William H. Willimon - "Imagine, Christmas" (December 18, 1994)

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	(choir singing)	0:01
	(beep)	0:15
-	Good morning.	1:17
	We welcome you to this service of worship	1:18
	for the fourth Sunday of Advent	1:20
	here in Duke University Chapel,	1:22
	and we've been led in worship as is our custom	1:25
	at this time of year, by the North Carolina Boy Choir,	1:29
	under the direction of Mr. Bill Graham.	1:32
	The boys will have their annual Christmas concert	1:36
	here in Duke Chapel tomorrow night at 7:30 and tickets	1:39
	are available at the door.	1:44
	There will be a coffee given by the congregation	1:47
	of Duke Chapel immediately after this service downstairs	1:50
	and you're cordially invited.	1:54
	The congregation has also asked me to remind you that	1:57
	an offering of canned goods for the Durham Food Relief	2:00
	will be received at the 3:00 p.m.	2:06
	Christmas Eve family service	2:09
	and at the 5:30 communion service on Christmas Eve.	2:12
	Tonight here in the chapel	2:17
	there is a rehearsal at 7:30 p.m.,	2:18
	for the Christmas Eve	2:22
	eleven o'clock service community choir.	2:23
	And now we continue our worship being led	2:27
	by the North Carolina Boy Choir.	2:31
	(organ music)	2:41
	(choir singing)	2:50
	Please stand and join me in the greeting.	3:58
	Show us your mercy O Lord.	4:02
	(congregation speaking)	4:06
	Truth shall spring up from the earth.	4:08
	(congregation speaking)	4:11
	(organ music)	4:16
	(choir singing)	5:17
-	Let us join together in the prayer of confession.	9:46
	Most merciful God,	9:56
	we confess that we have sinned against you in thought,	9:58
	word and deed.	10:03
	By what we have done and by what we have left undone.	10:05
	We have not loved you with our whole heart.	10:10
	We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.	10:14
	We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent.	10:17
	For the sake of your son Jesus Christ,	10:22
	have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight	10:25
	in your will and walk in your ways,	10:30
	to the glory of your name, amen.	10:33
	Almighty God have mercy on us.	10:44
	Forgive all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.	10:47
	Strengthen us in all goodness and by the power	10:51
	of the Holy Spirit, keep us in eternal life, amen.	10:55
	You may be seated.	11:02
-	Let us pray together, the prayer for illumination.	11:14
	Open our hearts and minds O God,	11:19
	by the power of your Holy Spirit so that as the word	11:23
	is read and proclaimed,	11:28
	we may be changed by your advent among us, amen.	11:30
	The Old Testament lesson is from the fifth chapter	11:36
	of Micah, beginning with verse two.	11:39
	But you O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,	11:44
	who are one of the little clans of Judah,	11:48
	from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule	11:51
	in Israel, who's origin is from of old, from ancient days.	11:56
	Therefore he shall give them up until the time	12:04
	when she who is in labor has brought forth.	12:08
	Then the rest of His kindred shall return	12:12
	to the people of Israel.	12:15
	And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength	12:18
	of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God,	12:23
	and they shall live secure,	12:29
	for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth,	12:31
	and He shall be the one of peace.	12:36
	This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.	12:41
	The gospel is from Luke chapter one,	12:47
	beginning with verse 46.	12:50
	And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,	12:56
	and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,	13:01
	for he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.	13:06
	For behold, henceforth,	13:11
	all generations will call me blessed.	13:13
	For He who is mighty has done great things for me,	13:17
	and Holy is His name.	13:22
	And His mercy is on those who fear Him	13:25
	from generation to generation.	13:29
	He has shown strength with His arm.	13:32
	He has scattered the proud in the imagination	13:35
	of their hearts.	13:39
	He has put down the mighty from their thrones	13:40
	and exalted those of low degree.	13:44
	He has filled the hungry with good things,	13:48
	and the rich He has sent empty away.	13:52
	He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance	13:56
	of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers,	14:00
	to Abraham and to his posterity forever.	14:05
	This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.	14:11
-	Last year so I am told,	14:24
	a freshmen physics class gathered	14:27
	and when the professor entered, a male professor,	14:32
	he was wearing a red dress	14:37
	and also matching shoes and purse.	14:40
	And he proceeded to give a 50 minute lecture	14:45
	on freshmen physics.	14:48
	At the end of the lecture one of the freshmen	14:52
	had the temerity to ask, "Professor, what's with the dress	14:54
	and the shoes and the purse?"	15:01
	The professor said, "You know I was beginning to wonder	15:05
	what it would take to astonish you people.	15:07
	What's with the dress.	15:11
	Well, very few foundational discoveries have been made	15:12
	in the field of physics in the last 30 years.	15:19
	And I believe that one of the reasons why is	15:25
	the sort of people we're attracting to physics.	15:28
	We're attracting people who come to physics because	15:32
	they think in physics we actually know something,	15:34
	we have sure, certain, definite knowledge.	15:37
	And people like that just don't make many discoveries.	15:42
	And I am looking for some people to come into physics	15:47
	who expect to be shocked, surprised in a physics lab,	15:49
	I'm looking for people with imagination."	15:53
	Now this Sunday, attired as usual in a white dress,	16:01
	I'm looking for some folk who come on Sunday expecting	16:07
	to be shocked, surprised.	16:12
	I'm looking for some people with some imagination.	16:16
	We need an infusion of imagination,	16:23
	we are dying for lack of imagination.	16:27
	When I did my report on student life here at Duke,	16:34
	two years ago, I devoted a major section of my report	16:38
	to what I called student docility.	16:43
	Today's students just aren't that interested	16:48
	in political action, in getting organized,	16:51
	in changing things.	16:54
	In a new book, Generation at the Crossroads,	16:57
	Paul Rogat Loeb says that today's students	17:01
	have been raised in political silence.	17:06
	He quotes a Minnesota student who says,	17:12
	"My father taught me to respect my elders and not talk back.	17:15
	If things get really bad at my university,"	17:20
	he says, "You can always transfer."	17:23
	Apolitical students believe that society cannot change.	17:28
	The world is so big, the world is so out of our control,	17:34
	why take a stand?	17:38
	As a Mercer University theology professor put it,	17:40
	"When I came here, students used to pray for their community	17:46
	now they pray for themselves, for their own choices,	17:51
	for their own success."	17:56
	Now why are today's students so reluctant to get involved?	18:02
	Could it be that they suffer from a paucity of imagination?	18:08
	As a student in 1968, in Paris,	18:16
	during a very different time,	18:20
	a time of violent student protests,	18:23
	and I remember a student-scrawled poster which read,	18:26
	tout le pouvoir à l'imagination.	18:31
	All power to the imagination.	18:36
	People don't get involved, people don't believe in change,	18:41
	due to a failure of imagination.	18:45
	As Wittgenstein said,	18:50
	"We can only act in a world that we can see."	18:52
	and lacking any larger view, we cultivate our own garden.	18:58
	Does this account for our great complacency	19:06
	in our culture of contentment?	19:10
	Great change shakes the world elsewhere, Soweto,	19:16
	Prague, Berlin, Moscow, Tiananmen Square,	19:20
	but we watch at a distance on TV.	19:24
	We expect less from our government,	19:30
	having been disappointed by it so often.	19:33
	Perhaps as Christopher Lash says,	19:37
	"Americans have stopped believing in the future."	19:40
	"If young people believe they have no connection	19:46
	with anything," says Lash,	19:50
	"Their dislocation is a measure	19:53
	of our adult failure, not theirs.	19:55
	We have failed to provide them with a culture	19:59
	that claims to explain the world	20:02
	and give hope for tomorrow."	20:05
	I believe as a teacher that one of the most important	20:09
	things that we teachers can do	20:11
	is to ask the younger generation,	20:15
	what world do you want to live in tomorrow?	20:18
	But an answer to that question depends on some vision.	20:24
	On some imaginative sense of the larger picture.	20:33
	Imagination, the Bible calls it eschatos, eschatology,	20:41
	the last things.	20:46
	Paul Loeb says that today's world	20:49
	has taught today's students, quote, "that societies change	20:52
	only through the actions of some nameless people	20:57
	up at the top.	21:00
	That notions of the greater common good are a mask	21:02
	for hypocrisy.	21:06
	That they should mistrust those	21:07
	who try to shape a better world.	21:10
	We taught them that the best hope for themselves	21:13
	and for America is to hunker down and adapt	21:17
	to whatever the powers that be happen to offer.	21:21
	It's not surprising these students mostly placed	21:25
	their faith in private dreams."	21:30
	That's about the best we can do	21:37
	lacking any larger imagination.	21:39
	Just grab some modest personal proposal	21:42
	for personal comforts	21:46
	and live some private dreams if we dare dream at all.	21:47
	And thus, you have come to Duke Chapel,	21:55
	surrounded by gothic arches	22:00
	and candlelight cocooned in brilliant stained glass.	22:02
	You have entered another world.	22:07
	You have entered the world of advent imagination.	22:10
	Advent imagination, but please don't make the modern mistake	22:17
	of thinking that when I say imagination,	22:22
	that I mean fake, or false,	22:27
	or wishful thinking, play acting.	22:30
	I'm talking about a world otherwise unavailable to us	22:33
	in the dull, drabness of that flat prosaic clod	22:38
	we call the real world.	22:43
	Every time we get together in church on a Sunday morning,	22:48
	we're in a kind of contentious conversation over	22:51
	who defines what's real.	22:54
	Maybe what we call real is only the description	22:58
	of a people who've settled far too soon for too little.	23:03
	But you O Bethlehem Ephrathah,	23:13
	Bethlehem, little drab, dusty,	23:17
	forgettable little place Bethlehem,	23:20
	you out of you shall come one who is to rule Israel.	23:22
	Who's origin is from the ancient of days.	23:28
	Micah the prophet you see is painting an imaginative picture	23:33
	for depressed, oppressed people in exile.	23:37
	And you will recall this is mostly what Bible prophets do,	23:41
	they paint poetic pictures of a world that is unavailable	23:46
	to us unless God acts, unless God shows us such a world.	23:50
	And today's gospel, my soul magnifies the Lord,	23:57
	my soul rejoices in God my savior.	24:02
	That's a song, sung by a little peasant girl named Mary	24:06
	in a backwater town in Judea.	24:10
	Mary sings God has brought down the powerful	24:14
	from their thrones.	24:18
	He's lifted up the lowly.	24:20
	He's filled the hungry with good things	24:22
	and the rich he has sent empty away.	24:25
	Mary's song is a song just like all of our Christmas carols,	24:30
	a song about a God on the move, down in the ghetto,	24:35
	making the folk at Merrill Lynch	24:40
	and the Pentagon very nervous.	24:42
	Ah, but I know you, shortly you will go out of these doors	24:46
	and you will return to the world.	24:53
	To that which we flatter by the designation, the real world.	24:56
	And you will eat and you will make love	25:03
	and you will make a paycheck and you will plod one more time	25:07
	through the shopping malls looking	25:10
	for something that you really want.	25:12
	And that's the way we handle this kind of poetry,	25:15
	keep your eyes fixed upon the everyday,	25:18
	listen to the ad jingles on the radio,	25:21
	keep connected to the routine.	25:24
	But take care, I warn you,	25:30
	it is possible that the hymns we sing today	25:37
	just might settle in your soul.	25:40
	It is possible that these ancient words of Micah or Mary	25:46
	may lay hold of your imagination.	25:51
	You might stagger out of this chapel convinced	25:55
	that something is afoot in Durham,	25:58
	and I'm not talking about the city council either.	26:01
	And then what?	26:04
	What if you believed this bread and wine?	26:07
	What if it got down deep in you?	26:11
	What if you believed the songs sung by the boys and by you?	26:15
	Imagine.	26:23
	What if you believed that there is a new world	26:26
	being offered to us in the acts of God?	26:31
	Imagine, imagine as you face your surgery,	26:36
	imagine as you move into Monday,	26:41
	as you consider the lives of your children,	26:44
	as you ponder the future,	26:48
	what if you got a larger view?	26:50
	Imagine, what if you like Mary, believed the angels.	26:54
	Martin Luther, in a sermon on this very Sunday,	27:06
	400 years ago,	27:12
	said that when Jesus was born	27:16
	in Bethlehem Ephrathah,	27:20
	when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, three miracles occurred.	27:23
	Three miracles: One, God became man.	27:28
	Two, a virgin conceived.	27:35
	And three, Mary believed.	27:38
	And Luther said the greatest of all the Christian miracles,	27:44
	the Christmas miracles was the third,	27:48
	Mary believed.	27:54
	Despite all the oppression and the closed doors	27:58
	and the brick walls and the blind alleys	28:03
	and dark silent, relentless death, Mary believed,	28:06
	and she sang.	28:13
	This reporter had found this old woman deep	28:21
	in the bayous of Louisiana.	28:24
	A woman who despite her poverty and her advanced years,	28:27
	had raised over a dozen foster children.	28:32
	Had raised them to productive adult lives.	28:35
	Had taken children that nobody else wanted	28:39
	and raised them up.	28:42
	An amazing achievement for one that old in that poverty.	28:45
	"What made you do it?" Asked the reporter.	28:51
	And she replied, "I looked at those kids,	28:56
	and I saw a new world a coming."	29:03
-	The Lord be with you.	29:19
	(congregation speaking)	29:22
	Let us pray.	29:23
	Oh God at this time each year, we remind ourselves	29:31
	that you have come and continue coming into our lives.	29:36
	You shatter reasoned expectations, give wonder and awe,	29:43
	and fulfill promises little understood.	29:49
	Fill us with expectant hope that we may be prepared	29:54
	to receive your advent among us.	29:59
	Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.	30:03
	Save us from dreary dullness and lack of imagination.	30:08
	Enlarge our minds and infuse our spirits with your vision	30:15
	that we might see the possibilities for our lives	30:21
	and for our world, that you have imagined.	30:26
	Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.	30:31
	Shine your light through us as though we were pieces	30:36
	in a stained glass window,	30:41
	that your love may radiate from us to brighten the world.	30:44
	Help us become agents of love	30:49
	and hope wherever darkness threatens.	30:51
	Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.	30:57
	Make us mindful of those who need our prayers and our care	31:02
	whom we name before you.	31:07
	Those in our families,	31:11
	in our schools,	31:17
	at our jobs,	31:23
	those among our friends,	31:28
	in our community,	31:33
	in our nation	31:40
	and in the world.	31:45
	Help us become agents of your healing and care,	31:50
	Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.	31:56
	Make us aware of new possibilities that struggle to be born.	32:01
	Help us become co-creators with you	32:07
	to shape a future designed for the common good,	32:10
	where all people are cherished as members of your family.	32:14
	Help us become those who see and believe in the new world	32:19
	that you have promised through Jesus Christ	32:24
	for it is in His name that we pray and hope, amen.	32:28
	As people who are recipients of God's love and hope,	32:35
	let us stand and exchange signs of God's peace	32:40
	with one another.	32:43
	You may be seated.	33:11
	It is a privilege to be able to share what God has given	33:19
	to us, let us give generously.	33:22
	(soft organ music)	33:46
	(choir singing)	33:53
	(organ music)	42:04
	(choir singing)	42:35
-	Please join me in praying the great thanksgiving.	43:35
	♪ The Lord our God is with us ♪	43:46
	♪ Lift up your hearts and voices high ♪	43:51
	♪ Let us unto the Lord give thanks ♪	43:57
	♪ In all the world and all times ♪	44:02
	♪ Rejoice rejoice ♪	44:08
	(choir singing)	44:13
	♪ All glory be to you O God ♪	44:23
	♪ As we await your advent here ♪	44:29
	♪ We praise the gift of your own son ♪	44:34
	♪ Foretold by prophets from of old ♪	44:40
	♪ We thank you that you send to us ♪	44:46
	♪ Your only son our savior our friend ♪	44:52
	♪ Who served the world and gave his life ♪	44:57
	♪ That all who love him die to sin ♪	45:03
	♪ Rejoice rejoice ♪	45:09
	(choir singing)	45:13
	♪ Our Lord the night he was betrayed ♪	45:23
	♪ By his disciples took the bread ♪	45:29
	♪ He blessed and broke it as he said ♪	45:35
	♪ This is my body broken for you ♪	45:40
	♪ He took the cup when all had saw ♪	45:46
	♪ He gave you thanks and even said ♪	45:51
	♪ This cup drink in remembrance of me ♪	45:57
	♪ This is my blood poured out for you ♪	46:02
	♪ Rejoice rejoice ♪	46:08
	(choir singing)	46:12
	♪ When we partake this holy bread ♪	46:23
	♪ When we this holy wine to drink ♪	46:28
	♪ We sense anew his presence here ♪	46:33
	♪ And we await his victory ♪	46:39
	♪ The mystery of faith we proclaim ♪	46:45
	♪ Proclaim that Christ the Lord has died ♪	46:51
	♪ He rose a third day from the grave ♪	46:57
	♪ Us and dead on will come again ♪	47:03
	♪ Rejoice rejoice ♪	47:09
	(choir singing)	47:13
	♪ Acts of our sacrifice of praise ♪	47:23
	♪ As we surrender of ourselves ♪	47:29
	♪ Send down O God your Holy Ghost ♪	47:35
	♪ Upon us and upon our gifts ♪	47:40
	♪ Empower us through this bread and wine ♪	47:46
	♪ To know the presence of our Lord ♪	47:52
	♪ To make us one with Him today ♪	47:58
	♪ And one with humankind we pray ♪	48:03
	♪ Rejoice ♪	48:09
	♪ Rejoice ♪	48:11
	(choir singing)	48:14
	Our Father, who art in Heaven,	48:27
	hallowed be thy name.	48:31
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	48:33
	on Earth as it is in Heaven.	48:37
	Give us this day our daily bread	48:39
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those	48:42
	who trespass against us.	48:46
	Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	48:49
	Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, amen.	48:54
	When we break the bread,	49:00
	is it not a means of sharing in the body of Christ?	49:03
	When we give thanks over the cup,	49:07
	is it not a means of sharing in the blood of Christ?	49:09
	Come, to the Lord's table.	49:14
	(organ music)	49:24
	(choir singing)	50:12
	Stand for the prayer.	59:52
	Eternal God, by the birth of Jesus Christ	59:58
	you gave yourself to the world.	1:00:02
	Grant that being born in our hearts,	1:00:06
	He may save us from all of our sin and restore within us	1:00:09
	the image and likeness of our Creator,	1:00:13
	to whom be everlasting praise.	1:00:16
	Glory, joy, world without end, amen.	1:00:19
	(organ music)	1:00:28
	(choir singing)	1:00:46

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "Imagine, Christmas" (December 18, 1994)

Description:

Sermon start time: 14:24. Sermon end time: 29:08.
The preacher attributes lack of social change to failure of imagination; the prophets are able to imagine and paint poetic pictures of a just world based on the faith that God is a God who acts to save. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Imagine. What if you believed that there is a new world being offered to us in the acts of God?”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4g15ts0w

Date:

December 18, 1994

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Advent

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Chapter and Verse:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0403
ref9511_616
uachapelsermaud
duke:321530
dcrmv001385
ark:/87924/r4g15ts0w
f53c9f5e-fdce-4494-9ae0-8b6f84290f05

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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CC BY-NC 4.0

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William H. Willimon - "Imagine, Christmas" (December 18, 1994)

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1. William H. Willimon - "Imagine, Christmas" (December 18, 1994)

Duke University Archives

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William H. Willimon - "Imagine, Christmas" (December 18, 1994)

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