Arthur James Armstrong - "Martha, Mary, and Joe" Baccalaureate Service 11:00 am (May 8, 1977)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft music) | 0:09 | |
(whispering softly) | 13:35 | |
(coughing loudly) | 13:40 | |
(coughing loudly) | 14:18 | |
(bright instrumental music) | 14:20 | |
- | We really don't want you to sit in each other's laps, | 30:13 |
but in spite of the fact that | 30:18 | |
this is the third baccalaureate service | 30:19 | |
of this commencement weekend, | 30:22 | |
there are some folks who are standing. | 30:24 | |
So, let me ask you if there is any room | 30:26 | |
for you to move toward the center row, so that folks, | 30:29 | |
some of those who are standing may be seated. | 30:32 | |
We're gonna take up a special offering | 30:56 | |
to air condition this place before we leave today. | 30:57 | |
(congregation laughing loudly) | 31:00 | |
With what shall we come before the Lord | 31:02 | |
and bow ourselves before God on high? | 31:05 | |
God has showed us my friends what is good. | 31:10 | |
What does the Lord require of us but to do justice, | 31:14 | |
to love kindness, and to walk calmly with our God. | 31:17 | |
Therefore with this awareness, | 31:22 | |
it is incumbent upon us to confess our sins. | 31:23 | |
And so with one voice, | 31:28 | |
let us together offer this prayer of confession to God. | 31:30 | |
- | Oh God, in whose mystery we abide | 31:36 |
by whose mercy we are redeemed, | 31:39 | |
we confess our sin against one another and against you | 31:42 | |
all our transgressions hidden and open. | 31:47 | |
The evil done and the goodness left undone. | 31:51 | |
We have deceived ourselves about ourselves | 31:55 | |
and worn masks and not trusted in love. | 31:59 | |
We confess that we have been careful with things, | 32:03 | |
careless with persons, adept in taking, awkward in giving, | 32:07 | |
in love with our fears and in fear of our loves. | 32:13 | |
Forgive us for the times of our anger | 32:18 | |
and the occasions of our stupidity. | 32:22 | |
For the times of our cowardice, | 32:25 | |
in the places of our hesitation. | 32:28 | |
For every time we did not love the goodness of persons | 32:31 | |
nor praise your glory. | 32:35 | |
Forgive us, lift us up and heal us this day | 32:38 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 32:43 | |
Amen. | 32:46 | |
- | Let us continue in prayer | 32:48 |
with our own personal words of confession. | 32:49 | |
If anyone is in Christ, | 33:10 | |
he or she is a new person. | 33:14 | |
The old has passed away and the new has come. | 33:19 | |
That mystery called grace, | 33:24 | |
which keeps interrupting and sustaining our lives | 33:28 | |
is able to bring new life even to us. | 33:31 | |
This now, indeed is the time of your life. | 33:37 | |
Through God's grace, | 33:43 | |
I invite you to live in your future | 33:46 | |
as you have never lived before. | 33:50 | |
Amen. | 33:54 | |
(soft music) | 34:03 | |
(woman singing softly) | 34:39 | |
(congregation singing indistinctly) | 36:35 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 37:53 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:00 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 38:31 | |
- | The reading is from the 10th chapter of Luke, | 38:48 |
"Now as they went on their way, he entered a village | 38:54 | |
and a woman named Martha received him into her house. | 38:58 | |
And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet | 39:02 | |
and listened to his teaching. | 39:06 | |
But Martha was distracted with much serving | 39:08 | |
and she went to him and said, | 39:12 | |
"Lord, do you not care that my sister | 39:14 | |
has left me to serve alone? | 39:16 | |
Tell her then to help me." | 39:19 | |
But the Lord answered her, | 39:22 | |
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious | 39:23 | |
and troubled about many things and one thing is needful. | 39:25 | |
Mary has chosen the good portion, | 39:29 | |
which shall not be taken away from her." | 39:31 | |
(congregation singing indistinctly) | 39:47 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 40:25 |
- | We believe in God, | 40:28 |
who has created and is creating. | 40:30 | |
Who has come into truly human Jesus | 40:33 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 40:36 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church | 40:39 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness | 40:44 | |
to love and serve others, | 40:47 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 40:50 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. | 40:53 | |
Our judge and our hope. | 40:57 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 41:00 | |
God is with us. | 41:05 | |
We are not alone. | 41:07 | |
Thanks be to God. | 41:09 | |
The Lord be with you. | 41:13 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 41:15 | |
Let us pray. | 41:16 | |
Carl Sandburg once wrote, "I am a traveler out of nowhere. | 41:25 | |
I more than a traveler out of nowhere. | 41:32 | |
Sea and land, sky and air begot me somewhere. | 41:36 | |
Where I go from here and now, or if I go at all again, | 41:41 | |
the maker of sea and land of sky and air can tell." | 41:46 | |
Surely, oh God, we are more than travelers out of nowhere | 41:55 | |
for we are your children. | 42:04 | |
We are brothers and sisters to one another | 42:08 | |
and to all others. | 42:10 | |
We have come from you, oh Lord, | 42:13 | |
holy, eternal, all wisdom, all mercy, all love. | 42:15 | |
Our hearts surely are restless | 42:20 | |
save only as they rest in you. | 42:23 | |
Oh Lord, how often do we judge things for what they are not? | 42:29 | |
We prefer our fantasies of the future | 42:38 | |
to the present reality of those who need our love. | 42:42 | |
We prefer the idea of a God out there who doesn't bother us | 42:47 | |
to the experience of the God in our midst, | 42:53 | |
disturbing us with a call to take responsibility | 42:55 | |
for our own lives. | 43:00 | |
Oh God, lover of our souls | 43:04 | |
make us lovers of the souls of others. | 43:09 | |
Oh God, lover of our bodies | 43:15 | |
make us care about the bodies of others. | 43:18 | |
Oh God, giver of total love to us, | 43:23 | |
help us to give at least occasionally | 43:26 | |
total love to others. | 43:32 | |
Today, oh God, we worship you in this holy place. | 43:36 | |
This place which has nurtured us, sustained us, | 43:39 | |
inspired us, calmed us, confronted us | 43:43 | |
and given us hope. | 43:47 | |
We give honor, oh God, to those who graduate this day | 43:50 | |
for all that they have given | 43:56 | |
to this university of body, mind and spirit. | 43:57 | |
For all that they have gained from this university. | 44:01 | |
For who they were when they came to this place, | 44:05 | |
for who they have become and yes, | 44:08 | |
for yet who they are to be. | 44:10 | |
We give thanks and praise. | 44:14 | |
Help them and us to dedicate ourselves body, mind, | 44:18 | |
and spirit to serve and love you. | 44:24 | |
And to love and care for others. | 44:29 | |
And hear us now, oh God, as we pray the prayer, | 44:34 | |
which our Lord has taught us as we pray. | 44:36 | |
- | Our father who art in heaven, | 44:40 |
hallowed be thy name. | 44:43 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 44:46 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 44:48 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 44:53 | |
Forgive us our trespasses | 44:56 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 44:58 | |
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 45:02 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 45:08 | |
the power and the glory, forever. | 45:10 | |
- | May I say a word of welcome | 45:18 |
to each of you this morning. | 45:19 | |
Except it's not really a welcome | 45:23 | |
to those who are sitting down near the front. | 45:25 | |
These folks are in their regular seats | 45:27 | |
in case you parents want to know. | 45:28 | |
(audience laughing faintly) | 45:31 | |
I don't know why they laughed, do you? | 45:37 | |
(audience laughing faintly) | 45:40 | |
We're delighted to have you here on this joyous occasion, | 45:41 | |
this time of real celebration. | 45:45 | |
And Mr. President, I want you to know that | 45:49 | |
the ministers take responsibility for Sunday, | 45:51 | |
whether somebody else handled yesterday, so. | 45:54 | |
(audience laughing loudly) | 45:57 | |
It is a time of joy and a time of celebration. | 46:01 | |
We're delighted that you could be here to share it with us. | 46:04 | |
And may I say also though that | 46:07 | |
we who live and work here look forward to this time, | 46:10 | |
perhaps just as much as you. | 46:12 | |
So it is good for us all to be together. | 46:14 | |
It's our privilege today to have with us as our preacher | 46:18 | |
on this baccalaureate Sunday, Bishop James Armstrong. | 46:24 | |
The resident and presiding bishop of the Dakotas area | 46:30 | |
of the United Methodist church. | 46:33 | |
A writer, a preacher, | 46:37 | |
a theologian and administrator, | 46:41 | |
I guess oftentimes by necessity. | 46:45 | |
A man of real courage and conviction and compassion. | 46:50 | |
And we are delighted, Bishop Armstrong, | 46:58 | |
to have you with us on this good occasion | 47:01 | |
and for all who were here and on behalf of the university, | 47:05 | |
let me welcome you. | 47:09 | |
- | Several years ago, and for many years | 47:20 |
I found myself crisscrossing the State of Indiana. | 47:25 | |
Speaking at high school baccalaureate | 47:28 | |
and commencement ceremonies. | 47:31 | |
There was a certain sameness about the events. | 47:35 | |
They were usually in gymnasiums, sweaty, smelly gymnasiums. | 47:39 | |
Many of the high school seniors were giggly | 47:46 | |
and self-conscious. | 47:49 | |
The football heroes always got more applause | 47:52 | |
than the valedictorians. | 47:54 | |
My speeches were full of rousements, | 47:58 | |
and usually concluded with a poem of sorts. | 48:03 | |
A poem that went something like this, | 48:08 | |
"We men of earth have here the stuff of paradise. | 48:11 | |
We need no other things to build a stairway | 48:14 | |
to the unfulfilled. | 48:17 | |
No other marble for the floors, | 48:18 | |
no other ivory for the doors. | 48:20 | |
No other cedar for the beams | 48:22 | |
or dome to man's immortal dreams. | 48:23 | |
Here on the common human way | 48:27 | |
here on the path of every day, | 48:29 | |
is all the stuff that God would take | 48:31 | |
to mold and make new Edens. | 48:33 | |
Ours is the task sublime, | 48:37 | |
to build eternity, in time. | 48:40 | |
I thought that was a clincher. | 48:44 | |
And yet, in retrospect, | 48:47 | |
on the one hand it did reflect starry-eyed idealism. | 48:51 | |
But on the other hand, | 48:57 | |
it was riddled through with unabashed male chauvinism. | 48:58 | |
We men of earth have here the stuff. | 49:03 | |
We men of earth, we men. | 49:06 | |
In spite of the fact, that we began this service of worship | 49:11 | |
by singing God of our fathers, | 49:15 | |
reality consists of infinitely more than maleness. | 49:22 | |
I have hanging over my desk in my study at home | 49:31 | |
an 1820 by 24 reproduction or parody | 49:34 | |
of Michelangelo's creation. | 49:40 | |
It was given me by my wife and a friend. | 49:43 | |
God is there. | 49:47 | |
God is not a he God, | 49:49 | |
a Moses like God with flowing beard. | 49:52 | |
God is a she God. | 49:55 | |
A black woman with an afro hairdo. | 49:58 | |
And Adam is Adam, but not Adam. | 50:02 | |
Adam is Eve with a feminine if not voluptuous figure. | 50:04 | |
Their fingers meet as in Michelangelo's classic. | 50:12 | |
God's and woman's fingers meet and creation results. | 50:17 | |
And that's how it is today. | 50:26 | |
A revolution is taking place in our thought | 50:29 | |
and our experience. | 50:32 | |
Woman in a sense is the revolutionary | 50:34 | |
as Kate Molet has said | 50:38 | |
this revolutionary is not a murderer | 50:40 | |
she is a changer, a teacher. | 50:42 | |
She is hanging in there. | 50:45 | |
She is sticking with it, | 50:47 | |
she is loving people | 50:49 | |
so that she can turn their heads around. | 50:50 | |
Less than 2000 years ago, | 50:55 | |
a story was told about sisters, Mary and Martha, | 50:59 | |
who had invited the Nazarene, Jesus, to their home. | 51:04 | |
Mary sat at his feet and looked up at him adoringly. | 51:09 | |
Amazed that his worldly knowledge and the profundity | 51:15 | |
and the depth of his thought, she responded. | 51:19 | |
All the while Martha was in the kitchen | 51:23 | |
or scurrying about taking care of those who were the guests. | 51:26 | |
Finally, impatient | 51:31 | |
Martha asked for Mary to help her. | 51:35 | |
Jesus gently chided Martha, | 51:39 | |
suggesting that there was place for both of them | 51:42 | |
and thus drew the line | 51:45 | |
between the Marys and the Marthas of this world. | 51:47 | |
That line has come into even sharper focus, today. | 51:52 | |
And Martha is still getting the short end of the stick. | 51:59 | |
Martha is the homemaker. | 52:04 | |
She is the one who continues to be put down. | 52:08 | |
She is considered by many the drudge, | 52:11 | |
the colorless glamourless one. | 52:13 | |
It is significant I think that by chance, | 52:18 | |
we are here on Mother's Day. | 52:20 | |
A perfectly natural time to celebrate woman | 52:23 | |
as homemaker, as wife and mother. | 52:26 | |
A time to insist that she is the crux | 52:31 | |
of the story of human development. | 52:35 | |
She does control the nursery, | 52:37 | |
the seedbed of tomorrow's world. | 52:40 | |
There are more than 60 million American women | 52:44 | |
over 18 years of age, | 52:48 | |
who even now are going about their tasks | 52:51 | |
of keeping homes together, rearing children, | 52:54 | |
responding to those chores that demand to be dealt with. | 52:57 | |
And in the process are setting the values | 53:02 | |
and creating the disposition | 53:06 | |
that will mark the world of tomorrow. | 53:09 | |
One of those mothers speaking to a large assemblage | 53:13 | |
not long ago said, "Here's to Martha. | 53:16 | |
She faces challenges and responsibilities | 53:20 | |
no one else can claim. | 53:23 | |
If she cultivates qualities of patience, | 53:25 | |
openness, reflection, sensitivity, compassion, | 53:29 | |
the capacity to listen, respond and learn, she can prevail. | 53:35 | |
But if she fails, what then? | 53:40 | |
If Martha does not cultivate herself, | 53:44 | |
respect herself, affirm herself, | 53:48 | |
she will be denigrated by all the Marys | 53:51 | |
and the males about her, believe me." | 53:55 | |
The mother went on to say, | 53:59 | |
"To be an adequate Martha, | 54:01 | |
requires as much as any other calling in this world. | 54:04 | |
To be an adequate Martha contributes | 54:09 | |
as much as any other service vocation in this world." | 54:13 | |
The family, however structured, | 54:19 | |
and we are all conscious of radical changes taking place | 54:23 | |
within the family. | 54:27 | |
The family, however structured is not a relic of the past. | 54:28 | |
Rather, it will be the integral center | 54:34 | |
of whatever morrow take shape, | 54:40 | |
and it will be dependent upon the homemaker. | 54:45 | |
If we in our pseudo sophistication | 54:50 | |
tend to look down upon the Martha's of this world | 54:52 | |
upon woman family, we are not reflecting upon them. | 54:54 | |
We are reflecting upon ourselves. | 54:59 | |
Homemaking is an art and a science. | 55:03 | |
It is no more merely housekeeping | 55:08 | |
than journalism is the typing of copy. | 55:12 | |
Housekeeping is involved. | 55:16 | |
The homemaker does, clean, cook, et cetera. | 55:19 | |
But more important, vastly more important | 55:24 | |
is the nuclear role the homemaker plays | 55:29 | |
in helping establish the tones of those | 55:32 | |
fragile profoundly important interrelationships | 55:35 | |
out of which emerging personality will come. | 55:39 | |
We must somehow honor Martha | 55:47 | |
the homemaker far more than our time has been likely to do. | 55:51 | |
But Mary, the working woman, the career woman, | 55:57 | |
she needs to be affirmed as well. | 56:02 | |
One thing feminism has done, it has reminded all of us | 56:06 | |
that we stand on equal footing. | 56:12 | |
That woman in spite of our traditions and biases, | 56:15 | |
and stereotypes, woman has an inalienable right | 56:20 | |
to determine her own destiny. | 56:26 | |
A Barbara Jordan, a Golda Meir, a Barbara Walters, | 56:31 | |
a Rosemary Ruether, a Indira Gandhi, | 56:37 | |
yes and a Chris Everett, | 56:39 | |
have shown us what woman can accomplish in our world. | 56:42 | |
These have been the headliners, the stars | 56:46 | |
that have indicated to us | 56:49 | |
that baby has come a long long way. | 56:52 | |
But their very fame, has tended to obscure the fact | 56:56 | |
that there are nearly 14 million women in this country | 57:00 | |
who are a part of the labor market today. | 57:05 | |
They are not only nurses, | 57:08 | |
they are not only teachers, | 57:10 | |
they are not only domestic helpers in our homes, | 57:12 | |
they are truck drivers and coal miners. | 57:16 | |
They are scientists and police officers. | 57:19 | |
They are attorneys and executives and politicians. | 57:22 | |
48% of the women in this country are now employed. | 57:29 | |
Some of them are reluctant Marys. | 57:38 | |
They find themselves at work because of inflation | 57:42 | |
or other harsh realities | 57:46 | |
that have goaded them into the market, ends must be met. | 57:48 | |
But others have self-consciously chosen that way. | 57:54 | |
Have dreamed their dreams and made their commitments | 57:58 | |
and responded to the human condition | 58:01 | |
with the skills they can bring to bear | 58:04 | |
upon this moment of time. | 58:07 | |
I'm in their debt as many as all of you. | 58:11 | |
It was a pioneering woman physician, Nettie DePaulo | 58:16 | |
in Indiana who brought me into the world some years ago. | 58:21 | |
And when at the ripe old age of six | 58:25 | |
I threatened to check out, | 58:28 | |
she was the one who with professional skills | 58:29 | |
called me back from the threshold of death | 58:32 | |
and gave life again to me. | 58:35 | |
I'm glad she determined to be a Mary. | 58:38 | |
But with the shifting signs of mood and attitude, | 58:44 | |
Mary faces countless dilemmas today. | 58:50 | |
I talked not long ago with a 50 year old woman, charming, | 58:56 | |
articulate, brilliant ultra competent. | 59:00 | |
She had been offered a position as national director | 59:05 | |
to head a movement to which she is committed. | 59:10 | |
The home base of the movement is a thousand miles | 59:14 | |
from her home that would have required | 59:17 | |
just a bit of commuting. | 59:20 | |
She shared the opportunities with her family. | 59:22 | |
Her youngsters two university students | 59:25 | |
were proud of their mother, | 59:27 | |
respected their mother. | 59:29 | |
Encouraged her to respond to say yes | 59:31 | |
but her husband refused to even discuss the matter. | 59:34 | |
After weeks of stubborn silence, she said no. | 59:39 | |
But she confesses that she still has things | 59:45 | |
she must work through. | 59:48 | |
She will not return to a life of timid domesticity. | 59:50 | |
She has wearied of being a sex object to her husband. | 59:58 | |
The charming host is for his friends, | 1:00:03 | |
the alter ego that responds to his ambitions. | 1:00:08 | |
She is a person | 1:00:12 | |
and has a right in that dreaming of her dreams | 1:00:16 | |
to respond to those dreams as a person | 1:00:18 | |
and so the difficulty. | 1:00:25 | |
There are confrontations yet to come. | 1:00:27 | |
Her husband's name is Joe. | 1:00:31 | |
Joe, stands as the stereotypical male | 1:00:37 | |
at the eye of this whirlwind. | 1:00:40 | |
Feminism threatens him. | 1:00:44 | |
The ground on which he stands is no longer a sure | 1:00:49 | |
and certain ground. | 1:00:52 | |
There are identity questions he is seeking to work through. | 1:00:55 | |
What is expected of him now? | 1:00:59 | |
Who is he to become in the light of these new circumstances? | 1:01:01 | |
It has long been assumed that he and those of us | 1:01:06 | |
who share his sex are sturdy oaks | 1:01:09 | |
and they and others like them are clinging vines. | 1:01:12 | |
No longer, | 1:01:19 | |
you know how we have been regarded. | 1:01:21 | |
Man is strong, woman is weak. | 1:01:25 | |
Man is dominant, woman is submissive. | 1:01:30 | |
Man is active, Woman is passive. | 1:01:35 | |
Man is thoughtful, rational, woman is feeling. | 1:01:41 | |
Man is the aggressor, woman waits and waits and waits | 1:01:46 | |
until given opportunity to respond. | 1:01:53 | |
Now that is simply not who we really are. | 1:01:58 | |
When I was about the age of some of you | 1:02:05 | |
I was both a husband and a father | 1:02:07 | |
and I had the night shift, | 1:02:10 | |
which meant that I got up with Jimmy when he cried | 1:02:12 | |
and changed his diapers and then plunged them | 1:02:14 | |
into the toilet bowl. | 1:02:16 | |
You don't know what this pampers generation has done. | 1:02:19 | |
And I help Phillis in the kitchen | 1:02:25 | |
with the cooking and the cleaning. | 1:02:26 | |
One of the role models, a decisive role model | 1:02:29 | |
in that early experience was my father | 1:02:32 | |
who had been a lightweight boxer, | 1:02:35 | |
whose nose had been broken three times | 1:02:37 | |
boxing football, baseball. | 1:02:40 | |
He had all the match-all characteristics, | 1:02:42 | |
but he was also one of the most tender men | 1:02:46 | |
I have ever known. | 1:02:49 | |
He was a frequent site in the kitchen | 1:02:52 | |
with an apron around his girth. | 1:02:54 | |
I remember being cuddled by him as a small lad. | 1:02:58 | |
He would have made a great Hungarian or Italian father. | 1:03:01 | |
He knew who he was | 1:03:06 | |
and therefore he did not have anything to prove to anyone. | 1:03:09 | |
Hans Kuhn, the Swiss theologian | 1:03:16 | |
has called feminism the new reformation. | 1:03:20 | |
Among many other things on the subject he has said, | 1:03:24 | |
"One cannot deduce from the essence of Christian marriage, | 1:03:28 | |
a specific division of labor. | 1:03:31 | |
For instance, that a woman is to raise the children | 1:03:34 | |
while the man is to be the breadwinner. | 1:03:37 | |
Raising children and doing housework | 1:03:40 | |
as well as financially supporting the family | 1:03:42 | |
can be performed by wife and husband together. | 1:03:46 | |
But again, each of us must work through his or her approach | 1:03:51 | |
to identity and response in the light of who we are." | 1:03:54 | |
A journalist has said it like this, | 1:03:59 | |
"For every woman who is tired of acting weak | 1:04:02 | |
when she knows she is strong, | 1:04:06 | |
there is a man who is tired of appearing strong | 1:04:09 | |
when he feels vulnerable. | 1:04:13 | |
For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, | 1:04:15 | |
there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation | 1:04:19 | |
of knowing everything. | 1:04:23 | |
For every woman who is tired | 1:04:26 | |
of being called an emotional female, | 1:04:28 | |
there is a man who is denied the right | 1:04:31 | |
to weep and to be gentle. | 1:04:35 | |
For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, | 1:04:38 | |
there is a man for whom competition is the only way | 1:04:41 | |
to prove his masculinity. | 1:04:45 | |
For every woman who is tired of being just a sex object, | 1:04:48 | |
there is a man who must worry about his potency. | 1:04:53 | |
For every woman who feels tied down by her children, | 1:04:58 | |
there is a man who is denied the full pleasure | 1:05:02 | |
of shared parenthood. | 1:05:04 | |
For every woman who is denied meaningful employment | 1:05:07 | |
and equal pay, there is a man | 1:05:10 | |
who must bear full financial responsibility | 1:05:13 | |
for another human being. | 1:05:16 | |
For every woman who was not taught | 1:05:19 | |
the intricacies of an automobile, | 1:05:21 | |
there is a man who was not taught | 1:05:24 | |
the satisfactions of cooking. | 1:05:25 | |
For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation | 1:05:28 | |
there is a man who finds the way to freedom | 1:05:34 | |
has been made a little easier" | 1:05:37 | |
You see, we're not talking here about woman's liberation. | 1:05:40 | |
We're talking about human liberation, | 1:05:44 | |
mine as well as yours. | 1:05:47 | |
The apostle said, in Christ | 1:05:50 | |
there is neither male nor female. | 1:05:52 | |
He was not calling for a neutral, unisex category. | 1:05:56 | |
Anyone who has read the New Testament carefully, | 1:06:05 | |
clearly understands that. | 1:06:08 | |
He was simply insisting that our old inferior | 1:06:10 | |
superior categories will not suffice. | 1:06:14 | |
We are in this thing together. | 1:06:19 | |
We stand on equal footing. | 1:06:22 | |
I trust we will continue to address ourselves | 1:06:27 | |
to those issues that tend to tear the human race apart. | 1:06:30 | |
Poverty and hunger, political tyranny, military repression, | 1:06:35 | |
population explosion and energy depletion, | 1:06:44 | |
distributed justice, war and peace, and all the rest. | 1:06:48 | |
I pray we will continue to address ourselves | 1:06:54 | |
to these fateful areas of our common enterprise. | 1:06:58 | |
But in the final analysis in each of these, | 1:07:03 | |
we are dealing with human liberation. | 1:07:08 | |
With freeing men and women, | 1:07:13 | |
not as stereotypical objects, but as persons. | 1:07:17 | |
Persons who in their personhood | 1:07:23 | |
can bring everything they have and are to bear | 1:07:27 | |
upon the wondrous opportunities and crucial responsibilities | 1:07:31 | |
of our time, that this earth might be made a fair place. | 1:07:36 | |
And so we'll close with a paraphrase or two, | 1:07:43 | |
with that same romantic poem. | 1:07:46 | |
We earthbound ones have here the stuff of paradise. | 1:07:50 | |
We need no other things to build a stairway | 1:07:55 | |
to the unfulfilled, no other marble for the floors, | 1:07:57 | |
no other ivory for the doors, | 1:08:00 | |
no other cedar for the beams or dome to our immortal dreams. | 1:08:02 | |
Here on the common human way, | 1:08:07 | |
here on the path of every day is all the stuff | 1:08:10 | |
that God would take to mold and make new Edens. | 1:08:13 | |
Ours is the task sublime, to build eternity in time. | 1:08:18 | |
(lively instrumental music) | 1:08:49 | |
♪ Holy is thy name ♪ | 1:08:58 | |
(congregation singing indistinctly) | 1:09:05 | |
♪ How holy is thy name ♪ | 1:09:47 | |
(congregation singing indistinctly) | 1:09:59 | |
♪ How holy ♪ | 1:14:38 | |
♪ How holy ♪ | 1:14:43 | |
♪ How holy ♪ | 1:14:48 | |
♪ How holy ♪ | 1:14:58 | |
♪ How holy is thy name ♪ | 1:15:04 | |
(soft instrumental music) | 1:15:32 | |
- | Will you join with me now in this responsive prayer | 1:16:05 |
of thanksgiving and commitment. | 1:16:09 | |
Let us pray. | 1:16:12 | |
Oh God, we rejoice that we have learned together | 1:16:15 | |
and have worshiped together. | 1:16:20 | |
Now we bring before you the symbols | 1:16:22 | |
and reality of our lives. | 1:16:25 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:16:29 | |
We give thanks for the universe. | 1:16:44 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:16:47 | |
For the earth. | 1:16:49 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:16:50 | |
For communities and neighborhoods. | 1:16:54 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:16:57 | |
For the revolutions which shake our world. | 1:16:58 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:04 | |
For the power of learning. | 1:17:08 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:10 | |
For perplexities which confront us. | 1:17:13 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:17 | |
For our heritage. | 1:17:19 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:21 | |
For the visions of this university students, | 1:17:25 | |
staff and faculty. | 1:17:28 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:31 | |
We are given the eyes of the spirit. | 1:17:34 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:35 | |
The promise is to each of us, | 1:17:42 | |
we may see, we may receive, we may love. | 1:17:45 | |
(congregation murmuring loudly) | 1:17:50 | |
- | Amen and amen. | 1:18:09 |
(lively instrumental music) | 1:18:12 | |
(congregation singing softly) | 1:18:48 | |
- | Without bowing heads or closing eyes, | 1:22:08 |
will you receive this blessing, this benediction | 1:22:10 | |
which I offer now. | 1:22:13 | |
My friends in Christ, | 1:22:16 | |
go into the world in faith. | 1:22:18 | |
Trust God to lead you, trust others to receive you. | 1:22:22 | |
Go into the world with hope. | 1:22:28 | |
Know that God's presence is in you and in others. | 1:22:32 | |
Go into the world with love, | 1:22:38 | |
care for others care for yourself | 1:22:42 | |
and in doing so you will love God. | 1:22:46 | |
May the God of love, mercy and peace | 1:22:51 | |
be with you today and forever. | 1:22:56 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:02 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:09 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:16 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:30 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:41 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:23:59 | |
(soft instrumental music) | 1:24:18 | |
(soft instrumental music) | 1:26:35 |
Item Info
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