James L. Price, Jr. - "The Coming of the King" (December 10, 1961)

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-	Today is the second Sunday in Advent.	0:14
	For some Christians,	0:18
	Advent connotes the mysterious coming of the Christ	0:20
	at an hour men do not expect to bring history to its close.	0:25
	Other Christians limit the meaning of Advent	0:31
	to Christ's coming into Bethlehem.	0:36
	Yet the great Christian hymns	0:40
	and liturgies of all the ages	0:42
	do not so narrowly view the Advent season.	0:45
	The four Sundays before Christmas day	0:50
	herald the coming into the world of God in Christ,	0:54
	along all of time's corridors,	0:58
	in the present, as well as in the past and in the future.	1:02
	The festival of Christ's nativity	1:09
	can be dissipated into shallow sentiment	1:12
	unless one bring to it	1:16
	a mood and a faith nourished by this whole gospel of God.	1:19
	Christmas carols may be as lightly sung	1:26
	as one whistles the opening bars	1:30
	of a great classical symphony	1:33
	without understanding them.	1:35
	For as a symphony's initial themes derive their full beauty	1:38
	and meaning from the composer's total work,	1:44
	just so the lovely music of Christmas.	1:50
	It's perennial beauty and its power to move our hearts	1:53
	are best appreciated	1:58
	when thoughts of Bethlehem lead to Calvary,	2:00
	past Calvary to Easter and Pentecost and beyond,	2:06
	to the innumerable comings of Christ	2:11
	into the hearts of men in his grace.	2:14
	To Christians,	2:18
	all of God's Advents give prescience	2:19
	of Christ's final coming in glory	2:24
	to judge the living and the dead.	2:27
	The coming of God to Bethlehem in the infant to Jesus,	2:32
	is therefore no isolated event in history.	2:36
	Nevertheless,	2:42
	it has remained in Christian theology and devotion,	2:43
	the crucial Advent.	2:48
	For the earliest Christians,	2:51
	this past coming of Christ	2:54
	became faith fixed vantage point,	2:57
	for viewing the meaning of all of God's comings	3:01
	into history in the past,	3:05
	and all of the comings that were to follow.	3:08
	This particular Advent,	3:12
	in the fullness of time,	3:14
	decisively altered man's understanding of his existence	3:18
	and the birth of Jesus became the hinge of history	3:24
	on the calendars of the Christian world.	3:30
	It is not strange that men	3:36
	should have remembered the man of Nazareth	3:38
	and treasured the traditional accounts	3:41
	of his birth and infancy.	3:43
	But when we consider how and why	3:47
	these stories concerning him were preserved,	3:51
	we notice something which at first thought	3:55
	appeals strange indeed	3:58
	in telling and retelling the stories of Jesus.	4:02
	The early Christians felt themselves his contemporary.	4:07
	Recent research upon the gospels	4:13
	has made clear this perspective.	4:16
	It was Christian worship and the proclamation of the faith,	4:19
	which provided the original setting of the gospel stories.	4:24
	As stories of Jesus were told,	4:31
	Christians knelt before Mary, Joseph and the holy child.	4:33
	They stood in the company	4:40
	of the first hearers of Jesus in Galilee,	4:42
	receiving his blood tidings of the coming of God's kingdom.	4:45
	First Christians knew themselves	4:50
	to be the persons Jesus called to be his disciples.	4:53
	They knew that they were the sick whom he healed,	4:58
	the sinners whom he befriended and forgave.	5:02
	The annual return of the Advent season	5:08
	in the Christian year,	5:10
	reminds us that this has ever been	5:12
	the church's understanding of herself,	5:15
	of her situation before God.	5:19
	In our worship, we too are called back to Bethlehem,	5:22
	to see this thing which has come to pass,	5:28
	which the Lord has made known unto us.	5:33
	It is no sentimental journey that we take.	5:37
	Into the long ago,	5:40
	no pilgrimage to the shrine of a great person	5:43
	in Pius memory of the dead.	5:47
	We come now to Bethlehem.	5:50
	Not does a great admirer	5:54
	of Abraham Lincoln might visit the site of his humble birth,	5:57
	rather we seek to be joined in mind and in heart	6:02
	with those particular men and women who were vouch saved,	6:07
	the signs of God's coming in Christ.	6:12
	But we believe that as God revealed himself	6:17
	in Judea and Galilee, so he is today.	6:22
	And justice persons received from him then	6:28
	grace and forgiveness, even so may we,	6:33
	if only the way be prepared for God's coming.	6:39
	One does not normally turn	6:47
	to the opening lines of the gospel according to Mark	6:50
	to reflect upon God's Advent in Bethlehem.	6:55
	Matthew and Luke recalled to the stories of Jesus nativity,	7:00
	but Mark the earliest evangelist	7:07
	finally sums up the meaning of Christmas.	7:10
	Jesus came proclaiming the gospel of God	7:15
	and saying, the time is fulfilled,	7:21
	the kingdom of God has come near,	7:27
	repent and believe the gospel.	7:31
	These words concisely summarize the Christmas message	7:37
	as well as man's fitting response to it.	7:41
	The kingdom of God has come new.	7:48
	Out of Israel arose the faith	7:53
	that the God who revealed himself unto the fathers	7:55
	is the Lord of heaven and earth.	7:59
	And the hope that one day	8:03
	his rule will be made manifest unto all men.	8:05
	With intensity of conviction,	8:10
	Jesus reaffirmed his people's faith.	8:12
	The Lord God alone is man's rightful sovereign.	8:16
	He is king over all.	8:22
	But that was a new and striking note in Jesus proclamation.	8:26
	For him that long hoped for day had already dawned.	8:31
	The time when God would establish his rule over men	8:37
	was actually upon man.	8:42
	Jesus hearers found this exceedingly hard to believe.	8:46
	Many of Israel's fondest hopes were not being realized.	8:50
	Many of the signs expected were not being manifested.	8:54
	But in the face of this incredulity,	9:00
	Jesus declared the Kingdom of God	9:03
	comes not with signs to be observed.	9:08
	Nor will men say lo! here it or there,	9:12
	but behold the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.	9:17
	Apparently Jesus felt	9:24
	that men were looking in the wrong places	9:26
	and in the wrong ways	9:29
	for the manifestation of God's Kingdom.	9:31
	God's rule must be believed	9:34
	and understood in its hiddenness.	9:37
	Time and again Jesus parables	9:42
	emphasize this aspect of his proclamation.	9:44
	Does not the Christmas story at the demise	9:49
	this truth of the gospel of God.	9:53
	He came not with his heavenly crown his sceptre ,	9:56
	clad with power.	10:01
	His coming was in feebleness,	10:03
	the infant of an hour.	10:06
	An humble manger cradled first	10:08
	the Virgin holy birth and lowing her compassion desire.	10:11
	The Lord of heaven and earth.	10:17
	Under ordinary folk shepherds on a hillside,	10:21
	the sign of God's coming was given.	10:24
	You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes,	10:27
	lying in a cattle stall.	10:31
	And still today, from pulpits by the manger,	10:35
	the church proclaims under the world,	10:40
	behold you're God, the God who reigns.	10:43
	But one may well ask	10:50
	who shall see this thing that is come to pass?	10:52
	How unlike the manger	10:57
	is the sign of the 50 plus Makaton bomb.	10:59
	Proud symbol in our time that man rules the world	11:04
	and disposes its future.	11:08
	How unlike the rude swaddling clothes of a new born child,	11:11
	the standard of living symbols,	11:17
	by which materialists guarantee the salvation of the world.	11:20
	And these are the signs,	11:25
	the signs which men discount as weakness.	11:28
	The sons of God's coming unto men,	11:32
	sons of his kingdom in our midst.	11:35
	God's rule must also be believed by us	11:39
	and understood by us in it's hiddenness.	11:43
	But Jesus chief emphasis,	11:50
	lay not upon the dark and mysterious	11:53
	in the ways in which God revealed himself to men.	11:55
	Something else was in the forefront of his message	11:59
	concerning the dawning of God's Kingdom.	12:02
	A note of joy,	12:07
	a note of unexpected anticipation	12:08
	of God's grace to undeserving men.	12:13
	God yearned even now,	12:17
	to receive the rebels subjects of his kingdom	12:21
	in love and patience and great forgiveness.	12:26
	According to Jesus himself called not	12:32
	the righteous to repentance, but sinners.	12:35
	He lived among the sick in need of the physician,	12:39
	the lost, those who knew themselves lost	12:44
	where his special care.	12:49
	And not the time the prophets foretold come to pass,	12:51
	the blind receive sight, the lame walk,	12:56
	the lepers were healed,	12:59
	the poor heard the good news proclaimed unto them.	13:02
	How wonderfully the Christmas story	13:08
	reveals the grace of God our king.	13:10
	Let Bernard, the 12th century Abbot of Clairvaux	13:14
	speak to us from his pulpit by the manger.	13:19
	Christ came indeed an infant,	13:23
	but the word of God become an infant	13:27
	who is not solicit in his infancy.	13:29
	Be comforted, be comforted my people,	13:33
	says your God.	13:37
	So speaks to us Emmanuel, God with us.	13:39
	The stable proclaims it,	13:43
	the manger, the babies cry, the swaddling clothes,	13:45
	all declare it loud,	13:50
	the stable proclaims that he is preparing to cure man,	13:53
	who has fallen among robbers,	13:57
	the manger proclaims that he will feed men	14:00
	who have lowered themselves	14:04
	to the level of the senseless beasts,	14:06
	the tears and the swaddling clothes proclaim	14:09
	the man's bleeding wounds will be washed,	14:12
	that he will be clothed in righteousness,	14:16
	for Christ needed none of these things,	14:20
	he needed none of them for himself.	14:24
	They were all for his chosen,	14:27
	for those upon whom God's favor rests.	14:31
	So Bethlehem reminds us once again,	14:36
	God was in Christ,	14:40
	emptying himself of his Royal prerogatives,	14:42
	becoming poor that men through his poverty	14:46
	might receive unimagined wealth.	14:51
	The infant form, the manger bed	14:54
	signs of lowliness and poverty	14:57
	proclaim to us and you,	15:00
	the self denying, suffering, pardoning grace	15:03
	of God our king.	15:08
	But who shall see this thing that is come to pass?	15:11
	Surely not men blinded by their pride,	15:16
	deceived by the illusions of self-sufficiency.	15:20
	Surely not those among us	15:24
	who are victimized by the lie.	15:26
	That all the shame man feels	15:29
	is an unhealthy guilt complex.	15:32
	That all sin is in fact a sickness	15:36
	and that the ill are not themselves	15:40
	ever morally responsible.	15:42
	With raw humor Anna Russell,	15:46
	characterized as the popular folklore of our day.	15:49
	At three I had a feeling of ambivalence towards my brothers.	15:53
	And so it follows naturally	15:58
	I poisoned all my lovers.	16:00
	And now I'm happy	16:02
	I have learned a lesson this is taught,	16:04
	that everything I do that's wrong	16:07
	Is someone else's fault.	16:11
	Jesus taught that the blessings of God's rule	16:15
	could only be realized and received by the penitent.	16:19
	For those who were prepared to be honest with themselves,	16:23
	his proclamation arrested his hearers	16:28
	with a sense of God's judgment upon their ways.	16:31
	And in this Advent year of our Lord,	16:36
	I do not see how we can avoid that sense of judgment	16:39
	or exempt ourselves from it.	16:44
	In Christian devotion	16:47
	one normally thinks of the cross of Christ	16:49
	as the sound which awakens in man	16:52
	a consciousness of his sin,	16:54
	and of his urgent need for pardon and grace.	16:56
	But the Christmas story,	17:00
	the Christmas story is not alone sweetness and light.	17:03
	It conflicts us with inexpressible joy.	17:08
	It delights us only as it humbles us.	17:13
	For what reason asks Bernard from his pulpit by the manger,	17:19
	for what purpose did the Lord	17:25
	the majesty abase himself like this?	17:27
	If not that we should do likewise.	17:31
	For what can be more unworthy	17:35
	now that having seen the Lord of heaven	17:39
	become a little child,	17:41
	man should still magnify himself upon the earth.	17:45
	Repentance and faith, faith expressing itself in repentance.	17:51
	This is the fitting mood, the fitting mood of Advent.	17:57
	In the gospel	18:02
	those who found themselves a shamed	18:03
	in the presence of Christ,	18:05
	judged by his incredible goodness and got no further	18:08
	went away angry and sorrowful.	18:14
	And that was the end of it.	18:18
	But those who acknowledged God claim,	18:21
	the God's love claimed them utterly,	18:24
	who put that conscience under God's judgment	18:28
	so that they lost their taste for their former ways,	18:31
	found that repentance and faith	18:35
	turned into a miracle of forgiveness	18:38
	and forgiveness gave them the new life	18:40
	and a fresh beginning.	18:43
	Let the coming of the advent season,	18:46
	remind us of this promise	18:49
	of this ever present possibility.	18:51
	God in Christ came then in grace and power	18:54
	to free men from their past	19:00
	and to start new things in history.	19:03
	He has done it before, he can and he will do it again.	19:07
	For unto us a child is born.	19:12
	Unto us a son is given.	19:17
	This is the crux of the message.	19:20
	This gift,	19:23
	this coming of God was for us men and our salvation.	19:24
	Like Mary we can say, how can this thing be?	19:30
	But like Mary,	19:35
	we are challenged to believe	19:37
	that God's promises can never fail,	19:39
	that God's power is strongest	19:43
	when men know their weakness.	19:45
	And like Mary,	19:49
	we can reply in humble faith and devotion,	19:49
	here am I, a servant of the Lord,	19:54
	let it be to me according to his word.	19:57
	See how God invites you,	20:04
	writes Luther in his Christmas book.	20:06
	He places before you are baby,	20:09
	with whom you may take refuge.	20:12
	You cannot fear him	20:14
	for nothing is more appealing than a baby.	20:16
	Divinity may terrify man,	20:20
	inexpressible majesty may crush him,	20:22
	but Christ takes upon himself our humanity	20:27
	not to terrify us,	20:32
	but rather with love and favor to console us,	20:34
	to confirm us,	20:39
	then come to him, see how great is the divine goodness,	20:41
	which seeks above all else	20:47
	that you should not dispel.	20:49
	Believe that he has come not to judge you,	20:52
	but to save you.	20:56
	Draws near the time to celebrate the birth of Christ,	20:59
	God that then in the long, long ago,	21:04
	but also the opportunity to welcome him here.	21:09
	And now let us pray.	21:15
	Come thou long expected Jesus	21:29
	born to set thy people free	21:32
	from all fears and sins release us.	21:33
	Let us find our rest in thee.	21:40
	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,	21:44
	the love of God the father	21:47
	and the fellowship of the holy spirit.	21:49
	Be with us all throughout the advent season.	21:51

Item Info

Title:

James L. Price, Jr. - "The Coming of the King" (December 10, 1961)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4fx7801v

Date:

December 10, 1961

Speaker:

Price, James L., Jr.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0166
ref5538_hs5
uachapelsermaud
duke:627988
dcrau002180
ark:/87924/r4fx7801v
44ab33f1-b428-459d-81f4-151266bb9240

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

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James L. Price, Jr. - "The Coming of the King" (December 10, 1961)

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