Leonard I. Sweet - "Pigeon-Walking, Whale-Watching, Wave-Riding, Water-Striding" (August 2, 1987)
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(organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Grace and peace to you, in the name | 5:31 |
of the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 5:33 | |
We welcome you to this service of worship | 5:35 | |
at Duke University Chapel, on this eighth | 5:37 | |
Sunday after Pentecost. | 5:40 | |
We also extend greetings to those | 5:42 | |
in our radio and television audiences. | 5:44 | |
We realize that many of you may be visiting | 5:46 | |
the Duke campus for the first time, | 5:49 | |
and if so, we wish you a pleasant stay | 5:51 | |
and offer our assistance in any that we may be | 5:54 | |
of help to you here at the Chapel. | 5:57 | |
Our guest preacher this morning | 6:00 | |
is the Reverend Dr. Leonard I. Sweet, | 6:01 | |
President of United Theological Seminary. | 6:04 | |
Dr. Sweet is a highly regarded preacher, | 6:07 | |
as well as teacher, author and scholar. | 6:09 | |
Author of more than 30 articles in leading publications | 6:13 | |
over the last several years, he's editor of | 6:16 | |
The Evangelical Tradition in America, | 6:18 | |
and associate editor of The Journal | 6:20 | |
of the American Academy of Religion. | 6:22 | |
He has been named a James T. Clellan visiting preacher. | 6:25 | |
We are indeed fortunate to be able to welcome him | 6:29 | |
to our pulpit today. | 6:32 | |
Please note the other announcements | 6:34 | |
as they are printed in your bulletins. | 6:35 | |
And now, let us continue our worship. | 6:38 | |
(choir singing) | 6:48 | |
("Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", Joachim Neander) | 7:33 | |
♪ Praise to the Lord, the Almighty ♪ | 8:13 | |
♪ The King of creation ♪ | 8:18 | |
♪ O my soul, praise him, for he is your health ♪ | 8:24 | |
♪ And salvation ♪ | 8:31 | |
♪ Come, all who hear; now to his temple draw near ♪ | 8:36 | |
♪ Join me in glad adoration ♪ | 8:46 | |
♪ Praise to the Lord, above all things ♪ | 8:56 | |
♪ So wondrously reigning ♪ | 9:01 | |
♪ Sheltering you under his wings, and so gently sustaining ♪ | 9:08 | |
♪ Have you not seen all that is needful has been ♪ | 9:19 | |
♪ Sent by his gracious ordaining ♪ | 9:29 | |
♪ Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work ♪ | 9:39 | |
♪ And defend you ♪ | 9:46 | |
♪ Surely his goodness and mercy shall daily attend you ♪ | 9:52 | |
♪ Ponder anew what the Almighty can do ♪ | 10:03 | |
♪ If with his love he befriends you ♪ | 10:13 | |
♪ Praise to the Lord ♪ | 10:24 | |
♪ O let all that is in me adore him ♪ | 10:28 | |
♪ All that has life and breath ♪ | 10:37 | |
♪ Come now with praises before him ♪ | 10:41 | |
♪ Let the Amen sound from his people again ♪ | 10:48 | |
♪ Gladly forever adore him ♪ | 10:59 | |
- | Lord of all power and might, the Author | 11:14 |
and Giver of all good things. | 11:17 | |
Graft in our hearts the love of your name. | 11:21 | |
Increase in us true religion. | 11:24 | |
Nourish us with all goodness, and bring forth in us | 11:28 | |
the fruit of good works through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 11:32 | |
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, | 11:36 | |
forever and ever, amen. | 11:40 | |
- | Let us pray. | 12:00 |
All | Open our hearts and minds, oh God, by the power | 12:03 |
of your Holy Spirit, so that, as the word is read | 12:07 | |
and proclaimed, we might hear, with joy, what you have | 12:11 | |
to say to us this day. | 12:15 | |
Amen. | 12:17 | |
- | The first lesson is taken from the book of Exodus. | 12:19 |
"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, | 12:23 | |
"This month shall be for you the beginning of months; | 12:27 | |
"it shall be the first month of the year for you. | 12:31 | |
"Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day | 12:35 | |
"of this month they shall take every man a lamb | 12:38 | |
"according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household; | 12:41 | |
"and if the household is too small for a lamb, | 12:47 | |
"then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take | 12:50 | |
"according to the number of persons; | 12:54 | |
"according to what each can eat | 12:57 | |
"you shall make your count for the lamb. | 12:59 | |
"Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; | 13:02 | |
"you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; | 13:08 | |
"and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day | 13:12 | |
"of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation | 13:14 | |
"of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. | 13:18 | |
"Then they shall take some of the blood, | 13:23 | |
"and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel | 13:26 | |
"of the houses in which they eat them. | 13:29 | |
"They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; | 13:33 | |
"with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. | 13:36 | |
"Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but roasted, | 13:41 | |
"its head with its legs and its inner parts. | 13:47 | |
"And you shall let none of which remain until the morning, | 13:51 | |
"anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. | 13:57 | |
"In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, | 14:01 | |
"your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; | 14:06 | |
"and you shall eat it in haste. | 14:11 | |
"It is the Lord's passover. | 14:14 | |
"For I shall pass through the land of Egypt that night, | 14:18 | |
"and I shall smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, | 14:21 | |
"both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt | 14:26 | |
"I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. | 14:33 | |
"The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses | 14:38 | |
"where you are; and when I see the blood, | 14:43 | |
"I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you | 14:46 | |
"to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. | 14:50 | |
"This day shall be for you a memorial day, | 14:57 | |
"and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; | 15:01 | |
"throughout your generations you shall observe it | 15:05 | |
"as an ordinance for ever." | 15:09 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 15:12 | |
- | Let us join in the response of reading at this alter. | 15:24 |
Women | "Hear my prayer, O Lord; | 15:32 |
"give ear to my supplications! | 15:35 | |
"In thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness!" | 15:37 | |
Men | "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; | 15:43 |
"for no man living is righteous before thee." | 15:46 | |
Women | "I remember the days of old, | 15:50 |
"I meditate on all that thou hast done; | 15:52 | |
"I muse on what thy hands have wrought." | 15:56 | |
Men | "I stretch out my hands to thee; | 16:00 |
"my soul thirsts for thee like a parched land." | 16:02 | |
Women | "Make haste to answer me, O Lord! | 16:07 |
"My spirit fails! | 16:10 | |
"Hide not thy face from me, | 16:12 | |
"lest I be like those who go down to the Pit." | 16:14 | |
Men | "Let me hear in the morning | 16:19 |
"of thy steadfast love, | 16:20 | |
"for in thee I put my trust." | 16:23 | |
All | "Teach me the way I should go, | 16:26 |
"for to thee I lift up my soul." | 16:29 | |
(organ music) | 16:32 | |
(muffled singing) | 16:41 | |
- | The second lesson is taken from Paul's letter | 17:39 |
to the Romans. | 17:42 | |
"What then shall we say to this? | 17:44 | |
"If God is for us, who is against us? | 17:47 | |
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up | 17:52 | |
"for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? | 17:55 | |
"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? | 18:01 | |
"It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? | 18:05 | |
"Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised | 18:11 | |
"from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, | 18:16 | |
"who indeed intercedes for us? | 18:20 | |
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? | 18:24 | |
"Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, | 18:28 | |
"or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? | 18:33 | |
"As it is written, 'For thy sake we are being killed | 18:41 | |
"'all the day long; we are regarded | 18:45 | |
"'as sheep to be slaughtered.' | 18:48 | |
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors | 18:52 | |
"through him who loved us. | 18:56 | |
"For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, | 18:59 | |
"nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, | 19:04 | |
"nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else | 19:10 | |
"in all creation, will be able to separate us | 19:16 | |
"from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." | 19:19 | |
(organ notes) | 19:36 | |
(choir singing) | 19:43 | |
- | The Gospel is taken from Mark. | 22:33 |
"On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, | 22:37 | |
"'Let us go across to the other side.' | 22:43 | |
"And leaving the crowd, they took him with them | 22:46 | |
"in the boat, just as he was. | 22:49 | |
"And other boats were with him. | 22:53 | |
"And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat | 22:56 | |
"into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. | 23:00 | |
"But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; | 23:05 | |
"and they woke him and said to him, | 23:10 | |
"'Teacher, do you not care if we perish?' | 23:13 | |
"And he awoke and rebutted the wind, and said to the sea, | 23:17 | |
"'Peace! | 23:22 | |
"'Be still!' | 23:23 | |
"And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. | 23:26 | |
"He said to them, 'Why are you afraid? | 23:31 | |
"'Have you no faith?' | 23:35 | |
"And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, | 23:39 | |
"'Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?'" | 23:44 | |
This ends the reading of the Gospel. | 23:51 | |
- | Please join me in prayer. | 24:15 |
Fill Thou my life, O Lord our God, | 24:20 | |
In every part with praise, | 24:22 | |
That my whole being may proclaim | 24:25 | |
Thy being and Thy ways. | 24:27 | |
Fill every part of me with praise; | 24:31 | |
Let all my being speak | 24:33 | |
of Thee and of Thy love, O God, | 24:35 | |
Poor though I be and weak. | 24:38 | |
So shall, thou God, from me, even me, | 24:43 | |
receive Thy glory do, | 24:46 | |
and so might we all begin on earth the song forever new. | 24:48 | |
Amen, and amen. | 24:54 | |
It was the fashion in the 15th century | 24:59 | |
to call the Christian church the community | 25:02 | |
of those who travel. | 25:06 | |
Christians are people on the move, | 25:09 | |
and not just in the summertime. | 25:12 | |
How many have yet seen Jaws 4? | 25:15 | |
Well, those of you with your hands up, I'm sorry for you. | 25:21 | |
Those of you with your hands down, you are most fortunate. | 25:24 | |
I did learn something from Jaws 4. | 25:27 | |
There's a sermon in everything, I'm convinced, | 25:31 | |
even in the worst, and I discovered that Christians | 25:34 | |
and sharks have one thing in common, | 25:38 | |
and that is, | 25:43 | |
motion is what keeps us breathing. | 25:45 | |
The only way in which sharks breathe | 25:50 | |
is that they are in motion, and motion | 25:52 | |
is what keeps Christians spiritually breathing. | 25:56 | |
In a world filled with tourists, | 26:01 | |
Christians are the true world travelers. | 26:04 | |
Now, every nation has pilgrimage centers | 26:09 | |
that reenact and rehearse the shared values | 26:13 | |
and symbols of that cultural tradition | 26:16 | |
embodied in that nation. | 26:20 | |
America has two pilgrimage centers that we all travel to. | 26:22 | |
One is historical, and the other is recreational. | 26:27 | |
The historical mecca that we all feel compelled | 26:30 | |
to travel to and feel the tug to take | 26:35 | |
our children to is where? | 26:37 | |
Washington, right, Washington, D.C. | 26:41 | |
Who here has not been to the Washington Monument? | 26:43 | |
Everybody has, we have all been to the Lincoln Memorial, | 26:47 | |
we've all been to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. | 26:51 | |
One of these days, I'm gonna do a sermon | 26:54 | |
on the Tomb of the Unknown Christian. | 26:55 | |
I don't know what I'm gonna say about it, | 26:58 | |
but it's a wonderful title. | 27:00 | |
There is also another kind of mecca | 27:02 | |
that we have, which is a recreational mecca. | 27:06 | |
We spine and feel the same kind of tug | 27:10 | |
to take our children to this mecca, as well, | 27:13 | |
a recreational mecca. | 27:17 | |
What am I talking about? | 27:19 | |
Right, the identical twin | 27:22 | |
monuments to Mickey Mouse. | 27:26 | |
Disneyland and Disney World. | 27:30 | |
Now, there are, besides pilgrimage centers | 27:33 | |
that we share commonly together, | 27:37 | |
there are also personal pilgrimage centers | 27:41 | |
that we all have in our own life. | 27:44 | |
My personal pilgrimage center | 27:47 | |
is the Martha Memorial. | 27:49 | |
Now, who has not been to the Martha Memorial? | 27:52 | |
Okay, who has been to the Martha Memorial? | 27:57 | |
Well, let me give you a clue. | 28:01 | |
Martha died the first of September, 1914. | 28:03 | |
Does that help out any? | 28:08 | |
Anybody know where the Martha Memorial-- | 28:11 | |
Let me give you another clue. | 28:14 | |
One of the reasons why I got so excited | 28:16 | |
about moving to southern Ohio, | 28:18 | |
which is where United Theological Seminary is, | 28:22 | |
is that I could be near where Martha spent | 28:25 | |
most of her entire life. | 28:29 | |
Does that help out any? | 28:33 | |
Let me give one more clue. | 28:35 | |
In the 19th century, so many Martha's | 28:38 | |
traveled together across America, | 28:41 | |
that they formed a big, dense black cloud | 28:44 | |
that was so thick and dense, that the sun | 28:50 | |
literally went into eclipse as they made | 28:54 | |
their migratory passage across America | 28:58 | |
throughout the 19th century. | 29:03 | |
Now you know who Martha was. | 29:07 | |
Martha was the last passenger pigeon. | 29:10 | |
She died the first of September, 1914. | 29:15 | |
She's now stuffed and at the Smithsonian institution, | 29:19 | |
but she spent her entire life at the Cincinnati Zoo, | 29:22 | |
and the Martha Memorial at the Cincinnati Zoo is, | 29:28 | |
for me, one of the most important memorials in America. | 29:31 | |
It is one of my pilgrimage centers. | 29:36 | |
Now, I wanna suggest this morning that there is a force | 29:40 | |
in our midst that is so dense and so powerful | 29:45 | |
that it, too, like those clouds of Martha's | 29:51 | |
across America in the 19th century, | 29:55 | |
it, too, can shut out the sun. | 29:57 | |
It, too, can even close the Church. | 30:02 | |
The rays of God's power and presence | 30:08 | |
can be prevented from reaching our lives | 30:12 | |
because of the spread of this spirit. | 30:16 | |
I want to name the demon this morning, | 30:20 | |
this spirit, this force in our midst, | 30:22 | |
and I am calling it the power of small-mindedness. | 30:26 | |
Desire determines destiny, | 30:33 | |
and our desires | 30:38 | |
for the things of God have become puny. | 30:40 | |
We have made mediocrity into a virtue. | 30:44 | |
Our ambition has become, to have little ambition | 30:47 | |
for God and the Gospel. | 30:52 | |
Now, the powers of small-mindedness | 30:56 | |
can be illustrated by fog. | 30:58 | |
Scientists recently determined to study | 31:00 | |
just how much water there is in fog. | 31:06 | |
You'd think we'd know by now everything | 31:08 | |
that we need to know about fog, but we don't. | 31:09 | |
So, they got their computers together | 31:13 | |
and all this technological wizardry, | 31:15 | |
and they put the question to it, | 31:17 | |
"How much water is there, in fog, dense enough | 31:19 | |
"to shut down a major international airport, | 31:24 | |
"or the equivalent of seven major city blocks | 31:28 | |
"of a metropolitan area?" | 31:32 | |
So, they calculated how much water | 31:35 | |
there would be in that density of fog | 31:38 | |
if it were fully condensed down, | 31:41 | |
and what they discovered was that the amount of fog | 31:45 | |
that it would take to shut down | 31:49 | |
a major international airport, or to shut down | 31:51 | |
a major portion of one of America's largest cities, | 31:54 | |
when you brought it all together, | 31:59 | |
could fit into one eight ounce glass of water. | 32:00 | |
That is all the water it takes, | 32:05 | |
and that is all the small-mindedness it takes in our lives | 32:10 | |
to shut out the rays of God's presence and love, | 32:16 | |
and to shut down the Church. | 32:21 | |
The Church can be so befogged by the spirit | 32:25 | |
of small-mindedness, that it's mission, | 32:30 | |
it's movement, can come to a screeching halt. | 32:33 | |
To get underway again, we must relearn | 32:41 | |
the art of Christian traveling. | 32:47 | |
We must be mobile believers. | 32:52 | |
The art of Christian traveling, I am convinced, | 32:58 | |
is summarized by four basic means of locomotion: | 33:03 | |
pigeon-walking, whale-watching, | 33:10 | |
wave-riding and water-striding. | 33:13 | |
Now, let's return to Martha. | 33:18 | |
Have you ever noticed that pigeons walk funny? | 33:22 | |
Have you ever noticed that, they have | 33:26 | |
a very unique and distinctive way of walking? | 33:27 | |
Passenger pigeons are now extinct, | 33:31 | |
but there are over 300 varieties of other kinds of pigeons, | 33:33 | |
and they're thriving, as anyone who goes | 33:37 | |
into any city knows. | 33:39 | |
Well, the Detroit Free Press, not to long ago, | 33:42 | |
did a study of pigeons and they discovered | 33:44 | |
that the reason why pigeons walk funny | 33:48 | |
is that every pigeon brought in to this world | 33:52 | |
is born with a handicap, and their handicap | 33:55 | |
is that, as long as they are in motion, | 33:58 | |
pigeons can not see straight. | 34:02 | |
It gets cloudy and unfocused, | 34:06 | |
and the further they walk, | 34:10 | |
the more blurred and cloudy their vision becomes. | 34:12 | |
So, pigeons have learned over the years | 34:18 | |
to compensate for this disability | 34:20 | |
by a very unique way of walking. | 34:23 | |
What they do is they go so far, and then they have to stop, | 34:27 | |
and then they focus their eyes, | 34:32 | |
and this is done very, very quickly, | 34:34 | |
they refocus their eyes and then they pivot | 34:36 | |
in the direction which they want to go, | 34:39 | |
and then they start up again, but they can only go so far | 34:42 | |
before everything gets blurry, so they have to stop | 34:45 | |
and they have to re-pivot, refocus and start again. | 34:48 | |
I'm not gonna do the pigeon walk for you this morning, | 34:52 | |
but you know what it looks like, and it's partly | 34:56 | |
from that odd way of walking that we get | 34:58 | |
our expression "pigeon-toed." | 35:00 | |
'Cause that helps them to stop. | 35:05 | |
Now, it's easy for us to laugh at pigeons, | 35:08 | |
but we, brothers and sisters, have the exact same disability | 35:11 | |
as every pigeon brought into this world, | 35:16 | |
for we also move to fast | 35:20 | |
to see clearly. | 35:24 | |
Our lives are so crowded, our calendars are so congested, | 35:26 | |
that we cannot see clearly the will and the way of God | 35:30 | |
for our lives, unless we, too, | 35:35 | |
learn to be pigeon-like. | 35:39 | |
To stop, to refocus, | 35:41 | |
to re-pivot our lives, | 35:46 | |
and then to begin again. | 35:48 | |
When Jesus called his first disciples in Mark 1, | 35:53 | |
you remember he found Peter and his fishing boat partners | 35:56 | |
by the Sea of Galilee, what were they doing? | 36:00 | |
They were hauling in their nets from the water | 36:02 | |
onto dry land, and Jesus' first words to his new disciples | 36:05 | |
were, "Repent, believe the Gospel. | 36:10 | |
"Follow me, | 36:15 | |
and I will make you fishers of men and women." | 36:18 | |
Now, the word for repent, here, | 36:23 | |
is the Greek word, metanoia. | 36:25 | |
It literally means a change of mind, | 36:28 | |
an about-face with your life. | 36:31 | |
In other words, you are fishing or you are walking | 36:33 | |
in a certain direction, but then a metanoic | 36:36 | |
experience happens, and you find yourself returning, | 36:39 | |
re-pivoting, refocusing and starting off | 36:46 | |
in a whole new direction, a new way of living, | 36:52 | |
a new way of fishing, a new way of walking in the world. | 36:55 | |
This Greek word, metanoia, is nothing more | 36:59 | |
than a fancy name for pigeon-walking. | 37:04 | |
But one metanoia is not enough. | 37:09 | |
Christians are a pigeon-toed people. | 37:14 | |
We cannot go far without things getting out of focus, | 37:18 | |
without life becoming blurred again, | 37:22 | |
without needing more conversion experiences, | 37:24 | |
and so, one of the greatest things Martha can teach us, | 37:31 | |
and has taught me, | 37:37 | |
is how to do the pigeon-walk. | 37:40 | |
Now, Jesus calls individuals, but Jesus gathers | 37:45 | |
individuals into communities. | 37:48 | |
This is where the art of whale-watching comes in. | 37:52 | |
My favorite vacation spot in the summer | 37:55 | |
is South Wellfleet, Massachusetts. | 37:58 | |
How many of you ever been to Cape Cod? | 38:00 | |
Okay, how many of you, at Cape Cod, | 38:03 | |
have ever gone on a whale watch? | 38:06 | |
Has anybody here? | 38:09 | |
Some of you have. | 38:10 | |
On a dreary, overcast day, the only thing to do, | 38:12 | |
the only problem is, thousands of others decide | 38:15 | |
this is the only thing to do, is to visit | 38:18 | |
Provincetown and to go on a whale watch. | 38:21 | |
Now, what happens is, the captain of the whale-watching | 38:27 | |
vessel steers the boat into the Stellwagon Bank | 38:30 | |
feeding grounds, which is about | 38:34 | |
six to eight miles out to sea. | 38:35 | |
When he gets out there, he announces that | 38:39 | |
the whale watch begins, and everyone scampers | 38:42 | |
to the sides of the boat, leans over the railing, | 38:45 | |
and is told to watch out for, | 38:49 | |
what the naturalist commentator calls, whale prints. | 38:51 | |
Isn't that a wonderful word? | 38:56 | |
Whale prints. | 38:59 | |
Now, a whale print betrays the spot | 39:01 | |
where the whale has founded, and if you look far enough | 39:05 | |
into the water and long enough around that whale print, | 39:09 | |
or what used to be called the blow wake, | 39:13 | |
you can see the whale surface again for another sounding. | 39:16 | |
If you can imagine, the legendary Paul Bunyan | 39:21 | |
walking on water, you can imagine | 39:24 | |
what these whale prints look like. | 39:28 | |
A whale print is an | 39:31 | |
oily oasis of absolute stillness, | 39:33 | |
absolute calm, in the midst of this ocean | 39:38 | |
of rollicking, billowing waves. | 39:42 | |
No matter how turbulent the water, | 39:45 | |
no matter how violent the waves, | 39:49 | |
a whale print is so still, | 39:52 | |
so serene, so smooth | 39:56 | |
that you could almost launch a toy sail boat | 39:59 | |
and it wouldn't be blown over. | 40:03 | |
Scientists tell us that a whale print | 40:06 | |
is created by a combination of the whale | 40:08 | |
displacing an equal amount of weight | 40:11 | |
to it's own body as it submerges, | 40:15 | |
and the action of it's diving flukes, | 40:18 | |
which creates a churning column of water | 40:21 | |
that literally swells a few inches above | 40:25 | |
the surface of the ocean, creating this spot | 40:29 | |
of absolute stillness. | 40:33 | |
This whale print in the water. | 40:37 | |
Now, the Church leaves a whale print | 40:41 | |
on the surface of this planet. | 40:47 | |
You, your life, leaves a whale print | 40:50 | |
on the surface of this planet. | 40:54 | |
You, too, and the Church, displaces an equal amount | 40:56 | |
of weight in this world. | 41:00 | |
The question is, what kind of weight | 41:03 | |
will our communities displace? | 41:06 | |
What kind of a whale print will we leave? | 41:09 | |
There are too many people out there | 41:12 | |
who are scanning the horizon, peering for havens | 41:14 | |
of peace, places of stillness, and forgiveness | 41:18 | |
in the midst of the incredible violence and turbulence | 41:23 | |
of this world, and they aren't finding whale prints. | 41:26 | |
They aren't finding communities of forgiveness, | 41:31 | |
and peace, and love. | 41:36 | |
All they're finding are more ripples, | 41:41 | |
and more waves, and more tides. | 41:43 | |
God is calling our communities, our churches, | 41:49 | |
to make a difference, to be different, | 41:53 | |
to leave whale prints in their wake. | 41:56 | |
For the whale print is the voice of God | 42:00 | |
upon the waters, saying to the lost and the forgotten, | 42:03 | |
"There is an oasis in your turbulent ocean." | 42:08 | |
Now, the individual and the community, | 42:16 | |
they synergize permission, and this is where the art | 42:17 | |
of wave-riding comes in. | 42:22 | |
When I was in high school, I earned money | 42:27 | |
during the summer by life guarding | 42:29 | |
at various Christian camps in the Adirondack mountains | 42:31 | |
of upstate New York, and included in my job description, | 42:35 | |
one summer, was the task of taking teenagers | 42:39 | |
on speedboat rides every afternoon. | 42:43 | |
It was a tough assignment, but somebody had to do it. | 42:46 | |
I quickly learned that there are two kinds | 42:50 | |
of teenage campers that go to Christian camps. | 42:53 | |
There are those who, when I would rev up the engine | 42:58 | |
and let out the throttle, would stand | 43:02 | |
in the middle of the boat, straddling the bounce | 43:04 | |
across the waves while they would yell, | 43:08 | |
"Faster, faster!" | 43:10 | |
These are the wave-riders, and you can see | 43:13 | |
the exhilaration and the excitement in their faces | 43:17 | |
as they were straddling those waves. | 43:21 | |
Then, there were a whole other crew of campers | 43:23 | |
who were not at the center of the boat, | 43:27 | |
but they were leaning over the sides of the boat, | 43:30 | |
clinging for dear life, hoping and praying | 43:33 | |
that this wonderful experience would soon be over. | 43:36 | |
Now, these were the boat-huggers. | 43:41 | |
Now, you can tell this type from the looks of fear | 43:46 | |
and panic in their faces, as well as from other | 43:49 | |
physiological symptoms best described no further. | 43:52 | |
Boat-huggers and wave-riders. | 43:56 | |
Two very different types of missions for the Church. | 44:02 | |
A line in the prophecy of Ezekiel reads, | 44:10 | |
"Thy rowers bring thee | 44:13 | |
into great waters." | 44:16 | |
God calls the Church to leave the harbor, | 44:21 | |
to lift anchor, to launch out into the joy | 44:25 | |
and into the risk of the deep sea. | 44:30 | |
Our mission is not to hug harbors. | 44:33 | |
Our mission is not to drop anchors where it is safe, | 44:36 | |
or cheer other boats as they sail off into the deep. | 44:41 | |
The place for the church, the place for you | 44:45 | |
and me, brother and sister, is on the high seas, | 44:48 | |
where it is turbulent, where it is dangerous, | 44:53 | |
and where storms gather with their fiercest intensity. | 44:57 | |
That's why, in early Christian art, | 45:03 | |
the Church was portrayed as a boat, | 45:05 | |
driven upon the perilous seas, | 45:08 | |
and Jesus made this very clear to his disciples | 45:11 | |
in this wonderful account that Maurice read to you, | 45:15 | |
of Jesus rebuking the storm. | 45:18 | |
One evening, an exhausted Jesus was sleeping | 45:22 | |
on the little seat, placed at the stern of Peter's boat. | 45:25 | |
A sudden squall arose on the Sea of Galilee, | 45:30 | |
notorious for it's sudden storms, | 45:33 | |
and as the splashing waves broke upon the boat | 45:35 | |
and the disciples found themselves bailing water, | 45:39 | |
they panicked, and they rushed to the stern of the boat | 45:42 | |
where Jesus was sleeping, and shaking him violently, | 45:45 | |
they cried out, "Master, master, the tempest is raging. | 45:49 | |
"The billows are blasting high. | 45:53 | |
"Don't you care that we perish?" | 45:57 | |
Brushing off sleep, Jesus arose, went briskly | 46:02 | |
to the side of the boat, and stretched out his arm | 46:07 | |
and spoke, "Peace, be still." | 46:14 | |
You say, what a magic moment. | 46:21 | |
What a thrill to have been there with those disciples | 46:25 | |
and to have witnessed one of the most spectacular | 46:29 | |
miracles of Jesus' ministry. | 46:31 | |
The subduing of the waves and the wind | 46:34 | |
with the mere sound of his voice. | 46:36 | |
What a thrill to have been there for such an event. | 46:39 | |
But what was Jesus' reaction? | 46:43 | |
Jesus turned to his disciples, | 46:47 | |
and he looked at them angrily, | 46:50 | |
and he rebuked them, and he said, "Where is your faith?" | 46:52 | |
For they had missed the real blessings | 46:59 | |
that Jesus had in store for them. | 47:03 | |
You say, what could have been more of a thrill | 47:06 | |
than witnessing this miracle of Jesus calming the storm, | 47:08 | |
but the miracle Jesus wanted to show his disciples, | 47:13 | |
and wants to show us this morning, is not the miracle | 47:17 | |
of calming the storm. | 47:21 | |
It is the miracle of calming us in the storm. | 47:25 | |
Think what it would have been like to have experienced | 47:32 | |
this miracle of wave-riding. | 47:35 | |
The joy of knowing that, no matter how fierce the storms, | 47:38 | |
no matter how many crises in your cruises, | 47:43 | |
nothing of ultimate harm can happen to you | 47:47 | |
as long as you are in the boat with Jesus. | 47:54 | |
With Jesus in our lives and in our midst, | 48:01 | |
we have nothing to fear. | 48:04 | |
Jesus never promised to speak peace to every storm, | 48:10 | |
in your life and in my life, and those of you listening | 48:16 | |
from the hospital right now know exactly | 48:21 | |
what I am talking about. | 48:24 | |
In fact, Jesus' diction to his disciples in Mark 13 | 48:27 | |
was basically, "In the world, you will have tribulation, | 48:31 | |
"you will have storms." | 48:35 | |
But Jesus did promise to speak peace to us | 48:39 | |
in every storm. | 48:45 | |
And so, God is calling the Church, this morning, | 48:50 | |
to be a community of wave-riding people. | 48:55 | |
People who will lift anchor from whatever | 49:01 | |
is holding you in life's harbors; people who will believe | 49:04 | |
that, even when God does not calm our storms, | 49:07 | |
God will calm us in the storms; people who will | 49:10 | |
know that, to voyage with Jesus Christ, | 49:14 | |
is to enjoy peace, even in the midst of life's | 49:18 | |
storm-tossed experience. | 49:23 | |
But there is one more means of traveling | 49:30 | |
that we need to learn. | 49:33 | |
The art of water-striding. | 49:37 | |
This brings me back to Mark 1, | 49:44 | |
and the story of Jesus' call | 49:49 | |
to his first disciples. | 49:51 | |
He called them from a life of hauling things. | 49:54 | |
Now imagine, in your minds, what these disciples were doing. | 49:58 | |
They were hauling things from the water onto the dry land. | 50:01 | |
They were hauling fish in their nets from the water | 50:06 | |
onto the dry land, and Jesus said to them, | 50:09 | |
"Metanoia, repent, do the pigeon-walk, | 50:12 | |
do an about-face, and transform your life | 50:15 | |
into hauling onto the dry land, | 50:20 | |
water-logged fish, | 50:27 | |
onto hauling from the dry land, | 50:32 | |
landed and stranded people, | 50:36 | |
into the water. | 50:39 | |
He called us to a metanoic life of hauling people | 50:43 | |
from the dry lands of lostness and loneliness, | 50:47 | |
from barren deserts of despair and depression, | 50:51 | |
from the wilderness of disease and death, | 50:54 | |
into the water of new life in the Spirit. | 50:57 | |
We are a water people, that is the whole meaning of baptism. | 51:00 | |
You and I are 80% water. | 51:05 | |
No wonder we are both a land | 51:08 | |
and water people, | 51:13 | |
and for this reason, the Church needs amphibious leaders. | 51:16 | |
Jesus calls his amphibious apostles | 51:24 | |
to enter Peter's boat, | 51:29 | |
and enter into a new way of living in this world. | 51:31 | |
Now, Jesus calls us into a new life, and baptizes us | 51:38 | |
as a water people, but baptism means more | 51:43 | |
than sticking your toes in the water, or even just | 51:47 | |
merely getting your feet wet in faith, | 51:50 | |
for in calling James and Peter and John into the water, | 51:53 | |
Jesus called them and is calling us to immerse ourselves | 51:57 | |
in the life of faith, and to so swim in the stream | 52:01 | |
of the Spirit, until sometimes, | 52:06 | |
like Jesus said to Peter, | 52:10 | |
we can actually get out of the boat | 52:13 | |
and walk on that water. | 52:18 | |
That is why I end with the Christian life being more | 52:23 | |
than one of just pigeon-walking, whale-watching | 52:26 | |
and wave-riding. | 52:29 | |
It is also one of water-striding, | 52:32 | |
and when water-striding | 52:36 | |
becomes a way of life, then all of your life and my life | 52:37 | |
becomes a miracle. | 52:41 | |
You know, that water-strider, that bug? | 52:44 | |
We need to remember, that, like that bug, | 52:48 | |
if you ever see a water-strider, notice this. | 52:50 | |
Attention is never drawn to the water-striders themselves | 52:54 | |
and to the miraculous way of walking on water. | 52:58 | |
You only see the shadows. | 53:01 | |
You only see what appears as four pulsating specks, | 53:05 | |
dancing at the bottom of that creek bed. | 53:08 | |
No one ever really knows how much walking on water takes, | 53:12 | |
just to travel creek beds. | 53:19 | |
A water-striding faith does not show how big you are, | 53:23 | |
but how great God is. | 53:28 | |
Faith is not trusting God to get something, | 53:36 | |
to do something. | 53:40 | |
Faith is trusting God when there is nothing left to do. | 53:43 | |
Faith is our victory, | 53:50 | |
a victory of a pigeon-walking, | 53:55 | |
whale-watching, wave-riding, | 53:58 | |
water-striding people. | 54:03 | |
When will the Church come over to the victory's side? | 54:07 | |
When will the Church become a pigeon-walking, | 54:12 | |
whale-watching, wave-riding, water-striding people? | 54:18 | |
My prayer for you, for me, | 54:23 | |
and for our churches this morning. | 54:28 | |
Amen. | 54:31 | |
("At Length There Dawns the Glorious Day") | 54:46 | |
(muffled singing) | 55:18 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 57:04 |
(muffled) | 57:07 | |
Let us pray. | 57:08 | |
Most gracious God, high above all, yet deep within us, | 57:18 | |
we turn our hearts unto Thee. | 57:24 | |
In the spirit of thanksgiving, we offer these prayers | 57:28 | |
for others, trusting in thy eternal goodness, | 57:30 | |
seeking to give thanks in all things. | 57:34 | |
Let us pray for the needs of the entire human family. | 57:39 | |
Look with kindness, oh God, on those | 57:43 | |
who have separated themselves from | 57:47 | |
one another and from Thee. | 57:49 | |
Take away the hatred and self-righteousness | 57:52 | |
which infect our hearts, and unite us in bonds of love | 57:55 | |
across lines of nationality, race, or creed. | 57:59 | |
Let us pray for all those who suffer want of food, | 58:06 | |
shelter, or other necessities of life. | 58:10 | |
Use, as thine own body, the Church | 58:14 | |
to ease their affliction and renew their hope. | 58:17 | |
Increase our diligence and strengthen our desire | 58:22 | |
to follow Christ's own example of feeding the hungry, | 58:24 | |
healing the sick, and visiting the imprisoned, | 58:28 | |
that thy love may be made a known reality | 58:32 | |
in this broken world. | 58:35 | |
Let us pray, gracious God, for those who live | 58:38 | |
with injustice, violence, disease and death | 58:41 | |
as their constant companions. | 58:46 | |
Make wise those who govern their communities, | 58:49 | |
and grant them the spirit of charity and justice. | 58:53 | |
Grant them the foresight to provide for the needs of people, | 58:57 | |
and strengthen all those who keep vigil for the cause | 59:01 | |
of justice and of peace. | 59:04 | |
Let us pray for the future of our world. | 59:08 | |
Magnify our reverence before the sacred mystery, | 59:11 | |
which is life. | 59:15 | |
Give us new understanding into thy purposes | 59:17 | |
for the human race, and new wisdom and determination | 59:20 | |
for making provision for it's future, in accordance | 59:24 | |
with thy holy will. | 59:27 | |
Recognizing Thou hast given us dominion over the earth, | 59:29 | |
we pray that Thou wouldst grant us the spirit | 59:34 | |
of thanksgiving, to do so with compassion. | 59:36 | |
These things we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. | 59:42 | |
Amen. | 59:46 | |
And now, in the spirit of thanksgiving, | 59:49 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves unto God. | 59:51 | |
(organ music) | 59:57 | |
(muffled singing) | 1:01:44 | |
("All Creatures of our God and King", William H. Draper) | 1:05:55 | |
(muffled singing) | 1:06:10 | |
- | Almighty God, creator of all that was and is | 1:07:14 |
and is to come, diverse that we are in age, | 1:07:18 | |
in outlook, we are one in our desire to voice | 1:07:22 | |
our gratitude unto Thee. | 1:07:25 | |
We thank Thee for our time and place in history, | 1:07:28 | |
for the vision of a better world, for friends and loved ones | 1:07:32 | |
who mediate Thy loving care to us, and for new truths | 1:07:37 | |
which are constantly revealed to us through the Church. | 1:07:41 | |
All Thy works praise, and in that chorus we gratefully join. | 1:07:45 | |
This we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, | 1:07:50 | |
who taught us to pray with the confidence of children, | 1:07:53 | |
All | "Our Father, who art in heaven, | 1:07:56 |
"hallowed be thy Name, | 1:07:59 | |
"thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 1:08:01 | |
"on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:08:04 | |
"Give us this day our daily bread. | 1:08:07 | |
"And forgive us our trespasses, | 1:08:09 | |
"as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 1:08:12 | |
"And lead us not into temptation, | 1:08:15 | |
"but deliver us from evil. | 1:08:18 | |
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, | 1:08:20 | |
"for ever and ever. Amen." | 1:08:24 | |
("How Firm a Foundation") | 1:08:53 | |
♪ How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord ♪ | 1:09:23 | |
♪ Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ♪ | 1:09:30 | |
♪ What more can he say than to you he hath said ♪ | 1:09:38 | |
♪ Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled ♪ | 1:09:45 | |
♪ Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed ♪ | 1:09:55 | |
♪ For I am thy God and will still give thee aid ♪ | 1:10:02 | |
♪ I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand ♪ | 1:10:09 | |
♪ Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand ♪ | 1:10:16 | |
♪ When through the deep waters I call thee to go ♪ | 1:10:27 | |
♪ The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow ♪ | 1:10:34 | |
♪ For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless ♪ | 1:10:42 | |
♪ And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress ♪ | 1:10:49 | |
♪ When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie ♪ | 1:11:00 | |
♪ My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply ♪ | 1:11:07 | |
♪ The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design ♪ | 1:11:15 | |
♪ Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine ♪ | 1:11:21 | |
♪ The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose ♪ | 1:11:32 | |
♪ I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes ♪ | 1:11:39 | |
♪ That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake ♪ | 1:11:47 | |
♪ I'll never, no never, no never forsake ♪ | 1:11:53 | |
- | And now, go forth in peace, and be of good courage. | 1:12:09 |
Hold fast to that which is good, rejoicing in the power | 1:12:13 | |
of the Holy Spirit, and may the blessing of God, | 1:12:17 | |
creator of Christ and the Holy Spirit | 1:12:21 | |
be with you all now and forevermore. | 1:12:23 | |
(choir vocalizing) | 1:12:31 | |
(organ music) | 1:13:10 |
Item Info
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