Ronald R. Hamilton - "What Is Your Risk Factor?" (January 8, 1984)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft classical music) | 0:04 | |
(imposing organ music) | 10:01 | |
- | By a prairie from the Highlands of Scotland | 12:14 |
we are called to worship. | 12:17 | |
"That night the star shone | 12:20 | |
"was born the Shepherd of the flock. | 12:22 | |
"Of the Virgin of the hundred charms, the Mary Mother. | 12:25 | |
"The Trinity eternal by her side, | 12:29 | |
"in the manger cold and lowly. | 12:31 | |
"Come and give to her of thy means, to the healing Man. | 12:33 | |
"The foam-white breastling beloved. | 12:38 | |
"Without one home in the world, | 12:40 | |
"the tender holy Babe forth driven, Immanuel! | 12:43 | |
"Ye three angels of power, come ye, come ye down; | 12:48 | |
"to the Christ of the people give ye salutation. | 12:52 | |
"Kiss ye His hands, dry ye His feet | 12:56 | |
"with the hair of your heads; | 13:01 | |
"and o thou world-pervading God, | 13:03 | |
"And ye, Jesu, Mary, do not ye forsake us." | 13:06 | |
And we know on this first Sunday after Epiphany | 13:13 | |
that God has not forsaken us. | 13:16 | |
Let us worship God. | 13:18 | |
As a community of faith praying together | 13:33 | |
our prayer of confession. | 13:35 | |
Almighty God, Lord of us all, | 13:39 | |
whose mercy is higher than the heavens, | 13:43 | |
wider than our wonderings, and deeper than all our sin, | 13:46 | |
hear us when we cry onto You, | 13:51 | |
and restore onto us the joy of Your salvation. | 13:54 | |
We confess onto You our folly and our sin, | 13:58 | |
our rebellious pride that has made us forgetful of You | 14:02 | |
and callous toward our neighbor. | 14:07 | |
Our preoccupation with things that perish | 14:09 | |
that has made us neglectful of Your word and worship. | 14:13 | |
Our false sense of freedom | 14:17 | |
that has led us to irresponsible living. | 14:19 | |
Our divided loyalty that has marred and weakened | 14:23 | |
our discipleship to Christ. | 14:26 | |
By Your judgment and Your love, | 14:29 | |
prompt in us a true repentance. | 14:32 | |
By Your grace enable us to be worthy of repentance. | 14:35 | |
Then grant us Your forgiveness, oh God, | 14:40 | |
and renew in us the mind and spirit of Christ | 14:43 | |
that His work of salvation may be accomplished in us | 14:47 | |
through the same Jesus Christ we pray. | 14:52 | |
Amen. | 14:55 | |
We have confessed together our sins. | 15:47 | |
My sisters and brothers know and believe the good news | 15:51 | |
that is available to us this day. | 15:54 | |
Experience it within yourselves | 15:56 | |
that in and by Jesus, who was and is the Christ, | 16:00 | |
you and I, | 16:05 | |
you and I are forgiven. | 16:06 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good, | 16:11 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 16:13 | |
(people chanting) | 16:17 | |
It is the first Sunday after Epiphany, | 16:33 | |
but I am glad to be able to welcome you | 16:36 | |
on this beautiful Sunday morning, | 16:39 | |
to welcome many of you back from the holidays | 16:43 | |
that you have had. | 16:47 | |
It is good to feel the energy of the students | 16:49 | |
as you come back to campus, | 16:52 | |
and bring with you your excitement and your curiosity. | 16:54 | |
We are glad that you are back. | 17:00 | |
There are three announcements having much to do | 17:05 | |
with the life of the chapel and our ministry here | 17:08 | |
that I want to acknowledge this morning. | 17:11 | |
You will note two of them | 17:16 | |
in the bulletin in the announcement section. | 17:16 | |
Sandy and Nancy have issued to you an invitation | 17:20 | |
to take part in the services of worship here | 17:23 | |
by serving as a chapel usher. | 17:26 | |
That is a very prominent, important part | 17:30 | |
of the life of this congregation, | 17:32 | |
and I encourage you to respond to that invitation. | 17:35 | |
Our head chapel attendant, Sharon Adams, | 17:40 | |
has also issued to you an invitation | 17:42 | |
to serve as a chapel attendant | 17:46 | |
during the weekdays of the life, | 17:50 | |
the time the chapel is open. | 17:54 | |
That too is a very important part | 17:56 | |
of our work and ministry here, | 17:58 | |
and I encourage you to give very serious thought | 18:01 | |
to responding to Sharon's invitation. | 18:04 | |
Both of those invitations indicate to you | 18:07 | |
how you may get in touch with the necessary people | 18:10 | |
if you would like to respond. | 18:14 | |
There is one announcement that is not in the bulletin, | 18:17 | |
but is an important one. | 18:19 | |
The Duke University Chapel Choir | 18:22 | |
is now accepting new members | 18:23 | |
for the spring semester of 1984. | 18:25 | |
All singers in the Duke and Durham communities | 18:28 | |
are invited to audition. | 18:31 | |
You may sign up for an audition appointment | 18:33 | |
or obtain further information | 18:35 | |
by calling the choral activities office at 684-3898. | 18:37 | |
If you wish to sign up for an audition appointment today, | 18:45 | |
you may do so immediately following the service | 18:49 | |
at the hostess desk in the rear of the chapel. | 18:51 | |
And I need not tell you that the choir | 18:55 | |
is indeed an important element | 18:57 | |
in the life and worship of this chapel. | 18:59 | |
I am glad to have the opportunity | 19:08 | |
to be able to welcome to the Duke Chapel Pulpit | 19:09 | |
the Reverend Ronald Hamilton. | 19:16 | |
Also to welcome a fellow Hoosier. | 19:21 | |
We were comparing notes in our visit yesterday afternoon | 19:25 | |
and discovered that our hometowns were only 30 miles apart. | 19:29 | |
And so we've had much to talk about | 19:34 | |
in terms of Southwestern Indiana. | 19:35 | |
Ron, as you will note, is a busy minister. | 19:42 | |
He comes to us from a large congregation | 19:48 | |
in Littletown, Colorado, | 19:52 | |
where he is the senior minister | 19:53 | |
overseeing a diverse ministry and staff there, | 19:55 | |
and is involved in not only the life of that congregation | 20:00 | |
but in the life of his community | 20:04 | |
and the life of his denomination. | 20:06 | |
Ron is a worker, a very sensitive individual | 20:09 | |
in the work of the United Methodist Church | 20:15 | |
as well as his own local congregation. | 20:18 | |
Ron, it is a delight to be able to welcome you this morning | 20:21 | |
and to welcome as well your very gracious wife, Norma. | 20:26 | |
We indeed had a delightful time | 20:32 | |
as the three of us visited yesterday afternoon. | 20:34 | |
We look forward to Ron's sermon, What is Your Risk Factor? | 20:37 | |
- | Let us pray. | 20:53 |
Oh God, who according to the promise | 20:58 | |
that Jesus Christ, Your son, | 21:00 | |
did in the spirit of truth to your people, | 21:02 | |
grant that the spirit may teach us all things, | 21:05 | |
guide us into all truth, open us to the scriptures, | 21:08 | |
and take the ways of Christ and show them to us. | 21:14 | |
For your namesake, amen. | 21:19 | |
The Old Testament lessons from Isaiah, | 21:25 | |
chapter 42, verses one through nine. | 21:28 | |
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold. | 21:33 | |
"My chosen in whom My soul delights. | 21:36 | |
"I have put My Spirit upon Him. | 21:40 | |
"He will bring forth justice to the nations. | 21:43 | |
"He will not cry or lift up His voice, | 21:46 | |
"or make it heard in the street. | 21:49 | |
"A bruised reed He will not break, | 21:52 | |
"and a dimly burning wick He will not quench. | 21:55 | |
"He will faithfully bring justice forth. | 21:59 | |
"He will not fail or be discouraged, | 22:03 | |
"till He has established justice in the earth, | 22:05 | |
"and the coastlines wait for His law. | 22:09 | |
"This is God, the Lord | 22:12 | |
"who created the heavens and stretched them out, | 22:15 | |
"who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, | 22:18 | |
"who gives breath to people upon it, | 22:22 | |
"and spirit to those who walk in it. | 22:24 | |
"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness. | 22:27 | |
"I have taken you by the hand and kept you. | 22:31 | |
"I have given you as a covenant to the people, | 22:35 | |
"a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, | 22:38 | |
"to bring out the prisoner from the dungeon, | 22:43 | |
"from the prison those who sit in darkness. | 22:46 | |
"I am the Lord, that is My name. | 22:49 | |
"My glory I give to no other, | 22:53 | |
"nor My praise to graven images. | 22:56 | |
"Behold the former things have come to pass | 22:59 | |
"and new things I now declare | 23:02 | |
"before they spring forth I tell you of them." | 23:06 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 23:11 | |
The epistle lesson is from Second Corinthians, chapter four. | 23:16 | |
"Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, | 23:22 | |
"we do not lose heart. | 23:26 | |
"We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. | 23:29 | |
"We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. | 23:33 | |
"But by the open statement of the truth | 23:39 | |
"we would commend ourselves to every man's consciousness | 23:41 | |
"in the sight of God. | 23:44 | |
"And even if our gospel is veiled, | 23:46 | |
"it is veiled only to those who are perishing. | 23:49 | |
"In their case, the God of this world | 23:53 | |
"has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, | 23:55 | |
"to keep them from seeing the light | 23:58 | |
"of the gospel of the glory of Christ, | 23:59 | |
"who is the likeness of God. | 24:02 | |
"For what we preach is not ourselves, | 24:05 | |
"but Jesus Christ as Lord, | 24:07 | |
"with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. | 24:10 | |
"For it is the God who said, | 24:14 | |
"Let light shine out of darkness | 24:17 | |
"who has shone in our hearts | 24:20 | |
"to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God | 24:22 | |
"in the face of Christ. | 24:24 | |
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels | 24:27 | |
"to show that the transcendent power belongs to God | 24:30 | |
"and not to us. | 24:32 | |
"We are afflicted in every way but not crushed. | 24:35 | |
"Perplexed but not driven to despair. | 24:38 | |
"Persecuted but not forsaken. | 24:42 | |
"Struck down but not destroyed. | 24:45 | |
"Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus | 24:49 | |
"so that the life of Jesus | 24:53 | |
"may also be manifested in our bodies. | 24:55 | |
"For while we live we're always being given up to death | 24:59 | |
"for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus | 25:02 | |
"may be manifested in our mortal flesh. | 25:05 | |
"So death is at work in us, but life in you. | 25:09 | |
"Since we have the same spirit of faith | 25:14 | |
"as He who wrote, I believed and so I spoke, we too, | 25:17 | |
"and so we speak knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus | 25:23 | |
"will raise us also with Jesus, | 25:27 | |
"and bring us with You into His presence. | 25:30 | |
"For it is all for Your sake, | 25:34 | |
"so that as grace extends to more and more people | 25:36 | |
"it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. | 25:39 | |
"So we do not lose heart. | 25:43 | |
"Though our outer nature is wasting away, | 25:46 | |
"our inner nature is being renewed every day. | 25:49 | |
"For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us | 25:53 | |
"for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, | 25:56 | |
"because we look not to the things that are seen | 26:01 | |
"but to the things that are unseen; | 26:03 | |
"for the things that are seen are transient, | 26:06 | |
"but the things that are unseen are eternal." | 26:09 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle. | 26:13 | |
(soft classical music) | 26:22 | |
The gospel lesson is from Matthew, | 29:00 | |
chapter three, verses 13 through 17. | 29:02 | |
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, | 29:06 | |
"to be baptized by him. | 29:11 | |
"John would have prevented him, saying, | 29:13 | |
"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? | 29:15 | |
"But Jesus answered him, let it be so now; | 29:20 | |
"for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. | 29:24 | |
"Then he consented. | 29:28 | |
"And when Jesus was baptized, | 29:30 | |
"he went up immediately from the water, | 29:32 | |
"and behold, the heavens were opened | 29:34 | |
"and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, | 29:36 | |
"and alighting on him; | 29:39 | |
"and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, | 29:42 | |
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." | 29:45 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. | 29:51 | |
Amen. | 29:54 | |
(imposing organ music) | 29:56 | |
(chanting) | ||
- | I appreciate the privilege | 31:01 |
of sharing worship with you this morning, | 31:03 | |
and I especially want to thank our musicians | 31:06 | |
for the beautiful contribution they've made to our worship. | 31:08 | |
Indulge me for a moment if you will. | 31:14 | |
In our church we have, what I call, | 31:16 | |
the family minute of prayer. | 31:19 | |
It's a time when we remember that under God we are a family, | 31:21 | |
and we join hearts and concerns, | 31:27 | |
also the joys | 31:32 | |
that other members of the family are experiencing. | 31:33 | |
Many times we share the sorrows of others, | 31:39 | |
we weep with those who weep. | 31:44 | |
And sometimes we forget to rejoice with those who rejoice, | 31:48 | |
so just for a moment, | 31:52 | |
please hold someone clearly | 31:58 | |
in your hearts and thoughts and prayers, | 32:00 | |
someone whose joy you want to share and celebrate, | 32:04 | |
someone whose concern you want to share, | 32:08 | |
and you might want to weep with those who weep | 32:14 | |
but somebody who has a special need or a special joy. | 32:16 | |
In your prayer hold that person before our Father | 32:23 | |
as together, as part of the family of God, we pray. | 32:26 | |
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts | 33:08 | |
be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord. | 33:10 | |
For thou indeed our strength, our rock, | 33:13 | |
our redeemer. | 33:18 | |
Amen. | 33:21 | |
Paul talks about having this treasure | 33:27 | |
in earthen vessels clay jars, | 33:30 | |
and a little bit later he talks about the fact | 33:34 | |
that we're knocked down, but we're never knocked out. | 33:36 | |
And that's something we need to remember. | 33:42 | |
You know, people used to say | 33:45 | |
there's really nothing certain in life | 33:48 | |
except death and taxes. | 33:51 | |
But, as you look at it, | 33:55 | |
you begin to realize | 33:59 | |
that few of us really seem to believe that. | 34:00 | |
For instance, who do you know that really lives | 34:06 | |
by that kind of maxim? | 34:11 | |
Don't you realize that almost everybody | 34:14 | |
appears to be trying to make life as secure as possible? | 34:18 | |
Striving in all the ways that they can possibly devise | 34:25 | |
to remove every element of risk, | 34:30 | |
of chance from their living. | 34:35 | |
This desire for certainty, for absolute security, | 34:41 | |
seems to spill over into the area of religion as well. | 34:46 | |
It seems to me likely that one of the reasons | 34:50 | |
the Fundamentalist branches of Christianity | 34:53 | |
have been growing so dramatically | 34:56 | |
in these last 15 or 20 years, | 34:59 | |
is because in an insecure world | 35:04 | |
they purport to give secure answers. | 35:09 | |
Large numbers of people are responding positively | 35:15 | |
to any kind of religious assurance they can get | 35:19 | |
because many individuals today are desperate | 35:25 | |
in their desire to achieve certainty, | 35:29 | |
to achieve safety in this life. | 35:33 | |
Now interestingly, traditional Christianity | 35:39 | |
has never offered the promise of security | 35:43 | |
in any conventional sense of that word. | 35:47 | |
In fact, the gospel seemed to contradict | 35:51 | |
that kind of assurance. | 35:55 | |
Now Christianity has often used the word comfort. | 35:58 | |
And maybe that's part of the problem, | 36:04 | |
maybe that's partly where our trouble has its source. | 36:07 | |
Because we say the word comfort, | 36:12 | |
and we tend to wrap it around us like a warm blanket. | 36:15 | |
In other words, what we really mean is comfortable. | 36:22 | |
But the New Testament used the word comfort | 36:28 | |
in a totally different sense. | 36:31 | |
Come, meaning with. | 36:34 | |
Fort us, meaning strength. | 36:36 | |
Comfort means with strength. | 36:41 | |
In other words, Jesus promised his followers | 36:44 | |
strength, fortitude, | 36:47 | |
the ability to endure. | 36:51 | |
And those words have little to do with our meaning of ease, | 36:54 | |
comfortableness and tranquility. | 36:59 | |
Moreover, Protestant Christianity has long emphasized | 37:05 | |
that the supporting power of the Christian faith | 37:10 | |
doesn't stem from information about God, | 37:13 | |
that is, from dogmas and doctrines, | 37:17 | |
nor does it come from pronouncements or assurances | 37:22 | |
from church authorities. | 37:25 | |
No, the lifting power of the Christian faith | 37:28 | |
flows from an individuals vital relationship with God. | 37:32 | |
And from committed Christians growing together | 37:38 | |
in spiritual stature, through fellowship and worship | 37:41 | |
and study and the giving of themselves. | 37:46 | |
Furthermore, our faith understands | 37:53 | |
that nothing remains the same, | 37:55 | |
that everything must be examined in the light of the truth | 37:58 | |
as we know it at any give moment. | 38:02 | |
And that we must be ready to change | 38:05 | |
to accommodate new truths and new understanding | 38:07 | |
as new light comes to us. | 38:11 | |
And that kind of openness to truth and change | 38:14 | |
is absolutely necessary, | 38:17 | |
because human understanding is subject to error, | 38:20 | |
human motives are often tainted, | 38:23 | |
and human plans are always less than perfect. | 38:27 | |
God has given us freedom, and the very word freedom | 38:32 | |
implies the option of making a wrong choice. | 38:38 | |
Since in our humanity we do make mistakes | 38:44 | |
through faulty will or through wrong thinking, | 38:48 | |
there's no way that human beings at this stage | 38:52 | |
can be absolutely secure. | 38:55 | |
So Christianity has long recognized that human attempts | 39:00 | |
to evade the risk element in life are illusions. | 39:03 | |
Christ, for instance, never promised his followers security. | 39:08 | |
What he did promise them was that | 39:13 | |
in all the vascillating aspects of life, | 39:15 | |
he would be with those who chose to be his disciples. | 39:19 | |
Martin Niemoller echoed this | 39:24 | |
when he pointed up the fluctuating nature of life and said, | 39:28 | |
no man can rest on his past record. | 39:32 | |
We must pray for the Holy Spirit every day. | 39:36 | |
Now that's an authentic Christian word. | 39:43 | |
Life can never be secure | 39:46 | |
because there are no finalities, there are no absolutes. | 39:49 | |
Christians must pray for the help | 39:54 | |
of the Holy Spirit every day. | 39:56 | |
The essence of Christian discipleship then | 40:01 | |
is the willingness to live in uncertainty with God | 40:04 | |
day by day, | 40:08 | |
always open to the leading of His spirit. | 40:10 | |
W. B. J. Martin in a book called | 40:15 | |
The Diary of Peter Parson says, | 40:18 | |
"What man needs is not authority, | 40:21 | |
but the power to do without authority. | 40:25 | |
Not certainty and security, | 40:29 | |
but the willingness to face the radical uncertainty | 40:33 | |
of an encounter with the living God." | 40:37 | |
The Judeo-Christians' faith holds out an invitation | 40:43 | |
to all people to respond to God's love | 40:47 | |
and to God's leading in an uncertain world. | 40:51 | |
Because everything is in flux, | 40:55 | |
even our response is not permanent. | 40:57 | |
We don't respond once and for all | 41:01 | |
with never a doubt, and never a fear. | 41:04 | |
Instead we usually find that, | 41:07 | |
in the midst of life's buffeting, | 41:09 | |
we must reaffirm our commitment to God day by day, | 41:11 | |
sometimes hour by hour, even minute by minute. | 41:16 | |
Recall the situation of Elijah | 41:22 | |
as it's recorded in First Kings, chapters 18 and 19. | 41:24 | |
He made a heroic stand against | 41:30 | |
the priest of Baal on Mount Carmel. | 41:34 | |
450 priests of Baal were defeated. | 41:37 | |
And then he retreated to a place of quietness. | 41:43 | |
There the messenger from Jezebel the queen | 41:47 | |
arrived with word that about that same time tomorrow | 41:51 | |
she intended to have Elijah's head. | 41:54 | |
The old prophet became frightened. | 41:59 | |
Now he'd stood firmly against 450 men, | 42:02 | |
but facing queen Jezebel was another matter all together. | 42:06 | |
And so his courage failed. | 42:11 | |
He quickly gathered up his few belongings | 42:14 | |
and fled for the hills. | 42:16 | |
Ralph Sockman said it best, | 42:19 | |
Elijah was passing through that trying experience | 42:22 | |
that comes to all idealists when they discover | 42:28 | |
that there are no permanent victories. | 42:32 | |
Finally he arrived at a mountain called Horeb. | 42:37 | |
He entered a cave and he laid down exhausted, | 42:41 | |
and there several things happened in succession. | 42:44 | |
First, a wind storm hit the mountain. | 42:49 | |
It quickly passed. | 42:53 | |
Elijah listened for the voice of God in the wind, | 42:55 | |
but the Almighty was not there. | 42:57 | |
And then the earth trembled, | 43:02 | |
but the Lord was not in the earthquake either. | 43:04 | |
And finally, an uncontrollable fire | 43:08 | |
burned the area all around him, | 43:10 | |
but there was still no word from God. | 43:13 | |
Elijah began to wonder what was happening, | 43:18 | |
whether he was dreaming all of this, | 43:22 | |
and then the crisp, soft voice of God asked, | 43:26 | |
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" | 43:31 | |
Tishbite responded that he felt all alone, | 43:35 | |
all of his hope was gone, he was a lost man. | 43:40 | |
And God told him he was wrong. | 43:45 | |
There were still hundreds of people out there | 43:48 | |
who were God's people. | 43:51 | |
But now they were without a leader | 43:54 | |
because he had forsaken them. | 43:57 | |
Strange twist, isn't it? | 44:02 | |
This prophet believed his was the only faithful one left, | 44:05 | |
and God was telling him he was unfaithful. | 44:10 | |
Among the many things that Elijah learned in that encounter | 44:15 | |
was that you can't pin God down | 44:18 | |
and demand to find your security | 44:21 | |
in any particular event or manner. | 44:23 | |
In the Bible we're told that God | 44:29 | |
was in the fire on Mount Carmel, | 44:31 | |
but on Mount Horeb God was not in the fire. | 44:35 | |
Now this seems to me to point out the fact that | 44:41 | |
experiences of, excuse me, | 44:44 | |
experiences of God are not all alike, | 44:47 | |
and we should never try to make them so. | 44:51 | |
Neither should we expect to find our security | 44:55 | |
in some particular religious posture. | 44:58 | |
Personally I view with great concern | 45:03 | |
many of the attempts today to pass Christianity off | 45:05 | |
as some super success movement. | 45:08 | |
Because I fear we'll try to make success | 45:12 | |
the norm of our understanding of faithfulness. | 45:15 | |
Some weeks ago I saw a religious television program | 45:20 | |
which was being broadcast from Hawaii. | 45:23 | |
Obviously the setting was quite beautiful. | 45:26 | |
The minister was dressed in a 400 dollar suite | 45:29 | |
with an expensive hairstyle. | 45:32 | |
His wife was beautifully coiffured and stylishly gowned. | 45:35 | |
And to a point that was all well and good, | 45:40 | |
but it also seemed to suddenly suggest to the world | 45:43 | |
that it pays to serve Jesus, | 45:48 | |
that if one is dedicated and spirit-filled, | 45:50 | |
everything is going to be smiles and fine clothing | 45:53 | |
and expensive trips and no problems. | 45:57 | |
And if that's where things are for you my congratulations. | 46:01 | |
But let's remember, at the same time | 46:07 | |
there also millions of poor Christians, | 46:10 | |
millions of starving Christians, | 46:13 | |
millions of Christians who are facing tremendous problems | 46:16 | |
of one sort or another, | 46:19 | |
and they are also faithful Christians. | 46:21 | |
We like to ignore the fact | 46:27 | |
that a major symbol of our faith is the cross. | 46:28 | |
And though we wear crosses as ornaments today, | 46:33 | |
let's recall that originally the cross | 46:36 | |
was a sign of insecurity and death. | 46:38 | |
Of course, from the earliest days of the Christian faith | 46:44 | |
the cross has also been a sign of triumph, | 46:47 | |
and many of Christ's followers | 46:50 | |
have found comfort and strength in the cross. | 46:52 | |
George Buttrick put it well, | 46:56 | |
the cross seems to give our doubts their best argument, | 46:58 | |
and then to answer that argument | 47:03 | |
not by syllogism but by an event in love. | 47:05 | |
And that's the best answer to our doubts, | 47:13 | |
to our fears, to our insecurity. | 47:16 | |
The response of God's love. | 47:20 | |
In Pygmalion, which became the musical play My Fair Lady, | 47:25 | |
George Bernard Shaw has Eliza Doolittle say, | 47:30 | |
regarding her transformation | 47:33 | |
from a gutter snipe to a gracious lady, | 47:35 | |
whether a girl becomes a lady depends not on how she behaves | 47:39 | |
but on how she is treated. | 47:46 | |
It's the Christian conviction that, even in our freedom, | 47:50 | |
God has treated us like people destined for. | 47:55 |
- | Not like animals headed for the gutter, | 0:04 |
a traditional Christian word | 0:09 | |
for this kind of loving response | 0:10 | |
to our doubts and to our failures | 0:13 | |
is the word grace. | 0:15 | |
We are saved, we are supported, | 0:18 | |
we find our security in God's grace, | 0:21 | |
that grace is our only certainty | 0:26 | |
and furthermore, we can't even prove that | 0:29 | |
because God's grace can never be proven, | 0:32 | |
it can only be accepted. | 0:36 | |
In other words, the Christian faith | 0:40 | |
doesn't offer security in any ordinary sense of the word. | 0:42 | |
Christians are not guaranteed | 0:48 | |
that everything will come out good | 0:50 | |
from a human point of view. | 0:52 | |
God's grace simply means | 0:54 | |
that even though cruelty and confusion | 0:56 | |
are abroad in the world, | 0:59 | |
that even though prisons and slums | 1:01 | |
and human sin distort the bodies | 1:04 | |
and the souls of people | 1:07 | |
that even though failure and sickness | 1:09 | |
and death assail us, | 1:12 | |
even those tragedies cannot separate us from God's love. | 1:16 | |
In fact, it is in precisely such trying conditions | 1:22 | |
that God's grace becomes most evident | 1:27 | |
if we know how to look for it. | 1:31 | |
There's a parable which has had some currency recently. | 1:35 | |
I ran across it a number of years ago. | 1:40 | |
It goes one night, | 1:43 | |
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord | 1:46 | |
and many scenes from my life flashed across the sky | 1:50 | |
and at each scene I noticed a footprint | 1:55 | |
in the sand, sometimes there were two sets | 1:58 | |
of footprints, other times there was only one. | 2:01 | |
And this bothered me | 2:06 | |
because I noted that during the low periods | 2:08 | |
of my life when I was suffering from anguish, | 2:11 | |
sorrow and defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. | 2:14 | |
So, I said to the Lord, | 2:20 | |
you promised me, Lord that if I followed you, | 2:23 | |
you would walk with me always. | 2:25 | |
But I noticed that during the most trying periods | 2:30 | |
of my life, there's only been one set of footprints | 2:33 | |
in the sand. | 2:37 | |
Why, Lord, why when I needed you most | 2:38 | |
have you not been there for me? | 2:42 | |
And the Lord replied, | 2:46 | |
the times when you've seen only one set of footprints, | 2:48 | |
my child, are the times when I was carrying you. | 2:51 | |
It's often been charged | 3:02 | |
that most protestants don't know their faith | 3:03 | |
as some of our more conservative | 3:06 | |
and authoritarian brethren know theirs. | 3:08 | |
Now to the degree that such a charge correctly means | 3:12 | |
that we've not been committed, | 3:16 | |
that we've not been disciplined, | 3:17 | |
that we've not been studious enough | 3:19 | |
to learn our faith, it's to our shame. | 3:21 | |
But we must also recognize that traditional Christianity | 3:26 | |
doesn't consist solely in an intellectual grasp | 3:30 | |
of doctrine nor in the memorization of a creed. | 3:34 | |
At its best, the traditional Christian faith | 3:41 | |
rests heavily on a living encounter with God | 3:44 | |
through Jesus Christ | 3:48 | |
and living relationships can never be formulated | 3:50 | |
with exact finality. | 3:54 | |
Again, to quote W.B.J. Martin. | 3:58 | |
The essence of Protestantism | 4:02 | |
is the willingness to be in uncertainty with God, | 4:04 | |
the important thing is not to have correct information | 4:09 | |
about God but to be susceptible to God's spirit, | 4:13 | |
to be growingly aware of his pressures | 4:18 | |
upon our lives. | 4:22 | |
It was toward the end of World War II | 4:28 | |
that a young Jewish girl in the Warsaw Ghetto | 4:30 | |
managed to escape over the wall | 4:36 | |
and hide out in a cave. | 4:38 | |
She died there shortly before the Allied Army broke through | 4:41 | |
and liberated that ghetto | 4:45 | |
but before she died, | 4:49 | |
she scratched on the wall three things. | 4:51 | |
I believe in the sun even when it's not shining. | 4:56 | |
I believe in love | 5:02 | |
even when feeling it not. | 5:05 | |
I believe in God | 5:10 | |
even when he's silent. | 5:13 | |
That young lady had grasped something | 5:19 | |
of the necessary insecurity of life | 5:21 | |
and yet had overcome through her faith. | 5:26 | |
Now, if we will respond with our whole will | 5:34 | |
to the gracious love of God, | 5:38 | |
we will tend to gain some sense of assurance | 5:40 | |
for in the power of the gift of God's grace, | 5:45 | |
even though we're never really secure | 5:49 | |
in the ordinary sense of that word, | 5:52 | |
we will be enabled to walk from uncertainty | 5:55 | |
to uncertainty with something | 5:59 | |
of a sense of personal victory. | 6:01 | |
Paul caught some of this in Romans 8. | 6:05 | |
Let me paraphrase it for you. | 6:09 | |
For I am persuaded that neither knowledge nor lack of it, | 6:13 | |
neither faith or doubt, | 6:19 | |
neither virtue nor sin, | 6:22 | |
neither life nor death, | 6:25 | |
that nothing in the universe | 6:28 | |
has any power to separate us | 6:30 | |
from God's love for us | 6:33 | |
as shown in Jesus Christ our Lord. | 6:36 | |
That then is our security. | 6:43 | |
(lively organ music) | 6:56 | |
(congregation sings) | 7:22 | |
- | Let us now affirm what we believe. | 9:22 |
- | We believe in God | 9:26 |
who has created and is creating, | 9:28 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 9:31 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 9:34 | |
who works in us and others by the sprit, | 9:37 | |
we trust God who calls us to be the church, | 9:41 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 9:46 | |
to love and serve others, | 9:49 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 9:52 | |
proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 9:55 | |
our judge and our hope. | 9:59 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 10:02 | |
God is with us, | 10:06 | |
we are not alone. | 10:08 | |
Thanks be to God. | 10:10 | |
The Lord be with you. | 10:14 | |
- | And also with you. | 10:16 |
- | Let us pray. | 10:17 |
Oh Yahweh, we praise you for yourself | 10:32 | |
in whom we live and by whom all things | 10:37 | |
are sanctified and made for shining. | 10:40 | |
We praise you for this day | 10:45 | |
which proceeds from your graciousness | 10:47 | |
and returns to your love. | 10:50 | |
We praise you for every moment | 10:54 | |
when the work of our hands | 10:56 | |
and minds is blessed beyond our deserving | 10:58 | |
and for every hour that our hearts | 11:03 | |
are made glad by a wise and endless peace | 11:05 | |
that we do not earn. | 11:10 | |
Oh comforter, who from the other side of dark | 11:15 | |
invades our despair, | 11:20 | |
our loss and who overcomes | 11:23 | |
for all the harried people, | 11:27 | |
the disasters of nations, | 11:30 | |
the defeats of flesh and soul. | 11:33 | |
Now in the brimming days that hasten us towards Bethlehem, | 11:37 | |
all life calls upon you for wholeness, | 11:43 | |
let sickness be healed, | 11:47 | |
the mind's terrors removed far from us, | 11:51 | |
the heart's loneliness transformed unto joy. | 11:56 | |
Teach the nations | 12:02 | |
and those who lead the nations | 12:05 | |
the things that make for peace. | 12:08 | |
And as you are the creator and guardian of this universe, | 12:12 | |
do keep this fragile planet from destruction. | 12:18 | |
Oh Lord, our God, | 12:27 | |
who by the light of a star dispels the night of our fears | 12:30 | |
and makes us free to sing again, | 12:36 | |
we give thanks that once more the weight | 12:41 | |
of glory is pressed upon an inglorious world, | 12:43 | |
that a stirring is in our midst, | 12:48 | |
a hope rising to strive against the world's despair. | 12:52 | |
Be active in our minds and hearts, | 12:58 | |
that no distress will prevent our doing the works of life, | 13:02 | |
no impatience keep us from the slow work | 13:07 | |
of building a place | 13:11 | |
where love is the mandate that we obey. | 13:13 | |
Awaken us, redeem us, | 13:18 | |
be archangel in us | 13:23 | |
'til we dare to soar | 13:28 | |
and in all of the plodding times | 13:31 | |
and places of the months ahead, | 13:33 | |
be to us unicorn and dove | 13:37 | |
and storm and star | 13:40 | |
until our flesh becomes your wild, wise word. | 13:44 | |
In the name of the Christ | 13:54 | |
we have gathered and prayed | 13:55 | |
and now we pray together this prayer | 13:58 | |
which he teaches us. | 14:00 | |
- | Our Father who art in heaven, | 14:03 |
hallowed be thy name, | 14:07 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 14:10 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 14:13 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 14:16 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 14:19 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 14:22 | |
and lead us not into temptation | 14:25 | |
but deliver us from evil | 14:28 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 14:30 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 14:33 | |
Amen. | 14:38 | |
(tranquil music) | 14:50 | |
(lively music) | 18:05 | |
(lively organ music) | 21:17 | |
(congregation sings) | 21:38 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 21:51 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 21:53 | |
(congregation sings) | 21:58 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:11 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:14 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:17 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:20 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 22:32 | |
- | Be with us, oh God | 22:44 |
as we move into a new semester | 22:46 | |
and a new sense of ministry and purpose | 22:50 | |
within your church. | 22:53 | |
Be with us now in the use of these offerings | 22:57 | |
that what we accomplish | 23:00 | |
may be according to your will, | 23:02 | |
that justice and mercy and grace | 23:05 | |
may pervade this Earth and your peoples. | 23:10 | |
In the name of your Son, | 23:15 | |
our Lord, amen. | 23:17 | |
(lively organ music) | 23:22 | |
(congregation sings) | 24:38 | |
Let me remind you that our guest preacher of the morning, | 27:20 | |
Reverend Hamilton will be at the foot | 27:22 | |
of the Chancel Steps following this service | 27:25 | |
to greet you and I know that he would like to meet | 27:28 | |
as many of you as he possibly can. | 27:30 | |
So, I hope that you will come and meet the preacher | 27:33 | |
of the morning. | 27:35 | |
And now go out into the world in peace, | 27:38 | |
have courage, hold on to what is good, | 27:41 | |
return no person evil for evil, | 27:46 | |
but rather strengthen the faint hearted, | 27:50 | |
support the weak, | 27:53 | |
give help to the suffering, | 27:55 | |
honor all men and women, | 27:58 | |
love and serve the Lord, | 28:01 | |
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit | 28:04 | |
and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ | 28:08 | |
and the love of God and the strength and fellowship | 28:11 | |
of the Holy Spirit be with you this day and forever. | 28:13 | |
(tranquil music) | 28:24 | |
(clapping) | 32:19 |
Item Info
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