Edmund A. Steimle - "Address Not Known" (March 7, 1971)

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	(faint solemn music)	0:02
	("Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee")	0:50
	♪ Giver of immortal gladness ♪	2:10
	♪ Fill us with the light of day ♪	2:16
	♪ All Thy works with joy surround You ♪	2:24
	♪ Earth and heav'n reflect Thy rays ♪	2:30
	♪ Stars and angels sing around Thee ♪	2:36
	♪ Center of unbroken praise ♪	2:41
	♪ Field and forest, vale and mountain ♪	2:48
	♪ Flow'ry meadow, flashing sea ♪	2:53
	♪ Chanting bird and flowing fountain ♪	2:59
	♪ Call us to rejoice in thee ♪	3:05
	♪ Thou art giving and forgiving ♪	3:14
	♪ Ever blessing, ever blest ♪	3:19
	♪ Well-spring of the joy of living ♪	3:25
	♪ Ocean depth of happy rest ♪	3:31
	♪ Thou our Father, Christ our brother ♪	3:37
	♪ All who live in love are thine ♪	3:43
	♪ Teach us how to love each other ♪	3:49
	♪ Lift us to the joy divine ♪	3:55
	♪ Mortals, join the mighty chorus ♪	4:04
	♪ Which the morning stars began ♪	4:09
	♪ Love divine is reigning o'er us ♪	4:15
	♪ Binding all within its span ♪	4:21
	♪ Ever singing, march we onward ♪	4:28
	♪ Victors in the midst of strife ♪	4:33
	♪ Joyful music leads us sunward ♪	4:40
	♪ In the triumph song of life ♪	4:45
	♪ Amen ♪	4:53
-	The love of the Scriptures say to us,	5:07
	if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves	5:11
	and the truth is not in us.	5:15
	If we confess our sins,	5:18
	He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins	5:21
	and cleanse us from all uncleanness.	5:24
	Now with an inviting promise like that before us,	5:28
	let us turn to number 562	5:32
	in this altar section of our hymnal	5:36
	and pray together responsively our prayer of confession.	5:39
	It also contains the words of assurance.	5:44
	Let us pray.	5:48
	To Thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul.	5:52
	O my God, in Thee I trust.	5:56
	Let me not be put to shame.	5:59
	Let not my enemies exult over me.	6:02
	Make me to know Thy ways, O Lord.	6:06
	Teach me Thy paths.	6:09
	Lead me in Thy truth and teach me	6:11
	for Thou art the God of my salvation.	6:15
	For Thee I wait all the day long.	6:18
	Be mine full of Thy mercy, O Lord,	6:21
	and of Thy steadfast love	6:24
	for they have been from above.	6:27
	Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.	6:29
	According to Thy steadfast love,	6:34
	remember me for Thy goodness sake, O Lord.	6:36
	Good and upright is the Lord,	6:41
	therefore He instructs sinners in the way.	6:44
	He leads the humble in what is right	6:47
	and teaches the humble his way.	6:50
	All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love	6:53
	and faithfulness,	6:56
	for those who keep His covenant	6:58
	and His testimonies.	7:00
	For Thy name's sake, O Lord,	7:02
	pardon my guilt for it is great.	7:06
	Who is the man that fears the Lord?	7:09
	Him will He instruct in the way that he should choose.	7:12
	The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him	7:16
	and He makes known to them His covenant.	7:21
	May integrity and uprightness preserve me	7:24
	for I wait for Thee.	7:30
	Amen.	7:32
	(faint solemn music)	7:38
	(faint solemn music)	8:46
-	Matthew 25 1 through 13.	11:27
	Then shall the kingdom of heaven	11:30
	be like 10 bridesmaids who took their lamps	11:32
	and went forth to meet the bridegroom.	11:34
	Five of them were wise and five were foolish.	11:37
	They who were foolish took their lamps	11:41
	but took no extra oil with them,	11:43
	but the wise took some oil and flasks	11:45
	as well as in their lanterns.	11:48
	As the bridegroom was laid and coming,	11:50
	they all dozed off to sleep.	11:52
	At midnight there came a shout.	11:54
	"Behold here comes the bridegroom.	11:56
	"Come ye forth to meet him."	11:58
	With that all the girls got up and trimmed their lamps,	12:00
	and the foolish ones said unto the wise ones,	12:03
	"Share your oil with us for our lamps are going out."	12:06
	But the wise ones answered, "No, there will never be	12:10
	"enough for us both.	12:13
	"Go to the store and buy your own oil."	12:15
	And while they went to buy the bridegroom came,	12:18
	and they who were ready escorted him to the wedding.	12:21
	But presently the other girls returned saying,	12:24
	"Master, master, open up.	12:26
	"Let us in."	12:28
	But he replied, "Truly I say unto you I do not know you.	12:30
	"Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day	12:34
	"nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh."	12:37
-	The Lord be with you.	13:29
-	And with your spirit.	13:31
-	Let us pray.	13:32
	Heavenly Father, as we come now to offer our	13:40
	prayers of thanksgiving,	13:45
	we don't wanna be in the position of thanking You	13:47
	routinely over the same things over and over again.	13:50
	And yet it seems that this is the way joy comes to us	13:56
	most of the time.	14:00
	We're glad if we got over that last code	14:03
	or recovered from one more six bell,	14:06
	we're feeling good if we passed yet	14:09
	one more exam, one more important ball game.	14:11
	We're able to pay our bills one more month.	14:16
	So we do express our gratitude	14:20
	for just the continuation of a thousand things	14:22
	for which we're already thanked you 100 times.	14:25
	The air we breathe, the sunshine,	14:29
	people who still act like friends,	14:33
	great music, inspiring creatures,	14:36
	the opportunity to have fellowship with You in prayer.	14:40
	We're among those for whom Christ died,	14:45
	that's wonderful and we thank You.	14:48
	Heavenly Father we pray for other blessings.	14:53
	We pray that understanding may be given	14:57
	to those who are struggling and wrestling now	15:00
	with the choice of their life vocation,	15:04
	or the vocations of social change.	15:08
	Grant unto them the grace of patience,	15:12
	the grace of wisdom,	15:15
	and at last a firm and resolute mind.	15:17
	We intercede for those who are planning marriage,	15:22
	for those who are beginning marriage,	15:27
	those who have a new baby.	15:30
	We offer unto You our earnest petitions	15:33
	for those who are still sick,	15:35
	those who are sick again and again.	15:38
	We pray for the confused, for the bereaved,	15:42
	or the lonely.	15:47
	O God, we ask you to keep us	15:51
	in proper spiritual balance.	15:53
	We're inclined to get off balance,	15:57
	to get hipped on this or that.	16:00
	Give us grace not to do that.	16:05
	Deliver us from fanaticism.	16:08
	May we have the grace to discern	16:11
	between the practical and the spiritual.	16:12
	May we have such a humble acceptance	16:17
	of the commonplace and the routine	16:20
	duties of life that we may be able	16:23
	to glorify You through them.	16:25
	And as we perform our menial tasks and our routine behavior,	16:28
	may our friends and associates see Christ in us.	16:34
	Grunt unto us and to all men, O God,	16:40
	an attitude of true responsibility for the church,	16:43
	for the university, for the nation, for the world,	16:47
	for ourselves individually.	16:52
	May we have charity, that is to say real love	16:55
	in our hearts toward all men.	16:59
	Keep us from bitterness when we've been disappointed,	17:02
	or pride when we have been successful,	17:07
	and from thinking of ourselves	17:10
	more highly than we ought to think.	17:12
	Help us to put ourselves in the place	17:15
	of our neighbor or our roommate,	17:17
	to see things as he sees them	17:20
	before we offer harsh criticism.	17:22
	Most of all may we actually pray in our hearts	17:26
	that we may see our neighbor as Christ sees him.	17:32
	Give unto us the blessing of remembering	17:36
	that we ourselves are judged,	17:39
	so may we be given live to see ourselves as you see us.	17:42
	And today gracious God we offer our prayer	17:47
	of supplication for the children	17:50
	whose lives are touched by the Edgemont Community Center.	17:53
	May our love for them be as pure and strong	17:58
	as Your love for them.	18:00
	Grant a special benediction upon those	18:03
	who invest their time and their talents and their hearts	18:06
	and their money in the program of the center.	18:09
	Use the feeble efforts of our hands to bring about	18:14
	great good to these children	18:16
	and great glory to Thee.	18:18
	Heavenly Father we also pray	18:22
	for the children of the world.	18:25
	Bless the little children of Russia, of Hungary,	18:28
	of Israel and the Arab nations,	18:32
	of China, Vietnam, Japan,	18:35
	Cuba, Hawaii.	18:40
	So work through us, O God,	18:44
	that a peaceful world shall be provided	18:46
	for boys and girls of every land.	18:48
	Give peace in our time, O God,	18:52
	and break the hardness of our hearts	18:55
	which seems to forbid us to see the things	18:57
	which make for peace.	19:00
	Give unto all men the will to peace, we humbly pray.	19:02
	Give us all of those things for which	19:08
	your son Jesus asked us to pray when He taught	19:11
	his disciples to say	19:15
	Our Father who art in heaven	19:18
	hallowed by Thy name.	19:20
	They kingdom come, Thy will be done	19:22
	on earth as it is in heaven.	19:26
	Give us this day our daily bread	19:28
	and forgive us our trespasses	19:31
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	19:34
	And lead us not into temptation	19:37
	but deliver us from evil.	19:40
	For Thine is the kingdom and the power	19:42
	and the glory forever.	19:45
	Amen.	19:47
	In W.H. Auden's Victor ballad,	20:10
	Victor is betrayed by his wife.	20:15
	So Victor walked out into the high street.	20:18
	He walked to the edge of the town.	20:22
	He came to the allotments and the rubbish heap	20:24
	and his tears came tumbling down.	20:27
	Victor looked up at the sunset	20:30
	as he stood there all alone, cried,	20:32
	"Are you in heaven, Father?"	20:35
	But the sky said, address not known.	20:38
	I suspect that experience is not an unfamiliar one	20:45
	to any one of us here.	20:48
	Maybe brought on by a personal crisis as with Victor,	20:51
	or perhaps by a kind of endless national crisis	20:56
	when the stalemate in our policy at Vietnam	20:59
	seems to have yield no end to the frustration	21:01
	and the agony of war.	21:04
	Or maybe simply as a result of the wearing down	21:07
	by the years.	21:09
	When all this talk of a good and loving father in heaven	21:12
	seems absurd, when there seems to be no ground	21:15
	of existence anywhere so far as we can see,	21:20
	when life seems quite literally to be	21:25
	no more than a tale told by an idiot,	21:27
	and to our attempts to find God somewhere	21:31
	to listen to His voice,	21:35
	to get some assurance that there really is a Father	21:37
	up in the sky somewhere or in the depths of our being	21:40
	or at work in the world.	21:43
	As the saying goes these days,	21:46
	the answer is the same.	21:47
	Address not known.	21:50
	Some of course will say that we're simply growing up,	21:54
	outgrowing the superstition of years past	21:57
	and that all talk of God is foolish talk.	21:59
	So some theologians talk of God being dead.	22:03
	Some scientists throw up their hands	22:07
	at any kind of God talk.	22:09
	He's obviously not to be found in measurable	22:10
	or verifiable terms anywhere.	22:12
	We now are living in a secular world	22:16
	and have to get along by ourselves	22:17
	as men without this God crutch,	22:19
	this pie in the sky by and by,	22:22
	this residue of another day when men	22:25
	filled the vast gaps in their knowledge of themselves,	22:27
	of nature, of history, with talk about God.	22:30
	But what is so often forgotten in all this	22:37
	is that way back in that never never land of the Bible,	22:40
	when it seems that God was apparently so obviously present,	22:44
	forever coming to men in dreams and visions,	22:48
	His voice so clear and unmistakable	22:52
	in the mouths of patriarchs and prophets,	22:54
	and supremely in the man Jesus.	22:58
	What is so often forgotten in all this is that	23:01
	the overriding and normal experience	23:04
	of God in those days was not of God present	23:06
	but of God absent.	23:10
	The Psalms for example, those soaring,	23:13
	outpouring of faith are full of it.	23:16
	Will the Lord spurn forever	23:21
	and never again be favorable?	23:22
	Has His steadfast love forever ceased?	23:25
	Are His promises at an end for all time?	23:29
	How long, O Lord?	23:33
	Wilt Thou forget me forever?	23:36
	How long will Thou hide Thy face from me?	23:40
	Over and over again the theme is God	23:45
	not momentarily absent, you see,	23:47
	like the sun disappearing for a moment behind a cloud,	23:49
	but a prolonged absence.	23:52
	To be sure there were visions and voices	23:56
	in men who spoke of God as the living God,	23:57
	but these were the occasional,	23:59
	the momentary experiences.	24:01
	The ordinary day by day,	24:04
	year by year experiences were of God absent	24:06
	or silent.	24:11
	How long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget me?	24:13
	Forever?	24:16
	But not only the old testament,	24:19
	that record of centuries of God	24:21
	occasionally experiences present but normally absent.	24:22
	In the New Testament too, the same experiences reflect it	24:26
	and surprisingly enough in that familiar parable	24:29
	of the wise and foolish bridesmaids	24:32
	read just a few moments ago,	24:35
	which on the surface seems to point	24:37
	to the necessity of being forever	24:39
	on the kiviv because God might arrive at any moment	24:41
	we might not be ready.	24:44
	It seems to be a story about God's coming.	24:47
	And the last line, watch therefore,	24:51
	for you know neither the day nor the hour	24:55
	simply misses the point.	24:59
	Scholars agree that this line was added	25:03
	by some ancient editor to the original story.	25:05
	And this last line throws us off the track.	25:09
	All the bridesmaids fell asleep.	25:13
	And apparently there was nothing wrong in that.	25:16
	It was a long wait.	25:18
	And that is precisely the point.	25:20
	It was a long wait.	25:23
	The bridegroom was delayed.	25:26
	And the foolish bridesmaids were unprepared for that,	25:28
	for the delay, for absence.	25:32
	It was originally a word to the hipped up followers of Jesus	25:36
	into a hipped up early church to cool it.	25:39
	Be ready for God's absence.	25:42
	It may be a long time before you'll have	25:45
	unmistakable assurance that God is present.	25:47
	The wise bridesmaids were ready for the bridegroom	25:51
	when he arrived precisely because	25:53
	they had taken along extra oil for their lamps	25:56
	in the event of a long wait.	26:00
	So how then do we wait?	26:05
	In the face of delay,	26:07
	in the face of God's absence or silence?	26:10
	Well if we fail to take into account	26:15
	the necessity of waiting, of long waiting,	26:18
	chances are we'll start looking around for God	26:22
	for the assurance of His presence	26:24
	in the wrong places.	26:26
	The late Samuel Miller quotes a delightful story	26:29
	of a former Munich comedian, Karl Valentin.	26:32
	The curtain goes up on a darkened stage,	26:37
	and in this darkness is a solitary circle of light	26:40
	shed by a streetlamp.	26:44
	Valentin with his long drawn and deeply worried face	26:46
	walks round and round this circle of light	26:49
	earnestly looking for something.	26:53
	A policeman wanders by.	26:57
	"What have you lost?"	26:59
	"The key to my house."	27:01
	Upon which the policeman joins Valentin	27:04
	in his search and they find nothing.	27:07
	And after a while he asked, "Are you sure you lost it here?"	27:10
	"No."	27:14
	And pointing to a darkened corner of the stage,	27:16
	"Over there."	27:19
	"But why in God's name are you looking for it here?"	27:21
	"There's no light over there."	27:25
	So maybe, you know, just maybe	27:28
	we look for God in the wrong places.	27:31
	Not in the dark places where we may have lost sight of Him,	27:34
	but in the light.	27:39
	Chances are we'll look for God's presence	27:41
	in Bible, creeds, liturgy, worship,	27:43
	in the places where obviously	27:47
	there seems to be some light in religion.	27:48
	But maybe He's to be found not in religion at all	27:53
	but in the dark places,	27:57
	in the gaunt body of a mutilated child in Laos,	28:00
	in a broken down tenement in Harlem,	28:04
	in the grief of the widow of some Vietcong,	28:08
	or in deaths of American men daily in Vietnam.	28:12
	Or maybe in the beard and long hair of a student rebel.	28:18
	As Samuel Miller says, we never see Him directly.	28:23
	He is always mediated by the very things	28:27
	that seem to deny Him.	28:30
	And of course that's why so many in the New Testament	28:33
	missed Him entirely	28:35
	and finally decided to rid the world	28:37
	of this obvious impostor.	28:39
	Imagine God, Yahweh,	28:42
	born of peasant stock walking around	28:45
	incognito as Mary's son,	28:47
	spending his time with callgirls and racketeers	28:50
	that was obviously too dark a spot for a lost God.	28:53
	If he was around at all he'd be in the temple	28:59
	or in the synagogue or with a learned	29:01
	and pious pillars of the church,	29:02
	in the brightly religious spots on the landscape	29:04
	not hiding off in the shadows.	29:08
	Maybe that's why so often He seems to be absent	29:11
	or silent for us too.	29:16
	Or it may be that we spend our time waiting	29:22
	by asking the wrong questions.	29:24
	And the most familiar and often agonizing question	29:27
	while we wait is why.	29:30
	Why, if there is a good and loving God,	29:33
	the misery in ghettos and cancer wards?	29:36
	Why the overwhelming misery of hungry people	29:40
	in the third world?	29:43
	Why the recurring agony of war?	29:45
	Why the persistent and pernicious evil in the world	29:49
	and in you and me?	29:52
	Why are we forever messing up our lives, you know,	29:56
	with too much alcohol, too much sex, too much drugs,	29:59
	too much fear of others,	30:03
	of ourselves, of the future, of change?	30:06
	Why, God, the persistence absence?	30:13
	It all comes to a burning point in that cry on the cross,	30:17
	Why, God, why have You forsaken me?	30:19
	Why are you silent?	30:25
	But God dispenses no information,	30:28
	no daily press releases to let us in on what's going on	30:31
	in the heavenly White House today.	30:34
	No voices in the ear, no visions,	30:37
	even on the cross, no answer,	30:38
	no angels came and ministered unto him there	30:42
	as in the wilderness.	30:46
	As someone has written,	30:49
	the cross was God's greatest silence.	30:50
	Then the demons were unleashed	30:53
	in the most dreadful passion since the fall of Adam	30:55
	were given free reign and God had nothing to say.	30:57
	There was simply the cry of the dying	31:02
	asking of the silence, why?	31:05
	God was silent even when dumb nature	31:10
	began to speak in eloquent gesture	31:12
	and the sun withdrew its light,	31:13
	the stars cried out and God was silent.	31:15
	Apparently God gives out no information	31:21
	when we demand to know why.	31:23
	And yet in answer to other questions,	31:27
	that dark spot in history,	31:29
	that unlikeliest of unlikely places	31:31
	for God to be hiding, that dying man,	31:33
	has told us worlds about the mystery of God.	31:37
	But there's another reason why God seems to be absent,	31:43
	why he doesn't seem to be around.	31:46
	And it may be the deepest reason of them all.	31:48
	Because in the depths of our being	31:51
	we couldn't really stand it if He were.	31:53
	To be known all through	32:01
	not only in the depth side,	32:06
	I don't think I'd mind God being privy	32:07
	to my depths, my unconscious,	32:10
	which I don't understand anyway.	32:12
	But in the trivial and the superficial	32:15
	to have the evasions, the hypocrisies,	32:16
	the fake in me and in every last one of us	32:20
	laid bare for Him for all the world to see.	32:26
	Oh I'm sure there's a God we wouldn't mind having around.	32:32
	The God who is our best instincts writ large,	32:35
	the kind of magnified me in my best moments.	32:38
	But that isn't the God that Jesus	32:43
	is talking about certainly.	32:45
	This is the God who slams the door	32:47
	in the face of those not prepared	32:49
	to wait with the terrible words 'I do not know you'.	32:51
	It's the God who demands everything	32:56
	as well as gives everything.	32:58
	The kind of God who demands the crucifixion	33:01
	of His only obedient one.	33:03
	Job had his moments when he hated this God,	33:07
	the God who will never leave us alone.	33:10
	After all, who wants a companion like that	33:13
	for whom we can never be separated,	33:18
	who haunts us from morning till night	33:21
	and on through the long night	33:23
	watches like the hound of heaven that He is,	33:24
	who in the fury of His love terrifies	33:26
	as well as heals.	33:31
	Small wonder we find that God absent.	33:34
	For many of the time we want Him absent.	33:39
	But supposing now,	33:43
	just supposing we do desire this presence,	33:46
	this healing fire,	33:50
	and how should we prepare ourselves for the delay,	33:53
	for the times of absence?	33:57
	Well first of all we have to disabuse ourselves	34:00
	of any notions of the experience	34:02
	of the absence is unusual.	34:04
	Rid ourselves of all those sentimental notions	34:07
	of wanting to get back to a time	34:09
	when God was apparently present,	34:11
	and His presence was as plain	34:14
	as the nose on your face.	34:16
	You know, if only I could've been with Him then.	34:19
	But as someone once said, it's very hard to make out	34:26
	what God is doing anywhere at any time.	34:28
	Where would you have liked to live and when,	34:33
	just to be sure.	34:37
	In pilot's shoes for example?	34:41
	With Jesus in the wilderness?	34:44
	With Paul in prison?	34:48
	In shipwreck, stoned, beaten with lashes?	34:50
	With Peter in the courtyard taunted by a girl?	34:55
	With looters splitting the church into bits?	34:59
	My God, we can't even stand a little tension	35:03
	and disagreement in the typical Paris church.	35:05
	It's not Christian.	35:08
	There was no time, no time,	35:11
	when God's presence was as plain	35:14
	as the nose on your face.	35:18
	He delays.	35:20
	He refuses to answer the question why.	35:22
	And when you come right down to it,	35:25
	isn't this exactly what faith is all about?	35:27
	And our freedom as His creatures,	35:31
	if He were forever whispering in the ear,	35:35
	tapping us on the shoulder,	35:38
	tripping us up just to let us know He's around,	35:39
	He wouldn't be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob	35:42
	or the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.	35:47
	So there will be the willingness not to have Him,	35:51
	in ear or vest pocket or Bible creed or liturgy	35:55
	or some specific program for social action,	35:59
	or to long nostalgically for a never ever time	36:03
	when others had Him in a way we don't.	36:06
	God never has been had.	36:10
	There have been only times	36:14
	when men and women very much like ourselves	36:17
	struggled with His absence	36:22
	as well as His presence,	36:25
	and the record of the struggle you will find in Bible	36:27
	and in creed and liturgy.	36:31
	An evidence of that struggle occasionally crops up	36:34
	as in the march on Selma	36:36
	or a quarter of a million marching on Washington for peace.	36:40
	But beyond that, it just may be	36:45
	that God speaks to us most clearly	36:50
	and is closest to us simply	36:52
	in the awareness of His absence.	36:54
	Paul Shera finds the answer to Paul's prayer	36:58
	about the thorn in his flesh.	37:00
	You remember how he prayed three times	37:04
	that he be removed, and all he got was silence for an answer	37:06
	until the words came "My grace is sufficient for you."	37:10
	And it is suggested that the answer came in the silence	37:17
	rather than in some mysterious voice in his ear,	37:23
	for isn't it so, you know?	37:26
	The only time we can possibly know	37:29
	that His grace is sufficient	37:32
	is precisely when He's not at our beck and call.	37:36
	Of course that's not all we have to say.	37:43
	To be sure we ought to be on the kiviv,	37:46
	lest God's presence, like a thief in the night,	37:48
	catch us unawares.	37:50
	But we will miss any coming, any visitation,	37:54
	any assurance of presence if we are not	37:57
	first prepared for delay, for absence,	38:00
	for silence.	38:05
	The foolish ones in the parable were ready for a presence,	38:08
	for a coming, but not for a delay.	38:12
	And for those foolish ones, there was no coming at all,	38:17
	no visitation.	38:22
	The door was shut.	38:25
	I do not know you.	38:27
	I suppose it all adds up to whether	38:32
	in the face of the question,	38:33
	are You in heaven, Father?	38:34
	We can take the reply, address not known,	38:38
	and hang in there and wait.	38:45
	And maybe that's what this season of Lent is all about.	38:51
	At any rate, if you who are here this morning	38:57
	are here because you are more disturbed by a delay,	39:01
	by absence, by silence,	39:04
	then you're in better shape religiously	39:10
	than those who are not,	39:14
	at least so this parable reads.	39:18
	Let us pray.	39:24
	O God, our Father, keep us faithful	39:30
	precisely when we need most to be kept faithful,	39:32
	when Your face is veiled,	39:37
	when there is no voice,	39:41
	when Your presence is most deeply felt in absence.	39:45
	Through Christ our Lord.	39:54
	Amen.	39:56
	(solemn organ music)	40:01
	(solemn music)	42:03
	(solemn music)	49:00
	Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power	50:22
	and the wisdom and the majesty,	50:27
	for all that is in the heaven and on earth is Thine.	50:29
	Both richness and honor come of thee	50:33
	and of Thine own do we now give thee	50:36
	for the good of Thy church	50:39
	and the glory of Thy name.	50:40
	Now may the patience of the Lord Jesus Christ	50:48
	be with us all.	50:52
	(solemn music)	50:58
	(bell tolling)	52:34
	(discordant organ music)	52:55

Item Info

Title:

Edmund A. Steimle - "Address Not Known" (March 7, 1971)

Description:

Though we may feel uniquely plagued by a sense of God's absence or hiddenness, this is actually the primary experience of humankind throughout history, even for those in the time of the Old and New Testaments. Rather than only seeking for God in the most likely places--Scripture, liturgy, creeds--and constantly asking the question, Why?, to no avail, perhaps we should begin to look for God in the unlikely places of human suffering and pain and to prepare ourselves for the silence and felt absence of God. For, as in the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, it is to the ones who prepare for God's delay that God comes. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 20:10. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 39:23.
Key quotation: “It just may be that God speaks to us most clearly and is closest to us simply in the awareness of His absence.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43x8408v

Date:

March 7, 1971

Speaker:

Steimle, Edmund A.

Biblical Book:

Matthew

Chapter and Verse:

Matthew 25:1-13

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0562
ref6327_w0h
uachapelsermaud
duke:320269
dcrau001795
ark:/87924/r43x8408v
cc7a20b1-3496-41d9-bad4-f67521ff8f2e

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:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

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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Edmund A. Steimle - "Address Not Known" (March 7, 1971)

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1. Edmund A. Steimle - "Address Not Known" (March 7, 1971)

Duke University Archives

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Edmund A. Steimle - "Address Not Known" (March 7, 1971)

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Duke University Archives

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