Sunday Service - 3/27/2011 - Katie Douglas
Published 2 years ago
A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. Student preacher Katie Douglas (Trinity '11) delivers a sermon entitled "Rocks and Hard Places."
Opening excerpt from the sermon: (32:23)
"Growing up in a rural area, I spent a lot of time as a kid wading in creeks and skipping rocks. Because of this, my mom spent a lot of time doing my laundry and asking me the question, "Katie, how in the world did your clothes get so muddy?" I usually blamed my brother. Now I have the great privilege of exploring the environment as an academic pursuit. The downside is that now I do my own laundry. So it won't surprise you to know that I love scriptural imagery like we see in today's Exodus reading. The Israelites are in the desert, outraged, afraid, and thirsty. God tells Moses to "strike the rock, and water will come out of it." So Moses does, and water indeed flows forth. When I read Scripture like this -- Scripture that shows God at work in the world around me -- it enlivens me. This is God among the rocks, where there is no water. This is God in the desert."
Closing excerpt from the sermon: (50:08)
"Today marks the third Sunday of Lent, a time when we acknowledge our brokenness, our emptiness, and our rockiness in preparation to be made whole, to be filled, and to overflow with the living water of Christ. If you stand today in the middle of a desert, the body of Christ waits with you, full of hope. We hold hopefully to the promise that as God met the Israelites in a desert and a Samaritan woman at a well, so too does God meet us in our needs. We hold hopefully to the promise of Isaiah 35, that "the desert shall rejoice and blossom."
This desert's rocks will be broken open. This desert will be met and filled with Living Water. This desert will rejoice, and this desert will blossom. Amen."
Sermon begins at 32:23. Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-15
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/gUhGaP
Opening excerpt from the sermon: (32:23)
"Growing up in a rural area, I spent a lot of time as a kid wading in creeks and skipping rocks. Because of this, my mom spent a lot of time doing my laundry and asking me the question, "Katie, how in the world did your clothes get so muddy?" I usually blamed my brother. Now I have the great privilege of exploring the environment as an academic pursuit. The downside is that now I do my own laundry. So it won't surprise you to know that I love scriptural imagery like we see in today's Exodus reading. The Israelites are in the desert, outraged, afraid, and thirsty. God tells Moses to "strike the rock, and water will come out of it." So Moses does, and water indeed flows forth. When I read Scripture like this -- Scripture that shows God at work in the world around me -- it enlivens me. This is God among the rocks, where there is no water. This is God in the desert."
Closing excerpt from the sermon: (50:08)
"Today marks the third Sunday of Lent, a time when we acknowledge our brokenness, our emptiness, and our rockiness in preparation to be made whole, to be filled, and to overflow with the living water of Christ. If you stand today in the middle of a desert, the body of Christ waits with you, full of hope. We hold hopefully to the promise that as God met the Israelites in a desert and a Samaritan woman at a well, so too does God meet us in our needs. We hold hopefully to the promise of Isaiah 35, that "the desert shall rejoice and blossom."
This desert's rocks will be broken open. This desert will be met and filled with Living Water. This desert will rejoice, and this desert will blossom. Amen."
Sermon begins at 32:23. Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-15
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/gUhGaP
