David O. Via - "By What Authority" (June 11, 1989)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(symphony music) | 0:00 | |
- | On this first, on this fourth Sunday after Pentecost, | 2:38 |
I welcome all of you summer school students, faculty, | 2:42 | |
visitors, and regular attenders to this service of worship | 2:47 | |
at Duke University Chapel. | 2:51 | |
We also greet those viewing the service | 2:54 | |
on Durham Cable Vision, channel eight at two p.m, | 2:57 | |
and those viewing the service from the Duke area hospitals. | 3:01 | |
Today, I had an unusual privilege of sharing the leadership | 3:07 | |
of this service with my husband Dan Via. | 3:10 | |
Dan, our preacher for today, is Professor of New Testament | 3:15 | |
at Duke Divinity School. | 3:19 | |
He has just completed a book Matthew and Paul | 3:22 | |
on self-deception and wholeness. | 3:26 | |
Our elector for today is Dr. Walter Westerfer, | 3:30 | |
a great friend of Duke Chapel, and a member of the council | 3:33 | |
of the Duke University Chapel Congregation. | 3:36 | |
Notice other announcements found in the bulletin. | 3:40 | |
And now, let us continue our worship together. | 3:44 | |
(choir singing) | 3:51 | |
(organ playing) | 4:32 | |
(congregation singing) | 5:08 | |
(organ playing solo) | 6:45 | |
(congregation singing) | 7:16 | |
In our brokenness and hunger for God's mercy and forgiveness | 8:02 | |
may we now join together as we confess our sin | 8:07 | |
and receive God's pardon. | 8:11 | |
You may be seated. | 8:16 | |
Oh omnipotent God, our sin weighs heavy upon us. | 8:26 | |
Our guilt is a burden. | 8:32 | |
We neglect your world and its peoples, | 8:35 | |
lusting after privilege and place, we misuse our power. | 8:38 | |
The ground trembles with the machines of war. | 8:44 | |
Forgive, oh Lord, our sin. | 8:48 | |
Arouse in us a passion for the wellbeing of others. | 8:51 | |
May hatred give way to healing. | 8:56 | |
May reconciliation replace division so that nations | 8:59 | |
will embrace your Lordship. | 9:05 | |
Quicken our sense of your power and mercy | 9:08 | |
through Jesus Christ, child of your love, and our hope | 9:12 | |
of Salvation. | 9:17 | |
The steadfast love of God never ceases. | 9:21 | |
God's mercy and pardon never come to an end. | 9:25 | |
And so by God's grace, we are pardoned. | 9:30 | |
We are forgiven. | 9:35 | |
Let us rejoice. | 9:37 | |
- | Let us pray. | 9:48 |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God. | 9:51 | |
By the power of your Holy Spirit so that as the word | 9:55 | |
is read and proclaimed, we might hear with joy | 10:00 | |
what you say to us this day, amen. | 10:05 | |
The first lesson is taken from the first book of Kings. | 10:10 | |
Then Solomon stood before the alter of God in the presence | 10:16 | |
of all the assembly of Israel and spread forth His hands | 10:20 | |
toward heaven and said, "Oh Lord, God of Israel, | 10:25 | |
"there is no God like you in heaven above | 10:32 | |
"or on Earth beneath, keeping covenant, and showing | 10:37 | |
"steadfast love to your servants who walked before you | 10:41 | |
"with all their heart." | 10:45 | |
Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel | 10:48 | |
comes from a far country for your namesake, for they shall | 10:55 | |
hear of your great name and your mighty hand | 10:59 | |
and of your outstretched arm. | 11:03 | |
When a foreigner comes and prays towards this house, | 11:06 | |
here in heaven in your dwelling place, and do according | 11:10 | |
to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order | 11:14 | |
that all the peoples of the Earth may know your name | 11:20 | |
and fear you as do your people Israel. | 11:24 | |
And that they may know that this house which I have built | 11:30 | |
is called by your name. | 11:33 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 11:37 | |
(organ music) | 11:44 | |
(congregation singing) | 12:21 | |
The second lesson is taken from Paul's letter | 16:06 | |
to the Galatians. | 16:09 | |
Paul, an apostle, not from human beings nor through any | 16:11 | |
person, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father | 16:16 | |
who raised Christ from the dead, and all the coworkers | 16:21 | |
who are with me to the churches of Galatia, grace to you | 16:26 | |
and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ | 16:32 | |
who gave up self for our sins to deliver us from the present | 16:37 | |
evil and age according to the will of our God and Father | 16:42 | |
to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen. | 16:48 | |
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one | 16:53 | |
who called you in the grace of Christ. | 16:58 | |
And turning to a different Gospel, not that there is | 17:01 | |
another Gospel, but there are some who trouble you | 17:05 | |
and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. | 17:09 | |
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, | 17:14 | |
should preach to you a Gospel contrary to that | 17:19 | |
which we preach to you, let them be a cursed. | 17:22 | |
As we have said before, so now I say again, | 17:27 | |
if anyone is preaching to you a Gospel contrary to that | 17:33 | |
which you have received, let that be a cursed. | 17:38 | |
Am I now seeking human favor? | 17:43 | |
Or the favor of God? | 17:46 | |
Or am I trying to please human beings? | 17:49 | |
If I were still pleasing them, | 17:53 | |
I should not be a servant of Christ. | 17:56 | |
This ends the reading of the second lesson. | 18:00 | |
(organ music) | 18:04 | |
(choir singing) | 18:34 | |
- | Good morning. | 21:10 |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, | 21:12 | |
Jesus Christ. | 21:15 | |
Please hear the Gospel lesson, composed of two texts | 21:18 | |
from the Gospel of Luke. | 21:23 | |
After he had ended all his sayings in the hearing | 21:26 | |
of the people, he entered Copernium. | 21:29 | |
Now a Centurion had a slave that was dear to him | 21:32 | |
who was sick and at the point of death. | 21:36 | |
When he heard of Jesus, he said to him elders of the Jews, | 21:39 | |
asking him to come and heal his slaves. | 21:42 | |
And when they came to Jesus, they besought him earnestly | 21:45 | |
saying he is worthy to have you do this for him, | 21:48 | |
for he loves our nation and built our synagogue. | 21:51 | |
And Jesus went with them. | 21:55 | |
When he was not far from the house, the Centurions sent | 21:57 | |
friends to him saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself | 22:00 | |
"for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. | 22:04 | |
"Therefore, I did not presume to come to you but say | 22:08 | |
"the word and let my servant be healed, | 22:12 | |
"for I am a man set under authority with soldiers under me | 22:16 | |
"and I say to one, go and he goes and to another | 22:21 | |
"come and he comes and to my slave do this and he does it." | 22:25 | |
When Jesus heard this, he marveled at him and turned | 22:31 | |
and said to the multitudes that followed him, | 22:34 | |
"I tell you not even in Israel have I found such faith." | 22:36 | |
And when those who had been sent returned to the house, | 22:41 | |
they found the slave well. | 22:45 | |
One day as he was teaching the people in the temple | 22:49 | |
and preaching the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes | 22:52 | |
and the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us by what | 22:55 | |
"authority you do these things, or who is it that gave you | 22:59 | |
"this authority." | 23:02 | |
He answered them, "I will ask you a question. | 23:04 | |
"Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven | 23:06 | |
"or from men?" | 23:11 | |
And they discussed it with one another saying | 23:13 | |
if we say from heaven, he will say why did you not | 23:16 | |
believe him? | 23:18 | |
But if we say from men, all the people will stone us | 23:20 | |
for they are convinced that John was a prophet. | 23:24 | |
So they answered that they did not know whence it was. | 23:27 | |
And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you | 23:30 | |
"by what authority I do these things." | 23:34 | |
This is the Word of God. | 23:37 | |
Listen again to the Centurion's petition to Jesus. | 23:41 | |
Say the word, and my servant is to be healed for I am a man | 23:45 | |
under authority and my word has authority. | 23:50 | |
I tell a soldier to go and he goes, I tell him to come | 23:53 | |
and he comes, and then there the words of Jesus' opponents | 23:56 | |
to him, tell us by what authority you do these things. | 24:01 | |
And finally, Jesus reply, I will not tell you by what | 24:05 | |
authority I do these things. | 24:09 | |
Our theme then is authority. | 24:12 | |
Let us say provisionally that authority is the right | 24:14 | |
to make a claim upon someone, but it is also the capacity | 24:18 | |
to carry out that claim. | 24:23 | |
It is closely associated with power and the ability to act. | 24:25 | |
So authority involves right to make a claim and power. | 24:31 | |
Now what is our experience of authority and how does | 24:36 | |
the Gospel in these texts challenge and transform | 24:40 | |
our relationships to authority? | 24:45 | |
How do we, in fact, experience authority in our | 24:48 | |
historical situation? | 24:52 | |
Nicholas Robichaud, ex-commissurae of the people, | 24:55 | |
is in prison, charged with counter-revolutionary activity | 24:59 | |
and other crimes against the party. | 25:04 | |
There in prison he remembers his words of some years back | 25:06 | |
to a young German communist who had questioned party policy. | 25:11 | |
Says Robichaud, the party makes no mistakes. | 25:15 | |
It has discovered the unairing laws of history, | 25:19 | |
and it embodies these revolutionary laws. | 25:23 | |
Therefore the party can never be mistaken. | 25:26 | |
It cares not about the conscious or the motive | 25:30 | |
of the individual. | 25:33 | |
What goes on in her individual heart or head is of no | 25:35 | |
importance what so ever. | 25:39 | |
Robichaud recognized that his past, his presence, | 25:41 | |
and his future belonged absolutely to the party. | 25:44 | |
It was not to be questioned. | 25:48 | |
The unairing movement of the party justified any action. | 25:50 | |
This comes from the fictitious world, but true, | 25:56 | |
of Arthur Kessler. | 26:00 | |
A public figure in our own recent history charged with lying | 26:03 | |
to Congress and related offenses justified his actions | 26:08 | |
by stating he was always following orders. | 26:12 | |
And we should remind ourselves that this defense was also | 26:15 | |
used by many Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. | 26:18 | |
Colonel North probably does not believe that lying | 26:22 | |
is acceptable moral behavior. | 26:26 | |
But apparently he believes that there are authorities | 26:28 | |
who have the right to require him to go against | 26:31 | |
his conscious, the right to claim absolute obedience | 26:34 | |
from him. | 26:37 | |
I do not chose these examples because they reveal to us | 26:40 | |
the worst possible people we can possibly imagine. | 26:43 | |
I would not want to say that we should think of Russia | 26:47 | |
as the evil empire or that communism has produced | 26:49 | |
the most demonic societies of the world has ever known. | 26:53 | |
Nor do I suggest that Colonel North is the most corrupt | 26:56 | |
liar in American public light, there are many others | 26:59 | |
to chose from. | 27:02 | |
I rather cite these cases because the extreme behavior | 27:06 | |
exhibited by ex-connoisseur Robichaud and Colonel North, | 27:11 | |
this behavior dramatically discloses a tendency | 27:15 | |
in all of us. | 27:18 | |
It may be concealed a bit beneath the surface | 27:20 | |
but we all want to think that there are infallible | 27:23 | |
human authorities which have a right to our unwavering | 27:26 | |
obedience. | 27:31 | |
If there are such authorities, then we are relieved | 27:32 | |
of the responsibility for our own lives and actions. | 27:35 | |
In our time there are human authorities which claim | 27:39 | |
infallibility and demand our total allegiance, | 27:42 | |
and there are countless people who are willing to accede | 27:46 | |
to this claim. | 27:48 | |
And, in our society, in a quite contradictory way, | 27:51 | |
there is the denial that there is any real authority at all. | 27:57 | |
There is no authority with a legitimate claim upon us. | 28:01 | |
The book Habits of the Heart reminds us that | 28:05 | |
American culture has long taught us to leave home | 28:07 | |
and become independent. | 28:11 | |
We want to throw off the authority of home, religion, | 28:13 | |
vocation, and seek only inner validation. | 28:16 | |
External obligation from any source can only interfere | 28:21 | |
with our need to become individual selves, | 28:25 | |
particularly the psycho-therapeutic attitude of our time | 28:29 | |
encourages us to think that we ought to live independently | 28:32 | |
of anyone else's standards. | 28:36 | |
The liberated relationship does not demand obligation | 28:38 | |
or commitment but only the requirement | 28:43 | |
to share feelings openly. | 28:46 | |
A university professor reports that when he asks his student | 28:50 | |
who their heroes are, he is generally greeted by silence. | 28:53 | |
They don't have any heroes. | 28:57 | |
They can't even think of one. | 28:59 | |
Why should their lives be shaped | 29:01 | |
by the values of someone else? | 29:03 | |
The point that I want to make is not that we should | 29:06 | |
necessarily have heroes or engage in hero worship, | 29:08 | |
that can be poisonous. | 29:11 | |
But is it the case that we do not need to have our lives | 29:13 | |
fashioned and shaped by anything outside of ourselves? | 29:17 | |
It seems that within our common humanity, | 29:23 | |
there are people who bestow absolute authority | 29:28 | |
upon human beings and institutions, | 29:30 | |
and there are people who acknowledge no authority at all. | 29:33 | |
Are there two kinds of people? | 29:36 | |
I don't really think so. | 29:38 | |
All of us in one way or another make both of these moves | 29:41 | |
simultaneously, all of us want to reject authority, | 29:45 | |
including the authority of God, and all of us, though we may | 29:49 | |
not quite know it, pay inordinate allegiance to some | 29:53 | |
human authority or authorities, and these human authorities | 29:57 | |
manipulate our lives. | 30:01 | |
Most of us are not as clear-headed as was ex-connoisseur | 30:02 | |
Robichaud about our unlimited loyalty to something | 30:07 | |
less than God. | 30:11 | |
Is there an authority which really is power | 30:15 | |
but which does not simply over power us? | 30:18 | |
Yes there is: | 30:22 | |
The authority of God. | 30:24 | |
God's authority is different from that of human beings. | 30:26 | |
When human authority is left to its own devices, | 30:29 | |
it becomes compelling force. | 30:33 | |
It becomes ex-connoisseur Robichaud's communist party, | 30:36 | |
which rolls unerringly and inextricably on its course | 30:40 | |
crushing the will, the conscious, the thought, the feeling | 30:44 | |
of the individual. | 30:47 | |
It becomes the source of the orders to Colonel North, | 30:49 | |
which required him to lie against his conscious. | 30:53 | |
It becomes the religious claim that books written | 30:57 | |
by human beings or other human beings are infallible | 31:00 | |
authorities. | 31:05 | |
But the authority of God does not work like that. | 31:07 | |
How then does it engage us? | 31:10 | |
The divine authority appeals to our inner reality | 31:13 | |
and on the basis of its own content. | 31:18 | |
The authority of God as it comes to expression in Jesus | 31:21 | |
is real authority. | 31:24 | |
It has power to make things happen. | 31:26 | |
The divine authority, however, does not compel us | 31:29 | |
like an outside force. | 31:32 | |
Rather, it lays claim on our hearts because of its inherent | 31:34 | |
and its intrinsic content. | 31:39 | |
It does not compel, but elicits or draws forth | 31:41 | |
our consent. | 31:46 | |
The good news is that the divine authority engages us | 31:48 | |
in the mission of Jesus in such a way that it touches us | 31:53 | |
from within and then liberates and refashions our lives. | 31:57 | |
The authority of God addresses our understanding | 32:02 | |
and does not overwhelm us but enables us to be free. | 32:06 | |
Freely responsive in relationship to God. | 32:10 | |
And the authority of God is effective power, | 32:14 | |
which liberates us from slavery and enables us to cope | 32:18 | |
fruitfully with the realities of life. | 32:21 | |
Let us see how these two dimensions of authority come | 32:25 | |
to expression in the gospel texts. | 32:27 | |
The divine authority really is power. | 32:30 | |
It does not overpower us. | 32:33 | |
Luke's story of the healing of the Centurion servant | 32:38 | |
occurs in the second half of his account of Jesus' mission | 32:41 | |
in Galilee. | 32:44 | |
It shares with neighboring material an interest in how | 32:45 | |
to hear the word of God properly. | 32:48 | |
Jesus is certainly represented here as powerful. | 32:51 | |
His word is effective. | 32:54 | |
And the Centurion knows that his own word has authority | 32:56 | |
It has consequences. | 33:00 | |
If he tells a soldier to go or to come, he does it. | 33:02 | |
Jesus' word has similar authority, only more so. | 33:06 | |
Just say the word and my servant is to be healed. | 33:11 | |
The story, in fact, enhances the power of Jesus | 33:16 | |
by the fact that the servant who is healed is not even | 33:20 | |
in Jesus' presence. His word was effective at a distance. | 33:22 | |
But there is a counter-melody playing itself out | 33:28 | |
in this story which moderates the emphasis on Jesus' power. | 33:31 | |
The Centurion has a creative role. | 33:35 | |
He makes a comparative judgment. | 33:38 | |
Jesus' authority is somehow like his. | 33:40 | |
And this counter-melody causes the story as told by Luke | 33:44 | |
to modify the conventional way in which miracle stories | 33:48 | |
were usually told. | 33:51 | |
What is normally the center of the story, | 33:53 | |
the healing itself, the enactment of power, | 33:56 | |
the center is not narrated at all. | 33:59 | |
It is simply stated at the end that the friends | 34:02 | |
of the Centurion, when they returned home, | 34:05 | |
found the servant well. | 34:08 | |
All of the interest in the story focuses on the attitude | 34:11 | |
of the Centurion. | 34:14 | |
Actually, our narrative interweaves two human problems: | 34:17 | |
two oppressive boundaries that need to be crossed. | 34:21 | |
The servant is separated from health and the Centurion, | 34:26 | |
because he is a Gentile, is separated from Jesus. | 34:29 | |
And although the healing is not finally described, | 34:33 | |
and the Centurion never gets into the presence of Jesus, | 34:37 | |
Jesus commends the faith, the faith of this Gentile | 34:41 | |
army officer as having exceed that that he has found | 34:43 | |
anywhere in Israel. | 34:47 | |
Our miracle story has relatively little interest | 34:49 | |
in the actual miracle, in the healing. | 34:52 | |
But it is very much interested in the faith that gives us | 34:55 | |
access to the healing power of God. | 34:59 | |
To have faith is to understand that it is the authoritative | 35:03 | |
word of Jesus that restructures our reality. | 35:06 | |
Say the word and my servant is to be healed. | 35:10 | |
It is the interaction between word and faith | 35:14 | |
which empowers us to cross the boundaries that oppress us. | 35:18 | |
What does it mean finally to believe in miracles? | 35:23 | |
Is belief in miracles simply an illusion, | 35:27 | |
wishful thinking, | 35:29 | |
a desire for the instantaneous gratification of our wishes, | 35:31 | |
a regression into infantile mentality? | 35:36 | |
Possibly faith in miracle is this. | 35:40 | |
Therefore, to believe otherwise is to take the risk | 35:44 | |
that faith always entails. | 35:47 | |
Or is faith believing that the historical Jesus really did | 35:50 | |
work miracles? | 35:54 | |
Did Jesus heal a Centurion servant? | 35:55 | |
Possibly. | 35:58 | |
Was healing the kind of thing that Jesus was able to do? | 36:00 | |
Probably. | 36:04 | |
Most critical New Testament scholars would agree to this. | 36:05 | |
But, what living relationship do we have to such | 36:08 | |
miraculous events? | 36:12 | |
They belong to the distant past. | 36:14 | |
What is accessible now and may intervene in our lives | 36:17 | |
is the miracle story. | 36:21 | |
The word about miracle in and through which | 36:23 | |
God's transforming power occurs for us. | 36:26 | |
We are in the same kind of situation as the Centurion. | 36:30 | |
The authoritative healing word of Jesus in the story | 36:35 | |
has now become the story itself as authoritative healing | 36:40 | |
word for us. | 36:45 | |
To have faith is to understand the power of this word, | 36:47 | |
this story, and to have our life situation reshaped by it. | 36:51 | |
In miracle stories, the everyday world becomes transparent | 36:57 | |
to the divine presence. | 37:02 | |
We are able to see through the world to God by means | 37:04 | |
of the story. | 37:08 | |
The stories enable us to see that ordinary reality | 37:10 | |
contains a great deal more than the ordinary. | 37:14 | |
When we see the world through the lens of miracle story, | 37:17 | |
the divine activity becomes present for us. | 37:21 | |
By means of the story, reality is given a new structure. | 37:24 | |
How should I understand this event? | 37:30 | |
Several years ago, Margaret and I returned to a town | 37:33 | |
in which we had once lived. | 37:36 | |
As we drove into town, we were discussing how we would meet | 37:38 | |
after lunch and share the car. | 37:41 | |
I said I thought I would go to see a certain friend | 37:43 | |
and she agreed to meet me there after lunch. | 37:46 | |
This person had been a good friend, but I had not seen him | 37:49 | |
for awhile, and usually did not go to see him | 37:52 | |
when I returned to town. | 37:56 | |
Why did I decide to go that day? | 37:58 | |
Margaret and I met after lunch, | 38:01 | |
I knocked on his office door. | 38:04 | |
When he opened the door and saw who was there, | 38:06 | |
amazement spread over his face. | 38:08 | |
He said, "I have had some very troubling things on my mind | 38:13 | |
"lately, and I needed to talk to you today." | 38:16 | |
What took us there contrary to our accustomed behavior? | 38:21 | |
When we moderns, or should I say post-moderns | 38:26 | |
look at the world through miracle story, we do not stop | 38:30 | |
believing that this worldly causal forces operate | 38:35 | |
in nature and history. | 38:39 | |
But we also believe that there is another dimension | 38:42 | |
of reality and power which works from beyond, in, | 38:45 | |
and through the ordinary things of this world. | 38:49 | |
Our second Gospel text extends the meaning of Jesus' | 38:55 | |
authority and the role of our faith | 38:59 | |
in making that authority a reality. | 39:02 | |
The religious officials questioned Jesus about who gave Him | 39:05 | |
the authority to ride in to Jerusalem like a king | 39:08 | |
and to throw the merchants out of the temple? | 39:10 | |
And now to be standing in the temple himself teaching? | 39:12 | |
By what authority? | 39:16 | |
He answers with a counter-question. | 39:18 | |
Was the baptism of John the Baptist from heaven | 39:20 | |
or from human kind? | 39:24 | |
They decide that either answer will get them in trouble | 39:25 | |
and so they reply we don't know. | 39:29 | |
And the story ends dramatically with Jesus' response, | 39:32 | |
Jesus' proclamation: Then I won't tell you by what authority | 39:35 | |
I do these things. | 39:40 | |
Why did Jesus not just say God gave me the authority? | 39:43 | |
Why did He have to make it so difficult for them? | 39:46 | |
Why did He not just give them a straight forward answer? | 39:48 | |
They asked Him a question about His authority | 39:51 | |
and He answered with a question about John the Baptist. | 39:54 | |
You ask a question and you get another question. | 39:57 | |
What is the source of Jesus authority? | 40:01 | |
He won't say. | 40:03 | |
And His refusal tells us something important. | 40:05 | |
When He declined to say God is the source of my authority, | 40:08 | |
he was disclosing something about the nature of God's | 40:13 | |
authority and about the nature of faith. | 40:16 | |
The authority of God in Jesus is always hidden. | 40:18 | |
Concealed, hidden, so that it can win the uncoerced | 40:22 | |
assent of our hearts. | 40:28 | |
The assent which knows that its intrinsic claims are right. | 40:30 | |
Jesus came with a message that God loves us unconditionally | 40:36 | |
and demands everything of us in the way of obedience. | 40:40 | |
And Jesus actualized this message in His own life. | 40:44 | |
If He had said, God is my authority, | 40:48 | |
He would not have added anything to the internal, | 40:51 | |
self-authenticating, intrinsic power already present | 40:54 | |
in His mission. | 40:58 | |
God was already present and active in His words and deeds. | 41:00 | |
God is not a power which lies underneath, or outside, | 41:04 | |
of Jesus' mission and guarantees the authenticity of it. | 41:08 | |
Rather, God is the expression for the authority which Jesus | 41:12 | |
mission has in itself. | 41:15 | |
Jesus is not going to authorize His mission by saying God | 41:18 | |
gave me the authority, because we have to see for ourselves | 41:22 | |
that God is the authority, transcendent but present | 41:27 | |
as hidden, in the mission of Jesus. | 41:31 | |
To see this hidden presence is faith, and to experience | 41:35 | |
the authority of God hidden in the real humanity of Jesus, | 41:39 | |
is to see the world in a new way. | 41:43 | |
There is a story by Flannery O'Conner. | 41:49 | |
She said it was her favorite, and she called it | 41:52 | |
The Artificial Nigger. | 41:55 | |
I'm sure you understand that that is not my term | 41:57 | |
and neither was it Flannery O'Conner's. | 42:00 | |
It is a term which is appropriate to the setting | 42:02 | |
and the characters of the story. | 42:05 | |
This is the story of a man who experienced the authority | 42:08 | |
of God hidden in an unexpected place as it was hidden | 42:11 | |
in Jesus. | 42:16 | |
Mr. Head is a proud and bigoted man who lives in rural | 42:19 | |
Georgia with his equally proud and impudent grandson Nelson. | 42:24 | |
And they live in the state of mutual hostility. | 42:29 | |
Mr. Head is taking Nelson to Atlanta to teach him a lesson. | 42:32 | |
To teach him that he's not as smart as he thinks he is. | 42:35 | |
In Atlanta, they see lots of black people | 42:38 | |
who both unnerve them and evoke Mr. Head's bigotry. | 42:41 | |
They've become lost and frightened. | 42:45 | |
Then Nelson puts Mr. Head in an embarrassing and threatening | 42:48 | |
position and Mr. Head in his fear denies that he even knows | 42:53 | |
his grandson. | 42:58 | |
Nelson is shocked and offended. | 43:00 | |
While Mr. Head was then remorseful and tormented, | 43:04 | |
Nelson was relentlessly unforgiving. | 43:07 | |
Mr. Head, in his guilt, believed now that he he knew | 43:10 | |
what it would feel like to be dammed eternally. | 43:13 | |
They wandered in their lostness into an elegant neighborhood | 43:17 | |
where they saw in someone's front yard a small, chipped, | 43:20 | |
defaced, plaster figure of a black man. | 43:26 | |
Standing before this figure together, | 43:30 | |
somehow their differences dissolved | 43:33 | |
and Mr. Head knew the mercy of God for the first time | 43:35 | |
in his life. | 43:39 | |
Still he said, they don't have enough real ones here, | 43:40 | |
they've got to have an artificial one. | 43:43 | |
But something has happened. | 43:46 | |
Back at home, he both judges himself | 43:48 | |
and feels the overflowing mercy of God, | 43:52 | |
forgiving him for sinning the sin of Adam | 43:55 | |
in his denial of Nelson. | 43:58 | |
All of this happened in consequence of his encounter | 44:01 | |
with the defaced plaster figure of a small black man. | 44:05 | |
It must have been the authority of God which met him there, | 44:10 | |
otherwise how could he have been redeemed from having sinned | 44:14 | |
all the sins of the whole human race | 44:18 | |
in his denial of his grandson. | 44:20 | |
And the authority of God must have been hidden | 44:23 | |
because his normal way of viewing reality would never | 44:26 | |
have permitted him to see Salvation at this point. | 44:30 | |
And the consent of his own heart must have been elicited | 44:35 | |
for only the new eyes of faith could have let a white | 44:39 | |
backwoods bigot see the forgiving face of Jesus | 44:44 | |
in the disfigured image of a small black man. | 44:49 | |
That is Mr. Head's story. | 44:54 | |
Recall from our text that a Gentile Army officer found | 44:57 | |
authoritative healing power in the word of an intenerate | 45:02 | |
Jewish preacher. | 45:06 | |
That's the Centurion's story. | 45:08 | |
What's your story? | 45:11 | |
(congregation rustling) | 45:16 | |
(piano music) | 45:20 | |
(organ music) | 45:29 | |
(congregation singing) | 45:51 | |
- | The Lord be with you... | 48:47 |
Congregation | And always be with you. | 48:50 |
- | Let us pray. | 48:51 |
Oh Mighty God, whose hiddenness confounds us and whose mercy | 49:01 | |
is blessedness, how unsearchable are your ways, | 49:06 | |
oh incomprehensible and infinite God. | 49:12 | |
How vast is your loving kindness. | 49:16 | |
You make glad the hearts of the desperate. | 49:19 | |
You lift the heads of the bleeding as their voices | 49:22 | |
cry out to you. | 49:26 | |
You make straight the twisted spirits and crippled bodies | 49:28 | |
of the crushed. | 49:32 | |
You bring to our complicated, trying relationships | 49:34 | |
understanding and healing. | 49:39 | |
Oh compassionate God, we offer our prayers for those among | 49:42 | |
us and in the world around us. | 49:47 | |
For those who are desensitized by affluence and those | 49:50 | |
who are trapped in poverty, for the two powerful | 49:54 | |
and for the two powerless. | 49:59 | |
For those who are insensitive for the needs of the sick | 50:02 | |
and the suffering and for the sick who cannot reach beyond | 50:05 | |
their own needs. | 50:10 | |
For those who prized possessions too much. | 50:13 | |
And for those who are blind to the joy of accepting | 50:16 | |
God's gifts. | 50:20 | |
For those who because of their knowledge have lost | 50:22 | |
the ability to see the wonder of simple things. | 50:25 | |
For those who are afraid to voice openly their doubts | 50:30 | |
and fears of uncertainty to you. | 50:34 | |
May all of humanity join in affirming the power of your | 50:38 | |
love, your presence, and your mercy. | 50:42 | |
Oh redeeming God, you have gathered the Church of Christ | 50:46 | |
from the whole world. | 50:50 | |
Support her, that she may everywhere bear faithful witness. | 50:52 | |
Bless your church with leaders who both think and feel, | 50:59 | |
with pastors who love their people, | 51:03 | |
and you more than they love themselves. | 51:06 | |
With theologians who attempt to balance faith and reason, | 51:11 | |
with members whose devotion to you is ever growing. | 51:15 | |
Oh God who governs the world in your love, | 51:21 | |
we commend to you our nation, and all the nations | 51:24 | |
of the Earth. | 51:28 | |
Grant that the councils of government may banish suspicion, | 51:30 | |
mistrust, fear, and hatred, and embrace your paths | 51:34 | |
which lead to peace, justice, and goodwill for all. | 51:40 | |
Especially we pray for those who's thrust towards freedom | 51:46 | |
in China have meet with cruelty, suffering, and death. | 51:51 | |
May temporary defeat not lead them to despair, | 51:56 | |
but rather be a springboard to greater triumph | 51:59 | |
in the future. | 52:03 | |
Help us to remember that the kingdoms of this world | 52:05 | |
will become the kingdom of your righteousness where all | 52:09 | |
people will be united by the one who is our peace, | 52:12 | |
Christ Jesus our Lord, aman. | 52:19 | |
Great is the need of the world around us, now let us | 52:27 | |
respond to that challenge of need with the greatest | 52:31 | |
of generosities so that even our lives will be changed | 52:35 | |
in the act of giving. | 52:40 | |
(organ music) | 52:45 | |
♪ Gloria, gloria ♪ | 54:29 | |
♪ Gloria, gloria ♪ | 54:33 | |
♪ In excelsis deo ♪ | 54:37 | |
♪ In excelsis deo ♪ | 54:45 | |
♪ Gloria gloria ♪ | 54:52 | |
♪ Gloria, gloria ♪ | 54:56 | |
♪ In excelsis deo ♪ | 55:01 | |
♪ Gloria, Gloria ♪ | 55:12 | |
♪ In excelsis deo ♪ | 55:17 | |
♪ Gloria in excelsis ♪ | 55:38 | |
♪ Gloria in excelsis deo ♪ | 55:42 | |
♪ Gloria in excelsis deo ♪ | 55:50 | |
♪ In excelsis ♪ | 56:03 | |
♪ Gloria, in excelsis deo ♪ | 56:16 | |
(organ music) | 56:25 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 57:13 | |
♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪ | 57:19 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:25 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:28 | |
♪ Praise God above, ye heavenly host ♪ | 57:32 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! ♪ | 57:39 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:45 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:48 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:51 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:54 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:57 | |
♪ Praise God ♪ | 58:05 | |
In praise and thanksgiving our eternal God, we bow before | 58:17 | |
your sovereign majesty in humility and awe. | 58:22 | |
You are great and greatly to be praised, marvelous | 58:27 | |
is your power and your wisdom is infinite. | 58:31 | |
Wonderful are your works in creation and redemption. | 58:35 | |
In and of ourselves oh gracious God, we are fragmented | 58:41 | |
and our gifts are only partial. | 58:45 | |
But in you, our gifts and ourselves are made whole. | 58:47 | |
Before this alter we remember the poor, the hungry, | 58:53 | |
the neglected. | 58:57 | |
Receive our gifts who reflect who we are who we will become | 58:58 | |
in your Kingdom, and give these offerings wings | 59:04 | |
to bring hope to our weary world. | 59:08 | |
In the name of the one who taught us to pray saying-- | 59:11 | |
Congregation | Our Father, who art in heaven, | 59:16 |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 59:19 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 59:25 | |
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us | 59:27 | |
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 59:31 | |
and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. | 59:36 | |
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory | 59:41 | |
forever and ever, amen. | 59:45 | |
(organ music) | 59:50 | |
(congregation and choir singing) | 1:00:35 | |
And now may the strong and gentle Spirit of God | 1:03:04 | |
who speaks to us in many wondrous ways empower us now | 1:03:08 | |
and throughout the week to stand courageously | 1:03:14 | |
in the thick of life, to see Christ's love in every face | 1:03:17 | |
and in every hand that reaches out and touches us. | 1:03:22 | |
Until, by the Grace of God, we see Christ face to face. | 1:03:27 | |
Amen. | 1:03:34 | |
(choir singing) | 1:03:37 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:39 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:43 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:04:00 | |
(organ music) | 1:04:13 |