Mrs. Robert R. (Twick) Morrison, Jr. - "Stretching into Life" (June 25, 1978)

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Narrator	Duke University Chapel service of worship	0:06
	June 25th, 1978.	0:10
	(church organ music)	0:16
	(choir singing)	12:24
	(church organ music)	13:03
Priest	The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God	16:25
	and the joy of the Holy Spirit be with you.	16:29
	My friends in Christ, we all know better than we do.	16:33
	We think more helpfully then we show.	16:40
	We can be more than we are.	16:45
	We fail even as we try to be loving and faithful.	16:49
	Let us therefore, together in this moment,	16:56
	confess the failures of our intentions	17:00
	and the confusion of our lives. Let us pray.	17:05
	We are people who find it very difficult to confess	17:12
	but it is easy for us to complain.	17:17
	Forgive our clever confessions,	17:20
	we are people of unbelief who live without hope.	17:24
	You have exalted us and given us the prospect of life	17:29
	that is wide and free but we hang back.	17:33
	You have promised a new creation of all things	17:38
	in righteousness and peace	17:41
	but we act as if everything were as before.	17:44
	You honor us with promises	17:48
	but we do not believe ourselves capable	17:51
	of what is required of us.	17:54
	You have given us the Christ who would dared	17:57
	to be fully human but we have participated	18:00
	in the dehumanizing of this world.	18:04
	Forgive us, oh Lord, help us to live as forgiven people	18:08
	free to move into the future.	18:14
	Now, let us continue with our personal confession	18:18
	before almighty God.	18:21
	Dear friends in Christ, listen here is the good news.	18:41
	Jesus said," I will never turn anyone away who comes to me."	18:49
	Christ has come to forgive us in our failures,	18:58
	to accept us as we confess, to set us free	19:02
	and to make us what we are intended to be.	19:08
	Let us give thanks, for God is good	19:15
	and God's love is everlasting.	19:18
	(congregation replies)	19:22
	Amen.	19:37
	May I say a word of welcome to each of you this morning?	19:40
	It's a beautiful day outside.	19:44
	It is my prayer and may it be our prayer together	19:48
	that this will be a beautiful day inside, spiritually,	19:53
	as we come together to worship God	19:58
	and to share in fellowship in this holy hour.	20:00
	We have a need for our Sunday worship during the summer	20:07
	That some of you may be interested in helping to meet.	20:12
	We need ushers to help serve	20:15
	during the remaining Sundays of the summer weeks.	20:17
	If you are going to be here and available and interested,	20:21
	we'd like to have you indicate that you would be willing	20:26
	to serve one or more Sundays as an usher	20:28
	during these few weeks.	20:31
	If so, please sign at the hostess desk	20:33
	as you leave this morning.	20:37
	Mrs. Robert Morrison Junior,	20:41
	our guest preacher for today.	20:44
	He is an outstanding leader in the United Methodist Church	20:46
	at the local, district, regional, and national levels.	20:49
	Creative and sensitive, she has been a vital force	20:55
	in progressive movements of the United Methodist women	21:00
	and United Methodist Church in Mississippi	21:03
	and in other places.	21:06
	Warm and gracious, perhaps too warm at the moment	21:10
	as are the rest of us.	21:14
	The mother of two sons,	21:16
	one of whom graduated from Duke last year.	21:19
	Wife whose husband is a successful businessman,	21:22
	one who combines being wife, mother,	21:25
	and church woman in a beautiful and effective way.	21:28
	We welcome Twick Morrison and her family	21:33
	to Duke University today and to Duke Chapel	21:36
	and look forward to her sharing	21:41
	the word of God with us this day.	21:43
	Welcome and blessings on you Twick.	21:47
	Will you join with me as we pray?	21:55
	The Lord Our God, lord of words and Lord of the word,	22:00
	Lord of life and Lord of light,	22:07
	increase in each of us our receptivity to your word	22:12
	that we may truly hear, accept, and understand	22:18
	the message you have for us today.	22:21
	Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, amen.	22:25
	The Old Testament lesson this morning	22:32
	is taken from the book of Genesis chapter 12	22:34
	verses 1 through five.	22:37
	"Now the Lord said to Abram,	22:41
	'Go from your country and your kindred	22:44
	and your father's house to the land that I will show you	22:46
	and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you	22:52
	and will make your name great	22:57
	so that you will be a blessing.	22:59
	I will bless those who bless you	23:02
	and him who curses you, I will curse.	23:05
	And by you, all the families	23:08
	of the Earth shall bless themselves.'	23:10
	So Abram went as the Lord had told him	23:13
	and Lot went with him.	23:17
	Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Iran.	23:20
	And Abram took Sarah his wife and Lot, his brother and son	23:25
	and all the possessions which they have gathered	23:30
	and the person's which they had gotten in Iran	23:32
	and set forth to go the land of Canaan."	23:35
	Thus ends the reading of the Old Testament lesson.	23:41
	The epistle lesson comes from Paul's letter	23:45
	to the church at Phillipi, a passage,	23:48
	I'm sure, familiar to all of us.	23:51
	Paul writes,	23:54
	"Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss	23:58
	for the sake of Christ.	24:04
	Indeed, I count everything as loss	24:06
	because of the surpassing worth	24:09
	of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.	24:11
	For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things	24:16
	and count them as refuse in order that I may gain Christ	24:21
	and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own	24:27
	based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ.	24:31
	The righteousness of God that depends on faith	24:37
	that I may know him and the power of his resurrection	24:42
	and may share his sufferings,	24:46
	becoming like him in his death that, if possible,	24:49
	I may obtain the resurrection from the dead,	24:54
	not that I have already attained this	24:59
	or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own	25:02
	because Christ Jesus has made me his own."	25:06
	My friends, I do not consider that I have made it my own	25:12
	but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind	25:18
	and straining forward to what lies ahead.	25:23
	I press on toward the goal,	25:27
	for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.	25:29
	God always blesses when we hear His holy word, amen."	25:38
	(church organ music)	26:00
	(choir singing)	27:11
	The gospel lesson is from the 5th chapter	29:27
	of the Gospel of Saint Matthew.	29:30
	the first few verses of what is known	29:31
	as Jesus's sermon on the Mount.	29:34
	Let us hear the word of God.	29:38
	"Seeing the crowds, he Jesus, went up on the mountain	29:42
	and when he sat down his disciples came to him	29:48
	and he opened his mouth and taught them saying,	29:53
	'Blessed are the poor in spirit,	29:57
	for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.	30:00
	Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.	30:04
	Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.	30:09
	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,	30:14
	for they shall be satisfied.	30:19
	Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.	30:22
	Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.	30:28
	Blessed are the peacemakers,	30:34
	for they shall be called the children of God.	30:37
	Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,	30:41
	for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.	30:46
	Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you	30:51
	and utter all kinds of evil against you,	30:55
	falsely, on my account.	30:57
	Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,	31:00
	for so men had persecuted the prophets who were before you.	31:06
	You are the salt of the earth	31:11
	but if salt has lost its taste,	31:13
	how should its saltness be restored?	31:16
	It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out	31:19
	and trodden under foot by men.	31:24
	You are the light of the world.	31:27
	A city set on a hill cannot be hid.'"	31:30
	Here ends the reading of the lesson.	31:36
	May God's name be praised, amen.	31:38
	(church organ music)	31:44
	(choir singing)	31:56
Twick	For a few minutes	32:53
	on this June morning in Duke Chapel,	32:56
	I pray that together	33:01
	we can emerge from our cocoons of potential	33:03
	into a celebration of life.	33:09
	That through Christ's Spirit	33:14
	we can stretch our Earthbound spirits	33:18
	to meet his outstretched love.	33:22
	I have had some exciting growth experiences	33:31
	in the last few years.	33:35
	They have taken me, literally, from a mission's station	33:38
	in the jungles of Panama to this Pulpit today.	33:42
	As with each of the others,	33:48
	today's experience has pressed me and stretched me	33:52
	and inspired me and questioned to me.	33:56
	What could I, a lay woman,	34:02
	possibly say to theologians,	34:06
	to historians, to economist's, to chemists,	34:09
	to political scientist that they don't already know?	34:13
	What can I give to students	34:18
	whose knowledge far surpasses mine?	34:22
	Slowly, finally, the realization took hold of me	34:28
	that because I am God's unique creation,	34:34
	I have, through God's grace	34:39
	and experience and a word of my own.	34:44
	So out of an exuberance for life,	34:50
	and out of my own peculiar history of who I am	34:55
	and who God is,	34:59
	I offer you my word,	35:01
	simply and sincerely.	35:04
	Recently a friend shared a book with me.	35:11
	At first glance, the cartoons, the large hand print,	35:17
	the simple title, "Hope for the Flowers,'	35:23
	gave me the impression	35:27
	that it was child's story	35:29
	about caterpillars and butterflies.	35:31
	Reassured, however, by the caption on the cover	35:35
	that it was a tale for adults, I read it.	35:40
	And I discovered a powerful parable about life	35:43
	and change and potential.	35:48
	It's the story of a caterpillar who has difficulty	35:52
	becoming what he can be.	35:56
	Difficulty becoming what he can be.	36:00
	How like myself,	36:04
	like you, maybe.	36:07
	From the time he hatches and greets the world,	36:11
	he is seeking.	36:14
	He seeks food first and then meaning.	36:15
	Then he reaches out for companionship	36:20
	and for a task to which he can give himself	36:24
	but nothing satisfies until,	36:27
	at the coaxing of a butterfly,	36:31
	he lets go of everything,	36:33
	risks the disciplined confinement	36:36
	of the cocoon and emerges a butterfly	36:39
	surging into life with outstretched wings.	36:43
	The kind of creation God intended him to be.	36:47
	Surely,	36:55
	most of us here	36:57
	yearn	36:59
	to be the fully alive persons God created us to be,	37:00
	I know I do.	37:04
	I want to leave behind old prejudices	37:06
	and love to the limit.	37:10
	I want to discard wrong conceptions	37:14
	and feel the strong sting of growing.	37:18
	I don't want to inch into life hesitantly and unexpectantly,	37:21
	I want to stretch into life,	37:26
	embrace its joys	37:30
	bind its wounds,	37:33
	question its inequities,	37:36
	use its opportunities.	37:39
	I want to stretch into life the same way	37:42
	Duke basketball star, Jean Beck, stretches for the goal.	37:45
	The action shot on the cover of Sports Illustrated	37:51
	leaves an indelible impression.	37:57
	I would imagine some of you have kept	38:00
	that copy of Sports Illustrated.	38:02
	So go back this afternoon and look at it again.	38:04
	There he is with power,	38:08
	with determination, eye on the goal.	38:14
	He is jumping, pressing, reaching, stretching, that's it.	38:17
	That's the pressing for the goal	38:25
	that Paul is talking about to his Philippian friends	38:28
	as we heard the reading of the epistle earlier.	38:33
	With the same determination,	38:39
	with focus,	38:42
	Gene Becks approaches life.	38:45
	he made these comments about growing up	38:49
	in a recent interview,	38:52
	"The ghetto is tragedy and comedy together," he said,	38:54
	"I've always been taught never to give up.	38:58
	To struggle hard for everything.	39:02
	People in West Philly saw me as some Messiah	39:05
	but there is only one Messiah, Jesus Christ.	39:08
	You've got to have that strong force with you.	39:12
	you can't do it without God." he said.	39:15
	I press toward the goal for the prize	39:23
	of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.	39:28
	Across the biblical witness,	39:37
	with gracious initiative,	39:42
	God reaches out	39:45
	to evoke a response of change and growth.	39:47
	God reached to Abram,	39:53
	called at 75 to leave security	39:57
	and prosperity and go into an unknown land.	40:01
	He was childless and yet he was willing	40:05
	to believe he could be Abraham, father of a nation.	40:10
	And don't minimize Sarah's role in The Venture.	40:17
	she was comfortable in her household routine.	40:20
	She had all the servants she needed.	40:25
	She was beyond the age to bear a child	40:29
	and yet she was willing to go along with the dream	40:31
	of a new nation,	40:36
	a new name,	40:39
	a knowable God.	40:41
	God reached to Ruth	40:47
	a Moabitist, widowed at an early age.	40:52
	She was willing to stretch into an unknown future	40:57
	to follow her mother-in-law to a Strange Land,	40:59
	Never losing heart.	41:04
	She remarried	41:07
	and this young woman from a foreign land	41:09
	became the for bearer of Jewish Kings,	41:14
	even of Our Lord himself.	41:17
	God reached to Saul,	41:24
	established church leader,	41:27
	call to act upon the dramatic vision	41:30
	and new inside of the Damascus Road experience.	41:33
	Called to be Paul.	41:37
	How long the list could be.	41:44
	For Moses to Martha,	41:48
	from Deborah to Peter,	41:52
	to Jesus himself,	41:56
	born in the wrong way,	42:00
	born in the wrong place, announced to the wrong people,	42:02
	grew up virtually unknown.	42:07
	Had three years of rejected ministry,	42:11
	arrested, tried, executed unjustly,	42:15
	and still he could live life so fully, so abundantly	42:18
	that he could say I am the life.	42:24
	God in Christ showing us	42:29
	how to make our humanity resonate and shine.	42:34
	As we heard in the gospel lesson,	42:42
	the reading of the Beatitudes,	42:45
	there was being drawn for us, the clearest portrait	42:47
	that we have of Jesus.	42:51
	See him	42:56
	continually emptying himself	42:59
	to be filled by God.	43:02
	Finding sorrow a crucible for selfhood.	43:07
	Keeping his ego in check,	43:15
	seeking justice,	43:20
	forgiving,	43:25
	focusing single-mindedly on God,	43:28
	Making Peace,	43:32
	suffering severe persecution	43:36
	for the cause of Justice.	43:38
	There in bold strokes and startling clarity, is Jesus	43:42
	and there is a fulfilled life to which he calls, you and me.	43:48
	Not an easy life,	43:54
	but one filled with meaning.	43:57
	What a paradox for poverty of spirit	44:03
	to be the beginning of rich life.	44:07
	Jesus began the Beatitudes there, someone had suggested,	44:13
	because it's precisely at the point	44:17
	that we let go of everything, that we become nothing,	44:20
	that he can do his thing with us.	44:25
	There's got to be a continuous emptying and filling by God.	44:30
	Recall the all-night prayer vigils of Jesus.	44:36
	Over and over he emptied himself, opened himself	44:39
	to the spirit of God and came away energized and enabled.	44:43
	We too have got to clean out the old.	44:50
	A growth faith is not a cumulative faith.	44:57
	Over and over that pruning phase must go on in our lives.	45:00
	From poverty of spirit,	45:08
	this emptying,	45:11
	this pruning,	45:13
	comes new life.	45:14
	God, through Jesus,	45:18
	coaxing us to	45:21
	stretch into be what he intended us to be,	45:23
	new creations alive in Christ.	45:26
	Aliveness	45:36
	generates explosions of awareness.	45:39
	No more limited vision of the crawler.	45:42
	Out of the Cocoon of disciplined meditation	45:46
	and self introspection,	45:49
	into the heady atmosphere of new insights,	45:51
	new feelings,	45:54
	new responses,	45:57
	a new awareness now	45:59
	of what is true	46:02
	and pure	46:06
	and just	46:08
	and honorable	46:10
	and lovely,	46:13
	to use Paul's list.	46:14
	It is easy to exhult in what is lovely.	46:19
	A child's face, a friend's touch,	46:23
	a flower's scent, a bird's call.	46:27
	But a new awareness of what is just and right	46:32
	stretches us into areas	46:36
	that sometimes we had rather ignore.	46:38
	Henri Nouwen, in his book, 'Reaching Out',	46:42
	tells of a priest friend who cancels his subscription	46:46
	to the New York Times.	46:50
	The endless stories of crime and fighting	46:53
	and political intrigue, he felt,	46:55
	distracted him from prayer and meditation.	46:57
	"What a sad story," Nouwen comments,	47:02
	because it suggests that only by denying the world	47:04
	can you live in it.	47:08
	A real spiritual life does exactly the opposite.	47:09
	It makes us alert and aware of the world around us.	47:12
	Christian awareness	47:21
	takes us into the stench	47:24
	of an Ethiopian prison	47:27
	where 70 women political prisoners	47:31
	are crammed into a room five by six yards.	47:34
	There are no beds,	47:39
	the lavatory is a hole in the floor.	47:42
	These mothers, wives, daughters	47:47
	of ousted government officials, have never been accused,	47:50
	they have simply been left there to rot.	47:53
	Awareness sears into our consciousness	48:01
	the cries of prisoners being tortured	48:06
	in some 100 countries today.	48:08
	It warns us through the voice of a witness	48:14
	from Argentina after what happened in German prisons,	48:17
	many said I didn't know, now you know.	48:20
	Christian awareness confronts each of us,	48:28
	not just the professionals, with the ethical decisions	48:32
	involved in cloning an abortion and pulling the plug.	48:37
	It forces us into translating the hunger issue	48:43
	from in comprehensible generalities	48:48
	into inform support of specific legislation	48:51
	and a critical analysis of our own lifestyles.	48:57
	Certainly, a careful listening	49:02
	to the world around us is frightening.	49:05
	how much easier it would be to stay	49:09
	in the enveloping protection of the Cocoon	49:13
	rather than risk the painful awareness.	49:15
	But	49:20
	for Christians to be fully alive there is no escaping	49:22
	the hurts and the hard decisions.	49:29
	A word of caution,	49:35
	God does not call us to take on	49:38
	the whole world in schizophrenic anxious reaction.	49:42
	We simply cannot do everything that's worth doing.	49:49
	There's a danger of burning ourselves out in despair	49:53
	and ending up accomplishing nothing but God does prod us	49:57
	to take the world around us into our meditation	50:03
	so that we can come back out with a contemplated	50:08
	fearless response	50:13
	to the issues to which we are called.	50:17
	In the face, then,	50:26
	of all the evidence,	50:29
	can I stretch my heart and mind further	50:32
	and affirm that God is love?	50:37
	That to be is good?	50:43
	Can I say yes to life and amen to love?	50:45
	Can I really believe the powerful affirmation of the hand	50:50
	that though the wrong seems soft so strong,	50:54
	God is the ruler yet?	50:58
	"Yes," is Paul's resounding reply.	51:02
	"Rejoice," he explains to his friends the Philippians.	51:08
	"Rejoice always," he writes	51:13
	"even from the confines of prison."	51:15
	Doctor James Angel,	51:22
	in a wonderfully affirmative little book	51:25
	appropriately entitled, 'Yes is a World,'	51:27
	speaks to this point insightfully.	51:31
	To say that life is yes	51:34
	is not to cast a vote	51:39
	for an anti intellectual, we know-it-all	51:40
	kind of fundamentalism.	51:44
	It is not to deny that life is filled with crazy dilemmas	51:46
	which seem to contradict that anyone is in charge.	51:50
	It is to say with confidence, however,	51:54
	that God is in our world even in the midst	51:58
	of heartache and disappointment,	52:03
	that life does have meaning.	52:06
	So,	52:11
	press on,	52:13
	keep reaching, urges Paul,	52:15
	your yes to life comes out of your stretching	52:18
	toward God's potential for you,	52:22
	not from perfection already achieved.	52:25
	Life is not for sitting around waiting	52:30
	for a complete creation in heaven,	52:33
	life is for living now.	52:36
	It is for discovering	52:40
	that new life is not the end, it is just the beginning	52:41
	it is for discarding old prejudices	52:48
	and loving beyond the limit,	52:51
	its for growing,	52:53
	feeling the exhilarating sting of growing.	52:55
	It is for reaching out to God,	52:59
	who has already endorsed	53:03
	his yes across us through Jesus Christ.	53:06
	Stretch into life,	53:15
	embrace its joys,	53:18
	bind its wounds,	53:22
	question its inequities,	53:25
	use its opportunities.	53:28
	Life is not a problem to be solved	53:31
	life is a mystery to be lived.	53:37
	Amen and amen.	53:43
	(church organ music)	53:59
	(choir singing)	54:39
Priest	With one voice let us affirm what we believe.	58:12
All	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	58:17
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	58:22
	to reconcile and make new,	58:25
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	58:28
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	58:32
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	58:36
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	58:40
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	58:46
	our judge and our hope in life, in death,	58:50
	in life beyond death, God is with us.	58:55
	We are not alone thanks be to God.	59:00
	The Lord be with you	59:05
Congregation	And also with you.	59:06
Priest	Let us pray.	59:08
	There is a verse in scripture read in the gospel lesson	59:19
	that I would like to read	59:23
	in light of yesterday's news from Rhodesia	59:26
	this word from our Lord I think appropriate.	59:31
	"Blessed are those who are persecuted	59:38
	for righteousness sake,	59:43
	for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."	59:47
	We give thanks oh God, for the word we have heard this day,	59:55
	the word read, prayed, sung,	1:00:03
	and the word just proclaimed to us.	1:00:06
	We give thanks for the beauty and meaning,	1:00:10
	the challenge and confrontation,	1:00:14
	the hope and the promise	1:00:17
	that we might continually and joyfully stretch	1:00:20
	and be stretched into more of life.	1:00:24
	Life as you have it and intended for us,	1:00:28
	yes indeed, for all your children.	1:00:33
	We pause to offer a word of intercession for our neighbors	1:00:39
	and particularly for the lives and souls	1:00:46
	of the missionaries in Rhodesia, oh God,	1:00:48
	for those who through love and faithfulness	1:00:54
	were seeking to serve others and to love in your holy name.	1:00:59
	You who are the strength of all the saints,	1:01:07
	you who can take evil and injustice	1:01:11
	and redeem it and make it holy.	1:01:14
	Give support and comfort to all who suffer	1:01:19
	in this particular Rhodesian school.	1:01:22
	receive unto your presence, for now and for always,	1:01:27
	the souls of those who have died.	1:01:31
	Give love and hope to their families and their friends	1:01:35
	and continue to reveal your word	1:01:39
	and your way to these battered people.	1:01:41
	Be the guard and the stay for all who witness	1:01:49
	as a part of your church these days.	1:01:53
	Help us never to be calm nor to rest	1:01:57
	in the face of injustice or oppression,	1:02:00
	whether in Rhodesia or in our own communities.	1:02:03
	Now we give you thanks, oh God,	1:02:10
	for our Lord Jesus Christ,	1:02:12
	for the abundant life he offers to each of us.	1:02:14
	We know, oh God, you cannot endure one of us to be lost	1:02:19
	you seek us when we stray, you look for us	1:02:24
	far more than we seek for you	1:02:29
	yet we cling to the promise and the certainty of Your love	1:02:32
	and rely fully on your ever-present grace.	1:02:38
	Make us fit for the service of love,	1:02:45
	to walk the path of faith and perseverance	1:02:49
	that we, like Jesus our lord and our guide,	1:02:53
	may be a help to all who struggle and cannot carry on.	1:02:58
	Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, the Lord and giver of life,	1:03:07
	we pray these words and we offer the prayer,	1:03:13
	which he has taught us to pray saying:	1:03:16
	Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.	1:03:19
	Thy kingdom come thy will be done	1:03:24
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	1:03:28
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:03:31
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	1:03:34
	who trespass against us.	1:03:38
	Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	1:03:41
	For thine is the kingdom, the power,	1:03:47
	and the glory forever, amen.	1:03:50
	(church organ music)	1:04:03
	(choir singing)	1:05:50
	And now, God, we bring you what we have,	1:11:19
	our good intentions, our mixed motives,	1:11:23
	our partial grasp of truth,	1:11:27
	our half-hearted commitments, our small gifts,	1:11:30
	none of it, we know, is good enough	1:11:36
	but we offer these anyway.	1:11:39
	We dare even to believe that you will receive,	1:11:42
	will bless, and will make holy	1:11:46
	all that we trust to your loving care.	1:11:49
	We give thanks for your word, your love, and your presence,	1:11:53
	which we have come to know, this day,	1:11:58
	in new and special ways through Jesus Christ Our Lord, amen.	1:12:00
	(church organ music)	1:12:10
	(choir singing)	1:12:48
	Will you join me responsibly in this charge given to us all?	1:15:34
	The Christian is not set at High Noon of life.	1:15:40
	(congregation replies)	1:15:44
	Human life must be risked if it would be won.	1:15:46
	(congregation replies)	1:15:50
	We must take seriously the possibility	1:15:55
	with which all life is fraught.	1:15:58
	(congregation replies)	1:16:01
All	The world is not finished, hallelujah!	1:16:08
	Oh Lord, arouse in us the passion for the possible,	1:16:13
	send us forth, open to the future,	1:16:17
	sensitive to ourselves and our brothers and sisters,	1:16:20
	restless until all your people are free,	1:16:24
	responsible for the ministry of Jesus the Christ.	1:16:28
Priest	And now, without closing eyes or bowing heads	1:16:32
	may I offer you these word of blessing	1:16:35
	from one Christian to another,	1:16:37
	the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	1:16:40
	the love of God, the communion and fellowship	1:16:44
	of the Holy Spirit be with you and with those	1:16:48
	with whom you love this day and forever.	1:16:52
Choir	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:02
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:07
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:13
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:22
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:27
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:36
	♪ Amen ♪	1:17:48
	(church organ music)	1:18:05

Item Info

Title:

Mrs. Robert R. (Twick) Morrison, Jr. - "Stretching into Life" (June 25, 1978)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 32:53. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 53:45.
Jesus beatitudes teaches us that it is precisely at the point, when we let go of everything and become nothing, that he can do his thing with us. Letting go of everything means a continuous emptying of the old to pave way for God to fill us anew. This process looks like: paying attention to the sorrowful realities around us, keeping our ego in check, seeking justice, forgiving, focusing on God and suffering for the cause of justice. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "a careful listening to the world in which we live is frightening. How much safer it would be to stay in the enveloping protection of the cocoon than to risk stretching into painful awareness. But for the Christian to be fully alive there is no escaping the hurts and hard decisions."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4804z033

Date:

June 25, 1978

Speaker:

Morrison, Mrs. Robert R., Jr.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0962
ref7127_vxi
uachapelsermaud
duke:320675
dcrau001842
ark:/87924/r4804z033
6133073b-719a-4f47-af4b-53c8d3845d35

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Mrs. Robert R. (Twick) Morrison, Jr. - "Stretching into Life" (June 25, 1978)

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Item Info

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Duke University Archives