Carl King - Sermon Untitled (August 6, 2000)

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-	The second reading is from the Gospel according	0:05
	to St. John the sixth chapter.	0:08
	So when the crowd of 5,000 saw that neither Jesus	0:13
	nor His disciples were among them,	0:16
	they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum	0:19
	looking for Jesus.	0:23
	When they found Him on the other side of the sea,	0:26
	they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?"	0:29
	Jesus answered them, "Very truly I tell you,	0:34
	"you are looking for me not because you saw signs,	0:39
	"but because you ate your fill of the loaves.	0:43
	"Do not work for the food that perishes,	0:47
	"but for the food that endures for eternal life,	0:50
	"which the Son of Man will give you,	0:54
	"for it is on Him that God has set a seal."	0:57
	Then they said to Him, "What must we do to perform	1:02
	"the works of God?"	1:06
	Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God	1:09
	"that you believe in Him who has sent Him."	1:13
	So they said to Him, "What signs are you going	1:16
	"to give us then so that we may see and believe you?	1:20
	"What work are you performing?	1:24
	"Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness,	1:26
	"for as it is written,	1:30
	"He gave them the bread of heaven to eat."	1:31
	Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you,	1:36
	"it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven,	1:40
	"but it is my Father who gives you	1:44
	"the true bread from heaven,	1:46
	"for the bread of God is that which comes down	1:48
	"from heaven and gives life to the world."	1:51
	They said to Him "Sir, give us this bread always."	1:56
	Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of life.	2:03
	"Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,	2:07
	"and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."	2:12
	This is the Word of the Lord.	2:18
-	Thanks be to God.	2:20
	(faint voice talking)	2:25
-	And on behalf of your brothers and sisters	2:36
	at Methodist College,	2:38
	a sister institution of higher learning,	2:40
	associated with the Methodist Church,	2:44
	I'm grateful to Dr. Willimon for this invitation	2:48
	to preach in this pulpit.	2:51
	This is a university and a chapel that is dear and near	2:54
	to my heart and the heart of my family.	2:59
	It is good to be here.	3:03
	As an adult in this chapel,	3:06
	I have worshiped many Christmases, several Easters.	3:08
	And as a youth I must confess that in Cameron Indoor Stadium	3:13
	I've come close to idolatry.	3:17
	(congregation laughs)	3:19
	My sermon is what do you seek.	3:23
	Before I preach, can we pray together?	3:28
	God of truth and virtue, You have created us	3:34
	and revealed Yourself through Your Son Jesus.	3:38
	He has walked among us and spoken to us	3:43
	and He is in our midst speaking even now,	3:48
	yet we forsake His will.	3:53
	We pursue our own.	3:56
	On this side of the veil we avert our eyes.	4:00
	We close our ears.	4:04
	We do not mean to.	4:06
	Seeking sustenance, we look past the one	4:10
	who can sustain us forever.	4:14
	Open our eyes that we may see.	4:18
	Open our ears that we may hear.	4:21
	Open our hearts that we may receive from You	4:25
	words of grace to satisfy our hunger.	4:29
	This we pray in the name of Your Son	4:35
	and in the power of Your Spirit, Amen.	4:38
	I watched the Republican Convention last week.	4:45
	Perhaps you did too.	4:49
	Next week I will watch the Democratic Convention.	4:52
	Political conventions interest me.	4:56
	Of course, there is a lot that bores me,	5:00
	but on the whole, conventions interest me.	5:04
	All the pomp and ceremony, all the posturing	5:08
	and the promising, all the people gathered	5:12
	to hammer out one political platform,	5:16
	one common purpose.	5:20
	That is what interests me most.	5:24
	To see these groups try to determine a common purpose.	5:28
	How difficult?	5:34
	Difficult because no single party ever reaches	5:37
	complete agreement.	5:40
	Difficult because you can't please everybody.	5:43
	Difficult.	5:47
	It is no less difficult for the church.	5:50
	Throughout history, Christians have had tumultuous debates.	5:54
	In ancient times, we argued over Jesus' humanity.	5:59
	In our time, we debate the role of women in ministry.	6:06
	In times both ancient and modern,	6:11
	Christians have argued over sexuality	6:14
	and its role in the Christian life.	6:17
	Disagreeing on such issues is difficult.	6:21
	It's difficult to live with purpose,	6:26
	to live in community as the church of Jesus Christ.	6:29
	That is why each week, we remind ourselves	6:36
	of whose we are.	6:40
	We believe in God, the Father Almighty,	6:42
	maker of heaven and earth.	6:45
	Each Sunday we recite The Creed.	6:49
	Our statement of faith, our platform of belief.	6:51
	As Protestants, we have another reminder of who we are.	6:57
	The Westminster Catechism.	7:03
	This Catechesis, this teaching begins with a question,	7:05
	what is the chief end of humanity?	7:12
	One might paraphrase the question,	7:17
	what is our purpose?	7:20
	What is the chief end of humanity?	7:24
	The answer comes back to love God	7:27
	and to enjoy God forever.	7:31
	It's a simple purpose, but it is complex.	7:35
	To love God and to enjoy God forever.	7:40
	Okay.	7:45
	And how?	7:47
	On my college campus, three times a day,	7:51
	students pour out of various buildings,	7:54
	and they stream in long lines toward the cafeteria,	7:57
	like ants traveling toward dropped food.	8:01
	They seemed quite hungry as they approach.	8:04
	But once they arrive, and they face four different stations	8:08
	serving four different meals,	8:13
	some of them become immobile.	8:16
	These are the youth who stood in your home	8:21
	and held open the refrigerator door.	8:23
	(congregation laughs)	8:26
	They know they're hungry,	8:28
	but they don't know what they want.	8:31
	We in the church know we're hungry.	8:36
	We have this longing, this yearning that asks	8:41
	what is our purpose.	8:45
	What is the chief end of humanity?	8:47
	And the answer is laid before us like a banquet,	8:51
	to love God and to enjoy God forever.	8:56
	There it is.	9:01
	That is all.	9:03
	Here, eat.	9:05
	But we don't know where to start.	9:10
	How do we love God and enjoy God?	9:15
	How exactly do we ease our spiritual hunger?	9:17
	The story of King David is the story of spiritual hunger,	9:23
	individual and collective,	9:27
	that is not correctly eased.	9:31
	David is a country boy done good.	9:37
	David is one of the youngest brothers of four.	9:41
	He tends to farm while the older boys are off to war.	9:46
	David comes from good roots.	9:51
	He knows the value of work.	9:54
	He's responsible towards his family.	9:56
	David is a good boy.	9:59
	He's a country boy.	10:01
	David, the youth, reminds me of Jack, Jack Holmes.	10:05
	Jack is a friend of mine.	10:11
	A mail carrier, whose family I lived with in the mountains	10:12
	while I served their church.	10:16
	one summer during seminary.	10:18
	With his feet up in his easy chair one night	10:22
	in his den, Jack explained to me his philosophy of life.	10:24
	"Carl, he said, "don't ever forget this.	10:30
	"God is first, my family is second,	10:35
	"and Earnhardt is third."	10:40
	(congregation laughs)	10:44
	Jack is country, or as we say in the south,	10:47
	Jack is good people.	10:51
	So was young David.	10:55
	David the youth is good people.	10:57
	David leaves the family farm.	11:02
	Young and untested, he enters battle.	11:05
	He kills Goliath.	11:08
	This is the part of the story	11:10
	that political candidates love.	11:12
	David the country boy becomes David the war hero,	11:15
	and David the war hero becomes David the king.	11:20
	David the youth, David the shepherd,	11:26
	David the war hero, David the king.	11:29
	How can one who has been filled with so much	11:33
	hunger for anything more?	11:37
	But he does.	11:42
	It happened late one afternoon when David arose	11:46
	from his couch and was walking upon the roof	11:50
	of the king's house, that he saw from the roof	11:54
	a woman bathing.	11:58
	And David sent and inquired about the woman.	12:01
	And he was told she is Bathsheba,	12:06
	the wife of Uriah.	12:09
	Yet David sent messengers and took her,	12:12
	and he lay with her.	12:17
	And the woman conceived.	12:19
	The press secretaries cannot spin it any other way.	12:23
	David the king becomes David the rapist.	12:27
	The country boy who's made good	12:34
	falls mightily from grace.	12:37
	Quickly, David begins to protect everything he has.	12:42
	He orders Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba,	12:46
	back home from the battlefield.	12:49
	He tempts Uriah with the possibility of comfort	12:52
	and ease in the arms of his wife.	12:56
	If Uriah will sleep with her,	12:59
	the child that already has been conceived	13:01
	will appear to be Uriah's.	13:05
	But Uriah has pledged solidarity to his soldiers.	13:08
	He is obedient to Jewish law.	13:13
	He takes no comfort.	13:16
	He sleeps on the couch.	13:18
	He is a better man than the country boy	13:22
	who has made good.	13:26
	King David grows frantic.	13:29
	He orders Uriah back to battle,	13:31
	and he sends him to the front lines.	13:33
	When Uriah's platoon is engaged,	13:37
	David orders Uriah's fellow soldiers back from away	13:39
	from the front lines.	13:44
	Uriah is left alone and he is killed.	13:46
	And after seven days, David takes Bathsheba again,	13:50
	this time as his wife.	13:55
	And he thinks that all that he has is his still.	13:57
	He thinks he is safe, no longer is there a hunger.	14:05
	He thinks that he is full.	14:10
	But David's individual hunger is a hunger	14:12
	that has not been correctly eased.	14:17
	This hunger that is meant only for God	14:22
	David has filled with something else.	14:26
	The king commits rape and adultery not because he has	14:30
	replaced his hunger for God with a desire for sex,	14:34
	rather in his case, the king commits these sins	14:39
	because he has replaced his hunger for God	14:45
	with a preoccupation with self.	14:49
	My friend and pastor, Carl Frazier says,	14:54
	"The verb here is significant."	14:57
	King David takes.	15:00
	From her house David takes the woman Bathsheba.	15:04
	From the front lines, David takes the soldier Uriah.	15:08
	Finally, when Uriah proves faithful and just,	15:13
	the soldier's life David takes.	15:18
	David's hunger for God has been replaced	15:23
	by a preoccupation with self.	15:27
	David no longer treats what he has as things	15:32
	given to him to hold and trust,	15:36
	instead David treats what he has as things he deserves.	15:39
	So though he is filled with so much,	15:46
	David can think he deserves even more.	15:52
	David's individual hunger for God is a hunger	15:58
	that is not correctly eased.	16:03
	But the guilt is not only David's.	16:08
	For David's sin, Israel also bears responsibility.	16:11
	Generations before, Samuel had warned the people.	16:16
	When Israel demanded a king, Samuel told them,	16:21
	"These will be the ways of the king	16:26
	"who will reign over you.	16:29
	"He will take your sons to be soldiers.	16:32
	"He will take your daughters to be cooks.	16:35
	"He will take the best of your fields,	16:39
	"of your vineyards, of your orchards.	16:43
	"He will take a tenth of your grain.	16:47
	"He will take a tenth of your flocks.	16:50
	"He will take, he will take, he will take."	16:54
	And Samuel was right.	17:00
	At some fateful point, like the kings of the other nations,	17:04
	even the king of Israel takes.	17:10
	If only the people had listened to Samuel,	17:16
	here was a prophet who had the council of God.	17:21
	When Samuel's mother praised God at her son's birth,	17:26
	she spoke these prophetic words:	17:31
	"Now the bows of the mighty are broken	17:35
	"and the feeble are become strong.	17:40
	"Those who were full	17:44
	have hired themselves out for bread,	17:46
	"but those who were hungry are hungry no more."	17:51
	The people were never in need of a king.	17:59
	God's banquet was theirs from the beginning.	18:04
	They could have been filled,	18:08
	but the people did not listen to Samuel.	18:12
	Their collective spiritual hunger has not been eased.	18:16
	So Nathan resumes the task.	18:23
	There were two men in the city, Nathan says.	18:28
	One was rich and the other was poor.	18:32
	The rich man had very many flocks and herds,	18:35
	but the poor man had nothing.	18:39
	The poor man had only one little ewe lamb,	18:43
	which he had purchased.	18:48
	And he raised it, and it grew up with him	18:50
	and with his children.	18:52
	The lamb was like one of the family.	18:54
	Now there came a traveler to the rich man,	18:59
	and the rich man was unwilling to take one of his own flock	19:02
	to prepare as a meal for his guest.	19:07
	Instead the rich man took the poor man's lamb,	19:11
	and with the poor man's lamb prepared a meal	19:16
	and entertained his guest.	19:20
	Few gestures in Israel were more important	19:25
	than those gestures of hospitality.	19:30
	When a guest entered your home,	19:34
	that guest virtually became a member of your family.	19:37
	Nathan's parable exposes David.	19:42
	He appears to be generous,	19:46
	but he is a deceiver.	19:50
	David has lied to his guest.	19:54
	David has lied to his family.	19:57
	On the face of the king,	20:01
	what looks like hospitality	20:05
	is in fact smiling hostility.	20:08
	Rather than showing hospitality to his brother Uriah	20:15
	or to his sister Bathsheba,	20:19
	David has stolen from them both.	20:21
	And the king's offense is not simply that he has lied.	20:25
	The king's greatest offense is that he took	20:30
	while appearing to give.	20:35
	One political candidate says power turns pride	20:40
	into prayer.	20:45
	The story of King David illustrates that power	20:48
	just as easily turns prayer into pride.	20:53
	Samuel had warned the people against desiring a king.	21:00
	A king will take,	21:05
	but a king is what the people desire.	21:09
	Jesus will have none of that.	21:18
	Jesus withdrew to a mountain by Himself,	21:21
	says the Gospel of John, when He perceived that the people	21:24
	were about to take Him by force to make Him king.	21:28
	Jesus will have none of that.	21:37
	He is not like that.	21:40
	He is different from what we expect in a savior.	21:42
	When I was in seminary, the elections of 1992	21:48
	were being held.	21:53
	One day in a Christian ethics class,	21:55
	a teaching assistant asked our discussion group	21:59
	to hold a mock debate.	22:03
	He assigned students to speak for candidates.	22:06
	He listed the candidate's names.	22:10
	One of the candidates for office was Jesus.	22:13
	The debate began.	22:18
	Each student presented their cases.	22:20
	They spoke for their candidates	22:23
	and then came the questions.	22:26
	When you speak of Jesus and His leadership,	22:30
	someone asked, "When you speak of Jesus,	22:33
	"do you mean Jesus the man from Nazareth,	22:37
	"or Jesus from on high come back in glory?"	22:41
	That is the Chalcedonian Test.	22:49
	We Christians argued the difference hundreds	22:52
	of years ago in Chalcedon.	22:56
	The answer came back very quickly in that room.	23:00
	The Jesus of Nazareth is the Jesus from on High.	23:05
	He will come in glory.	23:11
	We desire the lavish, the grandiose.	23:18
	Jesus provides the simple.	23:23
	And the simple is extraordinary.	23:28
	Jesus had fed 5,000 men and more women and children	23:34
	until everyone was full, yet the people wanted more.	23:40
	They wanted a king.	23:46
	But Jesus withdrew.	23:50
	How frustrating.	23:56
	God, who has always laid before the people a banquet	23:58
	of blessings, God sends into the world	24:02
	the very bread of life,	24:06
	yet from the beginning,	24:11
	the people misperceive.	24:14
	At the beginning of this Gospel,	24:19
	John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims to his disciples,	24:21
	"Behold!	24:26
	"The lamb of God!"	24:28
	The disciples pursue Jesus, and He turns and faces them.	24:31
	In their eyes, He sees their longing.	24:37
	He can tell that they do not even understand the extent	24:41
	of their hunger.	24:46
	The Bread of life looks at them and asks,	24:49
	"What do you seek?"	24:56
	These disciples do not really seek Jesus.	25:01
	These disciples will desire an army leading messiah.	25:06
	These disciples will argue over heavenly seats of honor.	25:12
	These disciples will not understand most of what	25:17
	their master will say.	25:21
	In short, these disciples will be	25:24
	like you and like me.	25:28
	Yet one fateful moment,	25:33
	they will recognize their hunger	25:37
	and their hunger's purpose.	25:42
	And at that moment, the truth shall set them free.	25:46
	Do not labor for the food which perishes,	25:56
	but for the food which endures to eternal life.	26:01
	"And what are the works of God?" the people ask.	26:06
	The answer comes back laid before us like a banquet.	26:11
	Jesus says, "This is the work of God	26:18
	"that you simply believe in me.	26:23
	"That you simply believe in me."	26:29
	(solemn organ music)	26:42

Item Info

Title:

Carl King - Sermon Untitled (August 6, 2000)

Description:

Sermon start time: 02:26. Sermon end time: 26:45.
Seeking after anything but God brings only pain and sorrow. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "The answer comes back, laid before us like a banquet: 'This is the work of God, that you simply believe in me.'"

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4416td26

Date:

August 6, 2000

Speaker:

King, Carl

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

John

Chapter and Verse:

John 6:24-35

Subject:

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 CS-1025
ref10207_cyn
uachapelsermaud
duke:320452
dcrau001669
ark:/87924/r4416td26
f8a0c12a-2167-400c-be75-fc17a404a308

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Carl King - Sermon Untitled (August 6, 2000)

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