William H. Willimon - "Healed from Death to Life" (July 19, 1992)

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	(organ music playing)	0:00
	(organ music playing)	3:24
-	One of the joys of being around this place	5:40
	in the summer is to welcome so many visitors	5:42
	and guests from all around the world.	5:45
	So a warm welcome to you this morning,	5:49
	here to Duke Chapel for this service of worship.	5:51
	Wherever you are coming from, we welcome you	5:54
	and hope that this time of worship	5:59
	may be a blessing for you.	6:00
	And now let us stand and join	6:05
	with one another in the greeting.	6:07
	God prepares a place for us	6:12
	and welcomes us to this time of worship.	6:14
	(congregation replies in unison)	6:18
	God counts each person precious and irreplaceable,	6:25
	a unique creation, beloved and valued.	6:28
	(congregation replies in unison)	6:33
	God meets us where we are and inspires us	6:39
	by what we may become.	6:44
	(congregation replies in unison)	6:47
	(organ music playing)	6:55
	(congregation singing joins in)	7:35
-	Let us pray.	10:35
	Creator of all things, form us anew	10:39
	in the likeness of Christ.	10:44
	Open up to us possibilities we cannot imagine	10:47
	and free us from self-imposed limitations.	10:52
	Help us explore the depths of faith	10:56
	and the heights of possibility.	10:59
	Help us open ourselves to your	11:02
	healing power, and your saving grace.	11:04
	For wherever we go, you are with us.	11:09
	Unite us now with your presence,	11:13
	as we worship in spirit and in truth, amen.	11:16
	You may be seated.	11:22
-	Let us pray together, the prayer for illumination.	11:31
	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	11:36
	by the power of your Holy Spirit,	11:39
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	11:42
	we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	11:46
	The first reading is taken	11:53
	from Paul's letter to the Colossians,	11:54
	the first chapter, beginning with the 21st verse.	11:56
	And you, who were once estranged and hostile in mind,	12:01
	doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled	12:05
	in His fleshly body, through death,	12:09
	so as to present you holy and blameless,	12:11
	and irreproachable before Him,	12:14
	provided that you continue, securely established	12:16
	and steadfast in the faith, without shifting	12:20
	from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard,	12:23
	which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.	12:26
	I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.	12:30
	I am now rejoicing in my sufferings, for your sake,	12:35
	and in my flesh, I am completing what is lacking	12:39
	in Christ's afflictions for the sake	12:42
	of his body, that is, the Church.	12:44
	I became its servant according to God's commission	12:48
	that was given to me, for you,	12:51
	to make the word of God fully known,	12:53
	the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages	12:56
	and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.	12:58
	To them, God chose to make known	13:03
	how great among the gentiles are the riches	13:05
	of the glory of this mystery,	13:08
	which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.	13:10
	It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone	13:15
	and teaching everyone in all wisdom,	13:18
	so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.	13:21
	For this, I toil and struggle with all the energy	13:26
	that he powerfully inspires within me.	13:29
	This is the word of the Lord.	13:32
	Thanks be to God.	13:35
-	Today's psalm is number 139,	13:54
	verses 13 through 18, found of page 855 in the hymnal.	13:57
	Please stand and sing responsively.	14:03
	(organ music begins playing Psalm 139)	14:09
	♪ For it was you who formed my inward parts ♪	14:14
	♪ You knitted me together in my mother's womb ♪	14:20
	♪ I praise you, for you are fearful and wonderful ♪	14:25
	♪ Wonderful are your works ♪	14:31
	♪ You know me very well ♪	14:35
	♪ My frame was not hidden from you ♪	14:39
	♪ When I was being made in secret ♪	14:45
	♪ Intricately woven in the depths of the earth ♪	14:50
	♪ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance ♪	14:56
	♪ In your book were written ♪	15:03
	♪ All the days that were formed for me ♪	15:05
	♪ When none of them as yet existed ♪	15:10
	♪ How profound to me are your thoughts, O God ♪	15:17
	♪ How vast is the sum of them ♪	15:21
	♪ I try to count them ♪	15:26
	♪ They are more than the sand ♪	15:28
	♪ When I awake, I am still with thee ♪	15:32
	♪ O Glory be to you, creator ♪	15:39
	♪ And to Jesus Christ, our savior ♪	15:41
	♪ And to the Holy Spirit resting in He ♪	15:46
	♪ As it was when time began ♪	15:52
	♪ Is now and will be forever more ♪	15:56
	(organ music resumes)	16:14
	(choir begins singing)	16:36
-	Today's gospel is from the 17th chapter of Luke.	18:53
	On the way to Jerusalem, He was passing along	19:00
	between Sumeria and Galilee, and as He entered a village,	19:04
	He was met by 10 lepers, who stood at a distance	19:08
	and lifted up their voices and said,	19:13
	Jesus, master, have mercy on us!	19:15
	When he saw them, he said to them,	19:19
	go, show yourselves to the priests.	19:22
	And as they went, they were cleansed.	19:26
	Then one of them, when he saw	19:30
	that he was healed, turned back,	19:32
	praising God with a loud voice.	19:33
	And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet,	19:36
	giving him thanks.	19:39
	Now, he was a Samaritan.	19:42
	Then said Jesus, were not 10 cleansed?	19:45
	Where are the other nine?	19:50
	Was no one found to return and	19:53
	give praise to God, except this foreigner?	19:55
	And he said to him, get up, go your way.	20:00
	Your faith has made you well.	20:06
	This is the word of the Lord.	20:11
	(congregation replies in unison)	20:14
	This past week, we were on vacation,	20:20
	down at North Myrtle Beach.	20:23
	One day we got a boat, went up the inter-coastal waterway	20:26
	to the little town of Calabash.	20:29
	A town of restaurants and shrimp boats,	20:33
	and we tied up the boat at this rickety sort of dock,	20:36
	at this little eating place.	20:41
	It was no more than a shack, there at the dock.	20:44
	And as we were eating these shrimp sandwiches	20:47
	I noticed, over the bar, was printed in,	20:50
	painted in neat, indelible letters, this statement:	20:56
	Free Beer Tomorrow.	21:02
	Someone in our group said,	21:08
	gosh, it's a shame we weren't here tomorrow.	21:09
	(congregation chuckling)	21:12
	And this sort of dried up, salty looking person	21:14
	behind the bar said...	21:17
	Nobody has ever been at this place on the right day.	21:21
	(congregation chuckling)	21:25
	Now, even though that is an inappropriate story	21:28
	with which to begin a sermon, I want you to remember it.	21:30
	In today's scripture, Jesus meets 10 very sick people.	21:36
	And as a pastor, I know what it's like	21:45
	to be around sick people.	21:48
	Like any pastor, I spend a fair amount	21:50
	of my time around sick people.	21:52
	And from what I can observe,	21:56
	sickness, what these 10 people have	21:58
	is about the worst that life can do to you.	22:02
	And I'm not only talking about the pain	22:07
	that often accompanies sickness,	22:10
	but the mental, the spiritual anguish as well.	22:11
	Because sickness is an every day in life	22:18
	experience of our finitude, our vulnerability.	22:25
	Sickness, at its worst, is a foretaste	22:30
	of what it is like to have the world go on without you,	22:34
	to lie there in pain as the world is passing you by.	22:39
	It is just a little taste of what	22:43
	it will be like to be nothing.	22:45
	Sickness is a reminder that life is fragile	22:51
	and frail and vulnerable, in short, that life is terminal.	22:55
	Sickness is a brush with death.	23:00
	And maybe that's why many of us who are well	23:06
	are so threatened by sick people.	23:10
	It is as if every sickness, to us, is contagious.	23:12
	Oh, we send a card, and maybe we'll make a call,	23:18
	but we find it difficult to visit,	23:22
	we find it difficult physically to be	23:24
	confronted with someone who is ill.	23:27
	And maybe that's why, in the modern world,	23:30
	we isolate the ill in modern leper colonies,	23:33
	hospitals, nursing homes, rather than risk caring for them	23:37
	ourselves, we touch the sick only with rubber gloves.	23:42
	And when you're sick, it is quite normal	23:49
	for that sickness to just take over your whole life.	23:52
	For every waking moment to be spent	23:56
	in thoughts of when you will be well,	23:59
	when you will be restored to normality.	24:02
	There's only one thing you want in life	24:05
	when you're sick, and that is to be, again, normal.	24:07
	And out in Sumeria, between Sumeria and Galilee,	24:15
	Jesus encounters 10 very sick people.	24:20
	He is on His way to Jerusalem.	24:25
	You know why he's going to Jerusalem?	24:29
	You know why, you know what awaits him in Jerusalem, death.	24:31
	And on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus,	24:35
	this outcast, this man who is marked for death	24:39
	meets 10 other people who are marked for death.	24:46
	Here are 10 people who are also outcasts,	24:52
	because of their leprosy, they have been cast out	24:55
	of their home, away from family, to wander helplessly	24:57
	because they are afflicted with this dreaded disease.	25:04
	Can you think of any parallels to leprosy, in our own day?	25:06
	Yes, you can.	25:11
	What I'm saying is, here are not only	25:14
	10 just sick men, but here are also 10,	25:16
	I think without stretching things too far, dead men.	25:19
	They are marked for death, and I don't mean	25:24
	death sometime in the future, I mean death today.	25:27
	Like Jesus, they are marked for death.	25:31
	Because as far as these 10 leper's families	25:34
	are concerned, they are dead.	25:37
	And moreover, we find out	25:42
	that at least one of them is a Samaritan.	25:44
	So he is a dead duck on at least two counts.	25:46
	Not only is he a leper, but he's also	25:49
	a member of this despised outcast,	25:51
	half-breed, religious mixing race, these Samaritans.	25:54
	So we're dealing here with 10 people	26:01
	who are not just dead physically,	26:03
	but are also dead spiritually, emotionally,	26:05
	socially, they are dead.	26:09
	And standing a distance from Jesus,	26:12
	as they are required to do by law, they call out to Jesus,	26:14
	Jesus, have mercy upon us!	26:18
	And Jesus looks at them and says something strange,	26:24
	go show yourself to a priest.	26:29
	And that's strange, he's thinking of Leviticus 14,	26:34
	and in Leviticus 14, it says that if a leper	26:39
	happens to get healed, he is to go	26:43
	and show himself to a priest and	26:46
	the priest will certify that he has been cleansed,	26:48
	because it was considered, when you had leprosy,	26:52
	you were so unclean, you were not allowed to come to church,	26:54
	to worship in the temple, to worship God.	26:58
	And so you had, if you were healed, to be certified	27:00
	that you were now clean, by the priests.	27:03
	And Jesus' command is a bit confusing.	27:08
	They have asked to be healed,	27:12
	but you will note, Jesus does not heal them.	27:14
	He's only told them to go out	27:18
	and act as if they were healed.	27:20
	Go, and present yourself to the priest,	27:22
	as if you were healed, made whole, accepted living being.	27:25
	And with that, Luke says, they go.	27:33
	And he doesn't say that they go to the temple	27:35
	and show themselves to the priests,	27:37
	or maybe they just go, bumping into one another	27:39
	trying as fast as they can to get away	27:41
	from Jesus, who's talking so weirdly.	27:43
	At any rate, they go, just like they've been healed.	27:48
	And on the way, they are healed,	27:51
	and nine of them kept going.	27:58
	Apparently for these nine, they made no connection	28:01
	between Jesus and their recovery from leprosy.	28:04
	After all, Jesus didn't do what they expected,	28:10
	he didn't spit into the ground and	28:13
	take some of the mud and dab it on them,	28:14
	as he did the blind man.	28:16
	He didn't command some demon to come out of them	28:19
	as he did on a number of other occasions with sick people.	28:21
	He didn't say to them, be healed.	28:27
	As far as they were concerned,	28:32
	Jesus had nothing to do with their healing.	28:34
	But there was one leper who made the connection.	28:38
	He came back, loudly praising God,	28:42
	screaming at the top of his lungs,	28:45
	thank you Jesus, thank you, thank you.	28:46
	And Luke notes, oh yes, he was a Samaritan.	28:49
	He was a two-time loser.	28:54
	Not only has he got this dreaded disease,	28:58
	but he is an outcast Samaritan.	29:00
	And Jesus says, hey, what happened to the other nine?	29:02
	Has only one come back to say thanks?	29:06
	And him, a Samaritan of all things?	29:10
	Get up, go your way, your faith has saved you.	29:14
	Now, what do you make of this medical miracle?	29:22
	One Samaritan leper had faith, and was healed.	29:27
	The other nine apparently had no faith,	29:34
	and they were also healed,	29:38
	which suggests to me that maybe,	29:43
	in our medically infatuated society,	29:45
	maybe this is really not so much	29:48
	a story about healing in the first place.	29:50
	It is a story that makes you ask,	29:55
	well what's the difference between the thankful nine,	29:58
	or the unthankful nine, and this thankful one?	30:02
	The unthankful majority and the	30:05
	thankful minority, what's the difference?	30:08
	You wonder what Jesus is pinpointing with his,	30:12
	get up and go, your faith has saved you.	30:15
	I suggest you think about it this way,	30:20
	did not we say that these 10 lepers were all dead people?	30:24
	Whether you're talking physically,	30:30
	spiritually, emotionally, socially, they are dead.	30:31
	They would love to get healed, like any sick person would.	30:36
	That is, they would love again to be normal,	30:41
	which they assume, once they were well,	30:46
	would bring them back to a normal life.	30:48
	That's all they ever asked for, just a chance	30:52
	to now be like other people, to be normal,	30:55
	to have an opportunity, to go back home	30:58
	and do whatever they were doing	31:00
	before their sickness, to be normal.	31:02
	And they assume that that is what Jesus is all about.	31:04
	Healing people, a return to the normal	31:09
	and a revival of the ordinary for people	31:12
	whose infirmity has made them abnormal.	31:15
	That's what we think Jesus is about.	31:20
	Jesus is about picking us up and dusting us off	31:22
	and then fixing us up and helping us,	31:25
	again, to resume a normal life.	31:28
	But I think that one of these Samaritans realized that Jesus	31:33
	is after more than merely normal.	31:41
	And he says, thanks.	31:48
	He realized that his healing has put him	31:52
	into a relationship with Jesus;	31:54
	he's got faith, he's been given eyes to see	31:56
	that it is this Jesus who's made him whole and alive again.	32:00
	He hasn't just been healed, but he's been resurrected.	32:06
	All the other nine wanted out of Jesus	32:13
	was just to be made well, to go back home again,	32:15
	to be like everybody else, to go back to school,	32:18
	to try and do work on Mondays,	32:21
	to eat yogurt out of plastic containers,	32:23
	to maybe meet some nice Galilean girl	32:26
	and settle down and have a couple of kids	32:28
	and have a station wagon and be normal.	32:31
	And who would blame them, the way	32:34
	life has been robbed of them by their sickness?	32:36
	And maybe later, someone would say	32:41
	to these, now normal nine,	32:43
	weren't you once a leper?	32:47
	And they would say, oh who, me?	32:48
	I've never been sick a day in my life,	32:50
	I eat yogurt, I watch my weight,	32:52
	I've always been normal.	32:56
	And I think that that one Samaritan came back	33:01
	and said thanks, not simply because he had been cured,	33:03
	but because Jesus said, you've been saved,	33:07
	because he alone saw that his healing	33:12
	was really resurrection,	33:15
	and that resurrection isn't something	33:19
	for tomorrow, but something for today.	33:20
	He was saved and embraced by Jesus	33:24
	as a leper, when he was still sick,	33:27
	untouchable, before he got well.	33:30
	He alone realized, that is, had faith,	33:35
	that it was Jesus that doesn't just want to	33:38
	make people well, much less normal,	33:41
	but Jesus wants to raise people from the dead.	33:44
	Easter is now.	33:47
	Those poor healed, nine lepers go away,	33:51
	unsaved, precisely because they put their lives as lepers,	33:54
	as outcasts, as dead people behind them,	34:01
	and they went on to be merely normal.	34:04
	All those years of suffering and injustice	34:08
	and pain and ostracism, just gone.	34:10
	The healing for them began not when they were healed,	34:15
	even the Duke Medical Center can do that,	34:21
	but when Jesus met them and embraced them,	34:27
	all 10 of them, leprosy, outcastness,	34:30
	deadness and all, just as they were.	34:35
	And only one of them had faith to see,	34:42
	and so only one of them came back to say,	34:46
	thanks, Jesus, I needed that.	34:49
	10 got healed, only one got saved.	34:55
	Jesus said, your faith, your relationship	35:01
	to my accepting, embracing, life-giving,	35:07
	extravagant love has healed you.	35:10
	Not your now clear, clean, white-washed skin,	35:14
	not your good, little, bible-believing, cleaned up	35:18
	boringly middle-class normality has saved you, no.	35:21
	I have saved you, just as you are.	35:25
	I am come, who seek and who save the lost.	35:32
	And for that, this Samaritan rightly said, thanks.	35:40
	And I know that even as I say that,	35:49
	I know that there've got to be people here this morning	35:51
	who have literally been brought back from death, to life.	35:54
	I know that, and I bet if we had time	36:02
	for a Methodist testimony this morning,	36:05
	you could tell us, it's just like Easter.	36:07
	Just before this story of the 10 lepers	36:16
	is the most familiar story in all the New Testament,	36:18
	the story of the Prodigal Son,	36:22
	it occurs right before this story.	36:24
	And you see that Prodigal Son coming back in	36:27
	from the far country, brushing off his rags,	36:30
	trying to get the pig slop off of his tie	36:35
	and attempting to kill the cheap perfume	36:38
	of harlots with Aqua Velva, desperate,	36:41
	just desperate to get normal.	36:44
	And he was memorizing this penitent,	36:46
	good, little, bad-boy confession speech,	36:49
	Father, I have sinned, I am no longer worthy	36:53
	to be called your son, just treat me	36:56
	as one of your hired servants.	36:58
	No, no, no, Father, I have seen the error in my ways.	37:01
	At last, I want to do right.	37:06
	I've done a lot of maturing during my sophomore year.	37:07
	I finally dropped out of the fraternity and...	37:09
	No, Dad, or Father, everybody makes mistakes,	37:12
	now I'm ready to come back home and	37:19
	be more like the older brother and now I'm ready	37:21
	to do my bit on the family farm and settle down and...	37:24
	But you remember, in that story,	37:30
	that the father just races out and he embraces the son.	37:31
	And before the boy gets a chance to say or do anything,	37:36
	or promise to do better or fly right,	37:40
	the father takes the son, on the only basis	37:44
	that the son could ever come home.	37:47
	That is, on the basis of the father's	37:49
	embracing, extravagant love.	37:51
	And you remember what the father shouted	37:58
	back to the people at the house?	37:59
	You remember the justification given	38:03
	for the party that was held there that night?	38:05
	My son, who was dead, is alive.	38:10
	Easter is now.	38:19
	And the son had to stuff those	38:24
	nice, little, religious penitent speeches	38:26
	back in his grimy, little pockets.	38:29
	And the only speech he could make was, thanks.	38:32
	Of course, if the truth be know,	38:41
	that was the only speech that his	38:42
	stay-at-home, normal, older brother could have made.	38:44
	But the difference, I think,	38:48
	between the older brother and the younger boy,	38:49
	is that the younger one knew his dependency	38:53
	on the father, and the older one didn't.	38:56
	Therefore, it was the younger one	38:59
	who was able to say thanks.	39:00
	And for him, the party began; it was just like Easter.	39:02
	Where are the other nine?	39:10
	I remember this is the text that you always used	39:11
	at community thanksgiving services.	39:13
	And the preacher, where are the other nine?	39:15
	Where are the other nine?	39:18
	Why haven't they came back?	39:19
	Where are the other nine?	39:20
	Why aren't they leaping and shouting for joy,	39:24
	partying with the Father, having the time of their lives?	39:26
	Where are the other nine?	39:29
	Well, you know where they are,	39:32
	they're back at home, they're back to business as usual.	39:33
	Nothing more than normal now,	39:37
	skin all cleared up and clean,	39:39
	lives progressing along very nicely, thank you.	39:42
	And everything so utterly, boringly, normal.	39:45
	And we think, what a shame, to have met Jesus,	39:53
	the Easter Lord, the giver of life,	39:57
	the one who loves to take us and embrace us	40:01
	and celebrate with us and to have	40:04
	come away nothing but normal.	40:06
	What a shame to settle for Monday	40:10
	when we could have had Easter.	40:12
	What a shame to be out on that road toward death,	40:16
	and aren't we all?	40:21
	To have met Jesus, and to come away	40:24
	just healed, when we could've been saved.	40:27
	And I am betting that some of you know,	40:34
	or will know what this story is, in your own lives.	40:37
	I had a man in my church,	40:43
	he was the sort of person who	40:45
	would do anything for the church.	40:47
	You could call upon him, no job too difficult,	40:49
	too great, and he would always say yes.	40:52
	He was one of the top givers to the church,	40:56
	even though he was not a wealthy person.	40:59
	And one day, I asked him,	41:03
	how come you are just so extravagantly involved and giving?	41:08
	And he said to me, well, it's a long story, but	41:17
	at the beginning of my adult life,	41:23
	I realized I was an alcoholic.	41:25
	And my alcoholism led to other problems,	41:28
	and by the sheer grace of God, I got healed.	41:33
	And I never got over it.	41:39
	And then I realized that his whole life,	41:44
	you see, he had come back to give thanks,	41:47
	to have Easter.	41:54
	What a shame for most of us.	42:00
	But maybe there's a resurrection yesterday,	42:03
	Jesus being raised from the dead on Easter,	42:06
	or perhaps there is a resurrection sometime tomorrow,	42:10
	a future resurrection of the dead.	42:14
	But I don't think we'll ever feel deep,	42:20
	abiding thankfulness, nor will we ever really party	42:22
	until we stand face to face with Jesus	42:30
	and are given the eyes of faith to see,	42:36
	resurrection is today.	42:40
	(organ music begins)	43:00
	(congregation singing joins in)	43:31
-	Lord, be with you	47:06
Congregation	And also with you.	47:08
-	Let us pray.	47:09
	O, lamb of God, we come to you	47:23
	this morning just as we are,	47:27
	without one plea but that you died for us,	47:32
	and you have bid us to come.	47:38
	We come with our brokenness, our illness,	47:43
	our doubts, our fears, our sinfulness.	47:48
	We come just as we are, knowing	47:57
	that you will welcome, pardon, cleanse, and relieve us.	48:01
	We have believed your promises,	48:09
	and we come, trusting your love,	48:13
	to break every barrier down, to make us wholly your own.	48:16
	God of the healing touch, we lift up	48:24
	all those among us, all those listening	48:28
	on radio, or television, all those in our world	48:32
	who suffer the pain of illness,	48:38
	who suffer as outcasts in our society.	48:42
	We pray that they may be unfolded in your healing presence,	48:49
	and embraced by your saving grace.	48:53
	Heal their bodies, their minds, and their souls	48:57
	so that they may experience the fullness of life	49:04
	that only you make possible.	49:08
	God of transforming power,	49:13
	we also pray for our communities and for our world.	49:15
	Forgive us for treating brothers	49:21
	and sisters in need as outcasts.	49:23
	We are so afraid of our own mortality,	49:27
	that we would turn our eyes, our hands	49:31
	and our hearts from anyone who reminds us	49:35
	that we, too, must die.	49:39
	Yet, dear God, through Jesus Christ,	49:43
	you have revealed your power to raise the dead.	49:47
	And in fleeing death, we often become the living dead.	49:52
	Heal us, from death to life.	49:59
	Give us the assurance of eternal life,	50:03
	so that we might live in the here and now	50:06
	as your resurrected people.	50:10
	And as a resurrected people, help us	50:14
	to touch one another with the same loving compassion	50:17
	that we have received from you.	50:21
	God of amazing grace, let us be among those	50:26
	who return to you with joy and thanksgiving.	50:30
	For when we receive your life-giving, saving power,	50:35
	we cannot help but be overcome with amazed gratitude.	50:40
	We have come, just as we are,	50:46
	and you have loved us, just as we are.	50:50
	Your unconditional acceptance allows us	50:56
	to see ourselves as whole.	50:59
	Your love enables us to see	51:02
	ourselves as your beloved children,	51:04
	and when we experience this, nothing is normal anymore.	51:08
	And we return to say thanks.	51:14
	Thanks to the God of embracing, extravagant love.	51:18
	Thanks to the God of amazing grace.	51:23
	In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.	51:27
	Let us show our gratitude by sharing	51:37
	our abundance with those in need.	51:39
	(organ music playing)	51:45
	(organ music fades as choir begins singing)	52:54
	(organ music resumes)	54:58
	(congregation singing joins in)	56:11
	Let us pray.	57:06
	O, God of amazing, extravagant love,	57:08
	before the gifts you have given us,	57:13
	our gifts pale into insignificance.	57:16
	And yet, we know that just as you accept us,	57:20
	though we be unworthy, you accept our gifts.	57:25
	Increase our vision, and enlarge our compassion	57:30
	that we might embrace our brothers and sisters	57:35
	in need, as you have embraced us.	57:38
	Receive these gifts in love, and use them and us	57:43
	to further your caring in the world, amen.	57:48
	Let us pray together with confidence,	57:54
	as the children of God.	57:57
	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	57:59
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done	58:04
	on Earth as it is in Heaven.	58:08
	Give us this day our daily bread,	58:11
	and forgive us our trespasses,	58:14
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	58:16
	Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	58:21
	For thine is the kingdom, and the power,	58:25
	and the glory forever, amen.	58:29
	Let us go forth as a people	58:33
	who have been healed from death to life, through	58:36
	the amazing, extravagant love of our Lord and savior.	58:39
	May the love of God of the grace of Jesus Christ	58:45
	and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.	58:48
	(choir sings in unison)	58:57
	(organ music begins)	59:06

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "Healed from Death to Life" (July 19, 1992)

Description:

The preacher uses several life stories to show why one has to “die” to become a Christian. He indicates that those feeling “death” moments actually help them to surpass fear and let go of concerns in order to live courageously again. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4862bs8p

Date:

July 19, 1992

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Romans

Chapter and Verse:

Romans 6:1b-11

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0288
ref9123_kjx
uachapelsermaud
duke:321368
dcrmv001275
ark:/87924/r4862bs8p
629a6970-30ad-49de-bb57-d63e0755e2ad

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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William H. Willimon - "Healed from Death to Life" (July 19, 1992)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

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