John W. Vannorsdall - "Mainline Churches" (February 10, 1985)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mg7g93d?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mg7g93d
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(organ music)	0:03
-	This morning, we welcome you to this	17:17
	service of worship in Duke Chapel.	17:19
	The Martin Luther King celebration	17:23
	scheduled for this evening has been	17:25
	moved to 5 p.m. rather than 7 p.m.	17:27
	Please make that note, details are in your bulletins.	17:32
	Any student who would like a ride to this service,	17:36
	if you'll just meet in front of the chape at 4 p.m.	17:39
	or slightly thereafter, we'll provide you transportation.	17:43
	If you're a graduate or a professional student	17:47
	here at Duke, we invite you to join the Graduate	17:49
	and Professional Students Fellowship forming	17:53
	this evening at 6 p.m., details are in the bulletin.	17:55
	Our guest preacher today is The	18:01
	Reverend Dr. John Vannorsdall, Chaplain	18:03
	at Battell Chapel, Yale University.	18:06
	We welcome this distinguished preacher here,	18:10
	you have heard him in the past on the Protestant Hour,	18:12
	he does a distinguished job at one of the great	18:17
	university pulpits in the country, and we welcome him.	18:21
	Let us continue our worship.	18:27
	(choir music)	18:45
-	Ye who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins	24:00
	and are in love and charity with your neighbors,	24:04
	and intent to lead a new life, following the	24:08
	commandments of God, walking from henceforth	24:11
	in his holy ways, draw near with faith,	24:14
	and make your humble confession to almighty God.	24:18
	(people shuffling)	24:24
-	Most merciful God, we confess that we	24:33
	have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,	24:36
	by what we have done, and by what we have left undone,	24:40
	we have not loved you with our whole heart,	24:46
	we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves,	24:49
	we are truly sorry and we humbly repent.	24:53
	For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ,	24:57
	have mercy on us and forgive us,	25:00
	that we may delight in your will	25:03
	and walk in your ways to the glory of your name, amen.	25:06
-	Hear the good news, Christ died for us while we	25:12
	were yet sinners, that is God's	25:17
	own proof of his love towards us.	25:20
	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	25:23
-	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven, amen.	25:27
	(choir music)	25:35
-	Let us pray.	26:40
-	Open our hearts and minds, oh God, by the power of your	26:42
	Holy Spirit, so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	26:46
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	26:52
-	The first lesson is taken from Job, chapter seven,	26:59
	versus one through seven, has not man a hard	27:03
	service upon earth, and are not his days	27:07
	like the days of a hireling, like a slave	27:11
	who longs for the shadow and like a hireling who looks	27:14
	for his wages, so I am allotted months of	27:18
	emptiness and nights of misery are a portion to me.	27:21
	When I lie down I say, when shall I arise?	27:26
	But the night is long, and I am full of tossing	27:30
	'til the dawn, my flesh is clothed with worms and dirt,	27:33
	my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh,	27:39
	my days are swifter than a weavers shuttle,	27:43
	and come to their end without hope.	27:46
	Remember that my life is a breathe,	27:50
	my eye will never again see good.	27:53
	(choir music)	28:08
-	The second lesson is taken from first Corinthians,	30:55
	chapter nine, versus 16 through 23.	30:58
	For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground	31:03
	for roasting, for necessity is laid upon me.	31:07
	Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, if I do this	31:11
	of my own will, I have a reward, but if not	31:17
	of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission.	31:20
	What then is my reward?	31:24
	Just this, that in my preaching, I may make the gospel	31:26
	free of charge, not making full use of my	31:31
	right in the gospel, for though I am free from all men,	31:34
	I have made myself a slave to all, that I wend the more.	31:40
	To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews.	31:45
	To those under the law, I became as one under the law,	31:49
	though not being myself under the law,	31:54
	that I might win those under the law.	31:57
	To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law,	31:59
	not being without law, toward God, but under the	32:04
	law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.	32:07
	To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.	32:11
	I have become all things to all men,	32:16
	that I might by all means save some.	32:19
	I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that	32:22
	I might share it and it's blessings.	32:25
	This ends the reading of the second lesson.	32:28
	(choir music)	32:35
-	The gospel was taken from Mark, chapter one,	38:15
	versus 14 through 20, and verses 29 through 39.	38:19
	Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee,	38:26
	preaching the gospel of God, and saying,	38:31
	"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.	38:34
	"Repent and believe in the gospel."	38:39
	And passing along by the sea of Galilee,	38:43
	he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon,	38:46
	casting a net in the sea, for they were fisherman,	38:50
	and Jesus said to them, "Follow me,	38:55
	"and I will make you fishers of men."	38:58
	And immediately, they left their nets and followed him.	39:02
	And going on a little farther, he saw James,	39:06
	the son of Zebedee, and John his brother,	39:09
	who earned their boat mending the nets,	39:12
	and immediately, he called them and they	39:15
	left their father Zebedee in the boat with	39:18
	the hired servants and followed him.	39:21
	Verses 29-39	39:29
	And immediately, he left the synagogue, and	39:31
	entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.	39:34
	Now Simon's mother in law, lay sick with a fever,	39:38
	and immediately they told him of her.	39:42
	And he came and took her by the hand, and	39:45
	lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she served them.	39:47
	That evening, at sundown, they brought to him	39:54
	all who were sick or possessed with demons,	39:57
	and the whole city was gathered together about the door.	40:02
	And he healed many who were sick with various diseases,	40:06
	and cast out many demons, and he would not	40:09
	permit the demons to speak because they knew him.	40:12
	And in the morning, a great while before day,	40:16
	he rose and went out to a lonely place and there he prayed.	40:20
	And Simon, and those who were with him, pursued him,	40:25
	and they found him and said to him,	40:29
	"Everyone is searching for you."	40:32
	And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns,	40:34
	that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out."	40:38
	And he went all throughout Galilee, preaching in their	40:44
	synagogues and casting out demons.	40:47
	Here ends the reading of the gospel.	40:51
-	I'm glad even for a day to be	41:11
	a part of distinguished University, and	41:15
	of a vital chapel furnished with exceptional leadership.	41:20
	May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our	41:27
	hearts be acceptable in thy sight,	41:30
	our Lord our strength, and our redeemer,	41:34
	amen.	41:39
	They were casting their nets into the sea,	41:43
	a graceful sight I'd guess, a matter of rhythm and	41:48
	strength, the net arching up spreading outward	41:53
	until it's weighted edge touched the water,	41:58
	more slowly sinking to entrap whatever fish might lie below.	42:02
	Simon, Peter and Andrew, James and John,	42:08
	Jesus cast his net and drew them in,	42:15
	follow me and I will make you fishers of men,	42:21
	which is to say I will make you become fishers of men	42:24
	and of women and of children.	42:28
	And traditional piety celebrates this casting of the net	42:33
	as the invitation, which has eventually drawn millions	42:38
	upon millions of people into becoming	42:42
	followers of Jesus, and many of us as well,	42:47
	I'm not the only one here this morning,	42:50
	who learned as a child these words of a hymn,	42:55
	Jesus calls us, or the tumult of our life's wild,	42:59
	restless sea, day by day his sweet	43:05
	voice soundeth, saying, "Christian, follow me."	43:09
	And most of us have no regrets,	43:14
	we have been freed by the gospel,	43:19
	guided by Christ, comforted in trouble,	43:22
	renewed in the hope of good things to come,	43:25
	but I'd like you to see this morning in the calling	43:30
	of the disciples this first in gathering,	43:35
	I'd like you to see it from the viewpoint of Zebedee,	43:40
	and of all the others over the centuries who	43:47
	have been left behind in the boat.	43:49
	Jesus saw James, the son of Zebedee, John, his brother,	43:56
	who were in the boat mending their nets and	44:01
	immediately, he called them and they left	44:03
	their father Zebedee in the boat	44:07
	with the hired servants.	44:12
	And they followed him, Jesus came preaching the gospel	44:16
	of the kingdom of God, James and John followed him,	44:20
	Zebedee was left behind in the boat.	44:24
	I'm not worried about the economics of it, the fishing	44:29
	no doubt continued, the family was fed, but think how	44:33
	you would feel,	44:36
	your two sons following a stranger.	44:40
	Ah, the son of God, you say, but Zebedee didn't know that.	44:44
	He only knew that Jesus was religious	44:51
	and not one of the main line branches of Judaism,	44:55
	and that somehow makes it worse.	45:00
	I think that he was heartbroken,	45:03
	and I think we have to understand that for three centuries,	45:10
	Jesus Christ broke the heart	45:15
	of the Roman world.	45:20
	The people of the Roman world had their religion, you see.	45:24
	The teachings were different, the practices,	45:28
	but religion was alive and functional everywhere.	45:31
	And there was a kind of unity about it,	45:36
	you had a people, the Jews, the Romans, the Egyptians,	45:40
	dozens of peoples, each people had a land,	45:45
	or at least had a point of origin,	45:51
	and each people had a religion,	45:55
	and the people, the land, and the religion, were one story,	46:00
	religion described their origin,	46:08
	provided their feast days, determined the laws	46:10
	under which they lived, sanctioned	46:14
	what was good and what was to be punished.	46:16
	True doctrine, wrote Cicero, was ancient doctrine.	46:19
	The preservation of the rights of the family	46:25
	and of our ancestors means preserving the religious rights,	46:28
	which we can almost say were handed down to us by	46:34
	the Gods themselves, since ancient times were	46:37
	closest to the Gods,	46:41
	and along comes Jesus	46:43
	with his net and his follow me?	46:47
	And it wasn't long before his followers were	46:54
	not just Jews, but Samaritans,	46:57
	before long the followers were from everywhere.	47:02
	From many nations, now we have something different.	47:07
	Not one story, in the old sense, where a land,	47:13
	a people, and a religion belong together.	47:18
	We had a new people who were no people in the older sense.	47:23
	We had people who were not born into our religion,	47:29
	but who made a choice to follow Jesus.	47:32
	We had a people with no land, because they were no people.	47:36

-	The religion which belonged to neither a people	0:03
	nor a land and Zebedee	0:07
	was left in a boat, heartbroken.	0:11
	In 170 AD the great philosopher Celsus lamented	0:19
	that Christians would not serve as soldiers	0:25
	and protect the states.	0:29
	They would not hold public office.	0:31
	Another commentator said that Christians	0:33
	did not understand their civic duty.	0:35
	Tacitus said that Christians were aloof,	0:39
	disdainful of the ways of others.	0:43
	People who wall themselves off.	0:45
	Celsus considered it a revolt against the institutions.	0:49
	The customs which made society possible.	0:53
	For three centuries Jesus Christ broke the heart	0:58
	of the Roman world.	1:04
	Don't misunderstand.	1:09
	I'm glad that James and John followed Jesus.	1:12
	He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God	1:17
	and announcing in his own life, in his death	1:20
	and resurrection the coming of a new age	1:22
	which drew Jews and Greeks into a new nation.	1:24
	Created a nation without land.	1:28
	A religion beyond a particular land	1:32
	and beyond a particular people.	1:35
	Reversed the roles of rich and poor.	1:37
	The ancient rulership of men over women.	1:40
	The ancient tyranny of sin and death	1:42
	and ultimately Jesus Christ destroyed	1:45
	the terror of death itself.	1:48
	Demons were being driven out. The kingdom was at hand.	1:50
	What Jesus came preaching was tremendous.	1:55
	A reconceptualization of what it meant to be a human being.	1:59
	It was time for it.	2:06
	It was time for a new way, the way of God.	2:09
	It was the fullness of time.	2:11
	They were standing at the very edge of it.	2:13
	They were standing at the edge of the future.	2:17
	So why should they look back at the doctrines	2:22
	of the ancients?	2:27
	So why should they serve in the Roman legions?	2:30
	Why become involved in the traditional civic duties?	2:33
	Why should they, as Paul wrote, why should they	2:36
	worry about marriage? If married, stay married.	2:39
	If not married, stay single.	2:43
	They were baptized into androgyny .	2:47
	The distinctions between men and women	2:50
	were no longer important.	2:52
	The distinctions between slave and free,	2:54
	rich and poor, let the fishing go.	2:56
	Let the nets go, the boats.	2:59
	A new world was coming to birth,	3:03
	a radically different world, the future's world.	3:06
	Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.	3:12
	And Zebedee was left behind.	3:18
	I want you to see Zebedee left behind	3:25
	and I want you to have some sympathy for him	3:32
	because in the fourth century Christianity	3:36
	became the established religion.	3:41
	Now Christians were in the army.	3:48
	They did their civic duty.	3:51
	They were not aloof and disdainful. They ran things.	3:53
	Now Christianity became the bearer of correct doctrine	3:59
	of what was true, what was good and bad to be punished.	4:04
	The old religion against which the new prophets spoke	4:07
	was now Christianity.	4:12
	We ourselves,	4:15
	we ourselves become Zebedee	4:18
	sitting in the boat.	4:22
	Now as you see there are two things going on,	4:28
	always two things and both of them called Christian.	4:32
	The first century dynamism is still there.	4:38
	The casting of nets, the fishing for men, women,	4:41
	and children saying follow me.	4:44
	The kingdom of God is at hand.	4:46
	There is a new way of seeing the world	4:48
	in which there are neither rich nor poor, male nor female,	4:50
	where roles are reversed. See the dawn.	4:53
	Have no attachment to this world.	4:57
	Have no attachment to anything which keeps	5:01
	you from seeing the dawn.	5:04
	But the second thing which is going on,	5:10
	is Christianity which is established.	5:14
	The Christianity which has to face the fact	5:19
	that the kingdom is not dawning.	5:22
	It is not yet here.	5:26
	The androgyny in which we're baptized is not yet happened.	5:29
	The rich are still rich. The poor are still poor.	5:33
	People still more attached to their own kind	5:36
	than to humankind. In a world which is still broken,	5:38
	in which valleys are still valleys.	5:44
	Not every tear has been wiped away in such a world.	5:46
	There is the task of fashioning, of reinforcing	5:51
	and celebrating what is possible.	5:56
	Celebrating compromises, adaptations,	5:59
	and what is obviously second best.	6:04
	And those who are first century Christians among us	6:11
	come to us mending our nets as though there were a tomorrow.	6:14
	And they say, follow Jesus.	6:18
	And maybe you are James and John and it's the time	6:24
	of your calling, called to look at the dark horizon.	6:27
	See the first days, the rays of the kingdom dawning.	6:30
	See it with the eyes of faith. Sell all you have.	6:34
	Follow Jesus wherever he leads you, but some of us	6:38
	will be Zebedee and will go on mending our nets	6:45
	quietly mulling issues of pro and con	6:50
	wondering where in a broken world still dark,	6:53
	the kingdom can next have a partial expression.	6:58
	To be part of what we call main line churches,	7:06
	Roman Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian	7:11
	and the like means that we are people	7:14
	who know that we live within this tension,	7:18
	this doubleness which is Christianity	7:21
	in the world of our time.	7:24
	You are now in a mainline church.	7:27
	You are listening to a mainline preacher.	7:30
	And the lesson for the day is to get out of your boat	7:34
	and follow Jesus to the edge of the time	7:38
	where the future breaks like dawn upon the darkness	7:42
	and to live by that light.	7:45
	Let go of all that holds you back, that's the message today.	7:47
	Live unattached to the nation-state.	7:50
	Don't serve in the armed forces. If married, stay married.	7:53
	If not, stay single, let it go.	7:56
	At that, break the law.	7:59
	Establish sanctuaries for refugees.	8:03
	Pray without ceasing. Be perfect.	8:07
	But you are also in a mainline church	8:13
	and I also say to you that you live in a broken world	8:19
	where Christians have responsibilities	8:23
	as established religion for whatever time is left.	8:26
	Responsibilities to children, for education,	8:32
	for preserving the best of the past,	8:36
	for protecting against anarchy. To be conservative.	8:39
	You must see Zebedee left behind	8:45
	and understand Celsus and Tacitus and Cicero.	8:48
	What do you think the builders of this chapel expected?	8:54
	Is it a tent which can be struck or abandoned	9:00
	if the kingdom come at midnight tomorrow?	9:04
	Follow me and leave all this behind.	9:08
	Restrooms and lounge, both organs.	9:13
	It's an established church, built to last for centuries.	9:19
	What do chaplains do, people will say.	9:26
	They pray for one thing.	9:30
	They pray for academic convocations.	9:33
	They pray for alumni affairs, official banquets,	9:36
	the dedication of squash courts.	9:40
	Of course, chapels and chaplains are established.	9:46
	Chaplains reach out to both sides	9:52
	of an academic labor dispute.	9:55
	They put on their boots and they walk	10:01
	through the barnyards of academic politics.	10:04
	They study reports and they write reports	10:11
	and they try to figure out how prophetic	10:14
	they can afford to be, try to decide on what issues	10:17
	they will cash in whatever chips,	10:21
	moral or political power they have.	10:25
	When to do it. In a broken world.	10:29
	In a time when the dawn is not yet,	10:34
	the mainline church is not afraid to survive	10:36
	by patch and compromise.	10:40
	Because it has a role to fill within these structures	10:43
	for whatever time is left.	10:46
	Touch of salt here. Bit of yeast there.	10:50
	And always a prayer for the forgiveness of God.	10:54
	But within all this,	11:00
	within all this,	11:04
	restrooms, lounge and stone,	11:07
	there is also always another sound as well.	11:10
	People not with boots, but with wings on their feet	11:16
	soaring high above compromise.	11:20
	Singing for joy that the kingdom of God is at hand.	11:23
	Follow me to the edge where wars are ended	11:26
	and peace comes, where the enmity between	11:29
	men and women ends, follow me to the dawn arising.	11:33
	Are we large-souled enough	11:41
	to embrace the whole of it?	11:46
	To embrace the doubleness of what Christianity	11:51
	is in our time, both established	11:54
	and gone after Jesus.	12:00
	Without the zeal, without the vision of some	12:05
	change is unlikely. But also, in a broken world	12:09
	the dreamers will destroy us	12:14
	if the doubters are silent.	12:17
	It's uncomfortable being a mainline Christian.	12:21
	One ear to Jesus, the other ear to the ground.	12:25
	One foot in heaven and the other at Duke.	12:30
	Actually, it's absurd	12:35
	and it's wonderful and it's humorous.	12:40
	As long as James and John who go	12:45
	never forget that they are the sons of Zebedee.	12:50
	And as long as some part of Zebedee can rejoice	12:56
	that his children have gone to meet the future,	13:01
	which by God's grace	13:06
	will be his future also.	13:09
	The peace of God be with us all.	13:16
	Amen.	13:19
-	Let us rise and affirm our faith.	13:28
	I believe in God the father almighty,	13:34
	maker of heaven and earth.	13:37
	And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord	13:39
	who was conceived by the holy spirit.	13:42
	Born of the virgin Mary.	13:46
	Suffered under Pontius Pilot.	13:48
	Was crucified, dead, and buried.	13:50
	The third day he rose from the dead.	13:53
	He ascended into heaven	13:56
	and seated at the right hand of God the father almighty.	13:58
	From then he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	14:02
	I believe in the holy spirit, the holy Catholic church,	14:06
	the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,	14:10
	the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.	14:14
	Amen.	14:19
	(traditional Catholic music)	14:20
-	The Lord be with you.	16:06
-	And also with you.	16:08
-	Let us pray.	16:10
	Eternal God beneath whose rule we live	16:27
	and in whose grace we stand.	16:34
	All that is within us we bless your name.	16:37
	Seeing in the life of your son, Jesus,	16:42
	all that we would yet fail to be.	16:47
	He hath bid us to follow him and now we follow.	16:53
	The one who when confronted by the demonic	16:59
	rebuked it, casting out evil as an offense to God.	17:05
	Therefore we pray for the victims of evil,	17:12
	sufferers from cruelty, political oppression, war,	17:17
	others' selfishness, our indifference.	17:23
	Particularly those in Afghanistan	17:30
	and in Central America, we pray.	17:32
	When face to face with pain and sickness he healed,	17:37
	restoring health and wholeness.	17:42
	Therefore we pray for those who lie upon beds of pain.	17:46
	Those disfigured in body or mind by illness.	17:51
	And those doctors, nurses, and staff	17:57
	who bear the burden of caring for the sick.	18:00
	Particularly those in Duke Hospital, we pray.	18:04
	When burdened by the world's demands, he withdrew	18:10
	to be alone with you.	18:13
	And so we pray for those who are burdened	18:16
	by too much business, overworked,	18:19
	over programmed, over achieving.	18:24
	And for those made lonely or hurt by their business.	18:29
	Particularly those who labor in this place	18:36
	of high achievement.	18:39
	Give us grace to recognize our limits	18:42
	and wisdom to see the superficiality	18:46
	of much that concerns us, we pray.	18:48
	When overwhelmed by the task before him	18:54
	and over burdened by the weight of human need around him,	18:57
	he came before you in prayer, as we do now.	19:03
	Hear the petitions which your people lay before you.	19:09
	Particularly your people who worship in this chapel.	19:15
	In his name we pray, amen.	19:21
	Now let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	19:29
	(traditional Catholic music)	19:45
-	Almighty God, we your unworthy servants	28:20
	give you humble thanks for all your goodness	28:24
	and loving kindness to us and to all	28:28
	whom you have made.	28:31
	We bless you for your creation, preservation,	28:33
	and all the blessings of this life.	28:37
	But above all, for you immeasurable love	28:40
	and the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ.	28:43
	For the means of grace and for the hope of glory.	28:47
	And we pray give us such an awareness of your mercies	28:51
	that with truly thankful hearts we may	28:55
	show forth your praise.	28:59
	Not only with our lips, but in our lives	29:01
	by giving up ourselves to your service.	29:04
	And by walking before you in holiness	29:07
	and righteousness all our days.	29:11
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with you	29:14
	and the holy spirit be honor and glory through all ages.	29:18
	Amen.	29:23
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	29:25
	Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth	29:30
	as it is in heaven.	29:34
	Give us this day our daily bread	29:35
	and forgive us our trespasses	29:38
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	29:40
	And lead us not into temptation,	29:45
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	29:47
	and the power and the glory forever.	29:50
	Amen.	29:54
	(traditional Catholic music)	29:57
-	As you go forth caught between the demands	34:11
	of Jesus and the realities of life, you need God's blessing.	34:14
	Now may the blessing of God, father, son,	34:19
	and holy spirit dwell with you now and always.	34:22
	Amen.	34:27
	(traditional Catholic music)	34:30
	(people chattering)	40:10

Item Info

Title:

John W. Vannorsdall - "Mainline Churches" (February 10, 1985)

Description:

There is a paradoxical doubleness to mainline Christianity. On the one hand, it professes a radical break with social and political norms in favor of a life abandoned to following Jesus. On the otherhand, it is the establishment religion. We must learn to be large-souled enough to embrace both of these elements. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 41:11. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 13:22.
Key quotation: “Are we large-souled enough to embrace the whole of it? To embrace the doubleness of what Christianity is in our time, both established and gone after Jesus...It’s uncomfortable being a mainline Christian. One ear to Jesus, the other ear to the ground. One foot in heaven and the other at Duke. Actually, it’s absurd, and it’s wonderful, and it’s humorous.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mg7g93d

Date:

February 10, 1985

Speaker:

Vannorsdall, John W.

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0250
ref8021_l6z
uachapelsermaud
duke:320948
dcrau001238
ark:/87924/r4mg7g93d
03b52cfd-6727-4c70-9932-fa6c0426903a

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

John W. Vannorsdall - "Mainline Churches" (February 10, 1985)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives