James T. Cleland - "January in September" (September 24, 1961)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(congregation singing) | 0:04 | |
- | Let us pray. | 0:20 |
Let the words of my mouth | 0:23 | |
and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable | 0:26 | |
in thy sight, | 0:31 | |
Lord our strength and our Redeemer, | 0:33 | |
amen. | 0:38 | |
"January in September". | 0:48 | |
I can hear your unvoiced reactions. | 0:54 | |
What a title for a sermon. | 1:00 | |
Why on earth was it chosen? | 1:03 | |
How can it mean anything? | 1:07 | |
My brother, | 1:11 | |
any sermon of mine is lucky to have a title at all. | 1:12 | |
I don't believe in sermonic titles. | 1:19 | |
They overemphasize the part of the address | 1:24 | |
in the order of worship. | 1:28 | |
Moreover I find them difficult to invent | 1:31 | |
and so look upon them with increasing annoyance. | 1:36 | |
And yet , | 1:41 | |
"January in September" | 1:42 | |
sums up in capsule form | 1:46 | |
the content of this sermon. | 1:49 | |
And so may help us all to remember it. | 1:52 | |
We who have gathered in this chapel are taking part | 1:58 | |
in the official opening service of worship | 2:02 | |
for the whole university | 2:07 | |
in a new academic year. | 2:10 | |
The freshmen have been oriented to the point of exhaustion, | 2:14 | |
maybe some out already accidented, | 2:22 | |
if there is such a word. | 2:25 | |
They've had their own special service in this chapel. | 2:28 | |
This morning I want to speak primarily | 2:33 | |
to those of us who have returned to Duke. | 2:36 | |
The freshmen are welcome to listen in. | 2:41 | |
After all it is our hope that they will come back next year. | 2:45 | |
January is of course, | 2:50 | |
the first month of the calendar year in the West. | 2:52 | |
The name is derived from Janus. | 2:56 | |
An old Italian deity, | 3:01 | |
who is over represented with two faces, | 3:05 | |
looking different ways. | 3:09 | |
He was the God of beginnings, | 3:13 | |
of all beginnings. | 3:17 | |
He was also the God of gates and doors | 3:21 | |
because they look two ways, | 3:26 | |
outwards and inwards, | 3:29 | |
backwards and forwards. | 3:31 | |
This September Sunday is another beginning for us. | 3:35 | |
Furthermore, | 3:43 | |
we shall think of that beginning with a glance at the past | 3:44 | |
and a look into the future. | 3:49 | |
Like Janus, we shall try to be two-faced | 3:53 | |
giving the adjective a kindlier connotation | 4:00 | |
than it usually receives. | 4:04 | |
Hence the title of this sermon, | 4:07 | |
"January in September, Q E D." | 4:10 | |
Now first there is the back court glance over a year or two | 4:19 | |
or three or more or many years. | 4:24 | |
What is the immediate reaction? | 4:29 | |
Well, | 4:32 | |
we made it again. | 4:34 | |
Final exams of 1960, 61 are obviously successfully hurdled, | 4:39 | |
even though it has taken an assist from summer school | 4:47 | |
at Duke | 4:53 | |
or at some easier place | 4:55 | |
which shall be nameless | 4:57 | |
to accomplish it. | 5:01 | |
We survived academically, | 5:05 | |
no mean feat. | 5:08 | |
What's more, | 5:11 | |
there were high spots last year, | 5:12 | |
we would hardly confess to a roommate | 5:16 | |
that there were classes we enjoyed | 5:19 | |
because of a teacher who was exciting, | 5:24 | |
or humorous, | 5:28 | |
or very patient. | 5:29 | |
There was a strange thrill of new knowledge, | 5:33 | |
which gave palpitations to the heart, | 5:36 | |
as well as stimuli to the mind. | 5:40 | |
There was the opening of vistas, | 5:46 | |
never dreamed of | 5:50 | |
when we came here | 5:53 | |
believing then we knew more than we dare to believe now. | 5:55 | |
There was the difficult, | 6:02 | |
but salutary junking of beliefs and desires, | 6:04 | |
which were as wisely discarded as an inflamed appendix. | 6:09 | |
There was the discovery of valid foundations | 6:15 | |
upon which to build our own lives | 6:20 | |
and outside of classes and labs and offices and libraries. | 6:24 | |
We recall the kaleidoscope of extra curricular activities. | 6:29 | |
Our athletic teams | 6:36 | |
with occasional lapses established records, | 6:37 | |
which are going to be difficult to maintain. | 6:41 | |
What's more, | 6:46 | |
they provided opportunities for the university | 6:46 | |
to be some kind of a university. | 6:52 | |
Instead of the multiversity it usually is. | 6:56 | |
There were promises of an exciting future for our alma mater | 7:01 | |
not only in ideas and in words, | 7:06 | |
but visibly realized in stone and brick | 7:08 | |
in new professional chairs, | 7:14 | |
in increasing financial support, | 7:18 | |
there were dances and debates, | 7:22 | |
symposia, and countless concerts, | 7:25 | |
foreign movies and nonstop dating. | 7:31 | |
Yes, for many of us | 7:36 | |
Duke has been a good place to grow up in. | 7:38 | |
Our hindsight is pervaded with gratitude. | 7:43 | |
Others of us are not so sure about such a conclusion. | 7:50 | |
The past was not touched with such a rosy colored fingers. | 7:56 | |
Some classes were | 8:04 | |
weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable | 8:07 | |
to be kind about them. | 8:12 | |
So were some sermons. | 8:16 | |
There were Ds when we expected Bs. | 8:21 | |
There was disappointment in our social life. | 8:26 | |
I came here to be whitewith and I inked. | 8:31 | |
Please. | 8:36 | |
There was the incessant noise of the jungle. | 8:39 | |
One Dean's name for the dormitories on West Campus. | 8:43 | |
Like Robert Barne some of us can see with feeling, | 8:50 | |
but I backward cask my E on prospects to read. | 8:54 | |
But cheer up, | 9:03 | |
you're still here | 9:05 | |
and possibly of your own volition we hope. | 9:09 | |
It's wise now and again, to look at the background, | 9:14 | |
it helps us to see where and what the foreground is | 9:19 | |
for the past | 9:25 | |
is not entirely past. | 9:27 | |
It is for better, for worse, | 9:31 | |
for richer, for poorer, | 9:35 | |
the wok pan woof of the fabric, | 9:39 | |
which we call the present. | 9:43 | |
Now at this point it's important to note | 9:47 | |
that our religious heritage | 9:50 | |
is one in which the past has played a controlling part | 9:52 | |
in which hindsight is not only accepted but encouraged. | 9:58 | |
That is why the Exodus passage was read | 10:06 | |
as part of the scripture lesson. | 10:09 | |
For the Jew, | 10:13 | |
the Passover was not merely an incident | 10:15 | |
which once occurred at a dramatic moment in their history, | 10:18 | |
signalizing the deliverance from Egypt | 10:24 | |
and the beginning of there return to the promised land. | 10:28 | |
The Passover | 10:34 | |
is an annual event, | 10:37 | |
the high festival of the Jewish year | 10:40 | |
when Israel looks back in memory | 10:45 | |
and so gains new confidence for the present | 10:51 | |
and fresh hope for the future. | 10:56 | |
There's a very moving moment | 10:58 | |
in the family celebration of the Passover. | 11:01 | |
When a child, usually the eldest son asks this question, | 11:05 | |
what do you mean by this topic? | 11:12 | |
That is the cue | 11:19 | |
from the glad recital of God's wondrous acts. | 11:22 | |
As the Jew interprets history | 11:27 | |
in the light of his faith, | 11:31 | |
the participants are called to remember, and notice this, | 11:35 | |
they're called to remember trouble, as well as mercy, | 11:38 | |
slavery and deliverance, | 11:45 | |
the mingling of the bitter and the sweet. | 11:49 | |
It's an occasion field with sentiment, | 11:55 | |
but hardly in the light of history with sentimentality, | 11:58 | |
for the Jew, God is the God of his father. | 12:04 | |
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, | 12:08 | |
he turns to the past for the sake of the present. | 12:14 | |
Christianity, never discarded this emphasis. | 12:21 | |
It's substituted Easter for the Passover. | 12:26 | |
And so it looks back to another type of deliverance. | 12:31 | |
Deliverance from the power | 12:36 | |
and therefore, from the fear of death | 12:39 | |
and Christianity to his unsentimental about this victory, | 12:44 | |
because linked with the resurrection | 12:50 | |
is the crucifixion. | 12:55 | |
Justice conjoined with the birth of Jesus | 12:58 | |
is the massacre of the children. | 13:03 | |
The past is a mixture of joy and pain. | 13:08 | |
Spiritual As, and spiritual Fs, | 13:13 | |
accomplishment and frustration, | 13:18 | |
but the pluses have the edge. | 13:22 | |
Otherwise we would not be worshiping now. | 13:26 | |
Our faith has always drawn sustenance | 13:32 | |
from memory. | 13:36 | |
Therefore we have our religious sanction | 13:39 | |
for looking backwards | 13:41 | |
for the valid use of eye sight. | 13:44 | |
Let us remember the past without becoming modeling | 13:49 | |
or depressed | 13:55 | |
or arrogant. | 13:58 | |
If it has been good, | 14:02 | |
say a tey day on Lord Damers and keep moving. | 14:05 | |
If it has been bad, | 14:12 | |
learn from it | 14:15 | |
and then forget it. | 14:17 | |
So much for the first face of Janus in September. | 14:21 | |
Now what about this new academic year | 14:30 | |
and the next, and the next? | 14:33 | |
They are question marks. | 14:37 | |
Politically we expect crisis mounting on crisis | 14:41 | |
until that is either a failure of nerve | 14:48 | |
or an unexpected burst of sanity. | 14:53 | |
Samuel Goldwyn, once remarked | 14:56 | |
that he wanted to make a film, | 14:59 | |
which began with an earthquake and then mounted to a climax. | 15:03 | |
Now we have it politically. | 15:11 | |
Not in any feature film, | 15:14 | |
but in the weekly international news reed. | 15:17 | |
A doctor said to me last week, | 15:22 | |
"I've just seen four lovely youngsters | 15:24 | |
"and my heart sore for them." | 15:27 | |
I asked him were they awfully sick | 15:31 | |
and surprised he answered, | 15:34 | |
"No, | 15:36 | |
"they were fine." | 15:38 | |
But imagine having to grow up | 15:43 | |
in this kind of a world. | 15:47 | |
The coming symposium on the Commonwealth of children, | 15:52 | |
will be thinking about this type of comment. | 15:57 | |
Academically, some of you have less fear of the future | 16:03 | |
than you had last year or the year before. | 16:06 | |
You're learning what a college or a professional | 16:09 | |
or a graduate degree is all about. | 16:12 | |
You even looked forward to the studious life. | 16:15 | |
Others of you can't quite see it that way. | 16:20 | |
You're just a little further forward | 16:25 | |
into the academic minor tours labyrinth, | 16:29 | |
without any Ariadne thread to find the exit still alive. | 16:33 | |
Socially, some of us will fiddle | 16:40 | |
while Duke does long range planning. | 16:43 | |
Others will work out a satisfactory modus vivendi | 16:47 | |
and yet others will play it by ear | 16:51 | |
or by hand | 16:55 | |
or by both. | 16:56 | |
Professionally some of us are consciously en-route | 16:59 | |
to our life's work. | 17:03 | |
Some of us will begin thinking about that after graduation. | 17:05 | |
Some of us will depend on Ms. Mitchell. | 17:11 | |
I know one girl who's torn | 17:14 | |
between being a WY secretary or a fashion expert. | 17:16 | |
That's an interesting combination. | 17:20 | |
That is one thing sure. | 17:24 | |
The future is daily becoming the present. | 17:27 | |
It's a sound idea to watch tomorrow as it comes | 17:31 | |
to recognize its warning signs | 17:36 | |
to rejoice in its promises, | 17:40 | |
to be prepared for its inevitable arrival. | 17:43 | |
Does our religion say anything | 17:49 | |
about how we should view the future? | 17:50 | |
It does. | 17:54 | |
What it has to see is derived | 17:56 | |
from its interpretation of the past. | 17:58 | |
It announces quite simply. | 18:02 | |
Walk into it | 18:05 | |
with God. | 18:07 | |
If he created the world before us | 18:10 | |
and sustains us in the present, | 18:14 | |
then keep on as if he would keep on to. | 18:18 | |
that's the note, | 18:23 | |
which Jesus introduced into the Passover story. | 18:24 | |
As it was read in the second part of our morning lesson, | 18:28 | |
he told his disciples that | 18:33 | |
that Passover would be the last one for him on earth, | 18:34 | |
but he added something | 18:41 | |
that he would partake our bit in the kingdom of God. | 18:43 | |
That's the forgotten emphasis | 18:48 | |
in too many services of holy communion. | 18:50 | |
We come and we rightly come in remembrance of him, | 18:54 | |
but we forget the promise he made | 18:59 | |
of the continuation of the festival in the kingdom. | 19:03 | |
This is the emphasis on victory anticipated. | 19:07 | |
There's a forward look to the Lord Supper. | 19:12 | |
Let us remember that next Sunday. | 19:14 | |
And therefore the Christian walks into the future with hope. | 19:17 | |
Hope based on previous confidence, | 19:23 | |
that confidence rooted on his view of history. | 19:27 | |
This confidence we carry into all our athlete days because | 19:32 | |
God is the God of all life. | 19:36 | |
Have you ever thought of the common ordinary, | 19:39 | |
everyday quality of the setting about Lord's teaching, | 19:42 | |
marriages, the building of towers and barns, | 19:48 | |
weeds growing up among wheat, | 19:53 | |
the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, | 19:56 | |
a village market square, | 20:00 | |
a well in Samaria. | 20:03 | |
Have you ever thought | 20:06 | |
of the day in day out dramatic persona of his parables. | 20:07 | |
Two boys and their father, | 20:13 | |
10 girls at a wedding, | 20:16 | |
a woman who mislaid a coin, | 20:20 | |
a shepherd who lost a sheep, | 20:23 | |
two men going up to the temple to pray, | 20:26 | |
an officer in an army of occupation. | 20:30 | |
Where do you think he wants us to set his teaching? | 20:35 | |
In page than the union, | 20:40 | |
in the gym and the stadium, | 20:45 | |
in Hayden's house and fraternity row, | 20:49 | |
in choir practice and in our use of the library. | 20:53 | |
Whom would he talk about if he were here today? | 20:58 | |
Deans and janitors, | 21:02 | |
faculty and freshmen, | 21:05 | |
research students and coaches, | 21:08 | |
maids and waitresses, | 21:11 | |
bus drivers, and campus props, | 21:14 | |
but his message wouldn't change. | 21:18 | |
It would be walk into the future | 21:22 | |
with the confidence which you gained from the past. | 21:25 | |
That Hamer's shoulder's dead | 21:33 | |
and Berlin is a powder cake. | 21:36 | |
The Congo and Algeria, Cuba are seething. | 21:39 | |
Life is not easy, | 21:44 | |
never has been, | 21:47 | |
but it is his life. | 21:49 | |
And we're still alive to see it. | 21:51 | |
Duke too is becoming harder. | 21:56 | |
I'm kind of relieved that I teach | 21:58 | |
because I'm sure I'm not bright enough to get in, | 22:00 | |
but this is what life is. | 22:07 | |
We arrive in pain for someone. | 22:09 | |
We live in pain at some time | 22:13 | |
we die | 22:16 | |
and that is painful, | 22:18 | |
some sense, | 22:21 | |
and we can choose and some of us may to cite the next line | 22:23 | |
from the bottom's poem quoted | 22:26 | |
as out attitude to the days ahead and forward | 22:29 | |
though I kinda see, | 22:35 | |
I guess, | 22:38 | |
and fear. | 22:40 | |
Christian response has been different from that | 22:43 | |
ever since the first century, | 22:45 | |
whether we live or whether we die. | 22:48 | |
We are | 22:52 | |
the Lord. | 22:54 | |
That's the spirit in which Donald Hanky is a young officer | 22:56 | |
in the first world war | 22:59 | |
steadied, his man before they were going over the top | 23:02 | |
in the last allied push in 1918. | 23:05 | |
This is all he said to his troops. | 23:09 | |
"If we come through unscathed it's victory. | 23:13 | |
"If we're wondered, | 23:19 | |
"it's blaiky, | 23:22 | |
"that's home. | 23:23 | |
"If we have killed, it's the resurrection." | 23:25 | |
If we come through unscathed that's victory. | 23:31 | |
If we're wondered, it's blaiky, | 23:33 | |
if we're killed it's the resurrection. | 23:35 | |
Can we think of a more hopeful three baffled pep talk? | 23:38 | |
One sets his face to the future with resolution after that | 23:43 | |
so much for the second face of Janus, | 23:47 | |
let me close with a contemporary palatable. | 23:50 | |
My wife and I drove around | 23:56 | |
the maritime provinces of Canada in August, | 23:57 | |
over 5,000 miles. | 24:02 | |
Never again at our age, | 24:05 | |
but I learned something about an automobile. | 24:10 | |
It's wise to have a sound motor, good brakes, | 24:14 | |
cushion seats, | 24:19 | |
and a jack. | 24:21 | |
Yet two more items are needed for safe and happy driving, | 24:27 | |
a clean windshield | 24:33 | |
and a good rear view mirror | 24:36 | |
because one drives with one's eyes | 24:40 | |
constantly moving between the future and the past | 24:43 | |
so that he may be safe in the present. | 24:47 | |
Either the windshield | 24:52 | |
or the good rear view mirror is not enough. | 24:53 | |
We need both. | 24:57 | |
The backward view is insufficient of itself. | 24:59 | |
We might as well pack. | 25:03 | |
The forward view is likewise insufficient. | 25:06 | |
We'd better know what's behind us. | 25:10 | |
Driving like life is always the past | 25:14 | |
and the future business. | 25:17 | |
Don't you think that Janus rather than Christopher | 25:21 | |
might be the patron saint of all drivers | 25:25 | |
and all travelers. | 25:29 | |
Janus is worth naturalizing | 25:32 | |
as a Christian. | 25:36 | |
He would remind us of the God | 25:39 | |
who has been our help in ages past, | 25:42 | |
and therefore is our hope | 25:47 | |
for years to come. | 25:51 | |
Amen. | 25:56 | |
Let us pray. | 25:57 | |
God, our help in ages passed, | 26:04 | |
and our hope for years to come | 26:07 | |
be thou guide | 26:11 | |
into and in this new academic year | 26:13 | |
until thee, we shall ascribe as this most due | 26:18 | |
all praise and glory | 26:21 | |
and may the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly, | 26:24 | |
may it keep you strong and tranquil | 26:28 | |
in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. | 26:32 | |
(congregation singing) | 26:47 |
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