H. Eugene Peacock - "Rich Man, Poor Man" (August 10, 1975)

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	(gentle music)	0:05
	(choir sings indistinctly)	0:10
	♪ Amen ♪	1:15
-	Let us pray.	1:26
	O holy God, you are not served by our hands	1:28
	as though you need anything.	1:33
	But you delight in the worship of a contrite heart.	1:36
	Grant us grace this hour	1:41
	to forget all that would distract us	1:44
	from our worship of you,	1:47
	remembering that you have made us,	1:50
	that you are the beginning and the end of our life.	1:52
	Grant us to know the limit of our knowledge	1:58
	so that we may seek your wisdom and your glory,	2:02
	and so may worship you in humility	2:07
	and arise to newness of life.	2:10
	All this we pray in the spirit of our Lord.	2:14
	Amen.	2:18
	(bright uplifting organ music)	2:22
	(choir sings indistinctly)	2:56
	Let us pray.	5:28
	Grant us, O holy God, your grace to see ourselves	5:32
	in the light of your holiness,	5:37
	knowing that from you no secrets are hid,	5:39
	yet knowing your love that forgives us when we come to you.	5:44
	Let us now make our personal confession to our God.	5:51
	And then let us unite in our corporate confession.	6:15
	Our heavenly God, who by your love has made us	6:19
	and through your love has kept us,	6:25
	and in your love would make us perfect:	6:28
	we humbly confess that we have not loved you	6:31
	with all our heart and soul and mind and strength,	6:35
	and that we have not loved one another	6:40
	as Christ has loved us.	6:43
	Your life is within our souls,	6:46
	but our selfishness has hindered you.	6:49
	We have not lived by faith.	6:52
	We have resisted your Spirit.	6:55
	We have neglected your inspirations.	6:58
	Forgive what we have been;	7:03
	help us to amend what we are;	7:05
	and in your Spirit direct what we shall be;	7:09
	that you may come into the full glory of your creation,	7:13
	in us and in all persons	7:17
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	7:20
	Amen.	7:23
	We rejoice in God's forgiveness and mercy,	7:25
	which releases us from the paralysis	7:28
	of an unquiet conscience and frees us to become coworkers	7:32
	with God in serving all people.	7:38
	Amen.	7:42
	(light cheerful organ music)	7:46
	♪ Now God be praised in heaven above ♪	8:24
	♪ Praised be he for his great love ♪	8:30
	♪ Where-in all creatures live and move ♪	8:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:40
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:43
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	8:46
	♪ Praise him yet more for conquering faith, ♪	8:50
	♪ which feareth neither pain nor death ♪	8:55
	♪ But, trusting God, rejoicing saith ♪	9:00
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:08
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:11
	♪ His grace defends us from all ill ♪	9:15
	♪ His Christ shall be our leader still ♪	9:20
	♪ Till heaven and earth shall do his will ♪	9:25
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:31
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:33
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	9:36
-	Hear the reading of the holy scriptures.	9:48
	First, from second Samuel, the 12th chapter.	9:51
	Now the Lord sent Nathan to David.	9:56
	He came to him and said to him,	9:59
	"There were two men in a certain city,	10:01
	the one rich and the other poor.	10:04
	The rich man had very many flocks and herds,	10:07
	but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb,	10:10
	which he had bought.	10:15
	And he brought it up, and it grew up with him	10:17
	and with his children.	10:19
	It used to eat of his morsels and drink from his cup	10:21
	and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.	10:25
	Now there came a traveler to the rich man,	10:30
	and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd	10:34
	to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him,	10:38
	but he took the poor man's lamb	10:41
	and prepared it for the man who had come to him."	10:44
	Then David's anger was greatly kindled against this man,	10:48
	and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives,	10:51
	the man who has done this deserves to die,	10:55
	and he shall restore the lamb fourfold,	11:00
	because he did this thing, and because he had no pity."	11:03
	Nathan said to David, "You are the man!	11:09
	Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.	11:14
	I anointed you king over Israel,	11:18
	and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.	11:21
	And I gave you your master's house	11:25
	and your master's wives into your bosom	11:27
	and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.	11:30
	And if this were too little,	11:34
	I would have added to you as much more.	11:36
	Why have you despised the word of the Lord,	11:40
	to do what is evil in his sight?	11:44
	You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword	11:48
	and have taken his wife to be your wife	11:51
	and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites."	11:54
	Let us stand for the reading of the gospel lesson.	11:59
	Hear the reading from the 11th chapter of Matthew.	12:08
	"But I tell you that it shall be more tolerable	12:13
	on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you."	12:17
	At that time Jesus declared, "I thank thee, Father,	12:22
	Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things	12:26
	from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes;	12:29
	yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.	12:35
	All things have been delivered to me by my Father;	12:39
	and no one knows the Son except the Father,	12:44
	and no one knows the Father except the Son	12:47
	and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.	12:51
	Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,	12:56
	and I will give you rest.	13:00
	Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;	13:03
	for I am gentle and lowly in heart,	13:07
	and you will find rest for your souls.	13:10
	For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."	13:14
	Thanks be to God for this holy Word.	13:20
	(bright music)	13:24
	(choir sing indistinctly)	13:33
	Let us make our corporate affirmation of our faith.	14:08
	We are not alone, we live in God's world.	14:13
	We believe in God: who has created and is creating,	14:17
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	14:22
	to reconcile and make new,	14:26
	who works in us and others through the Spirit.	14:29
	We trust God who calls us to be the church	14:33
	to celebrate life in its fullness	14:38
	to love and serve others,	14:41
	to seek justice and resist evil,	14:43
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	14:47
	our judge and our hope.	14:50
	In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.	14:53
	We are not alone. Thanks be to God.	15:00
	The Lord be with you.	15:05
-	And with your spirit.	15:07
-	Let us pray.	15:09
	Almighty God, we worship you the creator of this world	15:19
	and the redeemer of us and all persons.	15:25
	We praise you for your power and might.	15:30
	Before the mountains were brought forth	15:35
	or ever the world was made from everlasting to everlasting,	15:37
	you were and are and ever shall be God.	15:43
	We praise you for your goodness and your mercy.	15:49
	You have both formed and reformed us,	15:53
	both created and recreated us.	15:58
	We are fearfully and wonderfully made.	16:02
	We rejoice that you have allowed us	16:06
	to know your goodness, to participate in your creation.	16:09
	Grant us grace, O God, to serve you in all of our living,	16:14
	our work, our play, our love,	16:21
	our sadness, our joy, our sorrow,	16:25
	and enlarge our love of God	16:29
	that we may pray for needs beyond our own.	16:33
	We pray for our country and its leaders.	16:38
	Keep them on paths of justice and humility.	16:42
	We pray for all countries on our earth	16:46
	that they may bring to their people a good and full life.	16:50
	We pray for your church that it may be obedient	16:57
	to its calling and to your will.	17:01
	We pray for those who work with their hands,	17:05
	that they may know the dignity of their work.	17:09
	We pray for those who work with their minds,	17:14
	that they may know the wholeness of life.	17:17
	And o God, we pray for those who have no work	17:21
	that they may find useful use of their time and abilities.	17:25
	We pray for the millions of distressed, dispossessed,	17:32
	and anguished persons who have been uprooted	17:37
	because of war or famine or fear or hatred.	17:40
	O Lord, save us from heedlessness in a world full of sorrow	17:47
	and from self-righteousness,	17:52
	show us how we are all bound to one another	17:55
	and all bear some responsibility for the pain and hunger	17:58
	of our brothers and sisters.	18:03
	And now, O God, hear our prayers for those we love,	18:07
	those who are sick, who are lonely, who need our love,	18:12
	who need to know your love.	18:19
	And now let us lift to God those persons	18:22
	we have particular concern for.	18:27
	O God, hear these our prayers.	18:41
	Use us to minister to these people for whom we care	18:45
	and help us that we may truly pray	18:53
	the prayer that Jesus has taught us.	18:55
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	19:00
	hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;	19:04
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	19:09
	Give us this day our daily bread;	19:13
	and forgive us our trespasses	19:17
	as we forgive those who trespass against us;	19:19
	and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	19:23
	For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory	19:28
	forever and ever.	19:33
	Amen.	19:35
	We welcome to our pulpit today Gene Peacock,	19:38
	who is entering his fourth year as district superintendent	19:41
	of the High Point District of United Methodist Church.	19:45
	We listen for the word for you. Welcome.	19:49
-	The rich grow richer, the poor grow poorer,	20:17
	and the gap between them grows wider.	20:23
	This old new problem	20:30
	by this condition is aggravated	20:36
	already pregnant with danger	20:40
	and elevated to the level of conflict.	20:44
	Some will say that this is just the way life is,	20:50
	it has always been like this, and it will always be,	20:53
	and we just have to accept it and make the best of it.	20:58
	And some looking for some level of religious sanction	21:05
	will quote what Jesus said to his disciples	21:09
	when they got upset with Mary Magdalene,	21:12
	because she anointed his head and feet	21:15
	with precious ointment.	21:18
	And he said to them,	21:21
	"The poor you will always have with you."	21:23
	But these rationales will no longer wash in these times.	21:29
	First, just a word about Jesus and Mary Magdalene	21:36
	and that precious ornament and his resentful disciples.	21:40
	His time was limited in this world and he knew it.	21:47
	And all that he said was that he soon would be gone	21:50
	and the poor would still be around.	21:53
	And he certainly did not mean	21:57
	that for all time and eternity,	21:59
	great masses of people had to be poor and live in poverty.	22:03
	And for this hour, the poor of this world	22:10
	have shed their docility.	22:15
	They're restless everywhere.	22:19
	And they no longer are willing to accept	22:23
	the kind of lives they live as divinely ordained.	22:27
	We just have a whole new ball game to deal with.	22:35
	The issue is old, but it is new.	22:40
	And it demands as never before	22:45
	that we examine it honestly and forthrightly	22:47
	in the light of our faith and values.	22:51
	Christian people turn to the Bible for guidance.	22:58
	And so we turn to the Bible,	23:01
	and in particular for that incident	23:03
	recorded in the Old Testament where Nathan the prophet	23:08
	had an encounter with David the king.	23:12
	David was a public figure with two faces.	23:19
	He very carefully cultivated a public image as a man virtue,	23:29
	and behind the scenes he lived like a devil	23:39
	much of the time.	23:41
	He lusted after a lovely young woman named Bathsheba.	23:44
	He took her into his bedroom and committed adultery with her	23:48
	and she became pregnant because of it.	23:52
	And when she told him, he immediately recognized	23:57
	that would be a political liability and he had to cover up.	24:02
	She had a husband whose name was Uriah.	24:07
	He was a soldier off at war.	24:09
	So the king said word to the general	24:12
	to send Uriah home immediately, posthaste.	24:14
	And he did.	24:19
	But being the dedicated soldier that he was,	24:22
	Uriah declined to sleep with his wife	24:24
	until all of his comrades in arms on the battlefield	24:27
	had also been brought home.	24:31
	So that ruse did not work.	24:33
	David had to find something else.	24:37
	And this time, he plotted murder.	24:39
	He sent a secret word to the general	24:42
	to place Uriah on the front line,	24:46
	where he was certain to be killed.	24:48
	And he did it. And he was.	24:49
	Nathan the prophet was a nosy person	24:54
	and he found out about this some way.	24:58
	And he was outraged by it and he came to see the king.	25:02
	Must not have been as difficult in those days to get it in	25:08
	to see the headman as it is sometimes now.	25:11
	And he made an indirect, but unmistakable approach to him	25:16
	on what he had done.	25:22
	He told him a parable about a poor man and a rich man	25:24
	who were neighbors in the same city.	25:27
	Poor man just had one little lamb	25:31
	and he had bought it and had made a pet of it.	25:33
	It ate from his hand and drank from his cup	25:35
	and he cuddled it in his arms,	25:38
	and it was almost as one of the family.	25:40
	The rich man had large flocks, felt he was entitled to them.	25:44
	And when a traveler came by and stopped over for dinner,	25:53
	rather than taking a lamb from his own flocks,	25:56
	he went down and took the only little lamb the poor man had,	25:59
	and they ate it.	26:04
	Well, when the prophet told the king about this,	26:07
	the king was outraged, and he said,	26:09
	the man who has done this is such a radical,	26:12
	he is hers to be put to death,	26:14
	and at the very least, he must restore	26:16
	what he has taken fourfold.	26:20
	And Nathan the prophet	26:24
	looked David the king straight in the eye	26:25
	and said to him, "Thou art the man."	26:28
	And the situation began to churn.	26:33
	Now what I would like for us to do	26:37
	with this rich man, poor man theme	26:40
	is where we are and who we are	26:47
	and the kind of world in which we live	26:49
	and with whose issues we are called upon to cope,	26:53
	in that context, see what we can draw out	26:58
	of what God's says to us in this part of his Word	27:01
	for enlightenment and for guidance,	27:06
	as it applies to wealth and its power.	27:09
	This is really the crux of the matter.	27:12
	Wealth and its power and how we use it.	27:16
	Right off we can see that it says to us	27:21
	that wealth is a gift.	27:24
	I do not mean just donations and estates	27:30
	that one might inherit, but all wealth of every kind.	27:36
	The raw materials of wealth,	27:43
	the raw materials from which we make our wealth,	27:45
	all of these things are the gifts of God.	27:50
	We cannot create them.	27:52
	We cannot manufacture them.	27:54
	We cannot produce them.	27:56
	They are given to us without cost	27:59
	and even without prior consultation.	28:05
	They're the gifts of God.	28:10
	Now, David should have known this.	28:14
	He certainly had been taught better.	28:20
	But you know, the human memory	28:24
	can be a very convenient faculty.	28:26
	It can almost without even grinding its gears	28:31
	shift into an accommodation for the state of existence	28:35
	at a particular time, in which one may find himself.	28:39
	And so it was with the king.	28:44
	He should have known better,	28:48
	but he apparently had forgotten all about it.	28:50
	And speaking for God	28:53
	as prophets sometimes have a disturbing way of doing,	28:54
	Nathan said to David by a way of reminder,	29:00
	"I anointed you king.	29:05
	I gave you your father's house and his wives	29:08
	and I delivered you from Saul.	29:15
	I would do as much more for you."	29:19
	The prophet was simply reminding David	29:25
	who had grown accustomed to his wealth	29:28
	that he had not created or earned any of it.	29:35
	Everything he had was a gift from God.	29:38
	And he should have known better.	29:44
	If David had even taken time	29:48
	to review his own religious traditions,	29:50
	he would have remembered that.	29:53
	The book of Genesis and the creation story tells us	29:57
	that God created a lovely garden	30:00
	and he invited Adam and Eve to come and make it their home.	30:05
	He said they could have the full run of it.	30:09
	They could use everything in it,	30:11
	except one thing, he did reserve one thing for himself.	30:14
	But he gave it to them with hardly any strings attached.	30:19
	But it is interesting to note that there is one thing	30:26
	that God never said Adam and Eve about the garden of Eden.	30:29
	He never said anything about the title to the property.	30:34
	There is no indication anywhere in the record	30:39
	that God ever transferred title to property to Adam and Eve.	30:41
	It was a gift to them to use,	30:48
	but it was not a transfer of title to them to keep.	30:51
	He said, this is here for you, come and live in it	30:58
	and enjoy it and keep it and till it.	31:00
	But he stopped there.	31:04
	He did not relinquish ownership of his gift.	31:07
	David should have known that	31:13
	and had he just stopped for a moment	31:15
	to review his own religious traditions,	31:17
	he would've known it.	31:19
	Now, I am not by implication condemning private property.	31:23
	And if some of you have by inference	31:30
	already leaped forward to that conclusion,	31:33
	you are going to land on thin air.	31:36
	This had nothing to do with the concept of private property.	31:39
	And if we read this into the text,	31:43
	we are reading something into it that is not there.	31:45
	Rather what I'm trying to say about this	31:51
	is that in the ultimate sense,	31:53
	in the basic and essential sense	31:55
	of the very meaning of life itself,	31:59
	wealth is a gift and we do not create it,	32:02
	nor manufacture it, nor produce it.	32:05
	It is handed to us as a gift	32:10
	and we have the options of how we use it.	32:14
	Another thing we can find in this passage	32:20
	is that wealth is also power.	32:23
	Now, money talks,	32:29
	and when money talks, men and women listen,	32:30
	and institutions and governments listen, everybody listens.	32:33
	Money talks, and wealth is power.	32:36
	Let there be no doubt about that.	32:40
	The rich man in this parable understood that.	32:42
	When the guest came for dinner	32:47
	and he wanted a lamb for the main course,	32:50
	he did not go next door to his neighbor	32:54
	who had one little lamb and buy his lamb.	32:57
	He did not even steal his lamb. He just took it.	33:00
	He just acted as if because he was rich	33:05
	and had the power of wealth, he had the right to do this.	33:08
	He understood the power of wealth.	33:12
	He did not buy, he did not steal.	33:14
	He just exercised his power.	33:17
	Now this has been going on for a long time,	33:22
	and it is still going on.	33:26
	It is still going on in some places	33:30
	that are so obvious as to be invisible.	33:33
	Take income tax.	33:42
	Income tax is devised by people	33:46
	who have the power of wealth in such a manner	33:50
	that the less you have,	33:54
	the greater the proportion imposed on you.	33:56
	You just have one little lamb,	34:03
	you pay more tax on him than you do if you have a thousand.	34:04
	Or take this almost incredibly regressive thing,	34:12
	thing of a sales tax, which unloads the great burden	34:17
	upon the very poorest people among us	34:23
	for the very essentials of life itself.	34:26
	There is nothing new about this kind of abuse	34:34
	of wealth and its power.	34:40
	You can make your own illustrations almost without limit.	34:43
	I'm not suggesting that everybody who is rich is bad	34:49
	or that everybody who has the power of wealth	34:54
	at his disposal uses it in the wrong way.	34:59
	Obviously that is not true.	35:03
	But I am saying that the power of wealth is so seductive	35:08
	and so adept at deceiving one	35:15
	that the New Testament ought to be listened to	35:18
	where it says that it is as hard for a rich man	35:23
	to enter heaven as it is for a camel	35:28
	to go through the eye of a needle.	35:30
	Certainly wealth is power and the very dangerous power	35:36
	that carries with it a great responsibility.	35:43
	Something else we see in this passage is	35:48
	that wealth is a trust.	35:50
	It is a conditional gift.	35:53
	It is gift, but it can be retrieved.	35:57
	Once we had a friend for dinner	36:03
	and our son was just a little fellow.	36:05
	During the course of the dinner,	36:09
	the friend reached into his pocket and he pulled out a ball	36:10
	and he said to our son "Now, will you catch this ball?"	36:15
	And he tossed it to him, and just before he caught it,	36:18
	he pulled it back.	36:23
	It had a string tied to it.	36:25
	He was trying to teach him a lesson.	36:27
	This gift of wealth has a string tied to it.	36:32
	It is a conditional gift.	36:35
	God conditions the gift of wealth	36:40
	upon the principle of trust.	36:43
	It is a stewardship that he has imposed upon us.	36:46
	It is a revocable gift.	36:53
	and Nathan understood that.	36:57
	And so he used a parable	36:58
	to try to catch the conscience of the king.	37:00
	He said to him, "Why have you so despised	37:03
	the word of the Lord?	37:07
	Do you not understand," he was trying to say to him	37:11
	"that you can lose all of this?"	37:14
	It is a conditional gift, even though use it in a legal way.	37:19
	Legality is not always the same as morality.	37:25
	It may be legal for us to rape this good earth	37:33
	and exhaust all of its treasures,	37:37
	but it is a violation of the principle of stewardship.	37:39
	And if we persist in violating that principle,	37:43
	our wealth will be taken away from us.	37:47
	We may have the freedom to pump out all the oil	37:53
	and dig up all the coal and rip open all the prairies	37:56
	and let the winds blow the top soil away.	38:00
	We have the freedom to do that with our wealth,	38:03
	but when we do, it will be taken away from us.	38:06
	It is a conditional gift.	38:12
	And not only in these physical and material terms,	38:15
	but in moral and spiritual terms as well.	38:18
	We may exploit the spiritual heritage	38:22
	that has been to us by the faith	38:25
	and sacrifice of other people.	38:28
	We may take it for granted.	38:30
	We may assume that it will always be there,	38:32
	until we have literally worn it out by abuse.	38:35
	And then it will be taken from us.	38:42
	For wealth is a trust.	38:47
	We are its stewards.	38:52
	Something else we could learn from this passage is	38:56
	that we are accountable for our wealth	38:58
	and the use to which we put it.	39:00
	It is more than a trust:	39:07
	God calls us to accountability for it.	39:09
	Nathan the prophet said to David the king,	39:15
	"Thou art the man."	39:17
	He did not say to him,	39:21
	"you were a victim of circumstances,"	39:22
	or, "when you were a small child, your ego was bruised,"	39:24
	or, "everybody was doing it,"	39:34
	or, "this is just the way things are in times like these."	39:36
	No, Nathan the prophet said to David the king,	39:41
	thou art the man, you are responsible,	39:43
	and God holds you accountable for it.	39:46
	And he put everybody on the same level.	39:53
	You know, it's one thing to say to a poor man,	39:57
	you've done wrong and you're going to have to pay for it.	40:01
	It is something else to say to the king,	40:04
	you have done wrong and you are going to have to pay for it.	40:06
	But this is what the prophet says.	40:09
	Everybody is on the same level.	40:11
	We're all held accountable for the gift of wealth	40:13
	and its power and how we use it.	40:17
	This is not because as God is a punitive God,	40:24
	this is just the way things are.	40:27
	Dr. E Stanley Jones used to talk about the kingdom of God	40:32
	and he said, "The reason we cannot defy the kingdom of God	40:35
	and get away with it is that God has built his kingdom	40:41
	into the various structure of things,	40:46
	it is a part of the physical universe,	40:48
	it is a part of your bone, your blood,	40:51
	your sinew, your muscle,	40:54
	you cannot hate and survive because God has built love	40:57
	into the very nature of things.	41:01
	Now this is what the ecologists are trying to say to us.	41:07
	God has built this reality into the very nature of things	41:11
	and you cannot defy his will and the way	41:16
	that he has put life together	41:18
	and not be held accountable for it.	41:21
	This is what the Hebrew prophets	41:25
	were trying to get the people of Israel to understand:	41:26
	God had engaged them in a covenant,	41:30
	and they were trying to say to them,	41:33
	this is the way God has made life and you cannot defy God	41:35
	and the way he has made things	41:41
	and not be held accountable for it.	41:43
	I was very much interested not long ago	41:50
	when Solzhenitsyn was being interviewed	41:52
	on national television,	41:54
	and all of the questions they were asking him,	41:56
	covered the whole spectrum of the range of his life	42:02
	and his creativeness and his interest.	42:07
	But he had one concern.	42:10
	And again, and again, and again,	42:13
	he brought his audience back to it.	42:14
	He said over and over again,	42:17
	the basic problem in life is the spiritual problem.	42:19
	And this is what Nathan the prophet	42:26
	was trying to say to David the king.	42:29
	And this is what the Word of God is trying to say to us,	42:31
	the basic problem	42:35
	is not the political problem	42:39
	or the economic problem or the social problem.	42:41
	The basic problem is the spiritual problem,	42:46
	an understanding of who God is and who we are	42:50
	and how we are related to him,	42:54
	it is the spiritual problem.	42:57
	And we are held accountable to it.	43:02
	We learn also from this passage	43:06
	that when we abuse wealth and its power,	43:08
	the consequences will run their course.	43:12
	But we an offer of forgiveness	43:18
	and an opportunity at another chance as persons.	43:23
	You remember that Bathsheba conceived	43:32
	and bore a son to David	43:35
	from this illicit relationship they had.	43:38
	And David loved the child.	43:44
	But the prophet, once David had been confronted with his sin	43:46
	and had repented of his sin, the prophet said to David,	43:50
	"Your sin has been forgotten	43:55
	and will not be held against you,	43:58
	but the child will not live."	44:00
	Once we have accepted the gift and abused it	44:02
	and used it in wrongful ways,	44:08
	the consequences will run their course to the end.	44:10
	But God gives us an offer of forgiveness and an opportunity	44:14
	at another chance before a different kind of life.	44:19
	And this is true.	44:29
	Wherever we dip into life,	44:30
	it is true of our natural resources.	44:36
	Once we have cut down the trees and dug up the coal	44:39
	and pumped out the oil and ripped open the land	44:43
	and disregarded all that is decent,	44:46
	once we have com this kind of obscenity	44:49
	against what God has done,	44:53
	the consequences will run their course to the end for us.	44:56
	But God, because he is love,	45:02
	once we accept our accountability and confess our sins,	45:07
	will forgive us and give us another chance as persons.	45:13
	And this is really what it is all about.	45:21
	And this is really what the gospel message is all about.	45:23
	It is trying to say to us,	45:27
	that precede unto everything else,	45:29
	precede unto everything else that concerns us,	45:33
	it is the spiritual reality of life,	45:40
	one's accountability to God	45:44
	for the gift of the richness of life.	45:47
	But when we muff it, when we abuse it,	45:54
	when we exploit it, when we make a mess of it,	45:57
	although the consequences may run their course	46:01
	to the very end, here is God telling his love for us	46:05
	through Jesus Christ and assuring us that even so	46:12
	his love is unfailing and very present and very personal	46:19
	and full of forgiveness.	46:25
	And if we repent, he will forgive and will bring us back	46:27
	into his fellowship.	46:37
	So the message really of all of it is that	46:41
	whoever we are and wherever we have been	46:44
	and whatever we have done,	46:47
	God is love.	46:51
	And he loves you, and he loves me as his children,	46:53
	and he will forgive us and restore us and keep us.	46:58
	O Lord, our God, we thank thee that Jesus does show us	47:05
	that thou art love.	47:10
	And even when we are mindless in the way we use the wealth	47:13
	and the power thou dust bestow upon us,	47:18
	we make a mess of it,	47:22
	thou dust forgive us and restore us and keep us	47:25
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	47:30
	Amen.	47:32
	(bright organ music)	47:36
	(choir sings indistinctly)	48:29
	(solemn pensive organ music)	51:34
	(choir sings indistinctly)	52:37
	♪ And rejoice ♪	53:47
	(choir vocalizing)	53:50
	♪ And rejoice ♪	54:18
	(choir sings indistinctly)	54:25
	♪ Rejoice ♪	54:49
	♪ Rejoice ♪	54:51
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	54:56
	♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪	55:02
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	55:07
	♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪	55:13
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	55:19
	♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪	55:24
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	55:30
	♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪	55:35
	(bright organ music)	55:47
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	56:39
	♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪	56:46
	♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪	56:53
	♪ Praise him above ye heavenly host ♪	57:01
	♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪	57:08
	♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪	57:14
	♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪	57:21
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	57:28
	♪ Amen ♪	57:37
-	O holy God, send down your Spirit to cleanse our hearts,	57:49
	to hallow our gifts and to perfect the offering of ourselves	57:55
	to you through Jesus Christ, our Lord,	58:02
	and bless our lives and these gifts.	58:06
	Amen.	58:10
	(bright organ music)	58:14
	(choir sings indistinctly)	58:41
	And now may the blessing of God almighty,	1:01:03
	our creator, redeemer and sustainer,	1:01:07
	be among us and abide with us now and forevermore.	1:01:10
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:22
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:27
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:33
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:37
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:46
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:54
	♪ Amen ♪	1:02:05
	(bell chimes)	1:02:18
	(cheerful uplifting organ music)	1:02:33

Item Info

Title:

H. Eugene Peacock - "Rich Man, Poor Man" (August 10, 1975)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40g3n04t

Date:

August 10, 1975

Speaker:

Peacock, H. Eugene

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0786
ref6772_tvo
uachapelsermaud
duke:628391
dcrau002751
ark:/87924/r40g3n04t
7f67a8fb-a68d-4558-8c81-ae89064723e8

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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H. Eugene Peacock - "Rich Man, Poor Man" (August 10, 1975)

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1. H. Eugene Peacock - "Rich Man, Poor Man" (August 10, 1975)

Duke University Archives

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H. Eugene Peacock - "Rich Man, Poor Man" (August 10, 1975)

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Duke University Archives

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