Stuart C. Henry - "Instant Millennium" (May 10, 1970)

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	(organ plays, choir singing)	0:03
-	Christian brothers and sisters.	2:49
	We've come to that part in our service of worship,	2:53
	where we confess before God	2:58
	and in the company of each other,	3:01
	not only the fact that we are sinners	3:05
	and in need of forgiveness,	3:09
	But the particular ways in which we need to be forgiven.	3:12
	We do not all have exactly the same needs	3:18
	at the point of confession and forgiveness.	3:23
	And each one of us is expected silently and personally	3:27
	to give conscious expression to God	3:33
	of his own sense of guilt.	3:36
	But in this particular instance,	3:41
	as in every other prayer of confession	3:42
	and corporate worship,	3:46
	we use words which have been found by the church	3:48
	through the ages	3:53
	to be spiritually useful to Christian people in expressing	3:55
	their sense of guilt and their need of forgiveness.	4:02
	Today, we use the words of John Knox.	4:06
	So may we join together in this unison,	4:09
	prayer of confession, let us pray.	4:12
	Oh, eternal God and most merciful father we confess	4:15
	and acknowledge here before thy divine majesty	4:20
	that we are miserable sinners.	4:24
	That in us, there is no goodness,	4:27
	but since we are displeased with ourselves,	4:30
	for the sins that we have committed against thee,	4:32
	and do sincerely repent of the same,	4:36
	we most humbly beseech thee, for Jesus Christ's sake	4:39
	to show thy mercy upon us,	4:44
	to forgive us all our sins, and to increase thy	4:47
	holy spirit in us,	4:51
	help us to bring forth such fruits as may be agreeable	4:53
	to thy most blessed will,	4:57
	not because of the worthiness thereof,	4:59
	but for the merits of the ideally beloved son, Jesus Christ.	5:02
	Our only savior, amen.	5:07
	In the book of Micah, we hear again today,	5:13
	the familiar words, which are so assuring and comfortable.	5:18
	Who is like unto God, who pardons inequity,	5:25
	and passes over transgression.	5:30
	He does not retain his anger forever	5:34
	because he delights in steadfast love.	5:38
	He will again have compassion upon us.	5:42
	He will tread our inequities under foot.	5:45
	He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.	5:49
	So be it.	5:54
	(organ plays)	5:58
	(distant door shuts)	8:56
	(choir singing)	9:21
	Scripture lesson this morning comes from the 12th and 13	12:06
	chapters of Matthew.	12:09
	When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man,	12:12
	he passes through waterless places seeking rest,	12:14
	but he finds none.	12:17
	Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came.	12:19
	And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept,	12:23
	and put in order.	12:26
	Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits,	12:27
	more evil than himself. And they enter and dwell there.	12:30
	And the last state of man becomes worse than the first.	12:34
	So shall it be with this evil generation,	12:38
	another parable he put before them saying the kingdom of	12:42
	heaven may be compared to a man	12:45
	who sowed good seed in his field.	12:47
	But while men were sleeping,	12:50
	his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat	12:51
	and went away.	12:54
	So when the plants came up in bore grain,	12:55
	then the weeds appeared also.	12:58
	And the servants of the household came and said to him, sir,	13:00
	did you not sow good seed in your field?	13:04
	How then has it weeds? He said to them,	13:06
	an enemy has done this. The servants said to him,	13:09
	then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said,	13:12
	no, blessed in gathering the weeds. You root up the wheat,	13:15
	along with them, let both grow together until the harvest.	13:19
	And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers,	13:22
	gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles	13:25
	to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.	13:28
	May the Lord blessed us, the reading of this word.	13:32
	Amen.	13:34
	(organ plays, choir sings)	13:36
	The Lord be with you.	14:18
	(audience murmurs)	14:20
	Let us pray.	14:21
	Almighty God,	14:32
	on a day when action is the order of the day,	14:34
	we pause in thy presence to get our bearings.	14:39
	All about us, and within us, we are aware of stirring action	14:44
	In distant lands, men take up arms against each other.	14:53
	In our land,	14:58
	we strive earnestly against those who oppose our policies.	14:59
	O creator of the universe.	15:05
	Help us to know thou art also active,	15:08
	that the living God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.	15:13
	Grant unto us the vision to see thy works	15:19
	and the wisdom to join the divine action.	15:23
	Heavenly father, we are not sure that all the voices we hear	15:29
	or all the words we speak are really very wise.	15:34
	We pray for grace to know where good judgment may be found.	15:39
	We don't mind being disturbed and in turmoil,	15:44
	if progress is really being made.	15:48
	And if thy will is being worked out.	15:51
	So amid all the loud contentions and counterclaims,	15:55
	help us to hear thy still small voice,	16:01
	God, we ask this both for others and for ourselves,	16:06
	O Lord, as the end of the academic year comes swiftly	16:14
	enable us to compose our thoughts to sift the important	16:19
	from the expendable.	16:24
	To make good use of the remaining time.	16:26
	While in thy Providence,	16:30
	we follow the holy vocation of being students	16:31
	and scholars.	16:35
	Do thou give clarity to the confused,	16:39
	give nerve to the hesitant,	16:43
	give tranquility to the fevered mind,	16:46
	give love to the lonely,	16:50
	give relaxed courage to the defeated.	16:53
	We pray for fresh grace to be given to those who suffer	16:57
	from the traditional ills.	17:01
	Sickness, sorrow, tragic accidents, and that sort of thing.	17:03
	But who find these traditional problems	17:08
	very pointedly personal, when they become the victim,	17:11
	we pray for them.	17:16
	We pray for those who plan their marriage.	17:20
	For those who have a new baby,	17:23
	We pray for our student leaders, for the faculty,	17:27
	for the administration,	17:33
	for the trustees.	17:36
	That all of these people may see themselves,	17:39
	not mainly in these roles,	17:43
	but see themselves standing under thy awful judgment	17:46
	And see themselves as candidates	17:54
	for thine amazing grace.	17:59
	We pray also for the parents who sacrifice	18:03
	that we may be here.	18:08
	Especially today, we offer our prayers	18:11
	for the mothers of the world upon whom so very much depends.	18:14
	Give them sobriety, give them love,	18:21
	patience, strength.	18:27
	Give them the willingness to wait many years for the reward	18:31
	of their devotion.	18:35
	And now unto all men and to us.	18:38
	Grant thyself most of all, O God.	18:44
	And grant unto us.	18:49
	Not mainly the answer to our prayers,	18:52
	But the spirit of prayer is taught by thy son,	18:57
	our Lord Jesus Christ,	19:00
	who has taught us when we pray to say,	19:03
	our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	19:06
	thy kingdom come,	19:11
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	19:13
	Give us this day,	19:17
	our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive	19:18
	those who trespass against us	19:23
	and lead us not into temptation,	19:26
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	19:28
	and the power and the glory forever. Amen.	19:32
	In the name of the father and of the son	19:58
	and of the holy spirit.	20:02
	Amen.	20:04
	One hears a great deal these days	20:12
	about America being a violent nation.	20:15
	No doubt it is.	20:19
	But truth, we think, is better served by remembering	20:23
	that it is man, raw human nature,	20:27
	that is violent.	20:33
	Cruelty has no nationality,	20:36
	and violence neither has nor needs a flag.	20:39
	To the extent that we are members of the human race,	20:44
	just to that extent, we are at least by imports, however,	20:49
	civilized or however sublimated, at least by imports,	20:54
	we are violent.	21:00
	And to the extent that we live in company with our fellows,	21:02
	we live in company with violent men and in a violent culture	21:07
	potential always, actual to often,	21:13
	it is not by accident that God spoke to Kane of sin	21:19
	being like a beast, crouching,	21:24
	always ready to spring upon a victim,	21:27
	for it is this way with sin and violence,	21:31
	which issues from it.	21:34
	Verily we are men of violence.	21:37
	And we live in the midst of a people of violence,	21:41
	and yet it is possible,	21:44
	even for this violence to be born of good intention,	21:47
	of the desire and the touching faith that life can be good.	21:52
	So much is true.	21:58
	Our indignation is often as not, righteous,	22:01
	even though our actions, God forgive us are self righteous.	22:06
	We assume for ourselves the aura of nobility,	22:12
	of self-sacrifice, and of grandeur by the actions that we do	22:16
	sometimes even with justification.	22:23
	But for the most part,	22:27
	we are rather like the apostle Peter	22:28
	on the night of the arrest of Jesus	22:32
	in the garden of Gethsemane.	22:34
	He saw the one whom he had followed	22:37
	set upon like a common felon.	22:39
	He was threatened and in danger	22:43
	and Peter, impulsive, angry and involved	22:46
	snatched his sword and lashed out about him madly,	22:51
	he was not able to forestall the arrest of Jesus,	22:56
	he did actually no injury to the enemies of Jesus.	23:01
	He simply succeeded in cutting off the heir	23:05
	of the servant of the high priest.	23:08
	And yet we are sympathetic with Peter because he was crowded	23:12
	by powers and forces, which he could not understand.	23:16
	And he felt he had to do something,	23:20
	that he must take some action,	23:23
	that any action was better than no action.	23:25
	And we understand quite well this experience,	23:29
	for we have met it in our own personal and inner histories.	23:33
	When we look about us and we see ignorance and weakness	23:38
	and squalor, and disease, and bloodshed, and death,	23:43
	we want to do something about it.	23:49
	We want to tear down walls.	23:51
	We want to burn away barriers.	23:54
	Most of all, we want to strike out at the oppressor,	23:57
	but alas, we do not always know who the oppressor is.	24:01
	And so we lash out blindly at that person or institution	24:07
	that is nearest at hand,	24:13
	because we feel we must do something.	24:15
	And any action is better than no action.	24:18
	But sadly,	24:21
	we are very often like those pitiful blind children	24:22
	of whom we read.	24:28
	Striking their sightless eyes	24:30
	because they know instinctively	24:33
	that they should be able to see,	24:35
	even though they cannot, they must do something.	24:38
	Now, whatever else this kind of behavior	24:44
	reveals about ourselves,	24:47
	it is of clear admission	24:50
	that we acknowledge a man's own heart	24:52
	as the nursery of evil.	24:56
	We know this, we have lived in the midst of sin,	24:59
	which is the product of greedy and apathetic	25:05
	and prideful hearts.	25:08
	And we have seen that sin added and multiplied	25:09
	so that in the end, it creates out of our own hearts,	25:14
	vicious systems and tolerates oppressive powers.	25:20
	Consider, surely no one,	25:25
	except the psychopath is eager willfully to bring down	25:28
	wasting disease upon his neighbor.	25:33
	We do not revel in human suffering.	25:36
	And yet we live in the midst of much disease and sickness	25:40
	because our hearts are evil.	25:45
	We have not visited ourselves to make intelligent warfare	25:49
	upon disease.	25:53
	Not because we hate our brothers,	25:55
	but because we forget them or ignore them.	25:58
	And yet out of our own selfish concern for our comfort	26:02
	and for our pleasure,	26:07
	we have allowed the inevitable infection to spread	26:09
	and to bring down as its victims,	26:14
	those ill housed and undernourished folk who are defenseless	26:17
	and powerless against it.	26:22
	We have encouraged the spread of epidemic	26:25
	because we have tolerated the rat infested slums,	26:29
	where it can fester.	26:34
	And we know this somehow in our heart of hearts,	26:36
	each man knows it.	26:40
	We do not have to look too deeply to realize that the ills	26:42
	which beset the society that we know	26:48
	are finally the responsibility of individual men	26:51
	and mortals,	26:55
	for the fault is not with ourselves, but with our stars.	26:57
	But with ourselves that we live in the midst	27:03
	of a social mores,	27:06
	we have done it to ourselves and to our brothers,	27:09
	or let me put it this way.	27:14
	Jesus knew this,	27:16
	everything that he said and everything that he did	27:19
	was upon the assumption that there will never	27:24
	be a better world	27:27
	until there are better people in the world.	27:29
	Again and again,	27:32
	he spoke of ultimates	27:34
	in terms of the lowest common denominator, the human factor.	27:35
	And so it is not strange that he should give to us a comet	27:42
	that sheds a bleak light upon the origin	27:46
	and the problem of evil by looking at the human heart,	27:50
	which begets it.	27:54
	For he knew where evil comes.	27:56
	The wisdom is contained in an eerie story	28:00
	about a haunted house.	28:03
	But the parable throws light	28:06
	upon our present predicament,	28:09
	upon the chaos, which is in essence upon the frustration,	28:11
	which it begets and upon the violence,	28:16
	which always follows it.	28:20
	Once upon a time,	28:23
	there was a demon who lived with what measure of comfort	28:25
	we can only imagine, but we think rather happily,	28:30
	a demon who lived in that favorite of all hearts for demons,	28:35
	a human heart, better than a deserted place,	28:40
	better than an empty tomb.	28:45
	A demon preferred the heart of a man.	28:47
	Now, this particular demon,	28:50
	for what reasons we can only conjecture,	28:53
	had at the part at which Jesus began his story,	28:56
	left his familiar home.	29:00
	And the suggestion is very strong	29:03
	that he had been turned away.	29:06
	And so he went,	29:09
	as the Bible tells, through the waterless places,	29:10
	seeking for a place to domicile and rest.	29:15
	Now demons seem to be fond of desert places,	29:19
	but they are fonder of compatibility.	29:24
	And so, 'cause he was a resourceful,	29:28
	as well as an evil and unclean spirit.	29:31
	He bethought himself of his former life.	29:35
	And he said, I will go back to the house from which I came	29:38
	and he returned and sad to relate.	29:42
	Say from the demon's point of view,	29:45
	he found that house empty and swept and in perfect order,	29:48
	he did not even stop, but went quickly.	29:54
	I imagine, and gathered to himself seven other demons,	29:57
	more wicked and more sinister than he	30:01
	and they established residence in that cursed soul.	30:04
	And so concludes Jesus.	30:09
	The end of that man,	30:11
	his latter state was worse than the first.	30:13
	Now we have had this story repeated often enough in our own	30:18
	experience and in the society about us,	30:23
	that we cannot deny it's true, whatever else it says.	30:26
	It says this, depressing as the story may be,	30:32
	that evil finally cannot be destroyed.	30:36
	It can banished.	30:41
	It can be riposte.	30:44
	It can be conquered, but it cannot be destroyed.	30:46
	Like the lurking beast,	30:52
	it is waiting always on the threshold of consciousness	30:53
	for evil is a force at bay,	30:58
	but never an enemy that is slain.	31:02
	The implication is very clear in this story.	31:06
	Negative action alone is not enough.	31:10
	It does no good to turn the evil out of the heart	31:14
	unless we have something constructive and positive	31:18
	to put in its place.	31:21
	It is useless to slay the lie	31:23
	unless we give birth to the truth.	31:27
	It is futile, always,	31:30
	to stop the war unless we begin the peace.	31:33
	For in doing so, we do nothing less	31:38
	than to deny temporary lodging to a demon who will wander	31:42
	and in due course come again to his old heart	31:47
	and establish residence there with other devils	31:50
	even worse than himself.	31:54
	What this means is that so long as they are only negative,	31:56
	all our rallies, all our marches, all our enthusiasms,	32:03
	all our actions, violent or otherwise, are of little worth.	32:10
	There must be something embraced and established	32:16
	in the place of that which is destroyed,	32:20
	nor is this a provincial truth that I speak.	32:23
	Even the most jaded of us	32:28
	subjected as we are,	32:31
	not simply to the huckstering intimidation of television,	32:33
	but exposed also to the beautiful and strange	32:38
	and far away sights.	32:43
	Even the most sophisticated and the most jaded of us	32:45
	is likely to be breathless on first encounter	32:49
	with the Indian God Shiva in his native land.	32:53
	There is a kind of snakey bird,	32:58
	a fascination about this destroyer who dances before us.	33:00
	We see him upon the squirming,	33:06
	writhing body of the demon of destruction.	33:09
	He waves forearms gracefully.	33:13
	A crescent moon is upon his head,	33:15
	the water of the Ganges flows in his hair.	33:18
	And he is called the destroyer, the manslayer,	33:22
	the threatener, his presence is always in disease and death.	33:26
	And he stands close by every funeral power.	33:31
	And we identify with him.	33:35
	We too would like to be able strike down our enemies	33:37
	with the twinkling of an eye,	33:42
	to destroy those who oppose us with a word of our mouths.	33:44
	Particularly when those who oppose us seem to stand	33:49
	in the way of progress,	33:54
	or seem to condemn the innocent to undeserved	33:56
	and cruel death.	34:00
	And yet even as the parable of the demon	34:01
	turned out of his home,	34:05
	illustrates that destructive action alone is not enough.	34:07
	So the truth is built also into the myth of Shiva.	34:12
	In his dim beginnings, when he first appeared,	34:17
	he used to descend from his mountain home	34:21
	in raids that were punitive and destructive.	34:24
	And yet those who penetrated his remote	34:28
	and mountain fastness found curiously there,	34:32
	that there were medicinal herbs growing under his watchful	34:36
	and tender care,	34:40
	which were meant for the healing of nations and of man.	34:42
	Could it be that man had misunderstood Shiva?	34:46
	Was it possible that his visitations	34:51
	were blessings in disguise?	34:54
	Gradually as they reflected,	34:58
	they understood the true role and the principle incorporated	35:00
	in the person of Shiva.	35:04
	While he was a destroyer,	35:06
	not by way of being negative,	35:08
	but because of the activity that was itself constructed,	35:11
	he destroyed in order to bring into being a new creation.	35:16
	Is it not ever thus?	35:21
	The egg disappears when the throb of life begins,	35:24
	the embryo is destroyed when the child is born.	35:28
	When the man appears the child is no more,	35:33
	this is ever the way it is.	35:37
	Or if we say it in Christian idiom,	35:40
	a man dies to the world, and he lives to Christ	35:43
	and is made a new being.	35:47
	Now, what we have tried to say is obvious enough,	35:50
	what we have communicated is another matter, let us review.	35:56
	There is violence in the world	36:01
	and we contribute to the violence.	36:04
	We live in a violent time.	36:06
	And so periodically we lash out against the violence,	36:09
	but our efforts are not effective.	36:13
	We are somehow not able to restore.	36:16
	And we find ourselves in a situation like that described	36:20
	in the parable told by Jesus	36:24
	of a man who banished a demon from himself	36:27
	and yet was visited subsequently by others.	36:30
	So that the last state was worse than the first.	36:33
	This suggests to us,	36:37
	that part of our difficulty is that we lack positive	36:39
	and constructive action.	36:42
	Destruction itself is of little value,	36:45
	except as the poet tells,	36:49
	we do so to build more stately mansions, oh my soul.	36:51
	Recently, Hannah Arendt has reminded us yet again,	36:57
	that violence may be the tool of power,	37:01
	but violence can never be power.	37:05
	And so we come to focus finally, to the insistent question	37:09
	that will not be pushed.	37:14
	Why, why?	37:16
	And the riddle,	37:19
	and the question does not ask	37:20
	why our efforts are ineffective.	37:23
	It does not ask why we have built nothing in the place of	37:25
	that which we have destroyed.	37:29
	Rather, the question asked,	37:31
	why have we not been able enthusiastically and actively	37:34
	to embrace and to build something with the same deep vigor	37:39
	and the same devotion and the same energy	37:44
	that we turn upon the structure,	37:46
	and I'll submit to you that the answer lies in our idealism,	37:50
	naive, touching, impractical.	37:56
	Yes, but naive even so,	38:01
	but we have not been able to give ourselves wholeheartedly	38:05
	to building again for the simple reason that we have not	38:08
	found the perfect program in which we can participate.	38:13
	Do you see what we want is instant millennium	38:17
	and the world is not structured after this fashion.	38:22
	Because we want to do away with all the poverty.	38:26
	Now, we find it difficult	38:30
	to be glad that 100 men can be spared.	38:33
	Because we want to stop all the war	38:37
	and have all the men home.	38:40
	Now, we cannot rejoice in one life that is spared.	38:42
	But we found ourselves rather in the role of starving men	38:48
	who, because they are not bidden to a feast	38:53
	are unwilling to feed upon path alone,	38:56
	much less upon crimes.	39:00
	Does it surprise you that our offer in support and	39:03
	illustration of this point of view,	39:07
	yet another parable that was told by Jesus,	39:09
	in the once upon a time of this parable,	39:14
	the time is your time.	39:18
	Anytime, my time,	39:20
	all the days of our lives,	39:24
	for whatever else the parables are, they are universal.	39:26
	Once upon a time,	39:30
	there was a man who sold good seed in a field.	39:32
	What were the seed?	39:36
	Whether your dreams, your plans,	39:38
	your program for a school where children might learn,	39:43
	not simply their letters, but their lives,	39:46
	your plan for a community where people could live together	39:49
	in love, your plan.	39:53
	Even for a world without war, a plan that would work,	39:56
	no matter.	40:01
	We all sow our seed and have our dreams.	40:02
	And once upon a time, a man sold good seed in the field.	40:06
	And as he slept,	40:10
	an enemy came and sowed darn weeds amongst the wheat	40:12
	so that when the grain was green	40:17
	and the crop began to develop, the weeds appeared also,	40:19
	did you find that those working closest with you	40:25
	were not always responsible or always trustworthy,	40:29
	were not always interested in the movement or in the cause?	40:34
	No matter, the weeds appeared then as they always will,	40:39
	and as they always do.	40:43
	And his servants came and told him and he said,	40:46
	an enemy has done this.	40:49
	And his servants were eager to root out the weeds,	40:50
	all the weeds then,	40:54
	but the master did not suffer them to do so. No.	40:57
	He said, let them grow.	40:59
	For in the end, the weeds will be destroyed.	41:02
	Meanwhile, the wheat will be preserved.	41:06
	And so the story ended.	41:09
	But for our part, let us end the story at that part	41:11
	when the master gave advice to his servants and said,	41:15
	do not destroy the weeds,	41:19
	rather accept the world as it is.	41:21
	Distressing advice,	41:25
	but realistic advice, and merciful.	41:28
	To you, and to me.	41:33
	I dare not expect or demand a perfect student	41:37
	until I am a perfect teacher.	41:43
	I dare say the converse is true.	41:47
	We cannot expect a perfect university until each of us	41:51
	is ready to contribute, however modest and small	41:56
	our participation in the university is, perfection.	42:00
	And the same thing might be said of the community	42:05
	or the world in which we live.	42:08
	Or shall I put it this way?	42:11
	We are such ambivalent men,	42:13
	that we can build no more than an ambivalent world.	42:17
	Why do we think that our brothers who also are man	42:21
	will build anything but an ambivalent world?	42:25
	Mind you, I am not saying that one	42:29
	should ever want or seek less than perfection.	42:32
	We should not suffer for less than millennium.	42:36
	This is what we should desire and seek and draw after.	42:38
	But since we cannot achieve it instantly,	42:43
	let us not be unwilling in the place of that	42:46
	which we destroy, to plant something positive.	42:49
	However modest.	42:53
	However tentative, we are men of ambivalence.	42:55
	A contemporary novelist has said	43:00
	that men are much of a mediocrity	43:03
	be they British or Russian or German or French or Spanish.	43:06
	And he might have added or be they Asian or African.	43:13
	But this is true.	43:18
	We are not so much men as we are civil wars	43:20
	within ourselves.	43:24
	We are voters about what we can't do.	43:26
	We are humble about what we can.	43:30
	We are liars in safety, but we are truthful in danger.	43:33
	We are cowardly in smoke rooms,	43:39
	but we are courageous and brave in shell holes.	43:44
	Lewd with strange women.	43:49
	Tender with our wives.	43:52
	We live ourselves beneath the stars in the sky,	43:55
	not caring and yet look at poor pathetic human nature.	43:59
	All these men with bellies and eyes and fingernails	44:06
	and hair, all stamped with God's image.	44:11
	And also very pitiful when they are asleep.	44:16
	Surely it is our business and our duty to teach them	44:20
	how to love one another.	44:24
	But for God's sake,	44:27
	while we strive and long and wait for the millennium,	44:29
	let us not forbear to do whatever little we can positive.	44:34
	Because the perfect is not available to us.	44:39
	Millennium does not come instantly.	44:44
	It may never come,	44:48
	but it will surely never come at all	44:51
	if we forbear to do anything in God's cause.	44:55
	No one calling himself a Christian dare do less.	45:02
	Because we cannot instantly and now achieve.	45:05
	Almighty God,	45:13
	forgive us for the infirmity of our purpose,	45:18
	for the weakness of our will,	45:22
	for the littleness of our imagination.	45:26
	Grant unto us the faith to hope when hope seems hopeless.	45:30
	Grant unto us,	45:39
	the faith to strive when striving seems of nothing worth.	45:40
	Grant unto us indeed,	45:46
	the grace to be embraced within thine own purpose and will,	45:48
	and to seek, to discover thou will for us	45:54
	rather than proudly to invent	45:58
	the goals that we have established as eternal.	46:01
	Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord.	46:06
	Amen.	46:08
	(organ plays)	46:10
	(choir sings)	46:41
	(opera singing)	51:29
	(organ playing)	53:32
	(choir singing)	53:53
	Almighty God, we give thee thanks.	54:49
	That in making thy marvelous creation	54:52
	thou has told us it will not be complete	54:55
	without our own contribution.	54:58
	And so now as we see the challenge before us,	55:02
	help us to dedicate even our imperfect efforts	55:05
	and our imperfect abilities to a perfect effort	55:10
	of helping to finish thy creation	55:15
	for the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	55:17
	Now may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ be with us all.	55:25
	(choir singing)	55:33
	(church bell rings)	57:11
	(peaceful music)	57:28

Item Info

Title:

Stuart C. Henry - "Instant Millennium" (May 10, 1970)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49z94d4w

Date:

May 10, 1970

Speaker:

Henry, Stuart C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0520
ref6245_n6m
uachapelsermaud
duke:628662
dcrau002510
ark:/87924/r49z94d4w
3b58d76f-feef-4b92-974c-b23f9799a4d4

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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.

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In Copyright

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Stuart C. Henry - "Instant Millennium" (May 10, 1970)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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