William H. Willimon - "The Seduction of Dreams" (September 6, 1992)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP4
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48p5vr0j?embed=true' height='500px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48p5vr0j
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(organ music)	0:27
-	Welcome to Duke Chapel on this opening Sunday	0:34
	of the school year.	0:37
	We're glad that you're with us,	0:38
	and we particularly welcome back students	0:39
	who're returning for another year.	0:43
	Been asked to announce that the university room,	0:47
	the great hall is open every Sunday for brunch,	0:51
	and the public is invited immediately after the service.	0:56
	That's out the door and to your right.	1:00
	For a Sunday brunch, all are welcome to come.	1:02
	We call your attention	1:08
	to the many announcements in the bulletin,	1:09
	particularly those opportunities for service.	1:11
	If you're a student we have a number of ways	1:14
	for you to become involved	1:16
	in the religious life of this campus.	1:18
	Urge you to fill out the form	1:20
	that's at the back of the bulletin	1:22
	and drop it into the plate today.	1:24
Preacher	Please stand for the greeting.	2:21
	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.	2:25
Congregation	And also with you.	2:29
Preacher	The risen Christ is with us.	2:30
-	Praise the Lord.	2:32
	(Trumpet fanfare)	2:36
	(Organ music)	3:02
	("Praise to the Lord, the Almighty")	4:31
	(Organ music)	7:58
-	Let us pray.	10:30
	Oh God we come together with praise and thanks giving.	10:34
	Visit us as we worship together, O Christ.	10:39
	Strengthen us in our inmost being,	10:43
	that grounded in your spirit we might comprehend	10:46
	the breadth and length and height and depth of your love.	10:49
	Dwell in our hearts that filled with the fullness of God	10:56
	we might understand the faith that surpasses knowledge.	11:00
	Fill us with your vision,	11:04
	that our lives might be a reflection of your dream for us.	11:07
	Empower us, O Savior, that all the world	11:12
	might glorify your name because of your gracious works.	11:15
	In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.	11:21
	You may be seated.	11:25
-	Let us pray together the prayer for illumination.	11:41
	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	11:45
	by the power of your holy spirit so that as the word	11:48
	is read and proclaimed we might hear	11:52
	with joy what you say to us this day, amen.	11:55
	This first reading is taken from the book	12:07
	of Genesis the 39th chapter.	12:09
	"Now Joseph was taken down into Egypt	12:14
	"and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,	12:18
	"the captain of the guard, an Egyptian,	12:21
	"bought him from the Ishmaelites	12:23
	"who had taken him down there.	12:25
	"Now the Lord was with Joseph	12:27
	"and he became a successful man.	12:29
	"He was in the house of his Egyptian master.	12:32
	"Now his master saw that the Lord was with Joseph	12:36
	"and that the Lord caused all that	12:42
	"Joseph did to prosper in his hands	12:44
	"and so Joseph found favor in	12:47
	"his master's sight and attended him.	12:49
	"And he caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.	12:58
	"Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking	13:03
	"and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes upon him	13:08
	"and said to him, lie with me,	13:13
	but he refused.	13:18
	"And said to his master's wife,	13:20
	"Look, with me here, your master has no concern	13:22
	"about anything in the house for he has put everything	13:26
	"that he has in my hands.	13:28
	"He is not greater in this house than I am.	13:30
	"And he has put everything that he has in my hands,	13:33
	"except yourself, because you are his wife.	13:36
	"How then could I do this great wickedness	13:41
	"and sin against God?	13:43
	"And although she spoke to Joseph day after day	13:46
	"he would not consent to be with her	13:49
	"or to lie beside her.	13:51
	"One day, however, when he went into the house	13:54
	"to do his work she caught hold of his garment	13:57
	"and said to him, lie with me,	14:00
	"but he left his garment in her hand	14:05
	"and ran and fled outside.	14:07
	"When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand	14:12
	"she called out to the members of her household	14:17
	"in a loud voice and said, see my husband	14:19
	"has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us.	14:23
	"He came into me to lie with me	14:26
	"and I cried out with a loud voice	14:28
	"and when he heard me raise my voice	14:29
	"he left his garment beside me and ran and fled outside.	14:31
	"And she left his garment beside her until	14:38
	"her husband came home and told him the same story saying	14:40
	"see this Hebrew servant you have brought among us	14:45
	"has come in to insult me and when I raised my voice	14:49
	"he left his garment beside me and ran and fled outside.	14:53
	"Now when his master heard the words	14:58
	"that his wife had spoken to him, he became enraged.	15:00
	"And he took Joseph to prison,	15:06
	"the place where the King's prisoners were kept	15:09
	"and he remained there in prison.	15:11
	"But the Lord was with Joseph	15:15
	"and showed him steadfast love.	15:17
	"And he found favor in the chief jailer's sight.	15:21
	"The chief jailer committed to Joseph's care	15:25
	"all the prisoners who were in the prison	15:26
	"and whatever was to be done in the prison	15:28
	"Joseph was the one who did it.	15:31
	"The chief jailer paid no heed to anything	15:38
	"that was in Joseph's care because	15:40
	"the Lord was with Joseph	15:43
	"and the Lord caused all that Joseph did to prosper."	15:46
	This is the word of God.	15:51
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	15:54
-	Today's Psalm is number 111,	16:01
	found on page 832 in the hymndal.	16:04
	Please stand and sing the Psalm in glory responsively.	16:07
	(Organ music)	16:11
	♪Praise the Lord. ♪	16:18
	♪Great are the words of thy Lord ♪	16:34
	♪Studied by all who have pleasure in them ♪	16:38
	(Choir singing)	16:43
	♪Who has caused his wonderful works to be remembered ♪	16:56
	♪the Lord is gracious and merciful ♪	17:02
	(Choir singing)	17:07
	♪The Lord has shown his people the power of his works ♪	17:18
	♪by giving them the heritage of the nations ♪	17:23
	(Choir singing)	17:28
	♪The Lord sent redemption to his people ♪	17:53
	♪and has commanded his covenant forever ♪	17:56
	♪holy and wondrous is God's name ♪	18:01
	(Choir singing)	18:06
	(Choir continues)	18:38
-	This reading	19:42
	is taken from the 14th chapter of the Gospel	19:44
	according to Saint Luke	19:48
	starting with the 25th verse.	19:51
	"Now large crowds were traveling with him	19:56
	"and he turned and said to them,	20:01
	"whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,	20:06
	"wife and children, brothers and sisters,	20:12
	"yes and even life itself	20:17
	cannot be my disciple.	20:21
	"Whoever does not carry the cross	20:26
	"and follow me cannot be my disciple	20:29
	"for which of you intending to build a tower	20:34
	"does not first sit down and estimate the cost	20:38
	"to see whether he has enough	20:44
	"to complete it	20:47
	"otherwise when he has laid a foundation	20:50
	"and is not able to finish	20:55
	"all who see it will begin to ridicule him	20:58
	"saying, this fellow began to build	21:02
	"and was not able to finish.	21:07
	"Or what king going out to wage war	21:10
	"against another king	21:14
	"will not sit down first and consider whether	21:17
	"he is able with 10,000 to oppose	21:22
	"the one who comes against him with 20,000.	21:26
	"If he cannot then	21:33
	"while the other is still far away	21:36
	"he sends a delegation	21:40
	"and asks for the terms of peace.	21:42
	"So, therefore,	21:47
	"none of you can become my disciple	21:50
	"if you do not give up all your possessions."	21:53
	This is the word of the Lord.	21:59
Everyone	Thanks be to God.	22:03
	(Organ music)	22:06
	(Organ music)	22:11
	(Organ music)	22:16
	("Sing on, Pray on")	22:23
-	When I was a freshman,	24:57
	the Dean gave a talk	25:00
	in which he referred to that segment of the Odyssey	25:03
	where Odysseus and his fellow sailors	25:07
	are forced to sail past the island	25:11
	where the sirens sing.	25:15
	The sirens whose...the women who sang such beautifully	25:17
	alluring songs that sailors sailing past the island	25:22
	of the sirens forgot that they were sailors	25:27
	and they dashed their ships against the rocks.	25:30
	I don't remember much of what the Dean's talk was about	25:36
	but I do remember a question.	25:39
	And that is after telling the story from the Odyssey	25:42
	about these sirens and the way they distracted these sailors	25:45
	the Dean asked a question.	25:49
	Now what song did the sirens sing?	25:53
	And at that point, we all knew	26:00
	that he was speaking to us.	26:03
	What song was so alluring that these people forgot	26:07
	who they were and where they were going	26:11
	and they dashed themselves into the rocks?	26:14
	What song did the sirens sing?	26:17
	Well what tune carries you away?	26:23
	What tune	26:25
	seduces you so that you forget where you're going?	26:28
	What song did the sirens sing?	26:33
	And I suppose for each of us they sing a different tune,	26:36
	one meant especially for us.	26:39
	Money, a comfort,	26:43
	or ambition, or sex.	26:47
	Yes isn't it interesting that when	26:51
	we speak of getting deterred in life,	26:53
	detouring in life from where we plan to go,	26:56
	that we reach for a sexual metaphor?	27:00
	Seduction we call it.	27:03
	Oh the modern world teaches us to call such	27:06
	losing our way	27:10
	as making a mistake or	27:11
	improper choice or burnout	27:15
	but the writer of Genesis	27:18
	would call it seduction.	27:21
	Now if you were here last Sunday, you met Joseph.	27:25
	Joseph, a young adult on his way up,	27:29
	a young adult with a dream.	27:32
	But if you were here last Sunday	27:36
	you learned that Joseph's daddy and his brothers	27:37
	did not particularly like Joseph's dream	27:41
	because it was a dream that spoke of the brothers	27:44
	and the father bowing down and serving little Joseph.	27:47
	Joseph has a dream that somehow he has been destined to rule	27:51
	and it was not a popular dream that is how	27:57
	Joseph wound up as a slave in Egypt	28:01
	'cause his older brothers that resented him said,	28:05
	let's sell little Joseph as a slave in Egypt	28:09
	and then we will see	28:13
	what shall become of his big dream.	28:16
	And so they sold a brother as a slave	28:21
	in Egypt to kill the dream.	28:24
	Young adults with a dream can be a real pain in the neck.	28:29
	I was having lunch with this young man,	28:33
	he was a student at the Fuqua School of Business	28:35
	and I asked him, I said, well then	28:37
	what are you planning on doing	28:38
	once you get your business degree?	28:40
	He said, well you may think I'm crazy	28:43
	but I want to have the kind of career that one day	28:45
	I might end up on the cover of Business Week.	28:49
	I didn't think he was crazy but I noted	28:56
	that I kept out of his way after that conversation	28:58
	'cause you take a young adult who's got a dream,	29:04
	particularly if it's a big pushy kind of dream,	29:06
	can be a nuisance for the rest of us.	29:10
	Joseph's brothers couldn't have little brother Joseph	29:16
	with his great big dream around the house	29:18
	and so they sold him into slavery.	29:23
	But we are told	29:28
	the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.	29:30
	This Joseph, wherever you throw him,	29:37
	he seems to land on both feet.	29:39
	Wherever he is, he prospers.	29:42
	The Lord is with Joseph.	29:44
	And so we learn that his was not just any dream	29:47
	but it was a dream from God.	29:51
	God has put into this little slave's	29:54
	brain a very large dream.	29:57
	And so we wonder what's gonna happen	30:02
	now that he's a slave in Egypt.	30:05
	What will become of this little dreamer	30:06
	now that he's a nobody, a slave in Egypt?	30:08
	How will this son of a nomadic sheep herding	30:11
	family up in Judea, how will he prosper once he is down	30:15
	in great big	30:20
	culturally sophisticated imperial Egypt?	30:22
	And here the author sets up a tension in the story.	30:27
	On the one side, you got little Joseph	30:31
	with nothing to call his own except a dream	30:34
	and on the other side, you've got this great big	30:37
	imperial Egypt, the greatest empire	30:39
	the world has ever known here in tenth century BC.	30:41
	On the one side you've got Egypt	30:47
	which represents everything that is powerful	30:48
	and meaningful and political in life	30:51
	and on the other side you've got this little slave	30:54
	and we wonder who will seduce whom.	30:57
	But we are surprised that immediately	31:04
	Joseph's talents for leadership are recognized.	31:08
	Potiphar, who is an official of the Pharaoh,	31:12
	calls Joseph in and gives him the keys to his Lexus	31:16
	and his account books and everything he's got	31:20
	and he says, Joseph you're in charge.	31:23
	He puts him in charge of everything.	31:25
	Even as a slave you see he's already in charge.	31:28
	God is with him.	31:31
	Mrs. Potiphar sees even more possibility in young Joseph.	31:35
	Come lie with me, she demands.	31:41
	She sees in little Joseph	31:45
	potential, potency, power.	31:49
	Like most people who run empires though,	31:54
	the story suggests that Mrs. Potiphar	31:57
	misunderstands what power is all about.	32:00
	She is a person, noble as she is,	32:05
	who is accustomed to getting what she wants in life.	32:07
	There are many people who've succeeded so well	32:12
	being so powerful and getting what they want	32:15
	sometimes they want other people as well.	32:18
	Come lie with me.	32:21
	In the orders of this nobleman's wife to this mere slave	32:24
	we thus feel a tension between	32:29
	these demands of the empire	32:33
	and the dreams of this slave.	32:36
	It is typical of the empire, the imperial way	32:40
	of doing business to manipulate and use people.	32:43
	The story makes us asks, is Joseph going to realize	32:49
	his dreams or is he going to merely be	32:52
	the plaything of the bored rich?	32:54
	And that's seductive.	33:02
	Joseph don't you like it with us up here at the palace?	33:05
	You have to admit the food is very good	33:10
	up here at the palace.	33:12
	We sleep on satin sheets, it'd be a shame for you	33:16
	to have to leave the big house and go back	33:20
	to the dormitory with the slaves.	33:22
	Speaking of satin sheets, come lie with me.	33:26
	Now here the story invites the preacher	33:32
	to take an excursus on sex, particularly in speaking	33:34
	to people many of you age of Joseph.	33:39
	The empire, the way it uses sex as part	33:46
	of its machinery of imperial control.	33:51
	Oh we like to think of sex as an adventure,	33:54
	a momentary encounter, an exercise of our potency,	33:57
	but in the empire sex is used for	34:00
	merely recreational value,	34:05
	for anesthetic purposes.	34:08
	Another momentarily effective narcotic.	34:12
	If we can convince you in TV commercials and in movies	34:16
	and in university courses on gender that your sexuality	34:20
	is just very, very, very, very important then maybe	34:24
	we can distract you from thinking	34:28
	about all the ways that the empire has got you.	34:30
	There's a funny connection between imperial, economic,	34:36
	political power	34:40
	and what happens to sex in such an empire.	34:42
	Sex is used to buy and sell cars and soap suds	34:47
	and people and their futures	34:55
	but it takes away	35:00
	some of the pain of modern life.	35:01
	English novelist D.H. Lawrence,	35:03
	concerned about the drabness of industrialized 19th century	35:06
	England but not knowing anything to do about it,	35:11
	wrote novels in which sex is glorified	35:15
	as a kind of modern salvation.	35:19
	If not salvation, at least, a narcotic	35:24
	for some of the pain of modern existence.	35:27
	The writer of the Genesis story realized	35:34
	that sex is always political.	35:37
	Mrs. Potiphar presumes that she is so powerful	35:40
	that she can do anything she wants with anybody she wants.	35:44
	Her demand of Joseph,	35:50
	come lie with me you little Hebrew,	35:53
	is not just an expression of her lust,	35:57
	not just her lust for sex but her lust for power.	36:01
	But in Joseph's refusal, Joseph says,	36:07
	I could not do this it would be to betray	36:11
	the trust that my master has put in me.	36:14
	I could not do this to the dream that God has put in me.	36:17
	I think the writer means for us to ask this morning	36:23
	well what is real power in this life?	36:26
	Potiphar's wife, who was supposed to have so much power	36:31
	at the beginning of this little episode,	36:36
	by the end of the story looks silly and powerless.	36:38
	She is reduced to the level of beggar,	36:44
	pursuing Joseph throughout the house all day long.	36:46
	Come lie with me, come lie with me.	36:50
	Telegram for Joseph from Potiphar's wife,	36:53
	dear Joseph, stop, come lie with me,	36:55
	stop, love Mrs. Potiphar.	36:57
	Finally grabbing his coat, she is left holding nothing	37:01
	in her hands but his clothes as Joseph flees the house.	37:05
	If you were here last Sunday, you'll remember	37:11
	that clothes came up in this Joseph story before.	37:13
	Last Sunday we were told that Joseph looked royal	37:16
	'cause he had this coat with long sleeves	37:19
	that made him look like royalty.	37:21
	There we were led to believe that Joseph	37:24
	looked like royalty because he had on special clothes	37:26
	but now when he's got on no clothes	37:29
	and Mrs. Potiphar is left holding the clothes,	37:33
	we see that Joseph is royal all the way through.	37:39
	He is royal in his actions,	37:45
	in his self possession,	37:49
	he is free and she is trapped	37:52
	and her pitiful lies,	37:57
	using these clothes, shows how trapped she is.	38:00
	Isn't it ironic that this little slave	38:05
	who had nothing by the end of the story	38:07
	is the one who is free and in charge of his life	38:10
	and this noble person is trapped in deceit?	38:15
	Now as much as I would like to,	38:21
	I do not think that this story is an invitation	38:22
	to preachers to moralize about sex,	38:25
	although I would like to do that to you.	38:28
	I don't think that's what the story's about.	38:32
	I mean we know adultery is wrong,	38:33
	we know illicit sex is wrong,	38:38
	but this story may be about something that we may not know	38:42
	and that is how power seduces people.	38:46
	The story sets up the contest between	38:51
	this little slave dreamer and this powerful Mrs. Potiphar	38:53
	and I think the story is about bigger game morally speaking.	38:57
	This story, I think, is an invitation for us	39:03
	here on this opening Sunday of a new school year	39:06
	to ponder the seductive ways of the empire,	39:10
	the way it just wants to kill Godly dreams.	39:14
	Joseph has been lifted out of his former existence,	39:20
	out of some hick town back in Judea	39:23
	and set right here in the middle of this big,	39:26
	important, powerful university people up at the palace.	39:29
	But back in Judea he had a dream,	39:34
	he had a dream that God had plans for him,	39:36
	that God intended to use him to make out	39:39
	of this little rag-tag family, a great nation.	39:41
	Will he forget the dream once he has landed in Egypt,	39:46
	once he stops singing Israeli folk tunes	39:49
	and takes music appreciation 101	39:52
	and learns to appreciate the high culture	39:54
	bourgeois music of the people up at the palace?	39:57
	The siren songs of imperial Egypt?	40:02
	No, four times the narrator repeats,	40:07
	God was with Joseph, God was with Joseph.	40:11
	Virtually, the only times the Lord	40:16
	is mentioned in the entire Joseph story,	40:18
	God was with Joseph.	40:21
	The Lord was with him therefore	40:24
	he has the means to resist the empire.	40:27
	And so I end with a question and that is,	40:33
	how will you resist the empire?	40:35
	How do you plan not to be seduced?	40:40
	'cause the seductions are so subtle, they are so alluring.	40:44
	Come on Joseph now you're down here in Palm Beach,	40:49
	you're gonna find that people do things a little	40:52
	differently down here than they did back in Des Moines.	40:55
	Joe, man, you're a delta kappa damma codelta	41:01
	now man, get with the program.	41:06
	Some scholars think this Joseph story	41:12
	was told during the times when Israel	41:17
	had its chance to be an imperial power.	41:23
	They believe that this beautifully constructed story	41:27
	was written during the time of Solomon, the great king,	41:29
	when Israel at last stood at the pennicle of the nations	41:32
	with a great economy and a great defense program	41:36
	and Israel at last had a chance to be	41:39
	a great big grown up powerful nation.	41:41
	Israel and the new world order prosperity.	41:45
	But I think this story, if told at that time,	41:51
	was meant to be a critique in Israel of what real power is.	41:54
	Is it power to go with the flow,	41:58
	to find out which tunes are most accepted by those	42:01
	at the top and then dance to the beat?	42:04
	Or is real power a byproduct of people who got a dream	42:07
	and will not be deterred or detoured	42:11
	or seduced out of that dream?	42:13
	I think this story was meant to say that if Israel	42:16
	has got power, it's because the Lord is with Joseph.	42:19
	Somebody else owns Joseph and I tell you	42:25
	when you stand before the seductive wiles of the empire	42:30
	the modern corporation, the university,	42:34
	your first law firm, or even sorority rush,	42:38
	it is great power to know that they don't own you.	42:42
	You may live among powerful people up at the palace	42:50
	or even among the slaves down in Jarvis.	42:54
	The empire may find your talents quite useful	42:57
	in attaining government research grants	43:00
	but never forget the dream, never be seduced,	43:02
	remember that they don't own you.	43:07
	The Lord is with you.	43:10
	And it is frightening for the empire	43:15
	to have a few people running along or running around loose,	43:16
	free, owned by something greater than the empire.	43:20
	I remember a conversation I had with her	43:24
	her sophmore year, we were talking	43:26
	about the problem of alcohol on this campus.	43:28
	She said she didn't drink.	43:31
	I said is that because...what is that because	43:34
	you don't like to have a good time or what is this?	43:36
	And she said no because alcohol destroys brain cells	43:41
	and I think God wants me to be a psychiatrist.	43:46
	You see, she was owned by something, someone larger.	43:52
	A dream,	43:58
	it enabled her to take hold of her life.	44:00
	I got a friend, he was at Duke during the mid-60s	44:05
	which is interesting because my friend is black	44:09
	and Duke had no black students	44:11
	until just a few years before then.	44:14
	And he came to Duke with such dreams.	44:17
	First person in his family to go to college	44:21
	and he was proud and they were proud	44:24
	but he got here to Duke and found out that	44:26
	though he was ready for the University,	44:29
	not everybody at this University was ready for him.	44:31
	And so he participated in a protest to change some things,	44:36
	a group of students took over Allen building.	44:41
	My friend's parents called him from a little town	44:45
	in North Carolina and they said,	44:48
	are you crazy? Don't blow this.	44:49
	You're the first person to get to go to college.	44:52
	You go back to the dorm and you start studying.	44:54
	His parents knew what the empire	44:59
	does to people who get out of line.	45:01
	But as it turned out, my friend had a dream that was bigger,	45:07
	even than his parents' dreams for him.	45:11
	He had a dream of his future that God wanted him to have	45:15
	and he followed that dream.	45:19
	He was free.	45:20
	He had a dream to which he clung.	45:26
	Or should we say	45:31
	that God in God's dream clung to him?	45:34
	That is true freedom.	45:41
	(Organ music)	45:50
	("Be Thou My Vision")	46:30
-	You may be seated.	48:35
	Let us pray together the litany	48:44
	for this year in the University.	48:46
	God of Abraham and Issac, of Apostles and Prophets,	48:48
	in every age you call people to work for you,	48:52
	showing justice, doing mercy, giving purpose	48:57
	to an aimless humanity.	49:01
	By your truth, darkness is dispelled	49:04
	and all people set free to mature in wisdom.	49:06
	In pursuit of that truth,	49:11
	we now take our place at Duke University.	49:13
	Receive us onto yourself, O God,	49:17
	use us to accomplish your sacred intention.	49:20
	That in this place we will remember those parents,	49:26
	teachers, and friends who love us	49:30
	and whose hopes follow us here.	49:33
	That we may accept the responsibility of our freedom	49:39
	and the burden of our privilege.	49:43
	That with courage we may doubt	49:49
	but that we will also place our doubts	49:51
	in the larger faith of Jesus Christ.	49:54
	From insulating ourselves with books and words,	50:00
	from ignorance that feeds injustice,	50:06
	from indifference that yields to cruelty,	50:09
	and from blind loyalty to false values.	50:12
	From hopelessness that cripples us,	50:19
	a self-consciousness that paralyzes us,	50:22
	and from temptation that destroys us.	50:25
	Gracious God in a world where justice does not yet	50:31
	roll down as waters nor righteousness as a mighty stream,	50:35
	where there is much knowledge but little wisdom	50:41
	we pray for this school, its students and faculty,	50:44
	staff and administrators and for the task	50:49
	in which we now unite.	50:53
	Turn our efforts to good that as our understanding increases	50:55
	our responsibility will deepen for the sake	51:01
	of the future that you give us to create.	51:05
	Hear us, O God, amen.	51:08
	Let us offer our gifts with thanks giving	51:13
	for the sake of the future we are given to create.	51:15
	(Organ Music)	51:22
	(Band plays)	51:48
	(Choir singing)	52:26
-	Let us pray.	59:03
	God of powerful visions, we give thanks for the dreamers	59:05
	in our world who have been inspired	59:10
	by your vision for humanity.	59:13
	Most especially we give thanks	59:16
	for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ	59:17
	who was so filled with your vision	59:21
	that he faced death on a cross to defeat	59:23
	the seductive power of sin to separate us from you	59:27
	and to give us true freedom and abundant life.	59:31
	We offer these gifts with thanks giving	59:36
	for the amazing abundance of your love and care.	59:38
	Be thou our vision that these gifts in our lives	59:42
	might be used for your kingdom and your glory.	59:46
	In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.	59:50
	Now let us pray with confidence The Lord's Prayer.	59:55
	Our Father who art in Heaven	59:59
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	1:00:02
	thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.	1:00:06
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:00:10
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:00:13
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	1:00:15
	and lead us not into temptation	1:00:19
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	1:00:22
	and the power and the glory forever.	1:00:26
	Amen.	1:00:29
	(Trumpet fanfare)	1:00:34
	(Organ music)	1:01:01
	("Praise The Source Of Faith And Learning")	1:01:30
-	Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	1:06:33
	the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit	1:06:37
	be with you all now and evermore.	1:06:40
	(Choir singing)	1:06:47
	(Organ music)	1:08:35

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "The Seduction of Dreams" (September 6, 1992)

Description:

Sermon start time: 24:57. Sermon end time: 45:46.
The preacher uses the story of Joseph to argue that, with the presence of God, one can resist the evil powers and seductive ways of the world and pursue godly dreams. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48p5vr0j

Date:

September 6, 1992

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Genesis

Chapter and Verse:

Genesis 39:1-23

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0294
ref9146_r28
uachapelsermaud
duke:321739
dcrmv001281
ark:/87924/r48p5vr0j
1abf1007-5524-4459-932e-d9554fc22d5e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

See below

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.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

William H. Willimon - "The Seduction of Dreams" (September 6, 1992)

Transcript

Item Info

1. William H. Willimon - "The Seduction of Dreams" (September 6, 1992)

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options

William H. Willimon - "The Seduction of Dreams" (September 6, 1992)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options