Robert M. Blackburn - "Our Earthen Vessels" Installation of Robert T. Young (November 18, 1973)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(ceremonious music) | 0:04 | |
(choir singing) | 0:18 | |
(choir singing crescendos) | 0:56 | |
(ceremonious music) | 1:19 | |
(trumpets begin) | 1:57 | |
(ceremonious music intensifies) | 2:21 | |
(ceremonious music crescendos) | 3:51 | |
(ceremonious music crescendos) | 5:19 | |
(choir begins) | 5:25 | |
(ceremonious music crescendos) | 6:08 | |
Reverend | Be seated. | 6:19 |
As we are bowed in awe before God, | 6:32 | |
let us offer our prayer of confession. | 6:37 | |
Our heavenly father, | 6:44 | |
who by your love has made us | 6:46 | |
and through your love has kept us | 6:49 | |
and in your love would make us perfect. | 6:53 | |
We humbly confess that we have not loved you | 6:57 | |
with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, | 7:01 | |
and that we have not loved one another | 7:07 | |
as Christ has loved us. | 7:10 | |
Your life is within our souls, | 7:14 | |
but our selfishness has hindered you. | 7:17 | |
We have not lived by faith. | 7:21 | |
We have resisted your spirit. | 7:24 | |
We have neglected your inspirations. | 7:27 | |
Forgive what we have been, | 7:31 | |
help us to amend what we are and in your spirit | 7:34 | |
direct what we shall be, | 7:39 | |
that you may come in the full glory of your creation | 7:42 | |
in us and in all men through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 7:47 | |
Amen. | 7:53 | |
The word of God comes as gracious forgiveness. | 8:11 | |
Though your sins be as scarlet, | 8:17 | |
they shall be white as snow. | 8:20 | |
Though they be red like crimson, | 8:24 | |
they shall become as wool. | 8:29 | |
To God be our praise. | 8:34 | |
To God be our prayer. | 8:38 | |
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 8:43 | |
thy kingdom come, | 8:49 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 8:52 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 8:56 | |
and forgive us our trespasses. | 9:00 | |
As we forgive those who trespass against us | 9:03 | |
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 9:07 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 9:12 | |
forever. | 9:18 | |
Amen. | 9:20 | |
(ceremonial music) | 9:23 | |
(ceremonial music) | 9:56 | |
Pastor | Therefore having this ministry | 11:54 |
by the mercy of God, | 11:58 | |
we do not lose heart. | 12:00 | |
We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. | 12:04 | |
We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, | 12:09 | |
but by the open statement of the truth, | 12:14 | |
we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience | 12:18 | |
in the sight of God. | 12:22 | |
And even if our gospel is veiled, | 12:24 | |
it is veiled only to those who are perishing. | 12:28 | |
In their case, the god of this world | 12:33 | |
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, | 12:36 | |
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel | 12:41 | |
of the glory of Christ, | 12:44 | |
which is the likeness of God. | 12:46 | |
For what we preach is not ourselves, | 12:50 | |
but Jesus Christ as Lord, | 12:54 | |
with ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake, | 12:58 | |
for it is the God who said, | 13:03 | |
let light shine out of darkness, | 13:05 | |
who has shown in our hearts to give the light | 13:09 | |
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. | 13:14 | |
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels | 13:24 | |
to show that the transcendent power belongs to God | 13:31 | |
and not to us. | 13:37 | |
Amen. | 13:41 | |
Here endeth the reading of the lesson. | 13:43 | |
(ceremonial music) | 13:47 | |
Pastor | Let us affirm our faith. | 14:29 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 14:32 | |
who has come in the true man, Jesus, | 14:38 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 14:42 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit. | 14:45 | |
We trust him. | 14:50 | |
He calls us to be in his church to celebrate his presence, | 14:52 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 14:59 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 15:06 | |
our judge and our hope. | 15:10 | |
In life, in death, | 15:13 | |
in life beyond death, God is with us. | 15:16 | |
We are not alone. | 15:21 | |
Thanks be to God. | 15:23 | |
The Lord be with you. | 15:27 | |
Congregation | And with your spirit. | 15:29 |
Pastor | Let us pray. | 15:31 |
We come before thee, oh Lord, with thanksgiving for life | 15:45 | |
and the fullness of life, which thou has given to us. | 15:53 | |
Make us appreciative, joyful people. | 16:00 | |
We come with petitions for this congregation, | 16:08 | |
give to each one and to all, what is most needful. | 16:13 | |
Comfort the sorrowful, strengthen the weak, | 16:22 | |
encourage the hurt, | 16:28 | |
relieve the angry, | 16:32 | |
renew the distressed | 16:35 | |
and lead us all to follow more mature life. | 16:39 | |
Bring peace to our world, Oh God, | 16:47 | |
bring peace with justice in our nation. | 16:52 | |
Bring peace with hope for the Middle East | 16:58 | |
and Southeast Asia. | 17:03 | |
Bring peace with service and joy to each life. | 17:07 | |
We come with petitions for this service, | 17:17 | |
the minister to be installed, the ministry on this campus. | 17:22 | |
And we offer also our prayers of blessing | 17:31 | |
for this university. | 17:36 | |
In Jesus' name we pray. | 17:40 | |
Amen. | 17:44 | |
We are pleased to have in our pulpit today, | 17:55 | |
Bishop Robert M. Blackburn, | 17:59 | |
the resident Bishop of the Raleigh area | 18:05 | |
of the United Methodist church. | 18:08 | |
We welcome him to our campus and to this service. | 18:12 | |
Bishop | This is a very important and happy occasion | 18:30 |
that brings us here today. | 18:34 | |
Individually and collectively, | 18:37 | |
we come to extend our greetings to Bob Young | 18:39 | |
and to pray God's richest blessings upon him | 18:43 | |
as he assumes the significant duties | 18:46 | |
of the minister to Duke University. | 18:52 | |
It is also a day of great meaning to this university, | 18:55 | |
a milestone. | 18:58 | |
As we come to install | 19:00 | |
another minister to this chapel and to this community, | 19:03 | |
a ministry which has had far reaching influence | 19:08 | |
across the years, | 19:11 | |
to the lives of countless thousands of students, | 19:13 | |
messages that have gone out over this world from this pulpit | 19:17 | |
and from this ministry here. | 19:22 | |
A college and university campus is an exciting place to be. | 19:27 | |
New ideas are born there. | 19:32 | |
Changes are being brought to pass | 19:36 | |
because of what happens at a place like this. | 19:38 | |
New motivations that are changing | 19:43 | |
the whole force of the world happen on a college campus. | 19:45 | |
I heard the other day of a man | 19:50 | |
who was a new college president. | 19:51 | |
Someone asked him how he was getting along | 19:55 | |
and his reply was, "I sleep like a baby. | 19:58 | |
I wake up every three hours and start crying." | 20:03 | |
Well, I'm sure that the duties of Mr. Young | 20:08 | |
are strenuous and demanding. | 20:11 | |
I hope, however, not so much | 20:14 | |
that they shall be experiences of anguish and of tears, | 20:15 | |
but a source of great joy to him | 20:20 | |
and to all who received his ministry. | 20:22 | |
This day also affords us an opportunity | 20:27 | |
to think about the place of religion in our lives | 20:29 | |
and more especially, the Christian faith | 20:33 | |
and its impact upon a place of learning like this. | 20:36 | |
Back in the colonial days, | 20:41 | |
when they established a new town in New England, | 20:42 | |
they would find the four corners of the township | 20:47 | |
and they would draw diagonal lines across. | 20:51 | |
And where these lines bisected, | 20:55 | |
there was a center of the town. | 20:58 | |
And they called it the centering of the town. | 21:01 | |
And they put at this spot, their church. | 21:05 | |
Now, | 21:10 | |
when the schematic design of this beautiful campus was set, | 21:12 | |
apparently the same purpose was there. | 21:16 | |
Here, at the heart of a great place of learning, | 21:20 | |
this beautiful sanctuary, | 21:23 | |
surrounded by resident halls, by beautiful gardens | 21:26 | |
by classrooms and by a great medical center. | 21:33 | |
Here at the center of it all, this beautiful cathedral. | 21:37 | |
One would hope that out of this would come | 21:41 | |
the kind of ministry that would be worthy | 21:44 | |
of the great and high calling of God. | 21:48 | |
To read the writings of St. Paul, | 21:52 | |
we are always impressed by the sense of challenge | 21:54 | |
and excitement that he had about his ministry. | 21:58 | |
He seemed to have a thrill at the opportunity of preaching | 22:03 | |
and proclaiming the word. | 22:06 | |
And writing to his Corinthian friends, | 22:09 | |
the passage, which has just been read for us, | 22:12 | |
he talks about the great spiritual values. | 22:15 | |
About those things which come from beyond us. | 22:18 | |
That come from God. | 22:22 | |
And he speaks to them as the treasures. | 22:24 | |
And he says, | 22:26 | |
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels | 22:28 | |
to show that the transcendent power belongs to God." | 22:34 | |
Paul Tillich in his little book, The Protestant Era, | 22:42 | |
says that without a transcendent element, | 22:47 | |
the ultimate meaning of history cannot be maintained. | 22:50 | |
Now they seem to be talking about the same thing, | 22:56 | |
that beyond us are the great and high and holy principles | 23:00 | |
of our faith. | 23:04 | |
They serve for us as a treasure of life. | 23:06 | |
And they're brought to meaning and to actuality | 23:10 | |
through the lives of people, through programs, | 23:14 | |
through buildings, through which God becomes real to us. | 23:17 | |
And so we would hope that sounding from this pulpit, | 23:23 | |
emanating from the office of this ministry | 23:27 | |
that interpreted through the program of this place | 23:32 | |
shall come to pass a message and a ministry | 23:36 | |
that will ring true, and will make God more real | 23:40 | |
in the lives of all that are touched by it. | 23:44 | |
Some years ago, | 23:49 | |
I remember reading about the beautiful carillon | 23:50 | |
that is placed up in the tower here. | 23:53 | |
I have not verified this, | 23:56 | |
but the story that I read said that these bells | 23:58 | |
were made over in Holland, brought here to this place | 24:01 | |
and installed. | 24:05 | |
And after they were set in place, | 24:07 | |
two experts from Holland came over to tune these bells | 24:09 | |
to the terrain in which they were situated. | 24:13 | |
They could not be tuned at the point of manufacture, | 24:18 | |
but here to fit into the surroundings, | 24:21 | |
the rolling hills and the woodlands | 24:24 | |
of Eastern North Carolina, | 24:26 | |
so that they would sound forth in the way | 24:29 | |
for which they were made. | 24:32 | |
One would hope that in something of the same realism | 24:35 | |
and relevancy, that the gospel of Christ | 24:37 | |
shall be tuned to this place. | 24:41 | |
And he shall become real because of the ministry | 24:44 | |
of his word here. | 24:48 | |
Life is profound, isn't it? | 24:52 | |
Deep are our needs. | 24:55 | |
Consuming are the desires, which always obsess us. | 24:58 | |
Visionaries sometimes for the longings that we have, | 25:03 | |
the things we want to do and to become. | 25:06 | |
And we find ourselves as creatures of need | 25:09 | |
for the kind of ministry which should come | 25:12 | |
from this kind of place. | 25:15 | |
For one thing, | 25:18 | |
I think we're anxious for someone to speak to us about God, | 25:19 | |
to make him real to us. | 25:24 | |
Norman Cousins, some two or three decades ago, | 25:27 | |
wrote a very provocative book entitled, | 25:31 | |
Who Speaks For Man. | 25:35 | |
And indeed someone should speak for us | 25:39 | |
in a very intriguing idea, | 25:41 | |
but far more important is that, | 25:44 | |
is the question, that I'm sure in one way or another, | 25:46 | |
is in each heart here, who speaks for God? | 25:49 | |
Who speaks for the spiritual realities | 25:54 | |
by which we find our fulfillment and our abundance in life. | 25:57 | |
The Bible seems to reveal to us that God does speak to us. | 26:03 | |
He desires to speak to us. | 26:08 | |
And the Bible also indicates that he speaks to us | 26:10 | |
through people. | 26:13 | |
Through his prophets who stood long ago and said, | 26:15 | |
"Thus saith the Lord." | 26:18 | |
Who came with an element of authenticity | 26:22 | |
to say to people, "This is the way of the Lord, | 26:24 | |
walk ye in it." | 26:29 | |
And we find our great answers about God | 26:31 | |
in the testimony of people who have found him to be real. | 26:35 | |
Now, I think our pursuit of God | 26:41 | |
could easily be divided into two realms. | 26:42 | |
There is God as he really is, the apriori, | 26:45 | |
the before, the creator. | 26:49 | |
God, as he really is. | 26:51 | |
And then there's God as we understand him. | 26:54 | |
And all of our religious pursuit, | 26:59 | |
our theology, our preaching, our teaching, | 27:02 | |
our devotional life, is an effort somehow or another | 27:05 | |
to bring these two closer together, God, as he is, | 27:09 | |
and God, as we understand him, | 27:11 | |
and hoping that we can come closer and closer together | 27:14 | |
and reconcile the two, so that as we come | 27:18 | |
to the realism of God, | 27:22 | |
we come to understand him as he really is. | 27:24 | |
Now we have a lot of obstacles here. | 27:30 | |
We have our traditions, | 27:33 | |
some of them quite conventional and provincial. | 27:36 | |
We have our theology, | 27:39 | |
some of them quiet in conflict with each other. | 27:40 | |
If you do not believe, just look sometime at the church page | 27:43 | |
on Saturday, your newspaper, | 27:47 | |
and look at the sermon topics | 27:50 | |
that Christian ministers preach. | 27:51 | |
What a variety there are. | 27:55 | |
And some as though they were conflicting with each other. | 27:57 | |
And sometimes these differences become our obstacles. | 28:00 | |
Or sometimes there's our denial in our materialism. | 28:03 | |
But always it is our desire in the Christian faith | 28:06 | |
somehow to bring closer together God, as he is, | 28:09 | |
and God, as we understand him. | 28:13 | |
And is our persistent desire | 28:16 | |
to have someone come and to speak for God and say to us, | 28:17 | |
thus saith the Lord. | 28:22 | |
Well, Tera said one time that God made man in his own image | 28:26 | |
and man is forever trying to return the compliment. | 28:33 | |
Well, in our thoughts about God, | 28:38 | |
so often we tried to bring him down to our level. | 28:40 | |
Or sometimes they become quite hazy | 28:43 | |
as a man who prayed one time, oh God, | 28:45 | |
if there is a God, | 28:48 | |
save my soul if I have a soul. | 28:51 | |
And that's how hazy many of us are | 28:56 | |
in our understanding of him. | 28:58 | |
And so it is out of this kind of groping and searching | 29:00 | |
that we seek for someone to come and to speak to us | 29:03 | |
about the reality and the truth of God. | 29:08 | |
As Alfred North Whitehead used to say, | 29:10 | |
"God is the principle of concretion. He is real and actual. | 29:13 | |
And is our pursuit in our desire to make him real to us." | 29:19 | |
I believe that we are living in a time and an age | 29:25 | |
when the hungers are great. | 29:30 | |
I read one time of an ancient school in Rome | 29:33 | |
when it was in it's finest flower. | 29:36 | |
When the professors | 29:39 | |
used to come strolling into the lecture hall | 29:39 | |
in their long robes and the students would stand. | 29:42 | |
And he would stand at the podium | 29:45 | |
and there was a great formality | 29:46 | |
about the entrance of the professor. | 29:48 | |
And this particular class, | 29:51 | |
so eager to know more about the spiritual values of life, | 29:52 | |
as their great master came in, | 29:56 | |
they would stand and call out, | 29:58 | |
"Tell us of the soul. Tell us of the soul." | 30:01 | |
I believe whether we recognize it or not, | 30:08 | |
there are many that are saying that today. | 30:13 | |
Tell us of the soul. | 30:15 | |
And so we need someone in earthen vessel, | 30:18 | |
a man, a person, a choir, a building, | 30:21 | |
that tells us something about God | 30:26 | |
and satisfies the deep longings of our souls. | 30:30 | |
But then also we want someone to tell us about persons. | 30:33 | |
About mankind. | 30:38 | |
And more particular, someone to tell us about ourselves. | 30:40 | |
To recognize the person that we are | 30:44 | |
and to believe in us and to understand us | 30:48 | |
and to seek us out. | 30:52 | |
Sometime this past summer we had, as our speaker, in one of | 30:54 | |
our occasions down at Methodist college, | 30:58 | |
William Holmes Borders, | 31:02 | |
a pastor of the Wheat Street Baptist Church | 31:06 | |
in Atlanta, Georgia. | 31:07 | |
A black minister, who for 30 years | 31:09 | |
has made his impact upon that city. | 31:11 | |
Not only established a great congregation, | 31:13 | |
but a housing center, a whole community of faith. | 31:16 | |
And in the material that was sent to introduce him, | 31:20 | |
it told about his ministry and all the things | 31:23 | |
that he had done. | 31:25 | |
And then it came to the end of it. | 31:28 | |
In this concluding sentence it said, | 31:30 | |
"William Holmes Borders is somebody." | 31:34 | |
Well, those of us who heard him, | 31:41 | |
his great preaching and his dynamic personality | 31:43 | |
concluded that he was and is somebody. | 31:46 | |
But everybody is somebody, isn't that right? | 31:53 | |
And out of our anonymity in life, | 31:57 | |
out of a large community such as we live in, | 31:59 | |
even here at this campus, | 32:02 | |
we want to feel that there is some degree | 32:04 | |
to which we are singled out | 32:07 | |
and we count and we're somebody. | 32:09 | |
And we want somebody to understand us. | 32:11 | |
In The Baltimore Sun a few years ago, | 32:16 | |
there was a little article entitled, | 32:18 | |
Lost In The Shuffle. | 32:20 | |
And it told about a man who had been hired as a new janitor | 32:22 | |
in a great department store. | 32:27 | |
On the first day that he came to work, | 32:30 | |
they sent him down to clean up a basement | 32:31 | |
in the building across the way, | 32:34 | |
but somehow in finding his way underneath the street | 32:36 | |
and into the building where he was supposed to go, | 32:40 | |
he lost his way, | 32:43 | |
and he ended up in the basement of a rival department store. | 32:46 | |
And there, all day long, he did a dandy cleanup job. | 32:51 | |
But the sad part of this story is | 32:57 | |
that nobody in the place where he was hired, | 33:00 | |
asked where he was. | 33:03 | |
Nobody in the store where he was not supposed to be | 33:07 | |
asked who he was, | 33:12 | |
and nobody asked what he was doing. | 33:16 | |
And that's the way his day ended, | 33:21 | |
completely lost in the shuffle | 33:23 | |
and the bigness of life. | 33:24 | |
And there are times, I'm sure, | 33:27 | |
when lots of us feel that way. | 33:29 | |
Moving in big realms, caught up in the community life, | 33:31 | |
just one of many. | 33:36 | |
There's a story you remember back in the book of Samuel, | 33:38 | |
where Absalom has the battle with his father, | 33:41 | |
King David. | 33:44 | |
And Joab, who is the general | 33:46 | |
of the armies of David's forces, | 33:48 | |
is wiser than the generals of Absalom's, | 33:50 | |
and engages Absalom's soldiers | 33:53 | |
over into the forest of Ephraim, | 33:55 | |
rather than out in the open | 33:58 | |
where Absalom's men were trained to fight. | 33:59 | |
And there proved the ruin and the fall of Absalom's forces, | 34:03 | |
because there they were lost in the woods. | 34:08 | |
They'd never known how to fight in the woods. | 34:09 | |
And it says there in the book of 2 Samuel, | 34:13 | |
"And the forest devoured more than the sword." | 34:17 | |
Well it's symbolic. Something of our day. | 34:24 | |
In the largeness of life, | 34:28 | |
in the anonymity of the kind of community life that we have, | 34:29 | |
it's so easy to be devoured in the crowds. | 34:33 | |
But I think if we were honest with ourselves, | 34:37 | |
that all of us would say, "Someone needs to speak for me, | 34:41 | |
for the person." | 34:46 | |
Well, we want someone to speak for God. | 34:49 | |
We want someone to speak for the person, for us. | 34:52 | |
Then I believe we want someone to speak for ideals. | 34:56 | |
For dreams and for visions. | 35:02 | |
For something that is beyond our life, that challenges us. | 35:05 | |
The great movements of our day have been fulfilled by men, | 35:10 | |
who, like Martin Luther King, said, "I have a dream." | 35:15 | |
and the fulfillment of that dream and those ideals | 35:20 | |
and those aspirations, | 35:23 | |
because there was a man who was motivated by these ideals. | 35:24 | |
Dr. Harold Bosley, who for a period of time | 35:30 | |
was the Dean of the divinity school here. | 35:33 | |
Many of you know him, | 35:35 | |
one of the great preachers of America, | 35:37 | |
tells of receiving a letter one time from a young man. | 35:39 | |
In this letter, | 35:44 | |
he seeks to establish his faith in the goodness of life | 35:45 | |
and of his fellow man. | 35:49 | |
And he opens this letter with the sentence, | 35:52 | |
"Pardon my idealism but," | 35:55 | |
And then he goes on to tell of his great affirmations, | 36:01 | |
about the goodness of life. | 36:04 | |
and Dr. Bosley says, | 36:07 | |
"Why should we have to apologize for idealism?" | 36:08 | |
I would hope that as we come to a place like this, | 36:14 | |
and as America's youth come to learn, | 36:20 | |
and as they join here in a faculty of some of the wisest | 36:24 | |
and most learned people of the world, | 36:27 | |
that ever lifted up before them would be | 36:30 | |
the high ideals and the aspirations of our faith. | 36:33 | |
It leads me to say then, in this concluding moment, | 36:38 | |
do we want someone to speak to us about hope? | 36:42 | |
The transcending, | 36:47 | |
all of the shoddy depressing and despairing things of life | 36:48 | |
as we see it today, there is hope for us. | 36:54 | |
There's hope for mankind. | 36:59 | |
That's what the gospel means. The gospel, the good news. | 37:02 | |
The glad tidings that will proclaim at advent season | 37:06 | |
that God acted to bring to this world some hope. | 37:10 | |
That transcending all of our foolishness | 37:14 | |
and our spent lives and our mistakes, | 37:17 | |
is the great and ultimate purpose of God. | 37:20 | |
From this pulpit, there needs to be sounded that message. | 37:25 | |
One day a speaker was invited to a woman's club. | 37:31 | |
The president got up to introduce him and she said, | 37:34 | |
"We're delighted to have this famous historian | 37:39 | |
and world traveler with us. | 37:42 | |
And he's going to speak to us on the world situation | 37:45 | |
and he's promised to leave all the ugly things out." | 37:50 | |
Well, I can sympathize with that lady. | 37:55 | |
Sometimes we want someone to leave the ugly things out | 37:58 | |
and talk about the things of beauty and of hope | 38:02 | |
and the transcendent powers and transcendent purposes | 38:06 | |
in which God moves into this world | 38:09 | |
and leads us beyond that which we are. | 38:12 | |
We have this treasure then in earthen vessels, | 38:17 | |
in our ministry. | 38:21 | |
In a place, | 38:23 | |
in a song. | 38:26 | |
And here to proclaim the transcendent power of God. | 38:28 | |
He becomes real to us. | 38:33 | |
Is there something of the element of devotion, of sacrifice, | 38:34 | |
of complete commitment to our cause and to our Christ? | 38:39 | |
Many of us, I'm sure have admired Albert Schweitzer, | 38:45 | |
the great example of life, which he has been. | 38:49 | |
Those of you who are theologians | 38:54 | |
perhaps would differ with his theology as many did. | 38:56 | |
And there is an account of a time when a theologian | 39:01 | |
was disagreeing with a particular | 39:03 | |
theological treatise | 39:06 | |
that had been written by Dr. Schweitzer, | 39:07 | |
but then after his criticism and his differences | 39:11 | |
with the great missionary doctor theologian, | 39:15 | |
he sums it up saying, | 39:19 | |
"Perhaps we should judge Schweitzer, not by his words, | 39:20 | |
but by his deeds, not by his book, but by his discipleship, | 39:26 | |
not by his theological concepts, | 39:34 | |
but by the fact that he took up the cross of Christ | 39:38 | |
and went into darkest Africa." Amen. | 39:43 | |
Not by his theological concepts alone, | 39:48 | |
not by those ideas with which we may disagree | 39:53 | |
but by the fact that here was a servant of God, | 39:57 | |
who took up the cross of Christ and proclaimed him. | 40:00 | |
But we have then this treasure in earthen vessels | 40:05 | |
that the transcendent power of God might be made known. | 40:10 | |
Let us pray. | 40:18 | |
Oh, God, our father, | 40:21 | |
thou who has given to us life and all of its meanings, | 40:23 | |
thou who has called us to the proclaiming of thy word, | 40:28 | |
make of us, we pray, instruments | 40:33 | |
that will be worthy | 40:37 | |
of the high and holy calling that is ours | 40:39 | |
through Christ, our Lord. | 40:43 | |
Amen. | 40:46 | |
(indistinct) | 40:59 | |
Reverend | Mr Young, please come to the alter. | 41:06 |
Bishop | Mr. Young, | 41:58 |
I have appointed you minister to the university. | 41:59 | |
You have been entrusted with the responsibilities | 42:04 | |
of this office. | 42:07 | |
We look to you now for leadership of the religious life | 42:10 | |
in the Duke University community. | 42:14 | |
We need a preacher of the word to proclaim God's message | 42:17 | |
of truth and hope. | 42:21 | |
To speak to us of justice and righteousness and mercy. | 42:24 | |
We need a pastor to care for us when we are broken | 42:28 | |
and when we are whole, | 42:31 | |
When we are hurt and when we rejoice. | 42:34 | |
We need a priest to celebrate God's love and word | 42:37 | |
and sacrament. | 42:41 | |
To these privileges and to others you have been called | 42:44 | |
in this university setting | 42:50 | |
where Eruditio et Religio is our motto, | 42:51 | |
we look to you to lead us and serve us with wisdom, | 42:55 | |
with integrity, with faithfulness, and with compassion. | 43:00 | |
Through your very presence, your preaching, your prayers, | 43:07 | |
and your service, | 43:12 | |
may we be brought to higher levels of spiritual insight, | 43:13 | |
to deeper moments of personal piety and to more helpful acts | 43:17 | |
of human kindness. | 43:23 | |
I am convinced of your commitment to God | 43:25 | |
and to the ministry within Duke University. | 43:28 | |
I hereby declare you, Robert Terry Young, | 43:33 | |
installed as minister to the university. | 43:37 | |
Robert | President Sanford with the help of almighty God, | 43:47 |
upon whose grace I am dependent | 43:54 | |
for both wisdom and strength. | 43:57 | |
And with the assistance and support of my wife and children | 44:01 | |
and other members of this university community, | 44:06 | |
I respond to you with the commitment of myself, | 44:10 | |
my whole person, my time, my energies, my abilities | 44:14 | |
to the task to which you have appointed, | 44:21 | |
and now install me | 44:24 | |
and to which, I believe, God has called me. | 44:27 |
- | To attempt to bless, or at least to change your name. | 0:03 |
But let me use for Robert Terry, | 0:11 | |
the name I hope you already know you have. | 0:15 | |
It's the name Nathan gave to the young Solomon | 0:20 | |
when he called him Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord. | 0:23 | |
If you know this about Robert Young, | 0:31 | |
that he is really beloved of the Lord, | 0:34 | |
it will mean that you shall be able to hear. | 0:38 | |
And if you can hear this people seven days and seven nights, | 0:44 | |
you have a right to 20 minutes on Sunday. | 0:50 | |
And in that 20 minutes, and through the seven days, | 0:56 | |
you, beloved of the Lord having heard and hearing, | 1:02 | |
and having done your homework | 1:08 | |
in a great university setting is quite possible | 1:11 | |
that you might have more to say to, for, | 1:16 | |
with, on a count of, in behalf of man | 1:22 | |
than from any other place you might ever have stood. | 1:29 | |
May God bless you here, Jedidiah, | 1:34 | |
even as He blessed that dear one before you and before him. | 1:40 | |
And as we trust He will bless whomever may follow, | 1:49 | |
for part of the charge is to know | 1:54 | |
that I really am, just a chapter. | 1:57 | |
Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, | 2:03 | |
may hear this people and be heard. | 2:08 | |
- | Beloved in the Lord, | 2:22 |
and all who in this holy place, worship with us | 2:25 | |
in spirit and in truth, | 2:29 | |
and who call up on the name of God, receive this charge. | 2:31 | |
This is none other than the house of God, | 2:38 | |
and this is the very gate of heaven. | 2:42 | |
Let us therefore be alive in God's service, | 2:46 | |
and worship him here in the beauty of holiness. | 2:50 | |
Let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord, | 2:57 | |
serve Him with gladness | 3:01 | |
and come before His presence with singing. | 3:04 | |
Let us enter into His gates with thanksgiving | 3:08 | |
and into His courts with prayers. | 3:12 | |
Let us be thankful unto Him | 3:16 | |
and bless His name, for the Lord is good. | 3:18 | |
His mercy is everlasting | 3:23 | |
and His truth endureth to all generations. | 3:26 | |
And by the grace of God, | 3:32 | |
may we be earnestly intent upon worship | 3:35 | |
as often as we enter the sanctuary, | 3:39 | |
glad to hear the reading and the preaching of the word | 3:44 | |
with sensitive and responsive hearts and minds, | 3:49 | |
eager to receive the blessed sacrament | 3:54 | |
in true obedience and reverence, | 3:58 | |
joyfully bound together in the fellowship of prayer | 4:01 | |
with compassion and loving concern and charity, | 4:07 | |
one for another, | 4:12 | |
happily committed to the least of our brethren. | 4:15 | |
And so to praise thee, not only with our lips | 4:20 | |
but with our whole lives. | 4:24 | |
By God's grace, may we now welcome | 4:28 | |
and gratefully receive Robert Terry Young, | 4:33 | |
as minister to the university family, | 4:38 | |
solemnly resolved to love, honor and respect him | 4:43 | |
as servant and spokesman of God. | 4:51 | |
To encourage, support and pray for him and his family, | 4:56 | |
to be truly thankful for him, | 5:03 | |
to be fair and considerate in our judgment of him | 5:06 | |
and to labor with him, and at the side of his staff, | 5:13 | |
his fellow rabbi, priest, clergy, ministers of music | 5:19 | |
and so to do all in our power as coworkers with them | 5:29 | |
to advance the kingdom among the children of men, | 5:34 | |
and so to honor the name of God, amen. | 5:38 | |
- | My dear friends and fellow believers, | 5:58 |
will you now join with me in this covenant | 6:02 | |
of minister and congregation. | 6:06 | |
We, minister and congregation | 6:15 | |
do now make covenant before God and with one another, | 6:19 | |
for a renewed ministry in the name | 6:24 | |
and in the spirit of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. | 6:27 | |
We bind ourselves to one another | 6:32 | |
and to the God and father of us all | 6:36 | |
in obedience, in service and in love. | 6:39 | |
God has many services to be done. | 6:43 | |
Some are easy, others are difficult. | 6:47 | |
Some bring honor, others bring reproach. | 6:51 | |
Some are suitable to our natural desires | 6:55 | |
and personal interest, others are contrary to both. | 6:58 | |
In some, we may please God and please ourselves, | 7:03 | |
in others we cannot please God, except by denying ourselves. | 7:07 | |
Yet the power to do all these things | 7:13 | |
is assuredly given us in God, who strengthens us, | 7:16 | |
therefore let us make the covenant of God our own. | 7:21 | |
Let us engage our lives to the Lord | 7:26 | |
and resolve in His strength, to love Him above all else, | 7:29 | |
and our neighbor as ourselves. | 7:34 | |
Let us now in full dependence on His grace | 7:37 | |
and trusting in His promises | 7:41 | |
give ourselves a new to Him and to one another. | 7:44 | |
Congregation may be seated and let us pray together. | 7:49 | |
Oh God, we take upon ourselves with joy, | 7:58 | |
the york of obedience. | 8:02 | |
We commit ourselves for love of you, | 8:05 | |
to seek and do your perfect will. | 8:09 | |
We are no longer our own, but yours. | 8:12 | |
Put us, oh God to what you will, | 8:17 | |
rank us with whom you will, | 8:20 | |
put us to doing, put us to suffering. | 8:24 | |
Let us work for you or be restful for you. | 8:29 | |
Let us be exalted for you or brought low for you. | 8:34 | |
Let us be full, let us be empty. | 8:39 | |
Let us have all things. Let us have nothing. | 8:44 | |
All that we have and are we now covenant in service to you | 8:49 | |
and to our neighbor. | 8:55 | |
And now, oh glorious and blessed God, | 8:57 | |
father, son, and Holy Spirit, | 9:01 | |
you are ours and we are yours. | 9:04 | |
And this covenant of love and service we have made | 9:09 | |
in this place, on this day, let it be sealed by your grace. | 9:12 | |
Amen. | 9:18 | |
(bright piano music) | 9:26 | |
(indistinct) | 9:51 | |
- | With these gifts, we represent the offering of our lives | 15:32 |
to thee, oh God, amen. | 15:36 | |
(bright piano music) | 15:42 | |
(indistinct) | 16:20 | |
- | Now, will you receive this blessing. | 20:05 |
The grace of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. | 20:09 | |
The love of God, our father | 20:14 | |
and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 20:17 | |
be with you this day and forever. | 20:22 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:32 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:37 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:42 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:46 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 20:57 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 21:06 | |
(bell rings) | 21:38 | |
(bright piano music) | 21:52 |
Item Info
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