Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Divine Joke" (March 9, 1986)

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	(organ music)	0:03
	(fast-paced organ music)	1:09
	(congregation stirring)	4:34
	(organ music)	4:47
	(congregation stirring)	8:03
	(somber organ music)	8:11
	(congregation stirring)	11:48
	(organ strikes chord)	12:25
	(angelic choir singing gospels)	12:30
	(organ strikes a chord)	14:21
	(choir singing gospels)	14:27
	(congregation stirring)	15:35
Pastor	Grace and peace to you	16:04
	in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.	16:05
	We welcome you to this service of worship	16:07
	at Duke University Chapel on this fourth Sunday in Lent	16:09
	and invite you to be with us again very soon.	16:13
	We are pleased to welcome as our guest choir this morning,	16:17
	the Burlington Boy's Choir	16:19
	under the direction of Miss Eva Wiseman	16:21
	who founded the choir in 1959.	16:24
	We have been blessed by their outstanding contribution	16:27
	to our services in the past and we look forward	16:30
	once again to their contribution to our worship today.	16:33
	Please note the other announcements	16:37
	as there are printed in your bulletins.	16:39
	Hear now these words of scripture,	16:42
	"Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you."	16:45
	(organ music)	16:57
	(choir singing)	17:28
	As the penitential season continues today	19:41
	in the life of the Christian Church	19:44
	may we in this place of worship turn our thoughts inward	19:47
	as we call on God to grant us mercy and pardon for our sin.	19:51
	Almighty God who by thy love has made us	20:09
-	and through thy love has kept us,	20:14
	and in thy love would us make us perfect.	20:18
	We humbly confess that we have not loved thee	20:22
	with all our heart and soul and mind and strength	20:26
	and that we have not loved one another	20:31
	as Christ has loved us.	20:34
	Thy life is within our souls	20:37
	but our selfishness hath tendered thee.	20:40
	We have not lived by faith, we have resisted thy spirit.	20:44
	We have neglected thine inspirations.	20:50
	Forgive what we have been.	20:54
	Help us to amend what we are	20:58
	and in thy spirit direct what we shall be.	21:01
	That thou mayest come in to the full glory of thy creation.	21:06
	In us and in all men and women,	21:12
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	21:15
-	Hear the good news, Christ died for us	21:20
	while we were yet sinners.	21:23
	That is God's own proof of his love toward us.	21:26
	In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.	21:30
-	In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.	21:35
-	Let us pray, the prayer for illumination.	21:46
-	Open our hearts and minds, oh God,	21:50
	in this season of the cross	21:53
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed	21:56
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day.	21:59
	Amen	22:04
-	The first lesson is from Joshua,	22:06
	"And the Lord said to Joshua,	22:09
	"This day I have rolled away	22:12
	"the reproach of Egypt from you	22:14
	"and so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.	22:16
	"When the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal,	22:21
	"They kept the passover on the 14th day of the month,	22:25
	"at evening in the plains of Jericho.	22:28
	"And on the morrow after the passover,	22:31
	"on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land:"	22:34
	"unleavened cakes and parched grain.	22:38
	"And the manna ceased on the morrow	22:41
	"when they ate of the produce of the land	22:43
	"and the people of Israel had manna no longer	22:46
	"but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year."	22:49
	This ends the reading of the Old Testament.	22:53
-	Will you stand and join	23:01
	in reading responsively the psalter.	23:03
	"I will bless the Lord at all times:	23:10
	"his praise shall continually be in my mouth.	23:14
-	"My soul shall make her boast in the Lord:	23:19
	"the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.	23:22
-	"O magnify the Lord with me	23:26
	and let us exalt his name together.	23:28
	"I sought the Lord and he answered me	23:32
	"and delivered me from all my fears.	23:36
-	"They looked unto him and they were lightened:	23:40
	"and their faces were not ashamed.	23:43
-	"This poor man cried and the Lord heard him	23:46
	and saved him out of all his troubles.	23:50
-	"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about him	23:55
	that fear him, and delivereth them.	23:59
-	"O taste and see that the Lord is good:	24:02
	"happy is the one who takes refuge in him."	24:05
-	The epistle lesson is from	24:18
	Paul's second letter to the Corinthians,	24:19
	"From now on, therefore, we regard no one	24:23
	"from a human point-of-view.	24:25
	"Even though we once regarded Christ	24:28
	from a human point-of-view we regard him thus no longer.	24:31
	"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ	24:35
	"he is a new creation, the old has passed away.	24:38
	"Behold the new has come, all this is from God	24:42
	"who through Christ reconciled himself	24:46
	"and gave us ministry of his reconciliation.	24:49
	"That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself	24:52
	"not counting their trespassed against them	24:57
	"and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.	25:00
	"So we are ambassadors for Christ.	25:04
	"God making his appeal through us.	25:07
	"We besiege you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.	25:10
	"For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin	25:15
	"so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."	25:19
	This ends the epistle lesson.	25:23
	(congregation stirring)	25:28
	(organ music)	25:59
	(choir singing)	26:10
	(organ music)	28:00
	(choir singing)	28:04
	(congregation stirring)	28:50
-	A reading from the gospel according to Saint Luke,	29:17
	"Now the tax-collectors and sinners	29:22
	"were all drawing near to hear Jesus.	29:24
	"And the pharoses and the scribes murmured saying,	29:28
	'This man receives sinners, and eats with them.'	29:32
	"So he told them this parable;	29:36
	"there was a man who had two sons	29:39
	"and the younger of them said to his father,	29:42
	'Father, give me the share of property that falls to me',	29:44
	"and he divided his living between them.	29:48
	"Not many days later the younger son gathered	29:52
	"all that he had and took his journey into a far country	29:54
	"and there he squandered his property in loose living.	29:59
	"And when he had spent everything	30:03
	"a great famine arose in that country	30:05
	"and he began to be in want.	30:08
	"So he went and joined himself	30:10
	"to one of the citizens of that country	30:13
	"who sent him into his fields to feed swine.	30:15
	"And he would gladly of fed on the pods that the swine ate	30:19
	"and no one gave him anything.	30:23
	"But when he came to himself he said,	30:25
	'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough	30:28
	'and to spare but I perish here with hunger?'	30:31
	"I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him,	30:35
	'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you	30:39
	'I am no longer worthy to be called your son.	30:43
	'Treat me as one of your hired servants.'	30:46
	"And he arose and came to his father,	30:49
	"but while he was yet at a distance	30:52
	"his father saw him and had compassion	30:54
	"and ran and embraced him and kissed him	30:58
	"and the son said to him,	31:01
	'Father I have sinned against heaven and before you	31:02
	'I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'	31:06
	"But the father said to his servants,	31:09
	'Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him,	31:12
	'and put ring on his hand and shoes on his feet	31:16
	'and bring the fatted calf and kill it	31:20
	'and let us eat and make merry,	31:22
	'for this my son was dead and is alive again,	31:24
	'he was lost and is found', and they began to make merry.	31:29
	"Now his elder son was in the field	31:35
	"and as he came and drew near to the house	31:37
	"he heard music and dancing.	31:40
	"And he called one of the servants	31:43
	"and asked what this meant and he said to him,	31:44
	'Your brother has come and your father has	31:48
	'killed a fatted calf because he has	31:51
	'received him safe-and-sound.'	31:54
	"But he was angry and refused to go in.	31:56
	"His father came out and entreated him	31:59
	"but he answered his father,	32:01
	'Lo, these many years I have served you	32:03
	'and I never disobeyed your command.	32:05
	'Yet you never gave me a kid,	32:08
	'that I might make merry with my friends.	32:10
	'But when this son of yours came,	32:13
	'who has devoured your living with harlots,	32:15
	'you killed for him the fatted calf.'	32:18
	"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me	32:20
	'and all that is mine is yours.	32:25
	'It was fitting to make merry and be glad	32:27
	'for this your brother was dead and is alive.	32:30
	'He was lost and is found."	32:34
	Here ends the reading of the gospel lesson.	32:39
	As the preacher climbs into the pulpit on a Sunday morning,	32:46
	she turns on the lectern light, clears her throat	32:49
	and prepares to deliver her sermon, God willing.	32:54
	Anxious to know just how many people did elect	32:58
	to cut-close the first few minutes of the ACC Finals	33:01
	on television in order to be here at the chapel.	33:04
	She looks out over the congregation	33:07
	and there, the inevitable sea of silence awaits her.	33:11
	She spots a 12 year-old boy	33:16
	brought to church against his better judgment.	33:18
	A bank vice-president known to have an alcohol-dependency,	33:21
	an unmarried college student terrified she may be pregnant.	33:26
	An impeccably dressed man who rumor has it,	33:31
	just left his family.	33:35
	The preacher invades the intimidating silence	33:37
	with an announcement, a reading from the gospel	33:40
	according to Saint Luke.	33:44
	The student leans forward, chin in hand.	33:47
	The bank vice-president neatly folds the bulletin	33:50
	and places it inside her purse.	33:53
	They all know the kinds of the things	33:56
	the preacher has told them before.	33:58
	Many of which seemed irrelevant at the time.	34:00
	But who knows what another sermon may bring.	34:03
	In the silence, they each await an answer,	34:07
	for they have come not only	34:11
	in their hopelessness but in their hopefulness	34:12
	that a word of truth might be spoken.	34:17
	And the preacher said, "There was a man who had two sons."	34:20
	A familiar tale to most of those gathered there.	34:24
	One woman remembered the thrill of seeing Baryshnikov	34:27
	dance Prokofiev's Prodigal Son at the Lincoln Center.	34:30
	Another recalled the Rembrandt etching she had once seen.	34:35
	And another recalled a rather unusual sermon	34:39
	she had heard preached on the text,	34:41
	from the perspective of the fatted calf.	34:44
	(congregation laughing)	34:47
	And so the story unfolds.
	The younger of the two sons insists	34:51
	on receiving his share of the inheritance	34:54
	and the father actually gives it to him.	34:57
	"Is this to be taken as a new model	35:00
	of conflict resolution in the home?",	35:01
	a bewildered parent wonders.	35:04
	In a story full of extremes,	35:06
	the younger son gathers all that he has.	35:08
	Not just enough to tide him over six months or so,	35:11
	not just enough to get him to Tahiti and back.	35:15
	He gathers all that he has	35:18
	and he journeys into a far country.	35:19
	Where with characteristic abandon he spends everything.	35:22
	Behold, the younger son has to go to work	35:26
	or starve to death and so he gets a job on a pig farm.	35:29
	Quite an insult to the family name	35:33
	but not such a bad deal for the pigs,	35:36
	since he soon enough realizes	35:38
	they're getting a better deal than he is.	35:39
	Thus, the prodigal comes to himself and decides to go home.	35:42
	Not because he realizes he's made a fool	35:47
	out of himself and broken his fathers heart.	35:50
	Not because he indicates he's sorry for what he's done	35:52
	or that he's resolved to make amends somehow	35:56
	and do better next time.	35:58
	He decides to go home for the simple reason that he knows	36:01
	he always got three-square-meals a day there before	36:04
	and for a man in danger of starving to death	36:07
	that's reason enough.	36:10
	And so as he sets out on the return trip	36:13
	he rehearses the speech he has especially written	36:15
	to cajole his father into taking him back.	36:18
	"Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.	36:21
	"I am no longer worthy to be called your son.	36:25
	"Treat me as one of your hired servants."	36:28
	"That ought to hit him where the old man lives",	36:31
	the young man thinks as he practices his inflection	36:33
	like Richard Burton preparing for King Leer.	36:37
	Just about the time he thinks he has it down	36:40
	the father spots him, coming down the long entrance	36:44
	into their grand estate.	36:46
	How many times, we wonder, has he stared blankly down	36:49
	that lonely road during those long months.	36:52
	Until that moment, perhaps he had not known	36:55
	what his reaction would be, but from the instant	36:58
	he lays eyes on that dearly beloved boy	37:02
	he has compassion on him, the kind that originates	37:05
	in your gut, as the New Testament word implies.	37:09
	It arises as naturally within him	37:13
	as air rushes in to fill any empty space.	37:15
	Before the son could even present his well-prepared speech	37:20
	his father throws his arms around him	37:24
	and all but knocks him off his feet.	37:26
	With tears and exclamations	37:28
	and incredulous laughter over his return.	37:31
	His son is back and that's all that matters, who cares why?	37:34
	The father does what no other parent in history	37:40
	would have been inclined to do.	37:42
	He doesn't say, "He hopes he's learned his lesson"	37:44
	or "I told you so."	37:47
	He doesn't say, "He hopes he's finally ready to settle down	37:49
	"for a while and will find someway	37:52
	"to make it up to the family."	37:55
	In an extraordinary display of love	37:57
	and graciousness, the father turns that cunning speech	37:59
	of the son into a moment of truth.	38:03
	The son is not to be treated as a servant	38:06
	but as an honored guest.	38:09
	In breathless succession the father heaps	38:12
	extravagant gifts upon the son: the best robe,	38:14
	a mark of high distinction, a ring, a sign of his authority	38:18
	and a fatted calf, in a land where meat is rarely eaten.	38:24
	And why not eat and make merry as the father proclaims?	38:28
	Turn on the music, roll back the carpet,	38:31
	break out the Champagne; for the son was dead	38:34
	and is alive again, he was lost and is found.	38:38
	This story, as much as any other I know,	38:44
	reveals the truly good humor of God,	38:47
	"For it seems that it's only when we hear the gospel	38:51
	as a wild and marvelous joke", in the words of	38:53
	Frederick Buechner, "that we even get it at all."	38:56
	For hearing it isn't really all that easy.	39:00
	Consider the elder brother, as an example.	39:03
	If God is preposterous, so is humanity	39:07
	as exemplified by this member of the family	39:10
	and his capacity for sin.	39:12
	It seems that no where is the deadliness	39:15
	of all seven of the deadly sins anymore unappealing	39:18
	than it is in the elder brother.	39:21
	Envy and pride and anger and covetousness	39:24
	are all present in full-force.	39:29
	Even sloth is there as he waits	39:32
	for his patrimony to gain interest, and lust,	39:34
	as he slavers over the harlots whom he's quick	39:38
	to point out the younger son has squandered his cash on.	39:40
	The elder brother is what Mark Twain called,	39:44
	"A good man in the worst sense of the word."	39:46
	He caricatures all that is joyless and petty	39:50
	and self-serving about all of us.	39:54
	But even here we detect a note of divine laughter	39:57
	and the joke's on all of us who know	40:01
	what it is to resent the presence of goodness.	40:03
	The father loves the elder brother in spite of himself.	40:07
	He always loved him and always will love him.	40:10
	Only, the elder brother never noticed it	40:13
	because it was never love he was looking for	40:16
	but only his due.	40:19
	The fatted calf, the Champagne, the ho-down,	40:21
	all could have been his too, anytime he asked for them.	40:25
	Except he was too busy cheerlessly trying to earn them	40:28
	and then resenting it when the younger son,	40:32
	whom he never called brother, became the grateful recipient.	40:34
	"The blind receive their sight.	40:39
	"The lame walk, the deaf hear.	40:42
	"The dead are raised up", Jesus said	40:45
	"and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."	40:48
	Blessed is the one who is not offended that no one receives	40:53
	what he or she deserves but vastly more.	40:57
	Blessed is the one who gets the joke	41:01
	and enjoys the miracle.	41:04
	Most of us, I guess, are prepared for everything	41:07
	except for the fact that beyond	41:10
	the darkness of our blindness there is a great light.	41:12
	We're prepared to go on breaking our backs,	41:16
	plowing the fields without seeing, until we stumble on it,	41:19
	that there's a treasure buried in that field	41:23
	rich enough to buy the State of Alaska.	41:25
	We're prepared for a God who drives hard bargains	41:28
	but not for one who gives as much for an hours work	41:32
	as for an entire day's.	41:35
	We are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God	41:38
	no bigger than our little fingers	41:41
	but not for the giant redwood it becomes	41:43
	with birds in it's branches singing Mozart.	41:46
	We are prepared for the pot-luck supper at First Methodist,	41:50
	but not for the marriage suffer of the lamb.	41:54
	In the words of Mr. Buechner,	41:58
	"It is the tragic which is understood to be inevitable."	42:00
	A given, an assumption that won't let you down	42:04
	about the human condition.	42:07
	This is evidenced in more ways than we care to remember	42:10
	by the art work which has graced our chapel	42:13
	during this season of Lent.	42:15
	The expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from the tent of Abraham	42:18
	and the broken relationship between Sarah and Hagar.	42:23
	The rape of Tamar, Judas' betrayal, the Via Delaroso	42:27
	The crucifixion itself, the bombing of Hiroshima,	42:33
	all are depicted in disturbing even abrasive forms,	42:37
	to remind us of the bad news	42:41
	that must always come before the good news.	42:44
	We are all lost, whether or not	42:47
	we squandered our inheritance in loose living,	42:50
	or clung to it so fiercely as to lose our very souls.	42:53
	But for those who are willing to hear the good news	42:58
	as it breaks through the bad,	43:01
	there awaits an eternity of comic relief.	43:04
	They are often the people who the rest of the world	43:07
	wouldn't stop to ask the time of day.	43:09
	Themselves seen as bad jokes and misfits.	43:12
	They're the poor people, the broken people.	43:16
	The penitent people.	43:20
	The ones who are willing to believe in miracles	43:22
	because they know it will take a miracle	43:24
	to fill the empty place inside of them.	43:27
	Sarah knew what it would take to fill her emptiness.	43:31
	After 90 years of waiting and in the mean time	43:34
	watching jealousy devour her relationship with Hagar,	43:37
	her servant whom she once loved.	43:42
	So when the angel appeared and told her,	43:45
	"At last, she would deliver a child",	43:47
	she laughed and Abraham laughed with her	43:50
	because having used up all their tears	43:53
	they had nothing but laughter left.	43:55
	"While the tragic is inevitable, it is the comic	43:59
	which is unforeseeable", according to Buechner.	44:03
	Or at least it seems that way in the world.	44:06
	Whereas, the father may have imagined from the time	44:09
	his two boys were born, what he was in for.	44:12
	Sarah would never have predicted the intervention	44:15
	of an angel after all that she has failed to live up to.	44:17
	Yet as we all know, the ways of the world	44:22
	are not the ways of the kingdom of heaven.	44:24
	From the divine perspective, could it be,	44:27
	that it is the unheralded, the unlikely,	44:30
	the comic, which is bound to happen	44:34
	and not the other way around?	44:37
	If we really believe that God does	44:39
	impossible things with impossible children,	44:41
	we learn to expect the unexpected appearance of grace.	44:44
	Then let us join in the divine peel of laughter.	44:50
	Proclaiming the folly of Christ as our way of being,	44:53
	of doing, and of loving.	44:57
	Switching off the lectern light	45:03
	and gathering her notes now dampened by her sweaty palms.	45:05
	The preacher steps back to her seat.	45:09
	She has addressed her congregation	45:13
	with both a word of tragedy and of comedy	45:14
	because they are both a word of truth.	45:18
	She has spoken of God's visible absence	45:21
	because to fail to do so	45:25
	makes God's invisible presence less credible.	45:26
	Sin and grace, death and life,	45:32
	absence and presence, tragedy and comedy.	45:36
	They divide the world between themselves.	45:42
	Where they meet, is where we live and worship.	45:45
	For it is also the place where the gospel happens.	45:50
	Where God and all of God's people	45:54
	enjoy the last laugh together.	45:57
	Amen.	46:00
	(organ playing)	46:15
	(congregation standing)

	(tranquil organ music)	0:03
	(congregation singing)
-	Let us unite in this historic confession	3:23
	of the Christian faith.	3:27
-	I believe in one God,	3:31
	the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth	3:34
	and of all things invisible and visible	3:38
	and in one Lord, Jesus Christ,	3:42
	the only begotten Son of God.	3:45
	You are the father before all worlds,	3:48
	God of God, light of light,	3:52
	very God of very God,	3:54
	begotten, not made,	3:58
	being of one substance with the Father	4:00
	through whom all things were made	4:03
	who for us men	4:06
	and for our salvation came down from Heaven	4:08
	and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary	4:12
	and was made man and was crucified also for us	4:16
	under Pontius Pilate.	4:21
	He suffered and was buried	4:23
	and the third day he rose according to the scriptures	4:25
	and ascended into Heaven	4:28
	and sitth on the right hand of the Father	4:30
	and he shall come again with glory	4:34
	to judge both the quick and the dead	4:36
	whose kingdom shall have no end	4:39
	and I believe in the Holy Ghost,	4:42
	the Lord, the giver of life	4:44
	who preceded from the Father and the Son	4:47
	who with the Father and the Son together	4:51
	is worshiped and glorified,	4:53
	who spake by the prophets	4:56
	and I believe in one holy Catholic	4:58
	and apostolic church.	5:01
	I acknowledge one baptism	5:03
	for the remission of sins	5:05
	and I look for the resurrection of the dead	5:07
	and the life of the world to come, amen.	5:10
-	The Lord be with you.	5:19
-	And also with you.	5:22
-	Let us pray.	5:23
	Most holy and loving God,	5:36
	we call out to you for mercy	5:39
	in this reflective time of Lent	5:42
	when our thoughts grapple with the human problems	5:46
	that seem to control our lives.	5:49
	We are afraid of the darkness in our hearts	5:53
	and the darkness in our world.	5:57
	Free us from this fear	6:00
	so that we may boldly claim your transforming power.	6:03
	For the church throughout the world, we pray, oh God.	6:09
	Grant that every member may truly	6:13
	and courageously serve you.	6:16
	We pray for those gathered here this day	6:20
	with our special needs and concerns,	6:24
	for the students and faculty returning	6:29
	from their rest,	6:31
	for the visitors,	6:34
	for all of us in this congregation,	6:36
	grant the light of your eternal truth.	6:38
	May all who confess your name live together	6:43
	in your love and reveal your glory to the world.	6:46
	As the creative power of God begins	6:52
	to show itself in the beginning in the spring,	6:54
	may that power become manifest	6:58
	in new and honest hearts.	7:01
	Guide the leaders and people of this land	7:05
	and of all the nations in the ways of justice	7:09
	and peace that we may honor one another	7:11
	and serve the common good.	7:15
	We pray for those countries	7:19
	where war is raging	7:21
	and where the threat of war is constant.	7:23
	Bring rapid solutions to the problems	7:26
	which have caused the paralyzing conflicts	7:30
	in so many corners of our globe.	7:33
	For the sick in body or spirit,	7:37
	we ask your healing presence.	7:40
	For the starving masses,	7:43
	we ask for food for body and spirit.	7:45
	For the dying, we ask for eternal life.	7:50
	For the poor, the persecuted, the refugees,	7:54
	the prisoners, and even the terrorist, we pray, oh God,	7:59
	redeem them for their sakes and for ours.	8:04
	Grant that all of us may know how to respond	8:08
	to the needs of our fellow brothers	8:13
	and sisters here in our midst	8:15
	and in all parts of the world	8:18
	for yours, oh Lord, is the power	8:21
	and the glory now and forever.	8:24
	Amen.	8:29
	We are a people of God,	8:34
	forgiven and reconciled,	8:36
	therefore let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.	8:38
	(tranquil organ music)	8:46
	(lively organ music)	10:46
	(choir singing)	11:17
	(tranquil organ music)	15:35
	(congregation singing)	16:04
-	Almighty and most merciful God,	16:52
	who giveth every good and perfect gift,	16:54
	we give thee thanks and praise	16:58
	for all thy mercies.	16:59
	Thy goodness hath created us,	17:01
	thy bounty hath sustained us	17:03
	and thy patient love hath found us.	17:06
	Give us a heart to love and serve thee	17:09
	that we may cheerfully submit in all things	17:12
	unto thy blessed will.	17:15
	This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ,	17:17
	who taught us to pray with confidence.	17:20
-	Our Father who art in Heaven,	17:22
	hallowed be thy name,	17:25
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth	17:27
	as it is in Heaven.	17:30
	Give us this day our daily bread	17:32
	and forgive our trespasses	17:34
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	17:37
	and lead us not into temptation	17:40
	but deliver us from evil	17:42
	for thine is the kingdom,	17:44
	the power and the glory forever.	17:46
-	Amen.	17:49
	(tranquil organ music)	18:01
	♪ Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart ♪	18:33
	♪ Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art ♪	18:41
	♪ Thou my best thought by day or by night ♪	18:49
	♪ Waking or sleeping, Thy presence, my light ♪	18:57
	♪ Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word ♪	19:07
	♪ I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord ♪	19:15
	♪ Thou my great Father, I Thy true son ♪	19:23
	♪ Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one ♪	19:31
	♪ Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise ♪	19:42
	♪ Thou mine inheritance, now and always ♪	19:50
	♪ Thou and Thou only, first in my heart ♪	19:58
	♪ High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art ♪	20:05
	♪ High King of Heaven, my victory won ♪	20:18
	♪ May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's Sun ♪	20:25
	♪ Heart of my own heart, whate'er befall ♪	20:34
	♪ Still be my vision, O Ruler of all ♪	20:42
-	And now as we go, may we go in peace,	20:56
	may we go with a deeper understanding	20:59
	of God's grace,	21:02
	may we go determined to love and serve the world	21:04
	because Christ first loved us.	21:09
	In the name of the one who was	21:12
	and is and ever shall be, amen.	21:14
	(tranquil organ music)	21:24

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Divine Joke" (March 9, 1986)

Description:

Sermon start time: 32:46. Sermon end time: 46:02.
The parable of the prodigal son reveals the humor of God through its reversal of our expectations and surprising grace. This is how the Gospel looks in our world, like a divine comedy. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “For those who are willing to hear the good news as it breaks through the bad, there awaits an eternity of comic relief.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42f7k541

Date:

March 9, 1986

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0315
ref8151_w3h
uachapelsermaud
duke:320384
dcrau001300
ark:/87924/r42f7k541
f839f8e2-f978-4c64-ab39-09c7b336eb8e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

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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

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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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Divine Joke" (March 9, 1986)

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1. Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Divine Joke" (March 9, 1986)

Duke University Archives

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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "A Divine Joke" (March 9, 1986)

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Duke University Archives

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