N. T. Wright - Sermon Untitled (April 2, 1995)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP4
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4k35mv2w?embed=true' height='500px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4k35mv2w
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(bright organ music)	0:00
-	Good morning.	0:10
	Welcome to this service of worship	0:11
	on the fifth Sunday in the season of Lent.	0:14
	Two special conferences are being held at Duke this weekend	0:19
	and we welcome participants.	0:23
	There is an dialogue between members and leaders	0:26
	of the Orthodox churches and the United Methodist Church.	0:29
	The host is Dr. Jeffrey Wayne Wright of our Divinity School.	0:34
	We welcome these participants,	0:38
	and also an International New Testament studies conference	0:40
	being hosted by Dr. Richard Hayes of the Divinity School.	0:44
	They provide us our preacher this morning,	0:49
	who is the very Reverend N. T. Wright,	0:52
	Dean of the Lichfield Cathedral.	0:54
	And we welcome Dean Wright	0:57
	and await his word for us this morning.	0:59
	This afternoon, three o'clock,	1:03
	the Duke Chapel Choir and Orchestra	1:06
	will present Mendelssohn's "Elijah."	1:08
	There are still tickets available.	1:12
	We urge you to attend this very special performance	1:13
	of this magnificent work,	1:20
	and we will hear a couple of pieces from "Elijah"	1:22
	during today's service.	1:25
	And now let us stand for the greeting.	1:29
	Create in me a clean heart, O God.	1:34
	(congregation murmurs)	1:38
	Open my lips, O Lord.	1:40
	(congregation murmurs)	1:43
	(dramatic organ music)	1:47
	(dramatic organ music continues)	2:21
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	2:28
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	2:59
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	3:30
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	3:57
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	4:31
	(choir and congregation sing indistinctly)	5:03
	(dramatic organ music continues)	5:34
	(dramatic organ music continues)	6:05
	(dramatic organ music continues)	6:15
	(dramatic organ music continues)	6:44
	Almighty God, you sent your Son, our savior,	7:02
	Jesus Christ, to suffer death on the cross.	7:07
	Grant that we may share in his obedience to your will	7:12
	and in the glorious victory of his resurrection	7:18
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord who lives and reigns with you	7:21
	and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever.	7:25
	Amen.	7:31
	Be seated.	7:33
-	Let us pray together in the prayer for illumination.	7:49
Together	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	7:55
	by the power of your Holy Spirit so that as word is read	7:58
	and proclaimed, we may hear your message to us	8:03
	this Lenten season.	8:07
	Amen.	8:09
-	The Old Testament is from Isaiah 43:16-21.	8:18
	Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea,	8:28
	a path in the mighty waters,	8:32
	who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior.	8:34
	They lie down, they cannot rise.	8:40
	They're extinguished, quenched like a wick.	8:43
	Do not remember the former thing	8:48
	or consider the things of old.	8:51
	I am about to do a new thing.	8:54
	Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?	8:57
	I will make a way in the wilderness	9:02
	and rivers in the desert.	9:05
	The animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches.	9:08
	For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert	9:14
	to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed	9:19
	for myself so that they might declare my praise.	9:24
	This is the Word of the Lord.	9:28
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	9:31
-	Please join me in reading responsibly.	9:37
	Lord, bow thine ear to our prayer.	9:43
	(congregation murmurs)	9:48
	For he shall give his angels	10:05
	charge over thee today shall protect thee	10:06
	in all the ways thou goest, that their hands shall uphold	10:10
	and guide thee lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.	10:14
	Blessed are the men who feared him.	10:19
	They ever walk in the ways of peace	10:21
	through darkness rises light to the upright.	10:25
	He is gracious, compassionate, he is righteous.	10:29
	(congregation murmurs)	10:35
	Have respect under the prayer of thy servant, O Lord my God,	10:50
	unto thee will I cry, Lord my rock	10:56
	be not silent.	11:00
	(congregation murmurs)	11:02
	Behold, God the Lord passed by!	11:21
	And a mighty wind rent the mountains around,	11:25
	break in pieces the rocks, break them before the Lord.	11:29
	But yet the Lord was not in the tempest.	11:33
	(congregation murmurs)	11:38
	And after the earthquake there came a fire.	11:49
	The sea was upheaved, the earth was shaken.	11:53
	But yet the Lord was not in the fire.	11:56
	And after the fire there came a still small voice,	12:00
	and in that still voice onward came the Lord	12:06
Together	And then, shall your light break forth	12:12
	as the light of morning breaketh, and your health	12:14
	shall speedily spring forth then.	12:18
	And the glory of the Lord ever shall reward you.	12:21
	Lord, our Creator, how excellent Thy name is	12:25
	in all the nations,	12:29
	Thou fillest heaven with Thy glory.	12:31
	Amen!	12:34
	(bright organ music)	12:36
	(choir sings indistinctly)	12:58
	(choir sings indistinctly)	13:30
	(choir sings indistinctly)	13:58
	(choir sings indistinctly)	14:31
-	The Epistle lesson is from Paul's letter	14:56
	to Philippians 3:4B-14.	14:58
	If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh,	15:08
	I have more: circumcised on the eighth day,	15:12
	a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,	15:17
	a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;	15:22
	as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;	15:28
	as to righteousness under the law, blameless.	15:32
	Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard	15:36
	as loss because of Christ.	15:40
	More than that, I regard everything as loss	15:44
	because of the surpassing value	15:47
	of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.	15:50
	For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,	15:54
	and I regard them as rubbish,	15:59
	in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,	16:01
	not having a righteousness of my own	16:06
	that comes from the law,	16:08
	but one that comes through faith in Christ,	16:10
	the righteousness from God based on faith.	16:13
	I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection	16:18
	and the sharing of his sufferings	16:23
	by becoming like him in his death,	16:25
	if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.	16:28
	Not that I have already obtained this	16:35
	or have already reached the goal;	16:37
	but I press on to make it my own,	16:40
	because Christ Jesus has made me his own.	16:43
	Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;	16:49
	but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind	16:53
	and straining forward to what lies ahead,	16:58
	I press on towards the goal for the prize	17:02
	of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.	17:05
	This is the Word of the Lord,	17:10
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	17:12
-	The gospel lesson is from John 12:1-8	17:19
	Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany,	17:29
	the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.	17:32
	There they gave a dinner for him.	17:37
	Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those	17:40
	at the table with him.	17:43
	Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard,	17:45
	anointed Jesus's feet, and wiped them with her hair.	17:51
	The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.	17:56
	But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples,	18:02
	the one who was about to betray him, said,	18:06
	"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii	18:10
	and the money given to the poor?"	18:13
	He said this not because he cared about the poor	18:17
	but because he was a thief;	18:22
	he kept the common purse and used to steal	18:25
	what was put into it.	18:28
	Jesus said, "Leave her alone.	18:30
	She bought it so that she might keep it	18:34
	for the day of my burial.	18:36
	You always have the poor with you,	18:39
	but you do not always have me."	18:42
	This is the Word of the Lord.	18:45
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	18:47
-	May the words of my lips	18:56
	and the meditation of all our hearts	18:58
	be now and always acceptable in your sight,	19:00
	O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.	19:04
	Amen.	19:07
	Being a tourist attraction was not, we may suppose,	19:13
	what Lazarus had in mind.	19:16
	St. John does not give Lazarus a speaking part	19:19
	in the story we've just heard read.	19:23
	He is fairly comprehensively upstaged,	19:25
	perhaps as usual, by his two sisters.	19:28
	It's enough it seems that he was raised from the dead,	19:32
	resuscitated as we would say,	19:34
	and that he's now sharing a meal with Jesus	19:36
	in the home in Bethany.	19:39
	But John doesn't leave it there,	19:42
	because immediately after the story that we've just heard,	19:43
	John goes on to say that the people of Judea	19:48
	came flocking out to Bethany not just to see Jesus,	19:51
	but to see Lazarus.	19:55
	From being a corpse, he had become a curiosity.	19:57
	And the chief priests whom John has just told us about	20:02
	at the end of chapter 11, they had already now determined	20:06
	to put Jesus to death, and now according to John,	20:09
	they add Lazarus to their list.	20:13
	John, in constructing his gospel	20:17
	has made the raising of Lazarus	20:19
	the sixth of the great signs,	20:21
	the revelations of Jesus' glory,	20:24
	the things that evoke faith.	20:26
	But for the authorities, this was one sign too many.	20:29
	So Lazarus discovers something about Jesus and his call	20:34
	that we like to forget.	20:38
	We rightly love the story of the raising of Lazarus	20:40
	in John 11.	20:43
	Jesus weeps at the tomb, Jesus prays at the tomb,	20:45
	and then Jesus calls into the tomb, "Lazarus, come out!"	20:50
	And the dead man comes out, bound hand and foot and face	20:54
	in the grave clothes,	20:59
	and Jesus says, "Untie him and let him go."	21:00
	Yes, but go where?	21:04
	Go into comfortable obscurity?	21:07
	Go into the ordinary humdrum life he'd had before?	21:09
	Well, no go into a new life with unwelcome publicity,	21:13
	unwelcome attention, and unlooked for death threats.	21:18
	Ironically, being raised from the dead	21:23
	put Lazarus' life in danger.	21:25
	So far as I know, no New Testament scholar has yet suggested	21:29
	that Lazarus wrote the letter to the Philippians.	21:33
	Somebody will no doubt sooner or later,	21:36
	but Lazarus would've known what Paul meant	21:38
	when he wrote those deeply paradoxical words,	21:41
	which we heard a little earlier:	21:44
	"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection	21:46
	and the sharing of his sufferings.	21:50
	We might perhaps have put that the other way around.	21:54
	We might have thought, well suffering, yes,	21:58
	but then of course resurrection is the main thing.	21:59
	But for John, as for Lazarus, the order is pretty clear.	22:02
	First you are swept off your feet	22:06
	by the power of the resurrection of Jesus.	22:08
	Then you are called to follow in the way of the cross.	22:11
	And yes, then Paul goes on	22:15
	that "I might eventually attain the resurrection	22:17
	from the dead," but then he stresses,	22:20
	"but I'm not already there.	22:22
	I haven't already arrived at that point."	22:24
	First you're swept off your feet	22:27
	by the power of the resurrection,	22:29
	then you are called to follow in the way of the cross.	22:32
	It was so for Peter by the lake in John 21	22:35
	and it is so for Lazarus in John 12	22:39
	and it is so for Paul in Philippians.	22:43
	This is the strange call to us on this fifth Sunday in Lent,	22:46
	which in some traditions we call Passion Sunday.	22:51
	And over it all hangs that haunting old prophecy	22:56
	from Isaiah: don't remember the former things,	22:59
	don't consider what went on long ago.	23:01
	I am doing a new thing.	23:04
	It's springing forth now. Can't you see it?	23:06
	I'm making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.	23:09
	The wild animals will honor me,	23:12
	the jackals and the ostriches,	23:14
	because I'm giving water in the wilderness,	23:17
	rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people	23:20
	so that they might declare my praise.	23:23
	God is doing a new thing,	23:26
	things that hadn't been dreamt of before.	23:28
	Now in Isaiah, the prophet is confronting the pagan idols,	23:31
	the idols that oppress and dehumanize people	23:35
	with the news that the God of Israel	23:39
	is acting in history for his people	23:41
	to save them from tyranny,	23:43
	and with that to cure the whole creation	23:45
	and give it cause to celebrate.	23:48
	But how does this happen?	23:51
	In the astonishing sustained poem	23:53
	which we call Isaiah 40 through 55,	23:55
	this comes about through the work	23:59
	of the servant of the Lord who bears the fate	24:01
	of the people in himself,	24:05
	who is wounded for their transgressions	24:06
	and bruised for their iniquity.	24:09
	The people are invited to celebrate	24:11
	the great triumph of God over the idols	24:13
	and to look in horrified silence at the one	24:16
	who is despised and rejected,	24:20
	a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,	24:22
	and they are invited to realize,	24:26
	and this is the real new thing,	24:28
	this is the world shattering revelation,	24:30
	they are invited to realize that in the plan of God,	24:32
	these two belong so closely together	24:36
	that you can't split 'em apart.	24:39
	On this Passion Sunday, one of the ancient songs declares	24:42
	that the royal banners forward go,	24:46
	but we only dare sing or even think that,	24:49
	as we are keeping before our minds with all the irony of it,	24:53
	the fact that the procession in question	24:57
	with these royal banners fluttering in the breeze	24:59
	is going to the gallows.	25:03
	And it is this irony that we find ourselves inhaling	25:07
	with the smell of Mary's perfume,	25:11
	with every line of John's poignant and bittersweet story	25:14
	of what happened that day in Bethany.	25:19
	Eight verses, five characters, complete human drama.	25:22
	Lazarus, odd just to be there at all,	25:27
	silent throughout coming to terms with the ironic results	25:30
	for him of God's new action.	25:35
	Martha, busy as usual expressing her gratitude in her way,	25:38
	Mary out of her mind with devotion,	25:43
	giving everything she'd got to Jesus.	25:47
	Judas, the voice of prudence, of common sense,	25:51
	of religious duty, suspicious of all this emotion.	25:55
	This distraction from the task in hand,	25:59
	Jesus passive before Mary's devotion	26:03
	and then laconic to the point of being downright cryptic	26:07
	in holding Judas at bay	26:12
	and giving his own interpretative twist to Mary's action.	26:14
	Look, I'm doing a new thing. Can't you see?	26:20
	I will make a way in the wilderness, waters in the desert.	26:23
	All creation will celebrate as I give my people drink	26:26
	that they may declare my praise,	26:31
	and this is what it looks like on the ground.	26:33
	John uses this scene as the bridge	26:38
	between the chief priest's decision to kill Jesus	26:41
	and Jesus' triumphal though deeply paradoxical entry	26:44
	into Jerusalem on a donkey.	26:48
	This is the great wild exuberant celebration	26:50
	because this is Jesus' preparation for his burial.	26:53
	And this story therefore sets the terms of our keeping	27:00
	of Passiontide looking on to holy week and to Good Friday.	27:03
	The risk with this liturgical calendar, of course,	27:09
	is that each year we simply think, oh yes, it's this again.	27:12
	As the season sets off, ringing various bells in our mind,	27:15
	daffodils outside and large scale coral performances inside	27:19
	and with the winter semester finally turning into spring	27:23
	and moving towards its close.	27:26
	We've been through it all before.	27:27
	But the point about Passiontide	27:30
	is precisely that it remains unfamiliar.	27:32
	However many times we've gone through it, it still meets us	27:35
	as a new thing springing up like waters in the desert,	27:39
	shocking as Mary's extravagance,	27:43
	solemn as Jesus' burial announcement.	27:46
	Passiontide comes to tell us again	27:50
	what we had nearly forgotten in our daily work	27:53
	and our daily sin and our daily piety,	27:57
	that the God who alone deserves the name God	28:01
	is not simply another piece on our mental chess board.	28:04
	He is the opponent who defeats us by sacrificing his king.	28:08
	He is not simply another character among others	28:14
	in the deadly little dramas of our lives.	28:18
	He is the one who tears up the script	28:21
	and says, "Lazarus, come out!" calling us to know him.	28:24
	And if we are not terrified at those words,	28:30
	we haven't yet understood them.	28:32
	To know him and the power of his resurrection	28:34
	and the fellowship of his sufferings,	28:37
	to know him as the Lord and giver of life,	28:40
	the one who calls Lazarus out of his tomb	28:43
	even as he is being anointed to go into his tomb,	28:46
	the one whose claim on our love	28:49
	ranks even before the claims of the poor.	28:52
	And the challenge of Passiontide is	29:00
	then to hold open the door in the face of this hurricane,	29:02
	not to bar the door against it but to hold it open	29:07
	and let it whirl through the house	29:10
	until only that which cannot be shaken remains.	29:12
	Behind and beneath Jesus' passivity in this story	29:16
	and his cryptic remark to Judas,	29:19
	there lies the full and devastating secret	29:22
	which John is always wanting his readers to decode.	29:25
	That this is what it looks like when the God of Israel,	29:28
	the creator God does the new thing he'd promised.	29:32
	And the response to this	29:36
	can therefore never be merely the conventional wisdom,	29:38
	the conventional morality of Judas.	29:41
	Mary embodies the first and most important response,	29:44
	which is to worship with everything you've got	29:48
	the God who has given everything he's got	29:51
	Mary's extravagance is simply the answering mirror	29:55
	to the portrait of God that John has been sketching	29:59
	ever since the beginning of his gospel.	30:02
	The God only begotten who is at the father's side	30:04
	and who has provided the exact and true interpretation	30:08
	of the unseen God.	30:12
	If you don't want to worship this God	30:15
	with everything you've got,	30:17
	it can only be because you've not yet seen him	30:18
	or have for forgotten what you saw when you did.	30:21
	All true prayer, all true theology,	30:26
	all true biblical exegesis, all true devotion,	30:29
	all true Christian living are called into being	30:32
	by the prodigal generosity of God	30:35
	and are meant to be characterized by that same prodigality.	30:38
	And if for whatever reason Passiontide finds you	30:43
	less than prodigal in your devotion,	30:46
	less than passionate in your response to God's passion,	30:48
	and even perhaps a bit embarrassed	30:52
	at the thought of allowing your deepest emotions	30:54
	to express themselves in the presence of God,	30:56
	then read this story in John 12 again as a script	31:00
	and ask yourself, if you dare,	31:04
	which role you are casting yourself in.	31:07
	But the message of Passiontide for us too	31:11
	doesn't stop with the call to come outta the tomb	31:14
	with the call to worship Jesus with everything we've got.	31:17
	As with Lazarus, there is a morning after,	31:21
	there are fresh and disturbing questions to be faced,	31:24
	fresh tasks to be tackled,	31:27
	and they are made all the more disturbing	31:30
	by what Paul says in Philippians,	31:32
	because Paul whose worship of Jesus	31:35
	was no less exuberant than Mary's	31:38
	saw with worrying clarity what that worship means.	31:40
	One of the deepest rules about spirituality is	31:45
	that you become like what you worship.	31:48
	That's true with idolatry, as the Psalmist knew,	31:51
	they that make them alike unto them,	31:54
	and so are all those who put their trust in them.	31:56
	But it's even more true when you worship the God	31:59
	who is revealed in this Jesus.	32:03
	That's how the logic of Philippians as a letter works out.	32:06
	In chapter two, Paul had focused his exhortation	32:10
	to the church on the astonishing portrait of Jesus,	32:14
	a portrait we know quite well, we maybe even set it to music	32:18
	and yet which deserves repeated pondering,	32:22
	that he being in the form of God did not regard	32:25
	his equality with God as something to exploit,	32:28
	but emptied himself, becoming the servant, becoming human,	32:31
	and by being obedient to death, even the death of the cross.	32:36
	Wherefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name	32:40
	above every name, that at the name of Jesus	32:44
	every knee should bow and every tongue confess	32:46
	that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.	32:50
	Now that's fine. That's wonderful.	32:54
	We know it.	32:56
	It's one of the earliest and richest statements	32:57
	of the glory and achievement of Jesus himself.	32:59
	But what does Paul do with it?	33:02
	What does Paul do with it isn't just a nice idea,	33:05
	it isn't just something to sing about.	33:08
	Paul in adoring this Jesus finds himself drawn	33:10
	into the life of the one he adores,	33:15
	so that his own very existence becomes remodeled	33:18
	on the same pattern.	33:22
	And we could paraphrase this morning's reading	33:24
	to bring that out:	33:27
	Though I possessed all the badges of membership	33:28
	in God's people, I did not regard this membership	33:31
	as something to exploit, but I emptied myself,	33:35
	counting it all so much trash,	33:38
	gaining Christ Jesus my Lord	33:41
	through suffering the loss of all else.	33:44
	Therefore, God has granted me to know Christ	33:47
	and the power of his resurrection	33:49
	to share the fellowship of his sufferings,	33:51
	being made like him in his death,	33:54
	if somehow I too may attain the resurrection from the dead.	33:56
	Now it is vital as part of the meaning of Passiontide	34:02
	that we see that this is not simply the expression	34:06
	of personal piety.	34:09
	It isn't simply a matter of abstract theology	34:11
	of how Paul himself got saved	34:14
	in some purely spiritual sense.	34:17
	It was a matter as it was for Jesus and Lazarus	34:19
	and Martha and Mary of a deeply uncomfortable social	34:23
	and cultural reality.	34:29
	Paul had regarded himself, as he says,	34:31
	as part of the elite core of the elite party	34:33
	of the elite race of all humankind.	34:37
	And now he tore down all that elitism	34:41
	and threw it in the trash can,	34:45
	offering himself as the servant of little communities	34:47
	of ex-pagans around the Mediterranean world	34:51
	being ready, as he says, to have his lifeblood poured out	34:53
	on top of their sacrifice of faith.	34:57
	Just as we need to recapture or be recaptured	35:00
	by the outrageous behavior of God in Passiontide.	35:04
	So we should recognize afresh the shameless	35:09
	and outrageous behavior of Paul	35:12
	who dared to take the challenge of Jesus quite literally.	35:15
	Don't remember the former things,	35:19
	don't consider the things of old,	35:21
	the old ways, the old life.	35:23
	Don't hark back to where you started from,	35:25
	the privileges you once had.	35:27
	Look, I'm doing a new thing, it's getting underway,	35:29
	and you'd better get on board.	35:32
	I'm making rivers open up in the desert,	35:34
	all creation is celebrating,	35:37
	and you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.	35:39
	The challenge of Mary is to worship Jesus	35:45
	with everything we've got.	35:47
	The challenge of Paul is to follow Jesus	35:49
	with everything we've got.	35:53
	And in case we suppose that Paul's abandonment of privilege	35:54
	and status was something private to himself,	35:58
	we must remind ourselves of who he was writing to	36:01
	and of how they would've heard	36:04
	both his poem in praise of Jesus	36:06
	and his autobiographical description of himself.	36:08
	Philippi was a Roman colony giving allegiance to Caesar.	36:12
	Caesar was already being regarded	36:17
	in the eastern part of the empire as a divine figure,	36:19
	the Lord of all the world.	36:22
	Paul's picture of Jesus is deliberately subversive.	36:24
	If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar isn't.	36:28
	Why do you think Paul was in prison when he wrote this?	36:32
	For the same reason that Jesus	36:36
	was already under sentence of death	36:37
	as he sat down to dinner in Bethany.	36:40
	And for the same reason	36:42
	that Lazarus having been raised from the dead,	36:44
	found himself sharing that sentence.	36:46
	The kingdom of God challenges the kingdoms of the world	36:49
	at their deepest level.	36:53
	But the reason Paul tells the Philippians his autobiography	36:55
	at such length is not so that they might see	36:58
	how self-denying he is.	37:01
	It's so that they can work out for themselves	37:03
	what the meaning of discipleship might be for them,	37:07
	for them as Roman citizens, for them as an elite group	37:10
	within the elite civilization of the world.	37:15
	Paul's invitation a few verses later to imitate him	37:19
	is by no means to be reduced to terms	37:22
	of copying his theology merely	37:24
	or following his private moral example,	37:27
	vital and important though both of those are.	37:29
	He is inviting his beloved Philippians to hold the door open	37:32
	to the hurricane of the Passiontide gospel,	37:37
	of the passionate and compassionate God,	37:40
	the God who is doing a new thing,	37:43
	sweeping away all pagan empire and arrogance,	37:45
	winning the chess game by sacrificing his king,	37:49
	making rivers in the desert	37:53
	so that the jackals and the ostriches will celebrate.	37:55
	And the message of Passiontide therefore is	38:00
	that there is really only one way to be a Christian,	38:03
	because there is only one gospel	38:06
	to which we are all variously unfaithful,	38:08
	and to which therefore we all need to be re-called,	38:12
	to be drawn back by prayer and fasting	38:15
	and searching of the scriptures	38:18
	and honest examination of ourselves,	38:20
	both corporately and personally.	38:23
	The only way is the way of worship and discipleship.	38:27
	But if this worship is muted or humdrum,	38:31
	if this discipleship sinks down into conventional wisdom	38:33
	and pious platitudes, it needs to be stirred	38:37
	by a fresh vision of Jesus himself.	38:40
	Jesus weeping at Lazarus's tomb.	38:43
	Jesus commanding Lazarus to come out.	38:46
	Jesus accepting the extravagant devotion of Mary.	38:48
	Jesus riding on a donkey to his death.	38:52
	One of the scary things in preaching to a congregation	38:56
	one does not know is that I have no means of telling	38:58
	where the Passiontide message will find you	39:02
	or where it should take you,	39:05
	which casts the preacher back on the hope and the prayer	39:08
	that the Holy Spirit will apply what I have said to you,	39:11
	to your hearts, to your lives as a community,	39:15
	both as Christians, and as part of this great academy,	39:18
	which I am privileged to visit this week.	39:21
	What I do know is that however many Passiontides	39:24
	we have experienced before, God has yet more light	39:28
	and truth, yet more dying and rising,	39:32
	yet more rivers in the wilderness	39:35
	to bring forth out of his holy word.	39:38
	He wants to do a new thing, not only for you and in you,	39:41
	but also through you.	39:45
	He wants still to make a way in the wilderness	39:47
	and rivers in the desert, so that creation may rejoice	39:51
	and God's people may celebrate	39:55
	and he will do it still through his obedient servant	39:57
	who will speak his word of peace in your accent	40:02
	and will embrace the world with your outstretched arms.	40:07
	Amen.	40:13
	(pensive organ music)	40:26
	(pensive organ music continues)	40:56
	♪ Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended ♪	41:08
	♪ That we to judge thee have in hate pretended ♪	41:20
	♪ By foes derided, by thine own rejected ♪	41:32
	♪ O most afflicted ♪	41:44
	♪ Who was the guilty, who brought this upon thee ♪	41:53
	♪ Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee ♪	42:05
	♪ 'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee ♪	42:17
	♪ I crucified thee ♪	42:28
	♪ Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered ♪	42:38
	♪ The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered ♪	42:50
	♪ For our atonement, while we nothing heeded ♪	43:02
	♪ God interceded ♪	43:13
	♪ For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation ♪	43:22
	♪ Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation ♪	43:33
	♪ Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion ♪	43:45
	♪ For my salvation ♪	43:57
	♪ Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee ♪	44:05
	♪ I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee ♪	44:17
	♪ Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving ♪	44:29
	♪ Not my deserving ♪	44:41
Priest	The Lord be with you.	44:52
Congregation	And also with you.	44:53
-	Let us pray.	44:56
	Be seated.	44:56
	Lord, we walk behind you on your way,	45:09
	your narrow way to the cross.	45:19
	Give us grace to follow.	45:23
	Give us courage to be obedient.	45:27
	Faith in the sufficiency of your power.	45:31
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	45:40
	We bring to you the moral chaos of our world,	45:47
	its spiritual fatigue, its restlessness of heart,	45:53
	its dark forebodings.	45:59
	We acknowledge our share in the world's great sin,	46:04
	our love of ease, our pride of race	46:10
	and place and possession,	46:16
	our hard bargaining and ruthless competition,	46:20
	our failure to take account of the needs of others	46:26
	in our own complacency.	46:31
	The vices of the larger society are compounded	46:35
	by the lust of each of us.	46:41
	Work in us by your grace a miracle of renewal	46:46
	and transformation of rivers flowing in the desert.	46:51
	Grant us the strength and the will to keep thy commandments,	46:57
	to walk in thy ways.	47:03
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	47:07
	Hear us when we pray for those who have dedicated themselves	47:12
	to the service of high and worthy causes.	47:17
	We pray for all who are laboring for peace	47:23
	among the nations,	47:25
	for all who tend the sick and who combat disease.	47:28
	Particularly we pray for those	47:33
	who labor in the Duke hospitals.	47:35
	We pray for all who are engaged in the relief	47:38
	of the oppressed and the destitute,	47:42
	for all who seek the restoration of the broken unity	47:47
	of your body, the church.	47:51
	We pray for all who preach the gospel	47:55
	and for all who bear prodigal witness to Christ	47:59
	in distant lands.	48:03
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	48:04
	We bring to you the needs of this congregation,	48:10
	making special mention of those	48:15
	who this day are in bodily pain,	48:19
	of those who are in sorrow of heart,	48:22
	those whose minds are bewildered or perplexed.	48:27
	Be compassionate and gracious to any here, O Lord,	48:37
	for whom life has worsened, the sick of soul,	48:42
	the broken in will,	48:48
	the depressed and the despairing.	48:51
	Show them, O God, anew the sources of your strength,	48:58
	the gift of your serenity, filled them with joy	49:03
	and peace through believing in your ultimate victory.	49:09
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	49:16
	Amen.	49:22
	In this season, we remember what an effusive	49:25
	and good thing God has done for us in the life	49:31
	and death and resurrection of Christ.	49:36
	Therefore, our offering is our response	49:40
	to the gifts of God.	49:45
	(dramatic organ music)	50:08
	♪ Behold, God the Lord passed by ♪	50:15
	♪ And a mighty ♪	50:23
	♪ And a mighty ♪	50:24
	♪ And a mighty ♪	50:25
	♪ And a mighty ♪	50:26
	♪ Brake in pieces the rocks ♪	50:27
	♪ Brake them before the Lord ♪	50:29
	♪ Brake them before the Lord ♪	50:31
	♪ And a mighty ♪	50:33
	♪ Rent the mountains ♪	50:35
	♪ Rent the mountains ♪	50:36
	♪ Brake in pieces the rocks ♪	50:37
	♪ Brake them before the Lord ♪	50:40
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the tempest ♪	50:46
	♪ Behold, God the Lord passed by ♪	50:52
	♪ And the sea was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ♪	51:07
	♪ And the sea was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ♪	51:11
	♪ And the sea was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ♪	51:15
	♪ And the sea was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ♪	51:20
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the earthquake ♪	51:32
	♪ And after the earthquake there came a fire ♪	51:41
	♪ And after the earthquake there came a fire ♪	51:46
	♪ The sea was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ♪	51:50
	♪ And after the earthquake there came a fire ♪	51:55
	♪ And after the earthquake there came a fire ♪	52:00
	♪ But yet the Lord was not ♪	52:04
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the fire ♪	52:08
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the fire ♪	52:13
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the fire ♪	52:17
	♪ But yet the Lord was not in the fire ♪	52:22
	♪ And after the fire there came a still small voice ♪	52:30
	♪ And in that still voice, onward came the Lord ♪	52:44
	♪ And in that still voice, onward came the Lord ♪	52:54
	(choir sings indistinctly)	53:04
	♪ And in that still voice, onward came the Lord ♪	53:15
	♪ Onward came the Lord ♪	53:27
	♪ And in that still voice, onward came the Lord ♪	53:32
	♪ Onward came the Lord ♪	53:45
	(pensive organ music)	54:17
	(pensive organ music continues)	54:46
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	55:15
	♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪	55:23
	♪ Praise God above, ye heavenly host ♪	55:31
	♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪	55:39
-	Lord, you have been nothing but gracious to us.	55:54
	We the unworthy beneficiaries of your grace,	56:00
	daily prodigal bestowed upon us,	56:04
	we give thanks,	56:10
	offering our gifts as sign of our gratitude to you,	56:12
	praying as we have been taught.	56:17
	Our Father-	56:19
Together	Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name	56:21
	thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth	56:25
	as it is in heaven.	56:29
	Give us this day our daily bread;	56:31
	and forgive us our trespasses	56:34
	as we forgive those who trespass against us;	56:36
	and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	56:40
	For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.	56:45
	Amen.	56:51
	(bright organ music)	56:53
	(bright organ music continues)	57:30
	(choir sings indistinctly)	57:41
	(choir sings indistinctly)	58:14
	(choir sings indistinctly)	58:44
	(choir sings indistinctly)	59:14
	(choir sings indistinctly)	59:46
	And now may the grace of God,	1:00:22
	Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,	1:00:24
	be with you now and always.	1:00:27
	Amen.	1:00:30
	♪ God be in my head ♪	1:00:33
	♪ And in my understanding ♪	1:00:39
	♪ God be in mine eyes ♪	1:00:50
	♪ And in my looking ♪	1:00:57
	♪ God be in my mouth ♪	1:01:08
	♪ And in my speaking ♪	1:01:15
	♪ God be in my heart ♪	1:01:28
	♪ And in my thinking ♪	1:01:36
	♪ God be at mine end ♪	1:01:46
	♪ And at my departing ♪	1:01:59

Item Info

Title:

N. T. Wright - Sermon Untitled (April 2, 1995)

Description:

Sermon start time: 18:56. Sermon end time: 40:19.
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 18:56. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 40:19.
On this Passion sunday, the preacher preaches a Passiontide message which calls us to follow Christ. Following Christ is, in Paul's paradoxical words, to "know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings." We are to worship and follow Christ, the way of the cross, with everything we've got by giving all that we have, just as God gave all of Godself to us in doing a new thing (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4k35mv2w

Date:

April 2, 1995

Speaker:

Wright, N. T.

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0418
ref9559_mj0
uachapelsermaud
duke:321448
dcrmv001397
ark:/87924/r4k35mv2w
469381f0-53f4-4798-950b-be05062a709c

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

N. T. Wright - Sermon Untitled (April 2, 1995)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options