Peter J. Gomes - "The Lively Oracles of God" (October 27, 1991)

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	(organ music)	0:00
-	Good morning, and welcome to Duke Chapel.	5:46
	Our preacher this morning is the	5:49
	Reverend Doctor Peter J. Gomes,	5:50
	who is here as the Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson	5:52
	guest preacher for the 1991/92 academic year.	5:56
	Dr. Gomes of the Memorial Church of Harvard University,	6:01
	is a well known preacher, teacher, author, and lecturer.	6:04
	And it is our pleasure to welcome him	6:10
	in a return visit to Duke University.	6:12
	Also with us this morning, is Mrs. Kenneth Goodson.	6:15
	She and Bishop Goodson have been long time	6:18
	outstanding supporters of the chapel	6:22
	and Duke University, and we are glad that she	6:24
	and her family have been able to join us.	6:27
	The Duke Chapel is in Wellington for	6:30
	their outreach program today, we're grateful	6:32
	to the members of the brass ensemble.	6:35
	who will provide our special music.	6:37
	I'd like to call your attention to a few special bulletins.	6:40
	Tonight there will be a one person	6:44
	stage play, A View From the Underside,	6:46
	The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,	6:49
	performed by Al Staggs, at 7:30	6:52
	in Europe Chapel in the Divinity School.	6:55
	Tomorrow the Divinity School convocation begins	6:58
	and there will be numerous opportunities	7:01
	to participate in worship and lectures.	7:03
	And this Thursday, there will be an All Hallow's Eve	7:06
	service that will begin at 10:30 on the chapel steps.	7:08
	We hope you will be able to join us.	7:13
	Now let us continue our worship, please stand.	7:15
	The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ be with you.	7:23
	[Audience] And also with you.	7:26
-	The Risen Christ is with us.	7:28
	[Audience] Praise the Lord.	7:30
	♪ A mighty fortress is our God ♪	8:29
	♪ A bulwark never failing ♪	8:34
	♪ Our helper He amid the flood ♪	8:41
	♪ Of mortal ills prevailing ♪	8:47
	♪ For still our ancient foe ♪	8:54
	♪ Doth seek to work us woe ♪	9:01
	♪ His craft and power are great ♪	9:05
	♪ And armed with cruel hate ♪	9:12
	♪ On earth is not his equal ♪	9:17
	♪ Did we in our own strength confide ♪	9:26
	♪ Our striving would be losing ♪	9:32
	♪ Were not the right man on our side ♪	9:39
	♪ The man of God's own choosing ♪	9:45
	♪ Dost ask who that may be ♪	9:53
	♪ Christ Jesus, it is He ♪	9:58
	♪ Lord Sabbath His Name ♪	10:04
	♪ From age to age the same ♪	10:09
	♪ And He must win the battle ♪	10:15
	♪ And though this world, with devils filled ♪	10:23
	♪ Should threaten to undo us ♪	10:29
	♪ We will not fear, for God hath willed ♪	10:37
	♪ His truth to triumph through us ♪	10:43
	♪ The Prince of Darkness grim ♪	10:51
	♪ We tremble not for him ♪	10:56
	♪ His rage we can endure ♪	11:02
	♪ For lo his doom is sure ♪	11:08
	♪ One little word shall fell him ♪	11:13
	♪ That word above all earthly powers ♪	11:22
	♪ No thanks to them, abideth ♪	11:28
	♪ The Spirit and the gifts are ours ♪	11:35
	♪ Through Him who with us sideth ♪	11:41
	♪ Let goods and kindred go ♪	11:48
	♪ This mortal life also ♪	11:54
	♪ The body they may kill ♪	12:00
	♪ God's truth abideth still ♪	12:06
	♪ His Kingdom is forever ♪	12:12
-	Let us pray, God of grace, you have given	12:24
	us minds to know you, hearts to love you,	12:30
	and voices to sing your praise.	12:35
	Fill us with your Spirit that we may celebrate	12:39
	your glory and truly worship you through	12:43
	Jesus Christ our Lord, amen, you may be seated.	12:48
-	Let us pray together the Prayer for Elimination.	13:06
	[All] Open our hearts and minds oh God	13:10
	by the power of your Holy Spirit,	13:14
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	13:17
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	13:21
-	The first reading is taken from	13:29
	the second book of Chronicles.	13:31
	While they were bringing out the money	13:34
	that had been brought into the house of the Lord,	13:37
	the priest, Hilkiah, found the Book of the Law	13:41
	of the Lord that given through Moses.	13:45
	Hilkiah said to the secretary, Shaphan,	13:49
	"I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord."	13:53
	And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.	13:58
	Shaphan brought the book to the King,	14:03
	and further reported to the King,	14:06
	"All that was committed to your servants they are doing,	14:09
	"they have emptied out the money	14:13
	"that was found in the house of the Lord,	14:16
	"and have delivered it into the hand	14:18
	"of the overseers and the workers."	14:21
	The secretary, Shaphan, informed the King,	14:25
	"The priest Hilkiah, has given me a book."	14:29
	Shaphan then read it aloud to the King.	14:33
	When the King heard the words of the law,	14:37
	he tore his clothes, then the King commanded Hilkiah,	14:42
	"Ahikam, son of Shaphan, Abdon, son of Micah,	14:48
	"the secretary, Shaphan, and the King's servant, Assiah,	14:53
	"go, inquire of the Lord for me,	14:57
	"and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah,	15:02
	"concerning the words of the book	15:06
	"that has been found, for the wrath	15:08
	"of the Lord that is poured out on us is great,	15:11
	"because our ancestors did not keep the word of the Lord	15:15
	"to act in accordance with all	15:21
	that is written in this book."	15:23
	This is the word of the Lord.	15:29
	[All] Thanks to God.	15:32
-	The salter is psalm 119 verses 33-48, found on page 842	15:36
	in your hymnal, please stand as we read responsively.	15:44
	Teach me, oh Lord, the way of your statutes,	15:57
	And I will keep it to the end.	16:00
	[Audience] Give me understanding, so that I may keep	16:04
	your law and obey it with all my heart.	16:07
-	Lead me in the path of your commandments,	16:11
	for I find delight in it.	16:14
	[Audience] Turn my heart toward your testimonies	16:16
	and not toward selfish gain.	16:19
-	Turn my eyes away from looking at vanities	16:22
	and give me life in your ways.	16:25
	[Audience] Fulfill your promise to your servant,	16:27
	so that you may be feared.	16:31
-	Turn away the reproach which I dread,	16:34
	for your ordinances are good.	16:38
	[Audience] How I long for your precepts!	16:41
-	Let your steadfast love come to me, oh Lord,	16:44
	your salvation according to your promise.	16:50
	[Audience] May your unfailing love come to me, Lord,	16:55
	your salvation, according to your promise.	16:58
-	Then take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,	17:01
	for my faith is in your ordinances.	17:06
	[Audience] Never take your word of truth from my mouth,	17:09
	for I have put my hope in your laws.	17:12
-	And I shall walk in liberty	17:16
	for I have sought your precepts.	17:17
	[Audience] I will speak of your statutes before kings	17:20
	and will not be put to shame,	17:23
-	For I find my delight in your commandments which I love.	17:28
	[Audience] I reach out for your commands, which I love.	17:32
	(choir music)	17:41
-	Please be seated, this reading is from	18:34
	Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.	18:47
	From now on, therefore, we regard no one	18:51
	from a human point of view, even though,	18:54
	we once knew Christ from a human point of view,	18:59
	we know him no longer in that way.	19:03
	So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.	19:07
	Everything old has passed away, see,	19:14
	everything has become new, all of this is from God,	19:18
	who reconciled us to himself through Christ	19:24
	and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,	19:29
	that is in Christ, God was reconciling the world	19:33
	to himself not counting their trespasses against them	19:38
	and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.	19:43
	So we are ambassadors for Christ since God is making his	19:49
	appeal through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ,	19:54
	be reconciled to God for our sake he made him to be sin	20:00
	who knew no sin so that in him	20:08
	we might become the righteousness of God.	20:11
	This is the word of the Lord.	20:18
	[Audience] Thanks be to God.	20:20
	("Brass Quintet, Op. 65:11")	20:28
-	This reading is taken from the	24:18
	gospel according to Saint Mark.	24:20
	They came to Jericho as he and his disciples	24:23
	and the large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus,	24:29
	son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.	24:34
	When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to	24:41
	shout and say, "Jesus, son of David, "have mercy on me."	24:45
	Many sternly ordered him to be quiet,	24:52
	but he cried out even more loudly,	24:57
	"Son of David, have mercy on me!"	24:59
	Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here."	25:04
	And they called the blind man saying to him,	25:10
	"Take heart, get up, he is calling you."	25:15
	So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up	25:20
	and came to Jesus, then Jesus said to him,	25:23
	"What do you want me to do for you?"	25:29
	The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again."	25:32
	Jesus said to him, "Go, your faith has made you well."	25:40
	Immediately, he regained his sight	25:47
	and followed him on the way. This is the word of the Lord.	25:50
	[All] Thanks be to God.	25:59
-	In the name of God, the Father,	26:26
	the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.	26:29
	Dean Willermen and I have worked out the most admirable	26:38
	of arrangements, whereby we may remain the most intimate	26:42
	of friends, and never ever have	26:47
	to listen to each other preach.	26:50
	(laughter)	26:53
	The dean is this morning, at this very hour,	26:54
	filling the space gloriously in the Memorial Church	26:58
	at Harvard,	27:01
	and I am doing my best to fill in for him here.	27:03
	It's a wonderful arrangement, may God give us the wisdom	27:07
	and the funds to continue it indefinitely.	27:12
	(laughter)	27:15
	Now my text this morning does not come	27:18
	from the usual sources of the lessons,	27:21
	it doesn't come from the Old Testament lessons	27:24
	nor from the Epistle nor from the Gospel,	27:28
	it actually comes from the Psalter,	27:31
	and it comes from the psalm in which you were asked	27:35
	to read this morning, which is before you,	27:38
	it is the hundred and ninth verse	27:42
	of the hundred and 19th psalm,	27:44
	"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,	27:47
	and a light unto my path."	27:52
	And if it won't embarrass you, I suggest that	27:55
	you open it up, take a peak at it.	27:59
	I understand that that is more of a custom	28:03
	in the south than it is in the north.	28:05
	It won't do you any harm, we will refer to this psalm	28:08
	and dip in and out of it like a jar of peanuts,	28:12
	so you might want to look at psalm	28:15
	a hundred and 19, at the hundred	28:18
	and ninth verse, "Thy word is a lamp	28:20
	unto my feet, and a light unto my path."	28:25
	Now I told you where the text comes from,	28:31
	perhaps I ought to tell you where the title comes from,	28:33
	because as in most preaching, the sermon really	28:36
	doesn't make sense if the title doesn't make sense.	28:40
	I say to students in preaching, if your title isn't clear,	28:43
	the sermon is likely to be unclear,	28:47
	so I want to make it clear to you where this title,	28:50
	the Lively Oracles of God, came from.	28:54
	There are some of you in this congregation I suspect	28:59
	who will know exactly where it came from.	29:03
	I can tell you the hour, the day, and the place	29:06
	where this title came to life for me.	29:11
	It was on June 23rd 1953,	29:16
	at 4:35 in the morning.	29:21
	Now you may ask, how can I be so precise,	29:26
	how can I be so detailed in a thing?	29:29
	Well there may be one or two of you maybe three or four	29:33
	of you in this congregation who know to what event I refer.	29:36
	I refer to the date of the coronation	29:41
	of Elizabeth the Second, Queen of England,	29:44
	et cetera, an event which was one of the first major	29:48
	events broadcast worldwide on television.	29:52
	Television in June of 1953 was	29:57
	a small, tiny little affair,	30:00
	it wasn't live, it was transmitted	30:04
	by tape flown across the water.	30:06
	But I was fascinated by what I	30:10
	took to be a historic occasion.	30:12
	I was given permission to stay home from school	30:14
	to watch the coronation on television so I got up very early	30:17
	in the morning and watched the whole thing all day long.	30:21
	Fascinated by this extraordinary event,	30:26
	which for the first time, was transmitted into the lives	30:30
	and into the homes of ordinary people.	30:33
	I never saw anything like it before,	30:37
	and I don't expect I will see anything quite like it again.	30:40
	Early on in that very long service in the Abbey,	30:45
	the Queen is presented with a Bible that is taken	30:49
	from the high alter at West Minster,	30:53
	and an act introduced into the coronation service in 1689,	30:56
	she is presented with the word of scripture,	31:01
	and the presentation this time is an Ecumenical	31:06
	gesture back in 1953, it is made by the moderator	31:09
	of the General Assembly of the church of Scotland.	31:14
	They presumably, the church of Scotland that is,	31:19
	take the Bible far more seriously	31:21
	than the church of England.	31:23
	(laughter)	31:25
	So the moderator comes to the royal presence	31:26
	and he has the book in his hands and among other things,	31:29
	this is what he says to the Queen,	31:34
	"We present you with this book.	31:38
	"The most valuable thing this world affords.	31:41
	"Here is wisdom, this is the royal law.	31:46
	"These are the lively oracles of God."	31:53
	A wonderful phrase, I've never forgotten it.	31:59
	"The lively oracles of God."	32:03
	He didn't say, here's the old Testament,	32:06
	here's the New Testament, here's the apocropher,	32:08
	I hope they help you out as you get on with your work.	32:10
	He didn't even say, here is an important book	32:14
	of interesting sayings that may or may not be useful,	32:17
	no, he said, "The lively oracles of God."	32:21
	Combining all of the mystery and antiquity	32:25
	of the known world, this than is a sermon	32:30
	about the lively oracles of God.	32:36
	Or if there were a subtext to this sermon it would be,	32:40
	how intelligent, pious,	32:44
	and reasonably secular Christians	32:49
	ought to read and treat the Bible.	32:53
	I am assuming that you are all intelligent,	32:58
	reasonably pious, profoundly secular,	33:02
	and the question is how should a	33:07
	bright congregation like you, bright,	33:10
	intelligent, able, articulate people,	33:13
	deal with the Bible.	33:17
	How should you make your Christianity	33:19
	and the sacred text work?	33:22
	This sermon then has a very practical ambition.	33:26
	It is to try to show you how to use the most bought book	33:30
	and translate it into something that in fact may be useful.	33:36
	This is meant to be practical so listen up, pay attention,	33:41
	it could mean the difference between life and death for you.	33:45
	Now as I thought about this sermon,	33:51
	three wonderful opportunities,	33:53
	three sermon made illustrations leapt to my mind	33:56
	over the course of the past few days.	33:59
	And I thought I would share them with you.	34:03
	A few days ago, in Cambridge, as I was leaving one gate	34:07
	of Harvard Yard about to go into another,	34:10
	I noticed that every one of the college gates,	34:12
	there were a pair of very respectable looking,	34:15
	slightly paunchy, elderly, gray haired,	34:19
	white men at every gate, and these pairs	34:24
	of men had boxes of something which they were handing	34:29
	out to undergraduates and anybody else who	34:32
	happened to be passing through the gates.	34:36
	Now we're handed out a lot of free stuff in Cambridge,	34:38
	and most of it isn't worth throwing away,	34:41
	but we're always curious, so I went through these gates	34:43
	and I noticed that these two very gentile,	34:47
	bankery like men were handing out little green books.	34:51
	They were handing out New Testaments	34:56
	with psalms and proverbs, and you guessed it,	34:59
	they were the Gideons,	35:03
	they're everywhere, the Gideons.	35:07
	Everywhere you turn around, there's a Gideon or two.	35:10
	They travel in pairs like nuns.	35:13
	You just don't know when you're going to run	35:16
	into a pair of these Gideons and here they were in	35:19
	the most unlikely place in all Christiandom,	35:22
	Harvard Yard handing out the Bible.	35:25
	Now as students passed through, some would look at this	35:30
	and say, no thanks, that's not for me, others were too well	35:32
	bred and they sort of took it and held it gingerly.	35:36
	(laughter)	35:39
	Others dropped it in their knapsacks so no one	35:41
	would see that they had taken one,	35:44
	and one or two were actually interested	35:46
	and I said to these two men as I received mine,	35:48
	I said, are you having a good day?	35:53
	And they said, "Yes, yes people are being very nice to us."	35:56
	And I said, are people taking what you're handing out?	36:01
	"Oh", they said, "Yes, they are."	36:03
	They'd gone through one box and they were working	36:04
	on the next, I was impressed, now 10 years ago,	36:06
	I think I would have been a little embarrassed	36:10
	by having these Gideons hawking scripture in the middle	36:13
	of Harvard Yard, after all, if people wanted to know what	36:16
	scripture was, they'd do as you do,	36:18
	they'd come to church on Sunday	36:21
	and I'll tell 'em what it's about.	36:22
	(laughter)	36:24
	We don't need to embarrass one another out there	36:26
	in the street, handing these things out like	36:29
	Jehovah's Witnesses, what would my secular colleagues think?	36:31
	What would my friends in the chemistry department	36:34
	think if they see people handing out Bibles in the Yard?	36:36
	What would my friends of other religions traditions think?	36:40
	What would my Episcopalian friends think?	36:43
	I mean it's all very dangerous and delicate thing,	36:46
	and 10 years ago I'd have been	36:49
	terribly embarrassed about it.	36:51
	But I can't tell you that the world	36:53
	has gotten much better or much worse,	36:55
	but this time I was secretly delighted.	36:56
	I was thrilled and the degree of discomfort	37:00
	and embarrassment and dislocation that	37:05
	this strange, old fashioned form of evangelism	37:08
	represented in the middle of godless Harvard,	37:10
	filled me with wicked delight.	37:13
	And I said to these old fellows, well carry on.	37:16
	There's a gate down there, I don't see anyone there.	37:19
	Why don't you go down there?	37:22
	(laughter)	37:24
	What an extraordinary act, handing	37:26
	out the lively oracles of God.	37:29
	Well that was illustration number one.	37:32
	Illustration number two, fill the newspapers	37:35
	and prime time TV about three weeks ago,	37:39
	and it had to do in a way with some	37:42
	of my colleagues in the faculty of Divinity.	37:43
	Can you believe that the hardest news before Anita Hill	37:47
	and Clarence Thomas, the hardest news was	37:51
	The Dead Sea Scrolls, front page of the Times.	37:54
	Ted Koppel talking about the The Dead Sea Scrolls,	37:58
	all of the news hounds interest in the The Dead Sea Scrolls.	38:01
	Wouldn't know one if they tripped over one.	38:05
	(laughter)	38:07
	But the The Dead Sea Scrolls hot news!	38:10
	And the Huntington Library makes a name	38:14
	for itself by making these things all available.	38:16
	Now this was interesting because my colleagues	38:20
	in the Old Testament of Harvard of Divinity School,	38:23
	of course invented The Dead Sea Scrolls.	38:25
	(laughter)	38:27
	And have been making this thing up for 40 years.	38:28
	And the gig is now up, other people have a chance	38:31
	to look at this and the whole hint	38:35
	of conspiracy and academic fraud	38:36
	and all of this hung over these obscure	38:41
	pieces of paper,	38:45
	fragments, that may or may not have	38:47
	anything to do with what the Bible is all about.	38:50
	I'm not interested in what's in the The Dead Sea Scrolls,	38:54
	but what fascinated me was that everybody	38:57
	seemed to be fascinated by these things.	38:59
	The Harvard Crimson demanded that one	39:02
	of their reporters be allowed access to the plates	39:05
	of the The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Huntington Library.	39:09
	Now these undergraduates can scarcely read English,	39:12
	let alone Aramaic or whatever these scrolls are written in.	39:14
	And they wouldn't take one of the Bibles	39:18
	from the Gideon's, I'm sure, printed in English.	39:20
	But they would go to California	39:23
	and read things they couldn't even decipher	39:25
	because there was something exotic,	39:27
	even sexy, about The Dead Sea Scrolls.	39:29
	And so that was the second instance	39:32
	of these lively oracles that seemed to cry out	39:35
	for some kind of attention on my part.	39:37
	And the third was about three Saturday's ago,	39:41
	in The New York Times, I always read the church pages	39:44
	of The New York Times just to see what my clerical	39:48
	colleagues are preaching on the next day in sin city,	39:51
	and so I noticed that my old friend, Jim Forbes,	39:56
	a friend of Dean Willerman, and a preacher	40:00
	of many times in this very pulpit, Jim Forbes,	40:02
	the minister of Riverside Church,	40:06
	was preaching three Sunday's ago on the topic,	40:09
	Biblical Literacy for Liberal's and Other Christians.	40:12
	That was his title, now you may want to hear that sermon,	40:17
	Biblical Literacy for Liberal's and Other Christians.	40:23
	And you may prefer his to mine,	40:26
	but mine is the one you're going to get today.	40:28
	(laughter)	40:31
	The lively oracles of God,	40:32
	here they are in so many guises	40:35
	and devices in every dimension confronting us.	40:38
	Now the lively oracles of God for Protestants,	40:42
	for that is what of us are, where most of us come from,	40:46
	we have to confess that the lively oracles	40:50
	of God for Protestant are at best	40:53
	a very mixed blessing.	40:56
	Many of our traditions, especially those	41:00
	of us from the reformed traditions out	41:02
	of which all of us come on reformation day,	41:05
	these traditions having done away at some point	41:08
	in our history with the authority of popes, bishops	41:12
	and priests, put in it's place the absolute	41:16
	infallible authority of scripture.	41:20
	The authority of the Bible, creating in the words	41:23
	of one critic, the Protestants paper pope.	41:26
	Infallible translated to the printed page,	41:31
	and that is infallibility of our Protestant pope,	41:36
	becoming the mother of all fundamentalists,	41:40
	all inerrantists, all literalists,	41:44
	all bibliolitrists, all those who violate	41:48
	the first commandment and worship the Bible.	41:53
	The dangers of the Bible even	41:59
	here in the south are well known.	42:01
	Try to create the Bible world,	42:06
	try to create a biblical ethos,	42:08
	try to live in the biblical world on it's full	42:11
	and total assumptions as it is perfectly	42:15
	misunderstood and you are in trouble.	42:18
	You want to be in trouble, as well.	42:21
	You enter the fantastic world of what my colleague	42:24
	Krista Standall once called, Bible Land,	42:27
	with all the authority of a Disney recreation.	42:31
	Everything is clear and nothing makes sense.	42:36
	To attempt as many do to recreate a biblical world	42:41
	with biblical assumptions is to attempt a world	42:46
	that will resemble a church school pageant.	42:50
	Remember, a church school pageant is a form	42:54
	of play acting where the pleasure, the pleasure in a church	42:57
	school pageant is in the imperfection	43:02
	of the performance, nobody expects it to be good.	43:05
	The dangers of the Bible are not so much	43:11
	in what is thought as impossible,	43:12
	like the Red Sea or the sun standing still for Joshua,	43:15
	or the feeding of the five thousand by our Lord	43:19
	on a mountainside, the dangers of the Bible are not in what	43:22
	is thought to be impossible but rather what is thought	43:27
	to be very possible and very true,	43:30
	because it says so and we wish it so.	43:35
	The social rules, for example, wherein Saint Paul,	43:40
	assumes the social assumptions of the day	43:45
	in his correspondence to those very particular people,	43:48
	in the particular church of Corinth,	43:52
	where they had a particular problem.	43:55
	He tells people in particular places particular things	43:57
	and remember he tells the women of that particular church	44:00
	in that particular place to keep silent.	44:04
	Wherein also in that lovely, and I use that word	44:08
	very carefully, that lovely epistle, to find Leman.	44:11
	Saint Paul assumes the continued existence	44:16
	of chattel slavery, which is not	44:19
	condemned but transcended in the law.	44:21
	Or where in both the Hebrews social scripture	44:26
	and in Saint Paul social commentary,	44:29
	homosexuality is forbidden and a new kingdom of morality	44:31
	imposed upon an old world and not yet ready for it.	44:36
	Dangers lurk in every one of those texts.	44:42
	The found dangers you should see flashing yellow lights	44:48
	warning, go slow, at every one of those point,	44:53
	every bigot, every scoundrel,	44:58
	every two bit Christian	45:02
	and every two bit preacher has found a text	45:04
	in the Bible in which to pummel his opponents	45:07
	into submission, those who deviate from the assumptions,	45:11
	club them into the ground by the authority of scripture.	45:17
	And it is all done in the name of God.	45:21
	About 20 years ago, an October Sunday, 1971,	45:26
	I was the new, young, assistant in the Memorial Church	45:33
	at Harvard, and in the luck of the draw,	45:36
	I drew the straw to read the service	45:40
	that day for the visiting preacher.	45:43
	The visiting preacher was the first woman	45:46
	ever to preach in the Memorial Church,	45:49
	and that first woman was one named Mary Daily.	45:53
	Now for that distinction, I will say here as I	45:59
	have said elsewhere, I think it was an unfortunate choice,	46:02
	it wasn't mine, I did as I was told, and so there she was.	46:06
	Mary Daily stood in the pulpit of Memorial Church,	46:11
	but before she did, some of her friends she	46:14
	had asked to read lessons in the service and they did.	46:18
	And they chose all of the violent,	46:24
	anti-female passages	46:27
	in both Old and New Testament, and they read these passages	46:30
	with the most contemptuous, ridicule filled manner possible,	46:35
	each one of her adherents underscoring the point.	46:41
	It was the most terrible and horrible hearing	46:46
	of the word of God that I have ever heard.	46:51
	Terrible not for what it said and terrible not even	46:55
	for the way almost blasphemously in which it was read,	47:00
	but terrible for the use	47:06
	to which I knew it was put in	47:09
	the past to hurt and destroy women	47:12
	and terrible in the use	47:16
	to which I knew it was about to be put by Mary Daily	47:19
	in her revenge, to hurt believers	47:24
	and the faithful in God.	47:28
	I think that was the most horrible moment	47:32
	that I have ever spent in that or in any other church.	47:34
	Realizing perhaps for the first time	47:39
	the evil and perverse use of scripture.	47:43
	A few months ago, I listened to a	47:51
	sermon tape by an anonymous preacher.	47:54
	I don't usually listen to anonymous preachers on tape,	47:57
	I don't listen to any preachers on tape as a rule.	48:00
	I listen to the music but the sermon was in the middle	48:02
	of this music and so I was stuck.	48:05
	I couldn't fast forward without losing a little	48:07
	of the music, so I understand what you	48:10
	will be doing to me presently.	48:12
	(laughter)	48:15
	But in this sermon that I was forced to listen to,	48:15
	the young preacher was telling a story about Howard Thurman.	48:18
	And he told how Howard Thurman had been brought	48:22
	up by his ancient grandmother, who herself had been	48:25
	brought up in slavery, and how she had taught him	48:28
	the Bible from cover to cover, he had heard it everyday	48:30
	of his life, had memorized vast quantities of it,	48:34
	and was rich in scripture at the knees of his grandmother.	48:38
	And so he tells the story, Howard Thurman,	48:42
	how he then went out to graduate school	48:44
	in Divinity at Boston, University,	48:47
	and he took his first course confidently	48:51
	in New Testament because he had learned the Bible	48:53
	at his mother's knee and knew it all,	48:56
	but he discovered very quickly that there are vast portions	48:59
	of the New Testament which somehow had escaped his	49:03
	grandmother's cannon in which he knew nothing about,	49:05
	namely the complete writings of Saint Paul.	49:09
	So young Howard went back home and said to his grandmother,	49:14
	"Grandmother, you wonderful old Christian	49:18
	"of the Lord, I feel you've left something	49:22
	"out of my biblical instruction."	49:24
	And she said, "What is this, boy?"	49:27
	And he said, "All of the writings of the apostle Paul,	49:29
	"at BU they say they're pretty important	49:33
	"in the New Testament, and I feel deprived.	49:35
	"Why have you treated me thusly?"	49:38
	And this old, ignorant black woman said,	49:41
	"When I was a girl on the plantation in Virginia,	49:44
	"the white preacher would come	49:48
	"once a month to preach to the slaves,	49:49
	"and the only text he ever took was	49:52
	"that text of Saint Paul that says,	49:55
	"slaves be obedient to your masters	49:57
	"for such is the word of the law."	50:00
	And she said, "I didn't believe that any Bible	50:04
	"that came from my Jesus would have such things in it	50:08
	"and so I took the Bible when I was able to read it	50:12
	"for myself, and with my scissors,	50:16
	"I cut out everything that didn't make sense."	50:20
	The dangers are clear to us	50:26
	and ought to be clear	50:30
	on every hand, the dangers of the use	50:32
	and the abuse of scripture, and when for example,	50:35
	I hear as I do all the time, the venomous, ignorant,	50:40
	passionate preaching of clergy, black and white,	50:44
	male and female, local and far away, concerning for example,	50:48
	women, homosexuality, and generations ago,	50:53
	sermons on race,	50:57
	I feel like Howard Thurman's grandmother,	50:59
	and I reach for my scissors and I hope the only thing	51:02
	that I do damage to is the printed page.	51:06
	I know better and you should know better	51:10
	and you will know better by the time	51:13
	I'm finished with you this morning.	51:15
	(laughter)	51:17
	For in that same book, which talks about silent women	51:18
	and obedient slaves is that illuminating	51:23
	and enlightening text in psalm 119,	51:28
	which describes the Bible not as billy club	51:32
	with which to beat our adversaries into the ground	51:36
	or maintain our particular positions of privilege,	51:39
	but describes the Bible in another way.	51:43
	It does not describe the Bible as a roadmap,	51:47
	or an atlas, or a globe, or a telescope,	51:51
	or a microscope.	51:55
	It describes the Bible as a lamp,	51:57
	a lantern, a light,	52:02
	a bicycle light if you will, that little thing	52:05
	that people clip on to their ankles riding their bicycles,	52:08
	and that little thing does not illuminate all that there is,	52:12
	but it shows you where you are	52:17
	and in just a few feet, where you are going.	52:20
	It is not a flood light, not an arch light,	52:25
	but a foot light, a guide to our feet so that we may	52:28
	make one step at a time, that is what the Psalmist	52:33
	is about here, thy word is a lamp under my feet,	52:38
	a light unto my path, it doesn't illumine all there is,	52:42
	but it enables me to put one foot before the other.	52:47
	A character of such a lantern illustrates	52:55
	where we are going so by it we may proceed carefully,	52:58
	because all is not seen, some of you old Methodists	53:03
	and some of you other Baptists will remember	53:08
	a hymn that illustrates this very, very carefully indeed,	53:10
	How Beautiful to Walk in the Steps of the Savior	53:14
	and how does it go, stepping in the light,	53:18
	stepping in the light, how beautiful to walk in the steps	53:21
	of the savior, led in paths of light,	53:25
	that's what it's about, stepping in the light	53:29
	is the text of this marvelous psalm,	53:31
	and what is more in that burden is that	53:35
	our effort to step in the light takes work.	53:38
	We have to work to understand	53:43
	these lively oracles of God.	53:46
	They require as psalm of 119 points out over	53:49
	and over again, effort, work, imagination,	53:52
	a sincere desire for understanding, not simply	53:56
	to get at the truth, whatever that may mean,	54:00
	but getting at that which gives	54:03
	meaning, purpose, direction to life.	54:06
	The question is never is it true,	54:10
	the question is always what does it mean?	54:14
	What does it cast light upon, where do I go,	54:19
	what can I do or what can I not do as a result	54:23
	of the light that this word sheds.	54:27
	The lively oracles of God paradoxically	54:30
	tells us less about God and more about	54:33
	the people of God in their efforts to apprehend	54:36
	and understand who God is, thus the Bible is not	54:39
	the mirror in which we see the face of God,	54:45
	the Bible is the mirror in which we see our face	54:49
	and the faces of all of our ancestors	54:53
	who themselves tried to see God.	54:56
	Now if you read the Bible and I hope you do,	55:03
	you will discover that there are some wicked people	55:06
	in the Bible, it should give you consolation,	55:09
	people just like yourselves in the Bible,	55:12
	Ahab and Jezebel, for example, come to attention	55:15
	in the category of wicked people.	55:20
	There are some stupid people in the Bible as well,	55:22
	that should make more of you feel grateful and with company,	55:25
	remember Ananias and Sapphira, they who did not pay up,	55:29
	on their every member plant canvas pledge,	55:33
	and paid for it with their lives.	55:36
	And there are some heroes and heroines	55:39
	in the Bible like David and Judith,	55:41
	not without flaws but great in the eyes of God.	55:44
	And there is ultimately in the Bible the savior, Himself,	55:48
	Jesus Christ, through whose	55:53
	eyes all else is seen.	55:55
	A living testimony to the wonderful	55:59
	diversity of creation, the creation which has	56:04
	at it's center, it's builder, and maker, God.	56:08
	It is a living word subject to work, labor,	56:13
	and interpretation, it is not a thesaurus,	56:18
	it is not a dictionary, it is not a road map,	56:21
	you cannot use the Bible as a cheap	56:25
	way to getting through an easy life,	56:27
	it was never meant for that, and it is abused	56:30
	when we try to use it for that.	56:34
	But the phrase the lively oracle begins	56:37
	to suggest what is at bottom here.	56:41
	Oracles always require more work	56:46
	on your part, they do not give anything away.	56:48
	Remember 1929, all of the financial people	56:55
	went to JP Morgan in New York,	56:58
	the greatest oracle there was in finance,	57:00
	they said, Mr. Morgan, what is going to happen	57:03
	to the financial markets, what are we	57:05
	going to do, the world seems in chaos.	57:07
	And JP Morgan said, well it may rise,	57:09
	or it may fall.	57:14
	Oracles give nothing away. You have to work.	57:18
	You have to use your imagination.	57:23
	You have to interpret	57:26
	and ingest and respond to that	57:29
	lively oracle of God.	57:32
	Saint Augustine it is said, slept with a copy	57:36
	of the City of God as a pillow, Saint Augustine City of God,	57:38
	hoping that by that device it's	57:42
	wisdom would seek into his brain.	57:46
	Many of you undergraduates doubtless	57:49
	try to do this with your physics texts	57:51
	and whatever else it is, it didn't work	57:53
	for Saint Augustine, it won't work for you.	57:55
	That's an abuse of the	57:58
	lively oracle of God.	58:00
	When I entered Harvard Divinity School	58:05
	now many years go, my church prayed for me.	58:07
	The First Baptist Church of Plymouth, they prayed for me.	58:11
	They said, my God, here is a boy we brought up	58:14
	to love the Lord and read the scriptures,	58:16
	and what has all of our effort got us?	58:18
	He's going to Harvard Divinity School.	58:20
	The house of harlots and whores,	58:22
	that dreadful, dreadful place.	58:24
	Well they may have been right, but I didn't fit	58:27
	to go nowhere else, I must say as I'm still there.	58:30
	(laughter)	58:32
	But the first thing I remember was in	58:34
	the New Testament course, taught by my teacher,	58:35
	Helmut Koester, he began this course by quoting	58:38
	a German biblical scholar in Latin,	58:42
	which he told us to write into the fly leaf of our Bibles	58:45
	and to consider it for the rest of our life,	58:51
	this was the very first word he uttered	58:54
	in this formidable New Testament course	58:56
	and the translation from Ben Gow was this,	58:59
	apply yourself closely to the text,	59:03
	apply the text closely to yourself.	59:08
	There is life yet in these lively oracles of God	59:14
	and if our lives as pious and intelligent,	59:19
	aspiring Christians are to count for anything here	59:23
	or in the world, we must make lively work	59:27
	of the lively oracles of God and their powers.	59:32
	Using our mind and our spirit and our imagination	59:36
	and checking in with the mind and the spirit	59:40
	and the imagination of God and the people of God.	59:43
	Their authority is to show us not so much	59:47
	where we have been	59:51
	and not even we are but for a moment,	59:54
	but like that bicycle light, to guide us	59:58
	in the path in which we are going to go,	1:00:02
	one step, one revolution at a time.	1:00:07
	Thy word is a lamp to our feet	1:00:12
	and a light to our path, let us pray.	1:00:16
	Oh, God, we praise you for these lively oracles that	1:00:27
	you have committed into our hands and into our hearts,	1:00:30
	into our care and into our minds.	1:00:35
	And we praise you most especially	1:00:38
	for that living word in comment,	1:00:41
	Jesus Christ, are whom and in whom and with whom,	1:00:44
	we make our way along the path of light,	1:00:49
	amen.	1:00:55
	♪ Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices ♪	1:01:25
	♪ Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices ♪	1:01:32
	♪ Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way ♪	1:01:40
	♪ With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today ♪	1:01:46
	♪ Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us ♪	1:01:54
	♪ With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us ♪	1:02:01
	♪ And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed ♪	1:02:09
	♪ And guard us through all ills in this world, till the next ♪	1:02:16
	♪ All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given ♪	1:02:23
	♪ The Son, and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven ♪	1:02:29
	♪ The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore ♪	1:02:34
	♪ For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore ♪	1:02:40
-	The Lord be with you.	1:03:06
	[Audience] And also with you.	1:03:09
-	Let us pray, you may be seated.	1:03:11
	Eternal God, your glory fills Heaven and earth.	1:03:18
	Your creation is greater than our powers to describe.	1:03:25
	We are your creatures and you our creator.	1:03:30
	Who are we that you were mindful of us?	1:03:35
	The distance between us could not	1:03:39
	be bridged from our side to yours,	1:03:42
	so you bridged it from your side to ours.	1:03:45
	Despite our disregard for you, our contempt,	1:03:49
	our use and abuse of your oracles,	1:03:54
	our violation of your covenant.	1:03:57
	In Jesus Christ, you took upon yourself	1:04:01
	our humanity and transformed it.	1:04:04
	In Him, the old has passed away and the new has come.	1:04:07
	And we, sinners that we are, are given the gift	1:04:12
	of reconciliation, we pray, dear Lord,	1:04:17
	for those who govern every land.	1:04:23
	We pray that you may be a light to their paths.	1:04:25
	For the people committed to their charge.	1:04:31
	Turn the hearts of leaders and all people to you.	1:04:35
	That governments may be guided by your wisdom to seek	1:04:39
	the good that you have intended for us	1:04:43
	through Jesus Christ, Lord, in your mercy,	1:04:46
	[All] Hear our prayers.	1:04:50
-	God of peace, we pray especially for those who	1:04:53
	will gather in the Middle East to attempt	1:04:57
	to find peaceful solutions to complex problems,	1:05:00
	through your great love, may tender all hearts	1:05:04
	hardened by hatred and suspicion.	1:05:08
	Work your justice among us and heal old wounds	1:05:12
	that we may know lasting peace in this region	1:05:16
	and throughout the planet, Lord in your mercy,	1:05:21
	[All] Hear our prayer.	1:05:25
-	We pray for all families that are in conflict.	1:05:27
	For husbands and wives who are	1:05:31
	entrenched in anger and disappointment.	1:05:34
	For children who are neglected and lonely.	1:05:36
	For brothers and sisters who are hurt	1:05:40
	and suspicious of one another.	1:05:42
	Here are the conflicts which tear us apart.	1:05:45
	Illumine our homes with the light of your love,	1:05:48
	that we may learn to more perfectly love one another.	1:05:52
	Lord, in your mercy,	1:05:56
	[All] Hear our prayer.	1:05:58
-	Holy comforter, healing spirit, grant your peace	1:06:01
	to those who are sick, and those who grieve.	1:06:06
	Radiate through their lives, the light of your presence,	1:06:10
	that renewed health and strength may be theirs.	1:06:15
	Lord, in your mercy,	1:06:18
	[All] Hear our prayer.	1:06:20
-	Gracious God, you suffer with all those who suffer.	1:06:24
	We pray to you for those who are denied	1:06:29
	what they need to live, for the homeless,	1:06:32
	for the hungry, victim of violence or disaster,	1:06:35
	reach out and bring healing through the hands	1:06:40
	of your faithful people, Lord, in your mercy,	1:06:44
	[All] Hear our prayer.	1:06:48
-	God of hope and new life, help us to see the joy	1:06:51
	and abundant life you intend for us.	1:06:55
	Grant us your peace, peace which is not the absence	1:06:59
	of trouble, but the awareness of your guiding	1:07:03
	presence and light in all that we do,	1:07:06
	through Jesus Christ we pray, amen.	1:07:10
	Let us present the offerings of our life	1:07:16
	and labor to the Lord with Thanksgiving.	1:07:19
	(organ music)	1:07:35

Item Info

Title:

Peter J. Gomes - "The Lively Oracles of God" (October 27, 1991)

Description:

The Scriptures are not intended to be a club with which we beat our opponents into submission. When used as such, they can be very dangerous. Rather, as Psalm 119 says, they are a lamp to illumine our path step by step and guide us into a meaningful and purposeful life. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 26:26. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:00:58.
Key quotation: “Oracles give nothing away. You have to work. You have to use your imagination. You have to interpret and ingest and respond to that lively oracle of God.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45d8nv8q

Date:

October 27, 1991

Speaker:

Gomes, Peter J.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0253
ref9010_q8e
uachapelsermaud
duke:321495
dcrmv001243
ark:/87924/r45d8nv8q
af07fbcc-8470-4188-86d4-99d78e8e985d

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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