Sunday Service - 6/26/2011 - Ellen Davis

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. Dr Ellen Davis delivers a sermon entitled "Radical Trust."

Opening excerpt from the sermon: (23:04)

"A thought experiment: If they had asked me to edit the Bible (whoever "they" is -- perhaps the Holy Spirit, or the heavenly Council on Divinely Inspired Works)... if they had made me the original editor of the Bible, I would have made some substantial changes, and the very first change would have been to get rid of the 22nd chapter of Genesis, the story of the near-sacrifice of Isaac. "It's way too off-putting," I would have argued. "Just listen to this: And God said, Take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac, and take him to some as yet unspecified place, and offer him there as a burnt offering. This is exactly the kind of story that gives the Old Testament a bad name," I would have said. "It gives God a bad name. If you put this story just 22 chapters into the Bible, who is going to read the rest? Even if the story is true, who would want to believe in a God like this?"

Closing excerpt from the sermon: (45:31)

"Caution: Relationship with the real God, the God of Abraham and Jesus, is not for the risk averse.The book of Genesis puts it to us straight: Sometimes being in relationship with the real God hurts like hell. Sometimes it's bewildering; we'll be inching along in the dark, with no vision of where this relationship is taking us. But the gospel also puts it to us straight: it is taking us to the cross, and on to resurrection. It is taking us straight into the arms of God. The paradox of risky faith delivering us into the arms of God -- that is the paradox at which artist Margaret Adams Parker hints in the print on the front of your bulletin. See, Abraham has one hand behind his back, holding the knife -- but the other he stretches out as if to caress his bound child, curled up as though asleep on the cloth his father laid down to protect him from the rough wood. And above them both we see what Abraham does not see: the angel stretching out strong protective hands to enfold them. It is a picture of a child's radical trust, a parent's aching yet indomitable love, and the divine Love that will not let us go -- ever, not ever. You can put your trust in that."

Sermon begins at 23:04. Genesis 22:1-14
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/jWAOs3
Sermon: http://bit.ly/lAfgXz

Category:

Education

Tags:

• duke
• university
• chapel
• Isaac
• burnt
• offering
• God
• worship
• obedience
• fear
• sacrifice
• Lord
• will
• provide
• Moriah
• trust
• love
• relationship
• marriage
• covenant
• faith
• promise