Edmund A. Steimle - "The Non-Hero" (April 8, 1979)

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Narrator	Duke University Chapel Service of Worship,	0:04
	Palm Sunday, April 8th 1979.	0:07
	(choral singing)	0:24
	(bright organ music)	1:06
	(faint choir singing)	3:07
Preacher	On this holy Palm Sunday,	9:48
	let the congregation stand	9:51
	for the responsive call to worship.	9:53
	Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord.	10:01
	It is right to praise you, almighty god,	10:10
	for the acts of love by which you have redeemed us	10:14
	through your son Jesus Christ our lord.	10:17
	On this day he entered the holy city of Jerusalem	10:20
	in triumph and was proclaimed as king of kings	10:23
	by those who spread their garments	10:27
	and branches of palm along his way.	10:29
	Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord.	10:50
	("Requiem")	10:58
	Could we pause for just a moment to ask	16:38
	those of you particularly sitting in the nave,	16:41
	the main part of the chapel,	16:43
	if you will, please move toward the center aisle	16:45
	so that some who are standing and those who are coming in	16:49
	may have a place to seat, to sit,	16:53
	there are some seats in the transepts near the front.	16:55
	I greet you in the name and in the spirit	17:10
	of Jesus Christ our risen lord.	17:15
	Who shall ascend the hill of the lord	17:20
	and who shall stand in the holy place.	17:24
	Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,	17:29
	who do not lift up their souls to what is false.	17:33
	They will receive blessing from the lord	17:38
	and new life from the god of our salvation.	17:40
	With words and spirits joined together,	17:46
	let us confess our sin, let us pray.	17:49
	Oh god, we who proclaim with loud hosannas	17:55
	that Jesus is our lord, are people who like Peter	17:59
	will deny you three times and more.	18:04
	We sing your glory and praise but have difficulty	18:08
	being obedient to your love and goodwill.	18:12
	We comfort ourselves with a thousand	18:16
	easy slogans and heroic fantasies.	18:19
	We forget those who suffered because of us.	18:23
	We do not see our involvement in social crime.	18:27
	We substitute benign indifference for active love.	18:31
	Teach us the joy of gratitude	18:36
	expressed in the waving of the palm branches.	18:38
	May this joy replace the bitterness	18:42
	of resentment in all our lives, amen.	18:45
	Let us continue with our personal confession to god.	18:50
	And now let us hear good news.	19:11
	It was not to judge the world that god sent our lord	19:15
	into the world, but that through Jesus Christ our lord	19:18
	the world and each one who dwells in it might be made whole.	19:23
	Jesus said this is my commandment,	19:30
	love one another as I have loved you.	19:33
	I have spoken thus to you that my joy	19:37
	may be in you and that your joy may be complete.	19:39
	The peace of Christ, my friends,	19:45
	be very real to you just now, amen.	19:48
	Let us give thanks for god is good	19:56
	and god's love is everlasting.	20:00
	(congregation repeating after preacher)	20:01
	Amen.	20:19
	May I welcome you to this service of worship	20:21
	on Palm Sunday in Duke Chapel.	20:23
	The first Sunday of holy week 1979.	20:26
	For those of you who might wish to have a memento	20:30
	of this service, the ushers will have palm branches	20:33
	for you as you leave the chapel.	20:36
	May I remind you that the bulletin contains several matters	20:40
	of significance for all of us this holy week.	20:44
	There is a very moving and stirring art exhibit	20:49
	in the crypt of the chapel that you may want	20:52
	to view before you leave today,	20:54
	if not it will be here for two weeks more.	20:55
	Tonight at 7:30 the Faith and Arts Committee	20:59
	of the Duke University Parish Ministry	21:03
	is sponsoring a story in music and word	21:05
	of the life of our lord Jesus Christ,	21:08
	celebrate life will be at 7:30 tonight	21:11
	and 7:30 tomorrow night in York Chapel.	21:14
	Thursday evening at 7:30 we will come together	21:19
	to remember the last supper as on Maundy Thursday,	21:24
	we celebrate together the sacrament of the lord's supper.	21:30
	On Good Friday, from 12 until one there will be a service	21:35
	of liturgy, word, and music,	21:38
	and prayer, and scripture reading.	21:40
	From one until three there will be appropriate music	21:43
	played for meditation and reflection.	21:45
	Sunday morning at 6 o'clock, and let us pray that	21:49
	next Sunday will be as beautiful as this day,	21:53
	Sunday morning at 6 o'clock the Easter sunrise service	21:56
	in Duke Gardens, the services of worship here,	21:59
	identical services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.	22:02
	At 7:15 next Sunday evening, Easter Sunday night,	22:07
	the choir and members of the Duke Corral	22:12
	and the North Carolina Symphony	22:15
	will present the concert Verdi's Requiem.	22:17
	For those of you who have not purchased a ticket yet,	22:21
	the page box office will be open	22:24
	immediately following the service today.	22:26
	It promises, my friends, to be a glorious glorious week	22:29
	for us all and so let us give thanks to god	22:33
	not only for this holy day,	22:37
	but for those days yet to come this week.	22:39
	There are some persons who have gifts to write,	22:45
	there are some persons who have gifts to teach,	22:49
	there are some who are gifted preachers.	22:53
	There are some who are effective by way of the radio,	22:59
	as they try to communicate god's word.	23:04
	Our guest preacher on this very special occasion	23:08
	is the Reverend Dr. Edmond Steimle,	23:13
	professor of Homiletics Emeritus	23:17
	from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.	23:18
	He is indeed one of those rare individuals	23:23
	of this and of any other time who is a gifted teacher,	23:26
	proclaimer of the word of god by radio and in person,	23:35
	and a gifted man who has inspired	23:40
	many many persons as teacher and preacher,	23:44
	both by radio and in person.	23:49
	Dr. Steimle, we're pleased to welcome you	23:53
	and your wife to Duke University	23:55
	and we look forward as god will move you	23:57
	and move us as you share the word of god with us	24:00
	on this occasion, thank you for being with us.	24:03
Woman	Let us pray.	24:15
	Prepare our hearts, oh lord, to accept your word.	24:20
	Silence in us any voice but your own,	24:24
	that hearing we may also obey your will,	24:28
	through Jesus Christ our lord, amen.	24:32
	The old testament lesson is from the 52nd chapter	24:38
	of Isiah verse 13, to chapter 53 verse 5.	24:42
	Behold my servant shall prosper,	24:50
	he shall be exalted and lifted up	24:53
	and shall be very high.	24:56
	As many were astonished at him,	24:59
	his appearance was so marred,	25:02
	beyond human semblance and his form	25:05
	beyond that of the sons of men.	25:09
	So shall he startle many nations,	25:12
	kings shall shut their mouths because of him.	25:16
	For that which has not been told them, they shall see.	25:20
	And that which they have not heard, they shall understand.	25:24
	Who has believed what we have heard?	25:30
	And to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed?	25:33
	For he grew up before him like a young plant	25:37
	and like a root out of dry ground,	25:40
	he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him	25:44
	and know beauty that we should desire him.	25:50
	He was despised and rejected by men,	25:53
	a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.	25:59
	And as one from whom men hide their faces,	26:04
	he was despised and we esteemed him not.	26:07
	Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,	26:13
	yet we esteemed him stricken.	26:18
	Smitten by god and afflicted but he was wounded	26:21
	for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,	26:25
	upon him was the chastisement that made us whole	26:31
	and with his stripes we are healed.	26:36
	Here ends the reading from the old testament.	26:39
	Will the congregation please rise	26:42
	for the standing of the gospel?	26:43
	The gospel lesson is from the 21st chapter of Matthew,	26:53
	verses one through 11.	26:57
	And when they drew near to Jerusalem	27:01
	and came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives,	27:03
	then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them	27:08
	go into the village opposite you	27:12
	and immediately you will find an ass tied	27:15
	and a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me.	27:18
	If anyone says anything to you,	27:23
	you shall say the lord has need of them	27:25
	and he will send them immediately.	27:28
	This took place to fulfill what was spoken	27:31
	by the prophet saying tell the daughter of Zion	27:34
	behold your king is coming to you humble and mounted	27:38
	on an ass and on a colt the foal of an ass.	27:43
	The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them,	27:48
	they brought the ass and the colt	27:52
	and put their garments on them and he sat thereon.	27:55
	Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road	27:59
	and others cut branches from the trees	28:03
	and spread them on the road	28:06
	and the crowds that went before him and that followed him	28:08
	shouted hosanna to the son of David,	28:11
	blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord,	28:15
	hosanna in the highest.	28:17
	And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred	28:19
	saying who is this and the crowd said this is the prophet	28:23
	Jesus from Nazareth of Galilei.	28:29
	Here ends the reading from the gospel,	28:32
	all praise and glory be to god, amen.	28:34
	(Verdi's "Sanctus")	28:39
Edmund	Grace be unto you and peace	32:28
	from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.	32:32
	Palm Sunday is a queer sort of day.	32:39
	It's not like Christmas or Easter or Pentecost	32:43
	when something remarkable happened,	32:47
	a birth, a resurrection, an amazing experience	32:49
	of divine presence, and we can react without ambivalence	32:54
	or reserve to the clear cut event with joy and hallelujahs.	32:59
	On Palm Sunday, the feelings are mixed.	33:05
	To be sure, the hosannas come out	33:09
	and we carry our palm branches,	33:11
	but there's a cloud over it all, and well might there be.	33:14
	For unlike the crowd at Jerusalem,	33:19
	you and I know what's going to happen.	33:22
	The triumphal entry of our lord	33:27
	into Jerusalem holds a bitter irony.	33:29
	Imagine for a moment a ticker tape parade	33:36
	for a national hero, the first astronaut perhaps,	33:38
	with brass bands and ticker tape and cheering crowds	33:44
	lining lower Broadway in New York.	33:48
	And then suppose that in less than a week,	33:52
	the hero turns into a non-hero,	33:55
	the church turns against him,	33:59
	the government cracks down on him as a troublemaker	34:02
	or radical and then everyone,	34:05
	every one,	34:10
	disillusioned long haired radicals,	34:12
	hard hat redneck conservative patriots,	34:16
	everyone turns against him.	34:20
	The party turns sour,	34:24
	the party turns into a lynching party.	34:28
	Death to the troublemaker,	34:32
	death to the hero.	34:35
	But you and I today, we know better, shouldn't we?	34:39
	Because you and I know how it turns out.	34:45
	Our hosannas come out strong and unambiguous today,	34:49
	we know who we're cheering for, don't we?	34:54
	Or do we?	34:59
	Is there no disillusionment possible for us?	35:01
	With this God walking the earth	35:05
	in the form of Jesus of Nazareth?	35:07
	No possibility that we might turn against him too?	35:10
	Or at least turn aside between Palm Sunday and Easter	35:14
	to avoid the ugly fact of suffering and death.	35:20
	In this old testament lesson appointed for Palm Sunday	35:27
	which you heard read earlier	35:31
	is the image of the suffering servant,	35:34
	pictured by a prophet of the exiled	35:37
	whom we have come to call second Isiah.	35:39
	Because centuries of Christians,	35:44
	as no doubt you did this morning as you listened,	35:47
	have read Christ back into that picture,	35:50
	we have trouble hearing it as the exiles first heard it.	35:55
	So discard, if you can, the details	36:01
	of Christ's suffering and death,	36:03
	and listen to parts of it again as if for the first time.	36:06
	We actually don't know who the prophet had in mind	36:13
	with this figure, whether it was	36:16
	some single person or a group of people,	36:19
	a faithful remnant of the people of Israel	36:22
	or perhaps the whole people of Israel,	36:25
	but it's clear at the beginning of the passage	36:30
	that it's a figure of a hero, my servant shall prosper	36:33
	and prosper means to be effective,	36:40
	to get things done for the lord.	36:43
	My servant shall prosper and he shall be exalted	36:46
	and lifted up and shall be very high.	36:50
	A proper hero well worth a ticker tape parade	36:55
	and a crescendo of hosannas.	37:01
	But he too is a strange hero, a non-hero.	37:05
	His appearance was so marred	37:12
	beyond human semblance,	37:16
	a frightful looking person.	37:19
	So frightful you could scarcely tell he was human.	37:22
	He grew up before him like a young plant	37:26
	and like a root out of dry ground,	37:29
	he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,	37:33
	no beauty that we should desire him.	37:40
	Like a spindly, sickly plant,	37:45
	there was nothing to attract us to this non-hero.	37:48
	He was as one from whom men hide their faces,	37:56
	he was despised and we esteemed him not.	38:01
	And yet it is this non-hero, this evident weakness	38:08
	and ugliness, that is exalted and lifted up.	38:13
	No wonder the nations are startled	38:19
	and kings shut their mouths because of him.	38:21
	Whoever it was the prophet had in mind	38:25
	for this confusing picture of hero non-hero,	38:28
	it is this old testament prophecy,	38:33
	this figure of an exalted suffering servant	38:36
	which apparently our lord adopted	38:40
	for himself and his mission.	38:42
	This is how he finally came to picture himself	38:46
	and his mission, and it is recognizable isn't it?	38:51
	Even before the suffering and the death.	38:57
	There was from the very beginning,	39:05
	back there in Bethlehem and Nazareth,	39:07
	no particular form or comeliness that we should look at him,	39:10
	no beauty that we should desire him,	39:14
	born in a stable, growing up as a peasant,	39:18
	working in a carpenter's shop.	39:23
	Just Joseph and Mary's son who became a wandering teacher.	39:25
	Later, of course, some time after the resurrection,	39:31
	when they discovered who he really was,	39:37
	then they put in the angels in the sky	39:40
	and the miraculous star, the heavenly voice at his baptism,	39:44
	the dove fluttering down out of heaven.	39:49
	As if to say look, look at him.	39:54
	Don't miss it in the ordinary, unlovely details.	40:00
	It is God come to dwell with us,	40:03
	deus incarnatus est.	40:07
	But maybe you know, they should have left it all out.	40:11
	The star, the angels, the heavenly voice,	40:16
	so we could see him as he actually was	40:21
	before the resurrection.	40:25
	But we have an appetite for stars and angels, don't we?	40:28
	We like our heroes, divine or mortal,	40:32
	clean, healthy, athletic, beautiful, and antiseptic,	40:37
	preferably accompanied by stars and angels.	40:43
	We like beautiful people who can rise above	40:47
	the dust and dirt and messy details of life	40:50
	because we need heroes, you and I,	40:54
	figures cut from the fabric of life	40:59
	grown larger than my life to help me	41:02
	manage my life and let it not manage me.	41:05
	We need to know that our heroes	41:10
	are in there doing their thing.	41:12
	That Ralph Nader is in there needling,	41:16
	Jimmy Carter's in there smiling,	41:20
	Cyrus Vance is in there vance-ing.	41:23
	Yes, and I need my Jesus clean and antiseptic	41:28
	and preferably athletic too, with stars and angels,	41:32
	pointing his finger to the sky, only one way.	41:37
	No wonder the Jerusalem crowd turned against him,	41:44
	what kind of hero was this?	41:47
	Flogged in public, dehumanized,	41:49
	strung up on a cross, what kind of a liberator?	41:54
	What kind of a messiah is this?	41:58
	What kind of a hero is this?	42:03
	Why that could happen to anyone, anyone,	42:07
	and especially to the lowest anyone around.	42:12
	Yes when it comes to our heroes, we do have an appetite	42:16
	for stars and angels and heavenly voices,	42:19
	we want our heroes to be beautiful people,	42:24
	preferably like Gregory Peck or Warren Beatty	42:28
	or Jane Fonda.	42:33
	We want our churches clean and beautiful	42:35
	if possible, dramatic if not.	42:39
	And we like our crosses unadorned in shiny brass,	42:44
	divested of any mutilated bodies.	42:48
	We like our religion antiseptic and therefore abstract.	42:52
	Truth and beauty, goodness, love, spirituality,	42:59
	community, floating well above	43:04
	the ugly realities of life.	43:08
	I hear people sometimes say that we want to hear our gospel	43:12
	presented at the level of daily life, we say.	43:17
	I wonder if we really mean it.	43:23
	William Meal of Yale has a delightful story	43:27
	telling of his visit to an old colonial house in Connecticut	43:31
	now occupied by the last surviving descendant	43:36
	of the original owner, a frail old woman in her 70s.	43:39
	So he tells what happened as we stood in the main room	43:44
	talking, I noticed an old rifle hanging over the fireplace.	43:47
	As I reached out to look at it more closely,	43:53
	the old woman quickly caught my arm	43:56
	and said please don't, it's loaded and it might go off.	43:57
	And then she went on to say my great great great grandfather	44:03
	loaded that gun and put it there	44:08
	against the day when he might strike a blow	44:11
	for the freedom of the American colonies.	44:14
	Bill Meal says I drew what I still feel	44:19
	was a logical inference from the situation	44:21
	and said well I guess the old gentleman must have	44:23
	died before the revolution, didn't he?	44:27
	No, she replied, he lived to a ripe old age	44:30
	and died in 1817, but,	44:36
	and she smiled wryly,	44:40
	he just never seemed able to generate much enthusiasm	44:43
	for General Washington's rebellion.	44:47
	So gun on the wall at the ready	44:51
	to strike a blow for the freedom of the American colonies,	44:54
	lovely and abstract, but he never seemed	44:58
	able to generate much enthusiasm	45:03
	for General Washington's rebellion,	45:05
	when that meant grabbing your gun off the wall,	45:08
	joining up with an nondescript bunch of nobodies,	45:12
	heading off for a couple of scraps at Lexington and Concord.	45:15
	And so too with our religion.	45:21
	Truth, beauty, goodness, love,	45:24
	the feeling of the power of god, spirituality, community,	45:27
	lovely and abstract, but we rarely seem able	45:32
	to generate much enthusiasm for the gospel	45:36
	when it leads to a march on Selma,	45:39
	or wrangling with the authorities	45:42
	for decent housing for the poor,	45:44
	or marching off to jail in protest against a war,	45:47
	or when it leads you into the ugly questions	45:51
	of the messy parts of life,	45:53
	terminal cancer, sleazy nursing homes,	45:57
	brain damaged babies, the ugly consequences	46:01
	of a nuclear reactor gone sour on Three Mile Island,	46:06
	or for that matter, ugly crosses on a hill	46:10
	with dying men strung out on them.	46:14
	When god is identified, not only with the best in life,	46:19
	what we consider to be the best,	46:23
	truth, beauty, goodness, love, spirituality,	46:26
	but when he is also identified	46:31
	with the worst that can happen to people,	46:33
	crucifixion and agony and death,	46:36
	well what then?	46:42
	So the suffering servant was despised and rejected	46:46
	as one from whom men hide their faces.	46:51
	So why does Jesus choose this model of a non-hero	46:56
	kind of hero for his mission and his ministry?	47:00
	Or to push it back a step further,	47:04
	why is it we find god choosing	47:07
	to disclose himself in suffering and pain	47:09
	and death as well as in a resurrection?	47:14
	Why, when God gets to the point of living out in daily life	47:19
	what truth and beauty and spirituality	47:24
	and community actually look like,	47:27
	does he choose the role of suffering and death?	47:31
	Which men, people, you, me,	47:35
	despise and reject?	47:39
	Well, surely for one thing, simply so that we	47:43
	can face and endure suffering as a part of life	47:45
	from which we cannot escape.	47:51
	As someone has said, we have no power	47:55
	not to suffer, prayer or no prayer.	47:59
	Of this power even God has deprived himself.	48:03
	For this still remains the crucial	48:09
	religious question, doesn't it?	48:11
	Not so much is there a god,	48:13
	but if there is a good and loving and all-powerful god,	48:17
	why then the damnable hellish pain	48:22
	that cries out to him every day in the year	48:27
	and every night in the year?	48:29
	And for that there is no simple,	48:32
	easy, or even complicated answer.	48:35
	All we know is that god himself	48:40
	did not use his power to avoid	48:42
	suffering and death.	48:47
	Indeed, God comes closest to us	48:50
	not in a gorgeous sunset or in the infinite beauty	48:54
	of a flower or in spring busting out all over out there,	48:59
	or even in an emotional experience in a service of worship,	49:05
	or even in some clean and antiseptic and athletic hero,	49:09
	but precisely when he himself endures suffering	49:14
	and indignity and dehumanizing punishment and death,	49:17
	precisely there	49:22
	in that which could happen to anyone,	49:26
	and especially to the lowest anyone around,	49:29
	is he closest to us.	49:34
	Surely he has borne our griefs	49:37
	and carried our sorrows.	49:41
	Indeed if that were not so, could I really trust him?	49:45
	Could you?	49:50
	Could I really trust him if he should disclose himself	49:53
	in some conventional hero, stronger, cleaner,	49:56
	more antiseptic, more spiritual than I?	50:00
	High and lifted far above the streets where I live.	50:05
	No, I cannot trust god	50:10
	or the son of god	50:15
	unless I am convinced that he knows	50:18
	exactly what it's like to be me,	50:21
	and especially me at my lowest point	50:26
	in pain, in agony,	50:30
	alone.	50:35
	So there is a kind of mysterious power	50:42
	in this non-hero, this suffering servant of the lord.	50:46
	The prophet speaks of this power as the arm of the lord.	50:53
	To whom has the arm of the lord been revealed?	50:58
	For the arm of the lord,	51:03
	the power of god, is the love of god.	51:06
	So he suffers with us in order	51:12
	to break our resistance to him.	51:15
	So he suffers in love for us in order to draw together	51:19
	that which we keep driving apart,	51:25
	with his stripes we are healed.	51:28
	And it takes far greater power	51:33
	to heal, to restore, to draw together,	51:36
	than to drive apart as we keep finding out	51:39
	over and over and over again,	51:43
	most recently in the dragged out agony	51:47
	of the effort to find peace in the Middle East	51:50
	and we all know that agony has still a long way to go.	51:55
	To heal, to restore, to draw together	52:02
	that which we keep driving apart,	52:07
	that is the mysterious power of suffering love.	52:10
	Nothing in this world seems able to do it	52:15
	except tears and pain	52:21
	and death.	52:27
	So actually you and I are in far better shape	52:30
	on this Palm Sunday in 1979 than were	52:35
	the crowds in Jerusalem so many years ago.	52:39
	We've got it all over them	52:42
	if we have the stomach for it.	52:46
	They shouted hosanna and waved their palms	52:51
	for the right man for the wrong reasons.	52:54
	You and I today at least have the possibility	53:00
	of saying our hosannas and waving our palm branches	53:04
	for the right man for the right reasons.	53:08
	The servant, whom god has exalted and lifted very high,	53:12
	because he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,	53:17
	even the death of a cross,	53:23
	so shall he startle many nations	53:28
	and kings shall shut their mouths because of him,	53:31
	because strangely enough, this strange non-hero,	53:34
	he was and he is just like god.	53:40
	And isn't it just like god	53:47
	to care that much?	53:51
	So sing your hosannas today as lustily as you can,	53:56
	wave your palm branches not for the stars,	54:03
	the angels, the mysterious voice from heaven,	54:05
	not even for an empty tomb today,	54:11
	but sing your hosannas and wave your palm branches	54:14
	for this god who goes in one gate of the city	54:17
	to the shouts of hosanna and out the other gate	54:21
	of the city	54:25
	to the shouts of crucify.	54:28
	("Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended")	54:47
	♪ Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended ♪	55:27
	♪ That we to judge thee have in hate pretended ♪	55:37
	♪ By foes derided, by thine own rejected ♪	55:48
	♪ Oh most afflicted ♪	55:59
	♪ Who was the guilty, who brought this upon thee ♪	56:08
	♪ Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee ♪	56:19
	♪ 'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee ♪	56:30
	♪ I crucified thee ♪	56:42
	♪ Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered ♪	56:50
	♪ The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered ♪	57:01
	♪ For our atonement, while we nothing heeded ♪	57:13
	♪ God interceded ♪	57:24
	♪ For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation ♪	57:33
	♪ Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation ♪	57:45
	♪ Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion ♪	57:56
	♪ For my salvation ♪	58:08
	♪ Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee ♪	58:16
	♪ I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee ♪	58:28
	♪ Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving ♪	58:40
	♪ Not my deserving ♪	58:51
	♪ Amen ♪	58:59
Preacher	With one voice, let us affirm what we believe,	59:08
	we believe in god who has created and is creating,	59:13
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	59:18
	to reconcile and make new,	59:21
	who works in us and others by the spirit,	59:25
	we trust god who calls us to be the church,	59:29
	to celebrate life in its fullness,	59:34
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	59:37
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	59:44
	our judge and our hope in life, in death,	59:48
	in life beyond death, god is with us, we are not alone.	59:54
	Thanks be to god.	1:00:01
	Be seated.	1:00:03
	The lord be with you.	1:00:13
	Let us pray.	1:00:16
	Oh lord our god, on this day, most beautiful	1:00:22
	with inspiring sights and sounds around us,	1:00:29
	inside this place and in your world outside,	1:00:36
	we do rejoice and sing and celebrate	1:00:43
	in the goodness of your love.	1:00:47
	But remind us again, oh lord, that it is not enough	1:00:52
	to shout and cry and proclaim our hosanna, hosanna.	1:00:58
	Mindful of who you are and who we are,	1:01:05
	we would pray for others and for ourselves	1:01:10
	for we all need your presence and your touch	1:01:13
	as you are the king of glory, we pray for our world.	1:01:19
	Stirring with the insecurity of nuclear power	1:01:24
	and mighty weapons yet longing for peace.	1:01:28
	As you are the bread of life,	1:01:35
	we pray for those who hunger	1:01:36
	on the very edge of life itself.	1:01:38
	As you are the true vine, we pray for those	1:01:45
	who seem to be cut off and isolated	1:01:48
	in nursing homes, mental hospitals, and prisons.	1:01:52
	As you, oh lord, are the suffering servant,	1:01:59
	we pray for all who suffer pain and hurt just now.	1:02:04
	In this time of praise and proclamation	1:02:12
	of loud hosannas and lovely cries,	1:02:14
	we are reminded again of the bittersweet ambiguity of life.	1:02:21
	We rejoice and yet long for our words	1:02:27
	and our lives to be in harmony.	1:02:32
	We sing with joy and yet pray earnestly	1:02:37
	for the music of life to fill our souls.	1:02:42
	We want closeness with the living spirit of our lord	1:02:48
	and yet closeness with Christ brings not only presence	1:02:51
	but it also brings demand,	1:02:55
	so fill our hearts and our lives, oh lord we pray	1:03:00
	with a loyalty that will not be broken,	1:03:04
	with a faith that will not falter,	1:03:09
	and with a love that is pure and lasting.	1:03:14
	Through our blessed lord and savior Jesus the Christ	1:03:20
	to whom we sing hosanna, hosanna, hosanna,	1:03:23
	now and forever, hear us as we pray	1:03:29
	as our lord has taught each of us and all of us together,	1:03:33
	oh lord, our father who art in heaven,	1:03:37
	hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come,	1:03:42
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	1:03:47
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:03:52
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:03:55
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	1:03:58
	and lead us not into temptation,	1:04:02
	deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom,	1:04:05
	the power, and the glory forever, amen.	1:04:10
	(organ hymnal music)	1:04:22
	(singing in foreign language)	1:05:25
	Oh lord our god, though most of us	1:16:13
	are most comfortable as spectators	1:16:17
	of parades and processions, help us all gladly	1:16:20
	to sing hosannas and gather palms and somehow to follow	1:16:25
	with abandon him who comes in the name of the lord.	1:16:30
	Take from our lives something worthy of your kingdom,	1:16:37
	make of this offering something	1:16:43
	useful for the needs of others	1:16:44
	and lead us in that procession that knows no rule but yours.	1:16:48
	And knows no path but that taken by Jesus Christ our lord,	1:16:54
	in whose name we celebrate and in whose name we pray, amen.	1:17:01
	(upbeat organ music)	1:17:11
	Paul writes in Philippians finally my friends,	1:20:49
	whatever is true, whatever is honorable,	1:20:54
	whatever is just, whatever is pure,	1:20:59
	whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,	1:21:04
	if there is any excellence,	1:21:11
	if there is anything worthy of praise,	1:21:14
	think on these things and what you have learned	1:21:18
	and received and heard and seen in me, do and the lord	1:21:24
	of peace will be with you this day and forever.	1:21:32
	("Amen Amen")	1:21:41
	(thoughtful organ music)	1:23:00

Item Info

Title:

Edmund A. Steimle - "The Non-Hero" (April 8, 1979)

Description:

Though Jesus appears to be the type of hero antithetical to our usual notion of what a hero should be, it is by his suffering and death that we come to know the nearness and love of God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 32:28. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 54:34.
Key quotation: “God comes closest to us not in a gorgeous sunset or in the infinite beauty of a flower or in spring busting out all over out there, or even in an emotional experience in a service of worship, or even in some clean and antiseptic and athletic hero, but precisely when he himself endures suffering and indignity and dehumanizing punishment and death.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mw28v4t

Date:

April 8, 1979

Speaker:

Steimle, Edmund A.

Liturgical Calendar:

Palm Sunday

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1016
ref7241_tm7
uachapelsermaud
duke:320856
dcrau001896
ark:/87924/r4mw28v4t
672e1461-14da-49b9-98cb-c1f052b82887

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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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.

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Edmund A. Steimle - "The Non-Hero" (April 8, 1979)

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Duke University Archives