Joseph B. Bethea - "When Pentecost Came" (June 6, 1976)

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	(choir singing)	0:03
-	On Friday evening of this week,	0:54
	beloved and highly esteemed member of	0:57
	the Duke University faculty died.	1:02
	Dr. Robert S. Rankin professor emeritus	1:06
	of political science.	1:10
	A man actively involved in the life of this community	1:13
	and of this nation.	1:17
	One who served on the National Civil Rights Commission	1:20
	ever since he was appointed until his death.	1:24
	A man highly respected and appreciated by us all.	1:28
	And so, as we gather to worship	1:34
	on this Pentecost Sunday here,	1:36
	let me ask you to pause as we offer to God,	1:39
	a word of thanksgiving for his life	1:42
	and his ministry among us.	1:44
	Let us pray.	1:46
	Oh God, we pause to praise you for the gift	1:51
	of your beloved servant, Robert Rankin,	1:54
	whose witness has touched deeply the life and the way	1:58
	of this university, this community, indeed of our nation.	2:02
	As one who stood unflinchingly	2:09
	for right and justice for all.	2:11
	As one who loved learning and shared not only his knowledge,	2:15
	but his entire self with other.	2:19
	As one who studied, wrote and taught	2:24
	so that life might be more authentic for others.	2:27
	As one who loved his family and friends and cared for them	2:33
	with affection and warmth and firm gentleness.	2:37
	As one who loved and served you, oh God.	2:43
	And whose life was committed to the Lordship	2:47
	of Jesus Christ, yes oh God,	2:49
	for his life and his witness we give you thanks and praise.	2:53
	And so with gratitude, we praise you and we thank you	3:01
	for the life and the love of Robert Rankin.	3:04
	Now, oh God, may your Spirit be very close to sustain	3:10
	and to uphold his wife and his loved ones,	3:15
	we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	3:20
	Let us continue our worship.	3:29
	As we confess our sins in the company of one another	3:32
	and to all mighty God, let us pray.	3:36
	Our loving God, who by your love has made us	3:42
	and through your love has kept us.	3:45
	And in your love would make us perfect.	3:48
	We humbly confess that we have not loved you	3:52
	with all our heart and soul and mind and strength,	3:54
	and that we have not loved one another as Christ loves us.	3:58
	Your life is within our souls,	4:03
	but our selfishness has hindered you.	4:05
	We have not lived by faith.	4:08
	We have resisted your Spirit.	4:10
	We have neglected your inspirations	4:13
	forgive what we have been.	4:16
	Help us to amend what we are	4:19
	and in your Spirit direct what we shall be.	4:22
	That you may come into the full glory of your creation in us	4:26
	and in all people, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	4:30
	Oh God our Lord Jesus Christ has said to the repentant woman	4:55
	and says to us, "Neither do I condemn you.	4:58
	Go and sin no more."	5:02
	May your Spirit, oh God, receive our prayers of confession,	5:05
	forgive and cleanse us from our sin,	5:11
	renew our lives inwardly and outwardly.	5:16
	And then give us our lives back again with new hope	5:20
	and with the assurance that the future is open and free	5:25
	for us to receive and to live	5:29
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	5:34
	(choir instrumental music)	5:51
	Let us hear the word of God.	8:33
	First, as it is contained in the book of Jeremiah	8:35
	chapter 31, reading verses 31 through 34.	8:39
	"Behold the days are coming, says the Lord,	8:44
	when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel	8:49
	and the house of Judah, not like the covenant,	8:52
	which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand	8:55
	to bring them out of the land of Egypt,	8:58
	my covenant, which they broke	9:00
	though I was their husband says the Lord.	9:03
	But this is the covenant which I will make	9:07
	with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord.	9:09
	I will put my law within them and I will write it	9:14
	upon their hearts and I will be their God	9:18
	and they shall be my people.	9:22
	And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor	9:26
	and each his brother saying know the Lord,	9:29
	for they shall all know me from the least of them	9:32
	to the greatest, says the Lord.	9:36
	For I will forgive their iniquity	9:39
	and I will remember their sin no more."	9:42
	Then from the book of Acts 2:1-4.	9:50
	"When the day of Pentecost had come,	9:58
	they were all together in one place.	10:01
	And suddenly a sound came from heaven,	10:05
	like the rush of a mighty wind	10:07
	and it filled all the house where they were sitting.	10:10
	And there appeared to them tongues as a fire,	10:14
	distributed and resting on each one of them.	10:18
	And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit	10:22
	and began to speak in other tongues	10:26
	as the Spirit gave them utterance."	10:29
	Here ends the reading of the lessons.	10:34
	May God's Spirit speak to you	10:36
	and to me through these words, amen.	10:39
	(choir instrumental music)	10:43
	We are not alone.	11:28
	We live in God's world.	11:30
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	11:34
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	11:39
	to reconcile and make new.	11:42
	Who works in us and others by the Spirit.	11:45
	We trust God who calls us to be the church.	11:49
	To celebrate life and its fullness	11:54
	to love and serve others,	11:57
	to seek justice and resist evil,	12:00
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen	12:03
	our judge and our hope.	12:07
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	12:10
	God is with us, we are not alone.	12:14
	Thanks be to God.	12:19
	The Lord be with you.	12:22
	Let us pray.	12:25
	Oh God, we gathered this day to praise you,	12:35
	to worship you, to hear your word,	12:40
	to sing with joy, to be forgiven	12:45
	and to commit our lives again,	12:49
	to greater more loving service	12:51
	in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.	12:54
	May our lives, oh loving God, reflect our gratitude to you	12:58
	for we know that whatever is good in us comes as we recall	13:03
	how your Spirit has blessed us.	13:07
	Whatever is generous in us comes as we know how generous	13:11
	and gracious you have been to us.	13:14
	Whatever forgiveness and understanding we show	13:18
	comes because we have been forgiven	13:21
	and we have been understood by you.	13:24
	Oh mighty, ever merciful, ever good and loving God,	13:28
	we praise you with heart and soul and mind and strength.	13:35
	But oh Lord help us to love and to care for our neighbors	13:42
	in this same manner with heart and soul	13:46
	and mind and strength, or at least, oh God,	13:49
	to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.	13:52
	We offer in this moment, oh God,	13:57
	our concern for all sorts and all conditions of humanity.	14:01
	Those who have lost their will,	14:06
	feeble because of sickness are dragged down	14:11
	by an aching alien body.	14:13
	Their minds focused only on their pain.	14:15
	Those, oh God, for whom life is boring and futile.	14:21
	Those oh God, who have not known the taste of success	14:27
	or satisfaction, or at least have forgotten it.	14:31
	Those who have suffered in life and are hostile and bitter,	14:36
	we think of these folk today oh God	14:42
	and wonder how we can bring zest to their lives,	14:44
	how we can turn bitterness and cynicism into joy and hope.	14:47
	We know, oh Lord, that we are not miracle workers.	14:53
	We know deep down within us,	14:58
	that there is much more that we can do.	15:00
	So help us to try to understand,	15:04
	to lift the dejected and to comfort the afflicted.	15:08
	And now, as we seek to do better in the future, oh God,	15:17
	help us to commit our lives to the Lord of life,	15:22
	to receive this day, the power, the peace,	15:27
	and the presence of the Holy Spirit.	15:30
	To think and act and love as our Lord Jesus Christ would do	15:33
	hear us, receive us, empower us now by your word,	15:39
	as we hear it and send us forth in the name	15:47
	and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord	15:51
	who taught us to pray as we pray together.	15:53
	Our father who art in heaven,	15:57
	hallowed be thy name.	16:01
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth	16:03
	as it is in heaven.	16:08
	Give us this day, our daily bread	16:10
	and forgive us our trespasses	16:14
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	16:16
	Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil.	16:20
	For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory	16:25
	forever, amen.	16:30
	We welcome you to Duke Chapel this day	16:35
	for this service of worship on Pentecost Sunday,	16:37
	when we celebrate the gift of God's Holy Spirit.	16:42
	We invite you to remain following this service of worship	16:47
	if you would like to share	16:50
	in the sacrament of the Lord supper.	16:51
	The service of holy communion will be celebrated	16:54
	in the Memorial Chapel to my right, to your left,	16:56
	immediately following this service.	17:00
	It is our privilege this morning to have us	17:03
	the preacher for the day,	17:05
	the Reverend Dr. Joseph Bethea,	17:07
	Director of Black Church Studies	17:10
	in the divinity school here at Duke.	17:12
	His ministry, however only begins there.	17:15
	His life and influence go far, not only in the church,	17:19
	in the ecclesiastical world,	17:23
	but also in the political and the social world.	17:25
	He and his wife and daughter have just returned from Jamaica	17:28
	where he was one of two delegates from the United States	17:32
	at the conference, the 10th conference	17:36
	of the United Methodist Church in the Americas.	17:38
	Joe's influence is very richly and deeply felt	17:42
	in the life of this university community.	17:44
	We welcome him to Duke Chapel this morning,	17:48
	and we hear him gladly as he brings God's word to us.	17:50
-	Thank you, Reverend Young,	18:08
	for those very kind words of introduction.	18:09
	It is indeed good to come again to this place	18:12
	and to be privileged to bring the message.	18:17
	Today is Pentecost Sunday,	18:22
	said by many to be the anniversary	18:26
	of the birthday of the church.	18:30
	The risen and living Christ of our Easter faith	18:33
	had exhorted his disciples	18:39
	to wait for the promise of the father.	18:42
	And he'd said to them, "You shall receive power	18:46
	when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."	18:50
	When this Christ had ascended, as it were into heaven,	18:55
	these disciples return to Jerusalem	19:01
	where they secretly obeyed the injunction of their Lord	19:05
	and waited in the upper chamber	19:11
	for the promise of the father.	19:15
	Though they were not quite sure what they were waiting for,	19:18
	they had the promise and they waited with patient	19:23
	and confident expectation.	19:28
	Indeed, they were standing on the promise of Christ	19:32
	their king and the waiting was not in vain.	19:36
	The promise was fulfilled.	19:41
	The prophecy of Joel and Jeremiah	19:43
	and many other prophets was fulfilled.	19:47
	When the day of Pentecost was come	19:51
	50 days after the resurrection,	19:54
	the apostles were all together in one place.	19:58
	"And suddenly a sound came from heaven,	20:03
	like the rush of a mighty wind	20:06
	and it filled all the house where they was sitting.	20:10
	And there appeared to them tongues as a fire	20:15
	distributed and resting on each one of them.	20:19
	And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.	20:24
	On this anniversary Sunday of the Pentecost experience,	20:29
	I want to reflect on that first experience	20:36
	in an effort to understand if we can at least	20:42
	some of what happened when Pentecost came	20:47
	so that we might have some understanding	20:51
	of what happens when Pentecost comes.	20:54
	But while we may not be Pentecostal in name,	20:59
	every community of Christians	21:04
	is or ought to be Pentecostal in nature.	21:08
	Indeed, the church is the product	21:14
	of the work of the Holy Spirit.	21:18
	The character of the church, its performance,	21:21
	indeed its life and authentic existence	21:26
	is determined by the Spirit.	21:31
	Where the Spirit of the Lord is,	21:35
	there is the one true church.	21:38
	And where the Spirit of the Lord is not, there is no church.	21:42
	The story then of the Holy Spirit at work	21:51
	in the primitive church,	21:55
	the book of the Acts of the apostles	21:57
	catalogs taught us certain evidences	22:01
	of the coming of the Holy Spirit	22:05
	when Pentecost came and when Pentecost comes	22:09
	When Pentecost came, a new fellowship was created.	22:19
	A new community came into being.	22:24
	The disciples were all together.	22:29
	The sound from heaven filled all the house.	22:33
	Tongues of fire rested on each of them.	22:39
	And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.	22:45
	They spoke in tongues so that people gathered there	22:51
	from every nation under the sun could understand.	22:56
	It was a new community of people.	23:02
	Indeed it was a new community of people	23:07
	because it was a community of new people.	23:10
	How is it that Jews and Gentiles	23:16
	and people from every nation under heaven	23:20
	could communicate and come together in fellowship?	23:24
	They had their differences, both real and imagined,	23:28
	but they had found a new devotion.	23:35
	They had found a new impulse,	23:38
	something that was stronger than	23:42
	anything that separated them.	23:45
	That new impulse, that new devotion was to Jesus Christ,	23:48
	who was now alive in their hearts	23:54
	and pulling them out of themselves and beyond themselves	23:57
	into a new creation as persons in community.	24:03
	A new creation as a community of persons.	24:08
	In his book, "The Community of Faith,"	24:15
	Ralph Martin wrote,	24:19
	"The first and most important note	24:22
	was simply that Jesus was king of their lives.	24:25
	They were no longer under subjection to the customs	24:31
	of other men and other systems.	24:35
	They were a company of men and women who lived	24:40
	as Jesus had taught them to live.	24:44
	They lived under his rule	24:48
	and let his teaching order their lives.	24:51
	So as the first community to share the memory of Christ	24:55
	and to experience the Holy Spirit of God,	25:03
	they were koinonia, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.	25:07
	All who believed were together and had all things in common.	25:14
	They sold their possessions and goods	25:21
	and distributed them to all as any had need.	25:25
	And day by day, attending the temple together	25:30
	and breaking bread in their homes.	25:35
	They partook of food with glad and generous hearts,	25:38
	praising God and having favor with all the people.	25:43
	And the Lord added to their number day by day	25:48
	those who were being saved.	25:53
	People from every nation,	25:57
	every nation under heaven became the new Israel.	26:00
	The body of Christ, where there was neither Jew nor Greek.	26:06
	There was neither slave nor free.	26:12
	There was neither male nor female	26:15
	for they were all one in Christ Jesus.	26:18
	That is what happens when Pentecost came.	26:24
	And that is what happens when Pentecost comes today.	26:30
	Oh, modern civilization seems to have	26:36
	a tragic genius for division.	26:40
	And what Dr. Alan Walker wrote more than 15 years ago	26:45
	is still true.	26:49
	A startling contrast is apparent in today's world.	26:52
	It is the contrast between physical might	26:57
	and moral and spiritual helplessness.	27:00
	We can cross vast distances at great speed,	27:04
	but we cannot negotiate the guff	27:09
	that divides nation from nation.	27:11
	We have broken the sound barrier,	27:15
	but the (indistinct) defeats us.	27:18
	We have penetrated out of space,	27:22
	but not the wall that separates East from West.	27:24
	We have taped the secret of the atom,	27:29
	but the secret of peace escapes us.	27:33
	We live in a world of physical power,	27:37
	the moral and spiritual impotence.	27:42
	Concorde supersonic transport	27:47
	flies at twice the speed of sound.	27:51
	You can get that before we leave here	27:55
	and has been said so often our world is becoming	28:00
	a neighborhood, but we cannot be neighbors.	28:05
	We experience some real problems	28:11
	when we try to live together in neighborhoods,	28:13
	or when we try to go to school together.	28:17
	And even when we try to worship together.	28:21
	And I want to suggest that if love and fellowship	28:25
	and community is to be found anywhere,	28:28
	it ought to be found in the church.	28:32
	What do we have?	28:36
	We've permitted the world's way of selfishness	28:40
	and individualism to pervade the church of God.	28:46
	And a growing number of people are lonely	28:51
	and lost because of our lack of fellowship and community.	28:54
	Dr. (indistinct) wrote,	29:01
	"When the sophisticated modern thinks of fellowship,	29:03
	he or she thinks of a cocktail party and not the church."	29:08
	When the man on the street look for fellowship,	29:14
	he doesn't go to church, he goes to a tavern	29:17
	or to the union hall or to a lodge.	29:21
	This should not be so,	29:27
	and this need not be so.	29:30
	For if the church is to be true to its Lord at our time,	29:31
	we must still be a fellowship	29:36
	where different people can come together and live together	29:40
	with common purposes, common loyalties,	29:44
	and common allegiances.	29:46
	We must achieve that community which Christ prayed for	29:49
	that they all may be one.	29:54
	All who Lord?	29:59
	Learned and unlearned?	30:01
	Haves and have not?	30:04
	Males and female?	30:07
	Masters and slaves?	30:10
	Black and white?	30:13
	Red and brown and yellow?	30:16
	That they all may be one that they all may be	30:18
	in Christian Love and fellowship and community.	30:22
	It happened when Pentecost came and it will happen today	30:26
	if the Spirit comes into our midst.	30:32
	When Pentecost came, a new power was experienced	30:39
	by the disciples.	30:45
	Was a power and the presence that changed them	30:48
	from what they had been.	30:51
	We can't adequately describe what really happened	30:54
	on that occasion.	30:58
	And yet most of us know how hard wind can blow	31:00
	and how hot fire can burn.	31:04
	Something blew upon them.	31:09
	Something burned within them.	31:12
	It was the breath and the fire of the power of God.	31:16
	C. J. Barker wrote, "And there were signs,	31:24
	there were signs for those without."	31:29
	Something happened that told the masses of people	31:34
	that strange things had taken place.	31:38
	From the upper room impaled by an imperious impulse,	31:43
	the disciples went out, breaking into ecstatic utterances,	31:49
	which call from some, the caustic interpretation	31:55
	that the men were drunk.	32:00
	Two marks of drunkenness or excitement and exhilaration.	32:05
	The collapse of habitual inhibitions	32:13
	so that the jibe hurled against the disciples	32:19
	must have had real plausibility.	32:24
	But man noted that old inhibitions and restraints were gone	32:27
	and the Christians were almost wild.	32:35
	Chatting the mighty acts of God.	32:39
	Look at Peter.	32:44
	Look at fearful, timid, cowardly, Peter.	32:47
	Is this the same person whose courage disappeared	32:53
	when Christ was crucified?	32:57
	Is this the man who three times denied	33:01
	that he had ever known the man from Galilee?	33:04
	It cannot be.	33:09
	But it is and yet it is not.	33:11
	It is Peter,	33:17
	but it is Peter filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.	33:19
	"He stood with the eleven and lifted up his voice."	33:25
	Brother Young, he didn't whisper.	33:33
	He stood and lifted up his voice and said	33:37
	"Not so, it's just nine o'clock in the morning	33:42
	and we don't customarily drink this early.	33:47
	We are not filled the new wine,	33:51
	we all filled with new power.	33:54
	We are filled with the power and presence	33:58
	of the Holy Spirit.	34:03
	Gave them hope, peace.	34:06
	Gave them joy and enthusiasm	34:10
	amid what otherwise would have been only struggle	34:14
	and pain and depression.	34:18
	Christ had kept his promise.	34:20
	That is what happened when Pentecost came.	34:23
	And that is what happens when Pentecost comes.	34:27
	New power is experienced by those who believe	34:32
	and persons who have been powerless to hold out	34:38
	against the pressures up temptation.	34:41
	Against the pressures of opposition,	34:45
	against the pressures of ridicule,	34:48
	against the pressures of loneliness.	34:50
	Against the pressures of selfishness and individualism.	34:53
	Against the pressures of lossless.	34:58
	Persons begin to overcome	35:03
	by the power of something within.	35:06
	St. Agustin and St. Francis, Martin Luther and John Wesley,	35:11
	and many others in the history of the church	35:17
	have told us how their experience of the Holy Spirit	35:19
	changed their lives.	35:23
	Persons who were timid became brave.	35:26
	Ordinary persons became extraordinary.	35:29
	Selfish persons became unselfish.	35:33
	Persons who were weak, became strong.	35:37
	Lost persons found salvation	35:40
	and thousands upon thousands today	35:43
	are experiencing the change that takes place	35:48
	when the Holy Spirit comes.	35:53
	Spirit gives a life, it gives new life,	35:56
	so that those who feel its presence proclaim something	36:02
	within, something within me that hold us the rain,	36:06
	something within me that banishes pain.	36:11
	Something within me I cannot explain.	36:14
	All that I know there is something within.	36:18
	We can all have it.	36:25
	For God says, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh	36:28
	and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."	36:35
	God pours.	36:43
	And we need to understand that the pouring of God	36:46
	may affect different people in different ways.	36:51
	To some it may be a highly emotional and dramatic experience	36:57
	to others it may not be.	37:04
	I hope that that day will come	37:08
	when people of varying religious experiences	37:11
	can embrace each other in love and live together	37:16
	as spirit-filled persons.	37:21
	For God pours.	37:25
	God alone pours.	37:28
	The wind blows where it wills.	37:31
	You hear the sound of it,	37:36
	but you cannot tell from which it comes or whether it goes.	37:39
	So he is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.	37:48
	God pours, it happens now when Pentecost comes.	37:53
	One other word must be said.	38:00
	When Pentecost came, the disciples were given a new task.	38:05
	When Jesus presented himself alive to his disciples,	38:11
	after his passing, he charged them not to depart	38:15
	from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father.	38:19
	"For many days you shall be baptized	38:25
	with the Holy Spirit," he says.	38:29
	"And so when they had come together, asked him, Lord,	38:32
	will you, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?"	38:36
	He said to them, "It is not for you to know	38:42
	the times of seasons, which the father has fixed	38:45
	by his own authority,	38:48
	but you shall receive power	38:50
	when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.	38:54
	And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem	38:57
	and it all Judea and Sumeria and to the end of the earth."	39:03
	You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come.	39:10
	You shall receive power.	39:19
	It will change your being.	39:22
	It will make you something different	39:27
	from what you have been.	39:29
	You will receive power.	39:33
	It will create community.	39:36
	It will make you love and have fellowship	39:40
	with those who otherwise you would not.	39:43
	But it is also power to do something.	39:48
	Power to do something.	39:55
	Peter preached and 3000 souls were added that day.	39:58
	And they went out preaching and healing and suffering	40:04
	for the liberation and salvation of all people.	40:09
	They went out from that Pentecostal experience	40:16
	proclaiming the good news of God in word and indeed.	40:21
	They had received God's power	40:27
	and they had to do God's will.	40:32
	This is what happened when Pentecost came.	40:37
	And this is what happens when Pentecost comes today.	40:43
	In 1969, the Social Science Institute of Fisk university	40:49
	published a book called "God Struck Me Dead."	40:56
	It's a volume of narratives of the religious conversion	41:01
	and experiences and auto biographies of ex slaves.	41:05
	In varying ways, the Spirit took hold of them,	41:13
	but it always gave them something to do.	41:19
	One said that when the Spirit came into my life,	41:23
	I heard a voice saying,	41:28
	"Go preach my gospel to every creature	41:30
	and fear not for I am with you and everlasting crop."	41:33
	Another said that, "When the Spirit of God entered my life,	41:41
	I heard a voice saying, go and I will go with you.	41:44
	You have a deed to your name and you shall never perish."	41:50
	And still another said, when the Spirit came into his life,	41:56
	voice was heard to say, "Go into yonder world	42:02
	and tell them what a dear savior you have found."	42:06
	I didn't want to leave.	42:11
	"And I said, Lord, they won't believe me if I go."	42:14
	But he said, "I command you to go and you shall go.	42:19
	Speak and I will speak through you."	42:25
	And ever since that day, the narrative continues.	42:29
	I've been falling down and getting up,	42:34
	but always looking to God because	42:38
	he promised never to leave me,	42:40
	never to leave me alone.	42:45
	When the Spirit speaks to me now,	42:49
	I move with certainty."	42:53
	indeed, when the Spirit of God comes into our lives,	42:58
	however varying it may be in different people,	43:03
	we have to move.	43:07
	We have to move to right the wrongs of our time.	43:10
	We have to move to heal those who are hurting.	43:15
	We have to move to preach and bring good news	43:18
	to the poor and all that it means	43:22
	to preach and bring good news.	43:24
	We have to move to set at liberty those who are oppressed.	43:27
	We have to move to feed the hungry of the world,	43:32
	to give water to the thirsty, to welcome the stranger.	43:35
	We have to move and our concern for those who are sick	43:41
	and those who are in prison.	43:45
	Jesus said, "If you didn't do it for them,	43:48
	you didn't do it for me."	43:52
	My reading of the tradition then, it seems to me	43:56
	that if we have God's Spirit in us,	44:00
	we have to do God's work.	44:04
	God's will in the world and I have a bit of a problem	44:07
	with those who say they have the Spirit of God	44:11
	and are not at least trying to do his will and his word.	44:15
	This is what happened when Pentecost came.	44:23
	This is what happens when Pentecost comes.	44:28
	New people make up new communities	44:32
	to do new tasks.	44:38
	The Presidents of the World Council of Churches	44:42
	send a message to the churches called Pentecost 1976.	44:44
	In that message they said,	44:51
	the Holy Spirit makes Christ known	44:53
	to those who did not know him.	44:55
	He sustains and renews the faith of the believers,	44:58
	leads them back to the source of their faith.	45:03
	He gives Christians courage and power to witness for Christ.	45:07
	Helps them to discover in the tensions and struggles	45:11
	of our time, what is God's will for his people?	45:14
	He binds them together in a fellowship	45:19
	that transcends all human divisions.	45:22
	This is also what the Holy Spirit did for us	45:25
	at the World Council Assembler in Nairobi.	45:30
	Once again, we were brought face-to-face	45:34
	with those central truths of the gospel.	45:37
	We were shown new ways of living in obedience to our Lord	45:40
	thus, we were enabled to stay together,	45:45
	even in spite of the forces,	45:49
	which can so easily divide us.	45:52
	And we open our lives to the Spirit they continued.	45:56
	We will also be able to make a decisive contribution	46:01
	to humankind's great struggle for survival	46:05
	for our world of justice, freedom and peace.	46:10
	We have been warned that our world must change its values	46:16
	if it is to avoid catastrophe.	46:21
	The Spirit who glorifies Christ,	46:25
	than all that he stands for,	46:27
	will send us the true priorities.	46:30
	They concluded the message with the prayer	46:35
	that was used and the pausing service	46:39
	of the assembly at Nairobi.	46:42
	And I use it now as the prayer for this message.	46:46
	Holy Spirit of God, fill us with confidence	46:51
	and make us available.	46:56
	Teach us to pray and to hear the mournings of men.	46:58
	Help us interpret the signs of the time	47:03
	and prepare us for the Kingdom of God	47:07
	each day and forever, amen.	47:11
	(choir instrumental music)	47:22
	(choir instrumental music)	50:56
	(choir instrumental music)	58:34
-	As we dedicate these our gifts today,	1:00:00
	may we rededicate our very selves to you, oh God	1:00:04
	and to our neighbors.	1:00:08
	In a broken world where we have nothing to lose,	1:00:11
	but everything, may we be Christ's agents of reconciling,	1:00:14
	renewing love to those known to us	1:00:20
	and to the strangers whom we meet unawares.	1:00:24
	Accept now our gifts, we dedicate them to you.	1:00:29
	Accept now our lives,	1:00:36
	we commit them again, oh God, to you.	1:00:39
	To love you, and to love our neighbor	1:00:43
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	1:00:47
	(choir instrumental music)	1:00:53
	The grace of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ,	1:05:39
	the love of God,	1:05:45
	the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit,	1:05:49
	be with you and those whom you love.	1:05:54
	Now and forever.	1:06:00
	(choir singing)	1:06:08
	(bell chiming)	1:07:02
	(choir instrumental music)	1:07:19

Item Info

Title:

Joseph B. Bethea - "When Pentecost Came" (June 6, 1976)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4x062d79

Date:

June 6, 1976

Speaker:

Bethea, Joseph B.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0839
ref6878_fq4
uachapelsermaud
duke:628254
dcrau002798
ark:/87924/r4x062d79
58eefb9f-e7dd-4e30-8904-541aa3e854d0

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

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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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Joseph B. Bethea - "When Pentecost Came" (June 6, 1976)

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1. Joseph B. Bethea - "When Pentecost Came" (June 6, 1976)

Duke University Archives

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Joseph B. Bethea - "When Pentecost Came" (June 6, 1976)

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Duke University Archives

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