Sunday Service - 9/9/2012 - Luke Powery
Published 9 months ago
A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Dr Luke Powery delivers a sermon entitled "Dead(ly) Faith"
James 2:1-10, 11-13,14-17
Sermon begins at: (34:20)
Opening Excerpt from the Sermon:(34:20)
"Jimmy, excuse me, I mean James, is up to it again. In your face, tell it like it is, no holds barred, Ultimate Fighting Championship body slam-like, proclamation. It may not be fire and brimstone, Jonathan Edwards 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.' But James is throwing punches with his preaching today. 'You have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich that oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they?' Come on Jimmy, we're just beginning a new academic year and I haven't even been officially installed. Why are you doing this to me on my first Sunday preaching? Give us, or at least me, a break. James is not trying to win a popularity contest or a presidential election. He's not holding his own Christian convention to sway voters. He's not trying to tickle our ears with savory sayings of the great saints of the church. He knows that he's not in contention for the Dean of Duke Chapel anymore. But Jimmy still wants to get his point across to us. He's seriously concerned about faith, our faith. He thinks it may be on life support, barely breathing, or worse yet, dead. Is your faith in hospice already?
Jimmy thinks that may be the case. He's up to it again. Messing with us when we are really just settling into satisfaction with our sanctified religiosity. Doesn't he have better pastoral skills than that? Doesn't he know we already have a scaffold in this building and stones have fallen and the doors of the church will be closed and we can't take much more than that, right about now? Come on James. We go to the Chapel every Sunday and sing a few hymns and listen to scripture and listen to beautiful organ and choral music. We give money in the offering plate and stand for the gospel reading and we even pay attention to the organ postlude at the end of the service. Why is Jimmy still fooling with my faith? It may be sluggish or a bit slow and not as fervent or fiery as before. But James is still saying that our faith needs a workout. It needs to be worked out. It can't just sit and be a liturgical couch potato or a pew warmer. It can't just worship without any form of social witness in the world."
Closing Excerpt from the Sermon: (50:53)
"Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me, there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary" (At Calvary, lyrics by William Reed Newell). God was impartial toward us. When we were yet sinners Christ died for us so that we might have communion with God. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Instead of judgment we received mercy. Instead of hate, we received love. When we were down, God picked us up. When we were lost, God found us. God didn't give us our walking papers. Rather, God said, "Come unto me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In other words, 'Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me? 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!' (And Can it Be that I Should Gain?, lyrics by Charles Wesley).
A living Christian faith breathes out and bodies forth the mercy of God. A dying and dead faith commits spiritual homicide and strangles mercy to death. Lord have mercy on our faith for the life of the world. 'That where there is hatred, we might sow love. Where there is injury, we might sow pardon. Where is doubt, we might sow faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. That we may not seek to be consoled, but console or seek to be loved, but love' (Words derived from the Prayer of St. Francis). I don't know if Jimmy, I mean James, is finished with us yet. But from the looks of that table of mercy, God will never be finished with us."
James 2:1-10, 11-13,14-17
Sermon begins at: (34:20)
Opening Excerpt from the Sermon:(34:20)
"Jimmy, excuse me, I mean James, is up to it again. In your face, tell it like it is, no holds barred, Ultimate Fighting Championship body slam-like, proclamation. It may not be fire and brimstone, Jonathan Edwards 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.' But James is throwing punches with his preaching today. 'You have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich that oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they?' Come on Jimmy, we're just beginning a new academic year and I haven't even been officially installed. Why are you doing this to me on my first Sunday preaching? Give us, or at least me, a break. James is not trying to win a popularity contest or a presidential election. He's not holding his own Christian convention to sway voters. He's not trying to tickle our ears with savory sayings of the great saints of the church. He knows that he's not in contention for the Dean of Duke Chapel anymore. But Jimmy still wants to get his point across to us. He's seriously concerned about faith, our faith. He thinks it may be on life support, barely breathing, or worse yet, dead. Is your faith in hospice already?
Jimmy thinks that may be the case. He's up to it again. Messing with us when we are really just settling into satisfaction with our sanctified religiosity. Doesn't he have better pastoral skills than that? Doesn't he know we already have a scaffold in this building and stones have fallen and the doors of the church will be closed and we can't take much more than that, right about now? Come on James. We go to the Chapel every Sunday and sing a few hymns and listen to scripture and listen to beautiful organ and choral music. We give money in the offering plate and stand for the gospel reading and we even pay attention to the organ postlude at the end of the service. Why is Jimmy still fooling with my faith? It may be sluggish or a bit slow and not as fervent or fiery as before. But James is still saying that our faith needs a workout. It needs to be worked out. It can't just sit and be a liturgical couch potato or a pew warmer. It can't just worship without any form of social witness in the world."
Closing Excerpt from the Sermon: (50:53)
"Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me, there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary" (At Calvary, lyrics by William Reed Newell). God was impartial toward us. When we were yet sinners Christ died for us so that we might have communion with God. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Instead of judgment we received mercy. Instead of hate, we received love. When we were down, God picked us up. When we were lost, God found us. God didn't give us our walking papers. Rather, God said, "Come unto me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In other words, 'Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me? 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!' (And Can it Be that I Should Gain?, lyrics by Charles Wesley).
A living Christian faith breathes out and bodies forth the mercy of God. A dying and dead faith commits spiritual homicide and strangles mercy to death. Lord have mercy on our faith for the life of the world. 'That where there is hatred, we might sow love. Where there is injury, we might sow pardon. Where is doubt, we might sow faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. That we may not seek to be consoled, but console or seek to be loved, but love' (Words derived from the Prayer of St. Francis). I don't know if Jimmy, I mean James, is finished with us yet. But from the looks of that table of mercy, God will never be finished with us."
