Andrew Young - Sermon Untitled (November 10, 1974)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
First Preacher | Oh God, | 0:46 |
we wait now before your presence. | 0:48 | |
Uncloud our hearts | 0:55 | |
that we may hear your good news. | 0:58 | |
Steal our inner turmoil | 1:02 | |
that we may possess ourselves | 1:06 | |
undistracted for these moments, | 1:09 | |
waiting with all our hopes, | 1:13 | |
listening for your word to us, Amen. | 1:16 | |
(choir singing) | 1:24 | |
We have been given life, | 7:52 | |
but we have not always lived responsibly. | 7:55 | |
We have been called to freedom, | 7:59 | |
but we have found the burden too heavy. | 8:02 | |
We have turned from God | 8:06 | |
to live in self-deception, | 8:09 | |
and to serve faults gods. | 8:12 | |
Let us now confess our sin before God | 8:15 | |
and our neighbor. | 8:19 | |
Let us pray. | 8:21 | |
Almighty God, your son cleanse the temple. | 8:24 | |
We confess that on chaos of our time | 8:29 | |
begins in your church. | 8:33 | |
What right have we to condemn the world? | 8:36 | |
We have built great shrines while | 8:40 | |
(mumbles) | 8:43 | |
and pleaded for our larger budgets while the poor go hungry | 8:45 | |
and prepared are reverent prayers while bombs falls, | 8:50 | |
then we pretend to be happy with cash and comfort | 8:56 | |
though we know in secret that our day is a barren. | 9:01 | |
We are always on the go | 9:06 | |
because we are trying to run away from you | 9:09 | |
as if we could. | 9:13 | |
Though we make our bed in hell, you are there | 9:15 | |
cleanse us though by fire, | 9:21 | |
wash us that we may be whiter than snow. | 9:25 | |
In silence we wait your coming | 9:29 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 9:33 | |
Oh, holy God hear the personal priors of confession. | 9:39 | |
Hear the good news. | 10:02 | |
When we confess our sins and a truly sorry, | 10:04 | |
we are able to receive the forgiveness | 10:08 | |
that God always offers to us. | 10:12 | |
Accept this forgiveness and rejoice in it, Amen. | 10:15 | |
(orchestral music) | 10:22 | |
Second Preacher | The lesson is from Isaiah. | 17:26 |
Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save | 17:29 | |
or His ear dull that it cannot hear. | 17:35 | |
But your iniquities have made separation | 17:38 | |
between you and your God | 17:41 | |
and your sins have hid his face from you | 17:44 | |
so that he does not hear. | 17:47 | |
For your hands are defiled with blood | 17:50 | |
and your fingers with iniquity, | 17:53 | |
your lips have spoken lies, | 17:55 | |
your tongue mutters wickedness. | 17:58 | |
No one in a suit justly, | 18:01 | |
no one goes to law honestly, | 18:04 | |
they rely on empty pleas, | 18:06 | |
they speak lies, | 18:08 | |
they conceive mischief and bring forth inequity. | 18:09 | |
Their feet run to evil, | 18:14 | |
they make haste to shed innocent blood, | 18:16 | |
their thoughts are thoughts of inequity. | 18:19 | |
Desolation and destruction are in their highways. | 18:22 | |
The way of peace they know not | 18:26 | |
and there there is no justice in their past. | 18:29 | |
They have made their roads crooked, | 18:33 | |
no one who goes in them knows peace. | 18:35 | |
Therefore, justice is far from us | 18:39 | |
and righteousness does not overtake us. | 18:42 | |
We look for light and behold darkness | 18:45 | |
and look for brightness, but we walk in gloom. | 18:48 | |
(orchestral music continues) | 18:55 | |
First Preacher | That has corporately affirm our faith. | 19:34 |
We are not alone. | 19:38 | |
We live in God's world, | 19:40 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 19:43 | |
who has come in through the head Jesus, | 19:49 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 19:52 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit, | 19:55 | |
we trust him, | 19:59 | |
He calls us to be his church, | 20:01 | |
to celebrate his presence, | 20:04 | |
to love and serve all of us, | 20:07 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and visit | 20:10 | |
our judge and our hope, | 20:14 | |
in life, in death and life beyond death, | 20:17 | |
God is with us, | 20:22 | |
we are not alone, | 20:24 | |
thanks be to God. | 20:27 | |
The Lord be with you, | 20:29 | |
(mumblings) | 20:31 | |
let us pray. | 20:33 | |
Oh God of might and power, | 20:44 | |
our Lord. | 20:47 | |
All of our words stumble before your glory. | 20:50 | |
Our hearts remember it, | 20:55 | |
our eyes have seen it beyond the bounds of sight. | 20:57 | |
Our souls have found it in the sanctuary of prayer, | 21:02 | |
we bow before your glory. | 21:07 | |
Hear our prayers of Thanksgiving | 21:12 | |
for these visions of your wonder, your glory, your majesty, | 21:15 | |
and your tender caring. | 21:21 | |
For this university which offers us | 21:25 | |
the opportunity to equip ourselves, | 21:28 | |
to be responsible stewards of our lives and of the world. | 21:30 | |
For relationships which are sustained | 21:39 | |
and strengthened through trouble, | 21:42 | |
sorrow, | 21:44 | |
anguish, | 21:46 | |
and anger as well as joy. | 21:47 | |
For our families and friends | 21:52 | |
who love and care for us even when we are unloving. | 21:55 | |
We now lift in prayer | 22:03 | |
the intimate problems of our lives, oh God, | 22:05 | |
our personal problems, | 22:08 | |
our family problems, | 22:11 | |
our community problems. | 22:14 | |
There are griefs to be comforted, | 22:20 | |
temptations which we can rise above, | 22:23 | |
prosperity which need not make us prime, | 22:28 | |
difficulties which we can overcome | 22:33 | |
and precious which need not break us. | 22:38 | |
Oh God, we need your help | 22:43 | |
and in the quiet of this sanctuary, | 22:48 | |
we would not escape from life. | 22:51 | |
For we hear in the silence of this place, the sound | 22:55 | |
of footsteps of those who look for work | 23:02 | |
and cannot find it, | 23:04 | |
the cries of parents who do not have enough food | 23:08 | |
for their children, | 23:11 | |
the pain of those who are crushed by our economic crisis, | 23:14 | |
the groans of those who are sick, | 23:20 | |
the haunted sounds of those who are lonely, | 23:24 | |
the screams of those who can find no peace | 23:28 | |
in their mind and souls. | 23:31 | |
Disturb us we beseech you oh God, | 23:34 | |
by the sounds of grief within our midst | 23:37 | |
and from the world outside. | 23:41 | |
Let none of us rest content. | 23:45 | |
But oh God, the burden of this world is great | 23:49 | |
and our hands are small. | 23:54 | |
The mystery of life is very deep and our love falters. | 23:58 | |
Strengthen our hands, | 24:05 | |
empower our love, | 24:08 | |
direct our wheels, | 24:11 | |
help us to meet some needs, | 24:13 | |
to lift some burden, | 24:16 | |
to bring some comfort. | 24:19 | |
All this we pray in the spirit of our Lord | 24:23 | |
who taught us to pray. | 24:26 | |
Our father who art in heaven, | 24:29 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 24:33 | |
thy kingdom come, | 24:35 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 24:37 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 24:42 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 24:45 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 24:48 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 24:52 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 24:55 | |
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 24:58 | |
forever and ever, Amen. | 25:02 | |
We welcome those of you who are here for parents weekend. | 25:08 | |
It is always good to have you worship with us | 25:13 | |
when you visit your sons and daughters. | 25:15 | |
And we welcome those of you who are | 25:18 | |
members of our regular worship in congregation | 25:20 | |
and others of you who may have come for this special Sunday. | 25:23 | |
There is no more appropriate person | 25:27 | |
to welcome Reverend Andrew Young | 25:30 | |
to this pulpit than Dr. Sam Cook, | 25:32 | |
who is a close personal friend of both Mr. Young | 25:35 | |
and the person who was supposed to be speaking today. | 25:41 | |
(mumbles) | 25:47 | |
Dr. Sam | And the struggle for social justice | 26:02 |
and a more humane society. | 26:06 | |
Congressman Young is a symbol | 26:10 | |
of both continuity and discontinuity. | 26:12 | |
And trained of the strategy and tactics | 26:17 | |
of the civil rights movement, | 26:19 | |
he represents a deep element of discontinuity. | 26:22 | |
The creative and primary use of the political process | 26:27 | |
as a means of institutional reform and social change. | 26:32 | |
He was the first black person to be elected to Congress | 26:38 | |
from the south in the 20th century. | 26:42 | |
In terms of continuity, | 26:46 | |
he represents a magnificent blend of realism, humanism | 26:49 | |
and idealism. | 26:55 | |
Like Martin Luther King Jr. | 26:58 | |
with whom he was closely associated for a number of years. | 26:59 | |
Andy Young is profound the committed | 27:04 | |
to non-violent social change, | 27:06 | |
to human justice and civility | 27:09 | |
unto the beloved community. | 27:13 | |
Like Dr. King, he is a person of genuine character, | 27:16 | |
humility, | 27:19 | |
integrity, and humanness division. | 27:22 | |
Again like Dr. King, | 27:26 | |
he has a dream. | 27:29 | |
(mumbles) | 27:33 | |
once made the observation | 27:34 | |
that in politics, | 27:37 | |
the first duty of a Christian | 27:38 | |
is to preserve a straightened distinction between | 27:42 | |
the site that is of faith | 27:47 | |
and the ambiguities of politics. | 27:50 | |
Andy Young somehow, | 27:54 | |
while both a politician, | 27:57 | |
and a Christian | 28:00 | |
has maintained that faith. | 28:02 | |
So Andy, | 28:05 | |
with a great deal of joy | 28:07 | |
I'm honored, delighted and privileged | 28:10 | |
to welcome you this morning to Duke University. | 28:14 | |
Reverend Andrew | Thank you very much Dr. Cook, | 28:25 |
President Sanford | 28:28 | |
and Members of the faculty | 28:29 | |
and student body of Duke University | 28:34 | |
and especially the visiting parents who are with us. | 28:37 | |
It's a pleasure to be in a college chapel that's full. | 28:42 | |
I haven't been in a college chapel for some time, | 28:47 | |
almost two years, | 28:50 | |
but I think that the last few I was at | 28:53 | |
a couple of years ago were not nearly so full. | 28:57 | |
I hope this means that there's a new concern about the faith | 29:00 | |
in our universities across this nation | 29:06 | |
and not just that everybody is here on parents day | 29:08 | |
to impress mama and daddy. | 29:12 | |
It's always a little difficult for me to | 29:17 | |
begin to feel comfortable in such lofty surroundings | 29:20 | |
and I wonder if you wouldn't help me a little bit. | 29:24 | |
As this wonderful choir sang this morning | 29:28 | |
when they finished, | 29:30 | |
I really wanted to say Amen but I felt a little inhibited. | 29:31 | |
I wonder if you'd all help me say Amen for the choir. | 29:35 | |
Amen. | 29:39 | |
Thank you very much. | 29:41 | |
As we think about these times | 29:51 | |
and as we take into our breasts, | 29:55 | |
much of the confusion, | 30:01 | |
the anxiety and even the frustration and despair | 30:04 | |
of this part of the 20th century. | 30:09 | |
There are many amongst us who look back | 30:14 | |
and wonder what happened to the miracles of yesterday. | 30:18 | |
We wonder is the hand of the Lord shortened | 30:23 | |
that it cannot save. | 30:29 | |
We wonder if God's is, may not have grown dull | 30:32 | |
and that he no longer hears the cries of the faithful, | 30:37 | |
for we find ourselves caught up in situations | 30:42 | |
that we no longer feel in any way comfortable in. | 30:46 | |
We find ourselves facing challenges | 30:51 | |
that we could not have anticipated even six months ago, | 30:54 | |
much less in our university preparation | 31:00 | |
or in the planning of the Congress of the United States | 31:04 | |
in the last session, | 31:08 | |
or in the strategy sessions of the business community, | 31:09 | |
or in the textbooks which we now study. | 31:15 | |
And through this period, | 31:21 | |
I think that no nothing has happened to | 31:23 | |
the arm of the Lord, | 31:26 | |
but I'm reminded of a verse from | 31:29 | |
the poet James Weldon Johnson, | 31:32 | |
where he says young man, | 31:36 | |
young man, | 31:39 | |
your arms is too short to box with God, | 31:41 | |
and I guess you'd almost have to say nowadays, young ladies, | 31:47 | |
your arms are too. | 31:50 | |
And that in fact, what we see in our time | 31:55 | |
is the end result of some young men | 31:59 | |
who thought that they could | 32:03 | |
take the world in their own hands | 32:05 | |
and shape it, not after the image of God, | 32:09 | |
but shape it after their own images and intentions. | 32:11 | |
We have just lived through a period | 32:16 | |
of men in high power and high places | 32:21 | |
who thought that they knew what was best | 32:27 | |
for all of the people of the world. | 32:32 | |
Of course we're immediately aware of Watergate. | 32:38 | |
We're immediately well aware of the | 32:42 | |
determination to dominate | 32:46 | |
from which this nation has only recently purged itself. | 32:49 | |
But actually that's not only what I'm talking about | 32:53 | |
because I have the feeling that the difficulties we now face | 32:58 | |
go back much further than Watergate, | 33:03 | |
that the brightest and the best | 33:09 | |
of the Kennedy and Johnson years, | 33:11 | |
were also guilty of some of the same intentions, | 33:13 | |
though they pursued them in a different way. | 33:20 | |
It was in fact an equally reckless and godless way. | 33:25 | |
That when the history books of our period are written, | 33:30 | |
the great immorality of our time | 33:34 | |
will not be recorded as Watergate. | 33:36 | |
But the great immorality of our time will be the problems | 33:40 | |
that we led the world into in and around | 33:47 | |
Southeast Asia. | 33:53 | |
That we are in effect | 33:56 | |
seeing at this moment | 33:59 | |
the fulfillment of the prophecy of Martin Luther King | 34:01 | |
from back in 1966, | 34:04 | |
when he warned this nation, | 34:06 | |
that the bombs of Vietnam will explode at home | 34:08 | |
and we see now the exploding inflation | 34:12 | |
and we see the anxiety spread throughout our nation. | 34:16 | |
We see the lack of faith in our system | 34:20 | |
and we see the kind of callous immorality | 34:23 | |
of our young people. | 34:26 | |
We see a kind of cynicism which I think in many respects | 34:29 | |
is new to this nation, | 34:34 | |
it's certainly new for my lifetime. | 34:35 | |
And I think that cynicism grew not so much | 34:41 | |
out of Watergate as out of Vietnam. | 34:44 | |
And we almost lost an entire generation | 34:50 | |
as well as about 100 to 150 billion dollars. | 34:54 | |
Because in the words of Isaiah, | 35:01 | |
but your iniquities have made a separation | 35:07 | |
between you and your God | 35:09 | |
and your sins have hid his space from you, | 35:12 | |
your hands are defiled with blood | 35:16 | |
and your fingers with iniquity. | 35:19 | |
It's almost as though the message of the old folks | 35:21 | |
that we heard from our grandparents | 35:24 | |
does in some way hold true, | 35:26 | |
that we do have to reap what we have sown, | 35:28 | |
that the sins of the fathers | 35:32 | |
are visited upon the third and fourth generations | 35:34 | |
of them that have hated him or grown in sensitive to him. | 35:37 | |
And so we find ourselves almost in a biblical parallel, | 35:44 | |
and I hope we're in that that's true | 35:48 | |
because as I think of the story of Joseph | 35:52 | |
and as I think of the understanding | 35:55 | |
of the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. | 35:58 | |
I hope that the seven years of plenty that, | 36:04 | |
about which we might think. | 36:07 | |
Well the seven years from say 1961 to 1968, | 36:10 | |
and that in 68' the beginning of the problems | 36:15 | |
of the war in Vietnam | 36:18 | |
began to produce first a spiritual famine in our midst, | 36:20 | |
which gradually has become a physical famine. | 36:25 | |
And if there is any way to make the Bible applicable | 36:31 | |
to the economic life of our time, | 36:35 | |
that seven years ought to be up in 1975. | 36:38 | |
Now I'm not trying to make any partisan analysis of this | 36:44 | |
because what has happened since 68'? | 36:49 | |
Buying large was a result of decisions made in 64', 65', 66' | 36:53 | |
and we have only now begun to see | 37:01 | |
that it is true to a certain extent that | 37:07 | |
where your treasure is there will your heart be also, | 37:10 | |
and that when we placed our treasure | 37:14 | |
in death and destruction in Southeast Asia, | 37:16 | |
we began to have a heartless destructive kind of nation. | 37:20 | |
And that justice repentance of individuals is called for | 37:26 | |
somehow this nation must find a way to repent. | 37:31 | |
And in a strange way, | 37:37 | |
I don't think that that's that hard | 37:38 | |
because there is a kind of logic | 37:40 | |
in world events and world affairs, | 37:44 | |
which means that the power of God does still operate. | 37:49 | |
And that even when we are not prepared | 37:54 | |
to see that or understand it, | 37:56 | |
it is nevertheless very operative in our time. | 37:59 | |
And I think in the struggles around the third word, | 38:04 | |
yes, even in the energy crisis | 38:08 | |
and the demands of the oil producing nations to | 38:11 | |
require more of us. | 38:16 | |
I hear, yes, the vindictive militant cry, | 38:19 | |
which could bring down the powers of the Western world. | 38:23 | |
But I also hear and anguish choir of people | 38:28 | |
who have not ever been treated as brothers. | 38:32 | |
I hear an angry cry of people who say that | 38:36 | |
we have been abused and you have taken our natural resources | 38:40 | |
and you have done nothing for us in return. | 38:43 | |
And somehow we have to find a way to | 38:47 | |
help our people and preserve our resources to the extent | 38:52 | |
that you also involve us | 38:57 | |
in a world brotherhood | 39:00 | |
that lets our people have enough to eat, | 39:03 | |
that lets our people have enough education, | 39:06 | |
that lets us solve the problems of healthcare, | 39:09 | |
that lets us make our deserts of flowing green | 39:12 | |
and blossoming Oasis, | 39:16 | |
where we might grow food in abundance | 39:19 | |
as you have in your country. | 39:21 | |
And if we can translate those military anguish cries | 39:23 | |
into a positive relationship | 39:29 | |
between the haves and have nots, | 39:32 | |
which no longer proceeds because we are good | 39:34 | |
and because we are giving something away to our brother, | 39:37 | |
but which now proceeds because it just happens to be a fact | 39:41 | |
that 25% of our imported oil | 39:46 | |
is coming from the country of Nigeria | 39:48 | |
and that the dollars that we would be required | 39:53 | |
to pay for that oil, | 39:55 | |
or the dollars that we would be required | 39:57 | |
to pay to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait | 39:59 | |
for the oil, which they give us on an imported basis. | 40:01 | |
In the course of this next decade would | 40:06 | |
amount to such billions of dollars | 40:10 | |
that it could in fact bankrupt our economic system. | 40:14 | |
That the 80 to 100 billion dollars, | 40:19 | |
which the oil producing nations might accumulate | 40:21 | |
in revenues from the industrialized nations of the world | 40:26 | |
is in fact | 40:29 | |
greater than the entire exported capital | 40:32 | |
of the entire American business community. | 40:37 | |
That over the last 50 years, | 40:42 | |
the total amount of American business developed overseas | 40:44 | |
amounts to something like 70 billion dollars. | 40:48 | |
That's from very diversified corporations | 40:52 | |
from a great industrialized community. | 40:54 | |
And yet now we're seeing in the hands of a few people | 40:58 | |
and a few relatively small nations | 41:02 | |
and very underpopulated nations for the most part, | 41:06 | |
the accumulation of more capital on that | 41:10 | |
and with it a kind of power to disrupt | 41:16 | |
that we were not prepared for | 41:20 | |
when we were developing our mighty military machine. | 41:23 | |
In fact in our time we are forced | 41:27 | |
and maybe we ought to go ahead | 41:31 | |
and give former president Nixon some credit for that. | 41:32 | |
We are forced to move from an era of | 41:37 | |
predominantly military conflict | 41:40 | |
into an era when the conflict between men | 41:43 | |
and nations will be largely economic in nature. | 41:46 | |
And we have to see that as some progress, | 41:50 | |
but at the same time | 41:53 | |
we must face the fact that it is equally if not more deadly | 41:54 | |
than the former. | 41:58 | |
That there is no nation in the world | 42:00 | |
that could so completely destroy us and paralyze us, | 42:02 | |
as we might be destroyed and paralyzed | 42:06 | |
by the manipulation of our capital in the struggle | 42:09 | |
to cartelize natural resources around the world. | 42:14 | |
And yet even in this, | 42:18 | |
I don't seem to see that there is something about which | 42:19 | |
we should give up | 42:23 | |
or something that we could be cynical about. | 42:24 | |
I think somehow from this nation, there is | 42:27 | |
a spirit of brotherhood, a spirit of concern. | 42:35 | |
There is a kind of capacity in our whole industrial empire, | 42:39 | |
which has given us some of the things | 42:46 | |
that the people of the world need an exchange for oil, | 42:48 | |
in exchange for bauxite, | 42:51 | |
in exchange for copper zinc or cobalt | 42:53 | |
or whatever natural resources we need to continue. | 42:56 | |
I think the tremendous resources of this nation | 43:00 | |
must be called upon | 43:04 | |
to give leadership in the world to a new kind of struggle, | 43:08 | |
and that we must be involved in a kind of, | 43:12 | |
a new kind of patriotism. | 43:15 | |
The 60th chapter of the book of Isaiah goes on to say, | 43:19 | |
"Arise and shine | 43:22 | |
for your light has come, | 43:24 | |
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." | 43:27 | |
That in spite of all of the judgment, | 43:30 | |
about the sins of the people of Israel, | 43:34 | |
there was not an abandonment of those people | 43:37 | |
by the power of God. | 43:41 | |
But that somehow in the midst of their repentance, | 43:44 | |
once they become aware of the extent of their sin, | 43:46 | |
there is still present with us the power of God, | 43:51 | |
and that somehow from this nation | 43:56 | |
and from the peoples there are or there could emerge | 43:59 | |
a new kind of patriotism. | 44:03 | |
A new concept of world brotherhood, a new sense | 44:05 | |
of international economic relationship. | 44:10 | |
And that out of that new patriotism, | 44:14 | |
out of that new vision of a world | 44:16 | |
living together as brothers, | 44:18 | |
There is the possibility of a kind of world that | 44:23 | |
men have only dreamed about in the past. | 44:26 | |
That in fact the present crises | 44:30 | |
does not necessarily mean our destruction | 44:31 | |
or does not necessarily | 44:34 | |
lead us to the brink of hopelessness. | 44:35 | |
The present crises offers us a challenge | 44:39 | |
from which we might mobilize our idealism | 44:43 | |
and our tremendous humanitarian and religious concern, | 44:46 | |
and find ways to challenge that through our economic | 44:52 | |
and technical capacities toward the rest of the world. | 44:55 | |
In another sense, | 45:00 | |
in a new TestAment sense, | 45:02 | |
that new patriotism would say he who would find his life | 45:05 | |
must lose it, | 45:10 | |
and he who would lose his life for my sake will find it. | 45:12 | |
And this is something different | 45:18 | |
from the movements of the past. | 45:19 | |
We received a lot of credit in the civil rights movement | 45:22 | |
for being great idealists, | 45:25 | |
and to some extent that might've been true but not really | 45:28 | |
the civil rights movement for blacks | 45:32 | |
and for the citizens of this nation | 45:34 | |
was really a very self-serving course. | 45:38 | |
We were being oppressed, | 45:42 | |
we were burdened with guilt. | 45:43 | |
We found ourselves as a nation being torn apart, | 45:47 | |
divided between black and white. | 45:51 | |
We by our training understood that to be wrong, | 45:54 | |
and we sought to do something to help ourselves. | 45:57 | |
The same thing could be said of the peace movement | 46:03 | |
in this country. | 46:05 | |
We were not nearly so concerned about the killing of Vietnam | 46:06 | |
as we were about ending the draft here. | 46:11 | |
And all of the movements | 46:15 | |
which have excited some idealism in our time | 46:16 | |
have all had that tremendous self-serving element in them. | 46:21 | |
Certainly that would be true of the women's movement, | 46:25 | |
but what's called upon right now is called for right now | 46:28 | |
is a new kind of movement. | 46:32 | |
A movement which still has its element of self-interest yes, | 46:34 | |
but a movement which is going to really | 46:39 | |
be an idealistic movement, | 46:41 | |
which will put first the wellbeing of others. | 46:43 | |
A movement which would seek to feed the hungry of the world. | 46:47 | |
A movement which would say that it is | 46:51 | |
an injustice for us | 46:55 | |
to have more calories and more vitamins and minerals | 46:57 | |
in the meal that we will eat as we go from this chapel. | 47:01 | |
This one day than most of the people of the world will have | 47:05 | |
for an entire week. | 47:10 | |
There has got to be some new balance put in, | 47:12 | |
in relationship to the haves and have nots. | 47:16 | |
I think what we are going to see | 47:21 | |
and what I hope will emerge from universities such as this, | 47:23 | |
and what I hope might from the new Congress that we see | 47:27 | |
coming in in January | 47:31 | |
is a kind of a worldwide perspective | 47:34 | |
which helps all of us realize | 47:37 | |
that there is no such thing as operation independence. | 47:40 | |
That there's no way | 47:44 | |
that you can be independent of your brother. | 47:45 | |
That there's no way that you can separate yourself | 47:49 | |
from the rest of the world. | 47:52 | |
There is no way that you and I can separate ourselves | 47:53 | |
from people who are different, | 47:57 | |
whether they be here in our midst, | 47:59 | |
or across the face of the earth. | 48:01 | |
And I'm reminded that this nation | 48:05 | |
was founded on such great idealism. | 48:07 | |
That everybody that came to this nation, | 48:10 | |
regardless of their ethnic heritage | 48:12 | |
and whether they came as freedman or slaves | 48:15 | |
somehow came here with a hope that this nation | 48:18 | |
could produce something different. | 48:21 | |
And we hear it in the spirituals all the time, | 48:24 | |
I'm so glad trouble won't last always. | 48:27 | |
People in slavery found themselves | 48:31 | |
developing more faith in and on this land | 48:33 | |
than even the prophet Jeremiah | 48:38 | |
as he talked about his people in exile. | 48:40 | |
Jeremiah said, "Is there no balm in Gilead? | 48:44 | |
Is there no physician there?" | 48:46 | |
But black men and women in slavery | 48:48 | |
said, "Yes, there is a balm in Gilead | 48:52 | |
that will make the wounded whole." | 48:55 | |
There is a balm in Gilead that will heal the sin six soul. | 48:57 | |
And so when the difficulties arise, | 49:02 | |
when the obstacles seem insurmountable, | 49:04 | |
then we find that there is a Holy Spirit | 49:10 | |
that will revive our souls again. | 49:16 | |
And while we say that for blacks, | 49:19 | |
we can say the same things for people who came to Virginia | 49:21 | |
or to new England. | 49:24 | |
We can say the same things for the Iris | 49:25 | |
and the Chicano immigrants which came to this country. | 49:28 | |
They all came with some kind of idea, | 49:31 | |
with a kind of vision of a new kind of community | 49:36 | |
where each man and woman would have an opportunity. | 49:40 | |
I was reminded of this from a strange source not long ago. | 49:46 | |
One of our minor prophets by the name of Ray Charles | 49:52 | |
sang a song that I had not heard for a long time. | 49:58 | |
And he starts it out, "Oh beautiful for heroes prove | 50:02 | |
in liberating stripe, | 50:07 | |
who more than self their country loved | 50:09 | |
and mercy more than life | 50:12 | |
America, America may God thy gold refined, | 50:14 | |
to all success be nobleness and every gain divine." | 50:20 | |
And I think how relevant that prayer is for us today | 50:26 | |
that our success being our nobleness and that our gains | 50:30 | |
be divine. | 50:33 | |
When I think of the beauties of this nation, | 50:38 | |
when I think not just of our sins, | 50:43 | |
but when I think of our accomplishments and they are many. | 50:45 | |
When I think that God could not have invested so much in us | 50:50 | |
save he requires so much from us | 50:55 | |
for has he not said to them to whom much has been given | 50:58 | |
of them will much be required. | 51:02 | |
And I think in this day and hour, | 51:05 | |
as we look at the blessings which we have received, | 51:08 | |
and as we think of what might be required of us, | 51:14 | |
I think I can see the hungry being fed. | 51:19 | |
I think I can see the naked being clothed. | 51:23 | |
I think I can see men and women living together | 51:27 | |
as brothers and sisters. | 51:30 | |
I think I can see in some sense, | 51:33 | |
the lion and the lamb lying down together. | 51:35 | |
I think I can see men beating their swords | 51:39 | |
into plowshares and their Spears into pruning hooks. | 51:43 | |
I think I can see a studying war no more. | 51:47 | |
I think I can see us repenting from the Vietnams | 51:51 | |
and Watergates of our time, | 51:54 | |
and saying to the world | 51:57 | |
there's much more to America than this. | 51:58 | |
That there's much more to us | 52:01 | |
as a Christian God-fearing people than this. | 52:03 | |
That somehow the strength with which we have been in doubt, | 52:07 | |
we will find ways to share, | 52:12 | |
and that from that sharing | 52:15 | |
will come a new heaven and a new earth | 52:17 | |
where the tears will be wiped away | 52:20 | |
and where the suffering and the dying will cease. | 52:23 | |
Let us pray. | 52:27 | |
Almighty God, | 52:31 | |
We come before thee like empty pitchers | 52:35 | |
before a fall fountain. | 52:38 | |
Bow our hearts beneath our knees, | 52:42 | |
and as we bow our knees and this known lonely valley, | 52:46 | |
we asked that thy would open our hearts | 52:51 | |
and fill us with thy spirit. | 52:53 | |
Open our minds and excite us with thy wisdom. | 52:55 | |
Open our bodies dear father, and place in us thy love. | 53:02 | |
But somehow as we go forth, | 53:07 | |
the spirit of love might go with us | 53:12 | |
spreading from heart to heart and breast to breast, | 53:16 | |
but also spreading through the institutions which we serve, | 53:20 | |
also spreading through the nation, which we love. | 53:25 | |
We ask thy blessing upon us and this nation and all mankind | 53:30 | |
and help us to sense and fulfill, | 53:37 | |
whatever might be the destiny in our lives, | 53:40 | |
for thy has made us for by thyself, | 53:44 | |
and our hearts will be restless | 53:48 | |
till we find our rest in thee. | 53:50 | |
May that rest be in service, | 53:55 | |
and may that service be to thy glory and honor | 53:59 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, Amen. | 54:03 | |
(orchestral music) | 54:09 | |
First Preacher | Oh God, most merciful and gracious | 1:05:00 |
of whose bounty we have all received | 1:05:04 | |
accept this offering of your people. | 1:05:08 | |
Remember in your love, | 1:05:12 | |
those who have brought it | 1:05:14 | |
and for whom it is given. | 1:05:16 | |
And so follow it with your blessing, | 1:05:19 | |
that it may promote peace and goodwill among all people | 1:05:22 | |
and advance your kingdom. | 1:05:28 | |
We pray in the spirit of our Lord, Amen. | 1:05:30 | |
(orchestral music) | 1:05:36 | |
And now may the blessing of God, | 1:09:14 | |
Almighty our Creator, | 1:09:18 | |
Sustainer and Redeemer, | 1:09:21 | |
be among you and abide with you now | 1:09:24 | |
and ever more. | 1:09:29 | |
(choir singing) | 1:09:33 |
Item Info
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