Waldo Beach - "They Look for a City" Baccalaureate Service (May 31, 1970)

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	(orchestral music)	0:03
	(orchestral music)	0:36
	(indistinct)
-	If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.	7:10
	And the truth is not in us.	7:18
	Therefore, let us offer unto God,	7:21
	our unison prayer of confession.	7:24
	Let us pray.	7:29
	Forgive us our sins. Oh Lord.	7:32
	The sins of the present and the sins of the past,	7:35
	the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies,	7:40
	the sins of our youth and the sins of our age,	7:45
	our casual sins and our deliberate sins,	7:50
	our secret sins and our presumptuous sins.	7:55
	Forgive us the sins which we have done to please ourselves	8:00
	and the sins which we have done to please others.	8:05
	Forgive us those sins which we know	8:09
	and those which we do not know	8:13
	because they have so laid hold upon us	8:16
	that we no longer confessed them to be sins.	8:20
	Forgive us them. Oh Lord.	8:25
	Forgive them all for thy mercy sake.	8:27
	Amen.	8:32
	Hear these words of assurance of forgiveness	8:36
	from the holy scripture.	8:39
	The Lord is gracious and merciful,	8:42
	slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.	8:47
	As a father pity at his children.	8:53
	So the Lord pitties them that fear him.	8:57
	The Lord redeems the life of His servants.	9:02
	None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned	9:07
	therefore, let us be of good courage.	9:14
	Morning lesson is taken from the apostle	9:29
	to the Hebrews selected	9:32
	versus from chapters 11 and 12.	9:34
	Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.	9:39
	The conviction of things not seen for by it	9:44
	the men of old received divine approval.	9:48
	By faith we understand that the world was created	9:52
	by the Word of the God,	9:55
	so that what is seen was made out of things	9:57
	which do not appear.	10:00
	By faith it will offered to God	10:03
	a more acceptable sacrifice than Kane,	10:05
	through what she was...	10:08
	He received approval as righteous	10:09
	God bearing witness by accepting his gifts.	10:13
	He died, but through His faith, He is still speaking.	10:17
	By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.	10:22
	And he was not found because God had taken him,	10:26
	now before he was taken,	10:31
	he was attested as having pleased God and with that faith,	10:33
	it is impossible to please Him	10:38
	for whoever withdraw near to God must believe	10:41
	that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.	10:43
	By faith Noah being warned by God	10:49
	concerning events as yet unseen took heed	10:52
	and constructed an arc for the of his household.	10:56
	By this, he condemned the world and became an heir	11:00
	of the righteousness which came by faith.	11:03
	By faith, Abraham obeyed	11:07
	when he was called to go out to a place	11:09
	Which he was to receive as an inheritance.	11:13
	And he went out not knowing where he was to go.	11:16
	These all died in faith,	11:21
	not having received what was promised,	11:23
	but having seen it and greeted it from afar	11:26
	and having acknowledged that they were strangers	11:29
	on exiles on their earth, for people who speak thus,	11:32
	make it clear that they are seeking a Homeland.	11:37
	If they had been thinking of that land	11:41
	from which they had gone out,	11:43
	they would've had opportunity to return,	11:45
	but as it is, they desire a better country.	11:49
	That is a Heavenly One.	11:52
	Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God	11:54
	for He has prepared for them a city,	11:58
	therefore, since we are surrounded	12:03
	by so greater cloud of witnesses,	12:04
	let us also lay aside every weight and sin,	12:08
	which cling so closely, and let us run with perseverance	12:11
	the race that is set before us.	12:16
	Looking to Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfector of our faith,	12:19
	who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,	12:23
	despising the shame and is seated at the right hand	12:27
	of the throne of God, here the lesson ends.	12:31
	(orchestral music)	12:35
	(orchestral music)	12:43
	(indistinct)
	(gentle orchestral music)	13:23
	(orchestral music)	13:53
	(indistinct)
	The Lord be with you. Let us pray.	17:35
	Let us offer unto God our litany of Thanksgiving.	17:42
	Here, oh God, this prayer of Thanksgiving,	17:49
	which we offer under thee.	17:52
	Father homes from which we came	17:55
	For parents and guardians and sponsors	17:59
	who believed in education	18:03
	and made it possible for us to be at Duke.	18:05
	And to leave this university as its sons and daughters,	18:10
	we give thee thanks and praise.	18:15
	For the interplay of the colleges and schools,	18:19
	undergraduate, graduate and professional,	18:23
	which widened our horizon and deepened our understanding	18:27
	and stretched our imagination,	18:31
	we give thee thanks and praise.	18:35
	For people, all kinds of people for classmates	18:39
	who grew with us and cheered us and accepted us as friends.	18:45
	For teachers who realize that a good instructor	18:53
	teaches a person as well as a subject.	18:57
	For administrators, whose eyes twinkled	19:02
	even when the chin was firm.	19:06
	For janitors made, secretary,	19:09
	kitchen help maintenance crews known	19:13
	and unknown who worked for our benefit.	19:17
	We give thee thanks and praise.	19:20
	For memories, which will haunt us for better or for worse.	19:25
	The colors in the fall,	19:31
	the indoor stadium after Thanksgiving,	19:34
	the gardens in the spring, the library, the lab,	19:38
	the chapel, the unions Branson page,	19:44
	the vigil, the moratorium, the strike,	19:52
	newspapers, flyers, and placards.	19:58
	Marching, and standing and sitting for all memories,	20:03
	we give thee thanks and praise.	20:10
	For the fact that this university still pays more	20:14
	than leap service to air UDT religion,	20:18
	to knowledge which is linked with reverends,	20:23
	to insight that has a place for piety,	20:27
	to an awe before the universe,	20:32
	which may be the beginning of wisdom.	20:36
	We give thee facts and praises	20:39
	for thyself by prophets, psalmists, and law givers,	20:43
	for Jesus of Nazareth and for the Holy Spirit	20:49
	glory be to thee oh God, amen.	20:54
	And let us offer two prayers of intercession	21:00
	and of supplication,	21:04
	Oh God who knit us all together in mutual love	21:07
	and responsibility for one another,	21:11
	hear our prayer of intercession	21:15
	for all kinds of folk in a time of international strife	21:17
	and national division of racial, tension,	21:24
	and class struggle of college chaos	21:28
	and academic bewilderment.	21:32
	On behalf of all men, we pray for peace,	21:36
	but not without justice.	21:41
	We pray for quiet,	21:45
	but only if the issues have honestly been faced	21:48
	and resolved, we pray for honor, rather than victory,	21:52
	for understanding rather than mastery,	22:00
	for sanity rather than success,	22:05
	for the triumph of thy way rather than ours,	22:10
	for thy love, the love which is goodwill,	22:17
	the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all men.	22:22
	Almighty and eternal God who is Alpha and Omega,	22:30
	the God of beginnings and endings	22:35
	hear our prayer for ourselves,	22:39
	especially for those of us who now complete another phase	22:41
	of their continuing education.	22:47
	We pray for our university, holding in glad remembrance,	22:51
	those who so believed in a heritage of learning	22:58
	and reverence, that they gave to it their thought,	23:02
	their wealth, their service.	23:07
	We pray for our university, grateful for its present.	23:12
	Even when we are angry with it, pleased with its successes	23:17
	though not blind to its failures, glad of its friendships,	23:24
	its interplay of minds and hearts.	23:30
	And at this time we come into thee, those of our number	23:36
	who have finished their course on earth,	23:41
	trustees, faculty, Students of Trinity,	23:46
	and of the Medical School and of the graduate school,	23:54
	give them thy rest and thy peace.	24:00
	We pray for our university thinking of its future,	24:07
	which we shall watch as alumni,	24:10
	as friends and as happy critics.	24:13
	We present to thee our hopes for our school,	24:19
	that it may enter graciously and gladly and determinately	24:23
	into wider fields of welfare	24:29
	ever seeking to bind more closely learning and reverence	24:33
	to thy glory and our God.	24:38
	So we deliver to thy keeping another academic year.	24:42
	The classes of 1970,	24:50
	the graduates of 1970 in their various disciplines,	24:55
	bless them.	25:01
	Bless each of them. Bless all of them.	25:04
	And now as our savior Christ has taught us,	25:13
	we humbly pray together saying our Father	25:16
	who art in heaven hallowed be thy name	25:21
	thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth	25:26
	as it is in heaven, give us this day	25:30
	our daily bread and forgive us our trespass as we forgive	25:33
	those who trespass against us	25:39
	and lead us not into temptation,	25:41
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	25:44
	and the power and the glory forever.	25:48
	Amen.	25:53
	(orchestral music)	25:55
	(orchestral music)	26:34
	(indistinct)
	In walking my mazes of duty around this campus,	30:22
	I often encounter visitors from the outside world,	30:27
	frantic or Philam who spot me as an old hand,	30:32
	sort of musty and academic looking and who ask,	30:38
	how do I get to the indoor stadium	30:45
	or where in God's name is the Chemistry building	30:48
	claiming no divine sanction for my answer.	30:55
	But speaking only as a fallible human being,	30:58
	I find it sensible to give directions	31:03
	by reference to this chapel,	31:06
	people are usually helped to get their bearings	31:09
	by taking this tower as central	31:13
	and figuring out how to get where they wanna go	31:17
	from that point.	31:19
	Take this if you will,	31:23
	as a homely parable for your condition,	31:24
	going out on pilgrimage from this university into the risky,	31:29
	confusing mazes of your future to take this place	31:35
	and this moment as a point of reference,	31:41
	you will be going to some city or other, Chicago or Atlanta	31:46
	or Philadelphia or a suburb,	31:52
	which is literally under the shadow of the city	31:56
	or a small town, which is dominated by city culture.	32:00
	You may be living tents like Abraham or a trailer or boxed	32:06
	in apartments or barracks or dormitory,	32:11
	wherever you land you confront a vast urban sprawl,	32:17
	an asphalt jungle,	32:23
	a wild dystopia of gas stations and pizza palaces,	32:26
	and the lonely crowd parading passed each other	32:32
	with their city masks on	32:36
	or caught in a perpetual traffic jam,	32:39
	reaching from wherever back to Detroit	32:43
	or sitting drugged to stupor by TV promises	32:47
	of a happy Sensei Heaven far from this polluted place.	32:53
	The American city is partly America	33:00
	the beautiful by an Alabaster city's gleam undimmed	33:04
	by human tears in trying to find our way	33:10
	in the confusing path of the city.	33:17
	I would claim that there are perspectives to be derived	33:22
	from a heritage celebrated in this chapel,	33:27
	which provide a point of reference to cope with the problems	33:31
	of urban existence,	33:36
	to give direction to our going and a stay against the last	33:38
	dread of the death of meaning	33:45
	though almost forgotten like his rural roots in field	33:50
	and farm urban man neglects,	33:55
	his Christian tradition to his own loss.	34:01
	There are things to be remembered from here	34:06
	for the city in which we live and work and study	34:13
	is the outer expression of our inner wills	34:18
	and systems of value.	34:23
	It's budget, the reflection of the priorities	34:27
	in what we love.	34:31
	It sprawl the outer invisible sign	34:33
	of our inner normless chaos.	34:38
	It's ugly clutter,	34:42
	the mark of our passion for things	34:45
	and our slovenly sensate spirits.	34:48
	Its ghetto walls, the extension of the walls	34:53
	of white pride and prejudice.	34:58
	Its blaring racket, the echo of our hollow emptiness.	35:01
	so, to talk of urban decay and urban renewal	35:08
	means to speak of city planning and inner vision.	35:14
	We must use the language,	35:21
	both of sociology and engineering	35:22
	and of ethics and theology.	35:26
	What insights may be seen in worship at this altar	35:30
	for the healing of our urban souls.	35:36
	For one thing,	35:42
	the Christian faith is a reminder that we will not be saved	35:44
	from death in our cities, by technology,	35:49
	a secular religion widespread among us	35:56
	is that all the troubles of our proud	36:00
	and angry dust can be cured by ingenuity and a machine.	36:02
	So, technological man in magnificent feats	36:11
	of technical skill puts him himself on the moon	36:16
	and sends a picture back to himself on the earth.	36:20
	This feat supports a faith that technology is our savior	36:25
	that we are justified by gadgetry,	36:32
	that we can solve the problem of the city	36:36
	by inventing new machines of communication	36:38
	and transportation and housing in government.	36:42
	But the fatal flaw in this program of salvation,	36:47
	we fail to see that there is nothing in the machine itself	36:51
	which guides the purpose for which it will be used,	36:59
	whether for human good or ill.	37:03
	Technology only raises the anti in the apocalyptic option	37:07
	between life and death, culture or chaos.	37:13
	Some weeks ago, I watched on TV,	37:21
	the corpses of Vietnam peasants floating down	37:27
	the Macon river in Cambodia, anonymous,	37:32
	forgotten shot down in the bush with some efficient	37:38
	kind of gun thrown onto the Waters of Oblivion.	37:44
	The next day I watched the three American astronauts	37:52
	back from the moon floating on the Pacific.	37:58
	All the world's technology turned to their recovery,	38:04
	prayers of gratitude spoken for their deliverance	38:09
	from the hell of perpetual orbiting in heaven,	38:13
	no prayers were said over the peasant corpses,	38:20
	no notice taken though they were just as sacred,	38:24
	just as precious.	38:30
	The tragic irony in these two vistas	38:33
	that the technology that vaults man into empty spaces	38:39
	lacks the moral skill to cope with the empty spaces in man,	38:46
	to find the inner control	38:54
	to keep him from murdering his neighbor.	38:55
	Technology has emancipated man from mass drudgery,	39:00
	from plague and pestilence,	39:05
	but it has also put him as for no previous generation	39:09
	under the dark threat of genocide.	39:16
	And if he programs into the computer,	39:21
	the great moral and political questions,	39:25
	the computer whirls its wheels, gags and falls silent.	39:30
	But once then, the moral wisdom needed	39:38
	during your stay at Duke.	39:47
	There were many times,	39:48
	no doubt when you hurried by this chapel late	39:49
	for a lab in the Physics building,	39:54
	there may have been insights since in the prayer	39:59
	here in the presence of the Holy,	40:02
	that would turn the technique learned	40:07
	in the lab to humane ends.	40:10
	The awareness that reverence is the beginning of wisdom	40:15
	that the skill of hand should be turned	40:20
	to the service of man under the Lordship of God.	40:24
	At a second point,	40:34
	there is relevance in the Christian understanding	40:37
	of the terms of community set by God's covenant,	40:40
	where off we are reminded in worship here,	40:46
	the City of Man is impersonal and cruel.	40:51
	It divides him off from his neighbor into jostling factions	40:57
	and voting blocks of class and color and race,	41:04
	the White Suburban Belt, Titans around the inner city,	41:10
	black ghetto.	41:15
	Each man sees the other, not as person, not in his humanity,	41:18
	but as a case of the other kind as alien and threat	41:24
	as a front, as a mass.	41:30
	In the subway, there is an inverse ratio	41:34
	between density of the mass	41:38
	and a sense of neighbor responsibility.	41:43
	But the terms of community set in the City of God	41:48
	are the terms of love.	41:53
	The personal concern of the Samaritan for the man	41:55
	who fell among thieves In the spirit of Christ,	41:59
	who has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.	42:05
	As you commute through the deep canyons of the city,	42:12
	you will hunger for a community of persons.	42:18
	It won't do to try to find it	42:23
	by retreating to a private enclave	42:27
	with some old better buddies	42:30
	to make out like it was in the dorm.	42:33
	You will find a heart of a city to be kind	42:38
	only when you live the terms of Christian community,	42:42
	reaching the other as person behind his face,	42:47
	not as a case of color or minority group,	42:51
	but as brother in the family of man.	42:56
	Such I will breaks over the ghetto walls,	43:01
	cuts through the restrictive covenants of club and church	43:06
	and freeze man into glad easy community.	43:13
	We had glimpses of that kind of city here in crisis times	43:22
	on this campus, remember the vigil	43:29
	stunned by the death of Martin Luther king.	43:35
	We reached toward each other and beyond each other	43:40
	to find resources of spirit to hope.	43:46
	And we discovered each other	43:51
	in picketing black and white for a decent wage scale	43:55
	for dining hall workers in community action in Durham.	44:00
	And we could sing in a moving moment out on the quad.	44:07
	My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.	44:14
	Finally, there is wisdom to be learned in this place	44:23
	relevant to the vex problem about the use of violence	44:30
	in our urban style of life.	44:37
	Increasingly the city is a rough and fearful place	44:42
	where men shoot their way into what they deserve	44:48
	as their just rights or shoot down dissenters	44:53
	in the name of law and order	44:59
	The ways of gentleness and kindness of negotiation	45:03
	and reason are read by the dissident	45:09
	and radical left as devices of the complacent,	45:14
	powerful to keep themselves intact in the establishment.	45:19
	And so they say to gain the city of our dreams,	45:26
	blow up the present one, burn it down,	45:31
	yet this strategy of the desperate frustrated idealists	45:37
	is flawed where it violates a divinely built in law	45:44
	of our life.	45:50
	The consonants of means and ends,	45:52
	the end preexist in the means peace is the way.	45:58
	Under the terms of the City of God,	46:06
	we do not move toward a peaceful goal by a violent means.	46:08
	Mounting violence, evokes counter violence	46:16
	and war in the family of man escalates.	46:21
	In the uproar of these last weeks	46:26
	those students who made their witness in a political way	46:30
	in Washington were no less militant and relentless	46:33
	for being nonviolent and civil and in their protests	46:41
	and far more telling in impact	46:46
	than the ones who would blow it up	46:50
	or burn it down to rebuild the ideal city.	46:53
	When the smoke and rubble and bodies have been cleared away.	46:59
	We are slow to learn a hard truth	47:08
	from the Old Testament, not by might nor by violence,	47:14
	but by my spirit, Said the Lord of Hosts.	47:22
	A recent poster around campus	47:32
	puts straight out the qualities of the city.	47:37
	We look for the family of man in balance	47:40
	with its environment in a world at peace.	47:46
	This lacks only the statement of the foundation	47:53
	of such an ideal, the ground of such a hope.	47:58
	Every city is built on the edge of a cliff	48:05
	with insight of the Arbys Of Anarchy.	48:11
	Every city is close to ruin every day.	48:17
	In our lesson of the morning,	48:27
	Abraham is one of the heroes of faith who went out,	48:30
	seeking a city, not knowing where he was to go.	48:36
	But in the assurance of things not seen	48:42
	as you go Children of Abraham,	48:46
	a baffled mixture of idealism and skepticism	48:52
	of wistful hope and frustrated anger,	48:59
	what will keep your hope from turning to bitter despair	49:06
	will be a certain quality of faith honored in this chapel	49:13
	and felt in authentic moments of worship.	49:20
	The trust that the city you seek has foundations	49:27
	whose builder and maker is God.	49:33
	Without this foundation,	49:39
	the cities you'll seek and rebuild will slide	49:42
	over the edge of the cliff	49:49
	or become proud towers of ruin like the Tower of Babel.	49:53
	With this foundation,	50:02
	you will be empowered for urban renewal	50:06
	with confidence and equanimity with cool courage	50:11
	for steady work, unless the Lord builds the house,	50:19
	those who build it labor in vain,	50:28
	unless the Lord watches over the city,	50:33
	the watchman keeps vigil in vain.	50:39
	Amen.	50:49
	(gentle orchestral music)	50:56
	(orchestral music)	51:41
	(indistinct)
	Let the congregation stand.	56:25
	See the blessing of God.	56:28
	Unto God's gracious, mercy and protection.	56:37
	Do we commit you?	56:43
	The Lord bless you and keep you.	56:46
	The Lord made His face to shine upon you	56:53
	and be gracious on you.	56:57
	The Lord lifted up His confidence upon you	57:01
	and give you peace this day.	57:06
	And forever more.	57:11
	(gentle orchestral music)	57:14
	(orchestral music)	57:18
	(indistinct)
	(bell dinging)	58:41
	(orchestral music)	58:55
	(group chatter)	1:00:01
	(lady laughs)	1:00:04
	(group chatter continues)	1:00:05
	(lady shouting)	1:00:23
-	Well, I'm like vigorous.(indistinct)	1:00:24
	(group chatter)	1:00:29
	(orchestral music)	1:01:06
	(group chatter)	1:02:40
-	Oh, yeah.	1:02:57
	(group chatter continues)	1:02:58

Item Info

Title:

Waldo Beach - "They Look for a City" Baccalaureate Service (May 31, 1970)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4fx7802b

Date:

May 31, 1970

Speaker:

Beach, Waldo

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0523
ref6251_5m1
uachapelsermaud
duke:628071
dcrau002513
ark:/87924/r4fx7802b
3c90a909-79de-48cc-8c55-2e0451fb3830

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

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

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Waldo Beach - "They Look for a City" Baccalaureate Service (May 31, 1970)

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