James Armstrong - "The Plea" (March 27, 1983)

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	(organ plays)	0:03
	(choir sings)	3:49
	(organ plays)	4:33
-	Hosanna to the son of David.	8:32
	Blessed is the king who comes in the name the Lord.	8:34
	Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.	8:38
	In the spirit of praise and worship,	8:43
	let every knee now bow	8:46
	and every tongue confess	8:48
	before God, that Jesus Christ is Lord.	8:50
	Let us pray.	8:54
	Oh, God mighty in judgement,	9:07
	and gracious in pardon,	9:09
	we come before you today	9:12
	confessing the ways we have turned from you	9:14
	to serve other gods.	9:17
	We have sworn our allegiance to you	9:19
	and then turned our backs	9:22
	to walk into the service	9:24
	of our jobs,	9:25
	our back accounts,	9:27
	or our respectability.	9:28
	We have stood out for you	9:31
	in the confines of the church,	9:32
	but find other ways beguiling	9:34
	when we leave these walls.	9:37
	We are fickle servants.	9:39
	Turn us to your way,	9:41
	so we might hear your words	9:43
	well done good and faithful servant.	9:46
	Be gracious to us	9:49
	and hear our prayer for forgiveness,	9:51
	for we pray through the power of Jesus' name.	9:53
	Amen.	9:58
	Hear this good news,	10:26
	triumphant and victorious is Jesus	10:28
	the Christ.	10:31
	His dominion shall be from sea to sea,	10:33
	and from the ends of the Earth.	10:35
	In the name of Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven.	10:38
	Let us then give thanks for God is good	10:43
	and God's love is everlasting.	10:46
	Thanks be to God,	10:49
	whose love creates us.	10:51
	Thanks be to God,	10:53
	whose mercy redeems us.	10:55
	Thanks be to God,	10:57
	whose grace leads us into the future.	10:59
	We welcome this Holy Sunday morning	11:04
	Palm Sunday and the season of Lent	11:07
	to worship here with us in the Duke University chapel.	11:10
	We are honored to have the Lee Harper dancers	11:14
	who have already made their presence	11:18
	felt among us this morning	11:20
	and we look forward to celebrating	11:22
	and worshiping with them	11:24
	in the spirit of music and dance.	11:26
	We are delighted this morning	11:31
	to be able to share that the Minister to the University	11:33
	now Dean of Duke University chapel,	11:37
	Robert Tiyung, is able to be with us here	11:39
	this morning.	11:43
	He is worshiping with us,	11:44
	he and his family.	11:46
	We're delighted to see you, Bob	11:48
	and glad that you're here	11:49
	and we also want you to know	11:51
	that he will be leaving	11:53
	shortly before the end of the service this morning.	11:55
	We want you to know,	12:02
	that immediately following worship this morning,	12:03
	the Page Box Office	12:07
	will be open for one hour	12:08
	to help you purchase tickets	12:11
	for the Barleos Recreum.	12:13
	It will be open today	12:16
	one hour, adjoining in the Page Building,	12:17
	immediately following worship today.	12:20
	You will notice on the back of your bulletin,	12:25
	the schedule for Holy Week services	12:28
	here at Duke University Chapel.	12:31
	We invite you to come	12:34
	and worship with us	12:35
	to join us on your own journey	12:37
	to Jerusalem	12:39
	and these seasons of events	12:41
	that await us this week.	12:43
	You will notice that	12:46
	next Sunday morning at the celebration	12:47
	of Resurrection there will be a sunrise service	12:50
	in the Sarah Duke Gardens	12:54
	and this year for the first time,	12:55
	that service will be televised.	12:57
	It is scheduled for 6:30 in the morning.	13:00
	We will also have worship services	13:04
	of celebration at nine and 11 in the morning	13:06
	and the 11 o'clock service	13:09
	will be televised as usual.	13:11
	We are very honored this morning	13:18
	to have as our get preacher for Palm Sunday,	13:20
	Bishop James Armstrong.	13:24
	Bishop Armstrong is not new	13:26
	to Duke University Chapel	13:29
	or this community.	13:30
	He has shared with us before	13:32
	his prophetic gifts of preaching,	13:34
	of leading, and his presence among us.	13:37
	For your information,	13:41
	he will also be addressing the Duke University Community	13:43
	tonight at 8 o'clock	13:47
	here in the chapel.	13:49
	He will be giving a major address	13:51
	on peace-making issues from our time	13:53
	in conjunction with the peace making	13:57
	in the nuclear age symposium	13:59
	now ongoing in the life	14:02
	of Duke University.	14:04
	Bishop Armstrong is currently	14:06
	the resident Bishop	14:08
	of the Indiana area of the United Methodist Church.	14:09
	He was elected to the Episcopacy in 1968	14:13
	serving in the South Dakota area	14:18
	prior to coming to Indiana.	14:20
	He is an honored preacher,	14:23
	an honored friend,	14:25
	and a gentlemen Christian man.	14:26
	And we welcome him this morning.	14:29
	We look forward to the message he will bring us us.	14:31
	His sermon title is,	14:34
	The Plea.	14:36
-	Let us pray.	14:50
	Oh God, who by the entrance of your word,	14:55
	gives light into soul.	15:01
	Pour down upon us the spirit of wisdom	15:05
	and understanding and that being taught	15:08
	in holy scripture,	15:12
	we may receive with faith	15:15
	the words of your eternal life	15:17
	and be made wise unto salvation	15:20
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	15:23
	Amen.	15:26
	In the Old Testament lesson,	15:31
	is from Zachariah,	15:34
	chapter nine, verses nine through 12.	15:36
	Rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion.	15:42
	Shout aloud oh daughter of Jerusalem.	15:46
	Lo, your king comes to you	15:50
	triumphant and victorious is he.	15:54
	Humble and arriving on an ass.	15:59
	On a colt, the foal of an ass.	16:03
	I will cutoff the chariot from Ephraim	16:07
	and the war horse from Jerusalem	16:11
	and the battle bow shall be cutoff	16:13
	and he shall command peace to the nations.	16:17
	His dominion shall be from sea to sea	16:22
	and from the river to the ends	16:25
	of the Earth as for you also,	16:27
	because the blood of my covenant	16:33
	is with you.	16:35
	I will set your captives free from the	16:38
	waterless pit.	16:41
	Return to your stronghold oh prisoners of hope.	16:43
	Today I declare, that I will restore to you double.	16:48
	Herein is the reading from the Old Testament.	16:56
	The Epistle lesson	17:04
	is from Ephesians chapter four,	17:07
	verses one through six.	17:11
	I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord,	17:17
	beg you to lead a life worthy	17:23
	of the calling to which you have been called.	17:26
	With all lowliness and meekness.	17:31
	With patience, forebearing one another in love,	17:35
	eager to maintain the unity	17:41
	of the spirit, and the bond of peace.	17:43
	There is one body and one spirit.	17:48
	Just as you were called to the one hope	17:54
	that belongs to your call.	17:58
	One Lord, one faith,	18:02
	one baptism.	18:07
	One God, and father to us all.	18:09
	Who's is above all	18:14
	and through all.	18:17
	And in all.	18:19
	Herein is the reading from the second lesson.	18:24
	Now will the congregation	18:30
	please remain seated for reading	18:32
	of the gospel lesson.	18:36
	The gospel lesson is from Mark	18:41
	chapter 11, versus one through 10.	18:45
	And when they drew near to Jerusalem	18:53
	to Batash and Bethany	18:57
	at the Mount of Olives,	19:01
	he sent two of his disciples	19:03
	and said to them,	19:07
	"Go into the village opposite you	19:08
	"and immediately as you enter it,	19:11
	"you will find a colt tied	19:14
	"on which no one has ever sit.	19:17
	"Untie it and bring it.	19:21
	"If anyone says to you,	19:25
	"why are you doing this?	19:27
	"Say, the Lord has need of it,	19:30
	"and will send it back here immediately."	19:33
	And they went away and found a colt	19:37
	tied at the door out in the open street	19:40
	and they untied it.	19:42
	And those who stood there said to them,	19:45
	"Why are you untying the colt?"	19:48
	And they told him what Jesus had said.	19:52
	And they let them go.	19:56
	And they brought the colt	19:59
	to Jesus, and threw their garments on it.	20:00
	And he sat upon it.	20:04
	And many spread their garments on the road	20:08
	and others spread leafy branches	20:11
	which they had cut from the fields.	20:14
	And those who went before	20:17
	and those who followed,	20:18
	cried out, "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes	20:19
	"in the name of the Lord!	20:22
	"Blessed is the kingdom of our father David	20:24
	"that is coming.	20:27
	"Hosanna in the highest!"	20:28
	(choir sings)	20:32
	(organ plays)	24:38
	Magnificent, moving.	25:20
	A fitting celebration	25:28
	at the heart of Palm Sunday service and worship.	25:29
	Let me read again the Epistle lesson	25:36
	this time from the New English Bible.	25:39
	I entreat you then	25:44
	I beg of you,	25:47
	I plead with you,	25:49
	I, a prisoner for the Lord's sake	25:53
	as God has called you,	25:55
	live up to your calling.	25:57
	Be humble always,	26:00
	and gentle and patient, too.	26:02
	Be forebearing with one another	26:06
	and charitable, spare no effort	26:08
	to make fast with bonds of peace	26:11
	the unity which spirit gives.	26:14
	There is one body,	26:17
	and one spirit,	26:19
	as there is also one hope	26:20
	held out on God's call to you.	26:23
	One Lord, one faith,	26:26
	one baptism, one God and father of all	26:29
	who is over all and in all	26:33
	and through all.	26:35
	Israel has always been	26:40
	a bridge and a bloody doormat.	26:42
	In biblical days, a bridge	26:47
	between Greece and Rome	26:51
	on the one hand	26:52
	and the mysteries of the East	26:53
	on the other between Africa,	26:54
	and western Asia.	26:57
	But a doormat, too.	27:00
	Always tiny, more often than not, divided.	27:04
	Frequently defenseless.	27:10
	It found itself a battleground	27:12
	on which warring powers met.	27:14
	But Israel knew moments of glory as well.	27:18
	There was a matchless reign of King David,	27:20
	the splendor of King Solomon in his temple	27:24
	and there was the courageous	27:28
	Maccabean Revolt.	27:30
	Two hundred years before Jesus,	27:33
	Judea surrounded by Persia, Syria,	27:35
	Egypt, Greece and Rome,	27:39
	saw the brothers, Maccabee rise,	27:42
	fend off the foreign invaders,	27:44
	win a series of remarkable military victories	27:46
	against overwhelming odds and for one brief season	27:50
	claimed independence for this little nation.	27:55
	Two hundred years later,	28:00
	Jesus walked over that same Judean countryside,	28:02
	many considered him Messiah.	28:07
	The people were captive once again.	28:10
	Rome was the tyrant.	28:14
	Would Messiah come with brandishing sword?	28:16
	Riding a white charger,	28:20
	driving the Roman tyrant out,	28:22
	restoring the glory of David and the valor	28:24
	of Judas Maccabeus.	28:27
	The Zealots thought so.	28:30
	Sadducees and Pharisees were divided.	28:33
	The (mumbles) seems that remarkable little	28:37
	religious community had bordered on the Dead Sea	28:40
	really didn't much care.	28:42
	This is Palm Sunday.	28:47
	We are remembering the triumphal entry	28:51
	of our Lord into the Holy City.	28:53
	Let's remember that event against	28:58
	this fascinating backdrop,	29:00
	the golden past, the present divisions,	29:03
	the Messianic expectation.	29:09
	How did Jesus fit into all of that?	29:13
	That was no white charger he rode.	29:17
	It was a borrowed jackass.	29:22
	That was no suit of armor he wore.	29:26
	That was a peasant's cloak.	29:31
	Those were not soldiers dividing the crowd	29:34
	in front of him making way for him.	29:38
	Those were the little children,	29:40
	skipping, laughing, running, playing,	29:41
	waving palm branches.	29:45
	Nor was there anything approaching	29:50
	a declaration of war.	29:53
	Tears over the anguish of a city,	29:56
	teaching and healing in the temple courtyard,	30:01
	a last supper binding friends together,	30:04
	an earnest and urgent prayer for unity.	30:09
	Gethsemane.	30:15
	Calvary,	30:18
	an empty tomb and final victory.	30:20
	Why link this story	30:26
	with the musings of the apostle?	30:29
	With a lesson from Ephesians.	30:32
	Because there is common thread	30:35
	as we read of gentleness,	30:39
	humility, forbearance,	30:42
	peace created by spirit,	30:47
	and oneness, oneness in God.	30:51
	This theme of oneness	30:58
	permeates the word.	31:00
	Beginning with creation, ending in a vision	31:03
	of a new heaven and a new Earth	31:06
	from Genesis to Revelation	31:07
	it permeates the word.	31:10
	Paul Crow writing in a splendid	31:13
	little study book,	31:16
	Christian Unity Matrix formation	31:17
	says that throughout the biblical story,	31:20
	there is the reputation	31:23
	of alienation and reconciliation	31:24
	of brokenness and recovery of unity.	31:28
	It begins with creation.	31:33
	The universes beyond	31:37
	beautiful, harmonious, fruitful,	31:41
	abundant, and then Adam and Eve,	31:47
	our first parents appeared on the scene.	31:52
	Created to commune with one another	31:56
	and with God they rebelled	31:58
	and were expelled from the garden.	31:59
	Cain and Abel,	32:03
	fashioned as brothers to live as brothers	32:05
	in one family.	32:07
	One murdered the other in the story	32:08
	of the garden was repeated,	32:10
	The flood, rebellion,	32:13
	recovery.	32:17
	The construction of the tower of Babel	32:19
	bringing scattered people from all over the Earth	32:21
	ideally together.	32:24
	And yet motivated by raw crude lust	32:27
	for power and thus, the story of rebellion repeated.	32:30
	God selecting old Abraham, old Sarah	32:37
	to bring into being, a tribe.	32:43
	A unifying tribe that again,	32:46
	would pull the persons of the world together.	32:50
	That covenant relationship beginning with Abram	32:55
	moving through Moses, on to Jeremiah,	32:58
	speaking of God's initiatives	33:01
	also reminds us	33:05
	of human kind's continuing rebellious	33:07
	sinful, response.	33:12
	Samuel, envisioned the coming of a day	33:15
	when theocracy would prevail,	33:20
	when God would reign over all things.	33:22
	Solomon at the prayer of the dedication	33:27
	of the temple, saw the tattered ends	33:29
	of the Earth coming together under God.	33:30
	Isaiah, dreamed of the emergency of a worldwide kingdom	33:34
	where righteousness and justice would prevail.	33:39
	A minor prophet, asked probing, penetrating	33:44
	staccato like questions, have we not one God,	33:48
	have not one father created us.	33:51
	Why do we deal treacherously,	33:54
	everyone against his brother?	33:56
	In each instance, the vision,	33:59
	the dream of oneness.	34:02
	Somehow be brought about	34:06
	by the coming of one,	34:10
	called Messiah.	34:13
	Isaiah sensed it.	34:16
	Anticipated it.	34:18
	His name will be called wonderful,	34:20
	counselor, Mighty God, everlasting father,	34:23
	Prince of Peace and the governments	34:26
	will rest upon his shoulders.	34:28
	800 years passed and to the Christian,	34:33
	Messiah came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.	34:38
	But not the unity.	34:45
	He prayed for it,	34:48
	worked for it,	34:50
	gave himself for it,	34:52
	but not the unity.	34:56
	Just hours before his death	34:59
	he prayed that we might be one.	35:05
	His followers might be one.	35:07
	The church might be one	35:09
	that the world might know	35:11
	and believe.	35:14
	Hours later, nailed to a cross,	35:17
	he represented not only the treachery and tragedy	35:21
	of the moment of the rebellion,	35:25
	but also the grace required	35:28
	if Shalom is to come.	35:33
	The author of this Ephesian letter	35:37
	talked about dividing walls,	35:40
	dividing walls that sunder the Earth.	35:42
	Dividing walls between Jew and Gentile	35:45
	and insisted that these dividing walls	35:48
	could come crumbling down	35:51
	because of the shed blood	35:54
	of our Lord Christ.	35:55
	Jew and Gentile,	35:59
	slave and free,	36:01
	male and female,	36:03
	all would be one in Christ.	36:05
	That because of the nature of God.	36:10
	That because of the nature of the church.	36:13
	One body, one spirit,	36:16
	one hope, one baptism,	36:21
	one faith, one Lord,	36:23
	one God and father of all.	36:27
	And for a time, that's how the church appeared to be.	36:33
	Until rivalries developed between east and west,	36:38
	Constantinople and Rome,	36:42
	patriarch and pope,	36:44
	then schism came.	36:46
	In the sixteenth century there was reformation.	36:50
	Luther, Zwingli, Calvin,	36:54
	Melanchthon, Menno Simons, Thomas Cranmer.	36:59
	Later yet, Oliver Cromwell,	37:02
	George Fox, the brothers Wesley,	37:04
	George Whitfield and many, many others	37:06
	set the stage for that which we have come	37:08
	to call denominationalism.	37:10
	I remember a college textbook,	37:15
	William Warren Sweet, the author.	37:18
	The Story of Religion in America	37:21
	and in the back of the book,	37:24
	a complicated table listing	37:26
	every single denomination	37:28
	in this country, 213 of them in 1926.	37:30
	There would be more than 350 a decade later.	37:35
	Denominations ranging from the Duck River	37:40
	and Kindred Association of Baptists,	37:44
	the Plymouth Brethren Roman numeral six.	37:47
	We had come a long way from Pentecost.	37:51
	But then, a little more than a hundred years ago,	37:57
	there developed a counterpoint,	38:02
	standing at the center an unlikely figure,	38:05
	a shoe salesman,	38:10
	a Presbyterian lay evangelist	38:12
	named Dwight L. Moody	38:14
	who preached across the length and breadth	38:17
	of this country	38:19
	and in the British isles	38:19
	gathering together people from	38:21
	many different churches,	38:23
	of many different persuasions	38:24
	under one roof.	38:25
	That their life in Christ	38:28
	might be deepened and strengthened.	38:29
	John Armock and Robert Wilder	38:32
	two of the key figures	38:36
	of the emerging Ecumenical movement	38:37
	came out of those Moody meetings.	38:40
	The student volunteer movement,	38:44
	International YMCA, International YWCA.	38:47
	The Foreign Missions conference	38:53
	of North America, the home missions council	38:56
	and in 1908, the Federal Council of churches	38:59
	began to symbolize a coming together.	39:02
	In 1948 in Amsterdam	39:07
	the World Council of Churches	39:09
	came into being.	39:10
	In 1950 in Cleveland,	39:11
	the National Council of Churches	39:13
	of Christ, and then Vatican II.	39:14
	Alienation was moving toward reconciliation.	39:21
	Brokenness was moving toward a recovery of unity.	39:27
	Divisions were being healed.	39:32
	And we were discovering that there were things	39:35
	we could share in standing together,	39:39
	praying together, doing together,	39:41
	that the will of God might somehow be fulfilled.	39:44
	Yet it was not for ourselves	39:49
	alone or primarily.	39:51
	The church is not an end in itself,	39:54
	it exists for the world beyond.	39:58
	Thus, God was in Christ reconciling the world	40:01
	unto himself.	40:06
	The Son of Man came not to condemn the world	40:08
	but the world through him might be saved.	40:11
	Jesus prayed the we might be one with the world,	40:16
	might believe.	40:20
	Oneness.	40:22
	Justice, righteousness, freedom,	40:23
	peace, Shalom, salvation,	40:28
	oneness, God's will for his created order.	40:31
	John Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath	40:38
	placed up on the lips of a crude old preacher	40:42
	named Casey, these words.	40:45
	I ain't saying I'm like Jesus was.	40:49
	Got tired like him,	40:50
	got mixed up like him,	40:51
	went out in the wilderness like him	40:52
	without no camping stuff.	40:54
	Night time I'd lay down	40:56
	look up at the stars.	40:58
	Morning, I'd watch the sun come up.	41:00
	Mid-day, I'd look out from the hills	41:01
	at the rolling dry country	41:03
	even I'd follow the sun down.	41:05
	Sometimes I pray like I always done.	41:08
	I don't know what I was praying to or for,	41:10
	There was the hills,	41:12
	and there was me,	41:13
	and we weren't separate no longer.	41:14
	We was one thing and that one thing was holy.	41:15
	And I got to thinking,	41:18
	only it wasn't thinking,	41:21
	it was deeper down than thinking.	41:22
	I got to thinking how he was holy	41:23
	and he was one thing.	41:25
	And how mankind was holy	41:27
	when it was one thing.	41:28
	And how we only got unholy	41:30
	when one miserable, little fellow	41:32
	got the bit in his own teeth,	41:33
	and runoff his own way,	41:34
	kicking and dragging and fighting.	41:36
	Fellow like that bust the holiness.	41:38
	But when we all work together,	41:42
	not one fella for another fella	41:44
	but one fella kind of harnessed to the whole shabang	41:46
	then that's good.	41:49
	That's right.	41:51
	That's holy.	41:53
	Back to Palm Sunday.	41:57
	Back to triumphal entry.	42:00
	Back to consideration in our context	42:04
	of golden past, present division,	42:09
	Messianic expectation.	42:15
	Well first, the golden past is never	42:18
	as golden as we pretend.	42:23
	The purity of David	42:26
	and the wisdom of Solomon	42:27
	have been vastly overated.	42:29
	A rhymster captured that truth.	42:33
	King David and King Solomon	42:36
	led merry, merry lives	42:38
	with many, many lady friends	42:39
	and many, many wives.	42:41
	But when old age crept up on them	42:42
	with many, many qualms,	42:44
	King Solomon wrote the Proverbs	42:46
	and Kind David wrote the Psalms.	42:48
	(laughter)	42:50
	And it wasn't only women.	42:53
	Rudger Kippling went a step further.	42:56
	King Solomon drew merchant men	43:00
	because of his desire for peacocks seats	43:03
	and ivory from Tarsus unto Tyre.	43:06
	That is, good King Solomon,	43:10
	in all of his wisdom,	43:13
	literally enslaved human beings.	43:15
	That he could add glitter and splendor	43:19
	sparkle to his royal court	43:22
	and coffers.	43:26
	And the Maccabean revolt	43:29
	well, read the Apocryphal book,	43:33
	second Maccabeus.	43:36
	The very end of that book,	43:39
	as Niconor is stretched out	43:42
	dead on the ground, in his armor.	43:44
	His head cutoff, one arm cut off,	43:47
	his tongue cut out.	43:49
	All through the curtesy of the solders of the Lord.	43:51
	I much prefer Jesus of Nazareth,	43:56
	riding into the Holy City.	44:00
	Gentle, humble,	44:03
	patient, forbearing, loving,	44:07
	reflecting the oneness, the peace	44:12
	that spirit gives.	44:14
	And to the glories	44:18
	of a David, or Judas Maccabeus.	44:22
	The good ole days are never quite as good	44:28
	as they may seem.	44:31
	The worlds of Reader's Digest	44:33
	and of Norman Rockwell	44:36
	have never really prevailed.	44:39
	Our challenge today,	44:45
	our challenge today is not to go back	44:47
	to some fancy glorified past.	44:51
	But rather to come to grips	44:54
	with a harsh reality,	44:56
	the divisions, the brokenness,	44:58
	the sadness, the demonic content	45:00
	of this present moment.	45:03
	We stand on the edge of a nuclear Holocaust	45:06
	that could turn this planet into a burning cinder.	45:09
	The Middle East is a powder keg	45:14
	that could explode across the map.	45:16
	The peasant population of Central America	45:20
	is being ravaged, decimated,	45:23
	slaughtered by violence on the right	45:26
	and violence on the left	45:29
	as self righteous, purists	45:32
	in distant places talk about	45:34
	how right their philosophy is,	45:37
	how pure their motives are,	45:41
	while ignoring the people.	45:44
	The victims of it all.	45:47
	There were dividing	45:51

-	...walls in Jesus' day.	0:03
	Gentile, Jew; dividing walls that had to be torn down.	0:06
	There are dividing walls in our time.	0:10
	With world leaders rattling their sabers,	0:14
	filling the Earth with purple rhetoric.	0:17
	There are dividing walls between east and west	0:20
	that must be torn down.	0:23
	And somehow the content implicit in this week,	0:26
	the meaning of this day,	0:31
	the passion of our Lord,	0:34
	the shedding of his blood	0:36
	must be seen as directly applicable	0:38
	to the tearing down of these dividing walls.	0:42
	Nor are the only dividing walls about us global.	0:47
	Geo-political dividing walls.	0:52
	There are economic dividing walls, ask any laid off worker.	0:56
	There are relational dividing walls,	1:02
	ask the victim of any shattered home.	1:06
	There are racial dividing walls,	1:10
	ask the boat people,	1:14
	the Haitian refugees,	1:16
	the undocumented workers flooding across the Mexican border.	1:19
	Ask red America. Ask black America.	1:22
	There are personal dividing walls	1:27
	as some of you well know	1:31
	for here, as elsewhere,	1:35
	at the very core of individual personhood there is,	1:38
	in all too many instances, a void.	1:43
	Emptiness.	1:49
	Bewilderment.	1:53
	Cynicism.	1:56
	Bitterness.	1:58
	Confusion.	2:01
	Stark fear. Stark fear.	2:03
	There are dividing walls that need to be addressed	2:09
	by the love, the self-giving love,	2:15
	of Christ.	2:20
	My plea:	2:24
	be an instrument of God's peace.	2:28
	Be an agent of God's reconciliation.	2:32
	Be the salt of the Earth, the light of the world,	2:36
	the leaven in the loaf.	2:39
	Be gentle,	2:40
	humble, patient,	2:44
	forbearing, loving,	2:48
	reflecting the unity and the peace of the Spirit	2:53
	as you follow the lowly Nazarene wherever he may lead.	2:59
	My plea:	3:06
	let your decisions,	3:09
	your religious decisions,	3:12
	your political decisions, your political decisions,	3:15
	your political decisions!	3:18
	Your economic decisions, your academic decisions,	3:21
	your professional decisions,	3:26
	the most personal of your decisions,	3:28
	let those decisions reflect not any other value	3:30
	but your commitment to Jesus Christ.	3:33
	My plea:	3:40
	celebrate your integral place	3:44
	in the one body,	3:50
	the church of Christ.	3:53
	One in spirit, in hope, in faith,	3:58
	in baptism.	4:03
	Be one in the Lord	4:05
	past glory, present division,	4:10
	messianic expectation.	4:15
	The only reality that gives life	4:22
	any ultimate meaning is the fact of God.	4:24
	In the beginning, God.	4:29
	In the end, new heaven, new Earth, God.	4:32
	According to the bible, after history has had its say,	4:39
	after alienation, brokenness, rebellion, sinfulness	4:45
	have run their course,	4:48
	after the powers and the principalities of this world	4:51
	have rested for the soul of creation	4:55
	against the bosom of hope,	4:58
	God will speak the final word.	5:00
	The key event of our Lord's life	5:05
	was not his birth at Bethlehem.	5:07
	Not his baptism in the Jordan.	5:11
	Not his sermon on the mount.	5:14
	Nothing that happened on Palm Sunday	5:18
	or Maundy Thursday,	5:22
	or that black and treacherous Good Friday.	5:25
	It all came to a head on Easter morn	5:31
	as God spoke the final word.	5:35
	The apostle was right.	5:39
	The only factor that gives abiding meaning	5:42
	and hope to oneness is the reality that God, our Father,	5:46
	is over all and in all and above all.	5:51
	That's it.	5:55
	On Thursday this week I was leading a retreat	5:58
	of clergy and spouses in one of our Indiana districts.	6:01
	The theme was peace with justice	6:05
	and it was a gloomy session.	6:07
	We talked about racism and sexism	6:10
	and economic exploitation and nation worship.	6:13
	We talked about the nuclear arms race	6:18
	and the madness thereof.	6:20
	When it was all over, a young pastor held up his hand	6:22
	and said "where's our hope?".	6:25
	I won't belabor the point, it took too long.	6:28
	But it could be digested into one fundamental word:	6:32
	God.	6:36
	Our hope, your hope, my hope,	6:38
	this campus' hope, this chapel's hope	6:42
	this land's hope, this world's hope,	6:45
	our hope is in the name of the Lord	6:47
	who made heaven and Earth.	6:49
	It's not to be found in mighty rulers	6:54
	and valiant warriors.	6:58
	Not even within the bounds of history.	7:01
	But in God. In God.	7:06
	The reformer captured that:	7:11
	"Let goods and kindred go,	7:14
	this mortal life also.	7:18
	"The body they may kill.	7:22
	"God's truth abideth still.	7:25
	"His kingdom is forever."	7:29
	Amen	7:36
	(organ music)	7:46
	(congregation sings along)	8:08
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	9:39
	We believe in God who has created and is creating	9:42
	who has come in the truly human, Jesus,	9:47
	to reconcile and make new.	9:50
	Who works in us and others by the Spirit.	9:52
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	9:56
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	10:00
	to love and serve others,	10:03
	to seek justice and resist evil,	10:06
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.	10:09
	Our judge and our hope, in life, in death,	10:13
	in life beyond death.	10:17
	God is with us; we are not alone.	10:20
	Thanks be to God.	10:23
	The lord be with you.	10:25
-	(in unison) And also with you.	10:27
-	Let us pray.	10:29
	Oh Lord our God, on this holy, holy day,	10:41
	we give you praise and thanksgiving	10:46
	for the life and ministry of your son, Jesus.	10:49
	For his unseemly birth in Nazareth.	10:54
	For a ministry to the poor and dejected.	10:58
	For a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.	11:02
	For those last days of his life and ministry,	11:06
	the simple fellowship with his disciples.	11:11
	The cross at Golgotha,	11:15
	and the resurrection at the scene of the empty tomb.	11:18
	May we share, on this day, that same spirit	11:23
	as those who first chose to call him Lord.	11:27
	May we be strengthened in our faith	11:31
	as we rehearse the age old story.	11:34
	And may we be guided to a strong witness	11:38
	through the community of faith	11:41
	to his ministry and word	11:44
	which calls us to be in peacemaking and justice.	11:47
	Oh God, we come expectantly today	11:54
	to be cleansed, to be touched and warmed,	11:57
	to be freed from our old habits,	12:01
	to be healed from our sicknesses of body and spirit.	12:04
	We come seeking to see the face	12:10
	of one who entered into our midst so very long ago.	12:12
	We join the throng and the crowd	12:18
	as we lift our voices in shouts of hope and joy.	12:20
	Oh Lord our God, we remember you	12:26
	and praise you for your great and mighty deeds	12:30
	through the life of Jesus, your son, the Christ.	12:34
	It is in his name we pray	12:39
	these words that he taught us to pray:	12:41
	Our Father who art in heaven,	12:45
	hallowed be thy name.	12:48
	Thy kingdom come.	12:50
	Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.	12:52
	Give us this day our daily bread	12:56
	and forgive us our trespasses	12:58
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	13:01
	And lead us not into temptation,	13:04
	but deliver us from evil.	13:07
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	13:09
	and the glory forever.	13:12
	Amen.	13:14
	(organ music)	14:09
	(choir singing)	14:30
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	17:05
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	17:09
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	17:13
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	17:17
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	17:22
	♪ In excelsis ♪	17:27
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	17:31
	♪ Hosanna hosanna in excelsis ♪	17:34
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	17:42
	♪ In excelsis ♪	17:47
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	17:52
	♪ In excelsis ♪	17:56
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:03
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:08
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:14
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:25
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:29
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	18:33
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	18:38
	♪ In excelsis ♪	18:43
	♪ Hosanna ♪	18:46
	(organ music)	18:56
	(choir singing)	19:00
	(organ music)	22:21
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	22:30
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	22:34
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	22:38
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	22:42
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	22:46
	♪ In excelsis ♪	22:51
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	22:58
	♪ In excelsis ♪	23:02
	♪ Hosanna ♪	23:05
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:09
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	23:14
	♪ In excelsis ♪	23:18
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:25
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:30
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:36
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:45
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:50
	♪ Hosanna hosanna ♪	23:54
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	23:58
	♪ In excelsis ♪	24:03
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	24:06
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	24:12
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	24:19
	♪ In excelsis ♪	24:25
	♪ Hosanna ♪	24:29
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	24:32
	♪ Hosanna in excelsis ♪	24:38
	♪ Hosanna ♪	24:45
	(organ music)	25:04
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	25:25
	♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪	25:31
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	25:37
	♪ Praise him above ye heavenly host ♪	25:45
	♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪	25:51
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	25:58
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	26:04
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	26:11
	♪ Amen ♪	26:20
-	Let us remember these words of Jesus:	26:32
	And the king will answer them, truly I say to you,	26:35
	as you did it to one of the least of these,	26:40
	you did it unto me.	26:43
	Accept the offering of ourselves and all that we are,	26:45
	through your name and the name of Jesus Christ,	26:49
	our savior, amen.	26:52
	(organ music)	26:57
	(congregation sings)	27:36
	And now may the God of hope	31:11
	fill you with all joy and peace	31:13
	in believing that you may abound by hope	31:16
	in the power of the Holy Spirit.	31:19
	(choir sings)	31:25
	♪ Amen ♪	31:27
	♪ Amen ♪	31:31
	♪ Amen ♪	31:36
	(organ music)	32:41
	(organ crescendo)	43:32
	(applause)	43:46

Item Info

Title:

James Armstrong - "The Plea" (March 27, 1983)

Description:

The central theme running through Scripture is one of oneness, a movement from alienation to reconciliation. Yet, in this time of brokenness and dividing walls of hostility, where is our hope? Is it in retrieving a golden past? No, our only hope for achieiving this oneness that Jesus prayed for and worked for is God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 25:20. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 07:39.
Key quotation: “The only factor that gives abiding meaning and hope to oneness is the reality that God, our Father, is over all and in all and above all. That’s it.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4zk5616b

Date:

March 27, 1983

Speaker:

Armstrong, James, 1924-

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0139
ref7801_kjc
uachapelsermaud
duke:320908
dcrau001130
ark:/87924/r4zk5616b
513efd37-96c8-4ca8-a3f4-459fc2b192b6

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Unknown Rights-Holder

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Duke University Archives

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