Sunday Service - 1/29/2012 - Adam Hollowell

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. Dr Adam Hollowell delivers a sermon entitled "Knowledge and Power."

Opening excerpt fro the sermon: (42:27)

"About this time eleven years ago I was sitting in a small classroom in the Religion Department next door fulfilling my freshman year seminar requirement. As was the practice then, and still is today, all first year students must take a seminar course of fifteen students or fewer, and I elected to take mine in on the topic of Protestants and American Culture. Professor Grant Wacker taught the course and we read a series of biographies on a number of prominent figures -- Thomas Jefferson, Emily Dickinson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. On this particular occasion we had been assigned to read Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President by Allen Guelzo. And ... how can I say it delicately? I hadn't done the reading. I can't remember what kept me from it -- was it some rush event or concert on campus? A basketball game, perhaps? We did win the national championship that year. Or maybe it was a calculus problem set? I had so much trouble with calculus ... yes, it must've been calculus. Well, whatever the reason, I hadn't done the reading and professor Wacker asked me directly in front of all the other students, "Adam, what did Abraham Lincoln think about the Bible?" I searched my mind for something -- anything! -- about Lincoln that might help answer the question. I had at least skimmed the pages, tried to acquaint myself with the book, but nothing was coming to mind. Suddenly it hit me -- Lincoln never went to church until it was a political necessity. It's true, he attended irregularly and only to maintain a certain respectability as a candidate for public office. And if he didn't go to church he must not have cared much about the Bible. So I said, as confidently as I could, "Professor, he didn't know much of the Bible." There was a long pause. "Actually," the professor said, "Lincoln had nearly the whole thing memorized."

Closing excerpt from the sermon:(1:02:04)

"We are a people so easily tricked into thinking that knowledge is power, and power is salvation. In that synagogue in Capernaum, confronted by the unclean spirit, Jesus offers a new way of knowing. As the one on his way to destruction, he cast the unclean spirit out of the man, banishing his brokenness and liberating him to new life. He does this also for you. The way of Christ is knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sin. It is the power of the suffering servant. And all the people said, "A new teaching -- with authority!" Thanks be to God. Amen."

Sermon begins at 42:27
Sermon: http://bit.ly/ydxAqp
Bulletin: http://bit.ly/vZ17ub

Category:

Education

Tags:

• duke
• university
• chapel
• church
• knowledge
• is
• power
• gnosticism
• new
• teaching
• Abraham
• Lincoln
• memorized
• bible
• Jesus
• intellectual
• Fred
• Craddock
• synagogue
• capernaum
• unclean
• spirit
• casting
• forgiveness
• of
• sin
• liberation
• knowing