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

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

Item Info

Title:

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

Description:

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

Permalink:

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

Date:

May 13, 2001

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Easter

Biblical Book:

John

Chapter and Verse:

John 13:31-35

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

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

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

Unknown Rights-Holder

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