Susan Henry-Crowe - "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" (August 23, 1992)

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-	Hear now the words from Isaiah	0:02
	chapter 61 verses one through four.	0:05
	The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,	0:15
	because the Lord has anointed me	0:17
	to bring good tidings to the afflicted.	0:19
	He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,	0:22
	to proclaim liberty to the captives,	0:25
	and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,	0:28
	to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor	0:31
	and the day of the vengeance of our God,	0:34
	to comfort all who mourn,	0:37
	to grant to those who mourn in Zion,	0:40
	to give them a garland instead of ashes,	0:43
	the oil of gladness instead of mourning,	0:47
	the mantle of praises instead of a faint spirit,	0:50
	that they may be called the oaks of righteousness,	0:53
	the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.	0:56
	They shall build up the ancient ruins,	1:00
	they shall raise up the former devastations,	1:02
	they shall repair the ruined cities,	1:06
	the devastations of many generations.	1:09
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:12
	(congregation mumbles)	1:15
	And hear now the words from the gospel of Matthew	1:18
	chapter 11 verses two through six.	1:22
	Now when John heard in prison about the deeds	1:26
	of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples	1:29
	and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come?	1:32
	"Or shall we look for another?"	1:36
	And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John	1:40
	"what you hear and see, the blind receive their sight,	1:44
	"the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,	1:49
	"and the dead are raised up	1:54
	"and the poor have good news preached to them,	1:55
	"and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."	1:59
	This is the word of the Lord.	2:04
-	Thanks be to God.	2:07
-	Good morning.	2:11
	It is indeed a great honor and privilege	2:15
	to be invited to preach here	2:18
	in the midst of this wonderful congregation	2:20
	at the end of what has been for me a very wonderful summer.	2:22
	I'd like to thank Deborah for all of her hospitality	2:27
	and the ways that she has extended herself	2:30
	on your behalf to me.	2:32
	And I also would just like to say a word of thanks	2:35
	to Will in his absence.	2:38
	Will and I go way back.	2:41
	We both are from Greenville, South Carolina;	2:42
	we both went to Buncombe Street United Methodist Church;	2:45
	we both graduated from Greenville High School.	2:49
	And I even know some stories about him (laughs),	2:52
	but I'll not tell them today (chuckles).	2:56
	But it is indeed an honor to be his colleague	2:58
	and to be invited on this occasion.	3:01
	For a few moments this morning,	3:05
	I want to invite you to engage in the act	3:06
	of putting back together some events	3:09
	from about a quarter of a century ago.	3:11
	By looking out, I can tell that many of you remember that.	3:15
	But if you would, think back to the year of 1966 and '67.	3:19
	For those of us who are in our 40s,	3:26
	we were moving into our high school and early college years,	3:29
	away at camp in our Presbyterian or Lutheran	3:33
	or Methodist camp youth groups.	3:36
	But most of all, we were motivated by our hormones	3:39
	and we were trying to fall in and out of love.	3:44
	Many of you will remember that we experimented	3:48
	with what it means to grow up,	3:51
	and in those years, sometimes we did it	3:52
	in rather imaginative ways.	3:56
	For those who are now in your 50s,	4:00
	you were going to college or working and graduating	4:02
	and worrying about whether or not you would be involved	4:05
	in the war in Vietnam.	4:11
	You were probably falling in love	4:15
	for what you thought would be the last time in your life,	4:17
	and perhaps beginning to articulate your hopes and dreams	4:22
	about life and friends and footballs games	4:25
	and marriage and, even occasionally,	4:28
	probably allowed yourself to let your heart give rise	4:34
	to follow those timeless questions	4:40
	about the meaning of life and death.	4:43
	For those who are now in your 60s and beyond,	4:48
	you were well on your way in establishing your career,	4:51
	or perhaps beginning another one,	4:54
	being parents, and wanting to give your children	4:57
	and the children of this world the best,	5:01
	because you knew deep inside	5:05
	that your children and your grandchildren would face	5:07
	unimagined ethical and moral issues in a world	5:12
	that was changing very rapidly.	5:17
	And you were raising questions about the world	5:21
	in which you were living,	5:24
	and probably both insecure and excited	5:26
	about the world that was to come.	5:29
	And for all of us, there were those other experiences	5:34
	and events and moments of which we have	5:38
	some corporate memory.	5:42
	It is the memory of the body	5:45
	and we all remember the things that I will highlight today,	5:49
	both individually and collectively.	5:54
	When I say the date November the 22nd, 1963,	5:59
	you all remember.	6:05
	You remember where you were and what you were doing,	6:07
	because, of course, that was the day	6:11
	that President Kennedy had been assassinated.	6:13
	And on that day, our worldview began to change,	6:17
	because not only did we experience the loss	6:23
	and the death of a President,	6:26
	but because of that death	6:29
	and the circumstances which surrounded it.	6:31
	Some of our dreams that had been cultivated	6:35
	by the idealism of that age,	6:39
	and the post-World War II days,	6:41
	our idealism was challenged.	6:46
	Remember how we watched either with fascination or disdain,	6:52
	depending on how old you were, the Beatles,	6:59
	when Sunday night on the Ed Sullivan Show.	7:03
	I remember it well, and how The Beatles shaped	7:07
	both the rhythm and the expression	7:11
	of our hearts and minds forever.	7:14
	And remember in 1964 when Lyndon Baines Johnson,	7:19
	in the midst of severe racial strife	7:23
	signed the Civil Rights Act,	7:26
	and we thought that the world would never be the same again.	7:28
	And remember that rainy night in April of 1968	7:35
	when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.	7:40
	And remember the summer of 1966 when Watts burned	7:46
	for five days in one of the most fierce	7:50
	racial riots of the decade.	7:56
	And now 25 years ago this summer in 1967,	8:00
	the Six Day War in Israel that has shaped	8:06
	the history of the world since that time.	8:09
	It was also that summer or that year	8:13
	that Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court,	8:16
	the first black in America's history	8:19
	to ever sit on the Supreme Court.	8:22
	And for those of you who are around my age,	8:26
	you will remember a song written by Jimmy and David Ruffin,	8:29
	recorded on Motown Records,	8:36
	which was entitled, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?"	8:40
	You know the words of that.	8:46
	Even though we know the tune better	8:47
	than we remember the words,	8:49
	but the words of that song are:	8:51
	"As I walk this land of broken dreams	8:54
	"I have visions of many things,	8:58
	"but happiness is just an illusion	9:02
	"filled with sadness and confusion.	9:04
	"What becomes of the brokenhearted	9:08
	"who had love that's now departed?	9:12
	"I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind.	9:15
	"The roots of love grow all around,	9:21
	"but for me they come a-tumbling down.	9:24
	"Every day heartache grows a little stronger,	9:28
	"I can't stand this pain much longer.	9:32
	"What becomes of the brokenhearted?"	9:39
	The question I pose today is what indeed does become	9:46
	of the brokenhearted?	9:52
	What becomes of those who walk in the land of broken dreams	9:55
	and a quarter of a century when so much has changed?	10:00
	What becomes of those who had visions of many things?	10:07
	What becomes of the brokenhearted	10:13
	who had love that's now departed?	10:16
	One of the most remarkable things	10:20
	that has happened in the past month, I think,	10:22
	has been the Democratic and Republican National Conventions	10:27
	and even though I dislike very much the tone	10:32
	of what has happened in many ways,	10:36
	it seems to me that one of the questions	10:39
	that has been raised,	10:42
	not in the language of the people of faith,	10:43
	or the language that we use today,	10:47
	but when we begin to look at all that is happening	10:51
	in this country, one of the questions is,	10:54
	what has become of the brokenhearted	10:57
	who had the dreams of idealism and justice	11:01
	and all of those things that have not come to fruition	11:04
	as we had hoped and imagined?	11:09
	In all the years that have gone,	11:14
	in the, held within the past quarter of a century,	11:17
	life is full of joys,	11:22
	it is full of experiences, of growth and learning,	11:24
	and it is still full of deep disappointments,	11:29
	and fears and broken hearts and shattered dreams	11:33
	and all of the ambiguities and complexities of life.	11:37
	And we live in a world	11:43
	where hearts still get broken and shattered.	11:44
	I am the mother of a teenage daughter,	11:51
	and recently my daughter's good friend,	11:53
	15 years of age, died in a tragic automobile accident.	11:59
	And I sat in the midst of that congregation	12:06
	on the day of her funeral, and I looked around	12:09
	at all of the sad fathers and mothers,	12:13
	and all of those mothers who were pregnant	12:17
	at the same time that I was.	12:19
	And I remember all the dreams that when I was pregnant	12:23
	I held for my child and the world in which she would live.	12:27
	And there, for a moment, faced all of the tragedies of life.	12:32
	Many of us gathered here this day	12:40
	have suffered the hurt and pain of separation and divorce	12:44
	in these past 25 years.	12:50
	And I do not have to remind us	12:54
	of all of the events of this past year	12:58
	where we have seen growing racial strife and bigotry	13:01
	and fear and hatred in the world	13:06
	and more importantly for a moment in this country,	13:10
	when we thought it would not be that way again.	13:16
	This country is in deep distress.	13:24
	And we hoped and we believed after World War II,	13:28
	it would not be that way again.	13:31
	And the sins of exclusion abound on every side.	13:36
	Jason was an eight-year-old child who had AIDS,	13:43
	and it created a lot of anxiety and fear,	13:49
	particularly among adults and the parents did not want	13:53
	their children exposed to Jason	13:58
	and the dread disease that he had.	14:01
	And Jason had been sick, but he was to return to school,	14:05
	and he returned to school.	14:08
	And on the day that he returned, adults lined the sidewalks	14:12
	of that walkway and entrance into the school,	14:16
	carrying signs, "Jason, go home."	14:19
	But at the end of that school day,	14:26
	the third graders, the eight-year-olds,	14:28
	walked Jason home, carrying a sign of their own	14:31
	that they had made during the day,	14:37
	and their sign read,	14:41
	"Jason is a boy, not a disease."	14:43
	And once again, this summer, we live	14:52
	with the restless anxiety as we continue	14:54
	to hear the horrors and be reminded	14:57
	of the horrors of the Persian Gulf War,	15:00
	and we remember far too well the shattered dreams	15:03
	and the national tragedy of war.	15:09
	And our hearts still get broken and our dreams are shattered	15:14
	and life doesn't turn out like we want it to.	15:17
	And what becomes of the brokenhearted?	15:23
	There is an old rabbinic tale of Ibn Ezra	15:28
	who on the eve of Yom Kippur prayed long and ardently	15:33
	in the synagogue, much to the distress of his waiting rabbi.	15:38
	Finally, the rabbi, out of his curiosity,	15:43
	could stand it no longer, and he says to Ibn Ezra,	15:46
	"Ibn Ezra, what is it that you say to the Master	15:50
	"of the universe that takes you so long?"	15:55
	Ibn Ezra says, "Rabbi, I'll tell you what I say	16:00
	"to the Master of the universe.	16:03
	"I say, 'O Lord of the universe,	16:05
	'these are my sins and I confess them.	16:09
	'I argued with my wife,	16:14
	but who doesn't?	16:17
	'I was angry with my children,	16:20
	'but what parent isn't?	16:23
	'I cheated a little in the shop	16:27
	"but it was just a little and it was among friends.	16:30
	'O Lord of the universe, these are my sins	16:35
	'and they are very small.	16:38
	'But now, consider your sins, O Master of the universe.	16:41
	'You dry up the skies and our crops wither.	16:48
	'You send too much rain and there is no food on our table	16:56
	'for us to feed our children.	17:03
	'The marriage bed is empty	17:09
	'and there is no child in the womb.	17:11
	'There are wars and our young die.	17:16
	'These are your sins and they are very great.	17:22
	'But I will make you a proposition.	17:29
	'You forgive me my little sins,	17:33
	'and I will forgive you your great ones.'	17:36
	"Now rabbi, I ask you,	17:42
	"was that asking too much?"	17:45
	After thinking a long while, the rabbi answered,	17:50
	"No, Ibn Ezra, it was not too much.	17:53
	"But why,	17:59
	"why did you drive so small a bargain?	18:01
	"For sins like those, you could've asked him	18:07
	"to send the Messiah, you could've asked him	18:11
	"to redeem the world."	18:16
	We long,	18:23
	we long for the moment in time	18:25
	when something will happen	18:29
	that will ease the fear	18:33
	and lessen the pain and heal the wounds	18:36
	and bind up our broken hearts.	18:40
	We yearn	18:44
	for someone	18:47
	or somebody	18:49
	or some event	18:52
	or some word	18:54
	or some presence	18:56
	that will bring comfort in the night,	18:59
	that will help carry the pain of our burdened lives,	19:03
	that will heal the racial strife in this land,	19:08
	that will heal our broken hearts,	19:14
	that will bridge all the exclusions	19:18
	and hatreds of this world.	19:22
	We know that the afflictions of humankind	19:27
	are so incomprehensible that the brokenness	19:30
	and sickness and pain and terror	19:34
	that we have known and seen,	19:37
	that for all of that, there must be	19:39
	someone,	19:43
	somebody,	19:45
	some word,	19:48
	some presence	19:50
	that will heal us,	19:52
	that will come	19:54
	and save us.	19:56
	John the Baptist was in prison.	20:02
	And John sent two of the disciples	20:07
	to go and search for that authentic one.	20:09
	James and John go on that journey to find Jesus	20:14
	with that deep and profound question	20:19
	that they wanted to have responded to.	20:23
	And they go to Jesus and they pose the question	20:27
	that we read from the gospel today.	20:31
	"Are you the one,	20:34
	or must we wait for another?"	20:37
	Are you the one?	20:41
	And many of you know that the Greek word for one,	20:45
	which is used in that text,	20:49
	is also the same word for Savior,	20:51
	and also the same word for the one who heals.	20:55
	Are you the one	21:00
	who comes to save us?	21:03
	Are you the one	21:06
	who comes to heal us?	21:08
	Are you the one tho comes to forgive us?	21:12
	Jesus responds in a most remarkable and graceful way.	21:19
	And I read it to you, and here is what Jesus said.	21:24
	He said, "Go and tell what you hear and see.	21:28
	"Go and tell what you hear and see.	21:34
	"The blind receive sight, lepers are cleansed,	21:37
	deaf hear,	21:42
	"the poor have good news preached to them,	21:45
	"and the wounds of the brokenhearted are healed."	21:49
	The whole story of salvation is the story	21:56
	of the God who comes,	22:00
	the God who comes to forgive us,	22:03
	the one who comes to heal our broken hearts.	22:07
	And Jesus says, "Go and tell what you have seen and heard."	22:13
	You saw Watts burn for five days,	22:19
	but you also saw schools integrated	22:24
	and children learn all kinds of new things	22:28
	and have new relationships.	22:32
	Go and tell that you saw and remember	22:36
	the rigidity of the Iron Curtain.	22:40
	And you also saw that wall that divided	22:44
	the East and the West come a-tumbling down.	22:47
	Go and tell that you saw the shattered dreams	22:53
	and promises when Martin Luther King was killed	22:57
	on that rainy April night.	23:00
	But you also go and tell that you saw Nelson Mandela walk	23:04
	out of those prison walls.	23:09
	Go and tell that you saw Jason	23:13
	and children and adults ostracized because they had AIDS.	23:16
	But you also go and tell that you saw people	23:23
	and organizations and churches establish	23:28
	new outreach ministries of healing.	23:30
	Go and tell that you saw the broken heart	23:35
	of that father the day his 17-year-old son left	23:39
	and went to that far country like Los Angeles,	23:43
	that far country to live his frightened and anxious	23:47
	and rebellious life.	23:52
	But you also go and tell	23:55
	that you saw that young man come home,	23:58
	and that ridiculous old man run out in the street	24:01
	and say of that one, "This one is my son,	24:07
	"he belongs to me.	24:12
	"He was dead and now he is alive.	24:15
	"He was lost and now he is found."	24:20
	Are you the one who will come?	24:27
	Are you the one who will come and save us?	24:31
	Are you the one who will heal our broken hearts?	24:37
	And Jesus said, "Go and tell."	24:44
	Thanks be to God,	24:50
	Amen.	24:54
-	The Lord be with you.	25:04
	(congregation mumbles)	25:06
	Let us pray.	25:07
	Oh God of the Spirit that lives and moves among us.	25:12
	We have heard of all that you are doing in the world.	25:17
	We've heard that you have made the blind to see,	25:22
	the lame to walk, the lepers to be cleansed,	25:25
	the deaf to hear, the dead to rise,	25:29
	and the poor to rejoice with good news.	25:34
	Dare we believe what we have heard?	25:38
	Are you the one?	25:43
	Dare we trust you to work your miracles in our lives?	25:46
	When we look at the suffering and destruction in our world,	25:52
	it is sometimes easier for us to believe	25:57
	in the power of darkness and death	25:59
	than the power of resurrection and light.	26:03
	When we focus on the disappointments,	26:07
	broken dreams, and the pain in our own lives,	26:10
	it is easy to forget that we do not suffer alone.	26:15
	We have heard that there is no pain	26:21
	that you have not already suffered on our behalf.	26:23
	We have heard that you have been through the darkness	26:27
	and have overcome it.	26:31
	Lord, we believe,	26:34
	help thou our unbelief.	26:36
	For you know that we are the blind, the lame,	26:40
	the leper, the death, the dead, and the poor.	26:44
	We are the broken-hearted with broken hearts	26:51
	and shattered dreams, and we stand in need	26:55
	of your healing presence.	26:59
	Come into our lives and bind up our brokenness.	27:03
	Make us whole, so that we might be the people	27:08
	you have called us to be.	27:11
	For as surely as you sent Jesus Christ to be our Savior,	27:14
	so you also send us to proclaim your deliverance	27:19
	to all the world.	27:23
	You have anointed us to bring good news to the oppressed,	27:25
	to bind up the broken-hearted,	27:29
	proclaim liberty to the captives,	27:32
	and release to the prisoners.	27:35
	There are so many in our world who are in need	27:38
	of the good news that we have been given.	27:41
	As you touch our lives in concrete ways,	27:45
	help us also reach out to others	27:50
	with concrete expressions of love and hope.	27:52
	Let us offer the good news of food and medicine	27:57
	to the millions of people starving in Somalia.	28:00
	Let us offer acceptance and healing	28:05
	to the lepers across the world	28:08
	as we work to eradicate AIDS.	28:10
	Let us strive for peace through racial justice	28:14
	and understanding in Yugoslavia	28:18
	and the inner cities of the United States.	28:22
	Let us offer the hope of freedom and the right	28:26
	to self-determination to political prisoners	28:28
	in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and South Africa.	28:32
	Let us provide the hope of dignity and self-determination	28:37
	to the poor who are beaten down by life.	28:42
	These and more stand in need of your healing power.	28:46
	Work through us, we pray, to repair the ruined cities	28:51
	and the devastation of generations,	28:56
	to bring hope out of despair, and life out of death.	29:00
	Strengthen us with your love as you send us forth in love.	29:06
	In the name of the one who binds up	29:12
	the broken-hearted we pray, amen.	29:14
	As a reconciled and healed people,	29:20
	let us offer signs of peace to one another.	29:23
	Please stand.	29:26
	(congregation chattering)	29:33
	Let us offer our gifts to God.	29:51

Item Info

Title:

Susan Henry-Crowe - "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" (August 23, 1992)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:02. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 24:55.
In the midst of broken hearts and shattered dreams the disciples ask Jesus "Are you the one" and Christ calls us to tell of what we hear and see. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "We long for the moment in time when something will happen that will ease the fear and lessen the pain and heal the wounds and bind up our broken hearts. We yearn for someone or somebody or some event or some word or some presence that will bring comfort in the night, that will help carry the pain of our burdens, that will heal the racial strife in this land, that will heal our broken hearts, that will bridge all the exclusions and hatreds of the world."

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45m62n2d

Date:

August 23, 1992

Speaker:

Henry-Crowe, Susan

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 CS-0606
ref9140_z91
uachapelsermaud
duke:320912
dcrau001416
ark:/87924/r45m62n2d
6f3b9beb-6633-4ba7-b5a9-a0cda0ca6af2

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Susan Henry-Crowe - "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" (August 23, 1992)

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