Peter J. Gomes - "Thinking and Feeling the Faith" (October 28, 1990)

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	(organ music)	0:00
	(organ music)	2:23
-	Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband's side	2:31
	a prominent rich man,	2:36
	of the family of Elimelech,	2:38
	whose name was Boaz.	2:42
	And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,	2:45
	let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain,	2:49
	behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.	2:55
	She said to her, go, my daughter.	3:01
	So she went.	3:05
	She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers.	3:08
	As it happened,	3:14
	she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz,	3:15
	who was of the family of Elimelech.	3:20
	Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem.	3:24
	He said to the reapers,	3:28
	to whom does this young woman belong?	3:31
	The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered,	3:36
	she is the Moabite who came back with Naomi	3:41
	from the country of Moab.	3:45
	She said, please,	3:49
	let me glean and gather among the sheaves	3:51
	behind the reapers.	3:55
	So she came,	3:58
	and she has been on her feet	4:00
	from early this morning until now,	4:03
	without resting even for a moment.	4:07
	Then Boaz said to Ruth,	4:12
	now listen, my daughter,	4:16
	do not go to glean in another field	4:19
	or leave this one,	4:23
	but keep close to my young women.	4:26
	Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped,	4:31
	and follow behind them.	4:36
	I have ordered the young men not to bother you.	4:41
	If you get thirsty,	4:45
	go to the vessels and drink	4:47
	from what the young men have drawn.	4:50
	Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground,	4:54
	and said to him, why have I found favor in your sight,	4:59
	that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?	5:05
	But Boaz answered her,	5:12
	all that you have done for your mother-in-law	5:15
	since the death of your husband has been fully told to me,	5:19
	and how you left your father and mother and your native land	5:25
	and came to a people that you did not know before.	5:32
	May the Lord reward you for your deeds,	5:39
	and may you have a full reward from the Lord,	5:43
	the God of Israel,	5:47
	under whose wings you have come for refuge.	5:50
	Then she said,	5:55
	may I continue to find favor in your sight, oh lord,	5:57
	for you have comforted me	6:02
	and spoken kindly to your servants.	6:05
	This is the Word of the Lord.	6:08
All	Thanks be to God.	6:11
-	The second reading this morning	6:15
	is taken from the 1st book of Thessalonians chapter two.	6:18
	You yourselves know, brothers and sisters,	6:25
	that our coming to you was not in vain,	6:29
	but though we had already suffered	6:34
	and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know,	6:36
	we had courage in our God	6:43
	to declare to you the gospel of God	6:45
	in spite of great opposition.	6:49
	For our appeal does not spring	6:53
	from deceit or impure motives or trickery,	6:56
	but just as we have been approved by God	7:02
	to be entrusted with the message of the gospel,	7:07
	even so we speak,	7:11
	not to please mortals,	7:15
	but to please God who tests our hearts.	7:18
	As you know and as God is our witness,	7:23
	we never came with words of flattery	7:28
	or with a pretext for greed,	7:31
	nor did we seek praise from mortals,	7:36
	whether from you or from others,	7:40
	though we might have made demands as the apostles of Christ.	7:44
	But we were gentle among you,	7:50
	like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.	7:53
	So deeply do we care for you	7:58
	that we are determined to share with you	8:01
	not only the gospel of God	8:04
	but also our own selves,	8:08
	because you have become very dear to us.	8:12
	This is the Word of God.	8:16
All	Thanks be to God.	8:18
	(organ music)	8:33
	♪ I heard a great voice from heaven ♪	8:40
	♪ I heard a great voice from heaven ♪	8:53
	♪ Saying unto me ♪	9:06
	♪ Saying unto me ♪	9:11
	♪ Write, from henceforth ♪	9:17
	♪ Write, from henceforth ♪	9:23
	♪ Write ♪	9:29
	♪ Blessed are the dead ♪	9:33
	♪ Blessed are the dead ♪	9:40
	♪ Who die in the Lord ♪	9:45
	♪ Even so ♪	10:00
	♪ Even so, saith the Spirit ♪	10:04
	♪ For they rest from their labors ♪	10:15
	♪ They rest from their labors ♪	10:22
	♪ They rest from their labors ♪	10:27
	♪ And their works do follow them ♪	10:36
	♪ Their works do follow them ♪	10:46
	♪ Their works do follow them ♪	10:57
-	The third lesson appointed for this day	11:31
	is from the gospel according to Saint Matthew.	11:34
	When the Pharisees heard	11:38
	that he had silenced the Sadducees,	11:40
	they gathered around,	11:42
	and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.	11:44
	Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?	11:49
	He said to him, you shall love the Lord your God	11:54
	with all your heart, and with all your soul,	11:58
	and with all your mind.	12:01
	This is the greatest and first commandment,	12:03
	and a second is like unto it,	12:07
	you shall love your neighbor as yourselves.	12:09
	On these two commandments	12:12
	hang all the law and the prophets.	12:14
	Now while the Pharisees were gathered together,	12:18
	Jesus asked them this question:	12:21
	what do you think of the Messiah?	12:24
	Whose son is he?	12:27
	They said to him, the son of David.	12:29
	He said to them, how is it then that David by the Spirit	12:32
	calls him Lord, saying, the Lord said to my Lord,	12:37
	sit at my right hand,	12:42
	until I put your enemies under your feet?	12:43
	If David thus called him Lord, how can he be his son?	12:47
	No one was able to give him an answer,	12:52
	nor from that day did anyone dare	12:55
	to ask him any more questions.	12:57
	This is the gospel of our Lord.	13:02
All	Thanks be to God.	13:05
-	Let us pray.	13:24
	Help us, Lord, to become masters of ourselves,	13:31
	that we may become the servants of others.	13:35
	Take our hands and work through them,	13:39
	take our minds and think through them,	13:43
	take our lips and speak through them,	13:47
	and take our hearts and set them on fire,	13:51
	for Christ's sake.	13:56
	Amen.	13:59
	In the gospel lesson that you have heard from Saint Matthew,	14:10
	there are at least two tempting opportunities	14:15
	for preaching.	14:21
	The first one would be to preach	14:23
	on the deceitful nature of lawyers,	14:26
	and to those of you who are at the bar in this chapel,	14:31
	or those undergraduates who aspire to the bar,	14:36
	this is a text that I am sorely tempted to take.	14:41
	(laughing)	14:45
	For your sake, and mine, and that of the nation.	14:46
	But I shall restrain myself and not tell you what I think.	14:50
	But the gospel passage leaves us much room there,	14:55
	and it could be done.	14:59
	The second tempting option from this passage,	15:01
	from the gospel,	15:05
	is the very last verse,	15:06
	which strikes some of us indeed as anti-intellectual,	15:09
	and anti the spirit of the university,	15:14
	where is says and they durst not ask him	15:17
	any more questions.	15:22
	Here one could go on at great length	15:25
	about the virtues of not asking too many questions,	15:28
	even in a questionable place like this.	15:34
	But I shall resist that temptation as well,	15:38
	and I shall confine my attention, as I hope you will,	15:40
	to what I think, in fact,	15:44
	is the burden of this passage from the gospel,	15:46
	from which I have taken my text.	15:50
	It's the 37th verse of Saint Matthew 22.	15:53
	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,	15:58
	and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.	16:04
	This is the first and great commandment.	16:09
	Now it is Jesus himself	16:15
	who calls this the first and the greatest commandment.	16:17
	It is Jesus himself who lifts this commandment	16:23
	above all of the law, all of the instruction,	16:27
	all of the hints and suggestions for duty.	16:32
	It is Jesus who tells us that this is the duty	16:36
	that we owe toward God,	16:41
	a duty that involves all of what we are,	16:44
	and all of what we do.	16:48
	This is the legitimate answer to a trick question.	16:51
	The love of God	16:58
	according to this great commandment of Jesus,	16:59
	the love of God is expressed with our hearts,	17:01
	it is expressed with our souls,	17:06
	it is expressed with our minds.	17:09
	It is not one of the above, you will note carefully,	17:12
	it is not two out of three,	17:17
	it is all of the faculties of our thinking,	17:20
	our feeling and our being.	17:25
	All of this is required	17:29
	in love toward God.	17:32
	Now I mention this first and great commandment	17:36
	not only because the lectionary requires it,	17:38
	and Dean Willimon would expect no less of me in his absence,	17:41
	but I mention this first and great commandment here as well,	17:46
	because if this chapel and this university	17:51
	are anything at all like the chapel and the university	17:55
	that I serve in the Duke of the North,	17:59
	(laughing)	18:02
	then there are some of you who are here this morning	18:05
	who in fact, look forward to chapel and to church	18:08
	as that one place,	18:12
	that one hour during the week	18:15
	when you are not obliged to think at all.	18:18
	(laughing)	18:22
	Here in this marvelous space,	18:23
	with the narcotic of music,	18:27
	and the absolutely, wonderfully tempting	18:29
	diversions of architecture,	18:33
	surrounded by your neighbors and friends,	18:35
	here you can all, as some of you already have,	18:39
	go on automatic pilot.	18:43
	(laughing)	18:46
	You hang up all of the intensities of the work week,	18:47
	all of the demands that press and push and prod,	18:52
	and you let whatever happens here in the Duke Chapel	18:56
	wash over you	19:01
	like a warm shower bath.	19:02
	I see it happening already as I move up the center aisle	19:06
	towards the western end.	19:11
	An undergraduate at Harvard,	19:14
	with what I took to be a sincere, even flattering intention,	19:16
	once told me at the door of Memorial Church	19:22
	that he liked my sermons	19:24
	because it was the most restful 20 minutes he had all week.	19:27
	(laughing)	19:32
	A good sermon, I was once told,	19:33
	was one from which either you left enlightened	19:35
	or awoke refreshed.	19:39
	(laughing)	19:42
	But the great commandment,	19:45
	while it does not command us to listen to sermons,	19:46
	does say that one of the things	19:51
	with which love toward God is expressed,	19:54
	is with the mind.	19:58
	So would you do God and me the kindness	20:02
	by re-engaging your minds?	20:06
	I require your attention, even in the choir.	20:09
	I know you lot, listen up.	20:14
	(laughing)	20:16
	We are expected	20:18
	to express our love toward God	20:20
	in the first case, with our mind.	20:23
	There is intellect,	20:26
	reason involved in the worship and the love of God,	20:29
	and we are expected, we are commanded,	20:34
	to give our minds over to this enterprise	20:37
	in obedience to what God requires of us.	20:42
	Now this is not to say, and I hasten to say it,	20:48
	that either God or the worship of God	20:50
	or even the love of God	20:53
	are in themselves reasonable propositions.	20:54
	If your minds are alert now, as they must be,	20:59
	you will note that these are not one and the same thing.	21:02
	Worship, the love of God,	21:06
	these are, in fact, quite unreasonable, as reason goes,	21:08
	especially if reason is defined	21:14
	as that which you can see or prove or do.	21:17
	Try to argue, if you're an undergraduate,	21:23
	with your roommate,	21:25
	or if you're not, with your spouse or your friend	21:26
	about the existence of God,	21:29
	and you will discover very quickly	21:31
	how impossible the most reasonable of people,	21:33
	and the most reasonable of arguments becomes	21:37
	in that set of circumstances.	21:41
	And if you want another example	21:44
	of the unreasonableness of this enterprise	21:46
	in which you are to give over your mind,	21:49
	look at this very chapel itself.	21:51
	This is as unreasonable a space and place	21:55
	as designed by the hand of man.	21:59
	This is an incredibly inefficient place.	22:04
	Look all around it, all of this glass, all of this stone,	22:09
	not one but two organs, for what?	22:13
	What an unreasonable enterprise,	22:17
	what an inefficient, unreasonable place this place	22:21
	compared to a laboratory or a library.	22:24
	This could make wonderful condominia	22:28
	for faculty, for example.	22:31
	(laughing)	22:33
	It would make a very reasonable use	22:34
	if converted into something sensible and practical,	22:36
	but here it stands,	22:40
	a monument to the unreasonable	22:43
	within which one is meant to give over, among other things,	22:46
	one's mind to God.	22:52
	Here this marvelously unreasonable space,	22:55
	Saint Nicotine's, I always call it,	22:59
	whenever I come to Duke.	23:02
	(laughing)	23:04
	At Harvard,	23:08
	Memorial Church stands in the most prominent part	23:09
	of the college yard,	23:13
	and like your chapel here, it can't be missed.	23:15
	A dean once said to me,	23:19
	lovely building, the chapel,	23:21
	but if we were starting again,	23:23
	I don't think we'd put it here.	23:25
	And I suspect that the makers of your modern university,	23:29
	were they to start all over again,	23:32
	might have second thoughts	23:35
	about placing the chapel right here.	23:37
	It is such an unreasonable expression	23:41
	of a university's ambition.	23:44
	But unreasonable as this all may seem,	23:49
	the great commandment does not reject the mind.	23:52
	In fact, it commandeers the mind,	23:57
	it drafts the mind for the worship and the love of God.	24:00
	God wants your mind,	24:05
	small and inadequate, inefficient as it is,	24:08
	God wants it anyway.	24:12
	To think	24:15
	is to attempt to worship and love God,	24:17
	to think	24:21
	is to attempt to comprehend God.	24:23
	Think about that.	24:28
	Now warm-hearted Christians,	24:34
	and I'm not unaware that John Wesley, your great patron,	24:36
	once described himself as strangely warmed.	24:41
	I always thought that a marvelous phrase as a Baptist,	24:45
	it sounds not quite fully done.	24:48
	Strangely warmed.	24:50
	(laughing)	24:52
	Now warm-hearted Christians tend to think of thought	24:54
	and thinking and thinkers as cold-hearted and rational.	24:59
	Warm-hearted Christians, especially in the environment	25:05
	of a great secular university such as Duke,	25:09
	will tend or be tempted to see the faith	25:12
	as an island in the storm.	25:16
	That one place, this place,	25:19
	where faith and fuzz	25:22
	become one.	25:25
	But God requires not simply our hearts,	25:28
	but our minds as well.	25:32
	Saint Augustine tells us of the consolations	25:35
	God has given us in the world,	25:38
	and chief among these are the abilities	25:40
	to think and to discern,	25:44
	to discover, to imagine,	25:47
	to come to terms with truth,	25:50
	to discover truth from error,	25:53
	to calculate, to cogitate, to calibrate.	25:56
	These are not secular pursuits.	26:00
	These are not activities reserved alone	26:04
	for the library and the laboratory	26:07
	and the people in white coats.	26:09
	These are indeed the gifts of God for the people of God,	26:12
	and if you fail to think,	26:17
	you are abusing one of the gifts of God.	26:21
	You are engaged in a wasteful,	26:27
	blasphemous non-enterprise.	26:30
	Your mind is meant to be engaged for God,	26:35
	and without it, God is not pleased,	26:41
	God is not well-served,	26:45
	neither are you, and neither is the church.	26:48
	So no Christian who loves God	26:54
	should ever be afraid of an idea,	26:57
	no matter how obnoxious, no matter how difficult,	27:02
	no matter how perverse.	27:07
	For the mind is the gift God has given us	27:10
	to discern among good, bad,	27:14
	and indifferent ideas.	27:17
	Ideas are Christian property,	27:21
	and not to use them is to be very poor stewards indeed.	27:25
	No Christian who loves God need ever think	27:30
	that his mind is an alien force,	27:34
	something that has to be turned off	27:38
	when you become religious.	27:41
	If that is the case,	27:44
	you are not truly or thoroughly religious.	27:46
	No Christian who loves God	27:52
	need every put her intellectual faculties on hold.	27:55
	Indeed as my predecessor George Arthur Buttrick	28:01
	used to say of Memorial Church	28:04
	the doors of the church should never be so low	28:07
	that someone must leave his head outside when he enters.	28:12
	Thank God that the doors of Duke Chapel	28:17
	appear to be high and everlasting,	28:20
	so that here, men and women may worship God	28:24
	with their minds fully intact, fully engaged,	28:28
	fully pushed, challenged and stimulated.	28:32
	To think, fully and comprehensively,	28:37
	to think micro and macro,	28:41
	is ultimately to think of God.	28:45
	As the hymnist says, my ample creed,	28:51
	it is the thought of God.	28:55
	But thank God the great commandment	29:02
	which Jesus invokes here,	29:06
	commandeers more than merely the mind.	29:08
	For the organs of feeling and passion are also called for.	29:14
	God commandeers the heart and the soul,	29:20
	as well as the mind.	29:25
	God does not want thoughtless Christians	29:29
	who just feel all warm and fuzzy,	29:32
	nor does God want thoughtful Christians	29:36
	who have no spirit, who have no passions or feelings.	29:41
	God requires the whole thing,	29:48
	and so we are grateful for this great commandment	29:51
	which requires	29:55
	thinking and feeling the faith.	29:56
	Religion may be learned, it may be taught,	30:01
	in some places, it may even be practiced,	30:05
	but both ultimately and immediately,	30:08
	the Christian faith is both caught and felt.	30:12
	And such a feeling, if you will,	30:18
	is invariably and inevitably	30:21
	the result of a relationship.	30:25
	You have first opened your minds,	30:30
	now open your hearts	30:33
	to receive the good news of Christ.	30:37
	Feeling, if you will,	30:43
	is inevitably the result of a relationship.	30:45
	Now I know this word relationship	30:51
	is a very dangerous, slippery word.	30:55
	It has become a euphemism,	30:59
	a substitute for more basic Anglo-Saxon meaning.	31:02
	No one any longer has friends or lovers	31:07
	or boyfriends or girlfriends anymore.	31:11
	Everyone is in or out	31:16
	or moving toward or coming from out of a relationship,	31:18
	and most of these are meant to be meaningful,	31:24
	that is, full of deep and inexplicable meaning.	31:28
	And these all, both good and bad,	31:33
	make demands upon that collection of invisible realities,	31:36
	invisible realities that we call feelings.	31:40
	So I want to rehabilitate	31:46
	both the notion of relationship and feeling	31:48
	for the use of the Christian faith	31:51
	and the great commandment, this text allows me to do so.	31:53
	Feelings are the inevitable result of a relationship.	32:00
	Think about it.	32:05
	Feelings are always the result of a relationship	32:06
	made, sustained or broken.	32:11
	We connect or we fail to connect,	32:14
	and in that relationship, broken or unbroken,	32:18
	feelings, the heart and the soul,	32:21
	come into play.	32:25
	Faith is meant to be felt,	32:28
	not simply talked or merely understood.	32:31
	It is meant to be felt.	32:35
	You are meant to be	32:37
	more than strangely warm.	32:40
	Faith is ultimately a response to what God has done for us,	32:44
	and we are to respond to the great	32:50
	and generous act of creation with our minds,	32:52
	but indeed with more,	32:57
	with our hearts and our souls.	32:59
	All of our being, the whole thing that makes us human,	33:02
	is that with which we respond to God	33:08
	who made us human.	33:11
	But we all know how we feel when the question is put	33:16
	how are you feeling today?	33:21
	When we put that question,	33:26
	we know that it does not require	33:28
	a full or a truthful answer,	33:32
	and how horrible it is	33:35
	when somebody actually in response to that question	33:36
	tells you how they are feeling today.	33:40
	Who can bear it?	33:44
	It is one of the liabilities of truth.	33:46
	Few of us can.	33:49
	God bless rhetorical questions.	33:51
	But the question, if looked at carefully,	33:55
	is not merely a medical or a physical	33:58
	or even a psychological question,	34:02
	it is not even merely polite.	34:06
	It has to do with you and all of the relationships	34:08
	that define who and whose you are.	34:13
	Because we can only feel in relationships to others	34:17
	and to other things.	34:22
	To feel the faith is not simply a private inner glow.	34:24
	It is to respond to God in all of the relationships	34:30
	in which God has set us,	34:35
	and in which God is to be found,	34:37
	and we know with our minds	34:42
	those feelings	34:46
	of our hearts and our souls.	34:48
	And we are at one, in some strange and wondrous way,	34:52
	when all of these qualities of mind,	34:56
	heart, and soul	35:00
	are combined.	35:03
	That is when	35:05
	we are fully understood	35:07
	even as we fully understand.	35:10
	I point only to this building as a perfect example	35:15
	of that union	35:20
	of heart and mind and soul.	35:22
	This unreasonable building	35:25
	is the result of the most careful	35:29
	of mathematical and architectural calculations.	35:32
	It is, in some sense, reason in stone.	35:37
	Mere faith that a place like this would turn out okay,	35:43
	mere faith, mere hope	35:48
	that something would allow this building to go up,	35:50
	that one stone would stand upon another	35:55
	simply would not do.	35:58
	But the result of this reasonable mathematical enterprise	36:02
	is, we wouldst all testify, more than reasonable.	36:06
	The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.	36:12
	It is the expression, this chapel of yours, if you will,	36:15
	of a feeling.	36:19
	It is the expression of a relationship indeed	36:21
	between the seen and the unseen,	36:25
	between the transient and the eternal.	36:29
	It is a statement of relationship, if you will,	36:32
	between earth and heaven itself.	36:37
	Oh certainly, Mr. Duke may have built this church	36:42
	to atone for his many sins,	36:46
	or to impress his many neighbors,	36:49
	all of that may be true, but who cares?	36:51
	For God has a greater use for it,	36:54
	and when you come here, if you have any sense at all,	36:59
	you are driven to your knees,	37:03
	your spiritual knees.	37:07
	You are lost in wonder,	37:10
	love and praise.	37:13
	For you see, in the end, as in the beginning,	37:18
	God does not want just your mind,	37:22
	but God does want your mind.	37:26
	God does not want just your hearts and your souls,	37:30
	but God does want your heart and your soul as well.	37:34
	God who gave it all, wants it all,	37:39
	and will accept nothing less.	37:43
	Your rational thoughtful self,	37:48
	so well expressed in the classroom,	37:51
	your energetic, passionate, physical self,	37:54
	so well expressed upon the fields of endeavor,	37:57
	and your spiritual, heart-felt self,	38:02
	which finds itself expressed here in this place,	38:05
	God wants all of this.	38:10
	God requires all of this.	38:15
	One of the great curses, in some respects,	38:21
	of being an undergraduate in a great university like this	38:25
	is the easy and readily understood temptation	38:29
	to live carefully, compartmentalized life.	38:34
	In the classroom I think, more or less,	38:40
	in the dormitory, I have fun as much as I can,	38:44
	on the fields I play as well as I can,	38:49
	and in church I am religious,	38:52
	or at least not consciously wicked.	38:56
	All of these self-contained	39:00
	little departments and compartments	39:03
	that have nothing each to do with the other,	39:05
	the segregation of mind and heart and soul	39:08
	and the physical and the spiritual,	39:12
	the older you get, I hope the clearer it becomes	39:16
	that such little, tiny boxes simply don't exist,	39:21
	and that the one place	39:26
	where all of these departments and compartments	39:28
	are melded and transformed and transcended,	39:31
	the one place where that happens here and anywhere else	39:35
	is in this place	39:39
	before the altar of God.	39:41
	The older of you may know this,	39:46
	and if you don't, it's time you learned it.	39:48
	The undergraduates, here is a time and place	39:51
	for you to think about the faith,	39:56
	and to feel it as well.	39:59
	These are not mutually exclusive,	40:02
	they are meant to give you, like this building,	40:06
	something larger than the sum of its parts,	40:09
	and it is called life.	40:14
	So the Christian faith is not simply mind over matter	40:20
	or heart over head,	40:24
	it is all that a man or a woman can be	40:27
	or aspire to be.	40:31
	To think and to do that,	40:33
	is required in response	40:36
	to what God has done	40:39
	and is doing for you.	40:42
	The lawyers who put their question to Jesus	40:46
	like most lawyers, alas,	40:50
	were not interested	40:53
	in advancing the frontiers of truth	40:55
	or knowledge or even information.	40:59
	They were interested simply in tripping up Jesus.	41:04
	But they	41:10
	and you and I have got an answer	41:12
	to a question,	41:17
	an answer that far exceeds the question	41:19
	and the questioners.	41:23
	God has been generous to us.	41:26
	In every way, every day,	41:31
	in every department,	41:34
	God has been generous to us with minds that think,	41:36
	and hearts that feel, and bodies that work more or less.	41:41
	God has been generous, don't be stingy	41:45
	in your return.	41:50
	This is not just an offertory sentence.	41:53
	Don't be stingy in your return of what God has given you.	41:57
	If your mind works, you owe it to God,	42:01
	if your body works, you owe it to God,	42:03
	if your heart can still function and beat and feel,	42:06
	you owe it to God.	42:10
	The faith is meant to be thought and felt,	42:13
	for in no other way can it be enjoyed or shared.	42:18
	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,	42:25
	with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.	42:29
	This is the first and greatest commandment.	42:34
	Amen.	42:40
	(organ music)	42:48
	♪ I love thy kingdom, Lord ♪	43:10
	♪ The house of thine abode ♪	43:15
	♪ The church our blest Redeemer saved ♪	43:20
	♪ With his own precious blood ♪	43:25
	♪ I love thy church, oh God ♪	43:33
	♪ Her walls before thee stand ♪	43:38
	♪ Dear as the apple of thine eye ♪	43:43
	♪ And graven on thy hand ♪	43:49
	♪ For her my tears shall fall ♪	43:56
	♪ For her my prayers ascend ♪	44:02
	♪ To her my cares and toils be given ♪	44:07
	♪ Till toils and cares shall end ♪	44:13
	♪ Beyond my highest joy ♪	44:20
	♪ I prize her heavenly ways ♪	44:26
	♪ Her sweet communion, solemn vows ♪	44:31
	♪ Her hymns of love and praise ♪	44:37
	♪ Sure as thy truth shall last ♪	44:44
	♪ To Zion shall be given ♪	44:49
	♪ The brightest glories earth can yield ♪	44:54
	♪ And brighter bliss of heaven ♪	45:00
-	The Lord be with you.	45:09
Congregation	And also with you.	45:12
-	Let us pray.	45:13
	Oh God,	45:25
	you have set before us the way of your truth	45:27
	and of your life.	45:31
	Too often we prefer the ways	45:34
	of our choosing,	45:38
	thoughtlessly and hurriedly	45:40
	without thinking, without feeling.	45:43
	If in so doing we have offended you or our neighbors,	45:48
	we are truly sorry.	45:53
	If in so doing we have hurt ourselves,	45:55
	we ask for your healing.	45:58
	Lord, in your mercy--	46:01
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	46:04
-	Oh God, it is your will to hold both heaven and earth	46:06
	in a single piece.	46:11
	Let the design of your great love	46:14
	shine on the waste of our wraths and sorrows,	46:16
	and give peace to your church,	46:21
	peace among nations, peace in our homes,	46:25
	and peace in our hearts.	46:29
	Lord, in your mercy--	46:32
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	46:35
-	Grant, oh God, that your Holy and Life-giving Spirit	46:37
	may move every human heart,	46:42
	that the barriers which divide us may crumble,	46:46
	suspicions disappear and hatred cease,	46:51
	and that with our divisions healed	46:55
	we might live in justice and in peace.	46:59
	Lord, in your mercy--	47:02
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	47:06
-	Oh Lord, our Ruler,	47:08
	we commend our nation,	47:12
	and indeed all nations to your merciful care.	47:15
	Guide those who hold office in the government of this city,	47:20
	this state and our nation,	47:25
	that they may do their work	47:29
	in a spirit of wisdom,	47:31
	kindness and justice.	47:33
	Help them use their authority to serve faithfully,	47:37
	and promote the general welfare.	47:42
	Help them always remember	47:46
	that they are called to serve the people as lovers of truth.	47:48
	Lord, in your mercy--	47:53
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	47:56
-	Bless, oh God, all colleges, universities,	47:58
	and centers of research and learning,	48:03
	and those who teach and who study in them.	48:06
	Bestow your wisdom in such measure	48:11
	that people may serve you in church and society	48:13
	and that our common life	48:18
	may be conformed to the rule of your truth.	48:20
	Lord, in your mercy--	48:24
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	48:27
-	Let your blessing rest upon seedtime and harvest,	48:30
	the commerce and industry, the leisure and rest,	48:35
	the arts and culture of our people.	48:40
	Take under your special protection	48:44
	those whose task is difficult or dangerous.	48:46
	Be with those who face today and tomorrow	48:51
	without employment,	48:55
	and be with all who lay their hands to any useful task	48:58
	no matter how humble.	49:02
	Give them all just reward for their labor	49:05
	and the knowledge that their work is good in your sight.	49:09
	Lord, in your mercy--	49:14
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	49:17
-	Almighty and most merciful God,	49:20
	we call to mind before you all those	49:23
	whom it would be easy to forget.	49:26
	The homeless, the destitute,	49:31
	the aged, and all who have none to care for them.	49:35
	Comfort, with the grace of your Spirit,	49:41
	all who are in sorrow or need,	49:44
	in sickness or adversity.	49:47
	Remember those who suffer persecution for the faith.	49:51
	Have mercy on those to whom death draws near.	49:56
	Bring consolation to those in sorrow or mourning.	50:02
	Be merciful to all who are imprisoned.	50:08
	And to all, grant a measure of your love	50:12
	taking them into your tender care.	50:17
	Lord, in your mercy--	50:21
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	50:23
-	And into your hands, oh God,	50:25
	we now commend all for whom we pray,	50:28
	trusting in your mercy	50:31
	through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.	50:33
	Amen.	50:37
	And now, as a forgiven and reconciled people,	50:41
	let us share our tithes and offerings.	50:45
	♪ We praise thee, oh God ♪	51:08
	♪ We acknowledge thee to be the Lord ♪	51:13
	♪ All the earth doth worship thee ♪	51:19
	♪ The Father everlasting ♪	51:24
	♪ To thee all angels cry aloud ♪	51:31
	♪ The heavens and all the powers therein ♪	51:37
	♪ To thee cherubim and seraphim ♪	51:43
	♪ Continually do cry ♪	51:49
	♪ Holy ♪	51:56
	♪ Holy ♪	52:00
	♪ Holy ♪	52:02
	♪ Lord God of Sabaoth ♪	52:07
	♪ Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory ♪	52:13
	(organ music)	52:25
	♪ The glorious company of the apostles ♪	52:31
	♪ Praise thee ♪	52:36
	♪ The goodly fellowship of the prophets ♪	52:43
	♪ Praise thee ♪	52:48
	♪ The noble army of martyrs ♪	52:55
	♪ Praise thee ♪	53:00
	♪ The holy Church throughout all the world ♪	53:03
	♪ Doth acknowledge thee ♪	53:09
	♪ The Father of an infinite majesty ♪	53:12
	♪ Thine honorable, true and only Son ♪	53:24
	♪ Also the Holy Ghost ♪	53:33
	♪ The Comforter ♪	53:43
	(organ music)	54:00
	♪ Thou art the King ♪	54:07
	♪ Of Glory, oh Christ ♪	54:13
	♪ Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father ♪	54:20
	(organ music)	54:37
	♪ When thou tookest upon thee ♪	54:45
	♪ To deliver man ♪	54:50
	♪ Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb ♪	54:55
	(organ music)	55:04
	♪ When thou hadst overcome ♪	55:09
	♪ The sharpness of death ♪	55:13
	♪ Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven ♪	55:17
	♪ To all believers ♪	55:23
	(organ music)	55:29
	♪ Thou sittest at the right hand of God ♪	55:34
	♪ In the glory of the Father ♪	55:45
	(organ music)	56:04
	♪ We believe that ♪	56:12
	♪ We believe that thou shalt come ♪	56:22
	♪ To be our Judge ♪	56:34
	(organ music)	56:49
	♪ We therefore pray thee, help thy servants ♪	56:57
	♪ Whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood ♪	57:04
	♪ Make them to be numbered with thy saints ♪	57:13
	♪ In glory everlasting ♪	57:20
	♪ Oh Lord, save thy people ♪	57:35
	♪ And bless thine heritage ♪	57:41
	♪ Govern them and lift them up forever ♪	57:44
	♪ Day by day, we magnify thee ♪	57:52
	♪ And we worship thy name ♪	57:59
	♪ Ever, world without end ♪	58:04
	♪ Vouchsafe, oh Lord ♪	58:19
	♪ To keep us this day ♪	58:26
	♪ Without sin ♪	58:35
	♪ Oh Lord, have mercy upon us ♪	58:46
	♪ Have mercy upon us ♪	58:55
	♪ Oh Lord, let thy mercy ♪	59:04
	♪ Lighten upon us ♪	59:10
	♪ As our trust is in thee ♪	59:15
	♪ Oh Lord ♪	59:27
	♪ In thee have I trusted ♪	59:35
	♪ Let me never ♪	59:44
	♪ Let me never ♪	59:48
	♪ Be confounded ♪	59:58
	(organ music)	1:00:23
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	1:00:47
	♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪	1:00:53
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:00:59
	♪ Praise the Lord all ye heavenly hosts ♪	1:01:06
	♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪	1:01:12
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:01:18
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	1:01:25
	♪ Alleluia ♪	1:01:31
-	Let us pray.	1:01:41
	Oh God, Maker of all things,	1:01:44
	through your goodness,	1:01:47
	you have blessed us with these gifts.	1:01:49
	With them, we offer ourselves to your service,	1:01:52
	and dedicate our lives to the care and redemption	1:01:57
	of all that you have made,	1:02:01
	for the sake of him who gave himself for us,	1:02:03
	Jesus Christ, our Lord.	1:02:08
	Our Father, who art in heaven.	1:02:11
Congregation	Hallowed be thy name.	1:02:15
	Thy kingdom come.	1:02:17
	Thy will be done,	1:02:19
	on earth as it is in heaven.	1:02:20
	Give us this day our daily bread,	1:02:23
	and forgive us our trespasses,	1:02:26
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	1:02:28
	and lead us not into temptation,	1:02:32
	but deliver us from evil.	1:02:35
	For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.	1:02:37
	Amen.	1:02:43
-	And now let us leave with the blessing of the Lord.	1:02:44
	The Lord Almighty bless us,	1:02:48
	and order our days and our deeds in his peace.	1:02:51
	Amen.	1:02:56
	(organ music)	1:03:00
	♪ Deep peace of the running wave to you ♪	1:03:04
	♪ Deep peace of the flowing air to you ♪	1:03:12
	♪ Deep peace of the quiet earth to you ♪	1:03:20
	♪ Deep peace of the shining stars to you ♪	1:03:29
	♪ Deep peace of the gentle night to you ♪	1:03:37
	♪ Moon and stars pour their healing light on you ♪	1:03:46
	♪ Deep peace of Christ ♪	1:03:55
	♪ Of Christ ♪	1:04:02
	♪ The light of the world to you ♪	1:04:06
	♪ Deep peace of Christ to you ♪	1:04:17
	(organ music)	1:04:36
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:05:10
	♪ Grant us in this burning hour ♪	1:05:15
	♪ Grace to ask these gifts of thee ♪	1:05:20
	♪ Daring hearts and spirits free ♪	1:05:25
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:05:30
	♪ Thou hast called us for this hour ♪	1:05:36
	♪ We are not the first to be ♪	1:05:44
	♪ Banished by our fears from thee ♪	1:05:49
	♪ Give us courage, let us hear ♪	1:05:54
	♪ Heaven's trumpets ringing clear ♪	1:05:59
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:06:04
	♪ Thou hast called us for this hour ♪	1:06:10
	♪ All our lives belong to thee ♪	1:06:17
	♪ Thou our final loyalty ♪	1:06:22
	♪ Slaves are we whenever we share ♪	1:06:28
	♪ That devotion anywhere ♪	1:06:33
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:06:38
	♪ Thou hast called us for this hour ♪	1:06:43
	(organ music)	1:06:49
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:07:35
	♪ Make us worthy of this hour ♪	1:07:40
	♪ Offering lives if it's thy will ♪	1:07:46
	♪ Keeping free our spirits still ♪	1:07:50
	♪ God of love and God of power ♪	1:07:57
	♪ Thou hast called us for this hour ♪	1:08:02
	(organ music)	1:08:15

Item Info

Title:

Peter J. Gomes - "Thinking and Feeling the Faith" (October 28, 1990)

Description:

Our love and worship of God must reflect the entirety of who we are and not be arbitrarily compartmentalized. As God has been gracious to bless us with the gifts of these faculties (heart/mind/soul), we must not be stingy in returning our praise by means of them. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 13:24. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 42:43.
Key quotation: “All of our being, the whole thing that makes us human, is that with which we respond to God who made us human.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4ws8j19h

Date:

October 28, 1990

Speaker:

Gomes, Peter J.

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0206
ref8856_hha
uachapelsermaud
duke:321678
dcrmv001197
ark:/87924/r4ws8j19h
08ab7ef5-3c05-48a1-b784-0b27e4ac2423

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For 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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Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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