William H. Willimon - "The Distance of God" (August 26, 1990)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(robust organ music) | 0:29 | |
- | Good morning and welcome to this orientation | 2:10 |
Sunday here at Duke University's chapel. | 2:14 | |
We particularly welcome our new students, | 2:17 | |
our freshmen family, the Duke University football team, | 2:21 | |
and their coaches. | 2:26 | |
It's a tradition for the football team to come | 2:27 | |
on this Sunday and we welcome you here at the Chapel. | 2:30 | |
Reminder if you're a new student that can sing, | 2:34 | |
our Chapel choir auditions are being held the next | 2:38 | |
couple of weeks and we'd like to have you in the choir. | 2:42 | |
Also, in your bulletin, there is an interest sheet | 2:45 | |
that we would like you to fill out and indicate ways | 2:49 | |
you'd like to serve here at the Chapel. | 2:52 | |
After the services today, lemonade will be served | 2:55 | |
for everyone out on the Chapel walkway. | 2:59 | |
We invite you to spend time in fellowship. | 3:03 | |
Now if you'd join me in the prelude. | 3:06 | |
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 3:11 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 3:14 |
- | The risen Christ is with us. | 3:16 |
Congregation | Praise the Lord. | 3:17 |
♪ Praise the Lord, O my soul, ♪ | 3:26 | |
♪ And never ceasing praise his Holy Name. ♪ | 3:32 | |
(trumpet fanfare) | 3:49 | |
(organ) | 4:06 | |
♪ Rejoice, the Lord is King, ♪ | 4:43 | |
♪ The Lord and King adore ♪ | 4:48 | |
♪ Rejoice, give thanks and sing, ♪ | 4:53 | |
♪ And triumph evermore. ♪ | 4:57 | |
♪ Lift up your heart, ♪ | 5:03 | |
♪ Lift up your voice! ♪ | 5:09 | |
♪ Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! ♪ | 5:11 | |
♪ Jesus, the Savior, reigns, ♪ | 5:22 | |
♪ The God of truth and love; ♪ | 5:27 | |
♪ When He has purged our stains, ♪ | 5:32 | |
♪ He took his seat above; ♪ | 5:36 | |
♪ Lift up your heart, ♪ | 5:43 | |
♪ Lift up your voice! ♪ | 5:48 | |
♪ Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! ♪ | 5:51 | |
♪ His kingdom cannot fail, ♪ | 6:02 | |
♪ He rules o'er earth and heav'n; ♪ | 6:07 | |
♪ The keys of death and hell ♪ | 6:13 | |
♪ Are to our Jesus giv'n: ♪ | 6:17 | |
♪ Lift up your heart, ♪ | 6:24 | |
♪ Lift up your voice! ♪ | 6:29 | |
♪ Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! ♪ | 6:31 | |
(organ interlude) | 6:57 | |
♪ Rejoice in glorious hope! ♪ | 7:26 | |
♪ Jesus the Judge shall come, ♪ | 7:31 | |
♪ and take his servants up ♪ | 7:36 | |
♪ to their eternal home. ♪ | 7:39 | |
♪ We soon shall hear ♪ | 7:47 | |
♪ th'archangel's voice; the trump of God ♪ | 7:51 | |
♪ shall sound, rejoice! ♪ | 7:57 | |
(jubilant trumpet fanfare) | 8:05 | |
- | Let us pray. | 8:38 |
Open our hearts and minds O God, | 8:41 | |
by the power of your Holy Spirit, | 8:44 | |
so that as the Word is read | 8:47 | |
and proclaimed, | 8:49 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 8:51 | |
Amen. | 8:55 | |
The first reading is taken from the Book of Exodus. | 8:58 | |
From the wilderness of Sin, the whole congregation | 9:02 | |
of the Israelites journeyed by stages, | 9:06 | |
as the Lord commanded. | 9:09 | |
They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water | 9:11 | |
for the people to drink. | 9:15 | |
The people quarreled with Moses, and said, | 9:17 | |
"Give us water to drink." | 9:20 | |
Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? | 9:24 | |
Why do you test the Lord?" | 9:28 | |
But the people thirsted there for water; | 9:31 | |
and the people complained against Moses and said, | 9:34 | |
"Why did you bring us out of Egypt, | 9:37 | |
to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" | 9:40 | |
So Moses cried out to the Lord, | 9:47 | |
"What shall I do with this people? | 9:50 | |
They are almost ready to stone me." | 9:53 | |
The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, | 9:56 | |
and take some of the elders of Israel with you; | 10:01 | |
take in your hand the staff with which | 10:06 | |
you struck the Nile, and go. | 10:08 | |
I will be standing there in front of you | 10:11 | |
on the rock at Horeb. | 10:13 | |
Strike the rock, and water will come of it, | 10:16 | |
and the people may drink." | 10:19 | |
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. | 10:23 | |
He called the place Massah and Meribah, | 10:28 | |
because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, | 10:32 | |
saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" | 10:35 | |
This is the Word of the Lord. | 10:41 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 10:44 |
- | Please stand as we join together in singing | 10:50 |
responsively Psalm 95, found on page 814 in your hymnals. | 10:52 | |
♪ O come, let us sing to the Lord, ♪ | 11:07 | |
♪ Let us sing a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. ♪ | 11:11 | |
♪ Let us come into God's presence with thanksgiving. ♪ | 11:18 | |
♪ Let us make a joyful noise with songs of praise. ♪ | 11:23 | |
♪ For the Lord is our great God, ♪ | 11:29 | |
♪ and a great ruler above all Gods, ♪ | 11:32 | |
♪ In whose hands are the depths of the earth, ♪ | 11:36 | |
♪ And also the heights of the mountains. ♪ | 11:40 | |
♪ The sea belongs to God who made it, ♪ | 11:45 | |
♪ And the dry land he also made. ♪ | 11:49 | |
♪ O come, let us worship and bow down. ♪ | 11:55 | |
♪ Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. ♪ | 11:59 | |
♪ For the Lord is our God, ♪ | 12:04 | |
♪ We are the people of His pasture, ♪ | 12:08 | |
♪ And the sheep of God's hand. ♪ | 12:11 | |
♪ Hear the voice of the Lord today, ♪ | 12:15 | |
♪ Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, ♪ | 12:19 | |
♪ As on the day at Massah in the wilderness, ♪ | 12:22 | |
♪ When your forbearers tested me, ♪ | 12:27 | |
♪ And put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. ♪ | 12:31 | |
♪ For forty years I loathed that generation, ♪ | 12:37 | |
♪ And said, "They are a hard people in their hearts, ♪ | 12:42 | |
♪ And they do not regard my ways. ♪ | 12:46 | |
♪ Therefore I swear in my anger, ♪ | 12:51 | |
♪ "They shall not enter my rest." ♪ | 12:56 | |
(organ) | 13:02 | |
♪ Glory be to our creator ♪ | 13:12 | |
♪ Praise to our redeemer lord ♪ | 13:19 | |
♪ Glory be to our sustainer ♪ | 13:26 | |
♪ Ever free and ever Lord. ♪ | 13:34 | |
♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 13:42 | |
♪ Now and evermore shall be. ♪ | 13:49 | |
- | The second lesson comes from Paul's letter to the Romans. | 14:09 |
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! | 14:15 | |
How unsearchable are his judgments | 14:20 | |
and how inscrutable his ways! | 14:23 | |
For who has known the mind of the Lord? | 14:27 | |
Or who has been his counselor? | 14:29 | |
Or who has given a gift to him, | 14:33 | |
to receive a gift in return? | 14:36 | |
For from him and through him and to him are all things. | 14:39 | |
To him be the glory forever. | 14:45 | |
Amen. | 14:48 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 14:50 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 14:53 |
(trumpet and organ) | 15:14 | |
♪ Upon this rock I will build my church, ♪ | 15:27 | |
♪ And the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. ♪ | 15:32 | |
♪ Upon this rock I will build my church, ♪ | 15:47 | |
♪ And the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. ♪ | 15:52 | |
♪ I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. ♪ | 16:01 | |
♪ And what so ever thou shall bind on earth, ♪ | 16:10 | |
♪ Shall be bound in Heaven, ♪ | 16:16 | |
♪ And what so ever thou shalt loose here on earth ♪ | 16:22 | |
♪ Shall be loose in Heaven. ♪ | 16:27 | |
♪ Upon this rock I will build my church. ♪ | 16:35 | |
♪ Low the winter is blessed, ♪ | 16:50 | |
♪ The waiting is over, ♪ | 16:56 | |
♪ The waiting is over, ♪ | 17:00 | |
♪ The flowers appear on the earth ♪ | 17:03 | |
♪ The time of the singing of birds has come. ♪ | 17:10 | |
♪ Our God has come awake ♪ | 17:22 | |
♪ Our God has come awake ♪ | 17:26 | |
♪ Our God has come, Our God. ♪ | 17:31 | |
♪ Upon this rock I will build my church, ♪ | 17:37 | |
♪ And the gates of Hell, the gates of Hell, ♪ | 17:42 | |
♪ will not prevail against it. ♪ | 17:47 | |
♪ Our church's one foundation ♪ | 18:05 | |
♪ is Jesus Christ her Lord ♪ | 18:11 | |
♪ She is his new creation ♪ | 18:16 | |
♪ by water and the Word. ♪ | 18:23 | |
♪ From heav'n he came and sought her ♪ | 18:28 | |
♪ to be His holy bride, ♪ | 18:34 | |
♪ With his own blood he bought her, ♪ | 18:40 | |
♪ and for her life he died. ♪ | 18:46 | |
♪ Amen, ♪ | 18:52 | |
♪ Amen, ♪ | 18:56 | |
♪ Amen. ♪ | 19:00 | |
- | This reading is from the Gospel according to | 19:27 |
St. Matthew. | 19:29 | |
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, | 19:31 | |
he asked his disciples, | 19:36 | |
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" | 19:39 | |
And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, | 19:43 | |
but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah | 19:47 | |
or one of the prophets." | 19:52 | |
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" | 19:54 | |
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, | 19:59 | |
the Son of the living God." | 20:03 | |
And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, | 20:06 | |
Simon son of Jonah! | 20:10 | |
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, | 20:12 | |
but my Father in heaven. | 20:15 | |
And I tell you, you are Peter, | 20:17 | |
and on this rock I will build my church, | 20:20 | |
and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. | 20:23 | |
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, | 20:27 | |
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, | 20:31 | |
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. | 20:35 | |
Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone | 20:40 | |
that he was the Messiah. | 20:43 | |
This is the Word of the Lord. | 20:46 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 20:48 |
"Oh the depth and the riches and wisdom | 21:01 | |
"and knowledge of God. | 21:05 | |
"How unsearchable are God's judgements and | 21:07 | |
"how inscrutable his ways. | 21:10 | |
"Who has known the mind of God? | 21:14 | |
"Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" | 21:18 | |
Today ends orientation week for new students. | 21:25 | |
Orientation, that's when we help you find your place | 21:30 | |
here at Duke, and we help you get your bearings. | 21:35 | |
And this morning has found you in the Chapel. | 21:40 | |
Those of us who've been here awhile cease to be amused | 21:45 | |
by the designation of this building as the Chapel. | 21:48 | |
But visitors and newcomers sometimes remark on their | 21:52 | |
amusement at calling so great a building a "chapel." | 21:57 | |
To their minds, the word "chapel" conveys something | 22:02 | |
that's small, something that's intimate. | 22:05 | |
In fact, in my dictionary, the first definition | 22:08 | |
given for chapel is: a place of Christian worship | 22:11 | |
that is smaller than and subordinate to a church. | 22:15 | |
What does Webster know? | 22:21 | |
(laughter) | 22:24 | |
This chapel is anything but intimate; | 22:24 | |
it's anything but small. | 22:27 | |
It's a demanding, challenging place | 22:30 | |
to which to become oriented. | 22:35 | |
And if you're new here, a bit overwhelmed by | 22:39 | |
all of the different decisions to be made here at Duke, | 22:43 | |
and the challenges and potential ahead of you, | 22:48 | |
well I'm afraid that this Chapel won't be very much help | 22:52 | |
at scaling things down. | 22:55 | |
'Cause it's big, it's demanding, it's overpowering. | 22:58 | |
As if to say, "You feel small, | 23:04 | |
"you feel overwhelmed by all the | 23:07 | |
"possibilities here at Duke? | 23:09 | |
"Well then, come into the Chapel-- | 23:11 | |
"we'll make you feel even smaller." | 23:13 | |
We don't build churches like Duke Chapel anymore, | 23:19 | |
even if we could afford to. | 23:22 | |
And one reason is, this building embodies an experience | 23:25 | |
of God of an earlier age; dim, dark, distant. | 23:30 | |
Modern churches are all light and clear, steel and glass, | 23:38 | |
brick, everything cut down to human scale. | 23:43 | |
Intimate, carpeted bedrooms, padded living rooms, | 23:48 | |
where preachers pad about, cordless mike and lapel, | 23:52 | |
chatting amiably with the folk in the pews. | 23:56 | |
It's all intimate, it's close. | 23:59 | |
Well, isn't this the purpose of worship? | 24:04 | |
To get close to God? | 24:07 | |
In today's Psalm, we sang, "Let us come into | 24:12 | |
"his presence with thanksgiving." | 24:16 | |
This is Sunday, this is a time to get close. | 24:19 | |
Indeed, when I was in seminary, I was taught that | 24:25 | |
this was the very purpose of preaching. | 24:27 | |
The preacher is the one who stands up in the pulpit | 24:30 | |
on Sunday morning and, the image we got was, | 24:33 | |
with a Bible in one hand and today's newspaper in the other. | 24:36 | |
The preacher labors in about twenty minutes to bring | 24:40 | |
this old ancient world of the Bible | 24:44 | |
close to life in Gilbert-Addoms. | 24:46 | |
We're to bring the two closer together, to get close. | 24:50 | |
We modern people tend to just cut everything down to size, | 24:57 | |
see, even God. | 25:01 | |
I remember a banner from my student days strung over a | 25:03 | |
student chapel, and the banner read, "God is other people." | 25:07 | |
See, God is just sort of on our level. | 25:14 | |
He is not just a function of modern education. | 25:19 | |
Begin with some mystery like grass growing in a meadow. | 25:23 | |
By the 6th grade, grass is a mystery no more. | 25:28 | |
We call it photosynthesis: carbon dioxide, sunlight, water. | 25:32 | |
Later, nuclear fission: | 25:37 | |
you take one heavy atom bombarded with... | 25:40 | |
You give us a mystery, we'll give you an explanation. | 25:43 | |
We'll decode it for you. | 25:48 | |
Give us a gap and we'll bridge it for you. | 25:50 | |
So then, in about four years here, everything will be | 25:54 | |
cut down to your sociological, economic, | 25:57 | |
historical, psychological definition. | 26:01 | |
And it's only natural that in such a world, we should be | 26:06 | |
conditioned to say, "God? Let me explain that to you." | 26:09 | |
But lately, I don't know, lately, | 26:16 | |
maybe it's because I preach in this chapel, | 26:19 | |
I've come to wonder if the function of preaching is not | 26:21 | |
to close gaps, but to open them up. | 26:26 | |
Because it's in the gaps, | 26:35 | |
in those great big, wide, threatening gaps | 26:37 | |
that we are free to wander, to roam, | 26:42 | |
to envision, to re-vision. | 26:47 | |
It's in those great big gaps. | 26:49 | |
That great, fulsome distance | 26:54 | |
that the trivialities of modern existence have burned away, | 27:00 | |
and we are left alone with a great God. | 27:05 | |
What I'm saying is that maybe you have come to this | 27:12 | |
dark, glorious limestone womb, | 27:17 | |
not to snuggle up to God, to get close, | 27:20 | |
but to get some distance, | 27:26 | |
and to revel in the glorious gaps. | 27:28 | |
Come away with me to another chapel. | 27:36 | |
It's cold there. | 27:42 | |
A cold, rainy Sunday, it's a long way from Durham, | 27:44 | |
all the way to winter in Massachusetts. | 27:48 | |
It's a chapel which is described in | 27:52 | |
Melville's "Moby Dick". | 27:54 | |
And inside that little chapel it's just as cold. | 27:58 | |
There are a few marble plaques on the wall, | 28:02 | |
dedicated to the memory of sailors killed by whales at sea. | 28:05 | |
And scattered over that chapel this morning, | 28:11 | |
they're just a few widows, each sitting alone, | 28:14 | |
as if my grief were the only grief. | 28:17 | |
And there are a few seamen scattered about, | 28:20 | |
preparing to venture forth on the sea again | 28:25 | |
and perhaps to die. | 28:28 | |
In silence, in cold silence they wait for the preacher. | 28:32 | |
Can you feel the distance? | 28:37 | |
But that distance is nothing compared to the distance | 28:41 | |
when Father Mapel, the chaplain, comes in at the | 28:45 | |
back door and stamps his boots and shakes the rain | 28:49 | |
off his coat and then he plods toward the pulpit. | 28:52 | |
And the pulpit in that chapel is in the shape of | 28:56 | |
a ship's prow, and the bible rests on the | 28:59 | |
nose point of this bow. | 29:02 | |
You remember how Father Mapel | 29:06 | |
climbs up into the pulpit? | 29:08 | |
They're got a rope ladder, like a ship's ladder, | 29:11 | |
he climbs up that ladder up in the pulpit, and then | 29:13 | |
he pulls the ladder up after him. | 29:16 | |
We're talking distance here! | 29:18 | |
And then this rough, weather-beaten, | 29:23 | |
rough-hewn preacher begins to preach. | 29:26 | |
"Oh my shipmates, hear the Word," he says. | 29:28 | |
And he begins and he takes his scripture text | 29:33 | |
from Jonah. | 29:36 | |
And his text is about the sea, his text. | 29:38 | |
"And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah." | 29:41 | |
Then he preached, | 29:47 | |
and it's a sermon about the sea, | 29:49 | |
about the dark sea. | 29:51 | |
The raging sea, | 29:53 | |
it's about God and about sailors. | 29:55 | |
And he knows about what he speaks, Father Mapel, | 29:58 | |
because he was a sailor once too. | 30:00 | |
"Oh, my shipmates," he roars as he preaches, | 30:03 | |
"Oh, my shipmates!" | 30:06 | |
And he takes that strange text, | 30:09 | |
up on that high pulpit, | 30:13 | |
and he brings that little congregation | 30:15 | |
right before the awesome, terrifying throne of God. | 30:18 | |
Oh to be in the chapel that day. | 30:23 | |
After Father Mapel's sermon, they put a banner | 30:28 | |
across the chapel that reads, "God is other, people." | 30:31 | |
Come with me to another chapel. | 30:38 | |
It is a long way from Melville's Massachusetts. | 30:43 | |
It's a little place in a summer camp in the mountains | 30:47 | |
of North Carolina, mid-July. | 30:50 | |
And it's described by our own Reynolds Price | 30:55 | |
in his new novel, "Tongues of Angels". | 30:58 | |
It's a story told by Bridge Boatner, | 31:04 | |
twenty-one years old, | 31:07 | |
working as I know many of you did this summer. | 31:09 | |
The summer between his junior and senior years | 31:11 | |
at a summer camp for boys. | 31:14 | |
And it's Sunday. | 31:19 | |
And on Sundays in this camp, the whole camp | 31:21 | |
climbs up to a place called The Pasture. | 31:23 | |
And there they worship. | 31:26 | |
The camp director, whose name is Chief, | 31:29 | |
has invited this ancient Baptist preacher | 31:31 | |
to come speak to the boys on their | 31:34 | |
Sunday evening worship up in the Pasture. | 31:37 | |
Bridge describes that. | 31:41 | |
He says the preacher is a startling sight. | 31:42 | |
He's got lank, snow-white hair. | 31:47 | |
It's parted down the middle, | 31:50 | |
it's hanging down his shoulders, | 31:52 | |
it's just hacked off right below the shoulders. | 31:53 | |
Bridge says that that preacher looks like | 31:56 | |
Franz Linst, the oldest human being he has ever seen | 31:58 | |
in his entire life. | 32:02 | |
And once they get up into the Pasture, | 32:05 | |
the preacher asks permission to talk with the boys | 32:07 | |
about their fathers. | 32:11 | |
And the preacher looks directly at each boy. | 32:14 | |
"Boys and counselors," he said, "boys and counselors, | 32:18 | |
"I want permission tonight | 32:21 | |
"to lay open my heart's burden to you. | 32:26 | |
"Chief Jenkins tells me that as recently as June | 32:30 | |
"he spoke with you about your fathers. | 32:32 | |
"But I wasn't here that blessed morning in June. | 32:36 | |
"No, I was up at the bedside of my dying father. | 32:39 | |
"I was up deep in the mountains of North Carolina, | 32:44 | |
"and my father has now passed on over, but I need, | 32:48 | |
"I need to tell you about it." | 32:52 | |
And the boys huddled together, | 32:54 | |
the boys huddled together and they thought, | 32:58 | |
"Man, his father's got to be older than the wheel!" | 33:01 | |
(laughter) | 33:04 | |
Every boy thought as they gazed on this old mutant. | 33:06 | |
He told the boys he was seventy-four. | 33:09 | |
His father was ninety-six when he summoned his boy | 33:13 | |
to his bedside and proceeded to lapse into a coma. | 33:17 | |
His son kept bedside vigil for sixteen hours. | 33:21 | |
And after a coma of sixteen hours, | 33:26 | |
the old man bolted up in bed | 33:28 | |
and demanded a breakfast of eggs, grits and Vienna sausage. | 33:30 | |
After eating every mouthful, the old man grabbed his son | 33:35 | |
by the shirt and said, "Otis! | 33:40 | |
"Otis, I want you to listen to me. | 33:43 | |
"I wasn't asleep, I was dead. | 33:46 | |
"I was up in heaven. | 33:49 | |
"The main thing I know is that heaven's not a place | 33:52 | |
flooded with light like they tell you. | 33:54 | |
It's restful and still, just like a dim, | 33:58 | |
starlit Cuban night." | 34:00 | |
(He'd been in the Spanish-American war, this old man.) | 34:02 | |
"It's wondrous, and they sent me back here to tell you | 34:05 | |
"because you're a preacher, | 34:10 | |
"they said to me, 'Tell your boy to pass it on.'" | 34:13 | |
Then the old man fell back, dead. | 34:17 | |
End of sermon. | 34:22 | |
Now Bridge Boatner says that most of the boys there | 34:25 | |
took the whole sermon in stride. | 34:28 | |
Outrage number two million twenty-four | 34:31 | |
by the adult race committed in the last two days. | 34:33 | |
But Bridge said | 34:38 | |
he felt as if that old man was speaking to him. | 34:40 | |
If that strange old creature | 34:46 | |
with the chopped-off white hair | 34:49 | |
had been speaking to him, his loony, | 34:51 | |
unvarnished but oddly credible truth. | 34:54 | |
Because, you see, that past winter, | 34:57 | |
Bridge Boatner's father had died. | 35:00 | |
And Bridge could not talk about it 'cause it was so painful. | 35:06 | |
Do any of you know what that means? | 35:10 | |
He was young, he was twenty-one, he was courageous, | 35:13 | |
he was strong, but he had found out that | 35:17 | |
there's some things that happen to you in life | 35:19 | |
that are so terrible you can't talk about them. | 35:21 | |
You can't even cry about them, they're so bad. | 35:26 | |
And somehow, that strange old Baptist preacher, | 35:30 | |
come to those boys as if from another planet, | 35:33 | |
had reached out and stared in the eye each one of them, | 35:37 | |
and spoken to him and it reassured Bridge that his | 35:41 | |
father was somehow safe in that starry dark | 35:44 | |
which he so strangely described. | 35:49 | |
Distance. | 35:55 | |
You see, sometimes, | 36:00 | |
sometimes we come to church to be told what to do. | 36:02 | |
To figure it all out. | 36:08 | |
To have explained to us the way things are. | 36:11 | |
But some Sundays, | 36:16 | |
some Sundays we just come to revel in the distance. | 36:19 | |
The sheer differentness of God, to wander around | 36:23 | |
in the midst of a campus which knows so much | 36:27 | |
about where it's going, | 36:34 | |
here to come to wander in the | 36:37 | |
sheer incomprehensibility of God. | 36:39 | |
And there's a third sanctuary, | 36:45 | |
a little house church I wanna take you to. | 36:48 | |
It's in the third century Rome. | 36:50 | |
It's night. | 36:54 | |
The doors are bolted for fear of Roman soldiers. | 36:55 | |
Gathered there in that little chapel are Jews, | 36:59 | |
and, surprise, Gentiles. | 37:02 | |
And they'd been listening to a letter read aloud. | 37:05 | |
We heard a portion of that letter read to us today, | 37:08 | |
Paul's letter to the church at Rome. | 37:11 | |
It hasn't been easy listening to this letter from Paul. | 37:15 | |
This is no easy "three points and a poem" sermonette. | 37:19 | |
It's deep, closely reasoned theology. | 37:23 | |
If somebody's come to church this evening, | 37:26 | |
hoping for a little thought for the day, | 37:29 | |
some little nugget from Readers Digest, | 37:32 | |
he's gonna be disappointed. | 37:34 | |
"I am not ashamed of the Gospel," says Paul. | 37:39 | |
"It is power of God. | 37:42 | |
"Salvation to all, first to the Jew, then to the Greek." | 37:44 | |
And for ten chapters, | 37:49 | |
ten chapters! | 37:51 | |
Paul weaved step-by-step this intricate argument | 37:54 | |
of the unfolding plan of God's universal salvation. | 37:58 | |
This is some of the most complex, difficult reasoning | 38:04 | |
of all of the Bible. | 38:07 | |
God's grace has come even to the Gentiles. | 38:09 | |
This is the kind of sermon that if you dozed off | 38:13 | |
for just a minute, you missed the whole thing. | 38:15 | |
These Gentiles, those who had absolutely no part | 38:18 | |
in the promises of God to Israel, | 38:21 | |
these Gentiles had somehow been embroced by God in Christ. | 38:23 | |
But then Paul's voice becomes pained. | 38:30 | |
God's people have rejected the Christ. | 38:36 | |
He says, "I have great sorrow and anguish in my heart | 38:39 | |
for my fellow Jews. | 38:44 | |
I wish that I myself were damned for the sake of my kinsmen. | 38:46 | |
And then the preacher's voice trembles with the words, | 38:53 | |
"Has God rejected his own people? | 38:56 | |
"Has God brought Israel this far now just to abandon them? | 39:03 | |
"Just because Israel does not see what even | 39:07 | |
"Gentiles now see?" | 39:10 | |
And the church gets real quiet. | 39:12 | |
You can't hear a cough, there's not a stir. | 39:14 | |
"By no means," says Paul. "The gifts and the call | 39:18 | |
"of God are irrevocable." | 39:21 | |
And then it's as if he can't contain himself any longer, | 39:24 | |
and prose breaks forth in song | 39:29 | |
and theology becomes doxology. | 39:33 | |
And Paul begins to sing, and this is the scripture | 39:36 | |
that Nathan read today. | 39:39 | |
"Oh the depth and the riches | 39:40 | |
"and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! | 39:42 | |
"How unsearchable are God's judgments! | 39:44 | |
"How inscrutable are God's ways!" | 39:46 | |
You can't give God a gift! | 39:50 | |
You can't repay God; God's big. | 39:53 | |
"Oh to God be glory and honor forever and ever. | 39:56 | |
"Amen." | 40:00 | |
Unsearchable. | 40:03 | |
Inscrutable. | 40:04 | |
Distant. | 40:06 | |
So maybe you thought God sort of chose a people | 40:10 | |
and then when things didn't go well, | 40:13 | |
tomorrow that people God rejected, | 40:15 | |
and then moved on | 40:17 | |
to put money down on some... | 40:18 | |
No! No, no no. | 40:20 | |
God's not like us. | 40:21 | |
God doesn't run the world like | 40:22 | |
we would run the world if we were God. | 40:24 | |
God's different. | 40:26 | |
God's ways higher than our ways, | 40:28 | |
God's thoughts distant from our thoughts. | 40:30 | |
Both Gentile and Jew caught up in God's unmeasurable mercy. | 40:34 | |
Oh you high SAT-scoring Gentiles, | 40:41 | |
oh you can ponder it, you can do research on it, | 40:44 | |
you can get a Master's in it, | 40:48 | |
but you can't comprehend it, understand it. | 40:51 | |
Your wisdom and knowledge, impressive though they | 40:55 | |
may be to the admissions office, | 40:58 | |
are no match for the wisdom of God. | 41:00 | |
And this little church, | 41:07 | |
this little newborn fledgling church, | 41:09 | |
just sat there in stunned silence | 41:11 | |
at the bigness of it all. | 41:15 | |
Sometimes you come to church to be told what to do, | 41:23 | |
to figure out life, | 41:27 | |
come up with a definition, an explanation. | 41:30 | |
But some Sundays we just come to play in the gaps, | 41:34 | |
to revel in the glorious distance. | 41:40 | |
"From him and through him and in him | 41:48 | |
"are all things. | 41:51 | |
"to him be glory forever." | 41:55 | |
Amen. | 42:00 | |
(stately organ music) | 42:05 | |
♪ The God of Abraham praise, ♪ | 42:42 | |
♪ who reigns enthroned above; ♪ | 42:47 | |
♪ Ancient of Everlasting Days, ♪ | 42:52 | |
♪ and God of Love; ♪ | 42:56 | |
♪ Jehovah, great I AM! ♪ | 43:02 | |
♪ by earth and heaven confessed; ♪ | 43:06 | |
♪ I bow and bless the sacred name ♪ | 43:11 | |
♪ forever blest. ♪ | 43:16 | |
♪ The great I AM has sworn; ♪ | 43:23 | |
♪ I on this oath depend. ♪ | 43:28 | |
♪ I shall, on eagle wings upborne, ♪ | 43:33 | |
♪ to heaven ascend. ♪ | 43:38 | |
♪ I shall behold God's face; ♪ | 43:43 | |
♪ I shall God's power adore, ♪ | 43:48 | |
♪ and sing the wonders of God's grace ♪ | 43:53 | |
♪ forevermore. ♪ | 43:58 | |
♪ The heavenly land I see, ♪ | 44:05 | |
♪ with peace and plenty blest; ♪ | 44:10 | |
♪ a land of sacred liberty, ♪ | 44:15 | |
♪ and endless rest. ♪ | 44:20 | |
♪ There milk and honey flow, ♪ | 44:25 | |
♪ and oil and wine abound, ♪ | 44:30 | |
♪ and trees of life forever grow ♪ | 44:35 | |
♪ with mercy crowned. ♪ | 44:40 | |
♪ The God who reigns on high ♪ | 44:48 | |
♪ the great archangels sing, ♪ | 44:53 | |
♪ and "Holy, holy, holy!" cry ♪ | 44:57 | |
♪ "Almighty King! ♪ | 45:02 | |
♪ Who was, and is, the same, ♪ | 45:06 | |
♪ and evermore shall be: ♪ | 45:11 | |
♪ Jehovah, Lord, the great I AM, ♪ | 45:16 | |
♪ we worship thee!" ♪ | 45:21 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 45:31 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 45:33 |
- | Let us pray. | 45:34 |
O eternal God, from everlasting to everlasting, | 45:47 | |
the Alpha and the Omega of this vast universe. | 45:52 | |
We worship you. | 45:56 | |
You have created each of us as a unique stripe | 45:58 | |
in the fabric of humanity, yet we humbly remember | 46:02 | |
the bond which unites us | 46:05 | |
with our sisters and brothers around the world, | 46:07 | |
even in our diversity. | 46:11 | |
Hear now these prayers offered for the entire | 46:13 | |
human family as we acknowledge the greatness | 46:16 | |
of your creation. | 46:19 | |
Let us pray for all who face new beginnings, | 46:23 | |
most especially the class of 1994. | 46:26 | |
We pray for all who live with anxiety, | 46:30 | |
fear, or self-doubt. | 46:33 | |
Asking that they may receive a renewed vision | 46:36 | |
of your purpose for their lives, | 46:38 | |
and a reassurance of your unfailing love and acceptance. | 46:41 | |
Deliver to their side, O God, good friends and wise council. | 46:46 | |
Lord in your mercy. | 46:51 | |
Congregation | Hear our prayer. | 46:53 |
- | Let us pray for all whose lives are affected | 46:56 |
in any way by the crisis in the Middle East. | 46:59 | |
For men and women serving in military forces | 47:01 | |
and the families they leave behind, | 47:04 | |
especially any from our own communities. | 47:07 | |
For men, women and children held hostage | 47:10 | |
to a nightmare of greed and deception. | 47:13 | |
For Iraqi and Kuwaiti families willing | 47:16 | |
to endanger their own security while | 47:19 | |
sheltering innocent foreigners. | 47:21 | |
For government and military officials on all sides | 47:24 | |
responsible for life and death decisions, | 47:28 | |
guide us in our struggle for justice, O God. | 47:31 | |
Empower us to confront one another without | 47:35 | |
hatred or violence | 47:37 | |
and to work together to achieve a lasting peace, | 47:40 | |
may we become reconciled with | 47:43 | |
those whom we call our enemies. | 47:45 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 47:49 | |
Congregation | Hear our prayer. | 47:50 |
- | Let us pray for all who live with injustice | 47:53 |
and terror as their constant companions, | 47:56 | |
especially the people of Liberia and South Africa, | 47:58 | |
engulfed in civil strife. | 48:02 | |
Look upon them with compassion gracious God, | 48:04 | |
and empower them with the spirit of reconciliation | 48:07 | |
that can disarm weapons and silence ancient hate. | 48:10 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 48:14 | |
Congregation | Hear our prayer. | 48:16 |
- | Let us pray for all poor and neglected persons, | 48:19 |
forgotten in the eyes of the world | 48:22 | |
yet precious in your sight. | 48:25 | |
The homeless, the destitute, the hungry, the sick, | 48:27 | |
nourish their souls, O God, | 48:31 | |
and comfort them with your healing presence. | 48:34 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 48:37 | |
Congregation | Hear our prayer. | 48:39 |
- | Let us pray for all who feel unwanted or rejected, | 48:41 |
for those who resort to violence or prejudice behavior | 48:45 | |
out of their unhappiness, | 48:49 | |
and for those who are victims of their actions. | 48:50 | |
For those who indulge in material excess | 48:54 | |
attempting to fill an interior void. | 48:57 | |
For those addicted to substance abuse, | 49:00 | |
unaware of the destruction they inflict upon | 49:03 | |
their own lives and others. | 49:06 | |
And for all those who live within institutions, | 49:08 | |
surrounded by people yet lonely beyond words. | 49:11 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 49:15 | |
Congregation | Hear our prayer. | 49:17 |
- | Our kind and gracious God, we lift these prayers unto you | 49:19 |
as well as the deep and unspoken needs of this congregation. | 49:23 | |
Bless us in our waking and in our sleeping, in times | 49:29 | |
of contentment and distress that your name may be praised | 49:33 | |
throughout all eternity. | 49:37 | |
Amen. | 49:41 | |
As a forgiven and reconciled people, | 49:44 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves | 49:47 | |
to the one whose majesty we celebrate. | 49:50 | |
(organ music) | 50:02 | |
(strong trumpet music) | 50:25 | |
♪ When in our music God is glorified, ♪ | 50:47 | |
♪ and adoration leaves no room for pride, ♪ | 50:53 | |
♪ it is as though the whole creation cried: ♪ | 51:01 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 51:09 | |
♪ How often, making music, we have found ♪ | 51:20 | |
♪ a new dimension in the world of sound, ♪ | 51:27 | |
♪ as worship moved us to a more profound ♪ | 51:34 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 51:42 | |
♪ So has the church, in liturgy and song, ♪ | 52:01 | |
♪ in faith and love, through centuries of wrong, ♪ | 52:08 | |
♪ borne witness to the truth in every tongue: ♪ | 52:15 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 52:23 | |
♪ And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night ♪ | 52:34 | |
♪ when utmost evil strove against the light? ♪ | 52:41 | |
♪ Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight: ♪ | 52:49 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 52:58 | |
(trumpet and brass interlude) | 53:08 | |
♪ Let every instrument be tuned for praise! ♪ | 53:26 | |
♪ Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise! ♪ | 53:34 | |
♪ And may God give us faith to sing always: ♪ | 53:41 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 53:51 | |
♪ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! ♪ | 54:03 | |
(organ) | 54:23 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 55:21 | |
♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪ | 55:28 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 55:35 | |
♪ Praise God above ye heavenly hosts ♪ | 55:43 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. ♪ | 55:50 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. ♪ | 55:57 | |
- | Almighty God, that we are alive, that the sun rises | 56:24 |
to greet each new day, that new challenges and opportunities | 56:29 | |
await us, Your name we praise. | 56:33 | |
Alleluia. | 56:35 | |
We thank you for friends, old and new, | 56:36 | |
for the places from which we have come, | 56:39 | |
and for the places which we will learn to call home, | 56:41 | |
and for the vision, generosity and commitment | 56:44 | |
of women and men who give of their lives | 56:47 | |
to make this university all that it is. | 56:50 | |
Most of all we thank you for yourself, | 56:53 | |
ground and source of every good, | 56:56 | |
and for the bounty of your love, | 56:57 | |
with all your people in every corner of creation, | 56:59 | |
we count it joy to praise your name. | 57:02 | |
This we pray in the name of the one who taught us. | 57:05 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 57:08 | |
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, | 57:13 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 57:16 | |
Give us this day our daily bread; | 57:18 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 57:21 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 57:23 | |
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 57:26 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, | 57:30 | |
for ever and ever, Amen. | 57:34 | |
- | Now go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 57:38 |
Hold fast to that which is good, | 57:42 | |
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, | 57:44 | |
and may the blessings of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, | 57:47 | |
be with you all, now and forevermore. | 57:50 | |
♪ Amen. ♪ | 57:55 | |
(Trumpet) | 58:15 | |
♪ The church's one foundation ♪ | 58:58 | |
♪ is Jesus Christ, her Lord; ♪ | 59:03 | |
♪ she is his new creation ♪ | 59:09 | |
♪ by water and the Word: ♪ | 59:14 | |
♪ from heav'n he came and sought her ♪ | 59:19 | |
♪ to be his holy bride; ♪ | 59:24 | |
♪ with his own blood he bought her, ♪ | 59:29 | |
♪ and for her life he died. ♪ | 59:35 | |
♪ Elect from ev'ry nation, ♪ | 59:43 | |
♪ yet one o'er all the earth, ♪ | 59:48 | |
♪ her charter of salvation ♪ | 59:53 | |
♪ one Lord, one faith, one birth; ♪ | 59:59 | |
♪ one holy name she blesses, ♪ | 1:00:04 | |
♪ partakes one holy food, ♪ | 1:00:10 | |
♪ and to one hope she presses, ♪ | 1:00:15 | |
♪ with ev'ry grace endued. ♪ | 1:00:21 | |
♪ Though with a scornful wonder ♪ | 1:00:30 | |
♪ men see her sore oppressed, ♪ | 1:00:35 | |
♪ by schisms rent asunder, ♪ | 1:00:40 | |
♪ by heresies distressed, ♪ | 1:00:45 | |
♪ yet saints their watch are keeping, ♪ | 1:00:50 | |
♪ their cry goes up, "How long?" ♪ | 1:00:55 | |
♪ And soon the night of weeping ♪ | 1:01:01 | |
♪ Shall be the morn of song. ♪ | 1:01:07 | |
♪ 'Mid toil and tribulation, ♪ | 1:01:14 | |
♪ and tumult of her war, ♪ | 1:01:19 | |
♪ she waits the consummation ♪ | 1:01:25 | |
♪ of peace forevermore; ♪ | 1:01:30 | |
♪ till with the vision glorious ♪ | 1:01:35 | |
♪ her longing eyes are blest, ♪ | 1:01:41 | |
♪ and the great church victorious ♪ | 1:01:46 | |
♪ shall be the church at rest. ♪ | 1:01:52 | |
♪ Yet she on earth hath union ♪ | 1:02:00 | |
♪ with the God the Three in One, ♪ | 1:02:05 | |
♪ and mystic sweet communion ♪ | 1:02:10 | |
♪ with those whose rest is won: ♪ | 1:02:16 | |
♪ O happy ones and holy! ♪ | 1:02:21 | |
♪ Lord, give us grace that we, ♪ | 1:02:26 | |
♪ like them, the meek and lowly, ♪ | 1:02:32 | |
♪ on high may dwell with thee. ♪ | 1:02:37 | |
♪ Go in peace and serve the Lord. ♪ | 1:02:48 | |
♪ In the name of God. ♪ | 1:02:52 | |
♪ Amen. ♪ | 1:02:57 | |
(lively organ music) | 1:03:06 |