Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)

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	(soft music)	0:04
	(singing in foreign language)	0:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:03
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:07
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:19
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:25
	(slow piano music)	1:35
	(choir singing softly)	2:09
Minister	Let us join in confessing our sins to the Lord.	4:47
	First through words of corporate confession,	4:51
	and then through thoughts of personal confession	4:55
	lifted up in silent prayer.	4:57
	Ever blessed God, you come to us in humility,	5:03
	offering us life and hope.	5:08
	We confess that too often, we live our lives	5:11
	as if Jesus had not been born	5:15
	and that we worshiped personal gods and public idols.	5:19
	Forgive us and help us to forgive others and ourselves.	5:23
	This, we pray in the loving and forgiving spirit of Christ.	5:29
	Amen.	5:52
	Hear now these words of personal assurance.	5:53
	The God of our faith,	5:57
	who is always more ready to hear than we to pray,	5:58
	and who gives us more than we either desire or deserve	6:02
	pours down on us an abundance of mercy,	6:07
	pardoning and delivering us from our sins,	6:11
	confirming and strengthening us in all goodness,	6:14
	and bringing to us the promise of life everlasting.	6:18
	Blessing and honor.	6:22
	Glory and power be unto the Lord.	6:24
	Amen.	6:27
	(slow piano music)	6:31
	♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪	7:01
	♪ They made you to be born in a manger ♪	7:10
	♪ Sweet little Holy child ♪	7:19
	♪ Didn't know who you was ♪	7:26
	♪ Didn't know you'd come to save us Lord ♪	7:33
	♪ To take us in the way ♪	7:38
	♪ I once was blind ♪	7:44
	♪ We can now see ♪	7:50
	♪ We didn't know who you was ♪	7:57
	♪ Long time ago, you was born ♪	8:06
	♪ Born in a manger oh ♪	8:18
	♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪	8:24
	♪ While treating me ♪	8:32
	♪ Treating me true ♪	8:38
	(singing in foreign language)	8:44
	♪ We don't know who you is ♪	8:53
	♪ You don told us all ♪	9:01
	♪ We is are trying ♪	9:08
	♪ Master you don showed us how ♪	9:14
	♪ Even when you was dying ♪	9:21
	♪ Just seems like we can't do right ♪	9:29
	♪ Look how we treated you ♪	9:35
	♪ But please sir, forgive us Lord ♪	9:39
	♪ We didn't know it was you ♪	9:52
	♪ Sweet little Jesus born ♪	10:01
	♪ Born long time ago ♪	10:10
	♪ Sweet little holy child ♪	10:17
	♪ And we didn't know who you was ♪	10:29
Minister	The old Testament lesson this morning	11:07
	comes from the 29th chapter of Isaiah,	11:10
	verses eight through 10.	11:14
	"As when a hungry man dreams he is eating	11:19
	and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,	11:22
	or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking	11:25
	and awakes faint with his thirst not quenched,	11:29
	so shall the multitude of all the nations be	11:33
	that fight against Mount Zion.	11:37
	Stupefied yourselves and be in a stupor.	11:41
	Blind yourselves and be blind.	11:44
	Be drunk, but not with wine.	11:47
	Stagger, but not with strong drink.	11:50
	For the Lord has poured out upon you	11:55
	a spirit of deep sleep	11:58
	and has closed your eyes, the prophets,	12:01
	and covered your heads, the seers."	12:05
	Will you rise now for the reading of the gospel.	12:12
	From the 14th chapter of Mark verses 32 through 42.	12:22
	"And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane	12:29
	and he said to his disciples, 'sit here while I pray'	12:33
	and he took with him, Peter and James and John,	12:38
	and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.	12:42
	And he said to them,	12:46
	'my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.	12:48
	Remain here and watch.'	12:53
	And going a little further, He fell on the ground	12:56
	and prayed that if it were possible,	12:59
	the hour might pass from him.	13:01
	And he said, 'Abba Father,	13:04
	all things are possible to thee.	13:07
	Remove this cup from me.	13:10
	Yet not what I will, but what thou willed.'	13:12
	And he came and found them sleeping.	13:18
	And he said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep?	13:20
	Could you not watch one hour?	13:25
	Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.	13:28
	The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'	13:32
	And again, he went away and prayed	13:38
	saying the same words.	13:41
	And again, he came and found them sleeping	13:43
	for their eyes were very heavy	13:46
	and they did not know what to answer him.	13:49
	And he came the third time and said to them,	13:53
	'are you still sleeping and taking your rest?	13:58
	It is enough. The hour has come.	14:01
	The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.	14:04
	Rise let us be going.	14:09
	See, my betrayer is at hand.'"	14:12
	Here ends the reading of the morning lesson.	14:16
	(slow piano music)	14:18
	(choir singing softly)	14:30
Minister	Let us proclaim our faith	15:02
	by reading and unison.	15:05
	We are not alone. We live in God's word.	15:08
	We believe in God who has created and is creating.	15:13
	Who has come and the truly human Jesus	15:19
	to reconcile and make new.	15:21
	Who works in us and others by the spirit.	15:24
	We trust God who calls us to be the church.	15:28
	To celebrate life and its fullness.	15:33
	To love and serve others.	15:36
	To seek justice and resist evil.	15:39
	To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.	15:42
	Our judge and our hope.	15:46
	In life and death, in life beyond death.	15:49
	God is with us.	15:54
	We are not alone.	15:56
	Thanks be to God.	15:58
	Please be seated.	16:01
	Our preacher this morning	16:12
	has for the last year and a half,	16:14
	done a number of minor miracles	16:16
	in this university community.	16:18
	She's had major responsibility	16:20
	for working in the area of religion in the arts	16:22
	here in the chapel	16:24
	and many of you have seen the results of her work	16:26
	at the various events	16:28
	that have occurred in this building	16:29
	and elsewhere on this campus.	16:32
	She's a close personal friend	16:34
	and I know you join in with me	16:35
	in welcoming Heather Marie Elkins to the pulpit,	16:37
	this morning.	16:40
	The Lord be with you,	16:44
	Let us pray.	16:48
	Dear Lord our God.	16:52
	We stand this morning at the close of another year.	16:54
	The turning of the calendar pages is we realize,	16:58
	but a sign of the fact that change is all around us.	17:02
	Help us we pray,	17:07
	to accept the challenge of change	17:09
	and not to be fearful of it.	17:11
	It's so easy to be afraid, oh Lord.	17:14
	Things happen so fast today.	17:17
	The future seems so uncertain.	17:19
	Plans seem to go sour so easily.	17:22
	Friends and family disappoint us.	17:25
	Strangers threaten and take advantage of us.	17:28
	It seems as though there is no one whom we really can trust.	17:32
	We need you, oh God, to show us the way	17:38
	through the ever quickening pace of change	17:41
	in this world around us.	17:43
	Give us power.	17:46
	Power to meet changing times, head on	17:48
	and to accept the challenge and the hope	17:52
	which the future surely holds for all who follow you.	17:54
	Give us the power to understand	17:59
	what it can mean for this campus	18:02
	to be a great center of learning,	18:04
	where the pursuit of knowledge may serve to enrich life.	18:06
	Help those of us who work and study here	18:11
	to rise above a narrow view of education,	18:14
	as nothing more than an endless series of unrelated courses,	18:17
	exams and research projects,	18:21
	and to see instead, oh Lord,	18:25
	the vision of a more just and humane world	18:27
	made possible through the use of the many	18:31
	and varied talents that you have given to us.	18:33
	Oh Lord, when we dare to hope	18:38
	that change can make things better.	18:40
	We dream of your children living in communities	18:43
	of justice and peace throughout the world.	18:46
	Give us the power We pray,	18:50
	to work for such a community here in Durham,	18:53
	so that all persons,	18:56
	regardless of race or sex or station in life	18:58
	may find decent work at decent pay.	19:02
	Safe housing and creative schools for their children.	19:05
	Give us the power also	19:10
	to work for a community of justice and peace	19:12
	among all nations.	19:14
	Restrain our own arrogance and pride.	19:17
	Assist our national leaders to place the good of all	19:20
	above the desires of a few	19:24
	and give to all nations,	19:27
	the strength to exchange the narrowness of nationalism	19:29
	for the openness of genuine cooperation	19:33
	and mutual self-help.	19:37
	We pray this morning especially	19:40
	for your children, living in lands ravished by war	19:42
	or natural disaster.	19:46
	For the miners and their families in India.	19:48
	For the people of Angola, of Lebanon,	19:52
	of Northern Ireland,	19:56
	and of all those places where brother is set against brother	19:58
	and sister is set against sister.	20:01
	May we see anew, the possibility of peace	20:05
	and wellbeing for all of these your children.	20:09
	Help us most, especially, oh Lord,	20:14
	to have the power to overcome the temptations	20:17
	of self-centeredness that are all around us.	20:20
	In this time of continued economic uncertainty.	20:23
	Give us the power we pray, to resist blaming others	20:27
	for the difficulties to which we have contributed	20:30
	so massively,	20:33
	through our casual unthinking and wasteful use	20:35
	of this earth resources.	20:39
	Help us to reject easy solutions	20:41
	purchased at the price of increased suffering,	20:45
	for the poor and the powerless.	20:48
	And finally, oh God,	20:52
	we pray, not only that you give us the power	20:54
	to see more clearly,	20:58
	what we are called to do,	21:00
	but that you also grant to us	21:02
	the resolve and firmness of purpose	21:06
	to plunge into the future	21:09
	working hand in hand with others,	21:11
	to make our hopes for positive change, become realities.	21:14
	In this university,	21:20
	in this community.	21:22
	and in this world.	21:24
	We ask for your assistance	21:26
	in the name of your son, Jesus Christ,	21:29
	who taught us to pray together saying	21:32
	"our father, who art in heaven,	21:36
	hallowed be thy name.	21:40
	Thy kingdom come,	21:42
	thy will be done on earth,	21:44
	as it is in heaven.	21:46
	Give us this day our daily bread	21:48
	and forgive us our trespasses.	21:51
	As we forgive those who trespass against us,	21:54
	lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	21:58
	for thine is the kingdom	22:02
	and the power and the glory forever and ever.	22:04
	Amen.	22:09
Heather	Good morning.	22:27
	If some of you have looked through that bulletin,	22:29
	searching for a personal history	22:32
	on the preacher this morning, it's not there.	22:34
	Part of the reason is, part of my personal history includes	22:37
	missing deadlines.	22:40
	I managed to get you the sermon topic, but not who I am,	22:42
	but I'd like to share some of who I am this morning.	22:46
	It's sitting down in the first couple of rows.	22:49
	Part of it is my husband,	22:52
	who's a student here in the philosophy department.	22:54
	Part of it is my mother,	22:58
	who is still the best teacher I've ever had.	22:59
	Another person in addition to philosophers	23:03
	who believe there's some point in talking	23:06
	and that's teachers	23:09
	and the third that is with me this morning	23:10
	is my grandmother.	23:12
	Who's 93 and still can outwork me on the farm.	23:14
	And I believe, I think, it is because of her	23:21
	being still and knowing God	23:24
	that has led to many of our family	23:28
	into either teaching or preaching or some spoken vocation.	23:31
	The other story I would like to share with you,	23:38
	a part of my history this morning	23:40
	has to do with why I'm here in the chapel	23:42
	and it has to do with that eight foot tomato plant	23:45
	that was barren and had the name Sarah.	23:50
	Bill and I arrived last year and we're moving in	23:54
	and as we were moving in, I noticed the porch opposite us,	23:58
	there was this huge plant.	24:02
	It just amazingly big plant.	24:04
	And the wind was blowing,	24:06
	that plant was in danger of toppling.	24:07
	While we kept carrying things in.	24:09
	I kept my eye on the plant and soon enough	24:10
	boom, over it went.	24:13
	So I went over and picked up the plant	24:15
	at that point, a woman came out of the house	24:17
	and we talked about it.	24:19
	She told me it was a tomato plant and what his name was	24:21
	and we talked some more.	24:23
	And I think I probably got carried away with my new position	24:25
	in terms of being a divinity school student	24:31
	and being part of the Ecclesiastical branch	24:33
	of the Duke's family tree.	24:36
	So I was kind of rambling on	24:38
	and finally I pulled myself up short and said,	24:40
	"oh, I beg your pardon, you know, what's your name?"	24:43
	And she told me your name and nothing registered.	24:45
	And so I went on rambling about	24:48
	all the things I hoped to be able to do	24:50
	and how beautiful the Chapel was, and on and on.	24:51
	And so then finally I said, "what do you do?"	24:54
	I thought, you know, this would be a nice neighbor	24:57
	to be able to come home in evening	24:59
	and tell her what I did at school this day,	25:01
	and she sort of smiled and said,	25:04
	"well um, as a matter of fact,	25:07
	I'm the associate minister of the chapel."	25:09
	I felt very sort of crunched and delighted at the same time.	25:13
	So in some ways that story,	25:19
	an eight foot barren tomato plant	25:21
	accounts for my being here this morning,	25:24
	but what accounts for your presence.	25:28
	I've sat in those pews for over a year now,	25:32
	watched you and wondered, watched myself and wondered.	25:36
	Do we gather from habit for novelty?	25:42
	What did you come to see this morning?	25:47
	To hear?	25:50
	Certainly not an untried preacher on and off Sunday.	25:52
	What then?	25:55
	What accounts for us being together,	25:58
	caught between Christmas and new years,	26:00
	perhaps all the presents have been opened	26:04
	and we still don't have what we need.	26:08
	Perhaps we think we will find it here,	26:11
	here in this chapel, this sanctuary,	26:13
	sometimes the colored lights on those dying trees	26:18
	only increase the shadows	26:21
	and the rattle of empty boxes only deepens our silent.	26:24
	Did you get what you needed this Christmas?	26:29
	Was God born in anybody stable?	26:34
	No? Don't worry.	26:37
	There's always the New Years.	26:41
	Wind up the energy and expectations again.	26:43
	If a sacred holiday won't do, a secular one might.	26:46
	If we could manage to kill the old year in us,	26:51
	perhaps the new will be inevitable.	26:54
	We will celebrate our histories, our friends, our foes,	26:58
	the inevitability of time,	27:02
	but first we confess and then we celebrate.	27:05
	I write resolutions yearly	27:10
	in a delicate balance of remorse and pride.	27:13
	I outline the future and wait to blow my horn.	27:17
	This year, this year,	27:22
	I will blow it loud enough to make something new,	27:25
	something new in myself, in the world, in my relationships,	27:30
	something new, we need something new.	27:37
	But the subtle irony of this season is that nothing dies.	27:42
	Nothing is reborn.	27:48
	We are the same. The world is the same.	27:51
	Even the birth of God's word seems like	27:55
	an old trick that has failed once too often.	27:58
	Caught between Christmas and New years,	28:03
	we experienced neither death nor resurrection.	28:06
	We only celebrate a world that's growing older.	28:11
	The witness of Christ seems irrelevant.	28:15
	Life out of death.	28:18
	Irrelevant because we are only growing older.	28:21
	There is a dryness in our days, hunger in our eyes,	28:27
	but this is not unusual.	28:32
	This kind of sickness has been seen and named	28:35
	long before our present.	28:38
	As when a hungry man dreams, he is eating	28:42
	and awakes with his hunger not satisfied	28:46
	or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking	28:50
	and awakes faint with his thirst not quenched.	28:53
	A sickness, a sleeping sickness,	28:57
	as Isaiah describes a deep sleep has poured over your eyes	29:02
	like dogs, sleeping by a fire.	29:09
	We twitch and jerk, eyes closed.	29:12
	Deep in the dreams of rabbits.	29:15
	Well maybe not rabbits, illusions of ourselves.	29:17
	The Phantoms, the everythings we could be.	29:24
	The everythings we're not.	29:28
	We chase these Phantoms endlessly	29:31
	trying to bring them to earth	29:34
	and it's not a question of survival.	29:37
	We can't feed ourselves with images, empty of acts.	29:40
	No. we Mount them.	29:45
	They hang on every moment of our life	29:48
	trophies of Phantom selves.	29:51
	And we invite the neighbors in to show them off,	29:55
	but we do hope they won't notice we're starving.	29:58
	Not what we are, but what we see.	30:02
	Not what we are.	30:06
	The dream matters more than the life	30:09
	and so we sleep and dream that we are living.	30:12
	Sometimes it seems to me, our life is one long sleep.	30:18
	We bought are born drugged.	30:22
	Even children being born have been sedated	30:24
	so they cannot help assist with their own birth struggles	30:27
	and we die sometimes morphine out of our own death,	30:32
	oblivious to what is happening	30:37
	and the real terror lies in the in-between	30:41
	for the middle of our life is tranquilized as well.	30:43
	Some of you may have seen the figures	30:46
	recently turned in for North Carolina.	30:49
	20% of the women in North Carolina	30:53
	are on some sort of prescription.	30:56
	Pre-scripted drugs to help them sleep, to help them relax,	31:00
	to help them change their mood.	31:05
	Frightening statistics.	31:08
	We dream and dream that we are living	31:12
	and we've gotten good at our dreaming.	31:17
	With our eyes open, no one suspects.	31:19
	Even our snores sound articulate.	31:23
	We talk to one another in a sleep out of our private dreams.	31:27
	Is it any wonder?	31:33
	There is the real sense no one hears.	31:35
	No one is there. No one understand.	31:38
	We pay to be heard.	31:42
	We by psychiatrists who will enter our dreams	31:44
	and it makes sense out of them for us	31:49
	but if anything happens to disturb our sleep,	31:53
	we turn off the alarm rollover and drop off again	31:57
	and we're very heavy sleepers.	32:03
	Earthquakes, famine, war go unnoticed.	32:05
	We can even sleep through our own deaths undisturbed	32:10
	and not only our own, but others.	32:15
	Are you asleep?	32:20
	Could you not watch one hour?	32:22
	To watch one hour is a difficult thing.	32:27
	If I string all the seconds and minutes,	32:31
	I have been awake to my neighbors need in my life,	32:35
	I might be able to fill that requirement, one hour.	32:39
	To be awake to that kind of need will cost something.	32:45
	That awareness doesn't come easy.	32:50
	I can be informed about my neighbor,	32:54
	but that doesn't mean I care.	32:56
	I may understand you, but that doesn't mean I love you.	32:59
	I am only aware, not awake to your suffering,	33:05
	your joy, your life.	33:09
	I will sleep through your death and mine	33:12
	because I am sleeping	33:15
	and I will sleep through your life and mine	33:19
	because I am dreaming	33:22
	and surely a nightmare even one of a crucifixion	33:24
	will pass, just a bad dream.	33:28
	No one is hung for having tried to love.	33:32
	It's just a bad dream.	33:37
	It will pass.	33:39
	Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?	33:42
	It is all over. The hour has come get up.	33:47
	My betrayer is at hand.	33:53
	Just a bad dream.	33:56
	Sometimes it seems as if we are caught in the middle of one	34:00
	and it's lasting all our life.	34:05
	We look for the exit and there isn't one.	34:08
	We seem trapped in a madness of sleep,	34:11
	drifting toward a death, filled with horrifying dreams,	34:15
	to die, to sleep, to sleep per chance to dream.	34:20
	Ah, there's the rub for in that sleep of death,	34:27
	what dreams may come	34:32
	when we have shuffled off our mortal coil	34:34
	must give us pause.	34:38
	Give us pause, a fearful pause, a thoughtful pause.	34:42
	What can one do?	34:50
	Like the disciples, we cannot remain awake on our own.	34:52
	We nod and yawn and slumber through our best resolutions.	34:57
	Like the not so beautiful dreamers.	35:03
	We wait for the prince to stir us with a kiss	35:06
	into life and love	35:11
	but the truth is more like Rip van Winkle sleep.	35:14
	We will wake to find all that we know and love has gone.	35:19
	That is, if we wake at all.	35:24
	What can we do?	35:29
	How can we manage such a simple thing,	35:31
	like opening our eyes?	35:35
	Get an alarm clock, use it?	35:39
	Perhaps.	35:42
	I saw a bulletin board in the kindergarten	35:44
	at Watt Street Baptist church.	35:47
	The children had their names on the board	35:50
	and beside the names	35:53
	was the gift they wanted most for Christmas.	35:54
	I expected the Barbie dolls and the motorcycles,	35:58
	but what really blew me out was somebody	36:03
	and it was somebody not over four years old	36:05
	had asked for an alarm clock	36:08
	and there it was on the board, alarm clock.	36:10
	I went to the window	36:13
	and the children were playing out on the playground	36:15
	and I studied each of them and wondered,	36:17
	you know which one it had been, because somebody out there	36:19
	didn't want to sleep through anything.	36:23
	An alarm clock.	36:27
	What I'm talking about sounds somewhat mundane.	36:31
	I'm talking about scripture and a regular reading of it.	36:35
	God's word can shake us awake,	36:41
	if we allow it to encounter us.	36:43
	Judgment and mercy are wrapped inside those words	36:46
	and they will wound or heal us into life.	36:51
	Into a life, not dreamt but lived.	36:55
	For in scripture, we encounter the truly awake human,	37:00
	Jesus.	37:06
	We are confronted by the shape of a life,	37:08
	which was aware and loving.	37:10
	He knew us.	37:14
	He loved us.	37:16
	And the memory of that can be set ticking in our heads,	37:18
	ready to go off inside our lives, whenever we oversleep.	37:22
	What else can keep us from slipping back	37:28
	into our self-made dreams.	37:32
	Scripture can break into the silences of isolation.	37:35
	We can also struggle to keep each other awake.	37:40
	This is important.	37:45
	So if you see anyone out there sleeping right now,	37:46
	nudge them will you.	37:49
	It's part of your Christian responsibility.	37:51
	It's also part of the promise we've made to each other.	37:55
	We live in a household of faith.	38:00
	We have all been given the same instructions.	38:03
	Watch therefore, for you do not know	38:08
	when the master of the house will come.	38:11
	In the evening or at midnight or at cock crow	38:15
	or in the morning,	38:18
	lest he comes suddenly and find you asleep	38:20
	and what I say to you, I say to all, watch.	38:25
	As Christians, we wait and watch together	38:33
	in love and expectation.	38:36
	Not only for the promised kingdom, but for each other	38:39
	unto the least of them is now our family name	38:45
	and we must watch out, reach out to one another.	38:50
	To be your sister, I must be awake	38:58
	to the meaning of our life together.	39:01
	Sometimes a gentle reminder will open my eyes.	39:04
	Sometimes you must strike me.	39:09
	It is better for me to lose sleep than to lose my life.	39:13
	If we have been faithful to the scriptures,	39:22
	if we have been faithful to each other,	39:26
	we can rely on another presence as well.	39:30
	In our Gethsemane,	39:35
	the spirit will struggle with us.	39:37
	Touching us again and again, to wake us.	39:40
	Perhaps the cup will pass.	39:46
	Perhaps a crucifixion is in order,	39:48
	but through both, we will be awake to the will of God.	39:52
	I'd like to share a concrete example of Gethsemane.	40:00
	A Gethsemane awakening,	40:06
	a process where waking up and dying	40:08
	seemed to be tangled up in each other.	40:12
	It is from Hamish Schultz book, "Markings,"	40:16
	and I believe it is too familiar	40:20
	to allow us to pretend we haven't been in this place before.	40:22
	He was impossible.	40:31
	It wasn't that he didn't attend to his work.	40:33
	On the contrary,	40:37
	he took endless pains over the tasks he was given,	40:38
	but this manner of behavior	40:43
	brought him into conflict with everybody	40:46
	and in the end began to have an adverse effect	40:49
	on everything he had to do with.	40:54
	When the crisis came and the whole truth had to come out,	40:57
	he laid the blame on us.	41:02
	In his conduct, there was nothing.	41:05
	Absolutely nothing to reproach.	41:08
	His self-esteem was so strongly bound up,	41:11
	apparently in the idea of his innocence,	41:15
	that one felt a brute as one demonstrated step by step,	41:18
	the contradictions in his defense and bit by bit	41:23
	stripped him naked in his own eyes,	41:27
	but justice to others demanded it.	41:31
	When the last rag of a lie had been taken from him	41:35
	and we felt there was nothing more to say,	41:40
	out it came with stifled sobs,	41:44
	but why did you never help me?	41:48
	Well, I didn't do tell me what to do?	41:51
	You knew, I always felt you were against me	41:54
	and fear and insecurity drove me further and further	41:57
	along the course, you now condemn me for taking.	42:02
	it's been so hard.	42:07
	Everything.	42:09
	One day, I remember I was so happy.	42:12
	One of you said something that I had done was good.	42:16
	So in the end we were to blame.	42:23
	We had not voiced our criticisms,	42:28
	but we had allowed them to bar us	42:32
	from giving him a single word of encouragement	42:34
	or even acknowledgement	42:38
	and in this way had barred the way to any improvement.	42:40
	A Gethsemane example.	42:48
	So you know, what I'm talking of is a psychological sleep,	42:51
	that is very real.	42:58
	A person wakes and begins dying.	43:01
	The false idols and support systems begin to crumble.	43:05
	We invest so much of our lives in dreams.	43:11
	It seems as if we are dying,	43:15
	literally dying as they collapse, our limits will emerge.	43:18
	Our mortality is apparent.	43:26
	The self we thought would transcend time	43:29
	is caught shriveled inside it.	43:33
	We cannot control the kind of dying	43:37
	that comes from the collapse of our limited self	43:40
	and we do not believe our life truly emerges from our death.	43:45
	So we avoid the entire process.	43:53
	We do not wait to awake,	43:56
	to die,	44:02
	to be born.	44:04
	That is the center of Christ's life,	44:06
	a mystery because it remains outside our control	44:10
	and the means of awakening,	44:16
	the scripture, the household of faith, the spirit,	44:19
	they are outside our control as well.	44:24
	They are not tranquilizers.	44:28
	We do not take them.	44:30
	They take us.	44:33
	We do not control their entry into our lives.	44:36
	We do not swallow them, they penetrate us.	44:39
	If you awake in the love of Christ,	44:45
	you will die to the old self	44:49
	and then you must wait for the gift of a new life.	44:53
	So we arrive at the mystery again to awake,	45:00
	to die,	45:06
	to be born	45:07
	and we can trust ourselves to the mystery	45:09
	because of the love of Christ,	45:13
	because that is the witness of the one whom God loved.	45:17
	If some of you are caught between Christmas and New years,	45:26
	not born, not dead, not awake,	45:33
	I will ask for you the gift I asked when myself,	45:39
	a gift of Gethsemane.	45:45
	May you receive what you truly need this Christmas.	45:48
	May it began to unwrap itself	45:54
	in your lap,	45:57
	in your hands,	45:58
	in your life.	46:00
	If some of you have received such a gift this Christmas	46:04
	and you're stretched across a splintering love,	46:10
	or you wait with eyes wrenched open in the tomb,	46:16
	wait with trust, wait with love.	46:22
	We serve a risen Lord.	46:28
	Your Easter is coming.	46:32
	Lord.	46:46
	We are weak.	46:48
	Not able to bear yet,	46:50
	the love that will not let us go.	46:54
	Strengthen us, so we may receive your grace.	46:58
	Carve out of our lives, a resting place for your spirit.	47:04
	We are not yet ready for a crucifying love	47:11
	that will bring our resurrection, but allow us, oh Lord,	47:16
	to live in hope of such a love.	47:24
	Amen.	47:30
	(slow piano music)	47:33
	(choir singing faintly)	47:47
	(soft piano music)	51:13
	♪ Light has done best ♪	52:28
	♪ On the songs of our morning ♪	52:34
	♪ Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine hand ♪	52:42
	♪ Star of the east ♪	52:53
	♪ The horizon adorning ♪	52:58
	♪ Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid ♪	53:05
	♪ Call on his cradle ♪	53:27
	♪ Our dew drops are shining ♪	53:32
	♪ Lord, rise his head ♪	53:38
	♪ With a piece of thy star ♪	53:43
	♪ Angels are around him ♪	53:51
	♪ In son berry clinging ♪	53:57
	♪ Maker and monarch and savior of all ♪	54:04
	♪ Light has done best ♪	54:27
	♪ On the songs of our morning ♪	54:32
	♪ Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine hand ♪	54:39
	♪ Star of the east ♪	54:51
	♪ The horizon adorning ♪	54:57
	♪ Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid ♪	55:06
	(slow piano music)	55:26
	(piano music intensifying)	55:41
	(choir singing faintly)	56:46
Minister	Oh Lord.	57:46
	This morning we give back to you only a portion	57:48
	of that which is already yours	57:53
	and in this giving,	57:55
	we dedicate ourselves a new to be your servants	57:57
	as part of the church universal.	58:01
	Working to show forth Christ presence	58:03
	until our Lord shall come again.	58:07
	Amen.	58:10
	(slow piano music)	58:12
	(choir sings faintly)	58:42
	Go now, awake and with your eyes open to the future.	1:01:17
	Go in peace. Preach good news to the poor.	1:01:23
	Proclaim release to the captives.	1:01:29
	bring sight to the blind	1:01:32
	and set at liberty all those who are oppressed	1:01:34
	so that this may be a time	1:01:38
	that is truly acceptable to the Lord.	1:01:40
	Go now in the name of Christ, our Lord and savior.	1:01:44
	Amen.	1:01:50
	(Upbeat piano music)	1:01:51

Item Info

Title:

Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)

Description:

This sermon elevates the role of servanthood in the Christian life, but carefully qualifies it, saying the servanthood God requires does not require self-immolation but rather a confident submission to the God of love. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "We can become servants...when we know that our value and worth is given to us by God and is not dependent on our having power and authority over people who have no authority or power."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43j3f24v

Date:

December 28, 1975

Speaker:

Elkins, Heather Murray

Liturgical Calendar:

Christmas

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0810
ref6820_xxa
uachapelsermaud
duke:628084
dcrau002773
ark:/87924/r43j3f24v
73c10776-d92f-4a7d-89a7-7bb9884cc6f3

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:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other 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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Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)

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1. Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)

Duke University Archives

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Heather Murray Elkins - "Caught Between Christmas and New Year's" (December 28, 1975)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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