Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)

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	(background music)	0:04
	(background church music)	0:13
	(background singing)	2:08
	(indistinct)	4:03
-	And his tender mercies are (indistinct)	4:05
	(indistinct chattering)	4:10
	and not one of his (indistinct)	4:17
	but as with one heart and one voice	4:22
	(indistinct) confess our sins (indistinct)	4:25
	We confess lord, that we have not loved you	4:38
	or our neighbor as we should	4:42
	We have often neglected opportunities (indistinct)	4:46
	sometimes we have done actual harm,	4:50
	our conscious (indistinct)	4:54
	but let us stay blind to your (indistinct)	4:58
	We know that a mere apology will not do	5:03
	we (indistinct) turn from the sins we know	5:07
	we ask you to show us the sins we do not recognize.	5:11
	we resolve to forgive any who have wronged us	5:17
	and to seek reconciliation with any (indistinct)	5:21
	now we beg your pardon, and as we pray	5:27
	(indistinct chattering)	5:32
	(indistinct)	5:55
	This is the message we have heard from (indistinct)	5:59
	proclaimed to you.	6:03
	That God is light, and in him there's no darkness at all.	6:05
	If we walk in the light, as he is in the light,	6:11
	we have fellowship with one another,	6:16
	and the blood of Jesus his son,	6:19
	cleanses us of all sins.	6:22
	(indistinct)	6:27
	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name	6:30
	thy kingdom come	6:36
	thy will be done on earth	6:38
	as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread	6:40
	and forgive us or trespasses, as we forgive	6:46
	those who trespass against us, lead us not into temptation	6:50
	but deliver us from evil, for thy is the kingdom	6:55
	the power and the glory, forever and ever,	7:00
	amen.	7:04
	(background music)	7:09
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	7:59
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	8:05
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	8:10
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	8:14
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	8:29
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	8:34
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	8:56
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	9:02
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	9:07
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	9:12
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	9:25
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	9:31
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	9:52
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	9:58
	♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪	10:08
	♪ Halle... ♪	10:15
	♪ Halle... ♪	10:17
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	10:20
	♪ Amen. ♪	10:25
-	Hear the word of God, as it is recorded	10:37
	in the fourth chapter of Philippians, the 12 and 13 verses,	10:42
	"I know how to be abased	10:49
	and I know how to abound.	10:53
	In any and in all circumstances,	10:58
	I have learned the secret in facing plenty and hunger,	11:01
	abundance and want.	11:08
	I can do all things in him who strengthens me.	11:11
	(piano playing)	11:22
	(choir singing)	11:31
	(indistinct)	12:06
-	We believe in God, who has created and is creating,	12:08
	who has come in the true man Jesus, to reconcile	12:14
	and make new.	12:18
	Who works in us and others by his spirit.	12:20
	We trust him, he calls us to be in this church.	12:24
	We celebrate his presence, to love and serve others,	12:30
	to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus,	12:35
	crucified and risen, our judge and our hope	12:40
	in life, in death, in life beyond death,	12:45
	God is with us.	12:50
	We are not alone, thanks be to God.	12:52
	The lord be with you,	12:57
	let us pray.	13:00
	(indistinct prayer)	13:11
	against the enemies who have wronged us	14:14
	and even against the justice (indistinct)	14:17
	Teach us nevertheless, we beseech thee,	14:21
	(indistinct)	14:24
	To see that each person in his own destiny,	14:27
	that each soul (indistinct) heaven and (indistinct) hell	14:31
	send us back into our own souls	14:36
	(indistinct)	14:39
	(indistinct chatters)	18:07
	Now is it ordinarily easy,	20:13
	to be grateful for not very obvious gifts,	20:17
	from an even less obvious gift,	20:23
	of course not.	20:27
	When one is in (indistinct)	20:30
	immersed in the ills and evils of life,	20:34
	surrounded with apparently meaningless suffering,	20:39
	where there are no obvious gifts to be grateful for.	20:44
	It may seem not only difficult, but stupid to be grateful.	20:49
	The appropriate attitude may seem to be, thanks for nothing.	20:57
	On the other hand however is it,	21:08
	really so much easier to be grateful (indistinct)	21:11
	at the other extreme	21:17
	when one is in abundance and fulfillment.	21:18
	Surrounded by obvious goodness	21:23
	and sitting (indistinct)	21:27
	Logic would presumably answer yes	21:34
	experience I think answers no.	21:39
	The appropriate attitude may seem to be something like,	21:47
	all right I finally got my, thanks to my (indistinct)	21:53
	and now that I'm in control of life	22:00
	I'm going to hang on to it.	22:03
	These responses,	22:11
	ungrateful despair when I'm bad	22:15
	and ungrateful (indistinct) when I'm not	22:20
	These responses are understandable	22:24
	and according to the biblical witness, remarkably calm	22:26
	In gratitude when we're up, in gratitude	22:34
	when we're down, in gratitude when we're halfway up	22:38
	(indistinct) down, easy, understandable (indistinct)	22:42
	And according to the biblical witness, Sam,	22:50
	just where the dot given the possibilities of life	22:56
	for the humanization of light into the image of God,	23:01
	you have radically distorted.	23:05
	Abundance and privation,	23:10
	goodness and evil, joy and suffering, up and down,	23:12
	(indistinct)	23:17
	so go the waves of life.	23:20
	It is the biblical conviction that how we ride the wave,	23:24
	determines who individually and corporately we become.	23:30
	The downs and the ups and the highs not less than the lows	23:38
	constitute ever recurrent crisis or human decision,	23:44
	in which who we now are and who we shall become	23:51
	is put on trial with possibilities.	23:57
	Ungrateful pride when we're riding high	24:03
	and ungrateful despair when we are riding low.	24:08
	These are the human possibility of our autonomously	24:13
	Self-centered pre.	24:17
	They are also recognized or not, temptation towards sin,	24:22
	temptation away from openness toward God, given.	24:29
	By the time Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians,	24:36
	he had written quite a few ways.	24:42
	He had certainly had his ups and downs,	24:46
	and he had learned the secret variety (indistinct)	24:51
	and open and relaxed gratitude without crying (indistinct)	24:57
	I know how to be abased, and I know how to file.	25:08
	In any and all circumstances,	25:16
	I have learned the secret of facing, lifting and hunger,	25:18
	abundance, and want.	25:26
	What is his secret?	25:33
	I can do all things through him who strengthens me.	25:37
	That is his secret	25:45
	He has come to know some,	25:48
	he has come to know not only the perfect model and example,	25:52
	but also the perfecting power	25:56
	of one who has written out over the	26:00
	highest press at the bottom (indistinct)	26:03
	of life's possibilities.	26:07
	The one who has wrestled with and won the triumphant victory	26:11
	over the facing temptation of life possibilities.	26:16
	Jesus of Nazareth	26:23
	Who following immediately upon his Baptist for the	26:26
	experience of Supreme exaltation	26:29
	intimate communion with the father and (indistinct)	26:32
	faith that he is number one,	26:36
	God's elect Messiah	26:40
	faced then in the wilderness,	26:44
	the demonic temptation to take over the show,	26:48
	in ungratefully forgetful self exalting PRI,	26:54
	but you've conquered that temptation in grateful humility	27:01
	by radical submission to the soul sovereignty and control of	27:07
	the father's will.	27:13
	Jesus of Nazareth who thereafter	27:19
	(indistinct) shifted breasts props of his (indistinct)	27:22
	right on through the final naiver the final bottom,	27:29
	beginning in disseminate and consummated on the cross.	27:33
	When at the bottom of the abyss in the final depth of	27:39
	suffering, when the father himself has disappeared	27:43
	and every perceivable (indistinct)	27:48
	He engages the final temptation.	27:54
	The temptation to abandon the invisible	27:59
	threats of memory and hope	28:04
	and to lapse into ultimate despair.	28:08
	But who conquered the last temptation and sustaining	28:14
	nevertheless,	28:17
	his gratitude for in continuing	28:20
	trusting hope in the father,	28:24
	whose space he can now (indistinct)	28:28
	There had been a time and he had called for the new Israel	28:39
	(indistinct) 12 responded	28:43
	A time people heard him gladly and many would follow him,	28:45
	but his own people rejected him,	28:54
	his own family gave him up, the multitude deserted him,	28:57
	his would be followers left him	29:04
	and through bread broken and wine poured out for a last	29:08
	time (indistinct)	29:12
	the new covenant (indistinct) community,	29:15
	the little flock who had remained	29:17
	with him throughout his trials	29:19
	But his disciples also have now forsaken him.	29:24
	One has betrayed him, even Peter the rock had denied him.	29:28
	He is handed over to an inverted community of those who hate	29:34
	and despise him, or simply do not care.	29:40
	And now has he hangs from across,	29:47
	he is cut off from the (indistinct)	29:50
	Yet just literally the one for the many.	29:58
	And he himself must experience and endure in his own way	30:05
	from the inside what others only perceive from the outside.	30:08
	That's the light given through him in the world has gone out	30:15
	and that he himself is utterly stricken smitten by God.	30:20
	Naked impotence now he cannot even move a hand or what,	30:29
	and as he has poured out,	30:36
	inside he must reign the cup of agony,	30:39
	which for the outsiders is inescapably plenty.	30:43
	This guy's made, Jesus, (indistinct)	30:48
	who would save others,	30:57
	himself he cannot save.	31:00
	Thus on the cross itself while he is still living,	31:07
	and hanging, he descends into hell.	31:13
	Entering the perceptual experience of abandonment by God,	31:18
	the God and father who he nevertheless,	31:25
	still continues to invoke	31:30
	and confess in the language of assault.	31:33
	My God, my God,	31:38
	why has thou forsaken me	31:43
	yet (indistinct)	31:48
	Posterity shall serve (indistinct)	31:52
	shall have the Lord to the coming generation	31:55
	and proclaim his deliverance (indistinct)	31:58
	But yet, he in spite of	32:08
	the Nevertheless,	32:12
	here is the final triumph of that grateful	32:16
	faith and love, trust and obedience	32:21
	with which he has lived a (indistinct) lifetime.	32:25
	And with through and despite of the profound sufferings of	32:31
	(indistinct)	32:36
	which is say penetrate our common life in the world	32:38
	right down to the lowest depth	32:43
	of the anguish of hell.	32:47
	Nevertheless, by continuing receptive	32:51
	dependence upon the hidden grace of God,	32:56
	whose faith he can now (indistinct)	32:59
	perfectly to maintain grateful hope	33:05
	that same unswerving	33:09
	faith and love, trust and obedience.	33:12
	(indistinct) Victor.	33:19
	Anticipating the bitterness draining of his cup,	33:25
	even the agony of abandonment by his father,	33:28
	he has cried out in the dark, Abba father,	33:31
	all things are possible to me,	33:37
	remove this cup from me	33:41
	But then, and now when all perceivable mean,	33:46
	fades fast away the purity of his obedience and still	33:50
	say, nevertheless not what I will,	33:56
	but what thou will.	34:02
	When all perceivable community has vanished,	34:07
	the purity of his love and still stay,	34:13
	bothered or gifted,	34:18
	for they know not what they do.	34:23
	When all perceivable power has been taken away from him,	34:28
	the purity of is trust in the invisible power of	34:36
	(indistinct)	34:41
	and still say to the last glimmering hope of a dying fellow	34:43
	(indistinct)	34:48
	Today you will be with me in paradise.	34:52
	And when all perceivable confirmation of his identity	34:58
	has disappeared and no voice from heaven says,	35:04
	"thou art my son"	35:08
	Purity of his faith,	35:12
	and still says as he dies, hanging,	35:14
	bothered (indistinct) spirit.	35:20
	The God we want to worship is the God and father of our	35:31
	Lord Jesus Christ.	35:36
	What might he say to us today	35:40
	If he were to speak to us today?	35:43
	I do not know,	35:49
	but knowing something of the gospel witness and something of	35:52
	my own memory of light on ambivalent responses	35:56
	to God's grace.	35:59
	Let me suggest simply that he might say something like this,	36:03
	"I know you,	36:10
	I created you,	36:14
	I have loved you from your mother's womb.	36:17
	You have pled as you now know from my love,	36:23
	but I love you nevertheless and not the last,	36:29
	and however far you feel,	36:33
	it is I who sustain your very power	36:37
	and I will never finally let you go.	36:41
	I accept you as you are,	36:48
	you are given.	36:52
	I know all your sufferings I have all known.	36:56
	It'd be on your understanding I have always (indistinct)	37:01
	I know also all the (indistinct)	37:07
	But you are beautiful.	37:18
	You are beautiful,	37:23
	more deeply with (indistinct) that you yourself can see.	37:24
	You are beautiful,	37:30
	because you yourself in a unique person that only you are	37:33
	reflect already something of the beauty of my voice	37:39
	in a way which shall never end.	37:45
	You are beautiful also because I and I alone	37:52
	see the beauty you shall become	37:58
	through the transforming power of my love,	38:02
	you shall become perfectly beautiful.	38:06
	You shall become perfectly beautiful in a uniquely	38:12
	irreplaceable way	38:16
	which either you nor I will work out well,	38:19
	because we will work it out together.	38:24
	Your life from now on will be neither simple, nor easy.	38:31
	I will grant you moments of abundant greatness and joy,	38:37
	moments when you will be lifted up very high	38:43
	moments of meaning when you will find yourself	38:47
	on a mountain where the distance	38:50
	bits and pieces suddenly come together in the sense of the	38:53
	(indistinct)	38:58
	The abundant greatness at the moment of the meaning will be	39:04
	priceless for you.	39:07
	Though you may not see it that way.	39:11
	But then you must decide	39:13
	whether you will in forgetful pride,	39:15
	rasp a moment to yourself as though	39:18
	it were your own autonomous possession	39:21
	or whether you will simply open yourself to the moment,	39:25
	receiving it in grateful (indistinct) as a gift,	39:30
	remembering the other and sharing the abundance of your	39:36
	blessing with the neighbor in need.	39:41
	I will to give you paradise,	39:48
	but you will only become finally ready for you when you have	39:53
	fully learned how to live in heaven without wrecking it	39:58
	through self searching (indistinct)	40:03
	When you are exalted with abundance goodness,	40:08
	do not forget to remember.	40:13
	To remember who you are,	40:17
	to remember who I am	40:19
	and to remember others indeed.	40:23
	Remember my son who took upon himself, the life of	40:29
	(indistinct)	40:34
	And though he is exalted now, remains the son still	40:35
	his earthly life was not lived continuously	40:41
	on the high plateau of abundance.	40:45
	Jesus also suffered and you will suffered too.	40:49
	Do not ask yourself whether you deserve to suffer	40:56
	That is (indistinct) Jesus did not deserve to suffer,	41:02
	but he suffered and was cast out,	41:09
	and you too must suffer and be cast out.	41:13
	Only when you have learned how to be grateful in memory and	41:20
	hope even in hell,	41:25
	will you be fully ready to be steadfastly in heaven.	41:29
	You may also awake on (indistinct)	41:42
	Instead of fulfillment, there will be a void,	41:51
	instead of my presence, there will be my absence.	41:54
	From my side I was still be present to you,	41:59
	but you will not perceive our relation to that way.	42:04
	You will perceive my absence	42:07
	that will be crisis	42:11
	of temptation and you will have a choice to make.	42:13
	If you choose wrongly,	42:17
	that will delay the business to be transacted between us.	42:19
	But even so your choice will not be the last word	42:24
	for your sake I must have the last word.	42:29
	While I am the first and last word,	42:34
	for your sake and for all.	42:36
	If you choose rightly that will facilitate the battles	42:40
	between us speeding up the process of perfecting your faith	42:44
	and terrifying your life.	42:49
	For I am like a refiner's fire	42:53
	that will not be pleasant, but it will be worth it.	42:59
	For I am holy in a way you cannot now understand	43:05
	and the last distortion of unloved must (indistinct)	43:11
	I sovereignly will to give you and all eternal life.	43:20
	But the eternal life I will give you,	43:26
	and only the blessedness and joy for you	43:30
	when you are underneath perfected	43:35
	in unswervingly grateful pain and love (indistinct)	43:38
	When you perceive only my absence	43:48
	then you must choose	43:50
	one choice will be to get along without me	43:52
	and you can do that.	43:55
	You can do that because if that is what you ark for,	43:57
	I shall empower you for a while to do just that.	44:01
	(indistinct) that it is high power you have touched.	44:06
	The other choice will be for you to hold on to me,	44:13
	even when I am no longer there to be held on.	44:17
	If in the darkness, when you are all alone,	44:24
	I am gone and there is only (indistinct)	44:28
	you will not let me go,	44:32
	but continue to wrestle with my impowerful presence,	44:35
	even in my house.	44:40
	If you continue to call me, my God,	44:43
	even when my presence has vanished and you are alone	44:48
	(indistinct)	44:52
	And if you simply will not give up and call it quit,	44:55
	if will not let yourself off by letting me off	44:59
	if you steadfastly insist upon gratefully,	45:04
	remembering our (indistinct)	45:07
	If you remain unswerving faithful	45:11
	the vision of my presence, which I give you now.	45:15
	If you remain obedient to the commissioning obligation,	45:20
	which I (indistinct)	45:25
	if you continue to trust me against all temptation to take	45:28
	the easy (indistinct)	45:32
	if you just go on loving me	45:38
	when you cannot have me and loving your fellow sufferers	45:40
	(indistinct)	45:44
	If you go on stubbornly worshiping me in the night,	45:48
	when there is no light to (indistinct) my face,	45:54
	If you say,	45:59
	though I have a world,	46:01
	and have not (indistinct)	46:03
	I have nothing.	46:05
	Yet I have nothing in the world, but have thee,	46:08
	I have all.	46:15
	Then having been willing to learn what it means to be	46:20
	crucified (indistinct)	46:23
	You shall learn also what it means to be raised with you.	46:27
	For he is the pioneer and perfecter of faith.	46:33
	Whose victory was once or all factored	46:39
	through suffering and temptation.	46:43
	Let us pray	46:49
	(indistinct praying)	46:55
	(background music)	47:32
	(choir singing)	48:10
	(background music)	52:07
	(piano playing)	53:14
	(choir singing)	53:22
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	55:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:05
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:08
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:16
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:21
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:25
	(piano playing)	57:52
	(choir singing)	58:26
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	58:34
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	58:37
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	58:42
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	58:54
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	58:57
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	59:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	59:03
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	59:06
	(indistinct chattering)	59:25
	(background music)	59:56
	(indistinct)	1:04:28
-	Be above you and around you,	1:04:31
	beneath you and within you,	1:04:33
	may it shine through you	1:04:37
	(indistinct)	1:04:39
	Amen.	1:04:41
	(background music)	1:05:17
	(background music)	1:06:34

Item Info

Title:

Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4kk98d47

Date:

November 4, 1973

Speaker:

Robinson, Charles K.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0676
ref6554_ije
uachapelsermaud
duke:627903
dcrau002654
ark:/87924/r4kk98d47
7b7920d0-6383-4cd8-9c32-30249e0e157d

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)

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1. Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)

Duke University Archives

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Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)

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