- Coming to you live from the Duke Chapel, it's The Service of Worship on May 17th, 1981. (serene organ music) (faint speaking) (serene organ music) (uplifting choral music) (solemn organ and choral music) (uplifting organ and choral music) (serene organ music) (serene choral music) (solemn organ music) (solemn choral music) (uplifting organ music) (uplifting choral music) 

- On behalf of Duke University and as a Minister of Jesus Christ, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if I may, I greet you with the words of Apostle Paul found in his letters to the New Testament Churches. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father "and the Lord Jesus Christ. "That's not the kind of peace that means the absence of war. "It's not simply peace of mind. "It's not even the peace of the dead. "This is that dividing peace in your heart of hearts "that comes when you know that at the very center "of the universe, there is toward you, "grace, mercy, steadfast love. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father "and the Lord Jesus Christ." Such grace invites us, brothers and sisters, to confess our sins. Let us pray together. Oh Lord, do you see us as hypocrites while we see ourselves as righteous? Do you see us like tombs covered with whitewash? Do you know us as legalists who lack love? Do you find us neglecting justice and worrying about inconsequential rituals of worship? Do you see us obsessed with keeping minor religious laws but unwilling to help those in need? If we are blind guides, pretending Christians, self-righteous souls, shake us with reproof and rebuke gods until we awaken to our condition and repent. Create in us pure hearts and the right spirit so that we may see you more clearly and serve you more nearly. Amen. (solemn organ music) Let the word of God be our insurance of pardon. God so loved the world that He gave His only son. That whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Let us give thanks for God is good and God's love is everlasting. (congregation murmuring) Amen. We welcome all of you to this service of worship today. We especially want to welcome the choir that comes from Elon College. Thank you choir. And may we recognize, especially, Professor James H. Glenn, the director, and Dr. Walter Westover. We are pleased that they have come to add to our worship today and already they have blessed us. The preacher today is Reverend Charlene Kammerer, assistant minister to the university. I'm sure you will hear her gladly. Her topic is different than that which is listed. She is speaking to us on this subject, sometimes we need to be sick. Sometimes we need to be sick. We're glad you're here. Thanks be to God for this place. Thanks be to God for this Sabbath day. Thanks be to God for each one of you. 

- Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, who by the entrance of your word, gives light onto the soul. Pour down upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding. That being taught by you and holy scriptures, we may receive with faith the words of eternal life and be made wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Epistle lesson this morning is from Romans 8:14-28. "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back "into fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship. "When we cry Abba, Father, it is the Spirit himself "bearing witness with our spirit "that we are children of God. "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God "and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him "in order that we may also be glorified with him. "I consider that the sufferings of this present time "are not worth comparing with the glory "that is to be revealed to us. "For the creation awaits with eager longing "for the revealing of the sons of God. "For the creation was subjected to futility, "not of its own will, but by the will of him "who subjected it, in hope because the creation itself "will be set free from its bondage to decay "and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning "in travail together until now. "And not only the creation, but we ourselves, "who have the first fruits of the Spirit, "groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, "the redemption of our bodies. "For in this hope we are saved. "For in this hope we were saved. "Now hope that is seen is not hope. "For who hopes for what he sees? "But if we hope for what we do not see, "we wait for it with patience. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. "For we do not know how to pray as we ought, "but the Spirit himself intercedes for us "with sighs too deep for words. "And he who searches the hearts of men "knows what is the mind of the Spirit, "because the Spirit intercedes for the saints "according to the will of God. "We know that in everything God works for good with those "who love Him, who are called according to that purpose." Here ends the reading from the Epistle lesson. Amen. (serene organ and choral music) 

- Thou has made man a little lower than the angels. And has crowned him with honor and with glory. Thou has given him dominion over the work of thy hands. Thou has put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen and the feast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea. (choral chanting) (serene organ music) (serene choral music) 

- Will the congregation please stand for the reading of the gospel lesson. The gospel lesson is from John 5:2-9. "Now there is in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool, "in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes. "In these lay a multitude of invalids, "blind, lame, paralyzed. "One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. "When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been "lying there a long time, He said to him, "'Do you want to be healed?' "The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me "into the pool when the water is troubled, and while "I am gone and going another steps down before me.' "Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.' "And at once the man was healed, "and he took up his pallet and walked." Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. Amen. (solemn organ and choral music) 

- Grace and peace be onto you from God our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ. The question Jesus put to the man who had chronically ill for 38 years was, "Do you want to be healed?" Doesn't that seem like an absurd question to ask of a man lying crippled on a pallet? And yet on second thought, why had this man been waiting for 38 years? The pool of Beth-za'tha, called the place of five porches, by the first century Jews, was a shaded colonnade area where there were five entrances to a great pool. There was a legend at the time that said on occasion an angel would come to that pool of water and stir the waters. At that point, the first one into the water would be healed with a miraculous power. I perceived that that five porches area must have been a favorite haunt of invalids to come and to hope for a cure for their particular malady. So to me, when we see Jesus first approach this invalid, his question about healing appears rather ridiculous. But then we see what is this man's response to Jesus' question. We find the man evading the question itself. He begins to complain. He says that no one would put him in the water at the right time or that someone had always managed to reach the water before him. To me, this man was obviously for 38 years getting some kind of fringe benefits from his illness. I perceived that he became a complainer after a time. In this way, he can blame his condition on others not helping him. He could avoid the responsibility to live the life he had, regardless of the illness. By complaining, he could well rationalize becoming dependent and he could reject any demands placed on him. Thus it is no wonder that Jesus ask him, "Do you really want to be healed?" For you see, being well would mean paying a price, the price of losing the attention he had gotten for 38 years for being ill. I believe that sometimes we need to be sick. If we are honest at looking at ourselves, we must admit that for us too, illness can have some fringe benefits. I don't mean this as true every time we have a cold or miss work for a few days. But it could be happening to us and we would not be aware of it. Let me share with you some of the possible fringe benefits of illness and exactly what I mean by saying this. First, if we are ill, we can get attention we feel we might not get otherwise. I am aware that many battered children have longer than normal recovery times when they land in the hospital because even these children realize on some level that it is safer to stay in that hospital than it would be to return to the home environment. The growing presence of anorexia nervosa today among young women is a clear signal and a crying call for help. Part of this insidious disease is that self-inflicted starvation will guarantee attention for young women who seem so desperately to need it. In the second place, when we are ill, it is generally acceptable to be irritable, demanding, depressed, and teary-eyed. When we are ill we can expect comfort and we can expect soothing attention. We can use illness to manipulate others who are close to us, trying to get them to do what we want or to get our own way. When I had my tonsils out at age four, I noticed that every time I complained or cried, I would get a marvelous treat of ice cream or Jell-O or crushed ice and sometimes coloring books and crayons. My cries were very effective. I am also aware upon looking back at that time in my life that my older sister lay in the bed next to me, also minus her tonsils, but she was too weak to cry out and she could not talk, for infection had set in after surgery for her. Looking back on that experience now, I am quite sure that she did not get as much as attention as I did and that for her there was very little gratification in getting her tonsils out. Thirdly, we can use illness to secure preferential treatment which if we are not careful, can foster our own needs of being dependent upon others. It seems to me that the more sick we are, the more critical the illness, the larger the danger. We can use our illness to evoke sympathy or gain pity. How many times is it called forth from us to want to respond to a sick person, oh you poor thing. We can ourselves sink in self-pity at these moments. Worse yet, we can try to win love through illness when we begin to transmit this kind of message: How could you not love anyone as sickly as I am? I have been with people who have tried to hold on to a marriage partner through an illness, or to cling desperately to a child, relying on the illness itself to establish a kind of false loyalty. When we are ill, we can avoid having people make demands on us, for we can easily say well I would like to help out or do that but I am too ill. The list for ourselves will go on and on. We can escape competition with illness. How many athletes have you known who were injured before the big contest? We can avoid making difficult decisions confronting conflict within ourselves. Or working through deteriorating relationships when we are ill. In short, we can avoid, through illness, facing life as it is. I remember vividly a little boy who needed to be sick and who taught me a great deal out of a sick time in his life. When I was doing some clinical work in a hospital in Illinois, one of the units I covered in the hospital was a pediatric area. It was there that I met Matt, a bright very thin, five year old boy. He was admitted with severe rectal bleeding and it was most obvious that his parents, grandparents, and the physicians on duty, were very worried about him. They were with him constantly and very solicitous over his condition. It was finally decided by the doctors that some fairly serious surgery for a child that age would need to be performed. As a result of that surgery, the hospitalization time was eight weeks. During the sixth week, I noticed one morning that we had a new patient on the pediatrics unit, and he had the same last name as Matt's. When I walked into that child's room to get acquainted, I discovered Joey, an older lookalike of his brother Matt. It soon became clear to all of us that Joey had unconsciously decided that if he was going to get any attention in that family, he would have to get sick too and come to the hospital to get it. So Joey began developing symptoms similar to those of Matt. Those parents had put all of their energy into their sick child and were unable to give love and attention at home for the very short periods they were there. Amazingly, after several days of devoted attention, Joey miraculously recovered and was able to go home. Unfortunately, for that family, some of the dynamics of illness were understood in a new way and they were able to begin reestablishing some family ties and relationships. Now it is not often the case when we deliberately get sick to gain or to avoid anything, but I am aware that this can happen to us some times outside the level of our own awareness. We can use illness to be sheltered from life. Physicians tell us that from 50 to 70% of people they see in their offices really need a counselor, a minister, or some positive relationship, much more than they need any kind of medical attention. The more we learn about our bodies, the more aware we are of the inner-relatedness of all the parts and functions. It is true that when something goes wrong with one dimension of our life, it touches other dimensions as well, including the physical. I get the impression that the man at the pool of Beth-za'tha, nursed his ill health in some way. Perhaps clinging to that sickness without even being aware of it. Jesus searching words to him, "Do you want to be healed?" brought to him a new kind of strength and the recovery of health. Full health is understood in the gospel in a very special way. It is always understood as physical, emotional, and spiritual soundness. Healing for Jesus would be an act of the whole part of rescuing of life. Healing is an expression of God's continuing work of salvation. In fact, the meaning of salvation in the New Testament is wholeness. The many ways that we see healing recorded for us in the gospels, conveys a sense of deep mystery. Something happens to someone that seems extraordinarily significant and could not have been expected under normal circumstances. The point of each story seems to be beyond any scientific explanation. But according to the gospels, Jesus' miracles of healings were real and specific. Events which could be grasped and understood. I believe it is important for us to remember that a healing always occurred in an atmosphere of faith. For the question of miracle cannot be separated from faith. In the New Testament, it is faith in the person of Jesus, the preaching and His power, both of which had to do with the dawning of the Kingdom of God, around which healing occurs. I believe that faith then as now, cannot prove that miracles happen, but it is faith which is the context in which we began to understand the signs and wonders of God. After the man at the pool of Beth-za'tha unknowingly revealed to Jesus the fringe benefits of his illness, Jesus told him, "Pick up your bed and walk, "or pick up your life and walk." Dare to take the risk of being whole and being well, and then you can begin to meet life as it is and as it comes to you. The book "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" has left a deep impression on me even after years have passed since first reading that. To me that book is a book about healing. It tell us the story of Debra, a young schizophrenic woman who becomes that way because reality in her own life is too painful for her to face. She's been in a private hospital for a long time working with a therapist and the time comes when Debra must leave that hospital, become part of the community again, pick up her bed and walk. But she is afraid of the risk and the pain that will involve for her. There is far more security in the fantasy world which she has created for herself. She dramatizes her fear at that moment by beginning to burn her body with matches, which will guarantee that she can stay in the hospital awhile longer. The question for us today as we hear the gospel lesson is do we want to be healed? It is our faith in God and in the saving grace of wholeness that we find in Jesus Christ that can help us say yes to that question. We can choose to face life the way it is with its hurts and pains. When we began to relate to ourselves and God and others in wholeness and in ways of love, we won't need to be sick anymore. We will be able to coup with illnesses that do come to us. The word to the man at the pool of Beth-za'tha, is still the same word to us today and the challenge of the gospel to all of us is this, as Jesus has said it, "Pick up your life and walk." So be it, amen. (solemn organ music) (solemn choral music) 

- Let us affirm what we believe. We believe in God who has created and is creating. Who has come into truly human Jesus, to reconcile and make new. Who works in us and others, by the Spirit. We trust God, who calls us to be the church. To celebrate life and its fullness. To love and serve others. To seek justice and resist evil. To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. Our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone. Thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. 

- And with your spirit. 

- Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, Thou who did steal the diseases of all who seek Thee, Thou who does know our needs more than we know them ourselves, cause us now to cry out with Thee, out to Thee from hearts that truly believe, asking for wholeness through Jesus Christ. Thou know us who we are and from whence we come to this place. Some of us have come from well ordered lives, marked with health and strength, with success, with friendship. Some of us come from a deeper need, Thou know us our brokenness, our loneliness, our embarrassment, our sin. Thou know us the world from which we come to Thee oh God. A world that is marked by violence, by deceit, by greed. Thou know us the tragedies of this past week. Hear us oh God as in one voice, we ask for thy salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hear us oh God as in one voice, we ask for newness of life. Hear us oh God as in one voice, we pray for new strength for the Pope, for some vision in the midst of this confusion, for thy peace, even in the midst of our brokenness. But oh divine love, Thou who does everlastingly stand outside the closed doors of all the souls of men and women, knocking ever and ever again, will Thou not now give each one of us grace to throw open our soul's doors. Not every bolt and bar be drawn, let us hither to, robbed our lives of the fresh breezes of Thy spirit and of light and of love. Open our ears of God that we may hear Thy voice calling us to new high and ever. Too often we have been deaf to appeals that Thou has addressed to us. But now give us courage to answer with the Prophet Jeremiah sent me. And when anyone of Thy children, our human brothers and sisters cries out in need, give to one of us and all of us an open ear to hear that cry, Thy call to service. Give us open eyes oh God, eyes quick to discover Thy end dwelling in the world which Thou has made. Let all lovely things today, fill us with gladness and let them uplift our minds to thine everlasting loveliness. Forgive all our blindness in past days to that which is grand and glorious, our blindness to charm of little children. To the sublimities of the human story. To all the intimations of Thy presence, which 10,000 things in this world contain. And give us open hands oh God, hands ready to share with all who are in want, the blessings which Thou has given to us. Deliver us from all vengeance, all meanness, all selfishness, all self-righteousness. Let us hold Thy gifts in stewardship. And let our whole lives be as a trust for Thee. To whom even now, be all honor and glory forever. Through Jesus Christ, who has taught us when we pray to say: Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (serene organ music) (serene choral music) (solemn organ music) (solemn choral music) Almighty God, Thou who has given all things, the appointment of our lives stands according Thy will and we could not bring gifts to Thee had Thou not first given to us. Therefore receive our gratitude and also these gifts and bless them to the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (serene organ music) (serene choral music) 

- The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord made his face to shine upon you and be gracious onto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace today and forevermore. Amen. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Glory Jesus my Lord ♪ ♪ Praise His name ♪ ♪ Praise His name ♪ ♪ Praise His name forever ♪ ♪ Lord He will live forever ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (uplifting organ music) (laughing)