You Tube Theology

A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Dr Samuel Wells delivers a sermon entitled "Outrageous Humility." Opening excerpt from the sermon:(33:29) "This is an outrage." "You're outrageous." To say, "This is an outrage," is to tell someone that their brazen manners, or their unfashionable opinions, lie beyond our accepted social norms and evoke righteous anger. To say, "You're outrageous" (in such a way that it rhymes with "gorgeous"), is to affirm that a person's unambiguous language or provocative clothing is not unwelcome to you -- even though it constitutes shameless flirtation. I want to look with you at two kinds of outrage this morning, both of which dally on this same boundary between the unacceptable and the intriguing. The first is a familiar question. What made John Franklin Crowell think that lowly Trinity College in Randolph County, North Carolina had a big future and needed to be uprooted forthwith and transplanted to Durham? What made William Preston Few and James B. Duke think they could just build a medieval-looking campus with a host of research schools and turn Trinity College into a major university overnight? What in 1984 made Terry Sanford speak of Duke's "outrageous ambition" to build the best faculty in the world within two decades?" Closing excerpt from the sermon:(52:27) "But wait. You weren't ambitious enough. You weren't outrageous enough. Listen to these words with fear and trembling, and work out what they mean for your and our salvation. We have something even more outrageous to tell you about. Paul calls it humility. Paul calls it the mind of Christ. Make my joy complete, says Paul. Face your own slavery, and so become free like no one has ever been free before. Face your own death, and so live like no one has ever lived before. Face the ultimate in pain and shame, and so dismantle fear like no one has ever done before. Now that's what I call ambition. Curiously, that's what Paul calls humility. But either way, if you set your sights on that goal, I'll tell you one thing for certain: every tongue in heaven will sing and every knee on earth bend, and all will say, with wonder and delight, "You're outrageous." Sermon begins at 33:29. Philippians 2:1-13 Bulletin: http://bit.ly/o8BiOh