Lex S. Mathews - "They Shall Call His Name" (June 11, 1978)
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Transcript
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(uplifting organ music) | 0:06 | |
O Holy God, | 6:35 | |
we bow before the mystery | 6:37 | |
of your presence your creation. | 6:39 | |
Move through our minds and hearts | 6:43 | |
with your comforting spirit | 6:47 | |
so that we may worship you with our hearts | 6:49 | |
and praise you with our minds and voices | 6:54 | |
and serve you with our will. | 6:58 | |
We wait in your presence oh holy God. | 7:02 | |
We worship you, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 7:07 | |
(organ music) | 7:18 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 7:38 | |
Grace and peace be unto you. | 9:59 | |
It is because we are certain of God's mercy | 10:04 | |
and forgiveness that we have the courage | 10:08 | |
to see ourselves in the light of God's justice | 10:11 | |
and intention for us, and are thus enable | 10:16 | |
to acknowledge who we are and to make our confession. | 10:21 | |
Let us pray. | 10:27 | |
- | Almighty God, we come before you in silence | 10:30 |
for we have failed, failed to be the imprint of your image, | 10:35 | |
failed to be the stewards of all people and over nature. | 10:42 | |
Failed to reflect your love and mercy. | 10:48 | |
Failed to be servants of reconciliation, | 10:52 | |
and yet oh God, we pray to you because we long | 10:57 | |
to be trustworthy, showing the impact of your love | 11:02 | |
in our lives, acting out justice as you will it. | 11:07 | |
Therefore oh God, do not take your spirit from us | 11:13 | |
but implant in us the image of your son | 11:18 | |
and lead us to be obedient to you. | 11:22 | |
(organ music) | 11:56 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 12:17 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good | 14:17 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 14:21 | |
- | Thanks be to God who creates us. | 14:25 |
Thanks be to God by who's mercy we are redeemed. | 14:29 | |
Thanks be to God who supports us now and forever. | 14:34 | |
- | Greetings in the name of Jesus the Christ. | 14:41 |
It is our privilege to have Lex Matthews | 14:45 | |
preach for us today. | 14:47 | |
We knew, appreciated and respected Lex's ministry | 14:49 | |
when he was Episcopal Chaplin at UNC. | 14:53 | |
And now give thanks for the leadership he offers | 14:57 | |
to the Christian community through his work | 14:59 | |
as director for Social Ministries | 15:03 | |
for the Episcopal diocese of North Carolina. | 15:05 | |
We welcome you and will listen to the word you bring | 15:10 | |
with open hearts and minds. | 15:14 | |
- | Let us pray. | 15:22 |
Prepare our hearts O Lord to accept your word. | 15:25 | |
Silence in us any voice but your own. | 15:30 | |
That hearing we may also obey your will | 15:34 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 15:38 | |
Amen. | 15:41 | |
The lesson is from the seventh chapter of Isaiah | 15:44 | |
versus 10 through 17. | 15:48 | |
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz. | 15:53 | |
Ask a sign of the Lord your God | 15:57 | |
let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. | 15:59 | |
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, | 16:04 | |
and I will not put the Lord to test. | 16:08 | |
And Isaiah said, hear then O House of David. | 16:13 | |
Is it too little for you to weary men | 16:19 | |
but weary my God also? | 16:22 | |
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. | 16:26 | |
Behold a young woman shall conceive and bear a son | 16:31 | |
and shall call his name Immanuel. | 16:36 | |
He shall eat curds and honey when he knows | 16:41 | |
how to refuse the evil and choose the good. | 16:43 | |
For before the child knows how to refuse the evil | 16:48 | |
and choose the good, the land before | 16:52 | |
whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. | 16:55 | |
The Lord will bring up you and upon your people | 17:00 | |
and upon your father's house such days | 17:04 | |
as have not come since the day that Ephraim | 17:07 | |
departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. | 17:10 | |
Herein ends the reading of the old testament. | 17:15 | |
All praise and glory be to God, | 17:18 | |
Amen. | 17:22 | |
(organ music) | 17:25 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 17:36 | |
In the name of the Father, | 18:34 | |
and of the Son, | 18:35 | |
and of The Holy Spirit, | 18:35 | |
Amen. | 18:36 | |
I wanna thank you all for extending | 18:39 | |
through my good Helen Crotwell | 18:41 | |
and invitation to share your pulpit. | 18:43 | |
I guess I'd better say at the beginning | 18:47 | |
that I have an allergy and if I have a spate | 18:48 | |
of sneezes which I have not have today | 18:51 | |
and I usually have, I hope you will forgive me | 18:53 | |
and share my embarrassment with me. | 18:56 | |
In this morning's lesson, | 18:59 | |
we notice that | 19:03 | |
when God gives the sign to Ahaz, the new born child. | 19:05 | |
The phrase used is, | 19:11 | |
they shall call his name Immanuel. | 19:13 | |
'Cause the Christian church has picked up | 19:17 | |
this motif and incorporated it into the nativity, | 19:20 | |
into the birth narrative, the Christmas scene. | 19:25 | |
But I don't wanna talk about that part, | 19:29 | |
I wanna talk about the part where it says | 19:31 | |
they shall call his name Immanuel. | 19:33 | |
Now perhaps this is just a play on words | 19:39 | |
or perhaps it's just my anxiety to get a good sermon topic | 19:43 | |
but I like to think that the part that refers | 19:47 | |
to his name, | 19:50 | |
refers to his being, | 19:53 | |
his difference, | 19:57 | |
his uniqueness. | 20:00 | |
And most of all, his aloneness. | 20:03 | |
Well that which he had that no one | 20:07 | |
has ever had before or ever will have. | 20:10 | |
Yet, | 20:15 | |
the same can be said for each of us, | 20:16 | |
for each of us is a unique individual | 20:21 | |
never to be repeated, | 20:26 | |
not in this chapel, | 20:29 | |
not in the world, | 20:32 | |
not ever. | 20:33 | |
Each one of us is a brand new being, | 20:36 | |
virginity. | 20:41 | |
I am a gift to me from God. | 20:45 | |
You are a gift to you from God. | 20:50 | |
The job of living then, | 20:55 | |
is to become who we already are, | 20:58 | |
to resolve the gift. | 21:02 | |
A friend of mine once said that she did not want | 21:06 | |
to hear the story of Christianity anymore. | 21:09 | |
Perhaps a crib book, the spirit of Christianity, | 21:13 | |
but not the story. | 21:17 | |
That statement had special meaning for me | 21:20 | |
and with a few illustrations I'd like | 21:24 | |
to try to convey that meaning to you. | 21:26 | |
They shall call his name Immanuel. | 21:31 | |
Immanuel means God is with us, | 21:36 | |
God is with his name. | 21:41 | |
God is with his being. | 21:45 | |
Is it not then that the spirit of Christianity | 21:48 | |
is God saying through the Jesus man | 21:51 | |
that it's okay to be who we are, | 21:55 | |
whoever we are? | 21:59 | |
Jesus said, I have come that you might have life | 22:02 | |
and have it more abundantly. | 22:08 | |
If we believe that he said this, | 22:12 | |
then we believe the story of Christianity. | 22:17 | |
If we believe it's true, | 22:23 | |
then we believe the spirit of Christianity. | 22:26 | |
The story of Christianity | 22:31 | |
is about Jesus. | 22:35 | |
The spirit of Christianity | 22:38 | |
is about us. | 22:41 | |
Popeye understood the spirit because he said, | 22:44 | |
I am what I am, and that's all I am, | 22:48 | |
I'm Popeye the sailor man. | 22:51 | |
God said the same thing to Moses in a way. | 22:55 | |
You know when God assigned to Moses his job, | 22:58 | |
Moses got a little sweaty about it | 23:00 | |
like we get sweaty about things that are assigned to us | 23:02 | |
or that we take on and we think, | 23:05 | |
suppose I fail, I'd better have someone to blame it on. | 23:08 | |
So Moses said to God, | 23:12 | |
who shall I say sent me? | 23:15 | |
God simply said, I am. | 23:18 | |
We say, well that's okay for God and Popeye | 23:22 | |
to be who they are but not for the girl I marry. | 23:25 | |
I want a gal just like the gal that married dear old dad. | 23:30 | |
A Xeroxed wife, | 23:36 | |
but it is difficult | 23:39 | |
to resolve the gift of personhood. | 23:41 | |
It takes courage, | 23:44 | |
it takes imagination | 23:47 | |
and a sense of presence. | 23:50 | |
Most of all, I think, | 23:52 | |
it takes a senses of presence. | 23:54 | |
There was the rich man who was on his way from Chicago | 23:58 | |
to Florida, I like to think he's a rich man | 24:02 | |
because he was driving by a chauffeur | 24:04 | |
in a long black limousine. | 24:07 | |
And when he got, when they got just north | 24:10 | |
of Chattanooga, Tennessee, they had a blow-out | 24:14 | |
and guess who got to change the tire? | 24:17 | |
While the chauffeur was changing the tire | 24:20 | |
the rich man walked down the road apiece | 24:22 | |
to stretch his legs and came upon this man | 24:26 | |
kinda hunkered down on the side of the road | 24:29 | |
and so he introduced himself to him | 24:32 | |
and said, "Do you live here?" | 24:34 | |
And he said, "Yep, I live right down there." | 24:35 | |
And pointed to a little cottage down in the holla. | 24:38 | |
And he said, "Oh so you do well, | 24:42 | |
"how far is it to Chattanooga?" | 24:44 | |
He said, "I don't know, I ain't ever been to Chattanooga." | 24:48 | |
He said, "You've never been to Chattanooga? | 24:53 | |
"And you live right here?" | 24:55 | |
He said, "Nope." | 24:56 | |
"So well how far is it to Knoxville | 24:57 | |
"which is just north of there?" | 24:58 | |
"I don't know, I've ain't never been to Knoxville." | 25:00 | |
And he said, "You've never been to Chattanooga, | 25:04 | |
"and you've never been to Knoxville, | 25:06 | |
"and you live right down there?" | 25:07 | |
And he said "Yep, I mostly just stay aright around here." | 25:08 | |
And he said, "Well I find that fascinating | 25:13 | |
"that you've never been to these places | 25:15 | |
"and you live right here. | 25:17 | |
"Don't you ever think about places like New York | 25:19 | |
"and Rome and Paris, London." | 25:22 | |
He said, "Nope." | 25:29 | |
Said, "Don't you ever wanna go anywhere?" | 25:31 | |
And the man said, | 25:35 | |
"Ain't I somewhere?" | 25:37 | |
Presence, | 25:40 | |
it takes a sense of presence to resolve the gift. | 25:42 | |
It takes personhood to resolve the gift | 25:47 | |
because the tide runs strong | 25:49 | |
in the other direction, | 25:52 | |
in the direction of mass de-personalization. | 25:56 | |
In the direction of sameness. | 26:00 | |
All 37,000 employees of Fair Weather Airline | 26:03 | |
welcomes you aboard at such-and-such service | 26:07 | |
from Ipswich to Oogoz. | 26:09 | |
They do not welcome the hijacker | 26:13 | |
the woman about to throw up | 26:16 | |
or the man who audibly complains of the service. | 26:18 | |
Fact is Fair Weather airlines cannot welcome | 26:22 | |
or not welcome anyone because it does not know personhood. | 26:24 | |
It's read from a plastic card. | 26:29 | |
Next year a recording perhaps, why not? | 26:33 | |
Should they know us? | 26:37 | |
Of course not, but let's start telling it like it is, | 26:39 | |
all 37,000 employees, no way. | 26:43 | |
I could go on with the multi-graph letters | 26:47 | |
that are made to look real. | 26:50 | |
Worse still, the originals that are automatically typed. | 26:52 | |
Only thing that everyone gets the same originally. | 26:57 | |
I gotta a machine addressed Christian card | 27:02 | |
with the company's name stamped on the inside. | 27:04 | |
A machine addressed it, | 27:08 | |
a machine signed it, | 27:11 | |
a machine stamped it, and for all I know | 27:14 | |
the decision the send it out in the first place | 27:17 | |
was made by a machine. | 27:19 | |
Because Popeye was content to be Popeye, | 27:24 | |
because he resolved the gift, | 27:28 | |
he could be a sailor man, | 27:32 | |
and his style was his own. | 27:35 | |
We must remember that the gift is enough, | 27:39 | |
it is strong, | 27:46 | |
and it will stand alone, | 27:48 | |
we do not need to have security by association. | 27:52 | |
I grew up in Alabama, have a good friend | 27:58 | |
who back then we were both in high school | 28:02 | |
was embarrassed because she happened to be | 28:05 | |
from a small town in Alabama. | 28:08 | |
And whenever she would get around someone | 28:12 | |
from Birmingham to take attention away from her | 28:15 | |
being from a small town, she would go into | 28:18 | |
this little sort of a charade, | 28:21 | |
she would say, "Oh, ah, you're from Birmingham, | 28:24 | |
"do you know Beatsey Smith?" | 28:28 | |
To take attention away from the fact | 28:29 | |
that she was from a small town. | 28:31 | |
Well Beatsey Smith was the beauty queen | 28:33 | |
and the senior of a big high school in Birmingham | 28:36 | |
and she was editor of the year book | 28:39 | |
and head cheerleader and perhaps several other | 28:42 | |
thousand things and, anyway, she was, | 28:44 | |
she was very popular and very well known. | 28:47 | |
So when my friend would say, "Oh, you're from Birmingham, | 28:51 | |
"do you know Beatsey Smith?" | 28:53 | |
The innuendo was that she knew her. | 28:55 | |
Of course she didn't and so she would pull | 28:57 | |
this on everyone that she would meet from Birmingham | 29:00 | |
as I say, to take attention away from her | 29:03 | |
being from a small town. | 29:05 | |
One day she met this person from Birmingham | 29:07 | |
and she said, "Oh, you're from Birmingham, | 29:09 | |
"do you know Beatsey Smith?" | 29:11 | |
and the person said, | 29:14 | |
"I am Beatsey Smith." | 29:15 | |
We all play that game don't we, | 29:20 | |
it's just that most of us haven't been caught. | 29:22 | |
I said it takes imagination to resolve the gift. | 29:27 | |
It does indeed when especially these days | 29:31 | |
too many conservatives | 29:35 | |
would rather have money than prudence | 29:37 | |
and too many liberals would rather | 29:42 | |
have rhetoric than liberty. | 29:44 | |
It takes a person who has a clear vision of the gift | 29:48 | |
and who's actions may appear comical to the millions of us | 29:53 | |
who are coming closer and closer to having | 29:57 | |
charger plate minds and are coming closer and closer | 29:59 | |
to having our names numbered rather than spelled. | 30:03 | |
It takes a person with a sense | 30:10 | |
of poetry and prophecy | 30:12 | |
like my aunt Emily. | 30:15 | |
I was a boy during The Depression years | 30:19 | |
and we all sort of hovered together | 30:21 | |
in my grandfather's house to get through The Depression, | 30:25 | |
and my aunt Emily lived with us. | 30:28 | |
Were she alive today she'd be, well she'd be 100 next year, | 30:31 | |
she was really old enough to be my great aunt I suppose. | 30:34 | |
I think I'm becoming more and more aware of that | 30:38 | |
the older I get, at any rate, | 30:41 | |
my aunt Emily was the kind of person who could not fathom | 30:45 | |
scientific things, she could not | 30:49 | |
fathom automation, cybernation. | 30:51 | |
If you said to my aunt Emily, somebody | 30:55 | |
just went to the moon she would probably | 30:57 | |
say something like, how nice. | 30:59 | |
But if you told her about the person that went to the moon | 31:03 | |
she would get interested. | 31:06 | |
One day my aunt Emily asked my brother | 31:12 | |
and me, she said, "Boys, what time is it?" | 31:16 | |
We call her Sister, and we said Sister | 31:19 | |
don't know but you can dial the telephone | 31:22 | |
and it will tell you what time it is. | 31:24 | |
She did not understand that, she said, | 31:27 | |
"How could the telephone know what time it is | 31:28 | |
"at any given time?" | 31:31 | |
We said: Sister, just dial it. | 31:33 | |
And so she dialed the correct number | 31:36 | |
and it said something like, | 31:38 | |
Coca Cola, the pause that refreshes, it's 09:32. | 31:40 | |
And she looked at the telephone | 31:48 | |
like it was some stranger | 31:50 | |
and, clearly, not understanding what was going on | 31:52 | |
and finally she just | 31:55 | |
a funny look came over her face and she said, | 31:57 | |
"Well thank you very much," and hung up. | 31:59 | |
With that, my brother and I | 32:02 | |
just rolled around on the floor and said, | 32:04 | |
Sister, you don't have to thank it, | 32:06 | |
it's just a recording, just a record. | 32:08 | |
She did not understand that, | 32:11 | |
and I never will forget what she said, | 32:14 | |
Moreover, I will never forget the expression on her face. | 32:18 | |
She said, | 32:23 | |
"I don't understand, but I know one thing, | 32:24 | |
it's always nice to say thank you." | 32:28 | |
My aunt Emily understood the spirit of Christianity | 32:33 | |
and, like Popeye, she had resolved the gift. | 32:41 | |
They shall call his name Immanuel | 32:46 | |
They shall call his name | 32:51 | |
Charlie, Becky, | 32:54 | |
Sarah, | 32:57 | |
Jim, | 32:59 | |
Bob, | 33:01 | |
Helen, | 33:03 | |
Sue, | 33:05 | |
They should call his name your name. | 33:07 | |
Whenever, | 33:12 | |
wherever, | 33:14 | |
and whoever you are, | 33:16 | |
Amen. | 33:19 | |
(organ music) | 33:30 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 34:12 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 36:29 |
- | We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 36:33 |
Who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 36:39 | |
and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 36:44 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the Church | 36:50 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 36:56 | |
to love and serve others. | 36:59 | |
To seek justice and resist evil. | 37:03 | |
To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 37:06 | |
our judge and our hope, in life and death, | 37:11 | |
in life beyond death God is with us. | 37:17 | |
We are not alone, thanks be the God. | 37:23 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 37:28 |
- | And with your spirit. | 37:30 |
- | Let us pray. | 37:31 |
Almighty ever loving God, | 37:42 | |
creator of us and the whole world, | 37:47 | |
redeemer of us and all persons. | 37:53 | |
You have formed us and re-formed us. | 37:59 | |
Created us and re-created us. | 38:05 | |
Named us and re-named us. | 38:11 | |
Called us and called again and again. | 38:16 | |
We rejoice that you have allowed us to know | 38:24 | |
of your goodness, to participate in your creation. | 38:27 | |
Enlarge our love O God, that we may pray | 38:34 | |
for needs beyond our own. | 38:39 | |
We pray for peace in our nations | 38:45 | |
in our work, in our families. | 38:50 | |
Heal our ancient and our new hate | 38:56 | |
that smolder still aflame in sudden conflict. | 39:00 | |
We pray for those involved in world governments | 39:09 | |
and agencies of control or compassion. | 39:13 | |
Those who work for the reconciling of nations and peoples. | 39:18 | |
Keep them hopeful and work with them and through them. | 39:24 | |
We pray for people who are hungry | 39:32 | |
those who are housed in cramped places. | 39:37 | |
Increase in us and all who are privileged | 39:41 | |
concern for those who need justice, mercy and love. | 39:46 | |
We pray for those people who | 39:57 | |
suffer physical pain or mental distress. | 39:58 | |
Those who cry out for healing, | 40:05 | |
may they be patient, brave and find hope. | 40:09 | |
And bless those people who's skills are used | 40:17 | |
to heal these people. | 40:20 | |
We pray O God, for those who are facing death, | 40:25 | |
may they know the comfort and hope of your presence. | 40:29 | |
For those who are lonely and alone, | 40:36 | |
those who have no one to call in times | 40:40 | |
of sadness or grief or loneliness | 40:43 | |
may they be be-friended and know of your love. | 40:48 | |
And now O God, we pray for ourselves, | 40:55 | |
for courage, imagination, a sense of presence, | 40:59 | |
a sense of our personhood, for the ability | 41:07 | |
to accept the gift of our life. | 41:12 | |
Hear now O God our deepest yearnings. | 41:17 | |
Purify them and bless them as we lift them to you | 41:22 | |
in the silence of this time. | 41:29 | |
Hear us now O God as we pray the prayer | 41:57 | |
that Jesus has taught us. | 42:00 | |
- | Our Father, who art in heaven | 42:03 |
hallowed by thy name. | 42:07 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 42:09 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 42:13 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 42:16 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 42:20 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 42:22 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 42:27 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 42:30 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 42:33 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 42:35 | |
(organ music) | 42:49 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 47:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:10 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:34 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:37 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:41 | |
- | We give you thanks O God for all the wonders | 49:04 |
of our lives, for our uniqueness, | 49:07 | |
for those who care for us, | 49:12 | |
for those who help us become who we are, | 49:15 | |
those who confront us, those who are instruments | 49:20 | |
of your love and justice and mercy. | 49:24 | |
O holy God send your Spirit to cleanse our hearts, | 49:30 | |
hallow these gifts and perfect the offering | 49:36 | |
of ourselves to you through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 49:41 | |
(organ music) | 49:53 | |
(organ music drowns out voices singing) | 50:25 | |
Make us your new creation O Lord. | 53:03 | |
Bless our going forth and grant | 53:07 | |
that when we leave this place | 53:10 | |
we will know we do not leave your presence. | 53:13 | |
Be ever near us and keep us aware who we are. | 53:18 | |
Help us to serve you and all of your creation. | 53:27 | |
Go now in peace and may God our creator, | 53:32 | |
redeemer and sustainer, | 53:38 | |
be with you this day and forever, amen and amen. | 53:41 | |
(triumphant organ music) | 53:51 |
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