Samuel Proctor - "The Cosmic Intervention of God" (March 13, 1994)
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Transcript
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(choir singing) | 0:02 | |
- | Good morning. | 3:11 |
We'd like to welcome you to Duke Chapel | 3:12 | |
on this fourth Sunday in Lent. | 3:14 | |
We are grateful to the UNCW Chamber Singers | 3:17 | |
and their director, Doctor Joe Hickman, | 3:21 | |
for their musical leadership this morning. | 3:23 | |
We're also pleased to welcome for a return visit, | 3:26 | |
Doctor Samuel Proctor, | 3:28 | |
who is our distinguished guest preacher for today. | 3:30 | |
Doctor Proctor is currently serving | 3:33 | |
as Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry | 3:36 | |
at Duke Divinity School. | 3:39 | |
Let us continue our worship with a greeting. | 3:41 | |
Please stand. | 3:43 | |
Create in me a clean heart, O God. | 3:51 | |
Congregation | And renew a right spirit within me. | 3:55 |
- | Open my lips, O Lord. | 3:58 |
Congregation | And my mouth shall proclaim your praise. | 4:01 |
(organ music) | 4:05 | |
(choir singing) | 4:34 | |
- | Please be seated. | 8:25 |
Let us join together in the prayer for illumination. | 8:37 | |
Open our hearts and minds, O God, | 8:42 | |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 8:45 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 8:48 | |
we may hear your message to us this Lenten season, amen. | 8:51 | |
The Old Testament reading is taken from the book of Numbers, | 8:58 | |
chapter 21, beginning with the fourth verse. | 9:02 | |
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea | 9:10 | |
to go around the land of Edom, | 9:15 | |
but the people became impatient on the way. | 9:18 | |
The people spoke against God and against Moses, | 9:22 | |
why have you brought us up out of Egypt | 9:25 | |
to die in the wilderness? | 9:28 | |
For there is no food and no water, | 9:30 | |
and we detest this miserable food. | 9:33 | |
Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, | 9:36 | |
and they bit the people so that many Israelites died. | 9:40 | |
The people came to Moses and said | 9:46 | |
we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you, | 9:49 | |
pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us. | 9:53 | |
So Moses prayed for the people | 9:57 | |
and the Lord said to Moses | 9:59 | |
make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole | 10:02 | |
and everyone who was bitten shall look at it and live. | 10:07 | |
So Moses made a serpent of bronze | 10:12 | |
and put it upon a pole, | 10:15 | |
and whenever a serpent bit someone, | 10:17 | |
that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. | 10:20 | |
This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God. | 10:26 | |
The Psalm appointed for this Sunday is number 107, | 10:33 | |
which is found on pages 830 and 831 in your hymn book. | 10:37 | |
Please rise as we read the Psalm, | 10:42 | |
and then following we will sing the Gloria. | 10:44 | |
O give thanks to the Lord who is good, | 10:55 | |
whose steadfast love endures forever. | 10:57 | |
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, | 11:01 | |
whom the Lord has redeemed from trouble | 11:04 | |
and gathered in from lands, | 11:07 | |
from east and from the west, | 11:09 | |
from the north and from the south. | 11:11 | |
Some wandered in the desert wastes, | 11:14 | |
finding no way to a city in which to dwell. | 11:17 | |
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. | 11:21 | |
Then in their trouble, they cried to the Lord | 11:25 | |
who delivered them from their distress, | 11:28 | |
and led them by a straight way | 11:31 | |
til they reached a city. | 11:34 | |
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, | 11:36 | |
for his wonderful works to humankind. | 11:40 | |
The Lord turns rivers into a desert, | 11:50 | |
springs of water into thirsty ground. | 11:53 | |
The Lord turns a desert into pools of water, | 12:03 | |
a parched land into springs of water. | 12:07 | |
They sow fields and plant vineyards, | 12:17 | |
and get a fruitful view. | 12:21 | |
When they are diminished and brought low | 12:30 | |
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow, | 12:33 | |
the Lord pours contempt upon princes | 12:36 | |
and makes them wander in trackless wastes. | 12:39 | |
The upright see it and are glad, | 12:50 | |
and all wickedness stops its mouth. | 12:53 | |
(organ music) | 13:04 | |
(choir singing) | 13:11 | |
- | Please be seated. | 14:00 |
Our second reading is taken from the epistle of Paul | 14:10 | |
to the Ephesians, | 14:13 | |
chapter two, beginning with the first verse. | 14:15 | |
You were dead through the trespasses and sins | 14:22 | |
in which you once lived. | 14:25 | |
Following the course of the world, | 14:27 | |
following the ruler of the power of the air, | 14:30 | |
the spirit that is now at work among those | 14:33 | |
who are disobedient. | 14:36 | |
All of us once lived among them | 14:40 | |
in the passions of our flesh, | 14:42 | |
following the desires of flesh and senses, | 14:44 | |
and we were by nature children of wrath, | 14:48 | |
like everyone else. | 14:50 | |
But God, who is rich in mercy, | 14:53 | |
out of the great love with which he loved us | 14:56 | |
even when we were dead through our trespasses, | 14:58 | |
made us alive together with Christ. | 15:02 | |
By grace, you have been saved, | 15:05 | |
and raised us up with him and seated us with him | 15:08 | |
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus | 15:11 | |
so that in the ages to come, | 15:14 | |
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace | 15:17 | |
and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. | 15:21 | |
For by grace you have been saved through faith, | 15:26 | |
and this is not your own doing, | 15:30 | |
it is the gift of God, | 15:33 | |
not the result of works, | 15:35 | |
so that no one may boast, | 15:38 | |
for we are what he has made us, | 15:41 | |
created in Christ Jesus for good works | 15:43 | |
which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. | 15:47 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 15:53 | |
(choir singing) | 16:14 | |
Our last reading is taken from the gospel | 23:11 | |
of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John, | 23:13 | |
chapter three, starting with the 14th verse. | 23:16 | |
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, | 23:23 | |
so must the son of man be lifted up, | 23:27 | |
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. | 23:30 | |
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son | 23:35 | |
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish | 23:40 | |
but may have eternal life. | 23:44 | |
Indeed, God did not send the son into the world | 23:48 | |
to condemn the world, | 23:51 | |
but in order that the world might be saved through him. | 23:54 | |
Those who believe in him are not condemned, | 23:58 | |
but those who do not believe are condemned already | 24:02 | |
because they have not believed in | 24:05 | |
the name of the only son of God. | 24:08 | |
And this is the judgment | 24:11 | |
that the light has come into the world, | 24:13 | |
and people loved darkness rather than light | 24:16 | |
because their deeds were evil. | 24:19 | |
For all who do evil hate the light | 24:23 | |
and do not come to the light | 24:26 | |
so that their deeds may not be exposed. | 24:28 | |
But those who do what is true come to the light | 24:32 | |
so that it may be clearly seen | 24:36 | |
that their deeds have been done in God. | 24:38 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 24:44 | |
- | I'm very grateful indeed | 25:02 |
for this privilege of worshiping here with you again | 25:04 | |
in this marvelous chapel, | 25:08 | |
and especially grateful to be associated | 25:11 | |
in the service today with Reverend Nancy Foray-Clarke | 25:14 | |
and Mister Gallagher, | 25:18 | |
along with the choir and this wonderful organist, | 25:20 | |
and Doctor Hickman, and all of the soloists | 25:25 | |
who render such beautiful music for us. | 25:28 | |
This is a high moment, | 25:31 | |
and I do not take it for granted. | 25:32 | |
The honor of proclaiming the gospel of the son of God here | 25:35 | |
is a very high one indeed. | 25:40 | |
In fact, I have enjoyed my few months at Duke immensely, | 25:42 | |
and especially have I enjoyed my relationship | 25:48 | |
with Dean Campbell in the Divinity School, | 25:50 | |
and Doctor Willimon over here, and Bill Turner, | 25:52 | |
my colleague in the Divinity School. | 25:57 | |
As a matter of fact, | 25:59 | |
when I keep getting lost on these various Chapel Hill roads | 26:01 | |
and streets and boulevards and so forth in Durham, | 26:05 | |
I wonder if this would not be a good time | 26:09 | |
to propose that we change the names of some of these, | 26:11 | |
and recognize the service of some of our colleagues. | 26:15 | |
It looks now like the only reason for being in Durham | 26:19 | |
is to find your way to Chapel Hill, | 26:22 | |
and during this basketball season, | 26:24 | |
maybe the best time to suggest a change. | 26:26 | |
I thought it might be a very good thing | 26:30 | |
to leave Chapel Hill Boulevard like it is | 26:32 | |
and then change Chapel Hill Road | 26:34 | |
to Turner Avenue, | 26:37 | |
and Chapel Hill Street to Campbell Street, | 26:39 | |
and then Old Chapel Hill Road | 26:41 | |
to Willimon Road. | 26:44 | |
When he comes back, you tell him that I made that proposal | 26:47 | |
to the city fathers and mothers. | 26:50 | |
Now, it's very hard to make a Methodist | 26:54 | |
out of an old, old Baptist. | 26:57 | |
I'm Baptist born and Baptist bred, | 27:01 | |
and when I'm gone it'll be a Baptist dead. | 27:03 | |
But the problem is that this | 27:06 | |
chapel staff is so efficient, you know, | 27:10 | |
they write to you nine months ahead of time | 27:14 | |
and ask you for a subject, you know, nine months hence, | 27:17 | |
and that's because they're following | 27:20 | |
the lectionary that the Methodists follow, | 27:22 | |
and they know what ought to be preached about | 27:24 | |
on that Sunday, it doesn't bother them at all. | 27:27 | |
But we Baptists are accustomed to | 27:30 | |
more spontaneity than that. | 27:32 | |
In fact, that's the trademark of our religion, spontaneity. | 27:34 | |
And when I looked and saw | 27:39 | |
what I had promised to preach about, | 27:40 | |
I struggled terribly to deal with that subject, | 27:42 | |
but it seemed more and more like one | 27:46 | |
I had done for Christmas. | 27:48 | |
So, I beg now to change the subject, | 27:50 | |
because when I was reading for Lent, | 27:53 | |
I ran across the name of Joanna. | 27:55 | |
I could not get her off my mind. | 27:59 | |
In the eighth chapter of Luke, | 28:03 | |
we have a reference to Joanna, the wife of Chuza, | 28:05 | |
Herod's steward, | 28:10 | |
and then way over on Easter Sunday morning | 28:12 | |
we find these women coming to the sepulcher | 28:16 | |
to anoint the body of Jesus, | 28:20 | |
Mary Magdalene and several others, | 28:22 | |
and then in that list there was Joanna again. | 28:25 | |
There's nothing in between, | 28:30 | |
and ever since I saw this, | 28:33 | |
I have been trying to think of the life of Joanna, | 28:35 | |
this hidden disciple, | 28:40 | |
and how she must've made a great sacrifice | 28:43 | |
to do what it was that she had to do. | 28:47 | |
Now, let's get acquainted with Joanna, | 28:51 | |
this hidden disciple, | 28:53 | |
and how she did what she had to do. | 28:55 | |
Every few months or so we find another popular expression | 29:00 | |
being used, an expression that somehow | 29:05 | |
everyone seems to understand. | 29:09 | |
My wife and I have to keep up with these | 29:11 | |
because we have four sons, | 29:13 | |
and there are 13 years between | 29:15 | |
son number two and son number three, so we've have deja vu, | 29:17 | |
we've just been raising boys for an entire lifetime. | 29:22 | |
And you know, God moves in very mysterious ways. | 29:26 | |
But it does mean that we've had to keep up | 29:31 | |
with these colloquialisms. | 29:32 | |
It's amazing how these sayings get started. | 29:35 | |
A little while ago, they started using the word chill, | 29:38 | |
chill, I said what does that mean, chill? | 29:42 | |
Well, it means super cool, Daddy, | 29:46 | |
it means it is highly approved, chill. | 29:49 | |
Then I kept seeing these bumper stickers | 29:54 | |
just do it, | 29:57 | |
I kept trying to figure out what was that referring to, | 29:59 | |
and I couldn't find out, | 30:02 | |
but all I know is that it sounds reckless to me, | 30:03 | |
it sounds like paying no attention to consequences | 30:06 | |
and ignoring penalties, just do it, | 30:09 | |
so I don't like the sound of that one, | 30:12 | |
and I have dropped that one quickly. | 30:15 | |
But there's another expression in vogue now | 30:18 | |
that is our subject today | 30:21 | |
in connection with Joanna, the hidden disciple, | 30:22 | |
and this expression calls us to face up | 30:26 | |
to whatever it is that stands in our way. | 30:29 | |
It says just do what you've got to do. | 30:32 | |
And it covers a wide range of situations. | 30:38 | |
It means if you have to stay up light at night | 30:43 | |
finishing an assignment, | 30:45 | |
just do what you've got to do. | 30:47 | |
If it means breaking a habit that's killing you slowly, | 30:50 | |
just do what you've got to do. | 30:54 | |
Giving up some food that is against your health | 30:56 | |
or cutting off a friendship that is just too negative, | 30:59 | |
do what you've got to do. | 31:03 | |
If it means tearing up a credit card, | 31:05 | |
then do what you've got to do. | 31:09 | |
Getting up earlier for work, | 31:13 | |
taking an extra job to meet your budget's demands, | 31:15 | |
spending in a weekend in hibernation | 31:19 | |
to finish a term paper. | 31:21 | |
This came to me as I thought of Joanna, | 31:23 | |
and I thought of it during Lent, | 31:28 | |
and the task of discipleship in our time. | 31:30 | |
And this is a very inspiring personality | 31:35 | |
we find hidden here in the gospel of Luke. | 31:38 | |
We find her first in Luke the eighth chapter, verse three. | 31:41 | |
And she really faced a tough situation, | 31:46 | |
she went on and did what she had to do. | 31:50 | |
Much of what we know about Joanna | 31:52 | |
we have to piece together | 31:54 | |
from these tiny fragments that we find in the gospels, | 31:55 | |
and this is what we find. | 31:59 | |
Joanna was married to a big man, a man named Chuza, | 32:02 | |
who was the chief steward in Herod's palace. | 32:07 | |
Herod was the king who ruled over Jesus' people, | 32:12 | |
a puppet king, not popular at all. | 32:14 | |
And he served under the Roman Emperor, | 32:19 | |
a kind of a convenient politician. | 32:21 | |
And Joanna was married to Chuza, Herod's chief steward, | 32:25 | |
the one in charge of the palace. | 32:29 | |
Somehow Joanna heard about Jesus, | 32:32 | |
and evidently she had some kind of an ailment | 32:37 | |
that caused her to go to look for Jesus. | 32:40 | |
And when she found him, | 32:44 | |
she was among several people who were healed by Jesus. | 32:46 | |
We are not told what her ailment was, | 32:53 | |
but whatever it was | 32:55 | |
she was relieved of it. | 32:57 | |
And there began her relationship with the master, | 33:00 | |
and in her gratitude to Jesus | 33:05 | |
for her new life that she had found, | 33:07 | |
she made a decision to follow him, | 33:10 | |
and she had to go and tell her husband Chuza | 33:13 | |
in Herod's palace | 33:18 | |
that she was going to follow Jesus. | 33:20 | |
Some people, it appears, | 33:26 | |
are really prepared to be serious | 33:29 | |
about their discipleship. | 33:33 | |
And Joanna became one of a small group of women | 33:37 | |
whom Jesus had befriended and had healed, | 33:41 | |
and women saw to it that Jesus and his disciples | 33:45 | |
had food and water and shelter | 33:48 | |
and safe places to rest. | 33:53 | |
The Bible says that they ministered to the disciples | 33:56 | |
out of their substance. | 34:01 | |
As we remember what the position of a woman was | 34:04 | |
in the Roman social hierarchy of the first century, | 34:07 | |
it took an awful lot for Joanna | 34:11 | |
to go and tell her husband, | 34:14 | |
who worked for the king, | 34:16 | |
that she had found a new life for herself. | 34:19 | |
And anyone who knows how the Roman powers | 34:22 | |
looked down on the Jews in Jesus' day | 34:25 | |
would know that it took some nerve for Joanna | 34:28 | |
to tell her husband that she felt | 34:31 | |
that she had to leave, to make an adjustment, | 34:33 | |
to depart from the palace circle, and follow the master. | 34:36 | |
And yet, this is just what she did. | 34:42 | |
Read Luke 8:2-3, | 34:45 | |
and certain women which had been healed of evil spirits | 34:48 | |
and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, | 34:52 | |
out of whom went seven devils, | 34:57 | |
and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, | 34:59 | |
and Susannah and many others, | 35:03 | |
which ministered unto him of their substance. | 35:05 | |
Can you imagine Herod's top steward | 35:10 | |
having a wife who would be a follower of Jesus of Galilee? | 35:14 | |
But Joanna did what she had to do. | 35:20 | |
And if you have discovered that Jesus | 35:25 | |
has become the new center of your life, | 35:27 | |
you may feel what Joanna felt | 35:30 | |
and feel that you have to do now whatever it is | 35:32 | |
you have to do to live up to your discipleship. | 35:36 | |
And the Lenten season is the time for this self examination. | 35:41 | |
This must've been a serious problem for everyone involved, | 35:47 | |
Herod did not want to hear anything | 35:50 | |
about a Jesus follower that close to him in his palace. | 35:52 | |
Chuza was his servant, the chief servant, | 36:00 | |
and you know that Chuza did not want to have to tell Herod | 36:05 | |
that his wife had decided that she had a new life | 36:08 | |
following this Galilean. | 36:11 | |
Herod was a servant of the Emperor, | 36:15 | |
and the Emperor regarded Jesus as a public nuisance, | 36:18 | |
none of this was working out. | 36:21 | |
Joanna had a problem herself, caring about her husband, | 36:24 | |
changing her status, and all of that, | 36:28 | |
and then finding out that it was more important for her | 36:31 | |
to follow Jesus than to do anything else | 36:34 | |
in the social group around the palace. | 36:37 | |
So Joanna did what Joanna had to do. | 36:40 | |
And as I think of how our own relationship to Christ | 36:45 | |
is always under examination, | 36:49 | |
and especially in this Lenten season, | 36:52 | |
I'm helped greatly by studying the life of Joanna | 36:55 | |
even from these fragments, | 36:58 | |
because so much is implied | 37:00 | |
with these brief references to her. | 37:03 | |
Some of the questions that arise are, for example, | 37:06 | |
what was it that made her take such a risk as this? | 37:09 | |
And what made her stay with her choice | 37:14 | |
to the very end? | 37:16 | |
Because, you see, Joanna did not start out and then quit, | 37:17 | |
three years later at the sepulcher | 37:23 | |
they tell us about these women who came with spices | 37:27 | |
and ointments to anoint the body of Jesus, | 37:30 | |
and when they called off the list of those who came, | 37:34 | |
the first ones at the tomb, | 37:37 | |
the ones who made the flirts announcement | 37:41 | |
that he was not there, among that group was Joanna, | 37:44 | |
the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, | 37:50 | |
a hidden disciple of Jesus. | 37:58 | |
Well, I have an idea what brings this on | 38:01 | |
from my own experience and from the experience | 38:03 | |
of other Christians that I have known, | 38:05 | |
in Jesus she found a new priority for her life, | 38:08 | |
something to put first in her life, | 38:11 | |
and she had not found that in that temple crowd, | 38:14 | |
in that palace crowd. | 38:17 | |
When she met Jesus, she compared him no doubt | 38:19 | |
with the crowd that she had seen | 38:21 | |
in that circle around Herod, and she chose Jesus. | 38:23 | |
Her husband was in charge of Herod's palace, | 38:27 | |
he had all of the help, ordered the repairs, | 38:31 | |
bought the food, arranged the banquets, | 38:33 | |
controlled the traffic in and out, | 38:36 | |
and this type of a job attracts | 38:38 | |
a certain kind of a following, | 38:41 | |
the political opportunists like people Chuza, | 38:43 | |
the influenced peddlers, the hustlers, | 38:47 | |
those who like to turn deals | 38:50 | |
and like to claim to be insiders. | 38:53 | |
Generally, these are people with flabby consciences | 38:56 | |
and do not think of anything but their own advancement, | 38:59 | |
these are the people that she might've seen | 39:03 | |
around Herod's palace. | 39:05 | |
And then when Joanna met somebody else like Jesus, | 39:08 | |
a person of stature and moral substance, | 39:11 | |
she found another kind of a human being altogether, | 39:15 | |
one who focused on a life of integrity, | 39:19 | |
if thine eye be single | 39:22 | |
thine whole body shall be full of light. | 39:25 | |
A light that is giving, | 39:30 | |
he who would seek to save his own life will lose it, | 39:32 | |
he who loses his life for my sake shall find it, | 39:36 | |
a life in tune with God, | 39:41 | |
seek he first the kingdom of God. | 39:42 | |
Another kind of a person altogether. | 39:46 | |
We don't meet but one or two | 39:50 | |
of these kinds of persons in a whole lifetime, | 39:51 | |
persons who cause us to reshuffle our priorities and say | 39:56 | |
these things I've been paying close attention to | 40:00 | |
do no matter at all, | 40:03 | |
and the things I've put way down the end of the list | 40:05 | |
are the most important things after all. | 40:08 | |
She noticed how Jesus had compassion | 40:12 | |
for those who were hurt and lonely, | 40:14 | |
and how he could have a vicarious approach to their lives | 40:17 | |
and stand where they stood | 40:21 | |
and see the world through their eyes. | 40:23 | |
She noticed all of that, | 40:27 | |
she noticed how Jesus could rise above tribe | 40:29 | |
and race and clan and gender | 40:32 | |
and put aside trivial notions of class and rank. | 40:36 | |
She noticed how he had no difficulty at all including her, | 40:40 | |
the wife of Chuza, in his circle, | 40:45 | |
top aid to the king. | 40:48 | |
So, she put Jesus at the top | 40:50 | |
and put the palace gang at the bottom. | 40:54 | |
And when she made the comparison, | 40:59 | |
it caused her to look at her own life, | 41:00 | |
and she began to shuffle her power at this, | 41:03 | |
she decided to give up on some of those activities | 41:06 | |
that the palace people had called important | 41:09 | |
and go out and join those who were helping the master. | 41:11 | |
There was a committee out there | 41:15 | |
with Mary Magdalene in charge, | 41:16 | |
and these women became the backup crew for the master. | 41:18 | |
He lived a normal life and needed helped, | 41:23 | |
he needed food, he needed laundry done, | 41:25 | |
he needed some place to rest and meet with his disciples, | 41:27 | |
and no doubt they were helpful to him. | 41:30 | |
And Joanna put down the high society crowd | 41:33 | |
around Herod's palace and put something else in its place, | 41:36 | |
helping the master with his teaching | 41:40 | |
and preaching and healing ministry, | 41:42 | |
and all of us need to review | 41:45 | |
our priorities every now and then. | 41:47 | |
Just the other day I had a priority question, | 41:50 | |
I was up early, I had a reading project, | 41:53 | |
I had a paper that was due to a publisher | 41:57 | |
and the deadline was fast approaching. | 42:00 | |
I didn't want to be embarrassed, | 42:02 | |
and didn't want to stay up all night, | 42:03 | |
but my wife told me that one of our friends had passed away | 42:06 | |
and that she had attended the funeral, | 42:10 | |
and that she learned that the pastor of the church | 42:13 | |
would be out of town and could not go | 42:16 | |
to the intermit at the cemetery. | 42:18 | |
And I said oh, that's terrible | 42:21 | |
that she may be buried without a song, without a prayer, | 42:24 | |
without a scripture lesson. | 42:30 | |
Imagine 45 years in the church, | 42:31 | |
82 years old, | 42:35 | |
then you die and the gravedigger | 42:38 | |
eases you into your grave unceremoniously? | 42:41 | |
I put down my paper, | 42:47 | |
do you know, I had no trouble at all, | 42:49 | |
like a computer, my priorities began to shuffle around, | 42:53 | |
and something said Sam, | 42:57 | |
stay up all night tonight and do your paper, | 42:59 | |
but put on your black shoes and your dark suit | 43:02 | |
and get that stripey tie on and get outta here | 43:06 | |
and go to that cemetery | 43:09 | |
and be standing there in the ice and the mud and the snow, | 43:11 | |
wait for that procession | 43:15 | |
no matter how long it takes to get there, | 43:17 | |
and you guarantee to God | 43:19 | |
that this child will not be put away like that. | 43:22 | |
Now, you know, it didn't make a lot of difference | 43:26 | |
with the Almighty what I mumbled over her | 43:29 | |
when she was being buried, that's not the point. | 43:32 | |
The point was what was going on inside of me, | 43:35 | |
once again, I had some real contact with the notion | 43:38 | |
that the mind of Christ, when it's with you, | 43:43 | |
will guide you every day | 43:48 | |
in the smallest corners of your existence. | 43:50 | |
That's what Joanna found out, | 43:56 | |
she had no trouble at all | 43:58 | |
putting her priorities in a new listing. | 44:00 | |
See, some people have great difficulty with this, | 44:04 | |
somebody thought it was a priority to break the leg | 44:07 | |
of an Olympic skater to knock her out of competition, | 44:10 | |
now you know those priorities were way out of line. | 44:13 | |
How can you break the leg of an Olympic skater, | 44:17 | |
world renown, without getting caught? | 44:19 | |
Someone thought it was a priority to kill dozens | 44:23 | |
of Muslims at prayer in their mosque in Hebron. | 44:25 | |
What a ghastly thing to do. | 44:30 | |
Some thought it was a priority to blow up the Trade Center | 44:34 | |
no matter who's in there, | 44:37 | |
children, physicians, nurses, whoever, | 44:38 | |
paraplegics, it didn't matter. | 44:42 | |
In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, | 44:47 | |
some people thought it was a priority to make money | 44:49 | |
kidnapping slaves and selling them as animals, | 44:51 | |
denying them education and branding them | 44:54 | |
as inferior beings and making it all come out even. | 44:56 | |
Some people have a strange way of establishing priorities | 44:59 | |
and trying to get away with it. | 45:04 | |
But what Joanna found out was that her loyalty to Christ | 45:07 | |
caused her to reorder her priorities. | 45:10 | |
And then more than that, | 45:15 | |
she did not start out and then stop, | 45:17 | |
many people find these religious fads to be enticing, | 45:19 | |
and some of them change religions | 45:23 | |
every time they turn around | 45:25 | |
like changing hairstyles, you know? | 45:26 | |
Look on the television and see somebody else | 45:28 | |
who looks alluring, and there goes their religion, | 45:31 | |
it's gone again, | 45:33 | |
and they're always writing a letter to the pastor, | 45:35 | |
I decided to change my faith again. | 45:37 | |
Joanna went out and found Jesus | 45:40 | |
and she stayed with it, | 45:42 | |
she found a new purpose for her life. | 45:44 | |
It is not just a fad, | 45:48 | |
in Luke eight we find her with these women starting out, | 45:51 | |
but in Luke 24 she's still there, | 45:54 | |
still there after the arrest in Gethsemane, | 45:58 | |
after the mock trial in Pilate's court, | 46:01 | |
after the crucifixion, | 46:04 | |
here we are at the tomb on Easter morning | 46:05 | |
and look who comes and brings spices and ointments | 46:08 | |
to anoint the body of Jesus. | 46:11 | |
Who do you think were the first persons | 46:13 | |
to discover that the tomb was empty? | 46:16 | |
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, | 46:18 | |
and Joanna, Joanna did | 46:22 | |
what she had to do. | 46:26 | |
She had a sense of priorities and a sense of purpose. | 46:28 | |
We find this out in the strangest ways. | 46:34 | |
This life, you know, is not a rehearsal, | 46:37 | |
this is the real thing. | 46:40 | |
What a blessing it is to find a purpose for living | 46:42 | |
and make it count, | 46:45 | |
and this is what Jesus does for us. | 46:46 | |
I remember how my father would not shave in the morning | 46:48 | |
when he went to work, | 46:52 | |
he drove a truck in the Navy Yard. | 46:52 | |
He never missed a day in some 40 odd years | 46:55 | |
and President Truman gave him a great big plaque | 46:58 | |
for driving his truck | 47:00 | |
and not driving it overboard now and then. | 47:01 | |
Of course, we were so proud of Daddy. | 47:03 | |
He was like clockwork, | 47:07 | |
he would come home at the same moment every day, | 47:10 | |
the dog knew when Daddy was about to turn the corner. | 47:14 | |
Somebody would say hey, did you get your work done, why? | 47:18 | |
Daddy's on the way, how do you know? | 47:21 | |
Look at Rex. | 47:22 | |
Rex was standing there with his ears stuck up, | 47:25 | |
his tail straight up in the air, | 47:27 | |
watching that corner to see when | 47:29 | |
my Daddy would pop around the corner. | 47:30 | |
Daddy would go to work in the morning | 47:33 | |
with that salt and pepper beard on his face, | 47:36 | |
Daddy, why don't you shave? | 47:38 | |
Well, I'll shave when I get back home this evening. | 47:40 | |
Why didn't he shave? | 47:43 | |
It was because the job in the Navy Yard | 47:44 | |
was not his purpose in life, | 47:47 | |
the job in the Navy Yard was simply a means | 47:49 | |
of feeding his family, paying his dues, and getting by. | 47:52 | |
Daddy's life began at five o'clock | 47:57 | |
when he was the real Herbert Proctor, | 48:00 | |
practicing his violin for the Sunday school orchestra, | 48:04 | |
studying his Sunday school lessons | 48:08 | |
for the teacher's meeting on Friday night, | 48:10 | |
rehearsing his Masonic lectures | 48:13 | |
for the initiations coming up, | 48:15 | |
that was Daddy's real life. | 48:17 | |
All day long they called him Boy George come here, whatever, | 48:21 | |
but he wore that beard as if to disguise the fact | 48:26 | |
that I'm not the person you think I am, | 48:30 | |
I'm somebody else entirely. | 48:33 | |
And watch me when I get home at five o'clock. | 48:35 | |
He'd come in the house, give my momma a big hug, | 48:38 | |
and then head straight upstairs and heat that water | 48:41 | |
in that old gas hot water heater, | 48:43 | |
and then you'd hear him up there running the water, | 48:45 | |
he'd be shaving. | 48:47 | |
He'd come downstairs the real Herbert Proctor | 48:49 | |
to live out his real life. | 48:52 | |
So, even though we are thwarted sometimes | 48:54 | |
and we have to differ what out real purposes are, | 48:57 | |
if they are real and they belong to us, | 49:01 | |
we will claim them and they will guide us | 49:03 | |
until the very end. | 49:05 | |
Joanna left the palace and stayed with it for a lifetime. | 49:07 | |
Now finally, this is a power question, isn't it? | 49:13 | |
Oh, many of us could do what Joanna did, | 49:17 | |
and during Lent we may think about what we've got to change, | 49:19 | |
but it's a power question, | 49:22 | |
where does the strength come from? | 49:25 | |
Well, just as Jesus gives us our priorities, | 49:28 | |
and just as Jesus leads us to our purpose, | 49:32 | |
Jesus leads us into a relationship with God, | 49:36 | |
the inexhaustible power of the living God. | 49:40 | |
That's available, that's available to us. | 49:44 | |
I remember when I was in college, | 49:48 | |
my first two years I was a music major, | 49:50 | |
I had no talent for music, I was just in school, | 49:52 | |
I won a scholarship playing Schubert's Serenade | 49:54 | |
on the clarinet in a contest and I got a scholarship, | 49:57 | |
but I didn't wanna be a music major, | 50:00 | |
but I didn't wanna be in college very much, | 50:01 | |
the Great Depression was going on, no money was anywhere. | 50:03 | |
And today I was reminded of it standing here | 50:06 | |
with the tenor singers, you know, | 50:09 | |
it's embarrassing standing beside these fellas | 50:10 | |
trying to sing, you know? | 50:13 | |
And all they do is open their mouths | 50:14 | |
and the round, sweet notes just flow right out, | 50:16 | |
and then I'm struggling trying to read the words | 50:19 | |
and the notes, you know, I had no talent for that. | 50:21 | |
And when I heard Billy Taylor play the piano, | 50:24 | |
I knew that God was calling me | 50:26 | |
to do something else in life altogether. | 50:28 | |
Well, after two years as a music major | 50:31 | |
and after being called to preach, | 50:34 | |
I weny to a Baptist college. | 50:36 | |
And you know what the dean did? | 50:39 | |
He resented the fact that | 50:41 | |
I had gone to a state college first. | 50:42 | |
What did you go to that school for? | 50:45 | |
Because I had a music scholarship. | 50:46 | |
Why didn't you come here first? | 50:49 | |
Because they gave me the scholarship and you didn't. | 50:51 | |
You know what he did to me? | 50:54 | |
In the name of Jesus, that man took from me | 50:55 | |
three semesters of credits, | 50:59 | |
I'll never forget him as long as I live, | 51:01 | |
and I have to pray over it because it stirs up anger in me. | 51:03 | |
As hard as I worked scuffling | 51:08 | |
to get those two years in college, | 51:10 | |
he turned around and took three semesters from me. | 51:11 | |
When I'm at the chapel, you know, | 51:15 | |
they sit according to your grade level, | 51:16 | |
but I was a junior sitting up there | 51:19 | |
with the entering freshmen | 51:22 | |
and all the boys from Northern were laughing at me, | 51:23 | |
look at him, he must be dumb, | 51:25 | |
as long as he's been in college he's still a freshman. | 51:28 | |
It hurt me so. | 51:31 | |
I went up to my room and I just had a little talk | 51:33 | |
with the Lord and I said | 51:36 | |
I'm gonna show that man that I can graduate | 51:38 | |
from this place in two years even though | 51:40 | |
I've got three and a half years of work to do. | 51:42 | |
And I'm standing in this chapel to say to you, | 51:45 | |
my dear friends, | 51:48 | |
I did three and a half years of work in two years, | 51:49 | |
graduated with academic honors for high scholarship, | 51:55 | |
my daddy didn't have a dime to give me, | 51:58 | |
I worked every step of the way for every bit of my bill, | 52:00 | |
how I did it, I don't know, | 52:05 | |
I lost 40 pounds, I lived on three or four hours sleep | 52:07 | |
at night, but I wanted to be a minister, | 52:10 | |
I wanted to get into the seminary, | 52:13 | |
and I did not want anybody to take joy | 52:14 | |
in created an impediment for me, | 52:17 | |
and the power came from somewhere. | 52:19 | |
The power came. | 52:24 | |
How I could drag myself outta the bed day after day, | 52:28 | |
put the food in the dining room, | 52:32 | |
rake the leaves on the campus, | 52:34 | |
drive the car for the president, | 52:35 | |
I was just a machine, | 52:37 | |
but the power came. | 52:40 | |
I knew that I was not working for naught, | 52:42 | |
I had a purpose and a priority, | 52:46 | |
and when these things are aligned, | 52:49 | |
we're more than flesh and blood, | 52:51 | |
we're more than amino acids, | 52:53 | |
we are spiritual beings, and God provides what we need. | 52:55 | |
O they that wait upon the Lord | 53:00 | |
do indeed renew their strength, | 53:02 | |
they rise up with wings as eagles, | 53:04 | |
they run without getting weary, | 53:08 | |
and they walk without fainting, may God bless you all. | 53:10 | |
(organ music) | 53:16 | |
(choir singing) | 53:44 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 55:19 |
Let us pray, you may be seated. | 55:22 | |
O Lord our God and creator, | 55:38 | |
we thank you for all that you have made | 55:41 | |
and for the intricate ways that you have provided for us. | 55:44 | |
We give thanks that you are not a passive creator, | 55:49 | |
but an active Lord | 55:53 | |
who continues to be involved in creation, | 55:55 | |
calling us to faithful living as your disciples. | 55:59 | |
We are grateful for the many ways | 56:04 | |
and the many times that you have intervened in our world | 56:07 | |
and in our lives | 56:11 | |
to set the wrong things right. | 56:13 | |
Though we were dead through sin, | 56:16 | |
you gave us the power of new life through Christ. | 56:19 | |
Though we lived according to the passions of our flesh, | 56:24 | |
following the ways of the world, | 56:28 | |
you created us anew to live for Christ. | 56:30 | |
Thank you, Lord, for rearranging our priorities, | 56:36 | |
for creating us to be the people you intended us to be. | 56:41 | |
Give us a vision of life that reflects the possibilities | 56:47 | |
that you have seen, | 56:52 | |
where there is hatred, | 56:55 | |
let is sow love. | 56:57 | |
Where there is injury, pardon. | 57:00 | |
Where there is doubt, faith. | 57:05 | |
Where there is despair, hope. | 57:10 | |
Where there is darkness, light. | 57:15 | |
And where there is sadness, joy. | 57:20 | |
As you intercede for us, | 57:25 | |
empower us to intercede for others, | 57:28 | |
help us do what we have to do without helming the cost, | 57:32 | |
give us the mind of Christ | 57:38 | |
to guide every detail of life | 57:40 | |
that we may know the assurance | 57:43 | |
of living according to the purposes of Christ. | 57:45 | |
Remind us that we are called | 57:50 | |
as vessels of your hope, | 57:52 | |
and that your outpourings of love through us | 57:55 | |
have the power to heal and make whole | 57:58 | |
our bruised world. | 58:01 | |
Move us to minister to one another out of our means, | 58:04 | |
and make us instruments of your love and peace, | 58:09 | |
bearing hope to all whom we meet. | 58:13 | |
We offer these prayers and those that remain unspoken | 58:18 | |
through Jesus Christ, | 58:22 | |
knowing that you know the desires of our hearts, | 58:24 | |
for this and all your blessings we give you thanks, amen. | 58:28 | |
Let us offer ourselves and our gifts | 58:36 | |
and thanksgiving to the Lord. | 58:39 | |
(organ music) | 59:14 | |
(choir singing) | 59:56 | |
Let us pray. | 1:08:54 | |
All things come from you, O God, | 1:08:58 | |
and with gratitude we return to you what is yours. | 1:09:01 | |
You created all that is, | 1:09:06 | |
and with love formed us in your image. | 1:09:09 | |
When our love failed, | 1:09:13 | |
your love remained steadfast. | 1:09:15 | |
You gave your only son Jesus Christ | 1:09:19 | |
to be our savior, | 1:09:21 | |
all that we are and all that we have | 1:09:23 | |
is a trust from you. | 1:09:27 | |
And so, in gratitude for all of your gifts, | 1:09:30 | |
we offer you ourselves and all that we have | 1:09:34 | |
in union with Christ offering for us. | 1:09:38 | |
By your Holy Spirit, | 1:09:42 | |
make us one with Christ, | 1:09:44 | |
one with each other, | 1:09:46 | |
and one in ministry to all the world. | 1:09:49 | |
Through Christ our Lord, | 1:09:52 | |
who taught us to pray saying | 1:09:54 | |
our father who art in heaven, | 1:09:57 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 1:10:00 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:10:04 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:10:08 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 1:10:11 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 1:10:14 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 1:10:18 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 1:10:21 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 1:10:23 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 1:10:25 | |
(organ music) | 1:10:34 | |
(choir singing) | 1:11:02 | |
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, | 1:14:01 | |
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:14:04 | |
be with you and keep you, amen. | 1:14:07 | |
(organ music) | 1:14:14 |
Item Info
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