done, it is finished.	33:39
	And what lies before us is a future	33:42
	fresh and full of possibility.	33:45
	My friends, believe the good news of the Gospel,	33:48
	that in Jesus who was and is the Christ	33:51
	you and I are forgiven.	33:55
	Let us give thanks for God is good	34:01
	and God's love is everlasting.	34:04
	Thanks be to God, whose love creates us.	34:07
	Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us.	34:11
	Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future.	34:15
	My friends, students, families,	34:22
	I welcome you to Duke Chapel	34:27
	on this special Saturday afternoon,	34:30
	on a very special weekend in the lives	34:33
	of you and your families and friends.	34:35
	And I want to take a moment to welcome	34:40
	Bishop Kenneth Goodson to our pulpit.	34:43
	Bishop Goodson is the bishop in residence	34:46
	at the Duke Divinity School,	34:49
	but more than that he is a warm and gracious human being,	34:52
	and an able preacher.	34:57
	Bishop Goodson, it is good to have you here this afternoon,	34:59
	and we look forward to the proclamation of God's word.	35:02
-	Let us pray.	35:20
	O God, you who commanded the light	35:23
	to shine out of darkness,	35:26
	shine into our hearts to give the light	35:28
	of the knowledge of your glory, Amen.	35:31
	The Old Testament lesson is the first Psalm.	35:38
	Blessed is the man who walks not	35:42
	in the council of the wicked,	35:44
	nor stands in the way of sinners,	35:47
	nor sits in the seat of scoffers,	35:49
	but his delight is in the law of the Lord,	35:52
	and on his law he meditates day and night.	35:55
	He is like a tree planted by streams of water,	36:00
	that yields its fruit in its season,	36:03
	and its leaf does not wither.	36:06
	In all that he does he prospers.	36:09
	The wicked are not so.	36:12
	But are like the chaff which the wind drives away,	36:14
	therefor the wicked will not stand in the judgment,	36:18
	nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,	36:21
	for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,	36:24
	but the way of the wicked will perish.	36:27
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	36:31
	The Epistle lesson is from Timothy.	36:36
	Fight the good fight of the faith.	36:41
	Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called	36:45
	when you made the good confession	36:48
	in the presence of many witnesses.	36:50
	In the presence of God who gives life to all things	36:54
	I charge you to keep the commandment	36:58
	unstained and free from reproach.	37:00
	This will made manifest at the proper time	37:05
	by the blessed and only sovereign,	37:08
	the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,	37:10
	who alone has immortality	37:13
	and dwells in unapproachable light.	37:15
	Whom no man has ever seen or can see.	37:18
	To Him be honor and eternal dominion, Amen.	37:22
	As for the rich in this world,	37:27
	charge them not to be haughty	37:29
	nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches	37:31
	but on God who richly furnishes us	37:35
	with everything to enjoy.	37:39
	They are to do good.	37:42
	To be rich in good deeds.	37:44
	Liberal and generous.	37:47
	Thus laying up for themselves a good foundation	37:49
	for the future,	37:53
	so that they may take hold of the life	37:54
	which is life indeed.	37:56
	O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.	37:59
	Avoid the Godless chatter and contradictions	38:02
	of what is falsely called knowledge,	38:05
	for by professing it some have missed the mark	38:08
	as regards the faith, grace be with you.	38:14
	Here ends the reading from the Epistle.	38:18
	(religious organ music)	38:33
	(choir singing in foreign language)	39:17
-	Will the congregation please stand	44:30
	for the reading of the Gospel?	44:32
	The lesson is from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.	44:39
	For it will be as when a man going on a journey	44:45
	called his servants and entrusted to them his property.	44:50
	To one he gave five talents, to another two.	44:54
	To another one, to each according to his ability.	44:58
	Then he went away.	45:02
	He who had received the five talents	45:04
	went at once and traded with them,	45:07
	and he made five talents more.	45:09
	So too he who had the two talents made two talents more.	45:12
	But he who had received the one talent	45:18
	went and dug in the ground and his his master's money.	45:20
	Now after a long time, the master of those servants	45:24
	came and settled accounts with them.	45:27
	And he who had received the five talents	45:31
	came forward bringing five talents more	45:33
	saying, master, you delivered to me five talents	45:36
	here I made five talents more.	45:39
	His master said to him well done,	45:43
	good and faithful servant.	45:45
	You have been faithful over a little,	45:47
	I will set you over much.	45:49
	Enter into the joy of your master.	45:51
	And he also who had the two talents came forward,	45:55
	saying master, you delivered to me two talents	45:58
	here I have made two talents more.	46:02
	His master said to him well done,	46:05
	good and faithful servant.	46:08
	You have been faithful over a little,	46:10
	I will set you over much.	46:12
	Enter into the joy of your master.	46:14
	He also who had received the one talent came forward	46:18
	saying master, I knew you to be a hard man,	46:22
	reaping where you did not sow	46:27
	and gathering where you did not winter, so I was afraid,	46:29
	and I went and hid your talent in the ground.	46:32
	Here you have what is yours.	46:37
	But his master answered him you wicked and slothful servant,	46:40
	you knew that I reap where I have not sowed	46:44
	and gather where I have not wintered,	46:47
	then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers	46:49
	and at my coming I should have received	46:52
	what was mine own with interest.	46:55
	So take the talent from him and give it to him	46:58
	who has the 10 talents.	47:00
	For to everyone who has will more be given,	47:03
	and he will have abundance.	47:07
	But from him who has not even what he has	47:09
	will be taken away.	47:12
	Here ends the reading from the Gospel, Amen.	47:15
	(religious organ music)	47:19
	(choir singing drowned out by organ)	47:28
-	May I begin by assuring you that I know quite well	48:32
	in my own mind and heart	48:35
	that is an awesome and frightening responsibility	48:38
	to stand in front of you for these few minutes.	48:42
	To say on behalf of all of us who love Duke University	48:46
	as indeed we do,	48:50
	a word not only about the faith of the institution,	48:53
	and our own faith,	48:56
	but a word about the world	48:58
	in which that faith has to be lived on.	49:00
	For any of us who spent even an hour in our	49:04
	schooling in the chapel at Duke University,	49:07
	there is an unusual something about this building	49:10
	that is untouchable and inexpressible.	49:14
	And no one could be conscious of the awesomeness	49:19
	of this moment	49:22
	than a simple man who stands in your presence at this time.	49:25

-	Somewhere about the year 90 to 110 AD,	0:04
	an old man sat down in the ancient town	0:06
	of Laodicea to write a letter.	0:09
	He was an exponent of a new faith,	0:14
	a new idea, a new culture, a new language.	0:15
	He was one of that small minority of people in his day	0:21
	who believed that love might be better than hatred,	0:24
	Who believed that right might be better than wrong,	0:28
	who believed that goodness	0:32
	might be better than its opposite.	0:33
	He found himself deeply attached to his spiritual way	0:36
	to a man who Fulton Oursler called	0:40
	the greatest name in human history.	0:42
	He did not understand all the meaning of his faith,	0:46
	he only knew that he understood	0:49
	something had happened to him	0:50
	which he'd never been completely able to appropriate.	0:52
	It has been the testimony of the ages.	0:56
	And so for the last half of the century	1:00
	he's been running up and down the world,	1:02
	the world of his day, 20 centuries ago,	1:04
	talking a little here and preaching a little there	1:06
	and getting in trouble a bit here	1:09
	and in trouble a bit there.	1:11
	40 times have I been beaten,	1:15
	thrice have I been shipwrecked,	1:17
	I bear on my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.	1:19
	He would have known what Dietrich Bonhoeffer	1:24
	was to say centuries later,	1:26
	he would have known a bit about the cost of discipleship.	1:28
	And now his ministry is about done,	1:33
	his ministry is about over,	1:35
	he has come in his sense, not in his youth,	1:37
	but in his old age.	1:39
	He has come to his graduation to his commencement,	1:41
	but he leaves it not only with a bit of hesitation,	1:46
	for he hates to give it up as any man would do	1:49
	or any person would do,	1:51
	but he sits down in the ancient town of Laodicea	1:53
	to write a letter to a young man	1:57
	to whom he has entrusted the gospel.	1:58
	And among the loveliest bits of all human literature	2:04
	that we possess on this earth,	2:08
	of the letters that we know,	2:09
	and from which the President read a few moments ago	2:11
	that we called The Epistles to Timothy.	2:14
	Timothy, a young man who had found	2:18
	something great and something good,	2:20
	and something fine and something keen	2:22
	in the life of an old man,	2:25
	who had seen the authentic in human relations,	2:28
	who had seen the authentic in human commitment,	2:31
	in human dedication.	2:34
	And not only he'd seen it, but who had been drawn to it,	2:37
	and had decided to follow it.	2:40
	For our generation it's not the only generation	2:43
	that is able to recognize a phoney,	2:46
	so was the first century.	2:49
	Timothy knew that whatever there was	2:50
	in a little hunchback man called Paul.	2:53
	Something was real and great and fine	2:56
	and Timothy went along with him.	2:58
	Now the end of Paul's life is beginning to come.	3:02
	You've heard it has been read,	3:05
	I fought the good fight,	3:08
	henceforth there is laid up for me.	3:09
	And not only for me,	3:12
	but for all of those who keep the faith,	3:13
	a crown of righteousness at the end of the journey.	3:16
	It isn't the end of the journey	3:21
	that concerns me at this moment.	3:23
	It is almost the alpha, the beginning of the journey.	3:25
	An old man out of the bounds of an endless friendship	3:30
	sits down to write a letter to a young man,	3:36
	"Timothy, my son...	3:38
	One can feel almost the developing friendship	3:43
	of the old apostle as he writes	3:48
	to his young friend, Timothy.	3:50
	"Timothy, my son,	3:52
	"fight the good fight of faith.	3:55
	"Lay hold on eternal life,	3:59
	"and keep what has been committed to your care."	4:03
	If I could have any single desire	4:09
	out of the graduating class this weekend,	4:11
	and the times it shall be mine to address them	4:13
	on behalf of the university,	4:16
	and one last moment of spiritual counsel with them,	4:18
	I would say that they would never	4:22
	forget the words of the text,	4:24
	"Fight the good fight of faith.	4:26
	"Lay hold on eternal life.	4:29
	"Keep that which has been committed to thy care.	4:33
	"Fight the good fight of faith."	4:36
	The longer you live in this kind of a world,	4:39
	the more difficult you will find it is to believe.	4:42
	Dr. Fosdick reminded us a generation ago	4:47
	that every human being has energies,	4:49
	which it is his will to direct,	4:52
	that the criticism which best fits a lot of people is	4:56
	that they have been less and less they have been inactive,	5:00
	but that they have spent themselves	5:03
	in the wrong direction of their own lives.	5:05
	How terrible Dr. Fosdick said it is	5:10
	that we misuse our pugnacity,	5:13
	and then reminds us the pugnacity ill used	5:17
	can be the cause of economic and social ruin.	5:20
	The pugnacity well used can be the	5:24
	soil out of which social redemption comes.	5:28
	If only the 20th century could be constrained	5:33
	to unite in a good fight,	5:37
	fight the good fight of faith.	5:41
	You do not have to live very long in this kind of a world	5:43
	to know that there are crosses that are in it.	5:46
	If only we could be constrained to fight	5:51
	the good fight of faith against disease,	5:53
	against poverty, against social evils,	5:57
	what an unusually different world this would become.	5:59
	Every now and again we find out	6:05
	that we have to fight this out in our own lives.	6:07
	I did not come to remind the graduating class today	6:12
-	They have infinitely more sense than this-	6:15
	I did not come to remind them	6:17
	that these are dangerous times in which they're living.	6:19
	I did not come to remind them,	6:25
	that the world stands at the inevitable crossroads	6:26
	where every generation and human history has stood.	6:30
	I did not come to remind them	6:36
	that a total security that is based on nuclear fission	6:38
	is not always a reliable security.	6:42
	I didn't come to tell them these were hard times,	6:48
	I came to tell them that these were good and glorious times,	6:50
	but I came to remind them	6:54
	that in addition to the good and the glorious times,	6:56
	and the moment in which we live,	6:59
	there come that inner hour of decision	7:01
	on the part of human beings, men and women,	7:04
	a generation of college graduates	7:09
	who have to fight out	7:13
	in the deep of their own hearts.	7:16
	What manner of person you'd be?	7:21
	The episteme that it constitutes a challenge	7:27
	to every thinking human being.	7:31
	I sometimes have the feeling that what irritates you	7:36
	must be as big a test of character, is what pleases you.	7:42
	What could I say to a community,	7:53
	getting together in a place like this,	7:56
	to come to commencement weekend.	7:58
	I'd say to them first of all, fight the good fight of faith.	8:00
	It is not always easy to be,	8:04
	but in the deep of your own heart you want to be.	8:08
	Not only would I remind you	8:17
	to fight the good fight of faith,	8:18
	I would remind you to...	8:20
	As Paul was reminding Timothy,	8:22
	I would remind you to lay hold upon eternal life,	8:24
	but at an average age of 22	8:28
	who is interested in eternal life.	8:30
	It is in the eternal life there,	8:35
	pie and pie in the sky, by and by,	8:36
	this isn't what I'm talking about.	8:39
	I'm talking about the worthy ends	8:43
	that belong to life itself.	8:47
	I was interested a few years ago,	8:51
	when in all the schools of France an examination	8:54
	with a single question was distributed	8:57
	to those who were in elementary school	9:00
	and the lower grades of what we would call high school.	9:03
	The single question was, who do you to believe	9:07
	to be the greatest Frenchman in all of history?	9:10
	And they circulated the examination in all of the schools.	9:21
	Everybody, of course knew about the little emperor	9:24
	who brought Europe to its knees and blood.	9:29
	Surely Bonaparte would have been	9:34
	the greatest of all the Frenchman	9:35
	with all of his mighty men, all of his power,	9:37
	but when the report was in	9:43
	and all the examinations had been passed to the front	9:45
	and the calculations in the French schools had been made,	9:49
	the greatest of all the Frenchman	9:53
	was not Napoleon Bonaparte,	9:55
	the greatest of all the Frenchman was Louis Pasteur.	9:59
	I saluted him at breakfast this morning.	10:07
	I salute him at breakfast every morning	10:13
	when I see his name on the carton that bears my milk.	10:16
	(audience laughs)	10:19
	And then I remember the words of Robert Louis Stevenson	10:23
	that the human being doesn't have a ghost of a chance	10:26
	to be remembered 50 years after his death	10:29
	unless he has been one of the servants of mankind.	10:33
	So you've come to the point of graduation.	10:40
	What do you intend to do now?	10:45
	Find a job, get a place, build a home,	10:49
	but as long as you live the important part	10:53
	will still be the human equation.	10:56
	What have you laid hold upon?	10:59
	Or even maybe more accurately,	11:04
	what has laid hold upon you?	11:09
	Let it'd be something worthy of you,	11:18
	something solid, something lasting,	11:21
	such a (mumbles) upon the prizes	11:25
	that human life cannot destroy,	11:27
	upon character, upon integrity,	11:31
	upon communion with God.	11:36
	I love to walk from my office	11:43
	in the Divinity School past the chapel.	11:45
	I used to come in and sit in it	11:50
	but the hour when I was a student here.	11:52
	Among the things I liked most about it	11:57
	is that it reminds me of the oldest	12:03
	continuing business	12:06
	there is on earth.	12:09
	Lay hold on something eternal,	12:15
	something good, something great,	12:20
	something clean,	12:24
	something fine.	12:27
	You see the old man writing the letter to Timothy,	12:31
	"Timothy, fight the good fight of faith."	12:34
	If you don't believe, believing is a tussle,	12:37
	and you've never run up against a secular city.	12:44
	Lay hold upon eternal life.	12:52
	But first one you all had it right,	12:59
	what we're really witnessing today is a head-on fight,	13:01
	a head-on fight	13:05
	between men who hold different points of view	13:08
	concerning the end of life.	13:12
	If our conception of the end of life is Christian,	13:17
	but not in the secular sense.	13:22
	If we are Christian,	13:26
	if we are persuaded the things material,	13:27
	cannot of themselves satisfy us.	13:30
	That will determine not only our attitude toward life,	13:35
	but our attitude toward each other.	13:41
	"Timothy, my son,	13:45
	"keep what has been committed to your care."	13:50
	Timothy had entered into a noble heritage.	13:56
	The faith had been given to him,	14:01
	so Paul has said in the letter,	14:02
	"I am reminded of the faith	14:04
	"that is in your grandmother, Lois;	14:06
	"your mother, Eunice.	14:08
	"And because of the very background of your life,	14:11
	"I know it must be in you as well."	14:16
	You could not see because you were here,	14:22
	but as those of us who were in the far end	14:27
	of the processional and watched it all,	14:29
	we were asked to stand back	14:34
	so that parents with cameras	14:39
	could catch one fleeting moment in your life,	14:44
	in which they so deeply share.	14:50
	I'm reminded of your heritage,	14:58
	I'm reminded of the nurture and of the dedication	15:03
	and of the sacrifice and of the love that brought you here.	15:06
	And that now stands in unimpaired joy	15:12
	to salute your graduation day.	15:18
	We too have entered into a noble heritage.	15:26
	We are the benefactors of other men's labors,	15:30
	and we enjoy blessings	15:32
	which have come to us in other men's pains	15:34
	and we have come out of other men's sacrifice	15:37
	and other men's suffering.	15:40
	Such things are not our own, Timothy.	15:45
	We are simply trustees.	15:49
	The values and the sanctities and the privileges of life	15:55
	have been committed to your care.	16:00
	I was not very long ago	16:12
	in the ancient German town of Dachau.	16:17
	It was in Dachau that the ovens consumed human life,	16:27
	32,000 of them.	16:31
	I walked in a parade of silence	16:37
	across the remains of the Dachau prison.	16:39
	I stood in front of the furnaces,	16:46
	and that still linger with almost an unforgettable odor.	16:51
	And when I stood there I read out of an ancient book,	17:05
	"If any man would fulfill the purpose,	17:08
	"for which he was sent into the world,	17:11
	"let him fight the good fight of faith,	17:15
	"lay hold on eternal life,	17:19
	"and keep what has been committed to his trust."	17:22
	As we turned around to leave Dachau,	17:29
	there is a huge sign	17:35
	done so beautifully	17:38
	in its technical appearance	17:40
	that carries the message of the 20th century	17:46
	it appears to me,	17:49
	I hope really they never have to take it down,	17:52
	but I turned to get one last glimpse.	17:59
	It simply said,	18:02
	"Never again."	18:08
	I wish I could welcome you into a world where	18:15
	God's in his heaven and all is right with the world,	18:18
	that's only half so	18:22
	but I welcome you into an aching world,	18:26
	and a pained world,	18:30
	and an exciting world.	18:34
	"Timothy,	18:40
	"my son,	18:42
	"fight the good fight of faith.	18:47
	"Lay hold upon something decent	18:51
	"and great and strong and fine.	18:53
	"Let it lay hold upon you,	18:58
	"and keep what has been committed to your care."	19:02
	On Tuesday of this week,	19:11
	which is May, the 8th,	19:12
	I will take a moment	19:17
	as my wife and I walk along to a meeting,	19:20
	and I will thank God for my father,	19:25
	for it will be the 118 anniversary of his birth.	19:29
	He never had the chance at a school like this.	19:39
	He grew up in the days in the high hills	19:44
	when an itinerant teacher would come through	19:48
	and stay for the season,	19:50
	and then move on.	19:53
	He had no formal education,	19:56
	but he sent his sons	20:00
	through the university.	20:04
	I grew up in a little town	20:08
	in the middle part of North Carolina.	20:09
	Good little town, great little town.	20:13
	We pride ourselves of being	20:18
	the first city in North Carolina	20:20
	to build a million-dollar high school.	20:23
	There weren't any then.	20:29
	My little town built one.	20:31
	I was in the first graduating class	20:35
	to spend four years in it.	20:37
	One afternoon I said to my father,	20:41
	"I'd like to take you by and show you the new school."	20:50
	He consented to go	20:57
	because his son had asked him,	20:59
	and we rode along until we came to it.	21:03
	There it was,	21:07
	more than 50 years ago	21:15
	beautifully built,	21:23
	technically correct,	21:25
	and how proud we were of a million dollars.	21:29
	And my (mumbles) said to my dad,	21:35
	"Old fellow,	21:41
	"don't you wish	21:47
	"you could have gone to a school like that?"	21:48
	And my father put his hand over on my knee	21:57
	and said, "Don't you ever forget	22:00
	"to whom much is given,	22:04
	"much shall be required."	22:08
	"Timothy,	22:15
	"my son,	22:17
	"keep what has been committed to your trust.	22:20
	"Fight a good fight,	22:25
	"and let something great	22:30
	command your strength."	22:35
	In the name of the Father	22:38
	and the Son and the Holy Spirit,	22:40
	Amen.	22:43
	(soft piano music)	22:51
	(choir singing gospel hymn)	23:16
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	25:02
	We believe in God	25:06
	who has created and is creating,	25:08
	(congregation praying)	25:10
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	25:11
	to reconcile and make new.	25:14
	We trust God who calls us to the church,	25:17
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	25:22
	to love and serve others,	25:25
	to seek justice and resist evil,	25:27
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	25:31
	our Judge and our Hope.	25:35
	In life, in death;	25:37
	in life, beyond death,	25:40
	God is with us.	25:42
	We are not alone.	25:44
	Thanks be to God!	25:46
	The Lord be with you.	25:49
	(congregation praying)	25:51
	Let us pray.	25:53
	Our eternal God before whose face	26:09
	generations rise and pass away	26:12
	age after age of the living seek you	26:16
	and find that of your faithfulness	26:19
	there is no end.	26:22
	For you are the inspirer of every prayer,	26:24
	the giver of all wisdom,	26:28
	the source of all truth,	26:31
	the beginning of all human freedom,	26:34
	and the end of all human responsibility.	26:37
	Look now, oh God,	26:41
	upon this community of learning.	26:43
	Let it ever remain faithful to you,	26:46
	to the truth as we come to know it in you	26:50
	and in your son, Jesus Christ.	26:54
	Keep us ever from surrendering truth	26:57
	or giving over freedom.	27:00
	To those who in fear or faithlessness,	27:03
	tell us that we must fight evil with evil,	27:07
	falsehood with lies	27:11
	or tyranny with ways of tyrants.	27:13
	Let this, your university	27:17
	be a light of truth in a world of darkness,	27:20
	a witness to freedom in a world	27:24
	where many are enslaved,	27:26
	a place where all people	27:29
	shall come to know the good	27:31
	and to know you,	27:34
	the wellspring of all good.	27:35
	We pray for our graduates,	27:39
	those present,	27:42
	those who have gone before,	27:44
	and those who are yet to come	27:46
	that in the midst of timid uncertainty,	27:49
	they may boldly stand for something;	27:52
	in the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal;	27:56
	in the midst of false prophets,	28:01
	they may look to your kingdom in Christ	28:03
	as the hope of the world.	28:06
	And that in the midst of careless ease,	28:08
	they may mount up with wings as eagles,	28:11
	may run and not be weary,	28:15
	may walk and not faint.	28:18
	Hear our prayer as in	28:21
	praise and thanksgiving	28:23
	for all that we now have and hold.	28:26
	We pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ,	28:29
	who taught us to pray saying,	28:32
	Our Father,	28:36
	Who art in heaven	28:37
	(congregation praying)	28:38
	Hallowed be Thy Name;	28:39
	Thy kingdom come,	28:41
	Thy will be done,	28:43
	on earth as it is in heaven.	28:44
	Give us this day our daily bread,	28:47
	and forgive us our trespasses,	28:49
	as we forgive those who trespass against us;	28:52
	and lead us not into temptation,	28:56
	but deliver us from evil.	28:58
	For thine is the kingdom,	29:01
	and the power and the glory forever.	29:03
	Amen.	29:06
	(piano music)	29:19
	(choir singing gospel hymn)	29:28
	Will you stand?	36:35
	Let us join together in the responsive prayer	36:42
	of gratitude and hope.	36:46
	Almighty God, as you've granted us	36:49
	place and part in this university,	36:51
	hallow to us now this day	36:55
	when we dedicate ourselves to the life	36:57
	and work to which you have called us	37:00
	that we may remember with gratitude	37:04
	the families and friends who have cared for us.	37:06
	(congregation praying)	37:11
	That in the life ahead of us we may keep faith	37:14
	with those who have loved us and trusted us,	37:17
	and whose hopes follow us.	37:21
	(congregation praying)	37:24
	That we may enter with good courage	37:26
	and constant purpose upon the task which await us.	37:29
	(congregation praying)	37:34
	From all sense of strangeness and loneliness	37:36
	and from the fear that we may fail	37:40
	or may find no new friends.	37:43
	(congregation praying)	37:46
	From neglect of the opportunities	37:48
	which are all about us,	37:51
	and from distrust of our ability	37:53
	to meet the duties of each dawning day.	37:55
	(congregation praying)	37:59
	That the example of wise and generous people	38:02
	who have gone before us in our families	38:05
	and here in this university may save us	38:09
	from folly and self-indulgence.	38:13
	(congregation praying)	38:16
	More especially that you'd show to us	38:19
	and to all people your way of love	38:22
	in a time when all of us desperately	38:26
	need to love and to be loved.	38:29
	(congregation praying)	38:32
	These things and whatever else	38:35
	you see needful and right for us,	38:37
	we ask in your holy name.	38:40
	Amen.	38:43
	(congregation praying)	38:44
	(piano music)	38:47
	(choir singing gospel hymn)	39:29
	And now the peace of God	43:13
	which passes all understanding,	43:15
	keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge	43:18
	and love of God, our Father almighty.	43:21
	And in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,	43:25
	may always be among you	43:30
	and remain with you always.	43:33
	Amen.	43:36
	(choir singing gospel hymn)	43:41
	(piano music)	44:53

Item Info

Title:

W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1984)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1): 48:32. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 22:45.
We must fight to hold onto to the faith that has been passed on to us, and strive to lay hold of those things that are good and true. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “If our conception of the end of life is Christian…if we are Christian, if we are persuaded the things material cannot of themselves satisfy us, that will determine not only our attitude toward life, but our attitude toward each other.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4804z014

Date:

May 5, 1984

Speaker:

Goodson, W. Kenneth

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0207
ref7935_dvl
uachapelsermaud
duke:320340
dcrau001195
ark:/87924/r4804z014
edc1fa81-ce92-41d6-bfab-d0e8560876ba

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1984)

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1. W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service (May 6, 1984)

2. W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service 10:00 am (May 6, 1984)

3. W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 6, 1984)

Duke University Archives

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W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1984)

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