William H. Willimon - "Patience" (December 17, 1989)

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-	They are printed in your bulletins.	0:00
	And now, let us continue our worship.	0:02
	(choir singing)	0:17
	(lively organ music)	1:06
	(congregation singing)	1:40
-	Stir up your power, oh Lord,	6:54
	and with great might, come among us.	6:57
	And because we are sorely hindered by our sins,	7:00
	let Your bountiful grace and mercy speedily	7:04
	help and deliver us,	7:07
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord,	7:09
	to whom with You and the Holy Spirit	7:11
	be honor and glory now and forever, amen.	7:14
-	Let us pray.	7:31
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God.	7:36
All	By the power of Your Holy Spirit	7:40
	so that commit and proclaims	7:43
	we might more patiently wait	7:47
	on your Advent among us.	7:49
	Amen.	7:52
-	The first lesson is taken from the book of Isaiah.	7:56
	The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,	8:01
	the desert shall rejoice and blossom,	8:06
	like the crocus, it shall blossom abundantly	8:10
	and rejoice with joy and singing.	8:14
	The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,	8:18
	the majesty of Carmel and Sharon,	8:21
	they shall see the glory of the Lord,	8:25
	the majesty of our God.	8:29
	Strengthen the weak hands	8:32
	and make firm the feebled knees.	8:35
	Say to those who are of a fearful heart,	8:38
	be strong, fear not,	8:41
	behold your God will come with vengeance,	8:44
	with recompense of God, your God will come and save you.	8:49
	Then shall blind eyes be opened	8:55
	and deaf ears unstopped.	8:59
	Then shall those who are lame leap	9:02
	like a heart and mute tongues sing for joy	9:06
	for waters shall break forth in the wilderness	9:11
	and streams in the desert.	9:14
	The burning sand shall become a pool	9:18
	and the parched ground shall become springs of water.	9:21
	The haunt of jackals shall become a swamp	9:26
	and grass shall become reeds and rushes.	9:29
	A highway shall be there	9:33
	and it shall be called the Holy Way.	9:36
	The unclean shall not pass over it	9:39
	and fools shall not err therein.	9:43
	No lion shall be there,	9:47
	nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it.	9:50
	They shall not be found there.	9:55
	But the redeemed shall walk there.	9:58
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	10:02
-	Please stand as we read responsively Psalm 146	10:11
	beginning with verse five.	10:15
	Happy are those whose help is in the God of Jacob.	10:23
Congregation	Whose hope is in the Lord his God.	10:28
-	Who made heaven and Earth,	10:31
	the sea and all that is in them.	10:33
Congregation	Who keeps faith for ever,	10:37
	who executes justice for the oppressed,	10:39
	who gives food to the hungry.	10:42
All	The Lord sets the prisoners free.	10:44
Congregation	The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.	10:47
All	The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.	10:50
Congregation	The Lord loves the righteous.	10:54
All	The Lord watches over the sojourners.	10:57
Congregation	He upholds the widow and the fatherless,	11:00
	but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.	11:03
All	The Lord will reign forever,	11:06
	your God, oh Zion, from generation to generation.	11:09
Congregation	Praise the Lord.	11:13
	(lively organ music)	11:15
	(congregation singing)	11:24
-	The second lesson is taken from the letter of James.	12:25
	Be patient therefore my friends	12:32
	until the coming of the Lord	12:35
	just as the farmer waits	12:38
	for the precious fruit of the Earth,	12:40
	being patient over it until it receives	12:44
	the early and the late rain,	12:47
	so also you'll be patient.	12:51
	Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.	12:55
	Do not grumble, sisters and brothers	13:00
	against one another that you may not be judged.	13:03
	Behold, the judge is standing at the gates.	13:07
	As an example of suffering and patience, friends,	13:12
	take the prophets	13:16
	who spoke in the name of the Lord.	13:18
	This ends the reading of the second lesson.	13:22
	A reading from the gospel according to Matthew.	13:28
	Now John having heard in prison	13:33
	about the deeds of the Christ,	13:36
	sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus,	13:39
	are you the one who is to come	13:44
	or shall we look for another?	13:47
	And Jesus answered them,	13:50
	go and tell John what you hear and see.	13:52
	Those who are blind receive their sight	13:57
	and those who are lame walk,	14:02
	people with leprosy are cleansed	14:05
	and those who are deaf hear,	14:08
	the dead are raised up	14:12
	and to those who are poor,	14:15
	good news is preached	14:17
	and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.	14:20
	As they went away,	14:26
	Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John.	14:28
	Why did you go out into the wilderness	14:33
	to observe a reed shaken by the wind?	14:36
	Why then did you go out,	14:42
	to see someone clothed in soft raiment?	14:45
	Those who wear soft raiment are in royal palaces.	14:49
	Then why did you go out?	14:54
	To see a prophet?	14:58
	Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet,	15:00
	this is the one of whom it is written,	15:04
	I am sending a messenger before your face	15:08
	who shall prepare your way before you.	15:11
	Truly I say to you,	15:16
	among those born of women,	15:19
	there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist	15:21
	yet one who is least in the kingdom of heaven	15:26
	is greater than John.	15:29
	This ends the reading of the gospel.	15:33
	(lively organ music)	15:44
	(choir singing)	16:25
-	I begin this third Sunday in Advent preaching	20:09
	on Christian patience.	20:13
	Advent is the Christian season of waiting	20:16
	in expectancy and therefore it is the season of patience	20:21
	because what we really need most in life,	20:28
	we cannot have merely by wanting,	20:31
	it must come as a gift	20:35
	in God's own good time	20:38
	and today I will end my day in the chapel	20:41
	by performing a wedding	20:44
	of a couple who have patiently waited	20:46
	until they were past 30 before marriage.	20:48
	And yet who knows how long it will take	20:53
	for them to be truly married	20:55
	because marriage requires patience.	20:56
	So, what I'm doing is claiming a link	21:02
	between today's text from James,	21:04
	be patient until the coming of the Lord,	21:09
	the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the Earth	21:12
	being patient, you also be patient,	21:16
	establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord.	21:20
	I'm claiming a link	21:24
	between that Christian patience	21:26
	and the patience of marriage.	21:29
	James speaks of being patient for the Advent of Christ,	21:32
	not marriage but I see a connection.	21:37
	Now those of you who are married	21:42
	can surely testify that marriage requires patience	21:45
	because when you're married to someone,	21:49
	for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,	21:50
	you've got to be patient.	21:53
	We all have certain foibles,	21:55
	this may come as a shock to you	21:57
	but someone needs patience even to live with someone	21:59
	so generous and good hearted as I	22:02
	and I've been told by the person whom I married	22:05
	not to leave shoes in the middle of the bedroom floor.	22:08
	For 20 plus years I've been told this.	22:12
	It seems like a reasonable request	22:14
	and in principle I'm all for it	22:16
	but it doesn't seem to happen.	22:18
	So, patience is required.	22:20
	And one of the tough things about marriage	22:25
	is it takes time.	22:27
	And yet time is that which we modern people	22:31
	seem so unwilling to spend,	22:34
	with instant oatmeal and one-hour dry cleaning	22:38
	and overnight mail,	22:41
	we expect love to work the same way.	22:43
	We want what we want now.	22:47
	It takes only a few minutes to get married	22:52
	but any couple who've done it	22:55
	can testify that marriage involves a whole lifetime.	22:57
	Today the traditional engagement period	23:02
	appears to be passe for many couples.	23:05
	Most couples can't see the point of waiting	23:08
	through a long period of public anticipation before marriage	23:11
	and yet one of the good things	23:17
	about the old engagement period	23:18
	was that it had a way of forcing a couple	23:21
	to experience one of the toughest parts	23:24
	about marriage upfront,	23:26
	namely the demand to wait,	23:29
	it told them during these weeks of public anticipation,	23:33
	these weeks of having and yet not completely having	23:37
	that in a way their whole marriage	23:42
	was going to be like that.	23:43
	That marital joy is like trust	23:45
	and compatibility and mutuality	23:48
	cannot be had instantly on demand	23:51
	as if merely wanting something	23:55
	were enough to have it	23:57
	but now many couples have been living together,	23:59
	sharing finances and sex long before the wedding	24:02
	and so, they've missed that slow building moment	24:05
	by moment anticipation which characterizes true intimacy,	24:10
	not just an engagement, but throughout marriage.	24:16
	They've shared an apartment,	24:20
	shared sex, the phone bill	24:22
	but they haven't had marriage	24:24
	because that, that takes time.	24:26
	And I see a connection here	24:30
	with our modern impatience over Christmas.	24:33
	This year they had the Raleigh Christmas Parade	24:38
	a week before Thanksgiving even.	24:40
	That the days of slow growing anticipation,	24:44
	which once characterized preparation for Christmas	24:48
	have been obliterated	24:52
	and the yearly stampede to generate Christmas cheer	24:53
	even before the end of November	24:57
	and so that by the end of December,	25:01
	we're sick of Christmas	25:04
	and gorged as we are on yuletide jingles	25:06
	and seasonal sentimentality.	25:09
	Congregations impatiently endure the singing	25:12
	of all those old Advent hymns on Sunday,	25:16
	just dying to get on with the business of Christmas.	25:19
	We need a little Christmas right this very minute,	25:23
	that's what we want to sing, not come,	25:26
	oh come, Immanuel, come thou long expected Jesus.	25:28
	And so, the result is that by Christmas,	25:34
	we're sick of Christmas.	25:36
	But we really haven't had Christmas.	25:38
	What we've had is some self-generated,	25:41
	commercially induced Christmas on-demand facsimile	25:43
	but not Christmas	25:47
	'cause you got to wait for Christmas	25:48
	because Christmas involves not how we're feeling inside	25:51
	at the moment but Immanuel,	25:55
	God coming to us.	25:58
	And as James says that takes time.	26:00
	And we're so impatient I think in marriage	26:03
	or in Advent perhaps because patience is a virtue	26:06
	which really goes against the grain	26:11
	of the modern world,	26:14
	the modern mentality	26:16
	because it could be argued that the main project	26:18
	of the modern age	26:21
	is to take control of our lives,	26:23
	to shape and to build and to solve	26:26
	and to achieve.	26:29
	We don't know much about patience	26:31
	because patience is a virtue	26:34
	that you have to learn by waiting on somebody else	26:36
	whereas the modern ideal	26:39
	is to fashion a life free of messy entanglements	26:41
	with other people, a life that is such	26:45
	that we're free from the necessity	26:48
	to wait on anybody.	26:51
	For instance, one of the main charms	26:53
	of modern affluence	26:56
	is that it frees us from having to wait	26:58
	so you can have transportation and meals	27:01
	and clean clothes and entertainment	27:04
	when you want them, now.	27:07
	The other day I gave a ride to a man	27:10
	who spends his day working with his hands,	27:12
	hard work which unfortunately does not earn him enough	27:15
	to buy an automobile.	27:19
	And he told me that the way he figures it,	27:21
	he spends about three to four hours of every day	27:23
	waiting on a bus or waiting on someone	27:27
	to take him to or from his home.	27:30
	And when I expressed dismay at this he said,	27:33
	well, it's not so bad.	27:37
	It gives me time to think.	27:39
	Of course because I am more affluent,	27:41
	that means I have more control over my time.	27:44
	I don't have to wait	27:48
	or at least I have the illusion that I have more control	27:50
	over my time though as he was talking,	27:53
	I noted that I doubt	27:55
	that I could find three hours in my day to think.	27:56
	The modern world has given us control.	28:00
	The means to control the world,	28:04
	to hold back floods, to cure disease,	28:07
	to predict the weather, to forecast the future.	28:10
	Or at least it has given us the illusion	28:14
	that we have control	28:16
	and most of these modern devices arose out of impatience	28:18
	because somebody somewhere just got fed up	28:22
	with patiently enduring the crippling effects	28:25
	of polio or the ravages of unchecked nature.	28:28
	When you think about it,	28:32
	our whole modern world was built on impatience.	28:33
	And yet it's there that we have a problem	28:38
	with something like marriage or God.	28:40
	Because marriage involves the relinquishment	28:44
	of control because it involves giving up yourself	28:48
	to another and when you do that,	28:53
	we're talking risk, high risk.	28:56
	You give your life to somebody else,	28:59
	for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,	29:01
	'til death and you don't know what might happen.	29:03
	I mean, you hope that you'll grow closer together,	29:07
	day by day but the problem	29:09
	is you have absolutely no guarantee of that.	29:11
	People change, they get sick,	29:14
	they become addicted, they become poor, they get worse.	29:17
	Who knows where you'll be.	29:21
	Who knows who you'll be at 64.	29:24
	You can't really take charge,	29:28
	control, you can't force, you can't forecast	29:30
	or all those other means	29:33
	whereby we modern people give ourselves the impression	29:34
	that the future is really of our sole determination.	29:38
	So, what you can do in marriage	29:43
	is to be patient	29:46
	like a farmer waiting for seed to grow.	29:47
	You can be patient with somebody else.	29:51
	You can take time, you can allow time	29:54
	for things to work out,	29:57
	let the other person grow and change	29:59
	in ways that keep marriage interesting	30:02
	and adventuresome precisely because the changes	30:06
	cannot be predicted.	30:10
	I know as a pastor I've seen people	30:12
	in their marriage at a time	30:14
	when I thought the best thing they could do	30:17
	was to do absolutely nothing.	30:19
	I mean, just wait, be patient	30:22
	and see what happen	30:25
	because sometimes that periodic marital unhappiness	30:26
	that we feel from time to time	30:30
	is really discomfort that arises	30:32
	when you're moving from one stage of life to the next	30:35
	or when the other person is just regrouping.	30:39
	In other words, when our not-so-great present	30:42
	is being transformed into some more interesting future.	30:44
	Then about the best thing you can do	30:48
	is to be patient.	30:50
	And patience in marriage arises	30:53
	out of the conviction that the other person	30:57
	is a mystery to be enjoyed,	31:00
	rather than a problem for you to solve.	31:02
	That the future as unpredictable it is,	31:06
	is bearable even when it is difficult	31:09
	if we bear it together.	31:14
	Marriage and the patience it requires	31:18
	is an everyday, ordinary witness	31:21
	that you don't have to have total control over your life	31:24
	in order to live life well.	31:28
	Control which is after all probably only an illusion anyway.	31:31
	And of course if you get good enough	31:36
	at being patient in marriage	31:38
	with a husband or a wife,	31:40
	then we'll let you have children	31:43
	which will really teach you a thing or two about patience	31:45
	because maybe you thought you brought children	31:50
	into the world so that you could quote bring them up	31:51
	in the right sort of way	31:55
	but then some time while you're being a parent,	31:58
	you wake up and discover	32:00
	that you're really totally out of control,	32:02
	that their lives, their future	32:05
	is not something that you plan and manage	32:08
	and control and predict,	32:11
	it is not of your devising, so what do you do?	32:12
	You have to patient.	32:16
	You have to wait.	32:18
	Let them grow up in their own good time.	32:20
	I suppose a lot of well-intentioned parenting	32:24
	has gone awry precisely because determined parents	32:28
	did way too much	32:32
	or maybe they did way too little	32:35
	which is sometimes just another parental strategy	32:36
	for determining your children's lives	32:39
	but that rather than just be patient	32:41
	and just wait,	32:45
	I know as a pastor I wish I had a dollar	32:47
	for every older parent	32:49
	that I've heard tell about years of struggle	32:52
	with some difficult child,	32:56
	you're trying this strategy and then that strategy	32:58
	only to have the child show up at 25 or 30	33:01
	as a really interesting charming human being	33:05
	for which the parent can take absolutely no credit.	33:09
	Patience.	33:13
	Okay, so what does any of that have to do with waiting?	33:17
	Not just for our marriages to get right,	33:20
	but waiting on God to come	33:23
	and set the whole world right.	33:28
	I think it has to do with today's strange gospel lesson,	33:31
	for this third Sunday in Advent,	33:36
	a story deep in Matthew's gospel	33:38
	about the time when the John the Baptist,	33:42
	if you were here last week, you met him,	33:44
	John the Baptist, imprisoned by Herod,	33:46
	sent some of his people to ask Jesus	33:50
	this strange question,	33:53
	are you the one we've been waiting for	33:57
	or are we supposed to wait for somebody else?	34:00
	It's a strange question	34:04
	and quite strange to appear here	34:06
	only one week before Christmas.	34:08
	Are you the one for whom we've been waiting?	34:11
	But is the question so strange?	34:16
	Here was John, spent his whole life trying	34:19
	to get Israel prepared for the Advent of Messiah,	34:22
	the God-anointed one who is gonna come in	34:26
	and drive out those Romans	34:28
	and establish peace and justice and heal the sick	34:30
	and feed the hungry	34:34
	and establish the reign of God.	34:35
	At Jesus' baptism, John had put his money down	34:40
	on this young man from Nazareth,	34:44
	behold the lamb of God, John had proclaimed.	34:46
	Here in the flesh is Immanuel, God with us, Messiah.	34:49
	But now John was in jail	34:55
	and Jesus was running about Galilee doing everything	34:58
	except what John had expected.	35:01
	And John has doubts.	35:04
	We've been waiting for peace and justice	35:07
	and for God for thousands of years.	35:09
	Jesus, get on with it, says John.	35:13
	And I think John's problem in prison	35:18
	is our problem in Advent.	35:20
	For 2,000 years we've been waiting	35:23
	and waiting and waiting for God	35:26
	to just come down and put things right.	35:28
	And we wait to marry	35:32
	and we wait in marriage	35:34
	and we wait for children to grow	35:37
	and the farmer waits for seed to sprout from the ground	35:40
	and we wait for God to come	35:45
	and we get tired,	35:49
	we get cynical, we get exasperated,	35:51
	we get impatient.	35:53
	Is this marriage or surely there's something better.	35:56
	Is this my child	36:01
	or was I supposed to get someone else?	36:02
	Is this all there is?	36:05
	Is this God or should we be waiting for somebody else?	36:11
	Is God coming to us?	36:17
	If not, if we are left to our own devices,	36:21
	should we take matters in our own hands	36:27
	and do through our own devices	36:29
	that which God cannot or will not do for us?	36:30
	Patience in marriage arises	36:36
	from a conviction somewhere deep within us	36:41
	that it is better to wait on another	36:45
	than to force that one to be	36:49
	someone other	36:54
	than who that person is.	36:57
	That it is better to wait on another	37:01
	than to force that other one	37:04
	to be the one whom we demand	37:05
	because you see, if we did that,	37:08
	then the person our spouse eventually became	37:11
	would be no more than some sort of pale projection of us	37:14
	and what good would it do living with that kind of person.	37:19
	Patience in waiting for God	37:24
	to come into your life, into your world at Advent	37:27
	arises also from a conviction deep within us	37:32
	that it is better to wait on God	37:36
	than to force God to be the one whom we demand.	37:40
	Because if we did that,	37:45
	then the God who came to us	37:46
	would be no more than some idolatrous projection	37:49
	of all of our selfish desires	37:54
	and what good would that kind of God do us?	37:58
	Be patient, wait	38:03
	for the Lord	38:08
	is at hand.	38:10
	Amen.	38:12
	(lively organ music)	38:16
	(congregation singing)	38:56
-	The Lord be with you.	40:58
	(congregation mumbles)	41:00
-	Let us pray.	41:01
	Oh eternal God, mother and father to us all	41:13
	with whom nothing is impossible.	41:17
	In the hushed silence of thy sanctuary,	41:22
	we continue in our pilgrimage toward Bethlehem	41:24
	and the child who grew to be our king.	41:28
	We come as shepherds out of our curiosity,	41:33
	our loneliness, our longing to know thee,	41:36
	we come as wise men feeling like strangers	41:41
	looking in the wrong places,	41:44
	unsure of what we may encounter along the way.	41:48
	We come in response to the angels singing,	41:52
	having heard their song of peace,	41:55
	having been reminded of this great gift of love,	41:58
	we come as Mary and Joseph	42:03
	answering the call to obedience	42:06
	which requires us to give our very lives unto thee.	42:08
	Help us in these final days of preparation	42:13
	to rid ourselves of all that divides us from thee,	42:16
	to empty ourselves, oh God,	42:21
	in order that we may be filled.	42:25
	Hear us now as we wait before thee.	42:28
	We pray thee, gracious God	42:34
	to bless those for whom there is little joy	42:35
	in this season of joy,	42:39
	bless those who are aged and forlorn,	42:41
	for those who are paralyzed by a sense of uselessness.	42:45
	Bless those who have suffered loss	42:49
	and are acutely aware of their grief in this season.	42:52
	Bless those who are poor,	42:58
	who suffer not as much for their own sakes	43:00
	as for their longing to give	43:03
	what they cannot afford.	43:04
	Bless those who are ill	43:07
	and must spend this time of joy in pain.	43:09
	Bless those who are hungry	43:13
	and long to be filled,	43:15
	bless those who are far from home	43:18
	and especially those who have no home,	43:20
	lonely and forgotten among strangers.	43:23
	Bless those who await the fulfillment	43:27
	of long-awaited dreams.	43:31
	We beseech thee reconciling God,	43:33
	send thy spirit among all people this blessed season.	43:36
	Make this a time when those who have quarreled	43:41
	may be reconciled.	43:44
	Make this a time when those who have drifted apart	43:46
	will be together again.	43:50
	Make this a time when a vision of peace on Earth	43:53
	will be renewed within each of us	43:56
	and strives may be made towards sustaining that peace	43:58
	in the face of so many forces which oppose it.	44:02
	We thank thee, oh loving God,	44:07
	for the greatest and best gift of all,	44:09
	Jesus Christ our Lord	44:12
	that he took our common life upon him to be like us	44:15
	in order that we might be like him.	44:19
	May Christ be born again within the hearts	44:22
	of each of us	44:25
	as we await his coming patiently.	44:27
	This we ask for thy love's sake.	44:30
	Amen.	44:33
	As a forgiven and reconciled people,	44:37
	let us offer our gifts	44:41
	and ourselves unto God.	44:42
	Today's offering will be given	44:45
	to the Durham Emergency Energy Fund.	44:46
	(lively organ music)	44:53
	(choir singing)	45:25
	(lively organ music)	47:11
	♪ Gloria, gloria ♪	47:44
	♪ Gloria, gloria ♪	47:47
	♪ In excelsis Deo ♪	47:51
	♪ In excelsis Deo ♪	47:59
	♪ Gloria, Gloria ♪	48:06
	♪ Gloria, Gloria ♪	48:10
	♪ In excelsis Deo ♪	48:14
	♪ Gloria, Gloria ♪	48:25
	♪ In excelsis Deo ♪	48:29
	♪ Gloria in excelsis ♪	48:49
	♪ Gloria in excelsis ♪	48:52
	♪ Deo ♪	48:57
	♪ Gloria in excelsis ♪	49:01
	♪ Deo ♪	49:05
	♪ In excelsis ♪	49:13
	♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪	49:25
	(lively organ music)	49:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:08
	(congregation singing)	50:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:26
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:28
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:31
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	50:38
-	Oh God, how excellent is thy name in all the Earth.	50:51
	One age declares thy goodness to another	50:55
	and thy steadfast love is the mainstay of our lives.	50:58
	We thank thee for the mystery of our years	51:03
	and for the will to live,	51:05
	for the gift of patience and the rewards it brings,	51:07
	for the joy of giving	51:11
	and the privilege of receiving.	51:12
	Most of all, we thank thee for the gift	51:14
	of thy Son Jesus Christ	51:16
	who humbled himself to share in our humanity	51:18
	and who taught us to pray with confidence.	51:22
All	Our Father who art in heaven,	51:25
	hallowed be thy name,	51:28
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done	51:29
	on Earth as it in heaven.	51:32
	Give us this day our daily bread	51:35
	and forgive us our trespasses	51:37
	as we forgive those	51:39
	who trespass against us	51:40
	and lead us not into temptation	51:43
	but deliver us from evil	51:45
	for thine is the kingdom, the power	51:47
	and the glory forever and ever.	51:49
-	And now go forth in peace	51:55
	as we look froward to the coming of our Lord Jesus	51:56
	and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,	52:00
	the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	52:03
	be with you all now and forever more, amen.	52:05
	(lively organ music)	52:11
	(congregation sings)	52:31
	(tranquil organ music)	54:31
	(choir singing)	54:38
	(lively organ music)	55:33

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "Patience" (December 17, 1989)

Description:

Sermon start time: 20:09. Sermon end time: 38:13.
Preached during the season of Advent, this sermon speaks to the necessity of Christian patience. The preacher parallels the patience in waiting for God with the patience necessary in marriage, arguing that patience involves the relinquishment of control that brings true enjoyment of the other. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Patience in waiting for God to come into your life, into your world at Advent arises also from a conviction deep within us that it is better to wait on God than to force God to be the one whom we demand. Because if we did that, then the God who came to us would be no more than some idolatrous projection of all our selfish desires, and what good would that kind of God do us?”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4s46hn31

Date:

December 17, 1989

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Advent

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0161
ref8714_5su
uachapelsermaud
duke:321334
dcrmv001157
ark:/87924/r4s46hn31
bcfd60f9-1a50-4893-9ac1-c6f01211d6c2

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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William H. Willimon - "Patience" (December 17, 1989)

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Item Info

1. William H. Willimon - "Patience" (December 17, 1989)

Duke University Archives

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William H. Willimon - "Patience" (December 17, 1989)

Transcript

Item Info

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Duke University Archives

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