Helen G. Crotwell - "Voices and Visions" (September 25, 1977)
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Transcript
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- | Duke University Chapel service of worship, | 0:04 |
Sunday, September 25th, 1977. | 0:07 | |
(orchestra music) | 0:40 | |
(orchestra music) | 3:40 | |
(choral music) | 7:13 | |
- | Brothers and sisters of The Household of Faith, | 13:11 |
the scriptures remind us that all have sinned | 13:15 | |
and come short of the glory of God. | 13:19 | |
Therefore, a lot of us join together | 13:23 | |
in our common prayer of confession. | 13:25 | |
- | Oh God, who gives us life | 13:29 |
that we might live freely in this world. | 13:33 | |
The nearer we come to an understanding of who you are, | 13:37 | |
we are more keenly aware of our failure | 13:42 | |
to be your faithful children in this world. | 13:45 | |
We should be kneeling to show our deep regret | 13:50 | |
for the failure to be what we might have been | 13:54 | |
and could have been. | 13:58 | |
For living only for ourselves | 14:01 | |
unconcerned for those about us in the university, | 14:04 | |
at work, at play, | 14:09 | |
unaware of the lonely, | 14:12 | |
the discouraged, and those in despair. | 14:14 | |
For the greed which took everything | 14:19 | |
and never uttered a word of thanks. | 14:22 | |
For the spirit which demanded too much | 14:26 | |
and gave too little. | 14:29 | |
For our lack of loving our neighbors | 14:32 | |
in ways that they knew it. | 14:35 | |
For not actively seeking justice | 14:38 | |
and equality for all persons. | 14:41 | |
For disloyalties which shame us | 14:44 | |
when we think of them. | 14:48 | |
Forgive us, oh Lord. | 14:50 | |
Forgive us we pray. | 14:52 | |
Make us sensitive to the needs of others | 14:55 | |
and sensitive to you and your forgiving love. | 14:59 | |
We pray in the spirit of Jesus, the Christ. | 15:04 | |
- | The Lord is gracious and merciful, | 15:28 |
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. | 15:32 | |
Jesus said the one who comes to me, | 15:37 | |
I will not cast out. | 15:39 | |
If we confess our sins, | 15:43 | |
God is faithful and just | 15:46 | |
and will forgive our sins | 15:49 | |
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. | 15:51 | |
For his sake, your sins are forgiven. | 15:56 | |
(orchestra music) | 16:08 | |
(choral music) | 16:35 | |
- | The old Testament lesson is taken | 19:14 |
from the first chapter of Genesis. | 19:16 | |
So, God created man in his own image. | 19:20 | |
In the image of God he created him. | 19:24 | |
Male and female he created them | 19:28 | |
and God blessed them. | 19:31 | |
And God said to them, | 19:33 | |
be fruitful and multiply | 19:34 | |
and fill the earth and subdue it | 19:37 | |
and have dominion over the fish of the sea | 19:39 | |
and over the verge of the air, | 19:42 | |
and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. | 19:45 | |
The epistle lesson is from the 12th chapter of Romans. | 19:51 | |
I appeal to you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, | 19:57 | |
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice | 20:01 | |
holy and acceptable to God, | 20:04 | |
which is your spiritual worship. | 20:07 | |
Do not be conformed to this world | 20:11 | |
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind | 20:13 | |
that you may prove what is the will of God, | 20:18 | |
which is good and acceptable and perfect. | 20:21 | |
For by the grace given to me, | 20:27 | |
I bet every one among you not to think of himself | 20:28 | |
more highly than he ought to think, | 20:32 | |
but to think with sober judgment | 20:36 | |
each according to the measure of faith | 20:39 | |
which God has assigned to him. | 20:41 | |
For as in one body we many members | 20:45 | |
and all the members do not have the same function. | 20:49 | |
So we, though many, are one body in Christ | 20:52 | |
and individually members one of another. | 20:57 | |
Having gifts that differ according to the grace | 21:01 | |
given to us, let us use them. | 21:03 | |
If prophecy in proportion to our faith, | 21:06 | |
if service in our serving, | 21:11 | |
he who teaches in his teaching, | 21:15 | |
he who exhorts in his exaltation. | 21:18 | |
He who contributes in liberality. | 21:22 | |
He who gives aid with zeal. | 21:26 | |
He who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. | 21:29 | |
Will the congregation please rise | 21:34 | |
for the reading of the gospel. | 21:36 | |
The gospel lesson comes from Luke. | 21:42 | |
"And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up | 21:49 | |
and he went to the synagogue | 21:53 | |
as his custom was on the Sabbath day. | 21:55 | |
And he stood up to read, | 21:59 | |
and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. | 22:01 | |
He opened the book and found the place | 22:05 | |
where it was written, | 22:07 | |
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me | 22:09 | |
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. | 22:13 | |
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives | 22:17 | |
and recovering of sight to the blind. | 22:22 | |
To set at Liberty those who are oppressed, | 22:25 | |
to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord." | 22:28 | |
And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant | 22:33 | |
and sat down. | 22:35 | |
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him. | 22:37 | |
And he began to say to them, | 22:42 | |
"Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing"." | 22:45 | |
May God at his blessing to this reading of his word. | 22:50 | |
Amen. | 22:53 | |
(choral music) | 22:56 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 23:41 |
- | We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 23:45 |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 23:50 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 23:54 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 23:57 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 24:01 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness. | 24:06 | |
To love and serve others. | 24:09 | |
To seek justice and resist evil. | 24:12 | |
To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 24:16 | |
our judge and our hope. | 24:20 | |
In life, | 24:23 | |
in death, | 24:24 | |
in life beyond death, | 24:25 | |
God is with us. | 24:28 | |
We are not alone. | 24:30 | |
Thanks be to God. | 24:32 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 24:35 |
- | And with your spirit. | 24:37 |
- | Let us pray. | 24:39 |
Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanksgiving. | 24:53 | |
We give thanks oh Lord our Lord, | 24:59 | |
that you have taken into your hands | 25:03 | |
our fail and vulnerable destinies. | 25:05 | |
No longer are our times and the hands | 25:09 | |
of a mysterious and unknown source, | 25:12 | |
but in a powerful, | 25:16 | |
loving, | 25:18 | |
redeeming, | 25:20 | |
and compassionate God. | 25:21 | |
In our moment of abandonment, | 25:25 | |
on the threshold of frustration and ultimate despair, | 25:28 | |
in the midst of our distraction | 25:33 | |
with penultimate and ephemeral joys, | 25:34 | |
you have not awaited our turn toward you, | 25:38 | |
but you turned instead to us. | 25:43 | |
We are of all people most blessed. | 25:47 | |
Thanks be to you that we are yours and you are ours. | 25:51 | |
We thank you too that you have given us | 25:57 | |
to Duke University and Duke University to us, | 26:00 | |
if only for a time. | 26:04 | |
For the immense expanse of material and personal resources | 26:08 | |
that intersect here in this moment of history, | 26:12 | |
we give thanks and praise. | 26:15 | |
For the labors of those past | 26:18 | |
who prepared are coming, | 26:21 | |
and for the industry of those present, | 26:23 | |
who sustain and nourish our presence, | 26:25 | |
both faculty and students, | 26:28 | |
administrative, housekeeping, | 26:31 | |
and maintenance staff, | 26:34 | |
we are also profoundly thankful. | 26:35 | |
We marvel at the magnitude of your gift | 26:39 | |
called Duke University, | 26:42 | |
both past and present. | 26:44 | |
Let us offer unto God our prayers of intercession. | 26:49 | |
Lord you have moved decisively in our lives. | 26:55 | |
We pray you move also powerfully in the lives | 27:00 | |
of the American masses in our time. | 27:03 | |
We pray for the extension of your worship | 27:07 | |
throughout the land. | 27:10 | |
Keep your church faithful in great things and small. | 27:13 | |
Rise up a prophetic clergy inspired by | 27:18 | |
and inspiring toward a bold and outspoken laity. | 27:23 | |
Break the power of institutional lethargy and inflexibility | 27:28 | |
and pour forth a recreating and renewing spirit to cleanse, | 27:33 | |
to direct, and to make new. | 27:39 | |
We pray for a faithfulness throughout the church. | 27:44 | |
For a worship of you in spirit and in truth, | 27:48 | |
that the church may show forth thy praise | 27:52 | |
throughout the land | 27:55 | |
in the most squalid central city, | 27:58 | |
as well as the most posh suburban ghetto. | 28:01 | |
We pray especially Lord for our place in our time | 28:06 | |
called Duke University. | 28:10 | |
Forbid that we should squander your gift of this place | 28:14 | |
in these months and days. | 28:17 | |
As faculty and administrators help us to honor truth | 28:22 | |
and our students over success oriented research | 28:26 | |
and strategic gamesmanship. | 28:29 | |
Help us to find thy word in the words, | 28:34 | |
thy saving compassion in our relationships. | 28:38 | |
As students help us to multiply the gifts presented | 28:43 | |
by the leisure of thought and study. | 28:47 | |
Help us to find excitement in study. | 28:52 | |
Free us to subject ourselves, | 28:56 | |
our heritage and commitments | 28:59 | |
to the searing light of your truth. | 29:01 | |
Endor us with visions of our life together | 29:05 | |
which will enhance the integrity of our person | 29:10 | |
and enable the character of our community | 29:13 | |
that our common life may reflect at least a portion | 29:17 | |
of your glory. | 29:22 | |
Help us Lord in all things in this university | 29:25 | |
to keep you ever before us, | 29:28 | |
that we like you may be unmoved | 29:31 | |
in our pursuit of your eternal life. | 29:33 | |
We lift our prayer in the name of him who is the way, | 29:37 | |
the truth and the light, | 29:42 | |
our Lord and savior, | 29:45 | |
even Jesus of Nazareth who taught us to pray saying, | 29:46 | |
Our father who art in heaven, | 29:51 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 29:54 | |
thy kingdom come, | 29:57 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 29:59 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 30:04 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 30:07 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 30:10 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 30:14 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 30:17 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 30:19 | |
the power and the glory forever. | 30:21 | |
- | In the name of God in whose image we're created. | 30:36 |
Amen. | 30:41 | |
Saturday a week ago, | 30:43 | |
I walked across this campus when it was deserted | 30:45 | |
except for a few guests gathering | 30:49 | |
for a wedding here at the chapel | 30:52 | |
and a few students here at Daya. | 30:55 | |
Seldom have I seen the campus, | 30:58 | |
where the university was at full session | 31:00 | |
and there were so few people around. | 31:04 | |
It meant that as I walked from here to the donut shop, | 31:07 | |
I could see the millions of announcements | 31:12 | |
stuck on every conceivable place | 31:15 | |
and some inconceivable places. | 31:18 | |
So many that I was discouraged from any attempt | 31:22 | |
to try to sort out the opportunities | 31:27 | |
which were being offered to us. | 31:31 | |
This is what some of you must feel like | 31:35 | |
when you start making your vocational decisions. | 31:39 | |
Many visions and voices are calling to you saying, | 31:44 | |
"Here's an urgent need". | 31:50 | |
You have a voice which you should share | 31:52 | |
with the whole world. | 31:55 | |
The medical profession needs people like you | 31:58 | |
with your concern for persons at your scientific competence. | 32:01 | |
Law is the best way | 32:07 | |
you could bring about lasting social change. | 32:09 | |
You ought to be a preacher like your dad | 32:13 | |
and on and on and on. | 32:16 | |
These voices come to you. | 32:18 | |
Are you aware of the voices which are helping you | 32:22 | |
choose your major? | 32:29 | |
Are you aware of the voices | 32:31 | |
which are influencing your decision | 32:35 | |
for your vocation? | 32:39 | |
Some of these voices may come from the expectations | 32:42 | |
of your parents | 32:46 | |
or your husband or your wife. | 32:50 | |
Some may come from the glamor and the vision of money, | 32:54 | |
of power, | 33:00 | |
of prestige, | 33:02 | |
or the call of compassion | 33:04 | |
to respond to a specific human need. | 33:07 | |
Or the word from your vocational counselors saying, | 33:12 | |
"You have many choices. | 33:17 | |
You could be a great mechanic | 33:19 | |
or minister | 33:22 | |
or interior decorator." | 33:23 | |
Now, if all of these voices were saying the same thing, | 33:26 | |
there'd be no problem. | 33:29 | |
But this doesn't happen. | 33:31 | |
What will you do with your life? | 33:36 | |
What is so important to you | 33:39 | |
that you will give yourself to it? | 33:42 | |
Give your time, | 33:46 | |
your energy and your talents to this important calls. | 33:47 | |
These are lifetime questions. | 33:53 | |
They are always with us. | 33:58 | |
We answered them now, | 34:01 | |
but we will ask them again and again and again. | 34:03 | |
The next answer may be the same as the one we give now, | 34:09 | |
but it may not be. | 34:14 | |
That's all right. | 34:17 | |
You change and the world changes. | 34:18 | |
Today I want to try to sort out | 34:24 | |
some of the voices and visions which come to us | 34:26 | |
as we try to answer the vocational question. | 34:31 | |
First, voices from the Bible. | 34:36 | |
From Genesis we heard, | 34:40 | |
that we were created in the image of God. | 34:42 | |
Blessed and then given responsibility to have dominion | 34:46 | |
over the non-human dimensions of our world. | 34:52 | |
To be created in the image of God, | 34:58 | |
means we have been given freedom | 35:00 | |
and also have been given responsibility. | 35:03 | |
We are created beings, | 35:08 | |
creatures with the limitations, | 35:12 | |
but we also have been given freedom and responsibility. | 35:15 | |
If we had read further in Genesis, | 35:22 | |
we would have heard this story | 35:25 | |
which describes our living in a world | 35:27 | |
which bears the mark of our freedom. | 35:30 | |
Our world is not a garden of Eden | 35:34 | |
with no decisions to make, | 35:38 | |
no pain, | 35:40 | |
no unfulfilled needs, | 35:41 | |
but is one in which we and the generations after us, | 35:44 | |
benefit and suffer as a result of our use | 35:51 | |
and our misuse of our freedom. | 35:56 | |
And because of this, | 36:00 | |
our work and the world will be a struggle. | 36:02 | |
The garden we live in is not Eden, | 36:07 | |
but one that has briars and thorns, | 36:11 | |
brokenness and pain. | 36:14 | |
And our next scripture lesson read, | 36:19 | |
from Paul's letter to the roman, | 36:21 | |
Paul was writing to those who had been arguing over | 36:24 | |
which responsibility is most important. | 36:28 | |
Teaching or preaching or feeding the hungry. | 36:31 | |
Paul uses the image of the body | 36:36 | |
for all parts are equally important. | 36:39 | |
While the letter was written about work | 36:43 | |
within the Christian community, | 36:46 | |
it is applicable to all our work. | 36:49 | |
We are called to present ourselves and our gifts to God. | 36:53 | |
We are called not to think more highly of ourselves | 36:59 | |
than we should. | 37:03 | |
Not to think that we are better than our neighbors, | 37:05 | |
for we are all important parts of a single body. | 37:09 | |
The different gifts and different functions, | 37:13 | |
being equally important. | 37:17 | |
What a radical voice this is | 37:21 | |
and our world so full of important | 37:24 | |
and unimportant jobs. | 37:28 | |
It's easy when we are here together and worship. | 37:31 | |
To accord full respect and dignity and value to our work, | 37:35 | |
which is essential to our living in this world. | 37:42 | |
We can say that the work of a secretary, | 37:46 | |
is as valuable and important as the work of the person | 37:49 | |
who needs a secretary. | 37:53 | |
We can say that the person whose work is to clean houses | 37:57 | |
or cook or dispose of our garbage, | 38:03 | |
whether by personal choice | 38:07 | |
or because they had no choice, | 38:09 | |
that this work is as important | 38:12 | |
as the work of those people, | 38:16 | |
who are freed from these jobs | 38:19 | |
in order that they can care for the sick or teach | 38:22 | |
or clean up the mess we have made of this world. | 38:27 | |
We can say this in worship but it is to remember, | 38:31 | |
when we move around in our world | 38:37 | |
in which certain people and certain jobs and professions | 38:41 | |
are affirmed by prestige and high salaries | 38:45 | |
and other ways by which we accord more value | 38:49 | |
to certain people and jobs. | 38:54 | |
And we in this university community | 38:58 | |
are keenly aware, | 39:03 | |
that we have been given much. | 39:05 | |
That we are an elite group. | 39:08 | |
That we have opportunities and choices for our life work | 39:12 | |
that many people cannot even imagine. | 39:18 | |
And so we recall Jesus's words | 39:23 | |
to those to whom much has been given, | 39:27 | |
much will be expected. | 39:32 | |
There when Jesus was asked, | 39:36 | |
what was the most important commandment? | 39:38 | |
He responded, | 39:40 | |
"Love God and love your neighbor as yourself". | 39:42 | |
Much of Jesus' work was helping us understand | 39:48 | |
what it means to love our neighbor, | 39:53 | |
the one indeed, | 39:57 | |
in specific ways and not in general | 40:00 | |
and theoretical ways. | 40:03 | |
This vision completes the picture, | 40:07 | |
which was begun in Genesis. | 40:10 | |
We have been given responsibility to have dominion | 40:13 | |
over all of creation with the exception | 40:16 | |
of our brothers and our sisters. | 40:21 | |
Our relationship and our responsibility | 40:24 | |
to our brothers and our sisters, | 40:27 | |
is to love and care for them as we do ourselves. | 40:30 | |
The gospel lesson reported Jesus reading from Isaiah | 40:37 | |
at the beginning of his public ministry | 40:41 | |
after he had spent time in the wilderness, | 40:45 | |
deciding on the form of his public work. | 40:48 | |
"God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, | 40:52 | |
release to the prisoners, | 40:58 | |
to give sight to the blind, | 41:01 | |
to let the broken victims go free." | 41:04 | |
And many of you in deciding what will be your work, | 41:10 | |
are looking at such issues of critical human need | 41:14 | |
in relation to your interest and your ability. | 41:18 | |
You're asking, | 41:24 | |
what are the most important task | 41:25 | |
which need to be done in this world | 41:28 | |
to make and human life human? | 41:31 | |
Now, here are some implications we can draw | 41:38 | |
from these biblical voices. | 41:40 | |
We can be responsible to God in any work we do, | 41:43 | |
if it is caring for our neighbor or the world. | 41:50 | |
It may be that this is the only way | 41:56 | |
or at least the most important way, | 42:00 | |
that God works in our world. | 42:02 | |
That God cares for us. | 42:05 | |
This makes our choice of work, | 42:08 | |
a very important decision. | 42:11 | |
But one we can make with ease, | 42:15 | |
if we also affirm that we are continuing God's work | 42:19 | |
and we are not left alone. | 42:24 | |
God is working through us, | 42:29 | |
supporting us, | 42:32 | |
guiding us and even healing us, | 42:34 | |
when we get stuck by the briars and thorns | 42:38 | |
we encounter in our work. | 42:42 | |
And there is no work, | 42:45 | |
not even work within the church, | 42:48 | |
especially not work within the church, | 42:50 | |
which does not have its briars and its thorns. | 42:53 | |
Don't search for vocation in the garden of Eden. | 42:57 | |
This is not where we live. | 43:02 | |
Such an affirmation is freeing and liberating, | 43:05 | |
if we believe that we are not totally | 43:09 | |
and solely responsible for the whole world. | 43:12 | |
This responsibility is God's, | 43:16 | |
but is shared with us. | 43:20 | |
Such assurance does not remove the destructiveness, | 43:22 | |
of our irresponsibility | 43:27 | |
but it provides us a basis for hope. | 43:29 | |
God has the last word. | 43:33 | |
There will be a new heaven and a new earth. | 43:36 | |
Such assurance frees us to make decisions | 43:41 | |
and to take risks to fold our tent and move on. | 43:45 | |
Now, these biblical voices and visions, | 43:52 | |
give us a context to answer some of the questions | 43:54 | |
when we start deciding what form our work will take. | 43:58 | |
And they fall on the basis of our experience, | 44:02 | |
which we share with one another. | 44:06 | |
I chose, and some of you may be surprised, | 44:10 | |
but I chose home economics as a major in college | 44:13 | |
because I wanted to help people have a better life, | 44:17 | |
have a more nutritious diet. | 44:21 | |
I was being obedient to God | 44:24 | |
and I still can affirm that this was a responsible choice. | 44:27 | |
But after one year of work, | 44:32 | |
I discovered that my interest and my energies, | 44:34 | |
the voice within me kept leading me | 44:38 | |
to find my work within the church. | 44:41 | |
So I folded my tent. | 44:44 | |
I went back to study in a school of theology. | 44:47 | |
Now, either work offered for me an opportunity | 44:51 | |
to respond to God's call to care for my neighbor. | 44:55 | |
The difference was that I was claimed, | 45:00 | |
caught up and could give myself in one work | 45:03 | |
in a way that I could not in the other. | 45:07 | |
Now there're people whose story is the reverse of this. | 45:11 | |
They started within work in the church | 45:15 | |
and moved into a so-called secular work, | 45:18 | |
where they were more able to be responsible | 45:22 | |
to what they knew God was calling them to do. | 45:24 | |
This may happen within a year or 10 years. | 45:30 | |
Now, once we decide a student ask, | 45:35 | |
what happens if the work which uses your talents, | 45:39 | |
your abilities, | 45:43 | |
and meets an urgent human need, | 45:44 | |
is one in which you can not find a job? | 45:47 | |
What do you do then? | 45:50 | |
Such questions keep us from living in to fantasy world. | 45:53 | |
Oftentimes our vocation, | 45:58 | |
that which we do in response to a call to a specific need, | 46:00 | |
our vocation that which we do in response to a call | 46:07 | |
to a specific need, is not our work | 46:11 | |
or that which we do to earn a living. | 46:15 | |
In fact, some people say that anything we get paid to do, | 46:19 | |
whether it is a minister, a physician, or a teacher, | 46:23 | |
a nurse, or what, | 46:27 | |
anything we get paid to do is our work | 46:28 | |
and we will use all the parts of our time for our vocation. | 46:33 | |
Such an emphasis keeps our work in perspective | 46:39 | |
for we do need to be reminded from time to time | 46:43 | |
that no part of our life | 46:47 | |
or even our life in total, | 46:50 | |
not our family, | 46:53 | |
not our work, | 46:54 | |
not our leisure, | 46:56 | |
will provide the ultimate meaning for our lives | 46:57 | |
to invest any part of our life with such ultimacy. | 47:01 | |
Means we have made it God. | 47:06 | |
Back to the hard question. | 47:11 | |
What do you do if you can't find a job | 47:12 | |
that lets you do what you had committed yourself to do? | 47:15 | |
And more and more people find themselves in this situation. | 47:18 | |
Some of these people take another look | 47:23 | |
at the needs in their interest | 47:26 | |
and look at where jobs are available and start again. | 47:27 | |
For some, they are able to find work, | 47:32 | |
which allows them to meet their physical needs | 47:36 | |
and then they volunteer that time | 47:38 | |
for that to which they have been called. | 47:41 | |
I recently heard of a man, | 47:44 | |
who is committed to work to solve | 47:47 | |
some of our environmental problems | 47:49 | |
but he cannot find a job which will pay him to do this. | 47:52 | |
Now his wife is a physician who earns enough money | 47:56 | |
so that he is able to work full time | 48:00 | |
in the area to which he is called but as a volunteer. | 48:03 | |
Fortunately, he is a secure man | 48:08 | |
who is not threatened by our valuation of people, | 48:10 | |
particularly men, | 48:15 | |
by the amount of money they earn. | 48:17 | |
It may be. | 48:21 | |
It just may be that some of you are going to be called | 48:22 | |
to provide vision and models of alternative ways. | 48:27 | |
We can structure our work so that all people may work | 48:32 | |
and so that some people do not have to spend | 48:37 | |
all that time and energy eking out on living | 48:39 | |
with no time left for family or for leisure, | 48:43 | |
or for civic activities. | 48:47 | |
Rosemary Ruether, in an article toward a new solution, | 48:50 | |
working women and a male workday, | 48:55 | |
explore some alternatives | 48:58 | |
projecting the possibility of a couple | 49:01 | |
each working a 25 hour week. | 49:03 | |
Thus giving them an adequate income | 49:08 | |
and thus allowing them time to spend with each other, | 49:10 | |
with their children, | 49:15 | |
and also having time to spend | 49:16 | |
in activities related to their personal development | 49:19 | |
and their interest in civic and social concerns. | 49:22 | |
Now finally, | 49:28 | |
one last vision. | 49:30 | |
One from Will Campbell's article on vocation as grace. | 49:32 | |
A call for us to recognize the gifts which are ours. | 49:38 | |
Any talent, | 49:43 | |
any ability we have, is truly a gift to be shared. | 49:45 | |
To be given. | 49:51 | |
Will says, "Once my grandma Betty, | 49:54 | |
got a new plan final bathrobe for Christmas, | 49:59 | |
it was a present from her son in another state | 50:03 | |
who worked for the government | 50:07 | |
and who we all assumed had lots of money. | 50:09 | |
It was red and green with black stripes | 50:12 | |
dividing the colorful squares. | 50:16 | |
The very Sunday after... | 50:19 | |
first Sunday after Christmas, | 50:21 | |
my grandma went to the meeting. | 50:23 | |
She sat right up on the front row of the section | 50:26 | |
that ran perpendicular to the pulpit. | 50:30 | |
It was where all the older women sat | 50:34 | |
along with middle-sized grandchildren. | 50:35 | |
Those who no longer had to sit with the mama, | 50:38 | |
but had not yet discovered that it was more fun | 50:41 | |
to sit in the back. | 50:44 | |
Some of the more sophisticated of grandma's daughters in law | 50:46 | |
were embarrassed | 50:50 | |
and had some rather caustic things to say to grandma | 50:52 | |
for wearing a bathroom to church. | 50:55 | |
But grandma Betty handled it well. | 50:58 | |
Just hush. | 51:01 | |
It's the prettiest thing I have ever seen | 51:02 | |
and the Lord deserves the best. | 51:06 | |
And she added, "Anyway, I don't have a bathroom". | 51:10 | |
It was the middle of the depression. | 51:16 | |
Maybe that's all vocation is." | 51:18 | |
But the moral of the story, | 51:21 | |
is not that grandma showed off | 51:23 | |
the prettiest thing she had to Jesus, | 51:26 | |
that's part of it, | 51:28 | |
but the real moral is that the pretty thing she had | 51:30 | |
had been given to her. | 51:35 | |
That is grace. | 51:37 | |
Amen and amen. | 51:40 | |
(orchestra music) | 51:51 | |
(choral music) | 52:24 | |
(orchestra music) | 55:11 | |
(choral music) | 57:06 | |
(orchestra music) | 59:45 | |
(choral music) | 1:00:12 | |
- | Oh God, most merciful and gracious, | 1:01:13 |
of whose bounty we have all received, | 1:01:16 | |
accept this offering of your people. | 1:01:19 | |
Remember in your love those who have brought it | 1:01:22 | |
and those for whom it is given. | 1:01:25 | |
And so follow it with your blessing | 1:01:28 | |
that it may promote peace and Goodwill among all persons | 1:01:30 | |
and advance the kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. | 1:01:34 | |
Amen. | 1:01:39 | |
(orchestra music) | 1:01:42 | |
(choral music) | 1:02:16 | |
(orchestra music) | 1:04:50 | |
- | The Lord bless you and keep you. | 1:05:38 |
The Lord make his face to shine upon you | 1:05:41 | |
and be gracious to you. | 1:05:43 | |
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you | 1:05:46 | |
and give you peace. | 1:05:50 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:56 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:02 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:10 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:18 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:34 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:06:50 | |
(orchestra music) | 1:07:11 |
Item Info
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