William H. Willimon - "God Loves Freshmen" (August 28, 1994)

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	(classical organ music)	0:00
-	Good morning.	2:49
	Welcome to Duke University Chapel.	2:50
	I'm Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel,	2:52
	and I welcome you to this orientation Sunday service.	2:54
	This is sort of the first Sunday of the year for us.	3:01
	We welcome back the great Duke Chapel Choir.	3:04
	By the way, if you're a singer,	3:07
	auditions are being held for the chapel choir this	3:09
	entire week and we invite you to audition and participate.	3:12
	Next Sunday is Opening Sunday.	3:17
	We will begin a series of classes at 9:45,	3:20
	a series on the basics of Christian faith.	3:25
	Our president will be participating in the service.	3:28
	Lemonade on the quad afterwards	3:31
	and we invite you to that service.	3:34
	Invite your attention to all of	3:37
	the announcements in the bulletin.	3:39
	Pick up a copy of the chapel calendar	3:41
	on your way out if you have not done so already.	3:43
	And we begin another new year together.	3:46
	And now let us stand for the greeting.	3:51
	The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.	3:57
Congregation	And also with you.	4:00
-	The risen Christ is with us.	4:02
Congregation	Praise the lord.	4:04
	("Praise to the Lord" brass and organ introduction)	4:08
	♪ Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of creation ♪	4:45
	♪ O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation ♪	4:55
	♪ All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near ♪	5:07
	♪ Joining in glad adoration ♪	5:17
	♪ Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things ♪	5:27
	♪ So wondrously reigneth ♪	5:31
	♪ As we on eagles' wings, therein His keeping maintaining ♪	5:37
	♪ Ask of the Lord, all who serve boldly of old ♪	5:50
	♪ Hast thou not humbly sustaineth ♪	5:59
	♪ Praise to the Lord, who hath prospered ♪	6:09
	♪ Thy work and defend thee ♪	6:14
	♪ Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee ♪	6:20
	♪ Ponder anew what the Almighty can do ♪	6:32
	♪ Who with His love doth befriend thee ♪	6:42
	♪ Praise to the Lord, who doth enrich my life and restore me ♪	6:52
	♪ Fitting me there for what else stands forever before me ♪	7:04
	♪ Have you not seen all that is needful has been ♪	7:16
	sent by his gracious ordaining	7:26
	(organ and brass interlude)	7:35
	♪ Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore him ♪	9:00
	♪ All that hath life and breath ♪	9:12
	♪ Come now with praises before him ♪	9:16
	♪ Let the amen sound from his people again ♪	9:24
	♪ Gladly forever adore him ♪	9:34
-	Let us pray.	9:50
	We enter into worship with great joy, oh, God,	9:54
	for you grant us acceptance and lift us up	9:58
	with visions of what is yet to be.	10:01
	Hear our psalms of praise and songs of faith	10:05
	as we wait in anticipation for the power	10:12
	of Your spirit among us and within us.	10:15
	Bless our worship and our lives	10:20
	that we might be witnesses to your great glory,	10:23
	in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.	10:27
	You may be seated.	10:32
-	Let us join together this morning	10:41
	for the prayer for illumination.	10:43
	Open our hearts and minds, oh, God,	10:46
	by the power of Your Holy Spirit	10:49
	so that is the word is read and proclaimed.	10:52
	We may hear Your message with joy this day.	10:55
	Amen.	11:00
	The first lesson this morning comes	11:02
	from the second chapter of the Song of Solomon	11:03
	beginning with the eighth verse.	11:06
	The voice of my beloved.	11:09
	Look, he comes leaping upon the mountains,	11:12
	bounding over the hills.	11:15
	My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.	11:18
	Look, there he stands behind our wall	11:22
	gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.	11:25
	My beloved speaks and says to me,	11:30
	arise my love, my fair one, and come away.	11:33
	For now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone,	11:37
	the flowers appear on the earth,	11:42
	the time of singing has come,	11:44
	and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.	11:46
	The fig tree puts forth its figs	11:51
	and the vines are in blossom.	11:53
	They give forth fragrance, arise, my love,	11:56
	my fair one and come away.	11:58
	This is the word of the Lord.	12:02
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	12:04
	(brass introduction music)	12:20
	♪ Upon this rock I will build my church ♪	12:33
	♪ And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ♪	12:37
	♪ Upon this rock I will build my church ♪	12:51
	♪ And the gates of hell will not prevail against it ♪	12:56
	♪ I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ♪	13:04
	♪ And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth ♪	13:13
	♪ Shall be bound in heaven ♪	13:19
	♪ And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth ♪	13:24
	♪ Shall be loosed in heaven ♪	13:30
	♪ Upon this rock I will build my church ♪	13:36
	♪ Lo, how winter is passed ♪	13:50
	♪ Our grief is over ♪	13:57
	♪ And flowers appear on the earth ♪	14:06
	♪ A time of the singing of birds their song ♪	14:14
	♪ Arise and come away ♪	14:25
	♪ Arise and come away ♪	14:30
	♪ Arise, arise, arise ♪	14:36
	♪ Upon this rock I will build my church ♪	14:41
	♪ And the gates of hell shall not prevail ♪	14:46
	♪ The church is one foundation ♪	15:08
	♪ Is Jesus Christ our Lord ♪	15:13
	♪ He is His new creation ♪	15:19
	♪ By water and the word ♪	15:25
	♪ From heaven he came and sought her ♪	15:30
	♪ To be His holy bride ♪	15:36
	♪ With His own life He bought her ♪	15:41
	♪ And for her life He died ♪	15:47
	♪ Where she on earth hath union ♪	16:04
	♪ With God the Spirit, Son ♪	16:09
	♪ And His great, sweet communion ♪	16:15
	♪ With those whose rest is won ♪	16:20
	♪ Oh happy ones and holy ♪	16:26
	♪ Lord, give us grace that we ♪	16:31
	♪ Like them, the meek and lowly ♪	16:37
	♪ On high may dwell with Thee ♪	16:43
	♪ Amen ♪	16:49
	♪ Amen ♪	16:52
	♪ Amen ♪	16:54
-	A sad thing happened this summer.	17:25
	I had my 48th birthday.	17:31
	Sensitive friends had the grace not to mention it.	17:35
	I received only two birthday cards,	17:38
	one from my insurance agent.	17:40
	(congregation laughing)	17:43
	Another year without paying out the death benefit.	17:45
	And oddly enough, a card from Dr. Wynkoop,	17:49
	a picture of Ross Perot.	17:53
	The card had a sort of gloat about it.	17:56
	Oh, worse things have happened, you say.	18:01
	Well easy for you to say,	18:03
	you don't have to work around here.	18:04
	For one of the liabilities of working in this environment	18:07
	is that the majority of those with whom I come in contact	18:12
	are young, perpetually,	18:19
	often arrogantly, smugly,	18:24
	eternally young.	18:27
	They never grow old.	18:30
	When the students start to ripen,	18:32
	to show signs of responsibility, glimmers of maturity,	18:37
	humility and rot we have this thing called commencement	18:41
	and we ship them off.	18:45
	And then we have this thing called orientation	18:47
	where we bring in another group of immature, immodest	18:50
	and irresponsible young people and the year begins again.	18:54
	The faculty grow old, the students stay young.	19:00
	And that's tough, that's tough on us old ones,	19:05
	isn't it, Dr. Wynkoop?	19:10
	(congregation laughing)	19:12
	I remember a good while back I was discussing with	19:15
	a graduate student about some things in his life	19:18
	and he mentioned that he had called his mother,	19:22
	he had consulted with his mother on this issue	19:26
	and I was touched by that.	19:28
	I said, I think that's nice, a young man	19:29
	talking these matters over with his mother.	19:31
	And the graduate student said, well, you can't have lived	19:35
	46 years without obtaining a good deal of wisdom about life.	19:39
	And the thought of this graduate student,	19:45
	46 year old mother,	19:47
	I said, you know, that's amazing.	19:48
	Is your mother still about to get out, get around?	19:51
	(congregation laughing)	19:55
	It takes patience.	20:00
	It's tough on the old.	20:03
	And yet if you are new here, if you're a first year student,	20:06
	if you're young, youngest of the tribe called Duke	20:10
	and then it's your good fortune, although not mine,	20:15
	that for your first sermon here in Duke Chapel	20:19
	I have for you a story which takes your side	20:23
	in this matter of generational friction.	20:28
	The beginning of the story of King David.	20:32
	Here is the lesson from First Samuel.	20:37
	The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul?	20:41
	I have rejected Saul from being king over Israel.	20:47
	Fill your horn with oil and set out and I will send you	20:51
	to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself	20:55
	a king from among Jesse's sons.	21:00
	And when they came to Bethlehem, Samuel looked on Eliab,	21:05
	the eldest son and thought, surely the Lord's anointed	21:11
	is now before the Lord.	21:15
	But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on the appearance	21:17
	or on the height of his statue because I have rejected him	21:21
	because the Lord does not see as mortals see.	21:25
	They look upon the outward appearance	21:29
	but the Lord looks on the heart.	21:32
	Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.	21:36
	And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.	21:42
	Then Jesse made Shammah pass by and he said,	21:46
	well neither has the Lord chosen this one.	21:48
	Jesse made his seven sons pass before Samuel.	21:51
	Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen any of these.	21:55
	Samuel said to Jesse, are all of your sons here?	22:02
	And Jesse said, well yes, well there remains the youngest	22:07
	but he is out keeping the sheep.	22:12
	Samuel said to Jesse, send, bring him for we will not	22:15
	sit down until he comes here.	22:19
	And he sent and brought him.	22:21
	Now this, the youngest son was ruddy and had beautiful eyes	22:23
	and was handsome.	22:27
	And the Lord said, rise, anoint him, for this is the one.	22:29
	Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him	22:36
	in the presence of the brothers and the spirit of the Lord	22:38
	came mightily upon little David from that day forward.	22:42
	Now the spirit of the Lord departed from King Saul.	22:46
	An evil spirit from the Lord tormented King Saul	22:50
	and Saul's servants said to him, see,	22:54
	an evil spirit from God is tormenting you, King.	22:57
	Let our lord now command the servants who attend you	23:00
	to look for someone who is skillful in playing the lyre.	23:03
	And when the evil spirit from God is upon you,	23:07
	he will play it and you will feel better.	23:09
	King Saul said to his servants, provide for me someone	23:13
	who can play well and bring him to me.	23:16
	One of the young men answered, I have seen a young son	23:19
	of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing,	23:23
	a young warrior and the Lord is with him.	23:27
	So King Saul sent his messengers to Jesse and said,	23:31
	send me your young son, David, who is with the sheep.	23:34
	And David came to Saul and entered his service	23:38
	and Saul loved him.	23:41
	Whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul,	23:43
	David took out the lyre and he played music upon it	23:46
	and Saul would feel better.	23:49
	This is the word of the Lord.	23:53
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	23:57
-	Now this is our first glimpse of little David	24:00
	here in Samuel.	24:03
	David, described as a youth, ruddy, handsome.	24:06
	Now you, if you come back here to the chapel	24:11
	on successive Sundays, you will hear more about David.	24:14
	David, the anointed one.	24:18
	David, Israel's greatest king.	24:21
	But we're not gonna talk about that yet	24:24
	because here our story opens, not up at the palace	24:26
	but here, down with the ordinary little people.	24:31
	It opens with the prophet, Samuel, being told not to	24:36
	sit around and sulk over the demise of King Saul	24:40
	but to go down to a little nowhere,	24:44
	little town called, Bethlehem, to a man named, Jesse.	24:47
	God says to Samuel, don't mope about	24:53
	the demise of King Saul.	24:55
	We've got places to go, we've got things to do.	24:57
	And so he sends him over to Bethlehem to anoint a new king.	25:00
	And so, you see, this is a political story.	25:07
	It's about the story about the change	25:10
	of national administrations.	25:12
	It's about shifting power.	25:14
	Power, royal prerogative, is about to shift from	25:18
	this old king of another generation, Saul, to a new king.	25:22
	The torch is about to be passed to a new generation.	25:28
	In Bethlehem, Jesse parades his seven available sons	25:34
	before the prophet.	25:38
	Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah, the others.	25:40
	Samuel naturally goes first for the eldest son, Eliab,	25:44
	firstborn, this big, strapping hulk,	25:50
	football player of a man.	25:54
	It says he's very tall.	25:55
	Interesting though, God is not impressed.	25:58
	God says, forget this Eliab.	26:02
	The trouble with you is you're always	26:05
	looking at surface appearances.	26:06
	You're always going by these 30 second sound bites,	26:08
	what's on the surface.	26:10
	But I don't look at the surface of people.	26:12
	No, when I look at someone, I look inside.	26:15
	I look upon the heart.	26:18
	And it's a shock.	26:21
	It's a shock in that time and that place of primogeniture	26:23
	for God not to choose the eldest son.	26:27
	Four more sons parade by the prophet but none of these	26:33
	royal wannabes is acceptable to God.	26:37
	Each son comes forward.	26:40
	Each son receives rejection.	26:42
	And there's a lot being rejected here.	26:48
	Not just these individual older brothers are being	26:50
	rejected here but a whole social system,	26:52
	a whole political configuration is being rejected.	26:54
	Saul, the old king, is being rejected.	26:59
	But so are the elder sons being rejected.	27:04
	A whole way of doing business in a culture	27:08
	is being rejected.	27:11
	So if you are not privileged to be firstborn,	27:15
	if you are not one of the beautiful people,	27:21
	one of the insiders, the eldest in the family,	27:23
	then you start to like this story.	27:27
	Some of you know firsthand what it is like	27:31
	not to be first born.	27:34
	A student was telling me last week he'd been reading that	27:39
	in a marriage it is very good to marry two people,	27:42
	one who is the eldest in the family, the firstborn,	27:46
	with someone who is the last born in the family,	27:51
	the youngest.	27:54
	And the reason is that if you're firstborn	27:55
	you're accustomed to getting your way and being in charge	27:57
	and blazing ahead and you need to find someone who is	28:00
	accustomed to sacrificing and giving in on everything.	28:05
	And this makes a good marriage.	28:11
	There was a study done in Philadelphia	28:16
	in the recent wave of remortgaging.	28:19
	And the study found that the remortgaging applications	28:23
	of African-American homeowners were approved by banks	28:26
	in Philadelphia only one third as often	28:31
	as those of white homeowners.	28:35
	Say I'm saying that there are probably people here who know	28:41
	what it's like not to be legitimated by the reigning powers	28:45
	and the conventional order.	28:51
	Women customers, I was reading, pay on the average,	28:57
	more for auto repairs, the same auto repairs,	29:02
	than male customers.	29:05
	Costs about twice as much for a woman's shirt	29:07
	to be professionally dry-cleaned as the identical shirt	29:12
	belonging to a man.	29:15
	See, the older, firstborn privileged sons of Jesse,	29:18
	you see them parade by and for the first time in their lives	29:23
	get a taste of what it's like to be rejected.	29:28
	You, if you've known all your life what it's like to be	29:33
	on the bottom, to be the smallest, to be the youngest,	29:38
	well you begin to like this story.	29:41
	You're about to like the story even more.	29:45
	Samuel asks Jesse, all right, are these all of your sons?	29:48
	And Jesse says, well yeah, that's all.	29:53
	Well, well, it's all except for the youngest, the kid,	29:56
	who's out in the fields looking over the sheep.	30:02
	Go get him, says Samuel.	30:07
	And in comes little David and he's ruddy and he's handsome.	30:10
	And the Lord tells the prophet, rise and anoint this one.	30:15
	And then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David	30:24
	from that day forward.	30:29
	The Lord has the last word in this political story.	30:33
	And it is a word that delegitimates, destabilizes,	30:38
	turns the tables, flips things upside down.	30:43
	A once powerful king, King Saul, is about to be toppled.	30:47
	Older, privileged, firstborn sons are now passed over.	30:51
	Little David out doing these menial,	30:55
	at the bottom sorts of tasks, out in the field,	30:59
	is anointed as new king of Israel.	31:02
	God had sent Samuel way down, way out to Bethlehem	31:06
	to do a job, find a new king.	31:11
	But the prophet, seeing only surface appearances,	31:14
	trapped in conventional social arrangements,	31:16
	keeps picking the wrong person.	31:19
	The Lord finally has to just step in and choose.	31:22
	But when the Lord chooses, the Lord does not choose	31:26
	the person that our history and our experience	31:30
	expect God to choose.	31:33
	God chose little David.	31:37
	Just like later, if you know the rest of the story,	31:43
	God would go out to little Bethlehem again	31:47
	and choose a king from the house of David.	31:51
	A little nobody, a baby born in a manger	31:56
	to be king of kings.	32:00
	Now I tell you this story because I know that there are many	32:06
	of you here who think that God is always on the side of the	32:09
	establishment, keeper of the status quo, divine legitimater	32:13
	of what your parents want you to do on Saturday night.	32:19
	God is sort of like your high school principal,	32:23
	up to the tenth power.	32:26
	But see here in the Bible, in this story,	32:29
	this story indicates that God, the living God,	32:32
	is able to surprise and to disrupt and to turn the tables	32:35
	in favor of this young, upstart little David.	32:40
	Now I ask you, who would have loved this story?	32:48
	Who would have put this story in the Bible	32:52
	and lovingly nurtured it through the centuries?	32:54
	Who would've taken heart from this narrative?	32:58
	Well surely it was those who were young and new	33:04
	and not yet established.	33:07
	Freshmen.	33:10
	I got a call from the president's office a few years ago	33:14
	and the voice said, we've been looking over the	33:17
	chapel calendar and we noticed that you have listed	33:19
	at the end of August, Freshmen Orientation Sunday, but now	33:22
	in politically correct Duke, they're no longer freshmen.	33:27
	They are now, first year students.	33:31
	And I said, okay, we won't call 'em freshmen anymore.	33:36
	Can we still call them ignorant and uninformed	33:38
	first year students?	33:41
	(congregation laughing)	33:42
	This is not a story for tenured faculty.	33:46
	It's a childlike, topsy-turvy, it's just the sort of story	33:50
	loved by the little ones and the marginalized	33:55
	and the disempowered and the disestablished	33:58
	and the disenfranchised.	34:00
	As the hand of God finally intrudes into this story	34:03
	the pointing finger moves past the firstborn	34:08
	and then to the next son and then to the next	34:14
	and finally the finger points out, out toward the fields,	34:16
	out toward little David.	34:24
	And hope rises within us, renewed faith that maybe God	34:28
	does intrude into our settled social arrangements.	34:34
	Hope that our fixed power configurations are not	34:39
	divinely sanctioned, not eternally established.	34:45
	Maybe God really does, in the words of Saint Paul,	34:49
	confound the wisdom of the wise by choosing those	34:53
	whom the world regards as small	34:57
	and of no account to subvert the world.	35:01
	And as the story ends we see little David brought up	35:08
	out of the fields, up to the big house by King Saul.	35:12
	King Saul who does not yet know that little David has been	35:15
	secretly selected and anointed by God to take his place.	35:19
	Little David who's not only good at keeping sheep	35:24
	but also is a quite proficient musician on the lyre.	35:27
	Little David, playing the lyre to sooth the troubled,	35:31
	middle-aged, horrible dreams of Saul.	35:34
	And so the story ends.	35:41
	And you've got Saul, he's old, he's morose, tormented,	35:44
	losing his grip, bad tempered.	35:49
	He's there like for faculty.	35:52
	Then you've got David, you've got little, sweet, young,	35:54
	sweet-spirited, fresh and he's there for freshmen.	35:59
	I tell you, this is not the story that's liked by those	36:07
	of us who are old and up at the top and in charge	36:10
	and established and mature, victims of troubled sleep.	36:14
	It's a story able to subvert accustomed patterns of power.	36:22
	It's a story able to electrify and energize the young	36:28
	because it's powerfully subversive for young upstarts to get	36:34
	the message, the prophetic good news, that God is on the	36:38
	side of the young and the marginalized and the powerless.	36:43
	A lot of you have never heard this story before.	36:51
	Maybe you've been around the church all your life.	36:54
	There's a risk telling a story like this.	36:58
	That's why you haven't heard it.	37:01
	When Martin Luther King Junior was young,	37:05
	a freshman seminarian at Crozer Seminary,	37:08
	he was asked to write an essay	37:12
	about his religious development.	37:14
	And Martin Luther King said that he had been	37:17
	raised in the church.	37:19
	He said that he had gone forward for baptism as a kid	37:21
	not because he was that piously committed	37:24
	but because he didn't wanna see his sister	37:26
	get baptized before he was.	37:29
	And so when you read this paper there is nothing there	37:33
	in that paper to suggest future promise.	37:35
	And yet when King graduated from Crozer Seminary	37:40
	he was sent down to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church	37:44
	in Montgomery, Alabama.	37:47
	He didn't much wanna go there.	37:50
	He saw himself as a scholar, maybe one day	37:51
	president of Morehouse College.	37:55
	King was a shy kind of person	37:58
	but there as a young pastor	38:03
	in this little Baptist church, suddenly he was thrust	38:05
	into the position of leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.	38:09
	The boycott wasn't going well and one night King stood	38:15
	in his kitchen and he was depressed and down.	38:19
	He had bickering in the ranks of the boycotters	38:22
	and there were threats of violence from his enemies	38:24
	on the outside and he had just about given up hope.	38:27
	And he said to God, I'm not the person to do this.	38:31
	I don't know how to do this.	38:34
	I'm small, I don't like this.	38:35
	There was a call on the telephone.	38:39
	An angry voice on the phone said, you better get outta town,	38:42
	nigger, or we're gonna kill you.	38:47
	King put down the phone in despair.	38:52
	And at that moment he heard a voice.	38:56
	A voice, another voice intruded.	39:00
	And the voice said, Martin, you stand up for what's right.	39:04
	You, you be a drum major for justice	39:08
	and I will never ever leave you.	39:12
	Now if you're young, if you're new here, if you're not to	39:21
	sure about Duke and all of this that is arrayed before you,	39:24
	I want you to take heart because the Bible says	39:29
	you're just the sort that God loves to inspire,	39:35
	loves to choose,	39:40
	loves to empower with his vision.	39:42
	("Be Thou My Vision" organ introduction)	39:55
	♪ Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart ♪	40:31
	♪ Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art ♪	40:40
	♪ Thou my best thought, by day or by night ♪	40:49
	♪ Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light ♪	40:59
	♪ Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word ♪	41:11
	♪ I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord ♪	41:19
	♪ Thou and Thou only, first in my heart ♪	41:29
	♪ Great God of Heaven, my treasure Thou art ♪	41:38
	♪ Great God of Heaven, my victory won ♪	41:50
	♪ May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's Sun ♪	41:58
	♪ Heart of my own heart, whatever befall ♪	42:07
	♪ Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all ♪	42:17
-	The Lord be with you.	42:31
Congregation	And also with you.	42:33
-	Let us pray.	42:35
	You may be seated.	42:36
	Almighty God, what power you pour out upon us.	42:50
	What possibilities you instill within us.	42:57
	Not the little dreams that we have imagined	43:02
	but great possibilities beyond anything we have seen.	43:06
	You take us as we are, young, middle-aged or old	43:12
	and intrude upon our lives, encouraging, prodding,	43:20
	upsetting, to move us from the lives we have sought	43:27
	to the future you have ordained.	43:32
	If we are innocent and fearful, you call us forth	43:39
	to knowledge and boldness.	43:43
	If we are established and sure, you call us forth to newness	43:47
	and unpredictability.	43:52
	If we are wise and self-reliant you call us forth	43:56
	to mystery and trust.	44:02
	We give you thanks that you are the God who is	44:08
	always prodding, inspiring, moving us to become	44:10
	more than we ever could be without you.	44:16
	Lord, we know that you never intrude upon our lives	44:23
	for our benefit alone but to prepare us	44:27
	and shape us for greater service.	44:30
	Therefore we ask that you would make clear	44:35
	your vision for us.	44:38
	What service are you calling us to?	44:41
	What do we have that needs to be shared?	44:52
	What can we give that someone else needs?	45:04
	When your vision is made clear to us,	45:17
	help us respond with faithfulness and boldness.	45:19
	Keep us from self-absorption or fear that would cause us	45:24
	to hoard the gifts you have bestowed upon us.	45:28
	Lead us daily into every greater service.	45:33
	Make us mindful of those around us who need our prayers	45:36
	and our help.	45:41
	We lift these up to you in silence.	45:42
	For the lonely, the hurting, the grieving, the confused,	46:01
	the sick, the imprisoned, the addict, the hungry,	46:08
	for all these we have named and for those who remain unnamed	46:17
	we ask for your intervention.	46:23
	Touch them with your presence, heal them with your power,	46:27
	comfort them with your love and attend to their human needs	46:33
	through us as we respond with hands and minds and hearts	46:38
	fully committed to your service and your vision.	46:45
	In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.	46:51
	God's purpose will not be thwarted.	46:58
	God's possibilities have been instilled within us.	47:01
	Our hearts have been filled with God's love,	47:05
	our minds with God's vision	47:09
	and our hands with God's strength.	47:11
	Let us respond with all our hearts, minds and strength	47:14
	as we bring out our offerings.	47:18
	("When in Our Music God is Glorified" brass introduction)	47:45
	♪ When in our music God is glorified ♪	48:08
	♪ And adoration leaves no room for pride ♪	48:16
	♪ It is as though the whole creation cried ♪	48:24
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	48:33
	♪ Alleluia ♪	48:38
	♪ How oft, in making music, we have found ♪	48:43
	♪ A new dimension in the world of sound ♪	48:51
	♪ As worship moved us to a more profound ♪	48:59
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	49:08
	♪ Alleluia ♪	49:14
	♪ So has the Church, in liturgy and song ♪	49:28
	♪ In faith and love, through centuries of wrong ♪	49:35
	♪ Borne witness to the truth in every tongue ♪	49:43
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	49:52
	♪ Alleluia ♪	49:57
	♪ And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night ♪	50:03
	♪ When utmost evil strove against the light ♪	50:14
	♪ Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight ♪	50:19
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	50:27
	♪ Alleluia ♪	50:33
	♪ Let every instrument be tuned for praise ♪	50:57
	♪ Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise ♪	51:05
	♪ And may God give us faith to sing always ♪	51:13
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	51:22
	♪ Alleluia ♪	51:27
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	51:33
	♪ Alleluia ♪	51:39
	(organ interlude music)	51:53
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	52:24
	♪ Praise God, all creatures here below ♪	52:29
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	52:35
	♪ Praise God, ye heavenly hosts ♪	52:44
	♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪	52:50
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	52:55
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	53:02
	♪ Alleluia ♪	53:08
-	Let us pray.	53:22
	We have heard your voice, oh God, and are compelled	53:24
	to give from the rich abundance you entrust to us.	53:28
	These offerings are but a symbol of our desire to seek to	53:33
	do good to all people, to labor in your service and to send	53:37
	out through these gifts, others who minister on our behalf.	53:42
	We act knowing that you work through us to respond	53:47
	to the needs in the world.	53:50
	To be used in your service gives us	53:53
	great satisfaction and joy.	53:55
	Thank you, oh God, for the opportunity	53:58
	and privilege of giving.	54:00
	Show us ways to continue in your service daily	54:03
	as we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ	54:06
	who taught us to pray together saying.	54:09
	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.	54:13
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth	54:18
	as it is in heaven.	54:22
	Give us this day our daily bread	54:24
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	54:26
	who trespass against us.	54:30
	Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	54:32
	For Thine is the kingdom and the power	54:37
	and the glory forever, amen.	54:39
	("God of Grace, God of Glory" brass and organ introduction)	54:49
	♪ God of grace and God of glory ♪	55:26
	♪ On your people pour your power ♪	55:31
	♪ Crown your ancient church's story ♪	55:36
	♪ Bring its bud to glorious flower ♪	55:42
	♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪	55:48
	♪ For the facing of this hour ♪	55:53
	♪ For the facing of this hour ♪	55:59
	(brass and organ interlude)	56:04
	♪ Lo, the hosts of evil round us ♪	56:28
	♪ Scorn the Christ, assail his ways ♪	56:33
	♪ From the fears that long have bound us ♪	56:39
	♪ Free our hearts to faith and praise ♪	56:44
	♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪	56:50
	♪ For the living of these days ♪	56:56
	♪ For the living of these days ♪	57:01
	♪ Cure your children's warring madness ♪	57:08
	♪ Bend our pride to Thy control ♪	57:15
	♪ Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, ♪	57:21
	♪ Rich in things and poor in soul ♪	57:26
	♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪	57:31
	♪ Lest we miss your kingdom's goal ♪	57:37
	♪ Lest we miss your kingdom's goal ♪	57:43
	♪ Save us from weak resignation ♪	57:51
	♪ To the evils we deplore ♪	57:56
	♪ Let the gift of your salvation ♪	58:01
	♪ Be our glory evermore ♪	58:07
	♪ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage ♪	58:13
	♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪	58:18
	♪ Serving you whom we adore ♪	58:24
-	And now as you go forth to the year upon us	58:36
	may the grace of our Lord and Savior	58:39
	Jesus Christ go with you.	58:41
	♪ God be in my head, and in my understanding ♪	58:47
	♪ God be in mine eyes, and in my looking ♪	59:04
	♪ God be in my mouth, and in my speaking ♪	59:22
	♪ God be in my heart, and in my thinking ♪	59:42
	♪ God be at mine end, and in my departing ♪	1:00:01
	(organ music)	1:00:42

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "God Loves Freshmen" (August 28, 1994)

Description:

Sermon start time: 17:25. Sermon end time: 39:47.
Encouraging first-year students at Duke from the story of God’s surprising choice of young David to be the new king, the preacher argues that God is able to subvert common expectations in favor of young upstarts. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “God had sent Samuel way down, way out to Bethlehem to do a job, find a new king. But the prophet, seeing only surface appearances, trapped in conventional social arrangements, keeps picking the wrong person. The Lord finally has to just step in and choose. But when the Lord chooses, the Lord does not choose the person that our history and our experience expect God to choose. God chose little David.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4599zh0f

Date:

August 28, 1994

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

1 Samuel

Chapter and Verse:

1 Samuel 16:1, 6-19, 21-23

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0388
ref9463_mei
uachapelsermaud
duke:321641
dcrmv001370
ark:/87924/r4599zh0f
71e3dfe4-6850-4eaf-bfa6-97f7cb1e05b6

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 - "God Loves Freshmen" (August 28, 1994)

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1. William H. Willimon - "God Loves Freshmen" (August 28, 1994)

Duke University Archives

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William H. Willimon - "God Loves Freshmen" (August 28, 1994)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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