W. Arthur Kale - "The Secular - Holy City" (December 3, 1972)

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-	Special prayers to rejoice.	0:04
	Oh Lord, sharpen our awareness	0:08
	and sensitivity to your people	0:10
	and enable us to minister to them through your love.	0:13
	Amen.	0:17
-	The thoughts I share with you in this hour	0:41
	are offered in response to a very specific request.	0:46
	When the assignment to be the preacher	0:53
	at this particular occasion came, sometime last spring,	0:57
	I was given a proposed sermon topic,	1:04
	that proposal being some reflections on Handel's Messiah.	1:08
	With that in mind,	1:19
	I invite you to listen still to the reading of the scripture	1:21
	and to my reflections regarding this particular scripture.	1:25
	As is appropriate for the first Sunday in Advent,	1:33
	we have already listened to a lesson from Isaiah.	1:38
	I read again from Isaiah this time	1:42
	from chapter 40, one verse number nine,	1:46
	and from chapter 60, one verse, verse one.	1:52
	At the conclusion of the sermon,	1:58
	we shall be privileged to listen again	2:01
	to Handel's rendition of this same passage	2:05
	as brought to us by the choir and the featured soloist.	2:09
	"O Zion that bring us good tidings	2:16
	get thee up into the high mountain.	2:20
	O Jerusalem that bring us good tidings	2:24
	lift up your voice with strength.	2:27
	Lift it up, be not afraid.	2:30
	Say to the cities of Judah.	2:33
	Behold your God.	2:36
	Arise, shine, for thy light has come	2:40
	and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."	2:44
	This is not the first sermon I have preached	2:52
	nor possibly the last in which I have used Isaiah	2:56
	as the scriptural source or my reflection.	3:04
	This is not the first occasion	3:09
	when some clergyman has used Handel's Messiah,	3:10
	as both the inspiration and something of the substance	3:15
	for a scriptural message.	3:20
	One of the more famous pulpit utterances	3:25
	regarding the Messiah was spoken in the city of London	3:29
	some 40 years after the composition of the oratorio,	3:37
	and just about 25 years after Handel's death.	3:42
	There was a famous English divine	3:48
	by the name of John Newton.	3:50
	John Newton, not like most clergyman	3:54
	did not speak in tribute regarding Handel's oratorio,	3:57
	rather he spoke as an act of protest.	4:03
	He did not like the Handel celebration or "Commemoration,"	4:07
	which was held in London in Westminster Abbey	4:14
	in May of the year, 1784.	4:17
	So he spent many Sundays of that same year	4:21
	and practically all of the following year	4:25
	in a series of sermons, not one,	4:29
	in a series of 50 sermons on Handel's Messiah.	4:32
	I have only one, and I begin now.	4:39
	But first, as a kind of backdrop,	4:46
	I quote briefly from John Newton's act of protest	4:49
	in the years, 1784, 1785.	4:56
	In the last sermon really,	5:01
	Newton said,	5:04
	"It is probable that those of my hearers	5:07
	who admire this oratorio and who are often present	5:11
	when it is performed, may think me harsh and singular	5:16
	in my opinion, that of all musical compositions,	5:21
	this is the most improper for a public entertainment."	5:27
	And then he added,	5:34
	"While it continues to be equally acceptable,	5:35
	whether performed in church or theater,	5:39
	I can rate it no higher than	5:42
	one of the many fashionable amusements,	5:47
	which mark the character of this age of dissipation."	5:50
	Well, I have come neither to protest nor to engage	5:56
	in an act of dissipation.	5:59
	I could think of other contexts for the latter exercise.	6:01
	Nearly 200 years, with a gesture of some respect,	6:05
	possibly in Newton's direction,	6:12
	I paraphrase a well-known TV commercial,	6:15
	and respond to John Newton and say,	6:19
	we have come a long way Padre.	6:22
	Whatever else one might say about the greatness,	6:28
	or the near greatness of Handel's oratorio,	6:34
	one fact I believe is worthy of careful attention	6:40
	in these later decades of the 20th century.	6:46
	I call your attention to the fact	6:54
	that there is an urban orientation here.	6:58
	There is a remarkably urban flavor	7:05
	to the scripture passages selected	7:11
	and to the rendition and arrangement	7:14
	as the great Handel wrote and offered later	7:17
	for presentation his oratorio.	7:22
	Now I am not unmindful	7:26
	that in the biblical passages used in Messiah,	7:27
	there are references to nature, to the seas,	7:33
	to the desert, to the wilderness, to mountains,	7:40
	and I'm not disposed to ignore the fact	7:44
	that there is prominence given to fields	7:47
	and to flocks and to shepherds.	7:50
	But I am persuaded that the primary imagery	7:54
	is an urban imagery.	7:58
	How conspicuous is the city of Jerusalem?	8:05
	From the opening recitative,	8:11
	"Comfort ye, comfort ye,"	8:15
	in which the name of the city is spoken,	8:19
	on through to the final triumphant choruses	8:23
	proclaiming the glories of the city of God	8:30
	or the new Jerusalem,	8:33
	one finds a clue to understanding Messiah	8:36
	in a multiplicity of urban imagery.	8:41
	Perhaps in a day of urbanization,	8:48
	when all of us are conscious	8:53
	that society as a whole is a part of city life,	8:55
	it may be appropriate for us to interpret Messiah	9:01
	today as an urban phenomenon,	9:05
	with a message for urban people.	9:10
	Here are gates and streets and highways connecting them.	9:14
	Here are buildings,	9:22
	especially one great building called the temple.	9:24
	Here is government and leaders of government	9:29
	and the vocabulary of one in authority.	9:33
	Here are crowds and movements of crowds.	9:39
	Here is corruption.	9:44
	Here is weariness.	9:48
	Here is rejection.	9:50
	Here is sorrow.	9:52
	Here is struggle and confusion and inequity.	9:54
	Here, in these glorious statements	10:01
	in the strong pictorial language,	10:08
	one finds the representations of the problems	10:13
	of urban society as experienced by the builders	10:18
	and residents of the most universal of man's cities.	10:25
	How remarkably often	10:35
	Jerusalem has been in the news.	10:39
	One scholar I consulted has estimated that some news	10:44
	about that site, a kind of bluff in one sense,	10:50
	a high place in a little territory ,	10:57
	at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean,	11:00
	from that one site for about 40 centuries,	11:05
	some kind of news has been coming forth.	11:10
	Literally it has not been possible	11:16
	to imprison Jerusalem in antiquity,	11:20
	as has been the case of other ancient cities,	11:24
	such as Nineveh and Babylon and Sumeria.	11:28
	Through the centuries, she has stood .	11:33
	Her walls have changed and are still changing.	11:38
	Her first glories are no longer there,	11:44
	but other glories have replaced the first ones.	11:48
	Never was she a dream city,	11:53
	she was a real city,	11:58
	when one called David,	12:01
	selected this barren bluff as the site	12:05
	for his headquarters and operation and around	12:10
	which has developed what many regard	12:16
	as the Holy City.	12:19
	Not only is she precious in our tradition,	12:26
	as we celebrate as Christians,	12:28
	the season called Advent,	12:30
	Jerusalem is precious for three or precious to	12:34
	three great world religions.	12:40
	Because of this fact,	12:46
	and perhaps for our political facts as well,	12:47
	Jerusalem has been the most disputed site in history.	12:50
	Through her gates and along her streets	12:57
	have marched the armies of many rulers.	13:02
	To her have hosts of human derelicts, moved with longing	13:07
	and with expectation.	13:16
	From her shrines as well as from her street corners	13:19
	have been offered millions of prayers	13:25
	in every known language.	13:28
	Truly she is both Secular and holy.	13:32
	And with that sentence,	13:44
	I introduce a mean thought	13:45
	or selected item from my reflections,	13:53
	which I would like to feel that many of you will take with	13:58
	you after this hour to consider further.	14:02
	Jerusalem is not two cities,	14:08
	one of them secular, the other holy,	14:14
	but one city which sets in juxtaposition,	14:21
	the secular and the holy.	14:29
	There have been many holy cities.	14:36
	Mecca, the great place of assembly and worship for Islam,	14:41
	Thebes the ancient of Egypt	14:49
	and the site of the temple of Karnak,	14:52
	Lhasa the capital of Tibet and often called God's ground.	14:56
	Banaras one of the most ancient of all cities	15:04
	and sacred for the Hindus.	15:07
	One could add to the list,	15:12
	but at the top of the full list	15:15
	is this holiest of all cities we call Jerusalem.	15:19
	In some senses like other cities,	15:26
	but still quite different	15:30
	and possessing of a very special gift.	15:32
	Her special gift coming to this fateful day	15:36
	and time in century number 20 AD	15:43
	has been the gift of insight into the nature	15:48
	and purposes of Almighty God.	15:52
	Out of her rich experience Jerusalem witnesses	15:56
	to all peoples	16:01
	and varied faiths and political philosophies,	16:03
	concerning her knowledge of and experience with God.	16:07
	She has known God as no other city has known Him.	16:14
	All this, George Frideric Handel,	16:25
	must have felt,	16:32
	as he worked in the City of London 200 and more years ago.	16:36
	Handel came to London in the year 1710,	16:45
	fresh from a triumphal	16:49
	and highly successful period in Italy,	16:52
	and literally took fashionable London by storm	17:00
	with his opera Rinaldo.	17:06
	For a while he found among the wealthy	17:11
	and fashionable society of the city of London,	17:16
	a congenial circle of patrons to sponsor his own	17:20
	personal ambition and scheming.	17:28
	But Handel was victimized	17:33
	and caught in the rivalries at court	17:37
	and in the jealousies	17:42
	and greed off professional stars of opera.	17:44
	So that 20 years later	17:50
	or a little more, he was bankrupt,	17:56
	opera as he interpreted discredited,	18:01
	and he suffered physically from paralysis.	18:05
	But he was not defeated.	18:10
	He shifted as many of you know,	18:13
	from opera to oratorio.	18:15
	And we come to an important year, 1741	18:19
	and to the months of August and September.	18:24
	In a period of about three weeks	18:30
	covering a part of those two months,	18:32
	he worked madly on the score,	18:35
	which was to become, Messiah.	18:40
	In a period of about three weeks I say,	18:45
	he prepared 265 pages	18:48
	with barely a correction at the time or later.	18:54
	Using the city of London as his setting	19:00
	and the situation of his own personal affairs	19:05
	as a springboard,	19:08
	Handel found it desirable	19:12
	to exalt the city that has stayed	19:15
	in the news, century by century	19:22
	through the 18th or the time of Handel	19:28
	even until now.	19:32
	What readers of the Bible and lovers of good music are asked	19:36
	to observe as you ponder this oratorio	19:40
	or read the scriptural selections	19:44
	is the human tragedy of urbanization.	19:49
	Burdened people, broken families,	19:56
	distress that is difficult to be borne,	19:59
	and the priority of matter over persons.	20:03
	But although the clear reference to the evils	20:14
	of urbanization is there, both Isaiah in the long ago,	20:19
	and gospel writers in the period	20:28
	following the appearance of God in the flesh and on through	20:31
	until now persons representing the city have been able to	20:36
	set in juxtaposition to the secular	20:41
	a message about the holy.	20:47
	Jerusalem offers offers light	20:52
	to people who walk in darkness.	20:57
	Jerusalem calls people who wonder aimlessly	21:00
	in some wilderness area, mental as well as physical,	21:06
	wilderness of spirit, as well as depression of mind	21:13
	and defeat of body,	21:19
	Jerusalem calls those people to build highways.	21:21
	Jerusalem, greatest of all holy cities,	21:29
	city of revelation,	21:35
	bearer of good news across the centuries and days	21:38
	keeps the secular and the holy in juxtaposition.	21:43
	In doing so, the holiness of mobility occurs.	21:51
	Speaking with a voice of experience,	21:59
	Jerusalem confirms what other cities have found to be true,	22:03
	that in change, in movement,	22:09
	which characterizes the ferment	22:14
	and the operation of every city,	22:17
	in movement, there is also a pathway to God.	22:20
	I have left only enough time to say very briefly,	22:27
	one final thing.	22:32
	Jerusalem not only sets in juxtaposition	22:35
	appropriate affinity, the sacred and the secular,	22:39
	Jerusalem keeps ever before the mind of men,	22:48
	the story of a person.	22:55
	More than it is a story of a city,	23:00
	Messiah is the story of a person.	23:08
	I have emphasized the city today in order to indicate	23:15
	the relevance of this kind of literature,	23:19
	and this component in our culture.	23:24
	I have done so in order to illustrate	23:28
	the relevance of it all.	23:32
	For those of us who are caught up in the movement and change	23:35
	of our urbanized society.	23:40
	To all that I add now,	23:44
	a conviction that stretches across many years,	23:47
	25, at least, of attending recitals on this campus	23:52
	and presentations of Handel's great oratorio in this chapel.	23:59
	I do so believing profoundly that the coming	24:04
	of a person, the person,	24:11
	the city person of one century	24:17
	and the city person of every century	24:20
	is also relevant and important.	24:25
	To the early Jerusalem,	24:31
	the person came to be a reconciling power,	24:37
	a redeeming force,	24:46
	a light bearer,	24:51
	to people experiencing shadow and darkness.	24:56
	Let us pray.	25:07
	How grateful we are,	25:14
	oh God of the centuries,	25:18
	oh God of the cities,	25:21
	oh God of humanity,	25:25
	for the revelation that has come	25:30
	in the great tradition we have inherited	25:34
	and which we celebrate again now	25:37
	as we come into a period called Advent.	25:42
	Help us to get better acquainted on today,	25:47
	and in coming days with Him, called Messiah.	25:52
	In His name, Amen.	26:04
	(lively orchestral music)	26:14
	(soft instrumentals)	28:40
	(orchestral music solo)	29:54
	(lively orchestral music)	34:26
-	Oh, Lord.	37:19
	We give thanks to you for all we have this day.	37:21
	We offer you our money, our minds, our time,	37:26
	our talents, and skills,	37:31
	and our willingness to be your people.	37:33
	We give thanks for all that we have been given,	37:37
	and we offer you our lives with joy.	37:40
	And now Lord grant that the words we have said	37:45
	and sung this day may find favor in your sight	37:48
	and that your truth may be so grafted in our hearts,	37:53
	that our lives will show forth its fruits	37:58
	to your honor and glory for ever and ever,	38:01
	Amen.	38:05
	And now go forth to be God's people in His world	38:08
	and may his love and strength and peace	38:13
	go with you.	38:17
	(orchestral music)	38:25
	(bell chimes)	40:02
	(lively orchestral music)	40:27

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Title:

W. Arthur Kale - "The Secular - Holy City" (December 3, 1972)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4zc7ww51

Date:

December 3, 1972

Speaker:

Kale, W. Arthur

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0642
ref6487_tdq
uachapelsermaud
duke:628691
dcrau002626
ark:/87924/r4zc7ww51
0b5f9109-86b6-400e-a1b6-8818aa720534

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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

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W. Arthur Kale - "The Secular - Holy City" (December 3, 1972)

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