WEBVTT
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Worship we have emphasized
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the epiphany theme of God's providential care,
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and the human response to care for our neighbor.
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Our guest preacher today is the Reverend Doctor Peter Gomes,
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minister and plumber professor
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of Christian morals at Memorial Church Harvard University.
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Doctor Gomes is a frequent visitor to Duke Chapel,
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and he did a sabbatical here last fall.
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We're glad to have him here with us
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in our service of worship.
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We also welcome the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra
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and their conductor, Mister David Berger.
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They will provide special music in today's service,
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including Come Sunday, a Duke Ellington hymn
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in our hymn book.
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Their music will give you a taste
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of what is to come at three o'clock this afternoon
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with their concert of sacred music by Duke Ellington.
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Tickets for that concert will go on sale at noon.
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Let us continue our worship as we stand for the greeting.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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The splendor of Christ shines upon us.
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(organ music)
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(choir singing)
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Let us pray.
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O God, in mystery and silence
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you are present in our lives,
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bringing new life out of destruction,
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hope out of despair,
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growth out of difficulty.
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We thank you that you do not leave us alone,
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but labor to make us whole.
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Help us to perceive your unseen hand
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in the unfolding of our lives,
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and to attend to the gentle guidance of your spirit
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that we may know the joy you give your people, amen.
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You may be seated.
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Let us pray together
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the prayer for illumination.
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Open our hearts and minds, O God,
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by the power of your Holy Spirit,
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so that as the word is read and proclaimed,
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we may hear it with joy
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what you say to us this day, amen.
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Here begins the third verse of the 45th chapter
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of the book of Genesis.
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Joseph said to his brothers
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I am Joseph,
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is my father still alive?
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But his brothers could not answer him,
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so dismayed were they at his presence.
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Then Joseph said to his brothers
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come closer to me,
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and they came closer.
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He said I am your brother Joseph
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whom you sold into Egypt,
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and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves
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because you sold me here,
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for God sent me before you
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to preserve life.
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For famine has been in the land these two years,
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and there are five more years in which
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there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
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God sent me before you to preserve for you
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a remnant on earth,
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and to keep alive for you many survivors.
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So, it was not you who sent me here,
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but God.
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He has made me a father to Pharaoh,
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and lord of all his house,
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and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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Hurry and go up to my father and say to him
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thus says your son, Joseph,
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God has made me lord of all Egypt,
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come down to me, do not delay,
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you shall settle in the land of Goshen,
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and you shall be near me, you and your children,
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and your children's children,
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as well as your flocks, your herds,
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and all that you have.
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I will provide for you there
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since there are five more years of famine to come,
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so that you and your household and all that you have
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will not come to poverty.
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And he kissed all his brothers
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and wept upon them, and after that,
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his brothers talked with him.
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This is the word of the Lord.
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The Psalm appointed for today is number 37.
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It's found on page 772 in your hymnal.
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Together let us praise God and sing the Psalm
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and the Gloria responsively, please rise.
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(organ music)
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♪ Do not be angry because of the wicked ♪
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♪ Do not be envious of wrongdoers ♪
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♪ Trust in the Lord ♪
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♪ And do good ♪
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♪ So you will dwell in the land ♪
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♪ And enjoy security ♪
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♪ Commit your way to the Lord ♪
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♪ Trust in God who will act ♪
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♪ Bringing forth your vindication ♪
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♪ As the light ♪
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♪ And your right as the noon day ♪
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♪ Refrain from anger ♪
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♪ And forsake wrath ♪
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♪ Do not be angry ♪
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♪ It leads only to evil ♪
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♪ Yet a little while ♪
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♪ And the wicked will be no more ♪
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♪ Though you look at their place ♪
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♪ They will not be there ♪
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♪ All glory be to you, Creator ♪
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♪ And to Jesus Christ our Savior ♪
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♪ As it was when time began ♪
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Please be seated.
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The second lesson is taken from the 15th chapter
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of 1 Corinthians,
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beginning at the 35th verse.
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But someone will ask how are the dead raised?
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And with kind of body do they come?
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Fool, what you sow does not come to life
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unless it dies,
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and as for what you sow,
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you do not sow the body that is to be,
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but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat,
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or some other grain.
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But God gives it a body as he has chosen,
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and to each kind of seed its own body.
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This is the word of the Lord.
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(soft piano music)
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♪ Heaven ♪
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♪ My dream ♪
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♪ Heaven ♪
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♪ Divine ♪
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♪ Heaven ♪
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♪ Supreme ♪
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♪ Heaven ♪
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♪ Come by ♪
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♪ Every sweet ♪
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♪ And pretty thing ♪
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♪ Life ♪
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♪ With love to bring ♪
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♪ Heavenly heaven ♪
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♪ To me ♪
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♪ Is just the ultimate degree to be ♪
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(light orchestral music)
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♪ Heaven, my dream ♪
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♪ Heaven ♪
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♪ Divine ♪
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♪ Divine ♪
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The Holy Gospel is written in the sixth chapter
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of the gospel according to Saint Luke,
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beginning at the 27th verse.
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But I say to you that listen,
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love your enemies, do good to those that hate you,
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bless those who curse you,
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pray for those who abuse you.
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If anyone strikes you on the cheek,
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offer the other also,
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and from anyone who takes away your coat,
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do not withhold even your shirt.
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Give to everyone who begs from you,
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and if anyone takes away your goods,
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do not ask for them again.
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Do to others as you would have them do to you.
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If you love those who love you,
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what credit is that to you?
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For even sinners love those who love them.
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If you do good to those who do good to you,
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what credit is that to you?
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For even sinners do the same.
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If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive,
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what credit is that to you?
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Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again.
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But love your enemies,
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do good and lend,
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expecting nothing in return.
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Your reward will be great,
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and you will be children of the most high,
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for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
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Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
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Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
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Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
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Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
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Give, and it will be given to you.
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A good measure, pressed down,
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shaken together,
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running over
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will be put into your lap,
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for the measure you give
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will be the measure you receive.
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This is the word of the Lord.
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Let us pray.
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Help us, Lord, to become masters of ourselves,
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that we may become the servants of others.
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Take our hands and work through them,
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take our minds and think through them,
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take our lips and speak through them,
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and take our hearts and set them on fire
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for Christ's sake, amen.
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There's a text for this sermon,
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and it is the eighth verse of the 45th chapter
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of the book of Genesis,
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from which the first lesson was taken.
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It was not you
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who sent me here,
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but God.
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It was not you who sent me here,
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but God.
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The Old Testament is wonderfully explicit
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in its stage directions,
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and that's why, I think, for most of us,
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it is the easier of the two testaments to respond to.
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It makes it clear, for example,
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for whom we're supposed to be cheering,
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who are the heroes, who are the villains in the lessons,
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and there's no doubt in the long epic
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that constitutes the story of Joseph this morning
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that it is Joseph who is the hero.
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Joseph is the fellow to be taken seriously.
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In case there's any doubt in any of your minds,
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the story of Joseph is about Joseph,
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and we are meant to take Joseph seriously.
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But at the start of this sermon, let's be honest,
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or at least let me be honest and confess to you
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at the outset that young Joseph is,
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for me, one of the more obnoxious figures
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in all of scripture,
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in the whole biblical narrative.
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And I can readily see why his brothers
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would want to wring his neck.
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He was self centered, this Joseph,
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he knew he was the favorite son of his father's old age,
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favorites always know that,
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they always know how to play the card
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with Ma or Pa,
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and he knew through his dreams
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that great things were going to happen to him,
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and he wasted neither time nor effort,
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this dreamer, in lauding it over his brothers.
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There's something of the Eddie Haskell
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in this Joseph,
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this spoiled brat, the precocious A student,
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his hand is always up in the seminar,
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he's got the right answer.
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His dog never eats his homework,
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and he doubtless has a long string
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of perfect attendance pins
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from his Methodist Sunday school on his bosom.
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All of us know such people,
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all of us grew up with such people,
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and if we could or dared,
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we would have loved to beat them up
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just for the sheer fun of it,
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just because of who they were.
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Confess that you know that is true.
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And so, initially at least,
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this is an exercise in my own perversity.
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My sympathy is all with the brothers.
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Now, surely they didn't have to be jealous, these brothers,
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surely, as older and wiser,
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they should've had better control of their feelings,
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been more in touch with their emotions.
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Surely they should not have contemplated murder,
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nor sold their brother into slavery,
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lied to their old father, that's wrong, wrong, wrong.
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But I think I know why they did it.
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And this is the reason I posit to you
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why they did it:
271
00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:31.910
you and I, contrary to popular rumor and expectations,
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you and I do not flourish
273
00:25:36.910 --> 00:25:41.823
in the presence of pure and undiluted virtue.
274
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We love it in abstraction,
275
00:25:45.700 --> 00:25:48.940
but to live with it is a real pain
276
00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:50.463
where we sit down.
277
00:25:51.310 --> 00:25:55.330
The presence of pure and undiluted virtue
278
00:25:55.330 --> 00:26:00.320
is like being in too bright a light, like these lights,
279
00:26:00.320 --> 00:26:02.860
too bright and blinding,
280
00:26:02.860 --> 00:26:05.620
and rather than illuminating,
281
00:26:05.620 --> 00:26:08.580
they blind and intimidate us.
282
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Too much of a good thing, contrary to May West,
283
00:26:11.800 --> 00:26:14.790
if it is human, is not terrific,
284
00:26:14.790 --> 00:26:17.430
it is tedious, it is boring.
285
00:26:17.430 --> 00:26:21.100
Can you imagine small talk
286
00:26:21.100 --> 00:26:25.820
with Elie Wiesel or Florence Nightingale?
287
00:26:25.820 --> 00:26:28.990
Or a long train ride with Mother Theresa?
288
00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:31.260
In theory, this is great,
289
00:26:31.260 --> 00:26:35.860
but in practice, most of us would rather not bear it,
290
00:26:35.860 --> 00:26:38.023
it is too much to handle.
291
00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:41.600
Come, let us slay this dreamer,
292
00:26:41.600 --> 00:26:44.300
and then we shall see what will become of his dreams,
293
00:26:44.300 --> 00:26:48.830
we know those vengeful words of the brothers,
294
00:26:48.830 --> 00:26:51.370
and we know them in our own hearts.
295
00:26:51.370 --> 00:26:54.110
We associate those words nowadays with the deaths,
296
00:26:54.110 --> 00:26:57.470
not only the contemplated death of Joseph,
297
00:26:57.470 --> 00:26:59.440
but of Martin Luther King Jr.,
298
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:01.600
and we hear them each January
299
00:27:01.600 --> 00:27:04.190
when people read this passage from Joseph
300
00:27:04.190 --> 00:27:08.690
and say let us slay the dreamer and hope to kill the dream.
301
00:27:08.690 --> 00:27:11.581
We think we can stand the moral light,
302
00:27:11.581 --> 00:27:14.780
but most of us cannot.
303
00:27:14.780 --> 00:27:19.780
The Josephs of this world do not inspire in close proximity,
304
00:27:20.660 --> 00:27:23.590
they annoy, they intimidate,
305
00:27:23.590 --> 00:27:26.770
and they drive us, often, to desperate,
306
00:27:26.770 --> 00:27:28.700
even despicable measures,
307
00:27:28.700 --> 00:27:31.520
and so, the brothers got rid of him.
308
00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:33.760
Not by murder, as was their first plan,
309
00:27:33.760 --> 00:27:36.220
but by selling him into slavery,
310
00:27:36.220 --> 00:27:38.500
a much more profitable enterprise.
311
00:27:38.500 --> 00:27:40.810
They could get some cash for him
312
00:27:40.810 --> 00:27:43.330
by getting him out of the way,
313
00:27:43.330 --> 00:27:46.523
it was a win-win proposition.
314
00:27:47.900 --> 00:27:50.850
Now, to put it mildly,
315
00:27:50.850 --> 00:27:55.603
this family of Joseph is what we might call dysfunctional.
316
00:27:58.010 --> 00:28:00.440
Think of his father, dear old Jacob,
317
00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:02.990
here is a conniver from his birth,
318
00:28:02.990 --> 00:28:06.510
he is the one who stole his brother's birthright
319
00:28:06.510 --> 00:28:09.350
and tricked his father and sort of lied
320
00:28:09.350 --> 00:28:11.930
and cheated his way from the womb to the world,
321
00:28:11.930 --> 00:28:14.300
that's the father in the case.
322
00:28:14.300 --> 00:28:15.600
Then the half brothers,
323
00:28:15.600 --> 00:28:17.840
they quarrel with each other all the time,
324
00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:21.230
they're united only in their treachery.
325
00:28:21.230 --> 00:28:24.790
If this is an exercise, the story of Joseph and his family,
326
00:28:24.790 --> 00:28:29.440
if this is an exercise of the Bible's view of family values,
327
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.610
then things are very bad off indeed.
328
00:28:32.610 --> 00:28:34.510
Of course, as you know, and this is a footnote,
329
00:28:34.510 --> 00:28:37.670
the Bible is full of dysfunctional families.
330
00:28:37.670 --> 00:28:39.800
Mary and Martha are at each other's throats,
331
00:28:39.800 --> 00:28:40.940
hammer and tongue,
332
00:28:40.940 --> 00:28:45.040
Cain and Abel have a lethal profile in sibling rivalry,
333
00:28:45.040 --> 00:28:47.760
even Jesus tells his mother off at Cainan,
334
00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:49.410
tells her to leave him alone,
335
00:28:49.410 --> 00:28:52.890
and then, of course, there's Joseph and his brothers.
336
00:28:52.890 --> 00:28:57.050
The whole thing is an exercise in perversity.
337
00:28:57.050 --> 00:28:59.740
Arrogance, jealousy, treachery,
338
00:28:59.740 --> 00:29:02.860
this is stuff hardly fit for a family newspaper,
339
00:29:02.860 --> 00:29:06.503
are you sure you want your children reading this stuff?
340
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:10.780
But perhaps the point of this story,
341
00:29:10.780 --> 00:29:14.330
at least to remind us that proximity,
342
00:29:14.330 --> 00:29:15.980
which is that family unit,
343
00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:20.290
proximity often stimulates perversity.
344
00:29:20.290 --> 00:29:24.760
That is why the worst fights are family feuds,
345
00:29:24.760 --> 00:29:29.580
the worst quarrels are between people who love each other,
346
00:29:29.580 --> 00:29:33.440
and the worst of all imaginable wars
347
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:35.650
is a civil war.
348
00:29:35.650 --> 00:29:39.500
Satan likes close quarters,
349
00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:41.900
and it is in the most intimate of settings
350
00:29:42.890 --> 00:29:46.290
that perversity thrives.
351
00:29:46.290 --> 00:29:48.410
And in this story, dare we note,
352
00:29:48.410 --> 00:29:51.090
things only turn out right
353
00:29:51.090 --> 00:29:53.700
when everybody, not just Joseph,
354
00:29:53.700 --> 00:29:56.420
picks up, leaves home,
355
00:29:56.420 --> 00:30:00.050
and starts off all over again.
356
00:30:00.050 --> 00:30:03.390
If you're looking for something to admire here,
357
00:30:03.390 --> 00:30:06.500
it is not the family,
358
00:30:06.500 --> 00:30:11.180
perversity is what gets our attention in this story
359
00:30:11.180 --> 00:30:12.858
at the start.
360
00:30:12.858 --> 00:30:16.570
But the perversity is necessary
361
00:30:16.570 --> 00:30:21.570
so that it can be encountered by providence.
362
00:30:21.770 --> 00:30:24.050
That's the point of the text,
363
00:30:24.050 --> 00:30:28.850
it was not you who sent me here, but God.
364
00:30:28.850 --> 00:30:32.550
Such remorse as the brothers may have had at that moment
365
00:30:32.550 --> 00:30:34.510
is irrelevant.
366
00:30:34.510 --> 00:30:38.450
Joseph one ups them by transforming their perversity
367
00:30:38.450 --> 00:30:42.240
into God's divine plan for himself.
368
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.850
You see, he is still obnoxious.
369
00:30:45.850 --> 00:30:48.180
What the brothers intended for evil,
370
00:30:48.180 --> 00:30:50.940
God intended for good,
371
00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.500
and the form of God's goodness here
372
00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:56.530
is not where we might think it is.
373
00:30:56.530 --> 00:30:59.120
For us, the sign of providence might be
374
00:30:59.120 --> 00:31:01.290
relief from the famine,
375
00:31:01.290 --> 00:31:04.240
the provision of food and cattle,
376
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.740
all of the things that would advance life
377
00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:12.740
and protect people against the ravages of natural resources.
378
00:31:12.760 --> 00:31:15.280
Famine means death,
379
00:31:15.280 --> 00:31:17.060
and God, through Joseph,
380
00:31:17.060 --> 00:31:19.220
gives life through famine relief,
381
00:31:19.220 --> 00:31:21.400
we all know about that,
382
00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:25.060
we know about famine relief for the famines of Africa,
383
00:31:25.060 --> 00:31:28.560
save the children, salary struggles and all of that,
384
00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:32.330
we remember our high hopes for famine relief in Somalia,
385
00:31:32.330 --> 00:31:35.320
we know what is supposed to happen.
386
00:31:35.320 --> 00:31:38.860
But here, God's providence in the story of Joseph
387
00:31:38.860 --> 00:31:42.420
is not the relief of the famine,
388
00:31:42.420 --> 00:31:45.830
it is in the place where all the trouble
389
00:31:45.830 --> 00:31:49.840
and perversity began in the first place,
390
00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:54.840
it is in the family where God's providence is displayed.
391
00:31:56.310 --> 00:31:59.340
God's providence is made real
392
00:31:59.340 --> 00:32:04.340
in the reconciliation of a broken, dysfunctional,
393
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:06.853
screwed up family.
394
00:32:07.710 --> 00:32:11.337
Joseph himself cannot pretend to be
395
00:32:11.337 --> 00:32:13.790
any longer what he is not,
396
00:32:13.790 --> 00:32:18.790
he cannot hide under his pseudonym in front of his brothers,
397
00:32:20.070 --> 00:32:22.410
he cannot keep them in suspense anymore,
398
00:32:22.410 --> 00:32:27.410
he breaks down into tears, reveals who he is,
399
00:32:27.500 --> 00:32:32.000
and he and they have a reunion.
400
00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.340
The human desire for a little bit of revenge and justice
401
00:32:37.250 --> 00:32:41.820
is overcome by the divine desire
402
00:32:41.820 --> 00:32:45.483
for reconciliation and reunion.
403
00:32:46.520 --> 00:32:51.520
It takes a lot of work to maintain anger
404
00:32:51.830 --> 00:32:53.520
and estrangement.
405
00:32:53.520 --> 00:32:55.530
Those of you who have been involved
406
00:32:55.530 --> 00:32:58.910
in maintaining your share of your family's feuds
407
00:32:58.910 --> 00:33:01.370
all these years know how hard it is
408
00:33:01.370 --> 00:33:02.960
to remember that you're supposed to be
409
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:05.340
thoroughly disgusted with your sister-in-law
410
00:33:05.340 --> 00:33:07.730
for something she did 40 years ago.
411
00:33:07.730 --> 00:33:10.080
It takes a lot of work to maintain
412
00:33:10.080 --> 00:33:13.150
that sort of rigor in the face
413
00:33:13.150 --> 00:33:18.150
of God's providential design for reconciliation and reunion.
414
00:33:19.690 --> 00:33:22.580
And that is what happens here,
415
00:33:22.580 --> 00:33:27.500
providence is the agent of reconciliation
416
00:33:27.500 --> 00:33:29.763
and reunion and forgiveness.
417
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:34.120
Now, before we rejoice too fast
418
00:33:34.120 --> 00:33:37.650
in the providence of God in this act of reconciliation,
419
00:33:37.650 --> 00:33:41.140
we have to note how contrary to human instinct
420
00:33:41.140 --> 00:33:42.980
Joseph acts here.
421
00:33:42.980 --> 00:33:44.500
And let's confess again that
422
00:33:44.500 --> 00:33:47.630
had we been put into slavery by our brothers,
423
00:33:47.630 --> 00:33:49.960
had we been deprived of our birthright
424
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:53.224
and now found ourselves in kingly power
425
00:33:53.224 --> 00:33:57.330
with life or death power over them,
426
00:33:57.330 --> 00:34:01.710
most of us would be sore tempted to a little rough justice,
427
00:34:01.710 --> 00:34:03.970
at least for a few minutes.
428
00:34:03.970 --> 00:34:08.970
They should be made to suffer just a little bit longer
429
00:34:09.620 --> 00:34:12.270
than the text suggests.
430
00:34:12.270 --> 00:34:16.610
Indeed, why should they get off so easily?
431
00:34:16.610 --> 00:34:19.170
Indeed, why should forgiveness come rushing in
432
00:34:19.170 --> 00:34:21.470
like the cavalry at the last moment
433
00:34:21.470 --> 00:34:25.118
and rescue the dramatic tension from the justice
434
00:34:25.118 --> 00:34:27.140
it all deserves?
435
00:34:27.140 --> 00:34:29.853
Forgiveness sometimes is too cheap,
436
00:34:30.930 --> 00:34:33.680
forgiveness sometimes is too easy.
437
00:34:33.680 --> 00:34:35.700
Did you read, a couple weeks ago,
438
00:34:35.700 --> 00:34:39.260
about the terrifying remarks of Elie Wiesel
439
00:34:39.260 --> 00:34:41.581
after the 50th anniversary
440
00:34:41.581 --> 00:34:45.540
of the commemoration at Auschwitz?
441
00:34:45.540 --> 00:34:49.690
He prayed, Wiesel prayed that God
442
00:34:49.690 --> 00:34:54.100
would never, ever forgive the Nazis,
443
00:34:54.100 --> 00:34:59.100
never forgive the crimes they committed against humanity,
444
00:34:59.900 --> 00:35:02.090
it was a chilling,
445
00:35:02.090 --> 00:35:05.860
agonizing, terrifying moment.
446
00:35:05.860 --> 00:35:09.410
I think I understood why he said it,
447
00:35:09.410 --> 00:35:13.140
I know I cannot accept that he said it,
448
00:35:13.140 --> 00:35:17.680
or nor can I expect that of the God I worship
449
00:35:17.680 --> 00:35:18.910
to whom he addressed it,
450
00:35:18.910 --> 00:35:21.530
but I understand what drives
451
00:35:21.530 --> 00:35:24.461
that kind of powerful emotion.
452
00:35:24.461 --> 00:35:27.610
An example of another thought, however,
453
00:35:27.610 --> 00:35:30.980
I was present at not many years ago,
454
00:35:30.980 --> 00:35:34.630
not long before his death, Daddy King preached on
455
00:35:34.630 --> 00:35:38.010
King's birthday in the Memorial Church at Cambridge,
456
00:35:38.010 --> 00:35:40.160
and it was an incredible occasion
457
00:35:40.160 --> 00:35:42.750
when he mounted our pulpit and began.
458
00:35:42.750 --> 00:35:45.550
The most incredible thing about that preaching
459
00:35:45.550 --> 00:35:49.160
in Memorial Church was at the beginning of his sermon
460
00:35:49.160 --> 00:35:53.160
where he said let me tell you at the start,
461
00:35:53.160 --> 00:35:56.730
I have no bitterness in my heart.
462
00:35:56.730 --> 00:36:00.000
And then he described how his son had been murdered,
463
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:02.410
how another son had drowned,
464
00:36:02.410 --> 00:36:05.060
how his wife had been shot in church
465
00:36:05.060 --> 00:36:06.480
before his very eyes,
466
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:11.480
and after each of these recitals with tears in his eyes,
467
00:36:11.610 --> 00:36:15.950
he would say but I have no bitterness in my heart,
468
00:36:15.950 --> 00:36:18.453
God won't allow it.
469
00:36:20.190 --> 00:36:23.780
Forgiveness may be too easy for us,
470
00:36:23.780 --> 00:36:26.760
but it is the stuff of the providence of God
471
00:36:26.760 --> 00:36:30.740
as Joseph's brothers discovered.
472
00:36:30.740 --> 00:36:35.423
It was not you who sent me here, but God.
473
00:36:36.300 --> 00:36:41.300
Perversity has become an instrument of providence.
474
00:36:44.723 --> 00:36:48.664
Now, this all may be true,
475
00:36:48.664 --> 00:36:51.800
it is all supposed to be true,
476
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:56.470
it is assuredly true, you heard it read from holy writ,
477
00:36:56.470 --> 00:37:00.780
you hear it proclaimed by me, it must be true.
478
00:37:00.780 --> 00:37:05.780
But Joseph is both a paragon of virtue
479
00:37:06.460 --> 00:37:09.310
and long dead.
480
00:37:09.310 --> 00:37:14.310
What has this impossible ethic to do with us?
481
00:37:14.750 --> 00:37:18.010
Most of us know more of perversity
482
00:37:18.010 --> 00:37:20.140
than of providence,
483
00:37:20.140 --> 00:37:23.910
and if you were having a miserable time at Duke this year
484
00:37:23.910 --> 00:37:25.780
or this term or this week,
485
00:37:25.780 --> 00:37:30.340
or even at this very moment, and God sent you here,
486
00:37:30.340 --> 00:37:33.993
then God is even more quirky than we think.
487
00:37:35.101 --> 00:37:39.800
Are we really meant to take this stuff seriously?
488
00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:44.010
What do we do with Jesus, who tells us in these verses
489
00:37:44.010 --> 00:37:45.530
from the sermon on the mount
490
00:37:45.530 --> 00:37:48.530
that we are to love our enemies,
491
00:37:48.530 --> 00:37:52.600
we are to use well those who spitefully use us,
492
00:37:52.600 --> 00:37:55.280
that we are to do good to those who hate us,
493
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:57.350
we are to turn the other cheek and,
494
00:37:57.350 --> 00:38:01.730
that most frightening of all things for us,
495
00:38:01.730 --> 00:38:06.207
you are to lend and expect nothing in return.
496
00:38:06.207 --> 00:38:09.710
Are there any bankers in this congregation this morning?
497
00:38:09.710 --> 00:38:11.330
Any lending officers?
498
00:38:11.330 --> 00:38:13.700
Anybody from the financial aid office
499
00:38:13.700 --> 00:38:15.030
at Duke University?
500
00:38:15.030 --> 00:38:18.610
You are to lend and expect nothing in return.
501
00:38:18.610 --> 00:38:20.730
Wouldn't it be wonderful
502
00:38:20.730 --> 00:38:24.180
if some biblical scholar in the divinity school,
503
00:38:24.180 --> 00:38:26.660
through careful research of the Greek text
504
00:38:26.660 --> 00:38:29.080
and some new discoveries and some old broken jars
505
00:38:29.080 --> 00:38:32.500
discovered that these verses from the sermon on the mount
506
00:38:32.500 --> 00:38:34.900
really don't mean what they say,
507
00:38:34.900 --> 00:38:38.100
they have been mistranslated, misconstrued,
508
00:38:38.100 --> 00:38:39.770
taken out of context,
509
00:38:39.770 --> 00:38:42.560
all this stuff about turning cheeks and lending freely,
510
00:38:42.560 --> 00:38:47.560
that's really not what Jesus had in mind at all.
511
00:38:47.640 --> 00:38:49.580
This was meant for some ascetic,
512
00:38:49.580 --> 00:38:51.940
saintly, religious community,
513
00:38:51.940 --> 00:38:56.150
not for very real people like you and me
514
00:38:56.150 --> 00:38:59.000
and other failed Christians.
515
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:01.210
Remember that great mind of Mark Twain who said
516
00:39:01.210 --> 00:39:03.530
it's not the things that I don't understand
517
00:39:03.530 --> 00:39:05.620
in the Bible that worries me,
518
00:39:05.620 --> 00:39:08.410
it's the things that I understand perfectly clear
519
00:39:08.410 --> 00:39:11.440
in the Bible that worry me.
520
00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:14.223
And these are among the things you understand
521
00:39:14.223 --> 00:39:15.940
and are perfectly clear,
522
00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:18.970
you are to love your enemies,
523
00:39:18.970 --> 00:39:21.350
you are to turn the other cheek,
524
00:39:21.350 --> 00:39:26.193
you are to lend without expectation of return.
525
00:39:27.500 --> 00:39:30.970
There it is, square in the middle of the gospel,
526
00:39:30.970 --> 00:39:33.620
hardly ambiguous at all,
527
00:39:33.620 --> 00:39:37.440
I know lots of Christians, lots of them,
528
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:40.650
who want to take the Bible literally
529
00:39:40.650 --> 00:39:43.940
as inspired, infallible, and inerrant
530
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:48.220
the sole sufficient rule of faith and practice,
531
00:39:48.220 --> 00:39:50.420
I know them and you know them,
532
00:39:50.420 --> 00:39:52.210
and maybe you are among them,
533
00:39:52.210 --> 00:39:55.470
they struggle over obscure rules of conduct
534
00:39:55.470 --> 00:39:58.490
in the book of Leviticus and the Holiness Code,
535
00:39:58.490 --> 00:40:01.030
they are eager to adapt themselves
536
00:40:01.030 --> 00:40:04.024
in every way to the standards of Rome
537
00:40:04.024 --> 00:40:08.120
or Ephesus or any of Paul's cities.
538
00:40:08.120 --> 00:40:12.210
But they come to a sputtering halt
539
00:40:12.210 --> 00:40:15.210
at these verses in Matthew six
540
00:40:15.210 --> 00:40:18.960
where the expectations of a rational and macho society
541
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:21.910
of red-blooded capitalists like you and me
542
00:40:21.910 --> 00:40:24.410
is turned on its head.
543
00:40:24.410 --> 00:40:28.360
Now, that is what I call perversity.
544
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:33.360
But the impossible ethic, and that is what it is,
545
00:40:35.800 --> 00:40:38.923
is the only one that counts.
546
00:40:40.003 --> 00:40:43.530
Had Joseph not behaved impossibly
547
00:40:43.530 --> 00:40:46.300
and been reconciled to his dysfunctional family,
548
00:40:46.300 --> 00:40:47.840
all would have perished,
549
00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:51.440
God's plan would've been thwarted and frustrated,
550
00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:54.823
there would be no future worthy of the name.
551
00:40:55.864 --> 00:40:59.160
Look at South Africa, if you will,
552
00:40:59.160 --> 00:41:01.270
who would've imagined a decade ago,
553
00:41:01.270 --> 00:41:03.640
five years ago, even a year ago
554
00:41:03.640 --> 00:41:06.200
that a policy of reconciliation
555
00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:11.200
would be the order of the day in that much divided country?
556
00:41:12.540 --> 00:41:14.310
Who would have imagined that
557
00:41:14.310 --> 00:41:16.800
even with all of its troubles today,
558
00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:18.790
the nation would be renewed,
559
00:41:18.790 --> 00:41:21.610
and the families of that nation reunited
560
00:41:21.610 --> 00:41:26.610
by one whom the white majority had thrown into prison?
561
00:41:27.880 --> 00:41:32.330
Who could imagine that Christian idealism,
562
00:41:32.330 --> 00:41:36.100
that impossible ethic, with its ethic of forgiveness
563
00:41:36.100 --> 00:41:39.150
and reconciliation and the extra mile
564
00:41:39.150 --> 00:41:44.150
would become an effective instrument of nation building?
565
00:41:44.180 --> 00:41:46.730
Who would've thought it possible
566
00:41:46.730 --> 00:41:50.140
that the impossible ethic, sputtering along,
567
00:41:50.140 --> 00:41:52.800
is the thing that is guiding that country
568
00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:56.323
from darkness into light?
569
00:41:56.323 --> 00:42:01.323
Now, we wouldn't dare try that in this country,
570
00:42:02.310 --> 00:42:07.140
that's not written in any contract of which I am familiar,
571
00:42:07.140 --> 00:42:09.000
at least not yet.
572
00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:10.780
We want, in this country,
573
00:42:10.780 --> 00:42:12.970
you want to be lean and mean,
574
00:42:12.970 --> 00:42:17.310
somebody must pay, we want to straighten out and tighten up,
575
00:42:17.310 --> 00:42:19.360
we will stand for nothing
576
00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:21.600
and so we will fall for anything.
577
00:42:21.600 --> 00:42:25.363
We cannot bear the thought of Abraham Lincoln,
578
00:42:25.363 --> 00:42:27.520
I think of reconstruction,
579
00:42:27.520 --> 00:42:30.290
what would it might have been if Abraham Lincoln
580
00:42:30.290 --> 00:42:32.820
had practiced the impossible ethic?
581
00:42:32.820 --> 00:42:35.179
You and I might've been talking to one another
582
00:42:35.179 --> 00:42:38.740
a lot sooner than we did.
583
00:42:38.740 --> 00:42:41.820
Or Martin Luther King, what might've happened
584
00:42:41.820 --> 00:42:44.740
had we allowed Martin Luther King
585
00:42:44.740 --> 00:42:47.400
and his impossible ethic to live?
586
00:42:47.400 --> 00:42:51.360
And even Jesus, whom we call the Christ,
587
00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:56.360
what could have happened if we let him down from his cross
588
00:42:56.640 --> 00:43:01.640
to practice as well as preach his impossible ethic?
589
00:43:06.221 --> 00:43:08.710
Do you know what Joseph means in Hebrew?
590
00:43:10.520 --> 00:43:13.400
Of course you don't, so I shall tell you,
591
00:43:13.400 --> 00:43:18.370
it means may God give increase.
592
00:43:18.370 --> 00:43:22.400
What a wonderful name, may God give increase.
593
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:26.490
And we know that his story, obviously enough,
594
00:43:26.490 --> 00:43:29.020
is an epiphany story,
595
00:43:29.020 --> 00:43:32.520
a story of disclosure, revelation,
596
00:43:32.520 --> 00:43:36.810
light manifestation, and reconciliation,
597
00:43:36.810 --> 00:43:38.840
we know that because this is
598
00:43:38.840 --> 00:43:41.140
the seventh Sunday after epiphany
599
00:43:41.140 --> 00:43:44.330
and we are a liturgically correct congregation.
600
00:43:44.330 --> 00:43:49.330
The gospel is about light manifestation and disclosure.
601
00:43:50.650 --> 00:43:54.210
Perversity is the human condition, more or less,
602
00:43:54.210 --> 00:43:56.940
and providence is the business of God
603
00:43:56.940 --> 00:44:00.720
by which we see our way through the darkness
604
00:44:00.720 --> 00:44:02.523
and in that light.
605
00:44:03.400 --> 00:44:08.400
And by that light, wonder of wonders,
606
00:44:08.440 --> 00:44:13.440
even the impossible is both possible and plausible.
607
00:44:16.370 --> 00:44:20.640
It was not you who sent me here,
608
00:44:20.640 --> 00:44:22.180
but God.
609
00:44:22.180 --> 00:44:25.940
For God sent me before you
610
00:44:25.940 --> 00:44:28.663
to preserve life.
611
00:44:29.730 --> 00:44:33.163
And so he did, and so he does,
612
00:44:34.550 --> 00:44:37.187
for which we thank God.
613
00:45:14.680 --> 00:45:17.680
(light piano music)
614
00:45:29.098 --> 00:45:34.098
♪ O dear Lord above ♪
615
00:45:35.501 --> 00:45:38.184
♪ God Almighty ♪
616
00:45:38.184 --> 00:45:43.184
♪ God of love ♪
617
00:45:43.203 --> 00:45:47.080
♪ Please look down ♪
618
00:45:47.080 --> 00:45:50.747
♪ And see my people through ♪
619
00:45:59.518 --> 00:46:04.518
♪ O dear Lord above ♪
620
00:46:06.243 --> 00:46:09.261
♪ God Almighty ♪
621
00:46:09.261 --> 00:46:14.261
♪ God of love ♪
622
00:46:14.744 --> 00:46:18.323
♪ Please look down ♪
623
00:46:18.323 --> 00:46:21.990
♪ And see my people through ♪
624
00:46:31.123 --> 00:46:36.123
♪ I believe that God ♪
625
00:46:37.603 --> 00:46:40.003
♪ Put sun and moon ♪
626
00:46:40.003 --> 00:46:45.003
♪ Up in the sky ♪
627
00:46:46.520 --> 00:46:50.344
♪ I don't mind ♪
628
00:46:50.344 --> 00:46:53.640
♪ The gray skies ♪
629
00:46:53.640 --> 00:46:58.640
♪ For they're just clouds passing by ♪
630
00:47:02.920 --> 00:47:07.920
♪ Give peace and comfort ♪
631
00:47:09.880 --> 00:47:13.463
♪ To every trouble of mine ♪
632
00:47:33.047 --> 00:47:38.047
♪ O often we feel weary ♪
633
00:47:42.301 --> 00:47:47.301
♪ But he knows our every tell ♪
634
00:47:50.485 --> 00:47:55.485
♪ Go to him in secret ♪
635
00:47:57.786 --> 00:48:01.869
♪ He will hear your every breath ♪
636
00:48:07.808 --> 00:48:12.808
♪ I found God at sunset ♪
637
00:48:14.985 --> 00:48:19.985
♪ When words are taught all day ♪
638
00:48:23.045 --> 00:48:25.753
♪ Come Sunday ♪
639
00:48:25.753 --> 00:48:30.257
♪ Oh, come Sunday ♪
640
00:48:30.257 --> 00:48:35.257
♪ That's the day ♪
641
00:48:38.814 --> 00:48:41.820
♪ Come Sunday ♪
642
00:48:41.820 --> 00:48:46.094
♪ Oh, come Sunday ♪
643
00:48:46.094 --> 00:48:48.844
♪ That's the day ♪
644
00:49:23.090 --> 00:49:24.523
The Lord be with you.
645
00:49:26.690 --> 00:49:27.663
Let us pray.
646
00:49:33.080 --> 00:49:35.453 line:15%
O supreme Lord of the universe,
647
00:49:36.470 --> 00:49:40.460 line:15%
you will and sustain everything around us
648
00:49:42.030 --> 00:49:44.410 line:15%
with the touch of your hand,
649
00:49:44.410 --> 00:49:46.703
you turned chaos into order,
650
00:49:47.670 --> 00:49:49.633
darkness into light.
651
00:49:51.840 --> 00:49:55.193
Unknown energies you hid in the heart of matter.
652
00:49:56.500 --> 00:50:00.030
From you burst forth the splendor of the sun,
653
00:50:00.030 --> 00:50:02.985
and the mild radiance of the moon,
654
00:50:02.985 --> 00:50:06.240
stars and planets without number,
655
00:50:06.240 --> 00:50:08.403
you set and ordered movement.
656
00:50:09.830 --> 00:50:13.030
You are the source of the fire's heat,
657
00:50:13.030 --> 00:50:14.453
and the wind's might,
658
00:50:15.780 --> 00:50:18.260
of the water's coolness,
659
00:50:18.260 --> 00:50:20.103
and the earth's stability.
660
00:50:22.580 --> 00:50:26.873
Deep and wonderful are the mysteries of your creation.
661
00:50:29.340 --> 00:50:33.460
Lord of lords, Creator,
662
00:50:33.460 --> 00:50:36.343
provider, sustainer,
663
00:50:37.730 --> 00:50:39.063
we give you thanks.
664
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:45.810
We are the grateful recipients of your providence,
665
00:50:45.810 --> 00:50:48.543
knowing that all things come from you,
666
00:50:49.600 --> 00:50:51.810
and that you work all things
667
00:50:51.810 --> 00:50:54.693
to the good of those who love you.
668
00:50:57.210 --> 00:51:00.223
Give us eyes to discern your hand upon our lives,
669
00:51:02.130 --> 00:51:05.070
give us faith and courage
670
00:51:05.070 --> 00:51:06.713
to follow where you lead.
671
00:51:08.130 --> 00:51:12.073
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
672
00:51:13.580 --> 00:51:15.670
As Joseph provided for the brothers
673
00:51:15.670 --> 00:51:18.400
who sold him into slavery,
674
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:23.400
and as Jesus asked forgiveness for those who crucified him,
675
00:51:23.467 --> 00:51:28.467
so you call us to be merciful to those in need,
676
00:51:28.610 --> 00:51:30.493
even our enemies.
677
00:51:32.280 --> 00:51:33.990
Give us hearts that are big enough
678
00:51:33.990 --> 00:51:37.460
to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us,
679
00:51:37.460 --> 00:51:39.513
and to work for their wholeness.
680
00:51:41.130 --> 00:51:44.913
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
681
00:51:46.930 --> 00:51:50.070
Give us eyes to see those who suffer
682
00:51:50.070 --> 00:51:52.543
that we may respond with compassion.
683
00:51:53.810 --> 00:51:57.100
We pray especially for all who suffer trauma
684
00:51:57.100 --> 00:51:58.703
in body or mind.
685
00:52:00.104 --> 00:52:04.463
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
686
00:52:05.830 --> 00:52:09.000
For those whose livelihood is insecure,
687
00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:11.693
the overworked, the hungry,
688
00:52:12.810 --> 00:52:15.063
the homeless and destitute,
689
00:52:16.230 --> 00:52:18.830
for those who have been downtrodden,
690
00:52:18.830 --> 00:52:21.823
ruined, and driven to despair.
691
00:52:23.530 --> 00:52:27.193
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
692
00:52:28.170 --> 00:52:30.350
For little children whose surroundings
693
00:52:30.350 --> 00:52:32.913
hide them from your love and beauty,
694
00:52:33.810 --> 00:52:36.423
for all the fatherless and motherless.
695
00:52:38.010 --> 00:52:41.893
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
696
00:52:43.300 --> 00:52:47.553
For families that are broken by perversity and anger,
697
00:52:48.510 --> 00:52:50.630
for all whose hearts are hardened
698
00:52:50.630 --> 00:52:52.833
toward those closest to them.
699
00:52:54.049 --> 00:52:58.853
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
700
00:53:00.210 --> 00:53:03.720
For those who have to bear their burdens alone,
701
00:53:03.720 --> 00:53:06.563
and for all who have lost those whom they love.
702
00:53:08.800 --> 00:53:12.483
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
703
00:53:13.980 --> 00:53:18.200
For those who are in doubt, in anguish of soul,
704
00:53:18.200 --> 00:53:20.313
for those who are afraid.
705
00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:25.643
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
706
00:53:27.210 --> 00:53:30.123
For those who suffer through their own wrongdoing.
707
00:53:32.450 --> 00:53:35.903
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
708
00:53:37.370 --> 00:53:40.250
For those whose suffering is unrelieved
709
00:53:40.250 --> 00:53:41.953
by the knowledge of your love.
710
00:53:43.750 --> 00:53:46.533
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
711
00:53:48.520 --> 00:53:51.210
Set free, helper of the weak,
712
00:53:51.210 --> 00:53:52.840
the souls of your servants
713
00:53:52.840 --> 00:53:55.683
from all restlessness and anxiety.
714
00:53:56.870 --> 00:54:00.437
Give us the peace and power that flow from you,
715
00:54:01.770 --> 00:54:06.250
keep us in all perplexities and distresses,
716
00:54:06.250 --> 00:54:08.940
in all griefs and grievances,
717
00:54:08.940 --> 00:54:11.940
from fear or faithlessness
718
00:54:11.940 --> 00:54:14.730
that being upheld by your strength
719
00:54:14.730 --> 00:54:17.490
and stayed on the rock of your faithfulness
720
00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:20.840
through storm and stress
721
00:54:20.840 --> 00:54:22.313
we may abide in you.
722
00:54:23.420 --> 00:54:26.423
In the name of Christ our Lord, amen.
723
00:54:28.920 --> 00:54:32.637
Let us offer our thanksgivings with grateful hearts.
724
00:54:34.929 --> 00:54:37.429
(organ music)
725
00:55:34.413 --> 00:55:37.080
(choir singing)
726
00:59:30.813 --> 00:59:33.313
(organ music)
727
00:59:51.507 --> 00:59:54.174
(choir singing)
728
01:00:51.470 --> 01:00:52.303
Let us pray.
729
01:00:53.860 --> 01:00:58.290
Almighty God, giver of every good and perfect gift,
730
01:00:58.290 --> 01:01:01.110
teach us to render to you all that we have
731
01:01:01.110 --> 01:01:03.190
and all that we are,
732
01:01:03.190 --> 01:01:06.800
that we may praise you not with our lips only
733
01:01:06.800 --> 01:01:08.990
but with our whole lives,
734
01:01:08.990 --> 01:01:11.800
turning the duties, the sorrows,
735
01:01:11.800 --> 01:01:14.300
and the joys of all our days
736
01:01:14.300 --> 01:01:16.990
into a living sacrifice to you,
737
01:01:16.990 --> 01:01:19.300
to our Savior Jesus Christ,
738
01:01:19.300 --> 01:01:21.040
who taught us to pray together,
739
01:01:21.040 --> 01:01:25.310
saying our Father who art in heaven,
740
01:01:25.310 --> 01:01:27.420
hallowed be thy name,
741
01:01:27.420 --> 01:01:29.230
thy kingdom come,
742
01:01:29.230 --> 01:01:33.490
thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
743
01:01:33.490 --> 01:01:36.150
Give us this day our daily bread
744
01:01:36.150 --> 01:01:38.680
and forgive us our trespasses
745
01:01:38.680 --> 01:01:42.400
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
746
01:01:42.400 --> 01:01:44.730
Lead us not into temptation,
747
01:01:44.730 --> 01:01:47.050
but deliver us from evil,
748
01:01:47.050 --> 01:01:48.740
for thine is the kingdom
749
01:01:48.740 --> 01:01:51.873
and the power and the glory forever, amen.
750
01:01:55.945 --> 01:01:58.445
(organ music)
751
01:02:32.772 --> 01:02:35.439
(choir singing)
752
01:05:48.540 --> 01:05:50.937
Go forth in peace to serve God
753
01:05:50.937 --> 01:05:53.540
and your neighbor in all that you do.
754
01:05:53.540 --> 01:05:55.630
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
755
01:05:55.630 --> 01:05:58.850
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
756
01:05:58.850 --> 01:06:00.537
be with you and keep you.
757
01:06:05.683 --> 01:06:08.350
(choir singing)