Thomas C. Davis - "The Cosmic Christ" (January 4, 1981)

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	(soft organ music)	0:04
	(worship organ music)	0:16
	(echoey choral singing)	0:26
	(lighthearted worship music)	7:20
	(echoey choral singing)	7:38
	(lighthearted worship music)	10:58
	(echoey choral singing)	11:19
	(grand worship music)	12:46
	(echoey choral singing)	12:56
	(soft worship music)	14:48
	(echoey choral singing)	17:19
	(organ music grows louder)	19:09
-	Brother and sisters in Christ,	20:21
	draw near to God and he will draw near to you.	20:25
	Humble yourselves before him,	20:30
	and he will lift you up.	20:33
	Let us pray.	20:37
	Most merciful Father, we have done little	20:42
	to forward thy kingdom in this world,	20:46
	to foster the brotherhood of man,	20:49
	and to establish love as the law of life.	20:52
	We have allowed self to blind us,	20:56
	pains to embitter us.	21:00
	We have forgotten that whatsoever is done	21:02
	to one of the least of thy children is done unto thee.	21:05
	Pardon our shortcomings, forgive our neglect.	21:11
	Give us a pure heart intent on pleasing thee.	21:16
	Help us in all our seeking to seek first	21:21
	thy kingdom and thy righteousness.	21:24
	And make us to come as came thy son Jesus Christ,	21:28
	not to be ministered unto but to minister.	21:33
	All which we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	21:37
	Amen.	21:41
	And now let each of us personally	21:44
	allow the pressure of God's presence	21:46
	to expose to us the inadequacy and brokenness of our lives.	21:49
	The sane is sure and worthy of full acceptance,	22:25
	that Jesus Christ came into the world	22:30
	in order to free people from their sin.	22:32
	For God loved the world so much	22:36
	that he gave to it his only son,	22:38
	so that all who believe in him need not perish,	22:41
	but can have eternal life.	22:44
	Grant us this, o Lord.	22:47
	Amen.	22:50
	Let us give thanks for God is good	22:53
	and God's love is everlasting.	22:55
	(congregation murmuring)	22:59
	Whose mercy forgives us.	23:05
	Thanks be to God whose promise secures.	23:07
	Amen.	23:12
-	Let us pray.	23:27
	Holy God, you who makes the blind to see	23:29
	and the lame to walk,	23:33
	and who frees those who are imprisoned,	23:36
	let thou word come to us with power to deliver us	23:39
	from blindness and prejudice,	23:44
	from evil habits and fear,	23:46
	and from every bondage in which we are taken;	23:49
	that we may walk as free persons in your grace	23:53
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	23:56
	Amen.	23:59
	The Old Testament lesson today is from	24:01
	Proverbs 8:22-31.	24:04
	The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,	24:10
	the first of his acts of old.	24:14
	Ages ago I was set up, at the first,	24:17
	before the beginning of the earth.	24:21
	When there were no depths, I was brought forth,	24:24
	when there were no springs abounding with water.	24:29
	Before the mountains had been shaped,	24:33
	before the hills, I was brought forth,	24:36
	before he had made the earth with its fields,	24:40
	or the first of the dust of the world.	24:44
	When he established the heavens, I was there;	24:48
	when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,	24:52
	when he made firm the skies above,	24:56
	when he established the fountains of the deep,	25:00
	when he assigned to the seas its limit,	25:05
	so that the waters might not transgress his command,	25:09
	when he marked out the foundations of the earth,	25:13
	then I was beside him, like a master workman,	25:17
	and I was daily his delight,	25:21
	rejoicing before him always,	25:23
	rejoicing in his inhabited world	25:26
	and delighting in the sons of men.	25:29
	The Epistle reading is from Ephesians	25:35
	chapter one, versus 15 through 23.	25:41
	For this reason, because I have heard of your faith	25:56
	in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,	26:00
	I do not cease to give thanks for you,	26:06
	remembering you in my prayers,	26:09
	that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,	26:12
	the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom	26:15
	and of revelation in the knowledge of him,	26:20
	having the eyes of your hearts enlightened,	26:24
	that you may know what is the hope to which	26:27
	he has called you, what are the riches	26:31
	of his glorious inheritance in the saints,	26:34
	and what is the immeasurable greatness	26:38
	of his power in us who believe,	26:40
	according to the working of his great might	26:44
	which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him	26:48
	from the dead and made him sit at his right hand	26:52
	in the heavenly places,	26:55
	far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,	26:57
	and above every name that is named,	27:03
	not only in this age but also in the one to come.	27:06
	And he has put all things under his feet	27:12
	and gave him as head over all things for the church,	27:16
	which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.	27:20
	(soft worship music)	27:32
	(fast-paced worship music)	28:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	28:49
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	28:55
	(echoey choral singing)	29:04
	(lighthearted worship music)	30:07
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:15
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:19
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:23
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:26
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	30:32
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	30:35
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:42
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	30:50
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	30:55
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	30:59
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:04
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	31:10
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	31:18
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:22
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:26
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	31:28
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:42
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:46
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	31:50
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	31:54
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	31:58
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	32:02
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	32:12
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	32:24
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	32:29
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	32:32
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	32:37
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	32:41
	(soft organ music)	32:55
-	Will the congregation please stand	33:55
	for the reading of the gospel?	33:56
	In the beginning was the word,	34:05
	and the word was with God.	34:07
	And the word was God.	34:10
	He was in the beginning with God,	34:12
	and all things were made through him.	34:15
	And without him was not anything made that was made.	34:19
	In him was life, and the life was the light of men.	34:25
	The light shines in the darkness,	34:30
	and the darkness has not overcome it.	34:33
	The true light that enlightens every man	34:37
	was coming into the world.	34:41
	He was in the world and the world was made through him.	34:44
	Yet the world knew him not.	34:49
	He came to his own home and his own people received him not.	34:52
	But to all who received him, who believed in his name,	34:58
	he gave power to become children of God,	35:03
	who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh,	35:07
	nor of the will of man, but of God.	35:12
	And the word became flesh and dwelt among us,	35:17
	full of grace and truth.	35:21
	We have beheld his glory,	35:24
	glory as of the only son from the Father.	35:26
	(majestic organ music)	35:33
-	The Germans have a perfect word	36:45
	to describe the way that we feel	36:50
	when we say that we have the spirit of Christmas.	36:53
	The word is (speaking in foreign language),	36:58
	and it means kindliness,	37:01
	geniality,	37:05
	comfortableness, coziness.	37:07
	All those qualities rolled into one	37:11
	nice aura of wellbeing.	37:16
	Deck the halls with vows of holly,	37:20
	tis the season to be jolly.	37:23
	Everybody knows that.	37:25
	But we also know all of us, by experience,	37:29
	that the (speaking in foreign language) of Christmas time	37:34
	is more perishable than the Christmas cookies	37:38
	with which we celebrate it.	37:41
	Why are we afflicted with this melancholy	37:45
	which my friend Waldo Beach	37:49
	has so aptly called postnatal drip?	37:51
	Is it simply because the office party's over?	37:57
	The Christmas bonus is spent?	38:02
	Because those of the children's new toys	38:05
	which have wonderously somehow managed to	38:08
	survive the usual stress and strain,	38:12
	confounded they have lost their novelty anyway?	38:16
	Is it because the holiday is drawing to a close,	38:21
	and it soon will be back to work	38:25
	or to classes for all of us?	38:28
	Or is it because the fragrant green tree,	38:32
	which we brought indoors to symbolize hope	38:35
	in our winter time, is beginning to drop its needles,	38:40
	and we now dread the anticlimactic chore	38:45
	of unpacking all of those ornaments and lights,	38:50
	carrying them once again to the attic?	38:55
	Can these routine letdowns in the	39:00
	(speaking in foreign language) of a grand holiday	39:03
	account for our too early deprivation	39:06
	of Christmas (speaking in foreign language)?	39:10
	Or	39:14
	could it be that our Christmas vitality of spirit	39:15
	is deflated by a far	39:19
	more serious apprehension and dread,	39:21
	a theological one?	39:26
	Namely,	39:29
	that the cradle Christ is too human,	39:30
	too limited in his power,	39:35
	and therefore that he may not, after all,	39:39
	prevail over the forces in our social	39:43
	and physical environment	39:46
	which threaten in the year 1981	39:48
	to kill or enslave us.	39:51
	Even with the advantage of historical hindsight,	39:56
	even by comprehending the manger baby	40:00
	from the perspective of his cross and resurrection,	40:04
	it is still a bewildering notion, isn't it?	40:08
	That this Bethlehem child is somehow	40:12
	the savior of the universe,	40:17
	the one who was present at the creation of all things,	40:20
	and the one toward home all things, as Paul said,	40:24
	are groaning in travail.	40:29
	Now the crux of our uncertainty about the lordship of Jesus	40:33
	is not whether he is savior	40:38
	in the personal dimension of life.	40:41
	At least insofar as persons are concerned,	40:45
	many of us can testify because of our experience	40:48
	through faith that Jesus saves.	40:53
	Blessed assurance,	40:58
	Jesus is mine.	41:01
	But individual salvation is not the sole	41:04
	nor even the central issue.	41:07
	In the mind-boggling Christological passages	41:11
	which were just read from the letter	41:15
	to the Ephesians and John's gospel.	41:18
	What is at issue in these passages,	41:22
	and this is something that we accept	41:26
	with much less assurance,	41:28
	because it is something hoped for	41:31
	rather than directly experienced, is this.	41:33
	That somehow the Bethlehem child,	41:38
	the Nazarene carpenter is also the long-awaited	41:42
	redeemer of human history,	41:47
	and even more astoundingly,	41:50
	of the entire cosmos.	41:53
	This includes, of course, the realm of nature.	41:57
	Joy to the world, we sing.	42:02
	Let Earth receive her king.	42:06
	For Jesus has come not only to make the nations	42:09
	prove the glories of his righteousness,	42:14
	but also to make his blessings flow	42:18
	as far as the curse upon the created order,	42:21
	the cosmos, is found.	42:25
	Consequently, we jubilantly declare,	42:30
	no more will thorns infest the ground.	42:33
	Fields and rocks and hills and plains	42:38
	repeat the sounding joy,	42:41
	that Jesus, the Christ, has come to redeem	42:44
	even the realm of nature,	42:47
	to bring it back again to the intended purpose	42:50
	of its creator.	42:54
	An enchantingly beautiful messianic passage	42:56
	from Isaiah puts it this way:	42:59
	the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.	43:04
	And the leopard shall lie down with the kid.	43:08
	And the calf and the lion and the fatling together,	43:12
	and a little child shall lead them.	43:17
	The cow and the bear shall feed.	43:21
	Their young shall lie down together,	43:23
	and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.	43:26
	The suckling child shall play over the hole of the asp.	43:31
	And the weaned child shall put his hand	43:36
	over the adder's den.	43:39
	They shall not hunt or destroy	43:42
	in all of my holy mountain,	43:46
	for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord	43:49
	as the waters cover the sea.	43:53
	Cosmic harmony,	43:58
	the savior of sinners has come also	44:01
	to redeem all of creation,	44:05
	and that is some good news.	44:08
	But wait.	44:12
	Is this really news?	44:15
	That is, something that we regard as an established fact?	44:17
	Something that in some sense either	44:23
	has already been accomplished or at least	44:25
	is so sure to happen that it is a foregone conclusion?	44:27
	Or,	44:33
	is this talk of cosmic redemption	44:35
	simply the poetic longing of the people of God	44:39
	for theocracy?	44:43
	Instead of news,	44:46
	does it bespeak merely wishful thinking?	44:48
	How our uncertainty about this question	44:52
	is the root of our anxiety	44:56
	at the approach of the new year,	44:58
	the pin in the bubble of our Christmas	45:01
	(speaking in foreign language)	45:05
	Jesus is my personal savior.	45:09
	Of that I am convinced, not only because	45:12
	of the testimony of Christians past and present,	45:15
	but also because of the experienced changes in my life	45:19
	which I can make sense of,	45:23
	only in terms of the agency	45:25
	of the indwelling power of the risen Christ.	45:28
	But,	45:33
	is Jesus Christ also the savior of the cosmos?	45:35
	Is he Lord of Creation?	45:41
	If we are absolutely honest with ourselves,	45:46
	I think we must admit that we are not as certain	45:50
	of the answer to that question.	45:54
	In his historical study of the concept of cosmic redemption,	45:59
	Allan Galloway notes that even as early	46:03
	as the 3rd or 4th century in the church's history,	46:06
	the belief that Jesus Christ was the redeemer	46:10
	of the entire cosmos	46:13
	was a doctrine that was more wondered about	46:16
	than wondered at.	46:20
	Doubt about it can probably be traced even further back.	46:24
	John identified Jesus as the Christ in terms of	46:28
	Christ being the creative word	46:32
	or the logos of God,	46:36
	a concept which he borrowed from the personification	46:38
	of wisdom in Jewish literature,	46:41
	an example of which is found in this morning's	46:44
	reading from Proverbs.	46:46
	And the assertion that the risen Christ	46:50
	was ruler of all powers and principalities,	46:52
	indeed over every authority in heaven and earth,	46:56
	was stressed by the writer of Ephesians	47:00
	and also by Paul in his letter to the Colossians.	47:04
	Now the implication is plausible,	47:09
	that even before the New Testament documents	47:12
	were fully written,	47:15
	serious doubts about the cosmic power	47:17
	of Jesus Christ were already circulating.	47:21
	And these doubts were a dangerous challenge	47:25
	to those who refused to abandon either	47:28
	their Jewish monotheism or the conviction	47:31
	that Christ was, as the Nicene Creed was later to put it,	47:36
	very God of very God,	47:41
	and of one substance with the Father.	47:44
	We know that, about this time, the gnostics were trying	47:48
	to make some sense of the messianic claims about Jesus.	47:51
	And they must have seen what was obvious,	47:56
	that despite the bold claims about the divinity	47:58
	of Jesus Christ, his alleged resurrection	48:02
	had not changed very much.	48:05
	There were still wars and pestilences,	48:09
	storms and earthquakes,	48:13
	and the lions	48:16
	were still eating lambs in Palestine.	48:18
	And therefore they must have argued the cosmic claims	48:22
	about the redemptive power of Jesus	48:25
	were obviously overblown.	48:28
	They had to be trimmed to more reasonable dimensions.	48:32
	And so the gnostics' working hypothesis seems to have been	48:37
	that Christ had liberated humankind	48:41
	from the clutches of Satan,	48:44
	and so-called spirits of the lower air,	48:47
	but that Christ had not won out after all	48:51
	over certain other elemental powers in the universe.	48:55
	And these continued, who could deny it,	48:59
	to do their dirty work.	49:04
	Now this explanation displayed a brilliant	49:08
	conceptual economy and clarity,	49:10
	but alas, was heretical.	49:14
	Heretical because it implied to invoke	49:18
	a contemporary phrase, that Yahweh did not	49:22
	have it all together.	49:25
	To this conclusion,	49:28
	the writers of Ephesians and John's gospel,	49:30
	steeped as they were in Jewish monotheism,	49:33
	responded with an astounding counterclaim.	49:36
	Indeed, the only one which seemed capable	49:41
	of refuting the gnostics' theory,	49:44
	given the evidences all around,	49:46
	that the cosmos was not yet fully redeemed.	49:49
	And the response was this:	49:53
	Jesus over Nazareth,	49:56
	who infleshed the word of God,	49:59
	who, as Scripture says in such intimate fashion,	50:03
	pitched his tent with us for a while,	50:06
	this very same God-man was responsible	50:11
	for bringing all powers that be into existence.	50:15
	He was here at the beginning of the world.	50:20
	And it follows that he is sovereign over	50:25
	all of those powers that he has brought into being.	50:28
	Furthermore, Jesus Christ is not only the alpha	50:33
	or the beginning of all things,	50:35
	he is also the omega, or the end of all things too.	50:38
	And by all things, these writers really meant all things.	50:43
	Not just human affairs,	50:48
	but everything in heaven and in earth.	50:51
	That includes physical processes as well.	50:55
	A distinction which they would not have made,	50:59
	but we do who stand this side of the renaissance	51:02
	and the emergence of science.	51:07
	Now that brings me to a perplexing point	51:11
	regarding our 20th century understanding of these passages	51:14
	about the cosmic Christ.	51:17
	It was no doubt difficult even for the contemporaries	51:21
	of the biblical writers to make sense	51:24
	of the alleged sovereignty of Jesus	51:27
	as cosmic Christ,	51:30
	that is,	51:33
	one whose power is unbounded by space and by time,	51:33
	even though orthodoxy was later to declare that,	51:38
	in one respect,	51:41
	Jesus is fully human and so is bounded in both respects.	51:43
	But if it was hard for 1st and 2nd century folk	51:47
	to comprehend this,	51:52
	is it not utterly impossible for us?	51:54
	Mention of demons and angels, the prince the air,	51:59
	and so forth was acceptable intellectual currency	52:03
	in Paul's day, but it is useless now.	52:06
	"Must we conclude," asks Galloway,	52:11
	"that the doctrine of cosmic redemption	52:15
	"belongs with demons, astrology,	52:18
	"the geocentric universe	52:22
	and all other rejected errors	52:25
	"of an outmoded culture?"	52:28
	Now I know that when people get shoved up	52:32
	against the wall with a question like that one,	52:34
	with its implication that the Bible writers	52:38
	might just have been wrong about a few things,	52:40
	some of them panic and thump the Bible	52:44
	reverently and fervently,	52:47
	hoping that it will serve as the rock	52:49
	upon which to stand surefooted	52:52
	amidst the shifting sands of human knowledge.	52:55
	But, this method of biblical interpretation	52:59
	is inane.	53:03
	Galloway rightly observes that if religious symbols	53:06
	continue to be interpreted literally,	53:09
	at a time when the interpretation can no longer	53:13
	be integrated with the dominant beliefs	53:16
	and presuppositions in the culture of those	53:18
	who entertain them, then, for obvious reasons,	53:21
	their effectiveness as symbols	53:25
	has been considerably impaired.	53:29
	And I would add that another equally inane tactic	53:32
	is to declare that the theological truths	53:35
	that we're trying to understand are ultimately mysterious	53:37
	or paradoxical, and therefore it doesn't do any good	53:41
	to try to understand them.	53:46
	This is not only a cop out,	53:49
	it is also theologically disastrous.	53:52
	As you students of symbolic logic will know,	53:57
	when a contradiction is entertained	54:00
	as the major premise in an argument,	54:03
	any nonsensical thing whatsoever	54:05
	can be deduced from it.	54:09
	I shall not take the time to do so here,	54:12
	but when one surveys the history of the doctrine	54:15
	of the cosmic Christ, one realizes that the church	54:18
	hasn't done a very good job of explaining it	54:22
	at any time in its history,	54:25
	and this is preeminently the case in our own day.	54:28
	This is because, as Alfred North Whitehead has said,	54:33
	"Christianity is a religion that is continually	54:37
	"in search of a metaphysic,"	54:40
	by which he means	54:44
	a philosophy that systematically investigates	54:45
	first principles in problems of ultimate reality.	54:48
	20th century Christians are sorely in need	54:54
	of a metaphysic appropriate	54:58
	both to their understanding of God	55:00
	and the processes of the physical universe.	55:03
	Gone are the glorious days of Thomism,	55:09
	when knowledge of God and the cosmos were neatly integrated.	55:14
	20th century-cultured Christians tend	55:19
	toward an epistemological schizophrenia.	55:21
	They live quite comfortably but ludicrously,	55:26
	and with two extremely different views of the universe.	55:30
	One inherited from the classical world,	55:35
	which is used in conjunction with talk	55:38
	about religious affairs.	55:40
	The other	55:43
	informed by the latest scientific revelations	55:44
	which is used in all other occasions.	55:48
	Is it any wonder that when Christians demonstrate	55:52
	such a disinterest in maintaining intellectual	55:56
	consistency and integrity,	55:59
	they fail to be taken seriously	56:02
	in the academic community?	56:06
	Without a suitable metaphysic	56:09
	with which to engage the intellectual leaders	56:12
	of Western culture,	56:14
	is it any wonder that the influence of theologians	56:17
	has continuously shrunk,	56:19
	until it is not scarcely more,	56:22
	than a quaint relic?	56:25
	Who knows which in that cage which theology	56:29
	has reluctantly accepted as its abode,	56:33
	its intellectual potency will remain intact?	56:37
	Or whether for (murmurs) of its exercise,	56:42
	theology within Western culture	56:45
	will atrophy and die.	56:48
	Preachers, alas, do not have all the answers.	56:54
	I cannot explain to you how Jesus is the cosmic Christ,	56:58
	the alpha and the omega.	57:04
	Though I wish I could.	57:06
	In principle however, I do not think	57:10
	that it is an inexplicable mystery,	57:12
	and I believe that it it irresponsible	57:17
	to try to give up trying to understand it.	57:20
	As I see it,	57:25
	the paramount theological task for our day	57:25
	is to discover a philosophical key	57:30
	whereby theology can unlock the epistemological cage	57:33
	into which it has climbed.	57:38
	This is not just an academic problem,	57:41
	but a crucial one for the confidence	57:46
	of every Christian	57:49
	in the utter lordship if Jesus Christ.	57:51
	Is the risen Christ really master	57:56
	of more than just psychological changes	57:59
	in the lives of individuals?	58:03
	Does he truly guide	58:07
	the course of human history?	58:09
	Is he really sovereign over the evil forces	58:12
	which affect our destiny?	58:16
	Over the resurgence of racism and Nazism?	58:20
	Sexism, corporate greed?	58:26
	Yes, even inflation?	58:30
	Does Christ rules	58:33
	the processes in the atom's nucleus,	58:35
	and in the utmost regions of interstellar space?	58:39
	If so, then how?	58:44
	To answer yes	58:49
	by appeal to revered religious symbols	58:51
	is no longer enough.	58:55
	It is not a sin of hubris	58:59
	to seek a further answer.	59:03
	In fact, our loyal discipleship requires	59:05
	that we seek a new metaphysic,	59:08
	a new way of comprehending God's interaction with persons	59:12
	and with inanimate matter.	59:16
	The quest is much more important, it seems to me,	59:19
	than any other emphasis in theological education today.	59:23
	More important than ethics,	59:28
	more important that counseling and homiletics,	59:31
	more important that biblical interpretation,	59:35
	for which it is prerequisite.	59:37
	And certainly more important than church management,	59:40
	which seems to be the current preoccupation	59:44
	of so-called professional clergy.	59:46
	As a footnote, I would add that the quest	59:51
	is already underway.	59:53
	In Roman Catholic circles, it has been championed	59:55
	by Teilhard de Chardin.	59:59
	And many processed theologians inspired	1:00:01
	by the philosophy of Whitehead, who was a mathematician	1:00:03
	and expert in the quantum theory of physics,	1:00:08
	are also working on the problem.	1:00:11
	My 80-year-old neighbor responds to a question	1:00:15
	which stumps him this way:	1:00:20
	"Well you done asked me something."	1:00:23
	And that's how I would respond to the question posed	1:00:27
	by this morning's puzzling texts.	1:00:29
	How is the Bethlehem child the cosmic Christ?	1:00:34
	Now you done asked me something.	1:00:39
	I believe that he is.	1:00:43
	And I seek to know how.	1:00:46
	Paul said that God will give us followers of Christ	1:00:50
	a spirit of wisdom so that we will know	1:00:53
	what is the hope to which God has called us.	1:00:57
	I believe in that promise,	1:01:03
	and so I seek confidently,	1:01:06
	expecting to find.	1:01:10
	Praise and thanks be to our God.	1:01:13
	Amen.	1:01:17
	(soft organ music)	1:01:26
	(organ music rises)	1:01:55
-	That the church of all times and places as we profess	1:04:14
	together our faith.	1:04:16
	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:04:18
	We believe in God, who has created and is creating,	1:04:21
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	1:04:26
	to reconcile and make new,	1:04:29
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	1:04:32
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	1:04:36
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	1:04:41
	to love and serve others,	1:04:45
	to seek justice and resist evil,	1:04:47
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	1:04:50
	our judge and our hope.	1:04:54
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	1:04:57
	God is with us.	1:05:01
	We are not alone, thanks be to God.	1:05:03
	Be seated.	1:05:10
	On behalf of the ministry in this place	1:05:29
	and in the name of Jesus Christ,	1:05:31
	I bid you a warm greeting.	1:05:33
	It is our hope that your experience of God	1:05:35
	in this place may be real.	1:05:39
	We shall want as we pray to remember Charlene Camera,	1:05:42
	who is mourning the death of her brother.	1:05:47
	And we shall want, it seems to me, in this Christmas season	1:05:53
	to affirm the presence of Christ with us	1:05:59
	by gathering up into our awareness as we pray	1:06:02
	those many people, perhaps distant from us,	1:06:06
	who are in need.	1:06:10
	People for whom we are grateful,	1:06:13
	or people for whom we are concerned.	1:06:15
	For surely, when we gather people together in this way	1:06:19
	in gratitude and compassion,	1:06:24
	the Lord is with us.	1:06:27
	The Lord be with you.	1:06:28
	(congregation murmuring)	1:06:32
	And let us pray.
	Our lives, our Father, are open now to your presence.	1:06:43
	Those things which we have kept for ourselves	1:06:51
	and kept from ourselves now	1:06:54
	we open to your presence.	1:06:57
	Allow us to be changed in our self-preoccupations	1:07:04
	so that we can bring into our lives	1:07:12
	the presences of those in need.	1:07:15
	Extend our awareness and allow us to embrace	1:07:22
	those who are poor and misused,	1:07:25
	those who are lonely or neglected,	1:07:33
	people who are discouraged or have been misled,	1:07:41
	people who are sick or dying,	1:07:50
	people who mourn and are heavy with sorrow.	1:07:57
	Allow our lives to be touched	1:08:07
	by being brought into union with their distress,	1:08:11
	and allow us to be grateful for what those in need	1:08:17
	can do for us to expand our awareness	1:08:21
	and to change our lives.	1:08:26
	And so we are opened and increased	1:08:30
	and deepened by an awareness	1:08:34
	of those needs with which we have contact,	1:08:38
	those needs of which we are aware.	1:08:42
	We bring also, our Father, a sense of our own need	1:08:52
	and inadequacy as we face this new year,	1:08:56
	its uncertainties for us,	1:09:03
	the challenges which seem almost too great,	1:09:06
	the demands and expectations placed upon us	1:09:11
	by the future.	1:09:16
	Create in us, our Father, a reliance	1:09:21
	not first of all on our own ingenuity	1:09:25
	and our own resourcefulness,	1:09:27
	but create in us a reliance on your love	1:09:31
	and power in the world to sustain and to transform.	1:09:37
	And allow us also, in that process,	1:09:46
	and during this coming year,	1:09:49
	to have the needs exposed to us	1:09:54
	which we do not want to admit,	1:09:57
	our need for other people,	1:10:00
	our need for your transforming love.	1:10:06
	We also bring, o God, the needs of this institution,	1:10:15
	and of those other institutions	1:10:21
	and communities here represented.	1:10:23
	Help it and these communities and institutions	1:10:30
	to be responsive in the coming year	1:10:33
	to the challenges of a new time.	1:10:35
	And allow those who are members or who participate	1:10:41
	in these institutions and communities	1:10:45
	to be free from a desire to use the institution	1:10:49
	or community for their own purposes,	1:10:52
	or the willingness to be used	1:10:55
	but allow the members to try to make	1:11:00
	those institutions, and particularly this one,	1:11:06
	useful for your purposes.	1:11:10
	And we bring, o Lord, the needs of this our nation	1:11:16
	and the world of which it is so much a part.	1:11:22
	Grant us courage, create in us integrity,	1:11:30
	a sensitivity to needs, an awareness of the complexity	1:11:36
	of differences within the world in which we move.	1:11:41
	And give to our leaders,	1:11:46
	and especially to a new administration,	1:11:48
	kind of wisdom and humility,	1:11:51
	the courage and insight which we need	1:11:55
	and which will come from you presence and guidance.	1:12:00
	Deliver us from arrogance,	1:12:04
	from smugness and from easy answers,	1:12:07
	and lead us into a truer way.	1:12:12
	These things we ask in the name of Jesus	1:12:15
	who taught us when we pray to say:	1:12:19
	Our Father who are in heaven,	1:12:22
	hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come,	1:12:25
	thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.	1:12:29
	Give us this day our daily bread,	1:12:34
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive	1:12:37
	those who trespass against us.	1:12:40
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:12:43
	but deliver us from evil,	1:12:46
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	1:12:49
	and the glory forever.	1:12:52
	Amen.	1:12:54
	(soft organ music)	1:12:59
	(echoey choral singing)	1:14:08
	(powerful organ music)	1:18:51
	Receive now, o Lord, these things,	1:20:14
	for they represent much that we have and much that we are.	1:20:17
	And all of this, we want now to put to your service.	1:20:23
	Use these things, use what we have, and use us	1:20:29
	for the furtherance of your kingdom	1:20:35
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	1:20:37
	Amen.	1:20:39
	(powerful worship music)	1:20:42
-	Our charge for the new year as disciples	1:24:16
	of Jesus the Christ	1:24:19
	is to be ever mindful that he is our alpha	1:24:22
	and the omega toward which we and all things tend.	1:24:27
	May we in our discipleship	1:24:32
	incarnate and celebrate that realization.	1:24:35
	May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ	1:24:43
	and the love of God the Father,	1:24:47
	and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	1:24:49
	be and abide with us now and forevermore.	1:24:52
	Amen.	1:24:57
	(soft piano music)	1:24:59
	(echoey choral singing)	1:25:02
	(lighthearted organ music)	1:25:48
	(congregation chattering)	1:30:25

Item Info

Title:

Thomas C. Davis - "The Cosmic Christ" (January 4, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: 36:45. Sermon end time: 1:01:22.
This heady, academic sermon explores the meaning of Christ being Savior of the entire cosmos. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "Our loyal discipleship requires that we seek a new metaphysic, a new way of comprehending God's interaction with persons and with inanimate matter."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43n20w0z

Date:

January 4, 1981

Speaker:

Davis, Thomas C., III

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1130
ref7474_0l1
uachapelsermaud
duke:321160
dcrau002007
ark:/87924/r43n20w0z
271c3a0f-6b79-4bcb-aacf-721dc67d8f31

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.)

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Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Thomas C. Davis - "The Cosmic Christ" (January 4, 1981)

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Duke University Archives