Peter J. Gomes - "Consolations and Blessings" (August 13, 1989)

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	(church organ music)	0:41
-	Good morning,	2:49
	and welcome to this service of worship	2:50
	at Duke University Chapel.	2:51
	We particularly welcome this morning	2:53
	the 1989 Duke Football team and their coaches.	2:56
	It's a tradition here for them to worship with us	3:00
	on the first Sunday when they're back,	3:03
	and we wish these fine scholar athletes	3:06
	the best of luck this year.	3:09
	Today's offering in its entirety	3:12
	will go to a new project here at Duke	3:14
	that the chapel is very interested in,	3:17
	and I have invited Adam Spilker, a Duke junior,	3:20
	to say a brief word about today's offering.	3:24
-	This Friday, 30 Duke University freshmen,	3:32
	as well as 12 upper class staff,	3:36
	will be involved in a project at Duke	3:38
	called Project Build.	3:40
	During Project Build, we will be introducing	3:42
	all these participants to various aspects of Durham life	3:45
	through community service projects, tours, and speakers.	3:49
	The main group we will be working with	3:54
	is Habitat for Humanity,	3:56
	an organization that builds houses	3:58
	with those in need in complete partnership.	4:00
	In addition, we'll be working with the community kitchen,	4:03
	the Community Life Program,	4:06
	the Edgemont View Gardens Community Center,	4:08
	the First Presbyterian day school,	4:11
	the Sunshares, which is an environmental group,	4:13
	and the Threshold.	4:16
	Through all these projects, Project Build	4:18
	aims to increase the relationship between Duke and Durham.	4:20
	A relationship, by the way,	4:23
	which has been strengthened over the last number of years,	4:25
	particularly through increased Duke volunteerism.	4:27
	Importantly, the freshmen also	4:31
	will be involved in community service	4:33
	before they even take one class at Duke	4:36
	so that they will be able to spend	4:38
	their entire 4 years here at Duke	4:40
	involved in Durham	4:42
	and feel a part of the Durham community.	4:43
	And through your support,	4:46
	project build and community service	4:47
	can remain a permanent part	4:50
	of the Duke University students' Duke experience, thank you.	4:52
-	Thank you, Adam.	4:59
	And we invite you to give generously.	5:00
	This is the last Sunday for our summer choir	5:02
	under the direction of Ms. Donna Sparks,	5:05
	and we thank the summer choir for their	5:07
	faithfulness throughout the summer.	5:09
	We also welcome our guest musicians today,	5:13
	Matt McCloud and Leslie Trussler.	5:18
	Our guest preacher today, a James Cleland preacher,	5:22
	he's a Reverend Doctor Peter Gones	5:25
	who is a minister at Memorial Church Harvard University	5:28
	and one of our favorite guest preachers here at the chapel.	5:32
	Doctor Gones will be returning to us in December	5:36
	as the first Pelham Wilder junior guest preacher,	5:39
	and so we'll get to hear him again,	5:42
	and we welcome this great Christian communicator	5:45
	and leader in campus ministry	5:48
	back to our pulpit.	5:51
	Let us continue now our worship.	5:52
	(choir sings)	6:01
	(church organ music)	6:36
	(choir and congregation sings)	7:16
-	Gracious God, in coming to this place to worship,	10:38
	we join all those	10:42
	who at all times and places	10:44
	have lifted their voices in praise to you.	10:47
	Bless this our gathering,	10:51
	we pray with your spirit	10:53
	that your word may be preached with boldness,	10:55
	that our ears and hearts may be open to	10:59
	receive your word,	11:02
	and that we might be strengthened	11:05
	to go forth from this place to do your word.	11:06
	In thy name we pray, amen.	11:10
	Be seated.	11:12
-	Let us pray.	11:23
	Open our hears and minds, oh God	11:27
	by the power of your holy spirit	11:30
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed	11:33
	we might hear with joy	11:36
	what you say to us this day, amen.	11:38
	The first lesson is taken from the 18th chapter	11:44
	of the book of Jeremiah	11:47
	beginning at the first verse.	11:49
	The word that came to Jeremiah from God,	11:53
	"Arise and go down to the potter's house,	11:56
	"and there I will let you hear my words."	11:59
	So I went down to the house of the potter	12:03
	who was working at the wheel,	12:05
	and the vessel being made of clay	12:07
	was spoiled in the potter's hand.	12:09
	So the potter reworked it into another vessel	12:11
	as it seemed good to do.	12:14
	Then the word of God came to me,	12:17
	"Oh house of Israel,	12:19
	"can I not do with you as this potter has done,"	12:20
	says the Lord.	12:24
	Behold like the clay in the potter's hand,	12:26
	so are you in my hands,	12:29
	Oh house of Israel.	12:30
	If at anytime I declare concerning a nation or kingdom	12:32
	that I will pluck up and break down	12:36
	and destroy it,	12:38
	and if that nation concerning which I have spoken	12:39
	turns from its evil	12:42
	I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it.	12:43
	And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or kingdom	12:48
	that I will build and plant it	12:52
	and if it does evil in my sight	12:54
	not listening to my voice	12:56
	then I will repent of the good	12:58
	which I had intended to do to it.	13:00
	Now therefore say to the people of Judah	13:03
	and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.	13:05
	Thus says the Lord,	13:08
	"Behold, I am shaping evil against you	13:10
	"and devising a plan against you.	13:13
	"Return everyone from your evil way	13:16
	"and amend your ways and your doings."	13:19
	Here ends the reading of the first lesson.	13:22
-	Stand for the Psalm.	13:29
	The foolish say in their heart,	13:38
	"There is no God."	13:40
	They are corrupt,	13:42
	they do abominable deeds,	13:43
	there is none that does good.	13:45
	God looks down from heaven upon humankind	13:47
	to see if there are any that act wisely,	13:50
	that seek after God.	13:53
	(congregation chants)	13:57
	There they shall be in great terror	14:16
	for God is with the generation of the righteous.	14:19
	You would confound the plans of the poor,	14:23
	but God is their refuge.	14:26
Congregation	For the deliverance for Israel	14:30
	would come out of Zion	14:32
	when God restores the fortunes of God's people,	14:34
	Jacob shall rejoice,	14:38
	Israel shall be glad.	14:40
	(church organ)	14:43
	(choir and congregation sings)	14:51
-	The second lesson is taken from the 11th chapter	15:50
	of Paul's letter to the Hebrews.	15:54
	Verses one through three	15:57
	and eight through 19.	15:59
	Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.	16:03
	The conviction of things not seen.	16:06
	Provide our ancestors received divine approval.	16:09
	By faith, we understand that the world was created	16:13
	by the word of God.	16:15
	So that what is seen was made out of things	16:17
	which do not appear.	16:19
	By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called	16:21
	to go out to a place	16:23
	which he was to receive as an inheritance,	16:25
	and he went out not knowing where to he was to go.	16:28
	By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise	16:32
	as in a foreign land,	16:34
	living in tents with Isaac and Jacob,	16:36
	heirs with him of the same promise.	16:39
	For he looked forward to the city which has foundations,	16:41
	whose builder and maker is God.	16:44
	By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive.	16:47
	Even when she was past the age	16:51
	since she considered faithful	16:53
	the one who has promised.	16:56
	Therefore, from one as good as dead	16:58
	were born descendants.	16:59
	As many as the stars of heaven	17:01
	and as enumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.	17:03
	These all died in faith	17:07
	not having received what was promised	17:09
	but having seen it and greeted it from afar.	17:11
	And having acknowledged that they were strangers	17:14
	and exiles on the earth.	17:16
	For people who speak thus	17:19
	make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.	17:21
	If they had been thinking of that land	17:24
	from which they had gone out	17:25
	they would have had opportunity to return,	17:27
	but as it is they desire a better country.	17:30
	That is, a heavenly one.	17:33
	Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,	17:35
	having prepared for them a city.	17:38
	By faith, Abraham, when he was tested	17:41
	offered up Isaac,	17:44
	and he who had received the promises	17:45
	was ready to offer up his only son	17:48
	of whom it was said,	17:50
	"Through Isaac shall your descendens be named."	17:52
	Abraham considered that God was able even to raise the dead.	17:55
	Hence figuratively speaking,	18:00
	Abraham did receive Isaac back.	18:02
	Here ends the reading of the second lesson.	18:05
	(church organ)	18:11
	(choir sings)	18:27
-	The Holy Gospel is written in the 12th chapter of St. Luke	21:49
	beginning at the 32nd verse.	21:54
	Fear not, little flock,	21:59
	for it is God's good pleasure	22:00
	to give you the kingdom.	22:02
	Sell your possessions and give alms.	22:04
	Provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old	22:06
	with the treasure in heavens that does not fail	22:10
	where no thief approaches	22:13
	and no moth destroys.	22:14
	For where you treasure is	22:17
	there will your heart be also.	22:19
	Let your loins be girded	22:22
	and your lamps burning,	22:23
	and be like those who are waiting for their Lord	22:25
	to come home from the marriage feast	22:27
	so that they may open the door at once	22:30
	when the Lord comes and knocks.	22:32
	Blessed are those servants who are then found awake.	22:34
	Truly I say to you the Lord will be girded,	22:38
	and have them sit at table	22:41
	and will come and serve them.	22:43
	If the Lord comes in the second watch	22:46
	or in the third	22:48
	and finds them so	22:49
	blessed are those servants.	22:51
	And you know this,	22:53
	that if a householder had known at what hour	22:55
	a thief was coming	22:57
	that householder would not have left the house	22:59
	to be broken into.	23:02
	You also must be ready	23:04
	for the son of man is coming	23:07
	at an unexpected hour.	23:09
	Hear ends the reading of the gospel.	23:12
-	Let us pray.	23:37
	Help us, Lord, to become masters of ourselves	23:41
	that we may become the servants of others.	23:46
	Take our hands and work through them.	23:50
	take our minds and think through them,	23:54
	take our lips and speak through them,	23:58
	and take our hearts and set them on fire	24:01
	for Christ's sake, amen.	24:07
	I always like to come to Duke Chapel	24:20
	because on my visits to this great place	24:25
	and this great university	24:29
	I am always instructed,	24:32
	and I always find bits of wisdom to take home	24:36
	and to try to apply	24:41
	in the Duke of the north.	24:44
	One of the lessons that I have learned	24:48
	this morning already	24:50
	is to try to invite the Harvard football team	24:53
	to come to chapel.	24:57
	(congregation laughing)	24:59
	Gentlemen, maybe we would do better than we do	25:00
	if our team came to chapel as you do.	25:04
	Now I know you only do this once a year,	25:08
	and probably under some degree of duress.	25:12
	But for a one-time visitor	25:16
	to hit the Sunday when you are here	25:18
	is very impressive indeed.	25:21
	And if you win any games at all this year,	25:24
	I trust you will know it is	25:29
	because you were in chapel	25:30
	on the Sunday I preached to you.	25:33
	(congregation laughing)	25:36
	This sermon had its beginnings last spring	25:40
	around the season of commencement	25:46
	when I along with Dean Willimon	25:49
	and house preachers all over the country	25:52
	compelled to confront that community of people	25:56
	who are at last about to leave us.	25:59
	And who ought to be going out into the future	26:03
	into the brave new world	26:07
	full of optimism	26:09
	filled with the bright promise and prospects of the future,	26:12
	excited, eager to try their hand	26:17
	to improve the world	26:21
	which their mothers and fathers	26:23
	have so regularly screwed up.	26:25
	And instead of this sense of optimism	26:29
	and great moment and excitement,	26:32
	I found last year, as in years before,	26:35
	a sense rather of gloom and doom and foreboding.	26:38
	Student requests for student tenures	26:43
	so they would never have to leave	26:46
	the safety of the university.	26:49
	And a general feeling that things out there were terrible,	26:52
	and that the future was something that one guarded against	26:58
	rather than one embraced or took on.	27:03
	And it occurred to me that this paradox	27:09
	flies in the face	27:11
	flies square in the face	27:14
	of what the Christian faith preaches,	27:17
	what the Christian faith teaches,	27:21
	and what the Bible tells us	27:24
	about our relationship to time and circumstance.	27:26
	So I decided that if ever I was given an opportunity	27:32
	I would try to preach a sermon	27:36
	about the Christian and the future,	27:39
	how we deal with the future,	27:43
	for I would argue that it is only the future	27:46
	that really requires and demands	27:50
	the full attention of the Christian.	27:53
	So today's second lesson allows me to do this.	27:57
	It is a legitimate text	28:02
	upon which to hang these hopes and these ideas.	28:04
	It is the story, not simply of Abraham	28:09
	and his wanderings in the wilderness,	28:13
	it is a story about Abraham's	28:16
	confidence in the future	28:20
	because of Abraham's confidence in God.	28:23
	God who is the future,	28:28
	God who holds the future.	28:31
	Listen again to the verse from which this text is taken.	28:34
	Through faith, Abraham called to leave home	28:40
	and go into a land which he was to receive	28:44
	for an inheritance obeyed,	28:47
	and he went out not knowing where he was going.	28:50
	Through faith, he came and made his home for a time	28:54
	in a land which had been promised to him	28:58
	as if in a foreign country,	29:01
	living in tents together with Isaac and Jacob	29:04
	sharers with him in the same promise.	29:07
	For he was looking forward to the city	29:11
	which has the foundations	29:14
	whose architect and whose builder is God.	29:17
	For he looked for a city which hath foundations	29:23
	whose builder and maker is God.	29:28
	I suppose the question is	29:34
	how does one balance the precarious	29:35
	demands of the present	29:39
	with the even more uncertain demands of the future?	29:42
	And you may ask me well who is writer of our time?	29:47
	Who is the theologian, the novelist, the poet,	29:51
	the philosopher, the psychologist,	29:55
	who has a word to help us understand	29:58
	how to deal with this relationship	30:01
	between the present and the future?	30:03
	Does Doctor Ruth have any counsel to us	30:06
	on this subject?	30:09
	Is it Judge Wapner or Oprah or any other	30:10
	of the oracles most of us depend upon	30:13
	but would be ashamed to confess to in public?	30:17
	How do we make this reconciliation?	30:21
	Well as far as theologians would go	30:25
	I would say that there aren't any that I know of.	30:26
	Most of my favorite theologians are long since dead,	30:29
	and those who speak from the dead	30:33
	tend to speak with a kind of authority	30:36
	that commands our attention.	30:39
	One of these I want to commend to you this morning	30:42
	is St. Augustine.	30:44
	St. Augustine who is president of	30:47
	The Dead Theologians Society, if you will.	30:49
	St. Augustine who is alive and well today	30:52
	because he was not time bound in his own circumstances.	30:57
	Contemporary writers are either terrified by the future	31:03
	or they ignore it.	31:07
	They either idolize it	31:09
	or the pretend that they understand it.	31:11
	They tend to reject history.	31:15
	They tend to ignore the future.	31:17
	At least since the 18th century	31:21
	we have been told that	31:22
	what we see is what we get	31:24
	and we are lucky if we can get that.	31:27
	The impoverishment of modern Christian thought	31:31
	is that it has neither a past nor a future	31:34
	only its own self-absorption with the present.	31:38
	Thus rendering it permanently irrelevant.	31:43
	Don't waste your time on that lot	31:47
	is my unsolicited advise to you.	31:49
	Take my word for it.	31:52
	There is even less there than meet the eye.	31:54
	You want some help for these questions?	31:57
	I've got somebody you should read.	32:00
	Go to St. Augustine.	32:03
	Go to St. Augustine,	32:06
	and if you've never heard of St. Augustine	32:08
	don't confess it here.	32:10
	Go out and do something about it.	32:12
	I'm going to assume that you have just forgotten	32:14
	St. Augustine, not that you never heard of him	32:17
	before I mentioned his name this morning.	32:20
	Go to St. Augustine.	32:23
	He is that randy, sensible,	32:25
	inspired Bishop of Africa	32:28
	that St. of Africa	32:31
	it is he who can help us,	32:32
	the most contemporary of all theologians.	32:35
	And if you haven't read The City of God	32:39
	in a long time	32:42
	I can understand that.	32:43
	Find it in a shrinklet,	32:45
	find it in a comic book,	32:47
	find it in a paraphrase,	32:49
	but read it.	32:50
	You will be surprised how helpful it can be.	32:51
	The Emperor Charlemagne knew all about St. Augustine,	32:56
	and that is why he used The City of God	32:59
	as a pillow each night upon which he slept.	33:02
	Not the Bible,	33:06
	but the copy of The City of God	33:07
	hoping that its truth, its wisdom,	33:10
	might be absorbed in the night watchers.	33:12
	One of the best ways presumably to absorb great literature	33:15
	without a great deal of effort.	33:19
	You don't have to sleep on it,	33:21
	but it might do you well to think on it,	33:24
	and in order to do that	33:27
	it would be a good idea to read it.	33:29
	I'm going to save you some of that labor this morning	33:32
	by talking about it.	33:35
	For here in Augustine these relationships,	33:37
	particularly between the present and the future,	33:41
	the time that is and the time that is to be,	33:44
	the precarious paradoxical moment	33:48
	and the inexperienced future,	33:51
	these things that give us such anxiety	33:53
	such fear, such awful	33:56
	sense of foreboding,	34:00
	these things are given clear	34:02
	and glorious expression	34:05
	relevant after 1500 years	34:08
	even through the likes of us.	34:11
	And Augustine describes this relationship,	34:15
	this paradox between the present experience	34:18
	and the future hope	34:22
	in terms of a title that I had taken today,	34:24
	a title I wish I had invented.	34:27
	Preachers love to be known for their titles.	34:30
	Most congregations don't remember the sermons at all.	34:32
	That's why the title is most important.	34:36
	That's the thing that can fit on the bulletin board.	34:38
	That's the thing you can write on the bulletin,	34:41
	and that's the one thing you can remember through lunch:	34:43
	the title of the sermon.	34:45
	And so the title of this sermon	34:47
	has to do with Augustine's effort	34:50
	to reconcile our anxiety between the present and the future.	34:52
	Consolations and Blessings.	34:57
	Consolations and Blessings.	35:01
	It's a wonderfully evocative phrase.	35:04
	Now I want to commend St. Augustine to you	35:09
	for several reasons not least of which is	35:12
	that he lived in the real world.	35:14
	St. Augustine lived in the real world.	35:18
	He is no prissy protestant pious soul	35:21
	afraid of reality.	35:26
	He is the one who prayed as you will recall,	35:28
	Lord make me virtuous but not yet.	35:32
	He is also the one who said,	35:37
	"Virtue in the absence of opportunity for vice	35:39
	"is not virtue."	35:44
	You might think about that for a minute.	35:47
	This is sound, sensible, moral theology.	35:49
	Augustine is the one who knew grace	35:54
	because he knew sin even better,	35:56
	and he is the one who as a result of all that reminds	35:58
	Christians that the creation is good	36:03
	reminds us that the creation is good	36:06
	because God, it's creator, is goodness itself.	36:09
	Creation is good because God is good,	36:14
	and God doesn't make any junk.	36:18
	He reminds us that you and I share a goodness	36:23
	because we are made in the image of the good God.	36:28
	This is not humanism writ large,	36:33
	this is divinity made clear in human form	36:37
	and in human terms	36:42
	and that is a great difference between the two.	36:44
	And so Augustine says to the likes of us	36:50
	and all of us who think that we must deny	36:53
	the world in order to live in it,	36:56
	nonsense, he says.	36:58
	That is a false choice.	37:00
	You have a right to enjoy the gifts of God	37:03
	for the people of God.	37:06
	That is what we say in the Eucharist.	37:07
	And he sights for approval	37:11
	Jesus's words I am come that they may have life	37:13
	and that they may have it abundantly, fully, and completely.	37:17
	The abundant life is the gift of God	37:23
	for the people of God	37:26
	and you don't have to die to enjoy it.	37:27
	Augustine is very specific in what these gifts of God	37:32
	for the people of God are	37:37
	How one can make the most	37:39
	of the present circumstances	37:41
	and you are going to find his list	37:44
	of these circumstances,	37:47
	these specific consolations he calls them,	37:50
	rather strange and rather explicit.	37:53
	The first of these consolations, Augustine says,	37:58
	are important for us to be able to enjoy	38:02
	the abundant life that God has given to us.	38:05
	The first of these consolations	38:08
	that he commends to us is sex.	38:10
	S.E.X. that's right.	38:15
	Here in North Carolina,	38:19
	in the state of Jesse Helms,	38:21
	you are commended by St. Augustine to enjoy sex.	38:23
	You heard it from this pulpit,	38:29
	and even though I will not be here	38:32
	within an hour or two,	38:34
	the reputation that I have just established	38:36
	will linger long after I am gone.	38:39
	Sex is good.	38:42
	Despite the risks of the first coupling	38:46
	of the first couple St. Augustine says it's okay.	38:49
	Sex is alright.	38:53
	Despite the tendency to abuse all of our gifts	38:55
	including this one	38:59
	and to pervert them	39:00
	including this one,	39:02
	sex is a gift, a consolation Augustine says,	39:03
	for living in a fallen world.	39:09
	It is one of the gifts God gives to us	39:13
	for having to live here	39:17
	with one another.	39:19
	I wish when I was an undergraduate in college	39:22
	somebody with a robe on had stood up in the pulpit	39:25
	in a place like this	39:28
	and said that to me.	39:29
	It would have been extremely helpful,	39:31
	and so for all of you frustrated,	39:34
	guilty-ridden people here,	39:36
	take advantage of what I and St. Augustine	39:38
	am about to say.	39:42
	Augustine says, "Therefore God created man	39:44
	"with the added power of propagation	39:48
	"so that he could beget other human beings,	39:51
	"conveying also to those offspring	39:54
	"the possibility, not the necessity	39:57
	"of propagation."	40:01
	Close quote.	40:02
	You don't know how reassuring that is to a bachelor	40:04
	to realize that though the propagation is there	40:08
	and the possibility for it is there	40:12
	the necessity is not.	40:14
	And like certain teachings of the later Roman church,	40:17
	sex for St. Augustine is not merely	40:20
	dutiful reproduction or furtive pleasure.	40:23
	It is also pleasure and joy	40:28
	and it is meant to be	40:31
	so much for grim Protestant Puritanism.	40:33
	So much for the injunction of Queen Victoria	40:38
	to her eldest daughter upon her marriage	40:41
	to just lie back and think of England.	40:43
	There is more to it than all of that.	40:47
	It is a consolation in a fallen world	40:52
	and it is meant to be celebrated and enjoyed.	40:57
	Sex is real and good,	41:02
	and one must learn how to deal with reality	41:05
	and with goodness.	41:09
	So think about it,	41:12
	and enjoy it,	41:14
	and act responsibly and gloriously.	41:15
	If somebody had said this to me	41:19
	when I was an undergraduate in college,	41:21
	I would have been among the most grateful	41:23
	and liberated of souls.	41:26
	You have heard it here.	41:28
	Don't forget it.	41:30
	But the second consolation for St. Augustine,	41:33
	the second consolation for living in a fallen world	41:36
	and living in the contemporary circumstances,	41:38
	the gift we are to enjoy	41:41
	is the consolation of thought,	41:44
	the consolation of the mind.	41:48
	The ability not only to think about things	41:51
	but the greater ability to imagine things,	41:54
	to see things before they happen.	41:57
	To see things that aren't there.	42:01
	That is how the chapter begins, remember?	42:05
	Faith is the evidence of things not seen.	42:07
	The ability to imagine,	42:12
	to call into vision and into mind	42:14
	the things that aren't there.	42:17
	Any idiot can think.	42:20
	Look at the faculty.	42:23
	Any idiot can think.	42:25
	It is a special grace to imagine.	42:28
	Imagine is thinking to the highest possible power,	42:32
	to see things that aren't there.	42:36
	Augustine says, "Think of the wonderful inventions	42:40
	"of clothing and building,	42:43
	"the astounding achievements of human industry,	42:45
	"think of man's progress in agriculture and navigation."	42:48
	This is no 19th century American progressive	42:53
	or some 20th century secular Rotarian	42:57
	boosting up the national product.	43:00
	This is primitive old Augustine in the fifth century	43:03
	who rejoices in our powers of mind	43:07
	and intellect and imagination	43:11
	and the spirit to do what God does	43:13
	because that is what the imagination is:	43:17
	doing what God does,	43:20
	thinking of the things that are not	43:22
	and bringing them into being.	43:25
	That is what the imagination is,	43:28
	to create and act upon our creation.	43:31
	To celebrate where we are and what we have done.	43:35
	Here, he says it again, "Consider man's skill	43:40
	"in geometry and arithmetic,	43:42
	"his intelligence shown in plotting position	43:45
	"and courses of the stars."	43:48
	This is Augustine praising the environment,	43:50
	praising science, praising raw numbers.	43:54
	Compare this with the Protestant skepticism	43:58
	of human achievement,	44:01
	the Protestant skepticism of modern progress	44:03
	which says in some way	44:06
	if God had intended us to fly	44:08
	he would not have invented the railroad.	44:12
	Such a sorry comparison.	44:15
	So the second gift we are given,	44:19
	the second consolation of which to cope	44:22
	in the irritating present in the fallen world	44:25
	is the gift of imagination,	44:28
	the gift of mind,	44:31
	the gift of creativity.	44:33
	And the third consolation which Augustine mentions is	44:37
	the human body itself.	44:41
	This incredible array of tissues, blood, flesh, bone,	44:44
	all of that anatomical sort of things.	44:49
	He says, "Are not the sense organs	44:52
	"and the other parts of that body	44:54
	"so arranged in the form and shape and size	44:56
	"of the whole body so designed	44:59
	"as to show that it imitates the Creator	45:02
	"as the servant to the rational soul."	45:05
	Augustine sees the body as this gift and grace	45:09
	which houses that quality of mind.	45:13
	Have you looked at a baby lately?	45:17
	How strange and wondrously made they are.	45:21
	Have you looked at an athlete in good form lately?	45:25
	How bizarre it is that all these things work.	45:29
	They actually work.	45:33
	Or have you look at the body	45:36
	as its parts begin to fail in old age and in death?	45:39
	Is this not a wonderful and incredible thing, the body,	45:45
	a consolation in a fallen world?	45:49
	So there they are: sex, mind, and the body,	45:55
	and the world in which they all function.	45:59
	These are great gifts to be enjoyed,	46:03
	to be celebrated,	46:07
	to be shared in.	46:08
	Make no mistake about that.	46:09
	They are given to us	46:11
	and we are meant to enjoy them.	46:12
	But great and good as they are,	46:15
	wonderful and essential as they are,	46:19
	Augustine says they are mere consolations.	46:24
	These are the things that you get	46:30
	in the absence of the real things,	46:34
	the great prizes,	46:38
	this is what you get in the	46:40
	absence of ultimate reality.	46:43
	Sex, a mere consolation.	46:48
	Mind, second prize.	46:51
	The body, it'll do.	46:54
	These things are great,	46:58
	and if you like these	47:00
	you are going to love	47:01
	what is laid up in store for you.	47:04
	Consolations which exist in the absence of	47:07
	and in anticipation of a whole other category	47:11
	which he calls blessings.	47:15
	Consolations, good as they are my friends, are temporary.	47:18
	Consolations are temporary,	47:23
	and that is the secret of their endeavor.	47:26
	Temporary, just think about it.	47:31
	Sex, I am told, loses its charms eventually.	47:34
	The mind, as we all know, begins to go.	47:40
	We can't remember what day it is	47:44
	or who we are.	47:46
	The body, even you young men will discover this,	47:49
	the body eventually will fail you.	47:52
	It will fall apart.	47:56
	Arthritis, cracks, creaks,	47:58
	you too will realize that	48:01
	it's just a temporary blessing.	48:05
	That's all great while you got it all,	48:08
	but when you start to lose it,	48:11
	if that's all you got, what have you got?	48:13
	What is left?	48:18
	Two years ago at a relatively advanced age,	48:23
	I took up the embarrassing sport of swimming.	48:27
	Nothing like what you fellas do	48:31
	but for me it was a great effort.	48:32
	I was taught how to swim by an undergraduate,	48:35
	and I was terrified.	48:38
	I was ashamed of the fact that in my mid-40s	48:40
	I didn't know how to swim,	48:44
	and what would I do when the great flood came?	48:47
	I had to be taught by this 21-year-old Harvard undergraduate	48:52
	and I was terribly intimidated	48:57
	in the public pool of the university	48:59
	by all these sleek forms	49:02
	that just pranced up and down	49:03
	effortlessly up these lanes	49:06
	kicking and gliding and diving,	49:08
	doing all these wonderful things	49:11
	while I was tied to this board	49:12
	trying to keep afloat.	49:15
	I swam with my glasses off,	49:18
	not because that would mean they couldn't see me	49:21
	but I couldn't see them	49:25
	and that made it some reassuring	49:27
	so that I could get on with my task.	49:29
	But I came up with one reassuring aphorism,	49:32
	as I looked at these bright, able, powerful young things	49:37
	at the peak of their form	49:41
	I never said it to them	49:45
	but I certainly thought it	49:46
	and it went something like this:	49:47
	young men, I once looked like you	49:50
	and you surely shall soon look like me.	49:55
	It did wonders for my spirit,	50:01
	wonders for my soul,	50:03
	and eventually I passed the swimming test.	50:05
	The pilgrim, for that is who we are,	50:08
	the pilgrim is not beguiled	50:12
	by mistaking the temporary for the permanent,	50:15
	nor the present for the future,	50:20
	nor mistaking consolations for blessings.	50:24
	The pilgrim is one who with his consolations in hand	50:28
	seeks the things that last,	50:33
	seeks the blessings,	50:37
	seeks the things that endure,	50:39
	that city that has foundations,	50:43
	whose builder and whose maker is God.	50:46
	And this is God's secret	50:50
	and God's clear gift to Abraham in our lesson.	50:53
	The future is where it is at.	50:58
	The future is the only permanent hope	51:02
	to which we can aspire	51:06
	because it is in the future	51:09
	that one is to enjoy felicity,	51:11
	that is relationship with God	51:15
	that will last and that will not vanish away.	51:18
	Where is this city to which Abraham is bound?	51:24
	Where is this city which God promises to him?	51:28
	Where is this place to which he is to go?	51:31
	No one has found it yet.	51:33
	No one has got there yet.	51:37
	No one has come and told us here it is in Cambridge,	51:40
	or here it is in Durham,	51:44
	or there it is in Los Angeles,	51:47
	or there is it over there.	51:49
	That future, that city, that place	51:52
	remains for us where it was for Abraham.	51:55
	Out there beyond this place,	52:00
	beyond this time,	52:03
	beyond these experiences.	52:04
	The future is that place,	52:08
	and if you like the consolations	52:10
	you'll love the blessings,	52:13
	for the blessings are in that place in space	52:16
	where mere consolations are no longer	52:19
	possible or necessary.	52:22
	The Christian is motivated by a passion for the future,	52:26
	a place that will stay put once you get to it	52:31
	and toward which we move looking forward	52:35
	as Abraham does	52:38
	to a promise that is real and enduring.	52:40
	We live increasingly by the evidence of things not seen.	52:44
	We learn to trust less and less	52:50
	those things that seem so permanent and secure, like money,	52:53
	like education, like buildings, like power,	52:58
	and we begin in our pilgrimage to place our confidence	53:04
	in the things we cannot see	53:09
	and the places we have not yet gone.	53:12
	And of course it is scary.	53:17
	Of course it is unpredictable.	53:19
	It is uncertain,	53:21
	and at times it is terribly lonely.	53:22
	But such confidence as we have	53:25
	is not in our ability to handle,	53:27
	manage, control the future,	53:30
	but our confidence of the capacity of the future	53:34
	to handle, control, and manage us	53:37
	lovingly, gently, and kindly,	53:40
	because in that future there is the presence	53:44
	of the living God of the future.	53:49
	There is that place which has foundations	53:53
	which will last	53:55
	which will not perish away.	53:57
	That place filled with blessings	53:59
	whose builder, whose maker is God.	54:01
	Augustine calls that place felicity,	54:06
	joy, happiness, satisfaction	54:10
	where we are no longer driven by our passions.	54:15
	We are no longer frustrated by our minds	54:20
	and the limits of our imagination,	54:24
	where we are no longer the captives of our bodies.	54:26
	But where we enjoy perfect felicity	54:32
	because we are at one with all that there is to be.	54:37
	The reason that we are Christians	54:44
	is not simply because	54:47
	our mothers and fathers were Christians,	54:50
	and it's not simply because	54:53
	we hope to make a better world.	54:54
	The reason we are Christians is	54:57
	because we know that there is a better world	54:59
	and toward it we are journeying.	55:03
	The consolations make the process interesting,	55:08
	but the blessings make the journey worth the while.	55:13
	Nothing less than this is necessary.	55:20
	Nothing more than this will do.	55:26
	Progress is not achievement,	55:32
	progress is not even success.	55:35
	Progress is movement towards	55:39
	that which is perfect,	55:42
	even as it moves towards us.	55:46
	Consolations and blessings.	55:52
	Let us pray.	55:57
	Oh God, we thank you for the future	56:08
	that place and time in which you are	56:13
	and toward which you beckon us	56:17
	by the guidance and power of your holy spirit.	56:20
	We praise you for this	56:25
	in Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	56:28
	(church organ)	56:42
	(choir and congregation sings)	57:17
Dean	The Lord be with you.	59:43
Congregation	And also with you.	59:45
Dean	Let us pray, be seated.	59:46
	Gracious God, though we do not know how to pray,	59:53
	we know to whom to pray	59:58
	or to whom shall we go with our deepest needs	1:00:03
	and our fervent desires	1:00:05
	if not to you?	1:00:08
	Amidst a society which values competence and self-help,	1:00:11
	human potential	1:00:15
	when we are honest with ourselves	1:00:18
	we feel so powerless and inadequate	1:00:20
	to solve our world's most complex problems,	1:00:23
	to remedy humanities most ancient errors,	1:00:27
	to right histories most horrible wrongs.	1:00:31
	To whom shall we go for life if not to you?	1:00:35
	And so we pray	1:00:40
	for countless brothers and sisters across the globe	1:00:42
	who live lives of bleak poverty	1:00:45
	and dire need for even the barest necessities of life,	1:00:47
	for those who are ill	1:00:53
	and for those who care for the sick and the suffering,	1:00:55
	especially those this morning in Duke hospitals,	1:00:59
	for those who hunger and suffer from want of food,	1:01:04
	and for those who bear and burden for the hungry.	1:01:09
	Remembering the work of Congressman Leland	1:01:13
	and his supreme sacrifice for the alleviation	1:01:17
	of hunger in Ethiopia,	1:01:20
	for people who are held as hostages	1:01:23
	are prisoners of conscience	1:01:26
	as well as those who hold them.	1:01:28
	For those who suffer addiction	1:01:32
	to alcohol or other drugs	1:01:34
	and knowing not how to obtain release,	1:01:37
	and for families and friends who suffer with them.	1:01:40
	For little children	1:01:45
	who are born into circumstances	1:01:47
	where they are not loved or cared for properly.	1:01:49
	For those who live where war or civil strife rage,	1:01:53
	where violence inflames cruel passions.	1:01:58
	Dissatisfy us, oh God	1:02:04
	with anything less than your will for our world	1:02:07
	and our lives.	1:02:13
	Keep our lives appropriately restless and hopeful	1:02:15
	that your will be done on this earth	1:02:21
	even as it is in heaven.	1:02:24
	Keep our eyes straining forward	1:02:27
	looking for that city of sure foundations	1:02:30
	whose builder and maker is God, amen.	1:02:34
	Now let us offer ourselves	1:02:42
	and our gifts to God.	1:02:44
	(church organ)	1:02:47
	(choir sings with music)	1:04:03
-	Almighty and ever-living God	1:09:09
	we give you hearty thanks	1:09:12
	for all the blessings and consolations	1:09:14
	of this life,	1:09:17
	for the many ways both large and small	1:09:19
	that you touch our lives	1:09:22
	with gifts too numerable to mention.	1:09:25
	Accept these, our gifts,	1:09:29
	as signs of our thanksgiving to you	1:09:30
	and use these gifts for your work in the world	1:09:34
	so that others might be blessed through our gifts,	1:09:39
	and this we pray	1:09:44
	in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ	1:09:46
	who taught us to pray,	1:09:49
	our Father who art in heaven	1:09:52
	hallowed by thy Name,	1:09:55
	thy kingdom come,	1:09:57
	thy will be done,	1:09:59
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	1:10:00
	Give us this day our daily bread.	1:10:03
	And forgive us our trespasses,	1:10:06
	as we forgive those	1:10:08
	who trespass against us.	1:10:09
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:10:12
	but deliver us from evil.	1:10:14
	For thine is the kingdom,	1:10:17
	and the power, and the glory	1:10:18
	forever, amen.	1:10:21
	(church organ)	1:10:26
	(choir sings)	1:11:03
-	The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ	1:14:10
	be with you now and always, amen.	1:14:13
	(choir sings)	1:14:22
	♪ Amen, amen, amen... ♪	1:14:24
	(church organ)	1:14:55

Item Info

Title:

Peter J. Gomes - "Consolations and Blessings" (August 13, 1989)

Description:

We are given consolations for living in the present, gifts that we are to delight in during our pilgrim journey here on earth (sex, the mind, the body). But these things are temporary; they will fade away with time. The full blessings of God are yet to come in the future. Because of this, the future is our only permanent hope, for it is in the future that we will enjoy full relationship with God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 23:37. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 56:32.
Key quotation: “The pilgrim is not beguiled by mistaking the temporary for the permanent, nor the present for the future, nor mistaking consolations for blessings. The pilgrim is one who, with his consolations in hand, seeks the things that last, seeks the blessings, seeks the things that endure, that city that has foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45m62n5v

Date:

August 13, 1989

Speaker:

Gomes, Peter J.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0144
ref8658_g5y
uachapelsermaud
duke:321465
dcrmv001140
ark:/87924/r45m62n5v
723cd063-11ef-4c11-92f4-3f49effff3fb

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Peter J. Gomes - "Consolations and Blessings" (August 13, 1989)

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