Waldo Beach - "Identity and Vocation" (January 31, 1971)

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	(switch clicking on)	0:03
	(electricity humming)
	(static hissing)	0:09
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	0:11
-	Come, let us worship.	0:29
	For he is our maker.	0:32
	We our his evil and the sheep of his pasture.	0:34
	Serve the Lord with gladness	0:39
	and come before his presence.	0:41
	Singing.	0:44
	Singing the worship of God.	0:46
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	0:49
	(joyful orchestral music)	0:53
	(chorus singing)	2:24
-	When Christians come together to worship	4:23
	for the Lord, (indistinct).	4:26
	Make confession of our sins.	4:29
	We open ourselves in trust and healing.	4:32
	Power, presence (indistinct).	4:35
	Just remember the ancient promise of God to his people.	4:40
	"If my people, which are called by my name,	4:45
	"shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face	4:48
	"and turn from their own ways,	4:54
	"then will I hear from heaven,	4:56
	"I'll forgive them and will heal their land."	4:59
	Let us begin now to meet the conditions.	5:04
	When (indistinct).	5:07
	To forgive and to heal.	5:12
	We offer to God our prayers, confession, and our heart.	5:15
	Let us pray together.	5:20
	Oh God, our heavenly father.	5:23
	We have sinned against thee,	5:26
	and are not worthy to be called thy children.	5:28
	We are guilty of committing specific acts of sin.	5:32
	We're even more guilty of having	5:36
	a sinful attitude in general.	5:38
	We have argued in times we should've prayed.	5:41
	We have pretended to have the wisdom	5:45
	of experience (indistinct).	5:47
	We have been selfish, competitive	5:51
	when Christ desired us to be cooperative.	5:54
	We have dealt proud criticism when we should have	5:57
	attempted the ability to understand.	6:01
	Forgive us, beseech thee (indistinct).	6:05
	Renew us the strength of thy grace.	6:09
	Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	6:12
	This here (indistinct).	6:18
	Jesus said, "Be of good cheer,	6:23
	"your sins are forgiven."	6:27
	"Go and (indistinct)."	6:30
	And I say to you knowing that we are received by God,	6:34
	let us choose his acceptance of us.	6:38
	Accept the fact that you are accepted	6:43
	by God's amazing grace.	6:45
	If anyone is in Jesus Christ, (indistinct).	6:49
	The old is cast away.	6:54
	You must come.	6:57
	The chain of complicity linking	6:59
	our lives' past guilt (indistinct).	7:01
	The door of our freedom is open.	7:07
	Walk forward.	7:11
	Live by the power of the spirit.	7:15
	Let us also walk in the spirit (indistinct).	7:18
	(singing in foreign language)	8:25
	The lesson for this day is taken from the book of Isaiah.	12:14
	Chapter six, verse one.	12:19
	"In the year that king Uzziah died,	12:26
	"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,	12:29
	"high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.	12:32
	"Above it stood the seraphims.	12:37
	"Each had six wings, two covered his face,	12:40
	"two covered his feet,	12:45
	"two did flew.	12:48
	"One called to another,	12:50
	"and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.'	12:52
	"The whole earth is full of his glory.	12:57
	"The foundations, the thresholds shook (indistinct).	13:02
	"The house is filled with smoke.	13:07
	"I said, 'Woe to me, for I am lost,	13:11
	"'for I am a man of unclean lips.'	13:16
	"Well in the midst (indistinct).	13:20
	"My eyes have seen the King, (indistinct).	13:24
	"Then flew one of the seraphs to me, having in his hand	13:29
	"a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs	13:34
	"from the altar.	13:36
	"And he touched my mouth and said,	13:38
	"'Behold, this has touched your lips.	13:42
	"'Your guilt is taken away, your sin forgiven.'	13:46
	"I heard the voice of the Lord saying,	13:53
	"'Whom shall I send?	13:56
	"'Who will go for us?"'	13:58
	"And I said, 'Here I am, send me!'"	14:00
	Here ends the reading (indistinct).	14:07
	(grand orchestral music)	14:11
	The Lord be with you.	14:51
	Let us pray.	14:54
	Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanks giving.	15:08
	Almighty God,	15:16
	thou of a hundred names,	15:18
	but ever the same (indistinct).	15:21
	Our hearts are lifted (indistinct) praise of thy glory.	15:25
	Seen by these are (indistinct).	15:30
	Shared (indistinct) of our understanding.	15:34
	Our father, God, bless thy name for every gift	15:41
	despite (indistinct) the humble things	15:46
	to (indistinct) grace.	15:49
	For Earth itself, bodies we bear.	15:51
	The universe (indistinct).	15:57
	For all that sustains (indistinct).	16:00
	Give thee our thanks.	16:03
	For the spirit by which material things are enlivened,	16:06
	filled with the beauty of holiness,	16:10
	with the hope of (indistinct).	16:14
	For the heart and mind of man.	16:17
	For the miracle and mysteries (indistinct).	16:21
	For the companionship, love, (indistinct).	16:26
	Give thee thanks.	16:31
	Breathes in us the spirit of our Lord.	16:34
	I share our joy.	16:37
	It's him that I praise.	16:40
	For all things.	16:42
	God's son has taught us (indistinct).	16:48
	Take our place in the kingdom of heaven (indistinct).	16:54
	In God, each of us brings (indistinct).	17:05
	Our brother whose face (indistinct).	17:14
	Some are in far places.	17:21
	Some (indistinct).	17:23
	Hardship (indistinct).	17:28
	Some (indistinct) or weary by monotonous (indistinct).	17:31
	All of them worth bearing the burden (indistinct).	17:36
	Striving everywhere to live (indistinct).	17:42
	Those who stand in the circle of our hearts deserve God.	17:50
	Prey thy (indistinct).	17:55
	The outpouring of thy (indistinct).	17:59
	Might my love penetrate (indistinct).	18:02
	We offer our prayers and (indistinct).	18:19
	The outcast (indistinct).	18:27
	Children unwanted in their homes.	18:31
	Prisoners of exile,	18:36
	for all those who are persecuted (indistinct).	18:39
	The sick, suffering mind (indistinct).	18:44
	Those made slaves by drugs.	18:48
	For those who are dying and have died,	18:53
	whether (indistinct).	18:55
	Call on thy spirit.	19:00
	Cast thy presence, (indistinct).	19:02
	Lord, we pray for all (indistinct).	19:08
	Tyrants, for those who create instruments of war,	19:13
	death, (indistinct).	19:18
	And we would pray for all who we fear,	19:25
	resent, or cannot love.	19:28
	May thy love be (indistinct).	19:32
	Pray for doctors, and nurses, and social workers.	19:43
	Ministers to the poor, for organizers of students, poets,	19:46
	for all (indistinct).	19:51
	Pray for all (indistinct).	19:57
	They may realize (indistinct).	19:59
	Pray that our (indistinct).	20:05
	That every person in this world may learn to express	20:11
	a child's vision (indistinct).	20:16
	Pray (indistinct).	20:20
	We ask the Lord that each one enters our hearts.	20:26
	We receive the hospitality of Christ (indistinct).	20:31
	Pray that the passion (indistinct).	20:37
	And he bound in solidarity all who would (indistinct).	20:46
	Creator in the name of God (indistinct).	21:00
	Seeking to share.	21:06
	We have known the anguish of (indistinct).	21:09
	Tasted the bitterness of failure.	21:13
	We have dreamed dreams and seen visions.	21:16
	Our brains and our hands (indistinct).	21:19
	Lured by something beyond our failure,	21:25
	something beyond our small successes.	21:28
	Strung along (indistinct).	21:32
	For all thing in (indistinct).	21:38
	Grant us patience to endure our failures	21:44
	and humility (indistinct).	21:48
	Lord, within each of us there are prayers	21:57
	that know (indistinct).	22:00
	Joys that seem to come from some kind heaven above here.	22:03
	Bringing new life into our very souls (indistinct).	22:08
	There are sorrows that stand	22:18
	forever inside of us (indistinct).	22:20
	Humbled by a mystery in life (indistinct).	22:23
	There are exultations (indistinct).	22:30
	Burning (indistinct).	22:37
	There are remembrances (indistinct).	22:45
	Hear us, oh God.	22:59
	As we speak (indistinct).	23:01
	Hear us, oh God (indistinct) our silence.	23:06
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	23:34
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	23:39
	Hallowed be thy name.	23:42
	Thy kingdom come.	23:44
	Thy will be done,	23:46
	on earth as it is in Heaven.	23:47
	Give us this day our daily bread.	23:50
	And forgive us our trespasses,	23:53
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	23:55
	Lead us not into temptation,	23:59
	but deliver us from evil.	24:02
	For thine is the kingdom, the power,	24:04
	and glory, forever.	24:07
-	Divine (indistinct).	24:31
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	24:36
	And detachments from evil (indistinct).	24:42
	It's a single, constant residing (indistinct).	24:47
	What's my faith?	24:55
	What am I cut out for?	24:58
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	25:01
	Some of you are blessed with having (indistinct).	25:05
	College on the wave of (indistinct).	25:10
	Maybe to escape social stigma attached to people	25:14
	who don't go to college.	25:18
	You may have doubts (indistinct)	25:22
	as to whether you'll find yourself (indistinct).	25:27
	To justify displacing someone else.	25:31
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	25:34
	Your fraternity or sorority (indistinct) whenever it comes	25:40
	yourself from crowd to crowd looking for yourself	25:46
	in one or another of them.	25:51
	Despite the bland assurance of (indistinct).	25:56
	Suspect this is more (indistinct).	26:05
	Maybe you'll find yourself better (indistinct).	26:12
	Or at home among the barbarians (indistinct).	26:17
	You are upperclassmen pushed by the system	26:24
	declaring your major	26:29
	long before you're sure that (indistinct)	26:32
	or sociology is really your thing.	26:35
	And is this too strong to say that the majority of you	26:41
	may graduate in the senior year	26:46
	not much closer to self discovery than when you came.	26:51
	You may (indistinct) your father's line of work	26:58
	or by inertia than by (indistinct) excitement.	27:04
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	27:10
	But a large part	27:25
	college is a protected identity (indistinct).	27:28
	For all of us.	27:33
	Late bloomers or early (indistinct).	27:36
	Night people or morning people	27:40
	it's a life of quiet desperation.	27:44
	This search for identity.	27:49
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	27:52
	In a manner almost as intense and fierce	27:55
	but as frantic as the nomadic circling of the dogs	27:59
	on the (indistinct).	28:06
	Some cultures it dwells permanently (indistinct).	28:09
	There are many forces (indistinct).	28:17
	The answers more elusive than (indistinct).	28:25
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	28:31
	Some of the troubles are in the cultural lag	29:11
	in the kind of education that goes on here.	29:14
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	29:21
	Psychological, spiritual.	29:26
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	29:31
	They reflect the cultural crisis of our time.	29:41
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	29:48
	The American premise of (indistinct)	29:58
	is that personal happiness is everyone's birthright.	30:01
	That any man's universe should be so (indistinct)	30:08
	as to yield a maximal of satisfaction	30:13
	for his days on the Earth.	30:16
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	30:21
	Everything, dormitory facilities, university governance,	30:25
	course requirements, should be designed to make	30:30
	the inmate comfortable and happy.	30:35
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	30:40
	Permanent happiness hereafter.	30:45
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	30:49
	This happiness complex has not always been the assumption	30:53
	of our life together.	30:58
	It's interesting to trace the historical shift	31:03
	in facing life's trials.	31:07
	The answers given (indistinct).	31:11
	In an earlier age,	31:19
	where Christian premises	31:23
	were taken so seriously (indistinct) taken for granted.	31:25
	The self is bound in identity	31:31
	along the vertical plane of existence.	31:36
	In his response to the call of God (indistinct).	31:39
	He found his (indistinct) in the ideal to do good.	31:46
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	31:53
	A life of service.	31:56
	Through the slow seepage of the process of secularization.	32:00
	Our religious vocabulary still (indistinct).	32:08
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	32:14
	Identity was to be found by making a name for yourself	32:29
	by luck, and luck, and favor of a god (indistinct).	32:35
	This in turn gave way to the mid-20th Century American ideal	32:44
	of organization man.	32:52
	The TV ethic of the operator (indistinct).	32:55
	According to this gospel, you found yourself	33:03
	(indistinct) living up to the expectations	33:06
	of the social (indistinct).	33:09
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	33:16
	Keeping up with the Joneses	33:24
	requires scrupulous observance of respectability	33:27
	in public relations,	33:34
	appearance, (indistinct), packaging,	33:37
	seeming (indistinct).	33:41
	Ideal (indistinct).	33:47
	They were here, engaged in a four-year (indistinct)	34:00
	provide them some (indistinct) respectability.	34:06
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	34:10
	Now we've shifted to still another lifestyle.	34:14
	We are far down another path (indistinct).	34:20
	A 10-minute saunter on this campus	34:28
	between classes would quickly dispel the impression	34:32
	that the ideal of the American undergraduate	34:38
	is to look good.	34:41
	Quite the opposite.	34:46
	The ideal rather is to (indistinct)	34:49
	against the whole phony plastic apparatus	34:53
	of the establishment.	34:59
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	35:03
	Through respectability (indistinct).	35:07
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	35:12
	All hypocrisy, all seeming to strip off	35:16
	all artificiality and pretense,	35:23
	and be natural.	35:27
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	35:31
	An outward, visible (indistinct)	35:36
	or conviction.	35:41
	We should be, not seen.	35:42
	Simplicity.	35:51
	Be yourself.	35:53
	(speaker drowned out by hissing)	35:57
	Protest by rebellion against tradition, custom,	36:00
	the past, the system, all alien authority	36:07
	in the romantic hope.	36:13
	And that if I keep stripping off the layers	36:16
	of custom, and not doing what society expects,	36:19
	I'll finally come to my authentic self.	36:27
	I'll find my glorious thing, and do it.	36:31
	Yet, the happiness complex still holds.	36:39
	Instead of the ideal of the organization man	36:44
	that we find the meaning of our existence	36:47
	in looking good, the ideal of the new youth culture	36:49
	is to feel good.	36:55
	In pursuance of this ideal,	36:59
	he will go about the daily search for identity.	37:03
	For some scratch for whatever be his present itch.	37:09
	To use whatever device at hand, aesthetic, chemical,	37:16
	sexual, mystical, to keep his soul	37:22
	in a continued state of euphoria.	37:28
	From a Christian standpoint, this progression of stages,	37:37
	to do good, to make good, to look good,	37:42
	to feel good, is a kind of cultural skid row.	37:48
	A downhill decline.	37:55
	A movement away from, rather than toward, the answer	37:58
	to the problem of identity.	38:05
	For it ends with the self looking in	38:08
	on its own emptiness.	38:12
	A will turned in upon itself,	38:15
	all the time naval-gazing.	38:18
	All the time, sticking a thermometer into its soul,	38:22
	and asking, "Oh my soul, am I happy today?	38:27
	"Am I down, am I up?"	38:32
	So devoutly preoccupied with the sacred self	38:37
	as to be oblivious of everybody else,	38:41
	and incapable of disciplined action.	38:45
	Well, it's a long time	38:53
	since the year that King Isaiah died.	38:56
	And a far distance between here	39:01
	and the temple where Isaiah	39:06
	saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.	39:08
	But you could say there's some faint reminiscent odor	39:16
	of similarity between here and there.	39:22
	That house, it says, was filled with smoke.	39:25
	This house was filled with smoke a few days ago.	39:29
	The passage from Isaiah	39:35
	is the prototype of the Biblical idea	39:40
	of vocation, or calling.	39:43
	Psychologically speaking, the concept of vocation	39:51
	corresponds to the modern concept of identity.	39:56
	In Biblical and Protestant terms,	40:01
	a person is to be identified by his name.	40:06
	He is who he is called to be by God.	40:12
	His name is given him by the Lord, the creator.	40:18
	The experience of Isaiah repeated by all the prophets	40:27
	is a sense that in the sacred place of worship,	40:34
	though sometimes it comes in secular places,	40:41
	to shepherds in the field,	40:45
	or to Amos trimming his sycamore trees,	40:49
	that he is called out from the people	40:56
	for a distinctive task to do for the people.	41:00
	"Whom shall I send?	41:06
	"Who will go for us?"	41:08
	There is this double movement in vocation.	41:12
	The call out from the community	41:15
	to a distinct identity,	41:20
	the individuating movement.	41:23
	Then the commission of service to the community	41:26
	with the assignment to recall the people to the Lord's	41:33
	covenant terms of community.	41:37
	The call to involvement with the meeting	41:40
	of human need.	41:45
	Can one draw any sort of plausible line now	41:50
	from this Biblical concept of vocation	41:57
	to us milling and stewing around in our identity crisis?	42:02
	I would hazard to draw the line of connection	42:11
	by saying that,	42:17
	within the choices of friends, fraternities,	42:18
	courses, escapes, dates, majors,	42:23
	graduate school, job openings,	42:29
	the question to be put in them all is not,	42:34
	"Which makes me feel better?"	42:40
	But, "What does God call me to do in service?"	42:42
	In the Protestant tradition, religious vocation	42:52
	does not mean a church profession,	42:56
	becoming a minister or priest.	43:00
	It means the lay ministry.	43:03
	It means, for the undergraduate,	43:05
	to look away from this tight circle of self concern.	43:10
	To look up from naval-gazing.	43:20
	To ask, "What are the desperate needs of men today?	43:23
	"Needs of body, mind, soul?"	43:27
	It is in voices of men's despair and hunger	43:33
	that God's call is heard.	43:38
	In the needy faces.	43:42
	The face of the Appalachian mine-worker's widow.	43:45
	A Vietnamese peasant.	43:52
	Or children's faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup.	43:56
	That's where God's call is glimpsed.	44:04
	And then to ask, "What talents, gifts, knacks	44:10
	do I possess that can match these needs?"	44:15
	Then to go about the whole business of college,	44:21
	to study, to equip one's self	44:27
	with the technical skills to fulfill	44:30
	one's divine vocation in work that keeps strong	44:33
	the fabric of community.	44:39
	In discovering one's talents, or gifts,	44:42
	or skills, technical wisdom and common sense	44:46
	are needed to save one's self from romantic	44:52
	and foolish vision.	44:57
	But technical wisdom does not give the dynamics	45:01
	for how one sustains meaning and worth in one's work.	45:04
	That comes from a sense of being needed	45:11
	and of fulfilling the need.	45:17
	In the vast interdependence of life with life,	45:21
	there are no higher or lower callings.	45:27
	Integrity in plumbing is as needful a skill as teaching	45:33
	or preaching, to maintain the quality of common life.	45:43
	The answer, finally, as to the problem of identity	45:51
	is to be found then by a curious indirection of grace.	45:57
	When you go at the problem of finding yourself	46:05
	by heading toward yourself as the goal of your search,	46:08
	you miss the mark.	46:15
	For the gospel word here is wiser	46:18
	than the conventional wisdom of men.	46:22
	He who seeks his life will lose it.	46:27
	He who loses his life for my sake	46:31
	and the gospel, will find it.	46:35
	Our identity is the sense of integrity,	46:39
	singleness, and fulfillment is handed back to us	46:47
	by surprise, precisely when we have ceased	46:54
	to be anxious for it.	47:00
	In our anxiety to meet human need,	47:04
	ruled in the silent, secret places	47:09
	to say, "Here am I, send me."	47:14
	Amen, let us pray.	47:24
	Almighty God, who at the far and near edges	47:31
	of our hearts, dost ever haunt us	47:38
	with a summons to the tasks of thy Kingdom.	47:44
	Grant us by thy grace	47:50
	in this sacred place	47:53
	vision to see thee	47:57
	and a heart to hear and heed thy call	48:00
	to serve the children of men,	48:06
	that in being found of thee, we may find ourselves enjoy	48:09
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	48:21
	(grand orchestral music)	48:29
	(pensive orchestral music)	51:02
	(cheerful orchestral music)	52:39
	(singing in foreign language)	52:57
	(choral music)	58:17
	(singing in foreign language)	58:47
-	Almighty God, we accept the vocation you have given us	59:33
	in your son, Jesus Christ.	59:38
	We offer our gifts and ourselves to you	59:41
	in the service of all men.	59:44
	Grant us peace with the deep restlessness of God.	59:47
	And grant us grace in that paradox of discipline of freedom.	59:54
	Grant us courage for all the necessary struggles	1:00:00
	that will lie ahead.	1:00:05
	In the name of thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ.	1:00:07
	Depart now, enter the world to serve.	1:00:15
	May the blessing of God, our almighty,	1:00:20
	the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be among you,	1:00:23
	be with you always, amen.	1:00:29
	(bell ringing)	1:00:33
	(grand orchestral music)	1:00:51
	(footsteps rapidly approaching)	1:04:33

Item Info

Title:

Waldo Beach - "Identity and Vocation" (January 31, 1971)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44j0fz8m

Date:

January 31, 1971

Speaker:

Beach, Waldo

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0557
ref6317_76o
uachapelsermaud
duke:628551
dcrau002546
ark:/87924/r44j0fz8m
a56327e7-8b6d-4e6b-ad3f-e4ad6006d82a

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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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 - "Identity and Vocation" (January 31, 1971)

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1. Waldo Beach - "Identity and Vocation" (January 31, 1971)

Duke University Archives

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Duke University Archives

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