Gayle C. Felton - "To Whom Shall We Go?" (August 21, 1988)

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	(organ music)	0:01
-	Good morning and welcome to worship	2:56
	in Duke University Chapel.	2:58
	This is indeed a day the Lord has made	3:00
	and it our privilege to rejoice and be glad in it	3:04
	in these beautiful surroundings.	3:06
	We will be led in sermon this morning	3:09
	by the Reverend Doctor Gayle Felton	3:10
	who is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion	3:12
	at Meredith College.	3:15
	Gayle is a very able teacher, a scholar, and preacher	3:17
	and we hear you gladly today Gayle.	3:21
	Let us worship God.	3:24
	(organ music)	3:31
	(congregation sings hymn)	3:54
-	Let us pray.	6:02
	Grant O Merciful God, that your church being gathered	6:04
	together in unity by your holy spirit may show forth	6:08
	your power among all peoples to the glory of your name,	6:13
	through Jesus Christ our Lord	6:17
	who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit,	6:20
	one God forever and ever. Amen.	6:24
	Please be seated.	6:30
-	Let us pray.	6:42
	Open our hearts and minds O God	6:45
	by the power of your Holy Spirit so that as the word	6:48
	is read and proclaimed, we might hear with joy	6:52
	what you say to us this day. Amen.	6:56
	The first lesson is taken from the second book of Samuel,	7:01
	the 23rd chapter beginning at the first verse.	7:05
	Now these are the last words of David,	7:10
	the oracle of David, the son of Jesse,	7:13
	the oracle of the man who was raised on high,	7:16
	the anointed of the God of Jacob,	7:20
	the sweet psalmist of Israel.	7:23
	The spirit of the Lord speaks by me,	7:26
	his word is upon my tongue.	7:29
	The God of Israel has spoken.	7:32
	The rock of Israel has said to me, when one rules justly	7:34
	over men, ruling in the fear of God,	7:39
	he dawns on them like the morning light.	7:42
	Like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning.	7:46
	Like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.	7:50
	Yea does not my house stand so with God?	7:54
	For he has made me an everlasting covenant,	7:58
	ordered in all things and secure.	8:02
	For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?	8:05
	But godless men are all like thorns that are thrown away	8:11
	for they cannot be taken with the hand.	8:16
	But the man who touches them arms himself with iron	8:19
	and the shaft of a spear	8:23
	and they are utterly consumed with fire.	8:25
	Here ends the reading of the first lesson.	8:28
	(organ music)	8:33
	(soloist singing)	8:56
	The second lesson is taken from Paul's first letter	13:07
	to the Corinthians, the first chapter,	13:10
	beginning at the 18th verse.	13:14
	For the word of the cross is folly to those	13:17
	who are perishing, but to us who are being saved	13:19
	it is the power of God.	13:23
	For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise	13:26
	and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart.	13:29
	Where is the wise man?	13:32
	Where is the scribe?	13:34
	Where is the debater of this age?	13:36
	Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?	13:39
	For sensing the wisdom of God, the world did not know God	13:43
	through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly	13:47
	of what we preach to save those who believe.	13:50
	For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom	13:54
	but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews	13:58
	and folly to Gentiles.	14:02
	But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,	14:04
	Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.	14:08
	For the foolishness of God is wiser than men	14:13
	and the weakness of God is stronger than men.	14:16
	For consider your call brothers and sisters.	14:20
	Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.	14:23
	Not many were powerful.	14:26
	Not many were of noble birth.	14:28
	But God chose what is foolish	14:31
	in the world to shame the wise.	14:33
	God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.	14:35
	God chose what is low and despised in the world,	14:40
	even things that are not,	14:43
	to bring to nothing things that are,	14:45
	so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.	14:48
	He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus	14:53
	whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness,	14:56
	and sanctification and redemption.	15:00
	Therefore as it is written,	15:04
	let him who boasts boast of the Lord.	15:06
	Here ends the reading of the second lesson.	15:10
	(organ music)	15:15
	(soloist singing)	15:45
-	In the lesson from John, Jesus is speaking	18:15
	to those who were confused, even hostile,	18:19
	in the face of his claim to be the bread of life.	18:24
	Here are the words of the Gospel.	18:29
	For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.	18:33
	Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide	18:41
	in me and I in them.	18:45
	As the living Father said to me, and I live because	18:50
	of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.	18:55
	This is the bread which came down from heaven.	19:02
	Not such as our ancestors ate and died.	19:07
	Whoever eats this bread will live forever.	19:11
	This he said in the synagogue as he taught at Copernium.	19:16
	Many of his disciples when they heard it said	19:23
	"This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?"	19:27
	But Jesus knowing in himself	19:35
	that his disciples murmured at it said to them,	19:38
	"Do you take offense at this?	19:43
	"Then what if you were to see the son of man	19:48
	"ascending where he was before?	19:51
	"It is the Spirit that gives life.	19:55
	"The flesh is of no avail.	19:59
	"The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life	20:03
	"but there are some of you that do not believe."	20:09
	For Jesus knew from the first who those were	20:13
	that would not believe him and who it was	20:18
	that would betray him.	20:21
	And he said "This is why I told you that no one can come	20:24
	to me unless it is granted by the Father."	20:28
	After this many of his disciples drew back	20:34
	and no longer went about with him.	20:40
	Jesus said to the 12, "Do you also wish to go away?"	20:44
	Simon Peter answered him, "Lord to whom shall we go?	20:54
	"You have the words of eternal life.	21:01
	"And we have believed and have come to know	21:05
	"that you are holy one of God."	21:08
	A recent popular television commercial	21:21
	selling a light beer I believe I recall	21:26
	insisted exuberantly and repeatedly	21:32
	that you can have it all.	21:36
	You can have it all.	21:43
	This is a claim so typical I believe	21:49
	of the lives of most of us.	21:54
	We want to have it all.	21:58
	And more than that, we really believe	22:02
	and are encouraged	22:07
	by the society around us to believe	22:08
	that it is indeed possible.	22:13
	I have been engaged in teaching at one level or another	22:20
	for most of my adult life.	22:25
	And I am still surprised to find	22:29
	young men and women believing	22:33
	that they can enjoy academic success	22:37
	without sacrificing either a social life	22:41
	or sleep or soap operas.	22:46
	On a more serious level,	22:53
	we see so many persons today struggling	22:56
	with the demands of careers which monopolize	23:02
	their time and energy.	23:07
	High pressure demanding careers that take them	23:10
	out of their homes and take their attention away	23:14
	from their loved ones even when they are physically present.	23:18
	And yet in the midst of that still expecting	23:23
	to be able to sustain loving	23:27
	and stable family lives.	23:30
	We want it all.	23:35
	We want all the money we could ever desire.	23:39
	And yet all the leisure time that we need	23:44
	to enjoy spending it.	23:48
	We claim strong religious commitment	23:53
	and yet we expect to be able to adjust smoothly	23:58
	to the secular society in which we live.	24:04
	We believe that we can indeed have everything we want.	24:10
	That we don't need to deny ourselves,	24:15
	that we don't need to make choices,	24:19
	that we don't need to give up anything.	24:22
	And this expectation I'm afraid	24:28
	underlies the great difficulty	24:33
	that so many of us have	24:37
	in making decisions.	24:40
	For making decisions involves an honest facing	24:45
	of the necessity of choosing	24:51
	between various options.	24:55
	And we don't want to do that.	25:00
	We don't even really think we should have to.	25:03
	All of you when you were in high school,	25:11
	read the poems of Robert Frost and you're all familiar	25:14
	with this classic "The Road Not Taken".	25:19
	But because it is so pertinent here,	25:25
	let me share it with you again.	25:28
	Frost you remember pictures himself	25:33
	or the traveler whose life he is describing	25:38
	as standing at the edge of a deep wood	25:43
	and into that wood goes a road	25:48
	but at a short distance the road forks	25:53
	so that it will not be possible for the traveler	25:59
	to go on both branches of it.	26:04
	Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,	26:11
	and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler	26:16
	long I stood	26:22
	and looked down one as far as I could	26:26
	to where it bent in the undergrowth.	26:30
	Then took the other as just as fair	26:36
	and having perhaps the better claim	26:42
	because it was grassy and wanted wear.	26:45
	Though as for that the passing there	26:50
	had worn them really about the same.	26:54
	And both that morning equally lay in leaves	26:59
	no step had trodden black.	27:05
	Oh I kept the first for another day,	27:10
	yet knowing how way leads on to way	27:14
	I doubted if I should ever come back.	27:19
	I shall be telling this with a sigh	27:24
	somewhere ages and ages hence.	27:29
	Two roads diverged in a wood,	27:35
	and I,	27:39
	I took the one less traveled by,	27:42
	and that has made all the difference.	27:47
	At so many points in our lives	27:57
	two roads diverge.	28:04
	And being one traveler we cannot follow both.	28:09
	We look down their grassy course	28:17
	in a hope to catch some clue	28:20
	but we must make our decision	28:24
	without knowing what lies at the end of either.	28:27
	Oh for a short distance it's possible	28:35
	to keep the other path in view,	28:38
	and to entertain the possibility of cutting	28:41
	through the wood and changing course.	28:44
	But before long there is no going back.	28:48
	And our destiny is the result of our decision.	28:52
	Ultimately,	29:00
	choices have to be made.	29:02
	Decisions have to be finalized.	29:07
	Consequences must be faced.	29:14
	When we make choices we, by the very nature of them,	29:22
	close out other options.	29:27
	You can easily think of examples in your own life	29:34
	of choices that you have made about education,	29:39
	about vocation, about personal relationships,	29:46
	many other arenas of life,	29:53
	where the decisions made along the way have determined	29:56
	your course and brought inevitable consequences.	30:01
	We simply can never,	30:09
	do, be, see, go,	30:12
	have, experience everything.	30:16
	We live limited lifespans.	30:20
	Our time has its limits	30:25
	as do our resources, our abilities and our energy.	30:30
	And faced with this simple fact we have problems so often	30:36
	in the setting of priorities.	30:42
	For to decide that which is most important,	30:46
	that to which one will devote and dedicate oneself	30:51
	is by necessity to give up	30:56
	a great deal else.	31:02
	Some things have to be done	31:08
	without.	31:13
	Prices have to be paid.	31:17
	It's easy to wish.	31:26
	I sit like you do and flip idly the pages	31:31
	of the health magazines and envy the bodies	31:35
	that are pictured there.	31:39
	But we know how it is.	31:43
	If we want good health we have to get out and exercise.	31:46
	If we want good figures we have to be careful	31:51
	about our diet.	31:53
	We have to make choices and sacrifices.	31:56
	We want satisfying personal relationships.	32:01
	And if we really do,	32:07
	we must devote to those relationships	32:10
	with those important people the time	32:13
	and the attention essential	32:17
	to the developing of real intimacy.	32:21
	We want outstanding accomplishments in our careers.	32:27
	And so we must sacrifice much leisure	32:33
	and deny ourselves many vacations.	32:38
	We want a bigger house, we may have to buy a smaller car.	32:42
	It's just a law of life.	32:49
	In this realm of existence we are finite people	32:53
	living finite lives and we must make choices.	32:57
	In the scripture lesson from the Gospel of John,	33:07
	those who have been with Jesus	33:12
	are facing a time of decision.	33:16
	They have heard Jesus proclaim some	33:21
	of his most stunning statements about himself.	33:24
	They have heard this Jewish teacher claim to be	33:30
	the revelation in flesh of the living God.	33:36
	And in the face of that claim and that challenge	33:43
	the scripture tells us that many drew back	33:49
	and no longer went about with him.	33:54
	And in response to the dwindling of his following,	34:01
	watching the discouragement and the confusion	34:06
	of those who dropped away,	34:09
	Jesus turns to his closest friends,	34:12
	to his 12 carefully chosen disciples	34:18
	and asks them poignantly,	34:23
	"Do you also wish to go away?"	34:27
	Our lives are	34:38
	a succession of decisions.	34:41
	But we need to recognize	34:47
	that there is one basic	34:51
	decision in life.	34:56
	One fundamental choice	35:00
	which underlines and determines all others.	35:04
	As Jesus addressed these 12 disciples	35:12
	2,000 years ago,	35:16
	so Jesus speaks to us in Duke Chapel this morning	35:19
	and calls us to an ultimate	35:25
	commitment and loyalty to God	35:30
	as God is known in Jesus Christ.	35:34
	The primary decision of our lives,	35:42
	in the midst of so many decisions, the primary decision	35:46
	is to recognize Jesus	35:53
	as the holy one of God,	35:57
	as the one who has the words	36:01
	of eternal life.	36:05
	To make the choice,	36:09
	to trust ourselves to God,	36:12
	and commit ourselves to the living out	36:17
	of the divine will in us.	36:21
	One of the great contributions	36:30
	made by John Wesley,	36:34
	the founder of what has become the Methodist church	36:37
	to Christian theology was what we call	36:41
	Wesley's Doctrine of Prevenient Grace.	36:45
	The grace of God that comes to us	36:52
	before anything else.	36:57
	And prepares and enables us	37:01
	to make the decisions of our life.	37:05
	Wesley believed, unlike Calvin,	37:10
	that our eternal destinies	37:15
	were ultimately determined	37:17
	by what we ourselves chose.	37:19
	That God has given and continues to give to each person	37:24
	the ability to respond	37:29
	to God's offer of saving grace	37:34
	or to freely choose to reject it.	37:38
	We are not predetermined by something that happened	37:44
	thousands of years before our birth.	37:49
	We are not even predetermined totally	37:53
	by the mistakes of our parents.	37:55
	We choose our own destiny	37:59
	because God in graciousness chooses	38:04
	to grant us that ability.	38:07
	The choice to follow Jesus above all else	38:16
	is a difficult one.	38:21
	Partly because it is not the kind of choice	38:25
	that you might make in Duke Chapel on Sunday morning,	38:28
	or at any altar at any church	38:33
	or at any decisive crises point	38:36
	in your life and make it once	38:40
	and for all.	38:44
	No,	38:49
	the decision to commit ourselves to Jesus first	38:51
	is a decision that must be constantly	38:56
	daily reaffirmed.	39:00
	We decide every day who we are	39:05
	and how we will live out our identity.	39:10
	And yes, Jesus says to us,	39:16
	"Do you also wish to go away?"	39:21
	if we honestly	39:31
	make and maintain	39:36
	this primary commitment to Jesus,	39:40
	we will receive guidance	39:45
	in making the other decisions of our life	39:50
	and strength to deal	39:55
	with their consequences.	39:59
	This is not to say that the way will always be clear,	40:03
	or that God's will will be without question.	40:08
	But it is to affirm that God does not leave us alone,	40:14
	but guides, sustains, and strengthens us	40:19
	in making the choices that constitute our lives.	40:24
	But, unless we have first made a fundamental	40:30
	decision to follow Jesus,	40:34
	any other decisions	40:38
	about other areas of life	40:43
	can be right ones	40:47
	only by accident.	40:50
	Oh we may luck up occasionally,	40:55
	but unless our lives are founded and grounded	40:59
	on the words of eternal life,	41:05
	we have no basis for decision making.	41:09
	Because the basis of decision making is prioritizing.	41:13
	Putting one's loyalties in the right order.	41:19
	And if we do this with God first,	41:25
	our other priorities much more easily fall	41:29
	in their proper place.	41:33
	For good or for ill,	41:39
	our character	41:44
	is the culmination of our choices.	41:47
	We may not always want the credit for it,	41:55
	but we are the kind of people	42:00
	we decide to be.	42:04
	We are the result of the series of decisions	42:10
	that we make.	42:15
	Now I realize surely that we cannot control	42:19
	all the circumstances of our life.	42:24
	And I am not suggesting for a moment that we can.	42:28
	Things happen to us	42:33
	over which we have no real influence.	42:37
	But while we cannot by decision making control what happens,	42:42
	we can decide and control	42:48
	how we respond.	42:54
	Most of us are just as happy as we decide to be.	42:57
	We are the kind of people that we have made ourselves into	43:04
	by our choices in life.	43:10
	Founded on that ultimate choice	43:15
	that who I am first and foremost	43:19
	is a disciple of Jesus Christ.	43:24
	The popular culture around us tells us	43:32
	that we can have it all.	43:35
	And who says that we can't?	43:39
	I would suggest to you this morning	43:45
	that the Christian faith says no.	43:47
	No,	43:54
	you cannot have it all.	43:56
	You have to make choices.	44:01
	You have to give up some things to get greater ones.	44:04
	You have to decide your priorities and live	44:09
	in that order of commitment.	44:14
	But this my friends is not a grim teeth clenching	44:20
	kind of situation where we look at life	44:26
	as a constant succession of losses,	44:30
	though in some ways of course that is true.	44:33
	For we serve a God who assures us	44:38
	that we cannot have it all	44:42
	but we can have everything that matters.	44:45
	We can have everything that gives life joy,	44:51
	everything that gives life meaning and purpose.	44:57
	God gives us that	45:03
	out of God's reservoirs of love,	45:06
	and wants us simply	45:10
	to decide to receive it.	45:14
	To whom shall we go?	45:20
	To you, Lord, you have the words	45:25
	of eternal life.	45:31
	Amen.	45:34
	(organ music)	45:40
	(congregation sings hymn)	46:06
Reverend	The Lord be with you.	48:02
Congregation	And also with you.	48:04
-	Let us pray.	48:05
	Lord in your crucifixion and resurrection,	48:22
	in your word and in your sacrament,	48:26
	you reveal to us the savior of the world,	48:29
	the savior who lives and dies and lives again	48:34
	for the sake of your whole creation.	48:38
	Therefore we must always bring to you the savior for others,	48:42
	the needs, the wounds, the pains, the hopes of our world.	48:48
	We pray this day for those tender shoots of freedom	48:57
	which emerge in various portions of our world,	49:02
	in the Gulf, in Afghanistan, in Namibia,	49:06
	we would that you would nurture them	49:14
	and bless their growth as well as inspire us	49:18
	in the multitude ways	49:23
	that we may be involved as peacemakers.	49:25
	We pray also earnestly and longingly for Thailand	49:30
	and for Latin America and for Israel and the Palestinians.	49:36
	There are many places Lord we would see	49:41
	new tender shoots of peace.	49:44
	We pray you, the peacemaker,	49:50
	bless all our efforts at peace	49:54
	and inspire us to be lovers and seekers of peace.	49:58
	We pray for our own nation, now well launched	50:06
	into a political process, discussion and debate.	50:10
	We pray for the discussion that we now intensify,	50:16
	that we may look at ourselves candidly and soberly	50:22
	and frankly, that we will not step away	50:25
	from the hard question,	50:29
	that we will look deep into our own soul	50:33
	as well as the soul of our neighbor.	50:35
	And we pray that you will guide the process,	50:39
	that justice and righteousness may prevail.	50:42
	We pray for our church, that she may uphold the kingdom	50:50
	of God always in the midst of this world,	50:55
	that we may never lose the vision of the kingdom	50:58
	as we live in the world and as we live in our land.	51:01
	Give her the courage of her convictions,	51:06
	men and women who guide and inspire and lead,	51:10
	men and women, boys and girls also who follow and support	51:15
	and love and cherish and nurture.	51:21
	We remember those this day especially who are	51:25
	in pain or sorrow.	51:29
	Especially those who worship with us	51:31
	in the Duke Medical Center.	51:33
	Bless both those who have need for care	51:37
	and those who give it.	51:40
	Enable us all, wherever we may be in life's journey,	51:43
	to trust you and to rely upon your healing presence,	51:49
	to entrust to you our soul, our spirit, our life,	51:54
	that we may work always with your healing presence	51:59
	and never against it.	52:04
	We remember also those, oh how many forgotten,	52:07
	in institutions around our land, in the mental hospitals,	52:13
	yes forgotten by friends, yes oftentimes forgotten	52:18
	by family, abandoned by family,	52:23
	and yes, Lord help us, often forgotten by us, the church.	52:27
	We commend them to you, we commend to you those	52:33
	in the hospitals for the handicapped	52:36
	and we commend to you those who are in prison	52:39
	and who live without hope day to day.	52:43
	On this last Sunday before we begin to celebrate	52:51
	a new academic year, we would especially remember	52:55
	our emeritii professors and those who have served	52:58
	this university in various capacities,	53:02
	whether as teachers or support staff.	53:06
	We draw strength from their sacrifice	53:10
	and their commitment and their service	53:14
	to this institution and the people who have come through it.	53:16
	We stand on their shoulders as we do our own work	53:20
	in this place, whether we be teachers or learners,	53:23
	or whether we be support staff, administrators.	53:27
	We cherish all of these, Lord.	53:33
	We commend them to you, we draw from their inspiration,	53:36
	and we pray for them a special place	53:41
	in your heart as in ours.	53:45
	There are many things Lord we would commend to you this day	53:50
	but we give thanks at this moment	53:54
	that we may come to you as children to a loving parent,	53:56
	to be embraced, to be enfolded, to be encouraged,	54:00
	to be sent out, renewed, and refreshed.	54:06
	In the name of Christ our Lord we pray, amen.	54:13
	We worship God now with our gifts.	54:20
	(organ music)	54:35
	(soloist singing)	54:40
	(organ music)	57:24
	(congregation singing)	59:22
-	Lord you are our creator and sustainer	1:00:24
	and all we bring to you is yours.	1:00:28
	We bring these gifts with glad hearts,	1:00:31
	glad because we are recipients of your love and bounty,	1:00:34
	glad because we have an abundance,	1:00:38
	glad because we have strength and ability	1:00:42
	and opportunity to multiply what you have given us.	1:00:46
	We thank you for the opportunity for work and play,	1:00:51
	for bodies which provide us strength,	1:00:55
	minds able to give direction to our bodies,	1:00:58
	spirits capable of experiencing transcendent inspiration	1:01:03
	by your grace, body, mind and spirit,	1:01:07
	each remarkable in itself,	1:01:13
	but to possess all three as they work and interact together	1:01:16
	that is a gift of overwhelming generosity.	1:01:21
	We thank you who moves all your creation to worship	1:01:25
	for this time together in this very special place.	1:01:29
	We thank you for the visual feast of color	1:01:34
	as well as prophecy in these lovely windows,	1:01:37
	for the linear grace and movement of the gothic themes	1:01:41
	which flow from the fluted columns	1:01:44
	to the vaulted ceilings.	1:01:46
	We thank you for the mysteries of our faith suggested	1:01:49
	by the shadows and lights playing on walls and floors,	1:01:52
	for the flight of our souls and spirits drawn forward	1:01:57
	and upward by the great length and height of this place,	1:02:01
	for your movement within us as in word is read	1:02:06
	and preached, sung and chanted,	1:02:12
	for the mystic harmony which arises among us	1:02:16
	as the sound and sight and space of this special sanctuary	1:02:19
	converge to call us again to a new creation	1:02:23
	and a recreation in your image.	1:02:27
	We thank you for the great treasure called Duke University,	1:02:31
	its spiritual, intellectual, and material resources.	1:02:35
	Help us to be good stewards of these truly scarce treasures,	1:02:39
	attending to your will and the costly, now painful,	1:02:44
	and yes, richly rewarding search for truth.	1:02:49
	Now we lay these and enumerable other gifts on your table.	1:02:54
	We pray that you will bless them and multiply them	1:03:00
	for the blessing of all your creatures.	1:03:04
	Our might transformed to your creative abundance	1:03:07
	for the blessing of your creation.	1:03:12
	These prayers of thanksgiving we offer with all our hearts	1:03:15
	in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,	1:03:20
	who taught us with all his disciples to pray	1:03:22
All	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	1:03:26
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	1:03:31
	on earth as it is in heaven.	1:03:35
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:03:38
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	1:03:41
	who trespass against us.	1:03:45
	And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	1:03:47
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	1:03:53
	and the glory forever. Amen.	1:03:56
	(organ music)	1:04:01
	(congregation sings hymn)	1:04:45
-	Now the Lord bless you and keep you,	1:08:04
	the Lord make his face to shine upon you	1:08:07
	and be gracious unto you.	1:08:09
	The Lord lift up his countenance upon you	1:08:12
	and give you peace today and forever, amen.	1:08:14
	(organ music)	1:08:23

Item Info

Title:

Gayle C. Felton - "To Whom Shall We Go?" (August 21, 1988)

Description:

All of life is a succession of decisions. While the surrounding culture would have us believe that we can have it all without making sacrifices, Christians know that we are finite creatures, and all choices come with costs. The primary decision––which we must make on a daily basis––is to follow Jesus. Making this decision will afford us guidance and wisdom for the other decisions, though it will not allow us to control the outcome. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 21:21. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 45:36.
Key quotation: “Our lives are a succession of decisions. But we need to recognize that there is one basic decision in life. One fundamental choice which underlines and determines all others…The primary decision of our lives…is to recognize Jesus as the holy one of God, as the one who has the words of eternal life.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4hx16561

Date:

August 21, 1988

Speaker:

Felton, Gayle C.

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0093
ref8498_ywo
uachapelsermaud
duke:321731
dcrmv001093
ark:/87924/r4hx16561
40ceeded-0fd2-4fcc-983f-85a24d19bd79

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Gayle C. Felton - "To Whom Shall We Go?" (August 21, 1988)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

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