Helen G. Crotwell - "All Ate and Were Satisfied" (March 9, 1975)
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Transcript
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(instrumental music) | 0:03 | |
- | Let us pray. | 8:34 |
Give ear, Lord, unto our prayer | 8:37 | |
and attend to the voice of our supplications. | 8:41 | |
Teach us thy way, Lord. | 8:45 | |
We would walk in thy truth. | 8:48 | |
Unite our hearts to fear you. | 8:52 | |
We would praise thee, Lord, our God with all our heart | 8:56 | |
and we would glorify thy name forevermore | 9:01 | |
for a great is thy mercy toward us. | 9:05 | |
Amen. | 9:09 | |
Our hymn of praise is number 27, | 9:15 | |
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise." | 9:17 | |
(instrumental music) | 9:22 | |
Please be seated. | 12:19 | |
There is no greater evidence for our need of confession | 12:27 | |
of sin than the conviction of our own righteousness. | 12:31 | |
And there is no greater readiness for confession | 12:37 | |
than our on sense of failure in loving God wholeheartedly. | 12:41 | |
Let us confess our sins to almighty God. | 12:47 | |
Eternal God our judge and redeemer, | 12:51 | |
we confess that we have tried to hide from you | 12:56 | |
for we have done wrong. | 13:00 | |
We have lived for ourselves. | 13:03 | |
We have refused to shoulder the troubles of others | 13:06 | |
and turned from our neighbors. | 13:10 | |
We have ignored the pain of the world | 13:14 | |
and passed by the hungry, the poor, and the oppressed. | 13:17 | |
God, in your great mercy forgive our sin | 13:23 | |
and free us from selfishness that we may choose your will | 13:29 | |
and obey your commandments through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 13:35 | |
May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us remission | 14:04 | |
of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life, | 14:08 | |
and the grace and consolation of his holy spirit | 14:15 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 14:19 | |
Amen. | 14:22 | |
(instrumental music) | 14:27 | |
(opera music) | 15:03 | |
Let us hear this witness to the word | 21:27 | |
as we find it in the old covenant, | 21:29 | |
the eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. | 21:32 | |
"For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, | 21:39 | |
a land of brooks of water, | 21:43 | |
of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills, | 21:46 | |
a land of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, | 21:51 | |
and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, | 21:56 | |
a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, | 22:00 | |
in which you will lack nothing, | 22:04 | |
a land whose stones are iron | 22:07 | |
and out of whose hills you can dig copper. | 22:11 | |
And you shall eat, and be full and you shall bless the Lord | 22:15 | |
your God for the good land he has given you. | 22:21 | |
Take heed lest you forget the Lord your God | 22:26 | |
by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances | 22:30 | |
and His statutes, which I command you this day. | 22:33 | |
Lest when you have eaten and are full | 22:37 | |
and have built goodly houses and live in them, | 22:41 | |
and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver | 22:46 | |
and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, | 22:51 | |
then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord | 22:56 | |
your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, | 22:59 | |
out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great | 23:04 | |
and terrible wilderness with this fiery serpents | 23:08 | |
and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, | 23:13 | |
who brought you water out of a flinty rock, | 23:18 | |
who fed you in the wilderness with manna, | 23:21 | |
which your fathers did not know that he might humble you | 23:24 | |
and test you to do you good in the end. | 23:29 | |
Beware lest you say in your heart, my power | 23:35 | |
and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. | 23:40 | |
You shall remember the Lord your God | 23:45 | |
for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, | 23:48 | |
that He may confirm His covenant, | 23:53 | |
which He swore to your fathers, as at this day. | 23:55 | |
And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods | 24:01 | |
and serve them and worship them, | 24:04 | |
I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish. | 24:07 | |
Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, | 24:13 | |
so you shall perish, | 24:17 | |
because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God." | 24:19 | |
The gospel lesson from St. Luke's gospel the ninth chapter. | 24:31 | |
The apostles have just returned from the mission | 24:39 | |
on which Jesus had sent them throughout the land. | 24:43 | |
"On their return, the apostles told him what they had done, | 24:47 | |
and he took them and withdrew apart | 24:51 | |
to a city called Bethsaida. | 24:54 | |
When the crowds learned it, they followed Him | 24:58 | |
and He welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God | 25:02 | |
and cure those who had need of healing. | 25:05 | |
Now the day began to wear away | 25:09 | |
and the 12 came and said to him, send the crowd away | 25:13 | |
to go into the villages and country roundabout to lodge | 25:18 | |
and get provisions for we are here in a lonely place. | 25:21 | |
But He said to them, you give them something to eat. | 25:26 | |
They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish, | 25:31 | |
unless we are to go and buy food for all these people, | 25:36 | |
for there were about 5000 men. | 25:40 | |
And he said to his disciples, | 25:44 | |
make them sit down in companies about 50 each. | 25:46 | |
And they did so and made them all sit down. | 25:50 | |
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, | 25:54 | |
He looked up to heaven and blessed and broke them | 25:56 | |
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd | 26:01 | |
and all ate and were satisfied and they took up | 26:05 | |
what was left over 12 baskets of broken pieces." | 26:09 | |
Here ends the morning lesson. | 26:16 | |
(instrumental music) | 26:20 | |
Let us confess our faith. | 27:04 | |
We are not alone, we live in God's world. | 27:08 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 27:14 | |
who has come and the true man, Jesus, | 27:19 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 27:22 | |
who works in us and others by His spirit. | 27:26 | |
We trust Him. | 27:30 | |
He calls us to be His church, to celebrate His presence, | 27:32 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 27:38 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen our judge and our hope | 27:44 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. | 27:51 | |
We are not alone. | 27:59 | |
Thanks be to God. | 28:01 | |
The Lord be with you. | 28:05 | |
- | Be with you too. | 28:07 |
- | Let us pray. | 28:09 |
Lord, who provided manna for the fathers | 28:21 | |
in the desert wanderings and equipped our master's disciples | 28:24 | |
for mission when they had need of it | 28:28 | |
hear now our prayers for our time and our world. | 28:32 | |
In a world fragmented by politics, | 28:40 | |
direct peoples and nations that we may learn to live nation | 28:44 | |
with nation searching diligently for arms instead of arms | 28:48 | |
for the brother and sister of other lands. | 28:53 | |
In a world of broken by economic greed and self-interest, | 28:59 | |
we pray that our diverse economic plights may show us | 29:04 | |
our mutual dependence and drive out our collective greed. | 29:09 | |
In a world divided by race, direct our way with affections | 29:18 | |
that we may come to love and appreciate the brother | 29:23 | |
and sister of unlike mind and perspective. | 29:26 | |
We pray, Lord, for thy church, | 29:34 | |
bring her many members to her one true baptism | 29:38 | |
in her crucified and risen Lord, | 29:41 | |
that every member may be nourished by the diversity of gifts | 29:45 | |
in the oneness of spirit. | 29:50 | |
Let us remember this day, this land, and our people | 29:55 | |
that we may find a strength in our emerging frailty, | 30:02 | |
that times of adversity may give birth to new vision, | 30:07 | |
new promise, and hope. | 30:11 | |
We remember today, Lord, especially the involuntarily poor, | 30:15 | |
the unemployed and the unemployable. | 30:21 | |
And we pray that thou will help this land | 30:26 | |
toward economic justice that participates | 30:28 | |
however remotely in thine own righteousness. | 30:31 | |
We bring these prayers to thee our Lord at thy invitation. | 30:38 | |
As children to a loving and kind parent, | 30:44 | |
our comfort and assurance are that you are | 30:48 | |
not only our Lord, but Lord of history. | 30:51 | |
So we pray or Lord as you will, so be it. | 30:56 | |
Let us join now in the prayer our Lord has taught us saying, | 31:04 | |
our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, | 31:09 | |
thy kingdom come, | 31:15 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 31:17 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 31:22 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 31:25 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 31:28 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil | 31:32 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 31:37 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 31:39 | |
Amen. | 31:44 | |
- | In the name of God our creator, redeemer, and sustainer. | 31:57 |
Amen. | 32:04 | |
Isn't it amazing how the lectionary lesson | 32:08 | |
from Deuteronomy describes who we are? | 32:11 | |
A people living in a good land, | 32:16 | |
a land in which we can eat bread without scarcity, | 32:18 | |
a land in which we like nothing, | 32:21 | |
a land whose stones are iron, | 32:24 | |
and out of whose hills we can dig copper | 32:26 | |
and we shall eat and be full. | 32:29 | |
And because this is who we are, | 32:32 | |
we must take heed lest we forget the Lord our God | 32:35 | |
by not keeping God's commandments | 32:41 | |
and our covenantal relationships. | 32:44 | |
Lest when we have eaten and are full | 32:48 | |
and have built goodly houses and live in them, | 32:51 | |
we forget the Lord our God and say in our heart, | 32:55 | |
"Our power and the might | 33:00 | |
of our hand have given us this wealth." | 33:03 | |
And if we forget, | 33:08 | |
we shall surely perish. | 33:11 | |
This is who we are, | 33:15 | |
people who have forgotten that the earth is a gift | 33:17 | |
to be used, to be cared for, to be shared. | 33:22 | |
And so we are at the close to the point of perishing. | 33:28 | |
We know this, but we do not comprehend. | 33:35 | |
We know that people are actually starving to death | 33:39 | |
And we can remember just a little while ago | 33:44 | |
when we were concerned about | 33:46 | |
how many people went to bed hungry each night. | 33:48 | |
These people are now starving. | 33:52 | |
We know that we are moving from a time of abundance | 33:57 | |
to a time of scarcity. | 34:00 | |
But it is difficult for those of us | 34:02 | |
who live in this good land to comprehend. | 34:05 | |
We have been inconvenienced by some shortages | 34:10 | |
and we've been irritated by most prices, | 34:14 | |
but it is difficult for us | 34:18 | |
to comprehend the scarcity and the crisis. | 34:20 | |
The American Friends Service Committee has described part | 34:25 | |
of our situation in this analogy. | 34:28 | |
If we imagine that our world is a global village | 34:32 | |
consisting of 100 people, | 34:36 | |
100 people who have not yet died from starvation, | 34:40 | |
then 70 of this 100 would not be able to read, | 34:44 | |
one would have a college education, | 34:48 | |
and of the 100 who have not yet died of starvation, | 34:52 | |
50 will be suffering from malnutrition, | 34:57 | |
80 will live in substandard housing. | 35:01 | |
And we know that even in this good land, | 35:05 | |
in which we can eat bread without scarcity, | 35:09 | |
there are countless persons suffering from malnutrition. | 35:13 | |
Dr. Shinoa reports in his book, "The Malnourished Man," | 35:18 | |
on a team of noted pediatricians, who with senators, | 35:22 | |
visited many areas in Mississippi in 1967, | 35:26 | |
and they found that in every county they visited | 35:32 | |
there were boys and girls who were suffering | 35:36 | |
from severe malnutrition with injury to body's tissues, | 35:40 | |
it's muscles, bones, and skin, | 35:45 | |
as well as the associated psychological state | 35:49 | |
of fatigue, restlessness, and exhaustion. | 35:52 | |
They found homes in which children were lucky | 35:57 | |
to have one meal a day. | 36:02 | |
But even that meal was inadequate nutritionally. | 36:04 | |
These children are out of sight and ignored. | 36:10 | |
They received no help, no food, no medical attention. | 36:15 | |
They were living under such primitive conditions | 36:21 | |
that it was hard to believe that they lived | 36:25 | |
in the United States in the 20th century. | 36:29 | |
And unfortunately, these conditions are not in the past | 36:33 | |
and I'm not limited to Mississippi. | 36:38 | |
Dr. Shinoa says that the victims | 36:42 | |
of hunger often look healthy and well fed. | 36:44 | |
This appearance is deceiving and is caused by the swelling | 36:48 | |
of tissues, a common symptom | 36:51 | |
of sustained malnutrition in children. | 36:53 | |
He attributed this ignorance | 36:58 | |
to the Mississippi Governor's callous response | 37:00 | |
to our reporters' question about the hunger | 37:05 | |
among the poor blacks. | 37:08 | |
This governor said, | 37:10 | |
"All the Negroes I have seen | 37:13 | |
around here are so fat, they shine." | 37:15 | |
Now we know that starvation | 37:23 | |
has become more disparate since 1967. | 37:25 | |
With the high cost of food, the high unemployment rate, | 37:31 | |
the possibilities of an adequate diet has been lessened. | 37:36 | |
And Dr. Shinoa's acute concern is for the children | 37:41 | |
who suffer permanent brain damage from an inadequate diet, | 37:45 | |
especially from the absence | 37:50 | |
of the correct protein in their diet. | 37:52 | |
Now an adult can suffer from malnutrition | 37:55 | |
and with a proper food can become healthy again. | 37:58 | |
But from the time of gestation | 38:03 | |
until the child is four years old, | 38:05 | |
an inadequate diet causes permanent brain damage, | 38:08 | |
damage which nothing we can do can correct. | 38:14 | |
Now, not only are people malnourished, | 38:18 | |
but people are actually starving. | 38:22 | |
We know this, but this too is difficult for us | 38:26 | |
who live in this good land to comprehend. | 38:30 | |
No one can give us an exact count | 38:35 | |
of how many people are dying from malnutrition. | 38:37 | |
The estimate varies from 10 to 20 millions | 38:41 | |
of persons per year. | 38:44 | |
And it seems that 12 million is a reasonable estimate, | 38:46 | |
if you dare use the word reasonable | 38:51 | |
in the same sentence with starvation. | 38:54 | |
But I have difficulty comprehending what it means | 38:57 | |
that 12 million people die each year from starvation. | 39:01 | |
I can understand it better if I imagine | 39:06 | |
if this were not a Recess Sunday, | 39:10 | |
we would probably have approximately 1400 people | 39:13 | |
more or less in this chapel worshiping. | 39:16 | |
And during this one hour, | 39:21 | |
while we worship this number of people, | 39:23 | |
1400 people will die from starvation, | 39:27 | |
and from starvation alone, not from related affects. | 39:32 | |
Several Saturdays ago, some of us attended a conference | 39:38 | |
at Chapel Hill, a conference for Duke, UNC, and State. | 39:43 | |
It was a seminar on limits to growth. | 39:48 | |
Dr. Robert Patterson from state calibrated a metronome | 39:51 | |
to tick to indicate the right people are dying | 39:55 | |
from malnutrition alone. | 39:58 | |
This communicated to me the awfulness of our situation, | 40:01 | |
the terror most graphically, each tick represents one death. | 40:06 | |
(metronome ticking) | 40:20 | |
For those of us who live in this good line, | 40:29 | |
our first step in responding to the command to take heed is | 40:34 | |
in some sense to comprehend | 40:42 | |
what these ticks mean, that these are human beings. | 40:44 | |
Once we comprehend, we are compelled to act responsibly. | 40:50 | |
Now, we are sophisticated enough | 41:05 | |
to know that what we are discussing is not simple, | 41:07 | |
that we live in a world of limited resources and that some | 41:11 | |
of our simplistic solutions may cause more complex problems. | 41:15 | |
But we are also sophisticated and know | 41:21 | |
that we may be paralyzed into no action | 41:24 | |
if we listen uncritically to such warnings. | 41:28 | |
We know that we must face the critical nature | 41:33 | |
of our survival, that we must move | 41:35 | |
from a time of abundance to a time of scarcity. | 41:38 | |
We know that we are people who must take heed | 41:42 | |
lest we shall surely perish. | 41:46 | |
This is who we are. | 41:51 | |
This word, which comes to us though, is not hopeless. | 41:53 | |
The biblical word admonishes us to take heed, | 41:59 | |
the scientific word shouts at us to take you. | 42:03 | |
But both words offer some hope for the future | 42:09 | |
and the hope is conditioned | 42:12 | |
on our being morally responsible persons. | 42:13 | |
The scientific word to us is that the future | 42:17 | |
of our world may not be as hopeless | 42:20 | |
as some people have feared, | 42:21 | |
that we can support a viable standard of living | 42:23 | |
for the inhabitants of this earth | 42:26 | |
if we use our creative intelligence | 42:28 | |
as morally responsible people. | 42:30 | |
There is no doubt, if this is to happen, | 42:33 | |
we will have to make some radical changes | 42:36 | |
in our lifestyles in this country, radical. | 42:39 | |
And we will have to take responsibility | 42:44 | |
for the leadership essential for this to happen. | 42:46 | |
The biblical word, rest on our understanding of who we are | 42:50 | |
in relation to God who has created us | 42:54 | |
and given us this world. | 42:56 | |
And it rests on our understanding | 42:59 | |
of who we are as human beings. | 43:00 | |
Simply stated the responsibility | 43:03 | |
which has been given to us is to care for our brothers | 43:05 | |
and our sisters and the world, which is our home. | 43:09 | |
And simply stated, our understanding of who we are | 43:14 | |
as human beings is that we are people | 43:17 | |
who are capable of caring, of loving, of serving, | 43:20 | |
but we are also people who can be blinded to the needs | 43:25 | |
of our brothers and sisters by our personal desires, | 43:30 | |
which at times, cause us to act as if we had special rights | 43:35 | |
and privileges which do not extend to all peoples. | 43:40 | |
Lord, forgive us. | 43:46 | |
And we are people who can be forgiven. | 43:49 | |
We can turn around. | 43:51 | |
And this is what we must do | 43:53 | |
if we are to act as morally responsible people | 43:55 | |
and here lies our hope. | 43:59 | |
Let's seems to be an appropriate time, | 44:02 | |
a good time to begin this. | 44:04 | |
Recall the invitation from the Ash Wednesday service. | 44:07 | |
I invite you to the observance of holy land | 44:12 | |
by self-examination and repentance, | 44:15 | |
by prayer and fasting and self denial, | 44:17 | |
and by reading and meditating on God's holy word, | 44:20 | |
and to make a right beginning of repentance as a remark | 44:24 | |
of your moral nature. | 44:30 | |
Combine this with the reading for Ash Wednesday from Isaiah, | 44:32 | |
which reminds us that fasting is not an end in itself, | 44:37 | |
rather it is a preparation which can sensitize us | 44:42 | |
and enable us to let the oppressed go free, | 44:47 | |
to share our bread with the hungry, | 44:51 | |
to bring the homeless into our homes. | 44:53 | |
Then shall the light break forth like dome. | 44:56 | |
Then we shall call and the Lord will answer. | 45:00 | |
Now, there are those of us here present today | 45:06 | |
who see lent as a time of preparation, of renewal, | 45:08 | |
a time of repentance, as a time for new beginnings, | 45:12 | |
which do not end on Easter Sunday. | 45:15 | |
And surely, all of us here today are caring people, | 45:19 | |
we are concerned people, we feel responsible. | 45:24 | |
We want to do what we can, but we also feel hopeless, | 45:29 | |
helpless, and at times, discouraged. | 45:34 | |
We feel alone isolated with our concerns. | 45:39 | |
We are afraid that what we can do is so insignificant | 45:45 | |
that it is not worth the effort. | 45:50 | |
And we wonder why we should deny ourselves | 45:53 | |
when no one else does, | 45:57 | |
especially when some people ridiculed our efforts saying. | 45:59 | |
"How stupid to think that turning off lights | 46:03 | |
or giving up one meal will help this world?" | 46:06 | |
We feel that the problem is too big and too complex | 46:10 | |
and we are too powerful and ignorant of the real facts. | 46:12 | |
Okay, that's where a lot of us are, | 46:17 | |
but that is not where we have to stay. | 46:21 | |
So today we are being called to claim what is possible | 46:24 | |
and what may be uniquely possible as Christian communities. | 46:30 | |
For it is as we work together | 46:36 | |
that it will be possible for us to care for our neighbor | 46:39 | |
who is starving, who is malnourished, who is hungry. | 46:42 | |
We have seen evidences of such work in the past, | 46:47 | |
and we see evidences of it in the present. | 46:51 | |
We give thanks for what is happening now in this university | 46:54 | |
as a result of the leadership of two students, | 46:57 | |
Drake Boyd and David McCauley. | 47:00 | |
But they cannot, in their communities, cannot do it alone. | 47:03 | |
They need the support of the broader segments | 47:07 | |
of the university and the larger community around us. | 47:09 | |
We must work in groups and communities | 47:13 | |
and within our institutions. | 47:16 | |
Now, there are many reasons why it's critical | 47:20 | |
for us to work corporately. | 47:22 | |
Basic is the awareness of the presence of the power | 47:24 | |
of the holy spirit, which has been promised to us | 47:27 | |
and which is evidence within the community. | 47:30 | |
Unless we have the perspective and the awareness | 47:34 | |
of the supporting guidance of our holy God, | 47:37 | |
we will become weak and discouraged. | 47:39 | |
The spiritual dimension is essential | 47:43 | |
for the direction and the sustaining of our work. | 47:45 | |
And one of the people who have ever done this | 47:49 | |
and have shown us the power is Dom Helder Camara, | 47:52 | |
the Archbishop in Brazil who says, | 47:57 | |
"The real God does not create our own misery, | 48:00 | |
we cause it by our injustices." | 48:04 | |
We need the support of the real God, | 48:09 | |
which is given to us in the community. | 48:13 | |
And we know that we have more power in our corporate action. | 48:17 | |
We need personal support, both to correct us | 48:23 | |
when our vision is distorted | 48:27 | |
and to sustain us when we become discouraged. | 48:29 | |
The task facing us is an impossible one in isolation. | 48:35 | |
When we consider them enormity of the information, | 48:41 | |
we need to have at our disposal in order to act responsible, | 48:43 | |
information about food production and distribution, | 48:48 | |
fertilizer, the number of persons this world can support, | 48:52 | |
the role our government can and should play, | 48:56 | |
the long range application of our actions, and on and on. | 48:59 | |
We are overwhelmed. | 49:04 | |
For one person, this is an impossible task. | 49:06 | |
Working corporately, it becomes possible | 49:10 | |
to share the responsibility in such a way | 49:13 | |
that we will have the necessary knowledge available to us | 49:16 | |
and that we can get the necessary work done. | 49:20 | |
Now you found in your bulletin the covenant of simplicity, | 49:24 | |
which was developed by the Duke University Parish Ministry | 49:28 | |
based on the Shakertown page | 49:33 | |
of The American Friends Service Committee. | 49:34 | |
We are convinced | 49:37 | |
that we must develop a more simple lifestyle. | 49:38 | |
And those of us who choose to move | 49:43 | |
toward a more simple lifestyle will find | 49:44 | |
that the discipline is made easier and clearer | 49:46 | |
when it is undertaken with persons | 49:51 | |
who share these same values. | 49:53 | |
Some of us have some fears of what this will mean, | 49:57 | |
fears that we will be committing our families | 50:00 | |
to less than human existence, | 50:03 | |
that we will become malnourished, | 50:04 | |
that we will not be able to tolerate a lifestyle | 50:06 | |
without all the luxuries we are used to, | 50:10 | |
and that's probably our real fear. | 50:13 | |
And yet our rational nature knows that few of us | 50:17 | |
in this congregation today are anywhere close | 50:19 | |
to a minimum level of existence. | 50:24 | |
Simple living does not mean ugliness, drabness, boredom. | 50:27 | |
In fact, it means just the opposite, | 50:32 | |
health, joy, aliveness, beauty. | 50:35 | |
When we think of people | 50:39 | |
for whom life has had the most meaning, | 50:41 | |
the people who live by the values we cherish, | 50:44 | |
we find little correlation between their way of living | 50:48 | |
and their accumulation of possessions and luxurious. | 50:53 | |
We are convinced that we must develop | 50:59 | |
a more simple lifestyle in this country. | 51:03 | |
We are convinced that this cannot be done in isolation. | 51:07 | |
So we are called forth today to assume the moral leadership, | 51:14 | |
which is necessary at this time. | 51:19 | |
We are invited to seriously consider this covenant | 51:24 | |
of simplicity now, but more important later | 51:28 | |
with your family and friends when you can discuss | 51:33 | |
which of these you choose to accept, | 51:37 | |
what additions you want to meet, and decide | 51:41 | |
what this means for you and your family and friends. | 51:45 | |
Now, if you are visiting us today, | 51:51 | |
we encourage you to go back to your community | 51:53 | |
and give leadership to these issues. | 51:55 | |
If you are a part of the Duke community, | 51:59 | |
we encourage you to let us know if you accept this covenant | 52:01 | |
so that we may develop a network of groups | 52:06 | |
who can give leadership which will help. | 52:09 | |
This community respond personally | 52:12 | |
and corporately to see that food, | 52:15 | |
a basic human right, | 52:19 | |
food, a basic human right, is available to all persons. | 52:23 | |
And to see that this happens both immediately | 52:30 | |
and is also available for future generations. | 52:33 | |
We are called forth to meet human need | 52:39 | |
before we satisfy our personal desires. | 52:44 | |
One of Rilke's poems haunts me constantly. | 52:51 | |
Hear only one verse from it. | 52:56 | |
(metronome ticking) | 52:59 | |
"Whoever dies anywhere in this world, | 53:00 | |
without cause dies in this world, | 53:04 | |
looks at me." | 53:08 | |
We are called for to change the death rate | 53:12 | |
from starvation of one person every 2 1/2 seconds to zero. | 53:16 | |
(metronome ticking) | 53:21 | |
We are forth to work that all may eat and be satisfied. | 53:24 | |
(metronome ticking) | 53:31 | |
May God help us. | 53:35 | |
(metronome ticking) | 53:37 | |
Amen. | 53:39 | |
(metronome ticking) | 53:40 | |
(instrumental music) | 53:49 | |
(opera music) | 57:04 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:00:44 | |
- | Thou whose nature is itself true charity blessed these | 1:02:07 |
our gifts with thy bountiful graces | 1:02:12 | |
that their fruits may be multiplied many times | 1:02:15 | |
to everlasting praise and the salvation | 1:02:18 | |
and nourishment of humankind. | 1:02:22 | |
Amen. | 1:02:25 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:02:29 | |
The Lord bless you and keep you. | 1:06:49 | |
The Lord make His face shine upon you | 1:06:53 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 1:06:56 | |
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you | 1:07:00 | |
and give you His peace. | 1:07:04 | |
Amen. | 1:07:08 | |
(bell ringing) | 1:07:13 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:07:30 |