John K. Bergland - "He Has Made Him Known" (January 4, 1987)

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-	Welcome to the chapel on this second Sunday after Easter.	0:09
	We are doubly blessed this Sunday.	0:14
	Our guest preacher is our own John Berglund.	0:17
	John taught for a number of years.	0:21
	Taught preaching at the Divinity School	0:23
	and was Director of Development there	0:26
	and he returns to the chapel this morning	0:28
	and we welcome those of you, John's friends.	0:32
	Remember his time in Durham	0:35
	as we welcome everyone this Sunday.	0:37
	We're also blessed by the presence	0:40
	of the Raleigh Boy Choir under the direction	0:42
	of Mr. Thomas Sibley and the accompanist is Terry Poole.	0:46
	Their annual visit to the chapel	0:52
	is always a very special time	0:54
	and we're delighted to have these talented singers with us.	0:56
	And now let us continue our worship.	1:02
	(uplifting instrumental music)	1:07
	(choir vocalizing indistinctly)	1:37
	Let us pray.	4:12
	Oh, mighty God, who by the birth of thy holy child, Jesus,	4:16
	has given us a great light to dawn upon our darkness.	4:22
	Grant we pray thee that in His light, we may see light.	4:27
	Bestow upon us, we beseech thee,	4:32
	that most excellent Christmas gift of all,	4:34
	the gift of thy presence in our worship, prayer and praise,	4:38
	ever brightening our lives so that we might be formed	4:43
	into the new creations and that Christ,	4:47
	having become like us, we might become more like Him, amen.	4:51
-	Let us pray.	5:07
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God,	5:11
	by the power of your Holy Spirit,	5:14
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	5:16
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	5:20
	The first lesson is taken from Jeremiah.	5:26
	For thus, says the Lord, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob	5:31
	and raise shouts for the chief of the nations.	5:36
	Proclaim, give praise and say the Lord has saved His people,	5:41
	the remnant of Israel.	5:46
	Behold, I will bring them from the north country	5:49
	and gather them from the farthest parts of the Earth.	5:53
	Among them, the blind and the lame.	5:58
	The woman with child, and her who is in travail together.	6:01
	A great company they shall return here	6:07
	with weeping they shall come,	6:10
	and with consolations I will lead them back.	6:13
	I will make them walk by brooks of water	6:18
	in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,	6:22
	for I am a father to Israel	6:27
	and Ephraim is my first born.	6:30
	Hear the word of the Lord, o' nations,	6:35
	and declare it in the coastlands of far off	6:38
	say he who scattered Israel will gather him	6:42
	and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock	6:48
	for the Lord has ransomed Jacob	6:52
	and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.	6:55
	They shall come and sing aloud in the height of Zion	7:01
	and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,	7:07
	over the grain, the wine and the oil,	7:11
	and over the young of the flock and the herd.	7:16
	Their life shall be like a watered garden	7:21
	and they shall languish no more,	7:26
	then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance	7:29
	and the young men and the old shall be merry.	7:33
	I will turn their mourning into joy.	7:37
	I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.	7:41
	I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance	7:46
	and my people shall be satisfied	7:51
	with my goodness says the Lord.	7:54
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	7:58
-	Let's stand for the canonical.	8:04
	Read responsively.	8:11
	Blessed be the Lord God of Israel	8:22
	(crowd reciting the verse indistinctly)	8:25
	and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us.	8:28
	As he spake by the mouth of His holy prophets	8:35
	that we should be saved from our enemies	8:41
	to perform the mercy promised to our forefathers.	8:48
	To perform the oath,	8:55
	which He sweared to our forefather Abraham,	8:57
	that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,	9:01
	in holiness and righteousness before Him.	9:08
	And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest	9:14
	to give knowledge of salvation unto his people	9:24
	through the tender mercy of our God.	9:31
	To give light to them that sit in darkness	9:39
	and in the shadow of death.	9:42
	(uplifting instrumental music)	9:49
	(choir vocalizing indistinctly)	9:58
-	The second lesson is taken from Ephesians.	11:00
	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord,	11:05
	Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ	11:07
	with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.	11:12
	Even as He chose us in Him	11:18
	before the foundation of the world,	11:22
	that we should be holy and blameless before Him,	11:25
	He destined us in love to be His sons	11:29
	and daughters through Jesus Christ	11:34
	according to the purpose of His will.	11:37
	To the praise of His glorious grace,	11:41
	which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved.	11:44
	For this reason, because I have heard of your faith	11:49
	in the Lord, Jesus, and your love toward all the saints,	11:53
	I do not cease to give thanks for you,	11:59
	remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord,	12:02
	Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,	12:06
	may give you a spirit of wisdom	12:09
	and of revelation in the knowledge of Him	12:12
	having the eyes of your hearts enlightened	12:16
	that you may know what is the hope	12:19
	to which He has called you,	12:22
	and what are the riches of His glorious	12:25
	inheritance in the saints?	12:27
	This ends a reading of the second lesson.	12:31
	(uplifting instrumental music)	12:52
	(choir vocalizing indistinctly)	12:59
-	The gospel lesson for this second Sunday of Christmas	17:39
	is from the Gospel of St. John.	17:42
	The first chapter, the first 18 verses.	17:47
	Hear the word of God.	17:52
	In the beginning was the Word,	17:57
	and the Word was with God,	18:00
	and the Word was God.	18:02
	He was in the beginning with God.	18:05
	All things were made through Him,	18:10
	and without Him was not anything made that was made.	18:11
	In him was life and the life was the light of men.	18:17
	The light shines in the darkness	18:23
	and the darkness has not overcome it.	18:26
	There was a man sent from God whose name was John.	18:32
	He came for testimony to bear witness to the light	18:35
	that all might believe through him he was not the light	18:39
	but came to bear witness to the light.	18:43
	The true light that enlightens every man	18:48
	was coming in for the world.	18:51
	He was in the world and the world was made through him,	18:54
	yet the world knew Him not.	18:58
	He came to His own home,	19:03
	and His own people received Him not.	19:06
	But to all who received Him who believed in His name,	19:11
	He gave power to become children of God	19:15
	who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh	19:19
	nor of the will of man, but of God.	19:23
	And the Word became flesh	19:29
	and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.	19:33
	We have beheld His glory,	19:38
	glory as of the only son from the Father.	19:41
	John bore witness to Him and cried,	19:45
	this was He of whom I said, He who comes after me	19:47
	ranks before me and was before me	19:51
	and from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.	19:55
	For the law was given through Moses,	20:03
	grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.	20:06
	No one has ever seen God.	20:13
	The only Son whom is in the bosom of the Father,	20:17
	He has made Him known.	20:22
	The Word of God for the people of God, amen.	20:28
	Let us pray.	20:37
	Let the words of my mouth in the meditation	20:42
	of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, o' Lord,	20:45
	our strength and our redeemer, amen.	20:49
	On the first Sunday of a new year,	20:59
	I invite you to hear these simple words of holy scripture.	21:02
	In the beginning, there found first in Genesis.	21:07
	And it begins like this.	21:14
	In the beginning, God.	21:17
	There found also in our gospel lesson.	21:20
	In the beginning was the Word.	21:25
	The Hebrews had a view that the whole	21:36
	of chaos was a watery darkness	21:39
	and then	21:46
	the Earth being without form and void	21:50
	and darkness upon the face of all the deep,	21:54
	the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the water	21:57
	and God said, "Let there be light."	22:02
	And there was light.	22:07
	And in the narrative of the book of Genesis,	22:10
	we began to get this concept of confusion,	22:14
	chaos, darkness,	22:19
	and then a creative organizing principle.	22:23
	In the beginning, God.	22:27
	I love that image of a spirit moving over the deep.	22:33
	The spirit of God.	22:37
	That Hebrew word, beruach, sometimes translated spirit,	22:39
	sometimes translated wind.	22:44
	Sometimes it's simply the breath of life	22:47
	that makes one living soul.	22:51
	Sometimes it's that raging storm that crosses the desert,	22:53
	changes everything when it's passed.	22:57
	But here in that first part of Genesis, it's like this.	23:01
	The winds of God moving over the deep	23:05
	bringing forth light in all the darkness.	23:11
	But I don't believe all of it.	23:18
	My cosmos is not like this.	23:22
	Not the way they perceived it.	23:26
	Waters of chaos held back by the firmament of heaven.	23:30
	Stars strung out there in those bowls	23:35
	inverted over a flat Earth.	23:37
	Beneath it a place of the deads,	23:40
	and underneath all of it,	23:42
	the chaos and the darkness of the waters again.	23:44
	I don't think that the Earth is flat	23:49
	and that chaos is on every side	23:54
	and all around us in shape of watery deep.	23:56
	Perhaps, then,	24:03
	I can hear more if I hear	24:07
	the prologue of the Gospel of John.	24:09
	He doesn't so much come with narrative now, but with a poem.	24:14
	A hymn, if you will, but the same words.	24:17
	In the beginning was the Word,	24:21
	and now reaching for the ideal, the ideal man,	24:28
	the ideal world, and an organizing principle	24:32
	those Greek stoics had in view	24:36
	that there was a thing called logos.	24:38
	Oh, they still had great reverence for spirit,	24:44
	and some for flesh,	24:47
	but never believed the two would meet.	24:49
	But there was that word,	24:54
	a creative word,	24:58
	that spoke and everything was put in order.	24:59
	A providential word that spoke,	25:03
	and all things were maintained in perfect care.	25:05
	A redeeming word of forgiveness.	25:11
	And this word became flesh	25:16
	and dwelt among us.	25:21
	One of the Greeks, Aristotle, wanted to know	25:28
	the mysteries of human personality	25:33
	as much as he wanted to know	25:35
	the mysteries of the whole cosmos.	25:36
	And he particularly was concerned	25:40
	with where the conscious me resides in human personality.	25:42
	Have you thought of that lately?	25:48
	In trying to find this quintessence	25:55
	or the pneuma, this spirit,	25:58
	Aristotle and his slaves dissected 600 specimens.	26:02
	Not wanting to do any violence to the tissues,	26:08
	he strangled every victim.	26:12
	Modern medicine tells us that they built up	26:16
	a great pressure on one side of the heart,	26:19
	collapsed one ventricle of the heart.	26:23
	Forced air into the heart and into the arteries.	26:25
	And then as they poured hot wax into the cavities,	26:31
	and Aristotle did his meticulous dissection,	26:35
	he found what he thought was quintessence,	26:39
	pneuma.	26:45
	Breath of life in the heart and in the arteries.	26:46
	You know those ancient medical diagrams	26:51
	that show a three ventricle heart.	26:55
	And how so much of our scripture says	26:59
	let Jesus come into your heart.	27:02
	Believe with your heart.	27:05
	Is that the residence of human consciousness?	27:08
	I don't believe that which Aristotle	27:14
	put down for so many centuries is the truth.	27:18
	No.	27:24
	But I am coming to the mystery.	27:27
	The Spirit of God that moves across the chaos of the deep	27:30
	and brings forth light in darkness,	27:34
	the Word of God then enters flesh	27:36
	and brings forth life and enlightenment,	27:41
	I want to talk about that reality	27:46
	and I'd like to talk about it in the beginning of 1987.	27:49
	What is your organizing principle today?	27:57
	Oh, I know something about	28:02
	the beginnings of this great university.	28:04
	James B. Duke made the observation	28:09
	that the two fundamental principles	28:13
	in civilization are education and religion.	28:15
	When he established the indenture	28:22
	that created this chapel, he wrote it like this.	28:24
	Education next to religion is the most	28:30
	civilizing influence in the history of mankind.	28:34
	And the model of your university is	28:39
	eruditio et religio.	28:43
	Enlightenment and reverence.	28:47
	And on this day, I'm not sure we could find	28:54
	a philosopher here that had one organizing principle	28:59
	certainly not so narrow as the concept logos.	29:04
	Perhaps a method, then.	29:11
	I believe it is this.	29:16
	We think that if you can break it down,	29:20
	understand cause and effect,	29:23
	if you can just get to the very center of it	29:27
	then somehow you will know the way it is	29:32
	and so we have a method.	29:36
	Analytical reductionism.	29:39
	You want to know enough about the universe?	29:43
	Take your telescope	29:48
	and discover the measurements of time and space.	29:51
	You want to know enough about human personality?	29:55
	Just break it down, break it down.	30:00
	You want to know enough about flesh.	30:03
	It begins in zoology with dissections	30:07
	of primitive beings.	30:12
	In the late 19th century,	30:17
	a philosopher named Aldous Huxley made the observation.	30:20
	As the island of knowledge grows,	30:25
	the shoreline of wonder will also increase.	30:31
	My complaint this morning is	30:41
	that at the beginning of this year,	30:45
	we are so convinced about facts,	30:47
	so little impressed with faith,	30:51
	we have so much retreated to the center	30:54
	of the island of knowledge that we have	30:56
	neglected the shoreline of wonder.	31:00
	Come along.	31:05
	Won't you hear it?	31:07
	In the beginning, the Spirit of God	31:09
	moving over the darkness and there was light.	31:12
	And in the beginning, the Word,	31:17
	and it was life, and light for mankind.	31:20
	And today, the incarnate Christ,	31:25
	the Word made flesh, the one who lived it out in Galilee	31:31
	and died it on Jerusalem's hill.	31:37
	That one	31:40
	who did in fact come into time and space	31:43
	but with a reality that cannot	31:48
	be kept only in time and space.	31:50
	You know about those realities a little, don't you?	31:54
	The thing that is so true that it's before the beginning.	31:58
	The thing that is so true it is beyond the end.	32:02
	My brother, who is a neurosurgeon, has a child.	32:11
	College student now.	32:16
	He was a modern, rational, cause and effect child.	32:19
	And every time we ever sat down for a conversation,	32:25
	I knew that his father was a scientist.	32:28
	He knew that his uncle was a preacher	32:32
	and he often came saying, Uncle John, tell me a story,	32:37
	and I'd tell him a Bible story.	32:40
	The hairiest ones that I could find.	32:43
	If the ax head would float	32:48
	or Jonah could be spit out of the belly	32:52
	of a whale after three days,	32:54
	I love to tell him those stories	32:57
	and I knew sooner or later would come the question,	32:59
	but Uncle John, is that part of the story	33:03
	really true?	33:08
	And that's when I would say, Christopher,	33:11
	it's so true that even if it never was,	33:16
	it always is.	33:21
	He'd just say go on and tell the rest of the story.	33:26
	But invariably, his scientist father would ask,	33:33
	what do you mean by that?	33:36
	Though it never was, it always is.	33:39
	Just that.	33:42
	There is a reality that cannot,	33:45
	cannot be measured	33:48
	in time and space and history.	33:51
	You don't ask did it happen.	33:54
	It happens.	33:57
	Before the beginning and beyond the end.	34:00
	And that reality, could you see it today?	34:06
	I suppose your cosmos is like mine now.	34:14
	If we begin with the concept of light	34:19
	and John certainly gives us that,	34:22
	one thing I know is, it travels 186,000 miles a second.	34:24
	Faster than I could imagine.	34:30
	That's one second, and in that time,	34:31
	light goes more than seven times around our Earth.	34:34
	It comes from the moon in a little over one second.	34:38
	Reaches us from our sun today after it's been	34:44
	in journey at that fantastic speed for eight minutes.	34:47
	And the stars, the nearest star that we will	34:52
	see tonight is three light years away.	34:55
	Light in journey at 186,000 miles a second	35:01
	for more than three years, and now we see it.	35:05
	Some stars we see tonight will have light in journey	35:09
	since the birth of Christ, and now we see it.	35:14
	Do you begin to sense the shoreline of wonder?	35:18
	The wonder expressed in the eighth Psalm,	35:22
	when I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars	35:25
	that are the work of thy fingers, o' God,	35:29
	what has man that thou art mindful of Him	35:31
	and the Son of Man that thou dost visit him.	35:35
	There was a little girl busy one day	35:46
	with a pencil and piece of paper.	35:48
	Her mother said, what are you doing?	35:51
	She said, I'm drawing a picture of God.	35:54
	Oh, honey, her mother said,	35:59
	nobody knows what God looks like.	36:02
	Well, they will when I get through, she said.	36:07
	I wish I could be that sure.	36:12
	How would you paint God today?	36:16
	All of the artists of the Catholic kings intended it.	36:20
	Tintoretto put Him on the mountaintop	36:25
	right at the highest peak of all creation	36:28
	so He could be above it, ruling it.	36:31
	But He was removed from it.	36:37
	Is that God?	36:39
	Most of the artists of the Catholic kings	36:44
	painted Him as an old man.	36:46
	So old that He was decaying,	36:49
	visibly decaying.	36:53
	Raphael had him as a kind of a busybody God.	36:57
	Showed him flying around heaven	37:00
	with unborn babe in each hand.	37:02
	Now you think of the God	37:06
	who sets the stars in their courses.	37:07
	Who looks at time ever beginning and ending.	37:12
	Sees 1,000 years and calls it one day.	37:15
	You think about this God who created our world	37:19
	and everything in it, and I like to think He did it	37:24
	after supper on the day when he'd spread	37:28
	the whole Milky Way as a carpet at His feet.	37:30
	God of gods, light of lights	37:34
	is the way the Nicene Creed says it.	37:38
	Very God, a very God, now how do you paint that God?	37:41
	James B. Duke says find the highest piece of ground	37:49
	and build a great towering church.	37:55
	Let there be enlightenment,	38:02
	and let there be reverence.	38:05
	My worry today as a preacher, when you come into a building	38:08
	that has transcendence like this,	38:13
	and are moved to hear the songs of angels	38:20
	even through the voices of a boys choir,	38:22
	my worry is that the prologue of the Gospel of John	38:27
	will lose the transcendence that it must have for you	38:33
	if you are to hear not the voice of the preacher at all	38:38
	but the other voice speaking.	38:43
	And so I end with the obvious.	38:50
	Flesh.	38:54
	We all came here today wrapped in it.	38:57
	Will you think of it now?	39:00
	The soft bodies of little babies.	39:03
	The wrinkled bodies of the aged.	39:07
	The calloused bodies of laborers.	39:10
	The well-conditioned bodies of college athletes.	39:14
	The beautiful bodies of pageant contestants.	39:21
	The unfeeling bodies of addicts.	39:28
	The wounded bodies of soldiers.	39:31
	The pained bodies of the dying.	39:36
	The decaying bodies of the dead.	39:42
	Flesh.	39:46
	The old Greeks would have found it repugnant	39:51
	to have the idea that the word, the logos, would come flesh.	39:53
	But this is the way my story begins in 1987.	40:00
	How is it with you?	40:05
	It was at the end of a bouncy donkey ride	40:08
	and there was a young mother giving birth to her first child	40:14
	assisted only by the splintered hands of a carpenter	40:18
	and a child wrapped in rags was laid in a manger	40:23
	and the angels sang and shepherds left their flocks to see.	40:29
	Now, you see it in all its earthiness.	40:39
	Blotchy red baby skin, newborn.	40:43
	A wide open scrawling mouth.	40:48
	Healthy baby bowels.	40:52
	And they're saying God with us,	40:57
	God with us,	41:01
	this is the greatest miracle of all.	41:04
	Let us use all the miracle of media	41:07
	and talk about these short-term gospels	41:09
	about healing and being made rich	41:12
	and being made at peace,	41:15
	but there are two great miracles in the history of mankind.	41:18
	One is this.	41:22
	When God came in Jesus Christ	41:26
	and He made God known to us,	41:30
	and the second is when in His death and resurrection	41:35
	He broke out the end of every tomb.	41:42
	Paul Telling made the observation	41:51
	that we cannot say that God exists.	41:54
	Not even that much.	41:58
	Can't say it in the way that you say	42:00
	a mountain exists or mankind exists.	42:02
	He is so much the other, so much the beyond,	42:08
	than this is the miracle of it all.	42:14
	The Word, which was before there was anything,	42:19
	which will be when everything ends, came,	42:24
	and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.	42:31
	And may I end with foolishness.	42:39
	My own parable.	42:43
	There was a man who wanted to see God.	42:51
	Did not want simply to know about God	42:56
	or hear of God from others.	42:59
	He wanted to see God like Moses went to the Holy Mount	43:01
	and wanting to see Him face-to-face.	43:06
	Learning that there was a holy man who knew God,	43:09
	he went to him and asked, I want to know God.	43:16
	Show me the way.	43:22
	And the holy man, even as he turned away from his request,	43:27
	said, go back to your father's farm	43:30
	and give the cattle their hay.	43:36
	He found it too ordinary.	43:42
	Wanted to stay for another instruction,	43:46
	but by then the holy man was gone.	43:49
	So knowing that in matters of faith,	43:53
	the next step is always obedience,	43:56
	he returned to his father's farm	44:01
	and fed the cattle their hay.	44:03
	But not in the first light of dawn	44:08
	or the bright light of noon day,	44:11
	not in the fading light of evening,	44:14
	not even in the darkness of midnight	44:15
	did he ever sense in stable straw,	44:19
	even when it was mixed with stardust, the presence of God.	44:22
	And after weeks, he came back again.	44:29
	Give me another instruction.	44:36
	I want to see God.	44:38
	And the holy man said, then go to your neighbor's farm	44:42
	and lead his sheep to pasture.	44:49
	And then he was gone.	44:54
	He went to the neighbor's farm,	44:57
	obeying the direction of the holy man.	44:59
	Everyday he led the sheep from their sheep fold.	45:01
	Led them beside green pastures.	45:07
	Beside still waters.	45:11
	But never did he know the presence of God.	45:14
	Not in all of the providence and care	45:19
	and rhythms of the world did he know Him.	45:21
	Impatient, he came back again.	45:25
	I've done what you've told me these two times.	45:28
	Now give me the final instruction.	45:31
	And the holy man said, go to the city.	45:37
	Find the children.	45:40
	Give them milk, give them bread.	45:42
	And he went and found the children and fed them,	45:47
	and watched their joy.	45:51
	Their unquestioning trust.	45:57
	Watched their style as for citizens in the kingdom of God	46:01
	but not in any of it did he see God.	46:06
	And so he gave up,	46:11
	but wanted to return to the holy man and make his complaint.	46:14
	He came back to him and said,	46:18
	you can't tell me where to find God!	46:21
	I followed all of your instructions.	46:25
	Ordinary and foolish as they were,	46:28
	I've done every one of them,	46:30
	and I have not known God.	46:33
	I think you're a fraud and I want no more of this quest.	46:37
	Just let me be an ordinary man.	46:41
	And with that, there was rumbling in a distant cloud.	46:49
	Lightning flashed across the skies.	46:53
	There was the sound of the beating of 10,000 angel wings.	46:56
	Smoke filled the room.	47:01
	The cherubim sang,	47:05
	and fire seemed to be touching everything.	47:09
	Until in the tremendous mystery of it,	47:13
	the man was saying, stop it, stop it, stop it!	47:17
	I only want to see and be an ordinary man.	47:23
	And so we turn from the mysteries	47:31
	of the transcendent	47:35
	to our story.	47:41
	May I sum it up with the poem of Joseph Bailey?	47:48
	Praise God for Christmas.	47:55
	Praise Him for the incarnation.	47:57
	Praise Him for the Word made flesh.	48:00
	Now I will not sing of shepherds	48:03
	watching flocks on frosty nights or angel choruses.	48:05
	I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem	48:11
	or lowing oxen, wise men trailing star	48:14
	with gold, frankincense and myrrh.	48:18
	Tonight I will sing praise to the Father	48:22
	who stood on heaven's threshold	48:29
	and said farewell to His Son	48:32
	as He stepped across the stars	48:35
	to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem.	48:37
	And I will sing.	48:43

-	Infinite, eternal sun	0:07
	who became most finite,	0:09
	a baby	0:13
	who one day	0:15
	would die for my sins on a cross,	0:18
	we'll praise him in the heavens,	0:21
	praise him in the stable,	0:25
	praise him in my heart.	0:29
	Amen.	0:33
	(organ music)	0:39
	("Come and Worship")	1:06
	♪ Angels from the ♪	1:10
	♪ Realms of Glory ♪	1:12
	♪ Wing your flight o'er the Earth ♪	1:14
	♪ Ye who sang creation's story ♪	1:19
	♪ Now proclaim the Messiah's birth ♪	1:24
	♪ Come and worship ♪	1:29
	♪ Come and worship ♪	1:32
	♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪	1:35
	♪ Shepherds in the fields abiding ♪	1:42
	♪ Watching o'er the flocks by night ♪	1:47
	♪ God with man is now residing ♪	1:53
	♪ Yonder shines the infant light ♪	1:58
	♪ Come and worship ♪	2:03
	♪ Come and worship ♪	2:06
	♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪	2:08
	♪ Sages, leave your contemplations ♪	2:17
	♪ Brighter visions beam afar ♪	2:22
	♪ Seek the great desire of nations ♪	2:27
	♪ Ye have seen his natal star ♪	2:33
	♪ Come and worship ♪	2:38
	♪ Come and worship ♪	2:41
	♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪	2:44
	♪ Saints before the altar bending ♪	2:52
	♪ Watching long in hope and fear ♪	2:57
	♪ Suddenly the Lord descending ♪	3:02
	♪ In his temple shall appear ♪	3:07
	♪ Come and worship ♪	3:13
	♪ Come and worship ♪	3:15
	♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪	3:18
-	The lord be with you.	3:30
-	And also with you.	3:32
-	Let us pray.	3:34
	Gracious and ever-loving God.	3:46
	Who has declared your love to all people	3:49
	by the birth of the holy child at Bethlehem.	3:52
	Help us to welcome him with gladness.	3:57
	And so to make room for him	4:02
	on our more common days,	4:06
	that we might live at peace with one another,	4:10
	and that we might take upon ourselves	4:14
	the cares and burdens of others,	4:16
	even as he has taken our cares and burdens upon himself.	4:20
	And to that end we now pray.	4:28
	For peace among the nations,	4:33
	for social justice,	4:39
	that the barriers which divide us may crumble	4:43
	and suspicions disappear,	4:45
	hatred cease.	4:47
	And that with our divisions healed	4:51
	we might live in justice and peace,	4:52
	through your son the Prince of Peace.	4:56
	We pray also for those	5:01
	who this day are sick or suffering from any affliction.	5:04
	We pray, O God,	5:13
	that you would have mercy on all your children	5:15
	who live in physical or mental distress.	5:19
	Restore them to strength of mind	5:23
	and cheerfulness of spirit and give them health and peace.	5:25
	We pray through the one who healed those	5:28
	in distress of body or soul.	5:34
	O holy God,	5:41
	look with pity on the sorrows	5:44
	of those who are bereaved,	5:46
	particularly for those whom this holiday season	5:52
	is a reminder of loved ones no longer with them.	5:57
	Comfort them in the memory of your goodness,	6:02
	and let your presence shine upon those who grieve	6:06
	for those who have died.	6:10
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord,	6:13
	the giver of life.	6:17
	O blessed Jesus, you minister to all who came to you.	6:22
	Look with compassion on all through addiction,	6:26
	have lost health and freedom.	6:28
	Restore to them the assurance of your unfailing mercy,	6:31
	remove the fears that attack them	6:34
	and strengthen them in the work of their recovery.	6:37
	And to those who care for them,	6:42
	give patient understanding and persevering love.	6:43
	For your mercy's sake.	6:47
	Almighty God, you set	6:51
	the solitary in families and we commend to your care	6:54
	all the homes where your people live.	6:57
	Give them we pray,	7:01
	freedom from bitterness,	7:03
	from the thirst for personal victory,	7:05
	and from pride in self.	7:07
	Make them places of knowledge, moderation,	7:10
	patience and godliness.	7:13
	Knit together in affection	7:16
	those who have become one in marriage.	7:18
	And let children and parents	7:22
	have full respect for one another.	7:24
	And light the fire of kindliness among us all.	7:27
	O God, you set your only begotten son	7:36
	within a human family.	7:41
	And thus redeemed every aspect of human life.	7:44
	Knowing therefore your care	7:48
	for every aspect of our lives,	7:51
	we are bold to lift up	7:53
	our needs and the needs of others	7:56
	in their daily lives.	7:58
	And may all of us in our cares and sorrows take heart,	8:01
	that you desired to come and live among us,	8:06
	so that you might show forth	8:11
	the glory of God among us.	8:14
	Amen.	8:21
	And now let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	8:25
	(organ music)	9:03
	("Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant")	9:05
	(choir singing in foreign language)	9:09
	(organ music)	11:07
	("In the Bleak Midwinter")	11:19
	♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪	11:22
	♪ Frosty wind made moan ♪	11:29
	♪ Earth stood hard as iron ♪	11:37
	♪ Water like a stone ♪	11:44
	♪ Snow had fallen ♪	11:52
	♪ Snow on snow ♪	11:56
	♪ Snow on snow ♪	12:00
	♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪	12:07
	♪ Long ago ♪	12:14
	♪ Our God, heaven cannot hold him ♪	12:30
	♪ Nor earth sustain ♪	12:37
	♪ Heaven and earth shall flee away ♪	12:44
	♪ When he comes to reign ♪	12:51
	♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪	12:59
	♪ A stable place sufficed ♪	13:05
	♪ The Lord God almighty ♪	13:12
	♪ Jesus Christ ♪	13:20
	♪ Angels and archangels ♪	13:32
	♪ May have gathered there ♪	13:38
	♪ Cherubim and seraphim ♪	13:45
	♪ Thronged the air ♪	13:52
	♪ But his mother only ♪	14:00
	♪ In her maiden bliss ♪	14:07
	♪ Worshiped the beloved ♪	14:14
	♪ With a kiss ♪	14:21
	♪ What can I give him ♪	14:41
	♪ Poor as I am ♪	14:48
	♪ If I were a shepherd ♪	14:55
	♪ I would bring a lamb ♪	15:02
	♪ If I were a wise man ♪	15:09
	♪ I would do my part ♪	15:17
	♪ Yet what I can I give him ♪	15:24
	♪ Give my heart ♪	15:31
	(organ music)	15:58
	("Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow")	16:40
	♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪	16:45
	♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪	16:52
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	16:58
	♪ Praise him above, ye heav'nly host ♪	17:06
	♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! ♪	17:13
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	17:19
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	17:22
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	17:26
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	17:33
-	We could not come to you O God.	17:52
	And so you most graciously came to us.	17:55
	We had so little to offer you	17:59
	and so you surprised us with the greatest gift of all.	18:00
	In the spirit of the shepherds who rejoiced at the manger,	18:05
	the magi who offered their gifts and bowed	18:09
	before the babe at Bethlehem,	18:12
	we now offer ourselves and our gifts to you.	18:14
	Use them and us according to your will,	18:19
	so that we might be part of the increase of your light	18:23
	into all the world.	18:26
	Thus we pray in the name of Jesus who taught us.	18:28
-	Our father who art in heaven,	18:32
	hallowed be thy name,	18:35
	thy kingdom come,	18:37
	thy will be done,	18:39
	on earth as it is in heaven.	18:41
	Give us this day our daily bread,	18:43
	and forgive us our trespasses,	18:46
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	18:49
	And lead us not into temptation,	18:53
	but deliver us from evil,	18:56
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	18:58
	and the glory forever.	19:01
	Amen.	19:03
	(organ music)	19:06
	("Great God, We Sing Your Guiding Hand")	19:33
	♪ Great God, we sing that mighty hand ♪	19:38
	♪ By which supported still we stand ♪	19:46
	♪ The opening year thy mercy shows ♪	19:54
	♪ That mercy crowns it till it close ♪	20:02
	♪ By day, by night, at home, abroad ♪	20:12
	♪ Still are we guarded by our God ♪	20:21
	♪ By his incessant bounty fed ♪	20:29
	♪ By his unerring counsel led ♪	20:37
	♪ With grateful hearts the past we own ♪	20:47
	♪ The future, all to us unknown ♪	20:56
	♪ We to thy guardian care commit ♪	21:04
	♪ And peaceful leave before thy feet ♪	21:12
	♪ In scenes exalted or depressed ♪	21:22
	♪ Thou art our joy, and thou our rest ♪	21:30
	♪ Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise ♪	21:39
	♪ Adored through all our changing days ♪	21:47
	♪ When death shall interrupt our songs ♪	21:57
	♪ And seal in silence mortal tongues ♪	22:05
	♪ Our helper God, in whom we trust ♪	22:13
	♪ Shall keep our souls and guard our dust ♪	22:22
-	Go forth now into the new year.	22:37
	And may the God of grace and peace go with you.	22:39
	Amen.	22:43
	(jubilant organ music)	22:49
	(intriguing organ music)	25:37

Item Info

Title:

John K. Bergland - "He Has Made Him Known" (January 4, 1987)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1): 20:37. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 00:35.
Through our obsession with reason and scientific knowledge, we have lost sight of the wonder and mystery of the world. This is a great tragedy, for it is in these latter that we see and know God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “My complaint this morning is that at the beginning of this year, we are so convinced about facts, so little impressed with faith, we have so much retreated to the center of the island of knowledge that we have neglected the shoreline of wonder.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4fn11712

Date:

January 4, 1987

Speaker:

Bergland, John K.

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0370
ref8275_qu5
uachapelsermaud
duke:320688
dcrau001346
ark:/87924/r4fn11712
f2efc15a-ba79-499a-a5f8-bf2dc3a6a1f4

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Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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John K. Bergland - "He Has Made Him Known" (January 4, 1987)

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Duke University Archives

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