William H. Willimon - "Preachers, All!" (May 23, 1999)

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Minister	I was up at Lafayette College this weekend,	0:08
	the place where the legendary football coach,	0:13
	Herb McCracken, coached for a lifetime.	0:18
	Herb McCracken is credited with the invention	0:22
	of the football huddle during a game with Colgate.	0:26
	And was reminded that some WAG had said	0:33
	that when you look at the church	0:37
	it reminds you of a football huddle	0:39
	that the players go into to get their signals.	0:42
	That is, you can look at it and tell	0:46
	that something important is going on	0:48
	but you can't understand a word of what they're saying,	0:51
	and all you can see is their rear end.	0:55
	(congregation chuckling)	0:58
	But in fairness to the church,	1:00
	it is hard to speak and be understood	1:04
	when the speaking is about God	1:09
	because God, being God, is hard to talk about.	1:13
	I vividly remember as a pastor	1:21
	with a group of my lay leaders meeting,	1:24
	and we were talking about some subject, and I asked them,	1:27
	how many of you have shared your faith in God	1:32
	with somebody in the past year?	1:36
	And only one woman's hand went up.	1:40
	And these were church leaders.	1:44
	But it is hard to talk about that which is indescribable	1:48
	and large and undefinable, God.	1:54
	Furthermore, there are in this culture,	1:57
	powerful forces against talking about God.	2:00
	Years ago, William Buckley said,	2:04
	you may be able to bring up the subject of religion	2:06
	at a fancy dinner party once, but if you bring it	2:09
	up twice during the evening, you will not be invited back.	2:13
	There are powerful tendencies in this culture	2:18
	to keep things quiet about religion,	2:22
	to keep it, keep God matters marginalized	2:24
	and keep religion private, personal.	2:28
	And we don't wanna be showy, we don't wanna be pushy.	2:34
	We don't wanna wear our faith on our sleeve.	2:37
	So we find it hard to talk about God.	2:42
	Now Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts,	2:47
	says that on the day of Pentecost,	2:51
	that is Pentecost, the day when the Jews got together	2:54
	and celebrated the gift of the Pentateuch,	2:56
	the first five books of the Bible, God's word to Moses,	2:59
	that Jews from every nation were gathered in one place.	3:06
	And they must of had trouble understanding each other	3:11
	because they, though they shared the same faith,	3:13
	they all spoke different languages.	3:16
	Well, the Holy Spirit descends,	3:19
	and people began to talk and people began to hear,	3:23
	and people say, how come I can hear you and understand you,	3:26
	even though we speak a different language?	3:31
	It was a miracle, which we celebrate as Pentecost.	3:34
	Well, by chance there was some people out in the street	3:42
	who heard all the commotion in the room.	3:44
	They wondered what was going on.	3:49
	The crowd mocked, they had their explanation, they're drunk.	3:50
	You may remember, in the Gospel of Luke,	3:55
	one of the persistent charges against Jesus was,	3:57
	this man is a glutton and a wine bibber.	4:01
	He is always going to these parties, he's always drinking.	4:04
	So the crowd says, they're doing the same thing	4:07
	they were doing when Jesus was with them, they're drunk.	4:09
	And Peter comes out and Peter begins to explain	4:13
	what's going on, and he says, we're not drunk yet.	4:17
	It's only nine in the morning, we're not drunk, no.	4:23
	Peter says, this is what was prophesied	4:28
	by the prophet, Joel.	4:30
	And the weird thing is it's Peter	4:35
	that's doing this speaking.	4:37
	Do you remember where we left Peter in the Gospel of Luke?	4:39
	There on Maundy Thursday, Peter,	4:43
	he had been the first to speak up when Jesus predicted,	4:46
	all of you will betray me and desert me.	4:50
	And Peter said, oh no, Lord, you can count on me.	4:52
	I will be right there behind you all the way.	4:55
	He was, as it turns out, a long way behind Jesus	4:57
	when the going got rough and the soldiers came.	5:00
	He fled into the darkness like everybody else.	5:03
	Then later in the night, this maid in this courtyard said	5:06
	to Peter, weren't you with that Galilean troublemaker?	5:10
	She asked him three times,	5:16
	and Peter denied Jesus three times.	5:17
	Peter, when confronted by this maid,	5:22
	this lowly serving girl in the courtyard,	5:25
	he couldn't even muster the courage	5:28
	to say, yes, I was with Jesus.	5:31
	Well, doesn't that make all the more amazing	5:39
	where we find Peter in today's story?	5:42
	There he is out in the street, speaking to this mocking mob.	5:47
	Peter, the one who never got the answer right	5:51
	when Jesus asked the question.	5:54
	Peter, the one who could stand there and say to the maid,	5:57
	you, I didn't, I didn't even know the man, I don't know him.	6:00
	Now, Peter preaches, it's a miracle.	6:05
	The church calls it Pentecost.	6:11
	When the Holy Spirit descended in Acts II, people started	6:14
	to speak, Jews from every nation on the face	6:17
	of the earth began telling of the mighty works of God,	6:21
	each in their own languages, and they were understood.	6:24
	And then Peter came out in the street and he preached.	6:28
	And he must have preached one	6:34
	of the most effective sermons ever.	6:35
	He only preaches about two or three minutes	6:37
	and yet thousands of people say they want to be baptized.	6:41
	I know you're thinking, well you preachers ought	6:44
	to learn something from that about short sermons.	6:47
	(congregation chuckling)	6:49
	The Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost bringing things	6:52
	to speech, making these ordinary, everyday,	6:55
	often cowardly people speak up and tell about Jesus.	6:58
	Back at the beginning of Luke's Gospel,	7:03
	you remember Jesus goes to His hometown synagogue	7:06
	in Nazareth and He preaches, and what does He say?	7:08
	The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me	7:12
	to preach Good News to the captives.	7:16
	The Holy Spirit is upon Jesus, why?	7:21
	To preach.	7:25
	In Luke's second volume, here in Acts,	7:28
	people get the Holy Spirit in order to speak.	7:31
	I talk for a living, and even though I've been doing this	7:38
	for years, and even though I'm not as, like nervous,	7:41
	as when I first began, I'm still nervous.	7:46
	I still get this kind of rumbling in the stomach	7:50
	on Sunday morning, and that's rather amazing	7:53
	if you add up all the sermons I've preached,	7:56
	and how long I've been at this business of speaking.	7:59
	And therefore, I am not surprised	8:03
	to find that when people are asked	8:08
	what human activities do you dread and fear the most,	8:11
	public speaking is always right up there	8:15
	at the top of the list.	8:18
	It's frightening to speak in front of a crowd.	8:21
	And when we're speaking about God,	8:24
	it's even more frightening.	8:27
	As a pastor I've often been amazed.	8:29
	Some Sunday morning you ask a professor,	8:31
	or you ask some attorney,	8:33
	somebody who makes his living standing up	8:35
	and talking in front of people.	8:37
	You ask that person to stand up and read from the Scripture,	8:38
	and you can see the person's knees shaking,	8:41
	you can see the hands trembling,	8:44
	you can, you can hear it in the voice, and that's odd	8:45
	because this person is accustomed to speaking in public.	8:50
	But no, this is speaking of a different order.	8:53
	This is public speaking about God.	8:58
	And that's frightening, very frightening speech.	9:02
	I was talking to this judge not long ago	9:07
	and as I was touring his chambers,	9:11
	he was telling me some of the history	9:14
	of the clothing the judges have worn	9:16
	throughout American history.	9:19
	He told me that in the early days,	9:20
	American judges made a big deal, they didn't wear wigs,	9:22
	they didn't wear robes like British judges	9:25
	because the American Revolutionaries had problems	9:28
	with legal authority as they'd known it in the Old World.	9:31
	And, but about during the 19th century,	9:35
	American judges started putting on robes.	9:39
	You develop a kind of courtroom ritual that you go through.	9:43
	Why?	9:48
	And the judge told me, you're gonna stand up	9:50
	and sit in judgment on someone's life.	9:53
	You're gonna speak words of judgment,	9:56
	you need all the help you can get, you need a robe,	9:58
	you need that big desk there, you need all that stuff.	10:01
	And that certainly puts	10:07
	my clerical vestments in perspective.	10:07
	Here I stand, I've got this robe, I got this stole,	10:11
	I got this great big stone pulpit.	10:14
	If I'm going to stand up here and speak	10:17
	for and about God, I've got to have some help.	10:20
	But of course you're lay people.	10:26
	What has any of this to do with you?	10:29
	You pay me to preach the Gospel.	10:32
	You might have, on occasion, spoken in church	10:36
	and been asked to read the Scripture, say a word.	10:39
	But I am a preacher, you're a congregation.	10:41
	I preach, you listen, right?	10:43
	Wrong.	10:47
	As Martin Luther put it, everybody by virtue	10:49
	of baptism is called to speak the Gospel,	10:53
	to share the Good News with others,	10:57
	to testify to the mighty works of God,	11:01
	to tell people about Jesus.	11:04
	Of course, the thing is, we can't all talk	11:06
	at the same time on Sunday morning,	11:08
	and so we designate some from among the baptized	11:11
	to be preachers, and we're the ones	11:14
	that stand up on Sunday morning, and we preach	11:17
	on Sunday so that you can preach Monday through Saturday.	11:19
	The preacher preaches, said Luther,	11:28
	so that the congregation can preach.	11:31
	Like it or not, if you're a Christian,	11:37
	you are called to bear witness,	11:39
	to tell people about Jesus, to preach.	11:40
	And I got to admit, I probably have an easier task	11:45
	as your preacher than you have	11:48
	of being the world's preacher,	11:52
	because when I speak I'm protected by this robe and stole	11:56
	and this great big stone pulpit.	12:00
	And everybody's here to praise God,	12:02
	and everybody's signed on for that.	12:04
	I don't have to ask you permission for the sermon,	12:06
	it's kind of what we're all here about.	12:09
	But tomorrow, when you get in the classroom	12:12
	or in the boardroom, or go to the office,	12:16
	or sit over the kitchen table,	12:18
	that's when preaching gets tough.	12:21
	But nevertheless, by the gift of the Holy Spirit,	12:26
	the Grace of God, you are able to preach.	12:30
	As I said, that's surely one of the main points of Acts II.	12:36
	Jesus has been raised from the dead, shown Lord and Savior.	12:40
	But how in the world do you talk about that?	12:44
	No wonder there weren't that many	12:49
	who had the courage to speak of such a thing.	12:50
	Then the Holy Spirit descended	12:55
	and things were brought to speech.	12:57
	People began to talk to one another,	12:59
	and Peter goes out and begins to preach out in the streets.	13:02
	As Peter says in today's Scripture, we're not drunk.	13:07
	All of this was predicted by the prophet, Joel.	13:12
	The prophet Joel said that in the former days	13:15
	there were some charismatic,	13:18
	or at least offensive people called prophets,	13:20
	and they got the Holy Spirit and they spoke for God.	13:22
	But there's going to come a day when God is going	13:25
	to pour out the Holy Spirit on everybody.	13:27
	On young men and old men, and young women	13:32
	and maids, and janitors, and everybody's gonna get	13:36
	to be a prophet, everybody's gonna get to be a preacher.	13:40
	Everybody's gonna be able to speak the Truth of God.	13:42
	Everybody is gonna preach.	13:45
	And see, Peter says, that is happening	13:47
	right before your very eyes.	13:49
	That promised outpouring of the Spirit	13:52
	where otherwise quiet people who are not good	13:54
	on their feet as preachers get to preach.	13:57
	That's due to the Holy Spirit.	14:02
	And as a preacher, I've been privileged to hear you preach.	14:05
	One of you was telling me how a good friend	14:13
	of yours forsook her marriage vows	14:16
	and was unfaithful in her marriage, left her husband,	14:19
	family, moved in with the wife of another man.	14:22
	And most of us, if we said anything,	14:28
	we would say something like, well,	14:32
	that's certainly none of my business.	14:35
	Or, I'm sure in her heart she really believes, sincerely,	14:36
	she's doing the right thing, or some other such drivel.	14:41
	But you said that you sat down	14:45
	and because you wanted to be heard well,	14:48
	you wrote a letter to your friend.	14:51
	You wrote it because you loved her,	14:54
	because you love God's Truth even when	14:57
	that Truth is unpleasant or painful.	15:00
	You thought that maybe part of the point	15:02
	of being Christian was to be able	15:04
	to speak Truth to one another.	15:05
	You told your friend that you were disappointed in her,	15:08
	that what she had done was wrong.	15:12
	She'd broken her vows, broken her trust	15:14
	with those who put their trust in her.	15:17
	And I said, wow, that sort of thing takes guts.	15:22
	But later, I thought, no it, that sort	15:27
	of thing takes the Holy Spirit.	15:31
	So go ahead and preach, because the Spirit	15:35
	of the Lord is upon you to preach.	15:37
	You told me that you worked next to him at the office,	15:42
	and you've said that he was always rather quiet,	15:45
	you hadn't really had much to say to one another.	15:47
	You didn't know him that well,	15:50
	but one day you were going to the water cooler	15:51
	and you saw him over by one of the fie cabinets	15:54
	and he was crying, and you asked what he was crying about.	15:56
	You asked if you could help, and he confided in you.	16:02
	He told you the weekend before	16:08
	he'd written his parents telling him	16:09
	about his sexual orientation,	16:13
	telling them he was coming out of the closet.	16:15
	And his parents said that he had broken their hearts	16:19
	and they told him not to set foot in their house ever again.	16:22
	And you put your arm around him	16:30
	and you said, I'm sorry that happened.	16:32
	I know what your parents love you,	16:36
	though they may not know how to love you in this moment.	16:38
	And you said, I'm a Christian,	16:44
	and we certainly don't feel this way about you.	16:45
	God loves you as a treasured creation,	16:48
	I want you to remember that,	16:51
	and I want you to try to cling to that.	16:52
	And I'm sitting there thinking,	16:57
	now you are a rather conventional, ordinary human being.	16:58
	Why would you be able to reach out across that gulf	17:04
	between people and say a thing like that?	17:07
	How could you be so courageous and comforting?	17:10
	Well, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you to preach.	17:18
	So come to the Lord's Table, have some bread,	17:26
	take some wine, receive the Holy Spirit,	17:29
	and then get out of here and preach.	17:35
-	[Prayer officiant] Now in response to God's word,	17:50
	faithfully read and proclaimed,	17:52
	let us entrust our lives and our being into God's hands.	17:54
	The Lord be with you.	17:56
Congregation	And also with you.	17:58
-	[Prayer officiant] Let us pray.	18:00
	Creator God, You have made all things of the earth,	18:06
	and we Your people are among them.	18:12
	We come this day filled with praise	18:16
	and thanksgiving for Your marvelous works.	18:17
	Not only have You made us,	18:21
	but You have sustained us as well.	18:23
	You open Your hands and all	18:27
	that live are filled with good things.	18:30
	For all Your tender mercies, we offer our thanksgiving.	18:33
	Lord, in Your mercy.	18:38
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	18:40
-	[Prayer officiant] Redeemer God, You came as one of us	18:43
	to free us from our sin, You promised	18:46
	that we would be filled, that all our needs would be met	18:48
	if only we would have faith.	18:53
	But we have often been a faithless people.	18:56
	You have made us one people of many tongues,	18:59
	but we use our differences to divide us.	19:03
	You have poured out many gifts for all,	19:06
	but we do not trust their variety.	19:09
	We have called it ethnic cleansing, orthodoxy,	19:12
	and all other manners of self-righteousness.	19:16
	Forgive us when we have trivialized	19:20
	what you have hallowed and called sacred.	19:22
	Forgive our selfishness and destructive ways	19:26
	and renew the face of the earth.	19:30
	Lord, in Your mercy.	19:32
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	19:34
-	[Prayer officiant] As You have poured	19:37
	out Your Spirit in creation,	19:38
	and again on Pentecost, so fill us once more	19:39
	with that same Spirit that we might receive	19:43
	and use Your power to build up Your church on earth,	19:46
	and to recover the unity which we have lost,	19:49
	that all may proclaim Your name.	19:52
	Lord, in Your mercy.	19:55
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	19:56
-	[Prayer officiant] Amazing God, we are bewildered	19:59
	by our continued inability	20:02
	to make sense out of our life.	20:03
	Our visions and dreams far outpace reality,	20:06
	and our expectations of ourselves are seldom realized.	20:10
	We do not do the good we intend, and the evil we thought	20:14
	we had left behind comes back to haunt us.	20:17
	The incongruity has manifested itself	20:21
	in the lives of children in Georgia and Colorado,	20:23
	and in places where the poor, the widow	20:26
	and the orphan are ignored, and injustice reigns.	20:28
	As we are filled with breath and illumined by Your fire,	20:33
	so bring to bear that same Grace and Power upon these	20:36
	and all who this day suffer in body, spirit, or mind.	20:39
	Lord, in Your mercy.	20:45
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	20:48
-	[Prayer officiant] In our relations with others,	20:50
	there seems to be no common language to unite us	20:52
	and we resist including everyone in our concern.	20:55
	Forgive our sluggish responses and our resistance to change.	20:59
	Purify and enliven us by Your Spirit and work among us.	21:03
	Lord, in Your mercy.	21:09
Congregation	Hear our prayer.	21:11
-	[Prayer officiant] As we come to your table this day,	21:13
	remind us that in the breaking of the bread	21:15
	that we are made one.	21:17
	Make our confession that we believe in one Lord,	21:20
	one faith, and one baptism, as real as Your presence	21:23
	at the table in which we will share.	21:27
	Hear us, oh Lord, and grant	21:30
	that our prayers might be offered and fulfilled,	21:34
	for we offer these things to You in the name	21:37
	of Him Who is the Head of the Church,	21:40
	Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who is indeed our Lord.	21:43
	Amen.	21:48
	And now, as God's forgiven and reconciled people,	21:50
	I invite us to stand and offer one another signs	21:53
	of reconciliation and peace.	21:55
	The peace of the Lord be with you.	21:57
	(Congregation Murmuring)	21:59
Male Congregant	God's peace.	22:02
-	[Female Congregant] Peace unto you.	22:04
	(Congregation murmuring)	22:11
-	[Prayer Officiant] Please be seated.	22:17
	And now as a forgiven and reconciled people,	22:27
	let us offer ourselves and our gifts unto God.	22:29
	(congregant coughing)	22:37
	(baby crying)	22:38
	(hushed murmuring)	22:42
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:10
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:12
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:14
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:18
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:22
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	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:53
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	♪ Hallelujah ♪	24:00
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	♪ Hallelujah ♪	26:45
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	26:47
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	26:49
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	♪ Hallelujah ♪	26:59
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	27:02
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	♪ Hallelujah ♪	27:43
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	27:54
	(organ music)	28:18

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Title:

William H. Willimon - "Preachers, All!" (May 23, 1999)

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Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:08. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 17:45.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4cf9jn10

Date:

May 23, 1999

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

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Duke University. Chapel

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ref10077_xn3
uachapelsermaud
duke:321220
dcrau001604
ark:/87924/r4cf9jn10
f24316fe-871f-4db0-9dd4-aa4e67f34f07

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William H. Willimon - "Preachers, All!" (May 23, 1999)

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