(mellow music playing) 

- Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honored and gloried forever and ever, amen. Let us pray. Oh the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity, whose name is Holy, who dwellers in the high and holy place, with those also have contrite and humble spirit, speak now thy word to us in Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. To renew us in humility and faith, and awaken us to new life of grateful devotion, let thy present spirit unite our spirits in true worship, obedient, love, and faithful discipleship. Oh Lord open our lips that our mouths may show forth thy praise through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. (uplifting music) In the presence of God, in the realization of his goodness and his grace, in company with one another, we offer our unison prayer of confession. Let us pray. Forgive us oh Lord. We acknowledge ourselves as type of the common man, of the men and women who shut the door and sit by the fire, who fear the blessing of God, the loneliness of the night of God. The surrender required the deprivation inflicted, who fear the injustice of men less than the justice of God, who fear the hand at the window, the fire in the thatch, the fist in the tavern, the push into the canal, less than we fear the love of God. We acknowledge our trespass, our weakness, our fault. We acknowledge that the sin of the world is upon our heads, that the blood of martyrs and the agony of his saints is upon our heads. Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy up on us. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. Comfort our hearts and establish them in every good work and word, amen. (uplifting music) ♪ We sing to him whose wisdom ♪ ♪ Our songs let him who gave us voices hear ♪ ♪ We joy in God, who is the spring of mirth ♪ ♪ Who loves the harmony of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ Our humble sonnets shall that praise rehearse ♪ ♪ Who is the music of the universe ♪ ♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ ♪ We consecrate our art ♪ ♪ And offer up with every tongue a heart ♪ ♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ ♪ We consecrate our art ♪ ♪ And offer up and offer up, with every tongue a heart ♪ ♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ ♪ We consecrate our art ♪ ♪ And offer up and offer up, with every tongue a heart ♪ 

- The old Testament lesson is found in the book of Isaiah, the 53rd chapter. Who has believed what we have heard and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has born our and carried our sorrows. Yet, we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet, he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him, he has put him to grief. When he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, he shall see the fruit of the travel of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. That's a stand for the reading of the gospel. The gospel lesson is from the 16th chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, the 13th through the 25th verses. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John, the Baptist, others say Elijah and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." And he said to them, "And who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one, but he was the Christ. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And on the third day he raised and Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, "God forbid, Lord, this shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me for you are not on the side of God, but of men." Then Jesus told his disciples. "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Amen. (uplifting music) Let us affirm our faith. We are not alone. We live in God's world. We believe in God who has created and is creating, who has come in the true man Jesus to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by his spirit. We trust him, he calls us to be his church, to celebrate his precedence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and our hope in life, in death, in life beyond death. God is with us we are not alone. Thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Oh, eternal God our creator and our father who has given us life in this thy world, among thy many peoples and nations, we praise and bless thee for thy good earth on which we constantly depend for the sustaining of our life. and thus depend on thee. Keep us responsible and faithful in this thankfulness that we may not selfishly destroy and exploit this one earth. And move us all God to share its blessings with all thy needy children, now, and yet to come. Oh God creator, we thank thee for giving us life together in deep belongings to families and communities, through which our needs are met, our love we vote. The welfare of thy children served and justice sought, enable us to know our belonging to all peoples and to seek for ways to live in peace and joy together. Oh God creator we're grateful for the gift of minds to seek understanding of thy world, of thy truth of thy ways among us, for the heritage of human learning and the faithfulness to fact, and the search for further light. Let our knowledge and understanding become wisdom in thy way that we may know what is good for all and follow it for their sake. Oh eternal God manifests savingly in Jesus Christ, our Lord, that life which was the light of all mankind. We praise thee for the new life together, to which he brings us in which he incorporates us, in which he constantly calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. Save us then oh Lord from petty preoccupation, with our enjoyments our privileges our fulfillments, our needs, and disturb and change us to self giving devotion, to sharing in his ministry of reconciliation, of going about doing good, of seeking and helping the lost, and troubled, and suffering. Oh eternal God present spirit working here among us in the establishing guiding reforming of thy church, awaken us to thy presence and remake us for the tasks committed to us. Let thy spirit bring to light our sin, challenge our complacency rebuke and transform our prejudice, illuminates our blindness with new sight, to see our ways and thy way, move us to love and serve together. Let thy spirit give comfort and strength to those in suffering and despair in discouragement and failure, in temptation and sin. Let thy spirit strengthen all those who minister to such needs of body and spirit in hospital, home, or church, speaking or doing thy healing, helping work. give us that vulnerable openness to the struggles, the poverty, the famine, and starvation of thy troubled children in this world, that we may be continually awakened to profound concern, intelligent caring, sacrificial sharing of the goods of life, we so boundlessly enjoy. Give us the joy of new life in this ministering community that we may help one another to restrain our self seeking to sharpen our sensitivity, to envision vine mission and ministry for us, following him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life for the new life of others. And now as our savior Christ has taught us, we pray together. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. 

- In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Passenger train rolling across Northern Indiana struck a gasoline truck and tank trailers splitting them apart. The diesel was drenched with burning gasoline, there was a furious fire on either side of the track, but the train ran on until the last car had cleared the blazing crossing. The critically burned engineer could not be quieted until he was assured that all the passengers were safe. And then he said, "Well, thank God, thank God, for years, I have imagined this kind of an accident, and I had always known that if it did happen, I must never touched the brakes until the last coach had passed the fire." He had imagined he had projected himself into the situation, he had made up his mind. It was this rehearsal thinking which had saved lives in the moment of crisis. Well, of course we do rehearsal thinking every day, I suppose, in all kinds of situations, preparation for exams at its best is not panic, cramming, but thoughtful consideration of what is the essence of the course. Before the excitement of the ball game, the team members quietly think through their strategy, the surgeon scrubbing before the operation, reviews his procedures and lamp provides opportunity for our rehearsal thinking about the ultimate issues of our lives. As we watched Jesus press toward Jerusalem and the cross, we project ourselves into the scene. We are there with the disciples, listening to Jesus. Those 12 persons wanted to follow Jesus, but they were afraid of what people would say, so are we. They bought the idea that the Messiah would come as a conquering hero to make everything all right. Often our idea of God is a kind of a big daddy. We see what happened to Jesus and his disciples. And we ask ourselves, am I ready for that? For one thing, we need this rehearsal thinking because we've so much inner conflict. St. Paul call on Christians to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. But they experienced that a good many of us have is that we're more like a battlefield than soldiers with our good and evil impulses fighting for the mastery of our soul. Our interior battle is personified in the dramatic confrontation between Jesus and Peter. Jesus was saying that he must suffer many things and be killed. When Peter blurted, "God forbid, Lord, this shall never happen to you. The masters reply is akin to violence. "Get thy behind me, you Satan, you're a hindrance to me, you're not on the side of God, but of men." The vehemence of Jesus is all the more startling because moments before he had praise Peter for his declaration of faith, that Jesus was the Messiah. But Peter had used the term Messiah in the context of his inherited belief. That Messiah would be an invincible military leader come to set the people free, suffering had no place in that picture. My rehearsal thinking reveals that this conflict is a battle front that runs right through my life. On the one hand, I feel that Jesus was right, that he who takes a sword, will perish by the sword, that the meek do inherit the earth. That the people who really experience abiding joy and a sense of fulfillment, are the humble, the merciful, the pure in heart, the kind of people who show Goodwill even to their enemies, yet they're persecuted, jailed, killed, the cost frightens me. On the other hand, I want ease and pleasure, there are hungry people everywhere. I know, but I wanna eat my fill, I don't wanna make sacrifices for the people on the other side of the tracks. I want my children to go to the top, no matter who's head they bruise or hearts they break. If I got ahead by pushing other people around what happened? I have no bleeding heart. So the battle rages between my two selves, as I survey the passion of Jesus and consider my response to it. Watching the drama unfold, I see that Jesus was tempted and tried as I am. Right down, to Gethsemane he prayed that the cross might not be necessary, you remember his temptation in the wilderness. He could have ease and power. If only he would bow to the methods of the world. Jesus had settled that long ago, but now comes Peter harping on the same tool as if to say, "Play it safe Jesus," small wonder the master spoke sharply, "Out of my sight, you Satan." I am helped when I remember that Jesus experienced inner conflicts like mine. In the second place, we need this rehearsal thinking to help us count the cost of discipleship. When Jesus asks us to deny ourselves, he's doing more than asking us to do without meat during lamb, our social events. He's speaking to our pension for keeping ourself at the center of attention at all costs. Ever come to think of it? Even our social problems are variations of the human tendency to grab all the advantages we can grab and deny them to others. What else is discrimination of race or class, but a form of closed society, which it shows advantages to some people, why enforcing disadvantages on other people? So in our rehearsal thinking, the fundamental charge we must make is whether from this point in time, we will live as beasts of prey or as children of God, obligated to humankind. Of course, sometimes we think we can have it both ways. Once upon a time, there was a contractor who built a church for a highly emotional congregation, and then he couldn't get them to pay for it. He decided to scare them into honesty and he rented an iridescent devil suit complete with fork, tail and spear. And one Sunday night, when the preacher had been threatening the congregation with hell and fire, the builder, all that doubt and his new outfit pulled the master switch and bounded down the aisle, pandemonium broke out, people streaked and ran for the doors. One little lady stumbled and fell at his feet. The disguise builder loomed threateningly over her with his trident spear in his hand, straggling to her knees. She said in a quavering voice, "Oh Mr devil, hear me please. I bake more cakes, washed more dishes, sold more rummage than any other woman in this church. But all the time I've been on your side." (congregation laughing) Like the little lady, we try to work both sides of the street. We gloss over the persistent teaching of Jesus that whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Mark you, if you back away from sacrifice, you back away from God. Discipleship requires the denial of self. And Jesus said, "Take up your cross." The cross is a symbol of the punishment you take from people who have a stake in keeping things as they are, or you take it from neutral people who would condone any monstrous wrong rather than risk their safety to stop the wrong. As James Baldwin reminds us, civilization is not destroyed by wicked people. It's not necessary to be that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless or put it another way. The cross is a metalanguage of being abandoned by persons whom we had thought we could depend on to understand and support us. As Isaiah said of the suffering servant, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. But whatever form it takes, the cross falls in the line of obedient discipleship. You take it up, it is service and care. The cross is not something that befalls you by accident or without your consent. You have your Gethsemane where you face the appalling fact that discipleship means not so much making a sacrifice as being the sacrifice. And then, and there you say yes or no, it's as simple, and as terrible as that. Martin Luther king Jr. described an experience during the Montgomery bus protest. He had received many telephone threats, which he had dismissed as the work of crank. But one night after his wife had gone to sleep, he received a particularly savage threat. Later he wrote about it. He said, "I hung up, but I could not sleep. It seemed that all my fears had come down on me at once. I had reached the saturation point. I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. Finally, I went down to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. I was ready to give up. I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing to be a coward, in this state of exhaustion, my courage had almost gone. Then I decided to take my problem to God. My head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud the words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory." He writes, "Oh Lord, I'm here taking a stand for what I believe is right, but now I'm afraid the people are looking to me for leadership. And if I stand before them without strength and courage, they'll folder. I am at the end of my power, I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." He continues, "At that moment. I experienced the presence of the divine as never before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, 'Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth, God will be on your side forever.' Almost at once my fears began to pass from me. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. The outer situation remains the same, but God has given me an inner calm." That was Martin Luther King's Gethsemane. The fundamentals were saddled, the rest of his life was commentary, but above all, let us remember this, bearing, the cross is not unmitigated pain and sorrow. The letter to Hebrews says of Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. cross bearing isn't aggressive thrusting of one self into a crucial situation whose outcome matters more than life. And it brings its own reward, a deep sense of fulfillment. I'm one of four sons, as youngsters we were disorganized hot tempered, ready to resort to our fists. Our parents almost gave up hope for us, almost, but they never did thank God. In later years, I tried to tell my father that I had begun to realize what a costly process it had been for him. With a Misty smile, he simply said, "Well, that's the joy of being a father." Rehearsal thinking is decision-making, whether it's the engineer and the cam, the surgeon as he scrubs, or you here now. You look ahead, make up your mind. Jesus said, "If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." You are the only person qualified to say what that entails for you, and you say yes or no. Let us pray. Oh, our father God grant that there may be some person here this day who we'll have the grace to say to you. "Yes, I will take up my cross and follow you," amen. (uplifting music) ♪ In the hour of my distress ♪ ♪ When my temptations me opress ♪ ♪ And when my sins confess ♪ ♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ ♪ When I lie in my bed, sick in heart and sick in head ♪ ♪ And with doubt discomforted ♪ ♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ ♪ And the house doth sigh and weep ♪ ♪ And the world is drowned in sleep ♪ ♪ Yet my eyes the watch do keep ♪ ♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ ♪ When the passing bell doth toll ♪ ♪ And the Furies in a shoal ♪ ♪ Come to fright a parting soul ♪ ♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ ♪ When the tapers now burn blue ♪ ♪ And the comforters are few ♪ ♪ And that number more than true ♪ ♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ ♪ When the Judgment is revealed ♪ ♪ And that open's which was sealed ♪ ♪ When to Thee I have appealed ♪ ♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ (uplifting music) Thine oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and then the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom oh Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all, amen. (uplifting music) Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. To him, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all, amen. (bell chimes) (uplifting music)