Wadcast

#11 A Place of Passage | with Rowan Williams

Wadham College, University of Oxford Season 1 Episode 11

This year marks the 410th anniversary since Wadham’s chapel opened. Our chaplain, Jane Baun, has been very busy this past term, marking the occasion with exhibitions, festivities, and talks. We were privileged to have former archbishop, and more importantly, Wadham alumnus, Rowan Williams give a short address at a special evensong. It was recorded and, well, here it is! Many thanks to Bishop Rowan for his time and we hope you enjoy it. 

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I think

 my first task is to

 

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wish the chapel 

happy birthday

 

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and many happy

 returns

 

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to say 

that this is a

 

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happy return for me,

certainly

 

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to what's already 

been described

 

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as the scene of my 

greatest triumphs.

 

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Thank you to Jane.

 

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Thank you to the 

College community

 

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for their welcome.

 

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In the name of the

 

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Father and of the Son

 

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and of the Holy

 Spirit

 

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Amen.

 

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When the

 

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Roman Empire

 

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persecuted the early

 Christians,

 

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they did so mostly

 on the grounds

 

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that Christians 

were atheists.

 

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That's to say, 

Christians

 

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didn't understand 

about the gods,

 

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and they treated

 the gods

 

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so clumsily 

and tactlessly

 

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that the gods

 were liable

 

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to get very angry

 

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indeed with 

the Roman Empire,

 

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which is why it was

 not a good idea

 

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to have a lot

 

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of active

 

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Christians around

 in the Empire.

 

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It was not only bad

 for public morale,

 

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but very bad indeed 

for PR

 

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with the 

heavenly hosts.

 

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What, after all,

 

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did Christians 

get up to?

 

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They didn't

 

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behave with their 

God

 

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as sensible

 people did.

 

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Sensible

 

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people

 knew that gods,

 

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all sorts of them,

 

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lived in 

particular places.

 

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And if you were

 treating them

 

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sensibly,

you'd build them

 

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a nice,

comfortable house

 

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that you could visit

 from time to time.

 

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Gods lived in

 houses.

 

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That's what 

temples were for.

 

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You might gather 

outside those houses

 

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and sacrifice 

and have a

 

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generally good time.

 

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But the point of the 

temple

 

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was to house 

the god.

 

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Where were Christian 

temples?

 

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Nowhere to be seen.

 

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What did

 Christians do?

 

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Heaven only knows.

 

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But they seemed

 to meet on

 

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Saturday nights 

and Sunday mornings

 

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in squalid top floor

 flats to do

 

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goodness knows what

 

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they were said

 to perform appalling

 

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things, to eat flesh

 and drink blood.

 

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Who could trust

 

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people like that?

 

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You really needed

 to get them

 

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out of the way

 because they didn't

 

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understand

 about God.

 

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Christians 

were bad enough,

 

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but then actually

 so were

 

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Jews.

 

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Jews at 

least had a temple,

 

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just the one

 apparently

 

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in Jerusalem.

 

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A very spectacular 

building.

 

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But one of 

the stories

 

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we’re told about

 

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Roman bafflement

 over Jewish religion

 

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is the story

 of how Caesar's

 

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rival Pompey,

 

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in his journeying 

through

 

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what was then

 

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Syria, arrived

 in Jerusalem

 

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and forced his way

 

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into the innermost 

sanctuary

 

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of the Jerusalem 

temple

 

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expecting to find

 

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what you would 

normally find in

 

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a well-appointed

 sanctuary

 

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that is, lots of

 valuable gifts

 

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and a statue.

 

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What did he find

 

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in the sanctuary 

at Jerusalem?

 

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A rather

 elderly wooden box

 

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and nothing else.

 

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What was it then

 

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about Christians 

and Jews

 

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that pushed them 

into this

 

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Extraordinarily 

irreverent

 

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and irregular 

behaviour,

 

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which seemed to take 

no account

 

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of the gods -

what they needed

 

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what kept them

 happy

 

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where they needed 

to live,

 

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what you needed

 to say to them.

 

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Jews and Christians

 

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believed in God

 in a different way.

 

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They didn't 

simply believe

 

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in a different God.

 

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They believed that

 

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their encounter

 with God

 

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was an encounter,

 

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not with a power,

 a presence,

 

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rather like theirs

 

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only bigger

 

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but something like

 being projected

 

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into an unimaginably

 larger

 

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world.

 

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In the 

Old Testament,

 

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when Solomon

 dedicates

 

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the temple 

in Jerusalem,

 

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he says, “We know

 

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perfectly well

 

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that heaven and the

 heaven of heavens

 

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cannot contain you.”

 

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This is not a house

 

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for you to retire to

 

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with a dog in a 

patch of garden.

 

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This is simply 

a space

 

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through which

 we human beings

 

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may glimpse

 

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a limitless

 

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unborn,

 

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unending reality

 

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in whose presence

 

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we are changed.

 

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Christians inherited

 

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that vision,

 or you might say,

 

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non-vision of God.

 

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The God that

 Christians worshipped

 

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was not a God

 

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who lived in houses 

made by hands.

 

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We read that

 

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Again 

in the pages of

 

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the New Testament.

 

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Those houses 

made by hands

 

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where Christians

 might meet

 

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to encounter God

 

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were passage ways

 

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into the new

 landscape,

 

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where people

 

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thought and felt

 

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and saw differently.

 

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That's

 why it's significant

 

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in both Hebrew and 

Christian Scripture

 

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that great moments

 

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of crisis

 and transition

 

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tend to happen out

 in the desert.

 

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That featureless 

space

 

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with no buildings,

 no houses,

 

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no dogs,

 

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and no back gardens

 

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out under the

 infinity of the sky.

 

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Jews and Christians

 

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understood

 

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that the God

 they worshiped

 

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was never 

to be contained,

 

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but rather that 

his life

 

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reached out

 to embrace

 

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them.

 

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Jacob,

 

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in our Old Testament 

lesson,

 

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is running away

 from home.

 

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He doesn't know what 

his future holds.

 

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He has 

mortally offended

 

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probably every

 

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other member 

of his family.

 

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His future

 looks bleak.

 

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He lies down

 

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in a desert place.

 

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He pillows his head

 on a rock

 

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and he finds

 

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that this place

 

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is God's place,

 

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not because there's

 a little marker

 

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around it 

saying “God's place”

 

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but because,

 

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well, you might say

 

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because God.

 

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Because

 

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this is where He is 

to meet

 

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the presence 

that will begin to

 

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transform

 his identity

 

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and the

 

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identity of all

 those around him.

 

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He rises from his

 dream of God

 

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and the angels

 

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and says,

 

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The Lord was here

 in this place,

 

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and I did

 not know it.

 

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Or as we might 

translate it:

 

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“I’d never have

 guessed it.”

 

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But listen also

 

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to the way 

in which the

 

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resurrection story 

is told

 

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in our New Testament

 lesson tonight.

 

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Once again,

 

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at the heart of 

everything

 

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is an empty space

 

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where

 the body of Jesus

 

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is meant to be.

 

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There is a gap,

 

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a doorway, a passage

 

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into something new.

 

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“Why are you

 looking for

 

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the living

a mong the dead?”

 

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the angels say

 

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to the women 

at the tomb.

 

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“Who are you

 looking for?”

 

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says Jesus 

to Mary Magdalene.

 

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“Don't cling to

me”, he says.

 

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“I am on my way

 

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into the

 

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Heart 

of the mystery.

 

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and you can't

 hold onto me

 

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and contain me

 

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and make a

 little house for me.”

 

00:10:03:19 - 00:10:05:05

“Why, then,

 

00:10:05:05 - 00:10:07:13

should we celebrate 

any building?”

 

00:10:08:05 - 00:10:10:05

you might say.

 

00:10:10:24 - 00:10:12:13

Simply

 because we need

 

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signs of passage.

 

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Signs that

 

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take us in one way

 or another

 

00:10:19:12 - 00:10:21:12

from a habitual

 world

 

00:10:21:21 - 00:10:23:21

into something 

larger

 

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that take us from

 our habitual self

 

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and our pictures 

of ourself

 

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into something 

larger

 

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that take us from 

our pictures of God

 

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to something larger

 

00:10:34:12 - 00:10:36:12

and more 

uncontrollable.

 

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The worst thing 

we could ever do

 

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with places of

 worship

 

00:10:44:08 - 00:10:45:22

is to suppose

 

00:10:45:22 - 00:10:47:11

that they are

 where God

 

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is contained

 

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rather than that

 

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they are 

the passageway

 

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into an

 uncontainable

 

00:10:54:24 - 00:10:56:05

and therefore

 

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quite risky 

and demanding

 

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larger world.

 

00:11:02:21 - 00:11:04:14

When we give thanks

 

00:11:04:14 - 00:11:06:00

for any 

place of worship,

 

00:11:07:17 - 00:11:09:15

this chapel,

 

00:11:09:15 - 00:11:11:15

a Quaker 

meeting house,

 

00:11:11:21 - 00:11:13:21

Saint 

Peter's in Rome.

 

00:11:13:24 - 00:11:15:18

Wherever

 

00:11:15:18 - 00:11:17:13

we give thanks

 

00:11:17:13 - 00:11:19:20

that it has been 

a place of passage.