Leontine Kelly - "The Character of Christian Waiting" (November 14, 1976)

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	(bright organ music)	0:02
	(pensive organ music)	3:27
	(upbeat organ music)	8:12
	("Let Thy Holy Presence")	11:00
	(warm organ music)	12:26
Preacher	Surely as vast as	17:48
	all eternity is the love of god.	17:50
	With that assurance, let us join together	17:55
	as we confess our sins and experience again	17:58
	and anew the forgiveness and the redeeming love of god.	18:01
	Let us confess our sins as we pray responsibly.	18:08
	We have misused our free will	18:17
	and have disobeyed the will of god.	18:19
	We have tried to hold on to a moment's pleasure	18:27
	and have let slip the blessings which are eternal.	18:32
	We have been unwilling to accept our own responsibilities	18:41
	and have blamed our sins on other people	18:45
	instead of having the courage	18:48
	to confess that we have done wrong.	18:49
	We belong to a violent world, exposed to pounding waves	18:57
	and raging winds, we seek blindly for peace and happiness.	19:02
	Our surroundings are full of wickedness and evil,	19:14
	we have fallen into the pit which	19:18
	we ourselves dug and we cannot escape.	19:19
	Give us hearts burning with zeal for true righteousness,	19:28
	earnestly striving to transform what is evil	19:33
	even at the cost of our lives.	19:36
	Amen.	19:46
	The lord is near to all who call,	19:48
	to all who seek, trust, pray, and ask for healing.	19:52
	Dear friends in Christ, accept now the word	20:01
	which our lord speaks, your faith has saved you.	20:04
	Go in peace.	20:12
	Amen.	20:18
	(somber organ music)	20:22
	("If Ye Love Me")	21:02
Man	In the book of Habakkuk, we find these words of god.	22:31
	In the oracle of god which Habakkuk the prophet saw,	22:38
	oh lord how shall I cry for help and thou would not hear.	22:43
	Or prior to thee violence and thou would not save.	22:49
	Why does thou make me see things wrong	22:54
	and look upon trouble, destruction and violence	22:57
	are before me, strife and contention arise.	23:02
	So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth.	23:07
	For the wicked surround the righteous,	23:11
	so justice goes forth perverted.	23:14
	I will make my stand to watch and station myself	23:20
	on the tower and look forth to see what he shall say to me	23:24
	and what shall I answer concerning my complaint.	23:30
	And the lord answered me write the vision,	23:35
	make it plain upon the tablets so that he may run	23:39
	who reads it, for still the vision awaits its time.	23:42
	It hastens to the end, it will not lie.	23:48
	If it is seen lo, wait for it, it will surely come,	23:53
	it will not delay, behold he whose soul	23:58
	is not upright in him shall fail.	24:03
	But the righteous shall live by his faith.	24:07
	May we stand for the reading of the gospel.	24:12
	For a little while, and coming one	24:23
	shall come and shall not tarry,	24:27
	but my righteous ones shall live by faith	24:30
	and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.	24:34
	But we are not of those who shrink back and are not	24:39
	destroyed but of those who have faith and keep their souls.	24:42
	Herein reads the gospel of our lord,	24:49
	may it be food for our souls and may it edify our minds.	24:54
	♪ Glory be to the father, and to the son ♪	25:11
	♪ And to the holy ghost ♪	25:17
	♪ As it was in the beginning, ♪	25:23
	♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪	25:27
	♪ World without end, amen ♪	25:32
	♪ Amen ♪	25:39
Preacher	Let us affirm what we believe,	25:47
	we believe in god who is created and is creating,	25:51
	who has come into truly human Jesus	25:56
	to reconcile and make new.	25:59
	Who works in us and others by the spirit,	26:02
	we trust god who calls us to be the church,	26:06
	to celebrate life in its fullness,	26:11
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	26:14
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	26:20
	our judge and our hope in life, in death,	26:24
	in life beyond death, god is with us,	26:30
	we are not alone, thanks be to god.	26:34
	The lord be with you, let us pray.	26:40
	Oh god, god of love and mercy and creativity	26:53
	and god of hope, god of presence and god of absence,	26:58
	god of unfinished tasks and purposes and business,	27:04
	god of quiet and peace and tranquility,	27:09
	god of turmoil, of wind and storm and hurricane,	27:13
	we come this morning with the word of thanksgiving	27:17
	on our lips and in our lives, thankful oh god,	27:20
	for you have made us, each of us, you have given us life,	27:27
	you have called each of us to follow our lord Jesus Christ,	27:33
	you have called us to be somebody.	27:39
	Somebody important and helpful and necessary in your will	27:43
	and in your way of life for us and for all your children.	27:47
	Thanks be to you, oh god, for who	27:52
	you have made us to be and to become.	27:56
	Remind us again, oh lord we pray,	28:02
	of our ministry to one another.	28:04
	Jesus said the poor you will have with you always,	28:06
	we know that now, oh god.	28:10
	How sadly and how truly we know that,	28:15
	oh god, the poor, the hungry, the rejected,	28:17
	the imprisoned, the lonely, the hurting,	28:20
	the sick, the weary, the broken,	28:22
	and the brokenhearted, they are here,	28:26
	yes oh god they are here in this place this morning.	28:30
	And they are there wherever there is,	28:37
	for they are everywhere.	28:41
	But must they be always, oh god?	28:44
	Or can we, as children of yours	28:49
	and as sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ	28:53
	minister to relieve and to bring new life?	28:56
	We can, oh lord, we can.	29:01
	Help us so to do.	29:06
	Thank you, oh god, especially this morning	29:10
	for our lord Jesus Christ, for the wholeness of life,	29:13
	the goodness of life, the sensitivity of life,	29:18
	the caring in life, the beauty of life.	29:22
	Yes, oh god, for the abundant life that our lord gives	29:26
	to each of us and promises to all persons.	29:32
	Thanks be unto you, oh god, for that	29:37
	abundant life which we know in Christ.	29:40
	If we know it not, help us each to seek it.	29:44
	If we know it, oh god help us to rejoice in it.	29:47
	What a joy, what a privilege, what a blessing	29:52
	to be with one another in this place this moment,	29:58
	to sing, to pray, to read your word,	30:01
	and now to hear your word, oh god, as it is preached to us.	30:06
	These are just some of our prayers this morning, oh god,	30:14
	you know the hearts and minds and very souls	30:17
	of each of us so we would pray that you would	30:19
	take us apart one by one and hear us	30:21
	as we come with our longings, our hopes,	30:24
	our needs, our dreams, our joys.	30:27
	Hear us one by one, but oh god don't leave us that way.	30:32
	Don't leave us separated one by one	30:38
	but bring us back together now, bring us back together	30:41
	through the love of Jesus Christ our lord.	30:46
	For it's in his name we pray as he taught	30:49
	his disciples to pray, saying our father who art in heaven,	30:51
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	30:58
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	31:03
	Give us this day our daily bread,	31:08
	forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	31:11
	who trespass against us and lead us not	31:15
	into temptation, deliver us from evil.	31:19
	Thine is king, the power, and the glory forever, amen.	31:24
	It is good to go into the house of the lord	31:37
	and particularly when it's cold outside.	31:42
	We're delighted to have you worship with us	31:47
	in this place this day and in the name	31:51
	and in the spirit of god we welcome you to this holy hour.	31:54
	Tonight at 7 o'clock in the Divinity School lounge	31:59
	we will have the second of what we are calling	32:03
	this year our Sunday evening fireside conversations.	32:05
	Dr. Taylor Cole, retired, former probst	32:09
	professor emeritus of political science	32:13
	will talk with us and interact with us	32:15
	on a subject that should be of interest to many of us,	32:19
	namely the Christian or the religious resistance	32:21
	to the Nazi movement of the '30s and the '40s.	32:25
	He is a personal friend, was a personal friend	32:29
	of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so it should be most stimulating	32:31
	and exciting to hear some of his reminiscences	32:36
	and sharing some of his experiences.	32:39
	We ask you to respond to several of the announcements,	32:42
	those in the bulletin that move you	32:46
	and that you feel led to respond to.	32:48
	Particularly there is one having to do	32:51
	with the Edgemont Community Center that we	32:53
	ask your help with, they are in need of funds at the moment.	32:55
	And one way that you can help is by	32:59
	buying a ticket in advance to the basketball game	33:01
	on Thursday evening between the Duke Blue Devils	33:03
	and the Argentine national team.	33:06
	All sales which are made in advance	33:08
	will be shared with the Edgemont Community Center	33:10
	so all you need to do is call one of the three	33:13
	persons listed there and tell them you would	33:15
	like to have 15 tickets or 30 tickets or whatever	33:17
	and this will be a big help to Edgemont Community Center.	33:21
	Thursday will be observed as fast day on the Duke campus.	33:25
	That in and of itself, my friends serves	33:30
	no worthwhile purpose, but we hope that it will serve	33:32
	at least two purposes and that is one to make us	33:35
	more conscious of those around the world who are	33:38
	in need and who hunger, and to remember them	33:41
	in whatever ways we possibly can.	33:44
	And secondly to save the two or three or five or six dollars	33:46
	or whatever it is you would ordinarily spend	33:50
	and contribute that so that monetarily	33:52
	we might be of some help to those who hunger.	33:55
	The service the observance of fast day	33:59
	will begin with a communion service here in the chapel	34:01
	at 7:30 on Thursday morning, we ask you to come	34:04
	and share in that communion service	34:08
	and particularly share in fast day with us this Thursday.	34:09
	It's a joy to have on the Duke campus	34:14
	the Reverend Ms. Leontine Kelly.	34:17
	She said she is now called Teeny Kelly	34:19
	because she doesn't sing like the famous Leontine does.	34:22
	But my friends she preaches the word of god.	34:25
	My first encounter with her came as she and I	34:29
	had prayers of dismissal over a communion service	34:31
	for the United Methodist Women of the Virginia Conference,	34:34
	now ordinarily that's a very routine	34:38
	and somewhat rather monotonous thing,	34:39
	but by the time we had finished saying prayers of dismissal	34:42
	over about eight or 10 tables of those who had come	34:45
	to receive the sacrament of our lord, she had all of us	34:48
	rejoicing in the spirit and she was preaching to us.	34:51
	So that experience and other experiences	34:55
	where I have heard her, where I have heard about her,	34:59
	have caused us to invite her to come and share with us	35:02
	the word of god as she feels led to do.	35:06
	Some of you know her as your personal friend.	35:09
	It is our privilege, it is our joy, Teeny,	35:12
	to welcome to you to Duke University, to Duke chapel.	35:16
	And now, prayerfully, expectantly, and gratefully	35:19
	we will hear as you bring god's word to us.	35:24
	Welcome in the name of Christ.	35:27
	[Preacher]: It is an awesome and overwhelming experience	35:40
	to move from the, my most recent appointment	35:45
	before going on the council of ministries	35:49
	of a little country church way up in the woods	35:53
	of the northern neck of Virginia where the Potomac	35:56
	and the Rappahannock River flow into the Chesapeake Bay,	36:00
	to move from there to the pulpit of Duke Chapel so that	36:04
	my knees are indeed knocking and I would ask your prayer.	36:10
	God surely has a purpose for us being together	36:15
	this morning beyond my own personal experience.	36:20
	Having worshiped in this sanctuary and having walked	36:25
	through it as a tourist even with my own family,	36:28
	and to come here this morning I find myself asking	36:32
	"Lord, why?" but not in the same kind of lamentation	36:35
	that Habakkuk cries, for the voice of the prophet,	36:40
	asking, "How long, oh Lord, how long must	36:45
	"my people, the people whom you have called to be yours,	36:50
	"how long must they cry for help and you don't seem to hear?	36:55
	"You must know the situation of oppression	37:01
	under which they live."	37:03
	The cry of Habakkuk is not a new cry.	37:06
	Even in the Old Testament, throughout the Psalm,	37:10
	there is the lament, even that which	37:14
	Jesus Christ himself uttered from the cross,	37:16
	"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"	37:19
	So the lament is one with which we are familiar.	37:23
	It is not to question that God is;	37:28
	the prophet Habakkuk is very much aware of the	37:32
	sovereignty of a God who was and is and always shall be.	37:35
	There is no question of God.	37:39
	It is just, what does He have to say	37:41
	to this moment in the lives of His people?	37:44
	A God accepted as one who knows of the historic situation	37:47
	and must have something to say so that the prophet	37:52
	finds that he goes up on the watchtower, as he says,	37:56
	to hear what the Lord has to say, never questioning	38:01
	that He has something to say.	38:04
	But what can it be?	38:06
	We must surely know this as we participate	38:08
	in the daily living of our own time,	38:12
	overwhelmed by the problems, sometimes feeling so helpless	38:15
	even as Christians in terms of what the solutions might be.	38:19
	And we find ourselves listening,	38:24
	"What can the word of the Lord be in such a time as this?"	38:26
	Habakkuk records that from his watchtower	38:31
	the answer comes to him, "Write the vision,	38:35
	"make it plain upon the tablets so he may run who reads it	38:38
	"for still, the vision awaits its time,	38:43
	"it hastens to the end, it will not lie, if it seems slow,	38:46
	"wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay.	38:50
	"Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail	38:54
	but the righteous shall live by his faith."	38:59
	As a black woman, I can understand the questioning	39:03
	of a Habakkuk in the midst of unjustice, injustice.	39:08
	Where, as he says, justice seems perverted	39:13
	by the circumstance of the day.	39:16
	As a black woman I can understand having been reared	39:19
	within the Christian setting and having	39:23
	because of my own personal experience,	39:24
	found myself deeply rooted in the understanding	39:27
	of the sovereignty of God and of His purposes	39:30
	for each of our lives and for us as His collective people.	39:33
	I have no problem with the word that comes to Habakkuk,	39:37
	"Write the vision, write it so even this running generation	39:41
	will see it as it hastens by in almost a calamitous fashion.	39:45
	The only problem I have as a black woman is with waiting.	39:50
	I have trouble waiting and there is in this context	39:55
	for me an urgency that just cries out to the Lord,	39:59
	"Just make it so now. Surely there is enough love,	40:03
	"there's enough understanding, there are enough people	40:07
	"committed to your word and your way to make it true now."	40:11
	"This brotherhood, this sisterhood, this fellowship,	40:15
	"this understanding of who we are in your sight."	40:18
	I have trouble waiting.	40:23
	And it is in this kind of troublesome mood that I searched,	40:25
	surely in the presence of the Spirit, to understand	40:31
	what must be the character of Christian waiting.	40:35
	It is surely not the final word but it comes	40:40
	to me and I share it with you.	40:42
	It is a waiting that Habakkuk did not know,	40:45
	speaking from that side of the enfleshed word of God.	40:49
	He spoke as one who sought for hope,	40:53
	who had heard throughout the tradition of his people	40:56
	the messianic promise that the savior would come.	41:00
	But for those of us on this side of the resurrection,	41:04
	there must be a character of our waiting	41:08
	that is more profound and greater in hope	41:11
	and surely supported by the presence of a counseling spirit	41:16
	who enables us to hear the word of God in our time.	41:20
	It is therefore, that I, as I look at waiting,	41:25
	I came up, first of all, with the understanding	41:30
	that it is not sleeping.	41:32
	Waiting within the character	41:36
	of the Christian life is not sleeping.	41:37
	Many of us do it easily.	41:41
	We live in the kind of world	41:42
	in which we live, able to analyze the problems around us,	41:44
	very astute in our understanding of the kind of world	41:48
	and its needs and yet with our eyes open	41:53
	we manage to sleep it through and not in any way affect it.	41:55
	As we wait for the Lord, perhaps in our prayers,	42:01
	wait for Him to come and do something about it.	42:05
	The great social hymn "Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life"	42:08
	has a verse in it that speaks to this for me.	42:13
	"Oh master from the mountainside,	42:17
	you come down and walk the city streets."	42:19
	In our context, as if to say you	42:22
	walk the streets because we're afraid to.	42:25
	And we'll wait for you to come down	42:27
	and do whatever it is you have to do.	42:29
	But waiting is not sleeping and the biblical sense	42:31
	of this kind of negative for me is Jesus himself,	42:35
	when he moved into the garden of Gethsemane	42:40
	and faces the agonizing hour of his own dilemma,	42:43
	"My Lord, do I have to do this?	42:47
	"Is there not some other way?"	42:50
	And there, in this moment of his life,	42:52
	he takes with him those disciples	42:55
	whom he loves very dearly who have walked with him	42:57
	and talked with him and must surely have come	43:00
	to some kind of understanding of who he is.	43:04
	He takes them in this aside and finds utter disappointment	43:08
	when he returns to find them asleep.	43:14
	You recall his recorded disappointment.	43:19
	It is as if he is saying,	43:22
	"How can you sleep when I am in agony?"	43:24
	Waiting is not sleeping.	43:28
	There is a world out there just beyond this wall,	43:30
	perhaps even on this very campus,	43:35
	a world surely beyond this place that dares to say	43:37
	to those of us who call ourselves Christian,	43:41
	"How can you sleep while we are in agony?"	43:44
	There is a participatory expectation of the world	43:49
	as there was for our savior.	43:54
	if you wait for me,	43:56
	then you join me in the sharing of my agony.	43:57
	You participate in prayer but you	44:01
	also participate in terms of commitment,	44:03
	in terms of what God would have you do in the moment.	44:06
	So the waiting moment for the Christian	44:10
	has a perspective of participation.	44:14
	As a woman, I suppose for me it's like	44:19
	the waiting room of an obstetrics ward.	44:24
	It is as I experienced a young father,	44:27
	about to be a father as he walked from the television set	44:31
	to the couch, from one magazine to a book,	44:35
	from turning it off to turning it on and really,	44:39
	in a pacing moment, was not aware that I was even there.	44:41
	He was there in body but all of him was down the hall	44:46
	as he participated in his own creativity,	44:52
	a moment enriched by his very stance.	44:55
	I could see him look back on his life,	44:58
	the way by which he'd come, and in a confessional mood,	45:01
	really say, "Forgive me."	45:05
	And in the moment, the present moment,	45:07
	"Lord, if you just make everything right,	45:10
	"I'm gonna be great at it, I'm gonna be good at it.	45:13
	"If you will just let it be alright."	45:16
	And the promise for the future to be	45:19
	the best father that ever could be,	45:21
	a waiting moment in constant participation,	45:24
	complete involvement so that the moment itself	45:27
	is transformed from the place to the moment	45:31
	when it is greatly needed, a support base,	45:37
	as understanding, as past forgiveness,	45:40
	as promise of participation.	45:44
	The waiting moment for the Christian is not sleeping;	45:48
	it is involvement. For it is a stance of faith;	45:52
	it is understanding that God has,	45:56
	for some reason, involved us in this moment.	45:59
	It is not surely that the bad, the evil in the world	46:04
	is His to do, but it is His anxiety to work	46:07
	within the evil of the world, to bring about His purposes.	46:11
	And for those of us who call ourselves Christians,	46:15
	committing to His way, to understand	46:19
	who we are and why we are beyond merely	46:22
	the prayerful moment or the waiting moment as	46:27
	observers to persons involved.	46:31
	In my own life, as I looked at the beginning of this year,	46:36
	in terms of the why of a bicentennial,	46:41
	I found myself searching for the most meaningful experiences	46:46
	for me as a black woman in the United States	46:50
	and I found the very crux of it.	46:54
	In my experience as a child,	46:58
	moving with my preacher father	47:01
	and my mother and my seven brothers and sisters	47:06
	to Cincinnati, Ohio and finding there	47:08
	the joy of the largest parsonage	47:13
	we'd ever had a chance to live in.	47:16
	A 16-room parsonage, finally, a bedroom for every one of us.	47:18
	We felt my father had really made it, Papa had made it.	47:23
	And there, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 7th and Smith Street	47:28
	was a huge cathedral-like structure.	47:33
	It had once been St. Paul Church, it was now Calvary Church.	47:37
	The necessity to change the name	47:43
	comes with the transition, you see.	47:45
	And here, a little black congregation over in the slum area	47:47
	had been moved into this whole block of Methodism.	47:52
	The church, the parsonage, a mother's memorial center,	47:57
	for daycare, work, and a home for working girls.	48:03
	And these few little people, by comparison,	48:07
	to the responsibility were moved in with help, surely,	48:10
	but their own understanding of who they were	48:16
	somehow was tied to their belief,	48:19
	their unbelievable belief that they could really do this.	48:22
	And papa had been called to be the leader.	48:27
	It was a great moment for us	48:32
	and we reveled in this huge parsonage.	48:34
	We felt that we were children of a preacher who knew	48:38
	who he was, had already arrived to where he was going,	48:41
	and surely we would never have to move again.	48:45
	And then one day, while my mother and father were at market,	48:49
	my teenage brothers called me into the cellar of this house.	48:53
	It wasn't the basement, it was a cellar.	48:59
	And some of you who are as old as I am know	49:02
	what a cellar is - it was a huge cavernous dark place	49:04
	that reminded me so much of a coal mine	49:10
	that I never went down at the age of eight,	49:13
	I would always hold my father's hand very tightly	49:16
	and say, "Papa, is this like a mine?"	49:19
	and keep very close to him because of the shadows there.	49:22
	Somehow, as little girls tend to trust teenage brothers	49:26
	when they ought to know by experience they shouldn't,	49:30
	I followed them as they came up, and in a very game fashion	49:34
	said, "Teeny, we want to show you something,"	49:38
	and they put me on their shoulders	49:41
	and it was really gonna be a game.	49:43
	As it turned out, they had found beside the furnace	49:46
	a shaft, and they just needed me to see	49:51
	whether or not my feet would touch bottom.	49:55
	In our day, that is known	49:59
	as a traumatic experience for a child.	50:00
	In my day, I only knew that I was just screaming my head off	50:04
	when the Holy Spirit sent mama and papa back.	50:08
	I didn't know what it was then, I do now.	50:10
	And my concern was that my father, who was not	50:13
	"daddy," he was a "papa" and there's a difference.	50:17
	Papa didn't, was not as firm as I expected him to be.	50:22
	He did not really reprimand these brothers of mine	50:26
	in the way that I wanted him to. He was a little harsh	50:29
	but there was an excitement about him.	50:33
	There was something in his eyes as he said to them,	50:35
	"fellas, I want you to do something. Go upstairs	50:38
	and put on your oldest clothes. I think we found something,	50:42
	and I'm going over to the church while you do it."	50:46
	And then when he came back, he gave them a searchlight.	50:50
	He said, "I have found the same kind of a shaft	50:54
	"beside the furnace under the church.	50:57
	"And it is a bricked in tunnel. I want you to trust me.	51:00
	"I'm going on that side and I want you to crawl through	51:05
	"and I'll meet you on the other side of the tunnel."	51:09
	And around the kitchen table	51:13
	of David Turpeau's parsonage,	51:17
	I learned as an eight-year-old of the Underground Railroad.	51:21
	"We have found a station," papa said, "right here,	51:26
	"right here, just a few blocks from the Ohio River.	51:31
	There is a witness of this church,	51:36
	a witness underground that does not speak	51:39
	in the lovely woodwork and the beautiful chandeliers.	51:44
	It did not speak of the kind of Christian death	51:49
	that would have provided that church with	51:52
	the ability to witness to that congregation,	51:55
	to that community no matter what its color,	51:57
	a church in which William Henry Harrison, a former President	52:01
	of the United States had been married.	52:05
	But with the changing community, just a few brown faces,	52:07
	all of that tradition, all of that heritage,	52:12
	all of that moneyed interest moved out	52:15
	to find another mission place.	52:18
	But the true witness for us, as a black family in a kitchen	52:23
	of that parsonage was down in the basement when,	52:26
	in a time of utter distress,	52:30
	a time when it seemed that this country of ours was locked	52:35
	into a system that economically it was unsound	52:39
	to try to change, culturally so embedded that it could	52:43
	even be justified scripturally for those	52:47
	who would interpret the scriptures in that way.	52:51
	Even in this kind of unmitigating circumstances,	52:54
	there in the church of Jesus Christ, there was a witness	52:59
	that in the waiting moment of time, God does speak.	53:04
	And He looks for those who would hear the word	53:08
	and interpret it, write it, not just for the vision	53:12
	of the end of time, but of the now in which we now yet live	53:16
	that we now live, anticipating the not yet.	53:20
	There, in that instance, as Papa put it,	53:24
	"Can you imagine," he said, "an official board	53:28
	"voting to put that tunnel there?"	53:31
	It would not have been then, it still is not now.	53:36
	There are still persons who move to live out the message	53:40
	against all kinds of circumstances that would define	53:46
	who God is and who people are, and by the presence	53:50
	and counseling of the Holy Spirit, take the risk	53:55
	of Christian discipleship knowing that it is true	53:59
	as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it, "that if you believe,	54:02
	you obey. And if you don't obey, then you don't believe."	54:06
	It is as simple as that, it is as complicated as that.	54:11
	It is demanding as that, it is as freeing as that.	54:15
	It is in the waiting moment that the Christian	54:20
	comes to understand who he is as he waits,	54:24
	really awake to the time in which he lives,	54:29
	really awake to the understanding of who she is,	54:33
	really awake and participating,	54:37
	listening for the word of God and then in the faith,	54:40
	as it is interpreted through the entire word	54:43
	of the scripture from the beginning to the now of our day,	54:46
	living it out, writing the vision in our own lives	54:49
	so that even this running generation,	54:53
	even if it just catches a glimpse of it,	54:56
	can understand that there is a way,	54:58
	there is a truth, there is a life to be lived even now.	55:01
	It was my blessed experience during this past week	55:08
	as I sat with the council on General Council of Ministries	55:14
	of the United Methodist Church	55:19
	in our organizational meeting in Dayton, Ohio.	55:21
	As I sat there to hear Dr. Isaac Bivens,	55:25
	straight from the plane coming from Geneva,	55:30
	where there he has been a spectator to the	55:33
	negotiating process on Rhodesia, Zimbabwe.	55:37
	And as he came back to tell us of a little black man,	55:44
	a bishop, the Rhodesian bishop, Bishop Abel Muzorewa,	55:49
	who he says there involved in negotiation interprets	55:56
	what it means to be Christian, what it means for him	56:01
	to be a Christian in the moment of his life as he waits,	56:06
	not just to see what God will do, but listens	56:11
	by the power of His spirit to what He would say to him	56:15
	in the episcopal leadership of the church,	56:19
	as a person, as a representative, as a disciple.	56:24
	And there, Ike Bivens says, I sat in the	56:29
	little cottage which he lives.	56:33
	His room is a crossway of life.	56:35
	People, all coming to him, even those	56:39
	who completely disagree with him trusting him because	56:44
	of his ability to know who he is in the sight of God.	56:49
	It is in the moment, the historic moment that God spoke	56:55
	to the prophet, it is in the moment of our life	57:00
	that God speaks to us and says to us	57:04
	as individuals and as yea the very body of His church.	57:09
	"Listen."	57:15
	"Don't sleep."	57:18
	"Share the agony that I feel in the fragmentation	57:20
	"and understand that for your wholeness I have given my son	57:25
	"Jesus Christ who emptied himself of himself	57:29
	"even to the death of the cross that	57:34
	"you might know who you are	57:38
	"and in the waking moment come alive, be awake,	57:40
	"participate in, become involved in, and counseled by the	57:46
	"presence and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit,	57:51
	"come against those structures of society that would	57:56
	"indeed oppress my people wherever they are,	57:59
	"and by that power free them,	58:04
	"knowing that in the tradition of your faith,	58:08
	"it is an obedience that you write the vision	58:11
	"with your life, write it,	58:15
	"so that even the running generation can see it,	58:18
	"the end will not lie.	58:22
	But there is the understanding in Christian waiting,	58:25
	the understanding of judgment in the end,	58:30
	the understanding that if we know what is right	58:34
	and fail to do it,	58:37
	that we are children of a just God	58:39
	and it is in this context that the writer of Hebrews	58:43
	picks up the word of Habakkuk and reminds us that	58:47
	"for yet a little while and	58:51
	"the coming one shall come and shall not tarry	58:55
	"but my righteous one shall live by faith.	58:58
	"And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."	59:02
	But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed	59:07
	but those who have faith and keep their souls.	59:12
	Amen.	59:19
	Oh eternal god, creator of each one of us,	59:21
	as we look on the tradition of this faith of ours	59:27
	which we proclaim and understand	59:30
	that from the very beginning of a covenant relationship	59:33
	that you have not only claimed us to be your people,	59:37
	but have renewed the covenant in the enfleshing	59:41
	of the living word of god, yea in Jesus Christ	59:44
	who we proclaim as our savior.	59:48
	Empower us by the holy spirit which set afire	59:51
	a new living church at the very beginning of the time	59:56
	in which we now live so that we may not wait	1:00:00
	for something to open and someone to descend,	1:00:06
	that is in the not yet which is in your hands	1:00:11
	but enable us and empower us to understand	1:00:15
	that in the waiting moment of overwhelming problems	1:00:18
	there is your purpose for our lives as individuals	1:00:22
	and as a corporate body, the body of Jesus Christ,	1:00:27
	to be given in risk, in love, and in greatness	1:00:31
	to witness to a world that the way is already made for us	1:00:37
	and we dare to write it in our very lives	1:00:43
	so that even this frightened running generation can read it.	1:00:48
	That the vision does await its day	1:00:54
	but we catch a glimpse of it and claim it for now	1:00:56
	and we ask it in Jesus name and for his sake, amen and amen.	1:01:01
	(worshipful organ music)	1:01:12
	(singing in foreign language)	1:03:29
	(bright organ music)	1:07:29
	♪ Praise god from whom all blessings flow ♪	1:08:04
	♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪	1:08:09
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:08:15
	♪ Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ♪	1:08:23
	♪ Praise father, son, and holy ghost ♪	1:08:29
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:08:35
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:08:41
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:08:48
	♪ Amen ♪	1:08:58
Preacher	And now lord, our god,	1:09:12
	we give a portion of our gifts,	1:09:16
	help us in this moment though	1:09:20
	to give more than a portion of ourselves.	1:09:24
	May the life of each of us be closer in spirit	1:09:30
	and in truth to your presence now than ever before.	1:09:35
	We give because you have given to us,	1:09:43
	we sacrifice because you have sacrificed for us,	1:09:49
	and yes, oh god, we are able to love	1:09:55
	because you have first loved us.	1:10:01
	Through Jesus Christ our lord, amen.	1:10:07
	(bright organ music)	1:10:15
	♪ Jesus shall reign wherever the sun ♪	1:10:47
	♪ Doth his successive journeys run ♪	1:10:55
	♪ His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore ♪	1:11:03
	♪ Till moons shall wax and wane no more ♪	1:11:12
	♪ To Him shall endless prayer be made ♪	1:11:23
	♪ And princes throng to crown his head ♪	1:11:31
	♪ His name like sweet perfume shall rise ♪	1:11:39
	♪ With every morning sacrifice ♪	1:11:48
	♪ People and realms of every tongue ♪	1:11:58
	♪ Dwell on His love with sweetest song ♪	1:12:07
	♪ And infant voices shall proclaim ♪	1:12:15
	♪ Their early blessings on his name ♪	1:12:24
	♪ Blessings abound wherever he reigns ♪	1:12:35
	♪ The prisoner leaps to lose his chains ♪	1:12:43
	♪ The weary find eternal rest ♪	1:12:52
	♪ And all the sons of want are blessed ♪	1:13:00
	♪ Let every creature rise and bring ♪	1:13:11
	♪ Peculiar honors to our king ♪	1:13:20
	♪ Angels descend with songs again ♪	1:13:29
	♪ And earth repeat the loud amen ♪	1:13:38
	♪ Amen ♪	1:13:48
Preacher	The grace of our lord and savior Jesus Christ,	1:14:27
	the love of god, and the communion	1:14:32
	and fellowship of the holy spirit be with you	1:14:35
	and with those whom you love, now and forever.	1:14:39
	("Amen" hymnal)	1:14:48
	(bell tolling)	1:16:12
	(upbeat organ music)	1:16:27

Item Info

Title:

Leontine Kelly - "The Character of Christian Waiting" (November 14, 1976)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 35:40. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 59:26.
The character of Christian waiting is not to be asleep or passive and oblivious to the devastating power of sin and destruction but to listen to God and participate in God's saving work, writing the vision of God in our lives. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: It is in the waiting moment that the Christian comes to understand who he is as he waits, really awake to the time in which he lives, really awake to the understanding of who she is, really awake and participating, listening for the word of God, and then in the faith as it is interpreted through the entire word of the Scripture from the beginning to the now of our day, living it out, writing the vision in our own lives so that even this running generation, even if it just catches a glimpse of it, can understand that there is a way, there is a truth, there is a life to be lived even now.

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4v40kd9z

Date:

November 14, 1976

Speaker:

Kelly, Leontine T. C. (Leontine Turpeau Current)

Liturgical Calendar:

Advent

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0864
ref6928_rha
uachapelsermaud
duke:321027
dcrau001817
ark:/87924/r4v40kd9z
b856289e-3152-48f0-b7ac-eff9658984cf

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:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

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