Robert T. Young - "A New Covenant Is Risky Indeed" (September 7, 1980)

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	(organ music)	0:17
	(choir singing)	9:23
-	God has given us life but we have not lived.	17:07
	We have been called to freedom,	17:11
	but we have the burden heavy.	17:13
	The anxiety painful.	17:16
	In fear and pride we have turned from the Lord our God	17:18
	to live in self deceit and to serve other lords.	17:23
	May we admit together our willfulness and our weakness	17:27
	in denying the life that is ours to live.	17:32
	Let us confess our sin.	17:35
	Let us pray.	17:44
	Forgive us God, for our confusion is often like a storm	17:46
	that blurs our vision and clouds our minds.	17:51
	We understand the need to struggle for material gain,	17:55
	but fail in our struggle for spiritual gain.	17:59
	We understand the need to relax with a good book,	18:03
	but fail to seek the peace of the presence of Christ.	18:07
	We understand the need for social harmony and justice,	18:11
	but fail to promote them in our own lives.	18:16
	We understand the need for sensitivity	18:19
	in human relationships,	18:22
	but fail to care for one another as our Lord cares for us.	18:24
	O Lord our God, our confusion often leads us to sin	18:30
	and to suffer.	18:35
	We ask now for the forgiveness of Christ.	18:37
	We pray from the depths of our hearts.	18:40
	O Lord we have wronged you, ourselves, and others about us.	18:43
	O Lord we truly repent and confess our mistakes,	18:49
	our transgressions and our sins.	18:54
	O Christ in mercy, do forgive us.	18:57
	Listen, here is good news, Jesus said,	19:14
	"I will never turn away anyone who comes to me."	19:18
	Jesus the Christ has come to forgive us,	19:22
	accept us as we are,	19:25
	set us free and make us who we were meant to be.	19:28
	Let us give thanks for God is good	19:34
	and God's love is everlasting.	19:36
	Thanks be to God, by whose love we are created.	19:40
	Thanks be to God, by whose mercy we are redeemed.	19:44
	Thanks be to God, by whose grace we are led into the future.	19:49
	We welcome you this morning to Duke University Chapel	19:56
	to our service of worship.	20:00
	We are pleased that you can be here with us	20:02
	as you gather as the Duke community,	20:05
	friends, students, parents, faculty, administrators.	20:08
	We are pleased that you are here.	20:14
	We trust that God's presence will be felt	20:16
	and that you will be inspired as you leave	20:19
	in service this morning.	20:22
	Let me call to your attention and invite each one of you	20:26
	to participate in a service of Eucharist,	20:29
	immediately following our morning worship service.	20:33
	It will be in the Memorial Chapel,	20:36
	and you are invited to attend.	20:39
	We would like to lift up the fact	20:43
	that we do need volunteer ushers and attendants here	20:46
	in the chapel to help us on Sunday mornings.	20:50
	If you are interested in serving in this way,	20:53
	please contact the chapel basement office	20:56
	and we would be glad to hear from you.	20:59
-	Let us pray.	21:15
	Prepare our hearts o Lord to accept your word.	21:18
	Silence in us any voice but your own,	21:22
	that hearing we may also obey your will,	21:26
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	21:30
	The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 31,	21:36
	verses 31 through 34.	21:41
	Behold, the days are coming says the Lord,	21:45
	when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel	21:50
	and the house of Judah.	21:54
	Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers	21:57
	when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land	22:00
	of Egypt, my covenant which they broke,	22:03
	though I was their husband, says the Lord.	22:07
	But this is the covenant which I will make with the house	22:12
	of Israel after those days says the Lord.	22:15
	I will put my law within them and I will write it	22:20
	upon their hearts, and I will be their God,	22:23
	and they shall be my people.	22:28
	And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor	22:31
	and each his brother saying, know the Lord.	22:35
	For they shall all know me,	22:39
	from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.	22:42
	For I will forgive their inequity	22:47
	and I will remember their sin no more.	22:50
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	22:55
	Amen.	22:59
	The epistle lesson is from the first letter of Peter,	23:02
	chapter two verses four through 10.	23:06
	Come to Him to that living stone rejected by men,	23:12
	but in God's sight chosen and precious.	23:17
	And like living stones,	23:22
	be yourselves built into a spiritual house.	23:24
	To be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices	23:28
	acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.	23:33
	For it stands in scripture,	23:39
	behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen	23:42
	and precious, and he who believes in Him	23:49
	will not be put to shame.	23:54
	To you therefore who believe He is precious,	23:58
	but for those who do not believe,	24:02
	the very stone which the builders rejected	24:06
	has become the head of the corner.	24:10
	And a stone that will make men stumble,	24:14
	a rock that will make them fall.	24:18
	For they stumble because they disobey the word	24:22
	as they were destined to do.	24:25
	But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,	24:30
	a holy nation, God's own people,	24:33
	that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him,	24:36
	who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.	24:40
	Once you were no people, but now you are God's people.	24:46
	Once you had not received mercy,	24:52
	but now you have received mercy.	24:55
	Here ends the reading from the epistle, amen.	24:59
	(choir singing)	25:23
	Will the congregation please stand for the reading	28:58
	of the gospel lesson.	29:00
	The gospel lesson is from	29:08
	Luke chapter 22 verses 14 through 20.	29:09
	And when the hour came, He sat at table,	29:16
	and the apostles with Him.	29:21
	And He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat	29:24
	this Passover with you before I suffer.	29:28
	For I tell you, I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled	29:32
	in the kingdom of God.	29:37
	And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He said,	29:40
	take this and divide it among yourselves for I tell you	29:45
	that from now on, I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine	29:51
	until the kingdom of God comes.	29:56
	And He took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it	30:00
	and give it to them saying, this is my body,	30:05
	which is given for you.	30:11
	Do this in remembrance of me,	30:13
	and likewise the cup after supper saying, this cup,	30:17
	which is poured out for you,	30:22
	is the new covenant in my blood.	30:25
	(choir singing)	30:31
-	Grace to you and peace, from the Lord our God	31:32
	who has made us, who has indeed redeemed us,	31:36
	and who does indeed sustain us, amen.	31:42
	This week as all of us know,	31:48
	marks the beginning of a new year for all of us here	31:52
	in this university community.	31:55
	Beginnings of new years it seems to me,	31:59
	are always filled with ambivalent,	32:03
	ambiguous, uncontrollable feelings.	32:07
	Feelings of excitement and fear,	32:12
	expectation and anxiety,	32:16
	anticipation and dread,	32:20
	wanting and not wanting,	32:24
	wanting to move in and wanting to move out,	32:27
	wanting to stay and wanting to go home,	32:31
	reaching out to others and pulling back into one's self,	32:36
	being cocky and certain,	32:40
	being frightened and scared to death.	32:43
	This is the beginning of a new year for you and me,	32:48
	for all of us in this place and at this particular time.	32:51
	It's good to have new beginnings,	32:56
	when we can lay aside what has been,	32:59
	can wipe the slate clean of all that is old and worn,	33:03
	can start all over again	33:08
	with the past over and done with.	33:10
	This is the beginning of a new year.	33:14
	So I've been thinking about what that does mean	33:18
	for you and me and for all of us this year.	33:20
	New relationships, new experiences, new ideas,	33:25
	new people, new ways,	33:31
	new thoughts, new challenges, new decisions,	33:34
	new opportunities, new freedoms.	33:38
	Which means danger, risk and unknown.	33:42
	It means good and bad, helpful and hurtful,	33:47
	destructive and constructive.	33:52
	It means being faithful and unfaithful,	33:55
	being responsible and irresponsible.	33:58
	Yes this is the beginning of a new year,	34:01
	a time to think about among other things,	34:03
	covenants which we may make with God,	34:07
	with others and with ourselves.	34:10
	So let's think for a few minutes about covenant	34:13
	in the biblical sense and see what this may mean to us.	34:16
	A covenanting relationship with God is one in which	34:21
	you and I are free to enter,	34:25
	we are free to remain in that relationship or we are also	34:28
	free to withdraw from that relationship.	34:32
	Covenant in the biblical sense shows that God	34:36
	is the one who takes the initiative.	34:40
	God is the initiator,	34:43
	the primary actor, the motivator, the mover,	34:45
	the one who comes to us.	34:47
	Covenant with God means two things, basically.	34:51
	It means that we are privileged to receive and to benefit	34:55
	from God's gracious acts.	34:58
	It means also that we are invited to join with God	35:02
	in caring for others and in caring for the world.	35:06
	Covenant, then, is God's act and our response.	35:11
	The call for us to participate in covenant with God	35:18
	I believe goes all the way back to beginning,	35:21
	all the way back to creation itself.	35:24
	In the image of God, God created them male and female	35:26
	created God them, Imago Dei,	35:31
	in the image of God.	35:35
	This call I believe also is seen in the experiences	35:38
	of Noah, of Moses, of Abraham,	35:41
	Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus,	35:45
	the disciples, the early church.	35:49
	Covenanting with God means, chosen, claimed,	35:53
	called, commitment,	35:58
	commonality, community, communion.	36:01
	In covenant God does take the initiative.	36:05
	God makes promises to us.	36:11
	God assumes responsibility.	36:14
	God provides for us on the way of our pilgrimage.	36:17
	God gives us signs along the way.	36:22
	God's call to covenant is not always when we want it	36:27
	to come. It surely wasn't for Moses.	36:31
	God's call to us is not always when we are ready.	36:35
	It wasn't for Jeremiah.	36:38
	God's call is not always what we expect or want	36:41
	or are looking for. It certainly wasn't for Noah.	36:44
	God's call to us to enter into covenant	36:48
	does not always lead to success or victory	36:51
	or to our coming out on top.	36:53
	God's call to us does not always take us immediately	36:57
	into the promised land.	37:02
	It is high risk I believe to wait upon the Lord.	37:06
	To listen to the word of the Lord.	37:12
	To respond to the voice of God.	37:15
	To enter into covenant with God.	37:18
	Like Michael Quoist writes in his book, Prayers,	37:21
	"Lord, you seized me and I could not resist you.	37:25
	"I ran for a long time, but you followed me.	37:30
	"I took bypaths, but you knew them.	37:34
	"You overtook me, I struggled, you won.	37:37
	"Here I am Lord, out of breath no fight left in me	37:42
	"and I've said yes, almost unwillingly	37:45
	"when I stood there trembling	37:51
	"like one defeated before his captor,	37:52
	"your look of love fell on me.	37:55
	"The die is cast Lord, I can no longer forget you	37:58
	"for I recognized you without seeing you.	38:03
	"I felt you without touching you,	38:07
	"I understood you without hearing you.	38:09
	"Marked by the fire of your love	38:13
	"I can no longer forget you Lord."	38:15
	Yes it is high risk to enter into covenant with God.	38:21
	It just may be that it will rain on us for 40 days	38:25
	and 40 nights.	38:29
	Or it just may mean that we will wander as did Abraham	38:31
	for many years in the land headed toward Canaan.	38:34
	Or it may mean as it did for the people of Israel,	38:39
	wandering for 40 years in the wilderness	38:42
	before they reached the promised land.	38:44
	Or it may mean as it did for our Lord Jesus	38:47
	after he was baptized, it may mean 40 days and 40 nights	38:50
	in the wilderness.	38:55
	It is high risk to enter into covenant with God.	38:57
	But you know, we have some strange notions most of us,	39:03
	or some of us anyhow, in our heads and hearts and minds	39:07
	and in our very souls about what life and faith,	39:12
	living and believing about what entering into covenant	39:15
	with God is all about.	39:18
	We seem to believe that covenant with God is what we do.	39:20
	No I don't think so.	39:25
	It is what God has done, is doing and will do in us,	39:27
	with us, to us and for us, and it is we who respond.	39:31
	We seem to believe that covenant means deliverance,	39:38
	and we act as if it means deliverance right now,	39:43
	right this moment, this very instant.	39:46
	From bondage to freedom, from guilt to forgiveness,	39:50
	from oppression to release,	39:54
	from slavery to the promised land.	39:56
	One things my friends I have learned in reading	40:00
	and studying the Old Testament and the New Testament,	40:03
	and in trying to understand God's dealing	40:07
	with our forbears in the faith,	40:09
	has been very important and very helpful to me	40:11
	and I share it with you this morning.	40:14
	Somehow or other I had the notion that if you were saved,	40:18
	if you only believed, if you simply trusted in God,	40:22
	if you truly responded to God's call,	40:25
	if you entered into covenant with God,	40:28
	you immediately were delivered,	40:30
	were made whole, were released, were freed,	40:32
	were set upon dry land.	40:35
	I believed that if you simply responded and said,	40:40
	"Yes I believe, I trust in God,	40:43
	"I accept God's love and grace,	40:45
	"I want to be faithful and obedient and responsible,"	40:48
	then God would take you at once into the promised land.	40:51
	And so, there I was.	40:59
	I had heard and felt somehow or other and in some way	41:04
	or another God speak and call and come to me.	41:08
	I had tried as best I could to respond, to be faithful	41:11
	and obedient and loving and caring,	41:15
	and yet I seemed not to have arrived.	41:18
	I was still wandering, I was still in the desert.	41:21
	I was still filled with questions and doubts	41:25
	and uncertainty and ambiguity.	41:29
	I was still aware that	41:32
	life just did not make sense.	41:35
	There were and there are still things I do not understand	41:39
	or know or see clearly.	41:42
	The point is, that I am not in the promised land.	41:46
	Any of you ever have that feeling?	41:53
	That you think you have heard and felt a word from God?	41:58
	That you feel like you've tried to respond and to obey	42:05
	and yet you feel like you are still not	42:08
	in the promised land?	42:11
	If so, I have a word for you and for me,	42:14
	a word I believe from the Lord, that that is the way	42:18
	that covenant and life and faith	42:24
	and living and believing are intended to be.	42:28
	At least that's the way they really are.	42:33
	As I read in the Old Testament and in the New Testament	42:38
	about covenanting experiences of God with Noah and Moses	42:40
	and Abraham and Isaiah and Jeremiah, with Jesus	42:45
	and with the early church, I read of no experiences	42:49
	at all	42:53
	where the people of God move immediately from covenant	42:56
	to the promised land.	42:59
	There is always in between covenant and the promised land,	43:01
	there is always wilderness.	43:05
	Wilderness, always.	43:10
	Always.	43:15
	For Noah and his family,	43:19
	for Moses and the children of Israel,	43:22
	for Jesus and the disciples and indeed for you and me.	43:26
	Then I think somehow or other we have the notion	43:33
	that covenant with God is something that we are to control.	43:35
	Not at all.	43:39
	If I understand the word of God in scripture and in the life	43:41
	of the church it is that God is in control.	43:45
	The call and the claim and the covenant often come to us	43:49
	when we are not ready.	43:52
	Someone has said that there are three images	43:54
	in the New Testament that are covenanting	43:57
	or are receiving images:	43:59
	baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the Holy Spirit.	44:03
	Let me show I think rather clearly how we within the church	44:09
	somehow or other feel like we are in control	44:14
	of the life of faith which is ours.	44:18
	It's seen very simply in the way we express ourselves.	44:21
	We think baptism is something we do.	44:25
	We think the Lord's Supper is something we take.	44:29
	We think the Holy Spirit is something that we have.	44:33
	Three very possessive controlling verbs:	44:39
	to do, to take, to have.	44:44
	It's easy to see if that is our language,	44:47
	and I think it is for many of us,	44:50
	it's easy to see why some of us think that we are in charge.	44:52
	But baptism is not something we do,	44:56
	it is something we receive.	44:59
	The Lord's Supper is not something we take, it is something	45:01
	that we receive.	45:04
	The Holy Spirit is not something we have,	45:05
	it is something we receive.	45:08
	Covenant, my friends, affirms who God is,	45:11
	who each of us is, and who we are all together.	45:15
	Covenant means I will be your God	45:19
	and you shall be my people, yes it does, all the way,	45:21
	fully, totally, freely,	45:26
	wholly, unreservedly, unconditionally,	45:28
	obediently and faithfully,	45:30
	but that's risky business my friends.	45:33
	Risky yes, risky indeed.	45:36
	Listen to some of the words of some of the hymns	45:39
	that we sing, that we sing I think coolly and calmly	45:41
	and casually.	45:45
	Breathe on m e breath of God, fill me with life anew,	45:46
	that I may love what thou dost love	45:51
	and do what thou dost do.	45:54
	I will go where you want me to go dear Lord,	45:59
	I will do what you want me to do dear Lord.	46:02
	Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.	46:09
	Thou art the potter, I am the clay.	46:12
	Mold me, make me after thy will while I am waiting,	46:15
	yielded and still.	46:21
	Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.	46:27
	Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me,	46:32
	mold me, make me, fill me, use me.	46:36
	Spirit of the the living God, fall afresh on me.	46:44
	Covenant often comes when we're not ready.	46:50
	It often comes when and where we do not want it.	46:54
	Covenant often means a responsibility that we don't care	46:57
	to take on as it did for Moses and Jeremiah and Isaiah	47:01
	and for Jesus.	47:05
	It's risky business to enter into covenant with God.	47:07
	For we may end up working with people that we don't want	47:12
	to work with.	47:14
	We may end up fighting for causes that are not popular	47:17
	that we'd rather leave alone.	47:20
	We may end up dealing with issues that we're not quite ready	47:23
	to deal with.	47:27
	It may mean fighting for the rights of minority persons,	47:29
	Native Americans, Blacks and others in this country.	47:32
	It may mean working for causes for the rights of women,	47:37
	for the passage of ERA or something as significant	47:41
	or as important as that.	47:44
	It may mean struggling against that which	47:48
	the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us	47:52
	about just as he was leaving office after serving two terms	47:55
	in the presidency.	47:59
	It may mean struggling against	48:00
	the military industrial complex as it is established	48:02
	in this country.	48:06
	It may mean that some of us will counsel with those	48:07
	who seek to become conscientious objectors.	48:10
	It could mean, my young friends,	48:14
	to you, those of you who began,	48:18
	or those of you who are continuing your life on this campus,	48:20
	it may mean saying no to the use of drugs	48:23
	or alcoholic beverages, or to loose and irresponsible sex.	48:27
	It may mean not lying or cheating	48:32
	or stealing not only stealing some thing	48:34
	that belongs to somebody else,	48:37
	it also may mean not stealing or taking some idea	48:38
	or some thought or some writing that belongs	48:42
	to somebody else.	48:45
	It may mean joining some of us for a march on Washington	48:48
	the first weekend in October.	48:52
	A pilgrimage of suffering	48:54
	and hope to Washington National Cathedral.	48:55
	It may mean, my friends, that we'll get dirty sometimes,	48:59
	that we may be smelly and stinking.	49:02
	That some of us may get our hair messed up,	49:05
	those of us who have hair, or our clothes messed up.	49:07
	It may mean that we will be seen with the poor	49:12
	and the outcast, with the radical and the revolutionary.	49:15
	It may mean taking up a cross, literally.	49:19
	It may mean taking up a cross all alone	49:24
	or all together.	49:28
	If therefore, the next few weeks, the next year,	49:32
	the next four years, or even the rest of your life	49:36
	as was the case for Moses,	49:39
	if this period of time whatever it is	49:41
	seems like a wilderness as you chart a new life,	49:44
	as you begin a new way,	49:46
	as you search for a new truth,	49:48
	as you live out a new covenant,	49:50
	just remember that it's okay to be in the wilderness.	49:52
	Some pretty good folks have been there,	49:59
	and they're still there with us.	50:02
	Folks like Moses	50:05
	and Jeremiah	50:11
	and Abraham	50:14
	and Jesus.	50:17
	For even there, right there in the wilderness	50:19
	there is the certainty and the assurance	50:24
	that God's presence is there.	50:26
	And we have signs to help us along the way	50:30
	like the manna for the children of Israel,	50:32
	like the pillar of cloud by day	50:35
	and the pillar of fire by night,	50:36
	we still have signs like that,	50:38
	we still have a rainbow that comes in the day.	50:40
	We still have bread and wine,	50:44
	a towel and a basin,	50:50
	we still have a cross.	50:55
	This cup, which is poured out for you and for many,	51:00
	is the new covenant in my blood.	51:06
	It's risky business to enter into covenant with God.	51:12
	Risky indeed.	51:19
	Amen.	51:24
	(orchestral music)	51:50
	(choir singing)	52:09
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	55:32
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	55:37
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	55:42
	to reconcile and make new.	55:45
	Who works in us and others by the Spirit.	55:48
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	55:52
	to celebrate life and it's fullness.	55:57
	To love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil.	56:00
	To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge	56:05
	and our hope.	56:10
	In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us,	56:12
	we are not alone.	56:19
	Thanks be to God, the Lord be with you.	56:21
	Let us pray.	56:27
	O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,	56:38
	We come to praise you this morning,	56:45
	for your faithfulness to us.	56:48
	We come to thank you for the covenants	56:51
	that you have established with your people.	56:54
	Covenants that call us to justice and mercy,	56:57
	forgiveness and righteousness, repentance and faith.	57:01
	May we be able to see that your covenants are a sign	57:07
	of your revelation to us, and your great love for us.	57:11
	O God we ask that you visit us today	57:17
	with your healing word,	57:20
	for we are a people who come into your presence	57:23
	with many wounds, heartaches and sicknesses.	57:27
	Bind us up in the power of your word,	57:33
	strengthen us with the promise of your word,	57:37
	inspire us with the truth of your gospel.	57:41
	Enter our lives this day in a new way	57:46
	that we might be changed, never to be the same again.	57:49
	O Lord our God, fill us now with your grace	57:56
	that we might embody the life	58:00
	and example of Jesus, the Christ.	58:02
	Help us to know and be assured that we are daughters	58:06
	and sons of a covenant relationship.	58:11
	You are our God, we are your people.	58:15
	This promise we have made and now seek to fulfill.	58:19
	Enable us then to see signs of this covenant around us,	58:25
	and within us as we relate to one another	58:31
	and to your creation.	58:35
	Come and stir within our souls,	58:38
	that we might feel your spirit and rejoice in your presence.	58:41
	May we be restless o God, until we find our source of life	58:47
	in you and all of your creation.	58:53
	For we pray in the name of Jesus Christ,	58:56
	the initiator of the new covenant,	59:00
	who taught us to pray saying,	59:03
	our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,	59:06
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	59:11
	on Earth as it is in Heaven.	59:15
	Give us this daily our daily bread	59:18
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	59:21
	who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation,	59:24
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom,	59:30
	and the power and the glory forever, amen.	59:34
	(organ music)	59:43
	(choir singing)	1:00:49
	Oh God as we offer these gifts of money to you,	1:07:45
	help us also to be able to offer ourselves.	1:07:48
	Take our bodies, our minds, and spirits	1:07:53
	and use them in your ministry in your world, amen.	1:07:56
	(organ music)	1:08:17
	We know now in the certain knowledge	1:12:38
	that we are made in God's image and that we are destined	1:12:42
	for fulfillment in God's eternal service.	1:12:44
	(choir singing)	1:12:58
	(organ music)	1:13:37

	(lively organ music)	0:36
	(tranquil organ music)	5:23
	♪ Beautiful ♪	11:22
	♪ Savior ♪	11:25
	♪ Lord of all nations ♪	11:30
	♪ Son of God ♪	11:38
	♪ And Son of Man ♪	11:44
	♪ Glory and honor ♪	11:54
	♪ Praise, adoration ♪	12:01
	♪ Now and forevermore ♪	12:08
	♪ Be thine ♪	12:15
	♪ Now and forever ♪	12:20
	♪ More ♪	12:30
	♪ Be thine ♪	12:33
	(lively organ music)	12:44
	♪ Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee ♪	13:20
	♪ God of glory, Lord of love ♪	13:24
	♪ Hearts unfold like flow'rs before Thee ♪	13:28
	♪ Op'ning to the sun above ♪	13:33
	♪ Melt the clouds of sin and sadness ♪	13:37
	♪ Drive the dark of doubt away ♪	13:41
	♪ Giver of immortal gladness ♪	13:46
	♪ Fill us with the light of day ♪	13:50
	♪ All Thy works with joy surround Thee ♪	13:58
	♪ Earth and heav'n reflect Thy rays ♪	14:02
	♪ Stars and angels sing around Thee ♪	14:06
	♪ Center of unbroken praise ♪	14:11
	♪ Field and forest, vale and mountain ♪	14:15
	♪ Flow'ry meadow, flashing sea ♪	14:20
	♪ Singing bird and flowing fountain ♪	14:24
	♪ Call us to rejoice in Thee ♪	14:29
	♪ Thou art giving and forgiving ♪	14:36
	♪ Ever blessing, ever blest ♪	14:40
	♪ Wellspring of the joy of living ♪	14:44
	♪ Ocean depth of happy rest ♪	14:49
	♪ Thou our Father, Christ our Brother ♪	14:54
	♪ All who live in love are Thine ♪	14:57
	♪ Teach us how to love each other ♪	15:02
	♪ Lift us to the joy divine ♪	15:06
	♪ Mortals, join the happy chorus ♪	15:14
	♪ Which the morning stars began ♪	15:18
	♪ Father love is reigning o'er us ♪	15:22
	♪ Brother love binds man to man ♪	15:27
	♪ Ever singing, march we onward ♪	15:31
	♪ Victors in the midst of strife ♪	15:35
	♪ Joyful music leads us sunward ♪	15:40
	♪ In the triumph song of life ♪	15:44
	(joyful organ music)	15:51
-	When we gather to praise God,	17:56
	we remember that we are the people of God	17:59
	who have preferred our will	18:02
	to the divine will.	18:04
	Accepting the power that God offers to us	18:06
	to become new persons in Christ,	18:09
	let us now confess our sins before one another	18:12
	and before God.	18:16
	Let us pray.	18:27
-	Oh God, whose spirit searches all things	18:29
	and whose love bears all things,	18:33
	encourage us to draw near to you in sincerity and truth.	18:36
	Save us the worship of the lip	18:42
	while our hearts are far away.	18:44
	Save us from the useless labor	18:47
	of attempting to conceal ourselves from you	18:50
	for you search and know our hearts.	18:53
	Enable us to lay aside all those cloaks	18:57
	and disguises which we wear	19:00
	in the light of day	19:03
	and here to bear ourselves	19:05
	with all our weaknesses, failures	19:07
	and sin before your sight.	19:10
	Make us strong enough to bear the vision of truth	19:13
	and to have done with all falsehood,	19:17
	pretense and hypocrisy	19:20
	so that we may see things as they are	19:23
	and hear no more.	19:26
	Enable us to look upon the law	19:28
	which has borne with us	19:31
	and the heart that suffers for us.	19:33
	Help us to acknowledge our dependence	19:36
	in the purity that abides our uncleanness,	19:39
	the patience that forgives our faithlessness,	19:43
	the truth that forebears all our falsity and compromise.	19:47
	Forgive all our unfaithfulness	19:52
	and indifference to you and your call to us.	19:54
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord.	19:59
-	Amen.	20:02
	In a moment of silence now,	20:05
	let us each make our personal confession to God.	20:07
	Hear the good news.	20:26
	Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.	20:28
	That is God's own proof of his love toward us.	20:32
	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	20:36
	Let us give thanks for God is good	20:41
	and God's love is ever lasting.	20:44
-	Thanks be to God	20:47
	whose love has made us.	20:49
	Thanks be to God whose mercy forgives us.	20:52
	Thanks be to God whose promise secures us.	20:56
-	Amen.	21:00
	We welcome you this beautiful morning	21:03
	to Duke University Chapel	21:06
	to our service of worship.	21:08
	It is obvious that we have	21:11
	a standing room crowd only here this morning	21:13
	and for that reason,	21:17
	as I greet you and welcome you,	21:18
	I would like to urge each of you	21:21
	who are fortunate enough to have a seat,	21:23
	if there is any room at all,	21:26
	if you could move to the middle.	21:29
	Some of these persons standing in the wings	21:31
	and on the aisles might have a seat,	21:34
	so as I'm sharing in this time of reading,	21:37
	would you adjust yourselves if possible.	21:39
	Thank you.	21:42
	We are glad that you have come to worship with us here	21:48
	at Duke University Chapel.	21:52
	We know that we have extra people here this morning	21:55
	to hear and to welcome the Reverend Andrew Young,	21:59
	former ambassador to the United Nations.	22:03
	We are very pleased and especially glad	22:07
	to welcome Andrew here this morning in our midst.	22:09
	We look forward to the word of God	22:13
	that he will share with us today	22:16
	and we invite you to stay after the service	22:18
	and join him in a time of meeting and greeting	22:21
	in the Narthex.	22:25
	Thank you for your cooperation.	22:31
	Let us pray.	22:41
	Prepare our hearts, oh Lord	22:46
	to accept your word,	22:48
	silence in us any voice but your own.	22:50
	That hearing that we may also obey your will	22:54
	for Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	22:58
	The Old Testament lesson	23:05
	is from Proverbs' ninth chapter,	23:07
	verses eight through 12.	23:11
	"Do not reprove a scoffer	23:14
	"or he will hate you.	23:16
	"Reprove a wise man	23:18
	"and he will love you.	23:20
	"Give instruction to a wise man	23:22
	"and he will be still wiser.	23:26
	"Teach a righteous man	23:29
	"and he will increase in learning.	23:31
	"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom	23:34
	"and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.	23:38
	"For by me your days will be multiplied	23:43
	"and years will be added to your life.	23:47
	"If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.	23:50
	"If you scoff, you alone will bear it."	23:55
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	24:00
	Amen.	24:04
	(choir singing)	24:16
-	Will the congregation please stand	26:49
	for the reading of the Gospel lesson.	26:52
	The Gospel lesson is from Luke chapter 14,	27:00
	verses 25 through 33	27:05
	and Matthew 10 verses 29 through 33.	27:08
	"Now, great multitudes accompanied him	27:13
	"and he turned and said to them,	27:17
	"if anyone come to me,	27:19
	"and does not hate his father	27:21
	"and mother and wife and children and brothers	27:24
	"and sisters, yet and even his own life,	27:29
	"he cannot be my disciple.	27:33
	"Whoever does not bear his own cross	27:36
	"and come after me, cannot be my disciple.	27:39
	"For which of you desiring to build a tower	27:43
	"does not first sit down and count the cost	27:46
	"whether he has enough to complete it,	27:51
	"otherwise when he has made a foundation,	27:54
	"and is not able to finish,	27:58
	"all who see it begin to mock him, saying this men began	28:00
	"to build and was not able to finish.	28:06
	"Or what king going to encounter another king in war	28:10
	"will not sit down first	28:15
	"and take council whether he is able	28:18
	"with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.	28:21
	"And if not, while the other is yet a great way off,	28:28
	"he sends an embassy	28:33
	"and asks terms of peace.	28:35
	"So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all	28:38
	"that he has cannot be my disciple.	28:42
	"Are not sparrows two a penny?	28:47
	"Yet without your Father's leave,	28:50
	"not one of them can fall to the ground.	28:53
	"As for you, even the hairs of your head	28:57
	"have all been counted,	29:00
	"so have no fear, you are worth more	29:03
	"than any number of sparrows.	29:06
	"Whoever then will acknowledge before men,	29:09
	"I will acknowledge him before my Father in Heaven	29:12
	"and whoever disowns me before men,	29:18
	"I will disown him before my Father in Heaven."	29:21
	Here ends the reading of the Gospel lesson.	29:27
	(lively organ music)	29:30
	(congregation singing)	29:38
-	It's indeed a difficult pleasure for me	30:32
	to be with you this morning.	30:34
	Difficult not only because the airline took me into...	30:36
	...know what their lives were all about.	30:43
	Seeing that somebody would help me figure out	30:47
	what my life was all about.	30:51
	I didn't wanna hear the words of wisdom.	30:54
	I didn't wanna hear the quotations from the Great Book.	30:58
	I think back over the times that I sat,	31:02
	sometimes sleepily in a college chapel [mic cuts out]	31:06
	Yet I guess because my own child is in this chapel	31:22
	and as a father, I realize now that she's gone,	31:28
	there's so much that she doesn't know about me	31:31
	that I had no chance to share.	31:34
	I dare to take the risk.	31:38
	I dare to take the risk to try to help you understand	31:41
	how God can work	31:47
	in an individual's life,	31:50
	almost in spite of them.	31:53
	I sat through college chapels	31:59
	and I went through four years of college	32:01
	and the day of graduation was probably for me more	32:06
	of a day of judgment than any other day I've known	32:09
	for I felt as though I had been weighed in the balance	32:13
	and found wanting.	32:16
	I knew I was to go out into the world,	32:18
	having achieved some sense of status,	32:21
	having learned something of the wisdom of men and women	32:25
	and yet I was only aware of how much I didn't know.	32:30
	I had been through college largely	32:35
	because my parents sent me	32:37
	and it was expected of me to go.	32:39
	And my father expected me to be a dentist	32:42
	and I loved the courses related to the predental course.	32:45
	I was fascinated with biology and botany.	32:50
	I enjoyed the study of chemistry and psychology	32:54
	and the mysteries of physics	32:57
	and difficult though it was,	32:59
	it seemed to open up an understanding	33:02
	of the world that I had never known before	33:04
	and yet none of them answered the question	33:08
	that was deepest in my heart and that is why?	33:10
	I knew about the world, I knew a bit of the history.	33:16
	I had read a little of the literature.	33:20
	I understood some of the mysteries of science	33:22
	but I had no concept of the meaning of it all	33:25
	and it was essentially that absence of meaning	33:30
	on graduation day	33:32
	that made me feel terribly inadequate	33:35
	to face the world in which we live	33:40
	and yet it was not long after that	33:43
	that it all began to fall in place.	33:45
	It essentially began to fall in place	33:48
	as I began to see the meaning of life.	33:50
	Not in relation to myself and my parents,	33:54
	not even in relationship to my friends and colleagues	33:58
	or the standards expected of me	34:02
	by my former teachers	34:06
	and by the society of which I was a part	34:09
	but as all of a sudden it dawned on me	34:13
	that perhaps even me and you	34:15
	are numbered by the very hairs on our heads.	34:20
	That if not a sparrow falls to the ground,	34:24
	save our heavenly Father know of it.	34:26
	And if the very hairs on our head are numbered,	34:30
	is not consistent	34:33
	with those things which I had been studying	34:35
	that a universe which is so ordered	34:37
	from the structure of its planets,	34:40
	down to the rhythm	34:42
	and motion of its individual molecules and atoms,	34:45
	is it not consistent and probable	34:49
	that we who are those creatures	34:53
	in the midst of this,	34:58
	who have some sense of personhood,	35:01
	who can conceive of things beyond ourselves	35:06
	and within ourselves,	35:10
	is it not also probable	35:13
	that our lives,	35:18
	that each of our lives,	35:20
	has a particular purpose and meaning?	35:23
	And all of a sudden things began to be different	35:26
	because I wasn't searching the world	35:30
	to find a career. I wasn't searching	35:32
	with people to find a job.	35:36
	Somehow all of a sudden,	35:39
	the words of the hymn "Lead Kindly Light"	35:43
	which I had read as Mahatma Gandhi's favorite hymn,	35:46
	lead kindly light amid encircling gloom,	35:50
	lead thou me on.	35:54
	The path is dark and I am far from home.	35:56
	Lead thou me on.	36:00
	Guide thou my feet.	36:02
	I do not ask to see the distant scene.	36:05
	One step, enough for me.	36:09
	And having made the decision	36:12
	that I would take the next step,	36:14
	and if God would reveal to me the next step	36:17
	that I must take,	36:20
	that very day that one step would lead to another	36:22
	and that perhaps I might find my way	36:28
	through this wilderness below as the spirtuals call it.	36:32
	And that began one of the most fascinating journeys	36:37
	that I could imagine.	36:40
	For things have happened to me since then	36:42
	that were far beyond my capacity to understand	36:46
	or comprehend or even dream	36:49
	and I find myself now halfway through my life,	36:53
	perhaps maybe more than that,	36:56
	but still, not knowing what the future holds,	36:59
	still as an unemployed former ambassador,	37:04
	former Congressman, still sometime preacher	37:07
	wondering where my life will lead me.	37:11
	The difference between now and the days	37:15
	when I was in school	37:18
	was that it really doesn't make any difference anymore.	37:21
	I don't have to know what the future may hold	37:24
	because somewhere along the way,	37:28
	I got to know him who holds the future	37:30
	and the future that God holds for us	37:34
	is far more magnificent	37:40
	than our wildest dreams	37:43
	and our most exciting visions,	37:44
	for I found myself going to seminary.	37:47
	Not because I wanted to be a minister particularly.	37:51
	But because I knew I had to learn a bit more	37:54
	about the meaning of our lives.	37:58
	I had to understand the scriptures more.	38:00
	I had to get some sense of the philosophy of religion.	38:03
	Just for my own sake.	38:08
	And while I had ambitions to continue some	38:13
	of my college frivolities,	38:18
	it didn't seem to work out that way.	38:22
	That everything I had planned on,	38:25
	seemed to fail	38:28
	and it was almost as though my failures	38:30
	were my education	38:32
	and now, in a way,	38:34
	I thank God for them,	38:35
	particularly the little girl I was so fascinated with.	38:37
	For as our ways parted,	38:42
	I thought the end of the world had come	38:46
	and yet it was probably a wonderful parting for both of us.	38:49
	As I looked at an athletic career	38:55
	and thought of going on perhaps trying	38:57
	to make it to the Olympics,	39:00
	I found myself attracted	39:03
	to a responsibility	39:05
	to a recreation program	39:08
	in a little country town in Alabama	39:11
	and I really didn't wanna be in Alabama,	39:14
	I wanted to be in New York,	39:16
	running with the Pioneer Track Club	39:18
	but there was some appeal	39:20
	from a conference superintendent	39:22
	that this is a community	39:25
	that has had not had any organized youth programs	39:26
	for some years	39:30
	and we really need you to help our children	39:32
	through this summer	39:36
	in something so corny as a Bible school.	39:37
	And why I would give up running	39:42
	to go to Alabama to a Bible school, I don't know.	39:44
	And yet that seemed to be the wise choice,	39:47
	it seemed to be where whatever spirit was stirring within me	39:50
	was leading and it was out of that experience	39:55
	in the rural South	39:58
	that I began to piece together	40:00
	what my roots were about,	40:03
	what my life had come from.	40:05
	I began to get the first sense	40:09
	of the rich and deep culture	40:10
	of a rural black community,	40:14
	uncontaminated pretty much	40:17
	by some of the modern notions	40:19
	that were a part of my black middle class upbringing	40:24
	and it was in that context	40:28
	that a sense of commitment	40:30
	to social change in America began to emerge	40:32
	because you couldn't preach to children	40:35
	and realize that there was little	40:38
	or no opportunity of a future for them	40:40
	because their parents couldn't vote,	40:44
	because their schools were totally segregated and inferior,	40:46
	because they had almost no economic opportunity	40:50
	to get beyond the limits	40:55
	of a sharecropper existence.	40:58
	And it all of a sudden didn't seem right	41:00
	that I had had so many blessings	41:03
	and so many benefits	41:05
	and here were young people,	41:08
	many of whom were as bright and far brighter than I,	41:09
	whose talents were being squandered,	41:16
	simply because a segregated society	41:19
	denied them the opportunities.	41:22
	I also happened to meet a little country girl down there	41:25
	which ended up as Paula's mamma	41:27
	but that's sort of an aside	41:30
	that made everything else worthwhile.	41:32
	But I go into this in such detail	41:35
	because the ways God leads	41:38
	somehow is mysterious,	41:44
	it defies the standards of the world	41:47
	and yet it's wonderful.	41:52
	One would think that this kind of faith	41:56
	should not be too hard	42:00
	and yet, separating, discerning the will	42:03
	of God from your own will,	42:07
	how to really purify ourselves	42:10
	in some sense so that we can cast off all	42:13
	of those things which tend to interfere	42:17
	with our coming to an understanding	42:19
	of what God might do with us	42:21
	is really quite a challenge.	42:24
	It was amazing for us in seminary	42:26
	whereas we began to study	42:29
	and as we began to think of our futures,	42:31
	we began to try to chart the direction	42:34
	and I can remember one young fellow	42:38
	who was beginning to say that God had called him	42:41
	to pastor a church in South Dakota	42:44
	and the salary was very generous	42:47
	for preachers in those days.	42:49
	It was $3,000 a year.	42:51
	But then the conference superintendent	42:54
	from Wisconsin came by	42:55
	and there was a church that was paying $3,800 a year	42:57
	and all of a sudden God had called him to Wisconsin	43:01
	instead of North Dakota	43:04
	and finally, he ended up in Ohio pastoring a church,	43:06
	perhaps because the salary was $4,200 a year.	43:11
	Now, it was fairly clear to all of us,	43:17
	including him, that his call	43:19
	was somehow influenced	43:23
	not by what he thought to be the will of God	43:26
	but by what he thought	43:29
	to be the most immediate monetary gratification.	43:32
	And it's very interesting	43:36
	as we look at our lives	43:38
	and as we begin to try to decide	43:41
	what it is that God wants us to do,	43:43
	one of the first things we learn	43:45
	is that we really can't decide that alone.	43:46
	But somehow that has to be decided	43:50
	in the context of a church	43:52
	and the scriptures,	43:56
	that any of us alone	43:58
	will get pulled into our own emotional needs,	44:01
	will get pulled into those complexes	44:05
	and complications of our inner being,	44:09
	that we haven't fully sorted out yet	44:12
	and we will begin to think	44:15
	that the strange needs and desires within us	44:17
	are the will and guidance of God.	44:21
	But somehow the church in the scripture	44:23
	provides a protection against that.	44:25
	Yes, when you begin to get notions	44:30
	and when you begin to have understandings of life,	44:32
	somehow in reading through the scriptures,	44:35
	there is a judgment upon your own feelings	44:41
	and from that judgment upon your own feelings,	44:44
	you get to evaluate your feelings	44:46
	and you get to try to decide just what it is	44:49
	that is the motivating force	44:53
	in this particular decision.	44:55
	But when I say church,	44:57
	I don't just mean a congregation	44:59
	that meets at 11 o'clock every Sunday morning.	45:03
	Essentially I'm talking about two	45:07
	or three gathered together in his name	45:09
	and in some way, that kind of small intimate fellowship,	45:12
	that communion which may be in a Bible study group	45:18
	which combines the comradery of the church	45:22
	with the judgment and inspiration of the scriptures,	45:26
	but sometimes one can find the church sitting	45:30
	around the table in a pizza parlor.	45:34
	When things began to get relaxed	45:37
	and somebody dares to break down the shallow conversation	45:39
	and say something that's really deep and meaningful	45:45
	in their own lives,	45:50
	and that calls upon the others	45:52
	to begin to be a bit more honest.	45:55
	Whenever we are honest with ourselves	45:57
	and with each other,	46:00
	in the presence of two or three or more,	46:02
	and the more diverse the church, the better.	46:06
	One of the good things about racial integration	46:10
	is that the very presence	46:13
	of the mixture puts different cultural perspectives	46:15
	in the decision making.	46:20
	One of the good things about having a university	46:21
	that's no longer just upper middle class	46:24
	but that also has some poor people	46:27
	that by their virtues and abilities	46:29
	and hard work have an opportunity to study side by side	46:32
	with people who are privileged more monetarily by birth	46:36
	is that the different viewpoints,	46:43
	it's what the church would call	46:46
	in the early church, the ecumenical principle.	46:47
	It's that the church is the whole family of God	46:51
	and the more of that family that's represented	46:56
	in the decision-making process,	46:59
	the more accurate	47:02
	and the more in keeping with the will of God	47:04
	is likely to be the decision.	47:07
	And so, in talking about one's future,	47:10
	the presence of a student from Iran	47:14
	or the presence of a student from Africa,	47:17
	the presence of a student from Europe	47:19
	whose parents went through the turmoil	47:21
	of the Holocaust or the war,	47:24
	the presence of the differing traditions	47:26
	that make up our society	47:29
	essentially strengthen our ability	47:31
	to understand what God is doing in our midst	47:34
	and in our lives.	47:37
	But even when it's just the two or three	47:39
	of your most intimate friends,	47:43
	that's far better than trying to make the decision alone	47:46
	and when one can find guidance	47:50
	across generational lines,	47:53
	when one can seek out the wisdom	47:56
	and advice not only of the counselors	47:58
	and the chaplains	48:01
	but some of the elderly people	48:03
	who worked in quote menial employment	48:07
	around university facility.	48:11
	I always found that in people who do hard, menial work,	48:14
	people who get little or no monetary	48:19
	or cultural gratification from their employment,	48:22
	somehow they have found deep within some	48:26
	of the secrets of the meaning of life	48:30
	that may have eluded us	48:33
	who are more distracted	48:35
	by the conventional wisdom	48:38
	and the prevailing mood of our time.	48:40
	So this life of faith,	48:43
	this believing that you are God's child,	48:45
	that God does have a plan for your life	48:49
	requires a certain leap of faith,	48:52
	a leap of faith that is best determined	48:55
	in the company of other believers.	48:58
	The more diverse the believers, the better.	49:01
	But still that leaves us with the job of faith.	49:04
	And I don't know why it's so hard	49:08
	for us to accept a life of faith	49:10
	for we live a life of faith in man.	49:13
	I was reminded of it coming in this morning.	49:16
	There was fog at the Raleigh-Durham Airport.	49:20
	But if the pilot had said we're going in	49:26
	on an instrument landing,	49:28
	I would have been quite relaxed	49:29
	for I would have known	49:32
	that in an instrument landing in the fog,	49:33
	the technology of man is such	49:35
	that he could find the runway	49:37
	and we'd make it safe	49:39
	and I wouldn't have batted an eyelash	49:41
	or even had a moment's concern about it.	49:43
	Instead, he took us to Greensboro	49:46
	and coming down the expressway in Greensboro,	49:49
	not quite sure which way we're going,	49:54
	looking here and there,	49:56
	I realized how much faith is required	49:58
	to drive an expressway.	50:00
	Cars running 70 miles an hour	50:02
	in spite of the law, side by side.	50:05
	The slightest variation	50:09
	on the part of either one	50:11
	and everybody's destroyed	50:13
	and yet we put trust and faith	50:15
	in the engineers who designed those vehicles.	50:18
	We put trust and faith in the mechanics	50:21
	who repair them and keep them maintained,	50:23
	we put trust and faith	50:26
	in the creatures who drive them	50:29
	and yet when it comes time to put trust	50:31
	and faith in God,	50:34
	we all of a sudden become highly rational critical beings	50:36
	and we wonder can we trust him?	50:41
	I would say that as one looks	50:44
	at the probabilities,	50:48
	as one looks at the patterns of existence,	50:50
	as one looks at the timelessness of creation,	50:53
	the continuation of order	50:58
	in the midst of chaos,	51:00
	as one looks at his revelation in Jesus Christ,	51:02
	as one looks at his actions	51:06
	in the lives of others around us,	51:08
	as one enjoys the foundation	51:11
	of a great university,	51:13
	which came from a religious commitment	51:14
	to help men and women know and understand.	51:18
	As one looks at a hospital which comes out	51:23
	of a commitment made	51:26
	with man and God to heal the sick.	51:29
	As one looks at our great fields,	51:34
	that feed the hungry of the world,	51:37
	surely in the midst of the kind of order	51:39
	and pattern of life that we know,	51:43
	the revelation of God	51:47
	and the power of God	51:48
	and the meaning of God in our life is ever present.	51:50
	And so I would say to you do not be anxious	51:53
	about your life	51:56
	for your heavenly Father knows your need	51:58
	far greater than you	52:01
	and not a sparrow falls to the ground,	52:03
	save he knows of it.	52:06
	And the very hairs of your head are numbered	52:08
	and that if you can trust in God,	52:12
	that he can do for you more than you or I	52:16
	or anyone else, including your parents,	52:21
	could do for you.	52:25
	That as I have seen myself move	52:27
	from not being able to vote	52:30
	on a road from Selma to Montgomery,	52:33
	to going into the Congress	52:36
	and wondering how I got there,	52:39
	certainly in 1965,	52:40
	we could not conceive of that	52:42
	and yet there seemed to be a pulling apart	52:45
	of black and white	52:47
	and somebody said if in a district	52:49
	like Atlanta, Georgia,	52:51
	which is majority white,	52:52
	a young black person with your background runs for Congress	52:54
	and if a black and white coalition comes together,	52:59
	it will represent a new South.	53:02
	It will represent a healing of old wounds.	53:06
	And I began to think of the letter	53:10
	to the Ephesians about a ministry of reconciliation,	53:13
	breaking down dividing walls of hostility	53:18
	that have separated people	53:21
	and bringing them together using the frail	53:22
	and often corrupt vehicle of politics	53:25
	and yet somehow in the City of Atlanta,	53:28
	in that Fifth Congressional District,	53:31
	we were able to heal some of the old wounds	53:33
	and we were able to overcome those traditions which divide	53:36
	and we were able to become more like God's children	53:41
	for we respected and understood each other	53:46
	and we profited and learned from our differences.	53:49
	Moving on to a United Nations.	53:53
	Something that was unimaginable	53:55
	and yet it was also unimaginable	53:57
	that a peanut farmer	54:00
	would get to the White House.	54:01
	(congregation laughing)	54:03
	But all of this somehow was part	54:04
	of something of a movement	54:08
	of forces across this land	54:11
	and of forces across the Earth	54:13
	and I was not the least bit concerned	54:16
	about a United Nations position	54:20
	and yet, after a visit to Africa	54:23
	and after leaders from 29 African nations said,	54:26
	"The US has abandoned us,	54:30
	"you've left us to the communists.	54:33
	"Somehow you have to get back in the business	54:35
	"of helping us develop democratic societies	54:38
	"that respect human rights	54:42
	"and that exist by the rule of the majority"	54:43
	and coming back and realizing	54:48
	that there was that kind of expectation	54:51
	that the United States that perhaps popularized the notion	54:53
	of human rights,	54:57
	that the United States through its churches	54:58
	which went the world telling men, women and children	55:00
	that they were God's children,	55:04
	that somehow the world was now asking us	55:06
	to live up to our preachments of the last 100 years	55:09
	and help us to share democracy,	55:13
	help us to share the values	55:15
	of our Judeo-Christian heritage with them.	55:17
	And so the path of God leads on.	55:20
	Not always up, sometimes down	55:25
	but in the words of the scripture,	55:28
	one must know that whether it's up or down,	55:30
	one's soul is always heavenly bound	55:33
	and we might not know what the future may hold	55:36
	but we know him who holds the future	55:40
	and in the tradition of Southern black clergy	55:43
	that if you take one step, the Lord will take two.	55:48
	That somehow there is a sprit moving across the land	55:52
	and that if one is faithful,	55:57
	somehow God will lead.	56:00
	More and more I hear people singing now the words	56:02
	of a modern Gospel song	56:05
	in the midst of their confusion	56:07
	as an affirmation of faith.	56:09
	Lord, I don't feel in no ways tired.	56:11
	I've come too far from where I've started from.	56:14
	Nobody told me that the way would be easy	56:17
	but I don't believe that he brought me this far	56:20
	to leave me.	56:24
	I don't believe that God has brought you	56:25
	to this university,	56:27
	invested in you the kind of instruction,	56:29
	the kind of opportunity, the kind of exposure,	56:33
	the kind of intelligence,	56:35
	the kind of wealth, the kind of access to technology	56:36
	to leave you.	56:40
	Certainly the hungry must be fed,	56:42
	certainly the naked must be clothed	56:45
	and the sick must be healed,	56:47
	certainly continued political order	56:49
	must come from the chaos that surrounds us	56:51
	and you as God's children	56:55
	somehow in the hollow of his hand	56:57
	must somehow find a way	57:01
	to let him lead you in the paths of service,	57:04
	in the paths of suffering perhaps	57:09
	but certainly in the paths of joy and meaning and love.	57:12
	Let us pray.	57:17
	Almighty God,	57:20
	we come before thee like a full fountain	57:22
	knowing that we are empty pitchers	57:27
	with no merit of our own.	57:29
	Fill our hearts and our minds.	57:34
	Inspire us with thy love,	57:38
	convict us in thy compassion.	57:42
	Extend to us the wisdom and the discipline	57:45
	that will enable us	57:49
	to seek and to find thee	57:51
	and to know that we have been found by thee.	57:56
	That we are worthy not by merit	58:01
	but by thy suffering love	58:06
	through thy son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ	58:11
	in whose name we pray, amen.	58:15
	(lively organ music)	58:25
	(congregation singing)	58:54
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:01:09
-	We believe in God	1:01:12
	who has created and is creating,	1:01:14
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	1:01:17
	to reconcile and make new,	1:01:21
	who works in us and others by the Spirit.	1:01:24
	We trust God who calls us to be the church	1:01:27
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	1:01:32
	to love and serve others,	1:01:35
	to seek justice and resist evil.	1:01:38
	To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	1:01:41
	our judge and our hope.	1:01:45
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	1:01:48
	God is with us.	1:01:53
	We are not alone.	1:01:55
	Thanks be to God.	1:01:57
-	The Lord be with you.	1:01:59
-	And with you.	1:02:01
-	Let us pray.	1:02:03
	Oh Christ, we remember that you walked	1:02:16
	over hills of Galilee	1:02:19
	and through dusty roads	1:02:22
	of the countryside healing, teaching and preaching,	1:02:24
	dealing and meeting with all kinds of people.	1:02:29
	You came upon the afflicted	1:02:33
	and gave them comfort.	1:02:35
	At your touch, the blind received their sight,	1:02:38
	the deaf heard, the lame walked	1:02:42
	and the dead were raised	1:02:45
	and we see that their hearts rejoiced	1:02:48
	and gave thanks.	1:02:51
	Even so, today come and touch those	1:02:53
	who are sick,	1:02:57
	those in more pain than they can bear,	1:02:59
	those who are dying, the crippled and the blind.	1:03:02
	Touch them from suffering and illness	1:03:08
	of the soul.	1:03:11
	Touch those who are lonely and broken hearted,	1:03:13
	the disappointed and the discouraged,	1:03:18
	the depressed and the indifferent.	1:03:21
	Touch and heal these	1:03:24
	that they too may rejoice and give thanks.	1:03:26
	Oh Christ, we remember that you rebuked the hypocrites	1:03:31
	of long ago, exposing shallow piety,	1:03:36
	cheap faith and self-centered religion	1:03:40
	for what it was.	1:03:44
	Even so today,	1:03:46
	rebuke our hypocrisy.	1:03:48
	If there is any phoniness in our professed loyalty	1:03:51
	to you, if we indeed,	1:03:55
	wear a mask of counterfeit love	1:03:58
	that hides a heart of indifference,	1:04:01
	if there is prejudice underneath a thin veneer	1:04:04
	of tolerance, expose us for what we are	1:04:08
	that at least we may be honest	1:04:14
	before your Almighty presence.	1:04:16
	Oh Jesus, we remember that you taught your followers	1:04:21
	the high cost of discipleship.	1:04:26
	You told them that to become a follower	1:04:30
	would be demanding,	1:04:33
	there would be sacrifices to make,	1:04:35
	crosses to bear.	1:04:37

Item Info

Title:

Robert T. Young - "A New Covenant Is Risky Indeed" (September 7, 1980)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1): 31:32. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 58:20.
In this sermon, Robert T. Young preaches on what it means to enter into a covenant with God and the risks it involves. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Covenant affirms who God is, who each of us is, who we are altogether. Covenant means ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people.’”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4d795s00

Date:

September 7, 1980

Speaker:

Young, Robert T., 1935-2009

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1111
ref7434_4ik
uachapelsermaud
duke:320286
dcrau001990
ark:/87924/r4d795s00
9bcd6e3e-4f55-4a6d-90f8-17c856ab94e7

Digital Collection:

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.

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Educational Use Permitted

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

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Robert T. Young - "A New Covenant Is Risky Indeed" (September 7, 1980)

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1. Robert T. Young - "A New Covenant Is Risky Indeed" (September 7, 1980)

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Robert T. Young - "A New Covenant Is Risky Indeed" (September 7, 1980)

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