William H. Willimon - "Beware! Angels" (December 24, 1995)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Here in Duke University Chapel. | 0:00 |
We're glad that you're here. | 0:04 | |
I call to your attention | 0:05 | |
the other services to be held this day, | 0:06 | |
this afternoon the children's Christmas service | 0:09 | |
and at 5:30 our annual service of lessons | 0:13 | |
and of carols and communion | 0:17 | |
and tonight at 11 our service of lessons and carols | 0:20 | |
and we invite you to come again to these services. | 0:25 | |
Now let us stand for the call to worship. | 0:31 | |
All people on Earth, praise the lord. | 0:36 | |
(congregation speaking) | 0:40 | |
For unto us a child is born. | 0:42 | |
(congregation speaking) | 0:46 | |
Bow down when the holy one appears. | 0:49 | |
(congregation speaking) | 0:52 | |
("O Come All Ye Faithful") | 0:58 | |
♪ O come all ye faithful ♪ | 1:52 | |
♪ Joyful and triumphant ♪ | 1:58 | |
♪ O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem ♪ | 2:03 | |
♪ Come and behold him ♪ | 2:13 | |
♪ Born the king of angels ♪ | 2:18 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 2:23 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 2:28 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 2:34 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 2:40 | |
(congregation singing) | 2:47 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 3:18 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 3:23 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 3:28 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 3:34 | |
♪ Sing choirs of angels ♪ | 3:42 | |
♪ Sing in exultation ♪ | 3:47 | |
♪ O sing all ye citizens of heaven above ♪ | 3:51 | |
♪ Glory to god, glory in the highest ♪ | 4:02 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 4:12 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 4:17 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 4:22 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 4:28 | |
(congregation singing) | 4:35 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 5:05 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 5:10 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 5:15 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 5:21 | |
(congregation singing) | 5:29 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 6:00 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 6:04 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 6:09 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 6:14 | |
♪ Ye lord we greet thee ♪ | 6:22 | |
♪ Born this happy morning ♪ | 6:27 | |
♪ Jesus to thee be all glory given ♪ | 6:32 | |
♪ Word of the father ♪ | 6:43 | |
♪ Now in flesh appearing ♪ | 6:49 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 6:54 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 6:59 | |
♪ O come let us adore him ♪ | 7:05 | |
♪ Christ the Lord ♪ | 7:11 | |
- | Oh loving God, the light of your love | 7:24 |
has drawn us to this place | 7:28 | |
as we join your angels in worshiping the Christ child. | 7:30 | |
Let it touch the hearts and minds | 7:34 | |
of those gathered here and all people everywhere | 7:36 | |
with the bright beams of mercy and truth. | 7:40 | |
So direct our steps | 7:43 | |
that we may ever walk in the way | 7:46 | |
you have revealed to us | 7:47 | |
as the shepherds of Bethlehem | 7:50 | |
walked with joy to the manger where he dwelled | 7:52 | |
who reigns in our hearts now and forever | 7:56 | |
Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. | 7:59 | |
- | Let us pray together | 8:18 |
the prayer for illumination. | 8:19 | |
Everyone | Open our hearts and minds oh God | 8:23 |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 8:26 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed | 8:29 | |
we may hear your message with joy this day. | 8:32 | |
Amen. | 8:36 | |
- | The old testament reading | 8:40 |
is taken from the seventh chapter | 8:41 | |
of the book of Isaiah beginning at the 10th verse. | 8:44 | |
Again the lord spoke to Ahaz saying, | 8:49 | |
ask a sign of the Lord your God. | 8:52 | |
Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven | 8:56 | |
but Ahaz said, I will not ask | 9:00 | |
and I will not put the lord to the test. | 9:04 | |
Then Isaiah said, here then oh house of David, | 9:07 | |
is it too little for you to weary mortals | 9:12 | |
that you weary my God also? | 9:14 | |
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. | 9:18 | |
Look, the young woman is with child | 9:22 | |
and she'll bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel. | 9:25 | |
He shall eat curds and honey | 9:31 | |
by the time he knows how to refuse the evil | 9:32 | |
and choose the good. | 9:35 | |
For before the child knows how to refuse evil | 9:38 | |
and choose the good, | 9:41 | |
the land before who's two kings you are in dread | 9:43 | |
will be deserted. | 9:47 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 9:50 | |
Congregation | Praise be to God. | 9:53 |
- | Please stand as we join in reading | 10:00 |
this alter responsively. | 10:02 | |
Give ear oh shepherd of Israel. | 10:12 | |
You who lead Joseph like a flock. | 10:15 | |
You who are enthroned upon the Cherubim shine forth. | 10:19 | |
In the presence of Ephriam and Benjamin and Manessa, | 10:24 | |
stir up your might and come to save us. | 10:27 | |
(congregation speaking) | 10:32 | |
Oh lord God of host, how long will you be angry | 10:38 | |
with your people's prayers? | 10:43 | |
(congregation speaking) | 10:46 | |
You make us the scorn of our neighbors | 10:53 | |
and our enemies laugh among themselves. | 10:57 | |
(congregation speaking) | 11:01 | |
(uplifting choral music) | 11:09 | |
(everyone singing) | 11:17 | |
- | The epistle is taken from the first chapter | 12:18 |
of Paul's letter to the Romans | 12:22 | |
beginning at the first verse. | 12:24 | |
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, | 12:28 | |
called to be an apostle set apart | 12:30 | |
for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand | 12:33 | |
before his prophets and the holy scriptures | 12:37 | |
the gospel concerning his son | 12:39 | |
who was descended from David according to the flesh | 12:43 | |
and was declared to be son of God | 12:46 | |
with power according to the spirit of holiness | 12:48 | |
by resurrection from the dead. | 12:51 | |
Jesus Christ our lord, | 12:54 | |
through whom we have received grace and apostleship | 12:56 | |
to bring about the obedience of faith | 13:00 | |
among all the gentiles for the sake of his name | 13:01 | |
including yourselves who are called | 13:05 | |
to belong to Jesus Christ. | 13:08 | |
To all God's beloved in Rome | 13:11 | |
who are called to be Saints, | 13:13 | |
grace to you and peace from God our father | 13:16 | |
and the lord, Jesus Christ. | 13:19 | |
This is the word of the lord. | 13:22 | |
Congregation | Praise be to God. | 13:25 |
("Hosannah In The Highest") | 13:31 | |
("Gloria In Excelsis Deo") | 17:21 | |
- | Watching the Martha Stewart Christmas show, | 18:13 |
you know Martha Stewart, | 18:19 | |
that's the one that shows you how | 18:21 | |
with pins and ribbons and styrofoam balls | 18:23 | |
if you begin in July and work everyday | 18:28 | |
you can make your friends beautiful Christmas gifts. | 18:33 | |
The only trouble is her show airs in mid December | 18:37 | |
so this always leads to a lot of holiday depression. | 18:41 | |
Anyway, Martha Stewart was saying | 18:47 | |
as she placed another gold cherub on the tree, | 18:50 | |
angels are big again this Christmas | 18:55 | |
and if you will go to your bookstore | 19:03 | |
and look it seems like there is an outburst | 19:05 | |
of books about angels. | 19:08 | |
It's enough to make you ask, | 19:13 | |
why does the whole world seem so interested in angels? | 19:14 | |
And particularly at this time in our history. | 19:18 | |
Now in Greek the word angel, angelos, | 19:24 | |
means messenger. | 19:27 | |
That's what angels are, they are messengers. | 19:29 | |
Angels are messengers from God | 19:32 | |
that's why artists have always | 19:35 | |
depicted them with wings. | 19:37 | |
Angels, messengers of God | 19:41 | |
but in the current Mercedes Benz TV commercial, | 19:44 | |
angels are these cute, cuddly little | 19:47 | |
hermaphroditic things that fly around | 19:50 | |
and make you fall in love with a car | 19:52 | |
which is a long way from the biblical view of angels. | 19:57 | |
In the current avalanche of books, | 20:03 | |
I was reading an article said | 20:05 | |
that this year and some of last year | 20:06 | |
over 200 books have been published about angels. | 20:10 | |
Angels are depicted in most of these books | 20:16 | |
as God's guardians, cherubs, cute. | 20:20 | |
A guardian angel it is said | 20:26 | |
is assigned to each and every person, | 20:28 | |
to look after that person | 20:31 | |
and keep that person out of harms way. | 20:33 | |
Angels are protecting and they are comforting | 20:36 | |
and they are loving. | 20:39 | |
Mary mother Angelica is big on angels. | 20:43 | |
Mary mother Angelica is a nun in Alabama | 20:46 | |
that owns her own cable TV station | 20:50 | |
and she said that she encountered her guardian angel | 20:53 | |
when she was 11. | 20:57 | |
She was on her way home from school | 20:58 | |
and crossing the street | 21:00 | |
she felt herself with invisible hands | 21:02 | |
just lifted up and put out of the way | 21:05 | |
of a speeding automobile. | 21:08 | |
In fact, I think you'll find out | 21:10 | |
in most of the books about angels, | 21:12 | |
angels today seem to be mostly involved | 21:15 | |
in traffic decisions. | 21:18 | |
I don't know what angels did | 21:21 | |
before the days of interstate highways. | 21:23 | |
Now I bring all this up | 21:26 | |
because this morning's scripture, | 21:27 | |
this is probably not a surprise | 21:29 | |
but this morning's scripture, | 21:31 | |
the gospel deals with angels | 21:33 | |
but I want you to note | 21:37 | |
how differently the gospel depicts angels | 21:40 | |
from the way most contemporary Americans | 21:45 | |
are thinking about angels. | 21:48 | |
From the gospel of Matthew, | 21:52 | |
now the birth of the Messiah took place this way | 21:56 | |
when his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph | 22:00 | |
but before they lived together | 22:03 | |
she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. | 22:05 | |
Her husband Joseph being a righteous man | 22:09 | |
and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace | 22:11 | |
planned to dismiss her quietly | 22:14 | |
but just when he had resolved to do this | 22:17 | |
an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph | 22:20 | |
in a dream and said, | 22:24 | |
Joseph son of David, | 22:25 | |
do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, | 22:28 | |
for the child conceived in her | 22:31 | |
is from the Holy Spirit. | 22:32 | |
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus. | 22:34 | |
For he will save his people from their sins. | 22:39 | |
All of this took place | 22:43 | |
to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord | 22:44 | |
through the prophet. | 22:47 | |
Look, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son | 22:49 | |
and they shall name him Emmanuel | 22:54 | |
which means God with us. | 22:57 | |
When Joseph awoke from sleep | 23:02 | |
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him | 23:04 | |
and he took her as his wife | 23:08 | |
but he had no marital relations with her | 23:11 | |
until she'd born a son | 23:13 | |
and they named him Jesus. | 23:16 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 23:20 | |
Well what would be your reaction | 23:26 | |
if you were a man, | 23:29 | |
engaged to be married, | 23:34 | |
you were poor, you were living in | 23:35 | |
a depressed, oppressed part of the world | 23:37 | |
and you were greeted one night | 23:42 | |
by a man dressed in white | 23:44 | |
and you were told that your fiance | 23:47 | |
was going to have a baby? | 23:49 | |
The man who greeted you dressed in white | 23:52 | |
was not a gynecologist, he was an angel | 23:53 | |
and Matthew says, the first thing the angel said is | 23:58 | |
Joseph, don't be afraid | 24:02 | |
which I know is a polite Bible way of saying, | 24:05 | |
Joseph was scared half out of his wits. | 24:07 | |
Sometimes children's Christmas pageants | 24:12 | |
get more to the heart of this. | 24:16 | |
A friend of mine was telling me | 24:20 | |
his little boy was in a Christmas pageant | 24:21 | |
and he was to play Joseph | 24:23 | |
and the nine year old Joseph | 24:27 | |
leads Mary to the inn, | 24:30 | |
the innkeeper opens the door, | 24:32 | |
he asks for a room, | 24:34 | |
the nine year old innkeeper said, | 24:35 | |
look I don't have a room. | 24:37 | |
Joseph pleads and says, | 24:38 | |
my wife is going to have a baby, | 24:40 | |
I've got to have a room | 24:41 | |
and the innkeeper says, | 24:43 | |
hey look that's not my fault | 24:45 | |
and then Joseph says, hey it's not my fault either. | 24:46 | |
(congregation laughing) | 24:49 | |
And in a way that sort of gets to it. | 24:55 | |
This thing was disrupting. | 24:59 | |
It was unnerving and that is, | 25:00 | |
that's the way it is generally in the Bible | 25:03 | |
with these angelic visitations. | 25:06 | |
They are a frightening sign that something weird, | 25:08 | |
strange, new is about to happen. | 25:11 | |
God is stepping into the course of history. | 25:16 | |
God is moving to change the way things are moving | 25:19 | |
and guess who is going to get to help God do that? | 25:23 | |
Ask the angel. | 25:27 | |
Poor Joseph. | 25:31 | |
He probably thought of his engagement | 25:33 | |
as something personal, something private | 25:34 | |
between him and Mary. | 25:38 | |
Just something between them | 25:40 | |
but then here comes this angel | 25:42 | |
who tells Mary, then Joseph | 25:46 | |
that they are going to be used by God | 25:50 | |
to bless the whole world. | 25:54 | |
The whole nation will be lifted from its sin through them | 25:58 | |
and that was frightening, | 26:06 | |
that was unnerving. | 26:08 | |
So you see, according to the Bible | 26:10 | |
about the last person you should hope to meet in December | 26:12 | |
is an angel. | 26:16 | |
Thus says Lawrence Cunningham, | 26:18 | |
the chair of Notre Dame's department of theology. | 26:19 | |
Cunningham says, if you don't read your Bible carefully | 26:23 | |
angels seem to be friendly folk | 26:27 | |
because we know so little about angels, | 26:32 | |
because angels are off there | 26:35 | |
somewhere vaguely in the realm of the spirit, | 26:37 | |
contemporary devotees of angels | 26:40 | |
paint any face on them they please. | 26:42 | |
If you look at the faces of angels on Christmas cards | 26:46 | |
they're always smiling | 26:50 | |
and you wonder why now | 26:55 | |
we get so into this. | 26:57 | |
Amid the perplexity and confusion of modern life | 26:59 | |
maybe we reach out to some totally comforting presence | 27:06 | |
of a completely powerful, a completely loving, | 27:10 | |
and an utterly undemanding guardian | 27:14 | |
who is always on our side. | 27:17 | |
Always ready to comfort, | 27:19 | |
always reluctant to judge, reprimand, or demand. | 27:22 | |
Maybe that's why. | 27:28 | |
Writer Trudy Bush says, | 27:31 | |
the popularity of angels at this time of year | 27:34 | |
suggests that they, quote: "function as a kind of | 27:37 | |
Santa Claus for grownups." | 27:41 | |
We wonder. | 27:46 | |
As celebrating Christmas as nothing more | 27:48 | |
than an orgy of buying and selling | 27:51 | |
with no religious significance, | 27:55 | |
has this left secular Americans feeling empty? | 27:57 | |
And so maybe angels fill that void | 28:02 | |
becoming a sentimental, saccharine substitute | 28:07 | |
for real deep, abiding faith in Christ. | 28:09 | |
I wonder if we like angels | 28:16 | |
because unlike that baby in the manger in Bethlehem | 28:19 | |
we can make angels mean fairly much | 28:23 | |
anything we want. | 28:26 | |
Professor Cunningham says, | 28:30 | |
to move angels center stage | 28:32 | |
in a way that they're not in the Bible | 28:36 | |
is to trivialize Christianity | 28:39 | |
and if you look at a lot of the recent talk about angels | 28:42 | |
it bears that out. | 28:45 | |
For most of these writers | 28:47 | |
only guardian angels exist | 28:49 | |
and these guardians often perform | 28:52 | |
remarkably trivial tasks | 28:54 | |
such as helping a tired mother to make the bed | 28:56 | |
of a child at the end of the day and | 28:59 | |
rarely does anybody get a troubling, | 29:04 | |
disrupting message from these angels. | 29:07 | |
Trudy Bush says, only occasionally | 29:12 | |
do these angelic encounters transform lives | 29:16 | |
or turn people out of themselves into service | 29:20 | |
to anybody else. | 29:24 | |
We have angels in our own image | 29:27 | |
and so this Sunday | 29:33 | |
as we stand on the eve of Christmas | 29:35 | |
and the celebration of Christ's nativity in Bethlehem | 29:37 | |
the feast of the incarnation, | 29:40 | |
in a time where there's much infatuation with angels, | 29:44 | |
I want you to notice just two things | 29:47 | |
about Joseph's encounter with the angel. | 29:51 | |
Just two things. | 29:54 | |
First, Joseph, good son of Israel that he was | 29:55 | |
he knew enough about the living true God of Israel | 30:01 | |
to know that any message you get from God | 30:04 | |
is something about which to be frightened. | 30:10 | |
The angel didn't come to tell Joseph | 30:14 | |
that he was going to be protected | 30:16 | |
while crossing the street | 30:18 | |
or that his wedding and the reception | 30:20 | |
would go off without a hitch. | 30:22 | |
The angel came to tell him | 30:25 | |
that his fiance had been selected by God | 30:26 | |
to change the whole course of the world | 30:29 | |
cause the holy God of Israel | 30:34 | |
doesn't indulge in trifles. | 30:35 | |
I think if you'll check out angels in scripture, | 30:40 | |
I think you'll find, first not only that | 30:44 | |
they don't appear that often, | 30:47 | |
but also that when they appear | 30:49 | |
it's always a signal. | 30:51 | |
It's a sign that everything is about to shift direction | 30:53 | |
and something big, weird, scary is about to happen. | 30:58 | |
And the second point, | 31:06 | |
if you note in Joseph's story, | 31:09 | |
note how his encounter with the angel ends. | 31:13 | |
Joseph doesn't say, | 31:19 | |
well now I know that I'm going to be protected | 31:20 | |
and comforted for the rest of my life | 31:24 | |
by my personal guardian angel. | 31:26 | |
No more need for seat belts. | 31:28 | |
No, Joseph, what Joseph did was to obey. | 31:30 | |
The angel said to Joseph, | 31:37 | |
don't have your plans, | 31:41 | |
don't worry about the calendar the way you planned things, | 31:43 | |
God's got other plans. | 31:46 | |
God's gonna shift your life | 31:48 | |
from where you thought it was going. | 31:49 | |
You just keep quiet and obey | 31:52 | |
and that's what Joseph did. | 31:54 | |
He just quietly obeyed. | 31:55 | |
Now in the Gospel of Luke | 31:58 | |
when Mary is greeted by a similar angel, | 32:00 | |
Mary says, in effect, | 32:03 | |
I'm not sure where all this is headed, | 32:07 | |
I don't know what all this means | 32:09 | |
but here I am anyway. | 32:11 | |
Ready to be used by God for the work of God | 32:15 | |
which is a wonderful, faithful thing | 32:20 | |
for Mary to say which I guess is why the church | 32:22 | |
has always regarded Mary as the very first of the disciples | 32:24 | |
because in the gospel Mary is the first one | 32:29 | |
to get called by God to be a disciple | 32:32 | |
and she says yes | 32:35 | |
and I suppose that makes Joseph the second of the disciples | 32:39 | |
because he also got a call from God | 32:43 | |
but after this angel got through with Joseph, | 32:47 | |
Joseph didn't sing like Mary, | 32:50 | |
he didn't say anything. | 32:52 | |
He just kept quiet and obeyed. | 32:53 | |
Angels are messengers of God | 33:00 | |
and the message is usually a call | 33:04 | |
to some risky service rather than | 33:07 | |
merely comfort. 'Cause our God comes to us | 33:11 | |
not wearing some blank face | 33:14 | |
upon which we can paint any sweet expression | 33:16 | |
that suits our needs. | 33:19 | |
Our God comes bearing a name, | 33:22 | |
Jesus, and wearing a face | 33:25 | |
which is not only the face of compassion | 33:30 | |
but also the face of vocation. | 33:32 | |
Follow me, he says. | 33:37 | |
Follow me. | 33:40 | |
I've never seen an angel | 33:44 | |
but I have seen their results. | 33:47 | |
Some of you heard me tell the story, | 33:52 | |
the time we were having a Bible study, | 33:53 | |
morning Bible study here | 33:55 | |
and we were studying the book of Acts | 33:57 | |
and you know early in the book of Acts | 33:59 | |
there as an occasional angel appears | 34:01 | |
and Sylvia Arnett asked a question. | 34:05 | |
Sylvia's from Philadelphia so she likes the world | 34:08 | |
fairly straight and Sylvia said, | 34:10 | |
look all these angels, what are we supposed to do with this? | 34:13 | |
I've never seen an angel, | 34:15 | |
nobody I know has seen an angel, | 34:16 | |
what are we supposed to do with these angels? | 34:18 | |
And I got defensive and I said Sylvia, | 34:20 | |
this is kind of a primitive biblical way | 34:22 | |
of conveying a deeper spiritual truth | 34:24 | |
and we left it at that. | 34:27 | |
I left this Bible study, went to my office, | 34:30 | |
there was a sophomore waiting on me | 34:33 | |
and she said, I'm confused. | 34:36 | |
I thought I knew what I was doing with my life | 34:38 | |
but lately it's just like this voice. | 34:41 | |
It's just like this hammering in my head | 34:43 | |
telling me that I'm going in the wrong direction | 34:45 | |
and I need to change my major | 34:48 | |
and I need to start thinking about other people | 34:50 | |
and I need to think about not what I'm gonna get | 34:51 | |
from the future but what I'm going to give to the future | 34:55 | |
and I'm just, I'm confused. | 34:57 | |
And we talked about that a good while. | 35:00 | |
Later that afternoon a graduate student showed up | 35:03 | |
and he told me, said I'm depressed, | 35:06 | |
I'm miserable, I can't sleep, | 35:08 | |
I'm thinking about dropping out of graduate school, | 35:10 | |
remember me undergraduate, went down with Wesley Foundation | 35:13 | |
on the mission trip to Honduras, | 35:19 | |
I never gotten that out of my mind | 35:21 | |
and I just think maybe God has given me certain gifts | 35:24 | |
and I'm expected to use them some other way. | 35:28 | |
I never thought about being responsible | 35:30 | |
to anybody but myself but now | 35:32 | |
I just feel like it's like | 35:35 | |
somebody's asking me, | 35:37 | |
what are you doing with the gifts that you got? | 35:38 | |
What are you going to do for the world with those gifts? | 35:40 | |
I finished this conversation just in time | 35:45 | |
and I went over to a fancy restaurant | 35:47 | |
where a search committee I was on was meeting, | 35:49 | |
mostly physicians on the search committee, | 35:51 | |
this waiter shows up, he's taking our order, | 35:53 | |
telling us what the specials are | 35:56 | |
and he looks at me and he says, I bet you're a minister | 35:58 | |
and all these doctors start laughing around the table | 36:01 | |
and everything and I try to get this waiter | 36:03 | |
away from me but every time he kept | 36:06 | |
bringing something back he kept wanting | 36:08 | |
to have this religious discussion with me | 36:09 | |
and I said, look, my meters not running. | 36:11 | |
I'm not involved in this right now | 36:14 | |
and at the end of the evening | 36:17 | |
I'm walking out of the restaurant, | 36:18 | |
I'm out in the parking lot, | 36:19 | |
this waiter comes running for me | 36:20 | |
in the parking lot saying, wait, | 36:22 | |
can you suggest a good seminary | 36:24 | |
for me to go to? | 36:26 | |
I think God wants me to be a minister. | 36:28 | |
I told Sylvia the next day, | 36:31 | |
look the reason you haven't seen an angel | 36:33 | |
in Durham is that they're just real busy right now. | 36:37 | |
(congregation laughing) | 36:41 | |
If you will take a number and be patient | 36:44 | |
I know they will get to you eventually. | 36:46 | |
They're out there disrupting the lives of sophomores | 36:49 | |
and calling waiters into the ministry | 36:53 | |
and stuff like that. | 36:55 | |
I believe in God's messengers | 36:59 | |
because I have seen so many of you | 37:04 | |
get God's messages. | 37:07 | |
So this Christmas if you should encounter an angel, | 37:12 | |
I mean like the ones that scared those shepherds | 37:16 | |
to death working the night shift | 37:19 | |
or like the angel that came | 37:20 | |
and intruded on Joseph one night in a dream, | 37:23 | |
jumping him, changing his life, | 37:27 | |
or like the angel Gabriel who came to Mary | 37:29 | |
telling her that even though | 37:34 | |
the world regarded her as lowly | 37:35 | |
God was gonna use Mary | 37:39 | |
for the salvation of the whole world. | 37:42 | |
I hope that you might be given the grace | 37:47 | |
to respond like Mary. | 37:52 | |
Lord, I don't know why you picked me, | 37:56 | |
I don't know what all this means | 37:59 | |
but here I am ready to be used in your service. | 38:03 | |
Amen. | 38:11 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 38:16 | |
(congregation singing) | 38:55 | |
- | You may be seated. | 41:22 |
The lord be with you. | 41:30 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 41:31 |
- | Let us pray. | 41:33 |
Oh God, the alpha and the omega | 41:38 | |
you are without beginning or end | 41:41 | |
yet we celebrate that you choose | 41:45 | |
to be born an infant in time. | 41:47 | |
Oh God the almighty, | 41:52 | |
you hold the mountains in the palm of your hand | 41:54 | |
yet you come to us wrapped in swaddling clothes. | 41:58 | |
Oh God the infinite, | 42:04 | |
heaven and Earth cannot contain you | 42:06 | |
yet you rest in the arms of Mary and Joseph. | 42:09 | |
Oh God the eternal word, | 42:14 | |
you are the source of all wisdom | 42:17 | |
yet you sleep in the cattle's manger and cannot speak. | 42:20 | |
Oh God send a band of angels | 42:26 | |
to sing their glorious hymn in our midst | 42:28 | |
that we might truly believe in the miracle | 42:32 | |
of your incarnation. | 42:35 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 42:38 | |
hear our prayer. | 42:39 | |
Oh merciful God, | 42:43 | |
we pray this day for all those | 42:45 | |
who serve as living reminders of your incarnation | 42:47 | |
in our world. | 42:51 | |
For all who give you a face | 42:53 | |
by spreading your love in the world. | 42:55 | |
For all who give you hands | 42:58 | |
by serving their sister and brother. | 43:00 | |
For all who give you a voice | 43:03 | |
by defending the poor and oppressed. | 43:05 | |
For all who give you eyes | 43:08 | |
by seeing the true worth of every man, woman, and child. | 43:11 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 43:16 | |
hear our prayer. | 43:18 | |
Oh giver of life, | 43:21 | |
we pray for those who know little joy | 43:23 | |
in this season of hope. | 43:25 | |
For those who are hungry and afraid, | 43:28 | |
for those who are too poor to give their children gifts, | 43:32 | |
for those who suffer in the bitter cold | 43:36 | |
from lack of shelter, | 43:39 | |
for those who suffer physical, mental, | 43:41 | |
or emotional distress, | 43:44 | |
for those who are imprisoned, | 43:47 | |
for those who have lost loved ones. | 43:49 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 43:53 | |
hear our prayer. | 43:56 | |
Oh prince of peace, | 43:58 | |
grant us your peace. | 44:00 | |
We pray for all those who live in war torn countries, | 44:03 | |
for soldiers who risk their lives to keep the peace | 44:08 | |
and for their families, | 44:12 | |
for leaders of government around the world | 44:16 | |
that they may become peace makers, | 44:18 | |
for all those who suffer because of conflict | 44:21 | |
within their own homes, | 44:24 | |
for all who live in fear of random violence, | 44:27 | |
for children who have never known peace, | 44:30 | |
for those who struggle to find peace | 44:34 | |
within their own hearts. | 44:36 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 44:38 | |
hear our prayer. | 44:40 | |
Wonderful councilor send us your word. | 44:43 | |
Guide those who hearing your song in the heavens | 44:47 | |
truly seek your presence on Earth. | 44:50 | |
Bless those who discover they will receive new life | 44:53 | |
not in places of power and wealth | 44:56 | |
nor even in a humble inn | 44:59 | |
but in a wretched stable. | 45:01 | |
Empower those who after locating the child | 45:03 | |
discover they cannot easily return to their own city. | 45:07 | |
Strengthen the whole church | 45:12 | |
that we may testify to the truth of the word made flesh. | 45:14 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 45:19 | |
hear our prayer. | 45:21 | |
All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ | 45:24 | |
who came to Earth to be like us | 45:27 | |
that we might be like him. | 45:29 | |
God with us and savior of all. | 45:31 | |
Amen. | 45:35 | |
The word became flesh not to endure silence | 45:39 | |
but to testify to truth. | 45:43 | |
Not to condemn creation | 45:46 | |
but to transform it. | 45:47 | |
In response to God's great gift | 45:49 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves | 45:51 | |
with joy and thanksgiving | 45:53 | |
that we too may testify to the truth of God's word. | 45:55 | |
("Onward Christian Soldiers") | 46:11 | |
("God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") | 47:18 | |
("Noel") | 49:29 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 52:54 | |
(congregation singing) | 53:17 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 53:31 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 53:34 | |
(congregation singing) | 53:39 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 53:53 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 53:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:07 | |
Gracious God, we thank you that once again | 54:20 | |
we are able to experience the awe and the wonder | 54:23 | |
of the Christmas story. | 54:27 | |
We welcome the holy child into our midst, | 54:29 | |
blessed by the outpouring of your love for us. | 54:32 | |
Teach us to give that love away | 54:35 | |
as we learn from you that all love is to be given. | 54:38 | |
May all that we dedicate to you now | 54:42 | |
be used to express the riches of your grace | 54:44 | |
for the good of your kingdom here on Earth. | 54:47 | |
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, | 54:50 | |
our lord and savior | 54:52 | |
who taught us to pray with confidence. | 54:54 | |
Everyone | Our father who art in heaven | 54:57 |
hallowed be thy name | 54:59 | |
thy kingdom come | 55:01 | |
thy will be done | 55:03 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 55:04 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 55:07 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 55:09 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 55:11 | |
and lead us not into temptation | 55:15 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 55:17 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, | 55:19 | |
and the glory forever. | 55:22 | |
Amen. | 55:24 | |
("Hark! The Herald Angels Sing") | 55:29 | |
- | The grace of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, | 58:58 |
Emmanuel, God with us be with you now and always. | 59:00 | |
Amen. | 59:06 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 59:10 |