Vergel L. Lattimore, III - "Crisis, Change, and a Chance... To Be Made New" (June 10, 1979)

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-	Sunday service Duke University Chapel June 10 1979.	0:05
	(organ music)	0:17
-	Our help is in the name of the Lord	7:24
	who made heaven and earth.	7:27
	The Lord is near to all who fear him,	7:29
	to all who call upon him in truth.	7:32
	Praise be to the lord.	7:35
	Let us pray.	7:38
	Eternal Father we need to come away from the pressures	7:42
	and the anxieties of everyday existence.	7:47
	To be with you,	7:51
	to be with your people	7:53
	and to be honest with ourselves.	7:55
	We thank you that you speak not only	7:59
	in the tumultuous noise	8:02
	and anger of our times	8:04
	but also in the silences.	8:07
	Silences we hear so seldom	8:11
	because we are too involved in the noises.	8:14
	Grant us a moment of freedom,	8:20
	a moment of insight,	8:23
	a moment of grace,	8:25
	a moment of wisdom,	8:28
	that we may return to the arena of daily existence	8:30
	strengthened in spirit,	8:35
	renewed in compassion	8:37
	and ready to do your will through Jesus Christ,	8:40
	our Lord, amen.	8:44
	(mass music)	8:51
	(background singing)	11:58
	If we claim to be sinless we are self-deceived	13:26
	and strangers to the truth.	13:30
	If we confess our sins,	13:33
	we have the chance to be made new.	13:35
	For God is just,	13:39
	and may be trusted to forgive our sins	13:41
	and cleanse us from every kind of wrong.	13:45
	Therefore, let us confess our sins to God.	13:48
	Almighty and gracious God,	13:55
	creator and judge of all people,	13:58
	help us to confess our sins against you	14:02
	and against our neighbors.	14:06
	We have erected idols.	14:09
	We worship power and money,	14:12
	status and privilege,	14:15
	bigness and might.	14:17
	We have given our lives over to prejudice and hate,	14:20
	competition and self-centeredness.	14:25
	We are are selfish and full of pride.	14:29
	We bring our shabby selves before you God,	14:33
	realizing that you are readier to forgive our sins,	14:37
	than we are to admit them.	14:42
	Forgive us, cleanse us,	14:45
	and grant us newness of life	14:49
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	14:51
	Hear now the words of assurance, of forgiveness	15:31
	and pardon from Paul's letter to the Romans.	15:34
	There is therefore now no condemnation	15:38
	for those who are in Jesus Christ,	15:40
	for the law of the spirit of life in Christ	15:43
	has set us free from the law of sin and death.	15:46
	For those who live according to the spirit	15:50
	set their minds on the things of the spirit	15:53
	and to set the mind on the spirit	15:56
	is life and peace.	15:58
	Let us pray.	16:10
	Prepare our hearts oh Lord to accept your word.	16:13
	Silence in us any voice but your own.	16:18
	That hearing we may also obey your will	16:22
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	16:25
	The first of today's New Testament lessons	16:31
	is found in the 21st chapter of the book of revelation,	16:33
	the first through the fourth verses.	16:37
	Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,	16:43
	for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,	16:47
	and the sea was no more.	16:50
	And I saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem,	16:53
	coming down out of heaven from God,	16:56
	prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.	16:59
	And I heard a great voice from the throne saying,	17:03
	"Behold the dwelling of God is with men,	17:06
	"he will dwell with him and they shall be his people,	17:10
	"and God himself will be with them.	17:13
	"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes	17:17
	"and death shall be no more,	17:21
	"neither shall they'll be morning nor crying	17:24
	"nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away."	17:28
	The reading from the epistle is taken from	17:35
	the fifth chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians.	17:38
	Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.	17:53
	The old has passed away,	17:59
	behold the new has come.	18:01
	And the gospel lesson for the day is John 13:31-35	18:06
	and the congregation is asked to stand	18:13
	for the reading of the gospel.	18:15
	When he had gone out, Jesus said,	18:23
	"Now is the son of man glorified,	18:24
	"and in him God is glorified.	18:28
	"If God is glorified in him,	18:30
	"God will also glorify him in himself	18:32
	"glorify him at once.	18:36
	"Little children, yet a little while I am with you.	18:38
	"You will seek me	18:42
	"and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you,	18:44
	"'Where I am going, you cannot come.'	18:48
	"A new commandment I give to you,	18:52
	"that you love one another even as I have loved you,	18:55
	"that you also love one another.	19:00
	"By this all men will know that you are my disciples,	19:03
	"if you have love for one another."	19:08
	(organ music)	19:19
	Good morning to all of you.	20:30
	Let us pray.	20:35
	O Lord, may the words of our mouths	20:38
	and the meditations of our heart	20:42
	be acceptable in thy sight.	20:45
	O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.	20:47
	Amen.	20:51
	My testament of word and reflection today	20:56
	has been motivated by	21:01
	several elements which are common	21:09
	to all of our lives.	21:12
	My reaction to the social environment,	21:18
	my two and a half years of intellectual	21:25
	and social experiences	21:27
	as a professional student in training	21:30
	for ministry	21:35
	and two years working, advising, counseling	21:37
	and consulting black students and groups	21:42
	and as individuals in a very diverse	21:46
	and multifaceted Student Affairs office.	21:51
	And the third is my vision and hope	21:55
	and my professional goal of developing	21:59
	community-oriented pastor care resources	22:02
	for social change.	22:04
	My learning experiences at Duke	22:08
	during the past four and a half years	22:10
	have at times been overwhelmingly rich	22:14
	and outstandingly challenging.	22:19
	We have been privileged to receive	22:23
	abundant exchange of ideas and concepts,	22:25
	cordial conversial	22:30
	and controversial personalities	22:32
	and individuals,	22:34
	issues which have swayed emotions	22:36
	and aroused global concerns.	22:38
	And the exposure to resources	22:43
	and data which sometimes	22:45
	baffle the unique	22:47
	and matchless energy of the human mind.	22:49
	In short, my experiences have been filled	22:53
	with a lot of creative tensions,	22:55
	moderate triumph, minimal tragedy,	22:58
	and has left me mildly tarnished.	23:03
	Preaching today at this time in my life	23:07
	during this moment of history	23:11
	in this sacred space is a wonderful burden to me.	23:12
	I must express my appreciation to Reverend Young	23:19
	for his generosity	23:21
	and his thoughtfulness	23:22
	and his apparent willingness to accept	23:24
	the responsibility for the spoken	23:28
	and the spokesperson that stands in this pulpit each Sunday.	23:30
	My all being here is one of surprise	23:37
	that I am standing where the distinguished	23:39
	and the prominent have stood.	23:44
	But in spite of the nature of my presence here	23:48
	in relationship to all others who've gone before me,	23:50
	I am thankful for my turn.	23:54
	And I would simply like to trouble	23:57
	for your thought processes	23:59
	and your feelings and your insights	24:01
	and your hopeful visions	24:05
	and your foresight for just a few moments.	24:09
	And as your thinking is disturbed	24:14
	I hope that you will have the courage	24:16
	to examine the internal depth of your life	24:18
	and the external breadth of your life.	24:23
	The hope of the end result is	24:27
	the discovery of a capacity for dissolving	24:29
	the disparity between the two.	24:32
	That is, finding a life balance.	24:35
	Finding a means of developing relationship	24:39
	between the conflicts we sense personally	24:41
	and the problems we witness on the horizons	24:45
	of our communities, our nations	24:48
	and our world everyday.	24:51
	Crisis, change,	24:55
	and the chance to be made new.	24:59
	These words depict	25:04
	and characterize the predicament our world is in -	25:05
	crisis.	25:09
	These words challenge	25:12
	and confront our capacity to utilize	25:13
	the process by which the old becomes the new	25:16
	or by which one state of progress	25:21
	is displaced by another state of progress.	25:23
	That is change.	25:27
	These words speak to the serious need	25:30
	of all persons to the prospect that the gospel offers	25:32
	each of us if we are willing to accept it.	25:37
	That is, a chance to become new.	25:41
	Crisis -	25:47
	"The thing that hath been	25:50
	"is that which shall be;	25:52
	"that which is done is that which shall be done:	25:55
	"and there is nothing new under the sun."	26:00
	These words, taken from Ecclesiastes,	26:04
	are the words of a sober, observant realist.	26:11
	They are a philosophical gleaning which implies	26:16
	that God, the inscrutable originator of the world,	26:19
	ultimately determines our fate.	26:24
	The author goes on to concede	26:28
	that the achievements of humankind	26:29
	are meaningless production	26:32
	because in the end our fate	26:34
	is the same as all other forms of life	26:36
	and that is death.	26:40
	Human character, personhood,	26:42
	and accomplishment do not alter the end result,	26:44
	the jury fate.	26:48
	"Vanity, vanity!"	26:49
	Is this the common undeniable reality of life?	26:53
	I would prefer to stop the writer's editorial at this point	26:58
	and write my own commentary.	27:03
	I would say that there are elements ingrained in life,	27:07
	imprinted or inwoven into the fabric of life	27:11
	that leads us with our narrow reasoning	27:16
	to understand and question	27:18
	whether or not life has any integrity at all.	27:21
	We could interpret that our author may have been saying	27:26
	in a blunt and cold fashion	27:29
	that life is filled with crisis.	27:32
	In essence, life is filled with confusing circumstances -	27:36
	life is filled with conflict,	27:40
	life is filled with uncertainty,	27:44
	life is filled with contradictions.	27:47
	One of the difficult realizations	27:51
	that I am increasingly come to understand	27:53
	and embrace is the working assumption that	27:56
	life, in spite of its crisis, is worth living.	27:59
	That life, in spite of crisis,	28:05
	is still worth living.	28:09
	But the limitations, the challenges, the difficulties,	28:13
	the tensions can be awfully disenchanting.	28:17
	They can be somewhat depressing,	28:22
	they can be quite discouraging,	28:26
	and they can be very disheartening.	28:28
	Imagine the crisis that confronted	28:32
	the moral conscience of America	28:34
	and the integrity of its judicial system	28:37
	when the Supreme Court ruled in 18,	28:39
	on April 18, 1941,	28:44
	in the Jim Crow case brought by Congressman Arthur Mitchell	28:48
	that separate facilities by substantial	28:53
	awareness are in fact equal.	28:58
	This was a quiet unsettled crisis in social relationships	29:03
	and in race relationships.	29:09
	Imagine that in the midst of a real crisis which was a war	29:11
	the American Revolution,	29:16
	a former negro slave, Crispus Attucks,	29:19
	was one of the five first persons killed	29:22
	in the Boston Massacre in March 1770.	29:27
	He made black history,	29:31
	not history.	29:35
	This to me was a crisis in education,	29:37
	race, race relations, and history.	29:40
	Imagine that on November 12, 1775,	29:45
	General George Washington, an American hero,	29:50
	who would not tell a lie,	29:53
	issued a general order that forbade	29:56
	recruiting officers to enlist Negroes	29:58
	into the service.	30:04
	And yet, after the disastrous winter at Valley Forge,	30:06
	Negro slaves and freemen were welcomed	30:12
	into the American Army.	30:15
	This to me was a crisis of war,	30:18
	race and expediency.	30:21
	Imagine that on March 6, 1857,	30:25
	Dred Scott, the decision by	30:32
	the United States Supreme Court,	30:35
	opened federal territories to slavery	30:37
	and denied citizenship to American Negros.	30:39
	A crisis in human rights	30:44
	and human recognition.	30:46
	Imagine that on November 25th, 1955,	30:49
	the Interstate Commerce Commission	30:55
	banned segregation on buses, waiting stations,	30:57
	travel coaches that were involved in interstate travel	31:01
	precisely on the premise that it was inconvenient,	31:06
	that is, vehicles would have to stop at state lines,	31:13
	unload their black passengers	31:16
	and then reload them on the other side of the state line	31:20
	that prohibited integration of travel facilities.	31:24
	It was a good argument which took root	31:29
	but it was not, essentially,	31:32
	a crisis in the exchange of ethical ineptness	31:36
	for the nullification of immoral practice.	31:40
	I think it is important for us not to toy	31:46
	and tarry with these hints to history	31:50
	but it is important for us to note	31:54
	that the past is prologue.	31:56
	One historian has admonished us that a person	31:59
	who fails a course of history	32:03
	will live to repeat it.	32:06
	Or simply the words of our realist	32:09
	from over the centuries in Ecclesiastes,	32:11
	"what has been is what shall will be.	32:16
	"What has been done is what shall be done."	32:20
	Whether we recognize it	32:25
	and ultimately accept it or not,	32:27
	crisis in a pervasive and piercing way	32:30
	will affect each of us.	32:32
	We speak now of the given tensions	32:37
	and stresses that life presents to us	32:39
	in the day to day issues.	32:41
	Critical moments in our lives that	32:44
	sometimes defy decision	32:47
	but yet they demand decision.	32:51
	We cannot look around our world	32:55
	and find a crisis that has not	32:57
	in some way had an impact on the character	32:59
	of our small troubling experiences.	33:02
	We cannot find a crisis that	33:06
	has not influenced our confidence	33:08
	about how closely we are encircled	33:10
	by the world's crises.	33:13
	The Arab-Israeli conflict rested	33:18
	on the ability of three political personalities,	33:20
	striking spiritual and emotional balance	33:24
	over political sensitivities that	33:28
	had symbolically approached sacredness.	33:31
	The Sinai capital, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip,	33:36
	Cairo and Tel Aviv -	33:38
	three persons negotiating	33:42
	to resolve crisis which could affect the whole world.	33:46
	All of their emotions, their knowledge,	33:53
	and their visions and their hope.	33:56
	The world rested on their shoulders for a moment.	34:01
	And then, there was a self-appointed	34:07
	American religious visionary	34:09
	in Guyana, South America,	34:12
	who caused the conscience	34:15
	to approach a level of crisis in America.	34:18
	Why?	34:22
	Because the integrity of religion, faith	34:24
	and belief were questioned.	34:27
	Was it commitment to religion	34:33
	or was it coercion into religion?	34:35
	The crisis is ours.	34:40
	Will our religion move us to action,	34:43
	reaction, inaction or simple inertia,	34:46
	that is, a resistance to change.	34:50
	There was a man Allan Bakke who wanted to	34:54
	attend a particular medical school.	34:59
	His desire and his importunity	35:04
	has brought America to a ral - moral crossroad.	35:06
	Should White or other minority applicants	35:12
	be denied a job or a place in college	35:15
	if a black or other minority applicant's race	35:20
	is used as the pertinent, perhaps,	35:24
	decisive factor in his admission?	35:26
	Chief Justice Blackburn (Blackmun) had this to say	35:30
	in his Supreme Court decision:	35:33
	"It is somewhat ironic," he says	35:36
	"to have us so deeply disturbed over	35:39
	"whether a program uses races	35:43
	"as an element of consciousness	35:47
	"and yet be aware of the fact, as we are,	35:50
	"that institutions of higher learning	35:53
	"have given conceded preferences to a point	35:56
	"with those students who are possessed	36:03
	"with athletic skills,	36:05
	"the children of alumni,	36:08
	"the affluent who bestow their largesse	36:11
	"upon the institutions,	36:13
	"to those having connections with celebrities,	36:16
	"to the famous and to the powerful."	36:20
	He goes on to say, "I suspect that it would be	36:24
	"impossible to arrange an affirmative action program	36:27
	"in a racially neutral way	36:31
	"and have it successful.	36:33
	"In order to get beyond racism," he says,	36:36
	"we must first take account of race.	36:41
	"There is no other way.	36:43
	"And in order to treat some persons equally,	36:46
	"we must treat them differently.	36:50
	"We cannot, we dare not,	36:53
	"let Equal Protection Clause perpetuate racial supremacy."	36:56
	And in an echo coming from Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall,	37:01
	we can find a similar concern.	37:07
	"I agree with the judgment of the court	37:10
	"only so far as it permits a university	37:12
	"to consider the race of an applicant	37:15
	"in making admissions decisions.	37:18
	"I do not agree with the petitioner's admissions program	37:21
	"that violates the Constitution	37:27
	"for it must be remembered that	37:29
	"during most of 200 years, the Constitution,	37:31
	"as interpreted by this court,	37:34
	"did not prohibit the most ingenious	37:38
	"and pervasive forms of discrimination against the Negro.	37:40
	"Now when a state acts to remedy	37:45
	"the effects of that legacy,	37:47
	"I cannot believe that the same Constitution	37:50
	"stands as a barrier."	37:53
	At every point, he goes on to say,	37:56
	"The impacts of the past	38:00
	"is reflected in the still disfavored position of the Negro.	38:03
	"In light of the sorry history of discrimination,	38:07
	"it is devastating impact on the lives of Negroes,	38:10
	"bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life	38:14
	"should be the highest priority of the state.	38:16
	"To fail to do so is to ensure	38:22
	"that America will be a divided society.	38:23
	"The experience of Negros in America	38:28
	"has been a different kind, not just in degree,	38:29
	"from that of other ethnic groups.	38:33
	"It is not merely the history of slavery alone,	38:37
	"but it's the history of a whole people	38:38
	"who were marked inferior by the law."	38:40
	Crisis, our human situation is engulfed by it.	38:45
	The unsettled nature of our world reveals it.	38:52
	Our ability to cope with crisis that arise	38:56
	within our private temples, our lives	38:59
	and the kinds of crisis that arise on our world	39:02
	and the kinds of crisis which arise	39:07
	in your relationships to each other.	39:10
	Crisis can be felt around our world	39:15
	but yet the tremors of those crisis	39:19
	that we feel around the world	39:21
	affect and shake our own lives individually.	39:24
	But from crisis I have arrived at this	39:29
	functional attitude.	39:32
	Life, with its limitations,	39:35
	life, with its ambiguities,	39:38
	life is still worth living,	39:40
	Therefore in crisis I will trust God.	39:44
	Whatever, wherever I am,	39:49
	I can never be thrown away.	39:51
	If I am in sickness,	39:54
	my sickness may serve God.	39:56
	If I am in perplexity,	40:00
	my perplexity may serve God.	40:01
	If I am in sorrow,	40:04
	my sorrow may serve God	40:06
	and then there's change.	40:10
	What happens after crisis?	40:14
	A sick man who had encountered a multiple tragedy	40:17
	attempts to defend his spiritual integrity	40:23
	before a friend posing a question	40:27
	and then making a declaration.	40:30
	This man, and many of you may have heard and read of him,	40:33
	was Job.	40:37
	Job said to his friend,	40:39
	who had come to his bedside	40:41
	and said to him, "Job you have sinned.	40:42
	"If you confess your sin,	40:46
	"then God will make you well."	40:48
	Job said to his friend,	40:52
	"If a man dies shall he live again?	40:55
	"all the days of my service	40:59
	"I will wait till my change shall come."	41:01
	Let's re-ask the question again.	41:06
	What can happen after crisis?	41:08
	Bitterness, loneliness, despair,	41:12
	emptiness, loss of faith,	41:17
	anger, helplessness, and even death.	41:20
	These sound discouraging, don't they?	41:25
	But I'll ask the question once more.	41:31
	What should follow crisis?	41:34
	Change.	41:38
	Change.	41:40
	But what kind of change should follow crisis?	41:41
	Crisis from the perspective of faith	41:45
	but not just any kind of faith	41:47
	but a faith of redemption,	41:50
	a faith of reconciliation,	41:52
	a faith of renewal,	41:54
	can be creative suffering.	41:56
	Some scholars in the field of psychology	41:59
	think of neurosis as unlived suffering	42:01
	or as the refusal to face	42:05
	and work through our experiences	42:08
	that involve suffering.	42:10
	Viktor Frankl describes suffering in a positive way.	42:14
	"Suffering is a part of life," he asserted.	42:18
	"To remove suffering from life	42:22
	"is to remove meaning from life.	42:23
	"Life takes shapes through suffering," he says.	42:29
	In crisis - mental and physical,	42:34
	emotional - suffering which borders on	42:36
	and threaten the annihilation of the self,	42:39
	crisis seems to us	42:43
	to present more questions than it can answer.	42:46
	Why is it that some of us spend more of our share of time	42:51
	in the deep, dark side of difficulty?	42:55
	Why is it that some of us suffer more than others?	42:58
	An answer to that question from an old hymn	43:04
	is an answer that takes us	43:09
	off somewhere into unreality.	43:12
	The answer says "I'm trouble, Lord, I'm trouble.	43:18
	"I'm troubled about my soul.	43:22
	"And as soon as I get into the kingdom	43:25
	"I won't be troubled no more."	43:28
	This crisis is but an invitation to change -	43:33
	a special kind of change.	43:38
	Crisis is an invitation to change	43:41
	but it is also an invitation to growth.	43:44
	It is an invitation to growth.	43:50
	The kind of growth that comes after	43:53
	our lives have bottomed-out.	43:55
	After we have reached bottom.	43:57
	After we have reached a point of impasse.	44:00
	After, as so often happens	44:04
	in our relationships to each other,	44:07
	when our relationships have gone in for crash landing.	44:09
	it's time then to change.	44:16
	It's time then to change.	44:22
	In a prophetic word about creating change	44:25
	Robert Kennedy had this to say.	44:27
	He said, "few will have the greatness to bend history itself	44:31
	"but each of us can work to change	44:36
	"a small portion of events	44:38
	"and then the total of all of those acts	44:42
	"will be written the history of this generation."	44:45
	We are the links in the chain of change.	44:50
	Without us change is meaningless.	44:55
	Change, then, without our efforts becomes haphazard,	45:00
	becomes disjointed, becomes crippled,	45:06
	becomes chaotic,	45:09
	and it becomes confined in our private lives	45:13
	and our world at large	45:17
	is then thrown back into fits	45:20
	of confusion and crisis.	45:22
	I'm now led to a second working assumption.	45:26
	When our lives have discerned meaning,	45:30
	when our lives have sense value,	45:34
	when our lives have opportunity to express	45:37
	what has been smothered creativity,	45:42
	change must and does inevitably occur.	45:45
	The apostle Paul once wrote that he thought of Christ	45:50
	as someone who was shamefully crucified.	45:54
	But Paul changed his perspective on Christ	45:58
	and he wrote these words.	46:05
	"Therefore, if anyone be in Christ	46:07
	"he or she is a new creature.	46:11
	"Old things are passed away,	46:14
	"behold all things become new."	46:17
	I believe that this is the kind of	46:21
	inner spiritual reflection	46:23
	and the kind of disregard for	46:26
	the external surroundings that enabled a people	46:30
	to see that their position in the world	46:37
	at the present did not really matter.	46:40
	And also this same kind of attitude	46:45
	enabled so many people of my race	46:49
	to realize that by looking at their lives	46:53
	from a different perspective,	46:57
	from the perspective of the gospel,	47:00
	that they too could become new creatures in Christ.	47:03
	And now as we face the plight of the future,	47:12
	a struggle is ensuing	47:17
	and debates are occurring on	47:19
	how we shall survive.	47:22
	How will we survive the energy crisis?	47:25
	Crisis of survival.	47:31
	Crisis of denial.	47:34
	Crisis of sacrifice.	47:37
	And the crisis go on and on and on,	47:41
	but I have not come just to bring you all this	47:45
	stirring news and a stirring word to arouse your emotions.	47:51
	I have come to tell you that	47:56
	from my understanding of the gospel,	47:58
	every creature has an opportunity to be made new.	48:00
	I'm not privy to know your thoughts	48:07
	about your individual situations	48:11
	and about your world's situation	48:13
	but I feel and believe that the world	48:16
	needs as each of us needs	48:19
	a chance to be made new.	48:22
	It is described in Revelations	48:25
	as a vision of the New Jerusalem.	48:27
	The writer says, "Then I saw new heaven and a new earth.	48:31
	"For the first heaven	48:36
	"and the first earth had passed away	48:37
	"and the sea was no more.	48:39
	"And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem,	48:42
	"coming down out of heaven from God.	48:44
	"Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.	48:48
	"And I heard a voice,	48:52
	"a loud voice from the throne saying,	48:53
	"'Behold the dwelling of God is with people.	48:55
	"'He will dwell with them	49:02
	"'and they shall be his people	49:03
	"'and God himself shall be their God.'"	49:04
	This is a vision that all creation at some point.	49:10
	I don't know when,	49:14
	but at some point all of creation	49:16
	will be made new.	49:19
	All of the imperfections shall be freed up.	49:22
	All of the essence as we know it shall be changed.	49:27
	Turbulence, unrest,	49:32
	crisis will be changed into forms of peace	49:34
	as we have never known.	49:38
	This is the reality	49:41
	and hope of the gospel.	49:43
	This came clearer to me some three weeks ago	49:47
	when I made a pastoral visitation to	49:53
	a church member at his bedside.	49:56
	This man's life had been invaded by the big one,	50:03
	the heart attack.	50:08
	He was a good man,	50:11
	or he is a good man.	50:12
	He's a family man.	50:14
	He's a church trustee.	50:16
	He is a sign painter and artist.	50:18
	He had checked himself into the community hospital	50:22
	because he felt unusual after dinner	50:26
	and while on the examination table,	50:31
	the man requested the doctor to give him	50:34
	a little additional oxygen	50:38
	because he felt the pressure intensify	50:40
	as though an elephant's foot were on his chest.	50:44
	And then finally as he was describing it to me,	50:49
	the dimness approached	50:53
	and finally the lights went out, completely.	50:55
	But he informed that his spirit	51:01
	escaped the confines of his body.	51:04
	Sounds very unusual.	51:10
	But as he went on to describe, he said,	51:13
	for a moment he was filled with a sense of freedom.	51:16
	His spirit took flight around the room.	51:22
	Moving, moving all around, going to and fro	51:24
	and he saw what he thought were seven people	51:31
	around a table.	51:34
	Seven people had on white coats or gowns.	51:36
	They were around the table	51:39
	but he could not sense what they were doing.	51:40
	He tried in vain to escape the room,	51:44
	to get out of the door but he couldn't.	51:49
	He said he simply wanted to be completely free.	51:52
	He wanted to escape	51:56
	but finally his spirit was drawn,	51:59
	as if by a vacuum, back into his body.	52:02
	And having returned to consciousness as we know it,	52:07
	there were eight doctors	52:12
	he had discerned around him and nurses	52:15
	and they asked him how he felt.	52:19
	Then they carried him to the intensive care unit.	52:22
	This man, as I sat at his bedside listening to this story,	52:28
	tears streamed down his cheeks	52:35
	and he said, "Reverend I feel like a whole new person.	52:39
	"I got a chance to live my life over.	52:45
	"I'm not worried about anything.	52:50
	"If I go tomorrow it's alright."	52:53
	I saw the same man last week on his front porch.	52:58
	And he said he felt so good	53:05
	because he had a chance to be made new.	53:10
	Most of us won't get that opportunity.	53:16
	Not this kind of opportunity	53:20
	to be made new.	53:22
	Most of us won't get that kind of chance.	53:25
	Few of us will experience this kind of crisis.	53:29
	Few of us will share in this kind of change.	53:33
	Chance to be made new.	53:39
	Then there's a news release from Honk Kong.	53:42
	"Chinese MDs give patient new hand."	53:45
	Chinese doctors, the article read,	53:51
	have successfully reconstructed a man's right hand	53:56
	in an operation an American medical expert	53:59
	called "a remarkable technical development."	54:03
	The doctors in Shanghai built a palm claw	54:07
	of steel and covered it with muscle and blood vessel	54:12
	and from the patient's arm	54:16
	they transplanted two toes from the patient's feet	54:19
	for use as fingers.	54:23
	The patient, a 25 year-old man,	54:25
	lost both his hands a year ago,	54:28
	has a normal sense of touch,	54:31
	the News China agency says.	54:34
	He can write, strike matches,	54:39
	and hold weights of less than six pounds.	54:41
	Dr. William Harris,	54:45
	Chief of Massachusetts General Hospitals	54:46
	Implants Surgery Unit,	54:49
	and leading expert in the field said,	54:52
	"American doctors have attempted	54:54
	"similar operations without success."	54:56
	But the thing that is unique he said was	55:01
	taking a series of existing techniques	55:03
	and assembling themin a new combination	55:07
	to solve a difficult problem.	55:11
	It was indeed a remarkable operation.	55:15
	A chance to be made new.	55:19
	The proper adjustment at the right time	55:23
	with the proper elements can yield a new kind of existence.	55:26
	We should be aware of that,	55:32
	that the proper adjustment at the right time	55:37
	with the proper elements	55:42
	can yield a new kind of existence	55:43
	in our crisis, in the midst of our change.	55:46
	Why do we not try new combinations	55:51
	and gather in new resources?	55:54
	To confess our need for new opportunities to be made new	55:57
	is to accept and continually pledge	56:02
	to live reconciled with people	56:04
	and to grow redemptively in our experiences.	56:07
	To confess our need for newness	56:13
	is to be redeemed.	56:19
	In the process we must shed our naivete	56:23
	that coping with crisis is easy,	56:28
	that existence can be made in a smooth kind of change,	56:32
	and we must shed our innocence about	56:40
	the reality of instant change.	56:44
	The legacy of the Christian faith	56:47
	confronts us with the hard facts.	56:49
	Without the shedding of blood,	56:53
	there can be no redemption from sin.	56:56
	Jesus made that very real.	57:00
	There's a man from history,	57:06
	a great thinker,	57:09
	Frederick Douglass who says,	57:11
	"If there is no struggle there is no progress.	57:13
	"Those who favor freedom	57:19
	"and yet dissipate agitation	57:20
	"are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.	57:23
	"They want rain without the thunder and the lighting.	57:28
	"They want the ocean's majestic waves	57:32
	"without the awful roar of its waters."	57:34
	It means that if justice	57:39
	and truth is to be revealed in our own lives,	57:41
	we must accept the reality	57:46
	and the paradox of the cross,	57:49
	power of love versus	57:53
	the power of corruption and destruction.	57:56
	We must accept that.	58:01
	We must accept to live on the side of the power of love	58:04
	but join in collaboration with the power of destruction	58:09
	and power of corruption.	58:15
	The miracle of being made new is not magical.	58:19
	It's not something magical	58:23
	but it is a chance we take	58:25
	and a challenge we accept.	58:28
	It may bring us fear	58:31
	and agitation like the 11 men gathered	58:34
	after the death of their leader.	58:39
	The disciples, after one of them had committed suicide,	58:42
	and that same one had been	58:48
	one who conspired with the authorities	58:50
	to turn their leader over.	58:53
	It may be that	58:56
	public opinion may distort our vision	59:00
	as to what is real and what is illusion.	59:05
	It may question our willingness to trust	59:09
	and risk because we hear what might be a rumor.	59:11
	Christ is alive.	59:18
	Some consider that a rumor.	59:23
	It may greet us face to face as doubt and fear	59:28
	because of our past thoughts and failures.	59:33
	But when it meets us,	59:39
	it meets us the way that Jesus	59:40
	greeted the disciples in the upper room.	59:42
	He greeted them with these words,	59:47
	"Peace, peace"	59:49
	and Jesus said to them in a tone of pure hope	59:55
	and a voice filled with shear opportunity,	59:59
	"As the Father sent me,	1:00:02
	"I also send you."	1:00:06
	This, my brothers and sisters is the new assignment.	1:00:10
	"As my father has sent me,	1:00:15
	"I also send you."	1:00:20
	And I'll share this final word from a poem.	1:00:26
	"Be wary, lad the road which you go up is long	1:00:31
	"and steeper than you dare think	1:00:34
	"and since you leave in darkness	1:00:38
	"lad, be slow.	1:00:41
	"Test every spring before you drink.	1:00:44
	"Learn now the roads may hide a thousand scars.	1:00:47
	"The welcome breeze may herald storm ahead	1:00:53
	"and though your eyes would trace the course of stars	1:00:56
	"or gaze on the gray horizons growing red,	1:01:00
	"let caution rule your step.	1:01:04
	"That you may see the gaping pit,	1:01:07
	"the waiting bog,	1:01:11
	"the wall of white which you must scale.	1:01:12
	"Go carefully, go hopefully	1:01:14
	"but if somewhere you sink or fall,	1:01:18
	"remember where you walked smooth away,	1:01:22
	"that those who follow you may discover day."	1:01:26
	Crisis, our world is filled with it.	1:01:31
	Our history is filled with it.	1:01:35
	Your day will be filled with it.	1:01:37
	Change, the undeniable reality which must occur	1:01:41
	because it's built into the fabric of life	1:01:47
	and a chance to be made new.	1:01:52
	Some of us will not accept our chances to be made new.	1:01:55
	Many of us will	1:02:00
	but the gospel demands	1:02:03
	and offers it to all of us.	1:02:07
	Change, chance.	1:02:12
	The chance to be made new.	1:02:15
	Let us pray.	1:02:18
	God, for this word and opportunity,	1:02:21
	we give thanks.	1:02:25
	Lord, for opportunities around us to be made new,	1:02:29
	we are grateful.	1:02:33
	Now send us on our way on a new assignment.	1:02:36
	As the father has sent me,	1:02:42
	so I send you.	1:02:47
	Amen.	1:02:49
	(organ music)	1:02:55
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:05:16
	We believe in God who has created	1:05:20
	and is creating.	1:05:23
	Who has come in the truly human Jesus	1:05:25
	to reconcile and make new.	1:05:28
	Who works in us and others by the spirit.	1:05:31
	We trust God, who calls us to be the church.	1:05:35
	To celebrate life and it's fullness.	1:05:41
	To love and serve others.	1:05:44
	To seek justice and resist evil.	1:05:47
	To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.	1:05:50
	Our judge and our hope.	1:05:55
	In life, in death,	1:05:57
	in life beyond death,	1:06:00
	God is with us.	1:06:02
	We are not alone.	1:06:04
	Thanks be to God.	1:06:07
	We welcome each of you to this service of worship	1:06:18
	in Duke Chapel on this first Sunday after Pentecost.	1:06:20
	We are grateful for this opportunity to worship together.	1:06:23
	The Lord be with you.	1:06:27
	Let us pray.	1:06:32
	Oh God you have awakened faith in us.	1:06:36
	You have spoken the word of your gospel to us.	1:06:39
	You have happened to us God.	1:06:43
	Help us now as we grope for a fitting response	1:06:45
	to your word of love and hope.	1:06:48
	First of all we would respond with thanks giving.	1:06:52
	We thank you for the light of our eyes.	1:06:56
	For the air we breath.	1:06:59
	For the voice with which we speak.	1:07:00
	For the sun, and the rain and their seasons.	1:07:03
	For the plants and all creatures.	1:07:05
	We thank you for creating the world	1:07:08
	and for sustaining the world.	1:07:11
	We thank you for the courage of so many people.	1:07:14
	We thank you that children are born	1:07:17
	and that the dead are lamented.	1:07:19
	We thank you that love exists between men and women	1:07:23
	and friendship beyond all frontiers.	1:07:27
	We thank you for the hard work that is done in factories	1:07:31
	and in universities, on farms	1:07:34
	and in laboratories.	1:07:37
	In hospitals and in office buildings.	1:07:39
	We thank you for all the things we take for granted.	1:07:43
	For everything that comes to us all the time from you,	1:07:47
	our creator and our father.	1:07:51
	And we would also dare to respond to your word	1:07:55
	with solemn petitions.	1:07:58
	We pray for those who mourn and are in distress.	1:08:00
	For the crippled, the infirm, the sick,	1:08:05
	and the dying.	1:08:08
	We pray for all who are disillusioned by life.	1:08:11
	For married couples who have not been able	1:08:14
	to hold on to each other.	1:08:17
	For parents who are disappointed in their children.	1:08:19
	We pray Lord for all those	1:08:25
	who have been broken or disabled by war	1:08:27
	or who's lives have been thrown into disorder	1:08:30
	by cruelty or loneliness.	1:08:33
	We pray for all those who are exploited.	1:08:36
	For all who are poor	1:08:38
	and without legal rights.	1:08:39
	For all who are despised and maltreated	1:08:41
	because of the color of their skin	1:08:43
	or the lack of money in their pockets.	1:08:45
	And we would pray not only	1:08:49
	for all who have to suffer this injustice	1:08:51
	but also for those who foster and increase it.	1:08:54
	We pray that Christ's own attitude of mind may grow in us.	1:08:58
	That we may be easily hurt rather than unfeeling.	1:09:03
	That we may be powerless and without prestige	1:09:08
	rather than unapproachable and proud.	1:09:11
	We pray for mildness	1:09:15
	and humility in our dealings with all people.	1:09:16
	We pray that we may be faithful	1:09:20
	to those who are unfaithful to us.	1:09:22
	We pray for patience	1:09:26
	and a forgiving spirit.	1:09:28
	Lord, our God, we place these things before you	1:09:31
	as well as so many other requests	1:09:36
	and prayers that occur to us.	1:09:38
	Empower us with your spirit,	1:09:40
	so that our response to your love	1:09:44
	will be not only words	1:09:46
	but more importantly,	1:09:47
	the living sacrifice of our very selves	1:09:49
	to the furtherance of your kingdom.	1:09:52
	The kingdom which is at hand	1:09:55
	in and among us.	1:09:57
	In this very place, at this very moment.	1:09:59
	Hear our prayer oh God,	1:10:05
	for it is offered in the name of Jesus Christ	1:10:06
	your son and our savior.	1:10:09
	The one who taught us to pray saying,	1:10:12
	our Father, who art in heaven,	1:10:15
	hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come,	1:10:19
	thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven	1:10:23
	Give us this day our daily bread.	1:10:28
	And forgive us our trespasses,	1:10:31
	as we forgive those	1:10:33
	who trespass against us.	1:10:34
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:10:37
	but deliver us from evil.	1:10:40
	For thine is the kingdom,	1:10:42
	and the power, and the glory,	1:10:43
	forever, amen.	1:10:47
	(instrumental music)	1:11:10
	(upbeat music)	1:12:53
	(instrumental music)	1:16:02
	(congregation chanting)	1:17:27
	Most gracious God,	1:18:12
	what we have we bring.	1:18:13
	Our good intentions, our mixed motives,	1:18:16
	our uncertainties about life,	1:18:19
	our grasp of truth,	1:18:22
	our partial commitment,	1:18:24
	our small gifts.	1:18:26
	It is precious little Lord	1:18:28
	and none of it we know is good enough	1:18:30
	but it is what we offer	1:18:33
	and we dare to affirm that it is received.	1:18:35
	In the name of Jesus the Christ, amen.	1:18:39
	(organ music)	1:18:47
	(congregation singing)	1:19:14
	Grace, mercy and peace from God the creator,	1:23:07
	redeemer and sustainer.	1:23:12
	Be with you now and forever more, amen.	1:23:15
	(organ music)	1:23:21

Item Info

Title:

Vergel L. Lattimore, III - "Crisis, Change, and a Chance... To Be Made New" (June 10, 1979)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 20:30. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:02:50.
Crisis, which pervades all of life be it personal or global, opens up possibilities for change. And changes are chances for us not to repeat the same-old, the entrenched patterns of injustice but to be made new, to be changed and be change. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "To confess our need for new opportunities to be made new is to accept and continually pledge to live reconciled with people and to grow redemptively in our experiences. To confess our need for newness is to be redeemed. In the process we must shed our naivete that coping with crisis is easy, that existence can be made in a smooth kind of change, and we must shed our innocence about the reality of instant change. The legacy of the Christian faith confronts us with the hard facts."

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4416td45

Date:

June 10, 1979

Speaker:

Lattimore, Vergel L., III

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Ordinary Time

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1030
ref7269_jat
uachapelsermaud
duke:320966
dcrau001910
ark:/87924/r4416td45
aeed2eca-5d98-459d-8b87-02277a2330cf

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

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Vergel L. Lattimore, III - "Crisis, Change, and a Chance... To Be Made New" (June 10, 1979)

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1. Vergel L. Lattimore, III - "Crisis, Change, and a Chance....To Be Made New" (June 10, 1979)

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