W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service 10:00 am (May 6, 1984)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(organ music) | 0:03 | |
(organ and choir together) | 21:10 | |
(cheerful organ music) | 22:36 | |
(organ and choir together) | 23:19 | |
- | God calls unto the creation, | 27:22 |
oh my beloved, I have breath for you. | 27:25 | |
Oh my beloved creation, I have love for you. | 27:29 | |
Hear the cry of Yahweh, our creator. | 27:33 | |
Oh my beloved creation, I have life for you. | 27:37 | |
Gathering in this place of all stones | 27:42 | |
and sacred memories, let us remember why we are here. | 27:45 | |
Be you skeptical or believing, | 27:51 | |
sad or joy-filled, broken or whole. | 27:53 | |
Come to the one God who creates us in his image, | 27:58 | |
loves us, and calls each one of us good. | 28:02 | |
And to that one God, let us now make our confession. | 28:08 | |
Oh holy God, to whose service | 28:33 | |
we long ago dedicated our souls and lives, | 28:36 | |
we grieve and lament before you | 28:40 | |
that we're still so prone to sin | 28:42 | |
and so little inclined to obedience. | 28:45 | |
Attached to the pleasure of sense, | 28:48 | |
negligent of things spiritual. | 28:51 | |
Prompt to gratify our bodies, | 28:54 | |
slow to nourish /our souls. | 28:57 | |
Greedy for present delight, | 29:00 | |
indifferent to lasting blessedness. | 29:02 | |
Fond of idleness, indisposed for labor. | 29:05 | |
Soon at play, late at prayer. | 29:10 | |
Brisk in the service of self, | 29:14 | |
slack in the service of others. | 29:16 | |
Eager to get, reluctant to give. | 29:19 | |
Lofty in our professions, low in our practice. | 29:23 | |
Full of good intention, backward to fulfill them. | 29:28 | |
Severe with our neighbors, indulgent with ourselves. | 29:33 | |
So eager to find fault, so resentful | 29:38 | |
at being found fault with. | 29:41 | |
So little able for great tasks, | 29:44 | |
so discontented with small ones. | 29:47 | |
So weak in adversity, so swollen | 29:50 | |
and self-interested in prosperity. | 29:53 | |
So helpless apart from you, | 29:57 | |
and yet so little willing to be bound to you. | 30:00 | |
Oh merciful heart of God, grant us yet forgiveness, | 30:03 | |
for your name's sake, amen. | 30:08 | |
Who is in a position to condemn? | 30:33 | |
Only Christ. | 30:37 | |
And Christ died for us. | 30:39 | |
Christ rose for us. | 30:42 | |
Christ reigns in power for us. | 30:44 | |
Christ prays for us. | 30:48 | |
If you and I are in Christ, | 30:51 | |
then we are new persons altogether. | 30:53 | |
New beings, a part of the new creation. | 30:56 | |
The past is done, it is finished. | 31:00 | |
It is behind us. | 31:02 | |
It has no hold on us. | 31:04 | |
But what is before us is a future fresh with possibility. | 31:06 | |
Alive to new things. | 31:13 | |
My sisters and my brothers, know and believe the good news. | 31:16 | |
That in Jesus who was and is the Christ, | 31:20 | |
you and I, you and I are forgiven. | 31:24 | |
Let us give thanks, for God is good, | 31:33 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 31:36 | |
Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 31:39 | |
Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 31:43 | |
Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 31:47 | |
I am delighted to be able to welcome each of you | 31:55 | |
to this special service of worship this morning. | 31:58 | |
Especially those who are graduating today, | 32:03 | |
receiving your degrees. | 32:07 | |
We welcome you, and offer to you our congratulations. | 32:10 | |
We are grateful that you have been able | 32:14 | |
to take time out from a busy schedule, | 32:15 | |
and to worship in this place, | 32:18 | |
and to be with your families and friends | 32:20 | |
on this special day. | 32:22 | |
Again, welcome in Christ's name, and our congratulations. | 32:24 | |
Our preacher of the morning is Bishop Kenneth Goodson. | 32:31 | |
Bishop Goodson is presently the bishop in residence | 32:37 | |
at the Duke Divinity School. | 32:41 | |
But I have found him to be, in the time | 32:45 | |
that I have been with him, a man of compassion. | 32:47 | |
A man of wisdom, a man of great sensitivity. | 32:54 | |
He is in his position at the Divinity School | 33:01 | |
a pastor to pastors. | 33:03 | |
But he is also a friend to human beings. | 33:06 | |
And I have been gratified by my time with him | 33:13 | |
and coming to know him. | 33:16 | |
I welcome Bishop Goodson to the pulpit this morning, | 33:19 | |
and his life's companion, Martha, | 33:23 | |
to this service of worship. | 33:25 | |
Sound Advice for Sound Living is the title | 33:28 | |
of Bishop Goodman's sermon. | 33:32 | |
- | I have two duties to perform within the next hour. | 33:45 |
One is to read the scripture, | 33:49 | |
and the other is to decide whether | 33:50 | |
we will have the ceremonies in the stadium | 33:53 | |
or in Cameron. | 33:56 | |
(crowd laughing) | 33:57 | |
I took a vote of the students coming in. | 33:59 | |
I was tempted to do like General Patton did | 34:03 | |
and pray for good weather, but I was | 34:06 | |
a little bit afraid that I would appear | 34:08 | |
to be taking advantage of my situation, | 34:11 | |
so I'm gonna leave that for you to do. | 34:14 | |
And I'm going to pray, as I had already written it down, | 34:17 | |
but be watching that weather, | 34:20 | |
and we'll do the best we can | 34:23 | |
to have it where we ought to have it. | 34:25 | |
So let us pray. | 34:28 | |
Oh God, you who commanded the light to shine out of darkness | 34:31 | |
shine into our hearts to give the light | 34:36 | |
of the knowledge of your glory, amen. | 34:39 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from the first Psalm. | 34:43 | |
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel | 34:49 | |
of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, | 34:52 | |
nor sits in the seat of scoffers, | 34:55 | |
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, | 34:58 | |
and on his law he meditates day and night. | 35:01 | |
He is like a tree planted by the streams of water | 35:05 | |
that yields its fruit in its season | 35:09 | |
and its leaf does not wither. | 35:11 | |
In all that he does, he prospers. | 35:14 | |
The wicked are not so, but are like | 35:16 | |
the chaff which the wind drives away. | 35:19 | |
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, | 35:22 | |
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. | 35:25 | |
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, | 35:29 | |
but the way of the wicked will perish. | 35:31 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 35:34 | |
The Epistle lesson is from Timothy. | 35:38 | |
Fight the good fight of the faith. | 35:44 | |
Take hold of the eternal life | 35:48 | |
to which you were called when you made | 35:50 | |
the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. | 35:52 | |
In the presence of God, who gives life | 35:55 | |
to all things, I charge you to keep the commandment | 35:58 | |
unstained and free from reproach. | 36:02 | |
And this will be made manifest at the proper time | 36:05 | |
by the blessed and only sovereign, | 36:08 | |
the king of kings and lord of lords, | 36:10 | |
who alone has immortality, | 36:12 | |
and dwells in unapproachable light, | 36:15 | |
who no man has ever seen, and no one can. | 36:18 | |
To him, be honor and eternal dominion, amen. | 36:22 | |
As for the rich of this world, | 36:27 | |
charge them not to be haughty, | 36:29 | |
nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, | 36:32 | |
but on God, who richly furnishes us | 36:35 | |
with everything to enjoy. | 36:38 | |
They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds. | 36:41 | |
Liberal and generous. | 36:45 | |
Thus laying up for themselves a good foundation | 36:47 | |
for the future so that they may take hold | 36:50 | |
of the life, which is life indeed. | 36:53 | |
Oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. | 36:57 | |
Avoid the godless chatter and the contradictions | 37:01 | |
of what is falsely called knowledge. | 37:03 | |
For by professing it, some have missed the mark | 37:07 | |
as regards the faith. | 37:10 | |
Grace be with you. | 37:13 | |
Here ends the reading from the Epistle. | 37:15 | |
(organ music) | 37:26 | |
(organ and choir together) | 38:08 | |
- | Will the congregation please stand | 43:04 |
for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 43:06 | |
The lesson is from the gospel according to St. Matthew. | 43:15 | |
For it will be as when a man, going on a journey, | 43:20 | |
called his servants and entrusted to them his property. | 43:23 | |
To one he gave five talents, | 43:27 | |
to another two, to another one. | 43:29 | |
To each according to his ability. | 43:32 | |
Then he went away. | 43:35 | |
He who had received the five talents, | 43:37 | |
went at once and traded with them, | 43:39 | |
and he made five talents more. | 43:41 | |
So too, he who had two talents made two talents more. | 43:43 | |
But he who had received the one talent | 43:48 | |
went and dug in the ground and hid | 43:51 | |
his master's money. | 43:53 | |
Now after a long time, the master of those servants | 43:55 | |
came and settled accounts with them, | 43:58 | |
and he who had received the five talents came forward, | 44:00 | |
bringing five talents more, saying master, | 44:04 | |
you delivered to me five talents, | 44:06 | |
and here I have made five talents more. | 44:08 | |
His master said to him, | 44:12 | |
well done, good and faithful servant. | 44:14 | |
You have been faithful over a little, | 44:17 | |
I will set you over much. | 44:19 | |
Enter into the joy of your master. | 44:21 | |
And he also, who had the two talents, | 44:24 | |
came forward, saying master, | 44:26 | |
you delivered to me two talents, | 44:28 | |
here I have made two talents more. | 44:30 | |
His master said to him, well done, | 44:34 | |
good and faithful servant, you have been faithful | 44:37 | |
over a little, I will set you over much. | 44:39 | |
Enter into the joy of your master. | 44:42 | |
He also who had received the one talent | 44:46 | |
came forward, saying master, | 44:48 | |
I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, | 44:51 | |
and gathering where you did not winter, | 44:55 | |
so I was afraid, and I went | 44:57 | |
and hid your talent in the ground. | 44:58 | |
Here you have what is yours, | 45:01 | |
but the master answers him, | 45:03 | |
you wicked and slothful servant, | 45:06 | |
you knew that I reap where I've not sowed, | 45:08 | |
and gather where I've not wintered, | 45:10 | |
then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. | 45:12 | |
And at my coming, I should have received | 45:16 | |
what was my own with interest. | 45:18 | |
So take the talent from him, | 45:21 | |
and give it to him who has 10 talents, | 45:23 | |
for to everyone who has, will more be given, | 45:26 | |
and he will have abundance. | 45:29 | |
But from him who has not, | 45:32 | |
even what he has will be taken away. | 45:34 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel. | 45:37 | |
(organ and choir together) | 45:42 | |
- | May I begin by saying to you | 46:53 |
what an awesome and frightening responsibility it is | 46:55 | |
to be able to stand in this holy place | 47:00 | |
and attempt to say a significant word | 47:05 | |
to young men and young women who this weekend | 47:08 | |
come to graduation from Duke University. | 47:10 | |
It is an honor to be able to do it, | 47:14 | |
but it is a frightening responsibility, | 47:16 | |
and that over-weighs all the rest. | 47:18 | |
And if you've been a student for a little while | 47:22 | |
on this campus, and I have, though many years ago, | 47:24 | |
and still work on it, | 47:28 | |
there is no other institution, | 47:32 | |
no other building that I know in all of this land | 47:33 | |
that means to those of us who are part | 47:38 | |
of the Duke family what this building means to it. | 47:40 | |
It reminds us of some things | 47:45 | |
that we don't ever want to forget. | 47:46 | |
And it's some of those things | 47:50 | |
that I wanted to talk about today. | 47:51 | |
Somewhere between the year 90 and 110 A.D., | 47:57 | |
an old man set down in the ancient town | 48:01 | |
of Laodicea to write a letter. | 48:03 | |
An old man whose way of life had been changed | 48:07 | |
by what he'd call providence. | 48:10 |
- | What he had with Jesus of Nazareth. | 0:03 |
Little did he know at that moment that his name | 0:07 | |
was to be the most oft-quoted name in human history, | 0:09 | |
with a single exception to those | 0:13 | |
who believed in that way of life. | 0:15 | |
Somewhere in the course of his ministry, | 0:20 | |
he had come to the little communities of Listowel and Derby. | 0:22 | |
And had created the friendship of a dear old lady | 0:26 | |
whose name was Lois, and whose daughter's name was Eunice. | 0:29 | |
Eunice had a son whose name was Timothy, | 0:35 | |
who took an unusual liking to Paul, | 0:38 | |
after the breakthrough that normally comes | 0:42 | |
from a young person, who eyes most anything religious | 0:45 | |
with a kind of intellectual curiosity. | 0:48 | |
Timothy saw in Paul the kind of authenticity | 0:53 | |
that youth seeks to find in its allegories. | 0:57 | |
And because of that sight of authenticity, | 1:01 | |
they became the closest of friends. | 1:03 | |
And when Paul left Listowel and Derby | 1:07 | |
to go on out across history, Timothy asked | 1:09 | |
if he might go along with him. | 1:13 | |
And for the remaining years in the life of the old apostle, | 1:16 | |
these two men redid the map of human experience. | 1:20 | |
Now the old man sits down to write a letter. | 1:26 | |
And his mind does what the mind of any old man would do. | 1:30 | |
He remembers where he's been, | 1:33 | |
and who he's seen, and who he knows. | 1:35 | |
But it is an intimate letter to one whom he wants | 1:38 | |
to carry on when he's gone. | 1:40 | |
And he has reminded all who are close to him | 1:44 | |
that the hour of his departure is at hand. | 1:46 | |
I fought a good fight, I've kept the faith. | 1:49 | |
It was about all that he had been able to keep. | 1:53 | |
And now, in what was almost his final | 1:57 | |
letter in his memoirs, he writes a letter to Timothy. | 1:59 | |
Timothy who had been close to him as a son. | 2:04 | |
To whom he addressed his notes, as Timothy, my son. | 2:07 | |
And writes a letter to him and says a good many things. | 2:12 | |
But among them he says are three things. | 2:14 | |
Timothy my son, fight the good fight of faith. | 2:17 | |
Lay whole on eternal life, | 2:22 | |
and keep what has been committed to your trust, your care. | 2:26 | |
The years will come and go, and you will, | 2:33 | |
all you will soon forget all that was done | 2:35 | |
on your baccalaureate weekend. | 2:38 | |
But if anything is to be remembered, | 2:42 | |
maybe the text deserves the place. | 2:44 | |
Fight the good fight of faith. | 2:47 | |
Lay hold on eternal life. | 2:50 | |
Keep what has been committed to your care. | 2:53 | |
The common love that these two men had, | 2:57 | |
one an old man and one a young man, | 2:59 | |
the common love that they had for Jesus Christ, | 3:01 | |
and the regard that they had for each other's qualities | 3:04 | |
had so brought them together that it overcame | 3:09 | |
all differences of age between them. | 3:12 | |
Paul spoke as a father, Timothy listened as a son. | 3:16 | |
And here is this experienced disciple | 3:21 | |
nearing the end of his journey offering certain advice | 3:23 | |
to a young preacher who comes to his moment | 3:27 | |
almost of graduation, only yesterday he was young. | 3:30 | |
And now Paul says I am old, I've seen a good bit in life. | 3:34 | |
And I wanted to talk to you, Timothy, about it. | 3:37 | |
For I have no desire, he would have said, | 3:41 | |
to see happen to Timothy what had happened | 3:43 | |
in the lives of other people. | 3:44 | |
So there it is, fight the good fight of faith. | 3:47 | |
Dr. Fosdick, who is the author of the recessional hymn | 3:52 | |
that we should use in a few moments, | 3:55 | |
said a good many years ago that every person, | 3:57 | |
every man, every woman, has certain energies | 4:00 | |
which it is their will to direct. | 4:03 | |
The criticism which best fits most of us is | 4:07 | |
that a lot of people have been listless and inactive. | 4:10 | |
But the chief criticism is not | 4:15 | |
their listlessness nor their inactivity. | 4:16 | |
It is that they have been spent in the wrong direction. | 4:19 | |
How terribly, Dr. Fosdick reminded us a generation ago, | 4:24 | |
do we misuse our pugnacity, our ability to fight, | 4:28 | |
our ability to be against, how terribly do we disuse it. | 4:32 | |
Then he reminds us that pugnacity that is ill-used | 4:38 | |
can be the cause of the world's destruction, | 4:41 | |
while pugnacity that is well used can be | 4:44 | |
the cause of the world's redemption. | 4:47 | |
Here is Paul, writing to a young man, | 4:51 | |
saying to him I want you to unite in a good fight. | 4:54 | |
I want you to unite in a fight against disease. | 4:57 | |
Unite in a fight against poverty. | 5:01 | |
Unite in a fight against social ills. | 5:03 | |
Unite in a fight against the stupid idea | 5:06 | |
that we are safe if we have enough | 5:09 | |
of the nuclear fission to protect us. | 5:11 | |
What a difference it would make if we used our ability | 5:15 | |
to fight in the things that need to be defeated. | 5:19 | |
Well, there is Paul writing to him saying | 5:24 | |
fight the good fight of faith. | 5:26 | |
And he's counseling Timothy that whatever else he does, | 5:29 | |
he has to fight out in his own life | 5:32 | |
what manner of human being he's going to be. | 5:35 | |
Whether he's going to be selfish, | 5:37 | |
or whether he's going to be selfless. | 5:39 | |
You endeavor to win in your own soul | 5:43 | |
the larger battle which is going on in this world. | 5:48 | |
I think this constitutes a challenge | 5:53 | |
to every thinking human being. | 5:55 | |
We're concerned about our own place, | 5:57 | |
but not about the place of others. | 5:59 | |
We're hurt by our own pain, | 6:02 | |
but sometimes unaffected by the pain of others. | 6:03 | |
We've all been fighting. | 6:08 | |
But maybe not fighting in what Paul | 6:11 | |
often referred to as the good fight of faith. | 6:13 | |
It won't take you long in the world | 6:19 | |
that is waiting to receive you | 6:20 | |
to find out that it isn't always easy to believe. | 6:22 | |
It isn't always easy to hold on. | 6:28 | |
It isn't always easy to hold out. | 6:31 | |
If Dietrich Bonhoeffer were here, | 6:37 | |
he would talk to you for a few moments | 6:38 | |
about the cost of discipleship. | 6:41 | |
But they hung him for talking about it. | 6:46 | |
Timothy, my son, | 6:52 | |
fight the good fight. | 6:58 | |
The good fight of faith. | 7:02 | |
Not only was Paul reminding Timothy to fight | 7:09 | |
the good fight of faith, he was reminding Timothy | 7:11 | |
of another thing, to lay hold upon eternal life. | 7:14 | |
I must confess to you that I did not come to talk | 7:18 | |
about eternal life to a graduating class | 7:21 | |
whose ages would average in the 20s. | 7:24 | |
When I was in my 20s, I had no real | 7:29 | |
interest in eternal life. | 7:31 | |
Somehow or other, it looks a little more | 7:34 | |
attractive to me now that I'm in my 70s. | 7:36 | |
(audience laughs) | 7:39 | |
It is in that kind of eternal | 7:43 | |
life that Paul's talking about. | 7:45 | |
What Paul is saying to Timothy, | 7:47 | |
what are you going to do with your life? | 7:49 | |
Have some worthy end, or some worthy prize in mind. | 7:53 | |
Let it be something good, something decent, | 7:57 | |
something solid, something everlasting. | 7:59 | |
You will find that material possessions | 8:04 | |
will prove to be unsatisfying. | 8:07 | |
Set your heart, said Paul to Timothy, | 8:10 | |
upon the prizes that nothing can destroy. | 8:13 | |
Set your heart upon character. | 8:18 | |
Set your heart upon communion with God. | 8:21 | |
Set your heart upon love for your fellow man. | 8:25 | |
A difficulty for people who are living, | 8:30 | |
so many of us are living unsatisfactory lives. | 8:31 | |
We want what we want. | 8:35 | |
But when we get it, | 8:39 | |
we don't want it at all. | 8:42 | |
Professor Jung says that what we're really witnessing today | 8:48 | |
is the head on fight between men who hold different views | 8:52 | |
concerning the meaning of life. | 8:59 | |
This can be illustrated by a poll that was taken | 9:05 | |
on a single question examination | 9:08 | |
in all the schools of France a couple of years ago. | 9:10 | |
The question was, who in your mind | 9:14 | |
is the greatest Frenchman ever to live? | 9:18 | |
Well, I know who the greatest Frenchman ever to live, | 9:23 | |
surely it would have been Napoleon Bonaparte, | 9:26 | |
who brought Europe to its knees. | 9:29 | |
And bathed it in blood. | 9:32 | |
Who almost, like Alexander, | 9:36 | |
cried because there were no more worlds to conquer. | 9:38 | |
But when the examination was over, | 9:44 | |
and the papers had been turned in, | 9:46 | |
and the French scholars had examined them, | 9:49 | |
the little emperor scarcely got a showing. | 9:55 | |
Who was the greatest of all the Frenchmen? | 10:03 | |
I saluted him this morning, | 10:09 | |
when I looked at a carton of fresh milk. | 10:12 | |
His name was Louis Pasteur. | 10:17 | |
Robert Louis Stevenson said it in a fine way. | 10:23 | |
That a man doesn't have a ghost of a chance | 10:27 | |
to be remembered 50 years after his death | 10:30 | |
unless he has been a servant of mankind. | 10:35 | |
Lay hold upon eternal life, | 10:44 | |
upon something good and something great, and something fine, | 10:47 | |
and something clean, | 10:52 | |
and something enduring. | 10:56 | |
I guess it's part of that that the chapel says to me, | 11:01 | |
as I leave my office in the Divinity School | 11:05 | |
on those days that we're here, | 11:08 | |
and walk over to the Union either | 11:11 | |
or the Grand Center to have my lunch. | 11:12 | |
I love to walk by the chapel. | 11:16 | |
For it reminds me of some things | 11:22 | |
that I don't want to forget. | 11:27 | |
This building and all of its loveliness | 11:32 | |
reminds me of the oldest continuing business | 11:36 | |
there is on earth. | 11:41 | |
Timothy, my son, | 11:46 | |
lay hold upon eternal life, | 11:52 | |
fight the good fight of faith. | 11:56 | |
Keep what has been committed to your care. | 12:00 | |
Timothy entered into a noble heritage. | 12:06 | |
Paul wrote him a letter, and he said Timothy, my son, | 12:10 | |
I remembered the faith that was in your grandmother Lois, | 12:13 | |
is in your mother Eunice, | 12:16 | |
and I am persuaded it is in you. | 12:20 | |
Those of us who would in the back, | 12:22 | |
waiting on the processional to start, | 12:24 | |
moved out of the way a bit. | 12:27 | |
So that the parade of cameras | 12:32 | |
could get a better view. | 12:36 | |
For this is the graduating day of my son. | 12:41 | |
Of my daughter. | 12:47 | |
Keep what has been committed to your care. | 12:52 | |
Your life has been committed to your care. | 12:57 | |
The opportunity and the chance that you've got, | 13:02 | |
and a free world, has been committed to your care. | 13:04 | |
It is a noble heritage. | 13:11 | |
You come now this day to graduate | 13:16 | |
from one of the great universities in America. | 13:18 | |
The greatest of scholarship. | 13:27 | |
The tenderest of faculty relationships | 13:30 | |
has been poured into you for four years or more. | 13:35 | |
Keep what has been committed to your care. | 13:44 | |
I was born and raised in a little town | 13:52 | |
in the middle of North Carolina. | 13:54 | |
A little county seat town of about 20,000 people. | 13:59 | |
It had that when I was born. | 14:06 | |
We've been hanging in, we've still got it. | 14:08 | |
We pride ourselves on a good many things. | 14:13 | |
But in my day, the proudest possession we had, | 14:17 | |
my hometown built the first million dollar | 14:22 | |
high school in North Carolina. | 14:26 | |
It isn't much now. | 14:32 | |
In money. | 14:34 | |
But a million dollar high school, | 14:36 | |
50 years ago, | 14:41 | |
all the modern conveniences we had, | 14:47 | |
everything that you needed in a building we possessed. | 14:51 | |
And we were the first. | 14:57 | |
On Tuesday of this week, | 15:03 | |
I'll take a minute off by myself, | 15:10 | |
with the girl who shares my life, | 15:14 | |
and I will remember my father. | 15:17 | |
For on that day he would, had he been living, | 15:21 | |
would be 118 years old. | 15:23 | |
He grew up in a day in which the only education | 15:30 | |
he could get was that done by an itinerant teacher | 15:32 | |
who would come and put up a log house. | 15:37 | |
So he had very little. | 15:44 | |
He saw to it that his sons had it. | 15:50 | |
But with a million dollar high school | 15:54 | |
to a man who had never been to school, | 15:56 | |
I said to him one day, wouldn't you like to ride out | 16:00 | |
and let me show you the high school? | 16:03 | |
So I rode him by | 16:08 | |
all four of its sides. | 16:12 | |
And showed him the beauty and the majesty | 16:16 | |
of a million dollar school. | 16:20 | |
And then I did something I've wished | 16:27 | |
100 times I hadn't done, | 16:29 | |
until I got his answer. | 16:33 | |
I said to him, old fellow, | 16:36 | |
what would you have given | 16:41 | |
to have gone to a school like that? | 16:45 | |
To a man who had no training. | 16:52 | |
He put his hand over on my knee and said, | 16:59 | |
son, to whom much is given | 17:01 | |
much will be required. | 17:09 | |
I think that really is what I wanted to say to you. | 17:17 | |
Timothy my son, | 17:22 | |
congratulations. | 17:28 | |
Fight a good fight of faith. | 17:32 | |
Lay hold on something great. | 17:36 | |
And keep what has been committed to your care. | 17:40 | |
In the name of the Father, the Son | 17:48 | |
and the Holy Spirit, amen. | 17:49 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 18:00 | |
(choir sings indistinctly) | 18:25 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 20:09 |
We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 20:12 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 20:17 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 20:20 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the Church, | 20:23 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 20:28 | |
to love and serve others, | 20:31 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 20:34 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 20:37 | |
our judge and our hope in life, in death, | 20:41 | |
in life beyond death, God is with us. | 20:46 | |
We are not alone, thanks be to God. | 20:51 | |
The Lord be with you. | 20:55 | |
- | And also with you. | 20:57 |
- | Let us pray. | 20:59 |
Eternal God, before whose face | 21:12 | |
the generations rise and pass away, | 21:14 | |
we know that age after age of the living | 21:18 | |
seek you and find of your faithfulness there is no end. | 21:21 | |
For you are the giver of all wisdom, | 21:27 | |
the source of all truth, the beginning of all human freedom, | 21:30 | |
and the end of all human responsibility. | 21:35 | |
Look now, oh God, upon this community of learning. | 21:39 | |
Let it ever remain faithful to you, | 21:44 | |
to the truth as we come to know it in you | 21:47 | |
and in your son Jesus Christ. | 21:50 | |
Keep us ever from surrendering truth | 21:53 | |
or giving over freedom to those who in fear | 21:56 | |
or faithlessness tell us that we must | 22:00 | |
fight evil with tools of evil, | 22:03 | |
falsehood with lies, | 22:06 | |
or tyranny with ways of tyrants. | 22:08 | |
Let this, your university, be a light of truth | 22:11 | |
in a world of darkness, a witness to freedom | 22:15 | |
in a world where many are enslaved, | 22:19 | |
a place where all people shall come to know the good | 22:23 | |
and to know you, the wellspring of all good. | 22:27 | |
We pray for her graduates, those present, | 22:31 | |
those who have gone before, and those who are yet to come. | 22:36 | |
That in the midst of uncertainty, | 22:41 | |
they may stand boldly for something. | 22:44 | |
In the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal. | 22:47 | |
In the midst of false prophets, | 22:52 | |
they may look to your kingdom in Christ | 22:54 | |
as the hope of the world. | 22:57 | |
And that in the midst of careless ease | 22:58 | |
they may mount up with wings as eagles, | 23:01 | |
may run and not be weary, may walk and not faint. | 23:05 | |
Hear our prayer as in praise and thanksgiving | 23:11 | |
for all that we now have and hold, | 23:15 | |
we pray in the name of Christ our Lord, | 23:18 | |
who taught us to pray, saying, | 23:21 | |
our Father, who art in heaven, | 23:24 | |
hallowed by thy name, | 23:27 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 23:29 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 23:32 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread, | 23:34 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 23:37 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 23:39 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 23:43 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 23:46 | |
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 23:48 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 23:51 | |
(organ music) | 24:05 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 24:14 | |
- | Let us stand and join together | 31:02 |
in the responsive prayer of gratitude and hope. | 31:04 | |
Almighty God, as you have granted us place | 31:11 | |
and part in this university, | 31:14 | |
hallow to us now this day, | 31:17 | |
when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work | 31:19 | |
to which you have called us, | 31:22 | |
that we may remember with gratitude the families | 31:24 | |
and friends who have cared for us. | 31:28 | |
- | We ask your presence, oh God. | 31:31 |
- | That in the life ahead of us, we may keep faith | 31:33 |
with those who have loved us and trusted us, | 31:37 | |
and whose hopes follow us. | 31:40 | |
- | We ask your presence, oh God. | 31:43 |
- | That we may enter with good courage | 31:46 |
and constant purpose upon the tasks which await us. | 31:48 | |
- | We ask your presence, oh God. | 31:53 |
- | From all sense of strangeness and loneliness, | 31:55 |
and from the fear that we may fail or may find no friends. | 31:59 | |
- | May the Lord deliver us. | 32:05 |
- | From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us, | 32:07 |
and from distrust of our ability to meet | 32:11 | |
the duties of each dawning day. | 32:14 | |
- | May the Lord deliver us. | 32:17 |
- | That the example of wise and generous people | 32:19 |
who have gone before us in our families and here | 32:23 | |
in this university may save us | 32:26 | |
from folly and self-indulgence. | 32:29 | |
- | We ask your presence, oh God. | 32:32 |
- | More especially that you would show to us | 32:35 |
and to all people your way of love | 32:38 | |
in a time when all of us desperately | 32:41 | |
need to love and to be loved. | 32:44 | |
- | We ask your presence, oh God. | 32:47 |
- | These things, and whatever else you see needful | 32:50 |
and right for us, we ask in your holy name, amen. | 32:53 | |
(organ music) | 33:01 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 33:43 | |
- | Go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 37:21 |
Hold fast to that which is good, | 37:25 | |
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. | 37:27 | |
And may the blessings of God almighty, | 37:31 | |
Father, Son and Holy Spirit be among you | 37:34 | |
and remain with you always. | 37:38 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 37:44 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 37:51 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:01 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:07 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:16 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:28 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:42 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 39:02 | |
(audience applauds) | 44:21 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 44:30 | |
(audience chattering indistinctly) | 44:51 |
Item Info
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