James T. Cleland - "Sermon for Thanksgiving" (November 20, 1966)
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| - | [Francis Of Assisi] We thank thee that thy presence | 0:04 |
| shall accompany these gifts to their intended ends. | 0:06 | |
| And may all resound to thy glory | 0:10 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 0:13 | |
| Amen. | 0:15 | |
| (gentle music) | 0:17 | |
| - | [Dean Of the Chapel Clelin] Let us pray. | 0:49 |
| Let the words of my mouth | 0:52 | |
| and the meditations of our hearts | 0:55 | |
| be acceptable in thy sight. | 0:57 | |
| Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. | 1:01 | |
| Amen. | 1:05 | |
| One of the more surprising aspects of the job | 1:16 | |
| of the Dean of the Chapel, | 1:20 | |
| is the unexpected requests made upon him | 1:23 | |
| to perform peculiar tasks. | 1:27 | |
| Peculiar in the sense of distinctive, | 1:31 | |
| sometimes quaint, even outlandish. | 1:35 | |
| This afternoon, a group of the local gentry | 1:41 | |
| want me to bless the hones and or the horses | 1:45 | |
| of the fox hunting set. | 1:50 | |
| By good luck or by predestination, I cannot. | 1:53 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 1:57 | |
| It's just as well, | 2:00 | |
| because all I know about fox hunting | 2:01 | |
| is Oscar Wilde's definition of it. | 2:04 | |
| Fox hunting is the pursuit of the uneatable | 2:07 | |
| by the unspeakable. | 2:11 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 2:13 | |
| Yet, that is unfair to my mounted friends on two counts. | 2:15 | |
| They are not unspeakable. | 2:21 | |
| They are good folk. | 2:23 | |
| More over they do not hunt a fox, | 2:26 | |
| but a fox's tail or brush, | 2:30 | |
| presumably drawn by a Jeep. | 2:33 | |
| It must be interesting to see a Jeep | 2:36 | |
| clear a fence, | 2:38 | |
| (congregation laughs) | ||
| or a water hazard. | 2:40 | |
| I must go to the hunt some day. | 2:42 | |
| However, one request brought an unexpected dividend. | 2:45 | |
| I made the address at the Derm Debutante Ball | 2:51 | |
| about three years ago, a bunny affair. | 2:55 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 3:00 | |
| It was. | 3:01 | |
| And I was recompensed with a superb volume | 3:03 | |
| of the Sierra Club entitled, | 3:07 | |
| Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon. | 3:09 | |
| Photography is breathtaking. | 3:16 | |
| All in unbelievable color, rich and real. | 3:19 | |
| It is a treasure. | 3:25 | |
| A book I shall always keep. | 3:27 | |
| I read it, but recently, | 3:31 | |
| and it reminded me of a two brief visit | 3:33 | |
| spent at Grand Canyon back in 1951. | 3:37 | |
| Now, that volume and three stories about the canyon, | 3:42 | |
| were the primers for this sermon. | 3:48 | |
| This sermon for our Thanksgiving service. | 3:52 | |
| There's surely no need | 3:58 | |
| for me to describe Grand Canyon to you. | 3:59 | |
| For one thing, I cannot. | 4:04 | |
| I do not possess the words to turn your ears into eyes | 4:08 | |
| so that you may see this wonder of the natural world. | 4:15 | |
| Let me quote the first three short paragraphs of the forward | 4:20 | |
| to the Sierra Club's masterpiece. | 4:26 | |
| Time. 2 billion years of it | 4:31 | |
| laid down the stone of the plateau province. | 4:36 | |
| Within that plateau would be some of the most colorful | 4:41 | |
| and dramatic natural sculpture man ever saw. | 4:45 | |
| Time and the River Flowing. | 4:52 | |
| The Colorado River through the millenniums, | 4:56 | |
| curve deep, created the Great Canyon | 5:00 | |
| and is still shaping it. | 5:06 | |
| Standing on it's rim in 19 three, | 5:09 | |
| Theodore Roosevelt said, | 5:12 | |
| "In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder, | 5:15 | |
| which so far as I know, is in kind, absolutely unparalleled. | 5:20 | |
| Leave it as it is. | 5:29 | |
| You cannot improve on it. | 5:32 | |
| The ages have been at work on it, | 5:35 | |
| and man can only merit." | 5:39 | |
| Some of us here this morning would say an earnest | 5:44 | |
| Amen to that. | 5:47 | |
| However, let us look at the three stories about the canyon | 5:49 | |
| as indicative of three different approaches to nature. | 5:54 | |
| To the created world, | 5:59 | |
| which is our earthly dwelling place. | 6:02 | |
| The first story is told of a female teenager from Brooklyn, | 6:07 | |
| whose parents compelled her against her will | 6:13 | |
| to take an auto trip with them to California. | 6:17 | |
| She would rather have stayed with her boyfriend in Flatbush. | 6:22 | |
| He received a postcard of the canyon from her | 6:29 | |
| with a one sentence message. | 6:34 | |
| "I have just spat a mile. | 6:37 | |
| I have just spat a mile." | 6:47 | |
| A single spittle was her feeling response to greatness | 6:52 | |
| on a mama scale. | 6:57 | |
| She spat once. | 7:00 | |
| The reaction of ignorance, or obtuseness or indignation. | 7:03 | |
| Hers was the feminine counterpart | 7:10 | |
| of the famous masculine musical comedy line. | 7:12 | |
| "What ain't we got, we ain't we got days." | 7:17 | |
| Now, don't be too chagrined or provoked. | 7:23 | |
| There are people who have no use for the country. | 7:28 | |
| No pleasure in it. | 7:32 | |
| I asked a distinguished Arabian scholar | 7:35 | |
| where he was going to live after his retirement. | 7:38 | |
| He looked at me in a puzzled kind of way and answered, | 7:42 | |
| "There is only one place to live, New York city." | 7:47 | |
| That's where he is. | 7:55 | |
| Moreover, there are some rural folk | 7:58 | |
| who find no delight, | 8:00 | |
| no soul satisfaction in the country. | 8:01 | |
| Do you remember Wordsworth's, Peter Bell. | 8:05 | |
| He roved among the vales and streams | 8:10 | |
| in the Greenwood and hollow Dale. | 8:13 | |
| They were his dwellings night and day, | 8:17 | |
| but nature nare could find the way | 8:21 | |
| into the heart of Peter Bell. | 8:23 | |
| In vein through every changeful year, | 8:27 | |
| did nature lead him as before. | 8:29 | |
| A primrose by a river's brim. | 8:33 | |
| A yellow primrose was to him. | 8:37 | |
| And it was nothing more. | 8:41 | |
| I'm willing to wager that Peter Bell | 8:45 | |
| didn't even know the word primrose. | 8:48 | |
| Now, those of you who know me well, | 8:53 | |
| are regarding me a little quizzically, | 8:55 | |
| even disdainfully and muttering, | 8:59 | |
| "Who is Clelin to despise that Brooklyn teenager | 9:02 | |
| and Peter Bell, | 9:06 | |
| touche. | 9:10 | |
| I haven't been in the duke forest | 9:13 | |
| in the 21 years I have spent on this faculty. | 9:16 | |
| I seldom meander through the duke gardens. | 9:22 | |
| I have never planted a flower. | 9:27 | |
| And I don't mean to. | 9:30 | |
| The garden clubs of North Carolina have no use for me | 9:33 | |
| to understate the matter gently. | 9:39 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 9:41 | |
| I hate picnics. | 9:44 | |
| (congregation laughs) | ||
| Sitting in a dump field | 9:48 | |
| and getting a chill in the back end of the summer. | 9:50 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 9:53 | |
| or ants in one's pants. | 9:54 | |
| But I love to look at nature through a window. | 9:59 | |
| It's a preferable prospect to tenements, | 10:04 | |
| office buildings and factories as a daily view. | 10:07 | |
| I would go back to Grand Canyon tomorrow, | 10:13 | |
| but I wouldn't live there. | 10:17 | |
| And yet I'm glad it is there. | 10:19 | |
| It did something to me. | 10:23 | |
| I understand the Flatbush lessee and Peter Bell, | 10:25 | |
| though I cannot agree with them. | 10:30 | |
| I wish I were more of a nature lover. | 10:33 | |
| Sometimes. | 10:37 | |
| The second story is about a father | 10:42 | |
| and his five-year-old daughter | 10:45 | |
| who approached the south rim of the canyon | 10:48 | |
| and stood near the edge in raptured silence for two minutes. | 10:51 | |
| Then the girl pulled her father's hand, | 10:58 | |
| looked up at him and said, | 11:03 | |
| "Daddy, what happened? | 11:06 | |
| Daddy, what happened?" | 11:13 | |
| This childish query is the scientist's question. | 11:18 | |
| Man in pursuit of truth. | 11:25 | |
| What is Grand Canyon to a scientist? | 11:30 | |
| It is a stupendous drainage ditch | 11:34 | |
| curved by time and a river flowing. | 11:39 | |
| It is an outdoor laboratory for the geologists | 11:45 | |
| and the botanist and the zoologists. | 11:48 | |
| It is the raw material of possible new theories, | 11:52 | |
| the testing ground of hypothesis, | 11:57 | |
| the arena of arguments and inferences. | 12:01 | |
| It is the place of discovery | 12:06 | |
| with the scientific findings backed by solid evidence. | 12:09 | |
| What happened? Is the question behind the rise | 12:17 | |
| and the dominance of science. | 12:21 | |
| With perseverance and consistency, | 12:25 | |
| through endless days and sleepless nights. | 12:29 | |
| With courage to discard | 12:33 | |
| and patience to test its conclusions. | 12:36 | |
| It remains loyal to its view of truth. | 12:40 | |
| Conformity to the discovered, tested facts | 12:44 | |
| with the readiness to restate the truth | 12:51 | |
| when new unexpected facts are discovered. | 12:55 | |
| The scientist has been possessed by a high standard, | 13:01 | |
| a laudable desire, and a worthy vocation. | 13:06 | |
| This attitude came to life for me some 40 years ago | 13:15 | |
| in the person of my oldest friend. | 13:20 | |
| He had just collected three degrees from Glasgow University | 13:24 | |
| in seven and a half years, | 13:29 | |
| in arts, science and medicine. | 13:31 | |
| He had been awarded a research fellowship to discover | 13:37 | |
| a chemical cure for cancer. | 13:40 | |
| I told him that such a find | 13:45 | |
| would be a boon and a blessing to men. | 13:47 | |
| He answered, "Oh, damn man. | 13:51 | |
| I want to find the truth about something | 13:57 | |
| which has licked all our searching so far." | 14:02 | |
| He's still at it. | 14:07 | |
| It's a praiseworthy enterprise. | 14:10 | |
| If he succeeds mankind will benefit. | 14:13 | |
| But for him, that will be a byproduct. | 14:16 | |
| Though he will be glad about it. | 14:21 | |
| For him, nature is a store house of secrets, | 14:24 | |
| which yields its goods to the consecrated mind | 14:31 | |
| and the unyielding will. | 14:36 | |
| I stand with my hat off, | 14:39 | |
| when I watch a trained scientist, | 14:42 | |
| ask nature with an intensive sincerity, | 14:45 | |
| what happened. | 14:50 | |
| The third story from Grand Canyon | 14:55 | |
| is a single sentence description of the impact of the canyon | 14:57 | |
| upon a cowboy. | 15:03 | |
| God dug it in His anger | 15:07 | |
| and painted it in His joy. | 15:11 | |
| God dug it in His anger and painted it in His joy. | 15:16 | |
| He dug it in His anger 217 miles along, | 15:22 | |
| one mile down from the south rim, | 15:28 | |
| 10 miles across from the south to the north rim | 15:33 | |
| with a tumultuous tarn at the foot. | 15:37 | |
| And it took him from seven to nine million years. | 15:41 | |
| No wonder he was angry. | 15:46 | |
| But he painted it in his joy. | 15:54 | |
| The silent colors overwhelm the beholder. | 15:58 | |
| To some they are unrefined, immodest, glaring, | 16:02 | |
| too much of a muchness. | 16:08 | |
| To others they are expressive, change full | 16:11 | |
| and capacious of unexpected effects, | 16:15 | |
| thrilling beyond imagination. | 16:18 | |
| The anger and the joy were both wholesale, | 16:21 | |
| immeasurable, titanic. | 16:25 | |
| Grand Canyon is no colored Camille | 16:29 | |
| or should I say intaglio. | 16:34 | |
| Now, what have we in this semi poetic description | 16:38 | |
| of the cowboys? | 16:41 | |
| It is the complex emotion of wonder. | 16:44 | |
| Amazement and adoration. | 16:49 | |
| Bewilderment and admiration. | 16:54 | |
| It is rapturous awe. | 16:59 | |
| The feeling that comes over a person | 17:03 | |
| when earth touches heaven | 17:06 | |
| and the things of time and space are penetrated by eternity. | 17:10 | |
| It is the uncomprehended faith | 17:16 | |
| that behind and above and within nature is nature's God. | 17:20 | |
| So Moses picks the shoes from off his feet | 17:30 | |
| and the Psalmist writes, | 17:35 | |
| "Praise God from earth below ye dragons and ye deeps, | 17:38 | |
| fire, hail, clouds, wind and snow whom in command He keeps. | 17:43 | |
| Praise ye His name hills, great and small, | 17:49 | |
| trees, low and tall, beasts, wild and tame." | 17:53 | |
| And Jesus talks about the lilies and the rain | 18:00 | |
| and the sun and spatters | 18:04 | |
| and always with a divine reference. | 18:07 | |
| And Francis of Assisi as we sang and as we heard, | 18:12 | |
| gives thanks for our brother the sun | 18:16 | |
| and our sister, the moon | 18:19 | |
| and our mother, the earth. | 18:22 | |
| And words with rights about what nature meant to him | 18:25 | |
| as he grew older. | 18:28 | |
| I have felt a presence | 18:31 | |
| that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts. | 18:34 | |
| A sense sublime of something far more deeply inter fused, | 18:39 | |
| whose dwelling is the light of setting suns | 18:45 | |
| and the round ocean | 18:49 | |
| and the living air | 18:51 | |
| and the blue sky, | 18:54 | |
| and in the mind of man. | 18:57 | |
| If we suggested two words with, | 19:02 | |
| that he was out of his mind, | 19:04 | |
| not very 20th century, he would whip round and ask, | 19:07 | |
| "Good God, I'd rather be a pagan | 19:11 | |
| circled in a creed out warren. | 19:15 | |
| So might I standing on this pleasantly of glimpses | 19:19 | |
| that would make me less forlorn of sight of proteus | 19:24 | |
| rising from the sea | 19:29 | |
| or hear old triton, blow his reeded horn." | 19:31 | |
| For all these people, the God of nature | 19:37 | |
| is of basic importance. | 19:41 | |
| Now, that's something for us to remember | 19:44 | |
| at this season of Thanksgiving, | 19:46 | |
| because one of the primary emphasis | 19:49 | |
| of any Thanksgiving service, | 19:53 | |
| is that God, the creator and preserver, | 19:55 | |
| the God of nature is prior | 20:01 | |
| to God, the redeemer. | 20:07 | |
| God, the creator and preserver, | 20:11 | |
| is prior, to God, the redeemer. | 20:14 | |
| Now, this is not to ignore redemption. | 20:18 | |
| The next four Sundays are in advent, | 20:23 | |
| directing us to Christmas | 20:26 | |
| and to the 12 days leading to epiphany. | 20:29 | |
| Then, we shall give thanks for Jesus. | 20:33 | |
| The word become flesh and dwelling among us | 20:36 | |
| for our benefit. | 20:39 | |
| But, today and this coming Thursday, | 20:41 | |
| our gratitude is to the God of nature, | 20:46 | |
| especially, the God of the harvest. | 20:49 | |
| For once again, the sowing and reaping have not failed. | 20:52 | |
| It is our wondering duty and grand privilege, | 20:59 | |
| to acknowledge that God. | 21:03 | |
| The creator and sustainer, | 21:05 | |
| the source of these good gifts, | 21:08 | |
| such knowledge and acknowledgement are almost | 21:12 | |
| too wonderful for us. | 21:15 | |
| Marvelous, is His revelation in creation. | 21:18 | |
| Praise be to God. | 21:20 | |
| My brethren, | 21:29 | |
| which of these three positions is ours? | 21:32 | |
| The ignorant or blazay? | 21:38 | |
| I have spat a mile. | 21:42 | |
| The asking for truthful answers to scientific questions. | 21:47 | |
| What happened? | 21:54 | |
| The heart full wonder of the religious affirmation. | 21:58 | |
| God dug it in His anger and painted it in His joy. | 22:02 | |
| I could wish in this university, | 22:09 | |
| which has Eruditio et Religio, as its motto. | 22:12 | |
| That it would be a combination of the second | 22:19 | |
| and third attitudes held together, | 22:21 | |
| even intention. | 22:27 | |
| Lauren Isley, professor of science | 22:31 | |
| and professor of philosophy | 22:36 | |
| at the University of Pennsylvania, | 22:39 | |
| suggests this in a story which he hopes is true. | 22:42 | |
| Here it is, from that book, | 22:46 | |
| which the debutantes gave to me. | 22:49 | |
| One of our great atomic physicists, | 22:54 | |
| one of the chief architects of the atomic bomb, | 22:58 | |
| was out wandering in the woods one day with a friend | 23:02 | |
| when he came upon a small tortoise. | 23:06 | |
| He took it up and started home, | 23:10 | |
| thinking to surprise his children with it. | 23:13 | |
| After a few steps, | 23:18 | |
| he paused and surveyed the tortoise doubtfully. | 23:20 | |
| "What's the matter?", asked his friend. | 23:26 | |
| Without responding, the great scientist | 23:31 | |
| slowly retraced his steps as precisely as possible | 23:34 | |
| and gently set the turtle down upon the exact spot | 23:40 | |
| from which he had taken it up. | 23:44 | |
| Then, he turns solemnly to his friend. | 23:49 | |
| Now, remember, he was one of the chief architects | 23:54 | |
| over the atomic bomb. | 23:58 | |
| "It just struck me," he said, | 24:03 | |
| "That perhaps for one man, | 24:06 | |
| I had tampered enough with the universe." | 24:10 | |
| He turned and left the turtle to wander on its way. | 24:17 | |
| And Lauren Isley adds, | 24:24 | |
| "The man who made that remark, | 24:27 | |
| was one of the best of the modern men. | 24:29 | |
| I have tampered enough." he said. | 24:36 | |
| It was not a denial of science. | 24:39 | |
| It was a final recognition that science is not enough | 24:43 | |
| for man, | 24:49 | |
| only when man has recognized this fact, | 24:51 | |
| will science become what it was for beacon. | 24:55 | |
| Something to speak of as touching upon hope. | 24:59 | |
| Only then, will man be truly human. | 25:07 | |
| Is that why we have a chapel | 25:19 | |
| as well as laboratories | 25:25 | |
| in this university? | 25:28 | |
| Let us pray. | 25:36 | |
| Oh most restable Father | 25:44 | |
| who has blessed the labors of the husbandman | 25:46 | |
| in the returns of the fruits of the earth. | 25:49 | |
| We give the humble and hearty thanks, | 25:52 | |
| for this thy bounty, | 25:54 | |
| beseeching thee to continue thy loving kindness to us. | 25:57 | |
| That our land may still yield her increase, | 26:02 | |
| to thy glory and our comfort. | 26:06 | |
| And thine shall be the praise | 26:09 | |
| from generation to generation. | 26:11 | |
| And may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly. | 26:15 | |
| May it keep you strong and tranquil, | 26:20 | |
| in the truth of his promises | 26:24 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 26:27 | |
| (gentle music) | 26:35 |