William H. Willimon - "Immediately, They Followed" (January 24, 1988)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(peaceful organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Good morning and welcome to this service | 1:12 |
of worship in Duke Chapel. | 1:14 | |
We particularly welcome those of you who worship with us | 1:16 | |
in Duke Hospital on the closed circuit television system. | 1:19 | |
A couple of announcements: | 1:24 | |
We remind you that Doctor and Mrs. Travis' course, | 1:25 | |
Preparing For Marriage, continues each Sunday morning | 1:29 | |
at 9:45, and many of you would find | 1:33 | |
that course of great interest. | 1:36 | |
Also, on Wednesday of this week, | 1:39 | |
Becky Pippert, nationally known evangelist and writer, | 1:41 | |
will be on the Duke campus at noon and at 7:30, | 1:46 | |
speaking on evangelical women's issues. | 1:51 | |
And we invite your attendance to hear Miss Pippert. | 1:55 | |
We're glad you're here this morning. | 2:00 | |
Let us continue our worship. | 2:02 | |
(peaceful choral music) | 2:19 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 3:30 | |
(harmonious organ and choral music) | 4:21 | |
- | When we gather to praise God, | 7:53 |
we remember that we are a people who have preferred | 7:55 | |
our own will's to the Lord's. | 7:58 | |
Accepting God's power to become new persons in Christ, | 8:01 | |
let us confess our sins before God and one another. | 8:06 | |
Congregation | Have mercy upon us, oh God, | 8:23 |
according to thy loving kindness; | 8:26 | |
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, | 8:28 | |
blot out our transgressions; | 8:32 | |
wash us thoroughly from our inequities, | 8:34 | |
and cleanse us from our sins. | 8:37 | |
For we acknowledge our transgressions | 8:40 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 8:42 | |
Create in us clean hearts, oh God, | 8:45 | |
and renew a right spirit within us, | 8:48 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 8:51 | |
- | Hear the Good News! | 8:56 |
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. | 8:58 | |
That is God's own proof of his love toward us. | 9:01 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. | 9:05 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 9:09 | |
- | Let us pray. | 9:19 |
Congregation | Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 9:22 |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 9:25 | |
so that as the Word is read and proclaimed, | 9:28 | |
we might hear, our faith might be strengthened, | 9:31 | |
and our determination renewed to follow you, amen. | 9:34 | |
The first lesson is taken from the Book of Jonah: | 9:40 | |
Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, | 9:45 | |
saying, "Arise! | 9:48 | |
"Go to Nineveh, that great city, | 9:51 | |
"and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." | 9:53 | |
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh | 9:57 | |
according to the Word of the Lord. | 9:59 | |
Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, | 10:02 | |
three-days journey in breadth. | 10:05 | |
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. | 10:08 | |
And he cried, "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" | 10:13 | |
And the people of Nineveh believed God. | 10:19 | |
They proclaimed a fast, and put on sack cloth | 10:22 | |
from the greatest of them to the least of them. | 10:25 | |
When God saw what they did, how they turned | 10:29 | |
from their evil way, God repented of the evil | 10:32 | |
which He said He would do to them, and did not do it. | 10:35 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 10:40 | |
- | Please stand as we read together responsively: | 10:50 |
For God alone my soul waits in silence. | 11:00 | |
Congregation | From him comes my salvation. | 11:04 |
- | He only is my rock, my salvation, my fortress. | 11:07 |
Congregation | I shall not be greatly moved. | 11:11 |
- | For God alone my soul waits in silence. | 11:14 |
Congregation | My hope is from him. | 11:17 |
- | He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. | 11:20 |
Congregation | I shall not be shaken. | 11:24 |
- | On God rests my deliverance and my honor. | 11:27 |
Congregation | My mighty rock, my refuge is God. | 11:30 |
- | Trust in Him at all times, oh people. | 11:34 |
Congregation | Pour out your heart before him. | 11:37 |
God is a refuge for us. | 11:40 | |
- | Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this. | 11:43 |
Congregation | That the power belongs to God. | 11:47 |
- | And that to thee, oh Lord belongs steadfast love. | 11:49 |
Congregation | For you will render a man | 11:54 |
according to his work. | 11:56 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 11:58 | |
(harmonious organ and choral music) | 12:07 | |
(gentle organ music) | 13:21 | |
(peaceful organ and choral music) | 13:27 | |
- | The Gospel lesson this morning | 15:15 |
is taken from the Book of Mark: | 15:17 | |
Now after John was arrested, | 15:21 | |
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God | 15:24 | |
and saying, "The time is fulfilled | 15:28 | |
"and the Kingdom of God is at hand! | 15:31 | |
"Repent, and believe in the Gospel." | 15:34 | |
And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, | 15:37 | |
he saw Simon, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, | 15:40 | |
casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen. | 15:44 | |
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, | 15:48 | |
"and I will make you become fishers of people." | 15:51 | |
And immediately they left their nets and followed him. | 15:54 | |
And going on a little farther, he saw James, | 15:58 | |
the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, | 16:01 | |
who were in their boat mending the nets. | 16:04 | |
And immediately he called to them. | 16:07 | |
And they left their father Zebedee | 16:10 | |
in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him. | 16:12 | |
Here ends the reading of the Gospel. | 16:16 | |
- | This is the sort of text | 16:29 |
which preachers love. | 16:31 | |
This snippet of a story about the calling | 16:34 | |
of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, | 16:37 | |
which occurs in the First Chapter of Mark's Gospel. | 16:40 | |
And passing along by the Sea of Galilee | 16:45 | |
he saw Simon and Andrew casting their net into the sea, | 16:47 | |
for they were fisherman, and Jesus said to them, | 16:51 | |
"Follow me, | 16:55 | |
"and I will make you become fishers of people." | 16:56 | |
And immediately they left their nets and they followed him. | 16:59 | |
Now, you may well wonder why preachers | 17:04 | |
should love such a story, and love such a text. | 17:06 | |
It's lean, it's sparse, | 17:10 | |
it's virtually no detail. | 17:13 | |
Jesus says, "Follow me." | 17:16 | |
And immediately they follow. | 17:19 | |
How typical is this text of Mark's Gospel. | 17:22 | |
There's almost no detail, no dramatic coloring, | 17:25 | |
no narrative subtlety. | 17:29 | |
And you might be surprised, | 17:34 | |
that is exactly why preachers love it. | 17:35 | |
Because without detail or coloring or plot, | 17:38 | |
there is so much empty space left | 17:41 | |
for the creative preacher to fill in. | 17:43 | |
Because you know there has to be more here | 17:47 | |
than the way Mark tells it. | 17:50 | |
Two fisherman, Jesus, follow me, case closed. | 17:53 | |
Biblical scholars call this technique, | 17:57 | |
particularly as it occurs in Mark, telescoping. | 18:01 | |
Probably, they say, Mark has telescoped events | 18:07 | |
that took place over days, even weeks, | 18:10 | |
into just a moment of narrative. | 18:14 | |
The probable hours which Jesus spent | 18:17 | |
discussing discipleship with these people, | 18:21 | |
countering their reservations. | 18:25 | |
The debate that took place among themselves | 18:29 | |
as they gradually came to a decision to sign up | 18:32 | |
with the Jesus Movement and to become disciples, | 18:35 | |
all of that is omitted, | 18:38 | |
telescoped into just a few verses. It's just an outline. | 18:41 | |
It's a sketch at best, | 18:45 | |
a piece of lousy narrative art at worst. | 18:49 | |
Tell us what you did at school today, dear? | 18:55 | |
Well, the bell rang, I went in, | 18:58 | |
the bell rang, I came out. | 19:02 | |
Tell us about your expedition in the Gaul, General Caesar. | 19:07 | |
I came. | 19:12 | |
I saw. | 19:13 | |
I conquered. | 19:14 | |
Flaubert's Madame Bovary, as told in a freshman, | 19:17 | |
high school freshman book report: | 19:21 | |
There was this woman, she lived in France. | 19:24 | |
She wasn't happy; she met a man; she still wasn't happy. | 19:26 | |
She met another man; she wasn't happy. | 19:29 | |
She had a baby; she drank poison; she died. | 19:31 | |
I think this was a very good book. | 19:34 | |
(congregation laughing) | 19:36 | |
Well, I was the sort of student who, | 19:38 | |
when told to draw a picture of a dog, | 19:40 | |
I drew a picture of a dog with a little boy | 19:44 | |
on the end of the leash, and a tree, | 19:48 | |
and a sun over the tree, and four balloons | 19:51 | |
over the little boy, and a daisy. | 19:53 | |
In my last church, a couple of parishioners | 19:58 | |
were discussing my preaching, and one of the parishioners | 20:00 | |
said, "I think sometimes our preacher tends | 20:04 | |
"to embellish things just a bit." | 20:07 | |
"Yeah, and he lies, too!" | 20:11 | |
Said the other one. | 20:12 | |
(congregation laughing) | ||
Well, this is the mark of creative homiletics. | 20:15 | |
A friend of mine, Stuart Henry, accuses me of this. | 20:20 | |
He said, "I can hand you a couple of wilted larkspur, | 20:22 | |
"and in your hands it becomes a riot of delphinium!" | 20:25 | |
You think I'm going to leave this text alone? | 20:30 | |
With just a couple of fishermen, Jesus, | 20:35 | |
follow me, you know it couldn't have happened like that. | 20:38 | |
It was a bright, cloudless day in Galilee. | 20:43 | |
The waves were gently lapping upon the shore, | 20:47 | |
surging in, surging out. | 20:50 | |
The midday sun was arched in the heavens, | 20:52 | |
beating down upon the tanned backs | 20:55 | |
of two brown-skinned fishermen, | 20:58 | |
casting down hot bright rays on the beach. | 21:01 | |
The fishermen worked knee deep in the water, | 21:05 | |
toiling over their nets. | 21:08 | |
You see, we're on, | 21:12 | |
we're off and running on a sermon | 21:14 | |
about the romance of the fishing industry in ancient Israel. | 21:16 | |
Think about what Mark could've done | 21:20 | |
with a good course in creative writing, | 21:22 | |
or even the freshman composition course at Duke. | 21:23 | |
Suddenly one of them stands upright. | 21:27 | |
He shades his eyes from the sun, | 21:30 | |
and he looks toward the bank, | 21:32 | |
and there on the bank stands a lone, enigmatic figure. | 21:33 | |
The figure on the bank calls out, "Follow me!" | 21:38 | |
Well, of course we're not so interested | 21:44 | |
in filling in geographical or artistic detail. | 21:46 | |
More than likely, what we would like to fill in, | 21:50 | |
in this terse account by Mark of the Calling | 21:53 | |
of Disciples, more than likely what we would like | 21:57 | |
to fill in is psychological detail. | 22:00 | |
Where you see, Mark tells us virtually nothing | 22:04 | |
of Simon and Andrew, James and John. | 22:07 | |
There is no character development. | 22:09 | |
No interiority. | 22:13 | |
And we wonder, what inner psychological dynamics | 22:17 | |
might have motivated these people to such a decision. | 22:21 | |
We wonder what hierarchy of psychic need | 22:26 | |
accounts for their response to Jesus, we wonder. | 22:30 | |
Perhaps there was sibling rivalry between the two brothers. | 22:35 | |
Simon: Simon must have been older. | 22:40 | |
Andrew always resented him. | 22:44 | |
He was tired of being treated always as little brother. | 22:46 | |
Always being second, see, Mark introduces him | 22:50 | |
as Andrew, the brother of Simon. | 22:53 | |
He was fed up with it. | 22:57 | |
Here comes little what's his name. | 22:59 | |
You know, the brother of Simon. | 23:01 | |
But when Jesus spoke, the tragic differences | 23:04 | |
between these two brothers were healed. | 23:06 | |
Or, James was searching for something in his life, | 23:11 | |
a sense of meaning, of purpose. | 23:17 | |
Fishing was fine, but was it an appropriate vocation | 23:20 | |
for someone of his intelligence and abilities? | 23:23 | |
Mending the nets, always mending the nets. | 23:27 | |
He was sick of it! | 23:30 | |
He reached out in life for something more. | 23:31 | |
For fulfillment, and here came Jesus, and he spoke, | 23:34 | |
"Follow me," and he was born again, | 23:38 | |
and he went on to an outstanding evangelistic ministry. | 23:40 | |
And yet you know that there are limits | 23:47 | |
to what even a creative preacher can do with this story. | 23:51 | |
For all of that bit about tensions in the family | 23:57 | |
and searching for something more, | 23:59 | |
well, it all coulda been true. | 24:02 | |
But don't you find it interesting that Mark appears | 24:06 | |
to care less? | 24:09 | |
In about just five verses, | 24:13 | |
Mark disposes of an account of how these four fishermen | 24:16 | |
drop everything, | 24:22 | |
and follow after Jesus on the basis | 24:25 | |
of less than a dozen word invitation. | 24:27 | |
Years ago, I remember seeing a film | 24:33 | |
by the Italian Marxist director, Paulo Pasolini, | 24:36 | |
entitled: The Gospel of Saint Matthew. | 24:41 | |
It was kind of a landmark in cinema verite. | 24:43 | |
Now, most biblical films are of the Charlton Heston, | 24:48 | |
Troy Donahue, Cecil B. DeMille variety, | 24:51 | |
with everything done in pastels and this blond-headed Jesus, | 24:54 | |
and dozens of extras. | 24:59 | |
But Pasolini, instead chose to do a film exclusively | 25:02 | |
in black and white with ordinary, everyday people | 25:06 | |
off the streets. | 25:10 | |
This Marxist movie-maker took the Bible literally. | 25:13 | |
He said, "I will make a movie and tell | 25:17 | |
"it just like the way it is written. | 25:19 | |
"The folk around Jesus were simple, straight-forward folk, | 25:23 | |
"and I will show them with Jesus." | 25:26 | |
I think, for me, the most stunning part of the film | 25:31 | |
was the scene of the Calling of the Disciples. | 25:35 | |
A dark figure of Jesus moves down a dusty Galilean road, | 25:39 | |
he sees some fisher folk toiling over their nets. | 25:43 | |
And he calls out, just the way it's written here, | 25:46 | |
"Follow me!" | 25:49 | |
There is silence. | 25:53 | |
They stare rather dumbly at Jesus, | 25:54 | |
and then befuddledly at one another. | 25:56 | |
What was that he said, they seemed to say to one another. | 25:59 | |
And then they just drop what they're doing | 26:02 | |
and they follow after Jesus, who has already moved down | 26:04 | |
beyond them, down the road to another village. | 26:07 | |
And I remember wondering then, I wondered, | 26:11 | |
could it have happened just like that? | 26:14 | |
Just a word from someone they had | 26:18 | |
hardly gotten a glimpse of? | 26:21 | |
Could they have left all and followed Jesus | 26:24 | |
on the basis of a simple: | 26:28 | |
Follow me. | 26:31 | |
And a promise: | 26:33 | |
And I will teach you how to catch people. | 26:36 | |
Could this sort of thing happen just the way Mark tells it? | 26:41 | |
You see, we're apt to fill in the blanks, | 26:46 | |
speculate on motives, possible psychological dynamics. | 26:49 | |
Not necessarily because we are so creative, | 26:55 | |
but because we are so inherently evasive. | 27:00 | |
In our wildest imaginations, most of us cannot imagine | 27:06 | |
that it is possible to leave everything | 27:12 | |
and follow on the basis of a simple invitation | 27:14 | |
and a promise. | 27:17 | |
We are not simple, taciturn, | 27:20 | |
uncomplicated fisher folk like Simon, Andrew, | 27:23 | |
and James and John. | 27:26 | |
We are complex, educated modern people. | 27:29 | |
People with responsibilities, | 27:33 | |
people with complications in life. | 27:34 | |
We are not apt to throw away everything | 27:38 | |
and run off after some itinerate preacher | 27:41 | |
who announces, "That the time is fulfilled! | 27:43 | |
"And the Kingdom of God is now!" | 27:46 | |
No, we're apt to have discussions. | 27:50 | |
We will weigh all the possible options. | 27:53 | |
We will do research, clarify our values, | 27:55 | |
call for an objective professional opinion. | 28:00 | |
We will have therapy to be sure. | 28:04 | |
If we are responding out of a careful weighing of the facts | 28:07 | |
or only out of our own inner psychological turmoil. | 28:10 | |
Out of our poor relationship with our parents, | 28:15 | |
or sibling rivalry. | 28:17 | |
We have spent too many years educating you | 28:20 | |
to be rational, balanced, well-adjusted people | 28:24 | |
to have you change direction of your life | 28:29 | |
on the basis of a mere impulse! | 28:31 | |
And of course, the trouble is that once you do that, | 28:36 | |
Jesus has already moved on to another town; you missed it. | 28:40 | |
He may not come this way again. | 28:47 | |
But at least we have not behaved impulsively, | 28:50 | |
made decisions out of our passion | 28:54 | |
rather than out of our reason. | 28:57 | |
Back to the nets. | 29:00 | |
Education, sophistication, tends to do that | 29:03 | |
to people, I suppose. | 29:06 | |
But what if, as we said before, | 29:09 | |
what if the Calling of the Disciples | 29:11 | |
took place exactly the way Mark tells it? | 29:15 | |
What if it takes place exactly that way today? | 29:18 | |
What if following Jesus was an act of impulse? | 29:23 | |
A decision of the moment, | 29:28 | |
based upon some mysterious act of passion, | 29:30 | |
rather than a careful weighing of the facts. | 29:33 | |
And immediately they left their nets; they followed. | 29:38 | |
And immediately he called them, | 29:42 | |
and they left their father and they followed, immediately. | 29:43 | |
Perhaps Mark is saying in this terse, | 29:50 | |
staccato account | 29:54 | |
that this is the only way Jesus | 29:57 | |
ever gets followed by anybody: | 29:59 | |
As an act of impulse, without all the facts. | 30:02 | |
Stumbling after an enigmatic figure | 30:07 | |
whom you hardly even know, much less where he's going. | 30:09 | |
For I call to your attention that our text begins today | 30:17 | |
with the statement: | 30:21 | |
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee | 30:23 | |
preaching the Gospel of God. | 30:28 | |
You see what Mark has done? | 30:32 | |
The story begins with just a subtle little side comment. | 30:35 | |
A mere mention of the arrest of John the Baptist. | 30:40 | |
The mission that Jesus calls people to is full of peril. | 30:45 | |
John, the forerunner of Jesus, has been arrested. | 30:50 | |
In a short time his head will be on the platter | 30:55 | |
at one of the King's parties. | 30:57 | |
And if they can do that to John, | 31:00 | |
and if they can do that to Jesus, | 31:02 | |
who knows what they may do to his disciples. | 31:04 | |
You'd better think this thing over again. | 31:12 | |
"If you want to follow Jesus," | 31:17 | |
remarked the Catholic activist priest Berrigan, | 31:19 | |
who preached, by the way, from this pulpit, | 31:23 | |
"If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood." | 31:26 | |
That's what he was calling them to. | 31:32 | |
It was the cost of discipleship. | 31:35 | |
They're getting ready to murder John, | 31:38 | |
and they will do the same to this one | 31:41 | |
who bids us to follow. | 31:43 | |
And reason always provides plenty of reasons | 31:46 | |
to avoid this cost. | 31:51 | |
What reasonable, careful, | 31:54 | |
intelligent person would follow? | 31:57 | |
Except, | 32:00 | |
as impulse. | 32:02 | |
I remember John Vannorsdall, who will preach | 32:07 | |
at the Baccalaureate this year, | 32:08 | |
preaching from this pulpit on this text. | 32:10 | |
And meditating upon these fishermen leaving their nets, | 32:14 | |
and their father, Zebedee, and following. | 32:17 | |
He made a comment: | 32:21 | |
Jesus must've broken the hearts | 32:24 | |
of many a Jewish and Roman family. | 32:26 | |
As a pastor, it almost never fails, | 32:35 | |
when someone, say some student, | 32:38 | |
comes by to tell me that he or she | 32:40 | |
has decided to do something for God; | 32:44 | |
to follow, to give his life to something or someone, | 32:47 | |
some great undertaking which is felt | 32:52 | |
to be divinely ordained, | 32:53 | |
it just never fails, among the first words | 32:56 | |
the person says are: | 32:59 | |
I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but... | 33:02 | |
They know. | 33:08 | |
This past week I received a letter from a Duke graduate. | 33:11 | |
I know him only because he spent an hour or so with me | 33:16 | |
trying to decide whether or not he ought | 33:19 | |
to go into seminary or law school or into business. | 33:21 | |
Now he spent a year since graduation thinking it all over, | 33:28 | |
and he sent me this letter. | 33:31 | |
And the letter consisted of about 21 questions | 33:33 | |
that he wants me to think about and then answer, | 33:37 | |
before he makes a decision. | 33:40 | |
Questions, like: How much free time do pastors have? | 33:42 | |
What is the average salary of the American pastor? | 33:48 | |
Do you think you can still stay a human being | 33:52 | |
and be a pastor? | 33:54 | |
Questions, more questions than on the GRE. | 33:55 | |
It'll take me longer to complete this letter! | 33:58 | |
But only half-crazed people go out and stake their lives | 34:02 | |
on impulse, we've spent years teaching you that. | 34:06 | |
She was a graduate of two | 34:13 | |
of this country's finest medical schools. | 34:14 | |
She could've had a lucrative practice, | 34:20 | |
but she went as medical missionary to Africa. | 34:22 | |
And I was dying to know | 34:28 | |
what act of reason had led her to this decision, | 34:30 | |
and I asked her, and she responded: | 34:35 | |
I just had this feeling that | 34:39 | |
it was what God wanted me to do with my life. | 34:40 | |
That's it? | 34:45 | |
Just a feeling, an impulse? | 34:47 | |
Jesus preached, the time is fulfilled. | 34:52 | |
The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. | 34:55 | |
Repent, believe, follow! | 34:59 | |
The time is fulfilled. | 35:02 | |
In the New Testament there are at least two Greek words | 35:04 | |
used for what we call, time. | 35:08 | |
First of all there is: chronos, | 35:11 | |
from which we get chronology, time, | 35:16 | |
as years, months, calendars, clocks, | 35:20 | |
the steady tick-tock of predictable time. | 35:23 | |
And that's where most of us spend our lives, | 35:27 | |
mired down in chronos. | 35:30 | |
Hitting the books, mending the nets, | 35:33 | |
tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. | 35:35 | |
And yet there is another word used for time: | 35:41 | |
It is kairos, | 35:45 | |
which means special time. | 35:47 | |
The right time. | 35:52 | |
When time is fulfilled, | 35:54 | |
and you see your whole life before you, | 35:56 | |
caught up in one single moment, | 36:00 | |
and everything hinges on whether you say yes | 36:02 | |
or whether you say, no! | 36:05 | |
The preacher says, | 36:11 | |
the time | 36:14 | |
is fulfilled. | 36:16 | |
The Kingdom of God is now. | 36:18 | |
Repent! | 36:21 | |
Believe! | 36:23 | |
Follow me! | 36:25 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 36:36 | |
(harmonious organ and choral music) | 37:15 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 40:10 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 40:12 |
- | Let us pray. | 40:14 |
Jesus said, "Whoever among you wants to be great | 40:25 | |
"must become a servant of all." | 40:30 | |
For the son of man himself has not come to be served, | 40:34 | |
but to served, and to give his life | 40:38 | |
to set many others free. | 40:42 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 40:45 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 40:47 | |
Jesus said, "Unless you turn and become like little children | 40:53 | |
"you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." | 40:58 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 41:02 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 41:05 | |
Jesus said, | 41:09 | |
"You must love your enemies and do good | 41:11 | |
"without expecting any return. | 41:14 | |
"So will you be children of the most high. | 41:17 | |
"Because God indeed is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. | 41:20 | |
"Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate." | 41:26 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 41:30 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 41:33 | |
Jesus said, "This is my Father's glory, | 41:37 | |
"that you may bear fruit in plenty, | 41:40 | |
"and so be my Disciples. | 41:42 | |
"If you dwell in me as I dwell in you, | 41:45 | |
"you will bear much fruit. | 41:49 | |
"For apart from me you can do nothing." | 41:52 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 41:56 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 41:58 | |
Jesus said, | 42:02 | |
"There is no greater love than this, | 42:04 | |
"that you should lay down your life for your friends. | 42:07 | |
"This is my Commandment: | 42:11 | |
"Love one another as I have loved you." | 42:13 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 42:18 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 42:20 | |
Jesus said, | 42:24 | |
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. | 42:26 | |
"You then are to go and make Disciples of all the nations, | 42:31 | |
"and baptize them in the name | 42:35 | |
"of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. | 42:37 | |
"Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. | 42:41 | |
"And remember, I am with you always, | 42:45 | |
"even to the end of the world." | 42:49 | |
Master, we hear your call. | 42:52 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 42:54 | |
Amen. | 42:58 | |
And now, in response to Jesus' call | 43:02 | |
to be disciples of Christ, | 43:04 | |
let us offer with grateful hearts | 43:06 | |
our gifts and ourselves unto God. | 43:08 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 43:13 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 45:19 | |
♪ Praising the Lord ♪ | 45:31 | |
♪ Praising the Lord ♪ | 45:35 | |
♪ Praising the Lord ♪ | 45:38 | |
♪ Praise God in His sanctuary ♪ | 45:41 | |
♪ Praise Him in the places ♪ | 45:48 | |
♪ Praise Him praise him ♪ | 45:52 | |
♪ Praise Him according to His level of greatness ♪ | 45:58 | |
♪ Praise Him the sound of the trumpets ♪ | 46:05 | |
♪ With the sound of the trumpets ♪ | 46:09 | |
(vibrant organ music) | 46:14 | |
(harmonious orchestral and choral music) | 46:27 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 49:45 | |
(harmonious organ and choral music) | 50:08 | |
- | Almighty God, giver of all life, | 51:13 |
in hearing your call to be followers of Christ, | 51:15 | |
we your unworthy servants do give thee most humble | 51:19 | |
and hearty thanks for all thy goodness | 51:22 | |
and loving kindness to us, | 51:24 | |
and to all men and women. | 51:26 | |
We bless thee for our creation, preservation, | 51:29 | |
and for all the blessings of this life, | 51:31 | |
but above all for thy most gracious love | 51:34 | |
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, | 51:37 | |
who taught us to pray: | 51:41 | |
Congregation | Our Father, who art in heaven, | 51:43 |
hallowed be thy name. | 51:45 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 51:47 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 51:50 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 51:52 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 51:54 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 51:57 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 52:00 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, | 52:04 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 52:07 | |
(peaceful organ music) | 52:12 | |
(harmonious organ and choral music) | 52:54 | |
- | And now may the grace of our Lord | 55:57 |
and savior, Jesus Christ, the love of God, | 55:59 | |
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 56:02 | |
be with you all now, and always. | 56:04 | |
(peaceful choral music) | 56:14 | |
(vibrant organ music) | 57:32 |
Item Info
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund