W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 6, 1984)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (organ music) | 0:03 | |
| ♪ Beautiful Savior ♪ | 19:40 | |
| ♪ Lord of the nations ♪ | 19:47 | |
| ♪ Son of God ♪ | 19:55 | |
| ♪ And Son of Man ♪ | 20:01 | |
| ♪ Glory and honor ♪ | 20:09 | |
| ♪ Praise, adoration ♪ | 20:19 | |
| ♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 20:26 | |
| ♪ Be Thine ♪ | 20:33 | |
| ♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 20:39 | |
| ♪ Be Thine ♪ | 20:54 | |
| (organ music) | 21:08 | |
| ♪ All praise to thee ♪ | 21:50 | |
| ♪ For thou O King divine ♪ | 21:53 | |
| ♪ Didst yield the glory ♪ | 21:59 | |
| ♪ That of right was thine ♪ | 22:04 | |
| ♪ That in our troubled hearts ♪ | 22:10 | |
| ♪ Thy grace might shine ♪ | 22:15 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:20 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:25 | |
| ♪ Thou camest to us ♪ | 22:34 | |
| ♪ In lowliness of thought ♪ | 22:38 | |
| ♪ By thee the outcast ♪ | 22:43 | |
| ♪ And the poor were sought ♪ | 22:49 | |
| ♪ And by thy death ♪ | 22:54 | |
| ♪ Was God's salvation wrought ♪ | 23:00 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:05 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:11 | |
| ♪ Let this mind be in us ♪ | 23:18 | |
| ♪ Which was in thee ♪ | 23:24 | |
| ♪ Who wast a servant ♪ | 23:28 | |
| ♪ That we might be free ♪ | 23:35 | |
| ♪ Humbling thyself ♪ | 23:40 | |
| ♪ To death on Calvary ♪ | 23:44 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:50 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:55 | |
| ♪ Wherefore by God's ♪ | 24:03 | |
| ♪ Eternal purpose ♪ | 24:08 | |
| ♪ Thou art high exalted ♪ | 24:14 | |
| ♪ O'er all creatures now ♪ | 24:19 | |
| ♪ And given the name to which ♪ | 24:24 | |
| ♪ All knees shall bow ♪ | 24:31 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:35 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:40 | |
| ♪ Let every tongue confess ♪ | 24:47 | |
| ♪ With one accord ♪ | 24:53 | |
| ♪ In heaven and earth ♪ | 24:57 | |
| ♪ That Jesus Christ is Lord ♪ | 25:03 | |
| ♪ And God eternal ♪ | 25:09 | |
| ♪ Be by all adored ♪ | 25:15 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 25:20 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 25:26 | |
| - | The genius of God who we gather to worship | 25:55 |
| is revealed in the creation of atoms | 25:58 | |
| that attract and repel and the creation of water that rises | 26:01 | |
| from the oceans and falls as snow upon the mountains | 26:06 | |
| and runs upon the earth as rivers. | 26:11 | |
| In the music and poetry, and art which exposed the sacred | 26:14 | |
| and nourished the human soul. | 26:20 | |
| In the human yearnings for knowledge. | 26:23 | |
| In the urgings of the human heart to do justice. | 26:26 | |
| Gathering in this place of old stones and sacred memories | 26:31 | |
| let us remember who draws us to this place. | 26:37 | |
| Come, by God's truth let us be set free | 26:41 | |
| and to God let us honestly make our confession. | 26:46 | |
| O holy God, to whose service we long ago | 27:12 | |
| dedicated our souls and lives, | 27:16 | |
| we grieve and lament before you | 27:19 | |
| that we are still so prone to sin | 27:22 | |
| and so little inclined to obedience. | 27:25 | |
| Attached to the pleasure of sense, | 27:28 | |
| negligent of things spiritual, | 27:31 | |
| prompt to gratify our bodies, slow to nourish our souls. | 27:34 | |
| Greedy for present delight, | 27:40 | |
| indifferent to lasting blessedness. | 27:42 | |
| Fond of idleness, indisposed for labor. | 27:45 | |
| Soon at play, late at prayer. | 27:50 | |
| Brisk in the service of self, | 27:53 | |
| slack in the service of others. | 27:56 | |
| Eager to get, reluctant to give. | 27:59 | |
| Lofty in our professions, low in our practice. | 28:02 | |
| Full of good intentions, backward to fulfill them. | 28:07 | |
| Severe with our neighbors, indulgent with ourselves. | 28:12 | |
| So eager to find fault, | 28:17 | |
| so resentful at being found fault with. | 28:19 | |
| So little able for great tasks, | 28:23 | |
| so discontented with small ones. | 28:26 | |
| So weak in adversity, so swollen | 28:29 | |
| and self-satisfied in prosperity. | 28:32 | |
| So helpless apart from you, | 28:35 | |
| and yet so little willing to be bound to you. | 28:38 | |
| O merciful heart of God, grant us yet forgiveness | 28:42 | |
| for your name's sake. | 28:46 | |
| Amen. | 28:48 | |
| Who is in a position to condemn? | 29:10 | |
| Christ only. | 29:14 | |
| And Christ died for us, | 29:16 | |
| Christ rose for us, | 29:19 | |
| Christ reigns in power for us, | 29:21 | |
| Christ prays for us. | 29:25 | |
| If we are in Christ then we are a new people. | 29:28 | |
| The past is finished, it is done with | 29:33 | |
| and what lies before us is a future, | 29:37 | |
| new, fresh, full of possibility. | 29:40 | |
| My sisters, my brothers, know and believe | 29:46 | |
| the good news of the Gospel, | 29:50 | |
| that in Jesus who was and is the Christ, | 29:53 | |
| you and I are forgiven. | 29:57 | |
| Let us give thanks for God is good | 30:03 | |
| and God's love is everlasting. | 30:05 | |
| Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 30:08 | |
| Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 30:12 | |
| Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 30:16 | |
| I am delighted to be able to welcome each of you | 30:23 | |
| and especially the graduating seniors | 30:27 | |
| to this special service of worship on Baccalaureate Sunday. | 30:30 | |
| It is a special day for you and your families | 30:35 | |
| and we are delighted that you take time | 30:38 | |
| to worship and to be in this place. | 30:41 | |
| On behalf of the ministers to the University, | 30:44 | |
| and the staff of the chapel, I welcome you in Christ's name | 30:48 | |
| and say to you, congratulations. | 30:52 | |
| It is also my pleasure to introduce to you | 30:56 | |
| our preacher of the morning, Bishop Kenneth Goodson. | 30:59 | |
| Bishop Goodson is bishop in residence | 31:04 | |
| at the Duke Divinity School | 31:07 | |
| and as such, he is a pastor to pastors | 31:10 | |
| but he is also a friend to the University | 31:14 | |
| and a very warm and gracious human being, | 31:16 | |
| and more than that, he is an able preacher. | 31:20 | |
| He brings all of these qualities | 31:23 | |
| to the Word which he will proclaim this day. | 31:25 | |
| Bishop Goodson, we look forward to the preaching | 31:28 | |
| of that Word and welcome you to Duke pulpit. | 31:30 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 31:42 |
| O God, you who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, | 31:46 | |
| shine into our hearts to give the light | 31:51 | |
| of the knowledge of your glory. | 31:53 | |
| Amen. | 31:56 | |
| The Old Testament lesson is the first Psalm. | 32:00 | |
| Blessed is the man who walks not | 32:04 | |
| in the counsel of the wicked, | 32:07 | |
| nor stands in the way of sinners, | 32:09 | |
| nor sits in the seat of scoffers, | 32:11 | |
| but his delight is in the law of the Lord | 32:13 | |
| and on his law he meditates day and night. | 32:16 | |
| He is like a tree planted by the streams of water | 32:20 | |
| that yields its fruit in its season | 32:23 | |
| and its leaf does not wither. | 32:26 | |
| In all that he does he prospers. | 32:29 | |
| The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff | 32:31 | |
| which the wind drives away, | 32:34 | |
| therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, | 32:36 | |
| nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous | 32:39 | |
| for the Lord knows the way of the righteous | 32:42 | |
| but the way of the wicked will perish. | 32:45 | |
| Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 32:49 | |
| The epistle lesson is from Timothy. | 32:53 | |
| Fight the good fight of faith. | 32:58 | |
| Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called | 33:01 | |
| when you made the good confession | 33:04 | |
| in the presence of many witnesses. | 33:06 | |
| In the presence of God who gives life to all things, | 33:09 | |
| I charge you to keep the commandment, | 33:13 | |
| unstained and free from reproach. | 33:15 | |
| And this will be made manifest at the proper time | 33:19 | |
| by the blessed and only sovereign, | 33:22 | |
| the King of kings and Lord of lords, | 33:25 | |
| who alone has immortality and dwells | 33:28 | |
| in unapproachable light, who no man | 33:31 | |
| has ever seen or can see. | 33:35 | |
| To him, the honor and eternal dominion. | 33:38 | |
| Amen. | 33:41 | |
| As for the rich in this world, | 33:42 | |
| Charge them not to be haughty, | 33:44 | |
| nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches | 33:47 | |
| but on God, who rightly furnishes us | 33:50 | |
| with everything to enjoy. | 33:54 | |
| They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, | 33:57 | |
| liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves | 34:01 | |
| a good foundation for the future | 34:04 | |
| so that they may take hold of the life | 34:07 | |
| which is life indeed. | 34:09 | |
| O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. | 34:11 | |
| Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions | 34:16 | |
| of what is falsely called knowledge | 34:18 | |
| for by professing it, some have missed the mark | 34:21 | |
| as regards the faith. | 34:24 | |
| Grace be with you. | 34:27 | |
| Here ends the reading from the epistle. | 34:29 | |
| (organ music) | 34:43 | |
| (choir singing in foreign language) | 35:24 | |
| Will the congregation please stand | 40:02 | |
| for the reading of the Gospel. | 40:05 | |
| The lesson is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. | 40:13 | |
| For it will be is when a man going on a journey | 40:18 | |
| called his servants and entrusted to them his property. | 40:21 | |
| To one he gave 10 talents, to another two, to another, one. | 40:25 | |
| To each according to his ability, | 40:29 | |
| and then he went away. | 40:33 | |
| He who had received five talents | 40:34 | |
| went at once and traded with them | 40:36 | |
| and he made five talents more. | 40:39 | |
| So too, he who had the two talents | 40:41 | |
| made two talents more. | 40:43 | |
| But he who had received the one talent | 40:46 | |
| went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. | 40:48 | |
| Now after a long time, the master of those servants | 40:53 | |
| came and settled accounts with them. | 40:55 | |
| And he who had received the five talents | 40:58 | |
| came forward, bringing five talents more saying, | 41:01 | |
| "Master, you delivered to me five talents, | 41:05 | |
| "here I have made five talents more." | 41:07 | |
| His master said to him, | 41:11 | |
| "Well done, good and faithful servant. | 41:12 | |
| "You have been faithful over a little, | 41:15 | |
| "I will set you over much. | 41:17 | |
| "Enter into the joy of your master." | 41:18 | |
| And he also who had the two talents came forward | 41:21 | |
| saying, "Master, you delivered to me two talents, | 41:24 | |
| "here I have made two talents more." | 41:28 | |
| And his master said to him, | 41:30 | |
| "Well done, good and faithful servant. | 41:32 | |
| "You have been faithful over a little | 41:35 | |
| "and I will set you over much. | 41:37 | |
| "Enter into the joy of your master." | 41:39 | |
| He also who had received the one talent | 41:43 | |
| came forward saying, "Master, I knew you | 41:45 | |
| "to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow | 41:48 | |
| "and gathering where you did not winter | 41:51 | |
| "and so I was afraid and I went | 41:53 | |
| "and hid your talent in the ground. | 41:55 | |
| "Here, you have what is yours." | 41:59 | |
| But the master answered him, | 42:01 | |
| "You wicked and slothful servant. | 42:02 | |
| "You knew I reap where I had not sowed | 42:05 | |
| "and gather where I have not wintered. | 42:07 | |
| "Then you ought to have invested my money | 42:09 | |
| "with the bankers and at my coming | 42:12 | |
| "I should have received what was mine own with interest. | 42:14 | |
| "So take the talent from him and give it to him | 42:17 | |
| "who has 10 talents, for to everyone who has | 42:20 | |
| "will more be given and he will have abundance, | 42:24 | |
| "but from he who has not even what he has | 42:28 | |
| "will be taken away." | 42:31 | |
| Here ends the reading of the Gospel. | 42:33 | |
| (organ music) | 42:37 | |
| ♪ Glory be to our Creator ♪ | 42:45 | |
| ♪ Praise to our Redeemer ♪ | 42:53 | |
| ♪ Glory be to our Sustainer ♪ | 42:59 | |
| ♪ Ever three and ever one ♪ | 43:07 | |
| ♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 43:15 | |
| ♪ Ever shall be ♪ | 43:22 | |
| ♪ Amen. ♪ | 43:27 | |
| - | May I begin by very personal word this morning | 43:44 |
| to tell you and assure you what an awesome | 43:47 | |
| and frightening experience it is | 43:50 | |
| to stand here in the presence of one of | 43:54 | |
| America's great churches | 43:56 | |
| and to address its graduating class | 44:00 | |
| on the final weekend of its life at Duke University. | 44:03 | |
| For any of us who have gone to Duke | 44:09 | |
| and have loved it across the years as indeed have I | 44:11 | |
| and many others who are gathered, | 44:15 | |
| the Duke chapel has an unusual place | 44:18 | |
| not only on the campus but an unusual place in our lives, | 44:21 | |
| and it is an awesome experience to stand here | 44:26 | |
| in its majesty and marvel at its simplicity. | 44:29 | |
| Somewhere around the year 90 to 110 AD, | 44:36 | |
| an old man sat down in the ancient city of Laodicea | 44:40 | |
| to write a letter. | 44:44 | |
| He was the exponent of a new way of life, | 44:47 | |
| of a new understanding of the meaning of God, | 44:49 | |
| of a new understanding of the meaning | 44:52 | |
| of the purpose of life. | 44:53 | |
| Who'd had an unusual experience on the | 44:56 | |
| road that was leading him to Damascus | 44:59 | |
| and the whole course of his life was changed. | 45:01 | |
| Little did he realize that 20 centuries later, | 45:06 | |
| his name would be quoted more than any other | 45:09 | |
| single name in human history, | 45:11 | |
| with one exception. | 45:14 | |
| Somewhere in the the course | 45:18 | |
| of his itinerary across Asia Minor | 45:19 | |
| and the days that he was an itinerant preacher, | 45:21 | |
| he came to the ancient city of Lystra in Derbe | 45:24 | |
| and there he preached for a long season. | 45:27 | |
| There were two lovely women whom he met while he was there, | 45:31 | |
| one was an elderly woman named Lois | 45:35 | |
| and one was her daughter, Eunice. | 45:36 | |
| Visiting in their home and being part of their | 45:40 | |
| relationships, he came to know their son, Timothy. | 45:43 | |
| And in the course of time, Timothy joined Paul | 45:49 | |
| and became his companion of the way | 45:53 | |
| and for more than half a century | 45:55 | |
| the old man and the young man | 45:57 | |
| insofar as time would allow them, | 46:00 | |
| marched across history together. | 46:02 | |
| And now the old man sits down to write a letter. | 46:07 | |
| He knows full well that his time on Earth is limited, | 46:09 | |
| that his days are numbered. | 46:12 | |
| He has already said I have fought a good fight, | 46:15 | |
| I have kept the faith. | 46:18 | |
| Henceforth, there is laid out for me a crown | 46:19 | |
| that belongs to all of those who keep the faith, | 46:22 | |
| not only to him. | 46:24 | |
| But he's concerned a bit about the future, | 46:29 | |
| where do we go from here, what happens now? | 46:31 | |
| What happens to the faith, what happens to the church? | 46:34 | |
| It's the same kind of concern we have not only | 46:39 | |
| for the members of the graduating class | 46:41 | |
| but for all of the rest of us. | 46:43 | |
| Where does human history go from now? | 46:44 | |
| And so he sits down and begins to write his memoirs | 46:48 | |
| and when he does, he writes another letter | 46:52 | |
| to his young friend, Timothy. | 46:54 | |
| This is the most beautiful relationship | 46:57 | |
| anywhere to be found in the New Testament. | 46:59 | |
| Their common love for Jesus Christ | 47:03 | |
| and the unusual relationship that they each had | 47:06 | |
| for the other's qualities | 47:09 | |
| overcame all differences of ages. | 47:11 | |
| Paul spoke as a father and Timothy listened as a son | 47:15 | |
| and here the experienced disciple, | 47:20 | |
| near the end of his journey, writes a letter | 47:22 | |
| to his young friend, offering him some sound advice | 47:24 | |
| for sound living in the first century. | 47:29 | |
| Only yesterday, he says, was I young | 47:32 | |
| and today now I'm old. | 47:35 | |
| And he pours out of his life and out of his experience | 47:38 | |
| the kinds of things that he wants to say | 47:42 | |
| to his friend Timothy and I reach back | 47:43 | |
| to hold them again today for they | 47:46 | |
| are the kind of things that I would like to say to you. | 47:48 | |
| If we were gathered in a room and none was there but us, | 47:53 | |
| what would I say to you? | 47:56 | |
| I would say what Paul said to Timothy, | 47:58 | |
| I would begin it by saying fight the good fight of faith. | 48:00 | |
| If we have an illusion that all we have to do | 48:07 | |
| is to go in this kind of a world | 48:10 | |
| and everything turns out all right, | 48:12 | |
| then it is illusion under which we're working. | 48:15 | |
| Dr. Fosdick who wrote the recessional hymn | 48:19 | |
| that we shall use in a few moments | 48:21 | |
| said that every human being has energies | 48:23 | |
| that it is his will to direct. | 48:25 | |
| And the criticism which best fits a good many of us | 48:29 | |
| is not that we have been listless | 48:33 | |
| and not that we have been inactive, | 48:35 | |
| but that we have used our energies in the wrong direction. | 48:37 | |
| How terribly, Dr Fosdick reminds us, | 48:43 | |
| do we misuse our pugnacity. | 48:45 |
| - | Reminds us that ill pugnacity, | 0:03 |
| or pugnacity ill-used can help to ruin the world, | 0:05 | |
| while pugnacity well-used can help to redeem it. | 0:09 | |
| If men and women in the twentieth century | 0:15 | |
| could only be constrained to unite in a good fight, | 0:17 | |
| in a fight against disease, against poverty, | 0:22 | |
| against social injustices, what a different kind | 0:25 | |
| of a world we should have. | 0:30 | |
| It's the kind of thing that human being | 0:34 | |
| has to fight out in the secret | 0:36 | |
| of her own life or his own heart. | 0:37 | |
| Paul counsels Timothy that he will have to decide | 0:42 | |
| between selfishness or selflessness. | 0:45 | |
| So he is reminding Timothy to win the larger battle | 0:50 | |
| in the deep of his own soul, | 0:53 | |
| a battle that is going on in the whole world. | 0:57 | |
| It constitutes and appears to me | 1:01 | |
| a challenge to every thinking man. | 1:03 | |
| We're concerned about our own place, | 1:06 | |
| but we're little concerned about the place of others. | 1:07 | |
| We're hurt by our own pain, but too often, | 1:11 | |
| we're unaffected by the pain of our neighbors. | 1:14 | |
| We've all been fighting. | 1:19 | |
| Fighting for something, for some kind of meaning, | 1:22 | |
| for some kind of purpose. | 1:25 | |
| Paul is only reminding us to fight the good fight of faith. | 1:27 | |
| If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had the privilege | 1:37 | |
| of being here this morning, he would talk to you | 1:39 | |
| about the cost of discipleship. | 1:41 | |
| He would talk to you about the meaning of life. | 1:44 | |
| He would talk to you about the purpose of human existence. | 1:46 | |
| Even a child finds out early in life | 1:52 | |
| that if he is determined to set his course | 1:56 | |
| and not to waiver from it, then he will | 2:00 | |
| have to come in contact with a cross. | 2:04 | |
| Four years of college for some and graduate school, | 2:10 | |
| much more to be sure, and now this weekend it is done. | 2:13 | |
| What advice does the preacher have to bring to you? | 2:19 | |
| A simple advice: fight the good fight of faith. | 2:22 | |
| Not only fight the good fight of faith, | 2:29 | |
| I would commend you to lay whole upon eternal life. | 2:31 | |
| It seems to me sometimes to be almost a ridiculous thing | 2:35 | |
| to talk about eternal life to a graduating class | 2:39 | |
| where the average age would be 22. | 2:42 | |
| You aren't interested in what is yet to come; | 2:44 | |
| you are interested in what is. | 2:46 | |
| I find myself infinitely more concerned | 2:53 | |
| about Heaven now than I was 50 years ago. | 2:55 | |
| All Paul's saying to Timothy is what I wanted | 3:01 | |
| to say to you: have some worthy end in mind. | 3:03 | |
| Have some prize in life. | 3:06 | |
| Let it be worthy, something solid, something lasting. | 3:08 | |
| Do you remember that unusual line in Alice in Wonderland | 3:11 | |
| when Alice comes to the crossroads and meets the cat? | 3:17 | |
| And Alice said to the cat which way must I go? | 3:25 | |
| To which the cat replies it depends where you want to get. | 3:30 | |
| Not very long ago there was conducted | 3:40 | |
| in all the public schools of France | 3:42 | |
| an examination with a single question. | 3:46 | |
| The question in the examination was who in your mind | 3:50 | |
| is the greatest French person in all of history? | 3:54 | |
| Well, everybody knows the answer to that. | 4:01 | |
| The greatest French person in all | 4:04 | |
| of history surely was Napoleon. | 4:06 | |
| Did he not bring Europe to her knees? | 4:10 | |
| But when the questions were all answered, | 4:20 | |
| and the examinations were all turned in, | 4:23 | |
| Napoleon got scarcely a vote. | 4:28 | |
| The greatest Frenchman in the mind of the French children | 4:33 | |
| was not Napoleon, who brought Europe to its knees, | 4:39 | |
| but who brought, Henry Pasteur, | 4:46 | |
| who brought Europe to its health. | 4:51 | |
| Robert Louis Stevenson once addressing | 4:56 | |
| the Samoan chiefs had it ever so right. | 4:58 | |
| No man has the slightest chance to be remembered | 5:01 | |
| 50 years after his death, unless he | 5:06 | |
| has been the servant of mankind. | 5:10 | |
| Lay hold upon eternal life. | 5:16 | |
| Set your sights upon life that nothing can destroy | 5:20 | |
| upon communion with God, upon human character, | 5:23 | |
| upon integrity and honor, | 5:26 | |
| upon goodness. | 5:32 | |
| It appears to me why so many people | 5:37 | |
| are living unsatisfactory lives. | 5:39 | |
| They want what they want, but when they get it | 5:41 | |
| they don't want it at all. | 5:45 | |
| Professor Young put it in a great way. | 5:51 | |
| What we are really witnessing today | 5:55 | |
| is a head on fight | 5:59 | |
| between people who hold different views | 6:03 | |
| concerning the meaning of life. | 6:07 | |
| If our conception of the end of life is Christian, | 6:12 | |
| if our conception at the end of life is Judeo-Christian, | 6:16 | |
| if we are persuaded that things material | 6:20 | |
| cannot of themselves satisfy us, | 6:23 | |
| then we will determine not only our attitude | 6:29 | |
| to our own life, but it will determine | 6:31 | |
| our attitude toward the lives of others as well. | 6:34 | |
| Timothy, my friend, my son, | 6:41 | |
| member of the class of '84, | 6:48 | |
| fight the good fight of faith. | 6:52 | |
| Not long since I was privileged, | 7:02 | |
| and I use that word with some degree of concern, | 7:07 | |
| to go to the ancient city in Southern Germany of Dachau. | 7:11 | |
| It was in Dachau that part of the Jewish community | 7:18 | |
| of Germany met its final fate. | 7:21 | |
| 32,000 they told us. | 7:25 | |
| I stood before the open furnaces | 7:31 | |
| that now are only museum pieces | 7:36 | |
| to remind us of how low man can get. | 7:41 | |
| When I walked out of Dachau, I leaned over | 7:50 | |
| and picked up two white rocks from the ground. | 7:54 | |
| They sit on my shelf | 7:59 | |
| in my office in the Divinity School. | 8:03 | |
| I look at them when I'm there. | 8:08 | |
| They remind me of some things I don't ever forget. | 8:11 | |
| And when you turn to leave Dachau, | 8:20 | |
| you look back for one final glimpse, | 8:22 | |
| and there is a huge sign done in lovely engraving. | 8:27 | |
| It simply says, never again. | 8:35 | |
| Timothy, my son, | 8:48 | |
| fight the good fight of faith. | 8:52 | |
| Lay hold upon eternal life. | 8:56 | |
| Finally, | 9:00 | |
| keep what has been committed to your care. | 9:03 | |
| Timothy had entered into a noble heritage, and so have you. | 9:08 | |
| 2/3 of this auditorium are full at the moment | 9:12 | |
| of people who love you and support you, | 9:16 | |
| whose blood is as your blood, | 9:20 | |
| whose concern is as your concern. | 9:23 | |
| We move back a moment so that those who are sitting | 9:30 | |
| near the back and those who are on the end of the isles | 9:32 | |
| might be able with a single push of a camera | 9:36 | |
| to catch your picture in your finest hour. | 9:39 | |
| Graduation day, | 9:48 | |
| it has been committed to your care. | 9:52 | |
| I was born and reared in a little town | 9:59 | |
| in the middle of North Carolina | 10:02 | |
| that we refer to as a county seat town. | 10:05 | |
| We have about 18 or 20,000 people in our little town. | 10:09 | |
| We're unusually proud of it. | 10:13 | |
| In the days when I grew up in the little town, | 10:18 | |
| the thing that we were proudest about | 10:21 | |
| was that our city had built a high school, | 10:23 | |
| and the high school cost a million dollars, | 10:28 | |
| and everywhere we bragged, the little high school | 10:34 | |
| in our town was the first million dollar | 10:38 | |
| high school in North Carolina. | 10:42 | |
| One afternoon, when it was still new, | 10:50 | |
| and mine was the first class to spend four years in it, | 10:54 | |
| I said to my father, I would like | 11:00 | |
| to take you out and show you the new school. | 11:03 | |
| On Tuesday of this week, | 11:08 | |
| I shall celebrate the | 11:14 | |
| 118th birthday of my father. | 11:16 | |
| And I shall recall again to my mind | 11:25 | |
| our conversation when we rode along | 11:27 | |
| to see a million dollar school, | 11:30 | |
| to show it to a man who had gone to no school, | 11:32 | |
| whose only training, whose only education, | 11:37 | |
| was at the hands of an itinerant preacher | 11:40 | |
| who would make an annual visit | 11:43 | |
| through the community and teach in a log building. | 11:45 | |
| And then we rode in front of it. | 11:51 | |
| Magnificent and majestic, | 11:55 | |
| and I turned | 12:00 | |
| to my father and said to him, and I've eaten | 12:01 | |
| those words a hundred times, | 12:05 | |
| Old fella', | 12:11 | |
| what would you have given | 12:15 | |
| to have gone to a school like that? | 12:19 | |
| He did not look up. | 12:28 | |
| I was embarrassed at my insensitiveness to him, | 12:32 | |
| but he put his hand over on my knee | 12:38 | |
| and said to me, son, | 12:41 | |
| never forget | 12:46 | |
| to whom much is given, | 12:49 | |
| much shall be required. | 12:54 | |
| Timothy, class of '84, | 13:02 | |
| fight the good fight. | 13:08 | |
| Lay hold on something decent and great. | 13:12 | |
| Keep what has been committed to your care | 13:17 | |
| and never forget | 13:22 | |
| that to whom much has been given, | 13:26 | |
| much shall be required. | 13:30 | |
| In the name of the Father, and the Son, | 13:35 | |
| and the Holy Spirit, amen. | 13:37 | |
| (organ music plays) | 13:49 | |
| (choir sings along with music) | 14:13 | |
| - | Let us affirm what we believe. | 15:55 |
| We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 15:59 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus | 16:03 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 16:07 | |
| We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 16:10 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 16:14 | |
| to love and serve others, to seek justice | 16:17 | |
| and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 16:21 | |
| our judge and our hope, in life, | 16:27 | |
| in death, in life beyond death. | 16:30 | |
| God is with us. | 16:34 | |
| We are not alone. | 16:36 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 16:38 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 16:40 | |
| Let us pray. | 16:44 | |
| O Eternal God, before whose face the generations rise | 17:01 | |
| and pass away, we know that age after age | 17:06 | |
| of the living seek you and find | 17:11 | |
| that of your faithfulness, there is no end. | 17:13 | |
| You are the inspirer of every true prayer, | 17:18 | |
| the giver of all wisdom, the source | 17:22 | |
| of all truth, the beginning of all human freedom, | 17:25 | |
| and the end of all human responsibility. | 17:30 | |
| Look now, O God, upon this community of learning. | 17:34 | |
| Let it ever remain faithful to you, | 17:39 | |
| to the truth as we come to know it in you | 17:42 | |
| and in your son Jesus the Christ. | 17:46 | |
| Keep us ever from surrendering truth | 17:49 | |
| or giving over freedom to those | 17:52 | |
| who in fear or faithlessness tell us | 17:56 | |
| that we must fight evil with evil, | 17:59 | |
| falsehood with lies, or tyranny with ways of tyrants. | 18:03 | |
| Let this, your university, be a light | 18:08 | |
| of truth in a world of darkness, | 18:12 | |
| a witness to freedom in a world where many are enslaved, | 18:15 | |
| a place where all people shall come to know the good | 18:20 | |
| and to know you, the wellspring of all good. | 18:25 | |
| We pray now for her graduates. | 18:30 | |
| Those present, those who have gone before, | 18:33 | |
| and those who are yet to come, | 18:37 | |
| that in the midst of timid uncertainty, | 18:40 | |
| they may boldly stand for something. | 18:43 | |
| In the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal. | 18:47 | |
| In the midst of false prophets, | 18:52 | |
| they may look to your kingdom in Christ | 18:54 | |
| as the hope of the world, and that in the midst | 18:57 | |
| of careless ease, they may mount up with wings as eagles, | 19:01 | |
| may run and not be weary, may walk and not faint. | 19:07 | |
| Hear our prayer, as in thanksgiving and praise | 19:13 | |
| for all that we now have and hold, | 19:17 | |
| we pray in the name of Christ our Lord, who taught us | 19:20 | |
| to pray saying Our Father, who art in heaven, | 19:25 | |
| hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, | 19:30 | |
| thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. | 19:34 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread. | 19:37 | |
| And forgive us our trespasses, | 19:40 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 19:43 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 19:46 | |
| For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 19:51 | |
| and the glory, forever, amen. | 19:54 | |
| (organ music plays) | 20:14 | |
| (choir sings along with music) | 20:22 | |
| Let us stand. | 27:11 | |
| Let us join together in the responsive prayer | 27:18 | |
| of gratitude and hope. | 27:21 | |
| Almighty God, as you have granted us place | 27:25 | |
| and part in this university, hallow to us now this day, | 27:28 | |
| when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work | 27:34 | |
| to which you have called us, that we may remember | 27:37 | |
| with gratitude the family and friends who have cared for us, | 27:41 | |
| that in the life ahead of us we may keep faith | 27:49 | |
| with those who have loved us and trusted us | 27:52 | |
| and whose hopes follow us, that we may enter | 27:56 | |
| with good courage and constant purpose | 28:03 | |
| upon the tasks which await us. | 28:06 | |
| From all sense of strangeness and loneliness, | 28:12 | |
| and from the fear that we may fail or may find no friends. | 28:16 | |
| From neglect of the opportunities all about us, | 28:23 | |
| and from distrust of our ability | 28:27 | |
| to meet the duties of each dawning day. | 28:29 | |
| That the example of wise and generous people | 28:35 | |
| who have gone before us in our families | 28:39 | |
| and here in this university may save us | 28:42 | |
| from folly and self-indulgence. | 28:45 | |
| More especially, that you would show to us | 28:52 | |
| and to all people your way of love | 28:54 | |
| in a time when all of us desperately need | 28:58 | |
| to love and to be loved. | 29:01 | |
| These things and whatever else you see needful | 29:07 | |
| and right for us, we ask in your Holy Name, amen. | 29:10 | |
| (organ music plays) | 29:18 | |
| (choir sings along with music) | 29:59 | |
| Go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 33:39 | |
| Hold fast to that which is good, | 33:43 | |
| and now the blessing of God Almighty, | 33:47 | |
| Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be among you | 33:50 | |
| and remain with you always. | 33:54 | |
| (choir sings) | 34:03 | |
| (organ music plays) | 35:21 |
Item Info
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