Can We Afford The Good Life?

This one starts with the scripture read by a young church member. Happy are those who…all sorts of terrible things. Duke looks at our definitions of happiness and compares the Princess Diana vs. Jackie Kennedy versions. And talks about how true happiness is a state of being that knows "there is no place that I can be that God isn’t there." God wants us to be happy – to know that God has got us. The people who know this are not just blessed. They are also a blessing. Blessed are those who know that God is in charge and live in that.  

In this sermon, Duke looks at America’s favorite word: freedom. How it looked in the 60s. How it looked in the early 2000s. Sometimes we believe we’re in a different lifeboat than others. But we’re in the same one. Trust in the God we see fully in Christ.

Duke asks us to examine if our faith is working for us. And says if it's working it should change how we live. Duke admits he likes doing funerals because he gets to know how people lived. He shares some great people stories from recent funerals. And he illuminates how FAITH is not what you claim to believe in, it’s how you lean into life. Faith gets you to remember where the solid ground is – and helps you go there to stand.

In this sermon, UNC had won the night before. But Tarheel Duke managed to tell a nice story about Coach K. It's a sermon about crossing borders. The Good News is not about enforcing borders but crossing them. Faith is more than orthodoxy – it’s a willingness to cross boundaries, to seek a better life. Jesus does not want to make people normal. He wants to move us from keeping our distance – to coming closer to each other. Both salvation and life are ALL gift.  It’s not about obedience, it’s about thankfulness. Thankfulness allows you to cross boundaries.

In this sermon from 2006 Duke examines how the status quo leads people to corruption, and examines what's essential and what's possibly trivial in worship (not the beautiful needlepoint cushions, imo!) He dissects the story of Jesus in the temple -- where he's not just mad, he's "temple mad." And he even tells of a wild dream connected to this scripture where Jesus comes to clean out at Dilworth UMC - needlepoint cushions, leadership and all. Do we too often make the important trivial and the trivial important to protect what makes us feel safe and important?

In this sermon from October 2004, Duke talks about divisions in society in 2004 along with the message in Jesus' disciples Simon the Zealot and Matthew, supposed sworn enemies who coexisted with Jesus. He discusses the power of faith when it brings us together instead of holds us apart. "Faith does not protect us from hard times, evil or tragedy -- but faith will keep us afloat in hard times."

The scripture tells two stories of differences and Duke discusses the difference between sameness and oneness. 

Based on the scripture of Micah, Duke talks about why we have very different responses to the questions: "What is the good life?" and "What makes life good?" 2005

A look at gnosticism.

In this sermon, Duke talks about grace, getting rid of his piano, and his take on what it means to follow Jesus.  Originally recorded at Dilworth United Methodist, Charlotte, NC 2006