Sunday Service - 1/23/2011 - Heidi Neumark

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Heidi Neumark delivers a sermon entitled "Mending Nets."

Opening excerpt from the sermon: (41:23)

"For the last two years of her life, my mother moved in with me, my husband and our two children. She was in the advanced stages of Parkinsonʼs disease. She had made arrangements to move into an assisted living apartment on the grounds of a nursing home and had already completed the difficult process of sifting through a lifetime of belongings, deciding what to sell, what to give away, what to take with her. The house sheʼd lived in for over 50 years, my childhood home, was sold. Everything was set until a week before the big move when my mother got a phone call. A test showed dementia that had not been noticeable. She no longer qualified for the apartment and there was no other room available for her. They were so sorry."

Closing excerpt from the sermon:(59:57)

"Jesus taught his disciples by example, mending bodies, mending souls throughout Galilee. Jesus taught by example even when it meant tying his own destiny to those on the furthest margins, outside the gate, condemned and executed by the Romans. And still he continued mending. Nailed to a cross, yet mending our wounds, forgiving us when we fail miserably, healing us, tying us irrevocably to one another. And today, he is here, mending still. In this nave, which is part of a much larger boat, the ark of our earth wending its way through a sea of stars. Jesus is in the boat with us, navigating so that we can focus on the work before us. The work he has called us to do. The work he has taught us to do. Mending nets. Thanks be to God."

Sermon begins at 41:23.
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/ftk0Ax
Sermon: http://bit.ly/fciVlR

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Duke
• University
• Chapel
• faith
• gospel
• Jesus
• disciples
• Galilee
• Jews
• Gentiles
• James
• John
• grace
• Matthew
• loss
• Zebulum
• Naphtali
• mending
• hearts
• souls
• shelter
• homeless
• relationships