Brown Barr - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (October 26, 1969)

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	(people singing hymnal)	0:04
	(organ playing)	1:04
Man	Man's essential nature.	7:28
	Man's experience of sin	7:32
	and his need of grace	7:36
	are all constant factors,	7:39
	century in and century out.	7:42
	And so it is that like the reformers	7:47
	of a distant day,	7:51
	we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in need of grace,	7:55
	and on this reformation Sunday,	8:01
	let us together use the words of confession	8:05
	and a request for repentance, that were first written	8:11
	by John Calvin.	8:16
	Let us pray.	8:19
	Almighty God, since though delayest	8:22
	with so much forbearance,	8:26
	the punishments which we have deserved	8:29
	and daily draw on ourselves.	8:33
	Granted, we may not indulge ourselves,	8:37
	but carefully consider how often	8:41
	and in how many different ways	8:45
	we have provoked thy wrath against us.	8:47
	May we learn humbly to present ourselves to thee for pardon,	8:52
	and with true repentance implore thy mercy.	8:58
	With all our heart we desire to submit ourselves to thee.	9:03
	Let our condition be ever blessed,	9:09
	not by flattering ourselves in our apathy,	9:13
	but by finding thee, to be our kind and bountiful Father,	9:18
	reconciled to us in thine only begotten son,	9:24
	Amen.	9:29
	What better assurance do we need	9:34
	in our state of sin and repentance	9:40
	than that which is given	9:45
	in the book of Acts chapter two, verse 21:	9:47
	"Whoever calls upon the name	9:54
	of the Lord	9:59
	shall be saved."	10:01
	(organ playing)	10:08
	(organ playing)	11:33
	(members singing hymnal)
	The scripture today is from the 139th Psalm.	18:56
	"Oh, Lord thou has searched me and known me.	19:02
	Thou knowest when I sit	19:07
	and when I rise up.	19:11
	Thou discernest my thoughts from afar.	19:13
	Thou searchest out my path,	19:18
	and my lying down,	19:20
	and art acquainted with all my ways.	19:22
	Even before a word is on my tongue	19:26
	Lo, oh Lord,	19:29
	thou knowest it all together.	19:31
	Thou doest beset me behind and before,	19:35
	and layest thine hand upon me.	19:39
	Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.	19:43
	It is high. I cannot attain it.	19:47
	Wither shall I go from thy spirit,	19:51
	or wither shall I free for my presence.	19:54
	If I ascend to heaven thou art there.	20:00
	If I make my bed in Sheol,	20:05
	thou art there.	20:08
	If I take the wings of the morning	20:10
	and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,	20:12
	even there shall thy hand lead me	20:16
	and thy right hand shall hold me.	20:19
	If I say, let only darkness cover me,	20:23
	and the light about me be night.	20:27
	Even the darkness is not dark to thee.	20:30
	The night is bright as the day	20:35
	for darkness is as light with thee.	20:38
	For thou didst from my inward parts,	20:43
	thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.	20:47
	I praise thee for thou art fearful and wonderful.	20:53
	Wonderful are thy works.	20:58
	Thou knowest me right well.	21:01
	My frame was not hidden from thee	21:05
	when I was being made in secret,	21:08
	intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.	21:11
	Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance	21:16
	in thy book were written	21:20
	every one of them,	21:21
	the days that were formed for me	21:23
	when as yet there were none of them.	21:27
	How precious to me are thy thoughts of God.	21:31
	How vast is the sum of them.	21:36
	If I would count them,	21:40
	they are more than the sand.	21:41
	When I awake, I am still with thee.	21:44
	Oh, that thou would slay the wicked oh God,	21:49
	and that men of blood would depart from me.	21:53
	Men who maliciously defy thee,	21:56
	who lift themselves up against thee for evil.	21:59
	Do I not hate them that hate thee oh Lord?	22:03
	And do I not loathe them that rise up against thee?	22:07
	I hate them with perfect hatred.	22:12
	I count them my enemies.	22:15
	Lead me in the way everlasting.	22:18
	Search me oh God and know my heart.	22:22
	Try me and know my thoughts,	22:27
	and see if there be any wicked way in me	22:30
	and lead me in the way everlasting.	22:33
	Amen."	22:37
	(organ music playing)	22:40
	(people singing hymnal)	22:51
	(organ music playing)
	The Lord be with you.	23:37
	(members speaking in unison)	23:40
	Let us pray.	23:42
	All mighty God,	23:55
	Lord our Father,	23:59
	on the cloudy days,	24:04
	as well as on the days of sunshine,	24:06
	who gives us much to be thankful for	24:13
	in hard times, as in pleasant times,	24:16
	we now offer unto thee	24:22
	our prayer of Thanksgiving.	24:25
	We are grateful that we haven't received	24:30
	everything we've wanted	24:33
	or even all the things we've asked for in prayer.	24:36
	God, we have asked for some very selfish	24:42
	and stupid things	24:45
	when we were not at our best.	24:47
	Thank you or being more interested	24:51
	in our welfare	24:54
	than in our comfort.	24:57
	We express our thanks	25:02
	that in our times of grief	25:05
	and of loss,	25:07
	we never need to be alone,	25:10
	that human and divine companionship	25:15
	are really available.	25:19
	We express our thanks	25:24
	that we don't know exactly	25:26
	how everything is going to turn out,	25:28
	that we cannot fully predict tomorrow even,	25:32
	or the rest of today,	25:37
	that life has surprises and mystery,	25:41
	and that we all have a chance to improve the future	25:47
	by diligence today.	25:52
	Oh Lord,	25:58
	we are thankful that we can disagree	26:00
	one with another	26:04
	without becoming enemies of each other,	26:07
	that we can argue and heatedly debate	26:12
	and still receive grace from you,	26:16
	to love our opponents, and be fundamentally together.	26:20
	We're thankful oh God for hope,	26:28
	which springs eternal,	26:31
	that when a team is down,	26:35
	it can bounce back.	26:37
	That when peace seems impossible,	26:42
	it can become possible,	26:45
	that new voices are being heard	26:50
	to speak for brotherhood	26:53
	across racial lines,	26:54
	that the church is being renewed today,	27:00
	as it is being severely tried by fire.	27:05
	Oh God, we offer unto you our prayers	27:13
	for our fellows	27:17
	and for ourselves,	27:20
	for new blessings,	27:24
	for new things,	27:27
	for which to be thankful in the future.	27:28
	We pray that you would lead us from the unreality	27:34
	of this world,	27:39
	that we spend so much of our time in,	27:41
	from the tensile of the things we touch,	27:46
	their shallowness and superficiality,	27:52
	all that is cheap or showy or ostentatious	27:57
	in ourselves and our fellows.	28:03
	Make us genuine and real now.	28:08
	Let our faith especially be real.	28:16
	Oh God, we do not pray so much	28:21
	that you would give us faith,	28:23
	because you know how much we have	28:25
	and you know with what carelessness and credulity.	28:29
	We bestow it here and there on every passing whim.	28:34
	But we do pray to lift up our faith,	28:40
	and help us to sort it out	28:45
	that we may fix it upon things that are eternal,	28:46
	things that are of real human value	28:53
	and of divine significance.	28:57
	Help us to set our faith on the things of Christ.	29:00
	Help us to believe this day	29:07
	in Him and His way.	29:12
	We pray also our Father	29:19
	that our love	29:22
	may be real.	29:24
	And again, we did not so much pray	29:28
	that you would give us love	29:31
	because you know better than we	29:34
	that as the skies are made for winds to blow,	29:37
	so our hearts are made for love.	29:42
	You also see with what carelessness,	29:47
	our affection turns here and there	29:50
	and attaches itself	29:54
	to all kinds of things,	29:57
	some of which are not worth anything.	30:00
	So we do pray today that you will help us	30:06
	to sort out the objects of our affections,	30:09
	that all of our affections may be controlled	30:16
	by a great love for Christ,	30:20
	and for His way.	30:27
	We pray today for all kinds of Christians,	30:33
	each other here in the chapel	30:39
	or on hospital beds	30:43
	or wherever we are worshiping by radio,	30:47
	not only those who are thinking with us here,	30:53
	but those around the world	30:58
	of whatever name or sign	31:01
	who have in some meaningful way	31:05
	found in Christ, the revelation,	31:07
	of the heavenly Father.	31:11
	Make us all more worthy of our high calling,	31:16
	and may your sun break through the barricades	31:21
	and the clouds	31:24
	that too often	31:25
	separate us.	31:28
	Draw all of us, who call ourselves Christians,	31:32
	to Christ and to each other.	31:37
	Draw closer together in good will,	31:42
	all classes and races of people.	31:45
	We are mindful that you have made	31:53
	of one blood, all men	31:55
	who dwell upon the face of the earth,	31:58
	so lift us	32:04
	to a higher plane of consciousness this day,	32:06
	that race or nation	32:11
	or economic status	32:13
	may be seen in exactly the light	32:15
	that you see it in.	32:19
	So give us all those spiritual resources	32:26
	which we need,	32:29
	that we may be more than conquerors	32:30
	over our private sins	32:33
	and our public guilt.	32:35
	May we really transcend them,	32:40
	and be superior to them	32:42
	instead of trying to be superior	32:45
	to each other.	32:47
	We make our prayer in the name of Him	32:51
	who has taught us	32:54
	when we pray	32:57
	to say our Father who art in heaven,	32:59
	hallowed be thy name,	33:04
	thy kingdom come	33:07
	thy will be done,	33:09
	on earth as it is in heaven.	33:10
	Give us this day,	33:14
	our daily bread	33:16
	and forgive us our trespasses,	33:18
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	33:20
	and lead us not into temptation,	33:25
	but deliver us from evil	33:28
	for thine is the kingdom	33:31
	and the power	33:33
	and the glory forever.	33:34
	Amen.	33:37
	Our New Testament lesson	34:21
	from the text for which I call your attention,	34:24
	is read from the 14th chapter	34:27
	of Mark's gospel.	34:31
	"And they went to a place	34:38
	which was called Gethsemane,	34:39
	and he said to his disciples,	34:44
	sit here while I pray.	34:45
	And he took with him,	34:49
	Peter and James and John	34:50
	and began to be greatly distressed	34:52
	and troubled.	34:54
	And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful,	34:57
	even to death,	35:02
	remain here and watch.	35:05
	And going a little farther,	35:12
	he fell on the ground and prayed,	35:13
	that if it were possible,	35:16
	the hour might pass from him.	35:19
	And he said Father,	35:23
	all things are possible to thee.	35:24
	Remove this cup from me.	35:27
	Yet not what I will	35:31
	but what thou will.	35:34
	And he came and found them sleeping.	35:39
	And He said to Peter, Simon are you asleep?	35:43
	Could you not watch one hour?	35:47
	Watch and pray that you may not	35:52
	enter into temptation.	35:54
	The spirit indeed is willing,	35:58
	but the flesh is weak.	36:00
	And He we went away again and prayed	36:04
	saying the same words	36:06
	and again, He came and found them sleeping,	36:07
	for their eyes were very heavy,	36:11
	and they did not know what to answer Him.	36:14
	And He came a third time	36:19
	and said to them,	36:23
	are you still sleeping and taking your rest?	36:24
	It is enough.	36:30
	The hour has come.	36:34
	The son of man is betrayed	36:35
	into the hands of sinners.	36:38
	Rise, let us be going.	36:41
	See my betrayer is at hand."	36:44
	This bit	37:00
	of our tradition	37:02
	and our history	37:05
	confronts us with a common,	37:09
	every day	37:14
	crisis of human life.	37:17
	It is a crisis which every one of us	37:23
	faces every day	37:25
	or almost every day he lives.	37:28
	And yet it may seem inappropriate	37:34
	to speak of it	37:36
	in the same voice	37:37
	with a story of Christ's agony,	37:39
	because it is the crisis	37:44
	of sleep.	37:48
	Of course, the center of this drama,	37:52
	this profoundly religious event,	37:57
	there's the struggle of Jesus	38:03
	and the decision to die.	38:05
	But the nature of that struggle	38:10
	and the significance of that event,	38:12
	may be open for us common, ordinary folk	38:17
	who are no spiritual giants.	38:21
	If we will shift the focus of our attention	38:26
	from Jesus in the midst of the garden,	38:29
	to those ordinary men	38:33
	who stayed back in the shadows,	38:37
	who were asked by their master to stay wide awake,	38:42
	but who fell asleep,	38:48
	not once but three times.	38:51
	Now 20th century Christians,	39:00
	may take some comfort in supposing	39:04
	that had we been there,	39:07
	we would certainly not have slept,	39:10
	for sleep comes hard for many of us,	39:15
	especially us intense,	39:21
	religious types.	39:25
	We are so anxious	39:30
	about the struggle in the world's Gethsemanies,	39:34
	at Vietnam,	39:40
	at Edgemont,	39:43
	and in your own Alan Dobin,	39:47
	that we lie restlessly awake	39:51
	night after night.	39:54
	We would not have slept then	39:57
	alongside Gethsemane, surely.	40:00
	Yet, without the renewal,	40:06
	which regular and natural sleep brings,	40:08
	how are we to face the issues	40:14
	of the day at all?	40:17
	For to fall asleep	40:21
	is an act of profound trust.	40:24
	It is a gift of faith.	40:29
	It is a religious experience	40:33
	in which the whole self is surrendered.	40:37
	It may well be argued	40:45
	that all of the paraphernalia,	40:50
	which we have devised and accumulated	40:52
	to help us sleep,	40:56
	Nembutal,	41:00
	warm milk,	41:03
	lightweight electric blankets	41:07
	that do not bind our toes,	41:10
	clock radio which soothe us with music	41:15
	'til dawn, and turn off	41:19
	when their mothering is done.	41:21
	It could be argued that all these	41:26
	helps to sleep.	41:28
	What may become necessary accessories to daily life,	41:32
	are symbols of a poverty of our faith.	41:38
	Now, if you're troubled by insomnia,	41:46
	you may well feel that this sermon	41:51
	is a direct personal attack upon you.	41:53
	Oh, I cannot claim that	41:59
	it is not addressed to you,	42:01
	but is not an attack.	42:04
	It is more a consultation or a confession.	42:06
	And your present hostility may be reduced	42:12
	to the point of staying awake now	42:16
	to listen further	42:19
	if you know that one night this week	42:23
	as I lay wide awake at 4:10,	42:26
	I asked myself	42:30
	what in heaven's sake is keeping you awake?	42:32
	And then I thought	42:37
	ha yes, it is that sermon	42:38
	in the Duke Chapel on sleep.	42:40
	So,	42:44
	this Gethsemane text suggests	42:48
	two sources of our sleeplessness.	42:51
	We will look at them in turn.	42:56
	The first is this:	42:59
	We are half awake when we sleep	43:03
	because we are half asleep when we are awake.	43:08
	We cannot sleep in the bed at night	43:15
	in proper season because we sleep at our desk	43:18
	or alas, in the pew,	43:22
	when we should be awake.	43:24
	You will note that Jesus did not	43:28
	commend the disciples for sleeping,	43:31
	quite to the contrary.	43:35
	He rebuked them	43:37
	because it was not the time	43:39
	or place for sleeping.	43:42
	He asked them to watch with Him,	43:47
	to be alert, to be awake.	43:49
	When He found them sleeping, He asked,	43:54
	could you not watch for one hour?	43:56
	Could you not stay awake	44:01
	and tend fully to the business at hand	44:03
	for 20 minutes?	44:05
	Our sleeping problem begins you see,	44:11
	not in the night, but in the day.	44:15
	Not when we go to bed, but when we get up.	44:19
	It begins when go through the waking,	44:24
	vital, producing, creative, living hours of the day,	44:28
	half asleep.	44:33
	The problems, some of us will face,	44:37
	with wakefulness tonight,	44:39
	begins in the fact that we are half asleep now.	44:44
	So (indistinct) suggests that the paradoxical situation	44:52
	with a vast number of people today,	44:57
	is that they are half asleep when awake,	45:00
	and half awake when asleep.	45:03
	Now the remedy lies, he claims	45:08
	in developing the art of living	45:12
	in what he calls concentrated fashion.	45:15
	To be concentrated in everything one does:	45:20
	listening to music,	45:25
	in reading a book,	45:28
	in talking to a person or listening to him	45:31
	and seeing a view.	45:37
	The activity at that precise moment	45:40
	must be the only thing which matters,	45:45
	to which one is fully given.	45:49
	Now we know that when we are concentrating very hard,	45:54
	maneuvering our cars through	45:58
	threatening freeway traffic,	46:06
	or when we're trying to figure out the directions	46:10
	to install a can opener in the kitchen,	46:13
	we do not fall asleep.	46:16
	That only happens when we are not giving	46:20
	the matter at hand	46:23
	our full attention,	46:24
	not fully awake, fully concentrating.	46:28
	Well in what circumstances then	46:33
	are we best able to concentrate?	46:35
	That comes, does it not,	46:39
	when we are engaged in something	46:41
	about which we have intense concern,	46:43
	some commitment, some interest,	46:47
	enjoyment in the most profound sense.	46:52
	How readily we find wakefulness and energy	46:58
	for the activities we truly relish.	47:02
	Dorothy Sayers was probably speaking of herself,	47:08
	when in one of her delightful mystery stories,	47:13
	Harriet Vane says of writing prose,	47:17
	"When you get the thing dead right,	47:22
	and know it's dead right,	47:25
	there's no excitement like it,	47:28
	it's marvelous.	47:30
	It makes you feel like God	47:33
	on the seventh day."	47:36
	And we might add	47:40
	that the rest, God found on the seventh day	47:41
	was the beautiful response	47:46
	to six days of concentrated activity.	47:50
	The scriptural symbol	47:55
	of the gift	47:58
	prepared for those	47:59
	who have been fully awake	48:02
	and tending to business	48:05
	while it is day.	48:09
	But it is in large measure,	48:15
	a sleeping tablet generation,	48:19
	which is under fire	48:26
	by the wide awake	48:30
	youth generation today.	48:32
	If you want to eradicate the drug cult,	48:37
	don't begin with the kids and their marajuana.	48:44
	Begin with their parent's bedside tables	48:49
	and their handbags	48:53
	and their medicine closets.	48:54
	Begin with a generation	48:58
	which has often made	49:02
	vocational and even	49:04
	avocational decisions	49:07
	on the basis of what will bring	49:11
	status or money	49:14
	rather than on the basis	49:19
	of what is eternally important	49:21
	or even truly enjoyable.	49:26
	Even the service professions,	49:32
	especially medicine and law,	49:36
	but not accepting the ministry or education,	49:40
	or even the 34	49:47
	San Francisco Bay area dentists	49:49
	that were telephoned one Sunday recently	49:55
	before one could be found	49:58
	who would consent to see	50:01
	the ailing and suffering visitor.	50:04
	These professions have succumbed in large measure	50:08
	to this distortion of wakefulness:	50:13
	comfort, convenience, status,	50:18
	income, rank, power,	50:20
	these become the motivating and pursuing	50:24
	pursuit goals.	50:28
	John W. Gardener reminds us	50:32
	how many times have we seen middle aged people	50:34
	caught in a pattern of activities	50:39
	they don't care about at all,	50:42
	playing Bridge with people they don't really like,	50:45
	going to cocktail parties that bore them,	50:49
	doing things because it's the thing to do.	50:52
	Such people would be refreshed and renewed,	50:56
	he writes,	51:00
	if they could wipe the slate clean.	51:02
	That is the function of weekly worship.	51:07
	If they could wipe the slate clean	51:11
	and do one little thing	51:14
	that they really cared about deeply.	51:17
	One little thing that they could do	51:22
	with burning conviction.	51:25
	The sickness, insomnia-ridden corners	51:29
	of any campus	51:33
	from faculty houses	51:36
	to classrooms,	51:39
	are occupied by anxious people	51:42
	still doing the thing they're doing	51:47
	because it's the thing to do	51:51
	and not because it's their thing.	51:53
	So as we search for the first clue	51:59
	to sleeplessness,	52:02
	we find it oddly enough,	52:03
	in the disciple's sleepiness,	52:05
	in their absence, at that moment,	52:09
	of intense, concentrated activity,	52:11
	when it was most needed.	52:15
	Such concentrated giving of self,	52:18
	such involvement in the	52:20
	wonderful and worrisome world	52:23
	that the source of that true tiredness,	52:27
	which is the essential prelude	52:30
	to refreshing sleep.	52:34
	But now as we stir ourselves just a bit	52:42
	to see if we can stay concentrated	52:47
	for another moment or two,	52:49
	our eyes still settle on these disciples,	52:53
	and there still with them is revealed	52:59
	a second source of sleeplessness.	53:02
	It is symbolized in their huddling,	53:07
	in their staying together,	53:11
	in their leaning on one another.	53:15
	They were destined to fitful, guilty slumber	53:21
	because instead of detaching themselves	53:27
	from one another	53:31
	and thus really coming to grips	53:34
	with their own fear and their own anxiety,	53:37
	they settled for the limited comfort,	53:43
	of one another's company.	53:46
	It was similar to that time	53:50
	that they were out on the boat	53:52
	in the lake, in the storm,	53:54
	you may remember.	53:56
	There they had all kinds of togetherness,	53:59
	group therapy, as it were,	54:05
	in a sinking ship.	54:07
	But there was no salvation for them	54:11
	until one of them was bold enough	54:14
	to separate himself from the group	54:17
	and washed out into the storm,	54:20
	the rising walker,	54:25
	moving toward his Lord	54:27
	by himself.	54:30
	And so here	54:36
	again, Jesus suggests that hard requirement.	54:39
	He draws apart even from his friends	54:46
	and enters that aloneness.	54:49
	For a man must come to grips with himself	54:54
	and with what he really believes to be	54:59
	the terror Some of us experience in wakefulness at night	55:07
	is the existential fright which comes	55:16
	when all the supports,	55:21
	and the disguises to self	55:23
	are gone.	55:27
	So we wake up, as I did one night	55:30
	in a hotel room	55:34
	in New York City,	55:36
	so frightened and so afraid	55:37
	that of myself and that aloneness,	55:40
	that have not been for the long distance telephone,	55:43
	I do not know what might have become.	55:47
	Then when conversation is stopped	55:53
	distracting food and drink are put away,	55:57
	the mystery story of the TV is closed,	56:00
	and the self and it's ultimate value	56:05
	slowly approach the most reluctant self	56:08
	and call it all from hiding,	56:11
	self meeting self.	56:15
	Whether it be Jasper's limit situation,	56:20
	or the sinners dance the anxious seat,	56:26
	it is the creative crisis of personal knowledge	56:30
	and awful awareness of one's finite dust,	56:34
	but we sleepless ones	56:40
	miss that opportunity,	56:42
	and we beat a fast retreat	56:46
	by a long distance telephone,	56:48
	or otherwise back to the comfort of other people	56:50
	actually, or by the proxy	56:56
	of the detective story	56:58
	or the Late, Late Show.	57:02
	Please talk to me, we say,	57:06
	until I fall asleep.	57:09
	I'll read for a while,	57:12
	or I'll watch television,	57:14
	and then you know what happens?	57:17
	We sleep, some of us then,	57:21
	all the night long with the light on.	57:24
	Unhappy symbol of our fear	57:30
	and of our flight.	57:34
	Not even the darkness	57:37
	shall cover us.	57:41
	So the facing of self is avoided	57:44
	and we become skillful fugitives,	57:50
	and fugitives we may well remain	57:56
	all our days as many people do.	58:00
	If when detached from others	58:06
	and all alone,	58:09
	we hold on to the edge of our composure,	58:11
	by counting sheep.	58:15
	For the promise of faith	58:19
	is quite otherwise,	58:20
	that alone we will then truly find	58:24
	that we are not alone,	58:28
	and discover far more than sheep to count	58:31
	as the Psalmist says.	58:36
	"How precious, also are thy thoughts onto me	58:39
	oh Lord?	58:43
	How great is the sum of them?	58:44
	If I should count them,	58:49
	they are more in number than the sand,	58:50
	and when I awake,	58:55
	I am still with thee."	58:58
	Sleep is an act of faith.	59:03
	During student days,	59:11
	many of us, who are now middle aged,	59:16
	had a favorite professor at Yale University.	59:18
	He was a true and consistent religious liberal.	59:24
	He was a man of courage and integrity,	59:29
	and a deep social conviction,	59:33
	and I know that he preached in this pulpit.	59:38
	His name and energy were linked	59:43
	to the important cause of the day,	59:45
	for one time he cited as an example	59:50
	of spiritual immaturity,	59:52
	a prayer many of us know.	59:56
	"Now I lay me down to sleep,	59:59
	I pray the Lord, my soul to keep."	1:00:03
	And from that day on,	1:00:08
	I, and many like me,	1:00:11
	rejected that prayer	1:00:12
	along with the other childish things	1:00:16
	which adolescents must put away	1:00:19
	when they become men.	1:00:23
	Well, recently I've been thinking about it again.	1:00:29
	What was it that this man found so distasteful?	1:00:34
	Surely the opening line are appropriate	1:00:39
	for a mature person.	1:00:43
	The man of that natural tiredness,	1:00:48
	which follows concentrated wakefulness.	1:00:51
	"Now I lay me down to sleep,	1:00:56
	I pray the Lord my could to keep."	1:00:58
	If one believes in prayer at all,	1:01:03
	that line ought not to offend.	1:01:05
	I suspect however, that it was the next two lines	1:01:09
	upon which this good friend really gagged.	1:01:13
	"If I should die before I wake,	1:01:18
	I pray the Lord, my soul to take."	1:01:23
	For him, and for many of his sort,	1:01:29
	and many of us,	1:01:33
	such dark and gloomy thoughts	1:01:35
	are out of place.	1:01:37
	They certainly had no place in the nurseries	1:01:40
	of sunny optimism, presided over	1:01:44
	by the religious liberals of the 1930s,	1:01:47
	where that insipid euphemism	1:01:53
	for death,	1:01:56
	passed away,	1:01:59
	wormed it's inauthentic witness	1:02:04
	into the Christian vocabulary.	1:02:07
	A dreadful symbol of the poverty of our faith,	1:02:12
	we cannot even say the words,	1:02:15
	"he died,"	1:02:19
	as though we can hide it.	1:02:22
	Certainly a child should be protected,	1:02:25
	we thought, from thoughts of death,	1:02:28
	and how could even an adult ever sleep	1:02:32
	if his last thought at night	1:02:35
	was of his own mortality.	1:02:37
	Or the possibility, you know,	1:02:40
	that faces you and me tonight,	1:02:42
	that we may never rise again from that bed.	1:02:47
	Well, how morbid can you be?	1:02:53
	So just about the time our professor friend	1:02:57
	told us that it was dreadful	1:03:00
	to teach a little child to pray,	1:03:02
	"If I should die before I wake."	1:03:05
	Just about that same time	1:03:10
	Camus was writing,	1:03:13
	"There is but one freedom	1:03:17
	to put oneself right	1:03:22
	with death,	1:03:27
	to come to grips with the fact	1:03:30
	of one's own death."	1:03:34

Preacher	(indistinct) endures,	0:03
	because He who for love's sake	0:07
	chose to die	0:12
	became the pioneer of a race.	0:16
	Breaking the grip of darkness with his couth and grace.	0:21
	To establish that as sleep is the restorer	0:28
	of daily strength,	0:34
	so is death the agency and liberator of life.	0:37
	And the anxiety of the night	0:46
	of our limit situation out there at the edge,	0:50
	is ease, and sleep is welcomed.	0:56
	The sleep of one night	1:02
	or the last sleep of all our nights.	1:06
	And so it is that a child's prayer,	1:13
	confidently embraces the darkness of death's summoning	1:17
	because it has it's foothold	1:25
	in resurrection dawn.	1:29
	Now I lay me down to sleep.	1:34
	I pray the Lord my soul to keep,	1:39
	that I should die before I wake.	1:46
	I pray the Lord,	1:50
	my soul to take.	1:54
	Amen.	1:58
	(organ playing)	2:04
	(congregation singing)	2:40
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:04
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:05
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:07
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:08
	(choir singing)	8:08
	Almighty God	15:24
	we come here around this alter	15:26
	to dedicate this money and ourselves	15:30
	to the end that it	15:35
	and we may proclaim the grace	15:36
	and glory of God's almighty son,	15:42
	in His name.	15:48
	And now may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ	15:54
	be with us all	15:58
	(organ playing)	16:03
	♪ Amen ♪	16:06
	♪ Amen ♪	16:16
	♪ Amen ♪	16:23
	♪ Amen ♪	17:03
	♪ Amen ♪	17:25
	(organ playing)	18:11
	(footfall)	24:50
	(door bhang)	24:53
	(footfall)	24:55
	(indistinct murmur)	28:39
	(footfall)	28:44
	(indistinct noise)	29:33
	(whistling)	30:27
	(indistinct noise)	31:06

Item Info

Title:

Brown Barr - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (October 26, 1969)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43x87m9n

Date:

October 26, 1969

Speaker:

Barr, Brown

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0495
ref6195_wxz
uachapelsermaud
duke:628138
dcrau002486
ark:/87924/r43x87m9n
2e2a6063-6713-48f4-94a3-b1092ca6dd4a

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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Brown Barr - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (October 26, 1969)

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1. Browne Barr - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (October 26, 1969)

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Brown Barr - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (October 26, 1969)

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