William H. Willimon - "How Does the Story End?" (January 22, 1995)

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	(ethereal choral music)	0:01
-	Good morning.	2:56
	Welcome to Duke University Chapel	2:57
	for this service of worship.	2:59
	We've been lead in worship by our guest choir	3:02
	from Towson State, the Towson State University Chorale	3:06
	was joining the Duke Chapel choir for this service	3:11
	and we are happy to have these	3:14
	talented young musicians with us.	3:17
	Our choir has just returned from a wonderful trip	3:20
	to England singing in various cathedrals there	3:24
	over the winter break.	3:28
	And we welcome them back for this service as well.	3:30
	At five o'clock this afternoon,	3:36
	there will be a organ recital,	3:38
	free, open to the public here in the chapel.	3:40
	Today is part of a 20-year tradition here	3:45
	at Duke University of inviting public officials,	3:48
	elected officials of our state	3:52
	to be our guest for this service.	3:54
	And we welcome these special guests,	3:57
	guest of our president who serves	4:01
	as the elector for this service.	4:03
	We hope the service will be, for our elected officials,	4:06
	a time of rededication, of strength and inspiration	4:09
	and for all of us, a time to ponder	4:13
	our responsibility to civic righteousness.	4:17
	You will note that today's Psalm 19	4:22
	speaks of the law and the way of the Lord.	4:25
	The anthem during the offering is coordinated with the song.	4:29
	The last hymn speaks of Christ as light of the world.	4:34
	Our musicians have planned it such	4:40
	as a time of renewal and rededication for each of us.	4:42
	And now, let us stand for the call to worship.	4:49
	The grace our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.	4:56
Congregation	And also with you.	4:59
-	The splendor of Christ shines upon us.	5:01
Congregation	Praise the Lord.	5:05
	(organ music)	5:07
	(all singing "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright")	5:40
	(organ music)	7:24
	(all singing "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright")	9:18
-	Let us pray.	10:21
	Almighty God, to you all hearts are open,	10:25
	all desires known.	10:29
	And from you, no secrets are hidden.	10:32
	Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts	10:35
	by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit	10:37
	that we may perfectly love you	10:40
	and wordily magnify your holy name, amen.	10:43
	You maybe seated.	10:48
-	Let us pray together the Prayer for Illumination.	10:57
All	Open our hearts and minds,	11:01
	Oh God, by the power of your Holy Spirit	11:03
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	11:07
	we may hear with joy what you say to us this day,	11:11
	Amen.	11:16
-	The Old Testament reading is taken	11:17
	from the book of Nehemiah, Chapter Eight.	11:19
	"All the people gathered together	11:22
	"into the square before the water gate.	11:24
	"They tell the scribe Ezra	11:27
	"to bring the Book of the Law of Moses,	11:29
	"which the Lord has given to Israel.	11:31
	"Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought	11:34
	"the law before the assembly,	11:36
	"both men and women and all	11:38
	"who could hear with understanding.	11:40
	"This was on the first day of the seventh month.	11:42
	"He read from it, facing the square before the water gate	11:46
	"from early morning until midday,	11:49
	"in the presence of the men and women	11:52
	"and those who could understand.	11:53
	"And the ears of all the people	11:56
	"were attentive to the Book of the Law.	11:57
	"And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,	12:00
	"for he was standing above all the people.	12:03
	"And when he opened it, all the people stood up.	12:06
	"Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God,	12:10
	"and all the people answered, 'Amen, amen,'	12:12
	"lifting up their hands.	12:16
	"Then they bowed their heads	12:18
	"and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground."	12:20
	This is the word of the Lord.	12:24
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	12:26
-	Today's psalm is number 19, versus seven to 10,	12:39
	found on page 751 of the hymnal.	12:43
	Please stand and sing the psalm and gloria responsively.	12:47
	(organ music)	12:52
	♪ The law of the Lord is perfect ♪	13:00
	♪ Reviving the soul ♪	13:03
	♪ The testimony of the Lord is strong ♪	13:07
	♪ Making wise and simple ♪	13:11
	♪ The precepts of the Lord are right ♪	13:16
	♪ Rejoicing the heart ♪	13:20
	♪ The commandment of the Lord is pure ♪	13:24
	♪ Enlightening the eyes ♪	13:28
	♪ The fear of the Lord is clean ♪	13:33
	♪ Enduring forever ♪	13:36
	♪ The ordinances of the Lord are true ♪	13:40
	♪ And righteous all together ♪	13:44
	♪ More to be desired are they than God ♪	13:50
	♪ Even much fine gold ♪	13:54
	♪ Sweet drops of that honey ♪	13:57
	♪ And drippings of the honeycomb ♪	14:01
	♪ All glory be to you Creator ♪	14:06
	♪ And to Jesus Christ our savior ♪	14:11
	♪ And to the Holy Spirit ♪	14:16
	♪ Blessed is he ♪	14:19
	♪ As it was at time began ♪	14:22
	♪ It's now and will be ♪	14:27
	♪ Forever more ♪	14:30
	(soft organ music)	14:40
	(choir singing in foreign language)	15:46
-	The gospel reading today	18:35
	is from The Book of Luke, Chapter 10.	18:36
	"Jesus said, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem	18:39
	"'to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers	18:42
	"'who stripped him, beat him, and went away	18:46
	"'leaving him half-dead.	18:48
	"'Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road.	18:50
	"'And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.	18:52
	"'So, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place	18:57
	"'and saw him, passed by on the other side.	18:59
	"'But a Samaritan, while traveling, came near him.	19:03
	"'And when he saw him, he was moved with pity.	19:06
	"'He went to him and bandaged his wounds,	19:09
	"'having poured oil and wine on them.	19:12
	"'Then he put him on his own animal,	19:14
	"'brought him to an inn	19:16
	"'and took take care of him.	19:18
	"'The next day, he took out two denari	19:20
	"'and he gave them to innkeeper and said,	19:23
	"'"Take care of him and when I come back,	19:26
	"'"I will repay you, whatever more you spend."'"	19:28
	This is the word of the Lord.	19:32
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	19:34
-	At the conclusion of the Martin Luther King Day	19:47
	service here this past week,	19:52
	having conversation with a student.	19:58
	And we were talking about	20:03
	what a good observance it had been.	20:04
	And then she said,	20:07
	"Of course, I don't know	20:10
	"that anything has really changed in race relations	20:14
	"in America over the past 20 years, fundamentally.	20:19
	"I don't believe I, as one person,	20:26
	"can do much about it."	20:30
	And the next day reading in	20:34
	"The Journal of Higher Education"	20:36
	there was a report on the annual nationwide freshman survey,	20:38
	which reported that student political interest,	20:45
	political interest and knowledge in this year's	20:50
	freshman class across the class across the country	20:53
	is at the lowest ebb in the 29-year history	20:57
	that the freshman survey has been taken.	21:02
	We're in an apolitical time.	21:08
	The robbery was captured	21:18
	on the convenient store's TV camera.	21:19
	Shortly after midnight, a stickup man had	21:23
	entered the convenience store,	21:26
	pointed the gun at the woman behind the counter,	21:28
	a mother who had just put her two children	21:33
	to bed a couple of hours before.	21:36
	She complied with his demand.	21:40
	He looked at the money, he pointed the gun back at her,	21:43
	and he shot her dead.	21:46
	Random cruelty.	21:52
	Pointless violence on a nameless night in North Carolina.	21:56
	And I, watching this on the evening news,	22:05
	took the remote control of the TV, punched it.	22:09
	And in just a few minutes I could no longer	22:15
	see the calm killing in Carolina.	22:18
	And I thought of that episode with myself	22:27
	upon seeing this Sunday's gospel,	22:31
	the familiar story, the gospel, the good Samaritan.	22:35
	'Cause that's how that story begins as well.	22:40
	It begins with a random act of violence,	22:43
	an anonymous act of violence.	22:49
	Jesus doesn't tell us the name of the man	22:51
	who is attacked by robbers and beaten and stripped	22:54
	and left half-dead in the ditch.	22:57
	He's simply one more anonymous victim.	23:00
	You've seen it on the evening news.	23:02
	You have heard the story before,	23:05
	a story to which you and I	23:07
	have become comfortably accommodated.	23:09
	Jesus doesn't say that they robbed the man,	23:15
	though that's a safe assumption.	23:17
	It's interesting the words he uses.	23:19
	He says they "beat him and they stripped him."	23:21
	And if you have ever been the victim	23:28
	of some anonymous act of crime,	23:31
	that's how you say it feels.	23:35
	You feel stripped, violated,	23:37
	your dignity peeled away, stripped.	23:41
	We're told that the man lies in the ditch stripped,	23:48
	and in Jesus' words "half-dead."	23:51
	His story has not yet ended,	23:57
	but it is at least half-ended.	24:00
	Last year, 2,000 New Yorkers ended their life story	24:04
	at the hands of fellow New Yorkers.	24:09
	Over 300 cab drivers in New York	24:13
	took their last ride last year,	24:16
	victims of this random,	24:20
	anonymous violence.	24:24
	And so, we're justified at this point in the story,	24:28
	for assuming with what we know,	24:31
	that this is his last ride for the man	24:34
	who went from Jerusalem down to Jericho	24:39
	and fell among thieves.	24:42
	But no.	24:46
	By chance, a priest was going down that same road.	24:48
	The man lying in the ditch has had	24:53
	all of his options stripped from him.	24:55
	There's nothing he can do	24:58
	of his own accord to keep this story going.	25:00
	He lies there, helpless, half-dead.	25:04
	And so, now, this one coming down the road,	25:06
	whether he knows it or not,	25:10
	has responsibility for whether	25:12
	this story's going to continue,	25:14
	whether this man will live or die.	25:16
	And when he saw him,	25:21
	yes, Jesus says he "sees him."	25:25
	There was maybe that split second when he wishes	25:28
	that he had not seen this pitiful,	25:31
	bleeding sight in the ditch.	25:34
	But no, he saw.	25:37
	And he	25:39
	passed by on the other side.	25:44
	And all potentialities and possibilities end.	25:49
	As he not only passes by the pitiful sight in the ditch,	25:55
	but he passes by, in Jesus' words, "on the other side."	25:58
	His journey continues on the other side.	26:04
	Now, please do not read into this story,	26:11
	though you probably already are,	26:13
	reasons why this priest passed by on the other side.	26:15
	It's interesting.	26:20
	Jesus gives us no reasons.	26:21
	As a priest, he knew the Hebrew law	26:27
	against defilement with a corpse.	26:31
	Maybe it was some sort of religious problem.	26:33
	Those who had jumped the man	26:39
	who is now lying in the ditch	26:41
	might be lying in wait for another traveler as well.	26:42
	A bloody body is revolting.	26:48
	I don't think Jesus gives any	26:54
	reasons for this priest avoidance,	26:56
	'cause he doesn't need to.	27:01
	Without much creativity or imagination,	27:05
	we quickly supply our own reasons.	27:08
	Yes, they're our reasons.	27:13
	Reasons that any of us have used on similar occasion.	27:18
	Is there anyone here	27:22
	who has not averted the eyes,	27:25
	not passed by on the other side	27:28
	for a host of perfectly understandable good reasons?	27:31
	Here at the university, we are in the reason business.	27:39
	And by such reasons,	27:46
	evil continues,	27:50
	insisting on having the last word in this story	27:53
	because you will note that the last real action	27:59
	in this story, the last act of human creativity,	28:02
	has been on the part of the robbers	28:06
	who stripped and left the man half-dead.	28:09
	Evil rules in this story.	28:11
	But, wait.	28:16
	By chance, another man was coming down the road.	28:20
	And, fortunately, this time, not a member of the clergy.	28:24
	But he passes by on the other side.	28:32
	He also, this second man,	28:36
	bears responsibility for intervention.	28:38
	He has in his hands the potential to make a difference	28:41
	in the way this story is running.	28:44
	And yet, when he sees the wounded man,	28:47
	he also passes by on the other side.	28:49
	And wouldn't we all?	28:53
	I mean, what difference can one person make?	28:55
	There is a kind of fear of contamination	29:00
	with those who suffer.	29:06
	I've seen it in my own congregation.	29:07
	Somebody, say, is fired from his job.	29:11
	And people will avoid that person	29:16
	like he's got some kind of communicable disease.	29:17
	We don't wanna catch whatever it is he got.	29:20
	If he had played the game right in our country	29:24
	and kept his nose to the grindstone and done right,	29:27
	he wouldn't be in this fix.	29:29
	We don't want to touch him.	29:31
	There is this sort of irrationality,	29:34
	which bubbles forth at these moments.	29:36
	Powerful, irrational fear,	29:43
	all the more powerful because of its irrationality,	29:45
	that we need to distance ourselves,	29:48
	we need to go over to the other side.	29:51
	When random cruelty breaks forth, we pass by.	29:55
	One man down the road, another man down.	30:03
	But a third man, a Samaritan, as he journeyed,	30:08
	came to where he was.	30:13
	And we've heard this story before.	30:16
	We've seen two people pass by.	30:17
	Jesus, the story is getting tiresome.	30:20
	It's becoming redundant.	30:22
	What's the point of repeating it again?	30:25
	Let the story, let this age-old story	30:28
	of the triumph of evil be done,	30:32
	the omnipotence of violence.	30:35
	But, a third man, surprise.	30:38
	Jesus says, "And when he saw him,	30:43
	"he stopped and he went to him."	30:45
	And it's interesting.	30:51
	Just as Jesus does not speculate upon the motives	30:53
	of the men who did not stop,	30:56
	so he now fails to speculate on the motives	30:59
	of the man who did stop.	31:02
	He touches the victim,	31:08
	he cleans his wounds, he binds them,	31:10
	sets him on his own beast.	31:13
	He takes care.	31:14
	The man who was so brutally beaten	31:18
	cannot continue his story.	31:20
	He is powerless to continue the journey,	31:23
	if not for this Samaritan who chose to intersect	31:25
	his life journey with that of the unfortunate man.	31:31
	By his act, the man once stripped	31:36
	is able to live.	31:42
	The story continues.	31:45
	And the next day,	31:46
	the Samaritan takes his money,	31:50
	the equivalent of two day's wages	31:53
	and gives it to the innkeeper saying,	31:56
	"Take care of him.	31:58
	"Anything you spend, I will repay	31:59
	"when I come back this way."	32:01
	This third man risk.	32:06
	He stops, he detours.	32:08
	He extravagantly responds to the needs	32:10
	of this anonymous stranger.	32:13
	He becomes the voice of the victimized,	32:17
	speaking for the man in the ditch	32:20
	who never utters a word in the entire story.	32:23
	Now, as preacher, I have always been curious that	32:30
	God never appears in this story of the good Samaritan.	32:35
	If you know some of the other stories of Jesus,	32:41
	some of Jesus' parables,	32:43
	Jesus tells most of his parables,	32:45
	they're stories about God,	32:46
	about the nature of God, the kingdom of God.	32:48
	But here,	32:51
	this story is all about us.	32:54
	I told you it was story about violence,	32:58
	a man in the ditch beaten, left black and blue,	33:02
	death hovering, vulture-like,	33:06
	ready to pounce and end this story.	33:08
	And we wish Jesus had offered some reason for the violence.	33:14
	Pin it on poverty or class resentment,	33:21
	a lack of a good educational system, injustice.	33:25
	We just grope for reasons.	33:30
	In one of Margaret Atwood's stories "Surfacing,"	33:35
	one of Atwood's characters says	33:40
	that she always reads detective novels,	33:42
	because unlike in life,	33:46
	in detective novels, death is logical.	33:48
	There's always a reason.	33:53
	Before you end the story,	33:54
	you always get a motive.	33:56
	But Jesus attributes no motive	34:01
	to the robbers brutality.	34:03
	This is violence at its worst, random,	34:06
	senseless, inexplicable,	34:09
	street crime, that which opinion polls	34:12
	say bothers us Americans the most.	34:15
	Jesus doesn't say that they were victims of poverty,	34:21
	thus explaining the robbery.	34:24
	He doesn't say that they were abused as children,	34:27
	thus giving a nice adult explanation	34:31
	for their adult violence.	34:35
	This is the worst kind of evil.	34:39
	It's random, it's senseless, it's anonymous.	34:43
	Such evil bubbles up and throws into chaos our very lives,	34:47
	calls into question the whole point	34:52
	of the world and the meaning of our existence.	34:56
	And so, we grope for reasons.	35:04
	Finding no reason,	35:08
	we just scurry by on the other side.	35:09
	Recently, a German scholar friend	35:16
	visiting the United States,	35:19
	on his way back I ask him,	35:20
	"What has been your impression of American society	35:22
	"these past couple of months here?"	35:26
	And he said to me, (speaking German).	35:29
	"I'm surprised	35:34
	"how much poverty and how much social hopelessness	35:37
	"Americans are willing to accept as normal."	35:45
	We Americans living in the most violent society in the world	35:54
	have learned stoically to accept stories of violence.	35:59
	This fall we reached the one million mark	36:06
	in the number of incarcerated citizens.	36:11
	But the teller of this tale	36:16
	is not the stoic Marcus Aurelius.	36:18
	It is Jesus.	36:21
	Surprise.	36:25
	A third man comes down the road and the story continues.	36:27
	And we here whisper the possibility	36:33
	that death might not end the story,	36:35
	that evil might not have the final word.	36:39
	Oh, I wish I could get you to believe that story.	36:45
	Two men came down the road and assumed	36:52
	that violence, death had the last word,	36:55
	that their actions count for nothing,	36:57
	that the world cannot be modified through their effort.	37:00
	By avoiding the man in the ditch,	37:04
	they conferred absolute omnipotence on evil,	37:06
	the power of the present darkness.	37:11
	What can anybody do?	37:17
	And politics dies.	37:21
	The third man, you will note, is not much of a philosopher.	37:28
	He is not a sociologist or psychologist.	37:31
	The third man, I think is,	37:36
	I think he's a politician.	37:40
	He sees, he stops.	37:44
	He's an activist.	37:45
	He binds, he cares, he gives, he takes time.	37:46
	If you'll notice, he gets most of the verbs in the story.	37:50
	He refuses to bow to the power	37:54
	that has so disempowered the beaten man.	37:57
	In this story, evil is real and it is bloody.	38:02
	But it is not, in this story by Jesus, the last word.	38:06
	And we aren't told whether the wounded man recovered.	38:13
	Even if he didn't recover,	38:18
	would that detract in any way from our wonder	38:20
	at the third man who stops and reaches out?	38:24
	The intrusive power of him to insert himself	38:28
	into the life of this person he doesn't even know	38:33
	and thus change the course of the story	38:36
	to rich possibility out of the jaws of death.	38:39
	Nothing is papered over here.	38:48
	Death is not logical.	38:49
	Victims of random violence may recover.	38:52
	They may go down the road again	38:55
	but they now travel with scars.	38:58
	As a woman of my acquaintance who was raped said to me,	39:02
	"You get up, you stand up, you go on,	39:09
	"but you still cry sometimes."	39:14
	There's no Pollyana assurance here	39:20
	that everything is going to turn out all right.	39:22
	Evil is real.	39:25
	But,	39:27
	it need not have the last word.	39:31
	So, I ask you a question,	39:36
	which I believe meant by this story.	39:37
	And the question is this.	39:40
	What is real?	39:42
	Does death have the last word	39:46
	in our state or is it life?	39:48
	Walking down roads, each of us	39:53
	must make a decision about that.	39:56
	Who names North Carolina	39:59
	not to decide, not to act,	40:03
	to move to the other side is to decide.	40:06
	The third man, the Samaritan, stops	40:10
	and in stopping he is free	40:13
	as an untethered expression of life,	40:15
	as an overflowing of his own vitality,	40:18
	and clinch-fisted determination not to let	40:21
	evil have the last word.	40:24
	Oh, I know you can read the story otherwise.	40:30
	You can read it as an illustration that the man	40:32
	in the ditch is a victim of meaningless violence,	40:36
	therefore life is meaningless,	40:39
	therefore the prudent person	40:41
	always steps to the other side	40:42
	with our burglar alarms and our insurance	40:48
	and our dispassionate academic explanations.	40:52
	Two people come down the road,	41:00
	the majority of average Americans	41:02
	pass by on the other side.	41:05
	You will note that it is the minority,	41:08
	only one out of three, who is free,	41:11
	gifted, overflowingly confident in his God-given ability	41:16
	to make a difference in the story.	41:21
	Here is the foundation of all	41:27
	society worthy of the name.	41:34
	In "The Brothers Karamasov," Dmitri has been a victim.	41:41
	He's been falsely accused of the death of his father.	41:46
	He's brutally interrogated by people contemptuous of him	41:50
	and everything he holds dear.	41:54
	At last, they allow him to collapse	41:55
	on the floor of his cell.	41:57
	Dmitri falls asleep on the hard stone.	42:00
	He awakes.	42:05
	And some anonymous person has slipped in	42:07
	and slipped a pillow under Dmitri's head in the cell.	42:11
	And Dmitri fastens upon that anonymous act,	42:18
	that random act of kindness,	42:23
	as more determinative of his situation	42:26
	than his innocent victimization.	42:30
	He falls asleep again.	42:35
	And in his sleep he dreams of starving children	42:38
	and he longs for the suffering to end.	42:43
	Now, why did Dmitri focus upon that random act of kindness	42:51
	rather than the random act of violence	42:57
	as describing what was going on in the world?	43:00
	As you walk down the road,	43:09
	it makes all the difference	43:12
	how you read reality.	43:15
	It makes all the difference what story,	43:18
	for you, is paradigmatic.	43:21
	Makes all the difference	43:26
	how you use the God-given space you have	43:29
	to write yourself into the story	43:34
	of what's going on in the world.	43:38
	(organ music)	43:51
	(all singing)	46:52
-	The Lord be with you.	50:04
Congregation	And also with you.	50:06
-	Let us pray.	50:08
	You may be seated.	50:09
	Almighty and everlasting God,	50:20
	who has triumphed through Jesus Christ	50:23
	over the powers of evil	50:26
	and darkness and senseless violence,	50:28
	grant that we may ever hope in you,	50:32
	believing in your power to bring life out of death	50:36
	and our power to choose life	50:40
	even in the face of death.	50:43
	Lord, in your mercy,	50:46
	hear our prayer.	50:48
-	Hear our prayer.
-	Give us eyes to see those in need upon our path	50:50
	and grant that we may have the courage	50:55
	to respond with mercy.	50:57
	Lord, in your mercy,	51:00
	hear our prayer.	51:02
-	Hear our prayer.
-	Show us the ways that we might work together	51:04
	to make a difference in our community and world.	51:07
	Lord, in your mercy,	51:12
	hear our prayer.	51:14
-	Hear our prayer.
-	Create in us one mind, one heart, and one will,	51:17
	that we may dedicate ourselves with unity	51:22
	and single-mindedness to work	51:25
	for your purposes on Earth.	51:28
	Lord, in your mercy,	51:31
	hear our prayer.	51:33
-	Hear our prayer.
-	We pray for peace, for an end to senseless violence	51:35
	and a world where people may live without fear.	51:40
	Lord, in your mercy,	51:44
	hear our prayer.	51:46
-	Hear our prayer.
-	For the leaders of our city, state, and nation	51:49
	and for all in authority that they may rule wisely	51:53
	and work responsibly to maintain the justice	51:58
	and welfare of all people.	52:01
	Lord, in your mercy,	52:04
	hear our prayer.	52:06
-	Hear our prayer.
-	For Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh,	52:08
	for every city and for those who live in them,	52:12
	that they may care for the needs of all their citizens	52:15
	and become humane communities	52:18
	where all share in the needs	52:21
	and the benefits of the society.	52:23
	Lord, in your mercy,	52:26
	hear our prayer.	52:28
-	Hear our prayer.
-	For the good Earth, which God has given us,	52:30
	that we may have the wisdom and will to conserve it.	52:33
	Lord, in your mercy,	52:38
	hear our prayer.	52:40
-	Hear our prayer.
-	For the people of Japan, as they rebuild their nation,	52:42
	for those who died	52:45
	and those who lost loved ones in the earthquake,	52:47
	Lord, in your mercy,	52:51
	hear our prayer.	52:53
-	Hear our prayer.
-	That we may end our lives in faith and hope	52:55
	as those who have been committed	52:59
	to living as your people in the world.	53:01
	Lord, in your mercy,	53:04
	hear our prayer.	53:06
-	Hear our prayer.
-	Oh, Lord, our God,	53:09
	accept the heartfelt prayers of your people.	53:10
	In the multitude of your mercies,	53:14
	look with compassion upon us	53:16
	and all who turn to you for help,	53:18
	for you are gracious, oh lover of souls.	53:20
	And to you we give glory, now and forever.	53:24
	Amen.	53:27
	The offering is an opportunity for us to give	53:32
	as a sign of our commitment to God.	53:35
	All of today's offering will be given	53:38
	to charitable causes which benefit our community.	53:40
	(clinking)	53:43
	(soft organ music)	53:45
	(choir singing)	55:51
	(powerful organ music)	1:00:10
	(all singing "Hallelujah")	1:00:52
-	Let us, pray.	1:01:53
	All things come from you, oh God,	1:01:55
	and with gratitude we return to you what is yours.	1:01:58
	You created all that is and with love,	1:02:01
	formed us in your image.	1:02:04
	When our love failed, your love remained steadfast.	1:02:06
	You gave your only son, Jesus Christ, to be our savior.	1:02:10
	All that we are and all that we have is a trust from you.	1:02:13
	And so, in gratitude for all your gifts,	1:02:18
	we offer you ourselves and all that we have	1:02:20
	in union with Christ offering for us.	1:02:23
	By your Holy Spirit, make us one with Christ,	1:02:26
	one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.	1:02:29
	Through Jesus Christ, our savoir, amen.	1:02:33
	Let us pray together as Jesus taught us.	1:02:37
-	Our father,	1:02:40
All	Who art in heaven,	1:02:41
	hallowed be thy name.	1:02:42
	Thy kingdom come,	1:02:44
	they will be done	1:02:46
	as Earth as it is in heaven.	1:02:47
	Give us this day, our daily bread,	1:02:50
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:02:53
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	1:02:55
	and lead us not into temptation,	1:02:58
	but deliver us from evil,	1:03:01
	for thine is the kingdom, and the power,	1:03:03
	and the glory forever, amen.	1:03:06
	(inspirational organ music)	1:03:10
	(all singing)	1:03:50
-	The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ	1:07:00
	be with you now and always,	1:07:03
	amen.	1:07:06
	(choir singing)	1:07:09

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "How Does the Story End?" (January 22, 1995)

Description:

Sermon start time: 19:47. Sermon end time: 43:42.
The preacher relates the characters in the Parable of the Good Samaritan to various groups addressing the issue of violence. He argues that the majority of average Americans have accepted the reality of violence and simply pass by the victim; only a minority of people dare to stop and help. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “In this story, evil is real and it is bloody. But it is not, in this story by Jesus, the last word.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4bc3tb8c

Date:

January 22, 1995

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Epiphany

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 10:25-37

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0412
ref9533_q5g
uachapelsermaud
duke:321438
dcrmv001391
ark:/87924/r4bc3tb8c
9b8c433b-0a52-43b5-84a5-d0ce6f8ec96a

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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 - "How Does the Story End?" (January 22, 1995)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives