William Sloane Coffin, Jr. - Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1985)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  Educational Use Permitted
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gx4581c?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gx4581c
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(lively organ music)	0:03
	♪ Beautiful Savior ♪	11:04
	♪ Lord of all nations ♪	11:12
	♪ Son of God ♪	11:19
	♪ And Son ♪	11:25
	♪ Of ♪	11:28
	♪ Man ♪	11:30
	♪ Glory ♪	11:33
	♪ And honor ♪	11:37
	♪ Praise ♪	11:41
	♪ Adoration ♪	11:43
	♪ Now and forevermore ♪	11:48
	♪ Be thine ♪	11:55
	♪ Now and forevermore ♪	12:00
	♪ Be ♪	12:14
	♪ Thine ♪	12:18
	(tonal singing)	12:24
	(lively organ music)
-	Please be seated.	17:19
	With humble hearts seeking to know the will of God	17:41
	let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.	17:45
	Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned	17:51
	against you in thought, word, and deed.	17:55
	By what we have done and by what we have left undone.	17:59
	We have not loved you with our whole heart.	18:05
	We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.	18:08
	We are truly sorry and we humbly repent	18:12
	for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ,	18:16
	have mercy on us and forgive us	18:19
	that we may delight in your will and walk	18:23
	in your ways, to the glory of your name.	18:26
	Amen.	18:31
	For as the heavens are high above the earth,	18:33
	so great is his steadfast love toward those who	18:36
	fear him as far as the east is from the west	18:40
	so far does he remove our transgressions from us.	18:45
	Amen.	18:50
-	In this grand place, generations of Duke students	18:58
	have come to meditate, to be challenged,	19:02
	to be inspired.	19:05
	Today, the chapel welcomes you, the class of 1985.	19:09
	As well as your families and your friends	19:16
	to this baccalaureate service.	19:19
	Today's preacher is one of our nations great	19:23
	religious leaders, the Reverend Dr. William Sloane Coffin,	19:28
	Pastor of Riverside Church in New York City.	19:33
	In my own student days, when I sat where you sit,	19:38
	Dr. Coffin's sermons challenged us	19:43
	to act upon those principles	19:48
	which we had only affirmed.	19:52
	Therefore, it is a matter of great personal joy	19:55
	for me to welcome him back to the pulpit	19:59
	of Duke University chapel.	20:02
	And I have no doubt that Dr. Coffin will likewise	20:04
	challenge you.	20:09
-	Let us pray.	20:18
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God.	20:22
	By the power of your holy spirit so that	20:25
	as the word is read and proclaimed, we might hear	20:28
	with joy what you say to us this day.	20:31
	Amen.	20:35
	The first lesson is from Micah.	20:37
	It shall come to pass in the latter days	20:41
	that the mountain of the house of the Lord	20:43
	shall be established as the highest of the mountains	20:46
	and shall be raised up above the hills.	20:49
	And many nations shall come and say,	20:54
	"come, let us go up to the mountain of the lord	20:57
	"to the house of the God of Jacob,	21:01
	"that he may teach us his ways and we may walk	21:03
	"in his paths."	21:06
	For out of Zion shall go forth the law.	21:09
	and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.	21:12
	He shall judge between many peoples	21:16
	and shall decide for strong nations of far off	21:19
	and they shall beat their swords into plow shafts	21:23
	and their spears into pruning hooks	21:27
	and nations shall not lift up sword against nation,	21:30
	neither shall they learn war anymore.	21:35
	But they shall set every man under his vine	21:40
	and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid.	21:43
	For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.	21:48
	For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god,	21:52
	but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God,	21:55
	forever and ever.	21:59
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	22:02
	(operatic singing)	22:11
	(organ music)
-	The congregation will please stand	28:56
	for the reading of the gospel.	28:59
	The gospel is from Saint Matthew.	29:07
	Then he made the disciples get in the boat	29:11
	and go before him to the other side	29:13
	while he dismissed the crowds.	29:16
	And after he had dismissed the crowds,	29:18
	he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.	29:20
	And when evening came, he was there alone.	29:24
	But the boat by this time was many furlongs distant	29:27
	from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind	29:30
	was against them.	29:34
	And in the fourth watch of the night,	29:36
	he came to them, walking on the sea.	29:38
	When the disciples saw him walking on the sea	29:41
	they were terrified saying, "it is a ghost."	29:43
	They cried for fear.	29:46
	But he immediately spoke to them saying,	29:48
	"take heart, it is I, have no fear."	29:51
	And Peter answered him, "Lord if it is you,	29:56
	bid me to come to you on the water."	29:59
	And he said, "come."	30:02
	So Peter got out of the boat and walked	30:03
	on the water and came to Jesus.	30:05
	But when he saw the wind, he was afraid	30:08
	and beginning to sink, he cried out,	30:11
	"Lord, save me."	30:13
	And Jesus immediately reached out his hand	30:14
	and caught him, saying to him,	30:18
	"oh man of little faith, why did you doubt?"	30:21
	And when they got into the boat,	30:25
	the wind ceased and those in the boat	30:27
	worshiped him saying, "truly you are the son of God."	30:30
	Here ends the reading of the gospel of our Lord.	30:35
	Amen.	30:38
	(tonal singing)	30:40
	(organ music)
-	Dearly beloved, as Saint Paul would say,	31:59
	sisters and brothers, hermanas y hermanos,	32:03
	permit me four prefatory remarks.	32:08
	One, let me assume that you know that I know	32:14
	that it's a great honor to be in the great state	32:16
	of North Carolina at the great university of Duke.	32:18
	And particularly on the occasion of the retirement,	32:22
	at least from Duke of a great President and great Governor.	32:26
	President, Uncle, Terry Sanford.	32:31
	I have no qualms about his future, this Yankee	32:36
	has watched Southern Poles neither die nor fade away.	32:41
	But I would like to simply say to him,	32:47
	I'm sure on behalf of everybody, although everybody	32:51
	said this or something like it.	32:53
	What the Poles said to their beloved Pope	32:55
	when he came back to Poland, Sto Lat!	32:58
	May you live to be a hundred.	33:02
	Second remark is addressed to seniors	33:06
	and departing graduate students.	33:09
	Could you imagine anything more depressing	33:14
	than to look back, say 50 years hence,	33:19
	on a springtime of your life,	33:24
	and say, ah, those were the days,	33:30
	and be right?	33:35
	(attendees laughing)	33:37
	That remark I make is a sign of burr under the saddle.	33:42
	When I used to be Chaplain at Yale, I always used to	33:45
	wonder at this time, whether graduating seniors	33:48
	were more or less concerned with their neighbors	33:51
	good when they came in as freshmen.	33:53
	Third remark is to Jews.	33:57
	I hope you will forgive a Christian preacher	33:59
	if he takes as his text a story from a Christian part	34:01
	of scripture, let me assure you,	34:05
	the sentiments expressed will be very Jewish.	34:08
	And fourth and last, once again to all of us.	34:12
	I have composed this baccalaureate sermon	34:16
	mindful of the fact that at this time	34:20
	this graduation coincides with the 10th anniversary	34:26
	of the end of the Vietnam war, the 40th anniversary	34:30
	of the end of World War II, and the 30th	34:35
	anniversary of the first reunion	34:38
	of non-allying nations.	34:43
	Last week, representatives of some 80 African	34:46
	and nation states declared that they felt	34:50
	the world was in far worse shape today	34:54
	than it was 30 years ago.	34:57
	Which reminds me of Camus' great statement	35:01
	on a day like this.	35:03
	There is in the world beauty, and there are the humiliated,	35:04
	and we must strive, hard as it is, not to be unfaithful,	35:08
	neither to the one nor to the other."	35:12
	And now let's go to that story just heard,	35:17
	read by the president, of Jesus walking on the water.	35:22
	What if modern scholarship should one day establish	35:27
	that the silver dollar that George Washington	35:33
	reputedly hurled across the mighty Rappahannock,	35:37
	had in fact splashed.	35:41
	Would that mean that George Washington was no longer	35:45
	as we were taught in grammar school first in war,	35:49
	first in peace, first in the hearts of his countryman?	35:52
	Obviously, no.	35:56
	Because the story is an expression of faith	35:58
	not a basis of faith.	36:03
	Its the kind of story that followers of George Washington	36:06
	committed to him on other grounds.	36:10
	Would just love to tell about him.	36:13
	Around a good campfire.	36:16
	Likewise, if Jesus never walked on the sea of Galilee,	36:19
	that does not mean that to Christians,	36:25
	he is not the Messiah.	36:28
	For Christ was not God's magic incarnate,	36:31
	but God's love incarnate.	36:36
	Christ is not one to go around Houdini like,	36:39
	breaking the laws of physical nature,	36:43
	but rather was one who, beyond the limits	36:45
	of human nature loved as none before or since,	36:48
	so we believe has left.	36:51
	In the face of such awesome love,	36:55
	why even the waves rise up and the winds bow down,	36:58
	just as at his birth, a star stood still.	37:04
	And at his death, earth quaked, splitting rocks,	37:08
	and breaking graves wide open.	37:12
	What is the meaning of the story?	37:16
	Ask a crowd, straining their necks,	37:18
	to see the Sistine Chapel ceiling,	37:21
	what they are looking at.	37:27
	Ask an audience listening to Beethoven's Ninth,	37:28
	what they're hearing and no two answers	37:31
	will be the same.	37:34
	Such is the evocative power	37:36
	of great works of art.	37:40
	Now as the Bible should stimulate the imagination	37:44
	even more.	37:47
	No one should be surprised if I see in a story	37:49
	a perfect three act drama for a baccalaureate	37:53
	summon at Duke University on the occasion	37:58
	of the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saigon	38:01
	and the 40th anniversary of the war ending reunion	38:05
	on the Elbe River.	38:09
	As the first act opens, the disciples are boarding	38:13
	a boat for what appears to be a routine crossing.	38:17
	But at some distance from the shore,	38:21
	they find themselves buffeted by an unexpected	38:24
	terrible storm.	38:28
	Their boat begins to sink.	38:30
	And not only because the winds are high	38:33
	and against them, but also as it turns out	38:35
	because Jesus is not there.	38:39
	Were we not also taught in grammar school	38:47
	Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!	38:52
	Sail on, O Union, strong and great!	38:55
	And in the middle of World War II,	38:59
	didn't Churchill send Roosevelt a morale building	39:02
	telegram quoting that Longfellow poem	39:07
	at great length?	39:10
	Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!	39:12
	Sail on, O Union, strong and great!	39:15
	Humanity with all its fears,	39:18
	With all the hopes of future years,	39:21
	Is hanging breathless on thy fate!	39:24
	But nobody sends us telegrams like that anymore.	39:29
	We too, in this country, seem at sea,	39:33
	caught in a storm, with no compass to point	39:38
	us toward a clear and promising future.	39:41
	That we've come a long ways, there's no denying.	39:45
	Even though we were a white nation	39:48
	founded on the genocide and bondage	39:50
	of other races, and though we have a long	39:53
	way to go in our treatment of blacks and Indians,	39:56
	ethnic minorities, and women,	39:59
	what's one woman on the Supreme Court	40:03
	but hollow symbolism when death comes to	40:05
	the equal rights amendment?	40:08
	Still ours is the longest lasting revolution	40:10
	in the world.	40:13
	Over 200 years old.	40:15
	And the liberties established way back then	40:17
	in a remote, agrarian backwater of the world,	40:20
	and miraculously survived,	40:23
	and at times positively flourished.	40:25
	But something today has happened	40:30
	to our understanding of freedom,	40:34
	to our understanding of democracy.	40:36
	Our 18th century forebears were enormously	40:40
	influenced by Montesquieu, the French thinker	40:43
	who differentiated despotism, monarchy,	40:47
	and democracy.	40:52
	In each he found a special principle	40:55
	governing social life.	40:58
	With despotism, the principle was fear.	41:01
	For monarchy, honor, and for democracy,	41:05
	take heed, virtue.	41:09
	It is this quality, he wrote,	41:13
	rather than fear or ambition that makes	41:15
	things work in a democracy.	41:19
	Samuel Adams agreed.	41:24
	We may look to armies for our defense,	41:26
	but virtue is our best security.	41:30
	It is not possible that any state	41:33
	should long remain free where virtue	41:35
	is not supremely honored.	41:37
	Freedom, virtue, these two were practically	41:42
	synonymous in the minds of our revolutionary forebears.	41:45
	To them, it was inconceivable that an individual	41:50
	would be granted freedom merely	41:54
	for the satisfaction of instincts and whims.	41:57
	Freedom, virtue, they were still practically synonymous	42:01
	100 years later in the mind of Abraham Lincoln	42:05
	when in the course of the second inaugural address,	42:08
	he called for a new birth of Freedom.	42:11
	Freedom and virtue, they seem to embrace one another.	42:15
	And the greatest, perhaps, of all American hymns,	42:20
	by Julia Ward Howe, in The Beauty of the Lilies,	42:23
	Christ was born across the seas with a glory	42:27
	in his bosom that transfigures both you and me,	42:31
	as he died to make men holy.	42:34
	Let us die to make men free.	42:36
	Our God is marching on.	42:40
	But today, we Americans are not marching	42:45
	in the was of the Lord.	42:48
	But limping along in our own ways,	42:51
	thinking not of the public wheel,	42:54
	but of private interests.	42:57
	In universities, you know this.	43:00
	The all important freedom of students	43:03
	and faculty to think and say what they will	43:07
	is vastly exulted over any obligation	43:12
	to do any good to anyone.	43:16
	As if the acquisition of knowledge	43:19
	was not second to its use.	43:21
	Or in the old Calvinist phrase, truth in order to goodness.	43:25
	In Washington DC, tax cutting	43:31
	is more popular than social spending	43:32
	even for the poorest among us.	43:34
	In New York City, I can tell you,	43:38
	we're hemorrhaging at one end	43:39
	and health clubbing it at the other.	43:41
	In city after city synagogues and churches	43:45
	are sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry	43:49
	as charity today goes bail for justice.	43:52
	The whole world wonders why we Americans	43:58
	can't simply concede the existence	44:03
	of the Sandanista government.	44:06
	And because we refuse to freeze the nuclear	44:09
	arms race and sign a test ban treaty,	44:12
	measures the Soviet say they're ready to take,	44:15
	the whole world lives as a condemned	44:19
	prisoner in a cell awaiting the uncertain	44:23
	moment of execution.	44:25
	Because we have separated so cruelly,	44:30
	freedom from virtue, because we	44:32
	define freedom in a morally inferior way,	44:37
	our unions strong and great is stalled in a storm.	44:40
	In what Herman Melville called "the dark ages of democracy".	44:45
	A time when he predicted the new Jerusalem	44:50
	would turn into Babylon and Americans	44:53
	would feel what he called the arrest	44:56
	of hopes advance.	44:59
	America today is a cross between	45:04
	a war ship and a luxury liner.	45:05
	With all the tension concentrated on the upper decks.	45:08
	But below the water line, there are leaks.	45:12
	Our ship is beginning to sink.	45:16
	But now onto act two, which opens	45:21
	with one person preparing to abandon ship.	45:25
	And can't you hear the cries, there's always	45:30
	so many of them, and every sinking ship	45:31
	for God's sake, Peter, sit down,	45:34
	you're rocking the boat.	45:36
	Now let's ask why Peter and not the others.	45:40
	What moved him to abandon ship?	45:46
	Well, to most human beings,	45:49
	there's something fundamentally unacceptable	45:51
	about unpleasant truth.	45:54
	Most of the time, we seek to bolster our illusions,	45:57
	to protect ourselves against our fears.	46:00
	But in our more courageous and honest moments,	46:04
	some of us are willing to face the shallowness	46:07
	of our personal relations, the barbaric	46:11
	ladders on which we climb to success,	46:14
	the banality in much of our culture,	46:18
	the cruelty in much of our foreign policy,	46:21
	and when in the fourth watch of the night,	46:25
	that miserable two to six AM shift	46:27
	when we are most alone with ourselves,	46:30
	Jesus bids us, come.	46:33
	Some of us, like Peter, are ready for that leap of faith.	46:36
	Now, the leap of faith is not believing	46:43
	without proof, it's trusting without reservation.	46:46
	It's not a conversion from this world	46:52
	to some other, it's a conversion	46:54
	from something less than life	46:57
	to the possibility of full life itself.	47:00
	As an old church father Irenaeus said,	47:03
	"the glory of God is a human being fully alive."	47:06
	Now, Peter, you remember, immediately begins to sink.	47:12
	And modern scholarship may one day establish	47:18
	that Jesus called him the rock then,	47:20
	not for his foundation but for his sinking properties.	47:23
	(laughing)	47:27
	And when you start to think of it, why not?	47:31
	Saint Paul said, "in my weakness is my strength."	47:35
	Saint Paul who had the wisdom to see	47:40
	that God's power is made perfect in weakness.	47:41
	Is it not true that it is only	47:46
	when we realize that we can no more	47:49
	trust our own buoyancy than we can that of the ship	47:51
	we just abandoned, that we truly	47:57
	give ourselves to God, and then the true	47:59
	miracle takes place, the one that makes	48:02
	this story eternally true if not literally true.	48:04
	"Lord, save me", cries Peter.	48:08
	And Jesus does.	48:10

-	The central miracle of religious life,	0:03
	which should take place on an average	0:06
	of about once every other day.	0:08
	When sinking in our honest	0:10
	sense of helplessness,	0:14
	we reach out for what a university can never offer,	0:17
	a love greater than we ourselves can ever express.	0:21
	What a university can never offer, a truth deeper	0:25
	than we could ever articulate.	0:29
	What a university can never offer, a beauty richer	0:30
	than we ourselves can ever contain.	0:33
	When we too cry out Lord save me, he who died	0:36
	to make men holy does indeed transfigure you and me.	0:39
	Ask for a thimble full of help	0:46
	and you get an ocean full in return.	0:49
	How many people in this country wish the story	0:54
	ended right here?	0:59
	What greater relief to an unhappy soul	1:02
	than to find stability in a world of turmoil,	1:04
	certitude in a world of doubt,	1:08
	contentment amid pain?	1:11
	But the goal of religious life is not to save your soul,	1:14
	it is to transcend yourself.	1:20
	To make a gift of yourself.	1:24
	To vindicate the human struggle of which we all are a part.	1:27
	To help hope advance.	1:32
	Peter doesn't say to Jesus, now that you saved me Lord,	1:36
	let's walk off just you and me	1:39
	into the sunrise of a new day and forget	1:42
	about all those fellas in the sinking ship.	1:45
	Having abandoned the sinking ship for Jesus,	1:49
	Peter now returns with Jesus	1:52
	and there is a baccalaureate message.	1:56
	Our baccalaureate example for patriots who call	1:59
	themselves or wish to be religious.	2:04
	America, love it and leave it.	2:07
	Leave it for Jesus.	2:14
	Leave it for God.	2:17
	For America's sake and for your own sake.	2:19
	And then return with Jesus to the ship.	2:24
	That's how we're supposed to love America.	2:30
	With Christ's compassion.	2:33
	With Christ's wisdom.	2:35
	With Christ's concern for the whole fusing once again	2:36
	freedom and virtue in order to renew the patriot's dream	2:40
	that sees beyond the years, her alabaster cities	2:45
	gleam undimmed by human tears.	2:48
	Departing seniors and graduate students,	2:55
	it is dull to seek only private gain.	2:59
	It is futile to try to possess your soul	3:06
	by possession of something outside it.	3:10
	There are two ways to be rich.	3:14
	One is to have lots of money,	3:16
	the other is to have few needs.	3:18
	It is boring to live,	3:20
	(people laughing)
	It is boring to live life to the minimum,	3:26
	to retreat from the mysterious to the manageable,	3:29
	to retreat from freedom to bondage	3:34
	and need I remind you that even if you win a rat race,	3:37
	you're still a rat.	3:42
	(audience laughing)
	So, be different.	3:50
	Be generous.	3:54
	Have a kinda nose thumbing independence	3:55
	of all the powers of death militant in this world.	3:57
	Be loving and remain so, then 50 years hence,	4:01
	you will look back on the spring time of your life	4:06
	and say, ah, but summer	4:09
	and fall were even better.	4:12
	When Peter returned to the boat with Jesus,	4:17
	the winds abated.	4:19
	I think our own ship could once again recover headway	4:21
	and direction if you and folks like you graduating	4:25
	this month and next month across this land	4:30
	could follow Peter's example.	4:32
	So, a final word to you and about our country.	4:37
	To you, departing seniors and graduate students,	4:43
	let me simply offer the benediction that Unamuno,	4:46
	that great Spaniard offered all of us	4:50
	in the last sentence of his great book,	4:54
	The Vision of Tragedy, "Que Dios no te de paz y si Gloria."	4:57
	May God deny you peace, but give you glory.	5:04
	And of our beloved country, what can we say,	5:11
	but those more prayerful words that Longfellow	5:15
	addressed to our nation at the end of his poem,	5:19
	Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea,	5:24
	our hearts, our hopes are all with thee,	5:29
	our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,	5:33
	our faith triumphant or our fears	5:39
	are all with thee,	5:43
	are all with thee.	5:46
	Amen.	5:50
	(organ music)	5:55
	(choir words drown out by organ)	6:32
-	Let us unite in this historic confession	9:15
	of the Christian faith.	9:17
	I believe in God the Father Almighty,	9:21
	maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ	9:25
	his only son, our Lord who was conceived	9:29
	by the holy spirit, born of the virgin Mary,	9:33
	suffered under Pontius Pilate,	9:37
	was crucified dead and buried.	9:40
	He descended into hell.	9:43
	The third day he rose from the dead.	9:45
	He ascended into heaven and siteth at the right hand	9:49
	of God the Father Almighty.	9:53
	From thence he shall come to judge the quick	9:56
	and the dead.	9:58
	I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,	10:00
	the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,	10:05
	the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.	10:10
	Amen.	10:14
	The Lord be with you.	10:16
-	Also with you.
-	Let us pray, be seated.	10:19
	Gracious God, source of all wisdom, light and truth,	10:33
	we give thanks that you have brought us to this happy day	10:42
	wherein we might celebrate the accomplishments	10:47
	of these graduates and confirm the high purpose	10:50
	of this university.	10:54
	Grant us the grace, we pray, that in our joy	10:58
	of achievement we might be mindful of the needs of others	11:02
	who are less fortunate than ourselves	11:06
	and the responsibilities which our attainments	11:10
	place upon us.	11:14
	If we have struggled to achieve and excel,	11:17
	only to obtain self-centered prestige,	11:21
	if we have amassed knowledge only to accumulate things,	11:25
	if we've earned a degree only to get personal privilege,	11:30
	then give us one more bit of knowledge, we pray.	11:36
	The insight that life lived solely for self	11:41
	is little life at all.	11:46
	Having attained great knowledge in our various fields	11:50
	of study, we ask the more valuable, more difficult wisdom	11:53
	to see the needs of others as clearly as we see our own.	12:01
	To think of others as we're inclined to think	12:08
	of ourselves, to feel the hurts and hungers of others	12:11
	as if they were our own.	12:17
	Thus we pray.	12:21
	For those who will not know the liberation	12:24
	of the sort of education we celebrate here,	12:26
	because they have never had the opportunity.	12:30
	For those how know not the joy of a peaceful May morning	12:35
	like this one, because they live	12:39
	in the midst of war and violence.	12:43
	For those whose situation has denied them the love	12:47
	an encouragement of wise and devoted parents.	12:51
	Because we know what gifts our parents have been.	12:56
	For those whose minds and bodies are broken	13:01
	because they were deprived of food, medical care	13:05
	and the necessities of life.	13:09
	Knowing that you've given people like us	13:14
	many of the means to make a better world	13:16
	for people like them, give us the strength	13:19
	to use those means.	13:24
	For the people of South Africa we pray, oppressed	13:27
	and oppressors, remembering the crippling effects	13:30
	of our struggles with racism here,	13:34
	we pray for the victims of racism there.	13:40
	For Katie O'Brien, beloved classmate,	13:44
	we pray for a speedy recovery from her accident.	13:49
	For Serena Wu Dun, member of the class of 1985,	13:55
	whose tragic death denied her this moment with us.	14:01
	For her and her family, we pray.	14:06
	Oh God who gives life, on a day like today,	14:13
	so full of joy and promises kept and dreams fulfilled,	14:17
	we know your goodness.	14:22
	And in that knowledge we lift up these, our brothers	14:26
	and sisters here and afar.	14:29
	Amen.	14:34
	(organ music)	14:51
	(choir singing in foreign language)	15:31
-	Please rise.	20:18
	Almighty God as you have granted us place and part	20:30
	in this university hallow to us now this day,	20:35
	when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work	20:40
	to which you have called us.	20:43
	That we may remember with gratitude the families	20:46
	and friends who have cared for us.	20:50
Audience	We ask your grace, oh God.	20:53
-	That in the life ahead, we may keep faith	20:57
	with those who loved us and trusted us	21:00
	and whose hopes follow us.	21:03
Audience	We ask your strength oh God.	21:06
-	That we may enter with good courage	21:09
	and constant purpose upon the task which await us.	21:11
Audience	We ask your presence oh God.	21:16
-	From all vanity and pride, as if our accomplishments	21:20
	were of our sole creation.	21:24
Audience	Dear Lord deliver us.	21:27
-	From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us	21:30
	and from distrust of our ability	21:34
	to meet the duties of each dawning day.	21:36
Audience	Dear Lord deliver us.	21:40
-	That the example of wise and generous people	21:43
	who have gone before us in our families	21:47
	and here in this university may save us from folly	21:50
	and self indulgence.	21:55
Audience	We ask your wisdom oh God.	21:57
-	More especially that you would show	22:01
	to us your way of love in all that we do or say,	22:03
	that we should come to love the Lord our God	22:09
	with our soul and mind and strength,	22:11
	and our neighbor as ourselves.	22:15
Audience	We ask your love, oh God.	22:19
-	These things and whatever else you see needful	22:22
	and right for us, we ask in your holy name.	22:25
	Amen.	22:30
	(organ music)	22:33
	(choir's words drown by organ)	23:13
-	And now class of 1985, the Lord bless you and keep you,	26:49
	the Lord make his light to shine upon you	26:56
	and be gracious unto you.	27:00
	The Lord lift up his countenance upon you	27:02
	and give you peace.	27:06
	♪ Amen ♪	27:11
	♪ amen ♪	27:17
	♪ amen ♪	27:23
	♪ Amen ♪	27:35
	♪ amen ♪	27:38
	♪ Amen ♪	27:51
	♪ Amen ♪	28:04
	(organ music)	28:26

Item Info

Title:

William Sloane Coffin, Jr. - Baccalaureate Service (May 5, 1985)

Description:

The goal of the life of faith is not to save your soul but to transcend yourself and offer yourself to the world as a gift. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:59. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 05:52.
Key quotation: “America, love it and leave it. Leave it for Jesus. Leave it for God. For America’s sake and for your own sake, and then return with Jesus to the ship. That’s how we’re supposed to love America: with Christ’s compassion, with Christ’s wisdom, with Christ’s concern for the whole, fusing once again freedom and virtue.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gx4581c

Date:

May 5, 1985

Speaker:

Coffin, William Sloane, Jr., 1924-2006

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0266
ref8053_zgc
uachapelsermaud
duke:320397
dcrau001253
ark:/87924/r4gx4581c
b015b758-6241-4392-bef0-6bd06b6d933f

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options