Thomas A. Collins - "Christ's Inaugural Address" (August 13, 1972) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

(choir singing)

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

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and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.

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As Christians, we are a people who would be men

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and women who see things as they really are,

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who call things by their right names,

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whose work is valid and whose world is whole.

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Here, as we worship together,

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we hear the word that tells us what we were meant to be

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and we stand before the one who has created us

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and given us life.

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And here, before the presence of his holiness,

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we confront our denied discipleship,

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our weak idolatries, and our faithlessness.

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But it is here also that we hear the word of repentance

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and the word of hope, for Jesus' words speak to us.

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I am not come to call the righteous,

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but sinners to repentance.

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It is because of the same Jesus

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whose love will not let us go, though we crucified him,

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that we dare with confidence to approach

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and admit our guilt before God,

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believing his promise to hear,

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to forgive, to heal, and to restore.

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Let us offer unto God our prayer of confession, let us pray.

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Almighty and most merciful God, our Father,

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we thank you for this opportunity of confession and renewal.

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We have carried about with us

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the burden of memory and regret,

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of failure and remorse.

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And it is sapped our vitality

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and made us languid in service and feeble in witness.

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Help us, now, we ask, to acknowledge our transgressions

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and to face with utter honesty, the evasions, compromises,

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and cowardices of which we have been guilty.

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We believe it is your will for us to rise to better life,

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to learn from the mistakes of the past

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and to live in firm dependence upon you.

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To this end, we open our lives anew

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to the coming of your searching light and truth.

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We remember the words of our Lord when he said,

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"Judge not that you be not judged."

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O God, our heavenly Father, as we remember these words,

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we ask that you would forgive us

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for our hasty discriminations.

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Forgive us if we label men,

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if we substitute slogans for thought,

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and estimate our fellows

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without firsthand knowledge of them.

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Forgive us when we fail to see people

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because we are preoccupied with abstractions like law

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and justice and tradition.

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Forgive us when we are more intent on being right

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than on being reconciled.

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Forgive us too when we refrain

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from judgment for the wrong reasons,

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through fear of recrimination or lack of sensitiveness.

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We confess before you, O Lord,

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that because we have been arrogant in spirit,

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the kingdom has often remained closed to us.

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We have tried to bully life,

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to exploit it instead of loving and appreciating it,

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to own it rather than to enjoy it as a free gift from you.

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We ask to be delivered from all possessiveness

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that strives to create a private heaven

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or to imprison people within our small circle.

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O God, whose justice demands truth in our inward parts,

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we pray your forgiveness for the sins of our hearts

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and our wills, which we only know best,

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for not thinking deeply, for being sometimes too intense,

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for being inattentive to your word and to your voice,

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for the lack of feeling and intercession

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for the needs of our families,

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for the oppressed, for the hungry,

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for those in temptation and those without hope.

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We pray your forgiveness for an uncritical attitude

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to our own membership in a society of great affluence,

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for ignoring other people,

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for taking ourselves too seriously,

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for sins of exhibition and for sins of inhibition,

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for a failure to think and pray

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and act deeply for the mission and unity of your church,

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for trying to imprison you in words

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and in institutions.

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O Lord our God, forgive what we have been,

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sanctify what we are and order what we shall be

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that we may delight in your will

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and walk always in your ways

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.

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Let us hear and receive, with thanksgiving and joy,

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these words of assurance.

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From the holy scriptures, if anyone is in Jesus, the Christ,

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he is a new being.

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

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To be a Christian, a member of Christ's body,

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is to be established already here and now in this world

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in an estate of reconciliation,

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which at once accepts oneself

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and reaches out to embrace the whole world.

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To be a Christian is to receive and know

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and participate in the unconditional,

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extravagant, inexhaustible, expendable love of God

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for all that he has made and called into being.

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Let us continue our praise of God

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with the responsive Psalm of thanksgiving, numbered 592.

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"Let us rejoice and be glad.

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O give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

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His steadfast love endures forever.

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Let those who fear the Lord say,

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'His stead love endures forever.'

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Out of my distress, I called on the Lord.

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The Lord answered me and set me free.

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With the Lord on my side, I do not fear.

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What can man do to me?

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It is better to take refuge in the Lord

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than to put confidence in princess.

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Open to me the gates of righteousness

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that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

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This is the gate of the Lord,

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the righteous shall enter through it.

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I thank the that Thou has answered me

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and has become my salvation.

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The stone which the builders rejected

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has become the chief cornerstone.

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This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes.

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This is the day which the Lord hath made.

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Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord.

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We bless you from the house of the Lord.

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Thou art my God and I will give thanks to Thee.

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Thou art my God, I will extol Thee.

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O give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

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for his steadfast love endures forever."

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(instrumental music)

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(choir singing)

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(choir singing)

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(instrumental music)

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(choir singing)

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(instrumental music)

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(choir singing)

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The scripture lesson for this Sunday

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is taken from the gospel according to St. Luke 4:14-22,

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the first account of Jesus' publicly ministry

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in his own home synagogue.

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Let us hear the word of God for this day.

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"And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee

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and a report concerning him went out

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through all the surrounding country.

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And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

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And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up

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and he went to the synagogue

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as his custom was on the Sabbath day.

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And he stood up to read.

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And there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

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He opened the book and he found the place

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where it was written,

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'The spirit of the Lord is upon me

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because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

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He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

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and the recovering of sight to the blind,

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to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

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to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'

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And he closed the book

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and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

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And the eyes of all and the synagogue were fixed on him.

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And he began to say to them,

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'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'

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And all spoke well of him

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and wondered at his gracious words,

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which proceeded out of his mouth.

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And they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'"

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Here ends the reading of the lesson for this day.

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(instrumental music)

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The Lord be with you.

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Let us pray.

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Let us offer unto God our prayers

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of intercession and petition.

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Almighty God who has committed

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to your people the ministry of intercession,

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hear us as we pray for others,

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grant that our hearts may be so filled with peace,

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and with charity that we may be fit instruments of your will

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to meet our neighbor's need.

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O God, whose son Jesus did not fear to go into Jerusalem,

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where he would become a victim,

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save us from fear of facing the dangers

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that confront us in our times, we ask.

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We remember before you the victims of the laws of nature

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and those who have been the victims

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of the inhumanity of men.

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We lift before you the victims of Vietnam,

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of Ireland, of America's ghettos and highways.

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We ask your presence and your power

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among those who are victims.

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Give, we ask, to those who have felt tragedy,

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courage to pick up their shattered hopes and to begin again,

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Bless those who face pain, disappointment,

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and death this day that they find hope in you.

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Comfort those who are in bereavement

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and let us all receive with thanksgiving,

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the benefits of those who have died in the faith.

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O God, whose son Jesus made himself vulnerable

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to take common cause with children,

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the weak, the poor, the outsider, the unpopular,

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awaken in us compassion for all

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who struggle against the odds.

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Nourish in us, we ask, the capacity

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to bear insult and forbear injury,

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knowing our own aggressions

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and seeking ever to understand rather than to provoke.

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Make us tender through suffering and generous through loss.

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Help us so to value each person among us

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for who he is rather than what he does

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so that we may learn to live together without envy or malice

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and grow in affection with glad trust.

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We would intercede for our national life, O Lord,

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beseeching Thee to break down the ancient enmities

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and make peace in our land.

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Let the rich share power.

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Let the poor assume power.

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Let the old advise and consent.

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Let the young create and dissent.

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Let us love the good in our country

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more than we hate the evil.

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Bring into the common life all those who are are left out

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and who feel left out.

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Give hope, we pray, to all

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who have reason to fear the future.

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Give us passionate determination

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to use the great wealth and power in our nation

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that each child may live in a decent home,

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go to a school that educates,

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have opportunity for a job

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suitable to his talent and his skill,

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and that the agent shall abide in security and dignity.

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O Lord, restrain the reckless among us

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and curb the violence in us all,

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that we may defend the weak,

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pursue justice without partiality,

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and conduct ourselves with forbearance.

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That which is evil in us, let it die.

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That which is good in us, let it grow, we ask.

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O Lord of the harvest season,

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let this be a fruitful season for our families,

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our colleagues, our friends, and ourselves.

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Ripen us to maturity, we ask,

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that we may come to terms with ourselves,

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bear one another's burdens

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and learn to forgive one another's mistakes.

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Keep us from constant criticizing of those we love,

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lest our disapproval of them outshout our love for them.

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Let us be patient with each other,

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and when we need to, encourage us to be able

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to put an arm around ourselves.

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When we fail or lose or give up, let us not condemn,

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but comfort each other

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and encourage each other to begin again.

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O God, who art our liberator and our Lord,

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set us free, we ask, from what has been,

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and from what might have been, to live for what may be.

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Give us a hope, Lord, and restore to us a future,

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

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who taught us to pray together, saying,

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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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A message of joy, of hope, of good tidings,

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such as the inaugural message of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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After he had spent time in personal

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and spiritual preparation,

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had undergone the temptation experiences

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so clearly apparent to all of us,

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he came to his own home village

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for his first recorded sermon to people who knew him best.

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It's a rather awesome responsibility to each president

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and presidential candidate

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and to persons who are accepting high office,

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there comes an opportunity to make an inaugural address.

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And this I have so designated for Jesus,

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but usually it's far far from home,

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at Miami beach or San Francisco or in Washington DC.

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And the friends and those most supportive

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of the candidate are there

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to applaud everything that he might say,

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no matter how platitudinous it might be.

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But when you stand for that first address

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before people who've known you from your youth,

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it's a different experience.

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I can remember, in my own instance,

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the very first time that I preached

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before my own home congregation in Montgomery, Alabama,

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just a boy preacher.

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And I stood with great fear and trembling.

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I have preached before larger congregations,

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before congregations of bishops,

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before distinguished persons more able than I,

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but it didn't make the impact

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of speaking before that congregation

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whom I'd known all my life, who had known me.

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And there were some, I'm sure,

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who had come to say, "Huh!

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Listen to him, we knew him wean."

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There were others who had come to say,

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"What can he tell us that we don't already know better?"

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There were others that would say,

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"Well, let's at least see what he's learned.

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Let's see the direction that he's pointing us in life."

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And all of these were present

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and they were present when Jesus spoke.

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There were many who said, "Huh!

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What can he tell us?

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This simple carpenter's son.

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Others, "We know him, he's Joseph's son.

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He's lived here all his life.

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Where did he presume to know so much?"

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But Jesus stood before them.

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And he spoke as one with authority

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and this captivated their attention.

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And he spoke with authority, as you know,

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because he had prepared himself well enough

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to speak with authority.

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And this was his message,

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that first sermon in his own hometown

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to a congregation of disciples, friends,

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and community, followers who had come

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to hear the words of this rather strange young man.

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Jesus, in his inaugural address, said,

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"My words are simple, I bring to you words of joy,

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of freedom and of vision and insight."

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He taught them by word, but also by precept

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for he had exemplified

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and continued to exemplify what he said,

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as most of us are not able to do.

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But he gave a very simple message

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that still is one of the great messages of all time.

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"The spirit of the Lord is upon me

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because he hath anointed me

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to preach good tidings to the poor.

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He sent me to proclaim release to the captives,

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recovery of sight to the blind,

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to set at liberty those who are bruised and hurt.

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I bring you good tidings of great joy."

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This was new and it's still new today.

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We talk a lot about it.

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But these words, though they may sound trite,

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are still fairly new and untried.

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We've talked about them,

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but we haven't necessarily put them into practice.

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And so there's a newness in quality

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that we have yet to incorporate, if the gospel,

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the good tidings of great joy is to be as relevant

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and meaningful as it ought to be.

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The church had not done its part

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in making it good news of great joy.

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The Pharisees and the rulers of the church

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had made it a burdensome thing

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of obedience to rules and regulations.

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And they exemplified this by going about

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with long faces and chastising anyone

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who seemed to enjoy life.

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And so the church had acquired for the youth

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and the adults alike, a reputation

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that made it unnecessary responsibility periodically,

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but not something you wanted

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to take with you in all of life.

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And too easily, we have done the same.

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I would remind you that Jesus began

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that great sermon on the mount,

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not with beware or thou shall not, but blessed.

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Blessed is life when you do these things.

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The good news that was announced at the time of his coming,

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that annunciation message of the angel,

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"Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy

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for unto you is born this day

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in the city of David, a savior,"

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which is Christ the Lord.

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Good tidings, good news, news of joy.

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The good news of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

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the good news of Jesus Christ was given as good tidings

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set among some of the world's worst conditions.

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It's easy for us to fantasize and say,

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"Oh, well it was so easy for him to talk of good news

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in that simple land, in that simple life."

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But I would remind you that poverty was much more abject

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than it has been known for centuries.

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Servitude to Rome made life burdensome and often dangerous.

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Criminality was rampant so that it was very difficult

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to go from village to village,

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often, even at the night, from house to house.

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Disease was uncontrolled and uncontrollable.

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Women were the chattel property of men,

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with no place or opportunity for a place in life,

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racial injustice and prejudice, the norm,

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and not the exception anywhere in Christ's known world.

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And yet with conditions like this,

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he was not a starry eyed visionary,

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but a realist when he said,

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"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.

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The spirit of the Lord is upon me

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and hath anointed me to bring the tidings

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of good news, even to the poor."

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They were joyful in his presence because they realized

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that Jesus was offering them the overcoming power of love.

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As I say, I recall my first sermon

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there in city church in Montgomery.

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If I were to choose again,

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I don't think I could choose a better topic,

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but I'm sure I would do a great deal more and differently.

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I chose John 3:16, and said,

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"The answer for all the problems of the world

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is the love of God in Christ Jesus."

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This, I would still say, but I would try

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to say it more and more effectively.

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And I have come to realize that it isn't just what you say,

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but it must be exemplified in what you are and what you do.

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Jesus personified the love of God.

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And so he brought to them good tidings

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and they understood, good news to all men,

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by Jesus' precept and example.

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We didn't invent troubles today,

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they've recurred through the centuries.

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Men, through the ages have rejected the good news, saying,

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"Well, it is irrelevant.

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It doesn't speak to the issues that are pertinent now."

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I say to you, it's difficult to find an issue today

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that can't be paralleled in the day when Jesus said,

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"I bring you good tidings of great joy."

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When you know and understand the commitment to God

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and the nature of man, with God as partner,

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it may be you can cite specifics,

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drug abuse, war in Vietnam.

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But I say to you that they're paralleled by instances

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and by circumstances that were just as relevant then.

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Often, when young people who want to reject the church,

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read about Christ's message in first century,

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Jerusalem and Judea, they say,

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"This is what it's all about."

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He had the message

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and too often we've forgotten, he had the message.

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We too easily have been like the story

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that's told of Martin Luther.

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You're familiar with the time

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when troubles became so oppressive.

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And Martin Luther was so certain

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that the preachers of Germany were going to destroy him

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and the reform he sought in the church

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that he was despondent.

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He sat at his breakfast table one day

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with his head buried in his hands

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when his wife came down dressed entirely in black,

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appropriately for mourning.

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He looked up surprised and said, "Is someone dead?"

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She said, "Yes, God is dead."

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"Don't be blasphemous and irreverent.

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You know God isn't dead."

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She said, "But you acted as though he were.

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If God is not dead, why are you despondent and downcast?"

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And Luther said, "That's what I need."

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And found new strength and new vigor to pursue the goals

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that he had seen of reform in the church.

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The Christian, more than anyone else today, has the right,

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the liberty and the license to be an optimist.

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I bring you good tidings of great joy,

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which shall be to all people in Christ Jesus.

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There's a charming musical

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that many of us saw some years ago.

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"South Pacific" is probably best remembered

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for the song "Some Enchanted Evening".

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There's so many charming songs,

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and the other one that shows the folly of prejudice,

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you've got to be taught to dislike and to hate

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because of such a superficial quality

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as pigmentation of the skin,

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beautifully illustrated in this song.

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But the one that I like particularly is called "Happy Talk."

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Happy talk, keep talking happy talk.

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And the substance of it comes to these words,

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you gotta have a dream, for if you haven't got a dream,

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how are you gonna make that dream come true?

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The Christian must be optimist

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because he has so much to be optimistic about.

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And he has the source of optimism as his possession,

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the love of God in Christ Jesus.

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I bring you good tidings of great joy.

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And not only that, he taught them the word freedom.

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It could have seemed futile hope,

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particularly when he didn't overthrow the legions of Rome.

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This is what many of them wanted,

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overthrow the bondage to Rome.

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Remember, Jesus as a boy,

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had almost certainly seen 2,000 crosses against the sky

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where the rebels who had sought

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to throw out the Roman army had been crucified in his youth,

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not far from his hometown,

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he'd seen this kind of rebellion crushed and overthrown.

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He knew the brutality of the Roman oppression.

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Even with all of its intelligence,

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its education and sophistication.

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And he said, "If you are required to do an odious task,

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walk a second mile in love and charity

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and overcome evil with good.

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I didn't come to overthrow political entities.

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I didn't come to bring warfare among men, but peace.

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You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

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Here in his freedom, he could tell Pilate

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while he was on trial for his life,

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Pilate said, "Don't you know

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I have the power to take your life from you."

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And he could say, "No man takes my life from me.

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I lay it down of myself as a free gift.

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I didn't come to fight or to wage war.

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I came to tell men of real freedom."

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He brings a gospel of freedom from bondage,

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freedom from bondage to men,

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from bondage to sin, from bondage to self.

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One of the worst slaveries that any us fall prey to

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is slavery to everybody's doing it.

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Many people chastise young people and say,

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"Well, they always wanna say,

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'But mom, everybody's doing it, I've got to do it.'"

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Don't chasten them until you remember

39:05

you certainly said it yourself.

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Which of us has not?

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Because we feel we must do, we must wear,

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we must be like everyone else

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until we are wise enough to recognize

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that we do not have to be like everyone else.

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We are not captive of the crowd.

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And Christ said, "You are set free

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to be yourself in Christ Jesus."

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You are set free to be yourself.

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We don't need to be slave to habits, to attitudes,

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the characterizations that other men would force upon us,

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we are free to be ourselves under God's guidance.

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With God's leadership and power,

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we are free to be our best self.

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Who among us has not felt the ensnaring entrapment

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of temptation to sins of various sorts.

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And each of us is more susceptible to some than to others.

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But, Paul said to the Romans,

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"If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us,

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for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God."

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I don't know what tempts you most.

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I know best what tempts me most,

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and for what I must find the power to say no.

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And the courage and the insight

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to say, "There's a better way."

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And only Christ can give me the strength

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and the understanding and the desire to say,

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"I wanna be myself at my best and not my worst.

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And I will not."

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If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just

40:52

to forgive us of all our sins

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and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

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and to give a strength to say no

40:58

in the hour of temptation and trial.

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But the most pernicious slavery of all

41:04

was not the slavery to Rome.

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It was not the slavery to other men,

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as contemptible as that may be,

41:11

and as much as we desire to eliminate it from all the earth.

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The most abominable slavery of all is slavery to self.

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Robert Bruce said, "I have no greater fool

41:25

than myself to fear."

41:28

And most of us know this to be true.

41:31

Are we going to be the easiest

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or the best that we are capable of being?

41:37

Are we going to rise to the heights,

41:40

which is potential within us?

41:44

Or will we drift along until we become less than our dream,

41:46

our ideal or God's desire for us?

41:54

Can you put aside personal ambitions to say,

42:00

"Lord, what do you want me to be at my best?"

42:03

Free, free at last.

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Thank God we can be free at last

42:11

because of God in Christ Jesus,

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free to be everything we hope to be

42:17

and everything good we want to be

42:21

and everything beneficial we are capable of becoming.

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This is the kind of freedom he preached,

42:29

not a superficial freedom from Rome

42:32

until a powerful fool came along,

42:34

but a freedom within, a freedom of self,

42:38

a freedom from slavery to self,

42:42

from sin, the domination of others,

42:45

that freedom of which Augustine could speak when he said,

42:50

"My soul is restless til it rests in Thee."

42:53

I'm bound until God truly sets me free,

42:57

free at last, in Jesus Christ.

43:02

And then he taught them vision,

43:05

recovery of sight to those who are blind.

43:08

He did offer physical healing.

43:12

Explain it? Oh, I can and I cannot.

43:16

I know I have studied and I have written papers

43:20

about the nature, the explanation,

43:23

the justification for the miracles of Christ.

43:28

I know many of these which are offered,

43:32

and I know many others that don't satisfy me,

43:34

but you remember, of course,

43:38

that Christ healed blind Bartimaeus.

43:39

And whether it was some common ailment,

43:43

some psychosomatic trauma that Christ was able to take away,

43:45

I can say in the words of Bartimaeus.

43:49

When they asked, "Tell me, how did it happen?

43:52

What did he do?"

43:54

He could say, "I don't know.

43:55

This one thing I know, whereas once I was blind,

43:58

now I can see."

44:01

No other explanation was necessary for him

44:03

because now he could see.

44:06

We must have our eyes opened.

44:09

And Christ spoke of vision.

44:11

But he spoke of a different kind of vision

44:13

than merely that which comes through the openings

44:15

that God has provided.

44:19

Saul of Tarsus was stricken blind on the Damascus road

44:22

so that he might better see Jesus Christ.

44:25

And he said, "I saw him as one of his disciples

44:27

born out of season.

44:31

After Christ's crucifixion,

44:33

after the disciples went out to preach,

44:35

I saw him and it transformed my life."

44:37

We need this kind of spiritual vision.

44:43

We need to be able to see him

44:46

and to see what he desires in us and in our world around us

44:49

because of the spiritual vision he gives.

44:54

Some scoffed at this young preacher

44:59

and some today will scoff at the teachings of Jesus.

45:01

They seem too simplistic and too easy.

45:03

That's because they haven't been tried.

45:07

But when you and I will accept the challenge,

45:09

we'll dedicate ourselves for the search through the life.

45:12

and the example, the teachings of Jesus,

45:15

we find that joy and freedom

45:17

and vision can be ours, and can transform life.

45:20

He wants us to see life as it is,

45:25

but he wants us to see life as it can be

45:27

and must become with spiritual perception.

45:30

There is a water beetle, the scientific name,

45:35

I neither remember nor find important,

45:39

but a water beetle, which lives on land and in water,

45:43

though water is its natural habitat,

45:46

it has two sets of eyes.

45:49

With two of those eyes, it can see in the water

45:51

and find the food necessary for its nourishment.

45:54

With two, it can see into the atmosphere around it

45:57

and escape the danger that may ensnare it,

46:00

the animal or the frog that's seeking to take its life.

46:04

It has two sets of eyes so that it may see in both worlds.

46:08

And Christ said, "Behold I give you not only vision

46:12

and insight so that you may see the world around you,

46:15

but so that you may see the world

46:18

as it may become as God's world.

46:19

I give you spiritual vision

46:22

as well as the physical vision, which you possess."

46:25

We can see and become discouraged by poverty, injustice,

46:28

warfare, sin, and selfishness.

46:33

But if we see, transforming all of this,

46:37

God's redeeming love,

46:41

we can become a part of that message of change.

46:43

It depends upon which eyes we use to perceive.

46:47

We can see the immensity of the task and quit,

46:51

or we can see the challenge and find the power in God

46:57

to be a part of the answer.

47:00

I bring you good tidings of great joy.

47:03

The spirit of the Lord is upon me

47:05

so that I bring you a message of joy and freedom and vision.

47:06

Vision? Yes, vision.

47:11

Happy talk? Sure.

47:14

You've gotta have a dream.

47:16

If you don't have a dream,

47:19

how are you gonna make a dream come true.

47:20

But if that dream is bound up in the life,

47:23

the message, the ministry of the Son of God,

47:27

then we know here we have the power to make it come true.

47:31

You and I should become a part

47:36

of that continuing inaugural message of Jesus Christ,

47:39

good tidings of great joy,

47:44

good tidings of freedom to those who are bound and enslaved,

47:47

good tidings of vision, of a world that must be,

47:52

as we are partners with God, let us pray.

47:58

Our Father, we pray that as Christians, we may have a dream,

48:03

the dream of a better, more charitable world,

48:07

wherein God's purposes for all are more perfectly fulfilled.

48:11

It's not just a dream, an impossible dream.

48:18

It's a dream that must come true in us and through us,

48:22

lest life on earth remain an unrelieved nightmare.

48:30

This is my Father's world

48:36

and he will provide the power,

48:39

if I will be a partner, amen.

48:43

(instrumental music)

48:57

(choir singing)

49:35

(instrumental music)

50:16

(instrumental music)

50:58

(instrumental music)

52:05

(choir singing)

52:41

(choir singing)

53:21

(choir singing)

54:07

(choir singing)

54:56

(instrumental music)

55:24

(instrumental music)

55:58

(instrumental music intensifies)

56:25

(choir singing)

57:02

(choir singing)

57:33

-

Almighty God who art the author

58:03

of every good and perfect gift,

58:06

receive these fruits of our common work

58:10

to be blessed and hallowed to your service

58:15

through the church of Christ throughout the world.

58:19

And here, O Lord, we offer and present ourselves,

58:23

our souls and our bodies

58:27

to be a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.

58:30

It is a narrow door of service

58:36

and commitment we enter as we respond

58:38

to the call of Christ, O Lord.

58:40

While there is a lower class, we are of it.

58:43

While there is a soul in prison, we are not free.

58:47

While the earth is polluted, we are unclean.

58:51

Wherever bombs fall, our wholeness is wounded.

58:56

May our mouth speak the word of justice in

59:01

and out of season.

59:04

May we plant the peace garden of this earth

59:06

wherever our feet may stand.

59:10

May our eyes always be turned towards the poor

59:14

and the exploited, as was our Lord's,

59:18

through Jesus, our brother, who was among us as a servant

59:22

and gave his life for the people.

59:27

Go forth now to be God's people in the world.

59:33

May the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God,

59:38

and the presence of the Holy Spirit go with you.

59:43

(choir singing)

59:53

(choir singing)

1:00:26

(instrumental music)

1:01:18

Thomas A. Collins - "Christ's Inaugural Address" (August 13, 1972)

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1. Thomas A. Collins - "Christ's Inaugural Address" (August 13, 1972)

Duke University Archives

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Thomas A. Collins - "Christ's Inaugural Address" (August 13, 1972)

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Duke University Archives

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