Charles Michael Smith - "The Homecoming" (July 7, 1985)

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	(stately organ music)	0:03
	(solemn organ music)	2:01
	(elegant organ music)	5:14
	(sedate organ music)	6:50
	(elegant organ music)	9:08
	(somber organ music)	11:09
	(dramatic organ music)	14:43
-	Welcome to Duke University Chapel.	16:47
	Particularly warm welcome to our visitors.	16:50
	We are blessed with so many visitors	16:53
	from all around the world who worship with us in the summer,	16:56
	and we are glad to have you this Sunday.	16:59
	Our preacher for the day	17:03
	is the Reverend Charles Michael Smith,	17:04
	an honored graduate of Duke University	17:09
	and Duke Divinity School,	17:12
	a district superintendent	17:13
	within the North Carolina Conference,	17:15
	a frequent participant	17:18
	in the chapel's annual production of The Messiah.	17:20
	He sang with the Duke Chapel Choir, in fact,	17:24
	just this past Easter.	17:27
	And we are glad to have Charlie Mike	17:29
	as our preacher for the day.	17:32
	Let us prepare ourselves to worship.	17:36
	♪ Surely the Lord is in this place ♪	17:44
	♪ For this is none other than ♪	17:52
	♪ Than the house of God ♪	17:59
	♪ And this is the gate of heav'n ♪	18:05
	(stately organ music)	18:21
	♪ Praise to the living God ♪	19:00
	♪ All praised be his name ♪	19:04
	♪ Who was and is and is to be ♪	19:09
	♪ And still the same ♪	19:14
	♪ The one eternal God ♪	19:19
	♪ Ere aught that now appears ♪	19:23
	♪ The first, the last, beyond all thought ♪	19:28
	♪ His timeless years ♪	19:33
	♪ His spirit floweth free ♪	19:40
	♪ High surging where it will ♪	19:44
	♪ In prophet's word he spoke of old ♪	19:49
	♪ He speaketh still ♪	19:54
	♪ Established is his law ♪	19:59
	♪ And changeless it shall stand ♪	20:04
	♪ Deep writ upon the human heart ♪	20:08
	♪ On sea or land ♪	20:13
	(stately organ music)	20:18
	♪ He hath eternal life ♪	21:13
	♪ Implanted in the soul ♪	21:18
	♪ His love shall be our strength and stay ♪	21:23
	♪ While ages roll ♪	21:27
	♪ Praise to the living God ♪	21:33
	♪ All praised be his name ♪	21:37
	♪ Who was and is and is to be ♪	21:42
	♪ And still the same ♪	21:47
-	We gather in this time of worship	21:59
	to remember who we are as the people of God,	22:01
	reconcile to God and to one another through Christ.	22:05
	Therefore, let us humbly confess our sins	22:10
	that a right relationship with our creator	22:13
	might be restored.	22:16
	Let us pray.	22:18
-	Most merciful God,	22:29
	we confess that we have sinned against you	22:31
	in thought, word, and deed	22:35
	by what we have done and by what we have left undone.	22:38
	We have not loved you with our whole heart.	22:43
	We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.	22:47
	We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.	22:50
	For the sake of your son Jesus Christ,	22:55
	have mercy on us and forgive us	22:58
	that we may delight in your will	23:01
	and walk in your ways	23:04
	to the glory of your name, Amen.	23:06
-	Hear the good news.	23:11
	Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.	23:13
	That is God's own proof of his love toward us.	23:17
	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	23:22
-	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	23:27
-	Amen.	23:31
-	Let us pray.	23:41
-	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	23:45
	by the power of your Holy Spirit	23:48
	so that as the Word is read and proclaimed,	23:51
	we might hear with joy	23:55
	what you say to us this day, Amen.	23:57
-	The first lesson is taken from the second book of Samuel.	24:05
	Now when the king dwelt in his house	24:12
	and the Lord had given him rest	24:16
	from all his enemies round about,	24:18
	the king said to Nathan the prophet,	24:22
	"See now,	24:26
	"I dwell in a house of cedar,	24:28
	"but the ark of God dwells in a tent."	24:31
	And Nathan said to the king,	24:36
	"Go, do all that is in your heart,	24:38
	"for the Lord is with you."	24:43
	But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan,	24:47
	"Go and tell my servant David,	24:53
	"'Thus says the Lord.	24:56
	"'Would you build me a house to dwell in?	24:59
	"'I have not dwelt in a house	25:03
	"'since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt	25:06
	"'to this day,	25:09
	"'but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.	25:12
	"'In all the places where I have moved	25:17
	"'with all the people of Israel,	25:19
	"'did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel,	25:23
	"'whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel,	25:27
	"'saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar?'	25:30
	"Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David,	25:38
	"'Thus says the Lord of hosts.	25:43
	"'I took you from the pasture,	25:46
	"'from following the sheep,	25:49
	"'that you should be prince over my people Israel,	25:51
	"'and I have been with you wherever you went	25:56
	"'and have cut off all your enemies from before you,	26:00
	"'and I will make for you a great name,	26:05
	"'like the name of the great ones of the earth.	26:08
	"'And I will appoint a place for my people Israel	26:13
	"'and will plant them	26:17
	"'that they may dwell in their own place	26:19
	"'and be disturbed no more,	26:22
	"'and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,	26:25
	"'from the time that I appointed judges	26:31
	"'over my people Israel,	26:34
	"'and I will give you rest from all your enemies.	26:37
	"'Moreover the Lord declares to you	26:42
	"'that the Lord will make you a house.	26:46
	"'When your days are fulfilled	26:50
	"'and you lie down with your fathers,	26:52
	"'I will raise up your offspring after you,	26:55
	"'who shall come forth from your body,	26:59
	"'and I will establish his kingdom.	27:03
	"'He shall build a house for my name,	27:06
	"'and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.	27:10
	"'I will be his father, and he shall be my son.	27:15
	"'When he commits iniquity,	27:21
	"'I will chasten him with the rod of men,	27:23
	"'with the stripes of the sons of men,	27:26
	"'but I will not take my steadfast love from him,	27:30
	"'as I took it from Saul,	27:34
	"'whom I put away from before you.	27:36
	"'And your house and your kingdom	27:40
	"'shall be made sure forever before me.	27:43
	"'Your throne shall be established forever.'"	27:48
	In accordance with all these words	27:54
	and in accordance with all this vision,	27:57
	Nathan spoke to David.	28:01
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	28:05
	(solemn organ music)	28:10
	♪ Jesus shall reign where'er the sun ♪	28:40
	♪ Does its successive journeys run ♪	28:48
	♪ His kingdom stretch from shore to shore ♪	28:55
	♪ Till moons shall wax and wane no more ♪	29:02
	♪ To him shall endless prayer be made ♪	29:12
	♪ And praises throng to crown his head ♪	29:19
	♪ His name like sweet perfume shall rise ♪	29:27
	♪ With every morning sacrifice ♪	29:34
	♪ People and realms of every tongue ♪	29:44
	♪ Dwell on his love with sweetest song ♪	29:51
	♪ And infant voices shall proclaim ♪	29:59
	♪ Their early blessings on his name ♪	30:06
	♪ Blessings abound where'er he reigns ♪	30:16
	♪ The prisoners leap to lose their chains ♪	30:24
	♪ The weary find eternal rest ♪	30:32
	♪ And all who suffer want are blest ♪	30:39
	♪ Let every creature rise and bring ♪	30:49
	♪ The highest honors to our king ♪	30:56
	♪ Angels descend with songs again ♪	31:04
	♪ And Earth repeat the loud amen ♪	31:12
	(dignified music)	31:22
	♪ Glory be to God our king ♪	31:31
	♪ Blessed Father in us ♪	31:39
	♪ Glory be to the Son ♪	31:47
	♪ And the Holy Spirit ♪	31:55
	♪ As it was in the beginning ♪	32:03
	♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪	32:11
-	The second lesson is taken from Paul's second letter	32:36
	to the Corinthians.	32:40
	I must boast.	32:45
	There is nothing to be gained by it,	32:47
	but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.	32:51
	I know a man in Christ	32:57
	who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven.	32:59
	Whether in the body or out of the body,	33:06
	I do not know.	33:09
	God knows.	33:11
	And I know that this man was caught up into paradise.	33:15
	Whether in the body or out of the body,	33:20
	I do not know.	33:24
	God knows.	33:26
	And he heard things that cannot be told,	33:30
	which man may not utter.	33:34
	On behalf of this man, I will boast,	33:38
	but on my own behalf, I will not boast,	33:41
	except of my weaknesses.	33:45
	Though if I wish to boast,	33:49
	I shall not be a fool,	33:52
	for I shall be speaking the truth.	33:54
	But I refrain from it	33:58
	so that no one may think more of me	34:01
	than he sees in me	34:05
	or hears from me.	34:07
	And to keep me from being too elated	34:12
	by the abundance of revelations,	34:16
	a thorn was given me in the flesh,	34:21
	a messenger of Satan,	34:26
	to harass me,	34:29
	to keep me from being too elated.	34:32
	Three times I besought the Lord about this	34:37
	that it should leave me.	34:42
	But he said to me,	34:45
	"My grace is sufficient for you,	34:48
	"for my power is made perfect in weakness."	34:52
	I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses	35:00
	that the power of Christ may rest upon me.	35:05
	For the sake of Christ then,	35:10
	I am content with weaknesses, insults,	35:14
	hardships, persecutions, and calamities.	35:20
	For when I am weak,	35:28
	then I am strong.	35:31
	This ends the reading of the second lesson.	35:37
	(somber organ music)	36:09
	♪ My shepherd will ♪	36:19
	♪ Supply my need ♪	36:24
	♪ Jehovah is his ♪	36:29
	♪ Name ♪	36:35
	♪ Is his name ♪
	♪ In pastures fresh ♪	36:39
	♪ He makes me feed ♪	36:44
	♪ Beside the living ♪	36:49
	♪ Stream ♪	36:55
	♪ Living stream ♪
	♪ He brings my wandering spirit back ♪	37:00
	♪ When I forsake his ways ♪	37:10
	♪ His ways ♪	37:17
	♪ He leads me ♪	37:20
	♪ For his mercy's sake ♪	37:23
	♪ In paths of truth ♪	37:30
	♪ And grace ♪	37:35
	♪ Truth and grace ♪
	♪ When I walk through ♪	37:42
	♪ The shades of death ♪	37:47
	♪ Thy presence is my ♪	37:52
	♪ Stay ♪	37:57
	♪ Is my stay ♪
	♪ One word of thy ♪	38:02
	♪ Supporting breath ♪	38:07
	♪ Drives all my fears ♪	38:12
	♪ Away ♪	38:18
	♪ My fears away ♪
	♪ Thy hand in sight ♪	38:23
	♪ Of all my foes ♪	38:28
	♪ Doth still my table spread ♪	38:33
	♪ Table spread ♪	38:40
	♪ My cup with blessings overflows ♪	38:44
	♪ Thine oil anoints ♪	38:55
	♪ My head ♪	39:00
	♪ Anoints my head ♪
	♪ The sure provisions of my God ♪	39:06
	♪ Attend me all my ♪	39:16
	♪ Days ♪	39:22
	♪ All my days ♪
	♪ O may thy house ♪	39:26
	♪ Be mine abode ♪	39:31
	♪ And all my work ♪	39:36
	♪ Be praise ♪	39:41
	♪ My work be praise ♪
	♪ There would I find ♪	39:47
	♪ A settled rest ♪	39:51
	♪ While others go and come ♪	39:56
	♪ And come ♪	40:04
	♪ No more a stranger ♪	40:07
	♪ Nor a guest ♪	40:13
	♪ But like a child ♪	40:17
	♪ At home ♪	40:23
	♪ A child at home ♪
-	The gospel reading for today	40:53
	is from Saint Mark, the sixth chapter.	40:55
	Jesus went away from there and came to his own country,	41:00
	and his disciples followed him.	41:05
	And on the sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue,	41:08
	and many who heard him were astonished, saying,	41:12
	"Where did this man get all this?	41:16
	"What is the wisdom given to him?	41:19
	"What mighty works are wrought by his hands?	41:23
	"Is not this the carpenter,	41:27
	"the son of Mary	41:29
	"and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon,	41:31
	"and are not his sisters here with us?"	41:37
	And they took offense at him.	41:41
	And Jesus said to them,	41:44
	"A prophet is not without honor	41:46
	"except in his own country	41:49
	"and among his own kin and in his own house."	41:52
	And he could do no mighty work there,	41:56
	except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people	41:59
	and healed them.	42:03
	And he marveled because of their unbelief.	42:06
	And he went about among the villages teaching.	42:12
	Here end the morning lessons.	42:16
	Most of us disagree with Thomas Wolfe.	42:25
	Not because we're at Duke and he went to Carolina,	42:28
	but because he said	42:33
	you can't go home again.	42:35
	Don't try to sell that to most of the churches	42:40
	in the Goldsboro district,	42:42
	especially the smaller ones where Homecoming Sunday	42:45
	is probably the biggest service of the year,	42:49
	even outstripping Christmas and Easter.	42:52
	And don't tell my friend Laney Funderburk	42:56
	and the people over in the Alumni Relations Office here	42:59
	and other colleges that you can't go home again	43:02
	because Homecoming in the fall	43:06
	is one of their main contacts with their former students.	43:09
	And by all means, don't try to sell it	43:13
	to the 39 former hostages,	43:17
	their families, and all of us who watched along with joy	43:21
	as they had those blessed reunions this past week.	43:26
	But not all homecomings	43:32
	are filled with unmitigated joy.	43:35
	Sometimes they are disappointing beyond belief	43:39
	and portend even greater sadness.	43:43
	So it was for Jesus	43:48
	when he came back to his hometown of Nazareth	43:50
	to preach his first sermon in the hometown synagogue.	43:54
	Now the people there had heard about him.	43:59
	Who hadn't heard about this young man?	44:01
	He'd been doing all kinds of wonderful things.	44:03
	They knew his family though,	44:07
	and they knew all of his brothers and his sisters.	44:10
	They even slurred him by calling him the son of Mary	44:14
	when everybody knew that you were supposed to be referred to	44:19
	as the son of your father.	44:21
	And they said, "Wait a minute.	44:24
	"We know this person.	44:26
	"We know his family.	44:28
	"We know that he hasn't been to seminary or divinity school	44:30
	"or the course of study.	44:34
	"We know he's not a professional rabbi, far from it.	44:36
	"He's a carpenter, he's a builder.	44:40
	"He's an artisan just like us.	44:42
	"So where did he get all of this as astonishing as it is?"	44:45
	And rather than believing,	44:51
	they took offense at him.	44:55
	They found him to be a cause of stumbling, a scandal.	44:57
	What could Jesus do?	45:04
	He marveled at their unbelief.	45:07
	He did just a few works of healing,	45:10
	and then he left and went to other villages	45:13
	to continue his teaching.	45:16
	A couple of dozen years ago,	45:20
	I was honored by my home church	45:24
	and asked to come and preach my first sermon there.	45:27
	Talk about nervous.	45:32
	I didn't feel that I really was all that qualified	45:35
	to preach anywhere	45:38
	because all I had done	45:41
	was respond positively to a call	45:43
	to be a preacher instead of a lawyer.	45:46
	I had shared that information	45:49
	as I think I should have with my fiancee	45:51
	and with my family and with my friends.	45:54
	Well, immediately, as Mark is fond of saying,	45:58
	my fraternity brothers here	46:03
	and friends back home when they hard about it	46:06
	were amazed; they were astonished.	46:09
	And they threatened right away	46:11
	to show up in full force and be on the back pew	46:14
	in whatever church it was	46:19
	where I was going to preach my first sermon.	46:21
	And what they were going to do	46:24
	was as soon as I stood up in a place like this,	46:27
	they were gonna stand up in their places and say,	46:29
	"Wait a minute, people.	46:31
	"Let me tell you about this person."	46:33
	And all I tried to do was act naturally,	46:38
	even to joining the family	46:42
	for the customary big Sunday morning breakfast.	46:45
	And there I got my first lesson in preaching.	46:49
	Fried eggs and homiletics do not go together for me.	46:53
	But as it turned out, things went okay.	46:59
	Nobody did anything strange, not even funny,	47:03
	and my heroes were more gracious	47:07
	than even they should have been.	47:09
	But usually that's what you can expect	47:12
	when people love you anyway.	47:14
	We all want to do well at our work,	47:19
	no matter what it is,	47:23
	no matter where we get to do it.	47:25
	But you can count on it,	47:29
	that if you get a chance	47:31
	to give a sample of it before the home folks,	47:33
	you're especially gonna want to do well.	47:35
	"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" produced a showstopping song,	47:40
	"If They Could See Me Now."	47:45
	Not only because it was good music,	47:48
	but because it expressed well a universal longing	47:50
	for all of us to look good to the folks who knew us when.	47:54
	And American opera singers traditionally go over to Europe	48:00
	to learn their craft and to hone it,	48:03
	and some of them become great and become well-known there.	48:05
	But most of them really don't feel they've made it	48:10
	unless they come home	48:14
	and get to sing at the Met in New York.	48:15
	There is a natural longing	48:20
	to be successful in the eyes of the folks back home.	48:22
	But there is the other side of that coin.	48:28

-	There's also a very natural resistance	0:03
	among those close at hand to being able	0:07
	to see greatness in the familiar.	0:11
	A cynic once said,	0:15
	no man is great to his wife or is valet.	0:17
	Must have been a rich as well as a married cynic.	0:22
	There was another proverb that was going around	0:27
	in Jesus's time, and a lot of people knew it,	0:30
	and he quoted it when they didn't respond well to him.	0:34
	He said, a prophet is not without honor except	0:38
	in his own country.	0:41
	And part of that, that was left off there,	0:43
	is neither does a physician try to work healings	0:46
	among those who know him.	0:50
	Of course that is changed now.	0:52
	But prophets are still for the most part without honor	0:55
	in home countries, home towns.	0:59
	And we still have trouble seeing God at work.	1:04
	In ordinary events, we just don't usually have	1:09
	that kind of insight, that kind of vision.	1:13
	So that we probably would be like those people in Bethlehem	1:17
	who really didn't see anything spectacular going on,	1:23
	when a young couple, there to be enrolled,	1:27
	happened to also have their baby boy in the borrowed stable.	1:30
	Nor can we really find too much fault with the people	1:37
	back in Nazareth, when a hometown boy they all knew	1:40
	comes back and says astonishing things.	1:45
	Nor can we be too surprised that not too many thought much	1:48
	when that same boy, after a supper with his friends,	1:53
	his disciples, took some leftover bread and some	1:57
	leftover wine and did somethings there	2:00
	that he said signified a brand new	2:05
	relationship between God and his children.	2:07
	Nor can we find too much fault with those who could not see	2:13
	God at work, when just a short while later	2:18
	that same young man was unjustly killed on a hill,	2:22
	between two thieves.	2:27
	And in Marks Gospel they both railed at him as he died.	2:28
	The residents of Nazareth were probably	2:34
	pretty proud of Jesus at first.	2:36
	They'd heard about his baptism,	2:39
	and how the heavens had opened,	2:41
	and the spirit of God had descended in the form of a dove,	2:43
	and how God had even said,	2:46
	this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.	2:47
	Some of them had heard that.	2:51
	They'd heard about his calling	2:53
	and gathering of the disciples.	2:54
	They'd heard about his astonishing teachings,	2:56
	and his exorcism of demons, and his healings of the sick.	2:59
	And they undoubtedly had heard even how he had commanded	3:05
	the wind and the waves to be still, and they had.	3:09
	And there can be no doubt that they had heard about his	3:13
	raising of Jairus's dead daughter.	3:17
	That kind of news always travels fast.	3:20
	But they had probably also heard about the controversies	3:23
	he'd had with the scribes and the pharoses,	3:26
	and how even his family thought that there was	3:30
	something badly wrong with him,	3:32
	that he was out of his head, beside himself.	3:33
	Those days if they thought you were losing your sanity,	3:38
	they thought it was because of being demon possessed.	3:40
	And a special team of scribes that had come down Jerusalem	3:43
	to checkout this new wandering teacher	3:46
	laid an even heavier criticism on him.	3:51
	They said he wasn't just demon possessed,	3:55
	they said, he did his works	3:58
	by the power not of God but of Satan.	4:00
	In all likelihood, the people of Nazareth had probably heard	4:05
	that Jesus had been out carousing with	4:09
	tax collectors and sinners.	4:12
	Even deigning to eat with them.	4:15
	And that unlike his strict cousin John, the Baptizer,	4:18
	he didn't make his disciples fast.	4:21
	Maybe the people in Jesus's hometown rejected him,	4:26
	because they really wanted the messiah to come,	4:30
	and they had read about the messiah,	4:35
	they had heard about the messiah,	4:39
	they knew that he was supposed to come from	4:41
	the house of David.	4:42
	And you can't blame them for thinking,	4:44
	that when messiah came he would throw the Romans out	4:48
	and restore the fortunes of Judah.	4:53
	But this carpenter,	4:57
	this son of Mary and brother	5:00
	of all those familiar people, the Messiah,	5:01
	he wasn't what they expected.	5:06
	Hans Küng writes, he did not belong to the establishment,	5:08
	nor to the revolutionary party,	5:13
	but neither did he want to opt out of ordinary life	5:16
	to be an ascetic monk.	5:19
	Obviously he did not adopt the role which a saint,	5:22
	or seeker after holiness, or even a prophet	5:24
	is frequently expected to play,	5:27
	for this he was too normal.	5:31
	In his clothing, in his eating habits, his general behavior.	5:33
	So he became a stumbling block.	5:37
	He was attacked on all sides.	5:41
	He had not played any of the expected roles.	5:45
	But those who supported law and order,	5:48
	he turned out to be a provocateur, dangerous to the system.	5:51
	He disappointed the activist revolutionaries by his	5:56
	non-violent love of peace.	6:00
	He offended the passive, world-forsaking ascetics	6:03
	by his uninhibited worldliness.	6:07
	And for the devout who'd adapted themselves to the world,	6:11
	he was too uncompromising.	6:15
	For the silent majority he was too noisy,	6:18
	and for the noisy minority he was too quiet.	6:22
	Too gentle for the strict, too strict for the gentle.	6:27
	Former Duke Professor, Hugh Anderson believes that Mark sees	6:34
	the people of Nazareth representing in the own way,	6:38
	the blindness of the whole world in their failure to see in	6:42
	Jesus, God's promised Messiah.	6:47
	They want an altogether glorious supernatural Jesus,	6:50
	whose credentials will be obvious to all,	6:55
	and refuse to believe that God discloses himself	6:59
	in the humanity of this one	7:02
	who is the member of a humble family,	7:04
	and whose way	7:08
	is the way of the cross.	7:10
	No doubt about it, John's Gospel is right in saying,	7:14
	he come to his own home,	7:18
	and his own people received him, not.	7:20
	And the Alto sings, Every time Messiah,	7:26
	by Handel is performed here.	7:29
	He was despised and rejected of men.	7:32
	A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.	7:37
	And as the spiritual confesses for us	7:43
	about sweet little Jesus boy,	7:47
	we didn't know you'd come to save us Lord,	7:50
	to take our sins away.	7:53
	Our eyes was blind, we could not see.	7:56
	We didn't know who you was.	8:01
	All these years later we in the church	8:07
	do know who this Jesus is,	8:11
	after the resurrection, and the Ascension,	8:15
	and Pentecost, and nearly 2000 year of Christian experience.	8:18
	For we are among those who say that we believe that	8:23
	he is the son of God, just as Mark said he was,	8:27
	the Messiah the Christ.	8:31
	But even those closest to him,	8:34
	sometimes act as if we know	8:38
	way too little about him.	8:41
	When I was going to school over here	8:44
	in the shadow of this tower.	8:47
	One of my class mates made a remark about that	8:49
	as we were leaving the library,	8:52
	where we'd been working on a project together.	8:54
	He suggested that we should ask the dean	8:57
	of the Divinity School	9:00
	to hire someone to walk through the halls of the school	9:01
	each night, close to closing time,	9:06
	carrying a heavy roth wooden cross,	9:09
	so we'd never forget the kind of Lord we said	9:14
	we were going to follow.	9:19
	And we were going to invite other people to do likewise.	9:21
	The story of Jesus's rejection by his hometown people	9:27
	is a favorite text for ordination sermons.	9:31
	That's probably because all ministers are going to encounter	9:35
	some failure that comes with the territory.	9:39
	And it helps to be reminded early	9:42
	that even our Lord Jesus Christ	9:44
	did not succeed every time he preached.	9:47
	In the the current role given me	9:53
	by the church as district superintendent,	9:55
	I work with a Bishop and eleven other people of similar job.	9:58
	And one of the main things we do is decide which ministers	10:03
	are going to which churches.	10:06
	And sometimes, as I was reading this, I thought,	10:10
	really what that is, is a word to bishops and cabinets	10:13
	saying that there are churches that really wouldn't be happy	10:16
	even if you sent Jesus to be their preacher.	10:20
	For the infant church that Mark was addressing,	10:27
	it was a reminder that Jesus was rejected by	10:31
	those who knew him best.	10:35
	Just as those early missionaries were so often rejected by	10:38
	their family and their friends, and those with whom perhaps	10:43
	they thought they stood the best chance of being convincing.	10:48
	Maybe all four of the Gospel writers tell this story,	10:51
	they do, because misery loves company.	10:55
	Most likely, the story has been kept and told often,	11:00
	because it is intended to strengthen all those	11:05
	who follow Jesus and who like him,	11:07
	inevitably encounter rejection even by those close to them.	11:11
	And I think that it's told with the hope	11:16
	that those who hear it will do like their Lord,	11:20
	who went on with his teaching,	11:23
	even in spite of rejection.	11:26
	Who found other places where he tried to get them to listen	11:29
	and who did not stop even when it led to suffering	11:34
	along with rejection, and finally to death.	11:39
	We really don't like reminders of how central this matter	11:44
	of following Jesus or this imitation of Christ,	11:47
	truly is to Christianity.	11:51
	We prefer to concentrate on the Christ of Glory.	11:54
	We'd much rather come to church on Palm Sunday and Easter,	11:58
	or come here on Christmas Eve.	12:01
	And we really don't pay much attention to Ash Wednesday	12:05
	and Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.	12:08
	At least I've never served a church where they do.	12:12
	One of my favorite teachers here was the former dean of this	12:16
	place this chapel, Jim Cleland,	12:21
	I remember how he pounded it into us,	12:22
	that the only way you can really	12:26
	enjoy Easter	12:31
	is if you have also been with Jesus on Good Friday.	12:34
	No cross, no crown.	12:39
	We don't want a God who says no to us	12:44
	from time to time,	12:48
	as well as yes.	12:50
	We get angry with those representatives of such a God	12:52
	who call our behavior into question.	12:55
	Whether it's Jeremiahs 600 years	12:59
	before Christ in Jerusalem,	13:01
	or whether it's Jesus the carpenter in Nazareth,	13:03
	or whether it's Martin Luther King Junior	13:08
	in 20th century Montgomery, Albany and Chicago,	13:11
	or American Christians who now challenge our	13:18
	government's policies in Nicaragua.	13:22
	My Bishops C. P. Minnick Jr of the the Raleigh area,	13:25
	of the United Methodist Church,	13:28
	was asked by the Council of Bishops last fall,	13:30
	to head up a team of people to go and try to come back	13:34
	with as honest a report as humanly possible,	13:38
	of what in the world is going on in that little tiny	13:41
	country down there, that's got us all so worried.	13:44
	They went, they spent a long time, they come back,	13:47
	made their report.	13:50
	And because they had the temerity to say that they really	13:52
	honestly felt, honest to God,	13:56
	that the policies of our government were wrong headed,	13:59
	and that they were in fact prolonging and widening	14:03
	the suffering and causing innocent peasants and farmers	14:07
	to live in great fear and sometimes even to be killed.	14:12
	Bishops Minnick has remarked several times that he cannot	14:16
	believe the volume of hate mail that he's received.	14:19
	He did not expect unanimity, he expected opposition,	14:23
	he didn't expect vitriol, but he got it.	14:27
	We applauded the governor of this state,	14:32
	and the legislature, and the church groups	14:34
	who supported the tougher laws against drunk driving	14:38
	when they were first enacted.	14:41
	But then I have heard friends get angry	14:44
	when people in our crowd have been stopped	14:47
	for sobriety checks	14:49
	on the way from our clubs and our parties.	14:51
	We plead for tax reform, but we yell	14:54
	when our loopholes get closed.	14:58
	We don't like to be challenged,	15:01
	we don't like to be called on to change,	15:03
	to sacrifice, perhaps to suffer.	15:06
	It's so nice when we do have prophets that we can admire	15:10
	and they come from far away places	15:14
	like Bishop Tutu of South Africa.	15:16
	We want him to be like experts, far from home.	15:20
	We have a difficult time honoring prophets	15:24
	while they are alive, especially if they happen	15:27
	to be close at hand and bugging us.	15:30
	But God knows we need them	15:33
	to remind us of values that are higher	15:37
	than what will play in Peoria,	15:40
	or what will sell the most products,	15:43
	or what will garner the most votes.	15:45
	When I was in school here in the days	15:50
	of the civil rights movement,	15:53
	Jim Cleland worried that too many of us were going	15:56
	forth from the Divinity School with, "Junior Varsity Amos"	15:59
	stenciled across our forehead.	16:04
	We were all anxious to get out there and confront	16:07
	the evils of society,	16:09
	to to attack those cows of Bashan and to call on those	16:11
	rivers of justice, and flowing like a never ending stream.	16:15
	He shouldn't of worried so much, most of us didn't do that.	16:20
	We went and learned to love the people we had in our	16:27
	churches and the places we were called to serve,	16:31
	and like always,	16:35
	always we found it so hard to say anything	16:37
	that those people maybe needed to hear,	16:42
	but surely didn't want to hear.	16:45
	But many pastors did	16:48
	cry out against the evils	16:51
	of that particular time,	16:53
	in our particular region,	16:56
	and many either had to leave the region or the vocation.	16:59
	They learned anew that prophets are without	17:04
	honor in their home countries.	17:06
	My fear now	17:10
	for our newer ministers is not that they will be	17:12
	too prophetic but that they will be too tame,	17:15
	because their eyes are fixed more on being successful	17:19
	than on being faithful.	17:23
	Clarence Jordan, and that's how they say it in Georgia,	17:27
	was an unusual Southern Baptist preacher who was,	17:31
	as they used to say, way ahead of his time on civil rights.	17:35
	He organized Koinonia Farm,	17:41
	an interracial Christian project,	17:44
	way back in the '50s, in South Georgia,	17:46
	not far from the little town of Plains.	17:48
	Maybe you've bought a bag of shelled pecans from there.	17:53
	Or perhaps you've read some of the, Cotton Patch	17:57
	version of parts of the new testament,	17:59
	that Clarence Jordan wrote there at Koinonia Farm.	18:02
	As you can imagine, operating this integrated farm	18:06
	at that particular time, brought him persecution,	18:09
	ostracism and danger.	18:13
	Fortunately he had a brother Robert who was a lawyer,	18:15
	who later become a state senator	18:20
	and a justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.	18:23
	And Clarence asked brother Bob to represent	18:26
	Koinonia Farm legally.	18:28
	To which he replied,	18:31
	"Clarence, I can't do that,	18:32
	"you know my political aspirations,	18:37
	"why, if I represented you I might lose my job,	18:39
	"my house, everything I've got."	18:43
	We might lose everything too Bob.	18:49
	"It's different for you."	18:52
	Why is it different?	18:56
	I remember it seems to me that you and I joined the church	18:59
	the same Sunday as boys.	19:02
	I expect when we came forward that preacher asked me	19:05
	the same question he did you.	19:08
	Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior?	19:10
	And I said, yes.	19:14
	What did you say?	19:17
	"I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point."	19:20
	Could that point, by any chance, be the cross?	19:26
	"That's right, I follow him to the cross,	19:31
	"but not on the cross.	19:34
	"I'm not getting myself crucified."	19:36
	Then I don't believe you're a disciple,	19:42
	you're an admirer of Jesus but not a disciple of his.	19:47
	I think you ought to go back to your church,	19:52
	you belong to and tell them you're an admirer	19:54
	not a disciple.	20:00
	What am I Lord,	20:03
	what am I?	20:06
	(Diademata tune)	20:14
	(words drowned out by organ)	20:44
-	Let us unite in this historic confession of the faith,	23:18
	I believe in God the Father Almighty,	23:23
	maker of heaven and earth,	23:26
	and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord,	23:28
	who is conceived by the Holly Spirit,	23:32
	born of the Virgin Mary,	23:35
	suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,	23:37
	dead and buried.	23:41
	The third day he rose from the dead.	23:42
	He ascended into heaven and sitteth	23:45
	at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.	23:47
	From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	23:51
	I believe in the Holy Spirit,	23:55
	the holy Catholic Church,	23:58
	the communion of saints,	24:00
	the forgiveness of sins,	24:02
	the resurrection of the body,	24:04
	and the life everlasting, Amen.	24:06
	The Lord be with you.	24:10
-	And also with you.	24:12
-	Let us pray.	24:13
	Almighty God,	24:26
	who has accepted us with the love	24:29
	which transcends our limitations,	24:32
	our weaknesses, even our sin.	24:34
	We lay before you the needs	24:40
	of brothers and sisters, near and far,	24:41
	under the sure embrace of your	24:46
	love experienced in this service,	24:48
	we now reach out in prayer, to embrace others.	24:52
	For all those who have suffered rejection	24:59
	because they have fallen ill in a society which values	25:02
	health and despises weakness,	25:06
	we pray for them in their sickness.	25:10
	For those who have been rejected because they are unemployed	25:16
	in an economy which teaches that those who	25:19
	try always are rewarded,	25:22
	we pray for them and their feelings of failure.	25:27
	For those who've been rejected because of the color	25:33
	of their skin, or because of their sexual orientation.	25:36
	For those who do not fit	25:42
	into our standards of acceptability,	25:43
	we pray that they may discover	25:48
	the value bestowed upon them by your love.	25:50
	For those who've been rejected because	25:57
	they espouse unpopular or unorthodox opinions.	25:59
	Those who refuse to be silent in the midst of injustice,	26:05
	we pray for these dishonored prophets.	26:11
	For those who, because of their doubts or their feelings	26:18
	of unworthiness or status in life	26:21
	feel rejected by your church.	26:25
	We pray	26:30
	for those who should be insiders,	26:34
	but who feel like outsiders.	26:37
	In the name of Jesus,	26:43
	the one who knew what it was to be rejected,	26:46
	who come among his own and was received, not, we pray.	26:50
	Confident in the width	26:56
	and breadth and depth	26:59
	of his loving embrace, Amen.	27:03
	Let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God	27:10
	as a forgiven and reconciled people.	27:13
	(light organ music)	27:20
	(intense organ music)	28:14
	♪ With a voice of singing ♪	28:16
	♪ Declare ye this ♪	28:20
	♪ And let it be heard, Alleluia ♪	28:21
	♪ And let it be heard, Alleluia ♪	28:29
	♪ Utter it even unto the ends of the earth ♪	28:45
	♪ The Lord hath delivered His people, Alleluia ♪	28:56
	♪ The Lord hath delivered His people, Alleluia ♪	29:09
	♪ O be joyful in God, all ye lands ♪	29:27
	♪ O sing praises to the honor of His name ♪	29:35
	♪ Make His praise to be glorious ♪	29:41
	♪ With a voice of singing, declare ye this ♪	29:57
	♪ And let it be heard, Alleluia ♪	30:04
	♪ Declare ye this, ♪	30:10
	♪ And let it be heard, Alleluia ♪	30:14
	(light organ music)	30:25
	♪ Alleluia ♪	30:31
	♪ And let it be heard, Alleluia ♪	30:35
	(uplifting organ music)	30:53
	(hymn words drowned out by organ)	33:08
	♪ Alleluia ♪	33:16
	♪ Alleluia ♪	33:18
	(singing drowned out by organ)	33:23
	♪ Alleluia ♪	33:40
	♪ Alleluia ♪	33:44
	♪ Alleluia ♪	33:47
-	Oh Lord our God the author and a giver of all good things.	34:05
	we thank the for all thy mercies and for thy loving care	34:10
	over all thy creatures.	34:15
	We bless thee for the gift of life and for the goodness	34:17
	of they entire creation.	34:21
	Most of all, we thank thee for the saving knowledge of thy	34:24
	son our savior, for the living presence of thy spirit,	34:28
	for thy church the body of Christ,	34:33
	and for all the means of grace.	34:36
	In all these things make us wise gracious God,	34:39
	unto a right use of they benefits,	34:43
	that we may offer acceptable and joyous	34:46
	thanks giving unto thee,	34:49
	through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray,	34:52
	who taught us to say with confidence.	34:55
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	34:58
	hallowed be thy Name,	35:01
	thy kingdom come,	35:03
	thy will be done,	35:05
	on earth as it is in heaven.	35:07
	Give us this day our daily bread.	35:10
	And forgive us our trespasses,	35:12
	as we forgive those	35:15
	who trespass against us.	35:16
	And lead us not into temptation,	35:19
	but deliver us from evil.	35:21
	For thine is the kingdom,	35:24
	and the power, and the glory,	35:26
	for ever, Amen.	35:28
	(light organ music)	35:36
	♪ I the lord of sea and sky ♪	36:13
	♪ A Bulwark never failing ♪	36:18
	♪ Our Helper He amid the flood ♪	36:25
	♪ Of mortal ills prevailing ♪	36:34
	♪ For still our ancient foe ♪	36:40
	♪ Doth seek to work us woe ♪	36:44
	♪ His craft and power are great ♪	36:49
	♪ And, armed with cruel hate ♪	36:54
	♪ On earth is not his equal ♪	37:02
	♪ Did we in our own strength confide ♪	37:11
	♪ Our striving would be losing ♪	37:17
	♪ Were not the right Man on our side ♪	37:23
	♪ The Man of God's own choosing ♪	37:29
	♪ Dost ask who that may be ♪	37:37
	♪ Christ Jesus, it is He ♪	37:42
	♪ Lord Sabaoth His Name ♪	37:47
	♪ From age to age the same ♪	37:53
	♪ And He must win the battle ♪	37:59
	♪ And though this world, with devils filled ♪	38:08
	♪ Should threaten to undo us ♪	38:14
	♪ We will not fear, for God hath willed ♪	38:20
	♪ His truth to triumph through us ♪	38:26
	♪ The Prince of Darkness grim ♪	38:33
	♪ We tremble not for him ♪	38:39
	♪ His rage we can endure ♪	38:44
	♪ For lo his doom is sure ♪	38:50
	♪ One little word shall fell him ♪	38:56
	♪ That word above all earthly powers ♪	39:04
	♪ No thanks to them, abideth ♪	39:10
	♪ The Spirit and the gifts are ours ♪	39:17
	♪ Through Him who with us sideth ♪	39:23
	♪ Let goods and kindred go ♪	39:31
	♪ This mortal life also ♪	39:37
	♪ The body they may kill ♪	39:42
	♪ God's truth abideth still ♪	39:48
	♪ His Kingdom is forever ♪	39:53
-	The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ	40:06
	The love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	40:09
	be with you now and always.	40:12
	♪ Amen ♪	40:21
	♪ Amen ♪	40:24
	♪ Amen ♪	40:27
	♪ Amen ♪	40:31
	♪ Amen ♪	40:39
	♪ Amen ♪	40:42
	(light organ music)	41:01
	(congregation murmuring)	41:40
	(light organ music)	41:44
	(congregation murmuring)	42:03
	(light organ music)	42:15
	(congregation murmuring)	42:25
	(intense organ music)	42:30
	(congregation murmuring)	43:11
	(mellow organ music)	43:17
	(congregation murmuring)	44:04
	(mellow organ music)	44:08
	(congregation murmuring)	45:00
	(mellow organ music)	45:05
	(congregation murmuring)	45:55
	(lively organ music)	46:03
	(congregation murmuring)	46:44
	(mellow organ music)	46:53
	(congregation murmuring)	47:26
	(lively organ music)	47:34

Item Info

Title:

Charles Michael Smith - "The Homecoming" (July 7, 1985)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1): 42:25. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 20:09.
The story of Jesus' rejection in his hometown of Nazareth, told in all four Gospels, is there to remind us that we often have trouble hearing the word of God when it comes from a source close to us, and to encourage the disciples of Jesus to keep on preaching, even when they meet rejection, opposition, or even suffering. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "For the infant church that Mark was addressing, it was a reminder that Jesus was rejected by those who knew him best, just as those early missionaries were so often rejected by their family and their friends…Most likely, the story has been kept and told often because it is intended to strengthen all those who follow Jesus and who, like him, inevitably encounter rejection even by those close to them.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4wm1479v

Date:

July 7, 1985

Speaker:

Smith, Charles Michael

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0275
ref8071_mpq
uachapelsermaud
duke:320999
dcrau001262
ark:/87924/r4wm1479v
06a0c9fe-9f09-475d-9df4-25ba6b82978a

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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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