James A. Sanders - "Annunciations" (March 13, 1988)

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	(indistinct operatic singing)	0:09
-	Good morning and welcome to this service	14:26
	of worship here in Duke Chapel.	14:28
	We have been led in our worship	14:31
	by Mr. Joe Hickman and the UNC Wilmington singers.	14:33
	They are frequent and much appreciated visitors	14:38
	here in the chapel and we thank them	14:42
	for being a part of our service today.	14:45
	We are pleased to have as our preacher today one	14:49
	of America's great interpreters of scripture,	14:51
	Dr. James Sanders from Claremont, California.	14:56
	Dr. Sanders is widely known	15:00
	as a brilliant interpreter of scripture	15:03
	and also as a great Homiletician	15:07
	and contributor to the art of preaching	15:09
	and we welcome him here	15:12
	as a James T. Cleland guest preacher.	15:14
	And now, let us continue our worship.	15:18
	(choir music)	15:24
	When we gather to praise God,	18:35
	particularly during the season of lent,	18:38
	the season of the cross, we're reminded	18:41
	that although we are God's people,	18:44
	we are God's people who have preferred our wills	18:46
	to God's will, therefore let us confess our sin	18:49
	before God and one another.	18:54
	Be seated.	18:57
	Almighty and most merciful God	19:06
	who knowest the thoughts of our hearts,	19:10
	we confess that we have sinned against thee	19:13
	and done evil in thy sight.	19:16
	We have transgressed thy holy laws.	19:19
	We have neglected thy word and ordinances.	19:22
	Forgive us, oh Lord, we beseech thee	19:26
	and give us grace and power	19:30
	to put away all hurtful things	19:32
	that being delivered from the bondage of sin,	19:35
	we may bring forth fruit worthy of repentance	19:38
	and henceforth may ever walk in thy holy ways	19:42
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	19:46
	Hear these comfortable words from scripture.	19:51
	The Lord is gracious and merciful,	19:56
	slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.	19:58
	This is the message that we have heard from him	20:02
	and now proclaim to you, that God is light	20:05
	and in him is no darkness at all.	20:10
	If we walk in the light as he is in the light,	20:13
	we have fellowship one with another	20:17
	and the blood of Jesus, his son,	20:20
	cleanses us from all sins.	20:22
	Your sins are forgiven for his sake, amen.	20:25
-	Let us pray.	20:40
	Open our hearts and minds, oh God,	20:42
	by the power of your holy spirit	20:46
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed	20:48
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	20:52
	The first lesson is taken from the book of Genesis.	21:00
	They said to him where is Sarah, your wife?	21:04
	And he said she is in the tent.	21:07
	The Lord said I will surely return to you	21:10
	in the spring and Sarah, your wife shall have a son.	21:12
	And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.	21:16
	Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age.	21:20
	It had ceased to be with Sarah	21:24
	after the manner of women.	21:26
	So Sarah laughed to herself saying after I have grown old	21:28
	and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?	21:33
	The Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh	21:36
	and say shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?	21:40
	Is anything too hard for the Lord?	21:44
	At the appointed time, I will return to you in the spring	21:47
	and Sarah shall have a son	21:51
	but Sarah denied, saying I did not laugh	21:53
	for she was afraid.	21:57
	He said no, but you did laugh.	21:59
	This ends the reading of the first lesson.	22:03
	The gospel lesson this morning	22:09
	is taken from the book of Luke.	22:11
	In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel	22:13
	was sent from God to a city of Galilee	22:16
	named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed	22:18
	to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David	22:22
	and the virgin's name was Mary	22:25
	and he came to her and said hail, oh favored one,	22:28
	the Lord is with you	22:31
	but she was greatly troubled at the saying	22:33
	and considered in her mind was sort	22:35
	of greeting this might be	22:37
	and the angel said to her do not be afraid, Mary,	22:39
	for you have found favor with God	22:42
	and behold, you will conceive in your womb	22:45
	and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.	22:47
	He will be great and will be called the son	22:52
	of the most high and the Lord God	22:54
	will give to him the throne of his father David	22:57
	and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever	23:00
	and of his kingdom, there will be no end	23:03
	and Mary said to the angel how shall this be	23:06
	since I have no husband?	23:09
	And the angel said to her the holy spirit	23:11
	will come upon you and the power	23:13
	of the most high will overshadow you.	23:15
	Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy,	23:18
	the son of God, and behold your kinswoman Elizabeth	23:22
	in her old age has also conceived a son	23:26
	and this is the sixth month with her	23:29
	who was called barren for with God,	23:31
	nothing will be impossible	23:34
	and Mary said behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.	23:37
	Let it be to me according to your word	23:41
	and the angel departed from her.	23:43
	This end's the reading of the gospel.	23:46
	(choir music)	24:16
	(choir music)	27:07
-	Let us pray.	30:16
	Gracious God.	30:20
	Make us again the gift of your holy spirit, we pray	30:24
	that through these words, your word	30:29
	may not be hindered but enhanced	30:34
	to bless us in Christ our Lord, amen.	30:37
	I'm very sensible of the honor	30:42
	of being designated the James T. Cleland preacher	30:44
	and also of preaching in Duke University Chapel	30:48
	which is a distinct honor and to be	30:53
	with my colleagues Will Willimon and Dan Via.	30:55
	It's also great to be here with many old friends	31:01
	in the area, in the triangle, and to make new friends.	31:03
	I want us to consider this morning	31:09
	celebrating the feast of the annunciation	31:12
	which as you know falls in March.	31:16
	If it seems strange to celebrate an event	31:20
	of the gospel so intimately associated	31:23
	with advent here in the middle of lent	31:26
	so close to Easter, we need to be reminded	31:30
	that conception usually takes place nine months	31:34
	before birth.	31:38
	Annunciation in scripture means hope	31:41
	which means that God is our continuing creator.	31:46
	There are 13 annunciations in scripture at latest count	31:52
	and they all signal a coming birth of a child	31:58
	who would play a crucial role	32:02
	in the history of the people of God.	32:04
	There are four annunciations in the new testament	32:07
	and nine in the old.	32:11
	The four in the new are patterned directly	32:13
	on those in scripture.	32:16
	They all have to do with children yet to be born	32:21
	and they all concern parents otherwise incapable	32:23
	of having children either because the parents	32:27
	are too old or the mother barren or both.	32:30
	Only in one instance is it otherwise.	32:36
	Mary, the mother of our Lord was neither.	32:39
	She was a virgin.	32:44
	All the 13 bear common marks of annunciation	32:46
	and they're five in number.	32:51
	The appearance of an angel or a representative of God.	32:55
	The reaction of fear to that theophany	33:01
	by the parent to be when so confronted.	33:06
	The third has six parts in it	33:10
	and that is the annunciation proper.	33:13
	First is the comforting word fear not.	33:17
	When there is theophany, that is we're confronted	33:22
	by reality or by God, we do not put our feet	33:26
	on our desks and ask what we can do for God.	33:29
	On the contrary, we experience fear	33:34
	and are comforted with fear not by the announcement.	33:39
	The woman is proclaimed to be with	33:44
	or about to be with child.	33:46
	She will give birth or come to term	33:48
	which is quite important.	33:51
	A name is given then to the child	33:52
	and interpretation then given to the name	33:56
	and future accomplishments of the child noted.	33:58
	Then the forth major part, the parent is addressed	34:06
	and the annunciation, who is addressed,	34:09
	then demurs or shows disbelief	34:11
	and finally, and fifth, a sign of reassurance is given.	34:16
	The 13 accounts of annunciation	34:22
	include the following.	34:24
	To Hagar concerning the future birth of Ishmael	34:26
	in Genesis 16.	34:30
	The doublet, which we may count as two,	34:32
	to Abraham and Sarah concerning Isaac	34:35
	in Genesis 17 and 18.	34:38
	To Rebecca concerning the twins, Esau and Jacob	34:41
	in Genesis 25.	34:45
	To Rachel concerning Joseph in Genesis 30.	34:48
	To the wife of Manoah concerning Sampson in Judges 13.	34:53
	To Hannah concerning Samuel in first Samuel one.	34:58
	To the Shunamite woman by Elijah in second Kings four.	35:02
	That's the shortest and perhaps	35:06
	should have a question mark by it.	35:08
	To King Ahaz concerning the young woman in Isaiah seven.	35:10
	To Joseph by an angel concerning Jesus in Matthew one.	35:15
	To Zechariah by Gabriel concerning John the Baptist	35:20
	in Luke one.	35:23
	To Mary by Gabriel concerning Jesus also in Luke one	35:25
	which we heard read	35:29
	and then to the shepherds in a Bethlehem field	35:32
	by an angel having the form of an annunciation	35:35
	in Luke chapter two.	35:40
	They all follow a sort of canonical convention	35:42
	on how annunciations occur.	35:45
	They do not all have every detail	35:49
	but they have the salient marks.	35:51
	Now how should we read these accounts?	35:52
	The easiest way to get sidetracked	35:56
	into fruitless questions is to follow our natural tendency	35:58
	to moralize while reading them	36:02
	instead of theologizing, that is focusing	36:05
	on the morass of the time and the human condition	36:09
	of the people involved.	36:14
	Thereby we miss the point.	36:17
	In the old testament, the condition	36:20
	of the mother to be was usually that she was barren	36:21
	or too old or both.	36:24
	I'd like for us to focus on the new testament passage	36:27
	of mourning and think about Luke's congregation.	36:31
	In fact, I have been trying for some 20 years	36:37
	to join that congregation.	36:39
	After 70, after the fall of Jerusalem	36:43
	and the failure of the Parousia	36:46
	or the second coming,	36:49
	the congregation would have had a number of needs,	36:53
	very urgent and poignant needs,	36:58
	if they were to stay in the faith.	37:01
	The historical evidence, it might be argued,	37:04
	it was in that the faith was faulty.	37:07
	The Parousia or the second coming	37:13
	have not taken place despite the strong evidence	37:15
	of the destruction of Jerusalem	37:19
	by Flavius Silva and the 10th legion fretensis.	37:20
	Not only the temple in Jerusalem	37:23
	but the Petra and mother church as well.	37:25
	The church of the poor in Jerusalem.	37:28
	Such a congregation would have been very tempted	37:32
	to revert or most of its members	37:35
	to the imperial cults or to Mithraism	37:38
	or to whatever they had been before they converted.	37:41
	Very few whole families apparently were in the church	37:45
	and therefore they would have ridicule	37:51
	and tauntive and at home as well as in the workplace	37:54
	and they would have been asking for help	37:58
	and one of the questions would surely have been	38:02
	who is this God you're talking about?	38:07
	Who is this one God?	38:10
	So strange to say there's only one God.	38:13
	What does it mean and who is that God?	38:17
	And so I think that the program	38:22
	of instruction in Luke's congregation	38:24
	centered in reading scripture,	38:25
	the literate ones reading aloud for the illiterate	38:29
	and then class discussions and I fancy perhaps	38:32
	that the congregational program of instruction	38:36
	may have been twice a week	38:39
	in whatever home they were meeting in.	38:40
	Then perhaps the sermons on Sunday would relate to that	38:44
	but I wonder if these two volumes called Luke, Acts,	38:48
	might not actually emerge from the program	38:52
	of instruction of that congregation and those questions.	38:55
	The reading of scripture, the discussion of scripture,	38:59
	because scripture was in sort of a Greek	39:01
	that was not commonly spoken even for these Gentiles	39:05
	but they were in the Hellenistic world	39:10
	speaking a form of Greek and they were reading a kind	39:11
	of King James Version which needs explanation	39:14
	of the various words and phrases	39:17
	so I think that Luke's gospel and Acts	39:19
	would be full of paraphrases of scripture	39:21
	because one of the first things	39:23
	that a congregate would do	39:25
	would be to ask pastor, what does that mean	39:27
	in our language?	39:30
	Tell us what it means so we can understand.	39:32
	It would be paraphrased poignantly for them	39:36
	and then discussions about what our lord taught	39:40
	and what he did and what his life was about	39:43
	and how that was infused in the birth of the church.	39:47
	I imagine that Genesis was very important	39:53
	to them and particularly on certain occasions it would be	39:57
	especially when they wanted to talk	40:01
	about what Gabriel was saying to Mary.	40:03
	Genesis 12 starts the Abraham Sarah story.	40:08
	It's our story.	40:13
	Also, in that we're engrafted into it	40:15
	by being in Christ and so that	40:17
	would be a particularly poignant time	40:22
	and passages to read beginning with Genesis 12.	40:25
	There they would read of promises, two promises,	40:30
	to this couple who had severed themselves	40:33
	from their past identity and had taken on anew.	40:36
	Some part what conversion means is change of identity	40:40
	and they went on the trip, God promising to be with them	40:45
	but one of the promises, two of the promises	40:49
	were that there would be progeny	40:52
	as numerous as the sand particles of the sea shore	40:54
	and stars in heaven and the other, a place to live.	40:56
	And right away trouble starts	41:02
	and then we're introduced to a story	41:04
	which is very much like so many in the bible	41:08
	and that is how we seem to live	41:10
	between God's promise and the seeming lack	41:12
	of fulfillment of that promise.	41:16
	So right away they're in trouble	41:20
	when they go down to Egypt and we find	41:21
	that our mother has become another man's wife	41:22
	or assistant wife perhaps.	41:25
	Abraham has to face great odds in battles.	41:28
	All kinds of problems ensue and still no children.	41:33
	Now if they're gonna be as numerous eventually	41:38
	as stars in heaven and sand particles of sea shore,	41:40
	that's a lot of kids and we're getting older	41:42
	and none has come and we now reach the point	41:46
	of being physically unable to have children.	41:50
	The congregation, I think,	41:56
	would have been very touched and very attentive	41:57
	to a story about the seeming lack	42:01
	of fulfillment of God's promises.	42:04
	Then we have to read about that time	42:09
	when after the boy had come,	42:11
	after this annunciation read from Genesis 18,	42:14
	then read about how God asks Abraham to give him up,	42:17
	Abraham and Sarah to give him up	42:21
	and then we have to learn really and truly	42:25
	how to monotheise where as normally we ask	42:28
	how can a good God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son?	42:31
	We sooner or later begin to realize that's polytheizing.	42:36
	That isn't obeying the first commandment.	42:40
	That's asking a question that indicates	42:42
	that a bad God could do it better	42:45
	but rather reread the story maybe 15 times	42:49
	and then realize that perhaps and probably,	42:52
	Abraham forgot that Isaac was a gift.	42:56
	Despite these two chapters, 17 and 18,	42:59
	which make it very clear if they make nothing else clear	43:01
	that Isaac was a gift of God.	43:03
	Oh, some people of course avoid that	43:07
	and they start asking questions as we noted	43:09
	that have the result of deterring	43:12
	and putting off and hiding the point of the text	43:16
	but if it makes nothing else clear	43:21
	with Abraham 99 and Sarah 90,	43:24
	the second generation of the called people of God	43:27
	to be called Isaac, also to be a reminder	43:30
	of their disbelief and laughing at God	43:34
	comes as a gift	43:39
	in Sarah's barren old	43:41
	past menopause womb.	43:45
	Then we read it again and we notice	43:50
	that of course we knew all the time	43:52
	that the ram is in the thicket.	43:54
	There's no surprise ending.	43:57
	We knew that all along on our second reading	43:59
	and beyond but then we begin to realize the point	44:01
	of the story and that is that we all	44:05
	tend to love God's gifts	44:09
	more than God the giver.	44:14
	We tend to let God's gifts get between us	44:16
	and God the giver and that is sheer idolatry.	44:20
	Can we remember that everything	44:25
	that we have is a gift of God?	44:28
	I actually know some Presbyterians	44:33
	and I'm sure that's not the case, Will,	44:35
	in this congregation but I actually know some Presbyterians	44:36
	who think they own something.	44:40
	I'm Presbyterian so I'm pretty privy to that information.	44:44
	They think they own something in this brief passage	44:49
	from womb to tomb.	44:53
	They forget that they are but stewards	44:56
	of whatever they have, whether they be abilities	45:00
	or disabilities, they are stewards.	45:05
	Now I suggest that Luke's congregation knew that story	45:09
	and probably knew it quite well.	45:12
	Perhaps better than many of us.	45:13
	Now moralizing here (mumbling) would lead	45:16
	to questions about how parents	45:17
	who are biologically incapable of having a child	45:19
	could have one in their 90s.	45:22
	It would lead probably to irrelevant observations	45:24
	and experiments and questions about old rabbits.	45:27
	To theologize in reading it leads rather	45:32
	to questions about what God is up to	45:35
	and how throughout the bible God seems	45:39
	to choose impossible situations	45:41
	to make new departures.	45:43
	To theologize in reading it leads	45:46
	to the inescapable observation that Isaac,	45:47
	the second generation of the called people of God,	45:50
	was an outright gift.	45:52
	Then to go on theologizing would bring Luke's congregation	45:54
	to celebrate what God might be doing in	45:57
	and through them who found themselves	46:00
	in a similar situation of temptation	46:03
	like Abraham's and Sarah's	46:06
	to give up on God's promises.	46:09
	To theologize on reading scripture	46:12
	should bring in a congregation finally	46:14
	to celebrating God's grace.	46:16
	And now, like Luke's congregation,	46:19
	let us read the tradition they received	46:20
	about Gabriel's annunciation to Mary.	46:22
	Mary was a virgin like Sarah, like Elizabeth.	46:26
	Had been old.	46:30
	But now that does not seem to be so important.	46:32
	The focus is not on the condition of the humans.	46:37
	Mary a virgin, the others old or barren,	46:39
	but on what God was doing	46:42
	and perhaps on what God might yet do.	46:45
	In fact, to focus on what God can do	46:48
	with an unlikely situation would release the whole	46:51
	of scripture to be gospel, God's story.	46:54
	In every case in these 13 annunciations,	46:59
	there was some form of despair.	47:02
	There was every reason to think that there	47:05
	was no hope for the folk involved.	47:06
	In every case, it appeared as though a chapter	47:09
	of life was closing with no future in sight.	47:11
	Either the great adventure of the call	47:15
	to the matriarchs and patriarchs in Genesis	47:18
	was grinding to a dead end apparently	47:20
	or the Philistine threat was overwhelming	47:23
	as in the cases of the annunciation	47:25
	concerning Sampson or the annunciation	47:27
	concerning Samuel or the whole venture	47:31
	of Israel had totally rotted out	47:34
	as in the case of the period of Elijah	47:36
	or Judaism was being nearly snuffed out	47:38
	by Roman oppression as in Matthew and Luke.	47:41
	I rather think Luke's congregation	47:45
	could identify their condition	47:47
	of persecution and rejection because of their faith	47:48
	with the conditions Israel had earlier faced	47:52
	when it had seemed that Israel's faith venture	47:55
	with God which it started with this call	47:58
	to Abraham and Sarah was at an end.	48:01
	When you focus on reading these stories	48:04
	on what God, the creator of heaven and earth,	48:05
	can do you don't seem to stumble	48:07
	over either menopause or virginity.	48:09
	You instead take hope that all that	48:13
	was the stuff of which the realism	48:17
	of life and of scripture's made.	48:19
	Does it really matter whether the womb	48:21
	of human possibility is old and dried up	48:24
	or new and unused	48:27
	when God's reality is at work?	48:31
	If you theologize on reading scripture,	48:34
	you know it's not a fairy tale.	48:36
	It's for real.	48:39
	But who could blame dear Mary for demurring?	48:41
	She didn't laugh, no, but she asked an honest question	48:44
	of the visitor.	48:48
	How can this be?	48:50
	And Gabriel's response, I dare say,	48:52
	drew a lot of discussion in class that day.	48:54
	Your kinswoman Elizabeth who is both old and barren	48:58
	has conceived and is already in her six month.	49:01
	In other words, Gabriel chided Mary a bit.	49:05
	If you knew scripture, young lady,	49:10
	you would know this is the way God operates.	49:12
	A little chiding, I'm sure, drew a response	49:16
	in class as well but then Gabriel	49:18
	made the point I'm sure Luke was aiming toward.	49:21
	He quoted the Septuagint.	49:25
	That is their RSV, their version.	49:27
	Greek translation of the old testament	49:31
	and Genesis 18:14 almost verbatim.	49:34
	Well with God nothing is,	49:39
	or in some manuscripts will be,	49:41
	impossible for you see the visitors	49:43
	in Genesis 18 had asked about	49:45
	Sarah's incredulous laughter	49:47
	and in the old Greek translation	49:50
	that is is anything impossible with God?	49:53
	As Professor Via read it from the Hebrew.	49:59
	The translation from the Hebrew	50:04
	is anything too hard for the Lord?	50:05
	And that is accurate but the translation	50:08
	which Luke and his congregation had read differently.	50:11
	Is anything impossible with God?	50:15
	And so Gabriel answered Mary in those very terms	50:19
	except that it is now not a question, it is a statement.	50:24
	Nothing is or will be impossible with God.	50:29
	It is as though you see Gabriel	50:34
	were not only answering Mary's incredulous question	50:36
	but was also responding back across the centuries	50:39
	to the rhetorical question his colleagues	50:42
	had put to Abraham and Sarah.	50:45
	They had asked is anything impossible with God	50:47
	and Gabriel responds no, colleagues, nothing	50:50
	is or will be impossible with God.	50:54
	I rather imagine that the future tense	50:57
	in Gabriel's double duty response	50:59
	came directly out of Luke's class discussion.	51:01
	Would that be a response, Pastor Luke,	51:04
	to our own incredulity seeing as how Christ	51:05
	did not return when we had thought he would	51:09
	on the destruction of Jerusalem?	51:13
	And indeed the text reads nothing whatever	51:16
	will be impossible with God.	51:21
	Even, Luke might remind them,	51:23
	even as he does in chapter six,	51:25
	even when people hate you	51:28
	and when they exclude you and revile you	51:31
	and cast your name out as evil on account of me.	51:35
	Can God, that singular integrity of reality,	51:41
	that one God of all creation and all redemption	51:44
	work with simple human beings?	51:49
	I imagine that if he could not there would	51:54
	be little for God to do on this particular planet.	51:57
	I suppose that every generation believes sooner	52:02
	or later that it finds itself beyond the reach	52:04
	of God to redeem.	52:07
	Certainly, Abraham and Sarah had given up	52:08
	on God's promises at that point.	52:10
	Certainly Israel was often ready	52:12
	to give up on God's promises	52:14
	at many junctures in Israel's history.	52:15
	Certainly the Jewish commonwealth	52:19
	was up for grabs the very year our Lord was born	52:20
	in four BCE when Herod died and all hell broke loose	52:23
	in the war of Varus	52:28
	which was called to quell all the Jewish insurrections	52:30
	that took place when Herod died.	52:35
	The despair among the disciples	52:38
	and followers of Jesus must have been	52:40
	as of the blackest night	52:41
	between that Friday and that Sunday	52:44
	when perhaps	52:47
	they would hear another annunciation.	52:50
	Roman oppression increased thereafter year after year	52:54
	until the big war broke out in 66	52:57
	when the Romans systematically besieged Jerusalem	53:02
	and finally destroyed it.	53:05
	The question therefore is not whether we can believe	53:07
	that Sarah was really beyond menopause	53:11
	and Mary really a virgin	53:13
	or that Christ was raised from the dead.	53:15
	The real questions are far more serious.	53:17
	Can we truly believe that God really is continuing creator	53:20
	as well as redeemer?	53:25
	I go about that country in pastor schools	53:29
	and continue education and the most common question	53:31
	asked me privately by pastors is	53:34
	how can I write an Easter sermon?	53:39
	My answer is always the same.	53:42
	Easily if you believe that God was creator	53:46
	in the first place.	53:50
	Believing it in the second place falls in line.	53:53
	Can we believe that God could work	53:58
	through Pharaoh's fear of loss	53:59
	of economic power to liberate the slaves from Egypt?	54:00
	Can we believe that God could work	54:04
	through Babylonia's power and conquest	54:06
	to transform God's Israel into Judaism?	54:08
	Can we believe that God could work	54:13
	through Herod's fear of loss of political power	54:14
	and of Rome's fear of loss of imperial power	54:18
	at the eastern end of the empire	54:21
	to weave God's gospel story?	54:23
	That story says that God worked through some priest and	54:27
	through some scholars called scribes and pharisees	54:31
	and worked through a young political activist	54:35
	to bring about the fall of his son	54:39
	for the sake of them all and for the sake	54:41
	of us all.	54:44
	But we find it difficult to theologize	54:46
	or monotheize like that.	54:48
	We don't want our nice God to be involved	54:49
	in it all like that.	54:54
	Let the devil or the Satan or whoever,	54:56
	let a bad God do all the things I do not approve of	54:59
	and let my God be the hero and follow my agenda	55:03
	of what's right.	55:07
	In other words, can't we polytheize just a little bit?	55:10
	Can't we have some really bad guys to hate?	55:16
	Why can't we just cast the Pharaoh into outer darkness?	55:20
	Why do we have to identify with one	55:25
	who said to the community organizer hold on, Moses.	55:28
	You're moving too fast.	55:33
	The bible 14 times says the book of Exodus,	55:39
	that God got involved in Pharaoh's point of view	55:41
	and used it and worked with.	55:44
	Why does the bible have to say Moses murdered someone	55:48
	then was a fugitive from justice	55:50
	then, of all things, came back as community organizer?	55:52
	Why couldn't he be a nice middle class guy	55:55
	we'd find in Duke Chapel?	55:57
	Grew up in Pharaoh's palace, didn't he?	56:00
	Why was he, what was he, an ingrate?	56:02
	Why couldn't Judas be a really bad guy?	56:05
	Why did God have to get his Satan involved,	56:08
	a member of the heavenly council?	56:11
	Can't we make the Satan into a bad God?	56:13
	No, I suppose that really is polytheizing.	56:18
	Oh dear.	56:22
	It's all so confusing when you read the bible	56:24
	believing that God is one.	56:26
	Give me a good old time moralizing Sunday school lesson	56:29
	any time to this way of reading.	56:33
	And Annas and Caiaphas reflect, well reflect the actions	56:37
	and thought and responsible priests and Presbyters	56:41
	before and since.	56:45
	The pharisees well reflect the thoughts	56:47
	and actions of scholars,	56:49
	before and since.	56:53
	Judas Iscariot well reflects the hopes	56:55
	and fears of political activists,	56:58
	before and since.	57:01
	but we must no longer simply moralize	57:04
	on reading these texts.	57:07
	We cannot first ask how not to be like Annas and Caiaphas	57:08
	or how not to be like the Pharisees	57:14
	or how not to be like Judas.	57:16
	They're all a part of us and we of them.	57:19
	The New Testament makes the poignant statement	57:23
	that at that one moment in all history	57:26
	and in that one place on this globe,	57:30
	first century Palestine.	57:33
	The two finest legal systems of all antiquity,	57:36
	Lex Romana and Torah, two forms of Torah,	57:39
	were both in place and functioning.	57:44
	And yet the New Testament says	57:48
	that is when God's Christ came to us	57:50
	and that is when we crucified him.	57:52
	Both the establishment and the zealots,	57:57
	crushed between the two,	58:02
	identifying with neither but loving both.	58:05
	For you see, in the final analysis,	58:10
	we humans are judged and shall be judged	58:12
	not so much by God's wrath	58:15
	as by God's grace.	58:17
	Indeed, by what Luke's Paul will call	58:20
	in Acts chapter 20 the gospel and the grace of God.	58:22
	The real question scripture poses are not	58:27
	whether we can believe in the condition	58:29
	of the humans, barren or virgin,	58:32
	with which it says God has worked	58:34
	but whether we can believe that God's grace	58:37
	is sufficient to work in, through,	58:40
	and with our condition even today.	58:43
	God's resurrection of the Christ,	58:47
	God's continuing activity as creator	58:49
	cannot be horded by an "in group"	58:54
	calling themselves Christian.	58:58
	There are perhaps finally not just 13 annunciations	59:00
	in scripture.	59:05
	There may be yet another to count.	59:08
	The final and most consummate	59:11
	of all such biblical pronouncements	59:13
	was proclaimed not at Mary's conception	59:16
	but at God's conversion or resignification	59:21
	of a tomb into a womb,	59:27
	Christ's rebirth.	59:31
	God's resurrection of God's Christ	59:34
	for all the world God so much loves	59:36
	and that annunciation by the heavenly visitors	59:40
	to the women, (speaking in foreign language),	59:44
	he is not here.	59:47
	(speaking in foreign language)	59:49
	But has been raised, was the angel's annunciation	59:50
	to the women.	59:55
	That pronouncement echoes the earlier annunciations	59:56
	but now is not only for Israel as the people of God,	1:00:00
	it is for all the world to hear	1:00:03
	and those who truly believe it have become angels,	1:00:06
	God's messengers and witnesses	1:00:09
	and like these heavenly visitors of old,	1:00:14
	we must as Christians fulfill our role	1:00:17
	as messengers of hope to the world.	1:00:20
	The Lord has been raised.	1:00:24
	(speaking in foreign language)	1:00:27
	God is our continuing creator.	1:00:30
	We celebrate God's resurrection	1:00:32
	of the Christ on Easter but it's okay	1:00:34
	to celebrate it every Sunday even in lent.	1:00:36
	As Paul wrote at the beginning of his letter	1:00:41
	to the church at Rome, Christ	1:00:43
	has been designated or better according	1:00:46
	to the Greek, Christ has been	1:00:49
	(speaking in Greek),	1:00:52
	Christ has been horizoned by God in our lives,	1:00:56
	on the horizon of the life of everyone of us	1:01:01
	by God's resurrection of Jesus Christ,	1:01:05
	our Lord from the dead.	1:01:09
	It is up to us how we respond.	1:01:12
	God is long suffering and patient	1:01:16
	and that's how much God loves us.	1:01:20
	God tolerates our fear of death	1:01:23
	instead of our fear of God	1:01:28
	but has placed Christ on the horizon	1:01:32
	of each of us.	1:01:35
	Indeed, of God's world as a whole.	1:01:37
	God who set the bow in the cloud	1:01:42
	after the flood, the rainbow in the cloud	1:01:45
	after the flood.	1:01:50
	That's God's bow but for us it is no longer	1:01:50
	a rain cloud,	1:01:55
	is it?	1:01:57
	It's a cloud of a different shape	1:01:58
	and it hovers over us in the shape of a mushroom.	1:02:01
	The question of faith is whether we can believe	1:02:06
	that God's bow is in it.	1:02:12
	Paul went on to say that God has indeed horizoned	1:02:18
	God's most precious gift in power	1:02:23
	according to the spirit of holiness	1:02:27
	by the resurrection from the dead.	1:02:30
	You see, dearly beloved,	1:02:34
	despite our lack of belief,	1:02:38
	which plagues us all,	1:02:42
	the old Canaanite god of death, mote, is dead.	1:02:45
	In fact, if you really read the first testament carefully,	1:02:51
	he never existed in the first place	1:02:56
	but let us as Christians be prepared	1:02:59
	as we go through lent to proclaim	1:03:03
	with conviction, death is dead	1:03:06
	and that is the 14th annunciation.	1:03:11
	The annunciation of all annunciations.	1:03:14
	The Lord has been raised, amen and amen.	1:03:20
	(choir music)	1:03:30
-	The Lord be with you.	1:06:35
	Let us pray.	1:06:38
	Gracious God.	1:06:47
	You surprised old Sarah with announcement	1:06:51
	of new life and fresh possibility.	1:06:53
	You shocked young Mary with annunciation.	1:06:58
	Surprise us, good Lord, with your presence among us.	1:07:03
	Use us as you once used them	1:07:09
	for the accomplishment of your purpose.	1:07:13
	We come to you, oh God, because the world,	1:07:17
	beautiful as it sometimes is,	1:07:20
	does not give us all that we need.	1:07:24
	We come with many yearnings, needs of our own.	1:07:28
	We speak those deep personal prayers	1:07:34
	to no one but you.	1:07:38
	Hear us, good Lord.	1:07:41
	Show us a way when we, like Sarah,	1:07:43
	like Mary, thought there was no way.	1:07:47
	We pray for others.	1:07:52
	We pray for those who are in pain	1:07:55
	and those who are ill, particularly those	1:07:58
	in the hospitals of Duke University.	1:08:01
	We pray for those who suffer	1:08:06
	from anxiety of mind or bitterness of heart.	1:08:08
	Those who endure loss or separation from loved ones.	1:08:13
	We remember those who must make hard decisions	1:08:20
	for which there are no easy answers.	1:08:25
	We pray for those in our often unhappy world.	1:08:30
	We intercede for the people of Panama,	1:08:37
	for the people of Israel, for Palestinians,	1:08:41
	for those whom we often regard	1:08:45
	either as enemies or strangers	1:08:49
	who by your love have been made our brothers	1:08:54
	and sisters.	1:08:56
	Of how little consequence are the divisions	1:09:01
	that we have made.	1:09:08
	The walls and the dead ends which we have built	1:09:11
	when seen in the searing gaze	1:09:16
	of your great cosmic surprising initiative.	1:09:18
	In the light of your surprising love,	1:09:25
	we have dared to pray.	1:09:30
	Amen.	1:09:34
	And now, as a forgiven and reconciled people,	1:09:37
	let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	1:09:39
	(choir music)	1:09:54
	(choir music)	1:14:56
	Precious God, we give you thanks	1:21:05
	for all the blessings of this life.	1:21:07
	Take these, our gifts, as sign of our thanksgiving.	1:21:09
	Our father, who art in heaven,	1:21:14
	hallowed be thy name.	1:21:17
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done	1:21:19
	on earth as it is in heaven.	1:21:21
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:21:24
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:21:27
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	1:21:29
	and lead us not into temptation	1:21:32
	but deliver us from evil.	1:21:34
	Thine is the kingdom and the power	1:21:37
	and the glory forever, amen.	1:21:39
	(choir music)	1:21:43
	The grace of our lord and savior Jesus Christ,	1:24:00
	the love of God and the fellowship of the holy spirit	1:24:03
	be with you now and always, amen.	1:24:06
	(organ music)	1:24:21

Item Info

Title:

James A. Sanders - "Annunciations" (March 13, 1988)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 30:16. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:03:00.
Examines the structure of the 14 annunciations throughout all scripture to connect Jesus's Annunciation in Luke to Sarah and Abraham's Annunciation of Isaac. Preacher then connects these two events to what it can tell us about God in our lives today. The question therefore is not whether we can believe that Sarah was really beyond menopause and Mary really a virgin or that Christ was raised from the dead. The real questions are far more serious. Can we truly believe that God really is continuing creator as well as redeemer? At the end, his sermon concludes with announcing the resurrected Christ as the greatest annunciation of them all, and our source of hope even when it seems impossible to believe. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “The real question scripture poses are not whether we can believe in the condition of the humans, barren or virgin, with which it says God has worked but whether we can believe that God's grace is sufficient to work in, through, and with our condition even today....but let us as Christians be prepared as we go through lent to proclaim with conviction, death is dead. And that is the 14th annunciation, the annunciation of all annunciations."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r47m04f5b

Date:

March 13, 1988

Speaker:

Sanders, James A.

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0074
ref8456_j1c
uachapelsermaud
duke:321665
dcrmv001074
ark:/87924/r47m04f5b
76b1011b-864b-40e1-8659-3f08dab472d1

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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