Thomas G. Long - "Prophet Without Honor" (February 2, 1992)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (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
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