You Tube Theology

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Dr Samuel Wells delivers a sermon entitled "Never Mind the Width." Opening excerpt from the sermon: (38:00) "Have you ever known what it means to be hungry? It starts as a sense of appetite, a feeling that you could really do with a bit of something, maybe a snack. And then it grows, and if you've got no way of finding a mouthful or a whole meal, you begin to feel your own fragility -- an ache in the stomach, your concentration beginning to waver. And it starts to be difficult to do ordinary things, so you begin to seek out distractions -- something absorbing that takes your attention away and enables you to lose yourself. You start to doubt your own judgment, and you realize you're becoming incredibly selfish, because you find yourself so mesmerized by your own desperation that you can't consider the needs of anyone else. And when finally you do find food, it can be that your yearning, and ache for the pain to go away, is so great that you don't truly enjoy the food or savor its taste or texture. You greedily wolf it down because your body's taken over and the rest of you's been elbowed aside. Hunger's drained all the joy; and you're left with raw, voracious compulsion." Closing excerpt from the sermon: ( 56:31) "Advent isn't an escape. It's an encounter with the time that's deeper than our time, a time we call eternal life. It's a discovery of a longing that's deeper than our longing, the longing we call God's waiting for us. It's an experience deep down and through the bottom of our experience, a place where grief is no longer isolating but companionable, where alienating hurt is becomes tender wisdom, where unfulfilled longing becomes the sculpting of a greater hole for grace. It's hard to do Advent all year round. It's almost easier to be left alone in our waiting. But just this once, this Advent, take the risk on God that God's taken on you. Feel the quality. Feel the depth. Go deeper and keep digging. Keep digging until you find you've dug deep into the heart of God." Sermon begins at 38:00. Isaiah 64:1-9. Bulletin: http://bit.ly/tSJVWf