William H. Willimon - "How Does the Story End?" (January 22, 1995)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(ethereal choral music) | 0:01 | |
- | Good morning. | 2:56 |
Welcome to Duke University Chapel | 2:57 | |
for this service of worship. | 2:59 | |
We've been lead in worship by our guest choir | 3:02 | |
from Towson State, the Towson State University Chorale | 3:06 | |
was joining the Duke Chapel choir for this service | 3:11 | |
and we are happy to have these | 3:14 | |
talented young musicians with us. | 3:17 | |
Our choir has just returned from a wonderful trip | 3:20 | |
to England singing in various cathedrals there | 3:24 | |
over the winter break. | 3:28 | |
And we welcome them back for this service as well. | 3:30 | |
At five o'clock this afternoon, | 3:36 | |
there will be a organ recital, | 3:38 | |
free, open to the public here in the chapel. | 3:40 | |
Today is part of a 20-year tradition here | 3:45 | |
at Duke University of inviting public officials, | 3:48 | |
elected officials of our state | 3:52 | |
to be our guest for this service. | 3:54 | |
And we welcome these special guests, | 3:57 | |
guest of our president who serves | 4:01 | |
as the elector for this service. | 4:03 | |
We hope the service will be, for our elected officials, | 4:06 | |
a time of rededication, of strength and inspiration | 4:09 | |
and for all of us, a time to ponder | 4:13 | |
our responsibility to civic righteousness. | 4:17 | |
You will note that today's Psalm 19 | 4:22 | |
speaks of the law and the way of the Lord. | 4:25 | |
The anthem during the offering is coordinated with the song. | 4:29 | |
The last hymn speaks of Christ as light of the world. | 4:34 | |
Our musicians have planned it such | 4:40 | |
as a time of renewal and rededication for each of us. | 4:42 | |
And now, let us stand for the call to worship. | 4:49 | |
The grace our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 4:56 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 4:59 |
- | The splendor of Christ shines upon us. | 5:01 |
Congregation | Praise the Lord. | 5:05 |
(organ music) | 5:07 | |
(all singing "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright") | 5:40 | |
(organ music) | 7:24 | |
(all singing "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright") | 9:18 | |
- | Let us pray. | 10:21 |
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, | 10:25 | |
all desires known. | 10:29 | |
And from you, no secrets are hidden. | 10:32 | |
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts | 10:35 | |
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit | 10:37 | |
that we may perfectly love you | 10:40 | |
and wordily magnify your holy name, amen. | 10:43 | |
You maybe seated. | 10:48 | |
- | Let us pray together the Prayer for Illumination. | 10:57 |
All | Open our hearts and minds, | 11:01 |
Oh God, by the power of your Holy Spirit | 11:03 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 11:07 | |
we may hear with joy what you say to us this day, | 11:11 | |
Amen. | 11:16 | |
- | The Old Testament reading is taken | 11:17 |
from the book of Nehemiah, Chapter Eight. | 11:19 | |
"All the people gathered together | 11:22 | |
"into the square before the water gate. | 11:24 | |
"They tell the scribe Ezra | 11:27 | |
"to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, | 11:29 | |
"which the Lord has given to Israel. | 11:31 | |
"Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought | 11:34 | |
"the law before the assembly, | 11:36 | |
"both men and women and all | 11:38 | |
"who could hear with understanding. | 11:40 | |
"This was on the first day of the seventh month. | 11:42 | |
"He read from it, facing the square before the water gate | 11:46 | |
"from early morning until midday, | 11:49 | |
"in the presence of the men and women | 11:52 | |
"and those who could understand. | 11:53 | |
"And the ears of all the people | 11:56 | |
"were attentive to the Book of the Law. | 11:57 | |
"And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, | 12:00 | |
"for he was standing above all the people. | 12:03 | |
"And when he opened it, all the people stood up. | 12:06 | |
"Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, | 12:10 | |
"and all the people answered, 'Amen, amen,' | 12:12 | |
"lifting up their hands. | 12:16 | |
"Then they bowed their heads | 12:18 | |
"and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground." | 12:20 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 12:24 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 12:26 |
- | Today's psalm is number 19, versus seven to 10, | 12:39 |
found on page 751 of the hymnal. | 12:43 | |
Please stand and sing the psalm and gloria responsively. | 12:47 | |
(organ music) | 12:52 | |
♪ The law of the Lord is perfect ♪ | 13:00 | |
♪ Reviving the soul ♪ | 13:03 | |
♪ The testimony of the Lord is strong ♪ | 13:07 | |
♪ Making wise and simple ♪ | 13:11 | |
♪ The precepts of the Lord are right ♪ | 13:16 | |
♪ Rejoicing the heart ♪ | 13:20 | |
♪ The commandment of the Lord is pure ♪ | 13:24 | |
♪ Enlightening the eyes ♪ | 13:28 | |
♪ The fear of the Lord is clean ♪ | 13:33 | |
♪ Enduring forever ♪ | 13:36 | |
♪ The ordinances of the Lord are true ♪ | 13:40 | |
♪ And righteous all together ♪ | 13:44 | |
♪ More to be desired are they than God ♪ | 13:50 | |
♪ Even much fine gold ♪ | 13:54 | |
♪ Sweet drops of that honey ♪ | 13:57 | |
♪ And drippings of the honeycomb ♪ | 14:01 | |
♪ All glory be to you Creator ♪ | 14:06 | |
♪ And to Jesus Christ our savior ♪ | 14:11 | |
♪ And to the Holy Spirit ♪ | 14:16 | |
♪ Blessed is he ♪ | 14:19 | |
♪ As it was at time began ♪ | 14:22 | |
♪ It's now and will be ♪ | 14:27 | |
♪ Forever more ♪ | 14:30 | |
(soft organ music) | 14:40 | |
(choir singing in foreign language) | 15:46 | |
- | The gospel reading today | 18:35 |
is from The Book of Luke, Chapter 10. | 18:36 | |
"Jesus said, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem | 18:39 | |
"'to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers | 18:42 | |
"'who stripped him, beat him, and went away | 18:46 | |
"'leaving him half-dead. | 18:48 | |
"'Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road. | 18:50 | |
"'And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. | 18:52 | |
"'So, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place | 18:57 | |
"'and saw him, passed by on the other side. | 18:59 | |
"'But a Samaritan, while traveling, came near him. | 19:03 | |
"'And when he saw him, he was moved with pity. | 19:06 | |
"'He went to him and bandaged his wounds, | 19:09 | |
"'having poured oil and wine on them. | 19:12 | |
"'Then he put him on his own animal, | 19:14 | |
"'brought him to an inn | 19:16 | |
"'and took take care of him. | 19:18 | |
"'The next day, he took out two denari | 19:20 | |
"'and he gave them to innkeeper and said, | 19:23 | |
"'"Take care of him and when I come back, | 19:26 | |
"'"I will repay you, whatever more you spend."'" | 19:28 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 19:32 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 19:34 |
- | At the conclusion of the Martin Luther King Day | 19:47 |
service here this past week, | 19:52 | |
having conversation with a student. | 19:58 | |
And we were talking about | 20:03 | |
what a good observance it had been. | 20:04 | |
And then she said, | 20:07 | |
"Of course, I don't know | 20:10 | |
"that anything has really changed in race relations | 20:14 | |
"in America over the past 20 years, fundamentally. | 20:19 | |
"I don't believe I, as one person, | 20:26 | |
"can do much about it." | 20:30 | |
And the next day reading in | 20:34 | |
"The Journal of Higher Education" | 20:36 | |
there was a report on the annual nationwide freshman survey, | 20:38 | |
which reported that student political interest, | 20:45 | |
political interest and knowledge in this year's | 20:50 | |
freshman class across the class across the country | 20:53 | |
is at the lowest ebb in the 29-year history | 20:57 | |
that the freshman survey has been taken. | 21:02 | |
We're in an apolitical time. | 21:08 | |
The robbery was captured | 21:18 | |
on the convenient store's TV camera. | 21:19 | |
Shortly after midnight, a stickup man had | 21:23 | |
entered the convenience store, | 21:26 | |
pointed the gun at the woman behind the counter, | 21:28 | |
a mother who had just put her two children | 21:33 | |
to bed a couple of hours before. | 21:36 | |
She complied with his demand. | 21:40 | |
He looked at the money, he pointed the gun back at her, | 21:43 | |
and he shot her dead. | 21:46 | |
Random cruelty. | 21:52 | |
Pointless violence on a nameless night in North Carolina. | 21:56 | |
And I, watching this on the evening news, | 22:05 | |
took the remote control of the TV, punched it. | 22:09 | |
And in just a few minutes I could no longer | 22:15 | |
see the calm killing in Carolina. | 22:18 | |
And I thought of that episode with myself | 22:27 | |
upon seeing this Sunday's gospel, | 22:31 | |
the familiar story, the gospel, the good Samaritan. | 22:35 | |
'Cause that's how that story begins as well. | 22:40 | |
It begins with a random act of violence, | 22:43 | |
an anonymous act of violence. | 22:49 | |
Jesus doesn't tell us the name of the man | 22:51 | |
who is attacked by robbers and beaten and stripped | 22:54 | |
and left half-dead in the ditch. | 22:57 | |
He's simply one more anonymous victim. | 23:00 | |
You've seen it on the evening news. | 23:02 | |
You have heard the story before, | 23:05 | |
a story to which you and I | 23:07 | |
have become comfortably accommodated. | 23:09 | |
Jesus doesn't say that they robbed the man, | 23:15 | |
though that's a safe assumption. | 23:17 | |
It's interesting the words he uses. | 23:19 | |
He says they "beat him and they stripped him." | 23:21 | |
And if you have ever been the victim | 23:28 | |
of some anonymous act of crime, | 23:31 | |
that's how you say it feels. | 23:35 | |
You feel stripped, violated, | 23:37 | |
your dignity peeled away, stripped. | 23:41 | |
We're told that the man lies in the ditch stripped, | 23:48 | |
and in Jesus' words "half-dead." | 23:51 | |
His story has not yet ended, | 23:57 | |
but it is at least half-ended. | 24:00 | |
Last year, 2,000 New Yorkers ended their life story | 24:04 | |
at the hands of fellow New Yorkers. | 24:09 | |
Over 300 cab drivers in New York | 24:13 | |
took their last ride last year, | 24:16 | |
victims of this random, | 24:20 | |
anonymous violence. | 24:24 | |
And so, we're justified at this point in the story, | 24:28 | |
for assuming with what we know, | 24:31 | |
that this is his last ride for the man | 24:34 | |
who went from Jerusalem down to Jericho | 24:39 | |
and fell among thieves. | 24:42 | |
But no. | 24:46 | |
By chance, a priest was going down that same road. | 24:48 | |
The man lying in the ditch has had | 24:53 | |
all of his options stripped from him. | 24:55 | |
There's nothing he can do | 24:58 | |
of his own accord to keep this story going. | 25:00 | |
He lies there, helpless, half-dead. | 25:04 | |
And so, now, this one coming down the road, | 25:06 | |
whether he knows it or not, | 25:10 | |
has responsibility for whether | 25:12 | |
this story's going to continue, | 25:14 | |
whether this man will live or die. | 25:16 | |
And when he saw him, | 25:21 | |
yes, Jesus says he "sees him." | 25:25 | |
There was maybe that split second when he wishes | 25:28 | |
that he had not seen this pitiful, | 25:31 | |
bleeding sight in the ditch. | 25:34 | |
But no, he saw. | 25:37 | |
And he | 25:39 | |
passed by on the other side. | 25:44 | |
And all potentialities and possibilities end. | 25:49 | |
As he not only passes by the pitiful sight in the ditch, | 25:55 | |
but he passes by, in Jesus' words, "on the other side." | 25:58 | |
His journey continues on the other side. | 26:04 | |
Now, please do not read into this story, | 26:11 | |
though you probably already are, | 26:13 | |
reasons why this priest passed by on the other side. | 26:15 | |
It's interesting. | 26:20 | |
Jesus gives us no reasons. | 26:21 | |
As a priest, he knew the Hebrew law | 26:27 | |
against defilement with a corpse. | 26:31 | |
Maybe it was some sort of religious problem. | 26:33 | |
Those who had jumped the man | 26:39 | |
who is now lying in the ditch | 26:41 | |
might be lying in wait for another traveler as well. | 26:42 | |
A bloody body is revolting. | 26:48 | |
I don't think Jesus gives any | 26:54 | |
reasons for this priest avoidance, | 26:56 | |
'cause he doesn't need to. | 27:01 | |
Without much creativity or imagination, | 27:05 | |
we quickly supply our own reasons. | 27:08 | |
Yes, they're our reasons. | 27:13 | |
Reasons that any of us have used on similar occasion. | 27:18 | |
Is there anyone here | 27:22 | |
who has not averted the eyes, | 27:25 | |
not passed by on the other side | 27:28 | |
for a host of perfectly understandable good reasons? | 27:31 | |
Here at the university, we are in the reason business. | 27:39 | |
And by such reasons, | 27:46 | |
evil continues, | 27:50 | |
insisting on having the last word in this story | 27:53 | |
because you will note that the last real action | 27:59 | |
in this story, the last act of human creativity, | 28:02 | |
has been on the part of the robbers | 28:06 | |
who stripped and left the man half-dead. | 28:09 | |
Evil rules in this story. | 28:11 | |
But, wait. | 28:16 | |
By chance, another man was coming down the road. | 28:20 | |
And, fortunately, this time, not a member of the clergy. | 28:24 | |
But he passes by on the other side. | 28:32 | |
He also, this second man, | 28:36 | |
bears responsibility for intervention. | 28:38 | |
He has in his hands the potential to make a difference | 28:41 | |
in the way this story is running. | 28:44 | |
And yet, when he sees the wounded man, | 28:47 | |
he also passes by on the other side. | 28:49 | |
And wouldn't we all? | 28:53 | |
I mean, what difference can one person make? | 28:55 | |
There is a kind of fear of contamination | 29:00 | |
with those who suffer. | 29:06 | |
I've seen it in my own congregation. | 29:07 | |
Somebody, say, is fired from his job. | 29:11 | |
And people will avoid that person | 29:16 | |
like he's got some kind of communicable disease. | 29:17 | |
We don't wanna catch whatever it is he got. | 29:20 | |
If he had played the game right in our country | 29:24 | |
and kept his nose to the grindstone and done right, | 29:27 | |
he wouldn't be in this fix. | 29:29 | |
We don't want to touch him. | 29:31 | |
There is this sort of irrationality, | 29:34 | |
which bubbles forth at these moments. | 29:36 | |
Powerful, irrational fear, | 29:43 | |
all the more powerful because of its irrationality, | 29:45 | |
that we need to distance ourselves, | 29:48 | |
we need to go over to the other side. | 29:51 | |
When random cruelty breaks forth, we pass by. | 29:55 | |
One man down the road, another man down. | 30:03 | |
But a third man, a Samaritan, as he journeyed, | 30:08 | |
came to where he was. | 30:13 | |
And we've heard this story before. | 30:16 | |
We've seen two people pass by. | 30:17 | |
Jesus, the story is getting tiresome. | 30:20 | |
It's becoming redundant. | 30:22 | |
What's the point of repeating it again? | 30:25 | |
Let the story, let this age-old story | 30:28 | |
of the triumph of evil be done, | 30:32 | |
the omnipotence of violence. | 30:35 | |
But, a third man, surprise. | 30:38 | |
Jesus says, "And when he saw him, | 30:43 | |
"he stopped and he went to him." | 30:45 | |
And it's interesting. | 30:51 | |
Just as Jesus does not speculate upon the motives | 30:53 | |
of the men who did not stop, | 30:56 | |
so he now fails to speculate on the motives | 30:59 | |
of the man who did stop. | 31:02 | |
He touches the victim, | 31:08 | |
he cleans his wounds, he binds them, | 31:10 | |
sets him on his own beast. | 31:13 | |
He takes care. | 31:14 | |
The man who was so brutally beaten | 31:18 | |
cannot continue his story. | 31:20 | |
He is powerless to continue the journey, | 31:23 | |
if not for this Samaritan who chose to intersect | 31:25 | |
his life journey with that of the unfortunate man. | 31:31 | |
By his act, the man once stripped | 31:36 | |
is able to live. | 31:42 | |
The story continues. | 31:45 | |
And the next day, | 31:46 | |
the Samaritan takes his money, | 31:50 | |
the equivalent of two day's wages | 31:53 | |
and gives it to the innkeeper saying, | 31:56 | |
"Take care of him. | 31:58 | |
"Anything you spend, I will repay | 31:59 | |
"when I come back this way." | 32:01 | |
This third man risk. | 32:06 | |
He stops, he detours. | 32:08 | |
He extravagantly responds to the needs | 32:10 | |
of this anonymous stranger. | 32:13 | |
He becomes the voice of the victimized, | 32:17 | |
speaking for the man in the ditch | 32:20 | |
who never utters a word in the entire story. | 32:23 | |
Now, as preacher, I have always been curious that | 32:30 | |
God never appears in this story of the good Samaritan. | 32:35 | |
If you know some of the other stories of Jesus, | 32:41 | |
some of Jesus' parables, | 32:43 | |
Jesus tells most of his parables, | 32:45 | |
they're stories about God, | 32:46 | |
about the nature of God, the kingdom of God. | 32:48 | |
But here, | 32:51 | |
this story is all about us. | 32:54 | |
I told you it was story about violence, | 32:58 | |
a man in the ditch beaten, left black and blue, | 33:02 | |
death hovering, vulture-like, | 33:06 | |
ready to pounce and end this story. | 33:08 | |
And we wish Jesus had offered some reason for the violence. | 33:14 | |
Pin it on poverty or class resentment, | 33:21 | |
a lack of a good educational system, injustice. | 33:25 | |
We just grope for reasons. | 33:30 | |
In one of Margaret Atwood's stories "Surfacing," | 33:35 | |
one of Atwood's characters says | 33:40 | |
that she always reads detective novels, | 33:42 | |
because unlike in life, | 33:46 | |
in detective novels, death is logical. | 33:48 | |
There's always a reason. | 33:53 | |
Before you end the story, | 33:54 | |
you always get a motive. | 33:56 | |
But Jesus attributes no motive | 34:01 | |
to the robbers brutality. | 34:03 | |
This is violence at its worst, random, | 34:06 | |
senseless, inexplicable, | 34:09 | |
street crime, that which opinion polls | 34:12 | |
say bothers us Americans the most. | 34:15 | |
Jesus doesn't say that they were victims of poverty, | 34:21 | |
thus explaining the robbery. | 34:24 | |
He doesn't say that they were abused as children, | 34:27 | |
thus giving a nice adult explanation | 34:31 | |
for their adult violence. | 34:35 | |
This is the worst kind of evil. | 34:39 | |
It's random, it's senseless, it's anonymous. | 34:43 | |
Such evil bubbles up and throws into chaos our very lives, | 34:47 | |
calls into question the whole point | 34:52 | |
of the world and the meaning of our existence. | 34:56 | |
And so, we grope for reasons. | 35:04 | |
Finding no reason, | 35:08 | |
we just scurry by on the other side. | 35:09 | |
Recently, a German scholar friend | 35:16 | |
visiting the United States, | 35:19 | |
on his way back I ask him, | 35:20 | |
"What has been your impression of American society | 35:22 | |
"these past couple of months here?" | 35:26 | |
And he said to me, (speaking German). | 35:29 | |
"I'm surprised | 35:34 | |
"how much poverty and how much social hopelessness | 35:37 | |
"Americans are willing to accept as normal." | 35:45 | |
We Americans living in the most violent society in the world | 35:54 | |
have learned stoically to accept stories of violence. | 35:59 | |
This fall we reached the one million mark | 36:06 | |
in the number of incarcerated citizens. | 36:11 | |
But the teller of this tale | 36:16 | |
is not the stoic Marcus Aurelius. | 36:18 | |
It is Jesus. | 36:21 | |
Surprise. | 36:25 | |
A third man comes down the road and the story continues. | 36:27 | |
And we here whisper the possibility | 36:33 | |
that death might not end the story, | 36:35 | |
that evil might not have the final word. | 36:39 | |
Oh, I wish I could get you to believe that story. | 36:45 | |
Two men came down the road and assumed | 36:52 | |
that violence, death had the last word, | 36:55 | |
that their actions count for nothing, | 36:57 | |
that the world cannot be modified through their effort. | 37:00 | |
By avoiding the man in the ditch, | 37:04 | |
they conferred absolute omnipotence on evil, | 37:06 | |
the power of the present darkness. | 37:11 | |
What can anybody do? | 37:17 | |
And politics dies. | 37:21 | |
The third man, you will note, is not much of a philosopher. | 37:28 | |
He is not a sociologist or psychologist. | 37:31 | |
The third man, I think is, | 37:36 | |
I think he's a politician. | 37:40 | |
He sees, he stops. | 37:44 | |
He's an activist. | 37:45 | |
He binds, he cares, he gives, he takes time. | 37:46 | |
If you'll notice, he gets most of the verbs in the story. | 37:50 | |
He refuses to bow to the power | 37:54 | |
that has so disempowered the beaten man. | 37:57 | |
In this story, evil is real and it is bloody. | 38:02 | |
But it is not, in this story by Jesus, the last word. | 38:06 | |
And we aren't told whether the wounded man recovered. | 38:13 | |
Even if he didn't recover, | 38:18 | |
would that detract in any way from our wonder | 38:20 | |
at the third man who stops and reaches out? | 38:24 | |
The intrusive power of him to insert himself | 38:28 | |
into the life of this person he doesn't even know | 38:33 | |
and thus change the course of the story | 38:36 | |
to rich possibility out of the jaws of death. | 38:39 | |
Nothing is papered over here. | 38:48 | |
Death is not logical. | 38:49 | |
Victims of random violence may recover. | 38:52 | |
They may go down the road again | 38:55 | |
but they now travel with scars. | 38:58 | |
As a woman of my acquaintance who was raped said to me, | 39:02 | |
"You get up, you stand up, you go on, | 39:09 | |
"but you still cry sometimes." | 39:14 | |
There's no Pollyana assurance here | 39:20 | |
that everything is going to turn out all right. | 39:22 | |
Evil is real. | 39:25 | |
But, | 39:27 | |
it need not have the last word. | 39:31 | |
So, I ask you a question, | 39:36 | |
which I believe meant by this story. | 39:37 | |
And the question is this. | 39:40 | |
What is real? | 39:42 | |
Does death have the last word | 39:46 | |
in our state or is it life? | 39:48 | |
Walking down roads, each of us | 39:53 | |
must make a decision about that. | 39:56 | |
Who names North Carolina | 39:59 | |
not to decide, not to act, | 40:03 | |
to move to the other side is to decide. | 40:06 | |
The third man, the Samaritan, stops | 40:10 | |
and in stopping he is free | 40:13 | |
as an untethered expression of life, | 40:15 | |
as an overflowing of his own vitality, | 40:18 | |
and clinch-fisted determination not to let | 40:21 | |
evil have the last word. | 40:24 | |
Oh, I know you can read the story otherwise. | 40:30 | |
You can read it as an illustration that the man | 40:32 | |
in the ditch is a victim of meaningless violence, | 40:36 | |
therefore life is meaningless, | 40:39 | |
therefore the prudent person | 40:41 | |
always steps to the other side | 40:42 | |
with our burglar alarms and our insurance | 40:48 | |
and our dispassionate academic explanations. | 40:52 | |
Two people come down the road, | 41:00 | |
the majority of average Americans | 41:02 | |
pass by on the other side. | 41:05 | |
You will note that it is the minority, | 41:08 | |
only one out of three, who is free, | 41:11 | |
gifted, overflowingly confident in his God-given ability | 41:16 | |
to make a difference in the story. | 41:21 | |
Here is the foundation of all | 41:27 | |
society worthy of the name. | 41:34 | |
In "The Brothers Karamasov," Dmitri has been a victim. | 41:41 | |
He's been falsely accused of the death of his father. | 41:46 | |
He's brutally interrogated by people contemptuous of him | 41:50 | |
and everything he holds dear. | 41:54 | |
At last, they allow him to collapse | 41:55 | |
on the floor of his cell. | 41:57 | |
Dmitri falls asleep on the hard stone. | 42:00 | |
He awakes. | 42:05 | |
And some anonymous person has slipped in | 42:07 | |
and slipped a pillow under Dmitri's head in the cell. | 42:11 | |
And Dmitri fastens upon that anonymous act, | 42:18 | |
that random act of kindness, | 42:23 | |
as more determinative of his situation | 42:26 | |
than his innocent victimization. | 42:30 | |
He falls asleep again. | 42:35 | |
And in his sleep he dreams of starving children | 42:38 | |
and he longs for the suffering to end. | 42:43 | |
Now, why did Dmitri focus upon that random act of kindness | 42:51 | |
rather than the random act of violence | 42:57 | |
as describing what was going on in the world? | 43:00 | |
As you walk down the road, | 43:09 | |
it makes all the difference | 43:12 | |
how you read reality. | 43:15 | |
It makes all the difference what story, | 43:18 | |
for you, is paradigmatic. | 43:21 | |
Makes all the difference | 43:26 | |
how you use the God-given space you have | 43:29 | |
to write yourself into the story | 43:34 | |
of what's going on in the world. | 43:38 | |
(organ music) | 43:51 | |
(all singing) | 46:52 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 50:04 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 50:06 |
- | Let us pray. | 50:08 |
You may be seated. | 50:09 | |
Almighty and everlasting God, | 50:20 | |
who has triumphed through Jesus Christ | 50:23 | |
over the powers of evil | 50:26 | |
and darkness and senseless violence, | 50:28 | |
grant that we may ever hope in you, | 50:32 | |
believing in your power to bring life out of death | 50:36 | |
and our power to choose life | 50:40 | |
even in the face of death. | 50:43 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 50:46 | |
hear our prayer. | 50:48 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | Give us eyes to see those in need upon our path | 50:50 |
and grant that we may have the courage | 50:55 | |
to respond with mercy. | 50:57 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 51:00 | |
hear our prayer. | 51:02 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | Show us the ways that we might work together | 51:04 |
to make a difference in our community and world. | 51:07 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 51:12 | |
hear our prayer. | 51:14 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | Create in us one mind, one heart, and one will, | 51:17 |
that we may dedicate ourselves with unity | 51:22 | |
and single-mindedness to work | 51:25 | |
for your purposes on Earth. | 51:28 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 51:31 | |
hear our prayer. | 51:33 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | We pray for peace, for an end to senseless violence | 51:35 |
and a world where people may live without fear. | 51:40 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 51:44 | |
hear our prayer. | 51:46 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | For the leaders of our city, state, and nation | 51:49 |
and for all in authority that they may rule wisely | 51:53 | |
and work responsibly to maintain the justice | 51:58 | |
and welfare of all people. | 52:01 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 52:04 | |
hear our prayer. | 52:06 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | For Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh, | 52:08 |
for every city and for those who live in them, | 52:12 | |
that they may care for the needs of all their citizens | 52:15 | |
and become humane communities | 52:18 | |
where all share in the needs | 52:21 | |
and the benefits of the society. | 52:23 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 52:26 | |
hear our prayer. | 52:28 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | For the good Earth, which God has given us, | 52:30 |
that we may have the wisdom and will to conserve it. | 52:33 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 52:38 | |
hear our prayer. | 52:40 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | For the people of Japan, as they rebuild their nation, | 52:42 |
for those who died | 52:45 | |
and those who lost loved ones in the earthquake, | 52:47 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 52:51 | |
hear our prayer. | 52:53 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | That we may end our lives in faith and hope | 52:55 |
as those who have been committed | 52:59 | |
to living as your people in the world. | 53:01 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 53:04 | |
hear our prayer. | 53:06 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | |
- | Oh, Lord, our God, | 53:09 |
accept the heartfelt prayers of your people. | 53:10 | |
In the multitude of your mercies, | 53:14 | |
look with compassion upon us | 53:16 | |
and all who turn to you for help, | 53:18 | |
for you are gracious, oh lover of souls. | 53:20 | |
And to you we give glory, now and forever. | 53:24 | |
Amen. | 53:27 | |
The offering is an opportunity for us to give | 53:32 | |
as a sign of our commitment to God. | 53:35 | |
All of today's offering will be given | 53:38 | |
to charitable causes which benefit our community. | 53:40 | |
(clinking) | 53:43 | |
(soft organ music) | 53:45 | |
(choir singing) | 55:51 | |
(powerful organ music) | 1:00:10 | |
(all singing "Hallelujah") | 1:00:52 | |
- | Let us, pray. | 1:01:53 |
All things come from you, oh God, | 1:01:55 | |
and with gratitude we return to you what is yours. | 1:01:58 | |
You created all that is and with love, | 1:02:01 | |
formed us in your image. | 1:02:04 | |
When our love failed, your love remained steadfast. | 1:02:06 | |
You gave your only son, Jesus Christ, to be our savior. | 1:02:10 | |
All that we are and all that we have is a trust from you. | 1:02:13 | |
And so, in gratitude for all your gifts, | 1:02:18 | |
we offer you ourselves and all that we have | 1:02:20 | |
in union with Christ offering for us. | 1:02:23 | |
By your Holy Spirit, make us one with Christ, | 1:02:26 | |
one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. | 1:02:29 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our savoir, amen. | 1:02:33 | |
Let us pray together as Jesus taught us. | 1:02:37 | |
- | Our father, | 1:02:40 |
All | Who art in heaven, | 1:02:41 |
hallowed be thy name. | 1:02:42 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 1:02:44 | |
they will be done | 1:02:46 | |
as Earth as it is in heaven. | 1:02:47 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread, | 1:02:50 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 1:02:53 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 1:02:55 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 1:02:58 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 1:03:01 | |
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 1:03:03 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 1:03:06 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 1:03:10 | |
(all singing) | 1:03:50 | |
- | The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ | 1:07:00 |
be with you now and always, | 1:07:03 | |
amen. | 1:07:06 | |
(choir singing) | 1:07:09 |