James T. Cleland - "Comin' Home, Goin' Home" (October 22, 1972)

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	(group sings prayers)	0:04
	(solemn organ music)	0:57
	(group sings prayers)	2:31
First Clergyman	Let us hear now from the gospel of Mark,	3:19
	the call to confession.	3:22
	When Jesus was at table in his house	3:25
	many bad characters, tax gatherers and others,	3:28
	were seated with him and his disciples.	3:32
	For there were many that followed him.	3:35
	Some doctors of the law who were Pharisees	3:39
	noticed him eating in this bad company,	3:42
	and said to his disciples,	3:45
	"He eats with tax gatherers and sinners."	3:48
	Jesus overheard and said to them,	3:52
	"It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick."	3:55
	"I did not come to call virtuous people, but sinners."	3:59
	Let us pray.	4:04
	(group sings prayers)	4:21
	Hear, oh Lord, our prayer of confession.	4:47
	Merciful God, we humble ourselves in thy presence,	4:52
	confessing that we also are sinners	4:57
	who need to be cleansed and healed by the great physician.	5:00
	We have broken thy holy law.	5:06
	We have not sought first, thy kingdom and righteousness.	5:10
	We have been anxious and troubled about many things,	5:15
	and have neglected the things that belong to our peace.	5:19
	We have not loved our neighbor	5:23
	or done to others that they should do to us.	5:26
	Most gracious God, our heavenly father	5:31
	who sent thy son, Jesus Christ, not to condemn,	5:35
	but to save the world, save us from our sins.	5:39
	Forgive us, we beseech thee.	5:45
	Cleanse us from all unrighteousness	5:48
	and renew a right spirit within us.	5:51
	Through the promise and loving grace of our savior,	5:54
	Jesus Christ, amen.	5:59
	And now, as our Lord hath taught us,	6:06
	we humbly pray together saying,	6:09
	"Our father who art in heaven,	6:12
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	6:15
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."	6:19
	"Give us this day, our daily bread,	6:23
	and forgive us our trespasses	6:26
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	6:29
	and lead us, not into temptation,	6:32
	but deliver us from evil."	6:35
	"For thine is the kingdom,	6:38
	and the power, and the glory forever."	6:40
	Amen	6:43
	(soft organ music)	6:53
	(group sings prayers)	7:39
	The Lord be with you.	14:46
Group	And also with you.	14:48
First Clergyman	Let us pray.	14:50
	Let us offer unto God, our unison prayer of Thanksgiving.	14:58
	Lord God of heaven and earth,	15:04
	glorious in holiness, great in compassion,	15:07
	who does give thy son to be the light of the world.	15:11
	With thy whole church,	15:15
	we thank thee for the wonders of thy creation,	15:16
	for the care of thy providence,	15:20
	and for the riches of thy grace.	15:23
	We praise and magnify thine holy name,	15:26
	that in Jesus Christ thou has revealed to us	15:29
	the wonder of thy saving love.	15:33
	For the grace and truth that came by him.	15:36
	For his obedience unto death,	15:40
	even the death of the cross.	15:42
	For his resurrection and everlasting rein.	15:45
	For the coming of the holy spirit.	15:49
	For the church, which is Christ's body,	15:52
	and follow the promise of eternal life.	15:55
	Humble thou our hearts,	15:58
	and make us truly thankful, amen.	16:00
	Hear now, the prayers of intercession and supplication.	16:05
	Bless we pray thee all the sons	16:12
	and daughters of the university,	16:16
	who at this homecoming renew with us their ties	16:19
	of friendship and loyalty.	16:23
	Prosper their homes and occupations.	16:26
	Keep them in remembrance of the high purpose,	16:31
	and resolve with which they set forth from this place,	16:35
	and let neither failure,	16:40
	nor disappointment vanquish the devotion,	16:42
	but give them true discernment and steadfastness of purpose,	16:47
	that disdaining all that is unworthy and false	16:52
	they may spend their lives in service	16:57
	and joy to the glory of thy kingdom,	16:59
	and to their soul's true good.	17:04
	Eternal God, our Father, who hast made of one blood,	17:08
	all people to dwell upon the earth,	17:13
	and in whom there is peace and concord.	17:17
	Heal thou the divisions and animosities	17:21
	which separate thy children,	17:25
	and enable them to keep the unity of the spirit	17:28
	in the bond of peace.	17:31
	While there are differences in race,	17:35
	and color, and station of life,	17:38
	diversities of knowledge and faith,	17:42
	and we cannot all be of the same mind,	17:46
	may we be one in brotherly affection	17:50
	and in devotion to thy will.	17:53
	Deliver us from all blindness, and prejudice,	17:57
	and censoriousness,	18:02
	and fill us with a swift and sure compassion	18:05
	for all who are oppressed and downtrodden,	18:08
	frustrated and embittered,	18:13
	especially for those who's anguish is unrelieved	18:16
	by the knowledge of thy love.	18:21
	That so fulfilling the law of Christ,	18:24
	we may show for the power and beauty of his gospel	18:27
	to the glory of thy holy name, amen.	18:31
-	[Second Clergyman] The lesson this morning	18:44
	comes from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.	18:45
	First from the book of Psalms, Psalm 122.	18:48
	I was glad when they said to me,	18:52
	"Let us go up to the house of the Lord."	18:54
	Our feet had been standing within your gates, oh, Jerusalem,	18:56
	Jerusalem built as a city,	19:00
	which is bound firmly together to which the tribes go up,	19:02
	the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel,	19:06
	to give thanks to the name of the Lord.	19:09
	Their thrones for judgment were set,	19:13
	the thrones of the House of David.	19:15
	Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,	19:17
	may they prosper who love you.	19:19
	Peace be within your walls	19:22
	and security within your towers.	19:23
	For my brethren and companion sake,	19:26
	I will say, "Peace to you."	19:28
	For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God,	19:30
	I will seek your good,	19:33
	and from the New Testament, from the gospel of Mark,	19:37
	the third chapter beginning with the 31st verse,	19:40
	And his mother, and his brothers came,	19:44
	and standing outside,	19:46
	they sent to him and called him,	19:47
	and a crowd was sitting about him,	19:50
	and they said to him,	19:52
	"Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you."	19:53
	And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"	19:57
	And looking around on those who sat about him, he said,	20:01
	"Here are my mother and my brothers,	20:05
	whoever does the will of God is my brother,	20:08
	and my sister, and my mother."	20:11
	May the Lord bless the reading of his word.	20:14
	(solemn organ music)	20:18
	(group sings prayers)	20:28
First Clergyman	Let us now affirm our Christian faith.	21:02
Group	We believe in God who has created,	21:07
	and is creating,	21:10
	who has come the true man, Jesus, to reconcile and make new,	21:12
	who works in us and others by his spirit.	21:19
	We trust him.	21:23
	He calls us to be in his church,	21:25
	to celebrate his presence,	21:28
	to love and serve others,	21:30
	to seek justice and relieve ego,	21:33
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	21:36
	our judge and our hope.	21:40
	In life, in death,	21:43
	in life beyond death, God is with us.	21:45
	We are not alone.	21:49
	Thanks be to God.	21:51
Dr. Clellan	Let the words of my mouth	22:12
	and the meditations of our hearts	22:15
	be acceptable in thy sight.	22:17
	Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer, amen.	22:22
	The 1948 edition of the Big Webster Dictionary	22:35
	does not even bother to list the word homecoming,	22:42
	it's 3,210 pages.	22:49
	The 1961 edition does.	22:56
	So, somewhere between 1948 and 1961	23:01
	homecoming came in to vote.	23:08
	It is defined as, "The return of a group of people	23:13
	to a place formerly frequented or regarded as home."	23:18
	Such a return has the mood of a celebration.	23:26
	So, you who are Duke Alumni,	23:32
	have left home to come home.	23:36
	Which statement is Irish, or paradoxical, or absurd.	23:43
	It's the kind of linguistic usage,	23:51
	which makes a foreigner wonder	23:53
	if he'll ever learn to manipulate,	23:57
	to say nothing of to muster the American English tongue.	24:00
	Home is where one lives habitually with one's family,	24:08
	and just because the word has a precious	24:15
	and comfortable connotation,	24:18
	it is transferred to other centers of mutual living	24:22
	for which there is a somewhat light affection.	24:28
	America in it's national anthem	24:34
	is not only the land of the free,	24:38
	it is the home of the brave.	24:42
	Boston, where the loles talk to the cabbots,	24:48
	and the cabbots talk only to God,	24:53
	is still the home of the bean and the cod.	24:58
	Oxford University, according to Matthew Arnold,	25:04
	was the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs,	25:07
	and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties,	25:15
	and that was said with great affection.	25:21
	Maybe it still is. (mutters)	25:26
	In what sense is this place,	25:33
	your university,	25:36
	home to you?	25:38
	In what mood did you come back?	25:41
	In what temper are you leaving?	25:46
	The university as a whole,	25:52
	and some college or school in particular,	25:55
	was home for you for four years,	26:00
	for seven years,	26:06
	for longer if you were	26:09
	a chronic searcher for learning or degrees,	26:11
	and for still longer,	26:16
	if you joined the faculty.	26:18
	Duke is your, our Alma Mater.	26:21
	To quote a metaphor,	26:27
	which Fowler of Modern English Usage Fame describes as,	26:29
	"A battered ornament."	26:34
	The employment of which is to be discouraged,	26:36
	but we cannot escape it,	26:42
	the kindly mother, literally the fostering mother,	26:44
	is hailed in that plaintive dirge,	26:50
	which is our academic theme song,	26:53
	"We'll ever turn to thee, our Alma Mater, dear."	26:57
	Now, if we take the sentimental figure of speech seriously,	27:04
	then Duke is in loco parentis.	27:09
	It is a foster parent.	27:16
	It's campus is a foster home.	27:19
	Do I have to dwell on administrative	27:23
	and student reaction to such an antiquated thought?	27:26
	It is no sane person's enthusiastic choice	27:32
	to be in loco parentis,	27:37
	when boys and girls are becoming 21	27:41
	sooner than they used to, if you know what I mean.	27:45
	Demanding liberty without a similar zeal	27:50
	for the personal responsibility,	27:55
	which is inevitably linked with freedom.	27:58
	But the fact that you alumni have come back,	28:03
	suggests that you found enough of the atmosphere	28:08
	of a good home here,	28:12
	so that you wanted to breathe it's air again.	28:15
	You like it's playing fields, outdoors and indoors.	28:20
	Some of your sympathize with the alumnus	28:26
	of Washington and Lee, who about 20 years ago,	28:28
	deplored the passing a football at Lexington, Virginia,	28:32
	in these words,	28:37
	"A clique of faculty members is determined to replace	28:39
	the well-rounded Washington and Lee man	28:45
	with a breed of Phi Beta Kappas."	28:48
	I suppose one can breed Phi Betas.	28:53
	Well, despite the chronicle, and some of my colleagues,	28:58
	and an occasional administrator,	29:02
	there will probably be a homecoming game	29:05
	for some years to come.	29:09
	Yet don't forget, that the organized, and cultivated,	29:13
	and televised development of (speaks Latin) in action	29:19
	has it's pathological aspect	29:25
	in the form of administrative headaches.	29:29
	The late Dr. Neilson of Smith College was one asked	29:33
	if he enjoyed being president of a female institution.	29:38
	He admitted that it was his third choice.	29:45
	His first was superintendent of an orphanage	29:51
	because the parents didn't bother him.	29:56
	His second was warden of a federal penitentiary	30:01
	because they alumni didn't return willingly,	30:06
	(group laughs)	30:11
	and seldom wrote.	30:13
	(group laughs)	30:15
	His third was president of a girls college	30:17
	because there was no football team.	30:21
	The fact that you have come back on a football weekend,	30:27
	I'll be it, a successful one,	30:31
	suggests that you are pinned	30:35
	to that Washington and Lee alumnus.	30:37
	Why not?	30:39
	Athletics at Duke has had a history of merit,	30:41
	and a present that is worthy,	30:46
	and a future that is more than a dream.	30:49
	It is good to come back and see our teams play.	30:53
	It seems to me as if varsity teams are the one factor	30:58
	which provides a common interest	31:04
	for most folk who belong to the academic clan,	31:07
	which is Duke.	31:12
	Now let's move to another area about university life,	31:14
	right where you now are, in the chapel.	31:18
	This service too is part of the official homecoming program.	31:23
	You alumni who are present have headed here.	31:31
	Why?	31:36
	Because it was in this great towering church	31:39
	that you were at home spiritually while you were at Duke.	31:43
	The 11 o'clock hour of a Sunday	31:51
	has ushered in for many a year.	31:55
	The officially sponsored university service of worship.	31:58
	The central symbol of a genuine religious emphasis	32:06
	on campus.	32:11
	It's not surprising that you should come home to this place.	32:14
	After all, Christianity is a family religion.	32:19
	Its whole theology and its result on ethic	32:27
	are based on the idea of the family.	32:31
	"God is like a father," said Jesus.	32:36
	We sometimes sidestep that interpretation	32:43
	and use other images such as king, judge, master,	32:46
	but one number these parables	32:54
	keeps turning us back to the father concept.	32:56
	You know it,	33:00
	the prodigal son.	33:03
	It tries to tell us that God behaves as satisfactorily	33:05
	as a good parent.	33:12
	"In fact, God behaves even better," said Jesus.	33:15
	On another occasion, if you then, bad as you are,	33:21
	know how to give your children what is good for them,	33:27
	how much more will your heavenly father	33:33
	give good things to those who ask him?	33:38
	We know what stems from that.	33:43
	It is that people who believe this	33:46
	are in the metaphorical relation	33:49
	of sons and daughters to God,	33:51
	and are figuratively,	33:56
	kin to one another as brothers and sisters.	33:58
	Jesus made that luminously clear	34:04
	in a vigorous piece of teaching,	34:09
	second part of our morning lesson,	34:12
	which (speaks Latin) of rudeness.	34:15
	He'd been told that his mother	34:19
	and brothers were asking to see him.	34:21
	Do you know his answer?	34:24
	"Who are my mother and my brothers?"	34:26
	Then looking around in those who sat about him,	34:33
	he answered his own question.	34:35
	"Here and my mother and my brothers."	34:37
	"Whoever does the will of God is my brother,	34:43
	my sister, my mother."	34:48
	"Whoever does the will of God is my brother,	34:52
	my sister, my mother."	34:57
	This is a family sociology.	34:59
	The university service of worship is family worship.	35:03
	Are you recalling memories?	35:09
	Singing in the choir?	35:12
	Ushering or taking up the offering?	35:15
	Dating to come to chapel?	35:19
	Your marriage in this place?	35:23
	The baptism of a child?	35:27
	I remember a recent graduate saying to me,	35:31
	"Dr. Clellan, I'm not asking you to officiate at my wedding,	35:34
	I'm telling you that you must."	35:41
	I asked her, "Why?"	35:46
	She answered,	35:48
	"I was the first baby you baptized in the Duke chapel."	35:50
	She added, "I don't remember it,	35:57
	I think I shall remember my wedding."	36:00
	She does, so does a husband.	36:05
	They wrote me from Europe last month,	36:08
	they're over there with (mutters).	36:11
	Because you are glad to be here,	36:14
	Psalm 122 was read as part of the morning lesson.	36:17
	It is the song of joy at the Pilgrims	36:22
	returning to the temple in Jerusalem.	36:24
	I was glad when they said unto me,	36:27
	"Let us go into the house of the Lord."	36:30
	"Our feet have been standing within thy gates,	36:34
	oh, Jerusalem."	36:38
	That speaks for you too.	36:41
	You have come home to the chapel,	36:43
	to recall and to re-experience the joy of a faith	36:48
	which expresses the lasting happiness	36:54
	of a good family relationship.	36:58
	Is there any other aspect of homecoming	37:04
	at which we should look?	37:06
	There is one more.	37:07
	It is the fact that here we have no abiding city.	37:11
	No substantial home.	37:19
	Not at Duke, not in Raleigh, not in Washington,	37:22
	not anywhere in the world.	37:28
	That fact has been a perennial human anxiety,	37:31
	thinking of the transitoriness of life.	37:38
	Ecclesiastes wrote about dying,	37:41
	"Man goes to his long, long home."	37:44
	And then when the impact of that hit him he added,	37:51
	"Utterly vain, everything is vain."	37:54
	But Christianity, because of its confidence inspired	38:02
	by the resurrection story says,	38:06
	"No, life is not a utterly vain,	38:08
	life continues, for one passes through the portal of death."	38:14
	"In reality, heaven is our home not earth	38:22
	and certainly not the grave."	38:26
	That's why we said in unison	38:29
	as part of the affirmation of faith,	38:31
	"In life, in death,	38:34
	in life beyond death,	38:38
	God is with us."	38:42
	Now a person doesn't have to believe that	38:47
	to live a useful and enjoyable life.	38:51
	People have lived well without a belief in life after death.	38:56
	The Old Testament is proof of that despite Ecclesiastics,	39:03
	and many about contemporaries are proof of it too,	39:08
	but the belief that heaven is our home	39:16
	is part of the very stuff of our religious heritage.	39:20
	It's in the whole field of this chapel,	39:25
	our university service,	39:30
	as I've said so often before, is on Sunday.	39:31
	Why not Tuesday or Friday?	39:35
	Because Sunday,	39:39
	every Sunday commemorates the raising about Lord	39:41
	from the grave, the defeat of death.	39:46
	Sunday is the Lord's day, a little Easter.	39:50
	With it's promise of life hereafter,	39:56
	our faith is an affirmation of continuing life.	39:59
	That's why after this sermon, we shall sing an Easter hymn.	40:04
	Now what does this this mean for us who are still on earth?	40:10
	It means that life here is colored, and modified,	40:15
	and ultimately shaped by our attitude	40:21
	to the belief in life hereafter.	40:26
	It has a motivating effect on our present behavior one way,	40:30
	or the other.	40:36
	Moreover, this life hereafter begins now.	40:39
	The fourth gospel, John,	40:47
	hammers away at that interpretation.	40:50
	When it keeps referring to eternal life,	40:54
	it means not only life after death, but a quality of life.	41:00
	A life akin to that of God,	41:07
	which is possible to some extent here,	41:13
	right here, right now.	41:18
	Sir Henry Jones,	41:23
	a fill-time professor of model philosophy	41:24
	at Glasgow University used to say,	41:27
	"It will never feel more like eternity than it does now."	41:30
	"It will never feel more like eternity than it does now."	41:39
	Now that was not only a rebut to the pie in the sky	41:44
	when we die, by and by, devotees,	41:47
	it was an appreciation that the God in heaven	41:51
	is the same God who's spirit may be our spirit now,	41:55
	or as St. Paul might have put it,	42:02
	"Here I am a man in Christ,	42:05
	then I shall be a man with Christ."	42:10
	In both instances, it's the same man and the same Christ.	42:15
	It is an appreciation of the homecoming instinct,	42:23
	which we've sought to recall for you	42:26
	in this Duke homecoming service of worship.	42:29
	If you've caught it,	42:33
	then you grasp why the sermon was entitled	42:36
	"Coming home, going home".	42:40
	Let Robert Louis Stevenson, another Scot,	42:46
	who died on a Pacific island have the last word.	42:51
	He wrote his own epitaph in his Requiem.	42:56
	"Under the widen starry sky,	43:03
	dig the grave and let me lie."	43:07
	"Glad did I live, and gladly die,	43:12
	and I laid me down with will."	43:15
	"This be the verse you grave for me."	43:20
	There's a nice pun in that, you grave for me.	43:25
	"He realized where he longed to be,	43:29
	home is the sailor,	43:33
	home from the sea,	43:36
	and the hunter, home from the hill."	43:39
	"Home was the sailor, home from the sea,	43:43
	and the hunter, home from the hill."	43:48
	These last two lines are inscribed on his monument in Samoa.	43:51
	Let us pray.	44:00
	Almighty God who set us the solitarian families,	44:05
	we thank thee for our university,	44:11
	which gathers us together from our scattered lodgings.	44:14
	For our chapel,	44:20
	which reminds us that we are united in thy family.	44:22
	For our faith,	44:29
	which assures us of eternal life in thee,	44:31
	and with thee.	44:37
	Praise be to thee, oh God.	44:41
	Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	44:45
	(solemn organ music)	44:55
	(group sings prayer)	45:49
	(group sings prayer)	50:15
	(solemn organ music)	54:26
	(group sings prayer)	54:58
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:29
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:32
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:39
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:42
	♪ Amen ♪	55:52
First Clergyman	Oh God, most merciful and gracious,	56:00
	of whose bounty we have all received,	56:03
	accept this offering of thy people.	56:07
	Remember in thy love those who brought it	56:11
	and those for whom it is given	56:15
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	56:17
	And now may God, the father, the son,	56:30
	and the holy spirit bless, preserve,	56:33
	and keep you.	56:37
	The Lord graciously with his favor, look upon you,	56:39
	and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and love.	56:43
	That you may so live in this life,	56:48
	that in the world to come	56:51
	you may have life everlasting.	56:54
Group	(sings) Amen!	57:03
	Amen!	57:07
	Amen!	57:12
	Amen!	57:17
	Amen!	57:21
	Amen!	57:26
	Amen!	57:32
	Amen!	57:44
	(bell dings)	58:01
	(solemn organ music)	58:15

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "Comin' Home, Goin' Home" (October 22, 1972)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43779w5v

Date:

October 22, 1972

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0637
ref6477_vp3
uachapelsermaud
duke:628113
dcrau002622
ark:/87924/r43779w5v
7f0b9495-3e36-4590-b304-39b91ac4237e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

See below

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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James T. Cleland - "Comin' Home, Goin' Home" (October 22, 1972)

Transcript

Item Info

1. James T. Cleland - "Comin' Home; Goin' Home" (October 22, 1972)

Duke University Archives

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James T. Cleland - "Comin' Home, Goin' Home" (October 22, 1972)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives

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