William H. Willimon - "Living Sacrifice" (September 2, 1990)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(reverent organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Good morning, and welcome to this service of worship | 1:05 |
here at Duke University Chapel, | 1:08 | |
this 13th Sunday after Pentecost, | 1:11 | |
and Opening Sunday here in the chapel. | 1:14 | |
I thought as we began a new school year | 1:17 | |
it might be a nice opportunity to recognize | 1:19 | |
our musicians who make this service possible, | 1:23 | |
first of all, and we've had some title changes, | 1:28 | |
and promotions among our musicians. | 1:31 | |
We welcome back Dr. Rodney Wynkoop, | 1:34 | |
our director of chapel music, | 1:36 | |
and university choral activities | 1:39 | |
for his second year here in Duke Chapel, | 1:40 | |
and we're glad to have Dr. Wynkoop | 1:43 | |
and his team back with us. | 1:45 | |
Also, Donna Sparks now bears the title | 1:49 | |
of assisting conductor of the Duke Chapel Choir. | 1:52 | |
Donna also conducts our choral vespers | 1:55 | |
each Thursday at 5:15 here in Memorial Chapel. | 1:59 | |
Our organist back at the Flentrop | 2:05 | |
is Dr. Robert Parkins, | 2:09 | |
who this summer received the title of university organist. | 2:12 | |
And David Arcus, who accompanies the choir, | 2:17 | |
is now bearing the title of chapel organist, | 2:23 | |
and you'll get to hear | 2:26 | |
each of these organists in the service today. | 2:28 | |
Dr. Parkins will be improvising | 2:31 | |
on the Flentrop organ during the first hymn, | 2:33 | |
and Dr. Arcus will be improvising | 2:36 | |
on the Aeolian organ during the second hymn, | 2:39 | |
and we're delighted to welcome them back for another year. | 2:43 | |
Our university carillonneur, J. Samuel Hammond, | 2:48 | |
is with us today. | 2:51 | |
Everybody thinks that the carillon is run by a machine. | 2:53 | |
It is not, here is the man who does it. | 2:57 | |
He's usually invisible, | 3:00 | |
but we ask him to come and show himself for us here today. | 3:01 | |
And we thank all of these musicians | 3:07 | |
for their continuing contributions to our worship. | 3:09 | |
I remind you that after the service today | 3:14 | |
we invite everyone for a lemonade | 3:16 | |
out in front of the chapel. | 3:17 | |
I also remind you that we are now | 3:21 | |
having a Sunday morning class at 9:45, | 3:24 | |
in room 211 of the Divinity School, which is open to all. | 3:27 | |
Would you join me now in the greeting. | 3:34 | |
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 3:37 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 3:41 |
- | The risen Christ is with us. | 3:42 |
Congregation | Praise the Lord. | 3:44 |
♪ Praise the Lord, all my soul ♪ | 3:51 | |
♪ And all that is within me ♪ | 3:58 | |
♪ Praise his holy name ♪ | 4:03 | |
(exultant organ and brass music) | 4:20 | |
♪ All people that on earth do dwell ♪ | 5:08 | |
♪ Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice ♪ | 5:17 | |
♪ Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell ♪ | 5:26 | |
♪ Come ye before Him and rejoice ♪ | 5:35 | |
♪ The Lord, ye know, is God indeed ♪ | 5:47 | |
♪ Without our aid He did us make ♪ | 5:56 | |
♪ We are his folk, He doth us feed ♪ | 6:06 | |
♪ And for his sheep He doth us take ♪ | 6:15 | |
♪ Oh, enter then his gates with praise ♪ | 6:27 | |
♪ Approach with joy his courts unto ♪ | 6:36 | |
♪ Praise, laud and bless his name always ♪ | 6:45 | |
♪ For it is seemly so to do ♪ | 6:54 | |
♪ For why, the Lord our God is good ♪ | 7:06 | |
♪ His mercy is forever sure ♪ | 7:15 | |
♪ His truth at all times firmly stood ♪ | 7:24 | |
♪ And shall from age to age endure ♪ | 7:32 | |
(joyful organ music) | 7:44 | |
(exultant organ and brass music) | 9:33 | |
♪ To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ | 9:45 | |
♪ The God whom heaven and earth adore ♪ | 9:54 | |
♪ From men and from the angel host ♪ | 10:04 | |
♪ Be praise and glory evermore ♪ | 10:14 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 10:37 | |
- | Let us pray. | 11:05 |
Everyone | Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 11:08 |
by the power of your Holy Spirit, | 11:11 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 11:14 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen. | 11:17 | |
- | The first lesson is taken from the book of Exodus. | 11:24 |
"On the third new moon after the Israelites | 11:29 | |
"had gone out of the land of Egypt, | 11:32 | |
"on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. | 11:34 | |
"They had journeyed from Rephidim, | 11:39 | |
"entered the wilderness of Sinai, | 11:41 | |
"and camped in the wilderness. | 11:43 | |
"Israel camped there in front of the mountain. | 11:45 | |
"Then Moses went up to God. | 11:49 | |
"The Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, | 11:52 | |
"'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, | 11:55 | |
"'and tell the Israelites: | 11:59 | |
"'"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, | 12:00 | |
"'"and how I bore you on eagles' wings | 12:03 | |
"'"and brought you to myself. | 12:05 | |
"'"Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, | 12:08 | |
"'"you shall be my treasured possession | 12:13 | |
"'"out of all the peoples. | 12:14 | |
"'"Indeed, the whole earth is mine, | 12:16 | |
"'"but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom | 12:19 | |
"'"and a holy nation." | 12:22 | |
"'These are the words that you shall speak | 12:24 | |
"'to the Israelites.'" | 12:26 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 12:28 | |
Everyone | Thanks be to God. | 12:31 |
- | Please stand as we join together in singing responsively, | 12:39 |
Psalm 114, found on page 835 in your hymnal. | 12:42 | |
♪ When Israel went forth from Egypt ♪ | 12:56 | |
♪ The house of Jacob from a people of strange language ♪ | 12:59 | |
♪ Judah became God's sanctuary ♪ | 13:05 | |
♪ Israel God's dominion ♪ | 13:10 | |
♪ The sea looked and fled ♪ | 13:14 | |
♪ Jordan turned back ♪ | 13:17 | |
♪ The mountains skipped like rams ♪ | 13:20 | |
♪ The hills like lambs ♪ | 13:24 | |
♪ Why is it, oh sea, that you flee ♪ | 13:27 | |
♪ Oh Jordan, that you turn back ♪ | 13:31 | |
♪ Oh mountains, that you skip like rams ♪ | 13:35 | |
♪ Oh hills, like lambs ♪ | 13:40 | |
♪ Tremble, oh earth, at the presence of the Lord ♪ | 13:43 | |
♪ At the presence of the God of Jacob ♪ | 13:48 | |
♪ Who turns the rock into a pool of water ♪ | 13:53 | |
♪ The flint into a spring of water ♪ | 13:58 | |
(reverent organ music) | 14:04 | |
♪ Glory be to our Creator ♪ | 14:13 | |
♪ Praise to our Redeemer Lord ♪ | 14:20 | |
♪ Glory be to our Sustainer ♪ | 14:27 | |
♪ Ever three and ever one ♪ | 14:34 | |
♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 14:42 | |
♪ Now and evermore shall be ♪ | 14:49 | |
- | You may be seated. | 15:01 |
The second lesson is taken | 15:10 | |
from St. Paul's letter to the Romans. | 15:12 | |
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, | 15:16 | |
"by the mercies of God, | 15:19 | |
"to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, | 15:21 | |
"holy and acceptable to God, | 15:24 | |
"which is your spiritual worship. | 15:26 | |
"Do not be conformed to this world, | 15:29 | |
"but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, | 15:32 | |
"so that you may discern what is the will of God, | 15:35 | |
"what is good and acceptable and perfect. | 15:39 | |
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you | 15:43 | |
"not to think of yourself more highly | 15:47 | |
"than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, | 15:49 | |
"each according to the measure of faith | 15:53 | |
"that God has assigned. | 15:55 | |
"For as in one body we have many members, | 15:57 | |
"and not all the members have the same function, | 16:01 | |
"so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, | 16:04 | |
"and individually we are members one of another. | 16:08 | |
"We have gifts that differ | 16:12 | |
"according to the grace given to us: | 16:13 | |
"prophecy, in proportion to faith; | 16:16 | |
"ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; | 16:20 | |
"the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; | 16:24 | |
"the leader, in diligence; | 16:30 | |
"the compassionate, in cheerfulness." | 16:32 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 16:36 | |
Everyone | Thanks be to God. | 16:39 |
(reverent organ music) | 16:59 | |
♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 17:05 | |
♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 17:13 | |
♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 17:21 | |
♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 17:28 | |
♪ Love is strong as death ♪ | 17:42 | |
♪ Love is strong as death ♪ | 17:48 | |
♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 17:57 | |
♪ Greater love hath no man than this ♪ | 18:08 | |
♪ That a man ♪ | 18:18 | |
♪ Lay down his life ♪ | 18:27 | |
♪ For his friends ♪ | 18:36 | |
♪ Who his own self bare our sins ♪ | 18:46 | |
♪ In his own body on the tree ♪ | 18:53 | |
♪ That we, being dead to sins ♪ | 19:04 | |
♪ Should live unto righteousness ♪ | 19:12 | |
♪ That we, being dead to sins ♪ | 19:23 | |
♪ Should live unto righteousness ♪ | 19:31 | |
♪ Should live unto righteousness ♪ | 19:38 | |
♪ That we ♪ | 19:43 | |
♪ That we, being dead to sins ♪ | 19:45 | |
♪ Should live unto righteousness ♪ | 19:52 | |
♪ Should live unto righteousness ♪ | 19:58 | |
♪ Ye are washed ♪ | 20:05 | |
♪ Ye are sanctified ♪ | 20:10 | |
♪ Ye are justified ♪ | 20:15 | |
♪ In the name of the Lord Jesus ♪ | 20:20 | |
♪ Ye are a chosen generation ♪ | 20:29 | |
♪ A royal priesthood ♪ | 20:35 | |
♪ A holy nation ♪ | 20:39 | |
♪ That ye should show forth the praises ♪ | 20:49 | |
♪ Of Him who hath called you ♪ | 20:54 | |
♪ Out of darkness ♪ | 21:00 | |
♪ Out of darkness ♪ | 21:05 | |
♪ Into his marvelous light ♪ | 21:09 | |
♪ I beseech you, brethren ♪ | 21:33 | |
♪ By the mercies of God ♪ | 21:39 | |
♪ That ye present your bodies ♪ | 21:44 | |
♪ A living sacrifice ♪ | 21:52 | |
♪ Holy ♪ | 21:59 | |
♪ Holy ♪ | 22:06 | |
♪ Acceptable ♪ | 22:11 | |
♪ Unto to God ♪ | 22:16 | |
♪ Which is your reasonable service ♪ | 22:25 | |
- | The gospel appointed for this day | 23:22 |
is from the Gospel According to St. Matthew. | 23:24 | |
"From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples | 23:28 | |
"that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering | 23:32 | |
"at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, | 23:36 | |
"and be killed, and on the third day be raised. | 23:40 | |
"And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, | 23:44 | |
"'God forbid it, Lord! | 23:48 | |
"'This must never happen to you.' | 23:51 | |
"But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! | 23:53 | |
"'You are a stumbling block to me, | 23:58 | |
"'for you are setting your mind not on divine things, | 24:01 | |
"'but on human things.' | 24:03 | |
"Then Jesus told his disciples, | 24:06 | |
"'If any want to become my followers, | 24:08 | |
"'let them deny themselves, | 24:11 | |
"'and take up their cross and follow me. | 24:13 | |
"'For those who want to save their life will lose it, | 24:16 | |
"'and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.'" | 24:20 | |
This is the Gospel of our Lord. | 24:24 | |
Everyone | Thanks be to God. | 24:27 |
"By the mercies of God, | 24:40 | |
"present yourselves a living sacrifice, | 24:43 | |
"holy and acceptable to God, | 24:46 | |
"which is your spiritual worship. | 24:49 | |
"Do not be conformed to this world, | 24:52 | |
"but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." | 24:56 | |
I had this man in my last church | 25:03 | |
who frequently greeted me at the end of the service | 25:07 | |
by thrusting into my hand some newspaper article, | 25:09 | |
usually from the Wall Street Journal, | 25:13 | |
in his never-ending quest to educate his preacher. | 25:16 | |
One Sunday, he gave me an article by a national columnist, | 25:21 | |
in which the columnist said, | 25:27 | |
"I wish these preachers, | 25:30 | |
"who are so sure about what we ought to do | 25:34 | |
"on such complicated issues like abortion, | 25:36 | |
"would get out of their ivory towers, | 25:39 | |
"and out into the real world, | 25:41 | |
"and maybe they would see things differently." | 25:43 | |
And as his example of the real world, | 25:48 | |
the columnist told how a young woman | 25:53 | |
had been indicted in Chicago that past week, | 25:55 | |
after her infant child died of malnutrition and rat bites. | 25:59 | |
The implication is, if we Christians could just | 26:09 | |
get out into the real world, | 26:13 | |
we might see things differently. | 26:16 | |
And you've heard that argument before, | 26:19 | |
not just applied to preachers, | 26:21 | |
but applied to Christians in general. | 26:22 | |
If we Christians could only come to face facts, | 26:25 | |
to get in touch with the real world. | 26:30 | |
But such a demand begs the question, | 26:37 | |
where is this real world to which we are to adjust? | 26:41 | |
Who defines what is real? | 26:48 | |
Is the real world a world in which a baby dies | 26:49 | |
of malnutrition and rat bites? | 26:53 | |
Is that the world to which we are to adjust | 26:55 | |
while we're doing our adjusting? | 26:59 | |
At the beginning of this summer, | 27:04 | |
we saw the film "Crazy People." | 27:06 | |
It's not a great movie, but its thesis is quite funny. | 27:08 | |
It tells about a group of inmates | 27:12 | |
at a hospital for the mentally ill, | 27:16 | |
who, through a strange turn of events, | 27:18 | |
are offered high-paying jobs in the advertising industry. | 27:21 | |
And they set about to create ads | 27:27 | |
which are quite a sensation-- | 27:29 | |
because these people are so crazy, | 27:31 | |
they don't know any better than to tell | 27:33 | |
advertisements which speak the truth. | 27:37 | |
One of the ads says, | 27:40 | |
"We know you love him, but if he dies, | 27:44 | |
"wouldn't you also like to have $100,000, | 27:47 | |
"and a Mercedes Benz? | 27:49 | |
"John Hancock Life Insurance." | 27:51 | |
(laughter) | 27:53 | |
And these ads written by these crazy people | 27:56 | |
are quite a sensation, because the American public, | 27:59 | |
having been nurtured for so long on lies, | 28:02 | |
greets these truthful ads | 28:05 | |
as something strange and wonderful. | 28:07 | |
Now, in such a crazy, mixed-up world, | 28:12 | |
when we gather, | 28:17 | |
despite the beautiful music, and the charming building, | 28:20 | |
every time we gather here on Sunday, | 28:23 | |
there's always gonna be kind of hard edge | 28:26 | |
in what we do here. | 28:29 | |
And that hard edge is the tension | 28:32 | |
brought about by the confrontation | 28:36 | |
of being caught in a crossfire | 28:41 | |
of a debate over what is real. | 28:44 | |
"By the mercies of God, | 28:50 | |
"present yourselves as a living sacrifice, | 28:52 | |
"holy, acceptable to God, which is your true worship. | 28:55 | |
"Do not be conformed to this world, | 28:59 | |
"but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." | 29:03 | |
"Present yourselves as sacrifice." | 29:09 | |
"Do not be conformed, be transformed." | 29:12 | |
There is our text for today. | 29:17 | |
So, right up front, here on Opening Sunday, | 29:20 | |
let's be honest, and admit that we're all gathered | 29:25 | |
here in the chapel today to engage in a debate | 29:29 | |
over what is real, what is normal. | 29:34 | |
This isn't some course in the Department of Philosophy, | 29:41 | |
in which we may talk about religion as history or sociology, | 29:44 | |
the truth of which makes absolutely no difference, | 29:49 | |
because nobody has any intention | 29:52 | |
of making up his or her mind about the truth anyway. | 29:54 | |
I'm gonna be more honest with you. | 29:58 | |
I am here this morning, as most other Sundays, | 30:02 | |
to convert you, | 30:06 | |
to take as my modest aim, by the end of the service, | 30:08 | |
to get you on that altar up there, | 30:12 | |
to invite you to sacrifice yourself, | 30:15 | |
not by putting a dollar in the plate | 30:18 | |
(although that's all right, as far as it goes), | 30:21 | |
but by putting your body up on that altar, | 30:23 | |
to get you to worship. | 30:27 | |
Of course, the rest of the university | 30:31 | |
is also trying desperately to convert you. | 30:33 | |
The only difference is, | 30:38 | |
like Walter Mondale in the presidential debate, | 30:39 | |
I'll tell you what I plan to do, | 30:42 | |
whereas most of the university, | 30:45 | |
like Ronald Reagan on taxes, will not tell you. | 30:47 | |
(laughter) | 30:50 | |
You come to the university, | 30:52 | |
we put you through various courses. | 30:54 | |
We tell you, "Look, we don't want to force anything | 30:57 | |
"down your throats, we want you to make up your own minds." | 31:00 | |
But the educational philosophy which takes as its goal | 31:07 | |
to help people make up their own minds, is a philosophy, | 31:11 | |
an assumption about what is true, and what is good. | 31:18 | |
So, my point is that at the university | 31:23 | |
is also trying to put the make on you. | 31:25 | |
It is also trying to convert you into a philosophy of life. | 31:29 | |
But the cheap thing about it is | 31:34 | |
that all the while it reassures you | 31:37 | |
that we want you to think for yourself, | 31:39 | |
to make up your own mind-- | 31:42 | |
which is a philosophy of life. | 31:46 | |
The funny thing is that most of us | 31:50 | |
have already been converted into those assumptions | 31:52 | |
even before we started paying high tuition. | 31:55 | |
Because our university at its worst | 31:59 | |
is little more than our culture as it already is. | 32:05 | |
And the prevailing philosophy of our culture | 32:10 | |
is that the individual, | 32:14 | |
in his or her sovereignty and autonomy, | 32:16 | |
is the sole center of meaning. | 32:19 | |
Long ago Hannah Arendt noted | 32:24 | |
that the modern secular world destroyed God, | 32:27 | |
and family, and community, | 32:30 | |
throwing people not out into the world, | 32:33 | |
but merely back upon themselves. | 32:36 | |
All we're left with now is the sovereign individual, | 32:41 | |
with absolutely no source of meaning outside the individual. | 32:45 | |
It is a lonely way to go. | 32:51 | |
Is that why the Greek word for the self, "id," | 32:56 | |
which Freud coined to describe ourselves | 33:01 | |
at our Freudian deepest, | 33:05 | |
is paradoxically the same root for our word "idiot?" | 33:08 | |
Left only to ourselves, we have found, | 33:14 | |
we've got very little of self. | 33:17 | |
And it's against this corrupted consciousness | 33:21 | |
that the church launches its every Sunday assault. | 33:24 | |
To be here in the chapel is to find one's self, | 33:29 | |
one's modern little self, | 33:33 | |
caught in a crossfire between two competing, | 33:35 | |
and quite conflicting, definitions of normality. | 33:39 | |
Against our self-assured, conventional, | 33:46 | |
socially-acceptable definitions of normality, | 33:49 | |
in coming to the chapel on a Sunday morning, | 33:53 | |
you expose yourself to a devastating power, | 33:56 | |
devastating simply because it is true, | 34:00 | |
whereas other powers are not. | 34:03 | |
I'm talking about God, people. | 34:05 | |
It was by this power | 34:08 | |
that a powerless young Jew | 34:12 | |
set our world of abnormality on its ear. | 34:15 | |
Confronted by the pretentious power of the state, | 34:21 | |
the almighty state, he said, | 34:24 | |
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, | 34:26 | |
"but render to God the things that are God's." | 34:28 | |
Before the self-serving spirit of this age, he countered, | 34:34 | |
"If you would find your life, | 34:37 | |
"the trick is to lose your life." | 34:39 | |
And then he proceeded to go about | 34:45 | |
in such a disconcertingly normal way, | 34:47 | |
healing those who were ill, | 34:53 | |
telling the truth in a world of lies, | 34:56 | |
feeding the hungry, raising the dead, stampeding swine, | 35:00 | |
so that systemic abnormality | 35:07 | |
just simply had to put him away-- | 35:09 | |
as it thought, for keeps. | 35:15 | |
For a three dark days it did seem | 35:20 | |
as if the facts of life had won, | 35:22 | |
the facts of life, the almighty status quo had won, | 35:24 | |
as if death had triumphed. | 35:29 | |
And yet, among his paralyzed followers, | 35:32 | |
clinging only to themselves around a simple table, | 35:35 | |
he returned in power, | 35:39 | |
having walked into the very jaws of abnormality, | 35:42 | |
pulled its teeth, | 35:46 | |
and subverted the old order. | 35:49 | |
When the power of life appears | 35:53 | |
in this Jew from Nazareth, named Jesus, | 35:56 | |
systemic abnormality, | 36:00 | |
to which we are always in danger of becoming accustomed, | 36:03 | |
is thrown into utter disarray. | 36:07 | |
I tell you, this is the power | 36:12 | |
that's let loose here on a Sunday morning, | 36:13 | |
when we're at our best. | 36:16 | |
It is the power which summons each one of us by name | 36:20 | |
to submit to transformation. | 36:23 | |
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." | 36:26 | |
In the Sunday presence of this power, | 36:32 | |
our fingers are pried loose | 36:35 | |
from their tight grip upon the status quo, | 36:38 | |
and we are wrenched away from the world as it is. | 36:41 | |
I know a junior, a Presbyterian. | 36:47 | |
In Michigan, he says, | 36:52 | |
he never thought much about being a Presbyterian. | 36:54 | |
It was just kind of the way everybody else was. | 36:56 | |
But he came to Duke, | 36:59 | |
and for the first time in his decent | 37:02 | |
and orderly little Presbyterian life, he feels strange. | 37:04 | |
(laughter) | 37:08 | |
He is forced to explain himself to people. | 37:11 | |
"Why do you get up and go to chapel on Sunday morning?" | 37:14 | |
He wasn't really sure why. | 37:18 | |
"What makes you think you're so much better | 37:21 | |
"than everybody else?" | 37:23 | |
It was a new experience for him, | 37:28 | |
being odd, peculiar. | 37:31 | |
Back in Grand Rapids, it was normal to be a Presbyterian. | 37:36 | |
But he's come here, he's abnormal. | 37:40 | |
And the usual question asked of Christians by abnormality | 37:44 | |
is something like, "Well, will it work?" | 37:48 | |
"Is it practical, is it possible? | 37:51 | |
"Above all, can you have this without cost?" | 37:53 | |
But to those who have been ravished | 38:01 | |
by this Sunday divine normality, | 38:03 | |
the questions raised by the world's abnormality | 38:07 | |
are always quite beside the point. | 38:11 | |
'Cause we've gathered here this Sunday, | 38:14 | |
not primarily to address the issues, | 38:16 | |
as the world defines the issues, | 38:19 | |
but rather to upend, and to subvert terrestrial abnormality, | 38:23 | |
which maims and kills everything it touches. | 38:28 | |
Christ did not offer better answers | 38:32 | |
to the social and political questions of his day, or ours. | 38:34 | |
Rather, he trampled death, the supreme lord of abnormality. | 38:39 | |
He gave life to those who are entombed-- | 38:43 | |
death always being the choice of abnormality, | 38:48 | |
every time we've been given half a chance to choose. | 38:52 | |
We have demonstrated that there is virtually nothing | 38:57 | |
that we will not transmute into life's antithesis. | 39:00 | |
Food into weapons, aid into coercion, | 39:05 | |
justice into terrorism, love into libido, | 39:09 | |
liberation into tyranny, education into rationalization. | 39:13 | |
In the church's 2,000-year skirmish with death, | 39:20 | |
we've learned that all the money, | 39:23 | |
and power, and good intentions | 39:25 | |
which systemic abnormality musters, | 39:28 | |
can never change such viciousness into virtue, | 39:31 | |
abnormality into normality. | 39:35 | |
Nor can we by our own efforts. | 39:39 | |
Systemic abnormality has a hideous strength, | 39:43 | |
and it is dangerous to underestimate | 39:48 | |
its power to eat us alive, | 39:52 | |
whether you're talking about first-century Judea | 39:55 | |
of the text, or 20th-century Gilbert-Addoms. | 39:58 | |
So, Paul urges us, "Do not be conformed to this world, | 40:02 | |
"but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." | 40:06 | |
And so this Sunday I have beckoned you to come away, | 40:10 | |
to stand apart, to look odd, abnormal, | 40:15 | |
that you might risk being embraced by divine normality. | 40:20 | |
True normality can only be restored | 40:27 | |
when we're given eyes to see what is, | 40:30 | |
and when we are allowed to offer ourselves to it. | 40:33 | |
And so, thus Paul urges us, | 40:37 | |
"By the mercies of God, | 40:41 | |
"present your bodies as a living sacrifice. | 40:43 | |
"This is your true worship." | 40:47 | |
But having nursed on abnormality for so long, | 40:51 | |
there's no way for us to be weaned away, | 40:56 | |
except by drastic alteration of minds and hearts. | 41:00 | |
Human transformation occurs when we are addressed | 41:05 | |
by something which offers us a way to give up ourselves, | 41:09 | |
so that we might better find ourselves. | 41:14 | |
Minds are changed, imaginations are freed, | 41:17 | |
by massive doses of normality, | 41:22 | |
and there's nothing easy about it. | 41:25 | |
That's why it takes work, weekly, every Sunday, work, | 41:27 | |
sitting through sermons, coming to church, | 41:33 | |
going through the motions, | 41:35 | |
praying even even when you don't feel like it. | 41:37 | |
Yes--and suffering. It costs lives. | 41:39 | |
Sunday is dangerous. | 41:44 | |
And maybe that's why Paul uses the image of sacrifice. | 41:47 | |
Sacrifice, it's an image that conjures up | 41:51 | |
screaming animals before stone altars, | 41:56 | |
blood trickling down marble steps, | 41:59 | |
the upraised, flashing knife of a priest, | 42:01 | |
preparing to sacrifice some bleating beast. | 42:04 | |
And the funny thing is, Paul says, | 42:10 | |
that sacrifice is right at the heart of being a Christian. | 42:13 | |
Nobody comes to God without cost. | 42:18 | |
That sacrifice being laid on that bloody altar | 42:23 | |
is sometimes you, | 42:26 | |
which then becomes the basis for everything we do. | 42:31 | |
"Unlike a lot of people on this campus, | 42:36 | |
"I don't drink," he said. | 42:38 | |
"You see, I'm planning on going to medical school. | 42:40 | |
"Therefore I've got to make the best grades I can, | 42:43 | |
"and I've to keep all my brain cells in good working order. | 42:46 | |
"I don't drink." | 42:49 | |
Okay, and that is a basis for morality, | 42:52 | |
although not a particularly altruistic one. | 42:56 | |
But here in today's text, | 43:00 | |
right living, orthopraxy, | 43:03 | |
is related to right worship, orthodoxy. | 43:07 | |
How we live on this campus, Monday through Saturday, | 43:15 | |
flows from how well we've worshiped here on Sunday, | 43:18 | |
from this Sunday collision | 43:23 | |
between abnormality and normality, | 43:25 | |
between the false and the true, between us and God. | 43:29 | |
So, you will note, | 43:36 | |
Paul never urges the church simply to be good. | 43:37 | |
Rather, he says, "By the mercies of God, | 43:43 | |
"present yourselves as a living sacrifice. | 43:46 | |
"This is your true worship. | 43:50 | |
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." | 43:53 | |
Here is reality, | 43:59 | |
here is reality of which the Wall Street Journal | 44:02 | |
cannot tell, to lay yourselves on that altar. | 44:05 | |
That's why we have such a big altar, | 44:11 | |
'cause we've got to get so many of you on it. | 44:14 | |
For the hard truth is-- | 44:19 | |
you heard it here first-- | 44:23 | |
the hard truth is not if you will give your life, | 44:26 | |
but to whom. | 44:32 | |
And many of come here to find | 44:36 | |
that we have been offering ourselves up on smaller altars, | 44:38 | |
to lesser gods. | 44:43 | |
I know a sophomore. | 44:48 | |
Came here last fall, freshman, | 44:51 | |
all buttoned down, sure of himself. | 44:54 | |
Your typical, average, high-SAT-scoring, | 44:56 | |
hyper-achieving freshman. | 44:59 | |
(laughter) | 45:01 | |
One night here in the chapel, during a worship service, | 45:02 | |
he got turned upside down, inside out. | 45:07 | |
So far as I can tell, it has messed him up for good. | 45:12 | |
He gave up a sophomore summer in Vail, or Los Alamos, | 45:18 | |
to build houses for poor people in Georgia. | 45:24 | |
Now, to most of the rest of the campus, that's called odd. | 45:29 | |
Here in the chapel, we call it normal. | 45:36 | |
Amen. | 45:42 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 45:45 | |
(reverent organ music) | 48:46 | |
♪ Take up thy cross, the Savior said ♪ | 49:19 | |
♪ If thou wouldst my disciple be ♪ | 49:26 | |
♪ Deny thyself, the world forsake ♪ | 49:33 | |
♪ And humbly follow after me ♪ | 49:41 | |
♪ Take up thy cross, let not its weight ♪ | 49:52 | |
♪ Fill thy weak spirit with alarm ♪ | 50:00 | |
♪ His strength shall bear thy spirit up ♪ | 50:08 | |
♪ And brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm ♪ | 50:16 | |
♪ Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame ♪ | 50:26 | |
♪ Nor let thy foolish pride rebel ♪ | 50:34 | |
♪ Thy Lord for thee the cross endured ♪ | 50:42 | |
♪ To save thy soul from death and hell ♪ | 50:50 | |
♪ Take up thy cross, and follow Christ ♪ | 51:01 | |
♪ Nor think till death to lay it down ♪ | 51:09 | |
♪ For only those who bear the cross ♪ | 51:16 | |
♪ May hope to wear the glorious crown. ♪ | 51:24 | |
- | Please be seated. | 51:37 |
God of Abraham and Isaac, of apostles and prophets, | 51:50 | |
in every age you call people to work for you, | 51:56 | |
showing justice, doing mercy, | 51:59 | |
giving purpose to an aimless humanity. | 52:03 | |
By your truth darkness is dispelled, | 52:06 | |
and all people set free to mature in wisdom. | 52:09 | |
In pursuit of that truth | 52:13 | |
we now take our place at Duke University. | 52:15 | |
Receive us unto yourself. | 52:19 | |
Oh God, use us to accomplish your sacred intention. | 52:21 | |
Congregation | Amen. | 52:26 |
- | That in this place we will remember | 52:28 |
those parents, teachers, and friends, | 52:30 | |
who love us, and whose hopes follow us here. | 52:33 | |
Congregation | Oh God, make their way. | 52:37 |
- | That we may accept the responsibility of our freedom | 52:40 |
and the burden of our privilege. | 52:43 | |
Congregation | Oh god, be our strength. | 52:46 |
Nancy | That with courage we may doubt, | 52:49 |
but that we will also place our doubts | 52:51 | |
in the larger faith of Jesus Christ. | 52:54 | |
Congregation | Oh God, be our wisdom. | 52:57 |
- | From insulating ourselves with books and words. | 53:00 |
Congregation | Deliver us, oh Lord. | 53:04 |
- | From ignorance that feeds injustice, | 53:07 |
from indifference that leads to cruelty, | 53:09 | |
and from blind loyalty to false values. | 53:12 | |
Congregation | Deliver us, oh Lord. | 53:16 |
- | From hopelessness that cripples us, | 53:19 |
a self-consciousness that paralyzes us, | 53:22 | |
and from temptations that destroy us. | 53:25 | |
Congregation | Deliver us, oh Lord. | 53:29 |
- | Gracious God, in a world where justice | 53:31 |
does not yet roll down as waters, | 53:35 | |
nor righteousness as a mighty stream, | 53:37 | |
where there is much knowledge, but little wisdom, | 53:40 | |
we pray for this school, its students and faculty, | 53:44 | |
staff and administrators, | 53:48 | |
and for the task in which we now unite. | 53:50 | |
Turn our efforts to good, | 53:53 | |
that as our understanding increases, | 53:55 | |
our responsibility will deepen, | 53:58 | |
for the sake of the future that you give us to create. | 54:01 | |
Everyone | Hear us, oh God, amen. | 54:06 |
- | As a forgiven and reconciled people, | 54:12 |
who have heard the word of God proclaimed, | 54:14 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves | 54:16 | |
as a living sacrifice unto God. | 54:19 | |
(reverent organ music) | 54:24 | |
(exultant organ and brass music) | 54:54 | |
♪ I was glad ♪ | 55:32 | |
♪ Glad when they said unto me ♪ | 55:40 | |
♪ We will go ♪ | 55:45 | |
♪ We will go ♪ | 55:48 | |
♪ We will go ♪ | 55:52 | |
♪ Into the house of the Lord ♪ | 55:56 | |
♪ Our feet shall stand in thy gates ♪ | 56:10 | |
♪ Our feet shall ♪ | 56:15 | |
♪ Stand in thy gates ♪ | 56:17 | |
♪ Oh, Jerusalem ♪ | ||
♪ Our feet shall stand ♪ | 56:23 | |
♪ Our feet shall stand ♪ | 56:27 | |
♪ Shall stand in thy gates ♪ | 56:30 | |
♪ Our feet shall stand ♪ | ||
♪ Shall stand in thy gates ♪ | 56:33 | |
♪ Our feet shall stand ♪ | 56:36 | |
♪ Our feet shall stand ♪ | 56:40 | |
♪ Shall stand in thy gates ♪ | 56:43 | |
♪ Oh, Jerusalem ♪ | 56:47 | |
♪ Jerusalem ♪ | 57:03 | |
♪ Is builded ♪ | 57:09 | |
♪ Is builded as a city ♪ | 57:11 | |
♪ As a city ♪ | 57:17 | |
♪ As a city ♪ | 57:22 | |
♪ That is at unity ♪ | 57:24 | |
♪ In itself ♪ | 57:34 | |
♪ Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem ♪ | 58:12 | |
♪ They shall prosper ♪ | 58:21 | |
♪ That love thee ♪ | 58:27 | |
♪ Pray for the peace ♪ | 58:34 | |
♪ They shall prosper ♪ | ||
♪ That love thee ♪ | 58:37 | |
♪ Of Jerusalem ♪ | 58:41 | |
♪ They shall prosper ♪ | ||
♪ That love thee ♪ | 58:46 | |
♪ They shall prosper ♪ | 58:49 | |
♪ That love thee ♪ | 58:53 | |
♪ Peace ♪ | 59:07 | |
♪ Peace be ♪ | 59:15 | |
♪ Within thy walls ♪ | 59:18 | |
♪ And plenteousness ♪ | 59:23 | |
♪ And plenteousness ♪ | 59:29 | |
♪ Plenteousness within they palaces ♪ | 59:35 | |
♪ And plenteousness ♪ | 59:42 | |
♪ Within thy palaces ♪ | 59:46 | |
(reverent organ music) | 1:00:18 | |
♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 1:01:00 | |
♪ Praise God, all creatures here below ♪ | 1:01:06 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:12 | |
♪ Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host ♪ | 1:01:20 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ | 1:01:26 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:33 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:40 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:47 | |
- | Our kind and gracious God, | 1:01:59 |
with glad hearts we counted joy together in your house, | 1:02:01 | |
and sing your praise forevermore. | 1:02:04 | |
We thank you for our home on earth, | 1:02:07 | |
and for the joy of living, | 1:02:09 | |
for the challenges you give us, | 1:02:11 | |
and for the work we have to do. | 1:02:13 | |
We thank you for peacemakers | 1:02:15 | |
who seek to build bridges of understanding, | 1:02:16 | |
in the face of this understanding around the world, | 1:02:19 | |
for faithful friends and caring teachers, | 1:02:22 | |
who see the best in us when we can only see the worst, | 1:02:24 | |
and for goodwill from unexpected sources | 1:02:28 | |
in times of depression and uncertainty. | 1:02:30 | |
We thank you especially, oh saving God, | 1:02:34 | |
for your love in Jesus Christ, | 1:02:36 | |
whose sacrificial love inspires us all | 1:02:38 | |
to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto you, | 1:02:40 | |
and in whose name we pray. | 1:02:45 | |
Everyone | Our Father who art in heaven, | 1:02:47 |
hallowed be thy name. | 1:02:49 | |
Thy kingdom come. | 1:02:51 | |
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:02:53 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:02:57 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 1:02:59 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 1:03:01 | |
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 1:03:05 | |
For thine is the the kingdom, | 1:03:09 | |
the power, and the glory, for ever, amen. | 1:03:11 | |
- | May the God of hope fill you with all joy, | 1:03:17 |
and peace, and believing, | 1:03:20 | |
so that you may abound in hope | 1:03:22 | |
by the power of the Holy Spirit. | 1:03:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:31 | |
(exultant organ and brass music) | 1:03:51 | |
♪ Praise the source of faith and learning ♪ | 1:04:52 | |
♪ That has sparked and stoked the mind ♪ | 1:04:58 | |
♪ With a passion for discerning ♪ | 1:05:06 | |
♪ How the world has been designed ♪ | 1:05:13 | |
♪ Let the sense of wonder flowing ♪ | 1:05:21 | |
♪ From the wonders we survey ♪ | 1:05:28 | |
♪ Keep our faith forever growing ♪ | 1:05:36 | |
♪ And renew our need to pray ♪ | 1:05:43 | |
♪ God of wisdom we acknowledge ♪ | 1:05:53 | |
♪ That our science and our art ♪ | 1:06:00 | |
♪ And the breadth of human knowledge ♪ | 1:06:08 | |
♪ Only partial truth impart ♪ | 1:06:15 | |
♪ Far beyond our calculation ♪ | 1:06:23 | |
♪ Lies a depth we cannot sound ♪ | 1:06:30 | |
♪ Where your purpose for creation ♪ | 1:06:38 | |
♪ And the pulse of life are found ♪ | 1:06:46 | |
♪ May our faith redeem the blunder ♪ | 1:06:56 | |
♪ Of believing that our thought ♪ | 1:07:04 | |
♪ Has displaced the grounds for wonder ♪ | 1:07:12 | |
♪ Which the ancient prophets taught ♪ | 1:07:19 | |
♪ May our learning curb the error ♪ | 1:07:26 | |
♪ Which unthinking faith can breed ♪ | 1:07:34 | |
♪ Lest we justify some terror ♪ | 1:07:41 | |
♪ With an antiquated creed ♪ | 1:07:48 | |
♪ As two currents in a river ♪ | 1:07:58 | |
♪ Fight each other's undertow ♪ | 1:08:05 | |
♪ Till converging they deliver ♪ | 1:08:13 | |
♪ One coherent steady flow ♪ | 1:08:20 | |
♪ May we blend our faith and learning ♪ | 1:08:27 | |
♪ Till they carve a single course ♪ | 1:08:34 | |
♪ And our seeking, and our yearning ♪ | 1:08:42 | |
♪ Join in praising you, the Source ♪ | 1:08:49 | |
♪ Praise for minds to probe the heavens ♪ | 1:08:58 | |
♪ Praise for strength to breathe the air ♪ | 1:09:06 | |
♪ Praise for all that beauty leavens ♪ | 1:09:13 | |
♪ Praise for silence, music, prayer ♪ | 1:09:20 | |
♪ Praise for justice and compassion ♪ | 1:09:27 | |
♪ And for strangers, neighbors, friends ♪ | 1:09:34 | |
♪ Praise for hearts and lips to fashion ♪ | 1:09:41 | |
♪ Praise for love that never ends ♪ | 1:09:49 | |
♪ Go in peace and serve the Lord ♪ | 1:10:02 | |
♪ In the name of God ♪ | 1:10:07 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:10:11 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 1:10:18 |