Thomas G. Long - "Prophet Without Honor" (February 2, 1992)

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	(muffled choral music)	0:00
	♪ And I will give to thee to thee a crown of life ♪	0:16
	♪ Be not afraid be not afraid ♪	0:34
	♪ My help is thine ♪	0:41
	♪ Be not afraid be not afraid ♪	0:46
	♪ My help is thine ♪	0:50
	♪ Be not afraid my help is thine ♪	0:57
	♪ Be not afraid ♪	1:01
	♪ Be not afraid upon to death ♪	1:04
	♪ And I will give to thee ♪	1:15
	♪ Give to thee a crown of life ♪	1:19
	♪ Be not afraid my help is thine ♪	1:26
	♪ My help ♪	1:30
	♪ Is thine ♪	1:34
	♪ Be not afraid ♪	1:38
	♪ My help is thine ♪	1:43
	♪ Be not afraid ♪	1:52
	♪ For unto death ♪	1:57
-	Welcome to this service of worship	2:20
	on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany.	2:22
	All of today's offering goes to the work	2:25
	of the Good Shepard Ministries	2:27
	and representatives from those ministries	2:32
	will be available in the north exit	2:34
	at the close of the service to talk	2:36
	with you about their work.	2:38
	We invite you to give generously.	2:42
	Dr. Dale Martin, Popular Religion professor here at Duke	2:43
	has been doing a series of lessons on Jesus.	2:47
	These have been well-attended.	2:52
	These lessons continue on Sunday mornings	2:54
	at 9:45 and we invite your participation.	2:57
	Our guest preacher today is one of	3:01
	our favorite guest preachers here in the chapel,	3:05
	Dr. Thomas Long from Princeton Theological Seminary,	3:08
	one of America's great preachers and communicators	3:11
	of the Gospel and a teacher of preachers at Princeton	3:16
	and we welcome him back to our pulpit.	3:19
	Our first hymn today, "Morning Glory, Starlit Sky,"	3:23
	is one of the great, new hymns	3:27
	in the United Methodist Hymnal that we're	3:30
	premiering here in the chapel today.	3:33
	And now stand for the greeting.	3:38
	The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you.	3:44
-	And also with you.	3:48
-	The splendor of Christ shines upon us.	3:49
-	Praise the Lord.	3:52
	(organ music)	3:56
	(muffled choral music)	4:25
-	Let us pray.	8:23
	Living Christ,	8:29
	Your earthly ministry was full of struggle as well as joy	8:31
	yet You were faithful in following God's will	8:36
	and by Your life, you showed us what it means to love.	8:40
	Breath Your Spirit into our lives	8:45
	and mold us into Your disciples	8:48
	so that we too may seek God's will.	8:51
	Give us courage to face every struggle	8:55
	and faith to trust in You.	8:58
	Grant that we might learn what it means	9:02
	to love one another as we accept the gift	9:04
	of Your love for us,	9:07
	for it's in Your name that we pray, Amen.	9:10
	You may be seated.	9:14
-	Let us pray together the Prayer For Illumination.	9:24
	Open our hearts and minds, O, God,	9:29
	by the power of Your Holy Spirit	9:32
	so that as the Word is read and proclaimed,	9:35
	we might hear with joy what You say to us this day, Amen.	9:38
	The first reading is from the words of the Prophet Jeremiah,	9:46
	the first chapter, starting with the fourth verse.	9:50
	"Now the Word of the Lord came to me saying,	9:55
	"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you	9:58
	"and before you were born, I consecrated you.	10:01
	"I appointed you for a prophet to the nations'	10:03
	"Then I said, 'O, Lord God, truly I do not know how	10:09
	"to speak for I am only a boy,'	10:13
	"but the Lord said to me, 'Do not say I am only a boy,	10:18
	"for you shall go to all to whom I send you	10:23
	"and you shall speak whatever I command you.	10:27
	"Do not be afraid of them,	10:31
	"for I am with you to deliver thee,' says the Lord.	10:34
	"Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth	10:37
	"and the Lord said to me,	10:40
	"Now I have put my words in your mouth.	10:43
	"See today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms	10:47
	"to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow,	10:51
	"to build and to plant."	10:57
	This is the Word of The Lord.	11:00
	Thanks be to God.	11:03
-	Please stand and join me in singing this alter song,	11:17
	71: 1-6 found on page 794 in your Hymnal.	11:21
	(organ music)	11:24
	♪ In you O Lord do I take refuge ♪	11:32
	♪ Let me never be put to shame ♪	11:38
	♪ In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me ♪	11:42
	♪ Apply your ear to me and save me ♪	11:49
	♪ Be to me a rock of refuge a strong fortress to save me ♪	11:56
	♪ For you are my rock and my fortress ♪	12:03
	♪ Rescue me O my God from the hand of the wicked ♪	12:08
	♪ From the grasp of the unjust and cruel ♪	12:14
	♪ For you O Lord are my hope ♪	12:21
	♪ My trust O Lord from my youth ♪	12:25
	(muffled singing)	12:32
	♪ All glory be to You Creator ♪	12:50
	♪ And to Jesus Christ our Savior ♪	12:54
	♪ And to the Holy Spirit blessed Trinity ♪	12:58
	♪ As it was as time began ♪	13:05
	♪ Is now and will be forever more ♪	13:09
-	This reading is from Paul's	13:18
	first Letter to the Corinthians.	13:29
	Chapter 13 2beginning with the first verse.	13:33
	"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels,	13:37
	"but do not have love.	13:42
	"I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal	13:45
	"and if I have prophetic powers and understand all	13:48
	"mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith	13:54
	"so as to remove mountains, but do not have love,	13:57
	"I am nothing.	14:00
	"If I give away all my possessions and I hand over my body	14:02
	"so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.	14:05
	"Love is patient, love is kind.	14:11
	"Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.	14:16
	"It does not insist on its own way.	14:21
	"It is not irritable or resentful.	14:24
	"It does not rejoice in wrong doing,	14:27
	"but rejoices in the truth.	14:31
	"It bears all things, believes all things,	14:33
	"hopes all things, endures all things.	14:36
	"Love never ends, but as for prophecies,	14:40
	"they will come to an end;	14:46
	"as for tongues, they will cease;	14:47
	"as for knowledge, it will come to an end,	14:49
	"for we know only in part and we prophesy only in part.	14:53
	"But, when the complete comes,	14:57
	"the partial will come to an end.	14:59
	"When I was a child, I spoke like a child.	15:02
	"I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.	15:05
	"When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways,	15:09
	"for now we see in a mirror dimly,	15:14
	"but then we will see face-to-face.	15:17
	"Now I know only in part.	15:20
	"Then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.	15:24
	"And now faith, hope and love abide.	15:28
	"These three and the greatest of these is love."	15:32
	This is the Word of The Lord.	15:37
	Thanks be to God.	15:40
	(organ music)	15:56
	♪ Though I speak in the tongue of men and of angels ♪	15:58
	(muffled singing)	16:07
-	The Lectionary Gospel reading for today comes	21:44
	from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke.	21:47
	Actually, the reading begins in the middle of a story.	21:51
	Last week, we got part one; this week, we get part two.	21:55
	What has happened up to this point is Jesus,	22:00
	who is at the beginning of His ministry,	22:04
	has gone to the synagogue in Nazareth, His hometown.	22:05
	They asked Him to preach,	22:10
	so He took the scripture scroll from the attendant,	22:13
	He opened it up to the text from Isaiah that reads,	22:18
	"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed	22:21
	"me to proclaim good news to the poor."	22:25
	When He finished reading, he rolled the scroll up,	22:28
	He gave it back to the attendant and He sat down	22:31
	in the preacher's chair and He began to preach.	22:34
	"Today, this scripture has been fulfilled	22:40
	"in your hearing."	22:45
	I wonder what the reaction was	22:48
	at His hometown synagogue to His sermon.	22:51
	Listen.	22:54
	"All spoke well of Him and were amazed	22:58
	"at the gracious words that came from His mouth.	23:02
	"They said, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'	23:05
	"He said to them, 'Doubtless, you will quote to me	23:12
	"the proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself,'	23:15
	"and you will say, 'Do also here in your hometown	23:19
	"the things that we have heard	23:23
	"that you have done at Calpurnia'	23:25
	"And He said, 'Truly, I tell you,	23:26
	"no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.	23:29
	"but the truth is, there were many widows in Israel	23:35
	"in the time of Elijah when the heaven was shut up	23:38
	"for three years and six months and there was a severe	23:41
	"famine all over the land, yet Elijah was sent	23:47
	"to none of them except a widow at Zeraphath in Sidon.	23:51
	"There were also many lepers in Israel	23:53
	"at the time of Prophet Elijah	23:57
	"and none of them was cleansed except Naaman, the Syrian.'	24:00
	"When they heard this,	24:03
	"all in the synagogue were filled with rage.	24:06
	"They got up, drove Him out of the town and led Him	24:09
	"to the brow of the hill on which their town was built	24:13
	"so that they might hurl Him off a cliff.	24:17
	"But, He passed through the midst of them	24:21
	"and went on His way."	24:24
	This is the Word of the Lord.	24:27
Congregation	Praise be to God.	24:35
-	I am sure that you have seen these signs	24:36
	as you have been driving along the highway.	24:39
	The signs that say things like, "Welcome to Centreville,	24:43
	"population 2,100. Home of Billy Jenkins,	24:45
	"4H Farmer of The Year."	24:51
	Or, "Now Entering Billings, population 800;	24:54
	"Home of Tammi Faye Wayne 1974, Little Miss America"	24:57
	Or, "You are now entering Cheltingham, elevation 620 feet;	25:02
	"Proud Home of Micheal Brown,	25:07
	"Nobel Prize Winner in Science."	25:09
	It seems that almost every small town in the land	25:13
	has at least one local citizen of whom it is	25:16
	inordinately proud.	25:21
	And when the towns put their names on the city limits signs,	25:24
	it is as if they are saying,	25:28
	"You may never have heard of this town.	25:31
	"It may not be on all of the maps,	25:32
	"but look what we have produced!	25:34
	"We've raised a movie star.	25:37
	"We've raised a president.	25:40
	"We've raised a Nobel Laureate.	25:41
	"Right here in our hometown."	25:44
	"But a prophet," said Jesus,	25:50
	"is not accepted in the prophet's hometown."	25:53
	You will not find signs that say,	25:59
	"Now entering Anathoth, population 2,100;	26:03
	"Proud Home of Jeremiah, The Weeping Prophet."	26:06
	You will find no highway sign that says,	26:10
	"Welcome to Tekoa, Home of Amos, 4H Prophet of the Year."	26:13
	"A prophet is without honor, is unacceptable," said Jesus,	26:17
	"in the prophet's own hometown."	26:22
	Now, I suppose that's true.	26:27
	Jesus said it after all, it must be true,	26:30
	but it seems strange, doesn't it?	26:32
	It would seem that a town that could honor	26:36
	a beauty queen could honor a prophet	26:38
	but a prophet is unacceptable in a prophet's own hometown.	26:42
	Why?	26:49
	I mean, after all, a prophet is a poet who puts	26:52
	into imaginative language what God is doing	26:54
	to stir up the world.	26:57
	A prophet is a teacher who builds up	26:59
	and educates the people in ways	27:02
	of obedience and righteousness.	27:04
	A prophet is a skillful politician who rouses the people	27:06
	to new and profound ways of obedience and action.	27:09
	You'd think a prophet would be honored.	27:14
	But, no.	27:16
	A prophet is unacceptable in the prophet's own hometown.	27:19
	Why?	27:27
	Well, the customary answer to that question is	27:30
	that the reason why a prophet is without honor	27:33
	in the prophet's own hometown is quite frankly	27:36
	because the hometown knows too much about the prophet.	27:39
	I mean, there's something about familiarity, you know,	27:45
	that simply dulls the edges on prophecy.	27:49
	Prophecy is a dramatic and new word.	27:52
	A prophet gets up and says, "Let justice roll down	27:55
	"like the waters and righteousness	28:00
	"like an ever-flowing stream."	28:02
	And you don't say that very often in your hometown	28:04
	before somebody stands up in the congregation and says,	28:07
	"Oh, where did you get all that?"	28:09
	That's precisely, you know, what happened at Nazareth	28:11
	when Jesus preached the prophetic word from Isaiah.	28:13
	They responded, first of all, with astonishment	28:18
	and amazement at the words that came from his mouth,	28:21
	at the prophetic word fulfilled in their midst.	28:23
	But then somebody in the back pew said,	28:27
	"Wait a minute,	28:30
	"we know him!	28:32
	"Isn't that Joseph's son?	28:33
	"He used to play in my backyard,	28:35
	I used to wipe his nose.	28:37
	"I taught him in Hebrew school."	28:39
	When I graduated from seminary, I was called	28:43
	to be the pastor of a church in my own hometown.	28:46
	The people in my congregation, many of them knew me	28:50
	ever since I was a little boy.	28:53
	I never will forget the first Sunday I was there.	28:55
	I was in my study putting on my robe,	28:59
	getting ready to leave worship and preach	29:02
	and I was scared to death,	29:03
	so I was trying to bolster my own spirits by saying,	29:06
	"Now Tom, you are now an ordained minister of the Word.	29:10
	"You have the responsibility to go into that sanctuary	29:14
	"with boldness and proclaim the whole counsel of God."	29:17
	As I was telling myself this, there was a knock on the door.	29:21
	A woman stuck her head in the door.	29:25
	She had known me since I was a baby and she said,	29:26
	"I just wanted to let you know	29:29
	"that I am praying for you today."	29:31
	"Thank you," I said, "I need that."	29:33
	Then she said, "But, by the way, don't get all high	29:36
	"and mighty on us this morning!	29:39
	"You know, I used to change your diapers."	29:42
	She meant well but it's hard to preach	29:45
	the whole counsel of God to people	29:50
	who used to change your diapers.	29:52
	There's something about familiarity that takes the edge	29:56
	off prophecy and maybe it's true,	29:58
	maybe a prophet is without honor in the prophet's	30:00
	own hometown because they know him too well.	30:02
	Well, that may be part of it, but I don't think	30:08
	that gets all the way down.	30:10
	I mean, if it were simply familiarity in that synagogue	30:13
	in Nazareth that dulled their ears,	30:16
	they would have dismissed Jesus with a wave of the hand.	30:19
	"He's been to seminary.	30:21
	He thinks he's full of wisdom.	30:23
	"Let him go."	30:25
	But what He said generated more hostility	30:27
	and resistance than that.	30:30
	There was something more going on there	30:31
	than simply familiarity.	30:33
	Maybe a prophet is without honor	30:40
	in the prophet's own hometown	30:43
	not just because the people know too much	30:45
	about the prophet,	30:48
	but also because the prophet knows too much	30:51
	about the people.	30:54
	You see, a prophet is supposed to proclaim a dramatic word,	30:58
	a demanding word, a word that rouses people up	31:02
	out of where they are and calls them into new ways	31:05
	of living and being and that's easier to do,	31:07
	frankly, when you're from out of town.	31:11
	It's easier to do when you don't look into the faces	31:14
	of people whose lines of anxiety you know too well.	31:17
	It's easier to be prophetic	31:24
	when you don't know them and love them.	31:27
	When you don't know the stories of the burdens they carry	31:31
	and the griefs they share.	31:34
	It's a lot easier to tell people that they ought to wake up	31:36
	and face God's new dawn	31:39
	when you don't know how hard it is	31:42
	for many of them to get a goodnight sleep in the old day.	31:45
	Maybe a prophet is unacceptable	31:51
	in the prophet's own hometown because	31:55
	the prophet pulls back	31:57
	when the prophet knows too much about them.	32:01
	That was what the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said	32:05
	when he was a pastor of a church.	32:08
	He wrote, "It is not surprising to me that most	32:10
	"of the prophets were itinerants."	32:13
	He said, "You know, people think that we preachers	32:17
	"are timid in the pulpit because we are dependent	32:20
	"upon congregations for our salaries and incomes.	32:22
	"It's not true.	32:27
	"I could make a lot more money," he said,	32:28
	"doing something else but even so,	32:30
	"I feel myself pulling back at times and weighing	32:33
	"the words I say.	32:37
	"The real reason," he said, "for timidness in the pulpit	32:39
	"is because of the difficulty in saying hard	32:43
	"and demanding things to people you love."	32:47
	The greatest obstacle to prophecy is not fear,	32:52
	it's love.	32:57
	Maybe the prophet knows the hometown too well.	33:01
	Well, when we look at the story in Luke,	33:08
	that may be part of it but that doesn't get all the way down	33:11
	because there is every indication in this story	33:13
	that Jesus was both loving and prophetic.	33:15
	There is every indication in this story that Jesus	33:19
	did not show up at his hometown church wearing	33:22
	a sweatshirt with a raised fist of power.	33:24
	There is every indication, as a matter of fact,	33:30
	that he came in with respect.	33:32
	He went to their synagogue as was his custom.	33:35
	He read from their bible,	33:39
	maybe even, as some scholars suggest,	33:42
	lectionary texts for the day.	33:44
	He stood up to read and he sat down to preach.	33:46
	That's the way you do it in synagogue	33:50
	and he was obedient to that.	33:52
	And the sermon that he preached, by all reports,	33:54
	was not angry, but gracious.	33:57
	But when the words sunk in,	34:04
	they almost pushed him over the cliff.	34:07
	Somehow he was both loving	34:11
	and prophetic.	34:16
	Maybe a prophet is without honor	34:21
	in the prophet's own hometown because there is something	34:22
	about the very nature of hometown and the very nature	34:27
	of prophecy that don't mix.	34:31
	I mean, hometown, after all,	34:34
	breathes the air of everydayness,	34:37
	the regular pattern, the routine scheme of things,	34:39
	the comfort of being in one's own hometown.	34:43
	Prophecy is dramatic, intrusive.	34:47
	Prophecy doesn't wear well in the hometown.	34:51
	The hometown is tomato sauce, prophecy is oregano.	34:54
	A little bit of it but you don't want it every week	34:59
	and so if the prophet is in your hometown,	35:03
	the hometown has to file the edges off of prophecy	35:07
	to make it routine, acceptable and everyday.	35:10
	In the imagination of Garrison Keillor,	35:14
	the Lake Wobegone Newspaper, right below the masthead,	35:17
	has a slogan created by the editor,	35:21
	"Hey, I have to live here too."	35:23
	There's something about hometown and prophecy	35:28
	that files off the edges.	35:31
	If we were looking in our own time for a prophetic word,	35:34
	many would point to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.	35:37
	I think it is interesting	35:41
	that as his memory has been with us now for a generation,	35:44
	our culture has forgotten, in many ways,	35:48
	the sharp edges of his prophecy, how dangerous he was	35:51
	to the hometown.	35:55
	On his birthday last month, there were commercials	35:58
	on television celebrating his memory, sponsored,	36:01
	ironically, by that most hometown of all institutions,	36:04
	McDonald's restaurant.	36:09
	There's something about the hometown that files the edges	36:12
	off of prophesy.	36:17
	One Sunday morning in a church not far from here,	36:19
	the minister got up and was about to begin preaching	36:22
	the sermon when suddenly, a man, a stranger, a visitor,	36:24
	stood up in the balcony and announced in a loud voice,	36:29
	"I have a word from the Lord!"	36:33
	Whatever that word from the Lord was,	36:36
	the congregation never heard it because two ushers	36:39
	bounded like gazelles up the balcony stairs	36:43
	and muscled this fellow into the street	36:45
	before he could disrupt the service any further.	36:48
	There's an irony in that, you know,	36:50
	because every week somebody like me stands	36:53
	in this pulpit and says,	36:56
	"I have a word from the Lord."	36:57
	None of you tensed.	37:01
	Some of you've checked your watches	37:04
	but none of you were nervous.	37:05
	(audience laughter)	37:06
	No ushers bounded up the steps to muscle me	37:08
	into the street.	37:10
	It's as if they said, "This happens every week.	37:11
	"He's harmless!"	37:14
	Something about hometown, maybe, and prophecy -	37:16
	it files the edges off.	37:19
	It can't live in the everydayness week after week.	37:22
	That gets closer to it, I think,	37:27
	but not all the way down.	37:29
	I think when you go all the way down,	37:33
	the reason why a prophet	37:36
	is unacceptable in the prophet's own hometown	37:39
	is because the fact that the prophet comes from our	37:43
	hometown shows us the scandal	37:47
	that the prophetic word was there for our hearing	37:51
	all the time and we missed it.	37:55
	It came from our worship.	38:01
	It was there all along in our Bible.	38:04
	We heard it week after week from our pulpit.	38:07
	The prophetic word that the justice of God	38:13
	is deeper than we have imagined,	38:15
	the mercy of God wider, the love of God more enduring	38:17
	than we have ever dreamed.	38:21
	That word was there in our midst week in	38:24
	and week out in our hometown	38:28
	and the prophet embarrasses us with the shock	38:30
	of recognition that we had it there the whole time.	38:35
	Jesus took their scroll	38:38
	and he read their familiar text.	38:43
	And he said in a sermon that was full of grace,	38:47
	"Today this scripture has come home,"	38:50
	that the love of God moves beyond the bounds of hometown	38:54
	all the way to Sidon,	38:59
	beyond the confines of what we have dreamed	39:03
	all the way to lepers in Syria.	39:05
	It's not just contained here.	39:07
	It spills over the edges and we've known it all along	39:11
	right here in our hometown.	39:13
	That's why they tried to push him over the cliff,	39:19
	not because he brought something new,	39:22
	but because he showed them the prophetic word	39:28
	that was there all along.	39:32
	When I was a teenager, I went to a Presbyterian church	39:37
	in the suburbs of Atlanta.	39:40
	During these days, it was the height	39:43
	of the Civil Rights Movement and one	39:45
	of the strategies of the Civil Rights Movement	39:47
	at that particular time was to send people,	39:49
	civil rights workers, to all white churches	39:52
	on Sunday morning dressed for worship to present themselves	39:56
	to see if the churches would welcome them	40:00
	into the sanctuary for worship.	40:02
	Some churches did, some churches turned	40:04
	the civil rights workers away	40:06
	but every church in the south, just about,	40:08
	tried to think what will we do if the civil rights workers	40:11
	come to our church on Sunday morning.	40:15
	The session, the leaders of our church, met to decide.	40:18
	When they had made their decision,	40:23
	they had came into a congregational meeting	40:26
	and the clerk of the session, the head of the officers,	40:28
	made the announcement:	40:31
	"We have decided after prayer and deliberation	40:34
	"that if civil rights workers come	40:36
	"to the front steps of this church,	40:39
	"we will welcome them into worship	40:44
	if there is room."	40:46
	He began to elaborate on that and again he said,	40:51
	"If there is room."	40:55
	The congregation began to look around.	40:57
	There were 75 empty pews, just as there always were	40:59
	every Sunday morning.	41:02
	(audience laughter)	41:04
	Finally, it became clear the fourth time that he said,	41:05
	"If there is room," that what the session had done	41:07
	was to create a dodge, a way of pushing away.	41:10
	The prophetic word was knocking on our door	41:14
	and calling us to make as we have always heard,	41:17
	"this is a house of prayer for all people"	41:20
	and the session was saying in the congregational meeting,	41:23
	"We'll do it if there is room."	41:26
	When he said it the fifth time,	41:29
	Flora Miller stood up in her pew, 75 years old,	41:31
	four and a half feet tall, straight as a hickory rod.	41:34
	She taught little children in Sunday school,	41:37
	she taught us to sing "Jesus loves the little children,	41:40
	"all the children of the world.	41:43
	"Red and yellow, black and white."	41:44
	And when the clerk said the fifth time,	41:46
	"If there is room,"	41:49
	Flora Miller stood up to all of her four and a half foot	41:51
	height and said, "Mr. Clerk,	41:54
	"if there isn't room, they can have my pew."	41:55
	And just for a moment,	42:03
	she broke the rule	42:07
	because the prophetic word of Jesus,	42:11
	embracing the whole of God's creation,	42:15
	was honored by Flora Miller	42:18
	in our hometown	42:23
	and everybody in the sanctuary knew that	42:27
	today	42:32
	the Word of God had been fulfilled	42:34
	in our hearing.	42:39
	(organ music)	42:48
	(muffled choral music)	43:40
-	The Lord be with you.	46:26
Congregation	And also with you.	46:27
-	Let us pray, be seated.	46:29
	Loving God,	46:43
	You've loved us so much	46:46
	that You would not let us be.	46:49
	In Jesus You came to us, spoke to us,	46:54
	so that we might know how to speak to You.	46:57
	O, God, You have, to our minds, an odd way of loving us,	47:07
	odd because we love those who love us	47:11
	but You love us	47:17
	when even in word and deed we have not loved You.	47:20
	By prophets of old, by prophets new,	47:28
	you speak to us.	47:31
	Prophetic words are not always easy for us to hear,	47:33
	dulled as are our ears to the things which make for peace	47:37
	and so we pray,	47:45
	from the cowardice that dares not face new insight	47:49
	and from the laziness that contents itself	47:54
	with merely half-truth	47:58
	and from the arrogance that claims to know all truth.	48:02
	Good Lord, deliver us.	48:04
	Lovingly beckon us out of our lives	48:09
	and into the hands of truthful prophets.	48:14
	Make us	48:19
	to love as we have been loved.	48:21
	There's probably no word used more or understood less	48:26
	on this campus than the word love.	48:29
	How easily we say I love you,	48:35
	when what we really mean is I want you	48:38
	or I wish to use you	48:41
	or you look just like me, so I love you.	48:43
	We love our close friends, our cars,	48:52
	good grades, adoring students, indulgent teachers,	48:54
	our possessions.	48:57
	Teach us the way to love our enemies,	49:01
	our failures, pushy students,	49:06
	demanding professors, strangers.	49:11
	Teach us to love as we have been loved.	49:16
	Send us prophets	49:18
	who are bold to name our idols,	49:23
	fearless in assailing our false securities,	49:28
	clear in speaking Your Word.	49:33
	Teach us the prophetic connection between truth and love.	49:36
	So we pray for those who this day are in trouble.	49:46
	We pray for those this day who are sick.	49:53
	We pray for those who are bereaved.	49:59
	We pray for professors who've lost the thrill of learning	50:06
	and the awe of good students.	50:10
	We pray for those in business who cheat	50:16
	or put their employees in danger.	50:19
	We pray for those who profit from government graft	50:24
	or betrayal of the public trust.	50:27
	We pray for victims of sexual assault	50:33
	and we pray for those who have come to this service	50:39
	burdened this morning by some particular care	50:42
	whom we now lift up to you.	50:46
	O, God, in Your immense love,	50:52
	give us those things which we cannot have	50:56
	by our own effort much less by our merit.	50:58
	Give us what we need to love You	51:01
	and the world aright, Amen.	51:05
	And now as a loved people,	51:08
	let us offer ourselves and our gifts to the God	51:13
	who has offered to much to us.	51:20
	(quiet organ music)	51:46
	(muffled choral song)	52:34
	(choral music)	58:32
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	58:35
	♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪	58:38
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	58:43
	♪ Praise God above, ye heavenly host ♪	58:49
	♪ Praise God and Son and Holy Ghost ♪	58:58
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah ♪	59:05
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	59:12
-	Let us pray.	59:29
	God of love and mercy,	59:31
	we dedicate ourselves and out offerings to your service.	59:33
	Deliver us from our unwillingness to hear the prophetic	59:35
	words spoken in our midst	59:39
	and open our hearts to hear and obey Your call.	59:43
	Make us bold to express Your love in word and deed.	59:48
	May others know Your outstretched hand and arms of love	59:53
	because we have shared what You entrust to us.	59:56
	May Your love shine through us in all that we do	1:00:01
	and all that we are, Amen.	1:00:05
	Let us pray together the Lord's Prayer.	1:00:07
	Our Father, Who art in Heaven,	1:00:14
	hallowed be Thy name.	1:00:15
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done	1:00:17
	on Earth as it is in Heaven.	1:00:20
	Give us this day, our daily bread	1:00:23
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:00:25
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:00:28
	Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,	1:00:32
	for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power	1:00:37
	and the Glory forever, Amen.	1:00:39
	Be patient and kind, open-minded and open-hearted,	1:00:45
	full of trust and hope,	1:00:50
	for God is eager to show love through you	1:00:52
	and our faith is nothing without love	1:00:55
	and our good deeds are empty without God.	1:00:58
	Faith, hope, love abide, these three	1:01:02
	but the greatest of these is love.	1:01:05
	Go forth to love one another in all that you do	1:01:09
	in the name of the Father and the Son	1:01:12
	and the Holy Spirit.	1:01:14
	♪ Amen Amen ♪	1:01:19
	♪ Amen Amen ♪	1:01:28
	♪ Amen Amen ♪	1:01:32
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:42
	(organ music)	1:01:57
	(muffled choral music)	1:02:45

Item Info

Title:

Thomas G. Long - "Prophet Without Honor" (February 2, 1992)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 24:35. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 42:43.
The prophet is not accepted in the hometown because the prophet reveals not anything new but what was there all along. The prophet embarrasses us because the prophet does not teach what is new, but what is familiar, revealing the scandal that the prophetic word was there for our hearing the entire time and we had missed it. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "I think when you go all the way down, the reason why a prophet is unacceptable in the prophet's own hometown is because the fact that the prophet comes from our hometown shows us the scandal that the prophetic word was there for our hearing all the time and we missed it."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4ns0mc7n

Date:

February 2, 1992

Speaker:

Long, Thomas G., 1946-

Liturgical Calendar:

Epiphany

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0265
ref9053_jzg
uachapelsermaud
duke:321662
dcrmv001254
ark:/87924/r4ns0mc7n
54198adb-6f46-4b66-b919-05d5d7854a2c

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Thomas G. Long - "Prophet Without Honor" (February 2, 1992)

Transcript

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