Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 10:30 am (May 4, 1986)

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	(organ music)	0:03
	(organ music)	3:50
	(choir singing)	13:34
	(organ music)	14:51
	(choir singing)	15:30
-	As a forgiven people, we recognize	20:07
	that it is only the love of God that saves us	20:09
	and not we ourselves.	20:13
	Therefore let us confess our sins to almighty God	20:15
	that we may be reconciled unto our maker,	20:19
	the one who redeems us	20:23
	and who sustains us.	20:25
	Please be seated.	20:27
	Most merciful God	20:47
	we confess that we have sinned against in you	20:50
	in thought, word and deed	20:53
	by what we have done	20:56
	and what we have left undone.	20:58
	We have not loved you with our whole heart.	21:02
	We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.	21:05
	We are truly sorry	21:08
	and we humbly repent.	21:10
	For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ,	21:13
	have mercy on us	21:15
	and forgive us	21:17
	that we may delight in your will	21:19
	and walk in your ways.	21:21
	To the glory of your name.	21:24
	Amen.	21:26
	For as the heavens are high above the earth,	21:29
	so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.	21:32
	As far as the east is from the west,	21:37
	so far does he remove our transgressions from us.	21:40
	Amen.	21:44
-	Let us pray.	21:55
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God,	21:57
	by the power of your holy spirit,	21:59
	so that is the word is read and proclaimed	22:02
	we might hear with joy	22:05
	what you say to us this day.	22:07
	Amen.	22:10
	The first lesson	22:12
	is taken from Acts.	22:12
	Some men came down from Judea	22:15
	and were teaching the brethren,	22:18
	"Unless you are circumcised	22:20
	"according to the custom of Moses,	22:22
	"you cannot be saved."	22:24
	And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension	22:27
	and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas	22:30
	and some of the others	22:32
	were appointed to go up to Jerusalem	22:34
	to the apostles and the elders about this question.	22:36
	Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders,	22:40
	with the whole church, to chose men from among them	22:43
	and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.	22:47
	They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas,	22:51
	leading men among the brethren,	22:56
	with the following letter.	22:58
	The brethren, both the Apostles and the elders	23:00
	to the brethren who are the gentiles in Antioch	23:03
	and Syria	23:07
	and Cilicia.	23:08
	Greeting.	23:10
	Since we have heard that some persons from us	23:11
	have troubled you with words,	23:13
	unsettling your minds,	23:15
	although we gave them no instructions,	23:17
	it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord,	23:20
	to choose men and send them to you	23:24
	with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,	23:27
	men who have risked their lives	23:30
	for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.	23:32
	We have therefore sent Judas and Silas,	23:35
	who themselves will tell you the same things	23:38
	by word of mouth.	23:40
	For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit	23:42
	and to us to lay upon you no greater burden	23:45
	than these necessary things:	23:48
	that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols,	23:51
	and from blood, and from what is strangled,	23:54
	and from unchastity.	23:57
	If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.	23:59
	Farewell.	24:04
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	24:06
	(organ music)	24:20
	(choir singing)	24:33
	Please rise for the reading of the gospel.	27:57
	The gospel lesson is taken from Saint John.	28:06
	Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me,	28:09
	"he will keep my word	28:12
	"and my Father will love him,	28:14
	"and we will come to him, and make our home with him.	28:17
	"He who does not love me does not keep my words	28:20
	"and the word which you hear is not mine,	28:25
	"but the Father's who sent me.	28:28
	"These things have I spoken to you,	28:31
	"while I am still with you.	28:33
	"But the counselor, the Holy Spirit,	28:35
	"whom the Father will send in my name,	28:38
	"he will teach you all things,	28:40
	"and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.	28:43
	"Peace I leave with you.	28:47
	"My peace I give to you; not as the world gives	28:49
	"do I give I to you.	28:53
	"Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid.	28:54
	"You heard me say to you,	28:59
	"'I go away, and I will come to you.'	29:00
	"If you loved me, you would have rejoiced,	29:04
	"because I go to the Father;	29:07
	"for the Father is greater than I.	29:09
	"And now I have told you before it takes place	29:12
	"so that, when it does take place, you may believe."	29:15
	This ends the reading of the gospel.	29:19
	(organ music)	29:23
	(choir singing)	29:31
-	Be seated.	30:23
	As minister to the university,	30:29
	I welcome you to the chapel,	30:31
	on this glad day of day of baccalaureate and commencement	30:33
	and I welcome back to the pulpit of Duke Chapel	30:38
	the Reverend Dr. Peter Gomes.	30:42
	Dr. Gomes leads a vibrant ministry	30:45
	from Memorial Church at Harvard University.	30:48
	He has international renown as a gifted interpreter	30:52
	of the Christian faith	30:57
	and we welcome him back to Duke.	30:58
-	I read from the 16th chapter of Saint Paul's first letter	31:18
	to the Corinthians, beginning at the first verse.	31:26
	Now concerning the contribution for the saints:	31:34
	as I directed the churches of Galatia,	31:39
	so you also are to do.	31:43
	On the first day of every week,	31:47
	each of you is to put something aside and store it up,	31:50
	as he may prosper, so that contributions	31:55
	need not be made when I come.	31:59
	And when I arrive, I will send those	32:02
	whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.	32:06
	If it seems advisable that I should go also,	32:12
	they will accompany me.	32:15
	I will visit you after passing through Macedonia,	32:18
	for I intend to pass through Macedonia,	32:22
	and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter,	32:25
	so that you may speed me on my journey,	32:31
	wherever I go.	32:35
	For I do not want to see you now just in passing.	32:37
	I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.	32:41
	But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,	32:47
	for a wide door for effective work has opened to me,	32:52
	and there are many adversaries.	32:58
	When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you,	33:03
	for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.	33:07
	So let no one despise him.	33:12
	Speed him on his way in peace,	33:14
	that he may return to me,	33:18
	for I am expecting him with the brethren.	33:21
	Here ends the lesson.	33:26
	Let us pray.	33:29
	Help us Lord to become masters of ourselves	33:34
	that we may become servants of others.	33:39
	Take our hands and work through them.	33:43
	Take our minds and think through them.	33:47
	Take our lips and speak through them.	33:50
	And take our hearts	33:54
	and set them on fire,	33:57
	for Christ's sake.	33:59
	Amen.	34:02
	I take as my text the 9th verse	34:10
	of this 16th chapter from 1 Corinthians	34:13
	which we have just read,	34:18
	these words:	34:20
	for a wide door for effective work	34:22
	has opened to me,	34:27
	and there are many adversaries.	34:30
	For hundreds of years now	34:38
	the old, like ourselves, have assembled the young,	34:42
	like yourselves, before us	34:47
	on occasions very much like this	34:51
	and have inflicted upon them,	34:55
	that is you, one last bit of	34:59
	unsolicited advice.	35:03
	This is the season of the year when this ritual	35:07
	takes place across the land	35:10
	with painful regularity and frequency	35:13
	and the formula for occasions such as this	35:19
	is a variation upon one of the	35:23
	following contentions.	35:27
	The advice that we give to you is something like this:	35:30
	The world is in terrible shape,	35:36
	but you can handle it.	35:40
	(audience laughing)	35:43
	Or	35:45
	the world is in very good shape	35:46
	and you're very lucky to be going out into it.	35:49
	Or finally, the world is in terrible shape	35:54
	and so are you.	35:59
	(audience laughing)	36:01
	Now given this advice, with its mixed signals	36:04
	and its mixed messages, it is possible	36:09
	for any baccalaureate preacher anywhere	36:11
	to preach any sermon on any one of these	36:15
	and this is one of them.	36:18
	Given this advice and this perception,	36:22
	there is reason to understand why there may be among you	36:25
	some who wish to press	36:29
	for some form of student tenure.	36:31
	It was George Plimpton who, a few years ago	36:34
	at a Class Day address at Harvard,	36:38
	looked out at the undergraduates very much like yourselves,	36:40
	about to enter the world, and he said to them,	36:44
	"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of whatever,	36:46
	"I have one word of advice to you.	36:48
	"Don't go.	36:51
	"Terrible out there."	36:53
	But you must go.	36:58
	You've only hired these gowns for one day.	37:00
	You must go.	37:03
	Your parents can't afford to keep you here any longer.	37:05
	Duke University cannot afford to have you stay here	37:10
	any longer, because you now know too much.	37:14
	(audience laughing)	37:18
	You know the university is really	37:19
	in the business of ignorance,	37:22
	not in the business of knowledge.	37:24
	That is why when you know too much,	37:27
	they graduate you, they get you out of the way,	37:31
	very much like your ancestors Adam and Eve.	37:35
	When you know more than is good for you,	37:40
	you are expelled, or as they say to you,	37:42
	graduated from this Eden	37:45
	and they are sent out like yourselves,	37:51
	not because they were dumb.	37:53
	There weren't stupid.	37:55
	But because they knew too much	37:56
	and not for their own good.	37:59
	That of course	38:02
	is an illustration	38:04
	in search of a sermon.	38:06
	Now--	38:09
	(audience laughing)	38:11
	The preacher's task	38:12
	on an occasion such as this	38:13
	is to try to make some sort of sense	38:15
	of this expulsion, to put as sweet a taste	38:19
	on this poison pill as possible.	38:24
	It is an attempt to sort it out,	38:27
	both to speed you on your way and to welcome you	38:30
	to that place to which you are now going	38:34
	and to do so without imposing too much	38:38
	upon your time, your good sense	38:41
	or your good humor.	38:44
	So I take this task very seriously.	38:47
	For I have a healthy regard for what I know transpires	38:50
	here in Duke University.	38:54
	I take this task seriously,	38:57
	because I care for the world	39:00
	into which you are now to enter.	39:02
	And I take this task most seriously,	39:06
	because I have high hope and confidence in you,	39:09
	in your character, in your mind,	39:14
	in your imagination, in your courage,	39:18
	in your spirit	39:23
	and in your souls.	39:25
	Now it would be very easy and an overwhelming temptation	39:28
	to use this as an opportunity to flatter you	39:33
	and compliment you on all of those skills and abilities	39:38
	that have sustained you here in your days at Duke,	39:43
	accomplishments upon the field,	39:47
	distinctions in the classroom,	39:50
	all of those graces and gifts	39:53
	which has made your presence here	39:55
	worthwhile,	39:58
	but you all know already how clever and bright	40:00
	and attractive you are.	40:03
	You do not need a hired preacher from Harvard	40:06
	to tell you that.	40:09
	(audience laughing)	40:11
	You know better than I do	40:12
	how hard you have worked here, some of you,	40:15
	to make the system work for you	40:20
	and others of you, to avoid any work at all.	40:22
	(audience laughing)	40:27
	Not a few of you candidates are here this morning	40:27
	solely by the grace of God.	40:31
	(audience laughing)	40:34
	You, therefore, and you know who you are;	40:36
	you, therefore, have more reason than most	40:39
	to be thankful and you should have attended	40:42
	all three of these baccalaureate services.	40:45
	(audience laughing)	40:47
	But it is not for us to meditate	40:51
	upon the glories or the difficulties of the past.	40:53
	Our task before us is just that.	40:58
	It is before us, in front of us	41:03
	and my responsibility for you this morning	41:08
	is to help you look at, at the moment,	41:12
	what only I can see.	41:15
	For I am looking at the western doors of this church,	41:18
	out of which, shortly, you shall pass.	41:23
	My task is to raise the question with you,	41:27
	how can you cope with the reality beyond those doors,	41:31
	the reality,	41:37
	the certainty of an uncertain future.	41:38
	Now this is not a very original question.	41:44
	I know that,	41:47
	but then again this is hardly an original occasion.	41:48
	You are not the first nor will you be the last	41:53
	to sit under these auspices	41:56
	and neither you nor I are very original people,	41:58
	as far as that goes.	42:02
	In fact, the only original thing about us is, of course,	42:03
	original sin, but that also	42:07
	is the subject for another sermon	42:10
	at another time.	42:12
	The presumption that we live	42:14
	in a very unique age, which therefore requires	42:16
	some very unique counsel, because we are very unique people	42:20
	facing special and unique problems is, simply put,	42:25
	a not very unique presumption.	42:28
	So to help us frame this, to provide a coat hook	42:32
	upon which to hang these ideas	42:36
	and perhaps you and me together,	42:39
	to help us do this I take as a text,	42:41
	a modest bit of enigmatic prose	42:45
	from Saint Paul's first letter to the Corinthians;	42:49
	These words,	42:53
	which were probably not heard very often before:	42:54
	for a wide door for effective work	42:58
	has been opened to me	43:03
	and there are many adversaries.	43:05
	Now if you can remember five minutes ago	43:12
	to that chapter from Corinthians which I read to you,	43:14
	you may have wondered what on earth is going on.	43:18
	This is not one of the more familiar and intimate passages	43:23
	from the New Testament.	43:27
	It seems one of those little business notes	43:29
	that Saint Paul is always dashing off,	43:33
	corporate memos to his constituents hither and yon,	43:35
	a combination of homily, gossip, injunction,	43:40
	advice, a preaching, all of that sort of thing,	43:44
	more like a collage of messages	43:48
	taped to the refrigerator door,	43:51
	rather than a philosophical essay	43:54
	or a reasoned discourse.	43:57
	So I'm going to ask you to do	44:00
	what is very easy for you to do	44:02
	and that is forget the travel,	44:04
	forget the offering for the saints at Jerusalem.	44:06
	Don't worry about Macedonia	44:09
	or if you have any idea where it is.	44:11
	Don't get upset trying to sort out who Timothy was	44:14
	or where he was.	44:18
	I'm asking you to focus for a moment	44:20
	at that almost parenthetical statement	44:24
	which I have extracted for my text,	44:28
	that word about a wide door for effective work	44:31
	and the fact that there are many adversaries with it.	44:37
	Now note that the apostle says, about the adversaries,	44:43
	and rather than but.	44:48
	He doesn't say a great door has opened for me,	44:51
	but there are problems on the other side.	44:54
	He doesn't say there is a great opportunity awaiting me,	44:57
	but unfortunately there are also some obstacles.	45:00
	He doesn't even say there is a great opportunity	45:04
	now available to me and I fear there are some problems also.	45:08
	He says there is wide and effective door open to me	45:14
	and there are many adversaries.	45:19
	There are, by definition, adversaries	45:24
	with this open door.	45:28
	There are obstacles that come with every opportunity.	45:30
	They are one and the same process.	45:35
	With every opportunity, there comes adversity	45:39
	and if this is so, so too is the opposite.	45:44
	With adversity, there comes, of necessity,	45:48
	opportunity.	45:53
	Paul recognized that in some sense	45:55
	adversity was not the opposite of opportunity.	45:58
	It was the consequence.	46:02
	He understood, as so many of us do not,	46:05
	that both opportunity and adversity are	46:08
	seasons of grace.	46:12
	They are, together, a part of the normal,	46:15
	ordinary business of living.	46:19
	Now in a university community,	46:23
	especially as privileged a university community	46:25
	as this one is,	46:29
	one frequently is brought up with a view	46:31
	that one has a ticket only	46:34
	to opportunity and a first class ticket	46:37
	to opportunity at that.	46:40
	That is what you will be handed this afternoon,	46:43
	this first class ticket to opportunity.	46:47
	Somehow here, we the sifted few,	46:51
	in Henry James' deliciously original and cynical phrase,	46:55
	"We pay these exorbitant fees	46:59
	"and those of those who teach	47:03
	"are paid these pitiful salaries	47:04
	(audience laughing)	47:08
	"to be protected from	47:09
	adversity of any sort.	47:11
	"We are subsidized in the view	47:15
	"that a care free opportunity belongs to us	47:18
	"as a right and that anything less than this	47:23
	"is the academic equivalent of sin,	47:26
	"which is to say it is unfair."	47:29
	It is unfair, say some of you,	47:34
	that your generation should inherent	47:38
	the threat of nuclear annihilation,	47:40
	thus spoiling your.	47:43

-	Raining on your parade, it is unfair that the	0:03
	machinations of the economies such as it is,	0:08
	will make it likely that your standard of living	0:12
	will be lower than that of your parents.	0:15
	That is unless you're going to be a lawyer.	0:18
	It is unfair	0:22
	that we cannot resolve the wrongs	0:26
	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	0:47
	and could almost do it by and for ourselves.	0:51
	Now, it would be presumptuous of me to come from afar	0:57
	to lay this kind of indictment upon you as your guest,	1:02
	but I know this to be a universal axiom,	1:07
	or in Cambridge, before I came down here	1:11
	on Thursday in Harvard Square,	1:14
	I saw a great blue sweatshirt and on the front	1:17
	of that sweatshirt it said Harvard,	1:22
	the Duke of the north.	1:26
	(audience laughing)	1:29
	(applauding)	1:32
	So I know what is true in Cambridge	1:36
	is equally true in Durham.	1:39
	Now we know, at least we ought to know,	1:44
	that a university education ought to teach one	1:46
	how to make the most of one's opportunities.	1:51
	Opportunities come to him who is prepared, that we know.	1:56
	But the university at its best is also engaged	2:02
	in the business of dealing with the adversity	2:05
	that also and always comes with opportunity,	2:09
	for nothing less than life itself.	2:14
	That combination of opportunity and obstacle,	2:17
	nothing less than life itself is the business of learning	2:21
	and it is to that business that the university is committed.	2:27
	It doesn't always succeed, however.	2:32
	It was Kierkegaard, who in criticism of Hegel,	2:36
	that gloomy German, said, "He teaches you everything	2:40
	"you need to know in the world except	2:45
	"how to live your life and die your death."	2:48
	What a sad verdict on such a wise man,	2:53
	and it would be a sadder verdict upon you if it were true.	2:58
	Well, one of the reasons that you spend your last	3:05
	hour and a half as Duke students not out on the field	3:08
	and not in the library or in the laboratory,	3:12
	but in this holy place,	3:15
	is that if you learn nothing else,	3:19
	you will begin to learn the necessity of	3:21
	how to live your life and die your death.	3:25
	For that is the whole sum of any education worth having	3:30
	and begins in this holy place.	3:36
	You're at the right place at the right time,	3:40
	whether you know it or not.	3:44
	Now there will still be commencement orators	3:50
	across the land who will rise in place and continue	3:53
	to sound the trumpets of opportunity	3:58
	in technological terms.	4:02
	Some of them will even offer some of you a job.	4:05
	They will tell us that we can do anything we want to do.	4:10
	They will give audiences license to	4:15
	sing that grammar school taunt,	4:18
	"Anything you can do, I can do better,"	4:21
	and because so many of you have been here for so long,	4:25
	have worked so hard and paid out so much,	4:29
	you will be tempted to believe these	4:32
	prophets of progress and take them to your bosom.	4:35
	Now, I do not despise progress.	4:41
	Please do not mistake me as an anti-progressive.	4:44
	Do not think me as one who sticks a spoke	4:48
	in the great wheel of progress.	4:51
	I am not a Luddite.	4:54
	If you don't know who a Luddite is,	4:56
	you shouldn't accept your degree this afternoon.	4:58
	I am not a member of the Amish community.	5:01
	I do not hold the little old lady from Dubuque	5:04
	who said that if God had intended man to fly,	5:07
	he would not have invented the railroad.	5:10
	No, I, I don't accept those negative views of progress.	5:14
	I am a result of progress.	5:19
	All of us are results of progress.	5:21
	I like my microwave, for example.	5:25
	I continue to be amazed by the internal combustion engine.	5:28
	I think digital clocks are terrific and I admire	5:34
	all the other marvelous, miraculous products from Japan.	5:38
	I'm very much in favor of progress,	5:43
	but I hope that neither you nor I will ever mistake	5:47
	these achievements and wonders for anything other	5:52
	than what they are, means and diversions.	5:56
	Means and diversions.	6:01
	Perhaps we need to remember Thoreau's words	6:05
	when in voting against the extension of the telegraph	6:09
	from Concord to Boston in 1847,	6:13
	he stood up in the town meeting and said,	6:18
	"All our progress is but improved	6:21
	means to unimproved ends."	6:25
	Now, we don't need to be chastened by anything	6:32
	quite so modest as the extension of the telegraph line	6:35
	from Concord to Boston.	6:40
	The Challenger disaster in January may have delayed	6:43
	the exploration of outer space,	6:48
	but it may as well have accelerated the exploration	6:52
	of inner space because it has introduced to us	6:56
	a season of great and significant introspection.	7:01
	When that dreadful disaster revealed itself	7:07
	before our eyes on the television screen,	7:12
	we were assured in the days after,	7:16
	first that it was some kind of terrible technical	7:19
	or technological fluke or error, which once detected	7:24
	could be corrected and no loss to progress	7:29
	or science or to the space program would be recorded,	7:34
	despite the regrettable human loss.	7:38
	Our commentators, for example,	7:43
	were concerned for our young children	7:45
	who saw this disaster on the television.	7:48
	They were concerned not that the children	7:51
	would be traumatized by the sight of so violent a death.	7:53
	No, our children see violent death all the time.	7:58
	That was nothing new.	8:02
	They were quite used to that, more's the pity.	8:04
	What they feared, what the commentator fears were,	8:07
	was that children would be traumatized	8:12
	by the apparent failure of technology,	8:16
	that the machine would be seen to be fallible.	8:20
	They were not worried about the loss of life.	8:25
	They were worried about the loss of confidence	8:28
	in the machinery, the technique, the technology of our time.	8:31
	But now, five months later, we know that at the heart	8:38
	of the shuttle failure was not technological failure,	8:44
	though that is the immediate cause,	8:49
	but we know that at the heart of this as at the heart	8:53
	of so many things, is human failure.	8:56
	Ally here on the part of an over-ambitious engineer,	9:01
	a coverup there on the part of super sensitive	9:06
	administrators in the space program,	9:09
	the desire to push things along faster and faster,	9:12
	the need for the appearance of success at any cost.	9:16
	The unwillingness to entertain adversity	9:20
	as a colleague of opportunity,	9:24
	the unwillingness to admit even	9:26
	the susceptibility of failure, that is their very phrase,	9:28
	we did not think this was susceptible to failure.	9:32
	Human error, human arrogance, human ambition, not ignorance,	9:36
	not evil, these were at the heart of this dreadful dilemma,	9:41
	this terrible disaster.	9:47
	Error seems to be the culprit here,	9:49
	and ambition for achievement, fame, distinction, power,	9:52
	all of those things that you have been taught so wisely	9:57
	to go after and have been so clever in adapting to,	10:00
	all of these things that from time immemorial have	10:05
	deluded us into thinking ourselves wiser	10:09
	and better than we are or can be.	10:13
	The opportunity for wide and effective work is great,	10:18
	but often, more often than not, the adversaries	10:24
	are not only out there beyond those doors,	10:29
	but right here within ourselves.	10:33
	At the end of the second war,	10:39
	when Europe had been restored	10:43
	to peace and democracy at the height of the	10:46
	great achievement of the Western democracies	10:50
	in restoring peace and the prospect of prosperity,	10:53
	Winston Churchill, who had every reason to speak	10:59
	with authority, surveyed all of this	11:02
	and wrote these words.	11:06
	"Man, at this moment of his history has emerged in greater	11:09
	"supremacy over the forces of nature	11:13
	"than has ever been dreamed before.	11:16
	"He has conquered the wild beasts.	11:20
	"He has even conquered the insects and the microbes.	11:22
	"There lies before him, if he wishes,	11:27
	"a golden age of peace and prosperity.	11:31
	"All is in his hand.	11:35
	"He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy,	11:38
	himself."	11:44
	The work of the last four or six	11:48
	or eight years in this university has been devoted	11:52
	on your part to what you know.	11:57
	The next years, as soon as you pass through those doors,	12:02
	will be devoted in some measure to what you do,	12:08
	but none of it, what you know or what you do,	12:14
	will amount to anything	12:20
	if you don't know who you are	12:22
	and whose you are.	12:27
	Now, there is an arrogance	12:33
	that comes with knowledge	12:37
	such as you and I possess, and such as will be celebrated	12:38
	in high academic festivity this afternoon.	12:44
	And that arrogance is just as dangerous as the ignorance	12:49
	which it is called to vanquish.	12:54
	There is also an arrogance that comes with virtue as well,	12:58
	and you who would be virtuous	13:04
	ought to pay heed to its dangers.	13:07
	There is an aphorism that says,	13:12
	a surplus of virtue is more dangerous	13:14
	than a surplus of vice, for a surplus of virtue	13:18
	is not subject to the constraints of conscience.	13:22
	Think of it.	13:28
	How much harm is done in the name of good	13:30
	or of God?	13:34
	How much real wickedness is done by those,	13:36
	who in the name of a just cause will stop	13:39
	at nothing to achieve their ends.	13:42
	University men and women are subject as few others are	13:47
	to the arrogance of knowledge and virtue,	13:51
	thinking that all who disagree with you	13:55
	are either stupid or wicked or both.	13:57
	One of the virtues of the world that lies beyond those	14:02
	wide and effective doors in the west end	14:06
	is that you will not be permitted the luxury	14:09
	uncontested of either of these options for long.	14:14
	I said earlier that this is not an original occasion.	14:22
	It would be tempting, even seductive for us to believe	14:28
	that somehow the world today is now a very different place	14:32
	from what it was 25 or even 50 years ago,	14:37
	and certainly there is no comparison with the world	14:41
	of Adam and Eve or of Saint Paul,	14:44
	or even of the Duke's.	14:47
	Happily, we are freed from all of that.	14:50
	We feel our medieval academic costume and this	14:53
	medieval ecclesiastical architecture and the	14:57
	Wesleyan's piety that surrounds us all	15:01
	are simply ornamental props for a brave show,	15:04
	for a brave world, for brave new people.	15:09
	I think that is both a fault and a dangerous view.	15:15
	The world, I suggest, nuclear threat and all,	15:20
	is fundamentally the same place it has always been	15:25
	and so to therefore, are men and women.	15:31
	The same fears, the same hopes, the same weaknesses,	15:35
	the same ambitions and the same joys	15:39
	confront us as confronted your mothers and your fathers	15:42
	and your line back to Adam and Eve.	15:46
	We are not so much different than they.	15:49
	And if that is so, is it not a source of some	15:53
	profound reassurance that the God who cared for them	15:57
	and preserves them under this very moment	16:02
	is the same God who will do the same thing	16:04
	for you and for me as well.	16:08
	And if that is true, is it not one of the hopeful	16:12
	ironies of our time,	16:17
	that you should be prepared to enter	16:20
	a secular and crazy world	16:23
	by a service of piety,	16:27
	prayer, hymns, thanksgiving,	16:30
	before the holy table	16:35
	of God in this most holy spot.	16:37
	That you should be prepared to face the world	16:42
	by facing the presence of the living	16:46
	and loving God.	16:50
	Now, what encouraged Saint Paul to pass through	16:56
	that wide door for effective work and to embrace	17:00
	the adversaries within-without on every side,	17:05
	was the conviction that God,	17:10
	in Jesus Christ,	17:13
	was the same yesterday, today and forever.	17:15
	No lesser conviction than this would enable	17:21
	or empower him in the face of his	17:26
	own arrogance and the face of his own	17:29
	weakness and the face of the opposition of many forces	17:32
	and adversaries within, without and beyond.	17:38
	If there is continuity in the sin of the world,	17:43
	there is also continuity in the hope of the world	17:47
	and you now are part of that hope.	17:52
	You cannot act that part alone.	17:57
	And that is why all of you young scholars and old scholars,	18:00
	good scholars, indifferent scholars and bad scholars,	18:05
	why all of you find yourselves here	18:09
	to receive the prayers and the blessings of the church.	18:13
	For finally and ultimately, it is the best thing	18:19
	that we can give you and it is the only thing	18:24
	that will keep you.	18:29
	Some of you, this may seem just one more	18:32
	pious anachronism.	18:37
	Here we are in the midst of a gothic quadrangle	18:39
	translated from the 15th century to the woods	18:43
	of North Carolina.	18:47
	What has this to do with me, you say.	18:50
	Well, a great deal.	18:55
	All the power of the Christian faith	18:58
	does not depend upon	19:02
	whether you believe in God or not,	19:04
	has very little to do	19:09
	with your consent to that proposition.	19:11
	It has everything to do with the proposition that God	19:16
	believes in you both despite who you are,	19:21
	and because of who you are,	19:24
	and upon such a bold,	19:28
	uncompromising premise as that	19:30
	is our holy church founded,	19:34
	this university nourished	19:37
	and the hope of the world in you maintained.	19:41
	That's what holds this place up.	19:46
	Well then, are we asking you	19:55
	ladies and gentleman of 1986,	19:59
	are we asking you to be heroes and heroines?	20:01
	Dare to be a Daniel, dare to be a Paul,	20:06
	as the old Sunday school song goes.	20:09
	Are we asking you to join the saints and the martyrs,	20:12
	these marvelous people in these windows,	20:17
	God's Phi Beta Kappa chapter,	20:20
	are we asking you to join with them	20:22
	in this great, heroic enterprise?	20:26
	Well, with all due respect to you and the saints	20:31
	and the ideal of the heroic, we do not need	20:35
	to graduate one more hero or heroine.	20:39
	We do not need to create yet another class	20:44
	of experts and specialists.	20:47
	What we want are ordinary men and women who,	20:49
	with extraordinary passion and compassion,	20:54
	perform the ordinary tasks of life in this world,	20:59
	which is ours.	21:04
	We pray the prayer of Browning's Paraklesis	21:06
	who asks, "Make no more giants Lord,	21:11
	but elevate the race."	21:15
	We ask you to elevate the race,	21:18
	to raise the standard of living,	21:21
	to raise the standard of expectation	21:25
	by doing what you can,	21:30
	where you are with what you have,	21:32
	because you know to whom	21:34
	and for whom you labor.	21:37
	There is now open to each of you	21:43
	a wide and great door	21:47
	for effectual work in the world.	21:50
	I see it, it is open, trust me, when you turn around,	21:53
	there it will be	21:57
	and there are many adversaries	22:00
	as well out there and you will meet more	22:03
	than your share of them.	22:07
	You cannot stay here.	22:11
	You cannot stay in this chapel.	22:13
	You cannot stay in this university.	22:15
	You must get on with it and get out	22:18
	and the quicker, the better.	22:21
	In the words of the spiritual, you will go,	22:24
	you shall go	22:28
	to see what the end will be.	22:30
	But as you go, may God	22:35
	go before you, behind you,	22:39
	beside you, within you	22:43
	and always with you.	22:47
	For you can't do what you must do alone,	22:50
	for there is open to you a wide and effective	22:55
	door for great work	23:00
	and there are many adversaries.	23:03
	God go with you as you meet them.	23:09
	Amen.	23:13
	(organ music)	23:18
	(choir singing)	24:11
-	Let us unite in this historic confession	27:02
	of the Christian faith.	27:05
	I believe in God, the Father almighty,	27:07
	maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,	27:10
	His only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,	27:14
	born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,	27:18
	was crucified, dead and buried.	27:23
	He descended into hell.	27:27
	The third day he rose again from the dead.	27:29
	He ascended into heaven and sitteth	27:32
	at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.	27:36
	From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	27:39
	I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church,	27:44
	the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,	27:48
	the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.	27:52
	Amen.	27:57
	The Lord be with you.	27:59
-	Also with you.	28:01
-	Let us pray.	28:02
	Be seated.	28:04
	Gracious God, source of all truth and wisdom,	28:12
	all knowledge and love, without your guidance	28:17
	this day would not be possible.	28:21
	For these, our graduating students,	28:23
	we pray that they might be blessed with self confidence	28:27
	and determination, to use their lives	28:30
	and what they have learned here	28:34
	in service of causes which benefit humanity.	28:36
	We are conscious, oh God, of the many needs present	28:42
	within our modern world.	28:46
	Humanity has made progress, but there is still hunger,	28:49
	ignorance, prejudice, and fear.	28:53
	We pray that these young people may go forth	28:55
	into our world with a burning desire	28:59
	to rectify these wrongs.	29:02
	We pray for fellow students and teachers	29:06
	in places where freedom and truth are being tested,	29:10
	particularly those in universities and colleges	29:14
	of South Africa.	29:19
	We pray for fellow students and teachers	29:21
	in countries where there is war or civil strife,	29:24
	particularly those who work and study	29:28
	in Lebanon and Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Nicaragua,	29:31
	may they persevere in spite of the terrorists around them	29:37
	and be strengthened in their search	29:42
	for knowledge that brings peace.	29:43
	We pray for those who are engaged	29:48
	in the work of research and discovery.	29:50
	Their minds may be continually enlightened	29:54
	to see more of your glory.	29:56
	We pray for those who teach, that their love of learning	30:00
	may never grow cold and their respect	30:04
	for the wonder of developing young minds never be dulled.	30:07
	We pray for all those who, by economic adversity	30:14
	or lack of natural ability are denied	30:17
	educational opportunity.	30:20
	We pray for those in the Class of 1986,	30:25
	who have died since this journey began,	30:29
	Louise, Molly, Allison and Ted,	30:33
	and we remember them with gratitude.	30:39
	For all seekers after truth, that their minds be open	30:43
	to new revelation and their will strengthened	30:48
	to follow the truth disclosed.	30:50
	This we pray, expectant of your grace and care.	30:55
	Amen.	31:02
	(organ music)	31:13
	(choir singing)	31:55
-	Please stand for the responsive prayer.	36:31
	Almighty God, as you have granted us a place	36:40
	in this university, hallowed to us now this day	36:44
	when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work	36:48
	to which you have called us, that we may remember	36:53
	with gratitude the families and friends who've cared for us.	36:56
	(audience responding)	37:01
-	But in the life ahead, we may keep faith with those	37:04
	who have loved us and trusted us and whose hopes follow us.	37:07
	(audience responding)	37:12
-	That we may enter with good courage and constant purpose	37:14
	upon the task which await us.	37:18
	(audience responding)	37:20
-	From all vanity and pride as if our accomplishments	37:23
	were of our soul creation.	37:27
	(audience responding)	37:30
-	From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us	37:32
	and from distrust of our ability to meet the duties	37:35
	of each dawning day.	37:39
	(audience responding)	37:41
-	That the example of wise and generous people	37:44
	who have gone before us and our families,	37:47
	and here in this university may save us from	37:49
	folly and self indulgence.	37:53
	(audience responding)	37:56
-	More especially, that you would show to us your way	37:59
	of love in all that we do and say,	38:02
	that we should come to love the Lord our God	38:05
	with our soul and mind and strength	38:08
	and our neighbor as ourselves.	38:11
	(audience responding)	38:14
-	These things, and whatever else you see	38:17
	needful and right for us, we ask in your holy name.	38:19
	Amen.	38:24
	(organ music)	38:27
	(choir singing)	39:09

Item Info

Title:

Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 10:30 am (May 4, 1986)

Description:

Adversity is a natural consequence of all opportunities. A true education will prepare you to face these adversities and move beyond them by the grace of God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 34:10. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 23:18.
Key quotation: “There are obstacles that come with every opportunity. They are one and the same process. With every opportunity there comes adversity, and, if this is so, so too is the opposite. With adversity there comes of necessity opportunity.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mp4w343

Date:

May 4, 1986

Speaker:

Gomes, Peter J.

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Chapter and Verse:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0328
ref8178_kop
uachapelsermaud
duke:321136
dcrau001312
ark:/87924/r4mp4w343
b9aaab36-7d10-43bd-9c44-06771a96940b

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 10:30 am (May 4, 1986)

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1. Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 3:00 pm (May 4, 1986)

2. Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 4, 1986)

Duke University Archives

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Peter J. Gomes - "Opportunity and Obstacles" Baccalaureate Service 10:30 am (May 4, 1986)

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