Thomas A. Langford - "Resurrection Experienced" (April 22, 1973)

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	(gentle music)	0:03
	(congregation singing)	0:17
Minister	Hear this good news from the gospel,	5:11
	according to Saint Mark.	5:13
	And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene	5:15
	and Mary the mother of James,	5:19
	and Salome brought spices,	5:21
	so that they might go and anoint Him.	5:23
	And very early on the first day of the week,	5:27
	they went to the tomb when the sun had risen,	5:30
	and they were saying to one another,	5:33
	"who will roll away the stone for us	5:36
	from the door of the tomb?"	5:38
	And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back	5:41
	for it was very large.	5:45
	And entering the tomb they saw a young man	5:47
	sitting on the right side,	5:49
	dressed in a white robe and they were amazed,	5:51
	but he said to them, "do not be amazed.	5:56
	You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.	6:00
	He is risen.	6:04
	He is not here.	6:06
	Come and see the place where they laid him."	6:07
	Hallelujah, Christ is risen.	6:13
	The Lord is risen indeed.	6:16
	Hallelujah.	6:18
	Let us offer unto God our unison collect for Easter day.	6:33
	Let us pray,	6:38
	Almighty God,	6:40
	who through your only begotten son, Jesus Christ,	6:42
	overcame death, and opened to us,	6:46
	the gate of everlasting life,	6:49
	grant that we who celebrate with joy	6:52
	the salinity over the Lord's resurrection,	6:55
	may arise from the death of sin,	6:59
	through the renewal of your Holy Spirit,	7:02
	through Jesus Christ, Our Lord,	7:04
	who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,	7:07
	one God forever and ever.	7:12
	Amen.	7:15
	Oh thou who art Creator above us and Savior among us.	7:20
	We acknowledge the majesty of thy glory,	7:28
	and the mystery of thy mercy, especially on this day,	7:33
	the day of resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord,	7:39
	who has come in glory, offering us love for fear,	7:43
	healing for brokenness, truth for fraud, depth for surfaces,	7:49
	brimming hope for emptiness and resurrection for death.	7:58
	Glory and honor, dominion and power,	8:05
	are thine for ever and ever oh Lord.	8:09
	Oh God our father as we gather to praise	8:15
	thy majesty we remember that we are your people,	8:18
	and that we have preferred our wills to yours.	8:23
	Accepting your promise and your power,	8:29
	to become new persons in Christ.	8:32
	We confess before you our sin.	8:35
	Oh God we have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.	8:40
	We have been clever rather than kind,	8:45
	respectable rather than real,	8:48
	practical rather than penetrating.	8:52
	We have played the cynic before holy things	8:55
	and out of the poverty of our own vision,	8:59
	scoffed at the riches of faith.	9:01
	We move through thy world with a blurred vision,	9:06
	seeing it upside down crooked and contrary.	9:09
	Pledged to self-interest,	9:14
	we have made molehills into mountains	9:17
	and mountains into molehills.	9:19
	We have set up briar trees of self-pity,	9:22
	and do not see the climbing for us of thy grace.	9:25
	Oh Lord, our Father,	9:30
	the God of the Lord Jesus Christ.	9:34
	Take our thin meager souls and by thy grace,	9:37
	give them substance and hugeness and generosity	9:41
	and victory and trust.	9:47
	Through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.	9:50
	Amen.	9:54
	Hear these words of assurance daily and hourly,	9:58
	and in this moment of God's good and forgiving time.	10:03
	His grace springs forth among us.	10:08
	God the father gives it, Jesus Christ the son reveals it,	10:12
	the Holy Spirit bears it to us and to all men.	10:17
	Grace in us abounding.	10:22
	Angel stands in our blood, the lame walk,	10:26
	the sick are healed the very mountains rejoice,	10:30
	and the valleys are exalted because of this day.	10:35
	This is the day of the Lord.	10:40
	Now is the day of the Lord's favor.	10:43
	Your prayers are heard your sins are forgiven,	10:48
	your life is open.	10:52
	Glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Ghost.	10:56
	Amen.	11:02
	Now let us offer as members of the reconciled family of God,	11:06
	the prayer of all Christians.	11:11
	Our father who art in heaven,	11:15
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	11:17
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	11:21
	Give us this day, our daily bread,	11:25
	and forgive us our trespasses,	11:28
	As we forgive those who trespass against us,	11:31
	and lead us not into temptation,	11:34
	but deliver us from evil.	11:37
	For thine is the kingdom,	11:39
	and the power and the glory forever,	11:41
	Amen.	11:45
	Hear these words from the Epistle to Corinth	12:01
	concerning the meaning of this Easter day.	12:05
	But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,	12:12
	the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.	12:17
	For as by a man came death,	12:21
	by a man also has come the resurrection of the dead.	12:24
	For as in Adam all die,	12:29
	so also in Christ shall all be made alive.	12:32
	But each in his own order.	12:37
	Christ the first fruits,	12:40
	then at his coming those who belong to Christ.	12:43
	Then comes the end,	12:48
	when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father,	12:49
	after destroying every rule and every authority,	12:53
	and every power.	12:57
	For he must reign until he has put all his enemies	12:59
	under his feet.	13:03
	The last enemy to be destroyed is death.	13:05
	For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet."	13:10
	But when it says,	13:15
	" all things are put in subjection under him",	13:16
	it is plain that He is expected,	13:20
	who put all things under him.	13:22
	When all things are subjected to him,	13:26
	then the Son himself will also be subjected to him	13:29
	who put all things under him,	13:34
	that God the Father may be all things to everyone.	13:37
	Here ends the reading of the Epistle.	13:43
	(choir singing)	13:50
	Let us rise as we affirm our faith.	15:52
	I believe in God,	16:00
	the Father Almighty,	16:02
	Maker of heaven and earth	16:03
	and in Jesus Christ, His only son, Our Lord,	16:05
	who was conceived by the Holy spirit,	16:09
	born of the Virgin Mary,	16:12
	suffered under Pontius Pilate	16:14
	Was crucified, dead and buried.	16:16
	The third day, He rose from the dead.	16:19
	He ascended into heaven,	16:22
	and seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.	16:24
	From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	16:28
	I believe in the Holy Spirit,	16:32
	the Holy Catholic church,	16:34
	the Communion of Saints,	16:36
	the Forgiveness of sins,	16:38
	the Resurrection of the body,	16:40
	and the life everlasting.	16:42
	Amen.	16:45
	The Lord be with you.	16:46
congregation	And also with you.	16:48
Minister	Let us pray.	16:50
	Oh God invisible and eternal,	17:07
	thou of a hundred names	17:12
	but ever the same in mercy and in love,	17:13
	we praise thee for creation and all its power.	17:18
	For the things made in the beginning,	17:23
	and that have come in the spring.	17:25
	We praise and we thank thee oh God.	17:28
	For the rebirth of green foliage and of the colors.	17:32
	For the ease to the eyes,	17:38
	for the sure restoration of what is burned out,	17:41
	frozen out, dried out and drowned out.	17:45
	We praise thee oh Lord,	17:50
	for the daily power of conceiving new life,	17:52
	which thou does give.	17:57
	We thank thee oh Lord for all the rhythms of life.	18:01
	We praise thee on this Easter day for the beat of sound,	18:05
	the beat of the heart, the beat of the drum,	18:10
	the pulse of all life and tree and bird and flower.	18:13
	We praise thee for the clapping of hands,	18:18
	and the tapping of toes and the snapping of the fingers	18:21
	and the nod of the head.	18:24
	We praise thee oh Lord for the rhythm of the seasons.	18:26
	For warm noons and cool nights,	18:30
	for sunset and sunrise,	18:34
	for the moon, for the cycles of the sea,	18:36
	and the cycles of the spirit.	18:40
	Lord God our creator, we thank thee for birth,	18:43
	for rebirth, for childhood and parenthood,	18:47
	for woman and for men,	18:53
	for life and for resurrected life.	18:55
	We thank and praise and glorify thee,	19:01
	for the rhythm of life by which we live	19:06
	and move and have our being.	19:09
	God's in the midst of our praise,	19:15
	we are aware of our need.	19:18
	Some of us have gathered here	19:21
	who have to struggle with past deep depression	19:24
	or loss or fear of fatal illness,	19:29
	and our own impending death.	19:34
	Please give us we ask the ability,	19:38
	to rejoice in thy presence	19:41
	and in thy life no matter what our condition is,	19:44
	at this particular moment.	19:48
	Loving Father, hear our prayer we ask,	19:52
	for all people who inhabit this earth.	19:56
	For people torn apart by questions.	20:00
	For lives filled with emptiness and despair.	20:04
	For people who are bitter because of tragedy	20:09
	or accident of birth.	20:12
	For those who try to use their abilities	20:16
	and are prevented by manmade systems	20:19
	for all the victims of war,	20:23
	for those who have been hurt so badly,	20:27
	they are afraid to risk involvement in life once again.	20:30
	For those considering suicide on this day of new life.	20:36
	And for people who have special costs as do all of us do,	20:43
	to rejoice in the resurrected faith of the people of God.	20:49
	Oh Lord our Father sharpen our awareness,	20:57
	and our sensitivity to thy people	21:01
	and enable us to minister to them through your love	21:04
	and through your life.	21:09
	May the glory of the meaning of this day,	21:12
	transform us into new men and women,	21:15
	validly alive in all times and places,	21:20
	because we are alive in thee,	21:25
	through Jesus Christ, our resurrected Lord.	21:28
	Amen.	21:33
	We are pleased to welcome	21:39
	to the University's service of worship and its pulpit,	21:40
	the Reverend Dr. Thomas Lankford,	21:44
	dean of the Duke Divinity School.	21:47
-	[Dr. Thomas Lankford] Sing with all the sons of glory,	22:03
	sing the resurrection song.	22:07
	Death and sorrow.	22:11
	Earth's dark story, to the former days, the law.	22:13
	Easter Sunday.	22:22
	There's a spirit about this day,	22:25
	a sense of freshness, of overcoming, of expectation.	22:28
	We arrive at Easter with a new sense of possibility.	22:38
	The joy of spring,	22:43
	a day of festival.	22:47
	A last marker before the home stretch of the semester.	22:50
	The sight and the smell of the beginning of summer.	22:56
	and with it all, a time of resurrection	23:02
	and the celebration of life and hope for the future.	23:07
	General impressions move upon us.	23:17
	But what does Easter mean, in specific terms?	23:20
	I recently received a letter from a friend named Harold,	23:29
	who was the editor of a magazine.	23:35
	He expressed interest in my writing an article	23:40
	for his magazine on the resurrection.	23:43
	But before the letter arrived, Harold had died.	23:51
	Shortly after receiving the letter,	24:02
	Harold's and Mary Ruth's second son was eating in our home.	24:05
	We talked about his late father	24:12
	and what I had known was reinforced.	24:15
	Harold was a religious man,	24:20
	a man who struggled to live.	24:24
	A man who attempted to serve other people.	24:27
	He was low key, rather self-effacing,	24:32
	sometimes raw,	24:38
	but always resilient and determined.	24:41
	Now he was dead.	24:47
	But before he died he'd asked if I would write an article	24:51
	on the resurrection.	24:56
	I accepted the invitation,	25:01
	but the claim which Harold made upon me by his own death.	25:05
	Focus the issues of life and death	25:10
	so as to make it difficult to speak quickly	25:13
	or glibly or without serious reflection.	25:16
	How could I interpret the resurrection	25:24
	in the face of Harold's death?	25:26
	I'm aware of this poignant situation.	25:33
	As I struggle to say something about the reality of death	25:36
	and the promise of resurrection today.	25:41
	And there are other events.	25:47
	I pick up a newspaper	25:51
	and read about the closure of life for disadvantaged people.	25:54
	The restrictions upon life which bring hunger,	26:00
	the subtle and systematic disregard for personal worth	26:05
	and opportunity.	26:11
	And again one finds it difficult to speak.	26:14
	Or one walks across this campus	26:23
	and finds broken relationships and emotional distress,	26:26
	one finds loss of personal meaning,	26:33
	a sense of triviality or impossibility,	26:37
	the annulment of life.	26:44
	And again, one finds it difficult to speak.	26:48
	How can the meaning of resurrection be interpreted	26:55
	in the face of such denial of life?	26:58
	I'm aware of these poignant situations,	27:04
	as I struggle to say something about	27:08
	the reality of negation and the promise of resurrection.	27:10
	To speak at all,	27:17
	I'm forced back upon the most basic points of beginning.	27:19
	In Christian faith,	27:28
	the hope of resurrection is established	27:30
	directly upon the resurrection of Jesus.	27:33
	It is in his conquest of death that we affirm our faith,	27:37
	that death can be conquered.	27:44
	Resurrection faith comes from	27:49
	and is placed upon this one person.	27:51
	Jesus is our hope.	27:56
	But we need to say why this is so.	28:02
	The first emphasis in the resurrection	28:06
	is that God has acted in history.	28:10
	The resurrection is important	28:13
	because in raising Jesus, God has affirmed his sovereignty	28:15
	over life and death and life.	28:21
	God is sovereign over life.	28:28
	We are created by Him.	28:32
	We exist because of His mercy.	28:35
	We live under His providence.	28:39
	It is because God is sovereign,	28:44
	that we have the confidence to affirm and celebrate life.	28:48
	Even in the routines of daily existence	28:53
	and in the threat of meaninglessness,	28:57
	we can affirm life because God rules.	29:02
	God is also sovereign over death.	29:10
	We die under the overarching grace of His bountiful care.	29:14
	Death is an episode	29:21
	in the ongoingness of God's gracious dominion.	29:23
	We face this litigation, this foreclosure,	29:29
	with the confidence of those who know	29:34
	that the immediate challenge of death	29:37
	is not the final conclusion of meaning.	29:39
	As sovereign over death, God reinstates life.	29:46
	From creation to death to recreation.	29:53
	These are the major moments in life,	30:00
	and they are the major themes in God's sovereign providence.	30:05
	God has made us and we possess life as His gift.	30:13
	Mortality has its way and we die.	30:19
	Through death, we are made possessors of resurrected life	30:26
	as God's new gift.	30:33
	The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the historical point	30:38
	where God affirmed his sovereignty over life and death,	30:44
	and gives new life upon which our hope is based.	30:53
	Now we come back to our situation.	31:03
	Remembering Harold, what can we say?	31:07
	What can we say to his family?	31:14
	What can we say to his friends?	31:17
	What can we say to ourselves?	31:20
	Remembering the way life is canceled	31:24
	for a many people who continue to live.	31:26
	What can we say?	31:31
	The resurrection of Jesus comes as a startling,	31:37
	evocative, exhilarating revolutionizing event.	31:43
	It is an event which has meaning for our lives.	31:51
	Resurrection transforms our attitude toward life.	31:56
	Toward the living of life in the present.	32:02
	Because of Jesus' resurrection, we're able to relax.	32:06
	We laugh and reach out.	32:12
	We are set free in the present to affirm the present.	32:16
	We are set free for the future to live with hope.	32:22
	Life has a different quality because of the resurrection.	32:29
	But about this we should be clear.	32:34
	Life is not different	32:38
	because ordinary responsibilities are gone	32:41
	or because it's routines are set aside.	32:45
	Rather, even in the midst of everyday-ness,	32:49
	we are aware of God's sovereign mercy.	32:54
	In the midst of the usual activities,	32:57
	we are able to laugh to let go and cry.	33:01
	To work and hum.	33:09
	To look ahead at expectation.	33:14
	For a moment,	33:21
	we should sustain this primary note of exaltation.	33:23
	We should hold on to the poetry	33:27
	and not fall immediately back to the	33:29
	usual prosaic perceptions of life.	33:31
	For Easter is joy and victory and song and hope.	33:34
	Easter is freedom.	33:44
	Such freedom is first evident	33:50
	as a new way of living present life.	33:52
	Resurrection speaks to our present existence.	33:56
	It calls for affirmation and embrace of our time	34:00
	and of our relationships.	34:04
	Because of the resurrection,	34:08
	anxiety about the future is removed.	34:12
	We can accept the present with its possibilities	34:17
	and its limitations.	34:19
	We can allow human life to be human,	34:22
	with its love and its neglect.	34:26
	We can laugh because we can trust.	34:31
	We can relax because we are related to that	34:36
	which is ultimate and eternal.	34:41
	We are set free to love and to weep.	34:45
	We're released from our efforts to control the world	34:52
	and to protect ourselves.	34:55
	We are set free to care and to serve.	34:57
	Such freedom is evident in our striving to bring freedom	35:04
	to others.	35:09
	To be free is to share freedom,	35:12
	to be alive is to share life with others.	35:15
	The resurrection of Jesus finds us all together in His life.	35:21
	The resurrection experience can not be hoarded.	35:29
	It can not be contained in the narrow confines	35:33
	of individual life or of personal hope.	35:37
	The resurrection sets us free to free those in bondage.	35:41
	It places upon us,	35:47
	an obligation to emancipate the miserable of the earth.	35:48
	It gives us obligations which are political and economic	35:54
	and physical and psychological as well as spiritual .	35:57
	To believe in the resurrection	36:02
	is to accept the responsibilities in life	36:05
	for the lives of other people.	36:09
	Resurrection means freedom.	36:13
	It means liberation.	36:15
	It means living as free and as freeing other people.	36:17
	But who can participate in this freedom?	36:26
	Can we who knew Harold?	36:31
	Can we who know human bondage and lack of freedom?	36:34
	Is it not sacrilege, a despoliation of memory,	36:40
	a refusal to admit tragedy,	36:46
	to talk of joy and freedom	36:48
	in the face of denial and loss of life?	36:50
	There is loss, a real loss,	36:56
	when bondage or death thunders human community.	37:00
	Everyday-ness continues with its struggle for life,	37:06
	for meaning, for happiness, for service.	37:09
	Burdens remain and are not easily set aside.	37:16
	Systems and individuals alove life.	37:20
	But in the midst of the youth,	37:25
	there is the unusual perception of God's life	37:28
	which continues,	37:32
	and which by continuing sustains our living.	37:34
	Now let me add one final dimension.	37:44
	You have perhaps expected that I would speak of future life	37:48
	of life beyond this life.	37:51
	And I've so far refrained from doing so.	37:54
	Not because such future's unimportant,	37:58
	but because we often skip over the present	38:01
	in order to move to the future.	38:04
	And from the standpoint of the resurrection,	38:07
	such a historical jump is wrong.	38:10
	But there is a future there's also a future,	38:16
	perhaps most important of all there is a future.	38:22
	And from the standpoint of the resurrection,	38:28
	we know that future is God's sovereign rule.	38:32
	That that which He's done in the present	38:36
	and for the present He carries over into the future	38:39
	for the future.	38:41
	Death is defeated.	38:43
	The limitations of mortality are overcome.	38:45
	The annulment of life is revolt.	38:49
	We began by asking what we could say to Harold's family	38:55
	and to ourselves.	38:58
	We began by asking,	39:01
	what we can say to those, to whom life is denied.	39:02
	And we answered in part by stressing the presence of God.	39:09
	Now we must also stress the future of God.	39:16
	There is the continuation of life beyond this life.	39:21
	There's an ongoingness an unstoppable ongoingness,	39:25
	because God continues to rule.	39:28
	And this is the central part about Easter hope.	39:31
	It is in that future that we shall in resounding victory,	39:37
	know the final emancipation and shall be able to cry,	39:44
	"free at last, free at last.	39:51
	Praise God Almighty I'm free at last."	39:56
	In the name of the Father, and of the Son,	40:05
	and of the Holy Spirit.	40:08
	Amen.	40:11
	(congregation singing)	40:16
Minister	Almighty God thou has given thyself to us	53:50
	in Jesus Christ.	53:53
	Now we give ourselves and our gifts to thee for others.	53:56
	His resurrection has made us a new people,	54:03
	as a people of hope we will serve thee with joy.	54:06
	His glory has filled our hearts.	54:12
	Help us oh God to glorify thee in all things.	54:15
	Amen.	54:21
	(congregation singing)	54:34

Item Info

Title:

Thomas A. Langford - "Resurrection Experienced" (April 22, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4v40q129

Date:

April 22, 1973

Speaker:

Langford, Thomas A.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0654
ref6510_ad0
uachapelsermaud
duke:628349
dcrau002634
ark:/87924/r4v40q129
b77d64fe-c9a4-4c6d-b0c5-a8481be18720

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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United States
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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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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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Thomas A. Langford - "Resurrection Experienced" (April 22, 1973)

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1. Thomas A. Langford - "Resurrection Experienced" (April 22, 1973)

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Thomas A. Langford - "Resurrection Experienced" (April 22, 1973)

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