Robert T. Young - "A Letter to My Son" (October 21, 1973)

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	(organ music)	0:03
	(choir vocalizing)	0:33
-	If we say we have no sin,	4:22
	we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.	4:26
	Therefore, let us offer unto God,	4:35
	our unison prayer of confession and for pardon,	4:39
	let us pray.	4:45
	Most merciful father,	4:48
	we come before you to confess that we have not been worthy	4:51
	to be called your children.	4:56
	We have not understand your commandments	4:59
	nor have we fulfilled them.	5:02
	We have treated human laws as divine laws.	5:05
	We have sacrifice persons for principles.	5:10
	We have love assenters and have despised dissenters.	5:14
	We have been quick to condemn and slow to forgive.	5:21
	Dear Lord forgive us our rash judgment	5:26
	and teach us your mercy.	5:31
	Grant us the understanding to remove logs from our own eyes	5:34
	so that we made better see the love within your laws	5:40
	in Jesus name.	5:45
	Amen.	5:47
	And in quietness that as offered unto God	5:49
	any personal confession.	5:53
	Hear the good news,	6:06
	this statement is completely reliable	6:09
	and should be universally accepted,	6:13
	Christ Jesus entered the world to a rescue sinners.	6:17
	So let it be.	6:25
	And let us offer unto God,	6:29
	the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples saying together,	6:31
	our father in heaven.	6:36
	Holy be your name, your kingdom come	6:39
	your will be done on earth as in heaven,	6:45
	give us today the bread we need.	6:49
	Forgive us our sins	6:53
	as we forgive those who sin against us,	6:56
	save us in the time of trial and deliver us from evil	7:00
	for the kingdom, the power	7:06
	and the glory are yours now and forever.	7:09
	Amen.	7:14
	(organ music)	7:19
	(choir vocalizing)	8:11
-	The first of this morning's lessons	11:54
	is from the book of Micah, the sixth chapter.	11:57
	"With what shall I come before the Lord	12:03
	and bow myself before God on high,	12:07
	shall I come before him with burnt offerings,	12:11
	with calves a year old.	12:15
	Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rivers of oil?	12:19
	Shall I give my first born for my transgressions,	12:25
	the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.	12:29
	He has showed you, oh man, what is good.	12:35
	And what does the Lord require of you?	12:40
	But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly	12:44
	with your God."	12:50
	The second of today's lessons comes from the Gospel of Luke,	12:59
	the 18th chapter.	13:04
	"He also told this parable	13:08
	to some who trusted in themselves,	13:11
	that they were righteous and despised others.	13:14
	Two men went up into the temple to pray,	13:19
	one Pharisee and the other a tax collector.	13:23
	The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,	13:29
	'God, I thank thee that I am not like other men,	13:34
	extortioners, unjust, adulterers,	13:39
	or even like this tax collector.	13:45
	I fast twice a week.	13:49
	I give ties of all that I get.'	13:52
	But the tax collector standing far off	13:56
	would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,	14:00
	but beat his breast saying,	14:04
	'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'	14:07
	I tell you this man went down to his house justified	14:12
	rather than the other,	14:17
	for everyone who humbles himself will be exalted."	14:19
	(organ music)	14:26
	(choir vocalizing)	14:35
-	Let us (indistinct) faith in unison.	15:06
	"We believe in God, who has created and is creating,	15:11
	who has come in the true man, Jesus,	15:16
	to reconcile and make new.	15:20
	Who works in us and others by his spirit.	15:23
	We trust him.	15:28
	He calls us to be in his church to celebrate his presence,	15:30
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	15:35
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.	15:42
	Our judge and our hope,	15:46
	in life in death, in life beyond death,	15:49
	God is with us.	15:54
	We are not alone.	15:56
	Thanks be to God."	15:59
	The Lord be with you.	16:01
-	And also with you.	16:04
-	Let us pray.	16:05
	Let us offer first a prayer of Thanksgiving.	16:15
	Blessed and eternal God,	16:20
	from whom we come by whom we are sustained	16:24
	and to whom we shall return.	16:29
	We thank thee for the good things bequeath to us	16:32
	by the journeying generations,	16:37
	others labored and we have entered into the profits	16:40
	of their labor.	16:45
	Churches we did not build,	16:48
	our centers for our worship and inspiration.	16:51
	Liberties we did not earn are our birthright.	16:56
	Truths we did not discover are lamp to our feet	17:02
	and a light upon our path.	17:08
	And at this Palms weekend,	17:12
	we remember most of us in gratitude, our own home.	17:15
	As we have freely received so may we freely serve,	17:23
	make us wise in the arts of stewardship.	17:28
	Grant that we may so live and work	17:33
	that those who come after us,	17:35
	shall rejoice that we passed this way.	17:38
	Let us off with a prayer of intercession	17:45
	for the world in trouble.	17:48
	Oh God, the father, who has made of one blood	17:53
	all the nations of the earth,	17:57
	we pray that spring and courage abundance be given	18:01
	to all who work for the world of reason and understanding.	18:04
	We pray that the good which lies in man's heart	18:11
	may day by day be magnified.	18:15
	We pray that men will come to see more clearly	18:20
	not that which divides them, but that which unites them.	18:24
	We pray that each hour may bring us closer	18:31
	to a final victory, not of a nation over a nation,	18:33
	but of man over his own evils and weakness.	18:40
	And let us offer a prayer of supplication for firmness.	18:48
	Oh God, who has given us the grace	18:55
	to parry the sword of thy kingdom of peace.	18:57
	Who has made us and messengers of peace	19:02
	in a world of strife,	19:05
	and messengers of strife in a world of false peace.	19:08
	Make strong our hand, make clear our a voice.	19:15
	Give us humility with firmness, and insight with passion	19:21
	that we may fight not to conquer, but to redeem.	19:28
	Oh God, who has given us the grace to be agents of love	19:35
	in its work of healing and judgment.	19:39
	Who has commissioned us to proclaim forgiveness	19:43
	and condemnation,	19:47
	deliverance to the captive and captivity to the proud.	19:49
	Give us the patience of those who understand	19:57
	and the impatience of those who love.	20:02
	That might of thy gentleness may work through us	20:06
	and the mercy of thy wrath may speak through us,	20:11
	in the name of him who calls us to thy kingdom of peace	20:17
	and love and truth.	20:23
	Amen.	20:27
	Preacher of this morning is the Reverend Robert T. Young,	20:30
	the minister to the university.	20:34
	And he has asked me to tell you	20:37
	that his sermon copies of this morning sermon	20:41
	are ready already, and you may receive them on the way out.	20:46
	The hymn is 212.	20:52
	(organ music)	20:57
	(choir vocalizing)	21:44
-	There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.	24:32
	There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.	24:44
	Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my works in vain,	24:51
	then the holy spirit revives my soul again.	25:01
	If you can't preach like Peter, you can't pray like Paul,	25:09
	just tell the love of Jesus.	25:16
	Say He died for all.	25:22
	There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.	25:27
	There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.	25:37
	We do not talk very much about the balm in Gilead today,	25:46
	we hear a great deal of balms,	25:54
	but we speak very little of balm.	25:57
	We hear much about many strange and foreign places today,	26:03
	but we know not of Gilead.	26:07
	Balm in biblical times was an anointment Asiah,	26:14
	a medicinal gum prized highly for its healing properties.	26:19
	Gilead was a little country in old Testament times,	26:25
	Northeast of Judah on the Eastern banks of the Jordan river.	26:29
	Gilead was the place where Jacob and Esau were reconciled.	26:35
	The land where David took refuge.	26:40
	The home of Elijah, the prophet,	26:43
	whose name means "Jehovah is my God."	26:45
	Now perhaps you can sense the relationship of this song	26:52
	to this sermon.	26:58
	There is a balm we need today.	27:01
	There is anointment Asiah,	27:07
	a medicinal gum of healing we need right now.	27:11
	We can trace its origins back to a tiny country	27:18
	where hated brothers were reconcile.	27:21
	Where a fallen king found strength	27:25
	and where lived a great prophet,	27:28
	one so great tradition tells us	27:30
	that he neither died nor was buried,	27:32
	but was translated from earth to heaven.	27:34
	In short, there is a healing we need	27:37
	to heal our sin sick soul, to make the wounded whole.	27:40
	And this healing comes from God.	27:48
	The forgiving God of grace, the giver of life,	27:51
	the lover of us all.	27:57
	Healing needs to come to many parts of our land,	28:02
	many of which I was unaware	28:06
	at the time of writing this sermon.	28:10
	I want to let God's word speak to one dimension	28:14
	of our brokenness as a nation, namely,	28:17
	"What are we to do with the 70,000 or so young men	28:22
	who fled this country rather than fight in the Vietnam War?"	28:27
	I am the father of two sons,	28:35
	they are now 10 and seven years old.	28:39
	Neither of them had to face or to make decisions	28:43
	about serving in the armed services during the Vietnam War.	28:46
	During the past several months,	28:51
	I have thought often of the fathers and mothers of the sons	28:52
	who fled and I have thought of the 70,000 young man.	28:57
	So today I want to share with you a letter,	29:03
	a letter I think I would write to my son	29:06
	if he were one of those now hiding in Canada	29:09
	or in one of the Scandinavian countries,	29:13
	listen please, "My dear son,	29:16
	your mother and I think of you constantly,	29:22
	your brother and sisters talk of you often.	29:27
	We all hope you're safe and in good health,	29:31
	I don't know what you're doing to have money to live on,	29:34
	but with all of your energy and your ingenious ways,	29:38
	I'm sure you have a good and profitable job.	29:41
	You've been gone a long time.	29:46
	Three and a half years seems forever	29:49
	and much has happened to us back home.	29:55
	The war is over, the soldiers are home.	29:58
	We're told that all of the prisoners of war	30:02
	have been returned.	30:04
	We've stopped bombing Cambodia and Laos and North Vietnam.	30:05
	Why did we ever in the first place?	30:09
	It cost us in measurable ways,	30:14
	and in ways we'll never know.	30:18
	46,000 US soldiers killed, 11,000 non-combat persons killed,	30:20
	still missing more than 1300, more than $135 billion spent.	30:27
	Scores of thousands wounded and maimed for life	30:35
	but it's over.	30:38
	We hope and we pray.	30:40
	Oh, but the war cost us in other ways, my son.	30:45
	Your fellow Americans were probably more divided	30:50
	over the morality of this war than we've ever been	30:52
	since the war between the states.	30:55
	This division led to mass demonstrations	30:59
	and protests and riots.	31:01
	And in Kent State and Jackson State universities,	31:04
	fives young students just about your age were killed.	31:07
	We still don't know what happened there or why, why?	31:12
	Alienation and division still run deep among us.	31:18
	There is much resentment and miss trust present with us.	31:23
	Among today's youth,	31:30
	there is a somber sober quietness and passivity,	31:31
	the kind of morbid solemnity	31:37
	that is startling and frightening.	31:39
	We're all almost numb from the shell shock	31:44
	and the trauma we've endured.	31:47
	We still don't know what's happened or happening,	31:50
	or why, why?	31:54
	Speaking of not knowing,	31:59
	I guess I've never known why you decided	32:00
	to leave your native land and family and friends	32:02
	rather than be drafted.	32:05
	Was it because you took as literally true and serious,	32:07
	the sixth commandment, which says 'Thou shalt not kill.'	32:11
	Was it because you were scared or frightened	32:16
	or didn't want to go to war?	32:20
	I guess 18 is a pretty young age to be asked to do that.	32:22
	Was it because you heard Jesus say,	32:27
	'You have heard, it was said of old, you shall not kill.	32:29
	And whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.	32:32
	But I say to you that everyone who is angry	32:35
	shall be liable to judgment.'	32:39
	Or did you remember the words of Jesus	32:41
	in the Sermon on the Mount, when he said,	32:43
	'You have heard, it was said,	32:45
	you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.	32:47
	But I say to you love your enemies	32:49
	and pray for those who persecute you.'	32:53
	Was it because you remembered your mother reading to you	32:57
	from Jesus' teachings.	33:00
	'You have heard that it was sad and eye for an eye	33:02
	and a tooth for a tooth.	33:05
	But I say to you do not resist one who is evil,	33:06
	but if anyone strikes you on one cheek,	33:09
	turn to him the other also.'	33:12
	Or did you take seriously Peter's words to the early church	33:16
	in the book of Acts when he said,	33:19
	'We must obey God rather than man.'	33:21
	And did you really feel	33:24
	that this is what God wanted you to do?	33:27
	Was it because you really are a coward at heart?	33:32
	Or was it because you really felt you had become a man	33:40
	and that responsible manhood required you to leave?	33:43
	I can hear you saying with (indistinct),	33:47
	'I should like to be able to love my country	33:50
	and still love justice.'	33:54
	We still don't know what happened or why, why?	33:59
	Why?	34:07
	Because this was a costly thing for you to do my son,	34:08
	costly you ask, costly, yes,	34:13
	it cost you and it cost us.	34:17
	You paid the price of giving up your family	34:20
	and many friends at home,	34:23
	with all the comforts of our house and car and money	34:25
	and good clothes and food and color TV, and all the rest.	34:28
	Costly because you gave up your education at the university.	34:35
	Now, three and a half years have gone,	34:39
	and your studies have had to be postpone,	34:42
	maybe gone forever.	34:46
	Costly because your family has missed you,	34:50
	we've settled in of course, to our routine, without you.	34:53
	But we've paid quite a price of loneliness and worry	34:58
	and concern many a day and many nights.	35:02
	Our country has paid dearly for your leaving	35:07
	and the leaving of all of you who fled.	35:10
	What gifts of intelligence and creativity and ingenuity	35:13
	and leadership and commitment,	35:19
	all of you took with you when you fled, we need those gifts	35:21
	and we'll pay dearly	35:29
	until we have the benefit of them again,	35:31
	back home, back here, where you really belong.	35:35
	We still don't know how dear the cost has been	35:41
	or why, why?	35:46
	But now I really want to know what the future holds for you	35:51
	and for us, what are your alternatives?	35:55
	What are your options?	36:00
	It seems to me, my son, you have several,	36:03
	you can remain where you are and seek citizenship	36:05
	and a new life there.	36:08
	You can come back home incognito,	36:10
	assume another name and begin a new and different life,	36:14
	unknown to us and unknown to others.	36:17
	You can come back now and with the laws as they are now,	36:21
	give yourself to the proper legal authorities,	36:24
	face trial, and the results of it.	36:27
	Or you can remain where you are	36:31
	and hope that the Congress and the President	36:33
	will make it possible for you to return,	36:35
	not as a criminal, but as a responsible citizen.	36:37
	I can recall some of our president's words	36:44
	and they seem highly appropriate to me.	36:46
	He has spoken often that he wants	36:49
	to bring us together again.	36:51
	And it seems to me that he may be the one who can bring you	36:55
	and us together again.	36:58
	Just this week and nominating a new Vice President,	37:02
	you know, of course	37:05
	that his first Vice President had to resign	37:06
	because of criminal acts against the government.	37:09
	He said, 'Let us forget the obsessions of the past,	37:12
	we launch a new beginning.'	37:15
	Perhaps he too can forget the obsessions of the past	37:20
	with regard to you and the others who have fled	37:25
	and give you a new beginning.	37:28
	In light of known acts of a questionable nature	37:32
	and indeed many and illegal nature	37:36
	on the part of top administrative leaders	37:39
	over the past month.	37:41
	I am convinced that there are many of them who need	37:44
	forgiveness and pardon,	37:46
	just as you and your friends over there needed.	37:51
	We worked long and hard,	37:58
	many people did to get our prisoners of war returned home	38:01
	and rightly so,	38:05
	all the work and worry and effort were worth it	38:07
	to get them home.	38:10
	But I wonder, what the President	38:15
	and others of us would be doing,	38:19
	if we had 70,000 more still imprisoned abroad.	38:21
	And the irony and the pain of this	38:27
	is that we do have 70,000 of you abroad,	38:29
	imprisoned, not by our enemies, but by own laws.	38:32
	Confined in ways where we could give you release.	38:37
	I'm sure all of you long for home, wherever home is,	38:43
	I can hear you say, 'As neat you did years ago,	38:48
	where is my home?'	38:51
	Well, I'm almost through my son, but before I close, though,	38:55
	I suppose you want to know what we are doing here at home	39:05
	or what we're going to do to help you come home again.	39:10
	We're going to try to be responsible citizens	39:16
	with Christian convictions	39:18
	and with the Christian concern for justice.	39:20
	And saying this, I remember that it was Thomas Jefferson,	39:23
	who once said,	39:25
	'I tremble for my country when I know that God is just.	39:26
	And this morning, my friends, I tremble for my country.	39:34
	When I know in my heart, that God is just, but I have hope.'	39:36
	We're going to try to be persons of integrity and stand firm	39:45
	and tall for right being done.	39:49
	Again, I recall some words of Mahatma Gandhi.	39:53
	'Peace is the mark of a civilized man,	39:56
	war, the mark of barbarians.'	39:59
	Our President has talked of peace with honor.	40:03
	I want the peace and the honor to extend to you	40:06
	and others like you, who for consciences sake	40:08
	chose to leave.	40:12
	We're going to try to forgive, to pardon, to restore.	40:17
	We have forgiven our enemies for damages	40:22
	they have done to us.	40:25
	We have forgiven the South Vietnamese	40:27
	for getting us involved,	40:28
	now let us forgive those of you	40:30
	who long before the rest of us would admit it,	40:33
	saw the folly and the futility of the fighting.	40:36
	Our country finally came to see that this war was wrong,	40:40
	you simply knew that long before we did.	40:44
	It's like Bishop Armstrong wrote,	40:49
	'We're all involved.'	40:53
	If we're not all guilty, we are at least responsible.	40:55
	The time has come for us to accept	40:59
	the full share of our responsibility	41:02
	and in the name of God to change directions	41:04
	and God help us, we need to change directions.	41:09
	We're going to work and to witness,	41:15
	work and witness for legislation to be passed in Congress	41:19
	that would grant amnesty to you	41:22
	and your 70,000 fellow Americans.	41:24
	The power does lie in the hands of Congress	41:27
	and the President.	41:29
	And we're going to try to influence these to act,	41:31
	to act in accord with bills proposed already by Senator Taft	41:34
	and Representative Koch, and by other members of Congress.	41:38
	There is hope, and we will work and witness in that hope.	41:43
	What are we going to do?	41:49
	We're going to keep the faith.	41:53
	The faith that says, 'God is the ruler.'	41:56
	Yet, that says, 'John Masefield did so beautifully	42:01
	something above the wreck is steady still.'	42:07
	The faith that says, 'What does the Lord require of you,	42:14
	but to do justice, to love mercy,	42:17
	and to walk humbly with your God.'	42:19
	The faith that says,	42:23
	'Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,	42:24
	but he who humbles himself will be exalted.'	42:27
	The faith that says, 'For if you forgive men, their sins,	42:31
	your heavenly father will forgive you.	42:35
	But if you do not forgive men their trespasses,	42:39
	neither will your father forgive your trespasses.'	42:43
	What I really feel son, is that we all need forgiveness,	42:50
	even our President.	42:59
	And if our President needs and or wants forgiveness,	43:03
	then I hope and pray, he will lead the way	43:08
	by forgiving pardoning and restoring you	43:13
	and others like you.	43:19
	Then I believe the grace of God will abound	43:22
	and restore us all.	43:28
	Well, my son take care of yourself,	43:33
	your mother and I send our love and our best to you.	43:40
	Peace and joy to you always (indistinct)."	43:45
	There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.	43:54
	There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.	44:04
	Let us pray.	44:15
	Oh God, help us always to know what you are doing	44:22
	and wanting so that we may be doing the same thing	44:31
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	44:41
	Amen.	44:46
-	Let us unite our hearts together in prayer.	44:58
	Oh God, our creator,	45:04
	the source of our inner peace and tranquility,	45:07
	help us to be aware of the prejudice and coldness	45:12
	that so often cripples our hearts.	45:16
	It is good to know that you are a forgiving God,	45:19
	and that when we turn to you, we are accepted.	45:23
	Give our eyes new vision, to see your way,	45:28
	give our feet new direction, to travel your path	45:33
	and give our hearts new understanding,	45:38
	to know that you are always with us.	45:41
	Amen.	45:44
	(organ music)	45:46
	(choir vocalizing)	46:41
	(organ music)	48:47
	(choir vocalizing)	50:28
	(organ music)	54:13
	(choir vocalizing)	54:26
-	All things come of thy God,	55:27
	all silver and all gold and of thy known do we give thee,	55:30
	as the symbol of ourselves, in the name and for the sake	55:36
	of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	55:43
	Amen.	55:47
	(organ music)	55:49
	(choir vocalizing)	56:37
	Go out into the world in peace.	1:00:15
	Be brave.	1:00:19
	Keep hold of what is good.	1:00:21
	Never pay back wrong with her wrong,	1:00:25
	encourage the faint-hearted.	1:00:29
	(indistinct)	1:00:35
	And may the Lord peace, give you peace at all times	1:00:49
	wherever you may be.	1:00:56
	(choir vocalizing)	1:01:10
	(bell ringing)	1:02:42
	(organ music)	1:02:57
	(people murmuring)	1:06:17

Item Info

Title:

Robert T. Young - "A Letter to My Son" (October 21, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z03399h

Date:

October 21, 1973

Speaker:

Young, Robert T., 1935-2009

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0674
ref6550_bwi
uachapelsermaud
duke:628633
dcrau002652
ark:/87924/r4z03399h
abaa8b24-dc42-46d2-83e3-edc4d706f291

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.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Robert T. Young - "A Letter to My Son" (October 21, 1973)

Transcript

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1. Robert T. Young - "A Letter to My Son" (October 21, 1973)

Duke University Archives

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Robert T. Young - "A Letter to My Son" (October 21, 1973)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives

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