﻿WEBVTT

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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<v ->Because we are not perfect</v>

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and because we'd have shortcomings,

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each one of us could fashion his own words

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or acknowledging his sins and transgressions

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but may we unite our thoughts, our hearts,

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and our voices and words, which the psalmist has given us

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to express our feeling of repentance

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and the confession of our sins.

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Let us pray.

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Have mercy upon us oh God.

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According to thy loving kindness,

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according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,

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blot out our our transgressions.

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Washed us thoroughly from our iniquity

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and cleanse us from our sin,

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for we acknowledge our transgressions

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and our sin is ever before us.

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Created in us clean hearts oh God

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and renew a right spirit within us,

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cast us not away from thy presence

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and take not thy holy spirit from us.

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Restore unto us the joy of thy salvation

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and uphold us with thy free spirit.

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Amen.

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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<v ->Old testament.</v>

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The Book of Numbers, the seventh chapter,

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the first through the ninth verses.

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"And it came to pass on the day

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"that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle

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"and had anointed and sanctified it

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"and all the instruments thereof,

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"both the altar and all the vessels thereof

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"and had anointed them and sanctified them,

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"that the princess of Israel,

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"heads of the houses of their fathers,

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"who were the princes of the tribes and were over them

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"that were numbered, offered.

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"And they brought their offering before the Lord,

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"six covered wagons and 12 oxen.

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"A wagon for two of the princes and each one an ox

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"and they brought them before the tabernacle

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"and the Lord spake unto Moses saying",

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"Take it of them that they may be to do the service

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"of the tabernacle of the congregation

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"and i shall give them unto the Levites,

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"to every man according to his service.

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"And Moses took the wagons and the oxen

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"and gave them unto the Levites,

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"two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon,

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"according to their service

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"and four wagons and eight oxen

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"he gave unto the sons of Merari,

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"according unto their service.

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"Unto the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron, the priest,

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"but unto the sons of Kohath he gave none

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"because the service at the sanctuary belonging unto them

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"was that they bear upon their shoulders."

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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<v ->The Lord be with you.</v>

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(indistinct)

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Let us pray.

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Let us offer on the God are prayers of thanksgiving,

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our prayers, intersession,

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our prayers of supplication and the Lord's prayer.

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All mighty God our heavenly father.

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On this holy Lords day,

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we come to express our gratitude for the joy of fall

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and the cool weather after the heat of summer,

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for the thrill of a beautiful new day following the night,

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for the promise of a new chance in life

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even when yesterday was not a complete success,

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for the sense of satisfaction

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which comes to us from a job well done,

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or even which comes to us from having made progress

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toward the completion of a good piece of work.

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We thank thee for great music,

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for great musicians,

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for inspiring art, inspired artists.

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We bless thee for a storehouse of learning

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which beckons us,

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for books and teachers who guide us

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in the use of them.

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We thank thee for parents who really care for us.

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We thank you for the affectionate response

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of sons and daughters

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who are learning to be themselves

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without breaking their relationship to their parents.

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We blessed thee for the creative relationships of love

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between true lovers,

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who unselfishly are devoted to each other.

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We thank thee above everything else

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and above every one else for Jesus Christ,

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who purifies an a nobles every relationship of life.

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And now our father we come with our intersessions

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for our fellow man,

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whom thou does love as much as thou does love us.

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We pray for the sick that they may know it is possible

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for each one of them to receive a blessing

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and although not all the blessings they can receive

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are the same, we pray that they may have hope

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and expectation to receive the blessing

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that is possible for them.

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We pray for the bitter

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who've made up their minds of they're never in this life

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going to forgive certain people,

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that they may be given grace, actually to forgive them,

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that they may be delivered from hatred in their hearts

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and from the kind of relationship which hatred sustains.

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We pray for those who have prejudged their fellows

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because of their nationality or their politics or their race

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or their religion,

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that they may cease to pre-judge any individual

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and may relate to people as people.

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We have come to intercede for the person

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who is quite sure that he has gone too far

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from the path of right ever to return,

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help him to know that while there is life,

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there is always hope.

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If he will but return under the heavenly father

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and ask forgiveness.

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We come praying thy blessings upon the leaders of the church

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an upon the leaders of our state, of our nation,

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the leaders of every nation,

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that in this hour of history,

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they may be led by a wisdom and a love

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which comes from Jesus Christ.

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We pray for those whose lives and whose welfare are at stake

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in the mighty events of the world today,

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that they may not be injured and bruised,

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that they may be protected by not only thy wisdom

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but wisdom in the part of our leaders.

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We pray thee our father for those who were making plans

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for a marriage,

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for those who have just began their marriage,

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for parents who have new children in their homes.

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Actually, oh God, we need to pray for a great many people

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and we now offer our intersections for all our fellow man,

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those we know, those we shall never meet,

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those who call us friend, those who call us enemy,

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those who have found Christ as savior,

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those who are estranged from him,

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we pray for all of them through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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(gentle angelic music)

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(choir singing in foreign language)

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And now as our savior Christ has taught us,

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we humbly pray together saying

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our father who art in heaven,

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hallowed be thy name,

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thy kingdom come,

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thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us

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and lead us not into temptation,

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but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom

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and the power and the glory forever.

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Amen.

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The peace of God be with you all.

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What did you make of the nine verses

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from Numbers chapter seven, which were read the lesson?

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I'm fairly sure that you could not see much point to them.

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If they had been read in the King James version,

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there would have been even less seeable point to them.

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Some of you probably feel that only your presbyterian

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would choose a passage like that as holy scripture.

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Yet I'm convinced that in these nine verses

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is a spiritual truth of vital importance to all times.

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And therefor to us.

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Let us look first at the old testament background.

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The children of Israel are in the wilderness of Sinai,

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under the leadership of Moses,

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he is endeavoring to whip them into a unit

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strong enough to attack and subdued Palestine.

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It is an early machine age civilization.

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They transport their goods and chattels in wagons,

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they even a specified amount

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of ecclesiastical furniture in wagons.

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But according to the editor Numbers

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there are several holy objects,

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particularly the Ark of the Covenant

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which Moses refused to have transported on wheels.

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The sons of Gershon may have two wagons and four oxen

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to covey the curtains of the tabernacle

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and the door hangings and all the instruments

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of their servers.

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The sons of Merari may have four wagons

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and eight oxen to tow the boards

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and the bars of the tabernacle, the sockets,

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the pins and the cords,

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but the sons of Kohath may have neither wagons nor oxen.

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There charge was the ark

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and with it the table, the candlesticks, the alter.

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The most holy things

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and the most holy of all the holy things

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was the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh.

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The symbol of God's presence in the camp,

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more of that, the embodiment

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the container of God's presence in the camp.

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The very heart of Israel's religious life.

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The ark in particular must be born on the shoulders of men.

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Now why was the ark so holy?

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Well we have to go back

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to the theological thinking of the time

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to answer the question.

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In those times God's were local,

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constricted and confined by tribal boundaries.

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Each was tied to the soil,

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actually to the soil of a small piece of territory.

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When a man crossed a tribal boundary.

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He literally left his old God,

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that fact is evidenced again and again

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in the early chapters of the old testament.

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But the children of Israel loved this new God

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who Moses had found in the desert.

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They believed that it was he

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who had delivered them from Egypt

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and because they loved him,

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they didn't want to leave him behind in Sinai

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when they invaded and settled down in the promise land,

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in what was to become Palestine.

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So what did they do?

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They decided to carry him from Sinai into the promised land.

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They build a box and in it they placed two stones.

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We know them as the stones,

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the tablets of the 10 commandments,

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perhaps probably they were originally two boulders

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from off the mountain in Sinai,

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were Moses had talked with Yahweh.

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They place the stones in the box,

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which came to be called the Ark of the Covenant

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thus they had Yahweh in the box.

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Remember that God's were local,

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tied to the terrain and the two pieces

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of the terrain in that box

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and then they picked him up

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and carried him into Palestine

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and there they naturalized him and make him their God,

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the God, their.

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Now of course they didn't really, but they thought they did

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but notice he was not transport in a wagon,

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at least not at this time,

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but on the shoulders of men.

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Moses distinguished between that which was less holy

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and that which was more holy,

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the latter was given a more personal,

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a more intimate treatment,

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that which was most holy

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men carried on their own shoulders.

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Now is there a word here

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from an early mechanical age to our machine civilization

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about the religious life.

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Is it something like this?

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In religion there is one fact

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which is so basic as to be the holy fact

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namely the relationship between a person

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and his God,

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00:35:58.840 --> 00:36:03.837
between a group of persons and there God,

267
00:36:05.250 --> 00:36:07.573
and one another.

268
00:36:09.720 --> 00:36:13.993
It is an I, thou relationship,

269
00:36:15.700 --> 00:36:20.677
A we, you kinship, affinity.

270
00:36:23.670 --> 00:36:27.660
The result of which is the happiness

271
00:36:29.160 --> 00:36:33.897
which the Bible calls blessedness that is the holy fact,

272
00:36:38.302 --> 00:36:43.302
the continuing symbolic Ark of the Covenant.

273
00:36:45.090 --> 00:36:48.123
It is Isaiah in the temple.

274
00:36:50.270 --> 00:36:55.260
It is Jesus on the Mount of Temptation

275
00:36:55.260 --> 00:36:57.670
and in the garden of Gethsemane.

276
00:36:59.733 --> 00:37:03.613
It is Paul on the Damascus road.

277
00:37:06.340 --> 00:37:09.787
It is Luther monkey cell

278
00:37:11.510 --> 00:37:15.130
working with half a dozen words,

279
00:37:15.130 --> 00:37:19.453
the just shall live by faith.

280
00:37:22.688 --> 00:37:24.950
It is Schweitzer,

281
00:37:24.950 --> 00:37:29.950
refusing to be God's man for nine years

282
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:37.033
and then deciding for a medical degree

283
00:37:38.600 --> 00:37:41.593
and a missionary medical practice.

284
00:37:43.890 --> 00:37:48.273
It is a student here in a dormitory room,

285
00:37:50.220 --> 00:37:55.220
correlating his, her talents with a community need

286
00:37:59.670 --> 00:38:03.860
in the light of the I, the thou relationship with God.

287
00:38:07.209 --> 00:38:09.876
This is the heart of the matter,

288
00:38:14.947 --> 00:38:18.364
but the heart of the matter is constantly

289
00:38:20.350 --> 00:38:21.963
being lost sight of,

290
00:38:23.348 --> 00:38:27.520
tough as constantly recover.

291
00:38:27.520 --> 00:38:28.353
Now why?

292
00:38:30.980 --> 00:38:35.980
Well, one reason is because man begins to make too holy.

293
00:38:38.991 --> 00:38:43.991
The formed, the symbol, the medium

294
00:38:47.670 --> 00:38:52.193
through which we believe God makes contact with us.

295
00:38:54.880 --> 00:38:58.653
How did God make himself known to the Jew?

296
00:38:59.976 --> 00:39:01.393
Through the law.

297
00:39:04.730 --> 00:39:09.553
Now one emphasis of the law was the tithe.

298
00:39:11.503 --> 00:39:16.503
10% of ones income for God,

299
00:39:19.261 --> 00:39:24.261
but often this payment, this holy tax became

300
00:39:26.420 --> 00:39:30.983
mechanical, prefatory.

301
00:39:32.680 --> 00:39:37.680
So that Jesus said of it, "Alas for you lawyers

302
00:39:41.177 --> 00:39:46.177
and Pharisees, hypocrites that is frauds.

303
00:39:50.097 --> 00:39:53.947
"You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin

304
00:40:00.121 --> 00:40:02.954
"but you have over looked

305
00:40:02.954 --> 00:40:05.787
"the weightier demands of the law,

306
00:40:07.317 --> 00:40:12.053
"justice, mercy and good faith,

307
00:40:14.927 --> 00:40:18.300
"it is these you should have practiced

308
00:40:19.237 --> 00:40:24.237
"without neglecting the others blind guides."

309
00:40:29.490 --> 00:40:33.220
For many Christians, God makes himself known

310
00:40:33.220 --> 00:40:38.220
through the church which in time

311
00:40:38.330 --> 00:40:43.080
becomes a professional holding company

312
00:40:44.260 --> 00:40:49.260
with a power structure be it Roman Catholic

313
00:40:50.410 --> 00:40:55.410
or Southern Baptist or United Presbyterian.

314
00:40:58.710 --> 00:41:03.710
And the along come a weekly and a Frances

315
00:41:05.860 --> 00:41:10.860
and a Luther and a Wesley and a John 23,

316
00:41:15.620 --> 00:41:20.457
to tell us that some ecclesiastical paraphernalia

317
00:41:22.462 --> 00:41:27.045
and some sacerdotal apparatus may be carried in wagons,

318
00:41:31.892 --> 00:41:36.892
but that the encounter of God and man.

319
00:41:39.445 --> 00:41:43.327
Of God and man is very personal

320
00:41:46.590 --> 00:41:50.930
and symbolically carried on the shoulders

321
00:41:50.930 --> 00:41:52.913
and hearts persons.

322
00:41:55.830 --> 00:41:58.813
Let me clarify what I'm trying to say here.

323
00:42:01.770 --> 00:42:03.500
Machinery is good,

324
00:42:05.850 --> 00:42:10.540
we much to be grateful to it for in our ordinary life

325
00:42:12.123 --> 00:42:16.170
abundance of goods improving in quality

326
00:42:16.170 --> 00:42:18.113
and diminishing price.

327
00:42:19.264 --> 00:42:23.233
Drudgery eliminated and the chance of leisure.

328
00:42:24.370 --> 00:42:29.183
Comfortable homes with a variety of labor saving devices.

329
00:42:30.600 --> 00:42:35.340
Unbelievable facilities for travel

330
00:42:35.340 --> 00:42:38.490
and miraculous means of communication

331
00:42:40.300 --> 00:42:44.620
and we in the United States are both heirs

332
00:42:44.620 --> 00:42:47.863
and lords of the machine,

333
00:42:49.270 --> 00:42:54.270
but there is one caveat the machine is a good servant,

334
00:42:58.140 --> 00:42:59.563
but a bad master.

335
00:43:02.180 --> 00:43:05.440
When the machine begins to shape the spiritual

336
00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:10.587
and ethical and political ends

337
00:43:13.590 --> 00:43:17.810
then man becomes a devil or a slave,

338
00:43:22.090 --> 00:43:25.293
this is true in the religious sphere.

339
00:43:25.293 --> 00:43:26.823
Even on campus.

340
00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:33.210
When we are swamped with committee work

341
00:43:34.500 --> 00:43:38.940
and an endless succession of called meetings

342
00:43:40.530 --> 00:43:45.383
and a growing number of petitions to be signed.

343
00:43:47.070 --> 00:43:52.070
It's time to ask about the relationship of busy work

344
00:43:53.960 --> 00:43:55.567
to the holy spirit.

345
00:43:58.100 --> 00:44:02.860
When religious offices pour their printed documents

346
00:44:02.860 --> 00:44:07.860
and mimeograph broad sheets in an epistolary Niagara,

347
00:44:10.420 --> 00:44:11.843
then it's time to ask

348
00:44:13.620 --> 00:44:18.273
what is more holy and what is less holy?

349
00:44:20.050 --> 00:44:22.560
I know one Methodist minister

350
00:44:23.720 --> 00:44:26.770
who keeps his spiritual sanity

351
00:44:28.190 --> 00:44:31.240
by never opening any envelope

352
00:44:32.330 --> 00:44:35.949
which comes from Nashville Tennessee.

353
00:44:35.949 --> 00:44:39.282
(congregation laughs)

354
00:44:41.500 --> 00:44:44.170
When the National Council of Churches

355
00:44:45.420 --> 00:44:49.350
or any national student organization

356
00:44:49.350 --> 00:44:54.350
becomes the ex officio Delphic oracle for one group

357
00:44:58.050 --> 00:45:02.243
and the voice of anti Christ for another,

358
00:45:03.750 --> 00:45:08.750
then it's time to ask about the relative importance

359
00:45:09.270 --> 00:45:13.680
of absentee steamroller wagons

360
00:45:15.250 --> 00:45:19.883
and the visible small body of Christopher's.

361
00:45:21.630 --> 00:45:26.630
Christ bearers on the local scene.

362
00:45:28.117 --> 00:45:33.117
The spiritual sons and daughters of Kohath

363
00:45:35.240 --> 00:45:40.240
who voluntarily carry the symbol of God on their persons.

364
00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:47.150
Now let us be clear about what's being said

365
00:45:48.677 --> 00:45:53.290
it is not the elimination of machinery which is desire,

366
00:45:53.290 --> 00:45:55.673
but it's subordination.

367
00:45:58.310 --> 00:46:02.693
It is that our entanglement in organizing,

368
00:46:04.350 --> 00:46:08.763
worse than that, our enjoyment of organization,

369
00:46:11.100 --> 00:46:16.100
be a secondary and not a primary concern,

370
00:46:17.460 --> 00:46:20.707
that has differentiate between means and ends

371
00:46:22.410 --> 00:46:24.630
and among the kinds of means

372
00:46:26.320 --> 00:46:31.320
which implement the desire end of a person and God

373
00:46:33.860 --> 00:46:35.493
in valid contact.

374
00:46:37.600 --> 00:46:40.690
This proposition that some holy things

375
00:46:40.690 --> 00:46:44.590
are holier than others is evidence

376
00:46:44.590 --> 00:46:49.590
both analogically and effectually in the areas of life

377
00:46:50.420 --> 00:46:53.353
which are not synonymous with religion,

378
00:46:54.351 --> 00:46:59.143
but which are influenced by religion.

379
00:47:00.120 --> 00:47:01.777
One is an education.

380
00:47:04.100 --> 00:47:07.330
It's obvious from the revamped curricular

381
00:47:08.521 --> 00:47:13.521
in almost all areas of the university's academic life,

382
00:47:15.730 --> 00:47:20.723
that many people were worrying about the mechanical,

383
00:47:21.730 --> 00:47:26.730
impersonal, stereo typed implementation

384
00:47:29.236 --> 00:47:34.236
of a rather rigorous and out of date corpus of course,

385
00:47:37.560 --> 00:47:41.050
this may be illustrated if somewhat caricatured

386
00:47:42.410 --> 00:47:47.410
by the incident of a, the French Minister of Education,

387
00:47:49.470 --> 00:47:51.523
being interviewed by a Britisher.

388
00:47:54.330 --> 00:47:59.330
The minister pulled out his watch, looked at it and said,

389
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:06.360
every child in France, in such, in such a grade,

390
00:48:09.090 --> 00:48:13.993
is at this moment composing a Latin verse.

391
00:48:16.740 --> 00:48:17.950
Now think of it.

392
00:48:17.950 --> 00:48:22.853
Every child in France, not just in Paris,

393
00:48:24.560 --> 00:48:29.560
of a certain age was composing of Latin verse

394
00:48:30.110 --> 00:48:32.333
at that specific moment,

395
00:48:34.280 --> 00:48:38.653
maybe 40 million French men can be wrong.

396
00:48:41.290 --> 00:48:46.290
Machinery was controlling and carrying

397
00:48:46.990 --> 00:48:51.390
what individual men and women should've been carrying

398
00:48:51.390 --> 00:48:54.060
in concert with boys and girls

399
00:48:55.180 --> 00:48:57.923
in understood local situation.

400
00:49:00.360 --> 00:49:05.360
Nowadays a student may almost become an IBM Card

401
00:49:08.210 --> 00:49:12.893
whose one humane cry is that he be not stapled,

402
00:49:14.040 --> 00:49:16.830
mutilated or bent.

403
00:49:19.340 --> 00:49:24.110
Now it's too expensive too impossible

404
00:49:24.110 --> 00:49:29.010
to return to Mark Hopkins at one end of a log

405
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:34.770
and a farm boy at the other

406
00:49:36.970 --> 00:49:41.970
but it is possible to make sure that education

407
00:49:43.400 --> 00:49:48.400
is not a systematic conglomeration of card indices,

408
00:49:51.830 --> 00:49:56.830
right and wrong quizzes, strangely known as objective tests.

409
00:49:59.690 --> 00:50:04.690
A rated diploma and an alumni membership card,

410
00:50:07.600 --> 00:50:12.413
that is why this student body is on the right lines,

411
00:50:13.740 --> 00:50:18.740
when it selects professors whom it deems worthy

412
00:50:20.820 --> 00:50:25.273
of public and cooperate recognition.

413
00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:32.550
We still need and thanks be to God,

414
00:50:32.550 --> 00:50:37.550
we still find men and women like Garmin or Ramos

415
00:50:40.200 --> 00:50:45.200
of whom it was said, he wrote on the hearts of man.

416
00:50:50.090 --> 00:50:55.090
He wrote on the hearts of man.

417
00:50:56.760 --> 00:51:01.663
The second area is in the realm of marriage.

418
00:51:02.960 --> 00:51:05.400
I often think of Duke students

419
00:51:05.400 --> 00:51:08.423
at whose weddings I'm hounded to officiate.

420
00:51:12.980 --> 00:51:17.730
In my minds eye I watch these young people standing there

421
00:51:24.660 --> 00:51:29.660
before the communion table, looking at each other,

422
00:51:31.410 --> 00:51:36.410
hands clasped, flighting their (indistinct)

423
00:51:37.367 --> 00:51:39.390
and I do promise in covenant

424
00:51:41.870 --> 00:51:45.040
before God and these witnesses

425
00:51:47.010 --> 00:51:50.303
to be thy loving and faithful husband,

426
00:51:51.550 --> 00:51:55.160
wife, in plenty and in want,

427
00:51:57.610 --> 00:51:58.977
in joy and in sorrow,

428
00:52:00.730 --> 00:52:02.240
in sickness and in health

429
00:52:04.160 --> 00:52:07.063
as long as we both shall live.

430
00:52:10.380 --> 00:52:13.130
Now what's going to make them keep that vow?

431
00:52:17.847 --> 00:52:21.810
A washing machine and a self defrosting icebox,

432
00:52:24.660 --> 00:52:28.093
a vacuum cleaner and a color TV,

433
00:52:30.190 --> 00:52:31.993
a garbage disposal unit?

434
00:52:35.400 --> 00:52:37.893
Well, they'll help.

435
00:52:42.890 --> 00:52:45.253
Let's not fool ourselves.

436
00:52:46.935 --> 00:52:51.935
Thank God for the machine age, blessings on it,

437
00:52:51.970 --> 00:52:55.093
there's good use for the wagons,

438
00:52:56.550 --> 00:53:00.763
but they're not essential for the joint pilgrimage.

439
00:53:02.800 --> 00:53:07.370
Robert Burns poem, "John Anderson my Jo, John",

440
00:53:07.370 --> 00:53:09.323
should show that.

441
00:53:09.323 --> 00:53:10.523
Do you recall the lines?

442
00:53:12.100 --> 00:53:14.423
An old woman's talking to an old man

443
00:53:16.690 --> 00:53:21.383
remembering their life when they were first married.

444
00:53:23.920 --> 00:53:27.953
Now they've not merely climb the hill together,

445
00:53:29.660 --> 00:53:31.350
their looking at a road

446
00:53:32.700 --> 00:53:34.583
as it dips into the valley,

447
00:53:36.820 --> 00:53:40.840
but she knows they will walk down together

448
00:53:45.020 --> 00:53:49.323
and be buried at the foot together.

449
00:53:51.887 --> 00:53:56.447
"John Anderson my jo, John, when we were first acquent

450
00:53:58.532 --> 00:54:01.199
"your locks were like the raven,

451
00:54:02.597 --> 00:54:06.597
"but now your brow is beld", that is unwrinkled.

452
00:54:09.065 --> 00:54:12.163
"But now your brow is beld John", bold,

453
00:54:13.550 --> 00:54:14.893
he's got a high forehead.

454
00:54:17.147 --> 00:54:19.783
"Your locks are like the snaw,

455
00:54:22.357 --> 00:54:25.283
"but blessing on your frosty pow.

456
00:54:26.607 --> 00:54:30.067
"John Anderson my Jo.

457
00:54:30.067 --> 00:54:32.027
"John Anderson my jo, John,

458
00:54:32.027 --> 00:54:34.763
"we climbed the hill the gither

459
00:54:36.037 --> 00:54:41.037
"and many a canty day John, We've had wi' ane anither.

460
00:54:43.237 --> 00:54:47.453
"Now we maun totter down, John,

461
00:54:49.166 --> 00:54:54.166
"but hand in hand well go and sleep the gither

462
00:54:55.337 --> 00:54:56.383
"at the foot.

463
00:54:57.837 --> 00:54:59.827
"John Anderson my Jo."

464
00:55:01.820 --> 00:55:06.617
Now that requires understanding, sympathy, humor

465
00:55:11.923 --> 00:55:16.837
and the capacity for not being equally mad at the same time.

466
00:55:22.650 --> 00:55:26.443
It comes from affection, confidence,

467
00:55:28.050 --> 00:55:33.050
and valuing of each other in terms of the highest

468
00:55:33.420 --> 00:55:36.273
and the deepest, they know.

469
00:55:38.130 --> 00:55:42.800
Paid labor with machines will build a house

470
00:55:45.290 --> 00:55:49.960
and furniture and labor saving devices

471
00:55:49.960 --> 00:55:54.960
will equip the house and there they stop,

472
00:55:57.150 --> 00:55:59.053
were they should stop.

473
00:56:00.404 --> 00:56:01.913
They've done their job.

474
00:56:04.629 --> 00:56:08.180
But of the making of the house into a home

475
00:56:10.680 --> 00:56:14.123
is something created by mutual love,

476
00:56:16.360 --> 00:56:19.360
something born on the shoulders

477
00:56:21.240 --> 00:56:24.533
and in the hearts of a man and a woman.

478
00:56:28.760 --> 00:56:32.563
Yes, Moses had a sound idea,

479
00:56:34.888 --> 00:56:37.163
a right idea.

480
00:56:38.760 --> 00:56:43.760
Life make sense when things are in their proper place

481
00:56:47.200 --> 00:56:52.200
and things should always be in a subordinate place.

482
00:56:57.240 --> 00:57:02.240
Machinery, wagons, they are to be used

483
00:57:03.500 --> 00:57:07.873
to handle the paraphernalia of the good life,

484
00:57:08.710 --> 00:57:12.750
in marriage, in education, in religion

485
00:57:13.870 --> 00:57:17.753
but the Ark of the Covenant,

486
00:57:20.250 --> 00:57:21.850
the symbol of the God,

487
00:57:25.375 --> 00:57:30.375
of God, is the light burden, the easy yoke,

488
00:57:37.070 --> 00:57:40.340
on the shoulders of men and women

489
00:57:42.050 --> 00:57:45.963
who are of the tribe of Kohath

490
00:57:48.525 --> 00:57:50.913
and of the lineage of Jesus.

491
00:57:56.340 --> 00:57:57.173
Amen.

492
00:57:58.510 --> 00:57:59.623
Let us pray.

493
00:58:03.550 --> 00:58:08.550
Grant us oh God to know what comes first in our faith

494
00:58:11.937 --> 00:58:13.520
and what is second.

495
00:58:16.157 --> 00:58:19.907
What this holy and what is the Holy of Holies

496
00:58:26.220 --> 00:58:28.800
and to discriminate wisely

497
00:58:29.890 --> 00:58:34.890
and rightly between them in the manner of Moses

498
00:58:38.276 --> 00:58:40.547
and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

499
00:58:44.810 --> 00:58:45.643
Amen.

500
00:58:48.573 --> 00:58:51.823
(gentle angelic music)

501
00:59:46.111 --> 00:59:50.444
(choir singing in foreign language)

502
01:03:22.772 --> 01:03:26.022
(gentle angelic music)

