John Killinger - "Discovering the Joys of Your Limitation" (January 18, 1981)

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	(light orchestral music)	0:03
	(people coughing and speaking softly in an audience)	8:37
	(choir singing hymns in foreign language)	9:46
	(upbeat organ music)	10:48
	(choir singing hymns with organ music)	12:24
	(choir singing hymns in foreign language)	12:55
-	Arise, shine, for your light has come	14:50
	and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.	14:53
	Be seated.	14:59
	If we would honestly seek renewal in order to serve God,	15:06
	we must begin by being honest about our past	15:11
	and our present.	15:14
	Let us pray together.	15:16
	Oh, God, sometimes we have tried to hide from you,	15:19
	from one another, and even from ourselves.	15:24
	There have been times when we have drawn back from the right	15:28
	because it was a difficult, crucifying experience.	15:31
	Too often, we have involved ourselves	15:36
	in a meaningless round of activities that lead nowhere	15:39
	and do not bring satisfaction.	15:43
	We have treated persons as things and things as gods.	15:46
	We have strayed far from the fullness of life	15:51
	that you have made possible for us.	15:54
	Forgive us for our self-centeredness, our weakness,	15:57
	our living death, and give us the courage	16:01
	to accept the pain of complete commitment,	16:04
	which brings new birth and healing of our brokenness.	16:08
	In the name of Jesus, the Christ, who makes it possible.	16:12
	Amen.	16:16
	Beloved in Christ, by God's word, we know we are forgiven.	16:43
	We know that God loves us in spite of our failures.	16:48
	By God's grace, the future is always open to us.	16:52
	Let us give thanks, for God is good	16:58
	and God's love is everlasting.	17:01
	Thanks be to God, whose love creates us.	17:04
	Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us.	17:08
	Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future.	17:12
	We would like to welcome you this beautiful day	17:19
	to the Duke University Chapel of Worship.	17:21
	We are glad that you are here with us	17:24
	and we bring a special word of greeting	17:27
	to entering January freshman and, perhaps,	17:29
	new students among the upperclassmen, at this time.	17:32
	The Pastoral Care and Nurture Committee	17:37
	of the Duke University Parish Ministry	17:40
	is sponsoring a reception this afternoon	17:43
	for January freshman.	17:47
	It is at two thirty in the chapel basement area	17:49
	and we urge all of you who are participating	17:52
	in the host families program, both students	17:56
	and host families, to be present this afternoon.	17:59
	You are cordially invited to attend the organ recital,	18:04
	here, in the chapel at five o'clock this afternoon.	18:08
	Our guest organist is professor Peter Williams	18:12
	of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.	18:16
	We are most hopeful that we will be able to announce,	18:22
	in a short period of time, a service of worship,	18:26
	which will celebrate the release of the captives in Iran.	18:30
	Please, be tuned by radio and all university	18:35
	channels of communication.	18:39
	The service time will be posted.	18:41
	We are ready to go as soon as this event is possible.	18:43
	We are very pleased to welcome to the chapel today	18:50
	as our preacher, the reverend doctor, John Killinger.	18:53
	At present, Dr. Killinger is the senior minister	18:59
	at First Presbyterian Church, Lynchburg, Virginia.	19:02
	Prior to that appointment, Dr. Killinger was professor	19:07
	of preaching, worship, and literature for 15 years	19:11
	at the Vanderbilt Divinity School.	19:16
	We know him as a gifted preacher and author.	19:19
	We are pleased that his wife, Anne, has joined him	19:23
	for the service of worship today and we are most glad	19:26
	to have them here.	19:30
	We welcome Dr. Killinger and look forward	19:32
	to the proclaimed word that he will share	19:35
	with us this morning.	19:37
-	Let us pray.	19:48
	Blessed Lord who has caused all holy scriptures	19:52
	to be written for our learning,	19:55
	grant that we may in such wise here them,	19:58
	read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,	20:01
	that by patience and comfort of Thy holy word,	20:05
	we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope	20:09
	of everlasting life, which Thou hast given us	20:11
	in our Savior, Jesus Christ.	20:15
	Amen.	20:17
	The Old Testament lesson is written in Deuteronomy,	20:20
	the 34th chapter, beginning at the first verse.	20:23
	And Moses went up from the plains of Moab	20:29
	to the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah,	20:31
	which is over against Jericho.	20:35
	And the Lord showed him all the land,	20:38
	Gilead as far as Dan, all of Naphtali,	20:40
	land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah	20:44
	as far as the western sea, the Negevh	20:47
	and the plain that is the valley of Jericho,	20:51
	the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar,	20:53
	and the Lord said to him, this is the land	20:58
	of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.	21:00
	I will give it to your descendants.	21:04
	I have let you see it with your eyes,	21:07
	but you shall not go over there.	21:09
	So, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there	21:12
	in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord,	21:15
	and he buried him in the valley and the land of Moab,	21:19
	opposite Beth Peor,	21:22
	but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.	21:25
	Moses was 120 years olds when he died.	21:29
	His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,	21:33
	and the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plain	21:37
	of Moab 30 days.	21:40
	Then, the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.	21:43
	Here ends the Old Testament lesson.	21:48
	The Epistle lesson is written in the second letter	21:52
	of Paul to the church at Corinth, the 12th chapter,	21:55
	beginning with the seventh verse.	21:59
	Paul writes, and to keep me from being too elated	22:03
	by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me	22:07
	in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me,	22:11
	to keep me from being too elated.	22:15
	Three times I besought the Lord about this,	22:18
	that it should leave me;	22:20
	but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you,	22:22
	for my power is made perfect in weakness.	22:26
	I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses	22:30
	that the power of Christ may rest upon me.	22:33
	For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses,	22:37
	insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities;	22:40
	for when I am weak then I am strong.	22:45
	Here ends the Epistle lesson.	22:50
	(choir singing hymns in foreign language)	23:24
-	Please, rise.	28:54
	The Holy Gospel is written in the sixth chapter	29:02
	of the gospel according to St. Mark,	29:04
	beginning at the first verse.	29:07
	Jesus went away from there and came to His own country	29:11
	and His disciples followed Him.	29:16
	And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue;	29:19
	and many who listened to Him were astonished, saying,	29:22
	where did this man get all this?	29:25
	What is the wisdom given to Him?	29:29
	What mighty works are wrought by His hands?	29:31
	Is not this the Carpenter, the son of Mary,	29:35
	and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?	29:37
	And are not His sisters here with us?	29:42
	And they took offense at Him.	29:46
	And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor	29:49
	except in his own country and among his own kin	29:53
	and in his own house.	29:56
	And He could do no mighty work there,	29:59
	except that He laid His hands on a few sick people	30:01
	and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief	30:05
	and He went about among the villages, teaching.	30:11
	Here ends the Holy Gospel.	30:15
	(upbeat organ music)	30:18
	(choir singing in foreign language with organ music)	30:24
	The story of Moses on Mount Nebo must surely rank	31:27
	as one of the saddest narratives in all history.	31:35
	For 40 years, Moses had been leading the Israelites	31:42
	through the wilderness.	31:47
	They were not an easy people to lead.	31:50
	Like many of the emerging nations today,	31:54
	their heritage of ignorance and slavery	31:57
	made them almost impossible to lead.	32:01
	They quarreled with Moses about going forward.	32:08
	Many times, they wanted to turn back,	32:14
	preferring the slavery they had left	32:18
	to the hardships of the wilderness.	32:21
	They deserted their faith and took up the faith	32:25
	of new peoples along the way.	32:30
	They complained when there was no water.	32:35
	And when there was was water,	32:38
	they complained because there was no meat.	32:40
	They quarreled and resisted and rebelled.	32:44
	And Moses, like some political cattle drover,	32:50
	moved them along, steadily, inch by inch,	32:55
	toward the land God had promised them.	33:00
	And then, when they were right on the verge	33:04
	of entering that land, after 40 years,	33:06
	the leadership was taken away from Moses	33:11
	and given to another.	33:15
	Moses went up into the mountain and looked out	33:18
	over the fertile valley where his people would settle	33:22
	and we can imagine that, as he stood there,	33:27
	there was a tear that dropped from his eyelid	33:30
	and coursed down his withered cheek	33:34
	because he was not permitted to go there himself.	33:38
	The bible says that Moses died on the mountain	33:43
	and that legend had it that someone buried him there,	33:47
	some angel of the Lord,	33:51
	and no one knew	33:55
	where Moses was buried.	33:57
	The view from Mount Nebo -	34:01
	how many of us have had it?	34:05
	We're familiar with it, aren't we?	34:09
	We know what it is to have dreams,	34:11
	to look over into some promised land,	34:15
	and not to be able to enter.	34:19
	The pianist who won all the prizes in high school	34:24
	and college and then couldn't make it as a concert pianist.	34:27
	The writer of advertising jingles who always dreamed	34:34
	of writing a best selling novel	34:38
	and couldn't quite bring it off.	34:41
	The lawyer who wanted to be a senator,	34:44
	but lacked the money and the friends to enter the race.	34:47
	The actor or the actress who had all the leading parts	34:52
	in college and then didn't ever get a part on Broadway.	34:56
	The housewife who never wanted anything more in life	35:03
	than to be adored by her husband and who cried for four days	35:07
	when he told her he wanted a divorce.	35:11
	The husband who never dreamed of anything more	35:16
	than being a successful business executive	35:19
	and in the anger and guilt of his failure,	35:23
	lashed out at everything around him,	35:27
	including his wife and his children.	35:29
	Sooner or later, every one of us sees the view	35:33
	from Mount Nebo.	35:38
	Every one of us knows a dream he or she	35:40
	cannot enter into, experiences failure -	35:44
	it is part of the human drama.	35:49
	Even Alexander the Great, we are told,	35:52
	when he had conquered all of the land where he lived	35:57
	and when his armies had swept all the way	36:01
	from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean,	36:04
	he sat down and wept because there were no more	36:08
	lands to conquer.	36:11
	We inevitably are faced with success we cannot have,	36:14
	victories we cannot win, mountains we cannot climb.	36:20
	From the time we are children,	36:26
	our minds become private theaters for fantasies	36:28
	richer than any that were ever flashed	36:32
	on the screens of Hollywood.	36:34
	Our hopes pirouette like dancers from a tale	36:37
	in the Arabian Nights.	36:42
	Our ambitions whisper in our ears with magical voices,	36:45
	saying, "One day all of this will be yours,"	36:49
	and then, one day, the fantasies fail,	36:54
	the dreams die, the hopes no longer dance,	36:59
	the voices are silent,	37:06
	and we know we will never make it.	37:10
	There is a strain of popular theology abroad in our country	37:15
	that says nonsense to all of this, "Nonsense."	37:20
	"There is no such thing as failure.	37:26
	"If you have not reached your dreams,	37:29
	"it is because your dreams were too small.	37:31
	"Think again, it says, and think big.	37:35
	"Dream bigger dreams than before,	37:38
	"set your goals out further than you did before	37:40
	"and you're bound to win."	37:43
	I'm sure there are some people who are helped by this idea	37:48
	because there are some people	37:52
	who are only momentarily defeated,	37:53
	who are temporarily under some cloud of despair	37:57
	that blocks them from reaching their full potential.	38:00
	And for these persons, all that is needed	38:03
	is some word of encouragement to get them	38:06
	beyond this time of defeat and on to victory.	38:09
	But, the longer I live and the more experience	38:14
	of persons I have, the more convinced I become	38:19
	that this is a false philosophy for most of us.	38:25
	It is false because it sets as the primary goal of life	38:31
	the achievement of some dream,	38:37
	the attainment of some honor,	38:40
	the reaching of some sacred place.	38:43
	And what it does for many people is simply to delay	38:47
	the moment when they look in upon themselves	38:50
	and know themselves for who they are.	38:53
	It simply delays the confrontation with self	38:56
	that eventually will help the self to come to terms	39:00
	with who the self is instead of forever struggling	39:03
	with some self that cannot be	39:07
	and some reality that will not come.	39:10
	Later this spring, one of your speakers in this chapel	39:16
	will be a friend of mine whose name is Peggy Way.	39:20
	Peggy is one of the leading congregational churchwomen	39:24
	and theologians of our time.	39:28
	I had the opportunity of being in a conference	39:31
	for about 300 ministers up in western Pennsylvania	39:35
	with Peggy last spring and she did a fantastic job.	39:38
	Her bright eyes sparkled and her brown hair bobbed	39:44
	as she spoke and everybody listened to her	39:47
	with real concern because she is such an honest	39:51
	and real person.	39:55
	Peggy is a cripple.	39:57
	She had polio when she was 13 years old.	40:00
	She always dreamed of being a slender,	40:04
	golden-haired cheerleader.	40:06
	She still fantasizes about it, she says,	40:09
	but she couldn't enter that dream.	40:14
	That was her view from Mount Nebo,	40:18
	the promised land she could not go into	40:21
	because her withered leg and her twisted spine	40:24
	would not permit it and, besides,	40:28
	she was a brunette, not a blonde.	40:31
	Fortunately, one day, Peggy came to terms with who she was.	40:35
	She looked at herself and realized that she would never	40:42
	enter into that promised land, that it was not for her,	40:44
	that it might be for somebody else and,	40:48
	while it had been a great fantasy, it was not for her life.	40:51
	Peggy, taking an assessment of herself,	40:56
	because she was a Christian, decided that the best thing	40:59
	she could do was to give whoever she was to God.	41:02
	It wasn't who she wanted to give him.	41:06
	She wanted to give him a slender, golden-haired cheerleader,	41:08
	but Peggy said, "God, I'm only a cripple,	41:12
	"and I will give myself to you such as I am.	41:17
	"Take me, I'm yours."	41:20
	And, the moment Peggy made that decision,	41:23
	she began to become the lovely, warm, and radiant	41:26
	woman she is today.	41:31
	I wish you could have seen her in that conference.	41:34
	She was magnificent.	41:37
	She hung her cane from the side of the lectern	41:39
	and she leaned across the lectern for support	41:41
	and she talked for an hour at a time about grace	41:44
	and meaning and beauty and relationship and love	41:48
	and everybody in the room hung on every word	41:52
	that she said and received it as a little treasure	41:55
	to be fondled and carried home.	41:57
	And when the conference was over,	42:01
	I think there weren't half a dozen people	42:03
	in the entire place who did not come up to Peggy	42:05
	and hug her and kiss her and thank her	42:08
	for what she had meant to their lives on that occasion.	42:11
	You see, I like that kind of positive thinking.	42:17
	I like the kind of thinking that says, "God,	42:23
	"I don't have to be a golden-haired cheerleader.	42:25
	"That isn't really necessary.	42:29
	"All I have to do is submit myself to you."	42:32
	That's real possibility thinking.	42:36
	Do you see how different that is from the kind of thinking	42:39
	that says, "You can reach any goal you want to reach	42:42
	"if you only have the courage and the daring to do it?"	42:45
	There are two differences, really.	42:50
	One of them has to do with reality itself.	42:53
	Peggy's view is more real than the other view	42:57
	because it knows there are certain things	43:01
	we always see from Mount Nebo	43:03
	that we can not attain in our lives.	43:07
	And the other thing about it is that it puts God	43:10
	at the center of life and not ourselves.	43:14
	That was the beauty and grace of the passage	43:19
	about Moses we heard read this morning.	43:21
	Moses, standing there on the mountain,	43:25
	looking down at that green and fertile river valley,	43:27
	knowing he could never bathe in those waters	43:31
	or taste fruits from those green fields.	43:33
	Moses could have felt that he had been	43:36
	treated unjustly by God.	43:39
	Moses might have said,	43:42
	"I believe I can make it under my own power"	43:43
	and tried to go on down the mountain	43:48
	to the promised land.	43:51
	But Moses didn't.	43:53
	Moses thought about all the patriarchs,	43:55
	about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,	43:58
	and about all of those who would come after him,	44:01
	about the whole panorama of God's dealings with Israel.	44:04
	And Moses let God be God.	44:11
	Moses deferred to God on that occasion.	44:15
	That was what Peggy did.	44:19
	Peggy said, in essence, "I don't have to enter	44:22
	"the promised land I have seen.	44:25
	"I don't have to be a slender cheerleader.	44:28
	"I can let God be God in my life."	44:32
	There are numerous New Testament passages	44:38
	about this same theme.	44:41
	One of them is in the Epistle lesson that was read	44:43
	this morning from the words of St. Paul	44:46
	about that damnable thorn in the flesh	44:48
	that Paul experienced.	44:51
	We don't know what the thorn was.	44:54
	Apparently, it was well-known among the churches	44:55
	in Paul's day, else Paul would have specified it	44:58
	when he talked to the Corinthians.	45:01
	But Paul simply says it was a thorn in the flesh.	45:03
	It was a terrible agony of pain in his side,	45:06
	whatever it was.	45:10
	Somehow, we have to remember that Paul almost never prayed	45:13
	for anything for himself and it helps us to realize	45:18
	what an agony it was,	45:22
	that at some point, it became so painful	45:24
	or so embarrassing or so restrictive	45:28
	that Paul no longer could endure it in silence,	45:32
	but blurted out to God.	45:36
	"God, take this awful thing from me!"	45:37
	Three times he asked him.	45:42
	Finally, the word of the Lord came to Paul	45:46
	and said to him in some manner, "Paul,	45:49
	"I will not release you from your pain,	45:52
	"but my grace is sufficient for you.	45:57
	"My power is made perfect	46:01
	"in your weakness."	46:06
	Think about that.	46:09
	The power of God is made perfect	46:11
	in our weakness.	46:15
	If Moses, under his own power, had somehow gone on down	46:18
	into that fertile river valley,	46:22
	there would have been followers who would	46:25
	have thought him heroic and Promethean for doing it.	46:27
	But because Moses didn't, because Moses stayed	46:32
	on the mountain and submitted himself to God,	46:37
	God was exalted in the nations.	46:40
	If Paul had somehow been cured of his affliction,	46:44
	he would have seemed far more powerful, perhaps,	46:48
	to the people who knew him and the people in the churches	46:50
	might have welcomed him	46:54
	as a more glorious disciple of Christ.	46:55
	But when he received it as he did and accepted it	47:00
	as the cross he must bear, people fell down	47:04
	and worshiped at the power of the God Paul proclaimed.	47:08
	There is the great difference.	47:14
	Paul said, "I will all the more gladly boast	47:18
	"of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ	47:21
	"may rest upon me."	47:25
	"For the sake of Christ," he said, "I am content	47:28
	"with weaknesses, hardships, insults, injuries,	47:31
	"persecutions, calamities - for when I am weak,	47:36
	"then I am strong."	47:42
	Somehow, Paul had discovered in Christ the paradigm	47:47
	for what it means to discover joy in one's limitations.	47:52
	Jesus had wept over the city of Jerusalem	47:58
	because they would not accept Him.	48:01
	That was his Mount Nebo.	48:04
	Jesus might have acted out his drama under his own power.	48:08
	He might have decided that he was going	48:13
	to become a king anyway.	48:15
	He could have, but instead, he submitted himself to God	48:17
	and in the death and his subsequent resurrection,	48:23
	Paul saw the core of all history's meaning.	48:26
	As we submit ourselves to God and discover	48:32
	that when we are weak we become strong,	48:35
	and when we are willing to die,	48:39
	we live.	48:43
	I saw two pictures once that embodied the irony of this.	48:45
	One was a painting of	48:54
	the rich fool in the bible.	48:58
	It depicted him standing before the great barns	49:02
	that were bulging with all of the harvest.	49:05
	You remember, he'd torn down his old barns	49:08
	and wanted new ones built because he had so much harvest	49:11
	and he said to himself, "Soul, thou hast much goods	49:16
	"laid up for many years.	49:20
	"Take thine ease.	49:21
	"Eat, drink, and be merry."	49:22
	And, the caption under this picture was:	49:26
	"The failure that looked like success."	49:29
	The other picture was a picture of Christ on the cross.	49:37
	The clouds behind the cross were black.	49:43
	The face of the one on the cross was drawn in agony.	49:47
	The disciples had all fled away,	49:53
	only the soldiers stood nearby.	49:55
	And the caption under this picture was:	49:59
	"The success that looked like failure."	50:03
	It's easy, isn't it, to get the captions	50:11
	mixed up in our lives?	50:16
	And to think that in order to be successful,	50:19
	we have to march into our promised lands	50:22
	with all the banners flying and all the bugles blowing.	50:24
	But we don't.	50:29
	We don't have to accomplish everything	50:31
	we set out to accomplish.	50:34
	We don't have to achieve everything we dreamed of achieving.	50:36
	That is not the mark of a successful life.	50:41
	The mark of a successful life is being able	50:45
	to accept your limitations and to offer them to God,	50:49
	saying, "God, I don't have to be a slender,	50:55
	"golden-haired cheerleader.	51:00
	"All I have to do is submit myself to you,	51:02
	"just as I am."	51:07
	Let us pray.	51:12
	In the words of the hymn writer:	51:17
	"Oh, God, just as I am,	51:19
	"though tossed about,	51:24
	"with many a conflict, many a doubt.	51:26
	"fightings and fears within, without.	51:31
	"Oh, Lamb of God, I come.	51:38
	"I come."	51:43
	Amen.	51:46
	(upbeat organ music)	51:54
	(congregation singing along with organ music)	52:45
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	54:48
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	54:51
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	54:56
	to reconcile and make new, who works in us	54:59
	and others by the spirit.	55:03
	We trust God.	55:06
	He calls us to be the church, to celebrate life	55:08
	and its fullness, to love and serve others,	55:12
	to seek justice and resist evil,	55:16
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	55:19
	our judge and our hope in life, in death,	55:23
	in life beyond death.	55:27
	God is with us.	55:30
	We are not alone.	55:32
	Thanks be to God.	55:34
	The Lord be with you.	55:36
	(congregation responding)	55:38
	Let us pray.	55:39
	Oh, God, Eternal Spirit, grant us grace to worship You	55:52
	in spirit and in truth.	55:58
	You have so made us that the glory of our lives	56:01
	is not in things below us that we master,	56:04
	but in the divine above us that masters us.	56:08
	Grant us this hour, such spiritual wealth,	56:13
	made aware of eternal realities,	56:17
	lifted out of our littleness by dedication	56:20
	to abiding values and to Your everlasting purpose.	56:24
	Come now and cleanse us from our evil,	56:31
	our ugly egotism, our indifferent apathy,	56:35
	our mean ambitions, our sinful lust,	56:40
	that we may be ready for this kind	56:44
	of transforming experience.	56:47
	Grant to us honesty in confronting and confessing our sins,	56:50
	sincerity in making restitution	56:55
	where we have wronged others,	56:58
	humility in seeking Your forgiveness,	57:01
	and resolution by Your grace and help to amend our lives.	57:04
	You, Oh God, see us, a generation victorious	57:10
	over the hazards of war, but somehow frustrated	57:15
	and confused by the problems of peace.	57:19
	It is from a dismaying world that we come	57:24
	into Your sanctuary and here we pray for an hour	57:27
	of spiritual insight that, with thankful hearts,	57:31
	we may see afresh, the light which even this darkness	57:35
	has not been able to put out.	57:40
	For the heritage of the Christian gospel,	57:44
	for all the saints who, from their labors, rest,	57:48
	for all the noble succession of prophets,	57:52
	for Christ, your Son, who has give us a kingdom	57:55
	that cannot be shaken, for living friends	57:59
	who renew our faith in goodness and beauty	58:03
	who, with integrity and love and for You	58:07
	and Your love, oh God, we thank you.	58:11
	We ask that You marshal within us, in these times,	58:16
	resources of the spirit that we may be able to withstand	58:20
	in this day and having done all to stand.	58:25
	Minister to us in our intimate personal needs.	58:32
	Oh, Spirit of the living God, walk through this place now	58:37
	and be the help and comfort,	58:42
	the inspiration and sustenance of our souls	58:45
	in temptation, in illness, in disappointment	58:49
	and depression, in defeat when we are tempted to give up,	58:54
	and in success when we are tempted to be proud.	58:59
	Oh, God, restore our souls.	59:04
	May we hear Your voice speaking to us,	59:07
	reassuring us, challenging us, summoning us	59:11
	to dedicated and victorious living.	59:15
	Hear now the unspoken prayers that rise in silence	59:20
	from the very deeps of our hearts	59:24
	and to those needs that can find no voice	59:27
	save for Your ear alone.	59:29
	Minister according to the riches of Your grace.	59:32
	In Christ, Jesus, our Lord, who came and lived	59:36
	and walked among us and who taught us to pray,	59:41
	saying, Our Father, who art in heaven,	59:45
	hallowed be Thy Name.	59:50
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,	59:52
	on earth as it is in heaven.	59:56
	Give us this day our daily bread	59:58
	and forgive us our trespasses,	1:00:01
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:00:04
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	1:00:07
	For thine is the kingdom, and the power,	1:00:13
	and the glory, forever.	1:00:15
	Amen.	1:00:18
	(haunting organ music)	1:00:34
	(choir singing in foreign language)	1:00:41
	Open wide your hands, oh God, to receive these gifts	1:07:27
	of ourselves and our resources to be used	1:07:31
	in Your name through Your power.	1:07:35
	Amen.	1:07:37
	(upbeat organ music)	1:07:41
	(choir singing in foreign language)	1:08:18
	Go now with confidence in the presence of the Lord,	1:10:58
	into a world that is waiting for your spark	1:11:02
	of life and hope.	1:11:05
	(congregation speaking softly)	1:11:11
	♪ Amen ♪	1:11:15
	♪ Amen ♪	1:11:24
	♪ Amen ♪	1:11:38
	♪ Amen ♪	1:11:47
	♪ Amen ♪	1:11:53
	♪ Amen ♪	1:12:04
	♪ Amen ♪	1:12:17
	(upbeat organ music)	1:12:38
	(many people in congregation speaking)	1:15:50

Item Info

Title:

John Killinger - "Discovering the Joys of Your Limitation" (January 18, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:27. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 51:47.
We will all become familiar with the view from Mount Nebo when we look out and realize that we will not be able to realize our dreams and live into our cherished promises. Instead of relying on false promises of positive thinking, we are called to offer ourselves just as we are, in all of our weaknesses trusting in God's faithfulness and power. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "It's easy, isn't it, to get the captions mixed up in our lives? And to that in order to be successful, we have to march into our promised lands with all the banners flying and all the bugles blowing. But we don't. We don't have to accomplish everything we set out to accomplish. We don't have to achieve everything we dreamed of achieving. That is not the mark of a successful life."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4rb6wg8h

Date:

January 18, 1981

Speaker:

Killinger, John

Liturgical Calendar:

Epiphany

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1134
ref7484_71k
uachapelsermaud
duke:320643
dcrau002011
ark:/87924/r4rb6wg8h
5741c6b7-e68e-4be2-90d3-c1a8488bdad6

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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John Killinger - "Discovering the Joys of Your Limitation" (January 18, 1981)

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Duke University Archives