Sunday Service - 5/6/12 - Sam Wells скачать в хорошем качестве

Sunday Service - 5/6/12 - Sam Wells

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Doctor Samuel Wells delivers his final sermon as the Dean of Duke Chapel. Opening Excerpt from the Sermon: (37:24) "Jesus hasn't got long left with his disciples. So he gathers them round for one last conversation. And you feel the disciples' growing sense of panic, because suddenly that wondrous abundance that they'd always felt around Jesus is being displaced by a terrifying sense of scarcity that they don't have him for much longer. And the disciples are saying, 'Show us more! You haven't told us enough!" But at the same time Jesus is saying, 'I've shown you all there is. To say or do more would simply to be showing you more of what you've already felt and seen.' It's as if Jesus has reached into his collection of 1980s soul albums, and started singing, 'If you don't know me by now, you will never, never, never know me...' (to which the only appropriate response from the disciples would, of course, be ('oooooooooh, ooooh ooooh ooooh ooooh ooooh'). What Jesus does is to give them one last 'I am' saying. He's given six already -- including'I am the resurrection and the life,' 'I am the good shepherd,' and 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' -- and now he's going to make it the perfect seven. He says, "I am the true vine.' Think about the many layers of significance in this phrase. Israel thought of itself as a vine, or a vineyard. Jesus is saying, 'I am the true Israel, the chosen of God, through whom all the nations will find a blessing.' Jesus says, 'I am the trunk, the core, the epicenter of everything God has always been doing.' Remember it all started with a tree in a garden? Humanity's failure to honor that tree symbolized humanity's failure to put God in the middle of all things and let God be the source of abundant life. Jesus says, "I am the heart of it all. I am the original source of life. I am God's renewal of the earth through Israel.' And now, here we are, the night before Jesus is hung on the cross, and Jesus is describing himself as a tree. Surely no coincidence there, you'd think. Jesus is saying, "This tree is what I am -- I am God's arms stretched abroad to restore Israel, humanity, and all creation to life, and to turn the water of life into the wine of eternal life. My Father is pruning me, curtailing my life, to give the fruit of abundant life to the world." Closing Excerpt from the Sermon: (55:58) "I'm going to tell you about a family I know very well and you know very well. The children are quite young, not yet ten years old. They've attended a well-known and very large church for most of their lives. The children's father's a well-known preacher. But the two children aren't at all impressed by that. They know what really matters. When they see the procession of choir and bible and servers and lectors and clergy walk forward during the opening hymn, the children are captivated by the one thing that really matters, the one thing that encapsulates the vine in all its life-giving abundance and transforming power and pruning grief. And that one thing is the cross. One of the children habitually takes a small cross out of her worship bag and waves it proudly as the choir and bible and clergy walk by. One day, while everyone else was singing the processional hymn, her brother decided right now was the time to ask their mother for the answers to life's most important questions. 'What does it take to carry the cross, Mommy?' 'You have to be strong, son, because it's heavy, and you have to carry it a long way; but most people find that it gets lighter, because Jesus promised to bear the burden with us." "Who gets to carry the cross, Mommy?" "It's often a member of the choir, son, because to be in the choir you have to be incredibly strong; but really, anyone can be invited to do it.' 'Might I carry the cross one day, Mommy?' 'I hope so, son. I hope you'll carry the cross every day of your life.' 'Will Daddy ever get to carry the cross?' 'Maybe he will, son. Maybe, one day, he will.' I came here to be your preacher. And you have made me a disciple. Thank you." 1 John 4:7-21 John 15:1-8 Bulletin: http://bit.ly/JacDxL