William H. Willimon - "The Spirit Blows Where It Will" (March 7, 1993)

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	(lively organ music)	0:00
-	Welcome to the Chapel	3:01
	on this the second Sunday in the Christian season of Lent.	3:03
	We're glad that you're with us.	3:07
	Today after service,	3:10
	Dr. Beverly Harrison, professor	3:12
	from Union Theological Seminary	3:14
	in New York will be leading a discussion	3:16
	in the Chapel basement.	3:19
	There are extra places for lunch available.	3:21
	If you have not signed up for this discussion,	3:24
	you're welcome to come as long as places are available.	3:27
	That's immediately after the service.	3:31
	Today we have special music	3:33
	written for this service	3:35
	by our Chapel organist, Dr. David Arcus.	3:37
	And we thank him for his contribution today	3:40
	and the choir and soloist.	3:44
	If you'd like to have a conversation with Dr. Arcus	3:46
	about his music which he's created	3:49
	in conjunction with the scripture	3:52
	and the sermon today,	3:54
	you're invited to join him up	3:55
	in the Chancel right after the service	3:57
	for a conversation with the composer about his work.	3:59
	Now let us continue our worship.	4:04
	(choir singing)	4:11
Minister	Please stand for the greeting.	4:56
	Create in me a clean heart, oh God.	5:03
Congregation	And renew a right spirit within me.	5:07
-	Open my lips, oh Lord.	5:10
All	And my mouth shall proclaim your praise.	5:12
	(lively organ music)	5:17
	(congregation singing)	5:58
-	You may be seated.	9:53
	Let us pray together the prayer for illumination.	9:58
All	Open our hearts and minds, oh God	10:02
	by the power of your Holy Spirit	10:05
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	10:08
	we may hear your message to us this Lenten season.	10:12
-	Amen.	10:16
	The Old Testament reading is from the book of Genesis,	10:18
	the first three verses of the 12th chapter.	10:22
	"Now the Lord said to Abram,	10:26
	"Go from your country	10:28
	"and your kindred and your father's house	10:30
	"to the land I will show you.	10:32
	"I will make of you a great nation	10:35
	"and I will bless you	10:38
	"and make your name great	10:39
	"so that you will be a blessing.	10:41
	"I will bless those who bless you	10:44
	"and the one who curses you, I will cruse.	10:46
	"In you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed."	10:51
	This is the word of the Lord.	10:56
All	Thanks be to God.	10:58
-	Today's Psalm is number 121 verses one through eight	11:06
	found on page 844 in the Hymnal.	11:11
	Please stand and sing this Psalm and Gloria responsively.	11:14
	(tranquil organ music)	11:20
	♪ I lift my eyes to the hills ♪	11:26
	♪ From whence does my help come ♪	11:31
	♪ My help comes from the Lord ♪	11:35
	♪ Who made heaven and Earth ♪	11:40
	♪ The Lord will not let your foot be moved ♪	11:45
	♪ The Lord who keeps you will not slumber ♪	11:50
	♪ Behold the one who keeps his eye ♪	11:55
	♪ Who neither slumber or sleep ♪	12:02
	♪ The Lord is your keeper ♪	12:06
	♪ The Lord is near on your right hand ♪	12:11
	♪ The sun shall not smite you by day ♪	12:18
	♪ Nor the moon by night ♪	12:22
	♪ The Lord will keep you from all evil ♪	12:27
	♪ And will keep your life ♪	12:32
	♪ The Lord will keep you from all harm ♪	12:36
	♪ And you coming in ♪	12:43
	♪ From this both now and forever more ♪	12:45
	♪ All glory to be you, creator ♪	12:52
	♪ And to Jesus Christ our Savior ♪	12:55
	♪ And to the Holy Spirit ♪	12:59
	♪ Blessed Trinity ♪	13:02
	♪ As it was at time began ♪	13:06
	♪ Is now and will be forever more ♪	13:10
-	Please be seated.	13:19
	(tranquil organ music)	13:41
	(soloist singing)	13:45
	♪ The presence of God ♪	14:00
	♪ The one, the one ♪	14:10
	♪ The one ♪	14:13
	♪ No one can see the kingdom of God ♪	14:16
	♪ Without being born of water ♪	14:25
	♪ How, how, how can anyone be born ♪	14:42
	♪ And one and one ♪	15:00
	(soloist singing)	15:03
	♪ A second time ♪	15:05
	♪ And what in a second time, a second time ♪	15:06
	(soloist singing)	15:10
	♪ And no one can enter the kingdom ♪	15:19
	♪ Without being born of water, water, water, water, water ♪	15:26
	♪ And speak ♪	15:52
	♪ How, how can anyone be born ♪	16:02
	♪ After having grown old ♪	16:05
	♪ After having grown old ♪	16:07
	♪ How can anyone ♪	16:10
	♪ If he is born of the flesh ♪	16:12
	♪ He's flesh ♪	16:19
	♪ And what he's born of the spirit ♪	16:22
	♪ Spirit ♪	16:33
	♪ Do not be astonished ♪	16:39
	♪ That I said to you ♪	16:41
	♪ You must be born ♪	16:44
	♪ How can these things be ♪	16:59
	♪ How can these things be ♪	17:02
	♪ How can they ♪	17:05
	♪ How can ♪	17:07
	♪ How ♪	17:09
	♪ Are you a teacher of Israel to you ♪	17:14
	♪ And yet you do not understand these things ♪	17:20
	♪ Understand these things ♪	17:23
	♪ Stand, stand these ♪	17:26
	♪ These ♪	17:29
	♪ These ♪	17:30
	♪ These, these ♪	17:31
-	Today's gospel for this second Sunday of Lent	17:58
	is from John chapter three.	18:02
	"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus	18:07
	"a ruler of the Jews.	18:11
	"He came to Jesus by night and said,	18:13
	"Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God	18:15
	"for no one could do these signs	18:19
	"that you do unless God is with him.	18:21
	"Jesus answered Nicodemus,	18:24
	"truly, truly I say to you,	18:26
	"unless one is born from above,	18:28
	"he cannot see the kingdom of God.	18:31
	"Nicodemus said to him,	18:35
	"how can a man be born	18:37
	"when he is old?	18:40
	"Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb	18:41
	"and be born?	18:44
	"Jesus answered, truly, truly I say to you,	18:46
	"unless one is born of water	18:50
	"and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.	18:52
	"That which is born of flesh is flesh	18:56
	"and that which is born of spirit is spirit.	19:00
	"Do not marvel that I have said to you	19:03
	"you must be born anew	19:06
	"for the wind blows where it will	19:09
	"and you hear the sound of it	19:13
	"but you do know know whence the wind comes	19:15
	"or wither it goes.	19:17
	"So it is with everyone who is born	19:19
	"of the spirit.	19:22
	"Nicodemus said to Jesus,	19:25
	"how can this be?"	19:29
	This is the word of the Lord.	19:33
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	19:36
-	It's getting harder the longer I preach,	19:41
	it's getting more difficult to preach.	19:46
	And that's because do you find it odd	19:50
	that the longer I preach,	19:53
	the more years that I'm at it,	19:55
	the less I know about it.	19:57
	I knew a lot about preaching say 10 years ago.	19:59
	I knew what was required for a good sermon.	20:02
	I knew a lot more about preaching 20 years ago.	20:05
	But the longer I preach, the less I seem to understand	20:09
	about why sermons work	20:13
	or why sermons don't work.	20:15
	I've had on a number of occasions, all too many,	20:18
	the experience of working hard on a sermon	20:23
	and doing everything right,	20:27
	working with the Biblical text,	20:28
	studying the text, exegiting the text,	20:29
	working with it, working it up to sermon,	20:32
	a well-ordered sermon with appropriate illustrations.	20:34
	Then I'm up in the pulpit	20:37
	and I'm preaching and I'm preaching	20:38
	and I look up from my notes,	20:41
	and you're dying.	20:44
	I can see that you're dying.	20:45
	They're bringing in stretchers,	20:48
	they're taking out people on stretchers.	20:49
	People are faking chest pains and leaving.	20:52
	I can see that from where I am.	20:56
	And I think to myself, I look at those notes	20:59
	and I think why in the world	21:01
	did I get into this text.	21:02
	Why this sermon?	21:04
	What's wrong?	21:05
	But then even more confusing perhaps	21:09
	is the sermon that I intended to work on	21:15
	but there was first one thing and then another.	21:19
	There was the annual mission trip to Myrtle Beach	21:20
	over spring break	21:23
	and then I got back into town late	21:25
	and then somebody was at the hospital	21:26
	and I had to be down at the hospital	21:28
	'til late on Saturday night	21:29
	and so, then as I was watching late Saturday evening returns	21:31
	of Love Boat on the TV,	21:34
	I took out this envelope	21:37
	and I scribbled this sermon on the back	21:40
	of the envelope	21:41
	and then I get up in the pulpit on Sunday morning	21:43
	hoping no one will be there	21:46
	but alas people are there	21:47
	and I start preaching and I tell the story	21:49
	about the person who had journeyed away from home,	21:52
	he came back home after a long time,	21:54
	tied the yellow ribbon on the oak tree	21:56
	and then the other story about Ian Heavy's my brother	21:57
	and Christ has no has	22:01
	and I just pray that nobody's ever been to church before	22:03
	in their lives	22:05
	and has heard any of these stories.	22:06
	And then on the way out the door,	22:11
	as I'm prepared to say to people, "Look,	22:13
	"Arnold Palmer has an off day sometimes."	22:16
	(laughing)	22:19
	52 Sundays a year.	22:20
	But then Mary Smith grasps my hand	22:23
	and she says,	22:27
	"Well, how did you know,	22:29
	"you always seem to know	22:31
	"me going in the hospital next week,	22:33
	"surgery, came here upset,	22:35
	"grief stricken and your word,	22:39
	"now I'm confident."	22:42
	And she is followed by John Davis	22:47
	and John says, "Well, I guess I don't have to tell you	22:51
	"that that had to be the best sermon	22:55
	"you've ever preached.	22:57
	"That was a wonderful sermon, a life-changing sermon.	22:58
	"I'm going to go home	23:01
	"and reevaluate my whole relationship with God.	23:02
	"Thank you for that sermon."	23:05
	And the preacher longs to stand there	23:08
	and call them back from the parking lot,	23:10
	Mary, John, what did you hear?	23:12
	You look at the notes	23:15
	on the back of that envelope.	23:16
	There's nothing there.	23:17
	(congregation laughing)	23:19
	What was it that you heard?	23:21
	What was there?	23:22
	What was it?	23:23
	And I can tell you as a preacher,	23:26
	it is tough.	23:28
	Week after week to give yourself	23:30
	to such an enterprise	23:32
	that you can't control.	23:34
	And that you can't predict	23:36
	and that you don't know about it.	23:38
	And I'm talking about experience	23:41
	not only in preaching but you've had in worship.	23:43
	The Sunday morning, maybe you're here this Sunday morning	23:46
	just like that,	23:48
	you got up this morning,	23:50
	you didn't feel like going to church	23:51
	but you told somebody you'd meet	23:52
	at five minutes to 11 out in front of the Chapel	23:54
	and you're hoping to get a date	23:56
	with her next weekend,	23:58
	so you thought, what the heck,	23:59
	I'll go ahead and go.	24:01
	And you're not feeling like worship	24:03
	and you don't have your mind on God	24:05
	or any of that but then in the service,	24:07
	was it the music, was it the hymns of prayer,	24:10
	what was it?	24:13
	Something got ahold of you.	24:15
	And you fumbled for a Kleenex	24:17
	and there's tears and when you leave,	24:19
	it's like you've been given wings	24:21
	and you just soar.	24:23
	Now what was that?	24:27
	What was that?	24:30
	It's so unpredictable.	24:33
	It's uncontrollable.	24:35
	When I was doing graduate work at Emory,	24:39
	a friend of mine did a study	24:40
	on the relationship of preaching	24:43
	to people's racial attitudes	24:46
	and he devised a questionnaire	24:49
	that would measure your attitudes on race.	24:50
	And then he administered this questionnaire	24:54
	to his congregation.	24:56
	And then he preached a series of four sermons	24:59
	in which he in some way Biblically subtly	25:01
	but pointedly would lift up the Christian response	25:05
	to the racial issue	25:09
	and then he administered the questionnaire to them	25:11
	at the end of the series.	25:13
	The results.	25:15
	His congregation was 3.2 points	25:17
	more racist after the sermons than they were before.	25:21
	And yet, there is this magazine	25:27
	in my denomination called "Engage Social Action"	25:30
	and a few years ago, this magazine asked leaders	25:34
	of my denomination, leaders in the cause	25:37
	of racial justice, people who'd given their lives	25:40
	to the fight	25:43
	what put you here, what brought you here	25:45
	in this struggle?	25:47
	And I was impressed, preacher that I am,	25:50
	I was impressed by how many	25:53
	of those people mentioned a sermon.	25:54
	I'm here because I heard something,	25:59
	I heard my name called	26:01
	in a sermon.	26:05
	I've sometimes called preaching an art.	26:09
	And yet if preaching is an art	26:13
	it has got to be the most fragile of the arts.	26:14
	My little words waft out over the congregation	26:18
	on a Sunday morning,	26:21
	they bounce off the walls,	26:22
	they alight here and there	26:24
	and then they die	26:26
	and all is silence.	26:27
	And when you hear a good sermon,	26:30
	you can't say to yourself at the end of the sermon,	26:32
	gosh, wasn't that great?	26:34
	Let's all get together here tomorrow,	26:35
	same time, same place, let's do it again.	26:37
	No, you just had to be there.	26:40
	It was a moment, it was an event.	26:42
	You just can't do it again.	26:44
	You just had to be there.	26:47
	And I envy my musicians.	26:49
	They've practiced an art	26:51
	but at least they've got these notes on the page	26:53
	and while there're differences	26:55
	in various performances,	26:57
	nevertheless, they can do it again if they want to	26:58
	but not with a sermon,	27:00
	you can't really do it again,	27:01
	you can't get these people, these needs,	27:03
	this place all together again.	27:06
	It's fragile.	27:09
	And a few years ago I did a book	27:14
	on burnout among clergy	27:17
	and I tried to study clergy,	27:19
	who having once put their hand to Nepal looked back	27:21
	and they fell away, they dropped out of the ministry.	27:23
	And should I have been surprised	27:28
	that many clergy mentioned	27:30
	that one of the most debilitating, grinding task	27:31
	of ministry is preaching.	27:36
	There you are for 20 years chiseling out	27:41
	a sermon from the hard granite of the Biblical text	27:46
	with your raw hands	27:50
	and you preach and then it dies	27:53
	and then you preach again,	27:55
	it gets old.	27:56
	It is tough to give your life	27:59
	to an act that you can't control,	28:02
	you can't predict, you can't find the winning formula	28:04
	and repeat that Sunday after Sunday.	28:07
	Preaching is one of the toughest tasks of ministry.	28:10
	It's just, well, it's just so fragile.	28:15
	Late one night,	28:21
	a teacher, a professor,	28:23
	came to Jesus.	28:27
	And he said, "Jesus, we heard some great things about you.	28:30
	"We know that you must be sent from God.	28:35
	"Nobody can do the things that you do	28:36
	"unless God is with him.	28:38
	"Now Jesus, here is the question.	28:40
	"How do I get into the kingdom?	28:42
	"What do I have to do	28:46
	"to get this eternal life that you're talking about?	28:48
	"What do I have to do?"	28:52
	Jesus replied to Nicodemus,	28:56
	"Well, I have three points I want to say on that subject.	28:58
	(congregation laughing)	29:01
	"Point one,	29:03
	"you've got to be born anew."	29:05
	And Nicodemus said, "Again?"	29:10
	And Jesus said (speaking in foreign language).	29:14
	The Greek word (speaking in foreign language).	29:16
	You've got to be born from above.	29:18
	"Well, how?" Nicodemus persists.	29:22
	"How, how is it possible when you're old	29:25
	"and you're all grown up	29:28
	"and you've been around the block a couple of times,	29:29
	"how is it possible to go back	29:31
	"in your mama's womb and be born again?"	29:33
	And Jesus says,	29:36
	"Well, you've gotta have spirit."	29:38
	"Well, how?"	29:45
	And Jesus says, "Well, the wind,	29:48
	"the (speaking in foreign language)	29:52
	"blows where it will."	29:53
	And you find it interesting	29:57
	that when asked a simple, straightforward question,	29:59
	Jesus responds with this mysterious talk	30:02
	of wind and birth.	30:05
	That was Jesus, you ask him	30:08
	a simple straightforward how-to question	30:09
	and he gives you all the stuff about birth,	30:11
	about wind, about spirit.	30:13
	Nicodemus persists.	30:16
	"Jesus, what do you mean born anew?"	30:18
	Jesus said, "I didn't say anew, I said from above."	30:23
	The Greek word is (speaking in foreign language).	30:26
	You've got to be born (speaking in foreign language).	30:28
	It's the same word used in Matthew's Gospel	30:30
	when it says that when Jesus died,	30:33
	the veil of the temple was ripped	30:35
	from top to bottom.	30:37
	(speaking in foreign language)	30:39
	You've got to be born from top down.	30:40
	You've got to be born from the top.	30:42
	You've got to be worked over from the top down.	30:44
	You've got to be born (speaking in foreign language).	30:46
	Nicodemus persists.	30:50
	"Jesus, when you use the word	30:52
	(speaking in foreign language),	30:54
	"are you using it like in the ordinary sense	30:56
	"of wind, wind, (speaking in foreign language)	30:59
	"or are you using it	31:01
	"in a more illogically sophisticated sense of spirit?"	31:02
	And Jesus says,	31:08
	"Yes."	31:10
	(congregation laughing)	31:12
	And I tell you,	31:13
	God sent his only son into the world	31:18
	to give to the world.	31:20
	Jesus, are you using that Greek word	31:22
	(speaking in foreign language) in the kind	31:23
	of ordinary, everyday sense of gift?	31:24
	Or in the more theologically sophisticated sense	31:27
	of grace, Jesus says yes.	31:29
	Nicodemus says, "Gosh, I don't understand."	31:33
	Jesus says, "Now you're catching on, good."	31:35
	(congregation laughing)	31:38
	Don't you find it interesting	31:41
	that when asked a perfectly straightforward	31:42
	American utilitarian how-to question,	31:44
	Jesus responds by citing two	31:47
	of the most mysterious, uncontrollable,	31:50
	unpredictable experiences of life,	31:53
	birth, wind,	31:55
	what did you have to do to get born the first time?	31:59
	Well, getting into the kingdom is a lot like that.	32:03
	Call it (speaking in foreign language), call it grace, gift.	32:07
	The wind, the wind, Jesus says,	32:12
	blows where it will.	32:15
	You can't control it,	32:17
	you can't contain it, understand it.	32:18
	The wind blows where it will.	32:20
	Relax, Nicodemus, the wind blows where it will.	32:22
	The wind.	32:27
	And what I think about when I hear that passage	32:29
	of the wind blows where it will,	32:31
	I think about growing up in the deep South	32:33
	as a boy before the days of air conditioning	32:38
	and when the chores were done,	32:41
	everybody would sit out on the porch	32:45
	and you would rock and you would talk	32:46
	at the end of a hot summer day.	32:48
	And as you were rocking and as you were talking,	32:51
	you would hear like the leaves of the trees rustle briefly	32:54
	and everybody would grow quiet and just sit back	32:59
	and you would savor the breeze	33:03
	and that cool evening breeze,	33:05
	it was grace.	33:09
	The wind blows where it will.	33:12
	When will we learn this difficult	33:17
	primal fact of our religious experience?	33:21
	We come here on Sunday morning	33:25
	and my image of us on Sunday morning	33:27
	is we all come here with our little notepads.	33:29
	All right, church, today here's your assignment,	33:32
	I want you to work on your sexism, your racism,	33:35
	be kind to sales clerks in department stores.	33:37
	Come back next week, I'll give you another assignment.	33:40
	Work on this for the week.	33:42
	But occasionally as we're busy posturing and wondering	33:45
	how if we look good and if we're doing well,	33:48
	and we got the program down right,	33:51
	occasionally,	33:53
	there is a disruptive breeze	33:56
	and somebody is refreshed	34:00
	and somebody is caught hold of	34:02
	in a new way and somebody is moving	34:04
	toward birth.	34:08
	And that's holy.	34:11
	I tell you,	34:15
	your relationship with God hangs	34:18
	by a slender thread of such grace,	34:20
	such gift.	34:25
	But the good news today is that that spirit,	34:28
	that spirit blows where it will.	34:32
	I remember, a few years ago,	34:35
	the last Sunday of the school year,	34:40
	last Sunday of the school year,	34:43
	I got a call at home on Sunday morning.	34:45
	Dr. Williman, are you up yet?	34:48
	I said yes, I'm up yet.	34:49
	What is it?	34:51
	And said just wanted you to know	34:52
	there's no electricity in the Chapel this morning.	34:53
	I said no electricity?	34:57
	Well, how dark is it?	34:59
	And the attendant said well,	35:03
	I had to use a flashlight to dial this number	35:05
	I'll tell you that.	35:07
	I said well, has the choir gotten there yet?	35:08
	And she said well, I can hear people moving down front,	35:10
	I don't know if they're choir or not.	35:13
	Well, I rushed over here,	35:16
	got over here and it was dark.	35:18
	Let me tell you, when the lights are out in the building,	35:19
	it is dark.	35:22
	So, we had to quickly rearrange the whole service.	35:24
	We couldn't use the organ,	35:26
	so we had to drag in a piano,	35:27
	we had to think of some hymns	35:30
	that you could sing without having to see the Hymnal	35:31
	and then I said go down to the storage room	35:33
	and start bringing these candles up.	35:35
	And we went down there	35:37
	and all the used candles we could carry we brought up	35:38
	and people started helping	35:40
	and we put a candle on every flat surface we could find.	35:42
	We had a dozen candles up around the pulpit.	35:44
	We had candle over on the lectern,	35:47
	we had candles in the windows	35:48
	and after illuminating about 285 candles,	35:50
	we brought the level of illumination	35:54
	in this building up to like downtown Durham at 3 a.m.	35:55
	It was dark.	35:58
	(congregation laughing)	36:00
	And then just as we got all the candles in place	36:05
	and we'd gotten the service reworked,	36:08
	at a quarter of 11,	36:09
	the lights came back on.	36:11
	(congregation laughing)	36:14
	So, this meant that as people arrived here,	36:15
	they were greeted to a fully illuminated building	36:18
	with these 285 candles everywhere.	36:20
	Some sophomore comes in and says,	36:23
	"Gosh, candles, what sort of liturgical innovation	36:26
	"have you got in mind for us this Sunday?"	36:29
	I said, "Sit down and shut up."	36:31
	And then the service went downhill from then on.	36:33
	Because the organist thought that we had changed the hymn	36:39
	but we didn't change the hymn	36:41
	since the organ was gonna be played,	36:43
	so we got the wrong hymn.	36:44
	I started down the procession,	36:45
	I'd forgotten to put on my robe	36:46
	in all of the ruckus	36:48
	and it was just the biggest mess	36:50
	and nothing went right	36:52
	and I said to God, if you let me out of this,	36:53
	I will never go back to this again,	36:56
	there's got to be an easier way	36:59
	to make money than this.	37:00
	There is no sense in having a church here	37:03
	in this place, it's crazy.	37:05
	But after everybody was filing out	37:09
	at the end of this service,	37:11
	there's this sophomore coming out saying,	37:14
	"Gosh, I liked the touch of those candles. "that was,"	37:16
	"get out" and (congregation laughing)	37:18
	and I was ripping my robe off	37:24
	and I was ready to call it quits.	37:26
	And there were these three young women	37:31
	standing over to the side there	37:32
	and they came up and they said,	37:33
	"We wanted to wait to tell you	37:36
	"that this our last Sunday here in the chapel.	37:37
	"We're all graduating.	37:41
	"And as we were sitting here this morning,	37:43
	"as you were running about fiddling with the candles,	37:46
	"we were thinking to ourselves,	37:48
	"this Chapel, these sermons, this music	37:50
	"has been the best part of our whole time here.	37:55
	"And each one of use remembered	37:59
	"that at key moments in our four years here	38:01
	"when we were making tough decisions,	38:03
	"you were here and there was just the right word	38:07
	"and we just wanted to say thank you.	38:09
	"It's made all the difference."	38:13
	And I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.	38:18
	I mean, I mean I didn't know whether to thank God	38:22
	for that or to be angry,	38:24
	to be reminded again	38:30
	that it's not in my hands,	38:31
	it's in God's hands.	38:35
	I tell you, it's tough preaching,	38:38
	listening to sermons, worshiping,	38:41
	and our faith hangs by this slender thread	38:44
	of grace, this (speaking in foreign language).	38:46
	But the good news is	38:50
	that the spirit blows where it will	38:54
	and through these thick gothic walls that day,	38:56
	despite everything,	39:00
	I felt a breeze.	39:04
	(choir singing)	39:17
Minister	The Lord be with you.	40:57
Congregation	And also with you.	40:59
-	Let us pray.	41:01
	Oh breath of life,	41:10
	come sweeping through us.	41:12
	Revive your church with life and power.	41:16
	Oh breath of life, come, cleanse, renew us	41:21
	that we might be born from above.	41:29
	Make us anew from top to bottom.	41:32
	Make us truly yours	41:38
	that we might be fit to be your people,	41:40
	your church in the world.	41:44
	Blow, wind of God.	41:47
	With wisdom, blow until our minds are free	41:50
	from mists of error,	41:54
	clouds of doubt which blind our eyes to you.	41:57
	Open our eyes that we might see	42:02
	and our hearts that we might understand.	42:06
	We try so hard to secure our own salvation	42:11
	but whatever we do,	42:16
	more is never enough.	42:19
	Teach us that salvation, like life,	42:23
	is a gift,	42:27
	one we can never earn	42:29
	but a gift you desire to give us	42:31
	in spite of our unworthiness.	42:34
	Spirit of the living God,	42:38
	we give thanks for your eternal love	42:41
	which washes over us like cool, clear water,	42:44
	a love that touches us so deeply	42:50
	that we know we have received nothing less	42:53
	than the gift of yourself.	42:56
	How can we ever thank you for your self-giving	42:59
	through your son Jesus Christ,	43:02
	our Lord and Savior?	43:04
	We stand in awe of your graciousness	43:07
	but we receive your breath of love	43:11
	with gratitude and anticipation.	43:13
	With hopeful hearts, we await the blowing	43:17
	of your spirit among us.	43:21
	How will you change us?	43:23
	What will our world, our community,	43:27
	our church, our lives	43:31
	look like when we've been born from above?	43:35
	Surely the human tragedies that surround us	43:40
	of poverty, violence and greed	43:43
	will be transformed.	43:47
	Surly our own self-centeredness and fear	43:50
	will fall away	43:53
	as we are filled with your spirit	43:55
	of self-giving love.	43:57
	We are ready for you to make us anew, Lord.	43:59
	We are ready for you to do with us as you will	44:03
	that we might be filled with your love	44:08
	and joy and power, your righteousness and peace.	44:10
	Make us reflections of Christ	44:16
	that our lives might speak of your love	44:19
	and your grace.	44:22
	In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.	44:24
	God has given us the gift of life and love	44:31
	and surrounded us with abundant resources.	44:35
	Will we express our thanks in token offerings	44:39
	or in an outpouring of ourselves.	44:42
	(tranquil music)	45:24
	(choir singing)	45:35
	(dramatic organ music)	53:35
	(choir singing)	54:48
-	Let us pray.	55:27
	Gracious God, because you gave Jesus Christ	55:29
	as a gift to the world,	55:33
	we bring our gifts to you.	55:35
	Because you have loved us,	55:38
	we renew our commitment to share love	55:40
	with all your people.	55:43
	Because you are even now renewing our spirits	55:45
	and bringing us rebirth from above,	55:49
	we pour out our thanksgiving.	55:52
	The gifts we dedicate here	55:55
	have always belonged to you,	55:57
	the wealth we retain for our own use	56:00
	is yours as well.	56:03
	Oh, Holy Spirit, use all that we have	56:05
	and all that we are	56:09
	to move your world from death to life.	56:11
	Amen.	56:15
	Let us pray together in the unity of the spirit,	56:18
	the prayer that Jesus Christ taught us.	56:20
A]	Our father who art in heaven,	56:23
	hallowed be thy name,	56:26
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done	56:28
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	56:31
	Give us this day our daily bread	56:34
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	56:37
	who trespass against us.	56:40
	Lead us not into temptation	56:42
	but deliver us from evil	56:44
	for thine is the kingdom, and the power	56:46
	and the glory forever.	56:49
	Amen.	56:51
	(lively organ music)	56:54
	(congregation singing)	57:27

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "The Spirit Blows Where It Will" (March 7, 1993)

Description:

Sermon start time: 19:41. Sermon end time: 39:09.
Preaching is a hard job, yet, through the work of the Holy Spirit, a sermon can come as a gift from God and touch many people’s lives. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4qr4p563

Date:

March 7, 1993

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Biblical Book:

John

Chapter and Verse:

John 3:1-10

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0316
ref9228_xcv
uachapelsermaud
duke:321581
dcrmv001302
ark:/87924/r4qr4p563
b4922de9-8126-4e4f-b1d6-42deb373f658

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.

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William H. Willimon - "The Spirit Blows Where It Will" (March 7, 1993)

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1. William H. Willimon - "The Spirit Blows Where It Will" (March 7, 1993)

Duke University Archives

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William H. Willimon - "The Spirit Blows Where It Will" (March 7, 1993)

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Duke University Archives

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