Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 4, 1986)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(traditional catholic music) | 0:02 | |
- | As a forgiven people, we recognize that is only | 20:15 |
the love of God that saves us and not we ourselves. | 20:19 | |
Therefore, let us confess our sins to almighty God | 20:24 | |
that we may be reconciled unto our maker. | 20:28 | |
The one who redeems us and who sustains us. | 20:32 | |
Please be seated. | 20:36 | |
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned | 20:56 | |
against you in thought, word, and deed. | 21:01 | |
By what we have done and by what we have left undone. | 21:05 | |
We have not loved you with our whole heart. | 21:10 | |
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. | 21:13 | |
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. | 21:17 | |
For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, | 21:22 | |
have mercy on us and forgive us that we may | 21:24 | |
delight in your will and walk in your ways. | 21:29 | |
To the glory of your name, amen. | 21:33 | |
For as the heavens are high above the earth | 21:38 | |
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. | 21:40 | |
As far as the east is from the west, | 21:45 | |
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. | 21:49 | |
Amen. | 21:53 | |
- | Let us pray. | 22:04 |
Open our hearts and minds oh God, | 22:06 | |
by the power of your holy spirit. | 22:09 | |
So that as the word is read and proclaimed | 22:11 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 22:14 | |
Amen. | 22:19 | |
The first lesson is taken from Acts. | 22:21 | |
But some men came down from Judea | 22:24 | |
and were teaching the brethren, | 22:27 | |
unless you are circumcised according to the custom | 22:29 | |
of Moses, you cannot be saved. | 22:32 | |
And when Paul and Barnabas had no small decension | 22:36 | |
and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas | 22:39 | |
and some of the others were appointed to go up | 22:42 | |
to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders | 22:45 | |
about this question. | 22:47 | |
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders | 22:50 | |
with the whole church to choose men from among them | 22:53 | |
and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. | 22:56 | |
They sent Judas, called Barsavas, | 23:01 | |
and Silas leading men among the brethren | 23:04 | |
with the following letter. | 23:07 | |
The brethren, both the apostles and the elders, | 23:09 | |
to the brethren who are the gentiles in Antioch and Syria | 23:13 | |
and Selicia, greeting. | 23:17 | |
Since we have heard that some persons from us | 23:21 | |
have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, | 23:23 | |
although we gave them no instructions | 23:27 | |
it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord | 23:29 | |
to choose men and send them to you | 23:34 | |
with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. | 23:37 | |
Men who have risked their lives for the sake | 23:40 | |
of our Lord Jesus Christ. | 23:42 | |
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas | 23:44 | |
who themselves will tell you the same things | 23:47 | |
by word of mouth, for it has seemed good to the holy spirit | 23:50 | |
and to us to lay upon you no greater burden | 23:54 | |
than these necessary things. | 23:58 | |
That you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols | 24:01 | |
and from blood and from what is strangled | 24:04 | |
and from unchastity. | 24:07 | |
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. | 24:10 | |
Farewell. | 24:14 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 24:16 | |
(traditional catholic music) | 24:34 | |
Please rise for the reading of the gospel. | 28:09 | |
The gospel lesson is taken from St. John. | 28:18 | |
Jesus answered him, if a man loves me, | 28:21 | |
he will keep my word and my father will love him. | 28:24 | |
And we will come to him and make our home with him. | 28:29 | |
He who does not love me does not keep my words | 28:33 | |
and the word which you hear is not mine, | 28:37 | |
but the father's who sent me. | 28:40 | |
These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you | 28:43 | |
but the counselor, the holy spirit, whom the father | 28:47 | |
will send in my name, he will teach you all things | 28:51 | |
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. | 28:54 | |
Peace I leave with you. | 28:59 | |
My peace I give to you. | 29:01 | |
Not as the world gives do I give to you. | 29:03 | |
Let not your hearts be troubled, | 29:06 | |
neither let them be afraid. | 29:09 | |
You heard me say to you, I go away and I will come to you. | 29:11 | |
If you love me, you would have rejoiced | 29:15 | |
because I go to the father, for the father | 29:19 | |
is greater than I. | 29:22 | |
And now I have told you before it takes place | 29:24 | |
so that when it does take place, you may believe. | 29:27 | |
This ends the reading of the gospel. | 29:31 | |
(traditional catholic music) | 29:36 | |
- | Be seated. | 30:36 |
As minister to the university, I welcome you to the chapel | 30:42 | |
on this glad day of baccalaureate and commencement. | 30:46 | |
And I welcome back to the pulpit of Duke Chapel, | 30:52 | |
the Reverend Dr. Peter Gomes. | 30:55 | |
Dr. Gomes leads a vibrant ministry | 30:58 | |
from Memorial Church at Harvard University. | 31:02 | |
He has international renown as a gifted interpreter | 31:06 | |
of the Christian faith and we welcome him back to Duke. | 31:10 | |
- | I read from the 16th chapter of | 31:32 |
St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, | 31:37 | |
beginning at the first verse. | 31:42 | |
Now concerning the contribution for the saints, | 31:48 | |
as I directed the churches of Galatia, | 31:53 | |
so you also are to do. | 31:57 | |
On the first day of every week each of you | 32:01 | |
is to put something aside and store it up | 32:04 | |
as he may prosper so that contributions | 32:09 | |
need not be made when I come. | 32:13 | |
And when I arrive I will send those whom you | 32:16 | |
accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. | 32:20 | |
If it seems advisable that I should go also, | 32:26 | |
they will accompany me. | 32:29 | |
I will visit you after passing through Masedonia, | 32:32 | |
for I intend to pass through Masedonia | 32:36 | |
and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter | 32:40 | |
so that you may speed me on my journey wherever I go. | 32:45 | |
For I do not want to see you now just in passing. | 32:51 | |
I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. | 32:55 | |
But I will stay in Ephasis until Pentecost. | 33:01 | |
For a wide door, for effective | 33:06 | |
work has opened to me | 33:10 | |
and there are many adversaries. | 33:13 | |
When Timothy comes see that you put him at ease | 33:17 | |
among you for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. | 33:20 | |
So let no one despise him. | 33:26 | |
Speed him on his way in peace that he may return to me | 33:29 | |
for I am expecting him with the brethren. | 33:35 | |
Here ends the lesson. | 33:40 | |
Let us pray. | 33:44 | |
Help us Lord to become masters of ourselves, | 33:49 | |
that we may become servants of others. | 33:54 | |
Take our hands and work through them. | 33:58 | |
Take our minds and think through them. | 34:01 | |
Take our lips and speak through them. | 34:05 | |
And take our hearts and set them on fire | 34:09 | |
for Christ's sake, amen. | 34:14 | |
I take as my text the ninth verse | 34:25 | |
of this 16th chapter | 34:28 | |
from first Corinthians which we have just read. | 34:30 | |
These words, | 34:35 | |
for a wide door for effective work | 34:38 | |
has opened to me | 34:42 | |
and there are many adversaries. | 34:45 | |
For hundreds of years now | 34:54 | |
the old, like ourselves, | 34:57 | |
have assembled the young like yourselves before us | 35:00 | |
on occasions very much like this. | 35:06 | |
And have inflicted upon them, that is you, | 35:10 | |
one last bit of unsolicited advice. | 35:16 | |
This is the season of the year when this ritual | 35:22 | |
takes place across the land | 35:26 | |
with painful regularity and frequency. | 35:29 | |
And the formula for occasions such as this | 35:34 | |
is a variation upon | 35:38 | |
one of the following contentions, | 35:41 | |
the advice that we give to us is something like this. | 35:45 | |
The world is in terrible shape, | 35:51 | |
but you can handle it. | 35:56 | |
Or the world is in very good shape, | 36:00 | |
and you're very lucky to be going out into it. | 36:05 | |
Or finally, the world is in terrible shape | 36:10 | |
and so are you. | 36:15 | |
Now given this advice with its mixed signals | 36:20 | |
and its mixed messages, it is possible for any | 36:24 | |
baccalaureate preacher anywhere to preach any sermon | 36:28 | |
on any one of these and this is one of them. | 36:32 | |
Now given this advice and this perception | 36:37 | |
there is reason to understand why there may be | 36:41 | |
among you some who wish to press for some form | 36:44 | |
of student tenure. | 36:48 | |
It was George Clinton who a few years ago | 36:50 | |
at a class they addressed at Harvard looked out | 36:54 | |
at the undergraduates very much like yourselves | 36:57 | |
about to enter the world and he said to them, | 37:00 | |
ladies and gentlemen of the class of whatever, | 37:02 | |
I have one word of advice to you, don't go. | 37:04 | |
It's terrible out there. | 37:09 | |
But you must go. | 37:14 | |
You've only hired these gowns for one day. | 37:16 | |
You must go. | 37:19 | |
Your parents can't afford to keep you here any longer. | 37:21 | |
Duke University cannot afford to have you | 37:27 | |
stay here any longer because you now know too much. | 37:29 | |
The university is really in the business of ignorance, | 37:36 | |
not in the business of knowledge. | 37:40 | |
That is why when you know too much, | 37:43 | |
they graduate you. They get you out of the way. | 37:47 | |
Very much like your ancestors, Adam and Eve. | 37:51 | |
When you know more than is good for you, | 37:56 | |
you are expelled or as they say to you, | 37:59 | |
graduated from this Eden | 38:02 | |
and they are sent out | 38:07 | |
like yourselves, not because they were dumb. | 38:08 | |
They weren't stupid. | 38:11 | |
But because they knew too much | 38:13 | |
and not for their own good. | 38:16 | |
That of course, is an illustration in search of a sermon. | 38:19 | |
Now the preacher's task on | 38:26 | |
an occasion such as this is to try to make some | 38:30 | |
sort of sense of this expulsion. | 38:35 | |
To put as sweet a taste on this poisoned pill as possible. | 38:38 | |
It is an attempt to sort it out, both to speed you | 38:44 | |
on your way and to welcome you to that place | 38:48 | |
to which you are now going. | 38:53 | |
And to do so without imposing too much upon your time, | 38:54 | |
your good sense, or your good humor. | 38:59 | |
So I take this task very seriously, | 39:04 | |
for I have a healthy regard for what I know | 39:07 | |
transpires here in Duke University. | 39:10 | |
I take this task seriously because I care for the world | 39:14 | |
into which you are now to enter. | 39:19 | |
And I take this task most seriously | 39:23 | |
because I have high hope and confidence in you, | 39:26 | |
in your character, in your mind, | 39:32 | |
in your imagination, in your courage, | 39:36 | |
in your spirit, and in your souls. | 39:40 | |
Now it would be very easy and an overwhelming temptation | 39:45 | |
to use this as an opportunity to flatter you | 39:51 | |
and compliment you on all of those skills and abilities | 39:55 | |
that have sustained you here in your days at Duke. | 40:00 | |
Accomplishments upon a field, distinctions in the classroom. | 40:05 | |
All of those graces and gifts which has made | 40:10 | |
your presence here worthwhile. | 40:14 | |
But you all know already how clever and bright | 40:17 | |
and attractive you are. | 40:21 | |
You do not need a hired preacher from Harvard | 40:23 | |
to tell you that. | 40:27 | |
You know better than I do | 40:29 | |
how hard you have worked here. | 40:33 | |
Some of you to make the system work for you | 40:36 | |
and others of you to avoid any work at all. | 40:40 | |
Not a few of you candidates are here this morning | 40:45 | |
solely by the grace of God. | 40:49 | |
You therefore and you know who you are, | 40:54 | |
you therefore have more reason than most to be thankful | 40:57 | |
and you should have attended all three | 41:01 | |
of these baccalaureate services. | 41:03 | |
But it is not for us to meditate upon the glories | 41:08 | |
or the difficulties of the past. | 41:13 | |
Our task before us is just that. | 41:16 | |
It is before us, in front of us. | 41:21 | |
And my responsibility for you this morning | 41:26 | |
is to help you look at, at the moment, | 41:30 | |
what only I can see. | 41:33 | |
For I am looking at the western doors of this church, | 41:36 | |
out of which shortly, you shall pass. | 41:41 | |
My task is to raise the question with you, | 41:46 | |
how can you cope with the reality beyond those doors, | 41:49 | |
the reality, the certainty | 41:55 | |
of an uncertain future. | 41:58 | |
Now this is not a very original question. | 42:03 | |
I know that. | 42:05 | |
But then again, this is hardly an original occasion. | 42:07 | |
You are not the first, nor will you be the last | 42:11 | |
to sit under these espouses. | 42:14 | |
And neither you nor I are very original people | 42:17 | |
as far as that goes. | 42:20 | |
In fact, the only original thing about us | 42:22 | |
is of course original sin, but that also | 42:25 | |
is a subject for another sermon at another time. | 42:29 | |
The presumption that we live in a very unique age | 42:33 | |
which therefore requires some very unique counsel | 42:37 | |
because we are very unique people facing | 42:41 | |
these special unique problems is simply put, | 42:44 | |
a not very unique presumption. | 42:47 | |
So to help us frame this, to provide a coat hook | 42:50 | |
upon which to hang these ideas and perhaps you and me | 42:55 | |
together, to help us do this I take as a text | 42:59 | |
a modest bit of enigmatic pros from St. Paul's | 43:04 | |
first letter to the Corinthians. | 43:09 | |
These words which you have probably not | 43:12 | |
heard very often before. | 43:14 | |
For a wide door for effective | 43:17 | |
work has been opened to me | 43:21 | |
and there are many adversaries. | 43:24 | |
Now if you can remember five minutes ago | 43:30 | |
to that chapter from Corinthians which I read to you, | 43:34 | |
you may have wondered what on earth is going on. | 43:37 | |
This is not one of the more familiar | 43:42 | |
and intimate passages from the new testament. | 43:45 | |
It seems one of those little business notes | 43:49 | |
that St. Paul is always dashing off. | 43:52 | |
Corporate memos to his constituents hither and yon, | 43:54 | |
a combination of homily, gossip, injunction, | 43:59 | |
advice, preaching, all of that sort of thing. | 44:03 | |
More like a collage of messages taped to the | 44:07 | |
refrigerator door, rather than a philosophical essay | 44:11 | |
or a reasoned discourse. | 44:16 | |
So I'm going to ask you to do what is very easy | 44:20 | |
for you to do and that is forget the travel. | 44:22 | |
Forget the offering for the saints at Jerusalem. | 44:25 | |
Don't worry about Masedonia or if you have | 44:28 | |
any idea where it is. | 44:31 | |
Don't get upset trying to sort out who Timothy was | 44:33 | |
or where he was. | 44:37 | |
I am asking you to focus | 44:39 | |
for a moment at that almost | 44:42 | |
parenthetical statement which I have extracted for my text. | 44:45 | |
That word about a wide door for effective work | 44:51 | |
and the fact that there are many adversaries with it. | 44:56 | |
Now note that the apostle says about the adversaries | 45:02 | |
and rather than but. | 45:08 | |
He doesn't say a great door has opened for me, | 45:11 | |
but there are problems on the other side. | 45:14 | |
He doesn't say there is a great opportunity awaiting me, | 45:16 | |
but unfortunately there are also some obstacles. | 45:20 | |
He doesn't even say there is a great opportunity now | 45:24 | |
available to me and I fear there are some problems also. | 45:29 | |
He says there is a wide and effective door | 45:34 | |
opened to me and there are many adversaries. | 45:38 | |
There are by definition adversaries | 45:44 | |
with this open door. | 45:48 | |
There are obstacles that come with every opportunity. | 45:50 | |
They are one and the same process. | 45:55 | |
With every opportunity there comes adversity | 46:00 | |
and if this is so, so to is the opposite. | 46:04 | |
With adversity there comes of necessity, | 46:08 | |
opportunity. | 46:13 | |
Paul recognized that in some sense adversity | 46:15 | |
was not the opposite of opportunity. | 46:19 | |
It was the consequence. | 46:23 | |
He understood as so many of us do not | 46:26 | |
that both opportunity and adversity | 46:28 | |
are seasons of grace. | 46:32 | |
They are together a part of the normal ordinary | 46:35 | |
business of living. | 46:40 | |
Now in a university community, especially as privileged | 46:44 | |
a university community as this one is, | 46:48 | |
one frequently is brought up with a view | 46:51 | |
that one has a ticket only to opportunity | 46:55 | |
and a first class ticket to opportunity at that. | 46:59 | |
That is what you will be handed this afternoon. | 47:03 | |
This first class ticket to opportunity. | 47:07 | |
Somehow here we've sifted | 47:11 | |
few and Henry James' | 47:15 | |
deliciously original and cynical phrase, | 47:17 | |
we pay these exorbitant fees and those of us who teach | 47:20 | |
are paid these pitiful salaries to be | 47:25 | |
protected from adversity of any sort. | 47:30 | |
We are subsidized in the view that a carefree | 47:36 | |
opportunity belongs to us as a right. | 47:41 | |
And that anything less than this is the academic | 47:45 | |
equivalent of sin, which is to say | 47:49 | |
it is unfair. | 47:52 | |
It is unfair, say some of you, that your generation | 47:55 | |
should inherent the threat of nuclear annihilation | 48:00 | |
thus spoiling your. | 48:04 |
- | From raining on your parade. | 0:02 |
It is unfair that the machinations of the economy, | 0:05 | |
such as it is, will make it likely that your standard | 0:10 | |
of living will be lower than that of your parents, | 0:14 | |
that is unless you're going to be a lawyer. | 0:18 | |
It is unfair that we cannot | 0:22 | |
resolve the wrongs | 0:27 | |
in Latin America, South Africa, the Middle East, | 0:29 | |
or Northern Ireland or next door without | 0:33 | |
undue inconvenience to ourselves. | 0:38 | |
It is unfair that we should be kicked out of Duke | 0:42 | |
just when we got to figure out how the place ran, | 0:48 | |
and almost do it by and for ourselves. | 0:51 | |
Now, it would be presumptuous of me to come | 0:57 | |
from afar to lay this kind of indictment upon you | 1:01 | |
as your guest, but I know this to be a universal axiom, | 1:06 | |
for in Cambridge, before I came down here on Thursday, | 1:12 | |
in Harvard Square, I saw a great blue sweatshirt, | 1:16 | |
and on the front of that sweatshirt, it said, | 1:21 | |
"Harvard: The Duke of the North". | 1:26 | |
(laughter) | 1:30 | |
(applause) | 1:33 | |
So I know what is true in Cambridge is equally true | 1:37 | |
in Durham. | 1:41 | |
(laughter) | 1:43 | |
Now we know, at least we ought to know, | 1:44 | |
that a university education ought to teach one | 1:47 | |
how to make the most of one's opportunities. | 1:52 | |
Opportunities come to him who is prepared, | 1:57 | |
that we know. | 2:01 | |
But the university at its best is also engaged | 2:03 | |
in the business of dealing with the adversity | 2:06 | |
that also and always comes with opportunity. | 2:11 | |
For nothing less than life itself, | 2:16 | |
that combination of opportunity and obstacle, | 2:18 | |
nothing less than life itself is | 2:23 | |
the business of learning. | 2:26 | |
And it is to that business that the university | 2:28 | |
is committed. | 2:31 | |
It doesn't always succeed, however. | 2:34 | |
It was Kierkegaard who, in criticism of Hegel, | 2:37 | |
that gloomy German, said, "He teaches you | 2:41 | |
"everything you need to know in the world | 2:45 | |
"except how to live your life and die your death." | 2:49 | |
What a sad verdict on such a wise man. | 2:54 | |
And it would be as sad a verdict upon you | 3:00 | |
if it were true. | 3:04 | |
But one of the reasons that you spend your last | 3:06 | |
hour and a half as Duke students, not out on | 3:10 | |
the field, and not in the library or in the laboratory, | 3:13 | |
but in this holy place, is that if you learn | 3:17 | |
nothing else, you will begin to learn the necessity | 3:22 | |
of how to live your life and die your death, | 3:27 | |
for that is the whole sum of any education worth having. | 3:32 | |
And it begins in this holy place. | 3:38 | |
You're at the right place, at the right time, | 3:42 | |
whether you know it or not. | 3:46 | |
Now, there will still be commencement orators across | 3:52 | |
the land who will rise in place and continue | 3:56 | |
to sound the trumpets of opportunity in technological | 4:01 | |
terms; some of them will even offer some of you a job. | 4:06 | |
They will tell us that we can do anything | 4:12 | |
we want to do; they will give audiences license | 4:16 | |
to sing that grammar school taunt, "anything you can do, | 4:21 | |
"I can do better," and because so many | 4:25 | |
of you have been here for so long, have worked so hard, | 4:29 | |
and have paid out so much, you will be tempted | 4:33 | |
to believe these prophets of progress | 4:37 | |
and take them to your bosom. | 4:40 | |
Now I do not despise progress; please do not mistake | 4:44 | |
me as an anti-progressive. | 4:48 | |
Do not think me as one who sticks a spoke | 4:51 | |
in the great wheel of progress. | 4:54 | |
I am not a Luddite; if you don't know | 4:57 | |
who a Luddite is, you shouldn't accept your | 4:59 | |
degree this afternoon. | 5:02 | |
I am not a member of the Amish community. | 5:04 | |
I do hold with the little old lady from Dubuke | 5:07 | |
who said that if God had intended man to fly | 5:10 | |
he would not have invented the railroad. | 5:13 | |
No, I don't accept those negative views of progress. | 5:17 | |
I am a result of progress; | 5:22 | |
all of us are results of progress. | 5:24 | |
I like my microwave, for example. | 5:28 | |
I continue to be amazed by the internal combustion engine. | 5:32 | |
I think digital clocks are terrific, | 5:37 | |
and I admire all the other marvelous, miraculous | 5:40 | |
products from Japan. | 5:44 | |
I'm very much in favor of progress, | 5:46 | |
but I hope that neither you nor I will ever mistake | 5:50 | |
these achievements and wonders for anything | 5:55 | |
other than what they are: means and diversions. | 5:59 | |
Means and diversions. | 6:04 | |
Perhaps that we need to remember Thoreau's words when | 6:08 | |
voting against the extension of the telegraph | 6:13 | |
from Concord to Boston in 1847, | 6:17 | |
he stood up in the town meeting and said, | 6:21 | |
"All our progress is but improved means | 6:25 | |
"to unimproved ends." | 6:30 | |
Now we don't need to be chastened by anything | 6:35 | |
quite so modest as the extension of a telegraph | 6:39 | |
line from Concord to Boston. | 6:43 | |
The Challenger disaster in January may have | 6:47 | |
delayed the exploration of outer space, | 6:51 | |
but it may as well have accelerated the | 6:56 | |
exploration of inner space because it | 6:59 | |
has introduced to us a season of great | 7:03 | |
and significant introspection. | 7:08 | |
When that dreadful disaster revealed itself before | 7:12 | |
our eyes on the television screen, | 7:16 | |
we were assured in the days after, | 7:20 | |
first that it was some kind of terrible | 7:23 | |
technical or technological fluke or error, | 7:27 | |
which, once detected, could be corrected, | 7:31 | |
and no loss to progress | 7:36 | |
or science or to the Space Program | 7:38 | |
would be recorded despite the regrettable human loss. | 7:42 | |
Our commentators, for example, were concerned for | 7:47 | |
our young children who saw this disaster on television, | 7:51 | |
they were concerned not that the children would be | 7:55 | |
traumatized by the sight of so violent a death. | 7:58 | |
No! Our children see violent death all of the time; | 8:02 | |
that was nothing new, they were quite used to that, | 8:07 | |
more's the pity. | 8:10 | |
What they feared, what the commentators' fears were | 8:12 | |
was that children would be traumatized by | 8:17 | |
the apparent failure of technology, | 8:21 | |
that the machine would be seen to be fallible. | 8:25 | |
They were not worried about the loss of life; | 8:29 | |
they were worried about the loss of confidence | 8:33 | |
in the machinery, the technique, the technology, | 8:36 | |
of our time. | 8:40 | |
But now, five months later, we know that | 8:43 | |
at the heart of the shuttle failure | 8:48 | |
was not technological failure, though that | 8:51 | |
is the immediate cause, but we know that | 8:55 | |
at the heart of this, as at the heart of so many things, | 8:59 | |
is human failure. | 9:03 | |
A lie here on the part of an over-ambitious engineer, | 9:07 | |
a cover-up there on the part of super-sensitive | 9:11 | |
administrators in the Space Program, | 9:14 | |
the desire to push things along faster and faster, | 9:17 | |
the need for the appearance of success at any cost. | 9:21 | |
The unwillingness to entertain adversity as a colleague | 9:26 | |
of opportunity, the unwillingness to entertain even | 9:30 | |
the susceptibility of failure. | 9:34 | |
That is their very phrase: "We did not think this | 9:36 | |
was susceptible to failure." | 9:39 | |
Human error, human arrogance, human ambition, | 9:42 | |
not ignorance, not evil, these were at the heart | 9:46 | |
of this dreadful dilemma, this terrible disaster. | 9:50 | |
Error seems to be the culprit here, | 9:55 | |
and ambition for achievement, vain distinction, | 9:57 | |
power, all of those things that you have | 10:02 | |
been taught so wisely to go after and have been | 10:04 | |
so clever in adapting to, all of these things, | 10:07 | |
that from time immemorial have deluded us into | 10:12 | |
thinking ourselves wiser and better than | 10:17 | |
we are or can be. | 10:21 | |
The opportunity for wide and effective work is great. | 10:24 | |
But often, more often than not, the adversaries | 10:30 | |
are not only out there, beyond those doors, | 10:35 | |
but right here within ourselves. | 10:39 | |
At the end of the Second World War, when Europe | 10:45 | |
had been restored to peace and democracy, | 10:50 | |
at the height of the great achievement of the | 10:55 | |
Western democracies in restoring peace and | 10:58 | |
the prospect of prosperity, Winston Churchill, | 11:02 | |
who had every reason to speak with authority, | 11:06 | |
surveyed all of this and wrote these words: | 11:09 | |
"Man, at this moment of his history has emerged | 11:15 | |
"in greater supremacy over the forces of nature | 11:19 | |
"than has ever been dreamed before. | 11:23 | |
"He has conquered the wild beasts, | 11:26 | |
"He has even conquered the insects and the microbes. | 11:28 | |
"There lies before him, if he wishes, | 11:33 | |
a golden age of peace and prosperity." | 11:37 | |
"All is in his hand. | 11:42 | |
"He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy, | 11:45 | |
himself." | 11:50 | |
The work of the last four or six | 11:54 | |
or eight years in this university | 11:59 | |
has been devoted on your part to what you know. | 12:02 | |
The next years, | 12:09 | |
as soon as you pass through those doors, | 12:11 | |
will be devoted in some measure, to what you do. | 12:15 | |
But none of it, what you know or what you do, | 12:21 | |
will amount to anything | 12:27 | |
if you don't know who you are | 12:29 | |
and whose you are. | 12:34 | |
Now there is an arrogance that comes with | 12:40 | |
knowledge such as you and I possess, and such as will be | 12:45 | |
celebrated in high academic festivity this afternoon. | 12:50 | |
And that arrogance is just as dangerous as the ignorance | 12:56 | |
which it is called to vanquish. | 13:01 | |
There is also an arrogance that comes with virtue, as well. | 13:05 | |
And you who would be virtuous | 13:11 | |
ought to pay heed to its dangers. | 13:15 | |
There is an aphorism that says, a surplus of virtue | 13:19 | |
is more dangerous than a surplus of vice, for a surplus | 13:24 | |
of virtue is not subject | 13:29 | |
to the constraints of conscience. | 13:32 | |
Think of it, how much harm is done in the | 13:36 | |
name of good, or of God? | 13:40 | |
How much real wickedness is done by those who in the | 13:44 | |
name of a just cause will stop at nothing | 13:47 | |
to achieve their ends? | 13:51 | |
University men and women are subject as few others are | 13:54 | |
to the arrogance of knowledge and virtue, | 13:59 | |
thinking that all who disagree with you | 14:03 | |
are either stupid or wicked, or both. | 14:05 | |
One of the virtues of the world that lies beyond | 14:10 | |
those wide and effective doors in the west end | 14:13 | |
is that you will not be permitted the luxury, uncontested, | 14:17 | |
of either of these options for long. | 14:23 | |
I said earlier that this is not an original occasion. | 14:30 | |
It would be tempting, even seductive for us to believe | 14:36 | |
that somehow the world today is now a very different | 14:40 | |
place from what it was 25 or even 50 years ago. | 14:44 | |
And certainly there is no comparison with the world | 14:49 | |
of Adam and Eve, or Saint Paul, | 14:52 | |
or even of the dukes. | 14:56 | |
Happily, we are free from all of that, we feel. | 14:59 | |
Our medieval academic costume, and this medieval | 15:02 | |
ecclesiastical architecture and the Wesleyans' piety | 15:07 | |
that surrounds us all are simply ornamental props for | 15:11 | |
a brave show, for a brave world, | 15:15 | |
for brave new people. | 15:19 | |
I think that both is a false and a dangerous view. | 15:23 | |
The world, I suggest, nuclear threat and all, | 15:28 | |
is fundamentally the same place it has always been, | 15:33 | |
and so, too, therefore, are men and women. | 15:39 | |
The same fears, the same hopes, the same weaknesses, | 15:43 | |
the same ambitions, and the same joys confront | 15:47 | |
us as confronted your mothers and your fathers | 15:51 | |
and your line back to Adam and to Eve. | 15:55 | |
We are not so much different than they. | 15:58 | |
And if that is true, is it not a source | 16:02 | |
of some profound reassurance that the god | 16:06 | |
who cared for them and preserves them up to this | 16:09 | |
very moment is the same god who will do the | 16:12 | |
same thing for you and for me as well? | 16:15 | |
And if that is true, is it not one of the | 16:21 | |
hopeful ironies of our time, that you should | 16:25 | |
be prepared to enter a secular | 16:30 | |
and crazy world | 16:34 | |
by a service of piety, prayer, | 16:37 | |
hymns, thanksgiving, | 16:41 | |
before the holy table of God | 16:44 | |
in this most holy spot? | 16:48 | |
That you should be prepared to face the world by facing | 16:52 | |
the presence of the living and loving God. | 16:56 | |
Now what encouraged Saint Paul to pass through | 17:05 | |
that wide door for effective work and to | 17:09 | |
embrace the adversaries within, without, on every side, | 17:14 | |
was the conviction that | 17:19 | |
God in Jesus Christ was the | 17:22 | |
same yesterday, today, and forever. | 17:25 | |
No less a conviction than this would | 17:31 | |
enable or empower him in the | 17:34 | |
face of his own arrogance | 17:38 | |
and the face of his own weakness | 17:41 | |
and the face of the opposition of many forces | 17:43 | |
and adversaries, within, without, and beyond. | 17:48 | |
If there is continuity in the sin of the world, | 17:53 | |
there is also continuity in the hope of the world | 17:57 | |
and you, now, are part of that hope. | 18:02 | |
You cannot act that part alone, | 18:07 | |
and that is why all of you young scholars, | 18:09 | |
and old scholars, good scholars, | 18:13 | |
indifferent scholars, and bad scholars, | 18:16 | |
why all of you find yourselves here to receive | 18:19 | |
the prayers and blessings of the church. | 18:24 | |
For finally, and ultimately, it is the best | 18:29 | |
thing that we can give you, | 18:34 | |
and it is the only thing that will keep you. | 18:36 | |
To some of you, this may seem just one | 18:43 | |
more pious anachronism, here we are | 18:46 | |
in the midst of a Gothic quadrangle, | 18:51 | |
translated from the 15th century to the | 18:54 | |
woods of North Carolina, what has this | 18:57 | |
to do with me, you say? | 19:02 | |
Well, a great deal, for the power of | 19:06 | |
the Christian faith does not depend upon | 19:10 | |
whether you believe in God or not. | 19:15 | |
It has very little to do with your consent | 19:20 | |
to that proposition. | 19:23 | |
It has everything to do with the proposition | 19:26 | |
that God believes in you, both despite | 19:30 | |
who you are, and because of who you are. | 19:33 | |
And upon such a bold, uncompromising premise | 19:38 | |
as that, is our holy church founded, | 19:43 | |
this university nourished, and the hope | 19:48 | |
of the world in you maintained. | 19:52 | |
That's what holds this place up. | 19:56 | |
Well, then, are we asking you, | 20:05 | |
ladies and gentlemen of 1986, | 20:09 | |
are we asking you to be heroes and heroines? | 20:12 | |
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to be a Paul, | 20:17 | |
as the old Sunday school song goes, | 20:20 | |
are we asking you to join the saints and the martyrs, | 20:23 | |
these marvelous people in these windows, | 20:28 | |
God's Phi Beta Kappa chapter, | 20:31 | |
are we asking you to join with them in this great | 20:33 | |
heroic enterprise? | 20:39 | |
Well, with all due respect to you, and the saints, | 20:42 | |
and the ideal of the heroic, we do not need | 20:46 | |
to graduate one more hero or heroine. | 20:51 | |
We do not need to create yet another | 20:55 | |
class of experts and specialists. | 20:57 | |
What we want are ordinary men and women, | 21:01 | |
who, with extraordinary passion and compassion, | 21:05 | |
perform the ordinary tasks of life in this world | 21:10 | |
which is ours. | 21:15 | |
We pray the prayer of Browning's Paracelsus, | 21:18 | |
who asks, "Make no more giants, Lord, | 21:23 | |
but elevate the race." | 21:26 | |
We ask you to elevate the race, to raise | 21:29 | |
the standard of living, to raise the standard | 21:34 | |
of expectation, by doing what you can, | 21:39 | |
where you are with what you have | 21:43 | |
because you know to whom | 21:46 | |
and for whom you live. | 21:49 | |
There is now open to each of you a wide | 21:55 | |
and great door for effectual work in the world. | 22:00 | |
I see it, it is open, trust me. | 22:05 | |
When you turn around, there it will be. | 22:07 | |
And there are many adversaries as well out there, | 22:12 | |
and you will meet more than your share of them. | 22:17 | |
You cannot stay here. | 22:23 | |
You cannot stay in this chapel. | 22:25 | |
You cannot stay in this university. | 22:27 | |
You must get on with it, and get out, | 22:30 | |
and the quicker, the better. | 22:33 | |
In the words of the spiritual, | 22:36 | |
"You will go, you shall go, | 22:39 | |
to see what the end will be." | 22:42 | |
But as you go, may God go | 22:47 | |
before you, behind you, | 22:51 | |
beside you, within you, | 22:55 | |
and always with you, for you | 22:59 | |
can't do what you must do alone, | 23:03 | |
for there is open to you a wide and effective | 23:07 | |
door for great work, | 23:12 | |
and there are many adversaries. | 23:16 | |
God go with you as you meet them. | 23:21 | |
Amen. | 23:26 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 23:31 | |
- | Let us unite in this historic confession | 27:17 |
of the Christian faith. | 27:19 | |
Congregation | I believe in God the Father, Almighty, | 27:21 |
Maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, | 27:25 | |
His only Son, our Lord, who is conceived | 27:28 | |
by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, | 27:32 | |
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, | 27:36 | |
dead, and buried, | 27:39 | |
He descended into Hell. | 27:41 | |
The third day he rose again from the dead. | 27:44 | |
He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right | 27:47 | |
hand of God the Father, Almighty, | 27:51 | |
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 27:54 | |
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, | 27:58 | |
the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, | 28:03 | |
the resurrection of the body, | 28:07 | |
and the life everlasting, amen. | 28:09 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 28:13 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 28:16 |
- | Let us pray, be seated. | 28:18 |
Gracious God, source of all truth and wisdom, | 28:27 | |
all knowledge and love, | 28:31 | |
without your guidance, this day would not be possible. | 28:35 | |
For these, our graduating students, | 28:39 | |
we pray that they might be blessed | 28:42 | |
with self-confidence and determination, | 28:44 | |
to use their lives and what they have learned here | 28:47 | |
in service of causes which benefit humanity. | 28:51 | |
We are conscious, O God, of the many needs | 28:57 | |
present within our modern world, | 29:01 | |
humanity has made progress, but there | 29:04 | |
is still hunger, ignorance, prejudice and fear. | 29:07 | |
We pray that these young people may go forth | 29:12 | |
into our world with a burning desire | 29:14 | |
to rectify these wrongs. | 29:18 | |
We pray for fellow students and teachers, | 29:22 | |
in places where freedom and truth are being tested, | 29:26 | |
particularly those in universities and colleges | 29:30 | |
of South Africa. | 29:34 | |
We pray for fellow students and teachers in | 29:37 | |
countries where there is war or civil strife, | 29:40 | |
particularly those who work and study in Lebanon, | 29:44 | |
in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, | 29:49 | |
may they persevere in spite of the terrors | 29:54 | |
around them and be strengthened in their search | 29:57 | |
for knowledge that brings peace. | 29:59 | |
We pray for those who are engaged in the work | 30:04 | |
of research and discovery, that their minds | 30:06 | |
may be continually enlightened to see more of your glory. | 30:10 | |
We pray for those who teach, that their love | 30:15 | |
of learning may never grow cold, and their | 30:19 | |
respect for the wonder of developing young minds | 30:22 | |
never be dulled. | 30:27 | |
We pray for all those who, by economic adversity, | 30:29 | |
or lack of natural ability are denied educational | 30:34 | |
opportunity. | 30:38 | |
We pray for those in the Class of 1986 who have died | 30:41 | |
since this journey began, | 30:46 | |
Louise, Molly, Allison, and Ted, | 30:49 | |
and we remember them with gratitude. | 30:56 | |
For all seekers after truth, that their minds be | 31:00 | |
open to new revelation and their wills strengthened | 31:03 | |
to follow the truth disclosed. | 31:06 | |
This we pray, expectant of your grace and care, amen. | 31:11 | |
(solemn organ music) | 31:29 | |
Choir | (sings in foreign language) | 33:12 |
- | Please stand for the responsive prayer. | 36:51 |
- | Almighty God, as you have granted us | 36:59 |
a place in this university, hallowed to us now this day, | 37:03 | |
when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work | 37:08 | |
to which you have called us, that we may remember | 37:12 | |
with gratitude the families and friends | 37:15 | |
who have cared for us. | 37:18 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 37:20 |
- | But in the life ahead, we may keep faith | 37:23 |
with those who have loved us, and who have trusted us, | 37:27 | |
and whose hopes follow us. | 37:29 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 37:32 |
- | That we enter with good courage, and constant | 37:34 |
purpose upon the tasks which await us. | 37:36 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 37:40 |
- | From all vanity and pride, as if our accomplishments | 37:42 |
were of our sole creation. | 37:46 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 37:49 |
- | From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us | 37:52 |
and from distrust of our ability to meet the | 37:55 | |
duties of each dawning day. | 37:57 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 38:01 |
- | That the example of wise and generous people | 38:04 |
who have gone before us and our families | 38:06 | |
and here in this university may save us | 38:09 | |
from folly and self-indulgence. | 38:12 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 38:16 |
- | More especially, that you would show to us | 38:18 |
your way of love in all that we do or say, | 38:21 | |
that we should come to love the Lord, our God, | 38:25 | |
with our soul and mind and strength, | 38:28 | |
and our neighbor as ourselves. | 38:31 | |
Congregation | (speaking in unison) | 38:34 |
These things, and whatever else you see needful | 38:38 | |
and right for us, we ask in your holy name, | 38:40 | |
amen. | 38:44 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 38:48 | |
Congregation | (singing) | 39:29 |
Item Info
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund