Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Church without Walls" (May 13, 2001)

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-	The third lesson is from the Gospel according	0:11
	to Saint John, the 13th chapter.	0:13
	"When he had gone out, Jesus said,	0:18
	"Now the son of man has been glorified	0:21
	"and God has been glorified in him.	0:25
	"If God has been glorified in him,	0:28
	"God will also glorify him in himself	0:31
	"and will glorify him at once.	0:35
	"Little children, I am with you only a little longer.	0:39
	"You will look for me	0:45
	"and as I said to the Jews,	0:47
	"so now I say to you,	0:50
	"where I am going, you cannot come.	0:52
	"I give you a new commandment,	0:57
	"that you love one another	0:59
	"just as I have loved you,	1:02
	"you also should love one another.	1:05
	"By this, everyone will know	1:08
	"that you are my disciples	1:10
	"if you have love for one another."	1:13
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:17
-	Thanks be to God.	1:20
-	Let us pray.	1:30
	May the words of my mouth	1:34
	and the meditations of all our hearts	1:35
	be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord,	1:39
	our strength and our redeemer.	1:42
	Amen.	1:44
	As a child,	1:48
	growing up in rural North Carolina	1:50
	in the 1950s, I remember mealtime	1:52
	as one of the highlights of the day.	1:55
	Like most farm families,	1:58
	we considered the midday meal to be our main meal	2:00
	and we called it dinner, not lunch.	2:03
	This being Mother's Day,	2:06
	I'd like to say my mother deserves	2:07
	a tremendous amount of credit	2:09
	for pulling these meals together every day of the year.	2:11
	She made mealtimes special,	2:14
	not only because of the good homegrown food she served	2:17
	but because she taught the children in our family	2:20
	the importance of sitting together around the table.	2:23
	We were expected to wash up and be there on time,	2:27
	to eat what was given to us without complaining,	2:31
	to use good manners and to help clean up when we finished.	2:34
	Wonderful training for learning to get along in the world.	2:38
	Every culture has its rituals concerning food,	2:43
	many of them carrying a larger meaning	2:46
	than the ritual itself.	2:48
	For instance, an invitation to dine with someone	2:51
	is an invitation to form a closer relationship	2:55
	with that person.	2:58
	Or the invitation	2:59
	to attend a wedding feast signifies inclusion	3:01
	in one's closest circle of family and friends.	3:04
	And the opposite is true as well.	3:08
	Social norms about who should	3:11
	or should not eat together establish boundaries	3:13
	that are not to be crossed lightly	3:17
	for they usually represent deeply held sentiments	3:19
	about the parties in question.	3:23
	In the culture where I grew up,	3:26
	there were strong suspicions	3:27
	or prohibitions, I should say,	3:29
	against black and white eating together, for example,	3:31
	whether that was in a home or a restaurant.	3:35
	For white families such as mine,	3:38
	there was always plenty of food prepared	3:40
	to feed whoever was working on the farm that day	3:42
	but on those days when African American men	3:46
	were hired to help,	3:48
	their meals were served in the backyard	3:50
	underneath the shade tree	3:52
	while the family ate inside around the table.	3:54
	Likewise, for white families	3:58
	that hired domestic help,	3:59
	the cook ate before or after the family	4:01
	but never at the same time.	4:04
	Even after school desegregation began in earnest	4:07
	in the South,	4:10
	I remember so well that students were slow	4:11
	to integrate lunchroom tables,	4:14
	at least in the first few years.	4:16
	Those were the attitudes the culture dictated	4:19
	in those days.	4:22
	I use these examples to show how our approach	4:23
	to dining can be so revealing.	4:26
	If groups are reluctant to eat around the same table,	4:29
	what does that say about their true feelings	4:33
	about each other?	4:36
	Our lectionary text today from Acts 11 gives us	4:39
	a bird's eye view	4:42
	of another debate about eating together	4:43
	that quickly moves on to reveal	4:46
	an even greater controversy.	4:48
	As Peter stood before the apostles	4:50
	and other believers in Jerusalem,	4:53
	they criticized him saying,	4:55
	"why did you go to uncircumcised men	4:57
	"and eat with them?"	5:01
	It was a simple question	5:04
	but an important clue about the crossroads	5:06
	where the church was standing at that point in history.	5:08
	Would Christianity remain as one sect	5:12
	among many within Judaism	5:15
	or would the church open wide its doors	5:18
	to circumcised and uncircumcised alike?	5:20
	Because eating habits were a crucial distinction	5:24
	between Jews and Gentiles,	5:26
	Peter had to address this question	5:28
	before Gentiles would be welcomed into the church.	5:31
	Luke, the author of Acts,	5:34
	acknowledges the importance of this issue	5:36
	by giving 66 verses in Acts 10 and 11	5:39
	to describe an encounter between Peter	5:44
	and a Gentile named Cornelius	5:46
	and then to interpret its meaning for the church.	5:49
	Who exactly was Cornelius,	5:53
	the first Gentile to be baptized	5:55
	and how did Peter get involved with him in the first place?	5:56
	We learn that Cornelius was a Roman soldier,	6:01
	a centurion stationed in Caesarea.	6:05
	As a soldier, we can assume	6:08
	that Cornelius had sworn allegiance to Caesar	6:10
	but we also know he had some relationship to Judaism.	6:14
	He was considered to be a devote man	6:18
	who feared God.	6:20
	One day, about three o'clock,	6:22
	he had a vision of an angel speaking to him.	6:24
	The Holy Spirit told Cornelius,	6:27
	who was terrified by the vision	6:30
	that he should send for a man in Joppa named Simon Peter	6:32
	who was staying, interestingly with a tanner named Simon.	6:35
	The next day, as Cornelius' messengers	6:40
	were approaching Joppa,	6:42
	Peter went up on the roof of Simon's house to pray.	6:43
	Since it was around noontime,	6:46
	he was growing hungry	6:48
	and then he fell into a trance	6:50
	during which he also received a vision.	6:52
	Peter saw a huge sheet being lowered down	6:57
	from Heaven before him,	6:59
	containing all sorts of animals,	7:01
	both clean and unclean according to Jewish law.	7:04
	A voice spoke to Peter saying,	7:09
	"Peter, kill and eat."	7:10
	And his response was "by no means, Lord	7:14
	"for I have never eaten anything	7:16
	"that is unclean or profane."	7:18
	Three times the voice spoke	7:21
	and three times Peter refused	7:24
	until the thing was taken back up into Heaven.	7:26
	Peter was demonstrating his fierce loyalty	7:31
	to the sacred dietary laws	7:34
	because these laws were a matter of survival	7:35
	and identity for the Jews.	7:39
	It's interesting to note though	7:42
	that this vision occurred while Peter was guest	7:43
	in the home of a tanner,	7:45
	a profession not held in good repute among the Jews	7:47
	for obvious reasons.	7:50
	Luke writes simply that Peter was greatly puzzled	7:53
	about the vision until he met the men sent by Cornelius.	7:55
	Gradually, the truth of his vision began	8:00
	to dawn on him.	8:03
	The issue was not about clean and unclean animals,	8:05
	it was about people who were considered	8:09
	to be clean or unclean.	8:12
	The chosen people had never previously considered salvation	8:16
	to be available to the Gentiles	8:19
	but now, Peter's dramatic version revealed	8:21
	a profound truth that could not be denied.	8:25
	What God has made clean,	8:28
	you must not call profane.	8:30
	Peter knew what he had to do.	8:35
	Rather than asking Cornelius to travel to see him in Joppa,	8:37
	he traveled to Caesarea,	8:41
	a city named after Caesar Augustus,	8:44
	filled with pagans.	8:46
	Perhaps this story is as much about Peter's conversion	8:48
	as Cornelius' conversion.	8:52
	Jewish law did not allow Peter	8:54
	to be the guest of a Gentile,	8:56
	yet with the false distinctions	8:59
	between clean and unclean now obliterated in his mind,	9:02
	he decided to enter the home of Cornelius	9:06
	where he was greeted warmly	9:09
	and where the people had assembled	9:10
	to hear him preach.	9:12
	Peter delivered a powerful sermon beginning	9:15
	with the words, "I now know	9:17
	"that God shows no partiality."	9:20
	As the scriptural basis for his invitation	9:24
	to the Gentiles to be baptized,	9:26
	Jesus proclaimed or rather, Peter proclaimed Jesus	9:29
	as Lord of all.	9:33
	Now, these were not conclusions Peter had drawn	9:35
	from the law and the prophets	9:37
	but rather from new revelations	9:39
	that were unfolding before his very eyes	9:40
	about the meaning of the Lordship of Christ.	9:43
	Christians do not believe	9:47
	that Jesus is Lord of only part of creation.	9:49
	Through his resurrection and ascension,	9:53
	Jesus sits at the right hand of God	9:55
	where he reigns in glory	9:57
	with the creator of all people.	9:59
	These words are familiar to us	10:02
	but for Peter to interpret them	10:04
	in the way he did,	10:06
	carried radical implications for the church	10:08
	and so upon his return	10:12
	to Jerusalem after baptizing the first Gentile,	10:13
	he had to explain himself	10:16
	to the other Christians to whom he was accountable.	10:19
	Being careful not to take credit	10:22
	for those radical actions himself,	10:24
	Peter pointed to the Holy Spirit	10:26
	as the source of his call.	10:28
	"The Spirit told me to go with them	10:31
	"and not to make a distinction	10:33
	"between them and us," he said.	10:35
	"if then God gave them the same gift	10:37
	"that he gave us when we believe	10:39
	"in the Lord Jesus, who was I	10:42
	"that I could hinder God?"	10:44
	By that Peter meant the gift of the Holy Spirit	10:47
	which had come to the Gentiles as he preached to them	10:50
	was the same spirit that had come	10:53
	to the Jews at Pentecost.	10:54
	His listeners fell silent	10:57
	as they tried to comprehend what he was saying	11:00
	and they were amazed by his words.	11:02
	Soon those who had criticized his actions earlier	11:06
	were praising God saying,	11:09
	"Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance	11:11
	"that leads to life."	11:14
	I listen to this wonderful story	11:17
	with a great sense of awe	11:19
	that Peter could be so bold	11:20
	in proclaiming his message.	11:23
	"What God has made clean, we must not call profane."	11:25
	Those were challenging words for the church to hear	11:30
	in the first century	11:32
	as they have been every century since then.	11:33
	Change is always difficult, especially when it comes	11:37
	to giving up deeply held convictions.	11:40
	I look back to the Civil Rights struggle	11:43
	in the South and marvel at the courage	11:45
	and perseverance required	11:48
	by those who led the movement	11:50
	for they too were trying to find a way	11:51
	to bring people together around a table	11:53
	in the face of bitter hatred and misunderstanding.	11:57
	Consider for a moment the story	12:01
	of the Sit-in Movement	12:03
	at segregated lunch counters around North Carolina	12:04
	as recounted in a book called "The Best of Enemies"	12:08
	by Osha Davidson.	12:10
	Perhaps you know this story already	12:13
	but if not, you should.	12:15
	The first sit-in occurred on February 1st, 1960	12:17
	when four students	12:21
	from North Carolina A&T visited a downtown Woolworth,	12:22
	a Woolworth's store in Greensboro.	12:26
	They had just made a few small purchases	12:28
	at the store including a comb,	12:30
	some toothpaste, some notepaper	12:32
	and then they seated themselves at the lunch counter	12:34
	to order coffee.	12:37
	The white waitress responded by saying,	12:39
	"I'm sorry, we don't serve Negroes here."	12:41
	To which Ezell Blair Junior,	12:45
	one of the four students answered,	12:47
	"I beg to disagree with you.	12:49
	"You just finished serving me at a counter	12:51
	"only two feet away from here."	12:53
	Their point was well made.	12:56
	What's the difference in selling a comb	12:58
	or a cup of coffee to a customer?	13:00
	Even though the store manager ignored them,	13:03
	hoping they would grow bored and simply leave,	13:06
	the students sat resolutely on the lunch counter stools,	13:09
	the same stools that can now be seen on display	13:13
	in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.	13:15
	They never got their coffee	13:20
	but they had successfully launched	13:21
	the National Sit-in Movement for Civil Rights.	13:23
	Exactly one week after the Greensboro Sit-in,	13:26
	a similar incident occurred here in Durham	13:29
	when some 50 North Carolina Central students,	13:32
	joined by four white Duke students,	13:34
	walked into the Woolworth's store on Main Street	13:37
	and took seats at the lunch counter.	13:40
	After ignoring those students for two hours,	13:43
	the manager closed the store.	13:45
	The students them attempted to visit the lunch counter	13:47
	in the Crest Building	13:49
	which closed as soon as they arrived	13:50
	and at Walgreens which the manager closed	13:53
	as soon as he heard they were coming.	13:55
	In a little over two hours,	13:58
	the protestors had shut down	13:59
	three segregated lunch counters.	14:01
	As the sit-in movement spread rapidly	14:04
	to several other Southern cities,	14:06
	Dr. Martin Luther King decided it was time	14:08
	to endorse a national non-violent direct action campaign	14:10
	aimed at ending Jim Crow.	14:15
	On February 16th, only two weeks	14:18
	after the Greensboro sit-in,	14:20
	Dr. King spoke from the pulpit of White Rock Baptist Church	14:22
	here in Durham to give his blessing	14:26
	to the lunch counter movement.	14:28
	He pledged his support	14:30
	and exhorted the students to keep on fighting	14:32
	until the war on segregation was won.	14:34
	Inspired by his message,	14:37
	the Durham students continued their sit-ins every day	14:39
	for the next six months.	14:43
	It is widely understood	14:46
	that African American churches played a vital role	14:47
	in the Civil Rights Movement	14:49
	led by Dr. King who was, after all,	14:51
	first and foremost, a preacher.	14:54
	Historian Aldon Morris has asserted	14:57
	that the lunch counter protests	14:59
	were not primarily a college phenomenon	15:01
	but were largely organized by churches,	15:04
	Durham being a good example.	15:06
	Meetings were held in churches,	15:09
	they opened and closed in prayer	15:11
	and hymns and spirituals were frequently sung.	15:14
	Black churches have long understood the importance	15:18
	of Peter's words and actions	15:20
	about clean and unclean a lot longer	15:22
	than the rest of us.	15:25
	Gathering around a table is the place	15:26
	where we as Christians should know we begin the work	15:29
	of forming community.	15:31
	As we learn in the celebration of Holy Eucharist,	15:33
	we experience our unity in Christ	15:36
	while sharing the same meal, the same body and blood	15:39
	of Christ given for all.	15:42
	How quickly we forget that at the time of our baptism,	15:46
	we are initiated as members of a new creation	15:49
	where neither Jew or Greek,	15:52
	neither slave nor free,	15:55
	neither male or female are left outside.	15:57
	All are acceptable in the eyes of God.	16:00
	Even with this essential teaching of our faith,	16:05
	we still have many examples	16:08
	where the church has failed to welcome all people	16:09
	into our midst.	16:12
	I do not have to tell you what these examples are	16:14
	if you've ever witnessed them first hand.	16:16
	Here at Duke Chapel,	16:19
	we've been at the heart of a controversy	16:20
	that has swirled around campus for several years	16:22
	regarding the inclusion of homosexuals	16:25
	in the life of the church.	16:27
	When an openly gay minister preached	16:29
	from this pulpit a couple of summers ago,	16:30
	I remember that he raised quite a few eyebrows.	16:33
	More recently, a storm of protests broke out	16:37
	when the university agreed	16:40
	to allow pastors who are ordained	16:41
	in dominations that authorize same-sex unions	16:43
	to perform such unions at Duke	16:47
	including Duke Chapel.	16:49
	There are many points of view on this subject	16:51
	as you might well imagine	16:53
	but some of the most vicious mail	16:54
	that came in after the decision was announced seemed	16:56
	to suggest that homosexuality	17:00
	is such an abominable sin	17:02
	that until that sin is completely eradicated,	17:04
	a gay or lesbian person should not be tolerated	17:07
	in the church or if they are admitted,	17:09
	then they should not be ministered to	17:12
	until they have been fully converted	17:14
	from their wayward sexuality.	17:16
	As Dean Wilman has pointed out,	17:18
	it seemed strange that we never get	17:21
	that kind of mail about people who are divorced,	17:23
	or self-centered or greedy,	17:26
	all sins we hear more about in scripture than homosexuality.	17:28
	If a church is full of sinners already,	17:33
	that is, people like us,	17:35
	how do we distinguish between those	17:37
	who are worthy to come in	17:39
	and those who are not?	17:41
	If all are unworthy as scripture says we are,	17:43
	then let there be no distinctions among us.	17:46
	When you think about all the controversies	17:51
	that the church has endured through the ages,	17:53
	it is truly a miracle that we have survived.	17:55
	Let the the story of Peter and Cornelius be a reminder	17:59
	to us that the Holy Spirit	18:01
	has been guiding us all these years	18:03
	and will continue to guide the church	18:06
	through turbulent times of change.	18:08
	At every step along the way,	18:12
	the Holy Spirit was directing them,	18:14
	first through Cornelius, then through Peter	18:16
	and then through all the Gentiles gathered	18:18
	in Cornelius' home.	18:21
	Never forget that God is in charge.	18:23
	When we proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord,	18:26
	we affirm our belief that we have received	18:30
	as a free gift the rule of God	18:33
	over our lives,	18:36
	not just a few privileged ones among us	18:37
	but over all our lives.	18:40
	Along with that belief goes the acceptance	18:43
	that the Spirit blows where it will	18:45
	and sometimes leads us in a direction	18:47
	where we'd rather not go.	18:50
	Yet through our life of faith	18:52
	and our repentance of our own blindness,	18:54
	we can open ourselves to God's miraculous powers	18:56
	of transformation and amazing things	18:59
	can begin to happen.	19:02
	I recently heard an interview on NRP	19:04
	with Jay Winik, historian	19:07
	and author of a new book	19:09
	entitled "April 1865: The Month that Saved America."	19:10
	He told of an incident that occurred very soon	19:16
	after the end of the Civil War	19:19
	in St. Paul's church in Richmond, Virginia,	19:21
	capital of the Confederacy.	19:23
	St. Paul's was considered to be the elite white church	19:26
	in town where things were done in a very orderly way.	19:30
	But one Sunday morning,	19:34
	a very surprising thing happened.	19:35
	As Eucharist was being served,	19:37
	a rather disheveled African American man came forward	19:40
	to receive the bread and the wine.	19:43
	This was a most unusual occurrence for that time	19:45
	and place and for a moment,	19:48
	the congregation, including the pastor,	19:51
	stood in tense silence waiting	19:53
	for something to happen.	19:55
	Then an older white gentlemen with white hair came forward	19:58
	and knelt beside the man at the communion railing.	20:02
	The gentlemen was General Robert E. Lee,	20:05
	commander of the defeated Confederate army.	20:08
	That simple gesture, according to Mr. Winik,	20:12
	represented the very real conclusion of the Civil War	20:15
	and set the tone for the healing	20:19
	that our nation so desperately needed	20:21
	and in many ways still needs today.	20:23
	I'm so glad to have heard that story	20:27
	because it gives me hope.	20:30
	The Holy Spirit did it then	20:32
	and will surely do it again.	20:33
	God is still in charge	20:36
	and will reveal to us a new Heaven	20:39
	and a new Earth where we can gather as one family able	20:41
	to love one another	20:45
	in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord of the whole creation.	20:47
	So be it.	20:52
	Thanks be to God.	20:53
	(lively organ music)	20:58

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Church without Walls" (May 13, 2001)

Description:

Sermon start time: 01:30. Sermon end time: 20:56.
Through the theme of breaking bread together, the preacher encourages listeners to welcome all people to the church. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: God is still in charge and will reveal to us a new heaven and a Earth where we can gather as one family able to love one another in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord of the Whole Creation

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4f47h80x

Date:

May 13, 2001

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Easter

Biblical Book:

John

Chapter and Verse:

John 13:31-35

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1067
ref10291_mkw
uachapelsermaud
duke:320901
dcrau001711
ark:/87924/r4f47h80x
0a21ad6d-f51c-4fe7-83fc-9619222c877c

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Church without Walls" (May 13, 2001)

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