Thomas A. Langford - "Affirmations of a New Community" (March 16, 1969) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

(gentle organ music)

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(solemn choral music)

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(triumphant organ music)

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(choir singing solemnly)

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Grace and peace be unto you from God, our Father,

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and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Ye who do truly and sincerely repent of your sins

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and are in love and charity with your neighbor

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and intend to live a new life

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by following the commandments of the Lord, our God,

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and walking in His holy ways

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draw near with faith and make your humble confession

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to Almighty God now in the presence of His church,

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that you may be reconciled to Him anew to the love,

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which came and was offered to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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May we unite our voices and our hearts

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in the unison prayer of confession and for pardon.

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Let us pray.

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Our Heavenly Father,

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who by Thy love has made us

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and through Thy love has kept us,

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and in Thy love which make us perfect,

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we humbly confess that we have not loved Thee

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with all our heart and soul and mind and strength,

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and that we have not loved one another

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as Christ has loved us.

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Thy life is within our souls,

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but our selfishness had hindered Thee.

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We have not lived by faith.

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We have resisted Thy spirit.

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We have neglected Thine inspirations.

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Forgive what we have been,

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help us to amend what we are,

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and in Thy Spirit direct what we shall be,

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that Thou may as come in to the full glory

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of Thy creation in us and in all men,

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

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Hear these assuring words from Holy Scripture.

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God shows His love for us,

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and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old has passed away.

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Behold, the new has come,

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and all this is from God,

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who through Christ reconciled us to Himself.

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May the almighty and merciful Lord, who we call our Father,

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grant to all of us true repentance,

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forgiveness of all our sins,

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time for amendment and newness of life,

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and the grace and the consolation

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of the presence of His Holy Spirit, Amen.

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(gentle music)

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(intense choral music)

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Hear the lesson for today,

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as it is found in the fifth chapter 2 Corinthians

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verses 17 through 21.

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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old has passed away.

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Behold, the new has come.

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All this is from God,

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who through Christ reconciled us to Himself

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and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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That is God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself,

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not counting their trespasses against them

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and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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So we are making ambassadors, we are ambassadors for Christ,

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making His appeal through us.

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We beseech you on the behalf of Christ

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to be reconciled to God.

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For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin

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so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

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(choir singing solemnly)

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The Lord be with you.

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(congregation talks faintly)

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Let us pray.

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Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanksgiving.

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Let us call to our remembrance the mercy of the Lord.

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As far as the east is from the west,

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so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

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Let us thank Him for the wonder of forgiveness.

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Though we have offended against His holy laws,

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He has not destroyed us.

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Though we have slighted His goodness,

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He has not forsaken us.

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Almighty and ever-loving God,

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we thank Thee for Thy patience with us, the children of men.

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We thank Thee that Thou art more anxious to win us for love

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than to punish us for sin.

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And to bring us home to Thyself than to guard Thy dignity.

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We thank Thee, O Lord, for all Thy blessings

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noticed and recalled unto us,

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for shelter, and raiment, and daily bread,

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for work that challenges and gives meaning to our lives,

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for the blessings of family and friends

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and for being a part of this community

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of learning and of teaching.

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Above all, O God, we thank Thee for Thy wisdom,

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and Thy righteousness, and Thy love

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revealed to us in the man, Jesus, Thy son and our Lord.

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Almighty God, our Heavenly Father,

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we take our place in the family of man

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by offering unto Thee our intercessions for our brothers.

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Heavenly Father, we pray Thy mercy

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for all who may falter beneath life's cross of pain,

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finding it heavier than their strength,

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for all who lose the path following and finding a way

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that is too dark for human sight.

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We pray for all who struggle, O Lord, against odds,

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even though their hope dwindles towards despair.

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We pray for all those who lift their cross

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without bitterness, finding its pain too deep

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even for complaint.

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We remember before Thee, our God, all who die this day,

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finding in death what life had denied unto them.

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For all these and for all others who have no prayer to offer

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out of their hopeless extremity,

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we beseech Thee to grant Thy mercy,

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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Almighty God, many of Thy people, many of us here assemble,

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have been forced to face new revelations about ourselves

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and our society in these turbulent weeks,

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which have been our times.

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We, O Lord, have been privileged to know in our lives

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many great and human people.

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To share in a community of faith and of learning;

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to co-labor with great men and women

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and the struggle for justice,

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and truth, and peace, and Thy world.

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We have also experienced, O God, the richness of the poor

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and the potentials of the powerless.

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As we look at our own lives,

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we see that they are shut through with contrasts, O God.

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Concern and fraternity on one hand,

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and on the other, fear and hatred of those

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who persistently rock our own boat of affluent security.

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And yet, O Lord,

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we know Thou has called Thy people to a life of wholeness

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and integrity under Thee.

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Give to us, we ask our Father, not only a vision

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of what that Christian wholeness may mean in our time,

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but the courage and the power to bring it to being

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in our personal relationships, in our church communities,

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and in our social structures.

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Help us, O Lord,

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to see the blatant folly of the popular myth

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that Americans can have cake while most men starve.

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Help us to see the terrible price

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we must be prepared to pay

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if we persist in seeing the world as our empire.

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Help us, we ask, O Father,

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to move to those necessary

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and difficult re-orderings of priorities

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that only can spell a future of reconciliation

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and resurrection for our individual lives

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and for the life of our nation.

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May our arrogant concern for dividends and profits,

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for better overkill, better germ cultures, better missiles,

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be replaced by a people committed

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to its initial national mission

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of building a human society here in this fair land.

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In educating a generation of youth

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dedicated to freeing mankind from its age-old curses of war,

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and racism, and exploitation.

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Enable Thy people, we ask, O Lord,

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to operate as agents of reconciliation

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and resurrection from the point of our calling

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wherever it may be,

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as student, as teacher, as administrator,

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as worker, as parent, as citizen.

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Help us to inject care, and service, and compassion

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into the crises that are all an inevitable ingredient

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of this time which Thou has given us in which to live.

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Remind us, O God, of our Lord,

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that fearless prophet from Galilee, that our own prophecy,

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that essential prerogative of the Christian

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and that ingredient of all true education

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will not warn of Armageddon,

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but will invite all men to mercy,

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and to justice, and to true community.

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This, we ask, O Lord,

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in the name of our Lord who came and gave Himself for us

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and who taught us that when we should pray together,

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we might say:

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Our Father, who art in heaven,

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hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come,

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Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day, our daily bread,

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us

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and lead us not into temptation,

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but deliver us from evil.

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For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,

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and the glory forever, Amen.

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No one can come to a worship service

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or any other gathering on this campus today

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without a profound disquietude.

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Our lives are thrown into a situation of turmoil,

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personal tragedy, physical violence,

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moral vicissitude, and rational confusion.

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I know a few words that I or anyone could speak

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are likely to remove the anguish,

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or resolve the issues, or help us leave this place

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with a sense of equanimity.

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During the past several weeks,

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all of us have made decisions

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which were critical for us and for our campus.

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No matter how reasonable or necessary we felt

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our individual decisions were

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or how convinced we have been of the immoral rectitude.

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We've also been, at the same time, terribly disturbed.

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While there has been a demonic dimension to our actions,

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every decision, whether we felt it right or wise,

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carried large negative and often destructive entailment.

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The sheer complexity of relationships,

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the mixtures of good and bad,

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the concomitant dimensions

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of personal affirmation and personal tragedy

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have brought every one of us, if we are sensitive at all,

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to an awareness of the evil goodness of life.

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As a result, we are bruised, hurt,

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inwardly pained, and outwardly broken, and estranged.

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And it is in this condition that we now gather to worship.

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I accepted the invitation to preach at this service

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because the speaker originally scheduled could not come.

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But I found it terribly hard to find words to say.

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What does one say?

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Is there above?

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Is there a prophetic word to disturb us?

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I have struggled and I have reprimanded myself

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for accepting the invitation.

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But now the hour has arrived.

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And I bring to you a question which I continue to ask

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and agonize over.

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Are there any community affirmations

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which are possible at this moment?

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Are there things we can say and intend to do

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that are redemptive?

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I have read and re-read our Scripture passage.

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If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

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And this is from God

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who through Christ reconciled us to Himself

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and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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I want to find something to affirm

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and I speak of affirmation

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because I do not want to concentrate primarily upon the past

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even the past few days.

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Not that one can forget or deny the past,

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obviously we can't.

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But to counteract the events of the past,

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we need a new vision in the present and for the future.

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Can we see any purposes that are large enough

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to engage our strengths and overcome the fracturedness

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of our present existence?

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I think, I hope that there are some affirmations.

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The order of the first several means nothing,

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but I begin with the most immediate situation.

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First, I would hope that we can, with a clear voice,

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learn to affirm our common humanity.

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One of the tragedies of the present situation

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is that we have allowed a polarization of black and white.

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When beneath every color,

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whether black, or white, or yellow, or red,

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there is the much more basic dimension

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of our common humanity,

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and humanity is more important than any color.

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It is strange how much difficulty we have

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in accepting this obvious fact.

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Early in the movement toward integration,

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as you will remember,

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apologists felt it was necessary to attempt to prove

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that there were no significant differences among people.

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And in part, of course, this was a wise move.

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Only the fact of commonness was pushed so far

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that we forgot to acknowledge and affirm the diversity.

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And now we have a pendulum swaying in the other direction.

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We want to affirm the differences, and in our excess,

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we tend to cover over and hide our commonness.

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Is it impossible for us to learn

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to acknowledge the distinctiveness of every man?

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Is it impossible for us to attempt to remove

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every vestige of racism, whether expressed straightforwardly

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in aggressiveness to one another

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or in its inverted form of self hate?

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Those who would force all men into a common mode,

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violate their integrity.

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Those who would prevent any man his distinctive selfhood

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violates his integrity.

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Those who require a likeness in non-essentials

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prevent the recognition of what is essential,

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our common humanity.

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Let us affirm this,

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let us speak for the humanity of each and all.

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We need the differences in this university.

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We need the black man and the white man.

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We need the oriental and the occidental.

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We need the artist and the pattern.

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We need the liberal and the conservative.

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We need even the young and the old.

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We require the range of humanity to remind us

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of the potential range of our own humanity.

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The diverseness and the richness of difference is good

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insofar as it is transparent

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to the deeper fact of our being together, about being human.

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Let us affirm this.

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Are there other affirmations?

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I think so.

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I would like to see if we can affirm our reasons

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for being together in this educational setting.

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We are at Duke and we are engaged in learning.

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Can we affirm a love of the truth

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and our intention to enrich both the mind and the spirit?

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Again, they are necessary and significant divergencies.

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We come from a variety of backgrounds.

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We have multiple personal and vocational aims.

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We understand modes of intellectual

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and emotional development differently.

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And this is good.

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We need the variety to remind us of the possibilities

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for our own maturation.

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As I look at all community's future,

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I hope we can move beyond the separations

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of vocational difference, personal differentiation,

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disciplinary commitment, indeed all artificial cleavages.

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And I hope we can embrace one another

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and affirm what we have in common

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in an educational institution,

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a love for all and a commitment to truth.

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In times such as the present,

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we do not need cheap or gimmicky answers, we need wisdom.

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We cannot find solutions in simple ways,

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we need profundity.

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Can we not affirm our intention that this will be a place

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which nurtures the tender plants of the mind

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and of the spirit?

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To find wisdom and to act upon it.

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Truth is it's so fragile.

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It can be broken with slight indifference,

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or careless handling, or quick grasping.

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As a community, we need to once again

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acknowledge our common discipleship to truth,

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and to be tolerant enough to allow for the different ways

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in which men can attempt to serve this value.

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Beneath our wandering searches and our fragmented service,

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there should be a common love of truth.

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And to this, we must be loyal.

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But isn't that also a common regard for goodness?

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There are moral values

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which I think we generally acknowledge

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as members of this community.

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We have, I'm sure, evilly intention to persons among us,

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but usually the struggle between good and evil

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is not between us but within us.

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Anyone of us can serve evil in the name of evil,

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or goodness in the name of goodness.

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We can also serve evil in the name of goodness

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and goodness in the name of evil.

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But beneath the self-confusions about goodness and evil,

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there is unpersuaded among most of us,

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a genuine desire to enhance the cause of goodness.

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Once more, we must recognize the diversity of ways

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in which goodness is served.

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Sometimes it's in the quietness of personal interchange

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and sometimes it's in the clamorous strife.

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But goodness is best served

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when there's an agreement between the end sought

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and the means employed to gain those ends.

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Humanity, on the whole,

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may sometimes be served by quite inhumane acts

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in particular cases.

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But this is eccentric

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and is usually known only in retrospect.

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Humanity is seldom well-served

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by intentionally inhumane acts.

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That's why we must recognize variety.

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The variety should be transparent

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to the more basic dimension of the service of goodness.

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Tragedy, and perhaps is one of the most profound tragedies

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of our present situation, is evident

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when the service of goodness gives rise to conflict

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among its disparate servants.

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As I look at our community's future,

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I hope we move beyond the separations

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which occur in the reach for moral values

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in our life together.

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We must support the viability of different modes of action

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for we are in need of this distinctiveness

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but it proved as fragile; goodness is tender.

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It can be attribute by deceit.

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It could be maimed by falsehood,

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it can be destroyed by loud self-claims and self-adulation.

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But even in a situation where goodness

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seems so hard to achieve and where the fruits of goodness

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seems so difficult to come by,

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can we not affirm our common commitment to this value

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and determine that we will be of service?

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I hope we can.

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For beneath our various expressions of honor to goodness,

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there is a dimension of common commitment;

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and to this, we must be loyal.

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Well, these are affirmations

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which seem possible to me at the moment.

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A reaffirmed commitment to our common humanity,

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to our love for truth, and our service for goodness.

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But now that I've said this much, I feel a hollowness,

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a sense of not having spoken significantly to our situation.

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And this for two reasons:

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I've spoken generally about humanity through goodness,

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but I have not yet spoken in any clearly Christian fashion.

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The generality of my remarks worry me,

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for all of us on every side of the present situation

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can probably subscribe to what I've said.

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And yet we have not been tolerant of those

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who differ from us.

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We've all been inclined to be one sided,

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too quick to judge, too ready to accuse,

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too willing to believe the worst, too anxious to mistrust.

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And the question which remains

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is whether we can begin to practice on every side

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a respect for one another.

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Can we make a personal commitment to honor truth,

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to pursue goodness, and to affirm our common humanity?

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Only as this becomes our affirmations as individuals

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would it have validity for us as a community.

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But so far, I've spoken

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in a way to the general academic community.

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And I've spoken to things which I think underwrite

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our general life together.

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Can anything more specific be said to this congregation?

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To those of you who've come to worship this morning,

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in this place at this time

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in our institutional life and history,

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let me become more direct and confessional.

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I know of no other way to speak for the chips are down

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when I honestly expressed my own feelings.

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Those of us, who would name the name of Christ,

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have a very special responsibility in this situation.

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Now this may also be true of others in our community

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who would variously describe their faith commitments,

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or their religious persuasions,

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or their lack of religious persuasion.

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And I wanna be a witness to the great contribution

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that some of those persons have made

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in our present situation.

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I have in mind particularly some of my Jewish colleagues

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and as well as some who professed no faith.

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And our debt to a number of these persons

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is very, very large

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and we do not want to gain, say, their unique contribution.

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But I'm among you this morning, not as an academic

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or a person who holds a special position on campus,

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but one who comes as a Christian worshiper,

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to ask what is our responsibility as Christians

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in this situation.

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It may be I've been too close to the situation

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that I have not been able to understand correctly

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or feel too deeply what has happened.

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But I'm persuaded that unless some of us

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can begin to take up the task of reconciliation,

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then we have failed our community

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and all of our fellows in this community.

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Remember the text?

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"If any man is in Christ is a new creation.

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The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

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All this is from God whom through Christ

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reconciled us to Himself,

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that we might become ministers of reconciliation.

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We who are Christians

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should in some sense be a new creative persons,

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we should bring newness to our community.

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But what are the distinctive things we can do?

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Let me begin with the most common statement

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on our campus these days.

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There is a lack of trust.

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Now this is the case.

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Perhaps the reasons and with implications

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of those who say utmost do not realize, but it is the case,

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there is a profound lack of trust among us.

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And perhaps it's here so we can begin.

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Both by becoming more trustworthy

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and by beginning to attempt to trust others.

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In a way it's as hard or harder to learn to trust another

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as it is to be trustworthy to one another.

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How difficult it is to accept the goodwill

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or the good intention of other persons.

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And I'm not asking that anyone give up

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his intelligent assessment of the situation

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or realistic estimate of other person's character.

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What I am asking that all of us from every side,

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who are in this congregation, begin to extend ourselves

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both as trustworthy and as trusting.

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I know of no other way to break out

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of the vicious circle of lack of trust

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than to have the courage to break out, to take the chance,

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to trust and do everything in one's power

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to be absolutely worthy of trust.

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And perhaps this is a part of our ministry

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of reconciliation.

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But reconciliation implies even more.

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We have to be peacemakers.

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Peacemakers, not in the sense of crying peace

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where there is no peace.

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Or the sense of covering over the surface of deep wounds

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and a pretension of resolution.

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We must be peacemakers in the sense

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that we find the new ground

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upon which genuine peace may be established.

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And that ground we have not yet found as a community.

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And this will require strength, and wisdom,

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and determination, and drive, and grace,

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and empathy, and love.

47:13

We must cut through the undergrowth of inequity.

47:19

We must stand firm for what is right

47:24

and have the courage to go against the accepted.

47:27

We must witness for peace prophetically and critically,

47:31

but also intelligently

47:37

and with the well-being of our fellows

47:40

always at the center of our concern.

47:41

In short, we must attempt to reset our own values

47:46

and those of our community which are in need of change.

47:50

We must affirm those values which require preserving.

47:54

And we must not be cowered by labels

48:00

or conform to stereotypes

48:03

which remove our flexibility for action.

48:06

As Christians we must take our stand with what we understand

48:12

to be the man of Christ.

48:16

We dare not allow a commitment to a political,

48:18

economic, or social ideology to take precedent

48:22

over our primary determination

48:26

to walk the way of one who came as servant,

48:29

as challenger, as sufferer, as reconciled.

48:34

We, too, must be reconcilers not cheap traders of,

48:42

who simply reduce every issue to innocuous dimensions

48:48

and pretend that we brought contending sides together

48:51

when we've only hidden their real interest.

48:55

We must be reconcilers in the sense

48:59

that we find new foundations for mutual understanding,

49:01

be willing to sacrifice our own interests for the good

49:06

of the whole community.

49:09

We must be servants of one master alone.

49:15

Our ultimate commitment is not to an institution

49:21

or to a social program.

49:25

Our service is found in obedience to God alone.

49:29

It is His will which we seek

49:34

and His way in which we must walk.

49:38

Once again, there may be diversity in the ways

49:46

in which we seek peace, or attempt reconciliation,

49:48

or express our service.

49:51

And it is we could rejoice

49:54

for the very diversity enriches our sensitivity

49:56

to the dimensions of faithful obedience to God.

49:58

But the diversity must always be transparent

50:03

to its basic ground.

50:06

The test of every act

50:09

is its conformity to the mind of Christ.

50:12

Our different situations in life, our different ages,

50:26

our family and vocational commitments,

50:30

our responsibilities on the campus,

50:32

and possible modes of action will make for differences

50:34

on the expression of our service.

50:38

Now this is given.

50:41

But we must learn to affirm one another

50:45

with our diverse integrities.

50:46

It's simply destructive in the present situation

50:50

to stand apart and accuse, and slander,

50:52

to widen unnecessary riffs.

50:55

Anyone can destroy his fellowman,

50:58

anyone can destroy our community.

51:01

If you can take people where they are

51:05

and the community where it is

51:07

and induce them to see a new vision

51:10

or to go out in its surface.

51:14

We who are here are rather small in number.

51:18

Perhaps we have only a small potential

51:23

to create a new esprit de corps, a new elan for this campus.

51:25

But as Christians, all we were ever asked to be

51:31

was leaven or salt.

51:33

And for this responsibility we are still marked by Christ.

51:38

I do not know how to say what I wanna say next and last.

51:47

I'm not even fully sure what it is I wanna say,

51:53

but I feel we ought not leave this chapel this morning

51:59

without making a covenant with ourselves,

52:03

with our community, and God.

52:06

A covenant which we commit ourselves in a special way

52:11

to affirm our common humanity,

52:14

to be a faithful lover of truth,

52:17

to passionately seek for goodness,

52:21

to undertake the task of trust and peacemaking,

52:25

to throw our lives into the work of reconciliation.

52:30

I have no idea what result of such commitment would be.

52:36

I certainly don't think everyone will make it

52:40

but I see no other road for myself.

52:44

I don't know where it leads, but this also is not important.

52:49

One step is all that we can take but that we must take.

52:53

I know it means that I must be pliable,

52:59

I must break myself from the chains of routine

53:05

and uncriticized assumptions

53:08

and all false self-satisfactions.

53:10

I must be open to my neighbors, every one of them;

53:14

and to my surroundings, all of them.

53:18

And I must seek new guidance and fresh insight

53:23

for redemptive ways of action.

53:26

Now I've said this poorly.

53:33

I wanted to say something better,

53:37

something more obviously practical and fruitful.

53:40

I just don't know how to catch these things in my hands,

53:44

perhaps no one does.

53:49

Perhaps the mosaic of peace will only take form

53:52

as each of us fits our small part into the whole.

53:55

But I do feel constrained to ask for a covenant

54:01

to call for a fresh commitment to those things we recognize

54:04

about Christian responsibilities.

54:08

Do you share any sense of this need?

54:12

Can you catch some glimpse of the blurred vision?

54:18

In any case, I just cannot imagine us

54:25

coming to chapel this morning,

54:29

going through the motions of worshiping God

54:30

and walk out across this campus in an unchanged manner.

54:32

This is no nice occasion, no pleasant morning in church.

54:37

We're on a campus, in a society in turmoil.

54:43

If ever the worship of God should indeed

54:50

must make a difference, it is now.

54:53

And I want to ask you

55:01

to concretely indicate your new approach to this campus.

55:02

May I, perhaps being foolish, make some obvious suggestions.

55:10

When we stand to sing the next hymn,

55:18

when you stand indicating symbolically,

55:20

you're standing in a new way on this campus.

55:24

When you give your offering,

55:29

will you consciously make it an active commitment

55:31

to the way of Christ?

55:35

Or as you leave the chapel, will you leave in silence

55:39

or perhaps even by a different door,

55:44

symbolizing the recognition that we must go on this campus

55:50

in new ways reflecting the newness of God in Christ.

55:54

God's presence is trusting itself upon this campus

56:03

through those of us who name the name of Christ

56:07

if only we will be the channels of this trust.

56:11

Perhaps we should be meeting together

56:18

to ask what are our special task at this time

56:21

and how we might be leavened.

56:26

And there may be other ways of expressing our concern,

56:30

but for now, if some other act in this commitment

56:34

is more appropriate or some other sign

56:38

of such in a commitment more appropriate,

56:39

follow your own best wisdom

56:41

and let us rejoice in our diversity.

56:44

But in whatever way we do it,

56:48

let us first affirm our resolve to glorify God alone.

56:51

For if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation,

56:58

a minister of reconciliation.

57:06

O God, lead us on to the Duke campus

57:12

and lead this university in its mission

57:19

with a renewed sense of the creative possibilities,

57:23

where Thy spirit brings.

57:28

Amen.

57:35

(gentle organ music)

57:37

(choir singing solemnly)

58:06

♪ Amen ♪

59:40

(gentle organ music)

1:00:03

(choir singing solemnly)

1:01:35

Thomas A. Langford - "Affirmations of a New Community" (March 16, 1969)

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1. Thomas A. Langford - "Affirmations for a New Community" (March 16, 1969)

Duke University Archives

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Thomas A. Langford - "Affirmations of a New Community" (March 16, 1969)

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Duke University Archives

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