Perry Miller - Good Friday Service (April 13, 1979)

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-	Good Friday service, Duke Chapel, April 13th, 1979.	3:10
	(organ music)	3:19
-	Would you please rise.	12:37
	Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.	12:46
	Died to sin and lived to righteousness.	12:52
	Blessed and praised be God, our redeemer,	12:56
	who has so loved us and our world,	12:59
	whose only son was sent into our midst	13:02
	to make us children of God	13:04
	and heirs to the promise of life everlasting.	13:07
	The lord be with you.	13:11
	(organ music)	13:16
	All mighty God, on the cross we see the pain and sorrow	16:04
	which we have inflicted upon you	16:09
	and upon one another.	16:11
	We confess that we have strayed from your ways.	16:14
	We have broken you commandments,	16:18
	we have betrayed you love through our disordered	16:20
	and self-centered lives.	16:24
	Lord have mercy upon us so that we might be lifted up	16:27
	and drawn to you in order to live	16:32
	in righteousness and service.	16:35
	Hear these comfortable words from the scriptures.	16:39
	For God so loved the world that he gave his only son	16:44
	that whoever believes in him should not perish,	16:48
	but have eternal life.	16:52
	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	16:54
	In the name of Jesus Christ.	17:00
	(organ music)	17:05
-	From the gospel of Luke,	20:47
	and when they came to the place, which is called the skull,	20:50
	there they crucified him.	20:55
	And the criminals, one on the right,	20:57
	and one on the left.	21:00
	And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them,	21:03
	"for they know not what they do."	21:07
	And they cast lots to divide his garments.	21:10
	And the people stood by, watching.	21:13
	But the rulers scoffed at him, saying,	21:17
	"He saved others, let him save himself,	21:19
	"if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One."	21:24
	The soldiers also mocked him,	21:29
	coming up and offering him vinegar and saying,	21:31
	"if you are the king of the Jews save yourself."	21:35
	There was also an inscription over him,	21:40
	this is the king of the Jews.	21:43
	One of the criminals who was hanged,	21:46
	railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ?	21:48
	"Save yourself, and us."	21:52
	But the other rebuked him, saying "Do you not fear God,	21:54
	"since you are under the same sentence of condemnation,	21:59
	"and we, indeed, justly.	22:03
	"For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.	22:05
	"But this man has done nothing wrong."	22:09
	And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come	22:13
	"in your kingly power.	22:17
	And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you,	22:19
	"today, you will be with me in Paradise."	22:24
	It was now about the sixth hour,	22:29
	and there was darkness over the whole land,	22:31
	until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed	22:33
	and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.	22:38
	Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said,	22:42
	"Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit."	22:46
	And having said this, his breathed his last.	22:52
	(singing of hymns)	23:16
	On this day, we contemplate the Cross.	26:08
	It stands out as our most difficult moment	26:13
	of the Christian year.	26:16
	We aren't quite sure how we're supposed to feel.	26:19
	It doesn't seem like a good day.	26:24
	We want Easter to come, so that we can sense victory,	26:27
	instead of the seeming defeat of the cross.	26:31
	A crucified Messiah, is still somewhat a stumbling block	26:36
	to our sense of the world.	26:41
	We want our savior to act like a savior,	26:44
	to be in control of things.	26:47
	We're used to great drama,	26:51
	powerful speeches, stirring events.	26:53
	But a cross?	26:57
	It was an ugly death,	27:00
	the most vicious of Roman executions.	27:03
	We can't make it fit neatly into our religious	27:07
	and cultural practices.	27:10
	It ruffles our pride in humanity.	27:12
	A savior hanging on a piece of wood,	27:16
	outside of the city, is not our kind of glory.	27:19
	It's not our style.	27:24
	Yes, we recognize the significance of pain, suffering.	27:27
	But, too often, we trivialize the cross.	27:34
	We think that we have found the right way	27:38
	to feel about pitying the poor Jesus,	27:40
	who ran into the wrong crowd.	27:45
	He could have avoided it, we think,	27:48
	if he had only been more careful about his method.	27:51
	Every time I watch one of the movies	27:56
	of Jesus' life, such as NBC's Jesus of Nazareth,	27:58
	I always find myself wanting Jesus	28:03
	to do it all differently.	28:06
	I want him to amaze the Jewish council.	28:08
	I was him to dazzle Pontius Pilate.	28:12
	I want him to really defend himself.	28:15
	Be persuasive, Jesus.	28:19
	Show them your stuff.	28:21
	But it always turns out the same.	28:23
	The march to Cavalry and the Crucifixion	28:26
	strike a blow of my sense of how to influence people.	28:29
	And then I realize, we want Jesus to be approved of	28:35
	by the council, because we want our fellow Christians	28:40
	to tell us how nice we are.	28:44
	We want Pilate to think he was okay,	28:47
	because we know that power comes about	28:50
	when you know the right people.	28:53
	We want the angry mob to cheer for Jesus	28:56
	instead of for Barabbus, because we want to be accepted	28:59
	by our peers.	29:03
	Crucifixion doesn't fit like resurrection does.	29:06
	It seems like defeat.	29:09
	And defeat is a way that we would not choose.	29:12
	But God's way is a different way than our way.	29:17
	Only by contemplating the cross,	29:23
	do we recognize that the message of Christ	29:25
	has not been our way.	29:29
	The same forces which worked to bring about his death,	29:33
	are forces which we participate in.	29:37
	In a sense, we may crucify him daily.	29:40
	We may be the least of God's people,	29:45
	if we are so bound by our culture,	29:48
	our political and commercial arrangements,	29:51
	and even our very own religious traditions.	29:54
	These were the same forces which brought about Jesus' death.	29:58
	But this was the only way	30:02
	in which we could see God's fundamental principle	30:06
	of love in its fullest expression.	30:09
	For God so loved the world, that the son was given.	30:14
	The cross brings judgment upon us,	30:19
	because it forces us to realize that we do not always live	30:22
	by the standard of love.	30:27
	And in this realization, there lies our salvation.	30:30
	Our pride, our motives, our designs tend	30:36
	towards self-affirmation at the expense of others.	30:40
	Christ has died for our sins, not because he has struck	30:45
	some sort of bargain with God.	30:49
	But in suffering as God-incarnate,	30:52
	he has brought about our own redemption.	30:55
	Our redemption lies in our acceptance	31:00
	of the love of God, reaching out to us from the cross.	31:03
	And making that love our basis for living.	31:08
	In giving of ourselves, as Christ has given himself	31:14
	for us, we live the abundant life of which he taught.	31:18
	Our contemplation of the cross forces us	31:25
	to realize that our hope does not lie with	31:28
	ourselves, but in God who endured the very destruction	31:32
	which we create for ourselves.	31:38
	The late Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that, "If God is love,	31:42
	"rather than power, it follows that he gains his victories	31:46
	"by pain, rather than by force."	31:51
	We call this Good Friday because of the redemptive work	31:56
	which God has done in Christ, through the cross.	32:00
	The verse from Luke tells us that Jesus,	32:06
	crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands	32:09
	"I commit my spirit."	32:16
	As we accept the redemption and freedom which the cross	32:19
	offers to us, let us cry out,	32:23
	oh loving God,	32:27
	"into thy hands, we commit our spirits,	32:29
	Amen.	32:35
	(singing of hymns)	32:55
-	For almost 2000 years,	36:44
	the cross has been the chief symbol of Christians.	36:47
	But about the first three centuries	36:53
	of the early Christian church, the cross was not used	36:55
	as a public symbol.	37:00
	And there are two reasons for that.	37:03
	First,	37:06
	by non-Christians, the cross was looked	37:09
	upon as a very degrading death,	37:12
	even by the Christians themselves.	37:16
	And secondly, the cross was such a symbol	37:19
	of the vigor and the growth of Christianity in those days,	37:25
	that it was desecrated very often by non-Christians.	37:30
	But privately, and theologically, and liturgically,	37:36
	the cross has always been	37:43
	the premiere symbol of Christianity.	37:45
	And it was natural and logical that the instrument	37:50
	of our salvation, should become an object	37:55
	of special veneration.	37:59
	It is clear that devotion to the cross,	38:04
	beginning with the epistles of Paul,	38:06
	who mentions it many, many times,	38:08
	was not chiefly concentrated	38:12
	on the negative aspects	38:16
	of the death of the cross, of mere physical suffering,	38:18
	and pain, and death,	38:22
	but uppermost in the mind	38:25
	of the Christian mentality, from the very beginning,	38:27
	was the cross' saving role	38:31
	in the divine plan	38:35
	of God, our Father.	38:37
	And it's Christ, through his passion,	38:40
	was a triumphant victor over death and sin,	38:43
	so the cross, the means of suffering,	38:48
	became the source of life.	38:54
	And thus, it was looked upon as the throne	38:58
	and the standard of the king of glory.	39:02
	And so at Christ's moment of apparent greatest defeat,	39:08
	he attained his greatest victory.	39:13
	Now the ceremony, the Veneration of the Cross,	39:19
	it is a really ancient one.	39:21
	During the veneration, the readers will be reading	39:25
	the lamentations, which comes from an old Greek liturgy	39:30
	from the Eastern Church.	39:34
	And at the end of the lamentations,	39:37
	they will be reading a translation of the Pange Lingua,	39:39
	a very ancient Latin hymn from the Western Rite.	39:43
	And I think this symbolizes the unity of all Christians.	39:50
	No matter where we are, we are one.	39:55
	We are one in Christ Jesus, our Lord.	39:59
	At the Veneration of the Cross, when they hold the cross	40:07
	down at the bottom of the steps,	40:09
	some may care to remain in their pews,	40:12
	and quietly contemplate the death and victory of Christ.	40:16
	Others may care to come forward, and venerate it,	40:20
	in any way that their conscience dictates.	40:24
	Please feel free to do what you think is best.	40:28
-	We worship you, Lord.	42:06
	We venerate your cross.	42:09
	We pray to your resurrection.	42:11
	Through the cross, you brought joy to the world.	42:14
-	May God be gracious and bless us.	42:20
	And let his face shed his light upon us.	42:23
-	We worship you, Lord.	42:27
	We venerate your cross.	42:29
	We praise your resurrection.	42:32
	Through the cross, you brought joy to the world.	42:35
	My people, what have I done to you?	42:40
	How have I offended you?	42:44
	Answer me.	42:46
-	I led you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom.	42:49
	But you led your savior to the cross.	42:53
-	My people, what have I done to you?	42:56
	How have I offended you?	43:00
	Answer me.	43:02
-	Holy is God.	43:03
-	Holy and strong.	43:06
-	Holy, immortal one, have mercy on us.	43:08
-	For 40 years, I led you safely through the desert.	43:13
	I fed you with manna from heaven,	43:18
	and brought you to the land of plenty.	43:20
	But you led your savior to the cross.	43:24
-	Holy is God.	43:28
-	Holy and strong.	43:30
-	Holy, immortal one, have mercy on us.	43:33
-	What more could I have done for you?	43:37
	I planted you as my fairest wine,	43:41
	but you yielded only bitterness.	43:44
	When I was thirsty, you gave me vinegar to drink.	43:48
	And you pierced my side with a lancet.	43:52
-	Holy is God.	43:57
-	Holy and strong.	43:59
-	Holy, immortal one, have mercy on us.	44:01
	For your sake, I scourged your captors	44:06
	and their first-born sons.	44:08
	But you brought your scourges down upon me.	44:10
-	My people, what have I done to you?	44:14
	How have I offended you?	44:17
	Answer me.	44:20
-	I led you from slavery to freedom.	44:22
	And drowned your captors in the sea.	44:24
	But you handed me over to your high priests.	44:27
-	My people, what have I done to you?	44:31
	How have I offended you?	44:34
	Answer me.	44:36
-	I opened the sea before you,	44:38
	but you opened my side with a spear.	44:40
-	My people, what have I done to you?	44:43
	How have I offended you?	44:47
	Answer me.	44:49
-	I led you on your way, in a pillar of cloud,	44:51
	but you led me to Pilate's court.	44:54
-	My people, what have I done to you?	44:58
	How have I offended you?	45:01
	Answer me.	45:03
-	I bore you up with manna in the desert,	45:05
	but you struck me down and scourged me.	45:08
-	My people, what have I done to you?	45:11
	How have I offended you?	45:14
	Answer me.	45:16
-	I gave you saving water from the rock,	45:18
	but you gave me gall and vinegar to drink.	45:21
-	My people, what have I done to you?	45:24
	How have I offended you?	45:28
	Answer me.	45:30
-	For you, I struck down the kings of Canaan,	45:32
	but you struck my hand with a wreath.	45:35
-	My people, what have I done to you?	45:38
	How have I offended you?	45:42
	Answer me.	45:44
-	I gave you a royal scepter,	45:45
	but you gave me a crown of thorns.	45:48
-	My people, what have I done to you?	45:51
	How have I offended you?	45:55
	Answer me.	45:58
-	I raised you to the height of majesty,	46:00
	but you raised me high on the cross.	46:03
-	My people, what have I done to you?	46:06
	How have I offended you?	46:11
	Answer me.	46:13
-	Sing my tongue, the savior's glory.	46:18
	Tell his triumph far and wide.	46:21
	Tell all the famous story of his body, crucified,	46:24
	how upon the cross, the victim, vanquishing in death, died.	46:28
-	Eating of a tree, forbidden, man had sunk in sanken snare,	46:34
	When our pitying creator did a second tree prepare.	46:40
	Destined, many ages later, that first evil to repair.	46:44
-	Such the order God appointed,	46:50
	when for sin he would atone.	46:52
	To the serpent, thus supposing schemes yet deeper	46:54
	than his own.	46:58
	Thence the remedy for curing, when the fatal wound had come.	46:59
-	So when now, at length, the fullness of the sacred time	47:05
	drew near, then the son, the world's creator,	47:09
	left his father's throne, on high.	47:13
	From a virgin's womb appearing,	47:16
	clothed in our mortality.	47:18
-	All within a lowly manger, low a tender baby lies,	47:22
	seeing his gentle virgin mother,	47:26
	lull to sleep his infant cries	47:28
	while the limbs of God incarnate,	47:31
	round with swathes of band she ties.	47:33
-	Thus did Christ to perfect manhood,	47:37
	in our mortal flesh attain.	47:39
	Then of his free choice he goeth, to a death of bitter pain.	47:43
	And as a lamb, upon the altar of the cross,	47:49
	for us, is slain.	47:52
-	Low, with gall, his thirst, he quenches.	47:55
	See the thorns upon his brow.	47:57
	Nails his tender flesh arrending.	48:00
	See his side is opened now,	48:02
	whence to cleanse the whole creation,	48:05
	streams of blood and water flow.	48:07
-	Lofty tree, bend down thy branches	48:10
	to embrace thy sacred load.	48:13
	Oh, relax the native tension of that all too rigid wood.	48:16
	Gently, gently, bear the members of thy dying king and God.	48:21
-	Tree which solely was found worthy	48:27
	to world's great victim to sustain.	48:30
	Harbor from the raging tempest,	48:33
	art that saved the world again.	48:35
	Tree with sacred blood anointed, of the lamb,	48:38
	for sinners slain.	48:41
-	Blessing, honor, everlasting, to the immortal deity.	48:44
	To the father, son and spirit, equal praises ever be.	48:48
	Glory to the earth and heaven, to trinity and unity, amen.	48:54
-	We worship you, Lord.	49:09
	We venerate your cross.	49:11
	We praise your resurrection.	49:14
	Through the cross, you brought joy to the world.	49:17
-	May God be gracious and bless us.	49:21
	And let his face shed light upon us.	49:24
-	We worship you, Lord.	49:28
	We venerate your cross.	49:30
	We praise your resurrection.	49:32
	Through the cross, you brought joy to the world.	49:35
	My people, what have I done to you?	49:41
	How have I offended you?	49:45
	Answer me.	49:47
-	I led you forth out of Egypt,	49:50
	from slavery to freedom.	49:52
	You led your savior to the cross.	49:55
-	My people, what have I done to you?	49:58
	How have I offended you?	50:02
	Answer me.	50:04
-	Holy is God.	50:07
-	Holy and strong.	50:09
-	Holy immortal one, have mercy on us.	50:11
-	For 40 years, I led you safely through the desert,	50:16
	I fed you with manna from heaven,	50:20
	and brought you to the land of plenty.	50:23
	But you led your savior to the cross.	50:26
-	Holy is god.	50:30
-	Holy and strong,	50:32
-	Holy immortal one, have mercy on us.	50:35
-	What more could I have done for you?	50:40
	I planted you as my fairest wine,	50:43
	but you yielded only bitterness.	50:46
	When I was thirsty, you gave me vinegar to drink.	50:50
	And you pierced yours savior's side with a lance.	50:54
-	Holy is God.	50:59
-	Holy and strong.	51:01
-	Holy, immortal one, have mercy on us.	51:03
-	Blessed be the lord by day.	51:31
	Blessed be the lord by night.	51:35
	Blessed be lord when we lie down.	51:38
	Blessed be the lord when we rise up,	51:42
	for in thine hand our the souls of the living	51:46
	and the dead.	51:49
	And whose hand is the soul of every living thing,	51:51
	and the breath of all flesh?	51:55
	Into thy hand, I trust thy spirit.	51:58
	Thou hast redeemed me, oh lord, God of truth.	52:02
	Oh God, reveal unto us thy oneness.	52:08
	And establish thy kingdom and reign over us, forever, amen,	52:12
	Please rise to receive the benediction.	52:18
	And now, may the lord send down blessings upon us.	52:27
	People who have recalled the death of his son	52:32
	in the surety and hope of the resurrection.	52:36
	And may God grant us pardon and bring us comfort.	52:41
	May our faith grow stronger,	52:45
	and our salvation be assured, in the name of God,	52:48
	creator, son and holy spirit, amen.	52:53

Item Info

Title:

Perry Miller - Good Friday Service (April 13, 1979)

Description:

Sermon start time: 26:08. Sermon end time: 32:36.
To accept the love of God that Christ offers from the cross means to love others and let go of worldly desires. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: Only by contemplating the cross, do we recognize that the message of Christ has not been our way.

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44q7r43j

Date:

April 13, 1979

Speaker:

Miller, Perry

Liturgical Calendar:

Good Friday

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 23:32-46

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1018
ref7245_j4j
uachapelsermaud
duke:320379
dcrau001898
ark:/87924/r44q7r43j
bdcd38aa-aa36-472b-8a47-3e0e3e56fe7e

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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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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Perry Miller - Good Friday Service (April 13, 1979)

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