John H. Westerhoff - "Being a Laughingstock for the Word of God" (January 9, 1977)
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| - | Duke University Chapel Service, January 9th, 1977. | 0:04 |
| (cool music begins) | 0:15 | |
| (cool music rises) | 8:47 | |
| - | Arise, shine for your light has come. | 11:55 |
| And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. | 11:59 | |
| Amen. | 12:03 | |
| (cool music begins) | 12:06 | |
| (clears throat) | 15:11 | |
| When we gathered together, | 15:16 | |
| we remember that we are God's people | 15:18 | |
| who have preferred our wills to God's will. | 15:20 | |
| Therefore let us confess our sin. | 15:25 | |
| All | Lord God almighty, forgive your church. | 15:34 |
| It's wealth among the poor, | 15:38 | |
| it's fear among the unjust, | 15:41 | |
| it's cowardice among the oppressed, | 15:43 | |
| forgive us, your children, our lack of confidence in you, | 15:47 | |
| our lack of hope and your rain, | 15:51 | |
| our lack of faith in your presence, | 15:54 | |
| our lack of love and your mercy. | 15:57 | |
| Restore us to your covenant with your people. | 16:00 | |
| Bring us true repentance, teach us to accept the Christ. | 16:04 | |
| Make us strong with the comfort of your Holy Spirit. | 16:08 | |
| Break us where we are strong, make us where we are weak, | 16:12 | |
| shame us where we trust ourselves. | 16:17 | |
| Name us where we have lost ourselves. | 16:20 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. | 16:24 | |
| - | Hear these comfortable words from the scriptures. | 16:42 |
| This is the message we have heard from Him | 16:46 | |
| and proclaim to you, that God is light, | 16:48 | |
| and in Him is no darkness at all. | 16:53 | |
| If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, | 16:56 | |
| we have fellowship with one another, | 17:00 | |
| and the blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin. | 17:02 | |
| Your sins are forgiven for His sake. Amen. | 17:08 | |
| (cool music begins) | 17:20 | |
| Let us pray. | 20:35 | |
| Almighty God, | 20:39 | |
| open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit. | 20:40 | |
| That is the scriptures of read and the word proclaimed. | 20:45 | |
| We might hear with joy what you have to say to us today. | 20:48 | |
| Amen. | 20:52 | |
| The old Testament lesson comes from Jeremiah. | 20:54 | |
| "Oh Lord thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. | 21:02 | |
| Thou hast stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. | 21:07 | |
| I have become a laughingstock all the day. | 21:13 | |
| Everyone mocks me, or whenever I speak, I cry out, | 21:18 | |
| I shout violence and destruction. | 21:23 | |
| For the word of the Lord has become for me | 21:26 | |
| a reproach and a derision all the day long. | 21:29 | |
| If I say, I will not mention Him, | 21:34 | |
| or speak any more of His name. | 21:38 | |
| There is in my heart as if it were | 21:41 | |
| a burning fire shut up in my bones, | 21:44 | |
| and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. | 21:48 | |
| For I hear many whispering. | 21:53 | |
| 'Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let's denounce him!' | 21:56 | |
| Say all my old familiar friends, | 22:00 | |
| watching for my fall. | 22:05 | |
| 'Perhaps he will be deceived. | 22:08 | |
| Then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.' | 22:10 | |
| But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior. | 22:15 | |
| Therefore my persecutors will stumble. | 22:20 | |
| They will not overcome me. | 22:23 | |
| They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. | 22:26 | |
| Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. | 22:30 | |
| Who Lord of hosts, who triest the righteous, | 22:35 | |
| who seest the heart and the mind. | 22:39 | |
| Let me see thy vengeance upon them. | 22:43 | |
| For to thee, have I committed my cause. | 22:46 | |
| Sing to the Lord. | 22:50 | |
| Praise the Lord, for He is delivered the life of the needy | 22:52 | |
| from the hand of evildoers." | 22:57 | |
| The Epistle Lesson from Ephesians. | 23:05 | |
| "Therefore remember that at one time, | 23:13 | |
| you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision | 23:17 | |
| by what is called a circumcision, | 23:23 | |
| which is made in the flesh by hands. | 23:26 | |
| Remember that at one time you were separated from Christ, | 23:29 | |
| alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, | 23:33 | |
| and strangers to the covenants of promise. | 23:37 | |
| Having no hope and without God in the world. | 23:41 | |
| But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once were far off, | 23:46 | |
| have been brought near, in the blood of Christ. | 23:51 | |
| For He is our peace who has made us both one, | 23:56 | |
| and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, | 24:00 | |
| by abolishing in His flesh, | 24:04 | |
| the law of commandments and ordinances. | 24:05 | |
| So that he might create in himself, | 24:09 | |
| one new man in place of the two, | 24:11 | |
| and so making peace. | 24:15 | |
| And might reconcile us both to God in one body, | 24:18 | |
| through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. | 24:22 | |
| And He came and preached peace to you who were far off, | 24:28 | |
| and peace to those who were near. | 24:32 | |
| For through Him, we both have access in one spirit | 24:37 | |
| to the Father." | 24:42 | |
| At a stand for the gospel. | 24:45 | |
| As the people were in expectations | 24:55 | |
| and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, | 24:57 | |
| whether perhaps he was the Christ. | 25:01 | |
| John answered them all. | 25:05 | |
| "I baptize you with water, | 25:07 | |
| but there is one who is mightier than I who is coming, | 25:09 | |
| the thong of whose sandals, I am not even worthy to untie. | 25:13 | |
| He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. | 25:18 | |
| His winnowing fork is in His hand | 25:23 | |
| to clear the threshing floor. | 25:26 | |
| and to gather the wheat into His granary, | 25:28 | |
| but the chaff He will burn, with unquenchable fire." | 25:30 | |
| Now all the people were baptized. | 25:36 | |
| And when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying. | 25:39 | |
| The heaven was opened, | 25:45 | |
| and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him | 25:47 | |
| in bodily form as a dove, | 25:49 | |
| and a voice came from heaven, | 25:52 | |
| "thou art my beloved Son, with thee, I am well pleased." | 25:55 | |
| Amen. | 26:05 | |
| (cool music begins) | 26:08 | |
| Let us a firm what we believe. | 26:55 | |
| All | We believe in God, who has created and is creating. | 26:59 |
| Who has come and the truly human Jesus, | 27:03 | |
| to reconcile and make new | 27:07 | |
| who works in us and others by the spirit. | 27:09 | |
| We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 27:13 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 27:18 | |
| to love and serve others, | 27:20 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 27:23 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 27:26 | |
| our judge and our hope, | 27:29 | |
| in life, in death, and life beyond death. | 27:31 | |
| God is with us. We are not alone. | 27:35 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 27:39 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 27:42 |
| Congregation | And with your spirit. | 27:43 |
| - | Let us pray. | 27:45 |
| (clears throat) | 27:47 | |
| Do not turn your ear from us. Oh God. | 28:02 | |
| And do not put us aside. | 28:10 | |
| Now that in this hour, | 28:15 | |
| we have stopped chatting among ourselves, | 28:16 | |
| and are now groping for words, to pray to you. | 28:21 | |
| For who is to save us or heal us, | 28:28 | |
| or judge us, | 28:34 | |
| if you do not take us to heart. | 28:38 | |
| We're standing on thresholds this day, Lord, | 28:44 | |
| between what we have been and what we are becoming, | 28:51 | |
| between the old year and the new, | 28:58 | |
| between the first semester and the second, | 29:02 | |
| between sickness and health, | 29:07 | |
| between loneliness and love, | 29:11 | |
| between youth and adulthood, | 29:14 | |
| between middle aged expectations, | 29:18 | |
| and old age resignation, | 29:22 | |
| between doubt and faith. | 29:27 | |
| On the threshold, | 29:33 | |
| between this now and the not yet, | 29:36 | |
| the known and the unknown. | 29:40 | |
| We are wondering what we shall be. | 29:44 | |
| It is not easy to live between the times in process, | 29:50 | |
| still being formed, still being born, | 29:56 | |
| like old father Abraham. | 30:03 | |
| We wonder where our life journey is taking us, like Mary. | 30:06 | |
| We want to serve you, | 30:13 | |
| but we wonder what you are doing with us. | 30:16 | |
| Where are you leading us? | 30:21 | |
| Lord, what are you doing with us? | 30:23 | |
| We stand on thresholds this day, praying for Epiphany. | 30:30 | |
| We stand at the door and knock, | 30:38 | |
| open yourself to us, Lord, | 30:43 | |
| show us your glory. | 30:47 | |
| As we pray. | 30:52 | |
| All | Our Father who art in heaven, | 30:54 |
| hallowed be thy name. | 30:57 | |
| Thy kingdom come. | 30:59 | |
| Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 31:01 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread, | 31:04 | |
| and forgive us, our trespasses, | 31:07 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 31:09 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 31:13 | |
| but deliver us from evil, | 31:16 | |
| for thine is the kingdom, | 31:18 | |
| and the power, and the glory forever. | 31:20 | |
| Amen. | 31:25 | |
| - | Then I ask you to invite all of you | 31:32 |
| to the organ recital by John Mueller tonight here in chapel, | 31:34 | |
| on our new organ at seven o'clock this evening. | 31:39 | |
| The preacher for this morning and a worthy one, he is, | 31:45 | |
| is Dr. John Westerhoff. | 31:51 | |
| - | May the words of my mouth | 32:01 |
| and the meditations of our hearts | 32:03 | |
| be acceptable in your sight or Lord, | 32:05 | |
| our judge and our Redeemer. | 32:07 | |
| Amen. | 32:10 | |
| Our text is taken from the prophet Jeremiah | 32:14 | |
| who in telling of his days and the public stocks, | 32:16 | |
| confesses his anguish. | 32:20 | |
| "I have been a laughing stock all the day long. | 32:22 | |
| Everyone makes fun of me. | 32:26 | |
| I am rejected and ridiculed for uttering the word | 32:29 | |
| of the Lord. | 32:32 | |
| A sad commentary perhaps, but not a unique experience. | 32:35 | |
| Indeed, all the great personalities of the Bible | 32:40 | |
| were perceived to be or described as fools." | 32:42 | |
| Jeremiah simply confessed his inclusion | 32:47 | |
| in this succession of godly fools, | 32:50 | |
| who had become a laughingstock for the word of God. | 32:53 | |
| "I have been made a laughingstock all the day long. | 32:58 | |
| Everyone makes fun of me. | 33:03 | |
| I am rejected and ridiculed." | 33:06 | |
| Why? "For uttering the word of the Lord." | 33:08 | |
| It's an appropriate text | 33:14 | |
| for this first Sunday after Epiphany, | 33:16 | |
| since to pronounce the word of the Lord appropriate | 33:19 | |
| for this season in the church year, | 33:22 | |
| is from at least one point of view, ludicrous. | 33:25 | |
| Christmas with this proclamation | 33:31 | |
| of Emmanuel God with us may be still ringing in our ears | 33:33 | |
| if not in our hearts. | 33:36 | |
| But the Feast of the Epiphany, | 33:39 | |
| the manifestation of Christ | 33:42 | |
| world transforming power and glory, | 33:44 | |
| is more often than not ignored or lost | 33:49 | |
| in the frantic return to the new year's business as usual. | 33:51 | |
| Epiphany just two days spent. | 33:58 | |
| The typically unheralded clothes of Christmastide, | 34:02 | |
| commemorates three somewhat strange events. | 34:06 | |
| The adoration of the Magi, | 34:11 | |
| Christ first miracle of the transformation | 34:14 | |
| of water into wine at the wedding feast in Canaan, | 34:18 | |
| and the baptism of Christ is recounted in our gospel lesson. | 34:22 | |
| For those bold enough to profess that Jesus is Lord. | 34:28 | |
| The season of Epiphany should be | 34:32 | |
| a dramatic revelatory converting occasion. | 34:34 | |
| Unfortunately, for most of us, | 34:39 | |
| the myths and symbols of Epiphany have become blurred, | 34:41 | |
| confused and distorted. | 34:45 | |
| They've lost most of their relevance to the worldly wise. | 34:48 | |
| Still these are the days when the community of faith | 34:54 | |
| is called to recall the beginning | 34:57 | |
| of Christ's power and glory. | 34:59 | |
| The tribute of the Magi marks the announcement | 35:03 | |
| of God's kingdom's coming, which shall have no end. | 35:06 | |
| The transformation of the water at Canaan | 35:11 | |
| the witness of Christ power in this world, | 35:13 | |
| where material and spiritual realities are one. | 35:19 | |
| And His baptism, the Genesis of His ministry | 35:25 | |
| as advocate and liberator of those denied God's will. | 35:29 | |
| In this sophisticated secular world of ours, | 35:36 | |
| these stories comprised | 35:39 | |
| a somewhat silly message to celebrate. | 35:40 | |
| And so parenthetically, we usually don't. | 35:44 | |
| But it's about time, isn't it that we who desire | 35:48 | |
| to claim the name of Christ did celebrate | 35:51 | |
| and affirm this somewhat laughable word of God. | 35:54 | |
| So it is, I invite you to join me this day and do just that. | 35:59 | |
| To begin our gospel lesson communicates for all time, | 36:05 | |
| the divine recognition, | 36:07 | |
| and authentication of Jesus as the Christ, | 36:10 | |
| the Messiah of God, the Savior of the world. | 36:13 | |
| Jesus of Nazareth, who went about all Galilee, | 36:17 | |
| preaching the gospel of the kingdom is coming, | 36:20 | |
| and healing every disease and affirmative among the people. | 36:23 | |
| Who taught us to love our enemies | 36:27 | |
| and pray for those who persecute us. | 36:29 | |
| Who warned us not to lay up treasures on earth, | 36:32 | |
| or to be anxious about our lives. | 36:36 | |
| Who called us to do God's will | 36:39 | |
| and to lose our lives in the service of God's kingdom. | 36:42 | |
| Who taught us to love God with all our heart | 36:46 | |
| and our mind and our soul and our strength, | 36:48 | |
| and even our neighbors as ourselves. | 36:51 | |
| The same Jesus, crucified and risen, Lord, | 36:55 | |
| and whom God has come to us and shared our common lot, | 37:00 | |
| conquering sin and death, | 37:05 | |
| and reconciling the whole of creation, to its creator. | 37:06 | |
| Jesus, the Christ of God who came | 37:12 | |
| that the world might be saved, | 37:15 | |
| that God's kingdom might come, that God's will be done. | 37:18 | |
| That's the faith we claim when we boldly or perhaps likely, | 37:25 | |
| say with our fore parents, that Jesus is Lord. | 37:29 | |
| But don't we have to admit when we're sober, | 37:34 | |
| that this is surely un amusing, absurd, incongruous, | 37:38 | |
| eccentric word for modern humans. | 37:45 | |
| Have any of our eyes truly seen His salvation? | 37:52 | |
| His saving power, in the social political economic world | 37:56 | |
| in which we live? | 38:01 | |
| Is the world any better? Really, since His coming? | 38:03 | |
| Has God's community come? | 38:08 | |
| Is God's will done on earth is in heaven? | 38:10 | |
| Has peace, whole community, justice, liberation, | 38:15 | |
| and the wellbeing of all people arrived? | 38:19 | |
| Has Christ's message of healing and wholeness | 38:23 | |
| and justice been realized? | 38:25 | |
| Have we not read the Daily Newspapers | 38:29 | |
| or watch the 6:30 news? | 38:32 | |
| What can we say to those who still daily experience, | 38:36 | |
| oppression, starvation, injustice, illness, and conflict? | 38:40 | |
| How can we with a clear conscience, deny racism and sexism, | 38:46 | |
| classism and nationalism, | 38:50 | |
| which gnaw at the sinews of our country, | 38:52 | |
| and places the world on the brink of daily destruction? | 38:56 | |
| And what can we answer to ourselves, | 39:01 | |
| amidst the brokenness of our own lives, | 39:04 | |
| and those whom we love? | 39:08 | |
| How can we deny our own mental | 39:11 | |
| and physical diseases and torments? | 39:13 | |
| It seems like such a foolish word. | 39:18 | |
| Why should anyone believe it? | 39:21 | |
| Or better be willing to live for it's good news. | 39:24 | |
| If our gospel lesson for this Sunday of Epiphany, | 39:29 | |
| we're not difficult enough to proclaim with a straight face. | 39:32 | |
| Saint Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus | 39:36 | |
| makes the bold assertion, | 39:38 | |
| that Christ has destroyed all that keeps people apart, | 39:41 | |
| race, sex, class, religion, nationality, ethnic group. | 39:46 | |
| In Christ, God engages in a new act of creation, | 39:53 | |
| unifying all persons into His kingdom. | 39:56 | |
| Now isn't that affirmation difficult to accept, | 40:02 | |
| or even take seriously. | 40:05 | |
| But the Christian message was a bad message | 40:09 | |
| from the very beginning. | 40:11 | |
| Happy are the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, | 40:14 | |
| the excluded, the peacemakers, the meek, the just. | 40:18 | |
| Why? Because it's they that are going to receive | 40:23 | |
| the blessings of God's kingdom. | 40:27 | |
| They who will be filled. | 40:29 | |
| They who will laugh. | 40:30 | |
| They who will be rewarded. | 40:32 | |
| They who will see God. | 40:34 | |
| Nonsense. | 40:38 | |
| It just didn't seem to be in the cards, | 40:40 | |
| not even for Jesus, the announcer. | 40:43 | |
| He descended from neither aristocracy of blood | 40:48 | |
| nor priestly nobility. | 40:51 | |
| His first followers were simple, poor, | 40:53 | |
| unsophisticated people. | 40:56 | |
| Fisher folk, peace workers, tenant farmers, | 40:58 | |
| itinerant shepherds, women and children. | 41:02 | |
| It was the marginal oppressed peoples of His day. | 41:06 | |
| All those who wanted to believe the good news | 41:09 | |
| of God's coming community who followed Him, | 41:12 | |
| and prayed with Him. | 41:15 | |
| "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." | 41:17 | |
| And then, "give us this day, our daily bread." | 41:21 | |
| That were their prayers answered? | 41:26 | |
| Worst what happened to Jesus words of woe | 41:30 | |
| to the rich and the powerful. | 41:33 | |
| Those who have made it in this world | 41:35 | |
| and have received in abundance this world's blessings. | 41:36 | |
| As a matter of fact, isn't it those who live most according | 41:41 | |
| to the world's values and understandings and ways, | 41:44 | |
| those who have already made it, | 41:47 | |
| who prosper most and receive the greatest rewards? | 41:49 | |
| While those who have denied all | 41:54 | |
| that God wants for His children. | 41:56 | |
| And those who live for God's kingdom continue to suffer, | 41:58 | |
| and then amidst their suffering | 42:03 | |
| be laughed at for their faith. | 42:05 | |
| The Christian face social political | 42:09 | |
| and economic naivete seem quite humorous. | 42:11 | |
| Perhaps that's why we who comprise | 42:17 | |
| the church of America's middle class | 42:19 | |
| have seen fit to either ignore, | 42:21 | |
| or rewrite the biblical message into a more reasonable word, | 42:24 | |
| a more palatable, sensible word. | 42:30 | |
| A word that doesn't disturb us, | 42:33 | |
| but rather dulls our torments, confusions, and anxieties. | 42:35 | |
| But perhaps that is also why, | 42:42 | |
| one of the earliest representations of Christ | 42:45 | |
| in Christian art depicts a crucified human figure | 42:47 | |
| with the head of an ass. | 42:52 | |
| The debate on what it means continues. | 42:55 | |
| But I'm convinced that these catacomb Christians | 42:58 | |
| had a deep sense, of the comic absurdity of their position. | 43:01 | |
| A wretched band of slaves, derelicts and square pegs. | 43:07 | |
| They must have sensed how ludicrous their claims appeared. | 43:12 | |
| Christ for them must have seemed something of a holy fool. | 43:17 | |
| And they knew that they were fools for Christ. | 43:22 | |
| But more important, they had faith and hope | 43:26 | |
| in the eternal foolishness of God. | 43:29 | |
| A faith we sometimes have lost, or worse denied. | 43:33 | |
| Remember how God promised Abraham and Sarah | 43:40 | |
| in their old age a son? | 43:43 | |
| And also remember how they laughed also. | 43:47 | |
| To be sure for one point of view, | 43:51 | |
| it was a foolish, humorous promise. | 43:53 | |
| But eventually, when there was no reason to hope any longer, | 43:57 | |
| they did have a son, | 44:03 | |
| and God told them to name their unexpected gift, Isaac, | 44:06 | |
| which in Hebrew means, laughter. | 44:12 | |
| So that we might have faith | 44:15 | |
| in God's laughable promises. | 44:18 | |
| "I have been made a laughingstock all the day long. | 44:23 | |
| Everyone makes fun of me. | 44:27 | |
| I am rejected and ridiculed, why? | 44:30 | |
| For uttering the word of the Lord." | 44:34 | |
| Let it be noted that Jeremiah was laughed at | 44:38 | |
| not simply for his own sake. | 44:41 | |
| It was not some public blunder of his own doing, | 44:44 | |
| nor was it some physical characteristic | 44:48 | |
| that caused him to appear foolish. | 44:50 | |
| No, it was the word of the Lord | 44:54 | |
| that made him a laughing stock. | 44:56 | |
| Recall the circumstances. | 44:59 | |
| God charged Jeremiah with the responsibility | 45:02 | |
| of symbolically and verbally rebuking the elders of Judah | 45:05 | |
| for their way of life. | 45:09 | |
| Jeremiah's words had been strong. | 45:11 | |
| God will break this people in this city | 45:15 | |
| as one breaks a potter's vessel | 45:17 | |
| so that it can never be mended. | 45:20 | |
| And indignation at these words, the chief priest of the city | 45:24 | |
| ordered the seizure of Jeremiah. | 45:27 | |
| It was the religious leader himself | 45:30 | |
| who locked the prophet in the public stocks | 45:33 | |
| to receive the full scorn and mockery of the people. | 45:37 | |
| Jeremiah, for the word of the Lord, | 45:42 | |
| was placed in a laughingstock. | 45:45 | |
| I presume that most of us fear being made fools of. | 45:51 | |
| We suffer anxiety and the fear of being ostracized | 45:55 | |
| from the group, or laughed at by our peers. | 45:58 | |
| We can easily understand Jeremiah's lament. | 46:03 | |
| Most of us find it extremely difficult to speak any word, | 46:08 | |
| or perform any deed that might cause us to appear foolish. | 46:11 | |
| We fear the alienation of the laughing stock, | 46:15 | |
| that is perhaps why our styles of life | 46:20 | |
| are so monotonously similar, | 46:22 | |
| and why we're so reluctant to hold widely variant ideas | 46:25 | |
| from the majority. | 46:29 | |
| Here too lies the weakness of the church. | 46:32 | |
| We mirror the culture. | 46:35 | |
| We reflect the values, understandings | 46:37 | |
| and ways of middle-class society, | 46:39 | |
| and avoid too easily the hard imperatives of God's word. | 46:42 | |
| Surely it may be legitimate for us to fear being laughed at. | 46:48 | |
| But it is not morally or spiritually legitimate | 46:54 | |
| for us to allow that fear to swallow up our convictions. | 46:57 | |
| This is perhaps the most important aspect of our lesson. | 47:03 | |
| Jeremiah did not allow fear to overcome conviction. | 47:07 | |
| He cried at the mockery, which beset him. | 47:12 | |
| But he did not compromise his principles. | 47:16 | |
| As Karl Marx rightly saw, | 47:21 | |
| religion is not only an opiate for the masses, | 47:24 | |
| a defense of injustice and oppression, | 47:27 | |
| it is also a form of protest against it. | 47:30 | |
| As a protest, it offers a vision of a new age | 47:35 | |
| and a hope that the laughable will be realized. | 47:38 | |
| The season of Epiphany as a reminder | 47:42 | |
| of that vision and hope, | 47:44 | |
| it is a time for us to renew our calling to live | 47:46 | |
| as if the message of the gospel were true, | 47:50 | |
| and not to be satisfied with the real, and the possible. | 47:54 | |
| We are called to be a people with an imagination and vision. | 48:00 | |
| People with an eschatological itch | 48:04 | |
| people who do not fear being laughed at, | 48:09 | |
| for living the word of God. | 48:11 | |
| As Herbert Marcuse put it. | 48:16 | |
| "We need to break the power of facts over the world | 48:18 | |
| and speak a language which is not the language | 48:22 | |
| of those who establish and force | 48:25 | |
| and benefit from the facts." | 48:27 | |
| We are called to live for the gospel | 48:32 | |
| of God's kingdom coming. | 48:34 | |
| We are called to repent of our compromises | 48:38 | |
| and our re-writings of the gospel | 48:40 | |
| to fit our understandings in ways. | 48:42 | |
| We are called to recommit ourselves, | 48:46 | |
| to live for peace and unity, | 48:48 | |
| for justice and liberation and equality and community. | 48:52 | |
| To live for the physical | 48:56 | |
| and spiritual wellbeing of all people. | 48:58 | |
| To become fools for Christ, that we might be wise in Christ. | 49:02 | |
| We are called afresh to affirm our faith in the gospel | 49:09 | |
| of God's kingdom coming, | 49:12 | |
| and to live according to God's will. | 49:14 | |
| Surely such a faith is not belief, it's hope. | 49:18 | |
| And hope is the ability to stand firm | 49:25 | |
| and live faithfully, and be laughed at. | 49:28 | |
| Our Credo needs to become Spiro Orton telecom. | 49:35 | |
| I hope that I might know. | 49:39 | |
| The exodus people are forever leaving the present behind | 49:43 | |
| and pushing toward an unknown future. | 49:47 | |
| Christians are called to live as if God's community as come, | 49:50 | |
| as if salvation were at hand, | 49:54 | |
| and not worry about being laughed at and ridiculed | 49:57 | |
| by those who live as if the present where everything. | 50:01 | |
| St. Paul has reminded us that the foolishness of God | 50:06 | |
| is wiser than we humans. | 50:10 | |
| We need to live in that truth. | 50:13 | |
| And like Jeremiah become godly fools. | 50:16 | |
| The point of it all is that we must expect | 50:21 | |
| and not fear being made fools for Christ's sake. | 50:24 | |
| If we are to take our faith seriously, | 50:28 | |
| then it is inevitable that this faith will cause us | 50:31 | |
| to do things that to the world are peculiar, strange, | 50:34 | |
| and even laughable. | 50:40 | |
| The community of God has not yet arrived in its fullness. | 50:43 | |
| The world in which we live is still groaning for redemption. | 50:47 | |
| The will of God is still not done among us. | 50:51 | |
| Therefore, we must expect that the word of God | 50:55 | |
| is going to demand of us a rigor | 50:58 | |
| and distinctiveness of life, | 51:00 | |
| which at crucial occasions, | 51:02 | |
| will alienate us, even from our families. | 51:05 | |
| In order to be Christian in a serious, and self-styled way, | 51:10 | |
| we must be mature enough to be foolish. | 51:15 | |
| "I have been made a laughingstock all the day long. | 51:20 | |
| Everyone makes fun of me. | 51:23 | |
| I am rejected and ridiculed | 51:26 | |
| for uttering the word of the Lord." | 51:28 | |
| We are called to be laughingstocks for God. | 51:33 | |
| Are there any takers? | 51:39 | |
| Are there any brave enough to live in ways | 51:41 | |
| the world thinks laughable? | 51:43 | |
| Will know of course, for more than likely, | 51:47 | |
| they will be those who others reject and ridicule, | 51:51 | |
| and laugh at. | 51:55 | |
| But they will also be those, | 51:57 | |
| who will be able to exclaim with Jeremiah, | 52:00 | |
| sing to the Lord, | 52:03 | |
| praise the Lord, | 52:06 | |
| for he has delivered the life of the needy | 52:08 | |
| from the hands of evildoers. | 52:11 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 52:15 | |
| Let us pray. | 52:19 | |
| Foolish God. | 52:22 | |
| We are reluctant to live as your clowns. | 52:24 | |
| It is difficult enough to believe the gospel, | 52:29 | |
| but to live as if it were true, | 52:31 | |
| to proclaim your word in our deeds | 52:34 | |
| is beyond our human understanding. | 52:36 | |
| Grant us your courage, grant us your wisdom, | 52:40 | |
| and lead us in Your way | 52:44 | |
| until at last all things are made new. | 52:46 | |
| In every valley lifted up, | 52:50 | |
| in every mountain and hill made low. | 52:52 | |
| The uneven level and the rough places a plane, | 52:55 | |
| and your glory revealed. | 52:59 | |
| So that all flesh shall see it together. | 53:02 | |
| Amen. | 53:09 | |
| (cool music begins) | 53:13 | |
| (smooth music) | 56:08 | |
| (bright music) | 58:12 | |
| (smooth upbeat music) | 1:02:21 | |
| - | Everything that we have that is good in this life. | 1:03:46 |
| Oh, God has come as gifts from thee, | 1:03:50 | |
| we give you, but your own for your work in this world. | 1:03:54 | |
| Amen. | 1:04:01 | |
| (bright music) | 1:04:03 | |
| Grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. | 1:07:24 | |
| The love of God, | 1:07:27 | |
| the fellowship of the holy spirit. | 1:07:28 | |
| Be with you all now and evermore. | 1:07:30 | |
| Amen. | 1:07:34 | |
| (bright music) | 1:07:38 | |
| (congregation applauds) | 1:11:49 |