Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft music) | 0:04 | |
(singing in foreign language) | 0:13 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:13 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:19 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:25 | |
(slow piano music) | 1:35 | |
(choir singing softly) | 2:09 | |
Minister | Let us join in confessing our sins to the Lord. | 4:47 |
First through words of corporate confession, | 4:51 | |
and then through thoughts of personal confession | 4:55 | |
lifted up in silent prayer. | 4:57 | |
Ever blessed God, you come to us in humility, | 5:03 | |
offering us life and hope. | 5:08 | |
We confess that too often, we live our lives | 5:11 | |
as if Jesus had not been born | 5:15 | |
and that we worshiped personal gods and public idols. | 5:19 | |
Forgive us and help us to forgive others and ourselves. | 5:23 | |
This, we pray in the loving and forgiving spirit of Christ. | 5:29 | |
Amen. | 5:52 | |
Hear now these words of personal assurance. | 5:53 | |
The God of our faith, | 5:57 | |
who is always more ready to hear than we to pray, | 5:58 | |
and who gives us more than we either desire or deserve | 6:02 | |
pours down on us an abundance of mercy, | 6:07 | |
pardoning and delivering us from our sins, | 6:11 | |
confirming and strengthening us in all goodness, | 6:14 | |
and bringing to us the promise of life everlasting. | 6:18 | |
Blessing and honor. | 6:22 | |
Glory and power be unto the Lord. | 6:24 | |
Amen. | 6:27 | |
(slow piano music) | 6:31 | |
♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪ | 7:01 | |
♪ They made you to be born in a manger ♪ | 7:10 | |
♪ Sweet little Holy child ♪ | 7:19 | |
♪ Didn't know who you was ♪ | 7:26 | |
♪ Didn't know you'd come to save us Lord ♪ | 7:33 | |
♪ To take us in the way ♪ | 7:38 | |
♪ I once was blind ♪ | 7:44 | |
♪ We can now see ♪ | 7:50 | |
♪ We didn't know who you was ♪ | 7:57 | |
♪ Long time ago, you was born ♪ | 8:06 | |
♪ Born in a manger oh ♪ | 8:18 | |
♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪ | 8:24 | |
♪ While treating me ♪ | 8:32 | |
♪ Treating me true ♪ | 8:38 | |
(singing in foreign language) | 8:44 | |
♪ We don't know who you is ♪ | 8:53 | |
♪ You don told us all ♪ | 9:01 | |
♪ We is are trying ♪ | 9:08 | |
♪ Master you don showed us how ♪ | 9:14 | |
♪ Even when you was dying ♪ | 9:21 | |
♪ Just seems like we can't do right ♪ | 9:29 | |
♪ Look how we treated you ♪ | 9:35 | |
♪ But please sir, forgive us Lord ♪ | 9:39 | |
♪ We didn't know it was you ♪ | 9:52 | |
♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪ | 10:01 | |
♪ Born long time ago ♪ | 10:10 | |
♪ Sweet little holy child ♪ | 10:17 | |
♪ And we didn't know who you was ♪ | 10:29 | |
Minister | The old Testament lesson this morning | 11:07 |
comes from the 29th chapter of Isaiah, | 11:10 | |
verses eight through 10. | 11:14 | |
"As when a hungry man dreams he is eating | 11:19 | |
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, | 11:22 | |
or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking | 11:25 | |
and awakes faint with his thirst not quenched, | 11:29 | |
so shall the multitude of all the nations be | 11:33 | |
that fight against Mount Zion. | 11:37 | |
Stupefied yourselves and be in a stupor. | 11:41 | |
Blind yourselves and be blind. | 11:44 | |
Be drunk, but not with wine. | 11:47 | |
Stagger, but not with strong drink. | 11:50 | |
For the Lord has poured out upon you | 11:55 | |
a spirit of deep sleep | 11:58 | |
and has closed your eyes, the prophets, | 12:01 | |
and covered your heads, the seers." | 12:05 | |
Will you rise now for the reading of the gospel. | 12:12 | |
From the 14th chapter of Mark verses 32 through 42. | 12:22 | |
"And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane | 12:29 | |
and he said to his disciples, 'sit here while I pray' | 12:33 | |
and he took with him, Peter and James and John, | 12:38 | |
and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. | 12:42 | |
And he said to them, | 12:46 | |
'my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. | 12:48 | |
Remain here and watch.' | 12:53 | |
And going a little further, He fell on the ground | 12:56 | |
and prayed that if it were possible, | 12:59 | |
the hour might pass from him. | 13:01 | |
And he said, 'Abba Father, | 13:04 | |
all things are possible to thee. | 13:07 | |
Remove this cup from me. | 13:10 | |
Yet not what I will, but what thou willed.' | 13:12 | |
And he came and found them sleeping. | 13:18 | |
And he said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? | 13:20 | |
Could you not watch one hour? | 13:25 | |
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. | 13:28 | |
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' | 13:32 | |
And again, he went away and prayed | 13:38 | |
saying the same words. | 13:41 | |
And again, he came and found them sleeping | 13:43 | |
for their eyes were very heavy | 13:46 | |
and they did not know what to answer him. | 13:49 | |
And he came the third time and said to them, | 13:53 | |
'are you still sleeping and taking your rest? | 13:58 | |
It is enough. The hour has come. | 14:01 | |
The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. | 14:04 | |
Rise let us be going. | 14:09 | |
See, my betrayer is at hand.'" | 14:12 | |
Here ends the reading of the morning lesson. | 14:16 | |
(slow piano music) | 14:18 | |
(choir singing softly) | 14:30 | |
Minister | Let us proclaim our faith | 15:02 |
by reading and unison. | 15:05 | |
We are not alone. We live in God's word. | 15:08 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 15:13 | |
Who has come and the truly human Jesus | 15:19 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 15:21 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 15:24 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church. | 15:28 | |
To celebrate life and its fullness. | 15:33 | |
To love and serve others. | 15:36 | |
To seek justice and resist evil. | 15:39 | |
To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. | 15:42 | |
Our judge and our hope. | 15:46 | |
In life and death, in life beyond death. | 15:49 | |
God is with us. | 15:54 | |
We are not alone. | 15:56 | |
Thanks be to God. | 15:58 | |
Please be seated. | 16:01 | |
Our preacher this morning | 16:12 | |
has for the last year and a half, | 16:14 | |
done a number of minor miracles | 16:16 | |
in this university community. | 16:18 | |
She's had major responsibility | 16:20 | |
for working in the area of religion in the arts | 16:22 | |
here in the chapel | 16:24 | |
and many of you have seen the results of her work | 16:26 | |
at the various events | 16:28 | |
that have occurred in this building | 16:29 | |
and elsewhere on this campus. | 16:32 | |
She's a close personal friend | 16:34 | |
and I know you join in with me | 16:35 | |
in welcoming Heather Marie Elkins to the pulpit, | 16:37 | |
this morning. | 16:40 | |
The Lord be with you, | 16:44 | |
Let us pray. | 16:48 | |
Dear Lord our God. | 16:52 | |
We stand this morning at the close of another year. | 16:54 | |
The turning of the calendar pages is we realize, | 16:58 | |
but a sign of the fact that change is all around us. | 17:02 | |
Help us we pray, | 17:07 | |
to accept the challenge of change | 17:09 | |
and not to be fearful of it. | 17:11 | |
It's so easy to be afraid, oh Lord. | 17:14 | |
Things happen so fast today. | 17:17 | |
The future seems so uncertain. | 17:19 | |
Plans seem to go sour so easily. | 17:22 | |
Friends and family disappoint us. | 17:25 | |
Strangers threaten and take advantage of us. | 17:28 | |
It seems as though there is no one whom we really can trust. | 17:32 | |
We need you, oh God, to show us the way | 17:38 | |
through the ever quickening pace of change | 17:41 | |
in this world around us. | 17:43 | |
Give us power. | 17:46 | |
Power to meet changing times, head on | 17:48 | |
and to accept the challenge and the hope | 17:52 | |
which the future surely holds for all who follow you. | 17:54 | |
Give us the power to understand | 17:59 | |
what it can mean for this campus | 18:02 | |
to be a great center of learning, | 18:04 | |
where the pursuit of knowledge may serve to enrich life. | 18:06 | |
Help those of us who work and study here | 18:11 | |
to rise above a narrow view of education, | 18:14 | |
as nothing more than an endless series of unrelated courses, | 18:17 | |
exams and research projects, | 18:21 | |
and to see instead, oh Lord, | 18:25 | |
the vision of a more just and humane world | 18:27 | |
made possible through the use of the many | 18:31 | |
and varied talents that you have given to us. | 18:33 | |
Oh Lord, when we dare to hope | 18:38 | |
that change can make things better. | 18:40 | |
We dream of your children living in communities | 18:43 | |
of justice and peace throughout the world. | 18:46 | |
Give us the power We pray, | 18:50 | |
to work for such a community here in Durham, | 18:53 | |
so that all persons, | 18:56 | |
regardless of race or sex or station in life | 18:58 | |
may find decent work at decent pay. | 19:02 | |
Safe housing and creative schools for their children. | 19:05 | |
Give us the power also | 19:10 | |
to work for a community of justice and peace | 19:12 | |
among all nations. | 19:14 | |
Restrain our own arrogance and pride. | 19:17 | |
Assist our national leaders to place the good of all | 19:20 | |
above the desires of a few | 19:24 | |
and give to all nations, | 19:27 | |
the strength to exchange the narrowness of nationalism | 19:29 | |
for the openness of genuine cooperation | 19:33 | |
and mutual self-help. | 19:37 | |
We pray this morning especially | 19:40 | |
for your children, living in lands ravished by war | 19:42 | |
or natural disaster. | 19:46 | |
For the miners and their families in India. | 19:48 | |
For the people of Angola, of Lebanon, | 19:52 | |
of Northern Ireland, | 19:56 | |
and of all those places where brother is set against brother | 19:58 | |
and sister is set against sister. | 20:01 | |
May we see anew, the possibility of peace | 20:05 | |
and wellbeing for all of these your children. | 20:09 | |
Help us most, especially, oh Lord, | 20:14 | |
to have the power to overcome the temptations | 20:17 | |
of self-centeredness that are all around us. | 20:20 | |
In this time of continued economic uncertainty. | 20:23 | |
Give us the power we pray, to resist blaming others | 20:27 | |
for the difficulties to which we have contributed | 20:30 | |
so massively, | 20:33 | |
through our casual unthinking and wasteful use | 20:35 | |
of this earth resources. | 20:39 | |
Help us to reject easy solutions | 20:41 | |
purchased at the price of increased suffering, | 20:45 | |
for the poor and the powerless. | 20:48 | |
And finally, oh God, | 20:52 | |
we pray, not only that you give us the power | 20:54 | |
to see more clearly, | 20:58 | |
what we are called to do, | 21:00 | |
but that you also grant to us | 21:02 | |
the resolve and firmness of purpose | 21:06 | |
to plunge into the future | 21:09 | |
working hand in hand with others, | 21:11 | |
to make our hopes for positive change, become realities. | 21:14 | |
In this university, | 21:20 | |
in this community. | 21:22 | |
and in this world. | 21:24 | |
We ask for your assistance | 21:26 | |
in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, | 21:29 | |
who taught us to pray together saying | 21:32 | |
"our father, who art in heaven, | 21:36 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 21:40 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 21:42 | |
thy will be done on earth, | 21:44 | |
as it is in heaven. | 21:46 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 21:48 | |
and forgive us our trespasses. | 21:51 | |
As we forgive those who trespass against us, | 21:54 | |
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil | 21:58 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 22:02 | |
and the power and the glory forever and ever. | 22:04 | |
Amen. | 22:09 | |
Heather | Good morning. | 22:27 |
If some of you have looked through that bulletin, | 22:29 | |
searching for a personal history | 22:32 | |
on the preacher this morning, it's not there. | 22:34 | |
Part of the reason is, part of my personal history includes | 22:37 | |
missing deadlines. | 22:40 | |
I managed to get you the sermon topic, but not who I am, | 22:42 | |
but I'd like to share some of who I am this morning. | 22:46 | |
It's sitting down in the first couple of rows. | 22:49 | |
Part of it is my husband, | 22:52 | |
who's a student here in the philosophy department. | 22:54 | |
Part of it is my mother, | 22:58 | |
who is still the best teacher I've ever had. | 22:59 | |
Another person in addition to philosophers | 23:03 | |
who believe there's some point in talking | 23:06 | |
and that's teachers | 23:09 | |
and the third that is with me this morning | 23:10 | |
is my grandmother. | 23:12 | |
Who's 93 and still can outwork me on the farm. | 23:14 | |
And I believe, I think, it is because of her | 23:21 | |
being still and knowing God | 23:24 | |
that has led to many of our family | 23:28 | |
into either teaching or preaching or some spoken vocation. | 23:31 | |
The other story I would like to share with you, | 23:38 | |
a part of my history this morning | 23:40 | |
has to do with why I'm here in the chapel | 23:42 | |
and it has to do with that eight foot tomato plant | 23:45 | |
that was barren and had the name Sarah. | 23:50 | |
Bill and I arrived last year and we're moving in | 23:54 | |
and as we were moving in, I noticed the porch opposite us, | 23:58 | |
there was this huge plant. | 24:02 | |
It just amazingly big plant. | 24:04 | |
And the wind was blowing, | 24:06 | |
that plant was in danger of toppling. | 24:07 | |
While we kept carrying things in. | 24:09 | |
I kept my eye on the plant and soon enough | 24:10 | |
boom, over it went. | 24:13 | |
So I went over and picked up the plant | 24:15 | |
at that point, a woman came out of the house | 24:17 | |
and we talked about it. | 24:19 | |
She told me it was a tomato plant and what his name was | 24:21 | |
and we talked some more. | 24:23 | |
And I think I probably got carried away with my new position | 24:25 | |
in terms of being a divinity school student | 24:31 | |
and being part of the Ecclesiastical branch | 24:33 | |
of the Duke's family tree. | 24:36 | |
So I was kind of rambling on | 24:38 | |
and finally I pulled myself up short and said, | 24:40 | |
"oh, I beg your pardon, you know, what's your name?" | 24:43 | |
And she told me your name and nothing registered. | 24:45 | |
And so I went on rambling about | 24:48 | |
all the things I hoped to be able to do | 24:50 | |
and how beautiful the Chapel was, and on and on. | 24:51 | |
And so then finally I said, "what do you do?" | 24:54 | |
I thought, you know, this would be a nice neighbor | 24:57 | |
to be able to come home in evening | 24:59 | |
and tell her what I did at school this day, | 25:01 | |
and she sort of smiled and said, | 25:04 | |
"well um, as a matter of fact, | 25:07 | |
I'm the associate minister of the chapel." | 25:09 | |
I felt very sort of crunched and delighted at the same time. | 25:13 | |
So in some ways that story, | 25:19 | |
an eight foot barren tomato plant | 25:21 | |
accounts for my being here this morning, | 25:24 | |
but what accounts for your presence. | 25:28 | |
I've sat in those pews for over a year now, | 25:32 | |
watched you and wondered, watched myself and wondered. | 25:36 | |
Do we gather from habit for novelty? | 25:42 | |
What did you come to see this morning? | 25:47 | |
To hear? | 25:50 | |
Certainly not an untried preacher on and off Sunday. | 25:52 | |
What then? | 25:55 | |
What accounts for us being together, | 25:58 | |
caught between Christmas and new years, | 26:00 | |
perhaps all the presents have been opened | 26:04 | |
and we still don't have what we need. | 26:08 | |
Perhaps we think we will find it here, | 26:11 | |
here in this chapel, this sanctuary, | 26:13 | |
sometimes the colored lights on those dying trees | 26:18 | |
only increase the shadows | 26:21 | |
and the rattle of empty boxes only deepens our silent. | 26:24 | |
Did you get what you needed this Christmas? | 26:29 | |
Was God born in anybody stable? | 26:34 | |
No? Don't worry. | 26:37 | |
There's always the New Years. | 26:41 | |
Wind up the energy and expectations again. | 26:43 | |
If a sacred holiday won't do, a secular one might. | 26:46 | |
If we could manage to kill the old year in us, | 26:51 | |
perhaps the new will be inevitable. | 26:54 | |
We will celebrate our histories, our friends, our foes, | 26:58 | |
the inevitability of time, | 27:02 | |
but first we confess and then we celebrate. | 27:05 | |
I write resolutions yearly | 27:10 | |
in a delicate balance of remorse and pride. | 27:13 | |
I outline the future and wait to blow my horn. | 27:17 | |
This year, this year, | 27:22 | |
I will blow it loud enough to make something new, | 27:25 | |
something new in myself, in the world, in my relationships, | 27:30 | |
something new, we need something new. | 27:37 | |
But the subtle irony of this season is that nothing dies. | 27:42 | |
Nothing is reborn. | 27:48 | |
We are the same. The world is the same. | 27:51 | |
Even the birth of God's word seems like | 27:55 | |
an old trick that has failed once too often. | 27:58 | |
Caught between Christmas and New years, | 28:03 | |
we experienced neither death nor resurrection. | 28:06 | |
We only celebrate a world that's growing older. | 28:11 | |
The witness of Christ seems irrelevant. | 28:15 | |
Life out of death. | 28:18 | |
Irrelevant because we are only growing older. | 28:21 | |
There is a dryness in our days, hunger in our eyes, | 28:27 | |
but this is not unusual. | 28:32 | |
This kind of sickness has been seen and named | 28:35 | |
long before our present. | 28:38 | |
As when a hungry man dreams, he is eating | 28:42 | |
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied | 28:46 | |
or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking | 28:50 | |
and awakes faint with his thirst not quenched. | 28:53 | |
A sickness, a sleeping sickness, | 28:57 | |
as Isaiah describes a deep sleep has poured over your eyes | 29:02 | |
like dogs, sleeping by a fire. | 29:09 | |
We twitch and jerk, eyes closed. | 29:12 | |
Deep in the dreams of rabbits. | 29:15 | |
Well maybe not rabbits, illusions of ourselves. | 29:17 | |
The Phantoms, the everythings we could be. | 29:24 | |
The everythings we're not. | 29:28 | |
We chase these Phantoms endlessly | 29:31 | |
trying to bring them to earth | 29:34 | |
and it's not a question of survival. | 29:37 | |
We can't feed ourselves with images, empty of acts. | 29:40 | |
No. we Mount them. | 29:45 | |
They hang on every moment of our life | 29:48 | |
trophies of Phantom selves. | 29:51 | |
And we invite the neighbors in to show them off, | 29:55 | |
but we do hope they won't notice we're starving. | 29:58 | |
Not what we are, but what we see. | 30:02 | |
Not what we are. | 30:06 | |
The dream matters more than the life | 30:09 | |
and so we sleep and dream that we are living. | 30:12 | |
Sometimes it seems to me, our life is one long sleep. | 30:18 | |
We bought are born drugged. | 30:22 | |
Even children being born have been sedated | 30:24 | |
so they cannot help assist with their own birth struggles | 30:27 | |
and we die sometimes morphine out of our own death, | 30:32 | |
oblivious to what is happening | 30:37 | |
and the real terror lies in the in-between | 30:41 | |
for the middle of our life is tranquilized as well. | 30:43 | |
Some of you may have seen the figures | 30:46 | |
recently turned in for North Carolina. | 30:49 | |
20% of the women in North Carolina | 30:53 | |
are on some sort of prescription. | 30:56 | |
Pre-scripted drugs to help them sleep, to help them relax, | 31:00 | |
to help them change their mood. | 31:05 | |
Frightening statistics. | 31:08 | |
We dream and dream that we are living | 31:12 | |
and we've gotten good at our dreaming. | 31:17 | |
With our eyes open, no one suspects. | 31:19 | |
Even our snores sound articulate. | 31:23 | |
We talk to one another in a sleep out of our private dreams. | 31:27 | |
Is it any wonder? | 31:33 | |
There is the real sense no one hears. | 31:35 | |
No one is there. No one understand. | 31:38 | |
We pay to be heard. | 31:42 | |
We by psychiatrists who will enter our dreams | 31:44 | |
and it makes sense out of them for us | 31:49 | |
but if anything happens to disturb our sleep, | 31:53 | |
we turn off the alarm rollover and drop off again | 31:57 | |
and we're very heavy sleepers. | 32:03 | |
Earthquakes, famine, war go unnoticed. | 32:05 | |
We can even sleep through our own deaths undisturbed | 32:10 | |
and not only our own, but others. | 32:15 | |
Are you asleep? | 32:20 | |
Could you not watch one hour? | 32:22 | |
To watch one hour is a difficult thing. | 32:27 | |
If I string all the seconds and minutes, | 32:31 | |
I have been awake to my neighbors need in my life, | 32:35 | |
I might be able to fill that requirement, one hour. | 32:39 | |
To be awake to that kind of need will cost something. | 32:45 | |
That awareness doesn't come easy. | 32:50 | |
I can be informed about my neighbor, | 32:54 | |
but that doesn't mean I care. | 32:56 | |
I may understand you, but that doesn't mean I love you. | 32:59 | |
I am only aware, not awake to your suffering, | 33:05 | |
your joy, your life. | 33:09 | |
I will sleep through your death and mine | 33:12 | |
because I am sleeping | 33:15 | |
and I will sleep through your life and mine | 33:19 | |
because I am dreaming | 33:22 | |
and surely a nightmare even one of a crucifixion | 33:24 | |
will pass, just a bad dream. | 33:28 | |
No one is hung for having tried to love. | 33:32 | |
It's just a bad dream. | 33:37 | |
It will pass. | 33:39 | |
Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? | 33:42 | |
It is all over. The hour has come get up. | 33:47 | |
My betrayer is at hand. | 33:53 | |
Just a bad dream. | 33:56 | |
Sometimes it seems as if we are caught in the middle of one | 34:00 | |
and it's lasting all our life. | 34:05 | |
We look for the exit and there isn't one. | 34:08 | |
We seem trapped in a madness of sleep, | 34:11 | |
drifting toward a death, filled with horrifying dreams, | 34:15 | |
to die, to sleep, to sleep per chance to dream. | 34:20 | |
Ah, there's the rub for in that sleep of death, | 34:27 | |
what dreams may come | 34:32 | |
when we have shuffled off our mortal coil | 34:34 | |
must give us pause. | 34:38 | |
Give us pause, a fearful pause, a thoughtful pause. | 34:42 | |
What can one do? | 34:50 | |
Like the disciples, we cannot remain awake on our own. | 34:52 | |
We nod and yawn and slumber through our best resolutions. | 34:57 | |
Like the not so beautiful dreamers. | 35:03 | |
We wait for the prince to stir us with a kiss | 35:06 | |
into life and love | 35:11 | |
but the truth is more like Rip van Winkle sleep. | 35:14 | |
We will wake to find all that we know and love has gone. | 35:19 | |
That is, if we wake at all. | 35:24 | |
What can we do? | 35:29 | |
How can we manage such a simple thing, | 35:31 | |
like opening our eyes? | 35:35 | |
Get an alarm clock, use it? | 35:39 | |
Perhaps. | 35:42 | |
I saw a bulletin board in the kindergarten | 35:44 | |
at Watt Street Baptist church. | 35:47 | |
The children had their names on the board | 35:50 | |
and beside the names | 35:53 | |
was the gift they wanted most for Christmas. | 35:54 | |
I expected the Barbie dolls and the motorcycles, | 35:58 | |
but what really blew me out was somebody | 36:03 | |
and it was somebody not over four years old | 36:05 | |
had asked for an alarm clock | 36:08 | |
and there it was on the board, alarm clock. | 36:10 | |
I went to the window | 36:13 | |
and the children were playing out on the playground | 36:15 | |
and I studied each of them and wondered, | 36:17 | |
you know which one it had been, because somebody out there | 36:19 | |
didn't want to sleep through anything. | 36:23 | |
An alarm clock. | 36:27 | |
What I'm talking about sounds somewhat mundane. | 36:31 | |
I'm talking about scripture and a regular reading of it. | 36:35 | |
God's word can shake us awake, | 36:41 | |
if we allow it to encounter us. | 36:43 | |
Judgment and mercy are wrapped inside those words | 36:46 | |
and they will wound or heal us into life. | 36:51 | |
Into a life, not dreamt but lived. | 36:55 | |
For in scripture, we encounter the truly awake human, | 37:00 | |
Jesus. | 37:06 | |
We are confronted by the shape of a life, | 37:08 | |
which was aware and loving. | 37:10 | |
He knew us. | 37:14 | |
He loved us. | 37:16 | |
And the memory of that can be set ticking in our heads, | 37:18 | |
ready to go off inside our lives, whenever we oversleep. | 37:22 | |
What else can keep us from slipping back | 37:28 | |
into our self-made dreams. | 37:32 | |
Scripture can break into the silences of isolation. | 37:35 | |
We can also struggle to keep each other awake. | 37:40 | |
This is important. | 37:45 | |
So if you see anyone out there sleeping right now, | 37:46 | |
nudge them will you. | 37:49 | |
It's part of your Christian responsibility. | 37:51 | |
It's also part of the promise we've made to each other. | 37:55 | |
We live in a household of faith. | 38:00 | |
We have all been given the same instructions. | 38:03 | |
Watch therefore, for you do not know | 38:08 | |
when the master of the house will come. | 38:11 | |
In the evening or at midnight or at cock crow | 38:15 | |
or in the morning, | 38:18 | |
lest he comes suddenly and find you asleep | 38:20 | |
and what I say to you, I say to all, watch. | 38:25 | |
As Christians, we wait and watch together | 38:33 | |
in love and expectation. | 38:36 | |
Not only for the promised kingdom, but for each other | 38:39 | |
unto the least of them is now our family name | 38:45 | |
and we must watch out, reach out to one another. | 38:50 | |
To be your sister, I must be awake | 38:58 | |
to the meaning of our life together. | 39:01 | |
Sometimes a gentle reminder will open my eyes. | 39:04 | |
Sometimes you must strike me. | 39:09 | |
It is better for me to lose sleep than to lose my life. | 39:13 | |
If we have been faithful to the scriptures, | 39:22 | |
if we have been faithful to each other, | 39:26 | |
we can rely on another presence as well. | 39:30 | |
In our Gethsemane, | 39:35 | |
the spirit will struggle with us. | 39:37 | |
Touching us again and again, to wake us. | 39:40 | |
Perhaps the cup will pass. | 39:46 | |
Perhaps a crucifixion is in order, | 39:48 | |
but through both, we will be awake to the will of God. | 39:52 | |
I'd like to share a concrete example of Gethsemane. | 40:00 | |
A Gethsemane awakening, | 40:06 | |
a process where waking up and dying | 40:08 | |
seemed to be tangled up in each other. | 40:12 | |
It is from Hamish Schultz book, "Markings," | 40:16 | |
and I believe it is too familiar | 40:20 | |
to allow us to pretend we haven't been in this place before. | 40:22 | |
He was impossible. | 40:31 | |
It wasn't that he didn't attend to his work. | 40:33 | |
On the contrary, | 40:37 | |
he took endless pains over the tasks he was given, | 40:38 | |
but this manner of behavior | 40:43 | |
brought him into conflict with everybody | 40:46 | |
and in the end began to have an adverse effect | 40:49 | |
on everything he had to do with. | 40:54 | |
When the crisis came and the whole truth had to come out, | 40:57 | |
he laid the blame on us. | 41:02 | |
In his conduct, there was nothing. | 41:05 | |
Absolutely nothing to reproach. | 41:08 | |
His self-esteem was so strongly bound up, | 41:11 | |
apparently in the idea of his innocence, | 41:15 | |
that one felt a brute as one demonstrated step by step, | 41:18 | |
the contradictions in his defense and bit by bit | 41:23 | |
stripped him naked in his own eyes, | 41:27 | |
but justice to others demanded it. | 41:31 | |
When the last rag of a lie had been taken from him | 41:35 | |
and we felt there was nothing more to say, | 41:40 | |
out it came with stifled sobs, | 41:44 | |
but why did you never help me? | 41:48 | |
Well, I didn't do tell me what to do? | 41:51 | |
You knew, I always felt you were against me | 41:54 | |
and fear and insecurity drove me further and further | 41:57 | |
along the course, you now condemn me for taking. | 42:02 | |
it's been so hard. | 42:07 | |
Everything. | 42:09 | |
One day, I remember I was so happy. | 42:12 | |
One of you said something that I had done was good. | 42:16 | |
So in the end we were to blame. | 42:23 | |
We had not voiced our criticisms, | 42:28 | |
but we had allowed them to bar us | 42:32 | |
from giving him a single word of encouragement | 42:34 | |
or even acknowledgement | 42:38 | |
and in this way had barred the way to any improvement. | 42:40 | |
A Gethsemane example. | 42:48 | |
So you know, what I'm talking of is a psychological sleep, | 42:51 | |
that is very real. | 42:58 | |
A person wakes and begins dying. | 43:01 | |
The false idols and support systems begin to crumble. | 43:05 | |
We invest so much of our lives in dreams. | 43:11 | |
It seems as if we are dying, | 43:15 | |
literally dying as they collapse, our limits will emerge. | 43:18 | |
Our mortality is apparent. | 43:26 | |
The self we thought would transcend time | 43:29 | |
is caught shriveled inside it. | 43:33 | |
We cannot control the kind of dying | 43:37 | |
that comes from the collapse of our limited self | 43:40 | |
and we do not believe our life truly emerges from our death. | 43:45 | |
So we avoid the entire process. | 43:53 | |
We do not wait to awake, | 43:56 | |
to die, | 44:02 | |
to be born. | 44:04 | |
That is the center of Christ's life, | 44:06 | |
a mystery because it remains outside our control | 44:10 | |
and the means of awakening, | 44:16 | |
the scripture, the household of faith, the spirit, | 44:19 | |
they are outside our control as well. | 44:24 | |
They are not tranquilizers. | 44:28 | |
We do not take them. | 44:30 | |
They take us. | 44:33 | |
We do not control their entry into our lives. | 44:36 | |
We do not swallow them, they penetrate us. | 44:39 | |
If you awake in the love of Christ, | 44:45 | |
you will die to the old self | 44:49 | |
and then you must wait for the gift of a new life. | 44:53 | |
So we arrive at the mystery again to awake, | 45:00 | |
to die, | 45:06 | |
to be born | 45:07 | |
and we can trust ourselves to the mystery | 45:09 | |
because of the love of Christ, | 45:13 | |
because that is the witness of the one whom God loved. | 45:17 | |
If some of you are caught between Christmas and New years, | 45:26 | |
not born, not dead, not awake, | 45:33 | |
I will ask for you the gift I asked when myself, | 45:39 | |
a gift of Gethsemane. | 45:45 | |
May you receive what you truly need this Christmas. | 45:48 | |
May it began to unwrap itself | 45:54 | |
in your lap, | 45:57 | |
in your hands, | 45:58 | |
in your life. | 46:00 | |
If some of you have received such a gift this Christmas | 46:04 | |
and you're stretched across a splintering love, | 46:10 | |
or you wait with eyes wrenched open in the tomb, | 46:16 | |
wait with trust, wait with love. | 46:22 | |
We serve a risen Lord. | 46:28 | |
Your Easter is coming. | 46:32 | |
Lord. | 46:46 | |
We are weak. | 46:48 | |
Not able to bear yet, | 46:50 | |
the love that will not let us go. | 46:54 | |
Strengthen us, so we may receive your grace. | 46:58 | |
Carve out of our lives, a resting place for your spirit. | 47:04 | |
We are not yet ready for a crucifying love | 47:11 | |
that will bring our resurrection, but allow us, oh Lord, | 47:16 | |
to live in hope of such a love. | 47:24 | |
Amen. | 47:30 | |
(slow piano music) | 47:33 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 47:47 | |
(soft piano music) | 51:13 | |
♪ Light has done best ♪ | 52:28 | |
♪ On the songs of our morning ♪ | 52:34 | |
♪ Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine hand ♪ | 52:42 | |
♪ Star of the east ♪ | 52:53 | |
♪ The horizon adorning ♪ | 52:58 | |
♪ Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid ♪ | 53:05 | |
♪ Call on his cradle ♪ | 53:27 | |
♪ Our dew drops are shining ♪ | 53:32 | |
♪ Lord, rise his head ♪ | 53:38 | |
♪ With a piece of thy star ♪ | 53:43 | |
♪ Angels are around him ♪ | 53:51 | |
♪ In son berry clinging ♪ | 53:57 | |
♪ Maker and monarch and savior of all ♪ | 54:04 | |
♪ Light has done best ♪ | 54:27 | |
♪ On the songs of our morning ♪ | 54:32 | |
♪ Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine hand ♪ | 54:39 | |
♪ Star of the east ♪ | 54:51 | |
♪ The horizon adorning ♪ | 54:57 | |
♪ Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid ♪ | 55:06 | |
(slow piano music) | 55:26 | |
(piano music intensifying) | 55:41 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 56:46 | |
Minister | Oh Lord. | 57:46 |
This morning we give back to you only a portion | 57:48 | |
of that which is already yours | 57:53 | |
and in this giving, | 57:55 | |
we dedicate ourselves a new to be your servants | 57:57 | |
as part of the church universal. | 58:01 | |
Working to show forth Christ presence | 58:03 | |
until our Lord shall come again. | 58:07 | |
Amen. | 58:10 | |
(slow piano music) | 58:12 | |
(choir sings faintly) | 58:42 | |
Go now, awake and with your eyes open to the future. | 1:01:17 | |
Go in peace. Preach good news to the poor. | 1:01:23 | |
Proclaim release to the captives. | 1:01:29 | |
bring sight to the blind | 1:01:32 | |
and set at liberty all those who are oppressed | 1:01:34 | |
so that this may be a time | 1:01:38 | |
that is truly acceptable to the Lord. | 1:01:40 | |
Go now in the name of Christ, our Lord and savior. | 1:01:44 | |
Amen. | 1:01:50 | |
(Upbeat piano music) | 1:01:51 |
Item Info
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