Leander Keck - Sermon Untitled (February 2, 1986)

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	(reverent organ music)	0:03
	[Man] Good morning, and welcome to Duke Chapel.	10:59
	Our guest preacher today is James T. Cleland	11:02
	visiting preacher, he is Doctor Leander Keck,	11:06
	Dean of Yale Divinity School and	11:11
	Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology at Yale,	11:13
	and we welcome this distinguished biblical scholar	11:18
	and preacher to the pulpit here in Duke Chapel.	11:22
	You will note that our choir has selected	11:26
	a rendition of Psalm 90 as our psalm for the day	11:30
	in commemoration for the national week of mourning	11:34
	for the space shuttle tragedy.	11:38
	Also, remind you that our choir will be presenting	11:42
	Mendelssohn's Elijah on February the 23rd,	11:45
	tickets are available from the chapel music office	11:48
	and page box office.	11:51
	The choir is presenting Elijah as part of	11:54
	our year-long 50th anniversary celebration.	11:56
	Now, let us continue our worship.	12:02
	(choir sings)	12:36
	(reverent organ music)	13:55
	(choir sings with organ)	14:19
	[Woman] Oh, ever living God, you have taught us	17:35
	that without love, whatever we do is worth nothing.	17:39
	Send your holy spirit upon us this day,	17:44
	and pour into our hearts your greatest gift,	17:47
	which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue.	17:50
	Grant this for the sake of your only son, Jesus Christ,	17:57
	who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit,	18:01
	one God, now and forever, amen.	18:05
	[Dr. Keck] Let us pray.	18:21
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God,	18:24
	by the power of your holy spirit,	18:28
	so that, as the Word is read and proclaimed,	18:31
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	18:35
	The first lesson is taken from the book of Jeremiah.	18:43
	"Now, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,	18:48
	'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.	18:50
	And before you were born, I consecrated you.	18:54
	I appointed you a prophet to the nations.'	18:59
	Then I said, 'Ah, Lord God, behold,	19:03
	I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.'	19:06
	But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say I am only a youth,	19:11
	for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,	19:15
	and whatever I command you, you shall speak.	19:18
	Be not afraid of them, for I am with you	19:23
	to deliver you,' says the Lord.	19:25
	Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth,	19:28
	and the Lord said to me, 'Behold,	19:32
	I have put my words in your mouth, see,	19:35
	I have set you this day over nations	19:38
	and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down,	19:40
	to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'"	19:44
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	19:50
	(reverent organ music)	20:06
	(choir joins)	20:21
	♪ [Woman] Lord, you have been our refuge ♪	20:38
	♪ From one generation to another ♪	20:42
	♪ [Men] Before the mountains and the earth were created ♪	20:49
	♪ You were God and you will be God forever ♪	20:55
	(choir sings all together)	21:03
	♪ [Woman] Lord, you turn us back to dust ♪	21:20
	♪ And say, go back to dust, oh child of Earth ♪	21:22
	(choir sings all together)	21:31
	♪ [Woman] We are swept away like a flood ♪	22:01
	♪ We last no longer than our dream ♪	22:06
	♪ [Men] We are like grass that springs up in the morning ♪	22:12
	♪ Then withers and fades in the evening ♪	22:18
	(choir sings all together)	22:26
	♪ [Woman] We are consumed by your anger ♪	22:43
	♪ We are terrified by your fury ♪	22:47
	♪ [Men] I give myself up before you ♪	22:55
	♪ And the secrets of our hearts are before your very eyes ♪	23:00
	(choir sings all together)	23:08
	(choir sings all together)	23:41
	[Dr. Keck] The gospel is taken from Luke.	24:49
	"And he began to say to them, 'Today, the Scripture	24:52
	has been fulfilled in your hearing.'	24:55
	And all spoke well of him, and wondered	24:58
	at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,	25:00
	and they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'	25:03
	And he said to them, 'Doubtless you will quote to me	25:07
	this proverb, physician, heal yourself.	25:10
	What we have heard you did at Copernium,	25:13
	do here also in your own country.'	25:16
	And he said, 'Truly I say to you,	25:20
	no prophet is acceptable in his own country,	25:21
	but in truth, I tell you, there were many widows	25:25
	in Israel in the days of Elijah,	25:29
	when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,	25:31
	when there came a great famine over all the land.	25:35
	And Elijah was sent to none of them,	25:39
	but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon,	25:40
	to a woman who was a widow,	25:44
	and there were many lepers in Israel in the time	25:45
	of the prophet Elijah, and none of them	25:49
	were cleansed but only Noaman, the Syrian.'	25:51
	When they heard this, all in the synagogue	25:56
	were filled with wrath, and they rose up	25:59
	and put him out of the city, and led him	26:01
	to the brow of the hill on which their city was built,	26:03
	that they might throw him down headlong.	26:07
	But passing through the midst of them, he went away."	26:10
	This ends the reading of the gospel.	26:15
	(reverent organ music)	26:30
	(choir vocalizes with organ)	26:32
	[Dr. Keck] The second lesson is taken from	31:22
	Paul's first letter to the Corinthians,	31:24
	but chapter 12 rather than 13.	31:26
	"Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters,	31:31
	I do not want you to be uninformed.	31:36
	You know that when you were a heathen,	31:38
	you were led astray to dumb idols,	31:41
	however, you may have been moved.	31:42
	Therefore, I want you to understand	31:45
	that no one speaking by the spirit of God	31:47
	ever says, 'Jesus, be cursed,' and no one can say,	31:49
	'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit.	31:53
	Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit.	31:57
	And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.	32:01
	And there are varieties of working,	32:05
	but it is the same God who inspires them and everyone.	32:08
	To each is given the manifestation of the spirit	32:12
	for the common good.	32:15
	To one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom,	32:17
	and to another, the utterance of knowledge	32:20
	according to the same spirit.	32:23
	To another, faith by the same spirit.	32:25
	To another, gifts of healing by the one spirit.	32:27
	To another, the working of miracles,	32:31
	to another, prophecy, to another, the ability	32:33
	to distinguish between spirits,	32:35
	to another, various kinds of tongues,	32:37
	to another, the interpretation of tongues.	32:41
	All these are inspired by one and the same spirit	32:45
	who apportions to each one individually as he wills."	32:49
	This ends the reading of the second lesson.	32:53
	Some years ago, I was visited by a delegation	33:10
	of black students who wanted to let me know	33:14
	that they were upset, and they wanted me	33:19
	to do something about what upset them.	33:22
	What bothered them was not the curriculum,	33:27
	not the food in the dining hall,	33:30
	nor the worship services in the chapel.	33:33
	It had to do with something in the parking lot.	33:36
	Somebody had a car with a Confederate flag.	33:41
	That showed that somebody was insensitive	33:46
	to the feelings of black folk	33:49
	who regarded the stars and bars as the banner of defiance	33:51
	in civil rights, and as a symbol of white supremacy forever.	33:55
	I admit, I was caught off-guard,	34:02
	but deans are not supposed to show it.	34:06
	And I pointed out that the Confederate flag	34:10
	means many things to different people, even in New England.	34:12
	It might be no more than a way of proclaiming to Yankees	34:17
	that this car is driven by a student	34:21
	who's proud to be a Southerner and who misses grits.	34:24
	Moreover, since the building was being renovated,	34:30
	the car might not belong to a student at all.	34:33
	It might belong to a construction worker,	34:36
	a transplanted redneck.	34:38
	Either one of these explanations could have been true,	34:42
	yet neither one nor the other addressed the point.	34:46
	What the license plate meant depended on who you were.	34:50
	The same thing is true of the three texts	34:58
	from the Bible that were read this morning.	35:00
	What these texts mean depends on who we are,	35:04
	or on who we think we are, and who we think we are	35:08
	determines what we pick up on,	35:13
	or with whom we identify in the readings.	35:16
	Now, in reading Scripture, the primary temptation	35:22
	is to identify with the wrong person,	35:24
	or to resist any identification at all.	35:28
	Take the reading from Jeremiah.	35:35
	We might not identify with him at all.	35:37
	Are we not relieved that we don't talk like that anymore?	35:43
	The Lord says, before you were born, I consecrated you,	35:48
	I appointed you a prophet to the nations.	35:52
	Before he was born?	35:55
	That sounds too much like determinism in philosophy	35:59
	and predestination and theology.	36:01
	Aren't we glad we're beyond that?	36:05
	Jeremiah's answer's no better, really,	36:10
	because he says he's too young to be a prophet.	36:12
	In our culture, we expect the young to be prophets.	36:16
	That's what student protests are all about.	36:20
	No, we would never say we're not old enough	36:24
	to preach to our elders.	36:26
	We can't relate to God's reply, either.	36:31
	Who will believe that God put words into somebody's mouth?	36:35
	When people claim that, we send them to the chaplain.	36:40
	Even worse is the work of God,	36:44
	which Jeremiah hears himself sent to do,	36:46
	to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow,	36:50
	to build and to plant,	36:55
	what a primitive understanding of God.	36:58
	We know that God is always loving,	37:03
	always affirming, always accepting.	37:08
	Poor Jeremiah, living 26 centuries ago,	37:12
	can't really be blamed for having such an uncouth	37:16
	understanding of God, after all,	37:19
	he's not a Christian, and didn't know that God is love.	37:21
	We're so sure of ourselves, we wonder why	37:27
	the church wants to hear this text at all.	37:29
	If the text from Jeremiah tempts us not to identify	37:34
	with anybody because we are superior to the whole thing,	37:36
	the story of Jesus in his hometown synagogue	37:40
	tempts us to identify with the hero, Jesus himself.	37:42
	In the first part of the story, which was not read,	37:49
	Jesus had read from Isaiah, "The spirit of the Lord	37:53
	is upon me because He has anointed me	37:57
	to preach good news to the poor.	38:00
	He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives,	38:03
	and recovering of sight to the blind,	38:08
	to set at liberty those who are oppressed,	38:11
	to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."	38:14
	And today's reading picks up the story,	38:21
	Jesus declared that these words are now coming to pass.	38:23
	And at first, the congregation welcomed this good news,	38:28
	but then they remembered who said it.	38:32
	Joseph's boy, the kid they'd seen playing	38:35
	in their streets with their kids.	38:40
	The young carpenter who used to make ox yokes	38:42
	and fix their doors.	38:46
	Before you know it, they're so offended	38:49
	at what he said and at who said it that they threw him out.	38:51
	Who wouldn't identify with Jesus	38:58
	and look down on these dumb neighbors	39:00
	who were unable to accept good news for the poor	39:03
	from the mouth of one of their own?	39:05
	Even if they didn't know who he really was,	39:10
	they should have been more open to his message.	39:13
	We would not have responded that way.	39:17
	We are sensitive to the plight of the poor,	39:20
	and the phrase, social justice, is on our lips every day.	39:25
	And if we are liberation theologians,	39:30
	we hear Jesus announce exactly what we proclaim,	39:31
	liberation for the oppressed.	39:35
	No, we wouldn't have thrown him out.	39:38
	We would have gotten him on the Today Show.	39:42
	In the same way, when we hear Paul's letter	39:47
	to the house church in Corinth,	39:49
	we identify with the apostle.	39:50
	He makes so much sense, especially in contrast	39:54
	with those ecstatic, babbling Charismatics.	39:58
	Of course we are like different parts of the same body.	40:03
	Of course we are, just as the university	40:07
	consists of administrators and faculty and students	40:09
	and support staff and alumni and friends.	40:13
	All are a part of the same corporate reality.	40:15
	Of course we identify with Paul.	40:18
	How could the Corinthians be so dumb?	40:22
	So long as we hear these readings with such attitudes,	40:28
	we feel pretty good about ourselves,	40:31
	because we reinforce who we think we are.	40:35
	And if the preacher doesn't mess it up,	40:40
	we'll be reassured, and maybe he'll quit while he's ahead.	40:43
	Probably he won't, though, and you're right.	40:48
	Biblical texts have a way of reversing the flow.	40:55
	We begin by interpreting them,	41:00
	and then they turn around and interpret us.	41:02
	They do not accept our self-identification	41:06
	but expose our true identities.	41:10
	We think, we find that we are not the heroes of the story,	41:14
	but those whom the heroes addressed.	41:20
	So, we're Corinthians after all.	41:26
	Does not really matter whether we're Charismatic or not.	41:31
	That was merely the form in which	41:35
	the problem surfaced in Corinth,	41:36
	we have our own form of the same problem.	41:40
	In Corinth, the problem had to do with the gifts	41:43
	of the spirit, the intense experience of God's presence	41:45
	enabled them to do things they had not done before.	41:48
	To speak wisdom, or knowledge, or to heal,	41:52
	or to work miracles, to prophesy, to speak in tongues,	41:56
	to make sense out of what was said in tongues,	42:00
	the presence of the spirit brought out	42:05
	the diversity of the community.	42:07
	Because the spirit enhances individuality.	42:10
	So the question is, what does this	42:16
	heightened individuality mean?	42:19
	The Corinthians wanted to exercise	42:24
	those heightened capacities for their own sake.	42:25
	They were unhappy to hear what Paul said about that.	42:28
	To each is given the manifestation of the spirit	42:32
	for the common good.	42:36
	We are no more eager to hear that than they were.	42:41
	Because we, too, prize our individuality.	42:46
	If there's anything that is absolutely self-evident	42:50
	and non-negotiable for us, it is	42:53
	the right to actualize ourselves.	42:55
	What I want is the criteria.	43:00
	The slogan of the day is, I want it all.	43:03
	No wonder that a popular TV preacher a year ago	43:09
	was the Reverend Terry, for she promised	43:11
	that God also wanted us to have it all.	43:15
	And over against that reassuring word,	43:21
	Paul insists that our individual gifts	43:22
	are for the common good.	43:25
	And so, we feel a little bit guilty	43:30
	and we resent him for saying that.	43:32
	We don't like being exposed as Corinthians.	43:37
	We're no happier to be exposed as Nazarenes.	43:43
	Do you remember how the story unfolded?	43:47
	Jesus responded to their hostility by saying that	43:48
	no prophet is acceptable in his country.	43:52
	Then he referred to Elijah's time when there was a famine.	43:57
	Elijah fed the foreign widow, not the Israelites.	44:00
	It was like that in Elijah's time, too,	44:05
	there were many lepers in Israel, but the only leper	44:08
	that was healed by the prophet was a Syrian.	44:12
	No wonder they were furious.	44:18
	Jesus implied that God preferred outsiders to insiders,	44:22
	and today, we're the insiders.	44:28
	It's we whom God has chosen, and we do not want	44:33
	anybody to question our chosenness,	44:36
	to call into question the boundaries of the community	44:38
	which has special standing with God.	44:42
	And so, the text has uncovered the Nazarene mind in us.	44:47
	And we don't like it.	44:53
	And we do not like what we read in Jeremiah, either.	44:57
	The idea that God wants Jeremiah to build up and tear down,	45:00
	to uproot and to plant, is offensive.	45:04
	We can agree that God's word is to plant up	45:10
	or break down, but not both.	45:14
	And in our resistance, we find ourselves	45:21
	identified and unmasked.	45:23
	If we are yuppie types, we like that word	45:28
	about building up and planting,	45:31
	but we resist the idea that God's work	45:34
	includes dismantling things.	45:36
	Or, if we are alienated intellectuals,	45:41
	we like that word about tearing things down.	45:46
	But we reject the idea that God's work is also to build up.	45:51
	But what really gets to us is realizing that	45:54
	what one group wants to build up in God's name,	45:57
	the other one wants to tear down,	46:00
	and also, in God's name.	46:05
	Because each wants to prevail over the other,	46:09
	neither is happy with the notion	46:12
	that its program is not God's program.	46:14
	So where does that leave us?	46:24
	Unhappy with this text.	46:27
	It leaves us with a threefold invitation to grow.	46:31
	With a triple opportunity to mature	46:37
	in the faith and understanding.	46:41
	Paul's word invites us to come to terms	46:45
	with the meaning of our individuality.	46:47
	The configuration of talents and sensibility	46:52
	and experiences that makes me, me, is mine alone,	46:55
	and it is important, but	46:59

-	Point of being who I am.	0:03
	Of having the capacities I have.	0:07
	For whose sake do they exist?	0:11
	And for who's sake are they to be developed and exercised?	0:14
	Simply for my own self-fulfillment?	0:19
	For my own happiness?	0:22
	The great, overarching need today	0:27
	is to overcome this preoccupation with ourselves.	0:29
	Christopher Lasch was on target	0:36
	when he called our society a culture of narcissism.	0:37
	And much of our religiosity is as self-serving	0:42
	as our economics.	0:46
	The current interest in spirituality	0:49
	often has no horizon higher	0:51
	than that of my own wellbeing.	0:53
	It forgets what my colleague, Aidan Kavanagh wrote,	0:56
	"It is better to illuminate than to glow."	1:00
	In our deepest, most intimate religious experience of God,	1:06
	if it casts no light into the dark corners of life,	1:10
	if that intimate experience of God	1:16
	illumines no enigma of pain or vista of hope,	1:18
	what good is it?	1:21
	To come right to the point, what is your life for anyway?	1:27
	Does it count for anything?	1:36
	That has to do with the common good of all?	1:39
	Nowhere is this question more urgent	1:45
	than in a university.	1:47
	Where remarkable talents of our society	1:51
	are gathered, to be developed.	1:53
	Being mindful of the common good	1:59
	is not settling for an easy average,	2:01
	does not call for sanctifying mediocrity	2:04
	in order to avoid creating an elite.	2:06
	What it does call for is developing talent	2:09
	to the fullest, and using it, and harnessing it	2:12
	to the common good of all.	2:15
	For the sake of our communities.	2:22
	And but what communities?	2:30
	For most of us, the horizons of our communities are too low,	2:33
	and the circle is too small.	2:35
	I, and my family, my company, my neighborhood,	2:39
	my race, my gender,	2:42
	that's too limited a community.	2:45
	As important as they may be.	2:49
	So the shocking word of Jesus about the outsider	2:53
	lifts high and stretches wide the horizons	2:56
	of our community, because as long as we define ourselves	2:59
	by family and firm, region and race,	3:02
	we make ourselves outsiders as well as insiders.	3:05
	It has become virtually a sin to think	3:12
	in terms of what is universally human.	3:14
	Our identities are now derived from the groups	3:20
	to which we belong by birth,	3:22
	male or female, white, black, red, brown,	3:26
	gay, straight, whatever.	3:29
	The offensive words of Jesus about Elijah and Elisha,	3:32
	are nothing less than an attack	3:36
	on that sort of boundary drawing	3:38
	that dominates much thinking, and lack of thinking, today.	3:40
	True, Jesus never left his homeland,	3:47
	and seldom trafficked with us Gentiles.	3:50
	But the horizon of his community was universal,	3:55
	because he penetrated so deeply	3:59
	into the particularly Jewish,	4:01
	that he came upon what was truly human.	4:02
	And in the last analysis, nothing less will do.	4:08
	So the story of Jesus in Nazareth invites us	4:14
	to transcend the particularities of our communities,	4:16
	to find our one humanity.	4:20
	A vision of a common humanity cannot be maintained long	4:26
	without a vision of the one God	4:31
	who stands over against it, as the ground	4:33
	of its being and value.	4:37
	But we always make God into the ultimate warrant	4:41
	for our fragment of human community.	4:44
	We always want a God who epitomizes	4:47
	and legitimates who we think we are, and hope to be.	4:49
	Nobody wants a God who says what Yahweh said,	4:54
	"My ways are not your ways."	4:58
	But Jeremiah invites us to cast off	5:06
	our idolatrous theology, and to acknowledge	5:10
	that the only God who is, and who matters,	5:13
	is the God who builds and destroys,	5:20
	because this God cannot be manipulated,	5:24
	nor can this God be reduced to being	5:29
	the ultimate sanction for our agendas,	5:31
	not even our good ones.	5:35
	The building up and the tearing down	5:39
	of which the Lord God speaks does not mean	5:42
	that our history is but a sandcastle	5:46
	to be created and destroyed at will.	5:49
	But that this reality we call God	5:54
	has an integrity of its own.	5:56
	And that it is not the invisible patron	6:01
	of our particularities, or of our projects,	6:05
	but the creator to whom we are accountable	6:09
	in our particularities, and for our projects.	6:13
	The gods who only build up and tear down	6:21
	what we build up and we tear down,	6:24
	are both predictable and boring.	6:27
	And I don't know which is the more serious flaw.	6:32
	But the God with whom Jeremiah contends,	6:37
	and who must contend with Jeremiah,	6:41
	is full of surprises!	6:45
	This God is not a ventriloquist's doll.	6:50
	This God is the only one on whom you can count.	6:57
	These three readings, like I said,	7:05
	constitute an invitation to grow.	7:07
	To grow by developing our capacity and our identity	7:14
	by committing them to the common good.	7:17
	To grow by transcending the communities that define us	7:22
	by laying hold of what is truly human.	7:26
	To grow by renouncing the gods of class,	7:30
	or gender, or race, or ideology,	7:34
	in order to stand in the presence of the one	7:37
	whom we cannot manipulate, but whom we can count on.	7:40
	That's an invitation to a lot of growing.	7:48
	One more thing.	7:55
	At the bottom of this invitation are two words.	7:57
	Regrets only.	8:01
	(organ music)	8:19
-	Let us unite in this historic confession	11:39
	of the Christian faith,	11:41
	I believe in God, the Father Almighty,	11:44
	maker of heaven and earth,	11:47
	and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,	11:49
	who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,	11:53
	born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,	11:56
	was crucified, dead, and buried,	12:00
	the third day he rose from the dead,	12:03
	he ascended into heaven,	12:06
	and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty,	12:08
	from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	12:12
	I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church,	12:16
	the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,	12:20
	the resurrection of the body,	12:24
	and the life everlasting, Amen.	12:26
	The Lord be with you.	12:31
-	And also with you.
-	Let us pray.	12:35
	After each petition, the congregations responds,	12:46
	"Lord, hear our prayer."	12:49
	Oh Lord our God, you hear our prayers before we speak,	12:55
	and answer even before we know our need,	13:01
	though we cannot pray, let your spirit pray in us,	13:05
	drawing us to you, and toward our neighbors on Earth,	13:10
	Lord, hear our prayer.	13:15
	We pray for the whole creation,	13:18
	may all things work together for good,	13:21
	until by your design, your children inherit the earth	13:24
	and order it wisely.	13:28
	Lord, hear our prayer.	13:31
	We pray for the church of Jesus Christ,	13:35
	that begun, maintained, and promoted by your spirit,	13:39
	it may be true, engaging, glad, and active,	13:43
	doing you will.	13:49
	Lord, hear our prayer.	13:51
	We pray for people who do not believe.	13:55
	Who are shaken by doubt.	13:59
	Or have turned against you.	14:01
	Open their eyes to see beyond our broken fellowship,	14:04
	the wonders of your love, displayed in Jesus of Nazareth,	14:08
	and to follow where he calls them.	14:13
	Lord, hear our prayer.	14:16
	We pray for peace in the world.	14:20
	Disarm weapons, silence guns,	14:24
	and put out ancient hate that smolders still,	14:28
	our flames in sudden conflict,	14:31
	create goodwill among every race and nation,	14:34
	Lord, hear our prayer.	14:39
	We pray for those involved in world government,	14:43
	in agencies of control or compassion,	14:46
	who work for the reconciling of nations,	14:50
	keep them hopeful, and work with them for peace,	14:55
	Lord, hear our prayer.	14:59
	We pray for poor people who are hungry,	15:03
	or are housed in cramped places,	15:07
	increase in us and in all who prosper,	15:11
	concerned for the disinherited, Lord, hear our prayer.	15:14
	We pray for social outcasts.	15:21
	For those excluded by their own militance	15:24
	or by the harshness of others,	15:28
	give us grace to accept those our world names unacceptable,	15:30
	and so show your mighty love, Lord, hear our prayer.	15:36
	We pray for sick people who suffer pain,	15:43
	or struggle, or demons of the mind,	15:46
	who silently cry out for healing,	15:50
	may they be patient, brave, and trusting.	15:53
	Lord, hear our prayer.	15:57
	We pray for people everywhere,	16:01
	may they come into their own as children of God,	16:04
	and inherit the kingdom prepared in Jesus Christ our Lord,	16:08
	of all, and savior of the world.	16:12
	Lord, hear our prayer, Amen.	16:17
	Now, let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	16:23
	(organ music)	16:31
	(chorale music)	17:13
	Gracious God, we thank you for all the blessings	22:42
	of this life, for family and friends,	22:46
	for food, and for your word,	22:49
	enlightening our spirits and broadening our horizons.	22:53
	Accept these gifts in our lives	22:57
	in response to your love for us.	23:01
	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	23:04
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	23:09
	on earth as it is in heaven.	23:12
	Give us this day our daily bread,	23:15
	and forgive us our trespasses,	23:18
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	23:20
	and lead us not into temptation,	23:24
	but deliver us from evil,	23:26
	for thine is the kingdom, and the power,	23:28
	and the glory, forever.	23:31
	Amen.	23:33
	(organ music)	23:37
	(chorale music)	24:14
	And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	26:56
	the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,	27:00
	go forth with you now, and always.	27:03
	♪ Amen ♪	27:08
	♪ Amen ♪	27:11
	♪ Amen ♪	27:15
	♪ Amen ♪	27:19
	♪ Amen ♪	27:28
	♪ Amen ♪	27:37
	♪ Amen ♪	27:50
	(harpsichord music)	28:08
	(upbeat music)	30:53
	(chorale singing)	34:14
	(faint footsteps)	35:11
	(baby crying)	36:05
	(chorale singing)	36:40
	(organ music)	42:36

Item Info

Title:

Leander Keck - Sermon Untitled (February 2, 1986)

Description:

When we read Scripture, we tend to identify ourselves with the heroes (Jesus, Paul, etc.) and, in so doing, we reinforce who we think we are. Yet the Scripture reverses this flow and, instead of us interpreting it, it interprets us and challenges our self-centered view of things. The three passages in the lectionary text today challenge us to grow by seeking to put our indiviudal talents to the common good and by transcending our limited communities and loving the whole world. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 33:10. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 08:05.
Key quotation: “These three readings…constitute an invitation to grow. To grow by developing our capacity and our identity by committing them to the common good. To grow by transcending the communities that define us by laying hold of what is truly human. To grow by renouncing the gods of class, or gender, or race, or ideology, in order to stand in the presence of the one whom we cannot manipulate but whom we can count on.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4610w635

Date:

February 2, 1986

Speaker:

Keck, Leander

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0310
ref8141_9bb
uachapelsermaud
duke:320699
dcrau001295
ark:/87924/r4610w635
52da646e-f2ce-4c74-aa13-d279e46ffddd

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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