Paul F. Perry - "Beyond the Ordinary" (February 12, 1984)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
("Allegro Cantabile" by Alain Bouvet) | 0:04 | |
(classical organ music) | 7:46 | |
(choir singing in foreign language) | 13:57 | |
(classical organ music) | 14:56 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 15:28 | |
- | Grace and peace be unto you from God our creator, | 18:52 |
and our Lord Jesus Christ. | 18:57 | |
We have been unwilling to be faithful. | 19:01 | |
We have failed to take seriously | 19:05 | |
our responsibility to persons. | 19:08 | |
We ignore the tragedy of human separation. | 19:11 | |
Hear then, oh God, our prayers for forgiveness. | 19:16 | |
Let us pray. | 19:20 | |
Oh God who has set forth the way of life for us in your son, | 19:33 | |
we confess with shame our slowness to learn | 19:39 | |
and our reluctance to follow. | 19:42 | |
You have called, but we have not heeded. | 19:45 | |
Your beauty in Jesus Christ | 19:48 | |
has showed us life's possibilities, | 19:50 | |
but we have been blind. | 19:53 | |
You have stretched out your hand to us | 19:56 | |
through other persons, but we have passed by. | 19:58 | |
We have accepted great benefits with little thanks. | 20:02 | |
We have been unworthy of your changeless love. | 20:06 | |
Have mercy upon us and forgive us, oh Lord. | 20:10 | |
Forgive us for having wasted our time | 20:14 | |
and having misused our gifts. | 20:17 | |
Forgive us for excusing our wrongdoing | 20:20 | |
and evading our responsibilities. | 20:24 | |
Forgive us for refusing to believe | 20:27 | |
that we could have overcome evil with good. | 20:29 | |
Forgive us that so little of your love | 20:33 | |
has reached others through us, amen. | 20:37 | |
May almighty God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, | 21:17 | |
shine in our hearts, cleansing us from all our sins, | 21:22 | |
and restoring us to the light of the knowledge | 21:27 | |
of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 21:30 | |
Let us give thanks, for God is good | 21:39 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 21:41 | |
Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 21:45 | |
Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 21:49 | |
Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 21:53 | |
We welcome you this seemingly spring morning | 22:00 | |
to worship here with us in Duke University Chapel. | 22:03 | |
It is a beautiful day, and we come and celebrate together | 22:08 | |
the good gifts of God's creation. | 22:12 | |
It is the sixth Sunday after Epiphany, | 22:16 | |
where we, as God's people, received the promises | 22:19 | |
that light in our lives will come, | 22:23 | |
even in the midst of darkness. | 22:27 | |
We welcome you, and are glad that you are here | 22:30 | |
with us on this special day. | 22:33 | |
This afternoon, sponsored by Arts in Duke Chapel, | 22:37 | |
we will have an organ recital at five o'clock. | 22:42 | |
Mr. Peter Marshall, our chapel organist, | 22:46 | |
is the featured organist for this afternoon's performance. | 22:50 | |
We invite you to come, the public is welcome. | 22:54 | |
Here, five o'clock, in the chapel. | 22:57 | |
Our guest preacher this morning | 23:02 | |
for worship in Duke University Chapel | 23:05 | |
is the Reverend Doctor Paul F. Parry. | 23:08 | |
He is a clergy member of the Southwest Texas Conference | 23:12 | |
of the United Methodist Church. | 23:17 | |
Throughout his ministry, he has been in the parish, | 23:20 | |
he has served as teacher and professor. | 23:24 | |
He is currently preaching regularly | 23:28 | |
in two churches in west Texas. | 23:30 | |
Dr. Parry received his training and degrees | 23:34 | |
from Southwestern University, Garrett Evangelical | 23:38 | |
Theological Seminary, and Southern Methodist University. | 23:42 | |
We are delighted that he has come | 23:47 | |
to share with us God's word on this day. | 23:49 | |
We welcome him and his wife Quinn, who has joined him | 23:53 | |
for this weekend's visit to Duke. | 23:58 | |
We look forward to the message | 24:01 | |
that he will bring for us this day. | 24:03 | |
The sermon title is Beyond the Ordinary. | 24:06 | |
- | Let us pray. | 24:20 |
Oh Lord our God, by the entrance of your word | 24:23 | |
gives light into the soul, | 24:26 | |
pour down upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding. | 24:29 | |
That being taught by you and holy scripture, | 24:33 | |
we may receive with faith the words of eternal life. | 24:36 | |
And be made wise into salvation | 24:39 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 24:42 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from Deuteronomy, | 24:47 | |
chapter 30, verses 15 through 20. | 24:50 | |
See, I have set before you this day | 24:55 | |
life and good, death and evil. | 24:57 | |
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, | 25:01 | |
which I command you this day, | 25:04 | |
by loving the Lord your God, | 25:07 | |
by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, | 25:09 | |
and his statutes, and his ordinances, | 25:13 | |
then you shall live and multiply. | 25:16 | |
And the Lord your God will bless you in the land | 25:19 | |
which you are entering, to take possession of it. | 25:21 | |
But if your heart turns away, | 25:25 | |
and you will not hear, but are drawn away | 25:28 | |
to worship other gods, and serve them, | 25:30 | |
I declare it to you this day that you shall perish. | 25:34 | |
You shall not live long in the land | 25:38 | |
which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. | 25:41 | |
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day. | 25:45 | |
That I have set before you life and death, | 25:50 | |
blessings and curse. | 25:54 | |
Therefore, choose life, that you | 25:56 | |
and your descendants may live, | 25:59 | |
loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, | 26:01 | |
and cleaving to him. | 26:06 | |
For that means life to you and length of days. | 26:08 | |
That you may dwell in the land | 26:11 | |
which the Lord swore to your fathers, | 26:13 | |
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them. | 26:16 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 26:22 | |
The epistle lesson is from 1 Corinthians, | 26:26 | |
chapter two, verses six through 13. | 26:29 | |
Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. | 26:34 | |
Although it is not a wisdom of this age, | 26:38 | |
or of the rulers of this age, | 26:41 | |
who are doomed to pass away. | 26:43 | |
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, | 26:45 | |
which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. | 26:49 | |
None of the rulers of this age understood this. | 26:54 | |
For if they had, they would not | 26:58 | |
have crucified the Lord of Glory. | 27:00 | |
But as it is written, what no eye has seen, | 27:03 | |
nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived | 27:07 | |
what God has prepared for those who love Him. | 27:11 | |
God has revealed to us through the Spirit. | 27:14 | |
For the Spirit searches everything. | 27:17 | |
Even the depths of God. | 27:20 | |
For what person knows a man's thought, | 27:22 | |
except the spirit of the man which is in him? | 27:25 | |
So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God, | 27:28 | |
except the Spirit of God. | 27:32 | |
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, | 27:35 | |
but the Spirit which is from God. | 27:38 | |
That we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. | 27:40 | |
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, | 27:45 | |
but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths | 27:49 | |
to those who possess the spirit. | 27:54 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson. | 27:57 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 28:16 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 28:29 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 29:58 | |
♪ But nothing changes him ♪ | 30:39 | |
♪ Oh God unchanging ♪ | 30:50 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 31:07 | |
(choir sings indistinctly) | 31:15 | |
- | It's a delight for my wife and I to be here with you today | 34:06 |
and to worship the Lord, and to share | 34:10 | |
in the power of your fellowship. | 34:13 | |
Will the congregation please stand | 34:16 | |
for the reading of the Gospel. | 34:17 | |
The Gospel is from Saint Matthew, | 34:27 | |
chapter five, verses 20 through 37. | 34:29 | |
For I tell you that unless your righteousness | 34:35 | |
exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, | 34:39 | |
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. | 34:44 | |
You have heard that it was said to men of old, | 34:48 | |
you shall not kill. | 34:51 | |
And whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. | 34:54 | |
But I say to you that everyone who is angry | 34:58 | |
with his brother shall be liable to judgment. | 35:01 | |
Whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council. | 35:04 | |
And whoever says you fool shall be liable | 35:08 | |
to the hell of fire. | 35:12 | |
So if you are offering your gift at the altar, | 35:15 | |
and there remember that your brother | 35:18 | |
has something against you, | 35:20 | |
leave your gift, go, and first be reconciled to your brother | 35:23 | |
and then come and offer your gift. | 35:28 | |
Make friends quickly with your accuser. | 35:32 | |
While you are going with him to court, | 35:36 | |
lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, | 35:38 | |
and the judge to the guard, and you be put into prison. | 35:41 | |
For truly I say to you that you shall never get out | 35:46 | |
until you have paid the last penny. | 35:49 | |
And you have heard that it was said | 35:53 | |
you shall not commit adultery. | 35:55 | |
But I say to you that everyone who looks | 35:58 | |
at a woman lustfully has already committed | 36:01 | |
adultery with her in her heart. | 36:04 | |
And if your right eye causes you to sin, | 36:07 | |
pluck it out and throw it away. | 36:11 | |
It is better that you lose one of your members | 36:14 | |
than that your whole body be thrown away. | 36:17 | |
And it is also said whoever divorces his wife, | 36:21 | |
let him give her a certificate of divorce. | 36:26 | |
But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife | 36:29 | |
except on grounds of unchastity makes her an adulteress. | 36:33 | |
And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. | 36:38 | |
Again, you have heard that it was said to men of old | 36:43 | |
you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform | 36:46 | |
to the Lord what you have sworn. | 36:50 | |
But I say to you, do not swear at all, | 36:53 | |
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, | 36:57 | |
or by the earth, for it is his footstool, | 37:00 | |
or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. | 37:03 | |
Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make | 37:08 | |
one hair white or black. | 37:12 | |
Let what you say be simply yes or no. | 37:15 | |
Everything more than this comes from evil. | 37:20 | |
Here ends the reading of the Gospel of our Lord, amen. | 37:25 | |
(organ music) | 37:32 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 37:40 | |
We could have made a mint on the sale of Kleenex, | 39:04 | |
she was heard to say as she came | 39:09 | |
from the movie Terms of Endearment. | 39:11 | |
And as you reached into your purse or pocket | 39:16 | |
to get that Kleenex in the last scene of the film, you wept. | 39:21 | |
You wept because of a young woman in that room | 39:28 | |
with her mother there with her | 39:33 | |
and with her husband, | 39:35 | |
and yet, we all wept. | 39:38 | |
Because although there were three persons in that room, | 39:42 | |
none were present to one another. | 39:47 | |
And we also wept not just for them, | 39:52 | |
but for ourselves. | 39:57 | |
For there was hardly a one of us in the theater that night | 40:00 | |
who as a child did not know that there was something | 40:04 | |
perhaps about relationships that we have with our parents, | 40:08 | |
either living or now deceased, that was not as full | 40:12 | |
and as fulfilling as they might have been. | 40:18 | |
And there was not a one of us in the theater | 40:21 | |
that night who, as a spouse, | 40:23 | |
did not have the sense | 40:28 | |
there is something about our relationship | 40:30 | |
which is not as full and fulfilling as it might have been. | 40:32 | |
And there was something about each of us | 40:38 | |
in the theater that night that as a parent | 40:40 | |
reflecting upon our infant or grown children | 40:44 | |
who would say there is something that is not quite | 40:49 | |
full and fulfilling in our relationships. | 40:53 | |
And so we wept twice that night. | 40:57 | |
Once for those in the film, | 41:02 | |
and once for ourselves. | 41:06 | |
Because our experience is not life. | 41:07 | |
Perhaps death. | 41:13 | |
Or something of a shadow. | 41:16 | |
But the community that we are a part of today, | 41:20 | |
and the larger tradition of the church | 41:22 | |
that brings us together in this auspicious place | 41:24 | |
knows what life is, | 41:28 | |
and where life is to be found. | 41:32 | |
The Hebrew forefathers and foremothers | 41:35 | |
of our heritage knew that fully well. | 41:37 | |
And they were able to say that in the tradition | 41:41 | |
of the Torah, in the covenant community, | 41:44 | |
in the precepts and the law of the commandments, | 41:51 | |
the ordinances, in the gift of God's way | 41:54 | |
is life itself. | 41:59 | |
For the Hebrews would say | 42:01 | |
Torah is life. | 42:04 | |
And so the document Deuteronomy has brought about | 42:09 | |
a spiritual renewal and revitalization to those | 42:12 | |
who have read it through the centuries. | 42:16 | |
It's a sermonic recital of the gift of life, | 42:18 | |
no one of us could come to life and say, | 42:23 | |
I am a self made person. | 42:25 | |
I have achieved what I have achieved by my own wit and whim. | 42:28 | |
It is surely a gift. | 42:34 | |
And so the opportunity of God's grace | 42:37 | |
and to respond to that grace, | 42:41 | |
God's gift and the call to obedience | 42:43 | |
are wrapped up together for there in that kind | 42:46 | |
of covenant is the secret and the mystery of life. | 42:49 | |
And whenever Deuteronomy is read, | 42:55 | |
it brings about vitality, as it did | 42:59 | |
even at the time that it was discovered. | 43:02 | |
For King Josiah in about the year 621 BC | 43:05 | |
was wanting to shore up the magnificent temple | 43:09 | |
over which he was king. | 43:11 | |
And so he had his craftsman, his stonemasons, | 43:14 | |
his artisans, his woodsmen, the persons | 43:18 | |
who were gifted in the arts working on the temple. | 43:22 | |
And as they dug around, shoring up the temple, | 43:26 | |
they came across the scroll. | 43:28 | |
And when it was brought to the king and he read it, | 43:30 | |
the scroll which we now call Deuteronomy, | 43:33 | |
it quickened him so much to the soul of his heart | 43:36 | |
that he wept and put on sackcloth and ashes. | 43:41 | |
And the city of Jerusalem and indeed the whole nation | 43:45 | |
went into an extended period of mourning | 43:48 | |
that resulted in tremendous spiritual fervor. | 43:51 | |
Whenever Deuteronomy comes to life, | 43:54 | |
no wonder the summons challenges us again, | 43:58 | |
choose life, I set before you this day, | 44:01 | |
life and good, | 44:04 | |
death and destruction. | 44:08 | |
Oh my friends, choose life. | 44:10 | |
Choose life. | 44:15 | |
And the rabbinical tradition that began | 44:17 | |
with the work on Deuteronomy, updating the experience | 44:20 | |
of the people living within different vicissitudes of life, | 44:24 | |
different chapters of their national history, | 44:28 | |
began to experience new life | 44:32 | |
as the rabbis worked on that tradition. | 44:35 | |
Updating it. | 44:40 | |
Offering them the dimensions of grace | 44:41 | |
and responsibility, gift and demand. | 44:46 | |
Why is it then we ask the question? | 44:51 | |
If this is the heritage of the rabbis, | 44:54 | |
of the teachers of our faith, | 44:56 | |
of the tradition and heritage of which we are a part, | 44:58 | |
why is it then that Jesus would say to us, | 45:01 | |
as he said to the community of Matthew, | 45:04 | |
unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes, | 45:08 | |
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? | 45:14 | |
Strange, isn't it? | 45:17 | |
Given this wonderful expression of how life is put together, | 45:19 | |
of where life is found, of choosing life. | 45:23 | |
Choose life. | 45:26 | |
That Jesus should say unless it exceeds | 45:31 | |
that of the scribes, you cannot. | 45:35 | |
Well, something happens in all of our lives. | 45:41 | |
That the high ideals, | 45:45 | |
the great dreams, | 45:49 | |
the holy affirmations that we make, | 45:51 | |
as life goes on has a tendency to become more familiar. | 45:54 | |
More tame, more reduced, more compatible | 45:59 | |
to life as we would like it to be. | 46:02 | |
Not on the high platitudes. | 46:04 | |
But in the lowlands. | 46:07 | |
We can travel around the campus, | 46:10 | |
see beautiful tablets and statuary, | 46:13 | |
monuments to the great noble visions, | 46:16 | |
not only of this buildings, but of this university. | 46:19 | |
And we discover, after a month into the semester, | 46:24 | |
well, I guess it's about time that I began to crack a book. | 46:27 | |
And there's something about what's said in the catalog, | 46:32 | |
what's been instilled in us perhaps in Founders' Day, | 46:36 | |
or some other noble occasion here at the university, | 46:39 | |
we begin to have a little bit of quickening of conscience. | 46:43 | |
How can I get by? | 46:46 | |
And so gradually, the great dreams | 46:49 | |
that we have begin to erode. | 46:51 | |
And perhaps it comes slowly. | 46:55 | |
Quietly. | 46:58 | |
Or perhaps it comes dramatically, | 47:00 | |
as it did for the rabbis long ago. | 47:02 | |
For they had been in Jerusalem, and for four years, | 47:05 | |
the city was besieged by the Roman army. | 47:07 | |
After four years, the city was destroyed, | 47:10 | |
the temple was destroyed, | 47:13 | |
the religious, the national, the cultural institutions | 47:15 | |
that they knew were destroyed. | 47:18 | |
And the small remnant of the rabbinate | 47:20 | |
moved to a community called Jamnia, about 40 miles away. | 47:23 | |
And there, for survival purposes, | 47:28 | |
they clung to that which they thought | 47:30 | |
they could do to keep life together. | 47:32 | |
And in that experience, the lofty dreams of the putting | 47:35 | |
together of gift and responsibility, | 47:40 | |
grace and demand, came if we can | 47:43 | |
just hold onto the commandments. | 47:47 | |
If we can just remember Moses. If we... | 47:50 |
...could just remember we shouldn't kill anybody. | 0:03 | |
We shouldn't commit adultery. | 0:05 | |
We shouldn't bear false witness against somebody. | 0:06 | |
There's some things that we, as the Hebrew community, | 0:10 | |
must not do and if we can just refrain | 0:12 | |
from doing them, then we're in. | 0:15 | |
How difficult it is to hold on to the tensions. | 0:17 | |
The bigger picture, life comes to us | 0:20 | |
either gradually or cataclysmically. | 0:23 | |
And we find ourselves, if we can just hold on and we justify | 0:28 | |
our existence and we say, well, I'm a good citizen. | 0:31 | |
I haven't killed anybody. | 0:36 | |
Oh, I'm a moral person. | 0:39 | |
I haven't been in bed with somebody who's not my spouse. | 0:42 | |
I'm a person who pretty much is able to sign | 0:47 | |
the honor statement or you can count on me, kind of. | 0:50 | |
Forgetting the loopholes that we all know | 0:56 | |
that are there in the public law and in the religious law. | 0:58 | |
In life itself, we kind of slip through | 1:02 | |
and it gradually becomes reduced. | 1:06 | |
We're okay. | 1:11 | |
We are indeed alright, | 1:13 | |
because we haven't done some of the gross things | 1:15 | |
that some of those other people have done. | 1:19 | |
We justify ourselves on the basis, | 1:22 | |
we've done at least enough to get by. | 1:27 | |
And so it comes as a great shock to us, | 1:36 | |
it disturbs us tremendously when we discover | 1:40 | |
that Jesus says, unless your righteousness | 1:43 | |
exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, | 1:45 | |
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. | 1:49 | |
Unless you move beyond that, | 1:52 | |
unless you're in a different realm, | 1:54 | |
unless you're functioning on a different agenda, | 1:55 | |
there's not a place for you in the kingdom. | 1:59 | |
And just at the point that we've begun to make our peace | 2:02 | |
with issues such as capital punishment, | 2:05 | |
mass nuclear destruction, | 2:11 | |
whether a handgun should be registered or not. | 2:14 | |
Just at the point of where we've made some kind of peace | 2:19 | |
that we think is responsible, we hear Jesus say, | 2:23 | |
if you have any kind of animosity | 2:28 | |
toward another family member, | 2:31 | |
you've already committed murder. | 2:32 | |
It's not the act, it's the attitude that lies behind it. | 2:35 | |
And we're undone. | 2:40 | |
And just at the point that we've kind of figured out, | 2:42 | |
now, how far should we go on the third date | 2:44 | |
or the first? | 2:49 | |
Just about the time we figured out | 2:51 | |
whether marriage is as long as life shall last | 2:53 | |
or as long as love shall last. | 2:57 | |
Just at the point we begin to get in touch | 3:01 | |
with the sexual dimensions of life, | 3:03 | |
we discover Jesus saying, as Jimmy Carter said, | 3:05 | |
in Playboy magazine a few years ago, | 3:10 | |
he who lusts after a woman | 3:15 | |
has already committed adultery in his heart. | 3:19 | |
And sexual fantasies that are typical of all of us, | 3:21 | |
somehow or other undo us. | 3:25 | |
And just at the point that we know | 3:29 | |
what things we indeed say yes to and no to, | 3:32 | |
we discover how easy it is | 3:37 | |
to cross our fingers, king's X. | 3:41 | |
Have some kind of little trick that we play, | 3:45 | |
no it's not perjury, | 3:47 | |
but false witness. | 3:51 | |
And we can play games with the Olympic Committee, | 3:54 | |
who's eligible? | 3:58 | |
And have national laws passed to allow a person | 4:02 | |
who has grown up in another country | 4:05 | |
suddenly to become an American citizen | 4:07 | |
and become a part of our team? | 4:09 | |
And just at the point where we become comfortable, | 4:14 | |
Jesus says, unless your righteousness | 4:18 | |
exceeds that of the scribes, | 4:21 | |
you cannot be a part of my kingdom. | 4:27 | |
And we're undone by that. | 4:30 | |
We don't know quite what to make of it. | 4:32 | |
We wonder, Jesus, how are we going to be saved? | 4:34 | |
It's like discovering that the agenda of life | 4:37 | |
has been so radically altered. | 4:40 | |
What do we do with that? | 4:42 | |
It's like perhaps taking computer science | 4:45 | |
and discovering that one plus one does not always equal two. | 4:47 | |
Or if you're working in binary math, | 4:53 | |
suddenly it's one plus one equals 10. | 4:55 | |
There's a new agenda. | 4:57 | |
We're functioning in a new arena. | 4:59 | |
We're functioning in the arena of the kingdom, | 5:01 | |
not in the kingdom that we've created | 5:03 | |
but the gift of heaven that has come into our midst | 5:08 | |
and we're undone by that. | 5:15 | |
And we cry out, where is life? | 5:18 | |
Where, in the midst of all this confusion, | 5:21 | |
is indeed their life? | 5:23 | |
And we hear the World Council of Churches, | 5:26 | |
meeting in Vancouver last summer, sing the theme hymn. | 5:28 | |
If you would receive life, be open in body, mind, and soul. | 5:32 | |
Receive what God has promised, God's breath for humankind. | 5:37 | |
If you would live, be ready to fight the friends of death | 5:43 | |
and rise with Christ, the victor, to once again take breath. | 5:47 | |
If you would live, grow daily in ways that lead to life. | 5:52 | |
God's kingdom, one yet varied, encompassing all strife. | 5:56 | |
If you would live, be one with every one | 6:03 | |
of those whom God doth love, to break down every barrier, | 6:05 | |
to let Christ's spirit move. | 6:10 | |
The church in Corinth was baffled | 6:17 | |
by how it could be that the humble Galilean peasant | 6:22 | |
becomes now the mystery and the wonder | 6:27 | |
and the wisdom and yes, | 6:32 | |
the personification of the Spirit of God. | 6:34 | |
And in the arena of where they were thinking, | 6:38 | |
we are justified, we are in. | 6:40 | |
We belong to the kingdom | 6:44 | |
because we have a favorite preacher. | 6:45 | |
Saul or Apollos or Paul or some great person | 6:48 | |
who's come to the pulpit in one series after another. | 6:53 | |
Why, we're in because we've married the right person. | 6:57 | |
We're in because we eat the right food. | 7:00 | |
We're in because we have the right psychic experiences | 7:02 | |
and perhaps speaks in tongues. | 7:05 | |
The Apostle said to that church | 7:07 | |
in that ancient seaport town, | 7:08 | |
in a community and a country that was known | 7:11 | |
for its Olympics and for its universities. | 7:13 | |
The Apostle said, we are dealing | 7:18 | |
with a different kind of wisdom and a different kind | 7:21 | |
of spirit and it's the power of the cross. | 7:24 | |
And the Christ who is represented by the cross | 7:29 | |
that's carried in our procession | 7:32 | |
and by the shape of the Cathedral in which we worship today, | 7:34 | |
that cross says to us that Jesus went far beyond | 7:37 | |
the boundaries of what was anticipated | 7:42 | |
as the definition of Messiah, | 7:45 | |
the expectation in the popular and in the professional mind. | 7:47 | |
We have a new expression of the majesty | 7:51 | |
and of the power and of the tenderness of God. | 7:54 | |
The unchangeable God, as sung in our anthem this morning, | 7:59 | |
is the one who is moved by the one | 8:02 | |
who has entered so completely into life | 8:05 | |
and only the one who has gone to that extremity | 8:09 | |
is able to say to us, unless your righteousness | 8:13 | |
exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, | 8:15 | |
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. | 8:19 | |
Nothing in my hand, I bring. | 8:26 | |
Simply to thy cross, I cling. | 8:30 | |
And the one who knew that the gift of life | 8:36 | |
was for those who were pure in heart, | 8:42 | |
for they see God. | 8:43 | |
And the one who knew that those who are peacemakers | 8:47 | |
experienced being children of God. | 8:52 | |
And the one who hungered and thirsted | 8:56 | |
for a right relationship with God | 9:00 | |
are the ones who were truly satisfied. | 9:03 | |
He is the one who says to us, | 9:08 | |
unless your righteousness exceeds | 9:13 | |
that of the scribes, you cannot. | 9:18 | |
And we find expressions in life that give us hope, | 9:28 | |
of moving beyond the ordinary, the mundane, the usual. | 9:35 | |
We give God praise for the numerous breakthroughs | 9:40 | |
that have come through the scholarship | 9:44 | |
and the experimentation of Duke. | 9:46 | |
Of the Research Triangle, of this region, | 9:50 | |
of pushing the boundaries into God's horizons. | 9:57 | |
And we give God praise. | 10:03 | |
When the most visible leader of the Christian world | 10:07 | |
goes into a prison just after Christmas in Rome | 10:10 | |
and Pope John Paul reaches out and takes the hand | 10:15 | |
and the arm and the whole body of the one | 10:18 | |
who held a pistol and attempted his assassination | 10:21 | |
about a year and a half earlier. | 10:26 | |
And on the cover of Time magazine, | 10:30 | |
at the beginning of this year, is a picture | 10:32 | |
of the would-be assassin and of Pope John Paul. | 10:36 | |
And the writer of the article concludes it by saying, | 10:40 | |
forgiveness is not an impulse | 10:43 | |
that is much in favor these days. | 10:45 | |
It's a mysterious and sublime idea, in many ways. | 10:49 | |
The prevalent style in the world | 10:54 | |
runs more to the High Plains drifter, | 10:55 | |
to the hard cold eye of the avenger, | 10:59 | |
to the numb remorselessness. | 11:02 | |
Forgiveness does not look much like a tool | 11:05 | |
for survival in a bad world. | 11:08 | |
But that is what it is, | 11:11 | |
unless your righteousness exceeds. | 11:15 | |
And my friend Tom Long who teaches at Princeton | 11:25 | |
tells about a experience he had in talking | 11:30 | |
with the person sitting next to him on the airplane. | 11:33 | |
A family had a 30 year old son | 11:38 | |
who was in a nursing home with a brain tumor. | 11:40 | |
And he said, we had stopped loving him. | 11:44 | |
It's a hard thing to admit but we had stopped loving him. | 11:49 | |
It's hard to love someone who never responds. | 11:53 | |
We visit him often but our feeling | 11:58 | |
for him as a son had begun to die, | 12:00 | |
until one day we happened to visit our son | 12:03 | |
and discovered a visitor, a stranger in his room. | 12:06 | |
She turned out to be a visitor | 12:10 | |
from the nearby church whose custom | 12:12 | |
it was to visit all the patients in the nursing home. | 12:14 | |
When we arrived, we found her talking to our son | 12:19 | |
as if our son could understand. | 12:23 | |
And then she read scripture to our son | 12:26 | |
as if our son could hear it. | 12:28 | |
And finally, she prayed with our son | 12:30 | |
as if our son knew that she was praying. | 12:33 | |
My first impulse was to say, you fool, | 12:37 | |
don't you know about our son? | 12:39 | |
And then it dawned on me that of course she knew. | 12:44 | |
She knew all along. | 12:48 | |
She cared for our son as if he was made whole | 12:50 | |
because she saw him through the eyes of faith | 12:56 | |
and she saw him already healed. | 13:00 | |
And that woman renewed in us | 13:05 | |
the capacity to love our son. | 13:07 | |
Well, choose life, my friends. | 13:16 | |
Choose life beyond the ordinary. | 13:21 | |
For unless your righteousness exceeds that, | 13:24 | |
unless your righteousness, | 13:30 | |
unless. | 13:36 | |
Thanks be to the Christ | 13:44 | |
who has given us life beyond the ordinary. | 13:49 | |
Amen. | 13:57 | |
(church organ music) | 14:05 | |
(congregation singing) | 14:41 | |
- | As the people as the people of God, | 17:14 |
let us affirm what we believe. | 17:16 | |
- | We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 17:20 |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 17:25 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 17:28 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 17:31 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 17:35 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 17:40 | |
to love and serve others, | 17:43 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 17:46 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 17:49 | |
our judge and our hope. | 17:53 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 17:56 | |
God is with us. | 18:01 | |
We are not alone. | 18:03 | |
Thanks be to God. | 18:05 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 18:07 |
- | Also you. | 18:09 |
- | Let us pray. | 18:11 |
Eternal Spirit, maker of all worlds | 18:25 | |
and creator of our souls, | 18:29 | |
we worship you this holy day. | 18:32 | |
We pray that out of our littleness, that you weave us | 18:36 | |
into your larger design of life. | 18:41 | |
Lead us up from our low levels | 18:46 | |
and out of our narrow boundaries, | 18:49 | |
that somehow we may escape from our obsession with ourselves | 18:51 | |
and loving and serving something greater than ourselves, | 18:57 | |
find what we are in you. | 19:02 | |
Remind us, this day, | 19:06 | |
of the families from which we have come, | 19:08 | |
the fathers and mothers and nurturers who have loved us, | 19:12 | |
the better heritage of our nation's life in which we share, | 19:17 | |
the prophets who have spoken to us, | 19:22 | |
the martyrs of our faith who have died that we might live, | 19:26 | |
in order that our lives may be lifted up and we be grateful. | 19:31 | |
Grant us this day, a new vision | 19:37 | |
of the causes we should serve, | 19:40 | |
justice in a generation that is full of wrong, | 19:43 | |
unselfishness in a time when many are suffering, | 19:48 | |
and peace in a day of violence. | 19:53 | |
Grant unto us your servant so sincerely, | 19:58 | |
to worship you this day, without pretense, | 20:01 | |
that across all lines of division, | 20:06 | |
our hearts may today perform an act of goodwill. | 20:10 | |
Give us the victory over our private prejudices | 20:16 | |
and vindictiveness for we would take into our care | 20:21 | |
every sort and condition of humankind. | 20:25 | |
O God, if hearts are here, | 20:30 | |
to whom such calls and words come in vain | 20:33 | |
because they are to hurt themselves, | 20:37 | |
we ask your strength for them. | 20:41 | |
It is not for soft and easy lives that we pray | 20:44 | |
but for great strength and resources | 20:50 | |
to greet life that you give to us. | 20:52 | |
Some of us feel burdens of grief and anxiety. | 20:57 | |
We ask for stability, | 21:02 | |
for inward reserves of spiritual power, | 21:04 | |
that while the outward person is falling apart, | 21:08 | |
the inward person may be renewed day by day. | 21:12 | |
So in the worship of your sanctuary, | 21:18 | |
this holy place, may serenity, | 21:21 | |
stability, and peace come to your people. | 21:25 | |
Now send us out, we pray you, | 21:30 | |
to face this troubled, difficult, | 21:32 | |
and sometimes cruel world. | 21:36 | |
May we know how to lay soothing hands upon places | 21:39 | |
in this world and people who are hurting. | 21:44 | |
Give us radiance. | 21:49 | |
Make our faith contagious. | 21:51 | |
Help us to make goodness itself attractive. | 21:54 | |
And may Christ's joy be ours and the promise | 21:59 | |
of abundant life be fulfilled in each of us. | 22:02 | |
May we be among those who help bring humanity | 22:07 | |
to its fullness, when the kingdom of God's | 22:11 | |
righteousness shall come. | 22:14 | |
We ask it, in the spirit of Jesus the Christ, | 22:17 | |
who taught us to pray, saying, | 22:21 | |
our Father, who art in heaven, | 22:25 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 22:28 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is heaven. | 22:30 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread | 22:36 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 22:39 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 22:41 | |
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, | 22:45 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 22:50 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 22:51 | |
Amen. | 22:55 | |
(church organ music) | 23:04 | |
(church organ music) | 26:29 | |
(choir singing) | 26:47 | |
(church organ music) | 28:47 | |
(faint singing) | 29:03 | |
Eternal, God giver of every good and perfect gift, | 30:09 | |
who seeks above all to give yourself to us, | 30:13 | |
grant that with these token gifts of our hands, | 30:18 | |
we may more fully give ourselves in joyous obedience | 30:22 | |
and service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 30:26 | |
Amen. | 30:30 | |
(church organ music) | 30:34 | |
(congregation singing) | 31:37 | |
The Lord bless you and keep you. | 36:01 | |
The Lord's face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. | 36:04 | |
The Lord's countenance be upon you and give you peace. | 36:10 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:18 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:23 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:29 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:35 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:43 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 36:54 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 37:09 | |
(church organ music) | 37:29 | |
(church organ music) | 47:11 |
Item Info
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