Sunday Service - 6/5/2011 - Samuel Wells

A service of Sunday worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Dr Samuel Wells delivers a sermon entitled "Do We Exist?."

Opening excerpt from the sermon: (29:16)

"I happen to know identical twin brothers, now in their seventies, both ordained, both monks, and both Anglican bishops. They have a party piece that they do when one of them is invited to preach on Ascension Day. One brother hides somewhere behind the lectern, while the other goes up in the pulpit to preach the sermon. At the agreed moment, the one in the pulpit says, "The ascension of Jesus is a difficult event to envisage. Imagine it went something..." and his voice trails off mysteriously, while he slowly disappears into the lower regions of the pulpit, until moments later his twin brother pops out from behind the lectern and says, "Like this!" It never fails to bring the house down, especially if the congregation doesn't previously know that the two bishops are identical twin brothers."

Closing excerpt from the sermon: (49:01)

"Hear the good news of the Christian gospel. The Holy Trinity, the one true Being, loved the creation so much -- enough, indeed, to long for that creation not just to change and become, but truly to exist, to be. And so Jesus came at Christmas to enter the world of becoming, to be in that world of becoming. Jesus lived a true life of being in the midst of this transitory world of becoming, even to the point of death, the ultimate form of decay. But the God of Being raised Jesus from death, and in his glorious ascension Jesus took the becoming of God's children into the heart of God, that those who see their true being in him shall not finally become, and thus decay and die forever, but find their true being in him. Jesus' ascension turns contingent human becoming for the first time into true human being. So Jesus' ascension isn't an embarrassment. It's the answer to one of the most important, perhaps the most important question there is: "Do we exist?" And the answer is, because Jesus has ascended to the Father,"Yes-- we can."

Sermon begins at 29:16.
Acts 1:1-11, Colossians 3.1-4, Luke 24:44-53
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/m25Pif

Category:

Education

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