W. Kenneth Goodson - "Sound Advice for Sound Living" Baccalaureate Service 8:30 am (May 6, 1984)
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Transcript
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(organ music) | 0:03 | |
♪ Beautiful Savior ♪ | 19:40 | |
♪ Lord of the nations ♪ | 19:47 | |
♪ Son of God ♪ | 19:55 | |
♪ And Son of Man ♪ | 20:01 | |
♪ Glory and honor ♪ | 20:09 | |
♪ Praise, adoration ♪ | 20:19 | |
♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 20:26 | |
♪ Be Thine ♪ | 20:33 | |
♪ Now and forevermore ♪ | 20:39 | |
♪ Be Thine ♪ | 20:54 | |
(organ music) | 21:08 | |
♪ All praise to thee ♪ | 21:50 | |
♪ For thou O King divine ♪ | 21:53 | |
♪ Didst yield the glory ♪ | 21:59 | |
♪ That of right was thine ♪ | 22:04 | |
♪ That in our troubled hearts ♪ | 22:10 | |
♪ Thy grace might shine ♪ | 22:15 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:20 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:25 | |
♪ Thou camest to us ♪ | 22:34 | |
♪ In lowliness of thought ♪ | 22:38 | |
♪ By thee the outcast ♪ | 22:43 | |
♪ And the poor were sought ♪ | 22:49 | |
♪ And by thy death ♪ | 22:54 | |
♪ Was God's salvation wrought ♪ | 23:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:05 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:11 | |
♪ Let this mind be in us ♪ | 23:18 | |
♪ Which was in thee ♪ | 23:24 | |
♪ Who wast a servant ♪ | 23:28 | |
♪ That we might be free ♪ | 23:35 | |
♪ Humbling thyself ♪ | 23:40 | |
♪ To death on Calvary ♪ | 23:44 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:50 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 23:55 | |
♪ Wherefore by God's ♪ | 24:03 | |
♪ Eternal purpose ♪ | 24:08 | |
♪ Thou art high exalted ♪ | 24:14 | |
♪ O'er all creatures now ♪ | 24:19 | |
♪ And given the name to which ♪ | 24:24 | |
♪ All knees shall bow ♪ | 24:31 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:35 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 24:40 | |
♪ Let every tongue confess ♪ | 24:47 | |
♪ With one accord ♪ | 24:53 | |
♪ In heaven and earth ♪ | 24:57 | |
♪ That Jesus Christ is Lord ♪ | 25:03 | |
♪ And God eternal ♪ | 25:09 | |
♪ Be by all adored ♪ | 25:15 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 25:20 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 25:26 | |
- | The genius of God who we gather to worship | 25:55 |
is revealed in the creation of atoms | 25:58 | |
that attract and repel and the creation of water that rises | 26:01 | |
from the oceans and falls as snow upon the mountains | 26:06 | |
and runs upon the earth as rivers. | 26:11 | |
In the music and poetry, and art which exposed the sacred | 26:14 | |
and nourished the human soul. | 26:20 | |
In the human yearnings for knowledge. | 26:23 | |
In the urgings of the human heart to do justice. | 26:26 | |
Gathering in this place of old stones and sacred memories | 26:31 | |
let us remember who draws us to this place. | 26:37 | |
Come, by God's truth let us be set free | 26:41 | |
and to God let us honestly make our confession. | 26:46 | |
O holy God, to whose service we long ago | 27:12 | |
dedicated our souls and lives, | 27:16 | |
we grieve and lament before you | 27:19 | |
that we are still so prone to sin | 27:22 | |
and so little inclined to obedience. | 27:25 | |
Attached to the pleasure of sense, | 27:28 | |
negligent of things spiritual, | 27:31 | |
prompt to gratify our bodies, slow to nourish our souls. | 27:34 | |
Greedy for present delight, | 27:40 | |
indifferent to lasting blessedness. | 27:42 | |
Fond of idleness, indisposed for labor. | 27:45 | |
Soon at play, late at prayer. | 27:50 | |
Brisk in the service of self, | 27:53 | |
slack in the service of others. | 27:56 | |
Eager to get, reluctant to give. | 27:59 | |
Lofty in our professions, low in our practice. | 28:02 | |
Full of good intentions, backward to fulfill them. | 28:07 | |
Severe with our neighbors, indulgent with ourselves. | 28:12 | |
So eager to find fault, | 28:17 | |
so resentful at being found fault with. | 28:19 | |
So little able for great tasks, | 28:23 | |
so discontented with small ones. | 28:26 | |
So weak in adversity, so swollen | 28:29 | |
and self-satisfied in prosperity. | 28:32 | |
So helpless apart from you, | 28:35 | |
and yet so little willing to be bound to you. | 28:38 | |
O merciful heart of God, grant us yet forgiveness | 28:42 | |
for your name's sake. | 28:46 | |
Amen. | 28:48 | |
Who is in a position to condemn? | 29:10 | |
Christ only. | 29:14 | |
And Christ died for us, | 29:16 | |
Christ rose for us, | 29:19 | |
Christ reigns in power for us, | 29:21 | |
Christ prays for us. | 29:25 | |
If we are in Christ then we are a new people. | 29:28 | |
The past is finished, it is done with | 29:33 | |
and what lies before us is a future, | 29:37 | |
new, fresh, full of possibility. | 29:40 | |
My sisters, my brothers, know and believe | 29:46 | |
the good news of the Gospel, | 29:50 | |
that in Jesus who was and is the Christ, | 29:53 | |
you and I are forgiven. | 29:57 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good | 30:03 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 30:05 | |
Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 30:08 | |
Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 30:12 | |
Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 30:16 | |
I am delighted to be able to welcome each of you | 30:23 | |
and especially the graduating seniors | 30:27 | |
to this special service of worship on Baccalaureate Sunday. | 30:30 | |
It is a special day for you and your families | 30:35 | |
and we are delighted that you take time | 30:38 | |
to worship and to be in this place. | 30:41 | |
On behalf of the ministers to the University, | 30:44 | |
and the staff of the chapel, I welcome you in Christ's name | 30:48 | |
and say to you, congratulations. | 30:52 | |
It is also my pleasure to introduce to you | 30:56 | |
our preacher of the morning, Bishop Kenneth Goodson. | 30:59 | |
Bishop Goodson is bishop in residence | 31:04 | |
at the Duke Divinity School | 31:07 | |
and as such, he is a pastor to pastors | 31:10 | |
but he is also a friend to the University | 31:14 | |
and a very warm and gracious human being, | 31:16 | |
and more than that, he is an able preacher. | 31:20 | |
He brings all of these qualities | 31:23 | |
to the Word which he will proclaim this day. | 31:25 | |
Bishop Goodson, we look forward to the preaching | 31:28 | |
of that Word and welcome you to Duke pulpit. | 31:30 | |
- | Let us pray. | 31:42 |
O God, you who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, | 31:46 | |
shine into our hearts to give the light | 31:51 | |
of the knowledge of your glory. | 31:53 | |
Amen. | 31:56 | |
The Old Testament lesson is the first Psalm. | 32:00 | |
Blessed is the man who walks not | 32:04 | |
in the counsel of the wicked, | 32:07 | |
nor stands in the way of sinners, | 32:09 | |
nor sits in the seat of scoffers, | 32:11 | |
but his delight is in the law of the Lord | 32:13 | |
and on his law he meditates day and night. | 32:16 | |
He is like a tree planted by the streams of water | 32:20 | |
that yields its fruit in its season | 32:23 | |
and its leaf does not wither. | 32:26 | |
In all that he does he prospers. | 32:29 | |
The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff | 32:31 | |
which the wind drives away, | 32:34 | |
therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, | 32:36 | |
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous | 32:39 | |
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous | 32:42 | |
but the way of the wicked will perish. | 32:45 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 32:49 | |
The epistle lesson is from Timothy. | 32:53 | |
Fight the good fight of faith. | 32:58 | |
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called | 33:01 | |
when you made the good confession | 33:04 | |
in the presence of many witnesses. | 33:06 | |
In the presence of God who gives life to all things, | 33:09 | |
I charge you to keep the commandment, | 33:13 | |
unstained and free from reproach. | 33:15 | |
And this will be made manifest at the proper time | 33:19 | |
by the blessed and only sovereign, | 33:22 | |
the King of kings and Lord of lords, | 33:25 | |
who alone has immortality and dwells | 33:28 | |
in unapproachable light, who no man | 33:31 | |
has ever seen or can see. | 33:35 | |
To him, the honor and eternal dominion. | 33:38 | |
Amen. | 33:41 | |
As for the rich in this world, | 33:42 | |
Charge them not to be haughty, | 33:44 | |
nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches | 33:47 | |
but on God, who rightly furnishes us | 33:50 | |
with everything to enjoy. | 33:54 | |
They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, | 33:57 | |
liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves | 34:01 | |
a good foundation for the future | 34:04 | |
so that they may take hold of the life | 34:07 | |
which is life indeed. | 34:09 | |
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. | 34:11 | |
Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions | 34:16 | |
of what is falsely called knowledge | 34:18 | |
for by professing it, some have missed the mark | 34:21 | |
as regards the faith. | 34:24 | |
Grace be with you. | 34:27 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle. | 34:29 | |
(organ music) | 34:43 | |
(choir singing in foreign language) | 35:24 | |
Will the congregation please stand | 40:02 | |
for the reading of the Gospel. | 40:05 | |
The lesson is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. | 40:13 | |
For it will be is when a man going on a journey | 40:18 | |
called his servants and entrusted to them his property. | 40:21 | |
To one he gave 10 talents, to another two, to another, one. | 40:25 | |
To each according to his ability, | 40:29 | |
and then he went away. | 40:33 | |
He who had received five talents | 40:34 | |
went at once and traded with them | 40:36 | |
and he made five talents more. | 40:39 | |
So too, he who had the two talents | 40:41 | |
made two talents more. | 40:43 | |
But he who had received the one talent | 40:46 | |
went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. | 40:48 | |
Now after a long time, the master of those servants | 40:53 | |
came and settled accounts with them. | 40:55 | |
And he who had received the five talents | 40:58 | |
came forward, bringing five talents more saying, | 41:01 | |
"Master, you delivered to me five talents, | 41:05 | |
"here I have made five talents more." | 41:07 | |
His master said to him, | 41:11 | |
"Well done, good and faithful servant. | 41:12 | |
"You have been faithful over a little, | 41:15 | |
"I will set you over much. | 41:17 | |
"Enter into the joy of your master." | 41:18 | |
And he also who had the two talents came forward | 41:21 | |
saying, "Master, you delivered to me two talents, | 41:24 | |
"here I have made two talents more." | 41:28 | |
And his master said to him, | 41:30 | |
"Well done, good and faithful servant. | 41:32 | |
"You have been faithful over a little | 41:35 | |
"and I will set you over much. | 41:37 | |
"Enter into the joy of your master." | 41:39 | |
He also who had received the one talent | 41:43 | |
came forward saying, "Master, I knew you | 41:45 | |
"to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow | 41:48 | |
"and gathering where you did not winter | 41:51 | |
"and so I was afraid and I went | 41:53 | |
"and hid your talent in the ground. | 41:55 | |
"Here, you have what is yours." | 41:59 | |
But the master answered him, | 42:01 | |
"You wicked and slothful servant. | 42:02 | |
"You knew I reap where I had not sowed | 42:05 | |
"and gather where I have not wintered. | 42:07 | |
"Then you ought to have invested my money | 42:09 | |
"with the bankers and at my coming | 42:12 | |
"I should have received what was mine own with interest. | 42:14 | |
"So take the talent from him and give it to him | 42:17 | |
"who has 10 talents, for to everyone who has | 42:20 | |
"will more be given and he will have abundance, | 42:24 | |
"but from he who has not even what he has | 42:28 | |
"will be taken away." | 42:31 | |
Here ends the reading of the Gospel. | 42:33 | |
(organ music) | 42:37 | |
♪ Glory be to our Creator ♪ | 42:45 | |
♪ Praise to our Redeemer ♪ | 42:53 | |
♪ Glory be to our Sustainer ♪ | 42:59 | |
♪ Ever three and ever one ♪ | 43:07 | |
♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 43:15 | |
♪ Ever shall be ♪ | 43:22 | |
♪ Amen. ♪ | 43:27 | |
- | May I begin by very personal word this morning | 43:44 |
to tell you and assure you what an awesome | 43:47 | |
and frightening experience it is | 43:50 | |
to stand here in the presence of one of | 43:54 | |
America's great churches | 43:56 | |
and to address its graduating class | 44:00 | |
on the final weekend of its life at Duke University. | 44:03 | |
For any of us who have gone to Duke | 44:09 | |
and have loved it across the years as indeed have I | 44:11 | |
and many others who are gathered, | 44:15 | |
the Duke chapel has an unusual place | 44:18 | |
not only on the campus but an unusual place in our lives, | 44:21 | |
and it is an awesome experience to stand here | 44:26 | |
in its majesty and marvel at its simplicity. | 44:29 | |
Somewhere around the year 90 to 110 AD, | 44:36 | |
an old man sat down in the ancient city of Laodicea | 44:40 | |
to write a letter. | 44:44 | |
He was the exponent of a new way of life, | 44:47 | |
of a new understanding of the meaning of God, | 44:49 | |
of a new understanding of the meaning | 44:52 | |
of the purpose of life. | 44:53 | |
Who'd had an unusual experience on the | 44:56 | |
road that was leading him to Damascus | 44:59 | |
and the whole course of his life was changed. | 45:01 | |
Little did he realize that 20 centuries later, | 45:06 | |
his name would be quoted more than any other | 45:09 | |
single name in human history, | 45:11 | |
with one exception. | 45:14 | |
Somewhere in the the course | 45:18 | |
of his itinerary across Asia Minor | 45:19 | |
and the days that he was an itinerant preacher, | 45:21 | |
he came to the ancient city of Lystra in Derbe | 45:24 | |
and there he preached for a long season. | 45:27 | |
There were two lovely women whom he met while he was there, | 45:31 | |
one was an elderly woman named Lois | 45:35 | |
and one was her daughter, Eunice. | 45:36 | |
Visiting in their home and being part of their | 45:40 | |
relationships, he came to know their son, Timothy. | 45:43 | |
And in the course of time, Timothy joined Paul | 45:49 | |
and became his companion of the way | 45:53 | |
and for more than half a century | 45:55 | |
the old man and the young man | 45:57 | |
insofar as time would allow them, | 46:00 | |
marched across history together. | 46:02 | |
And now the old man sits down to write a letter. | 46:07 | |
He knows full well that his time on Earth is limited, | 46:09 | |
that his days are numbered. | 46:12 | |
He has already said I have fought a good fight, | 46:15 | |
I have kept the faith. | 46:18 | |
Henceforth, there is laid out for me a crown | 46:19 | |
that belongs to all of those who keep the faith, | 46:22 | |
not only to him. | 46:24 | |
But he's concerned a bit about the future, | 46:29 | |
where do we go from here, what happens now? | 46:31 | |
What happens to the faith, what happens to the church? | 46:34 | |
It's the same kind of concern we have not only | 46:39 | |
for the members of the graduating class | 46:41 | |
but for all of the rest of us. | 46:43 | |
Where does human history go from now? | 46:44 | |
And so he sits down and begins to write his memoirs | 46:48 | |
and when he does, he writes another letter | 46:52 | |
to his young friend, Timothy. | 46:54 | |
This is the most beautiful relationship | 46:57 | |
anywhere to be found in the New Testament. | 46:59 | |
Their common love for Jesus Christ | 47:03 | |
and the unusual relationship that they each had | 47:06 | |
for the other's qualities | 47:09 | |
overcame all differences of ages. | 47:11 | |
Paul spoke as a father and Timothy listened as a son | 47:15 | |
and here the experienced disciple, | 47:20 | |
near the end of his journey, writes a letter | 47:22 | |
to his young friend, offering him some sound advice | 47:24 | |
for sound living in the first century. | 47:29 | |
Only yesterday, he says, was I young | 47:32 | |
and today now I'm old. | 47:35 | |
And he pours out of his life and out of his experience | 47:38 | |
the kinds of things that he wants to say | 47:42 | |
to his friend Timothy and I reach back | 47:43 | |
to hold them again today for they | 47:46 | |
are the kind of things that I would like to say to you. | 47:48 | |
If we were gathered in a room and none was there but us, | 47:53 | |
what would I say to you? | 47:56 | |
I would say what Paul said to Timothy, | 47:58 | |
I would begin it by saying fight the good fight of faith. | 48:00 | |
If we have an illusion that all we have to do | 48:07 | |
is to go in this kind of a world | 48:10 | |
and everything turns out all right, | 48:12 | |
then it is illusion under which we're working. | 48:15 | |
Dr. Fosdick who wrote the recessional hymn | 48:19 | |
that we shall use in a few moments | 48:21 | |
said that every human being has energies | 48:23 | |
that it is his will to direct. | 48:25 | |
And the criticism which best fits a good many of us | 48:29 | |
is not that we have been listless | 48:33 | |
and not that we have been inactive, | 48:35 | |
but that we have used our energies in the wrong direction. | 48:37 | |
How terribly, Dr Fosdick reminds us, | 48:43 | |
do we misuse our pugnacity. | 48:45 |
- | Reminds us that ill pugnacity, | 0:03 |
or pugnacity ill-used can help to ruin the world, | 0:05 | |
while pugnacity well-used can help to redeem it. | 0:09 | |
If men and women in the twentieth century | 0:15 | |
could only be constrained to unite in a good fight, | 0:17 | |
in a fight against disease, against poverty, | 0:22 | |
against social injustices, what a different kind | 0:25 | |
of a world we should have. | 0:30 | |
It's the kind of thing that human being | 0:34 | |
has to fight out in the secret | 0:36 | |
of her own life or his own heart. | 0:37 | |
Paul counsels Timothy that he will have to decide | 0:42 | |
between selfishness or selflessness. | 0:45 | |
So he is reminding Timothy to win the larger battle | 0:50 | |
in the deep of his own soul, | 0:53 | |
a battle that is going on in the whole world. | 0:57 | |
It constitutes and appears to me | 1:01 | |
a challenge to every thinking man. | 1:03 | |
We're concerned about our own place, | 1:06 | |
but we're little concerned about the place of others. | 1:07 | |
We're hurt by our own pain, but too often, | 1:11 | |
we're unaffected by the pain of our neighbors. | 1:14 | |
We've all been fighting. | 1:19 | |
Fighting for something, for some kind of meaning, | 1:22 | |
for some kind of purpose. | 1:25 | |
Paul is only reminding us to fight the good fight of faith. | 1:27 | |
If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had the privilege | 1:37 | |
of being here this morning, he would talk to you | 1:39 | |
about the cost of discipleship. | 1:41 | |
He would talk to you about the meaning of life. | 1:44 | |
He would talk to you about the purpose of human existence. | 1:46 | |
Even a child finds out early in life | 1:52 | |
that if he is determined to set his course | 1:56 | |
and not to waiver from it, then he will | 2:00 | |
have to come in contact with a cross. | 2:04 | |
Four years of college for some and graduate school, | 2:10 | |
much more to be sure, and now this weekend it is done. | 2:13 | |
What advice does the preacher have to bring to you? | 2:19 | |
A simple advice: fight the good fight of faith. | 2:22 | |
Not only fight the good fight of faith, | 2:29 | |
I would commend you to lay whole upon eternal life. | 2:31 | |
It seems to me sometimes to be almost a ridiculous thing | 2:35 | |
to talk about eternal life to a graduating class | 2:39 | |
where the average age would be 22. | 2:42 | |
You aren't interested in what is yet to come; | 2:44 | |
you are interested in what is. | 2:46 | |
I find myself infinitely more concerned | 2:53 | |
about Heaven now than I was 50 years ago. | 2:55 | |
All Paul's saying to Timothy is what I wanted | 3:01 | |
to say to you: have some worthy end in mind. | 3:03 | |
Have some prize in life. | 3:06 | |
Let it be worthy, something solid, something lasting. | 3:08 | |
Do you remember that unusual line in Alice in Wonderland | 3:11 | |
when Alice comes to the crossroads and meets the cat? | 3:17 | |
And Alice said to the cat which way must I go? | 3:25 | |
To which the cat replies it depends where you want to get. | 3:30 | |
Not very long ago there was conducted | 3:40 | |
in all the public schools of France | 3:42 | |
an examination with a single question. | 3:46 | |
The question in the examination was who in your mind | 3:50 | |
is the greatest French person in all of history? | 3:54 | |
Well, everybody knows the answer to that. | 4:01 | |
The greatest French person in all | 4:04 | |
of history surely was Napoleon. | 4:06 | |
Did he not bring Europe to her knees? | 4:10 | |
But when the questions were all answered, | 4:20 | |
and the examinations were all turned in, | 4:23 | |
Napoleon got scarcely a vote. | 4:28 | |
The greatest Frenchman in the mind of the French children | 4:33 | |
was not Napoleon, who brought Europe to its knees, | 4:39 | |
but who brought, Henry Pasteur, | 4:46 | |
who brought Europe to its health. | 4:51 | |
Robert Louis Stevenson once addressing | 4:56 | |
the Samoan chiefs had it ever so right. | 4:58 | |
No man has the slightest chance to be remembered | 5:01 | |
50 years after his death, unless he | 5:06 | |
has been the servant of mankind. | 5:10 | |
Lay hold upon eternal life. | 5:16 | |
Set your sights upon life that nothing can destroy | 5:20 | |
upon communion with God, upon human character, | 5:23 | |
upon integrity and honor, | 5:26 | |
upon goodness. | 5:32 | |
It appears to me why so many people | 5:37 | |
are living unsatisfactory lives. | 5:39 | |
They want what they want, but when they get it | 5:41 | |
they don't want it at all. | 5:45 | |
Professor Young put it in a great way. | 5:51 | |
What we are really witnessing today | 5:55 | |
is a head on fight | 5:59 | |
between people who hold different views | 6:03 | |
concerning the meaning of life. | 6:07 | |
If our conception of the end of life is Christian, | 6:12 | |
if our conception at the end of life is Judeo-Christian, | 6:16 | |
if we are persuaded that things material | 6:20 | |
cannot of themselves satisfy us, | 6:23 | |
then we will determine not only our attitude | 6:29 | |
to our own life, but it will determine | 6:31 | |
our attitude toward the lives of others as well. | 6:34 | |
Timothy, my friend, my son, | 6:41 | |
member of the class of '84, | 6:48 | |
fight the good fight of faith. | 6:52 | |
Not long since I was privileged, | 7:02 | |
and I use that word with some degree of concern, | 7:07 | |
to go to the ancient city in Southern Germany of Dachau. | 7:11 | |
It was in Dachau that part of the Jewish community | 7:18 | |
of Germany met its final fate. | 7:21 | |
32,000 they told us. | 7:25 | |
I stood before the open furnaces | 7:31 | |
that now are only museum pieces | 7:36 | |
to remind us of how low man can get. | 7:41 | |
When I walked out of Dachau, I leaned over | 7:50 | |
and picked up two white rocks from the ground. | 7:54 | |
They sit on my shelf | 7:59 | |
in my office in the Divinity School. | 8:03 | |
I look at them when I'm there. | 8:08 | |
They remind me of some things I don't ever forget. | 8:11 | |
And when you turn to leave Dachau, | 8:20 | |
you look back for one final glimpse, | 8:22 | |
and there is a huge sign done in lovely engraving. | 8:27 | |
It simply says, never again. | 8:35 | |
Timothy, my son, | 8:48 | |
fight the good fight of faith. | 8:52 | |
Lay hold upon eternal life. | 8:56 | |
Finally, | 9:00 | |
keep what has been committed to your care. | 9:03 | |
Timothy had entered into a noble heritage, and so have you. | 9:08 | |
2/3 of this auditorium are full at the moment | 9:12 | |
of people who love you and support you, | 9:16 | |
whose blood is as your blood, | 9:20 | |
whose concern is as your concern. | 9:23 | |
We move back a moment so that those who are sitting | 9:30 | |
near the back and those who are on the end of the isles | 9:32 | |
might be able with a single push of a camera | 9:36 | |
to catch your picture in your finest hour. | 9:39 | |
Graduation day, | 9:48 | |
it has been committed to your care. | 9:52 | |
I was born and reared in a little town | 9:59 | |
in the middle of North Carolina | 10:02 | |
that we refer to as a county seat town. | 10:05 | |
We have about 18 or 20,000 people in our little town. | 10:09 | |
We're unusually proud of it. | 10:13 | |
In the days when I grew up in the little town, | 10:18 | |
the thing that we were proudest about | 10:21 | |
was that our city had built a high school, | 10:23 | |
and the high school cost a million dollars, | 10:28 | |
and everywhere we bragged, the little high school | 10:34 | |
in our town was the first million dollar | 10:38 | |
high school in North Carolina. | 10:42 | |
One afternoon, when it was still new, | 10:50 | |
and mine was the first class to spend four years in it, | 10:54 | |
I said to my father, I would like | 11:00 | |
to take you out and show you the new school. | 11:03 | |
On Tuesday of this week, | 11:08 | |
I shall celebrate the | 11:14 | |
118th birthday of my father. | 11:16 | |
And I shall recall again to my mind | 11:25 | |
our conversation when we rode along | 11:27 | |
to see a million dollar school, | 11:30 | |
to show it to a man who had gone to no school, | 11:32 | |
whose only training, whose only education, | 11:37 | |
was at the hands of an itinerant preacher | 11:40 | |
who would make an annual visit | 11:43 | |
through the community and teach in a log building. | 11:45 | |
And then we rode in front of it. | 11:51 | |
Magnificent and majestic, | 11:55 | |
and I turned | 12:00 | |
to my father and said to him, and I've eaten | 12:01 | |
those words a hundred times, | 12:05 | |
Old fella', | 12:11 | |
what would you have given | 12:15 | |
to have gone to a school like that? | 12:19 | |
He did not look up. | 12:28 | |
I was embarrassed at my insensitiveness to him, | 12:32 | |
but he put his hand over on my knee | 12:38 | |
and said to me, son, | 12:41 | |
never forget | 12:46 | |
to whom much is given, | 12:49 | |
much shall be required. | 12:54 | |
Timothy, class of '84, | 13:02 | |
fight the good fight. | 13:08 | |
Lay hold on something decent and great. | 13:12 | |
Keep what has been committed to your care | 13:17 | |
and never forget | 13:22 | |
that to whom much has been given, | 13:26 | |
much shall be required. | 13:30 | |
In the name of the Father, and the Son, | 13:35 | |
and the Holy Spirit, amen. | 13:37 | |
(organ music plays) | 13:49 | |
(choir sings along with music) | 14:13 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 15:55 |
We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 15:59 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 16:03 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 16:07 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 16:10 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 16:14 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice | 16:17 | |
and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 16:21 | |
our judge and our hope, in life, | 16:27 | |
in death, in life beyond death. | 16:30 | |
God is with us. | 16:34 | |
We are not alone. | 16:36 | |
Thanks be to God. | 16:38 | |
The Lord be with you. | 16:40 | |
Let us pray. | 16:44 | |
O Eternal God, before whose face the generations rise | 17:01 | |
and pass away, we know that age after age | 17:06 | |
of the living seek you and find | 17:11 | |
that of your faithfulness, there is no end. | 17:13 | |
You are the inspirer of every true prayer, | 17:18 | |
the giver of all wisdom, the source | 17:22 | |
of all truth, the beginning of all human freedom, | 17:25 | |
and the end of all human responsibility. | 17:30 | |
Look now, O God, upon this community of learning. | 17:34 | |
Let it ever remain faithful to you, | 17:39 | |
to the truth as we come to know it in you | 17:42 | |
and in your son Jesus the Christ. | 17:46 | |
Keep us ever from surrendering truth | 17:49 | |
or giving over freedom to those | 17:52 | |
who in fear or faithlessness tell us | 17:56 | |
that we must fight evil with evil, | 17:59 | |
falsehood with lies, or tyranny with ways of tyrants. | 18:03 | |
Let this, your university, be a light | 18:08 | |
of truth in a world of darkness, | 18:12 | |
a witness to freedom in a world where many are enslaved, | 18:15 | |
a place where all people shall come to know the good | 18:20 | |
and to know you, the wellspring of all good. | 18:25 | |
We pray now for her graduates. | 18:30 | |
Those present, those who have gone before, | 18:33 | |
and those who are yet to come, | 18:37 | |
that in the midst of timid uncertainty, | 18:40 | |
they may boldly stand for something. | 18:43 | |
In the midst of aimlessness, they may have a goal. | 18:47 | |
In the midst of false prophets, | 18:52 | |
they may look to your kingdom in Christ | 18:54 | |
as the hope of the world, and that in the midst | 18:57 | |
of careless ease, they may mount up with wings as eagles, | 19:01 | |
may run and not be weary, may walk and not faint. | 19:07 | |
Hear our prayer, as in thanksgiving and praise | 19:13 | |
for all that we now have and hold, | 19:17 | |
we pray in the name of Christ our Lord, who taught us | 19:20 | |
to pray saying Our Father, who art in heaven, | 19:25 | |
hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, | 19:30 | |
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. | 19:34 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 19:37 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 19:40 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 19:43 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 19:46 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 19:51 | |
and the glory, forever, amen. | 19:54 | |
(organ music plays) | 20:14 | |
(choir sings along with music) | 20:22 | |
Let us stand. | 27:11 | |
Let us join together in the responsive prayer | 27:18 | |
of gratitude and hope. | 27:21 | |
Almighty God, as you have granted us place | 27:25 | |
and part in this university, hallow to us now this day, | 27:28 | |
when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work | 27:34 | |
to which you have called us, that we may remember | 27:37 | |
with gratitude the family and friends who have cared for us, | 27:41 | |
that in the life ahead of us we may keep faith | 27:49 | |
with those who have loved us and trusted us | 27:52 | |
and whose hopes follow us, that we may enter | 27:56 | |
with good courage and constant purpose | 28:03 | |
upon the tasks which await us. | 28:06 | |
From all sense of strangeness and loneliness, | 28:12 | |
and from the fear that we may fail or may find no friends. | 28:16 | |
From neglect of the opportunities all about us, | 28:23 | |
and from distrust of our ability | 28:27 | |
to meet the duties of each dawning day. | 28:29 | |
That the example of wise and generous people | 28:35 | |
who have gone before us in our families | 28:39 | |
and here in this university may save us | 28:42 | |
from folly and self-indulgence. | 28:45 | |
More especially, that you would show to us | 28:52 | |
and to all people your way of love | 28:54 | |
in a time when all of us desperately need | 28:58 | |
to love and to be loved. | 29:01 | |
These things and whatever else you see needful | 29:07 | |
and right for us, we ask in your Holy Name, amen. | 29:10 | |
(organ music plays) | 29:18 | |
(choir sings along with music) | 29:59 | |
Go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 33:39 | |
Hold fast to that which is good, | 33:43 | |
and now the blessing of God Almighty, | 33:47 | |
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be among you | 33:50 | |
and remain with you always. | 33:54 | |
(choir sings) | 34:03 | |
(organ music plays) | 35:21 |
Item Info
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