William H. Willimon - "Unto Us" (December 22, 1996)

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-	The gospel for this fourth Sunday of Advent	0:06
	is from Luke.	0:09
	In the sixth month the angel, Gabriel,	0:13
	was sent by God to a town	0:15
	in Galilee called Nazareth,	0:17
	to a virgin who was engaged to a man	0:20
	whose name was Joseph of the House of David.	0:24
	And the virgin's name was Mary.	0:28
	And he came to her and said,	0:31
	"Greetings, favorite one, the Lord is with you."	0:32
	But she was much perplexed by his words	0:37
	and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.	0:40
	The angel said to her,	0:44
	"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have	0:46
	"found favor with God,	0:49
	"and now you will conceive in your womb	0:51
	"and bear a son and you will name him Jesus.	0:55
	"He will be great and will be called	1:00
	"the Son of the Most High.	1:03
	"And the the Lord God will give to Him the throne	1:04
	"of his ancestor, David.	1:07
	"He will reign over the House of Jacob forever.	1:10
	"And of His kingdom there will be no end."	1:14
	Mary said to the angel,	1:18
	"How can this be since I am a virgin?"	1:21
	The angel said to her,	1:24
	"The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power	1:26
	"of the Most High will overshadow you.	1:29
	"Therefore the child to be born will be holy.	1:31
	"He will be called Son of God.	1:36
	"And now your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age	1:40
	"has also conceived a son,	1:43
	"and this is the sixth month for her	1:45
	"who was said to be barren.	1:48
	"For nothing will be impossible with God."	1:51
	Then Mary said,	1:56
	"Here am I, the servant of the Lord.	1:58
	"Let it be with me according to your word."	2:02
	Then the angel departed from her.	2:07
	This is the word of the Lord.	2:12
	Thanks be to God.	2:16
	The Gospel of John opens	2:23
	by saying that the Word, the Christ,	2:27
	the Eternal Logos, God, the Word became flesh	2:32
	and lived among us.	2:39
	Flesh, meat, incarnation,	2:42
	which means in the flesh, in the body.	2:48
	That's Christmas.	2:52
	This is the Feast of the Incarnation.	2:55
	This is the time of the year when we celebrate	3:00
	that our God did not stay aloof,	3:03
	detached from us on cloud nine,	3:05
	our God came among what troubles us	3:08
	in this world, in the flesh.	3:13
	Now sometimes, well-meaning folks say	3:19
	something like, well,	3:23
	when you get down to it,	3:25
	all religions are fairly much the same, right?	3:28
	Wrong.	3:33
	When you get down to it and on Christmas,	3:35
	we Christians believe we are getting	3:38
	right down to it.	3:40
	When you get right down to it,	3:44
	what we Christians say on Christmas is,	3:45
	sets us at odds with every religion	3:49
	I know anything about.	3:52
	In the Holy Koran there is a favorite verse	3:56
	of Muslims which says,	4:00
	"Anyone who claims God has a son,	4:01
	"shall be cursed."	4:05
	We Christians in the incarnation are weird,	4:09
	peculiar, different, 'cause we believe,	4:15
	or we are here this morning	4:20
	attempting to believe that our God came	4:21
	in the flesh and lived among us incarnation.	4:25
	Last week, on TV, they had one of these	4:32
	annual Christmas specials,	4:34
	Christmas From Washington,	4:36
	and various singers and speakers said	4:38
	that Christmas is about love and peace	4:42
	and light and joy and no, no,	4:46
	Christmas is about God come among us	4:54
	as a baby, wrapped in rags,	4:57
	placed in a feed trough,	5:01
	flesh, in the flesh.	5:04
	Now, mid-January, last year,	5:11
	I was somewhere outside Moorhead, Minnesota.	5:17
	Right up on the border of the Dakotas,	5:21
	stuck in a forgettable little motel,	5:24
	and in the morning went down to the little	5:27
	cafe down there,	5:31
	which was crowded with people for breakfast,	5:32
	and I shared a table with a man.	5:34
	And immediately he ascertained that I was clergy	5:38
	and I ascertained that he was a professor	5:41
	at a nearby community college.	5:44
	And we began to talk.	5:46
	And I quickly found out that something	5:50
	had happened to him just a couple	5:52
	of weeks before on Christmas.	5:53
	And he needed to tell me about it.	5:57
	And now I will tell you	6:00
	just as he told it to me	6:04
	in that coffee shop in Moorhead, Minnesota.	6:06
	Here's what he said.	6:12
	Flight attendants in Santa Clause hats	6:16
	and plastic holly in their lapels.	6:18
	Great, I muttered to myself as I settled	6:22
	into my seat, seat 5C, not up at the bulkhead,	6:26
	but close enough so that I could be the first	6:31
	off the plane.	6:34
	Just great, I thought to myself.	6:36
	The plane explodes into bits,	6:39
	and we are helped off by four grinning	6:41
	Santa Clauses decked with plastic holly berries.	6:43
	This, this is what I get for having	6:46
	to fly on Christmas Eve.	6:49
	I told my mother, you see,	6:51
	that it would be easier and surely certainly	6:53
	cheaper to catch an early morning flight	6:57
	out on Christmas morning.	6:59
	But mother wouldn't hear of it.	7:01
	Your sister's coming early and with the kids,	7:04
	and Bob and I want us all to go to church	7:07
	together on Christmas morning.	7:10
	Just all of us as a family on Christmas morning.	7:12
	This will be the first Christmas since	7:15
	your father passed away, and,	7:16
	well what could I say?	7:19
	So here I sit on Christmas Eve,	7:21
	ready to race Santa in this 747 commandeered	7:24
	by grinning little helpers offering Coke, Sprite,	7:27
	juice, beer, wine, four dollars.	7:31
	I was warned, I was warned,	7:35
	I noted an unprecedented number of small	7:39
	creatures being called onto the plane.	7:42
	And they were all mittened and stuffed	7:45
	into new coats and they had things running	7:46
	down the front of their coats,	7:50
	and they were clutching recent acquisitions meant	7:52
	to pacify them for the trip to Cleveland.	7:54
	Over Illinois, and through the Chicago vector	7:58
	we go to grandmother's house we go.	8:01
	Say excuse me, Gabriela, Midwestern voice whined.	8:06
	I looked up from my paper,	8:10
	and I saw this small face topped with some sort	8:12
	of sprig of artificial green and red pushing	8:16
	silently, persistently at my knees.	8:19
	Attempting wordlessly to shove herself	8:22
	into the seat beside me.	8:24
	Oh, let me get up and help you in,	8:27
	I said, without a note in my voice	8:30
	to betray my infinite sense of aggravation.	8:33
	Gabriela, Gabriela, say thank you	8:36
	to the nice man,	8:39
	as she hauled enough stuffed sacks	8:40
	to equip an army.	8:42
	Some of these she proceeded to cram	8:44
	in the overhead bins while I stood in the aisle.	8:45
	And then I got up up and I helped her cram	8:48
	them into the bins, cursing silently, US Air,	8:50
	for not enforcing their carry-on rules.	8:53
	And I said to myself,	8:56
	I guess it's on Christmas Eve you can bring	8:59
	on a herd of cattle if you wanted to,	9:02
	no, a herd of reindeer.	9:04
	Finally settling in the seat,	9:07
	she sticks her hand out at me saying, hi,	9:09
	Donna Rafael here, and Gabriela.	9:13
	Gabriela, say hi to the nice man who helped us	9:15
	with granny's gifts.	9:18
	Dear little Gabriela, stared at me vacantly.	9:21
	Where's the Coke, she asked.	9:25
	I want the Coke.	9:27
	Then she turned and she stared	9:30
	out the window, wheezing slightly.	9:31
	Her first time to fly,	9:35
	mom informed the entire plane.	9:37
	Just about to bust with excitement.	9:39
	Going to see granny.	9:41
	Well, her granny, she's really not our granny.	9:42
	She's my mother-in-law.	9:44
	My mother's gone to be with angels.	9:46
	Choked to death, and on Thanksgiving, too.	9:47
	(congregation laughs)	9:50
	I tell you, that made for some Christmas last year.	9:52
	I said to Gabriela, honey,	9:54
	I'm not going through another one of these	9:56
	again by ourselves.	9:58
	Even if I have to visit your granny Thompson.	9:59
	Before I do that, before I spend	10:01
	another Christmas alone.	10:03
	So engrossed was I	10:06
	in this awfully interesting declaration	10:07
	by Mrs. Donna Rafael.	10:09
	And I was surprised when the plane lurched	10:12
	forward and headed down the runway for take-off.	10:15
	And without warning,	10:18
	little Gabriela began to shriek.	10:20
	Through her piercing wail,	10:22
	I made out something about we die, we die.	10:24
	(congregation laughs)	10:27
	I looked across the aisle and I,	10:29
	looking for pity and I received a sympathetic	10:32
	glance from a young sailor whose eyes seemed	10:35
	to say, thank God, it's you sitting there.	10:38
	(congregation laughs)	10:41
	After an eternity, Donna Rafael was about to calm	10:44
	Gabriela by stuffing a full size	10:48
	Baby Ruth into her.	10:50
	Chocolate now ran down both sides	10:52
	of her little jaw.	10:54
	I want granny, she demanded.	10:56
	Where's granny, with clumps	10:58
	of Baby Ruth in her mouth.	11:00
	Before we even reach cruising altitude,	11:02
	I learned of Mrs. Rafael's recent divorce.	11:05
	The location of her duplex.	11:10
	Why her brief relationship with the accountant	11:12
	didn't work out,	11:14
	as well as a listing of various foods which upset	11:16
	dear Gabriela's tummy.	11:19
	She also let it be known that she planned	11:21
	to take a stand this year to cut off her	11:24
	granny-in-law short,	11:27
	right at the front door the first time she made	11:29
	some smart remark	11:31
	about Mrs. Rafael's weight problem.	11:32
	That evening on that flight,	11:37
	I learned of the relativity of time.	11:38
	(congregation laughs)	11:41
	Cleveland, it turns out, is an eternity away.	11:43
	An hour and five minutes, once airborne,	11:47
	can be an eon in the clutches of Donna,	11:50
	and dear Gabriela.	11:53
	Gabriela had to be taken to the toilet	11:57
	an infinite number of times.	11:59
	Once smearing remains of her Baby Ruth	12:01
	on my new wool trousers.	12:03
	Twice depositing Animal Cracker crumbs in my lap.	12:04
	Thrice pressing her encrusted face	12:08
	precariously close to mine.	12:10
	She threatened nausea.	12:13
	Eliciting a catalog from mom Rafael,	12:14
	of all the occasions and the locations	12:17
	of Gabriela's previous bouts with this malady.	12:19
	At last she overturned the Diet Sprite,	12:23
	just as I had predicted.	12:27
	Descending into Cleveland,	12:31
	Mrs. Rafael helpfully recounted to me	12:33
	the details of her former marriage.	12:35
	He was a creep, she admitted.	12:38
	Everybody knew he was a creep.	12:40
	Everybody but me.	12:42
	But what can you do?	12:43
	You're stuck.	12:45
	What indeed, I agreed, you're stuck.	12:47
	Gabriela began to whine as we made our approach	12:49
	to the airport.	12:52
	Before we touched down her whine grew	12:53
	steadily into a wail.	12:56
	Something about, I don't wanna see granny.	12:58
	At last we landed.	13:02
	I carried a bundle of assorted plastic bags	13:04
	off the plane for the Rafael's.	13:07
	Gabriela had to be dragged and then coaxed,	13:09
	and finally swatted smartly on her laced rump	13:13
	down the ramp into Cleveland.	13:16
	Donna managed between tugs and swats	13:18
	at Gabriela, one last soliloquy	13:20
	on the difficulties of in-laws after a divorce,	13:23
	noting that love is good in a family,	13:26
	if you can afford it,	13:28
	but guilt also keeps some people	13:30
	together like Super-Glue.	13:32
	(congregation laughs)	13:33
	I don't even know you,	13:37
	I kept thinking to myself.	13:38
	This, this is the penalty I have to pay	13:40
	for indulging mother at Christmas.	13:42
	I managed to evade a good-bye kiss from Donna,	13:46
	demanded that Gabriela offer.	13:49
	Well, the point is next morning,	13:55
	sitting next to mother at St. John's	13:57
	on the interstate,	14:00
	you see, I was mildly dozing through the service,	14:02
	when these words caught my ear.	14:07
	Words, and these words read	14:12
	by this little priest, words,	14:14
	words until that morning,	14:19
	until that morning I had always thought were	14:22
	words of comfort, of warmth.	14:24
	But now these words, they sneaked up on me.	14:29
	They struck me as words either very	14:33
	terrible or very wonderful.	14:39
	The first lesson,	14:47
	God spoke to our ancestors in many	14:50
	and diverse ways through the prophets.	14:53
	But in these days He has spoken to us	14:57
	through a son.	15:01
	And then the gospel.	15:04
	The word became flesh	15:08
	and it dwelt among us.	15:12
	Son, flesh, us.	15:17
	And then he said in that little coffee shop,	15:26
	leaning over close to me,	15:29
	he said, you know when you think about it,	15:33
	I mean when you really think about it,	15:37
	when you put that like in context,	15:43
	that is a very odd,	15:49
	or either a very wondrous idea of good news.	15:52
	'Cause it says He dwelt	15:59
	among us.	16:04

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "Unto Us" (December 22, 1996)

Description:

Sermon start time: 02:23. Sermon end time: 16:07.
The preacher tells a story of people traveling on Christmas Eve to be with their families. He argues that the Christmas celebration has become so secular and sentimentalized that people almost forget its original message, which is about Incarnation. By telling a dramatic Christmas story, the preacher asks his audience to pay attention to the true meaning and message of Christmas. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “We Christians, in the incarnation, are weird, peculiar, different, because we believe, or we are here this morning attempting to believe, that God came and lived among us.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4vh5cz2z

Date:

December 22, 1996

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Advent

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 1:26-38

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0837
ref9822_3yi
uachapelsermaud
duke:320483
dcrau001482
ark:/87924/r4vh5cz2z
02fea007-f336-4fa6-976d-7caffdaca565

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

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.

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William H. Willimon - "Unto Us" (December 22, 1996)

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1. William H. Willimon - "Unto Us" (December 22, 1996)

Duke University Archives

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William H. Willimon - "Unto Us" (December 22, 1996)

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Duke University Archives

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