Charles Michael Smith - "Desperate People" (July 2, 2000)

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-	This will always be one of my favorite places	0:20
	to spend a Sunday morning.	0:25
	That's true for any Sunday of the year.	0:27
	It's also a place, though,	0:31
	that is especially dear to me for Easter Sunday	0:32
	because back in the middle 1980s,	0:38
	when I also was working as a district superintendent	0:42
	with the bishop, over in Raleigh,	0:46
	and that meant that I had no standing engagement	0:49
	as to what I did on Easter Sunday morning.	0:53
	And since Will Willimon is a Methodist preacher,	0:57
	and he knows that,	0:59
	he grabbed me one day and said,	1:02
	"I've got just the thing for you to do	1:05
	for the next several Easters.	1:07
	You come and sing "The Trumpet Shall Sound"	1:10
	right after I've finished preaching	1:13
	and it'll be wonderful.	1:14
	Ben Smith was in on this, the then choir director.	1:17
	And so it was, for the next four years,	1:21
	'85, '86, '87, and '88, that we did that.	1:24
	We moved from Handel's familiar treatment	1:29
	of that wonderful text from 1 Corinthians 15	1:32
	to Johannes Brahms and how he did it in the German Requiem,	1:36
	which was a special favorite of Ben's	1:42
	and became one of mine.	1:45
	And I loved the way that that same famous passage	1:48
	from scripture was treated by Brahms.	1:52
	As you came to the end of the passage, the choir,	1:56
	150 to 200 voices strong, almost shouted,	2:01
	where, where, O death, is thy sting?	2:05
	Unfortunately, the sting of death	2:13
	is just about everywhere you turn.	2:15
	Despite revolutionary discoveries	2:18
	about the genomic code and projections	2:21
	that we may live some day to be 120 years old,	2:25
	we will still all die.	2:30
	Nobody gets out of life alive.	2:33
	As Colonel Henry Blake of MASH once said	2:37
	to Hawkeye Pierce after losing a patient,	2:41
	"Rule number one is that young men die	2:45
	"and rule number two is that doctors	2:50
	"can't change rule number one."	2:53
	In my former church in Wilson, North Carolina,	2:58
	about 75 miles east of the chapel steps out there,	3:00
	people that I loved died all the time.	3:05
	It's a large congregation with many older folks.	3:08
	I'd once served a church in the middle	3:12
	of the Research Triangle Park,	3:13
	where the average age was 33.	3:14
	I only had one person die in the 4 years I was there.	3:17
	I almost forgot how to do funerals.	3:20
	But I got a refresher course in Wilson.	3:22
	They had as many as 25 to 30 people die in a year.	3:25
	And even now, people that I love	3:31
	and care deeply about are dealing	3:34
	with what may well prove to be terminal illnesses soon.	3:37
	And others that I've just been spending fun time with,	3:42
	out sailing on the Pamlico River,	3:45
	have doctors' appointments within the next couple of weeks	3:48
	that are causing them some sleepless nights.	3:52
	We cannot control life and when it will end.	3:56
	It is the natural order of things.	4:03
	And not all the good work that preachers	4:06
	and doctors and lawyers and researchers	4:09
	over here at Duke or up at Hopkins	4:12
	or Harvard are doing can change	4:15
	that natural order of things.	4:17
	We cannot fly.	4:20
	We cannot control everything	4:22
	that happens to us and our loved ones	4:24
	and we cannot live forever,	4:26
	we were born to die.	4:28
	So even if it is summertime and the livin' is easy	4:31
	and your daddy's rich and your ma is good-looking,	4:34
	that's not enough to scare away death,	4:37
	just ask Jairus.	4:41
	Jairus was the chairman of the board of his synagogue,	4:44
	there, by the Sea of Galilee.	4:48
	He's a prominent man.	4:51
	He has status, he has clout, people look up to him,	4:53
	people listen to him.	4:56
	But Jairus also has a problem.	4:58
	He has a 12-year-old daughter	5:04
	who is dying, and he is desperate.	5:06
	This has really taken the wind out of his sails,	5:09
	literally, just knocked him down into the dirt.	5:11
	And here he is in Mark's Gospel lying prostrate,	5:15
	that means face down, prostrate,	5:18
	face down in the dirt at the feet	5:20
	of a wandering rabbi named Jesus,	5:23
	his pride shattered in the Palestinian dust,	5:26
	begging Jesus to drop whatever he's doing,	5:28
	and to come to his house to lay his hands	5:32
	on his little daughter and make her well.	5:35
	Jairus knows that in the eyes of his friends,	5:39
	daughters aren't as important as sons.	5:43
	But they don't know what it's like	5:45
	to receive her hugs and her kisses,	5:48
	to rejoice, to delight in her presence.	5:51
	And they may not understand that,	5:54
	over this past dozen years, she has become,	5:56
	perhaps, the person he treasures most in all creation.	6:00
	Now here he is, with his heart breaking,	6:04
	and all he cares about is that he has heard	6:07
	that Jesus heals people, mainly men, true,	6:10
	but he's already healed one woman at least,	6:15
	the mother-in-law of his buddy Simon Peter.	6:18
	And maybe he'd care enough about Jairus' daughter	6:21
	to come, to touch, and to heal her.	6:24
	People were always asking things of Jesus.	6:29
	Do something for me, Jesus,	6:33
	just like human beings have been doing to his daddy	6:35
	ever since creation began.	6:40
	The psalmist who wrote today's psalm,	6:42
	the 130th song, cried out to God,	6:45
	long before Jesus was born,	6:47
	"Out of the depths, I cry to thee,	6:49
	"O Lord, Lord, hear my voice."	6:51
	Surprisingly, that's the tact that most of the psalms take,	6:55
	although we tend to gravitate toward those	6:59
	that are primarily praise and thanksgiving.	7:02
	But if you read through all hundred and fifty of 'em,	7:05
	you'll find that the majority of them are lamentations.	7:08
	And even if they begin as cries for help,	7:12
	they often wind up as songs of thanksgiving	7:15
	and that's also what happens in this psalm.	7:19
	The psalmist says, "If you, O Lord, should mark inequities,	7:24
	"Lord, who could stand?"	7:27
	And I like this writer's honesty.	7:30
	None of us is good enough to deserve God's goodness.	7:34
	If it comes at all, it's a gift.	7:38
	And the psalmist nails it by saying,	7:41
	"But there is forgiveness with you	7:44
	"that you may be worshiped.	7:47
	"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits for the Lord.	7:49
	"In the Lord's word, I hope."	7:52
	Jairus had cut his teeth on psalms like this one,	7:56
	each, sabbath there in the synagogue and now,	8:01
	like the psalmist, he's crying out to God for help,	8:04
	in this case, God in the person of his son,	8:09
	Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ.	8:12
	Jesus hears this rich religious leader's plea	8:15
	and he begins the journey over to Jairus' house	8:18
	to care for the daughter.	8:22
	Then this strange thing happens,	8:24
	right in the middle of this story,	8:26
	Mark puts another one.	8:27
	All of a sudden, without any warning,	8:29
	Jesus feels somebody tugging on the tassel of his robe	8:31
	and he also feels something like an electric current,	8:36
	power just passing out of him to someone else.	8:39
	So he stops his journey and he looks around,	8:44
	tries to figure out who this is,	8:47
	and not being able to do it,	8:49
	he says, "Who touched my clothes?"	8:50
	The disciples, who are not always the brightest and best,	8:55
	say, "How can you ask us who touched your clothes?	9:00
	"There's so many people around, how can we possibly know?"	9:02
	But this woman begins dealing with what he said,	9:06
	he's caught me, she thought to herself,	9:09
	what am I going to do?	9:11
	I've been suffering with this period	9:13
	from hell for 12 years.	9:14
	I wasn't going to actually touch him and make him unclean.	9:16
	But I thought I could at least touch his clothes	9:19
	and maybe that would do the trick,	9:23
	and it did, I'm healed!	9:25
	I'm not bleeding anymore,	9:26
	I can stop going to see the doctors,	9:28
	I don't have the money, I can't afford this anyway	9:29
	but I'm healed now!	9:32
	And maybe, maybe if I just go and tell him	9:34
	what I did and why I did it	9:39
	he'll understand and he'll be forgiving	9:41
	and it'll be alright.	9:43
	So afraid and shaking, she goes up to Jesus and confesses.	9:46
	And his response is very much like Jesus,	9:53
	no big surprise, he says,	9:55
	"Daughter," kindly, he calls her this,	9:57
	first time he's called anybody that,	10:01
	only time he calls anybody that,	10:02
	"Daughter, your faith has made you well.	10:04
	"Go in peace and be healed of your trouble."	10:07
	And she was.	10:11
	In the meantime, back to the main story.	10:13
	People from Jairus' house come with the sad news	10:16
	that Jesus has waited too long,	10:21
	it's too late, the little girl has died.	10:23
	And implicit in this is that you have dawdled	10:26
	and wasted your time with this unnamed woman	10:30
	while the daughter of a really important man	10:34
	in the community who really needed you has died.	10:37
	But Jesus says, "Oh, no, Jairus, you keep on believing."	10:43
	And then he thins out the group	10:48
	and takes just his kind of executive committee,	10:50
	Peter, James and John, and goes on to Jairus' house,	10:53
	and by the time they get there,	10:59
	the professional mourners,	11:00
	the ones who are paid to do this,	11:03
	are weeping and wailing and into their routine	11:05
	and Jesus says, "Cut it out, she's just sleeping.	11:08
	"You could go now."	11:11
	And they laugh at him.	11:13
	And they leave there.	11:15
	And as they leave, Jesus and the girl's parents	11:17
	and the three disciples go in and stand around the bed.	11:21
	And Jesus confidently takes the little girl's hand	11:26
	and speaks to her in his native tongue, Aramaic,	11:30
	"Talitha kum,"	11:33
	which, as Mark tells us, means, little girl, get up!	11:35
	And again, she bolts up and gets up and walks around	11:41
	and they're just amazed and they do as Jesus says	11:46
	and give her something to eat.	11:50
	This Jesus is really somethin' else.	11:55
	He can still storms, he can calm seas,	11:57
	he can drive out demons.	12:01
	And now, Mark is showing us, early in the gospel,	12:04
	he's also one who can heal disease	12:08
	and bring the dead back to life.	12:11
	Kind of a preview of coming attractions.	12:14
	And he thinks that women and little girls	12:17
	are important enough to cure and raise them,	12:21
	although most of his colleagues	12:25
	wouldn't share his view there.	12:26
	This is no ordinary human being,	12:29
	this is not just some kind of super rabbi	12:32
	who opens his cloak and reveals a big,	12:35
	red R stamped on his chest.	12:37
	Nah, this is the strong son of God	12:40
	who's filled with the same power	12:44
	that scooped up dirt and breathed into it	12:47
	and created human beings.	12:51
	Here, before our very eyes,	12:55
	is the same power at work, to bless and to heal,	12:56
	that hurled the stars and the planets	13:01
	into the blackness of the universe.	13:03
	Yet still cares passionately about every baby ever born	13:06
	and every lily of the field.	13:13
	He created all that is and still gently cradles it	13:16
	in his hands.	13:22
	No wonder, when we witness this power	13:26
	and how it is lovingly applied for the benefit	13:29
	of humankind, God is bent toward human beings,	13:31
	is our belief, when we see that, we're in awe.	13:35
	Oftentimes, we're overwhelmed with gratitude	13:41
	and want to worship and praise and serve this God	13:44
	who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.	13:49
	The late Robert Earl Cushman, Dean of the Divinity school	13:54
	that adjoins this beautiful chapel,	13:57
	taught us back in the 1960's, when I was here in school,	14:00
	that the attitude of gratitude precedes worship.	14:04
	And that's what brings most of us	14:10
	here any given Sunday of the year.	14:12
	The feeling that we have somehow been blessed	14:17
	beyond our deserving by a God who is worthy,	14:21
	who deserves our worship and praise.	14:28
	Easter, especially, we do that,	14:32
	and every Sunday is a little Easter,	14:34
	where we come to thank God, specifically,	14:36
	for the resurrection of Jesus Christ	14:39
	and for his victory over sin and death and for the hope	14:41
	that that gives everyone of us.	14:45
	But...	14:49
	that's not the frame of mind all of us	14:51
	bring into this glorious chapel.	14:55
	Some of us are here because we're troubled,	15:00
	we're anxious.	15:05
	Maybe you're even desperate to hear some word	15:09
	of hope and encouragement in the midst	15:13
	of a community of faith.	15:16
	Some come bearing the bruises from a life	15:19
	that many religions teach is difficult.	15:24
	And some come knowing the truth	15:29
	of Thoreau's famous observation,	15:31
	that most people lead lives of quiet desperation.	15:34
	That first Easter Sunday	15:41
	that I came here to sing Handel's song,	15:44
	following Will's sermon, sticks out in my memory	15:48
	because of how desperate I became.	15:52
	Everything had gone fine at the nine o'clock service	15:56
	that wasn't televised.	15:58
	The eleven o'clock service, though,	16:02
	was carried live and in color by channel 11.	16:03
	And I was just floating along,	16:07
	enjoying this so much and listening	16:09
	to Don Eagle play that wonderful trumpet solo.	16:11
	And there's a big long break in the middle of it	16:14
	where the singer just kind of stands there and counts.	16:17
	And the orchestra goes on,	16:21
	especially with the trumpeter.	16:23
	And I became so enthralled	16:26
	with how wonderful all this was that I missed my entrance.	16:27
	(congregation laughing)	16:31
	And all the sudden, Ben Smith is looking at me,	16:33
	like, we invited you here to do this?	16:35
	(congregation laughing)	16:37
	And the camera, I learned later from a friend	16:39
	who was videotaping this to give me as a present,	16:41
	said that they did a closeup	16:45
	(congregation laughing)	16:47
	and that my eyes looked like those of a man	16:49
	who was being chased by a very angry, hungry pit bull.	16:52
	(congregation laughing)	16:55
	Luckily, I managed to get back in and we finished together	16:58
	as well as started together.	17:02
	And so it went, for the next several Easters	17:05
	and some Christmases in between	17:09
	and Messiahs and other things.	17:11
	But the one I especially remember,	17:14
	that will always stick in my mind,	17:15
	is probably the most powerful worship service	17:17
	I've ever been to here, maybe anywhere.	17:20
	It was Easter of 1988, the last Sunday	17:23
	that I was going to do that because it was the last Sunday	17:26
	of the term appointment and I was going be going back	17:28
	to having a church and would be preaching	17:30
	in my own church the next Easter.	17:32
	I had noticed that Ben Smith,	17:35
	good friend for 20 years,	17:37
	was looking a little pale and drawn.	17:39
	And so at quarter to 11, sitting in Will Willimon's office,	17:41
	talking with him, just chatting,	17:44
	I said, "Will, what's wrong with Ben?	17:47
	"He looks a little tired."	17:49
	And Will said, "I'm sorry, didn't you know Ben's dying?"	17:52
	Ooh, Ben's dying.	17:58
	And we're going out there	18:03
	to celebrate Easter in 15 minutes.	18:04
	You could hear a pin drop.	18:11
	Throughout that service, there was an energy,	18:16
	there was an emotion, it was like an electric current.	18:19
	It ran through every word said,	18:24
	through every prayer offered, through every hymn sung,	18:26
	through every anthem and solo.	18:30
	And I watched Ben with fascination,	18:34
	almost unable to speak, much less sing,	18:37
	that this friend could come	18:41
	and pour himself into this with that kind of faith	18:43
	and that kind of energy.	18:47
	Within about a year, Ben died and I and others	18:52
	were ushers and did other things,	18:56
	and one of the most unusual funerals	18:58
	we ever had in this chapel.	18:59
	And I went back, looking through old bulletins	19:02
	and stuff and papers,	19:06
	and on that last performance of Messiah	19:08
	in '87 that year,	19:13
	Ben had written in big, red ink,	19:15
	Indeed, comma, the trumpet shall sound,	19:19
	Ben.	19:25
	Those excellent church members I mentioned earlier	19:32
	in the sermon, who died within days of each other,	19:34
	knew doxology and they also knew despair.	19:39
	As I reflect back on those two friends,	19:45
	they kind of remind me of Jairus in today's lesson,	19:47
	for they had clout, they had money, they had influence.	19:50
	They both knew the love of a good wife	19:55
	and of several children.	19:58
	They both had faith in Jesus Christ and his church,	20:00
	lots of it, but they also knew the despair	20:03
	of losing teenage sons to death	20:07
	in tragic automobile accidents,	20:09
	and they both watched helplessly	20:12
	as their wives died too young due to illness.	20:14
	They could've become bitter,	20:21
	they could've become withdrawn,	20:23
	they could've become angry with God, but they didn't.	20:25
	Instead, they persisted in believing in this God	20:30
	who had given them everything and they understood that	20:34
	and so they lavished gifts on this university	20:37
	and other schools and colleges	20:41
	and were especially generous with their churches,	20:45
	I know that.	20:47
	Despite their grief over loved ones	20:49
	and their own eventual decline and death,	20:51
	they kept looking for ways to say thank you to God	20:56
	for all of his goodness to them.	21:01
	They could sing with Martin Luther's great hymn,	21:04
	did we in our own strength confide,	21:07
	the battle would be losing,	21:10
	were not the right man on our side,	21:13
	the man of God's own choosing.	21:16
	Good news on this morning,	21:20
	early in July of the year 2000,	21:23
	is that we can still have this kind of faith	21:26
	that moves us from despair to doxology.	21:31
	It won't put us safely nestled in some fortified castle	21:35
	or in a comfy bed with fluffed up pillows	21:39
	and a down comforter.	21:42
	Instead, it'll be much more like	21:44
	that Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain	21:47
	that I've never gotten up the courage to walk across.	21:49
	This rope bridge, this rope bridge	21:53
	will scare the heck out of ya	21:57
	if you focus on the holes in it,	21:58
	the light that comes through it,	22:01
	and its motion, there, in the breeze.	22:03
	But if you remember all the people	22:06
	who have used it to get across safely	22:09
	and all those who will use it in the future,	22:12
	their example, and their faith can strengthen yours.	22:16
	Believing in, trusting Jesus with our life	22:23
	and with our certain death	22:28
	takes a lot of faith and courage.	22:32
	Believing in him will not put us in control of our life,	22:36
	but it will help us not fear anything that may come.	22:42
	What Jesus said to Jairus, he also says to us,	22:49
	"Do not fear, only believe."	22:53
	The bridge will hold.	22:58
	Come on over.	23:01

Item Info

Title:

Charles Michael Smith - "Desperate People" (July 2, 2000)

Description:

Sermon start time: 00:20. Sermon end time: 23:02.
In the face of our certain deaths, and those of our loved oves, our hearts can tend toward despair. Yet, through faith in Jesus, like Jairus, we can move from despair to doxology. While such faith will not allow us to control the circumstances of our lives and deaths, it will give us the courage to face it with joy. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Believing in, trusting Jesus with our life and with our certain death takes a lot of faith and courage. Believing in him will not put us in control of our life, but it will help us not fear anything that may come.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4sf2ms5m

Date:

July 2, 2000

Speaker:

Smith, Charles Michael

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 CS-1020
ref10197_g5c
uachapelsermaud
duke:321242
dcrau001664
ark:/87924/r4sf2ms5m
c469de35-af25-4dda-bbef-4e955e876966

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