Allan Burry - "The Exile Heads Home" (February 18, 1973)

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-	Testing one, two, three, four.	0:04
	(soft organ music)	0:08
	(choir singing in foreign language)	0:24
-	O God.	3:08
	The dweller in the innermost who know I	3:09
	grant us we beseech thee	3:14
	the aid of the spirit whose office it is to cleanse	3:16
	and comfort the soul and repel from us	3:20
	all hurtful thoughts and every assault	3:23
	of our spiritual adversaries that with collected minds	3:27
	and with hearts warmed	3:32
	by the feeling of the goodness, we may worship	3:33
	thee as we ought through, Jesus says Christ our Lord.	3:36
	Let us pray.	3:41
	O merciful God, who has promised forgiveness	3:51
	to all those who confess and forsake their sins,	3:56
	make us to be hardly sorry for our misdoings,	4:00
	that you may forgive all our inequities	4:04
	and heal all our disease	4:08
	and redeem our life from destruction.	4:10
	We do not see ourselves as sinful people	4:14
	and we pray that you will put far from us	4:18
	the self-righteousness, which has blinded our eyes.	4:21
	Take away the foolish pride and self concern,	4:26
	which cause us to hurt one another	4:30
	and to add to the fear and confusion of the world.	4:32
	Mercifully deliver us from inordinate love of self	4:37
	and from every false ambition and grant us	4:41
	the constant aid of your Holy Spirit.	4:45
	That we may follow daily	4:49
	the path of righteousness	4:50
	and enter at last into your peace	4:53
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord amen.	4:56
	Let us hear the words of assurance.	5:01
	Who is liken to God?	5:04
	Who pardons inequity and passes over transgression?	5:07
	He does not retain his anger forever	5:12
	because he delights in steadfast love.	5:16
	He will again have compassion upon us.	5:19
	He will tread our inequities underfoot.	5:23
	He will cast all our sins	5:28
	into the depth of the sea.	5:31
	Let us say together.	5:35
	The Our Father.	5:37
	Our Father who art in heaven	5:40
	hollowed be thy name.	5:44
	The kingdom come.	5:47
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	5:49
	Give us this day our daily bread	5:54
	and forgive us our trespasses.	5:57
	As we forgive those who trespass against us	6:00
	and lead us not into temptation,	6:04
	but deliver us from evil	6:07
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	6:10
	and the glory forever and ever, amen.	6:13
	(gentle organ music)	6:21
	(choir sings in foreign language)	7:16
-	The Lord be with you.	11:31
-	And also with you.	11:32
-	Let us pray.	11:34
	O Lord, who taught us in your holy word	11:40
	that anything we do without love is worth nothing.	11:45
	Pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,	11:50
	the true bond of peace and all virtues	11:55
	without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.	11:59
	Grant this for the sake of your only son, Jesus Christ,	12:04
	who lives and reigns with you	12:08
	and the Holy Spirit one God now and ever, amen.	12:11
-	The old Testament lesson is from Micah.	12:29
	The fourth chapter beginning with verse one.	12:34
	It shall come to pass in the later days	12:39
	that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall	12:43
	be established as the highest of the mountains	12:46
	and shall be raised up above the hills.	12:50
	And peoples shall flow to it.	12:55
	And many nations shall come and say,	12:59
	"Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,	13:02
	"to the house of the God of Jacob,	13:07
	"that he may teach us his ways	13:11
	"and we may walk in his paths.	13:15
	"For out of Zion shall go forth the law	13:19
	"and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.	13:23
	"He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide	13:28
	"for strong nations afar off,	13:32
	"and they shall beat their swords into plowshares	13:37
	"and their spears into pruning hooks.	13:41
	"Nations shall not lift up sword against nation.	13:45
	"Neither shall they learn war anymore.	13:49
	"But they shall sit every man under his vine	13:53
	"and under his fig tree	13:58
	"and none shall make them afraid.	14:01
	"For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken."	14:06
	Here ends the Old Testament lesson.	14:13
	The New Testament lesson is from the Gospel of John.	14:23
	The 11th chapter beginning with verse 38.	14:29
	Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb.	14:43
	It was a cave and a stone lay upon it.	14:50
	Jesus said, "Take away the stone."	14:56
	Martha, the sister of the dead man said to him,	15:01
	"Lord, by this time there will be an odor	15:04
	"for he has been dead four days."	15:08
	Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you	15:13
	"that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"	15:18
	So they took away the stone	15:25
	and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,	15:28
	"Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.	15:31
	"I knew that thou hearest me always.	15:37
	"But I have said this on account of the people standing by	15:42
	"that they may believe that thou didst send me."	15:47
	When he had said this,	15:54
	he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus come out."	15:56
	The dead man came out.	16:04
	His hands and feet bound with bandages	16:06
	and his face wrapped with a cloth.	16:11
	Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him go."	16:15
	Here ends the New Testament lesson.	16:23
	(lively organ music)	16:27
	(choir sings in foreign language)	16:36
-	Let us join together in the unison affirmation of faith.	17:10
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	17:14
	who has come in the true man Jesus,	17:20
	to reconcile and make new.	17:23
	Who works in us and others by his spirit.	17:26
	We trust him.	17:30
	He calls us to be in his church to celebrate his presence,	17:32
	to love and serve others,	17:37
	to seek justice and resist evil,	17:40
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen our judge	17:43
	and our hope in, life in death.	17:48
	In life beyond death, God is with us.	17:52
	We are not alone.	17:56
	Thanks be to God.	17:58
	Amen.	18:01
	Let us pray.	18:11
	O God, we thank the that thy love is so constant and tender	18:14
	that it passes all understanding.	18:21
	A parent's love may fail toward his or her child.	18:25
	Our faithlessness sometimes robs us	18:29
	of the love of our friends.	18:32
	Self-knowledge prevents us ever loving ourselves	18:35
	yet thy love for us	18:42
	is not conditioned by our worthlessness,	18:44
	but through all rebellion, waywardness, and despair,	18:48
	your love continues unfailing and unending.	18:53
	Help us to fly	18:59
	to you with open arms and hearts.	19:00
	We thank you more that your love is just	19:04
	when it is merciful.	19:08
	Often we have pleaded earnestly that something might step	19:10
	in between us and the (indistinct) of our sin.	19:14
	That when we have stooped to meanness,	19:18
	sought the refuge of lies, done some unrighteous deeds,	19:22
	all might be forgotten	19:28
	and life might flow on as before.	19:30
	We are glad to know that thy justice is wiser than our mercy	19:34
	and by purpose greater than our prayers.	19:41
	We thank thee most that thy love is like the light.	19:46
	Relentless, unescapable, and victorious.	19:51
	Thy will not leave us in the darkness	19:56
	however much we love it.	19:59
	Thy will not let us shield ourselves	20:02
	with ignorance, deception, or pride,	20:04
	but will shine in upon us.	20:09
	Whatever be revealed.	20:13
	Burn my way to our souls at whatever pain.	20:16
	We acknowledge in sorrow how hard	20:22
	and unsympathetic are our hearts.	20:25
	How often we have sinned against our neighbors	20:29
	by want of compassion and tenderness.	20:32
	How often we have felt no true pity for their trials	20:36
	and sorrows and have neglected	20:40
	to comfort, help, and visit them.	20:43
	Our God, give us grace ever to alleviate the crosses	20:49
	and difficulties of those around us	20:53
	and never, never to add to them.	20:56
	Teach us to be consolers in sorrow,	21:00
	to take thought for the stranger,	21:04
	the bereaved and the orphan.	21:07
	Let our charity show itself.	21:10
	Not only in words, but in deed and in truth.	21:13
	Teach us to judge as thou dust	21:18
	with forbearance with much pity and indulgence,	21:22
	and help us to avoid all unloving judgment of others.	21:28
	We praise thee O God,	21:34
	for the many stringed harp of our humanity.	21:36
	And that thou has left no race nor age	21:41
	without some witness of thy spirit.	21:45
	Forbid that those upon whom the full favor	21:50
	of they revelation rests should forget	21:53
	the lowest state from which thou has lifted them.	21:56
	Nor scorn others upon whom the shadows still deeply lie.	22:01
	May we hold any gift of ours	22:06
	as sacred testimonials to be shared in that redemption	22:10
	of which the cross of Jesus is sullen and challenge,	22:15
	even though we share its pain	22:19
	as we have shared its glory.	22:22
	Give us the grace to love of every nation and race.	22:26
	The wealth of spirit, which thou has made particularly	22:31
	their own that our human world shall lift to thee	22:35
	a music of humanity no longer sad and still	22:41
	but triumphantly harmonious in fellowship of joy and praise.	22:47
	Send us O God as thy messengers	22:56
	to hearts without a home,	23:00
	to lives without love, to the crowds without a God.	23:03
	Send us to the children whom none have blessed,	23:09
	to the famished whom none have fed,	23:13
	to the fallen whom none have lifted,	23:17
	to the bereaved whom none have comforted.	23:20
	Kindle thy flame on the altars of our hearts	23:24
	that others may be warmed thereby.	23:28
	Cause thy light to shine in our actions	23:32
	that others may see a way	23:36
	and keep our wills keen and our hands quick	23:39
	to help our sisters and brothers in their need.	23:44
	All this we pray in thy glorious name,	23:49
	our God creator and sustainer.	23:53
	Amen.	23:57
	We are very pleased this morning	24:01
	to welcome to the chapel	24:04
	the Reverend Allan Burry from Wesleyan University	24:06
	who will deliver our sermon for the morning.	24:11
-	I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you	24:25
	and to share in your worship.	24:28
	But let me begin with a confession.	24:31
	As I began to prepare for today,	24:36
	I had an idea for this sermon	24:39
	and thought this passage from Micah would be	24:42
	a good illustration for what I wanted to say.	24:45
	Looking more closely at the text, however,	24:49
	I found that what was on my mind wasn't on Micah's mind.	24:52
	In fact, I couldn't find my notions anywhere in the Bible.	24:58
	So this sermon is somewhat different than I had expected.	25:02
	There is a small but significant lesson	25:08
	to us in that experience.	25:11
	The scriptures won't always confirm our prejudices	25:13
	nor do they lend themselves to quick quotes	25:18
	to support previously drawn conclusions.	25:21
	So with a watchful and instructed eye,	25:26
	it let us look to see what we can learn	25:31
	from these lessons from Micah and John.	25:33
	The Micah text was shaped and formed reflecting	25:39
	the bitter experiences of the exile of Israel.	25:43
	In other passages, we read of the lostness,	25:49
	and the suffering, the spiritual barrenness of the exile.	25:53
	But what jumps out to us in this passage	25:59
	is the intensity of his yearning,	26:02
	his profound, spiritual dislocation.	26:05
	The grandeur of that vision of that mountain	26:09
	and his passionate conviction	26:13
	that someday things will be right again.	26:15
	That the people who have been torn apart by the tragedies	26:20
	of their existence will be healed.	26:24
	Our detraction to that vision tells us	26:29
	that this story speaks to our own experiences too.	26:33
	The figure of the exile	26:38
	is a curiously powerful image for our day.	26:40
	The exile who is physically away from his own country	26:45
	is familiar to all of us.	26:49
	Persons in exile from Vietnam to Paris,	26:52
	from Greece to the United States,	26:56
	in exile from the United States to Canada and Sweden,	26:59
	from Palestine to Syria,	27:03
	from Uganda to Britain, from Russia to Israel.	27:05
	These are all very dramatic, but they are also far away.	27:10
	I believe we have much more in common with Micah	27:16
	the exile than that kind of distant interest.	27:19
	There is the exile in our own midst.	27:26
	And more importantly, the exile who lives within most of us.	27:30
	This is the one who does not feel at home	27:38
	while he is at home.	27:42
	The exile who is disenchanted	27:45
	and estranged from the government.	27:47
	This is the exile who has worked	27:52
	for social change and worked fervently.	27:53
	Who no longer feels totally at one with	27:58
	the remaining movements for change.	28:01
	This is the exile living	28:06
	and working in educational institutions,	28:07
	which so urgently need fresh visions of their tasks.	28:11
	This exile I'm talking about is not the one who	28:18
	is thrashing wildly about destroying and condemning.	28:20
	It is rather the picture of you	28:27
	and of me looking for meaning, looking for intimacy,	28:29
	looking for lives and work and structures	28:36
	that we can affirm.	28:40
	Looking for salvation.	28:43
	The vision of that good life for Micah and for us	28:46
	is shaped of course, by one's theological beliefs.	28:52
	But it is also shaped in no small measure	28:57
	by those things in the present,	29:00
	which distort and destroy humanity.	29:02
	The vision of that healed society takes	29:05
	into account the present sources of disease and discomfort.	29:09
	So let us try to reconstruct from Micah's visions	29:17
	of restoration the diseases they will heal.	29:21
	Micah speaks of the restoration of the house of the Lord.	29:27
	The mountain, which will be the highest mountain	29:31
	and people will come to it.	29:35
	Not just come to it in Micah's words, flow to it.	29:37
	The true faith will be heard again and established.	29:42
	Is Micah saying here that	29:48
	a lot of what he presently sees posing as religion	29:50
	is fake religion, hypocrisy,	29:54
	unfaithful religious leaders and idolatrous lay people?	29:59
	Could it be?	30:04
	Could it be too that Micah senses	30:07
	a deep spiritual hunger in his people	30:09
	and maybe even in himself?	30:13
	That the present religious forms aren't satisfying.	30:16
	And is it possible that this hunger can go so unsatisfied	30:21
	for so long that this hunger intensifies and becomes	30:25
	a deep yearning, even a gnawing craving	30:30
	for a word of liberation,	30:34
	a word of feeding?	30:38
	For the spiritual exile at sea in an alien world	30:43
	the hunger prompts visions of plenitude.	30:48
	Of that true and lively word of integrity,	30:53
	which binds together affirmation and action.	30:57
	That knits faith and life into a unified whole	31:01
	and this exile Micah joins with the others who will go up	31:07
	to the mountain of the Lord to that big chapel saying,	31:11
	"Come let us go up	31:16
	"that he may teach us his ways	31:20
	"and we may walk in his paths."	31:23
	Do you notice the we and the us in that verse?	31:29
	The way Micah thinks in the plural	31:32
	that he may teach us.	31:35
	That we may walk.	31:38
	The exile knows the loneliness	31:42
	of the life lived in the singular.	31:45
	The incompleteness of one's humanity apart	31:50
	from those who share values with you,	31:53
	those who can smile or weep with you.	31:56
	The intimacy of a profound silence.	31:59
	The comfort of an unobtrusive	32:04
	but concerned presence of those you love	32:06
	and who love you.	32:09
	The friendship, which grows and matures beyond that name.	32:12
	Can it be that Micah had seen and been	32:19
	a part of that pain of isolation?	32:22
	Can it be that Micah too	32:27
	had measured out his life with coffee spoons?	32:29
	Had been sick one time too many after a party?	32:33
	Had looked beyond passionate intimacy	32:37
	into the face of transients?	32:41
	Had finished the dissertation and cursed?	32:45
	Had watched the children grow up and said, "What now?"	32:50
	And from his exiled heart,	32:57
	he looks towards learning from God	32:59
	so he can walk.	33:04
	For Micah, learning is connected to something.	33:07
	Walking in the paths of God.	33:10
	His vision is for learning, which fits the goal of his life.	33:14
	The paths of God go far a field into the unexpected	33:20
	as well as the familiar	33:25
	and learning is related to those paths.	33:27
	Plumbing the depths of our human folly	33:32
	and the greatness of the human imagination.	33:35
	Learning who we are.	33:39
	What our world is really like.	33:40
	Gathering data and asking why.	33:43
	If you would look for a moment at the cover	33:49
	of the chapel bulletin.	33:52
	Do you see there in one type size	33:55
	it reads the order of the university,	33:58
	and then in another type the service of worship.	34:01
	To do clear violence to the intended meaning there,	34:06
	I'm nevertheless interested in the chapel's relationship	34:09
	to the order of the university.	34:12
	Theology has long since ceased being	34:17
	the queen of the sciences,	34:20
	and no one wishes to impose an order	34:22
	for the university from the chapel.	34:25
	But at the same time,	34:29
	there remains a deep and urgent need	34:31
	for some kind of personal order	34:33
	for those of us who live and work within the university.	34:37
	We need some way to connect classes, exams, dorm life,	34:42
	personal goals, human relationships, writing papers,	34:48
	publishing articles, and lab work.	34:51
	So Micah dreams of that time when he will teach us his ways	34:55
	and we may walk in his paths.	35:01
	The next few lines of our passage deal with God's judgment	35:07
	between nations and the process of de-militarizing society.	35:10
	Swords will be converted into plowshares.	35:16
	Spears into pruning hooks.	35:18
	We know the violence that brings that dream.	35:21
	The ravaging of peoples, cultures, lands,	35:25
	the dislocation of the refugee,	35:30
	the enormous expenditures of energy and money	35:33
	to fashion the instruments of warfare.	35:37
	And finally the wariness of it all.	35:39
	Growing to a callousness of spirit	35:44
	the numbness that overtakes the peacemaker	35:47
	and the warrior alike.	35:50
	The seeds of a vision of peace	35:55
	are all around in that conflict.	35:57
	A time when people will not learn war anymore.	36:00
	In place of the senseless violence, the killing,	36:06
	the maiming, Micah longs for that peace and just order,	36:09
	which is symbolized by him in a rural imagery.	36:16
	But they shall sit every man under his vine	36:20
	and under his fig tree.	36:24
	Sitting under that fig tree or vine sounds very appealing.	36:28
	A picture of repose, security, and tranquility,	36:33
	and even better for me if that vine	36:38
	were right next to a lake full of large-mouth bass.	36:41
	In our own time the rural setting,	36:46
	the farm in Vermont for our students at Wesleyan,	36:51
	or the backpacking trek through the mountains,	36:54
	or the unspoiled and uncrowded beach.	36:56
	These are places where in our imaginations and fantasy	37:00
	you won't be hassled.	37:06
	This is where beauty can provoke a gentle response.	37:10
	Where the mechanized and technologized world	37:15
	is not allowed to intrude.	37:18
	Here the pressures are off	37:21
	and you can really be	37:24
	that human being you were created to be.	37:26
	Micah describes that kind of life free from threat.	37:30
	He says, "Where none shall make them afraid."	37:35
	These simple words answer a throbbing in our nerves.	37:40
	For fear has become our constant companion.	37:45
	During the last decade	37:51
	this fear has increased so markedly	37:52
	that it threatens to erode anything generous	37:56
	and outgoing in our spirit.	37:59
	People are afraid of being mugged.	38:03
	The old are afraid of the young.	38:05
	The races are afraid of each other.	38:07
	Everyone is afraid of so much that it's about us	38:10
	so that it is not too far from the mark	38:14
	to characterize us as a people	38:16
	who are afraid almost to death.	38:18
	Perhaps you would want to call it by some other name.	38:23
	Estrangement, hostility, mean-mindedness, paranoia.	38:27
	But how else can we explain the distrust	38:34
	of government among so many of our people?	38:36
	How else explain the difficulties we face	38:40
	in establishing open and trusting personal relationships?	38:43
	How else explain the feeling that to extend one's self	38:48
	to become vulnerable will probably end in pain?	38:52
	How else explain the bitterness of public debate	38:57
	on welfare, education, taxes, and defense?	39:00
	When the whole world is experienced as threat,	39:05
	the soul is warped almost beyond recognition.	39:09
	And the hope grows that there is a place	39:15
	where none shall make us afraid.	39:19
	Parenthetically, just as I was writing out those lines,	39:24
	fire trucks went past my office heading	39:27
	in the direction of my home a few blocks away.	39:30
	There have been several very suspicious fires in our area	39:33
	in the last few days.	39:37
	And I called home from my office	39:37
	to make sure everything was okay.	39:39
	It looks a little silly upon reflection	39:43
	but it seemed perfectly natural at the time	39:46
	to make that call.	39:48
	And so the exile dislocated in body or in spirit,	39:53
	not to totally at home in the nation, the university,	39:58
	the church, and sometimes the family dreams	40:01
	of the healing of those divisions.	40:05
	Of a time of inner security and social justice.	40:08
	Micah holds out hope for the mouth of the Lord	40:14
	of hosts has spoken.	40:18
	That hope is grounded in God's goodwill toward us	40:21
	and Israel in holding fast to Micah	40:26
	and making these writings part of the sacred texts,	40:30
	converts that hope into promise.	40:33
	We have not an empty hope born out	40:39
	of our own restlessness.	40:42
	Rather we celebrate this passage of Micah	40:44
	as God's promise to us,	40:46
	which is more than hope.	40:50
	But when will this hope	40:53
	and when will this promise be redeemed?	40:56
	Will it be delayed past all reasonableness?	41:00
	Will this promise be fulfilled while there is still time	41:04
	for us to enjoy that victory?	41:07
	With these questions pressing in upon us	41:12
	we look now at the Lazarus story.	41:14
	The story of death, compassion, and life.	41:16
	Keep in mind that the author of this gospel	41:22
	is concerned about Jesus' power	41:24
	and that just a few verses earlier Jesus had told Martha,	41:27
	"I am the resurrection and the life,"	41:31
	and asked her if she believed that.	41:34
	Now this text begins by reminding us again	41:39
	that Jesus was deeply moved.	41:41
	His friend Lazarus was dead.	41:44
	His friends Mary and Martha were grieving.	41:47
	Mary was weeping and Jesus saw	41:49
	the futility of all this.	41:52
	The lack of faith, the unnecessary tears,	41:54
	but also the pain.	41:58
	And so he moves.	42:02
	Take away the stone.	42:04
	And again, the author drives his point home.	42:08
	Lazarus has been dead four days.	42:10
	For three days it was believed	42:14
	the soul hovered nearby waiting	42:16
	to be reunited with the body.	42:19
	But then as decomposition sets	42:21
	in on the fourth day, the soul left.	42:23
	And this was the fourth day.	42:27
	Lazarus was not simply dead,	42:30
	he was hopelessly dead	42:33
	and the stage is now completely set for the mighty act.	42:36
	The manifestation of the glory of God.	42:40
	Jesus asks Martha another question.	42:45
	"Did I not tell you that if you would believe	42:47
	"you would see the glory of God?"	42:50
	Not even death can stand in the way	42:54
	of God's glory and power.	42:57
	The sense of entrapment,	43:00
	the futility of being bound to death,	43:01
	the denial of the possibilities of life	43:05
	is a denial of God.	43:07
	They took the stone away and Jesus cried out with	43:11
	a loud voice, "Lazarus come out,"	43:14
	and he did.	43:19
	The mighty act was performed.	43:22
	Lazarus, hopelessly dead was alive.	43:26
	The resurrection and the life,	43:32
	the promise of the end	43:33
	of time had called over into the present.	43:35
	The word was spoken.	43:39
	There was Lazarus, restored.	43:43
	And we remember again	43:47
	the question Jesus had put just moments before to Mary.	43:48
	"Did I not tell you that if you would believe	43:52
	"you would see the glory of God?"	43:57
	The theological affirmation is presented boldly	44:01
	in a dramatic scene.	44:05
	There is power here which can be known and felt.	44:07
	This power brings life to the dead.	44:13
	It need not be delayed to some distant time.	44:18
	Jesus called out to Lazarus by name	44:23
	and he calls out to us.	44:27
	We may not be dead,	44:30
	but from our exile need that gift of life and wholeness.	44:32
	Your wanderings can be over.	44:40
	The new day is here.	44:42
	You're home now.	44:46
	But before you rush off to that fig tree,	44:51
	bait your hook for the bass,	44:54
	or pick out your seeds for the farm in Vermont,	44:56
	stay with me for just one moment more	44:59
	to hear the ending of the story.	45:03
	When Lazarus came out,	45:08
	he was bandaged all out.	45:11
	His hands and his feet were bound	45:13
	and his face was wrapped in a cloth.	45:16
	Jesus turns to those around him and says,	45:20
	"Unbind him and let him go."	45:22
	There are two words here from Jesus to us.	45:27
	The first is addressed to that exile who lives within us.	45:32
	Come out.	45:37
	That second word is the instruction for us	45:41
	to help those who are coming alive.	45:45
	Those who are still bound while alive.	45:49
	Unbind him and let him go.	45:54
	In these few words, Jesus reminds us	45:59
	that part of our own liberation includes	46:03
	the work of liberating others.	46:06
	No person is finally free until all are free.	46:08
	The wandering exile now knows	46:14
	the paths leading home	46:18
	but is also charged to share that knowledge	46:21
	and freedom with the other exiles in his wilderness.	46:24
	The fig tree and the vine,	46:29
	the fishing lake, and the unspoiled beach	46:32
	become now vacation spots.	46:36
	The home for the spirit	46:40
	while the work continues on binding and setting free.	46:43
	The exile heads home yearning for that rest,	46:48
	that peace, and safety promised	46:52
	as the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.	46:55
	But as we go, picking our way through terrain	46:59
	that is often hostile and usually alien,	47:03
	we remember that call to come forth from our Lord,	47:07
	which supports us and we remember his instruction	47:12
	to unbind, which fills our days being	47:16
	at home in our spirits	47:21
	as we head home.	47:25
	Let us pray.	47:31
	We remember O God that we are a pilgrim people.	47:36
	Expand our sympathies as you expand our strength.	47:43
	Bless us on our way that your glory	47:50
	may call both us and others to life.	47:55
	In the name of him who gave life to Lazarus	48:01
	and who calls us by name.	48:06
	Amen.	48:10
	(upbeat organ music)	48:14
	(choir singing in foreign language)	48:57
	(gentle organ music)	52:23
	(choir sings in foreign language)	53:57
-	You have given yourself to us, Lord.	58:06
	Now we give ourselves for others.	58:11
	Your love has made us a new people.	58:14
	As a people of love, we will serve you with joy.	58:18
	Your glory has filled our hearts.	58:23
	Help us to glorify you in all things.	58:26
	Amen.	58:32
	Go out in peace to serve God	58:39
	and your neighbor in all that you do.	58:42
	The blessing of God, father, son,	58:46
	and Holy Spirit	58:51
	is with you always.	58:54
	Amen.	58:57
	(choir sings in foreign language)	59:01
	(bell rings)	1:00:31
	(lively organ music)	1:00:45

Item Info

Title:

Allan Burry - "The Exile Heads Home" (February 18, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4xk88r9v

Date:

February 18, 1973

Speaker:

Burry, Allan

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0646
ref6495_4jl
uachapelsermaud
duke:628679
dcrau002629
ark:/87924/r4xk88r9v
1effdac2-8c11-41e7-bee1-b5cd03571081

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.

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No Re-Use

In Copyright

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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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Allan Burry - "The Exile Heads Home" (February 18, 1973)

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1. Allan Burry - "The Exile Heads Home" (February 18, 1973)

Duke University Archives

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Allan Burry - "The Exile Heads Home" (February 18, 1973)

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Duke University Archives

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