William D. Gates - "What I See - What I Do" (January 15, 1984)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(rousing organ music) | 0:03 | |
(heartfelt organ music) | 0:18 | |
(intense organ music) | 1:28 | |
(rousing organ music) | 3:21 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 5:33 | |
(soft organ music) | 6:54 | |
♪ Glorious now behold Him arise ♪ | 9:06 | |
♪ King and God and Sacrifice. ♪ | 9:12 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia! ♪ | 9:19 | |
♪ Sounds through the earth and skies. ♪ | 9:27 | |
♪ Oh-Oh ♪ | 9:34 | |
♪ Star of wonder, star of night, ♪ | 9:38 | |
♪ Star with royal beauty bright, ♪ | 9:46 | |
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding, ♪ | 9:54 | |
♪ Guide us to thy perfect Light ♪ | 10:02 | |
(rousing organ music) | 10:17 | |
♪ Sing praise to God who reigns above ♪ | 11:03 | |
♪ The God of all creation, ♪ | 11:08 | |
♪ The God of power, the God of love ♪ | 11:15 | |
♪ The God of our salvation ♪ | 11:21 | |
♪ With healing balm my soul is filled ♪ | 11:28 | |
♪ And every faithless murmur stilled: ♪ | 11:34 | |
♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪ | 11:41 | |
♪ What God's almighty power hath made ♪ | 11:50 | |
♪ His gracious mercy keepeth, ♪ | 11:56 | |
♪ By morning glow or evening shade ♪ | 12:03 | |
♪ His watchful eye ne'er sleepeth ♪ | 12:09 | |
♪ Within the kingdom of His might ♪ | 12:16 | |
♪ Lo, all is just and all is right: ♪ | 12:22 | |
♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪ | 12:29 | |
♪ The Lord is never far away ♪ | 12:37 | |
♪ But through all grief distressing, ♪ | 12:44 | |
♪ An ever present help and stay ♪ | 12:50 | |
♪ Our peace and joy and blessing. ♪ | 12:57 | |
♪ As with a mother's tender hand ♪ | 13:03 | |
♪ God gently leads the chosen band: ♪ | 13:09 | |
♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪ | 13:16 | |
♪ Thus, all my toilsome way along ♪ | 13:24 | |
♪ I sing aloud Thy praises, ♪ | 13:31 | |
♪ That earth may hear the grateful song ♪ | 13:37 | |
♪ My voice unwearied raises. ♪ | 13:44 | |
♪ Be joyful in the Lord, my heart ♪ | 13:51 | |
♪ Both soul and body bear your part: ♪ | 13:57 | |
♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪ | 14:04 | |
♪ Let all who name Christ's holy name ♪ | 14:13 | |
♪ Give God all praise and glory; ♪ | 14:19 | |
♪ Let all who own His power proclaim aloud ♪ | 14:26 | |
♪ The wondrous story! ♪ | 14:33 | |
♪ Cast each false idol from its throne ♪ | 14:39 | |
♪ For Christ is Lord, and Christ alone: ♪ | 14:45 | |
♪ To God all praise and glory. ♪ | 14:52 | |
- | God, whom we gather, thundered His Word | 15:06 |
and will to Moses at Mount Sinai, | 15:08 | |
whispered His Word and will to Elijah at Mount Horeb, | 15:12 | |
acted out His Word and will in Jesus at Bethlehem to Calvary | 15:16 | |
and in the resurrection. | 15:21 | |
God still imparts His Word and will today | 15:24 | |
as persons such as you and me, | 15:28 | |
through Scripture, through the church, | 15:31 | |
through the church, made lively and true and relevant | 15:35 | |
by the Holy Spirit. | 15:38 | |
Come, let us worship God, | 15:40 | |
praying together our confession. | 15:45 | |
Congregation | Oh wondrous hope, God of the promise, | 16:01 |
on whom we rely for life and its meaning, | 16:04 | |
we confess that we have sinned against you, | 16:08 | |
by abandoning hope, by failing to hear | 16:11 | |
and accept your promises, | 16:15 | |
by relying on ourselves as both source | 16:17 | |
and object of our own faith. | 16:20 | |
Forgive us, we pray. | 16:23 | |
Once more, open our hearts to your mercy, | 16:25 | |
our minds to your promise, | 16:28 | |
our hands to our neighbor in need. | 16:31 | |
Restore us to faith in your providing care, | 16:34 | |
and guiding love, | 16:37 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 16:39 | |
- | Who is in a position to condemn? | 17:15 |
Only Christ and Christ died for us. | 17:17 | |
Christ rose for us, and more than that, | 17:23 | |
Christ reigns in power for us. | 17:26 | |
Christ prays for us. | 17:29 | |
If we are in Christ, then we become new persons altogether. | 17:32 | |
The past is finished, it is done with, it is gone, | 17:39 | |
and everything becomes fresh and new and life again | 17:44 | |
is full of possibility. | 17:48 | |
My friends, believe the good news of the gospel. | 17:51 | |
In Jesus who was and is the Christ, | 17:55 | |
you and I are forgiven. | 17:59 | |
Let us give thanks, for God is good, | 18:04 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 18:07 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 18:11 |
Amen. | 18:14 | |
Thanks be to God. | 18:15 | |
Bless it be to us. | 18:17 | |
Thanks be to God. | 18:19 | |
Who gives us peace. | 18:21 | |
- | It is a delight to introduce and to welcome | 18:26 |
to the Duke University Chapel pulpit this morning, | 18:30 | |
Mr. William Gates. | 18:34 | |
Bill is our student preacher for 1983 and 1984, | 18:36 | |
selected by a committee of the Duke Campus Ministry, | 18:42 | |
a taskforce of the worship committee of that group, | 18:47 | |
and selected from a number of those who made themselves | 18:51 | |
available for this purpose. | 18:54 | |
Bill, I don't know whether they realize what they've done, | 18:59 | |
but they've let two Presbyterians in this morning. | 19:01 | |
We're grateful for that. | 19:04 | |
Bill is a junior this year. | 19:08 | |
He is a drama student on his way to dentistry school. | 19:12 | |
I'm not sure how that works together, | 19:20 | |
but Bill has assured me that it does. | 19:22 | |
But as a technician, he has explained to me | 19:25 | |
that he is one who loves to work with his hands, | 19:28 | |
and he says that that, perhaps, | 19:32 | |
is the relationship between the two. | 19:35 | |
We shall see. | 19:37 | |
We are glad that Bill will be with us, | 19:39 | |
and is with us this morning. | 19:43 | |
We're glad that his mother has been able to fly down | 19:46 | |
from New York to be with Bill this weekend, | 19:48 | |
this very special weekend, | 19:52 | |
and to be with us this morning worshiping in Duke Chapel. | 19:54 | |
Nancy, we are glad that you are here. | 19:58 | |
Bill, as you will note in the bulletin, | 20:02 | |
has declared an interest in a number of things, | 20:03 | |
including warm climates. | 20:07 | |
He says that's what attracted him to North Carolina, | 20:10 | |
and to Duke University. | 20:13 | |
Bill, I'm afraid, this morning, we have failed you, | 20:15 | |
but Mrs. Gates assured us that in New York, | 20:20 | |
it was even colder and whiter, | 20:23 | |
and so, perhaps, this will suffice as the warm climate | 20:25 | |
for the weekend, at least. | 20:28 | |
Bill, we look forward to your proclamation of the Word. | 20:31 | |
What I see, what I do. | 20:34 | |
- | Let us pray. | 20:47 |
Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scriptures | 20:50 | |
to be written for our learning, | 20:54 | |
grant that we may, in such ways, | 20:56 | |
hear them, read them, mark them, | 20:58 | |
study them, learn and inwardly digest them, | 21:02 | |
that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, | 21:06 | |
we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope | 21:09 | |
of everlasting life, which you give us | 21:12 | |
in our Savior, Jesus Christ. | 21:15 | |
Amen. | 21:18 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from Ecclesiastes chapter one, | 21:22 | |
verses two through nine, and chapter two, | 21:27 | |
verses 21 through 23. | 21:30 | |
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. | 21:37 | |
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. | 21:40 | |
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils | 21:44 | |
under the sun? | 21:47 | |
A generation goes, and a generation comes, | 21:49 | |
but the earth remains forever. | 21:53 | |
The sun rises and the sun goes down, | 21:56 | |
and hastens to the place where it rises. | 21:59 | |
The wind blows to the south | 22:02 | |
and goes round to the north. | 22:04 | |
Round and round it goes, and on its circuit, | 22:07 | |
the wind returns. | 22:10 | |
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. | 22:13 | |
To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. | 22:17 | |
All things are full of weariness. | 22:22 | |
A man cannot utter it. | 22:25 | |
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, | 22:27 | |
nor the ear filled with hearing. | 22:30 | |
What has been is what will be. | 22:33 | |
And what has been done is what will be done, | 22:36 | |
and there is nothing new under the sun. | 22:40 | |
Sometimes, a man who has toiled with wisdom | 22:44 | |
and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed | 22:47 | |
by a man who did not toil for it. | 22:51 | |
This also is vanity, and a great evil. | 22:54 | |
What has a man from all the toil and strain, | 22:58 | |
with which he toils beneath the sun? | 23:01 | |
For all his days are full of pain, | 23:03 | |
and his work is a vexation. | 23:06 | |
Even in the night, his mind does not rest. | 23:09 | |
This, also, is vanity. | 23:12 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 23:16 | |
The New Testament lesson is from Colossians chapter three, | 23:21 | |
verses one through five, and verses nine through 11. | 23:24 | |
If, then you have been raised with Christ, | 23:31 | |
seek the things that are above, | 23:34 | |
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. | 23:36 | |
Set your minds on things that are above, | 23:39 | |
and not on things that are on earth. | 23:42 | |
For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. | 23:45 | |
When Christ, who is our life appears, | 23:51 | |
then you also will appear with Him in glory. | 23:53 | |
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: | 23:56 | |
fornication, impurity, passion, | 24:00 | |
evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. | 24:03 | |
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off | 24:09 | |
the old nature with its practices, | 24:12 | |
and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed | 24:15 | |
in knowledge after the image of its creator. | 24:19 | |
Here, there cannot be Greek and Jew, | 24:23 | |
circumcised and uncircumcised, | 24:25 | |
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, | 24:27 | |
but Christ is all and in all. | 24:31 | |
Here ends the reading from the New Testament lesson. | 24:35 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 24:46 | |
♪ He comes to us ♪ | 24:54 | |
♪ As one unknown ♪ | 24:56 | |
♪ Without a name ♪ | 25:00 | |
♪ Without a name ♪ | 25:04 | |
♪ As of old by the lakeside ♪ | 25:07 | |
♪ He came ♪ | 25:11 | |
♪ He came to those men ♪ | 25:15 | |
♪ Who knew him not ♪ | 25:19 | |
♪ He speaks to us ♪ | 25:24 | |
♪ He speaks the same word: ♪ | 25:27 | |
♪ Follow ♪ | 25:31 | |
♪ Follow ♪ | 25:34 | |
♪ Follow thou me ♪ | 25:38 | |
♪ And sets us to the tasks ♪ | 25:45 | |
♪ Which He has to fulfill ♪ | 25:48 | |
♪ For our time ♪ | 25:52 | |
♪ He commands ♪ | 26:02 | |
♪ And to those who obey Him ♪ | 26:07 | |
♪ Whether they be wise or simple ♪ | 26:16 | |
♪ He will reveal Himself ♪ | 26:23 | |
♪ Reveal Himself ♪ | 26:31 | |
♪ In the toils ♪ | 26:38 | |
♪ The conflicts ♪ | 26:42 | |
♪ The sufferings ♪ | 26:45 | |
♪ Which they shall pass through ♪ | 26:53 | |
♪ In His fellowship ♪ | 27:01 | |
♪ And, as an ineffable mystery ♪ | 27:14 | |
♪ They shall learn ♪ | 27:33 | |
♪ Shall learn ♪ | 27:37 | |
♪ Shall learn in their own experience ♪ | 27:41 | |
♪ Who He is ♪ | 27:51 | |
- | Will the congregation please stand | 28:27 |
for the reading of the New Testament lesson? | 28:29 | |
The gospel lesson is from Luke chapter 12, | 28:35 | |
verses 13 through 21. | 28:38 | |
One of the multitude said to Him, | 28:42 | |
"Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." | 28:44 | |
But He said to him, "Man, who made me judge | 28:48 | |
"or divider over you?" | 28:52 | |
And He said to them, "Take heed and beware | 28:54 | |
"of all covetousness. | 28:57 | |
"For a man's life does not consist in the abundance | 28:59 | |
"of his possessions," | 29:01 | |
and He told them a parable, saying, | 29:03 | |
The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully, | 29:06 | |
and he thought to himself, what shall I do? | 29:09 | |
For I have nowhere to store my crops, | 29:12 | |
and he said, I will do this. | 29:15 | |
I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, | 29:18 | |
and there, I will store all my gain and my goods. | 29:21 | |
And I will say to my soul, | 29:24 | |
soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. | 29:27 | |
Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. | 29:30 | |
But God said to him, "Fool, this night, | 29:34 | |
"your soul is required of you, | 29:37 | |
"and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" | 29:39 | |
So is he who lays up treasure for himself | 29:43 | |
and is not rich toward God. | 29:46 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel. | 29:50 | |
Amen. | 29:54 | |
(rousing organ music) | 29:55 | |
(choir singing in a foreign language) | 30:04 | |
- | Good morning. | 31:03 |
I've been in the middle of the Duke forest, | 31:07 | |
and received a better response from that greeting. | 31:09 | |
Let me try again. | 31:13 | |
Good morning. | 31:16 | |
Congregation | Good morning. | 31:17 |
- | Thank you. | 31:18 |
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. | 31:21 | |
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. | 31:24 | |
A generation goes and a generation comes, | 31:29 | |
but the earth remains forever. | 31:32 | |
The author of our text, Qoheleth, | 31:36 | |
has an apparently dismal outlook on life. | 31:39 | |
He, in fact, hated life at one time, | 31:42 | |
because of what it denied him. | 31:45 | |
All his toils, all his labor, it appeared to be vanity. | 31:47 | |
Nothing Qoheleth worked for under the sun lasted, | 31:52 | |
and nothing he did appeared to change anything. | 31:55 | |
Just as the material wealth Job had accumulated | 32:01 | |
throughout his life was taken from his grasp | 32:04 | |
by the hand of God, | 32:06 | |
the fortunes amassed by Qoheleth could also | 32:08 | |
be reduced to nothing. | 32:10 | |
Our author here despaired, | 32:14 | |
because he had spent most of his life | 32:16 | |
accumulating a great fortune he knew would not last. | 32:17 | |
Of course, Qoheleth did not expect | 32:22 | |
to take his checking account with him, | 32:23 | |
but what disturbed him was that all his wealth | 32:26 | |
and fortune could be claimed by someone | 32:29 | |
who maybe did not deserve it. | 32:31 | |
After he had left God's green earth, | 32:34 | |
he would have no control over the wealth accumulated | 32:36 | |
by his honest labor. | 32:40 | |
What kind of justice exists when you work hard | 32:42 | |
all your life, only to have your fortune, | 32:44 | |
your entire life's endeavors, dissipated once you're gone? | 32:47 | |
The vanity of all his labors hits him hard across the face. | 32:53 | |
He begins to question the worth of all his work, | 32:57 | |
the value of all his labor. | 33:00 | |
"Well, my work," he says. | 33:03 | |
"My years and years of back-breaking labor | 33:05 | |
"have netted me a good living, a fine life, | 33:08 | |
"a good family, and actually, enough money | 33:10 | |
"to finance a healthy retirement for half a dozen people. | 33:13 | |
"But what good is that? | 33:18 | |
"It won't take care of itself. | 33:20 | |
"In fact, with a couple of bad investments downtown, | 33:21 | |
"this could all be gone | 33:25 | |
"by the time the market closes tomorrow." | 33:26 | |
The vanity of labor. | 33:30 | |
Qoheleth despaired, not only because his wealth | 33:33 | |
was vulnerable, but it was ineffective. | 33:35 | |
It changed nothing. | 33:37 | |
Every morning, he goes to work, | 33:41 | |
and every morning, he returns home, | 33:42 | |
but the labor of his day changes nothing. | 33:46 | |
His work brings home the bread, | 33:50 | |
but is ineffective in solving | 33:51 | |
any one of the litany of problems | 33:52 | |
that has plagued the world since the fall: | 33:55 | |
disease, war, murder, stealing, corruption. | 33:57 | |
The list goes on. | 34:00 | |
Both near and far, life rolled on, unaffected. | 34:03 | |
His wealth and his labor could not change | 34:08 | |
the overwhelming wrong he saw in the world. | 34:10 | |
He felt futility, because of his ineffectiveness. | 34:13 | |
He felt injustice because his honest work | 34:17 | |
was not properly rewarded. | 34:20 | |
Qoheleth feels confused because this was not | 34:23 | |
the kind of world he believed in. | 34:27 | |
It was not the kind of life he thought he should have. | 34:30 | |
"What has happened to the righteous God | 34:35 | |
"who watches over our lives," he asks. | 34:37 | |
"The God I was taught to believe in would not have let | 34:40 | |
"this kind of world exist. | 34:42 | |
"Where is the meaning in our existence | 34:46 | |
"if our work means nothing, accomplishes nothing?" | 34:48 | |
The writer of Ecclesiastes struggles to see God, | 34:55 | |
to understand his relationship with God. | 35:00 | |
Our author searches for answers. | 35:05 | |
He looks to God in heaven to explain the world around him. | 35:07 | |
Dear God, what has happened? | 35:11 | |
Can all this be right? | 35:13 | |
Does not your hand guide us through our days | 35:15 | |
and practice justice on this earth? | 35:17 | |
Silence. | 35:20 | |
He met with a silent heaven. | 35:22 | |
His traditional perception of God | 35:26 | |
did not answer his questions. | 35:28 | |
A new way of understanding God was needed. | 35:30 | |
Our author now searched for a new way | 35:33 | |
to reestablish his relationship with God. | 35:35 | |
Qoheleth, in a sense, is the first scientific | 35:40 | |
thinker of the Bible. | 35:43 | |
His efforts to understand his relationship with God | 35:44 | |
and to find some meaning for his life | 35:48 | |
employ the scientific method of study. | 35:51 | |
The proposition, followed by observation, | 35:54 | |
ending in a conclusion. | 35:57 | |
We know that God created the universe, | 36:00 | |
and everything in it. | 36:02 | |
If we observe this creation, | 36:05 | |
perhaps we can understand God through His creation. | 36:07 | |
From his observations, | 36:12 | |
Qoheleth makes two important discoveries. | 36:14 | |
First, God has given us eternity, | 36:18 | |
represented in the endless cycles of the sun, | 36:21 | |
and the season and in our own cycles, | 36:23 | |
as we go from dust to dust, | 36:26 | |
and secondly, the fate which befalls each one of us | 36:29 | |
during the time when we are not dust | 36:33 | |
is governed by chance. | 36:36 | |
Because our lives are governed by chance, | 36:38 | |
Qoheleth divides this eternity into units of tomorrows. | 36:40 | |
Qoheleth seems himself toiling away in a present | 36:46 | |
which cannot change tomorrow, | 36:50 | |
but will comprise tomorrow. | 36:52 | |
He lives not for the 50 or 100 tomorrows from now, | 36:56 | |
but for the tomorrow that comes | 37:00 | |
when the sun rises again in the east. | 37:02 | |
The time that lies between now | 37:06 | |
and 100 tomorrows from now is governed by chance. | 37:08 | |
We may not see those tomorrows, | 37:13 | |
and so the fortune saved for those days is wasted. | 37:15 | |
The labor expended to accumulate that fortune, vanity, | 37:19 | |
and so a resolution. | 37:24 | |
Eat and drink and find enjoyment in our work. | 37:27 | |
Be happy today, for the gift of life, | 37:30 | |
because we may not have tomorrow. | 37:33 | |
Isn't this the same message we received from Colossians? | 37:38 | |
Put to death all our material wealth. | 37:41 | |
We are saved by Christ, the Son of God. | 37:43 | |
Look to the heavens and it can be yours. | 37:46 | |
The parable of the rich man, in Luke, | 37:51 | |
also tells us that it is the fool who acquires | 37:52 | |
a great fortune and adopts the philosophy, | 37:56 | |
eat, drink, and be merry, | 37:59 | |
for I have enough money left for 10 lives. | 38:00 | |
That night, God takes the rich man's soul. | 38:05 | |
That life was wasted in storing treasures for himself, | 38:07 | |
and not for God. | 38:12 | |
Our lives do not consist of an abundance of material wealth. | 38:14 | |
That soul was rich in the wealth of life, | 38:19 | |
but poor in the wealth of God. | 38:22 | |
It's all very simple, all very easy to understand. | 38:25 | |
God awaits in heaven, Christ died for our salvation. | 38:30 | |
Look to heaven first, and what we need here on earth | 38:33 | |
will be ours. | 38:36 | |
Why the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes? | 38:39 | |
Why the despair? | 38:43 | |
Vanity of vanity, all is vanity. | 38:46 | |
Why do I feel so akin to Qoheleth, | 38:51 | |
to the deep feelings of some injustice? | 38:54 | |
Why do I search, as did Qoheleth, | 38:59 | |
for a renewed purpose and direction for my labor, | 39:01 | |
for a renewed relationship with God? | 39:05 | |
I suppose I'm just difficult. | 39:08 | |
Maybe it was my 7th grade science teacher, | 39:12 | |
who spouted scientific words of wisdom at me, | 39:15 | |
and hounded me with the phrase, | 39:19 | |
empirical thinking, young man. | 39:20 | |
The scientific method of thinking is where it's at. | 39:23 | |
Or perhaps it was my 9th grade English teacher, | 39:27 | |
who suggested we all keep abreast of current world events, | 39:30 | |
and maybe it was Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, | 39:37 | |
which takes its title from the first few lines of our text. | 39:41 | |
And maybe it was a combination of a hundred different things | 39:45 | |
that make me what I am right now. | 39:48 | |
I feel very close to the words of this text. | 39:52 | |
In fact, if I were alive 2,000 years ago, | 39:57 | |
I believe I could have written this text. | 40:00 | |
There's a struggle, I struggle. | 40:03 | |
I struggle for the sight and the wisdom | 40:07 | |
that Qoheleth found to answer some of his questions. | 40:10 | |
I struggle to find that new relationship with God. | 40:14 | |
For me, it is not as easy as Colossians tells us, | 40:19 | |
seek the things that are in Christ, | 40:22 | |
He died for our salvation, | 40:23 | |
put to death what is earthly in you, | 40:25 | |
and when Christ rises again, we will rise with Him. | 40:27 | |
We are alive now. | 40:31 | |
All this does matter to me. | 40:34 | |
Our lives are a gift from God. | 40:38 | |
We work every day to make the tomorrows, | 40:40 | |
but the injustices. | 40:44 | |
What purpose has our labor when we cannot control | 40:48 | |
the world around us? | 40:50 | |
How do you feel when you sit in your living room | 40:53 | |
and watch the news on TV, the news that is rarely good | 40:55 | |
and always so removed from our lives? | 40:59 | |
And how do you feel when one of the hundreds | 41:04 | |
of senseless disasters affects your life, | 41:06 | |
hits home somewhere? | 41:10 | |
It hurts. | 41:13 | |
A year and a half from now, I will graduate. | 41:17 | |
But one of my classmates will not graduate with me. | 41:21 | |
The fate of Flight 007 has prevented that. | 41:26 | |
I feel frustrated, small, ineffective. | 41:30 | |
My hands are tied. | 41:36 | |
All that out there, all that is out of my control, | 41:38 | |
out of my reach, yet it affects me, | 41:43 | |
and it wasn't right, it wasn't fair, | 41:47 | |
no reason exists for that happening. | 41:52 | |
I am angry and I want vengeance. | 41:55 | |
What kind of God, I thought. | 41:59 | |
Certainly not the Santa Claus God I was taught of | 42:01 | |
in Sunday School, the God that watches over each of us, | 42:03 | |
knows when we've been bad or good. | 42:06 | |
I reel and question. | 42:10 | |
What is the truth of the matter? | 42:12 | |
The questions from Ecclesiastes take on life for me. | 42:14 | |
What purpose, what direction does my labor have? | 42:18 | |
What good is it? | 42:22 | |
I never could've prevented that plane from going down. | 42:23 | |
I can never do anything to change what has happened. | 42:26 | |
I can jump up and down, yell and scream, | 42:28 | |
dear God, you didn't stop that from happening, | 42:30 | |
but I want to. | 42:33 | |
If you can't take care of this world, let me. | 42:35 | |
I will. | 42:38 | |
That's the silence I usually receive. | 42:45 | |
It is frightening to think we have an eternity | 42:50 | |
of this in front of us. | 42:53 | |
It will never stop. | 42:56 | |
The sun goes down, and the sun comes up, | 42:59 | |
and races across the sky, to the place where it again sets. | 43:03 | |
A generation goes, and a generation comes. | 43:08 | |
In many ways, not a happy thought, | 43:13 | |
but God has given us these tomorrows. | 43:17 | |
We can do what we wish with our time. | 43:20 | |
I follow a philosophy of living that has its origins | 43:24 | |
as a law, an unwritten law of the woods | 43:29 | |
shared by the people of the woods. | 43:32 | |
It protects the one thing that we know God has given to us | 43:36 | |
and remains a constant in all our lives, | 43:38 | |
our home, this earth. | 43:41 | |
A generation goes, and a generation comes, | 43:45 | |
but the earth remains forever. | 43:47 | |
The story was told to me, and to many other students | 43:51 | |
of the Hotchkiss School. | 43:55 | |
By an English teacher there, Mr. Blair Torrey. | 43:57 | |
This law calls upon all who live, | 44:01 | |
travel or hike in the woods to leave their campground | 44:03 | |
just a little bit better than when they found it. | 44:07 | |
This one simple rule, this code of honor, | 44:12 | |
joins these people together in a vital kinship. | 44:16 | |
Without knowing one another, | 44:19 | |
without knowing who spent the night before | 44:21 | |
in this campground or in this cabin, | 44:22 | |
or knowing who passed this way before. | 44:25 | |
They take pride in and find security in helping out | 44:29 | |
the next person in line, | 44:32 | |
because someone helped them out. | 44:33 | |
No task here is insurmountable. | 44:36 | |
It's a case of many hands making light work. | 44:38 | |
How easy it is to replace the logs you used | 44:43 | |
for a fire the night before, | 44:45 | |
or to repair a hole in the roof, | 44:48 | |
so the next person does not arrive in the middle | 44:49 | |
of a rainy night to find a shelter | 44:52 | |
that is as wet inside as it is outside. | 44:55 | |
Think how nice it is to come upon a campground | 44:59 | |
that is well taken care of, | 45:02 | |
a cabin clean with firewood stacked | 45:04 | |
neatly in the corner, ready to burn. | 45:06 | |
How many lives have been saved because someone took the time | 45:10 | |
to replace the logs they had used? | 45:14 | |
How grateful would you feel upon finding a campground | 45:18 | |
left ready for you to use? | 45:22 | |
You can see the strength in this bond, | 45:25 | |
between the people of the woods, | 45:28 | |
and you can see how quickly this bond grows and spreads. | 45:29 | |
One person affects a number of people, who, in turn, | 45:34 | |
affect a number of people. | 45:36 | |
Pretty soon, we have an entire network of people | 45:38 | |
working together, not in the same place at the same time, | 45:40 | |
and probably never seeing each other, | 45:44 | |
but what they do for each other remains behind, | 45:47 | |
as a testimony to the bond. | 45:50 | |
You can see also, how it takes only one or two people | 45:54 | |
to muck up the entire operation. | 45:57 | |
What if one person does not replace that firewood | 46:00 | |
in the middle of the winter? | 46:05 | |
What if? | 46:08 | |
A choice was made. | 46:10 | |
Someone else will do it. | 46:11 | |
We do have the power to choose. | 46:14 | |
That's how we arrived here, remember? | 46:16 | |
7th grade, empirical thinking, young man. | 46:18 | |
Yep. | 46:22 | |
Look around, survey the situation. | 46:24 | |
I don't have time to replace the wood. | 46:27 | |
Someone else will do it. | 46:28 | |
Maybe. | 46:31 | |
Maybe that someone is just a little too cold, | 46:33 | |
a little too tired, didn't have the energy | 46:36 | |
to collect some wood. | 46:38 | |
Maybe they were counting on that fire. | 46:40 | |
Maybe, maybe it's too late. | 46:44 | |
No one has moved mountains with this philosophy yet, | 46:49 | |
but the bond is there, the kinship strong. | 46:53 | |
It is up to us to take advantage of this kinship | 46:58 | |
and to help it grow, | 47:01 | |
feel the obligation to the person next to you, | 47:03 | |
behind you, in front of you. | 47:06 | |
Feel that obligation and pick up on it. | 47:10 | |
We never have a control over the larger scheme of things, | 47:13 | |
and our control over the direction | 47:18 | |
of our nation steadily declines. | 47:19 | |
We are losing control, but I do not advocate passivity | 47:22 | |
or a dissipation of our time and labor. | 47:26 |
- | As Thoreau said it best, | 0:03 |
I aspire to live deliberately | 0:05 | |
to affect the quality of the day. | 0:07 | |
I live and work today for today, | 0:11 | |
and for the hopes of a tomorrow. | 0:14 | |
This apparently secular philosophy | 0:17 | |
requires a giant's leap to faith | 0:21 | |
and belief in God. | 0:22 | |
I must believe that all the world, | 0:25 | |
right and wrong, is heading towards some destination. | 0:26 | |
I try to make the most of my gift from God, my life. | 0:32 | |
To live wholeheartedly in this world today | 0:37 | |
is to affirm life and to acknowledge this gift from God. | 0:40 | |
But the leap is great and I struggle. | 0:46 | |
I may not see God this semester, or the next. | 0:51 | |
Until then, I look around my campground | 0:56 | |
here at Duke to see if I've forgotten | 1:00 | |
to pick up anything I brought with me. | 1:03 | |
I think I need to collect some firewood. | 1:08 | |
(organ and choir music) | 1:16 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 3:51 |
We believe in God, who has created | 3:55 | |
and is creating, who has come | 3:58 | |
in the truly human Jesus to reconcile and make new. | 4:01 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 4:05 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church. | 4:09 | |
To celebrate life in its fullness, | 4:14 | |
to love and serve others, | 4:17 | |
to seek justice and resist evil. | 4:19 | |
To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 4:23 | |
our judge and our hope. | 4:27 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 4:30 | |
God is with us, we are not alone. | 4:34 | |
Thanks be to God. | 4:38 | |
The lord be with you. | 4:41 | |
- | (all together) Amen. | 4:44 |
- | Let us pray. | 4:45 |
How can, how dare we pray to you, | 5:00 | |
oh holy and hidden one? | 5:03 | |
Whose ways are not our ways, | 5:06 | |
who reigns in awful mystery | 5:10 | |
beyond the realm of space and time. | 5:12 | |
And yet, and yet how can we not pray to you, | 5:17 | |
you who knows what it is to be human, | 5:22 | |
because you dwelt among us as human. | 5:26 | |
Breaking with us the bread of our affliction, | 5:30 | |
drinking deep of the cup of our despair. | 5:34 | |
How can we not pray to you, | 5:38 | |
when it is your very spirit alive within us | 5:40 | |
that moves us to pray? | 5:44 | |
Hear oh God, the prayer of all of your children everywhere. | 5:48 | |
For forgiveness and healing, | 5:53 | |
for courage, for faith, | 5:56 | |
prayers for the needs of others, | 5:59 | |
prayers for peace among the desperate nations. | 6:02 | |
Whether you give or withhold what we ask, | 6:08 | |
whether you answer us in words | 6:11 | |
that burn like fire, or in silence that burns like fire, | 6:13 | |
increase in us the awareness that you | 6:20 | |
are always more near to us than our breathing. | 6:22 | |
That your will for us is love. | 6:26 | |
And deep beneath our asking, | 6:31 | |
so deep beneath that we are all but deaf to it ourselves. | 6:34 | |
Hear, oh God, the secret song of every human heart. | 6:39 | |
Praising you. | 6:44 | |
Rejoicing with the morning stars that you create us, | 6:46 | |
and that we are yours. | 6:51 | |
Make strong and wild this secret song. | 6:54 | |
Until it bursts forth at last, | 6:58 | |
to your glory, and our salvation, | 7:01 | |
oh you who are the God no less of those | 7:08 | |
who know you than of those who love you well. | 7:10 | |
Be present with us at the times of choosing. | 7:15 | |
When time stands still, and all that lies | 7:20 | |
behind and before us are caught up | 7:23 | |
in the mystery of a moment. | 7:27 | |
Be present especially with the young, | 7:31 | |
who must choose between many voices. | 7:35 | |
Cause them to know how much an old world | 7:39 | |
needs their youth, and their gladness, | 7:43 | |
and their restlessness. | 7:48 | |
Cause them to know that there are words | 7:51 | |
of truth and healing that will never | 7:53 | |
be spoken unless they speak them. | 7:55 | |
Deeds of compassion and courage | 7:59 | |
that won't be done unless they do them. | 8:02 | |
Help them not to mistake success for victory, | 8:08 | |
or failure for defeat. | 8:11 | |
Grant that they may never be entirely content | 8:15 | |
with whatever bounty the world bestows upon them. | 8:18 | |
But that they may at last know | 8:22 | |
that they were created not for happiness, | 8:24 | |
but for joy. | 8:29 | |
And that joy is to those alone | 8:31 | |
who sometimes with tears in their eyes | 8:35 | |
commit themselves in love to you | 8:38 | |
and to the human family. | 8:42 | |
Lead them and all your world ever deeper | 8:46 | |
into the knowledge that the human family is one, | 8:48 | |
and that there can never really be joy for any | 8:54 | |
until there is joy for all. | 8:57 | |
The ugly with the beautiful. | 9:01 | |
The criminal with the child. | 9:03 | |
The enemy with the friend. | 9:07 | |
Lord, give us eyes to see ourselves | 9:10 | |
and each other more nearly as you see us. | 9:13 | |
To see beneath each face we meet, | 9:17 | |
and beneath even our own faces. | 9:20 | |
Your face. | 9:23 | |
We do pray this prayer, and make these pleas, | 9:29 | |
in the name of Jesus Christ, who teaches us to pray. | 9:33 | |
Our father, who art in heaven, | 9:38 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 9:41 | |
thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. | 9:46 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 9:51 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 9:54 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 9:56 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 10:00 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 10:02 | |
for thine is the kingdom, | 10:04 | |
and the power, and the glory, forever, amen. | 10:07 | |
(orchestra music) | 10:15 | |
(choir and organ together) | 12:07 | |
- | By our lives, oh God, and these gifts | 19:37 |
which we bring to your service and the ministry, | 19:40 | |
we declare our faith. | 19:44 | |
We ask now that by your spirit | 19:47 | |
you capture us with the vision | 19:49 | |
that you have for this world. | 19:51 | |
A place where love reigns, and peace is at home. | 19:54 | |
We do pray and seek to serve. | 20:00 | |
In your son's name, amen. | 20:04 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 20:11 | |
(choir and orchestra together) | 20:59 | |
- | I remind you of the celebration of the Eucharist | 23:13 |
immediately after this service in Memorial Chapel, | 23:15 | |
and invite you to participate in that service with us. | 23:19 | |
And now, may the grace of our lord Jesus Christ | 23:23 | |
and the love of God, and the fellowship | 23:27 | |
of the Holy Spirit be with you this day, | 23:29 | |
in this place, and forever, wherever you may be. | 23:32 | |
(choir singing) | 23:50 | |
(playful organ music) | 24:14 |
Item Info
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