dcrau002785001.wav / Robert T. Young - "One for the People" (April 4, 1976) / Duke Digital Repository

♪ Bless thy Lord ♪

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(congregation singing indistinctly)

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(congregation singing indistinctly)

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(coughing faintly)

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Now says the Lord,

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you turn to me with all your heart and with fasting,

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with mourning and render your heart

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and not your garments

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and turn to the Lord your God,

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for God is gracious and merciful.

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Slow to anger and of great kindness.

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Therefore, with contrition and joy we come before God.

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Let us confess our sin.

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Oh, holy God

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you who want the sacrifice of forgiveness and mercy,

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hear us as we pray.

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For all of us who don't know

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the joy of giving and receiving.

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For all of us in our institutions

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who rely on power and money

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to exert influence in the world,

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for our husbands and wives

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and all people who no longer have the strength to forgive,

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nor the humility to be sorry.

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Forgive us when we push aside any well-intentioned word.

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When we exploit our family,

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our friends and those whom we do not even know.

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Oh loving God, you know our hearts and our intentions.

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We pray you help us to confess who we are,

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that we may become more faithful and loving.

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Hear the promises of God.

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Ask and it will be given you,

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seek and you will find,

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knock and it will be open to you.

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If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just

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and will forgive our sins.

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I announced therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ

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that we are forgiven.

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Amen.

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(gentle instrumental music)

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♪ Lord take me oh Lord ♪

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♪ Oh I will sing of thy blessing ♪

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♪ Lord take me oh lord ♪

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♪ Do not see (indistinct) ♪

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♪ Holy (indistinct) ♪

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♪ Lord take me oh Lord ♪

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♪ I must promise ♪

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♪ I must promise ♪

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The Old Testament lesson today,

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is taken from the book of Genesis,

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chapter 22 verses one through two

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and also nine through 14.

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"It happened sometime later

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that God put Abraham to the test.

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Abraham Abraham, he called.

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Here I am, he replied.

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Take your son, God said

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your only child, Isaac whom you love

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and go to the land of Moriah.

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There you shall offer him as a burnt offering

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on a mountain that I will point out to you.

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When they arrived at the place God had pointed out to him,

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Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood.

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Then he bound his son, Isaac and put him on the altar

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on top of the wood.

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Abraham stretched out his hand

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and seized the knife to kill his son.

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But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven,

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Abraham, Abraham, he said

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I am here, he replied.

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Do not raise your hand against the boy, the angel said.

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Do not harm him,

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for now I know you fear God.

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You have not refused me your son, your only son.

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Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram

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caught by its horns in a bush.

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Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering

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in place of his son.

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Abraham called this place Yahweh provides."

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And hence the saying today,

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on the mountain Yahweh provides.

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The New Testament lesson is taken

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from the Gospel of John, chapter 11 verses 45 through 53.

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Please rise for the reading of the gospel.

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"Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary

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and had seen what he did believed in him.

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But some of them went to tell the Pharisees

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what Jesus had done.

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Then the chief priest and Pharisees called a meeting.

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Here is this man working all these signs they said

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and what action are we taking?

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If we let him go on in this way,

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everyone will believe in him.

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And the Romans will come and destroy the holy place

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and our nation.

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One of them, Caiaphas the high priest that year said,

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you don't seem to have grasped the situation at all.

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You fail to see that it is better for one man to die

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for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.

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He did not speak in his own person.

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It was as high priest that he made this prophecy

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that Jesus was to die for the nation

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and not for the nation only,

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but to gather together in unity

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the scattered children of God.

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From that day, they were determined to kill him."

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May the Lord bless this, the reading and hearing

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of his holy Word.

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(gentle instrumental music)

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(congregation singing indistinctly)

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We are not alone, we live in God's world.

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We believe in God who has created and is creating.

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Who has come in the truly human Jesus,

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to reconcile and make new.

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Who works in us and others by the spirit.

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We trust God who calls us to be the church,

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to celebrate life and its fullness.

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To love and serve others.

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To seek justice and resist evil.

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To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.

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Our judge and our hope,

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in life, in death, in life beyond death,

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God is with us.

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We are not alone.

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Thanks be to God.

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The Lord be with you.

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(congregation murmuring loudly)

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Let us pray.

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Our loving God, parent of our Lord Jesus Christ

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and our parent.

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What do you make of these days?

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All of our living of it, the injustice and oppression,

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the trials and tragedies,

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the torments of heart and the struggles of brain,

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the fears and confusions that compound our days,

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be patient, oh God

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and guide us in our walking

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that we may do your will.

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Where we have failed lift us to new strength to try again.

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Where we have gone forward steady our uncertain steps

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and guide us to higher ground.

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Everywhere be our companion.

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Judge us, inspire us, support us

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that we may not grow weary in seeking justice

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or vain in our attempts at well-doing.

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Liberate us from yesterday's limits.

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Give us hope for this day

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and grant us visions for the morrow.

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Oh Lord, this day began for some of us joyfully

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for others grimly.

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Some will spend the hours without anxiety

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and others will be caught in the web of living pain.

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Some will exalt its vista of hope

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and others will carry a burden too heavy

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to see far beyond the moment.

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Some of us know thee

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and some of us do not know if we know thee or not.

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But all of us, oh Lord have needed thee.

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And so while there is no one word for all of us,

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we bow our hearts each a little world in him or herself.

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If we are weird, strengthen us.

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If we are proud, humble us.

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If we are perplexed, enlighten us.

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If we are torn by inner strife, heal us.

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If we are lost in meaningless activity,

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get us with thy purpose.

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If we are discouraged heart in us,

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if we have sin teach us how to repent.

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If we have been sinned against teach us how to forgive.

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If we feel alone be at our side.

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If we feel weak, grant thy strength.

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If we are bewildered grant us thy hope.

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If we are anxious grant thy peace.

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If we do not know how we can get to tomorrow

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grant us thy courage.

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We are selfish deep in our love for thee and our neighbor.

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If we are senseless silence our tongues

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until we learn to understand.

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If we have tried in vain to pray, grant us patience.

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Whatever our need be with us

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and with all those we love

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and with all your people,

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as thou art with us,

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this we pray in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord

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who taught us also to pray.

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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.

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For thine is the kingdom, and the power

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and the glory, forever.

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Amen.

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You are invited to a celebration of the sacrament

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of the Lord's Supper,

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in the Memorial Chapel at 12:15 today,

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immediately following the service.

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My name is Leslie Manford.

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I spent the week of spring break

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with a team of 15 other students and adults

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from my hometown,

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helping to rebuild homes destroyed by the earthquake

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in the Mayan village of Sara Alto in Guatemala.

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The work was physically exhausting

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and the living intense was hard.

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We left tired and sore and dirty and sunburnt.

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We also left with the feeling that the week

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had been the most meaningful and inspiring of our lives.

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The Indians were the most courageous, energetic

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and innovative people I'd ever known.

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They had lost everything.

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They were trying to rebuild their homes and their lives

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and to do it before the onset of the rainy season

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in late April.

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Yet they had a spirit and a hope for the future,

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and they had a plan to work toward that future.

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For instance, all the men in the village

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had been in divided into construction groups of about eight

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that were given daily assignments in the rebuilding

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of the 300 destroyed homes.

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But the most amazing thing to us

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was that in spite of their deep personal tragedy,

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they had a sweetness and a concern for others.

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They worried about and offered help to their neighbors

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in the next village of Volodiero.

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And after the daily trimmers,

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they always ran to check on their nervous American friends.

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The day of our departure,

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all of the people in the two villages

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turned out to give us a big sendoff.

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They presented us with a hand painted plaque that read,

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"Thanks to the North American students

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from the people of Sara Alto

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and Volodiero Guatemala, Central America.

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We are Americans too.

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We are all Americans.

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We are all brothers.

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Today you have an opportunity to remember

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our Central American brothers and sisters

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with your offerings.

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Please be generous."

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In the name of God,

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who creates, redeems and sustains us.

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Passion Sunday is observed in the Christian church today,

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the fifth Sunday in the season of Lent.

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The word passion, has become so perverted and distorted

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and so stigmatized with lustful destructive sex only

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and sex at any price connotations

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that one almost hesitates to use this particular word.

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But there is power in the message of Passion Sunday.

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There is power in the meaning

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of the scripture lessons for today.

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There is power, power to redeem, to reconcile and to renew.

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Passion means love, devotion, caring, compassion,

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offering, giving, sacrifice and perhaps maybe even death.

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In our Christian faith, our own Christian tradition

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Passion Sunday is the day on which we observe,

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remember, recall, relive the loving sacrifice

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of Jesus the Christ, even to death for all persons.

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In his little book entitled, "You! Jonah!"

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Thomas John Carlisle, has some lines caption,

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"Compassion for compassion.

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Keep open to pain.

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His, hers, theirs as well as yours.

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Threshold deep, wide for ultra and equalized empathizes.

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Agony can create capacity to respond in kind.

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Acute heartbreak walks back to gather pieces,

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to bandage wounds.

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Sensitive to all living, all suffering,

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let mercy rise."

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Passion Sunday observes that passion for compassion,

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which God has for all persons.

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Passion Sunday, sacrifice, death, suffering,

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one for the people as our sermon topic says

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as our scripture lesson says,

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one for all who needs this.

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Who?

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You?

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Me?

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Anyone, everyone, if there is no sin

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then there is no need for a savior.

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If there is no brokenness,

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then there is no need for a healer.

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If there is no guilt, then there is no need for forgiveness.

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If there is no wrong, then there is no need for sacrifice.

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If there is no estrangement between God and us,

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then there is no need for a mediator

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to bring us together again.

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If there is no death, then there is no need for life.

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But I believe that there is present among us,

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among us who are God's own children's sin and brokenness

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and guilt and wrong and estrangement and death.

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Therefore we need the greatest possible outpouring

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of God's grace and that we have

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in Jesus Christ, the crucified.

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We need this Jesus Christ, the crucified

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to help make us one with ourselves,

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one with one another and one with God.

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As John Calvin, once wrote,

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"Christ did actually come to redeem us from sin

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and that is enough."

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That is enough.

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That is enough.

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That is the good and glorious word that I have for all of us

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from God's word today.

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But that's enough for this line of thought for the moment,

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for this is the end of the story.

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This is where we are today.

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Let's go back.

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Let's look at the passages of scripture used

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as the lessons for Passion Sunday.

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And let me tell you first off

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that if you heard much of the message

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as the lessons were read,

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you know already that these are weird, strange, perplexing,

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hard to understand passages of scripture.

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In Genesis chapter 22,

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Abraham is told by God to gather up his things,

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to take whatever is necessary

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to get his son in hand and to go up to the mountain

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and make of his beloved son, Isaac, a sacrifice to Him.

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That is to Jehovah, to Yahweh, to God.

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Isaac, you remember who, Issac was?

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For years Abraham had longed for a son

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by his beloved wife, Sarah

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but he was growing old.

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And one day God promised to Abraham that he and Sarah

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would indeed bear a son.

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And then for 10 more long years they waited.

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Finally Abraham did have a son

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but this son was by Hagar, his Egyptian woman slave.

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But then God gave to Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac.

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They rejoiced where they were well on in their years.

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Indeed, Abraham we are told was a hundred years old

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when Isaac was born.

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And then the word comes to Abraham,

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take your son, your only son, Isaac,

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whom you love and offer him as a burnt offering.

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Then in John chapter 11, Caiaphas has gathered

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all of the chief priests and the Pharisees

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together with him.

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There are concerned about this man, Jesus

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who had been performing many signs,

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who had been teaching and preaching to the multitudes

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and who had been moving out

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among the strange people all across the land.

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The raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus

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is told in the verses of chapter 11

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immediately preceding our lesson for today.

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And oh what a glorious story this is.

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The story of love and friendship and caring

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and touching and healing and weeping and rejoicing.

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It is in these earlier verses that Jesus says to Martha

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and to all of us Martha's who have followed questioningly

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and yet faithfully in her train.

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I am the resurrection and the life,

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he who believes in me though he were dead

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yet shall he live.

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No wonder the chief priests

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and the Pharisees were concerned.

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They had cause to be concerned about this man, Jesus.

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Then Caiaphas being the chief high priest

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prophesy to them that one man should die

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for are all the people and not just for the nation,

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but for all the children of God's scattered abroad.

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What kind of God is this my friend?

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Who is this God who will give to an old man

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and his wife there long for son

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and then will tell the father to go make a burnt offering

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of this very very special son?

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Who is this God who will send his own son into the world

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to be born of Joseph and Mary

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and will call him his beloved son

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on the day of his baptism

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and then allow the very high priest

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to proclaim that this beloved son must die.

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What kind of God?

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Who is this God?

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What is going on in God's mind?

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Does God not care?

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First God gives and then God takes away.

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Is this the way God works with his children?

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Walter Russell Bowie,

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in writing about the Abraham Isaac experience says,

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"Here there is embedded the fact that

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once men not only practiced human sacrifice,

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but they did it at what they thought was divine command."

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Suppose they did that now.

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Then he says, the story of Abraham going out

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to sacrifice, Isaac may either seem incredible

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or else profoundly disturbing to children in Sunday school

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or to adults who hear it read in church,

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unless they know what to sift out

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in order that the real truth may appear.

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It is incredible, absurd, unbelievable.

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What a testing?

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what kind of God?

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And then D.M Bailey, in his profound theological treat us,

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God was in Christ rights for the early Christians.

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The crucifixion might well seem

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to be the final reduction odd absurdism,

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of the belief that the world

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is governed by a gracious providence.

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If God was good,

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how could he have allowed such a dreadful thing

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as the crucifixion of their Lord and master

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to have happened?

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There could be no doubt about the goodness of Jesus

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or of his love for others

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that had been made plainer than ever before.

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But how could they believe any longer in the love of God?

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Incredible, unbelievable, absurd.

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What kind of God?

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Who is this God?

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This God, who asks for sacrifice

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from the ever obedient Abraham

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and who calls for sacrifice from his ever obedient son

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is one in the midst of our pain and suffering and sacrifice.

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And he won even in the midst of our death.

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God is not above it all or away from it all

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or aloof from it all but God is in it all.

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That is the affirmation from Abraham and Isaac.

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That is the affirmation from Jesus the Christ.

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That is the affirmation of Passion Sunday for all people.

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Charles Allen Densmore writes,

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"There was a cross in the heart of God,

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long before there was one planted on the green hill

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outside Jerusalem."

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Pierce Plowman questions, who suffers more than God,

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Horace Bushnell once preached,

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it is as if there were a cross unseen

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standing on its undiscovered hill,

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far back in the ages

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out of which were sounding always just the same deep voice

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of suffering, love, and patience

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that was heard by mortal ears

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from the sacred hill of Calvary.

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Or as someone has said,

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there is no end to anything until God finishes it.

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We do not know the end of these things

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until God finishes with them.

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Who is this God, one who suffers?

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Who is this God, one who speaks to us personally

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and one who demands obedience?

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It was God's will that Abraham should go and offer Isaac.

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It was God's will that Jesus should be the one to die

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for the people.

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Abraham and Jesus were called to obey God.

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I'm convinced that both Abraham and Jesus

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could have said no I won't go.

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For Abraham was no mindless patriarch

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and Jesus was no helpless victim,

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but they didn't.

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They did not say no, they sought God's will.

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And when they became aware of God's will,

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they obeyed it and they followed it.

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These experiences of these men with God's will say to me,

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that in God's will there is risk.

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There is the unknown, there is danger and uncertainty.

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There is death, but there is also freedom and power,

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freedom to decide and power to act.

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As for me and perhaps for some of you

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and perhaps for many others,

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we don't often find this will of God.

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We don't often discover this or know this

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or hear this, or see this, or understand this

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or appropriate this will of God for our own lives.

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It's very rare that I feel that

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I am acting out the will of God.

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But when we do,

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we then become willing to fight any cause

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or go to any battle or face any army

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or be burned at any stake or to sacrifice a loved one,

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or even to go to death ourselves.

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Or I'm convinced that when a person knows, understands,

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and accepts and acts on God's will

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that person can endure any experience on earth

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or in heaven or even in Hell.

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D.T. Niles, the great Christian Saint

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of the church of south India says,

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"To live by faith is to live by the faithfulness of God."

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So when we know God's will and act on it

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we live not just by our faith,

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but by the faithfulness of God.

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Thus these experiences of these man with God

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tell me that there must be in God's will

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a peace and a contentment and a tranquility of soul.

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There must be in the will of God hope and assurance

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and promise of spirit in God's will

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there is a tomorrow.

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How else could Abraham or Jesus have endured?

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Oh, to know God's will and to live in it.

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Who is this God, one who suffers with us and for us?

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One who speaks to us personally and demands obedience.

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Then this God is one for the people, one for all the people.

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John says Jesus is the one who should die for people

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for all the children who are scattered abroad.

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D.T. Niles in this book of his entitled, "This Jesus,"

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talks about two ways of knowing

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that Jesus Christ is the savior.

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He writes, the only reason that Charles Wesley gave

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or believing Jesus is sufficient for anyone,

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is it Charles Wesley believed that Jesus

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was sufficient for him.

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Wesley knew that he was not an exceptional person

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and that what was true for him

39:32

was true for all other person.

39:34

Now says then,

39:38

"But the truth which I am seeking to convey

39:41

is the opposite of this.

39:44

It is that what was true for all persons was

39:46

and is therefore true for me.

39:49

For me it has made the final difference

39:53

to my own happiness that I know that God loves

39:55

all people equally.

39:59

God's love is for all and therefore it is for me."

40:02

God's love is for me and therefore is for everyone.

40:06

So whether you want to believe first that God loves you

40:12

and therefore must love all people,

40:15

or whether you want to believe that God loves all people

40:18

and therefore must love you,

40:21

it really leads to the same end

40:22

that God loves us one and all.

40:24

So there is this communal or corporate or community word,

40:30

this inclusive word which I want us to hear this morning.

40:36

Jesus is the one from God, for all the people.

40:40

If Jesus is not for everyone,

40:43

then I wonder is Jesus for anyone.

40:45

I believe that we have overstressed individuality

40:52

in Christianity.

40:56

We have put too much emphasis on the singling out

40:58

of God's children.

41:01

We have over individualized and separated ourselves

41:03

into nice little Christian isolates

41:07

of one person for far too long.

41:11

For what is this life without others?

41:14

What is Christianity without Christ

41:21

and other Christians?

41:25

Indeed, what is eternal life alone?

41:28

What if as one young person said to me recently,

41:35

all we really have after all is personal relationships.

41:38

What is the I without a we?

41:43

what is the mine without an our?

41:45

How then can one, even God die for all the people?

41:49

I do not know.

41:58

I cannot understand,

42:01

but perhaps it is as Henry Nowan says,

42:03

"No one can help anyone without becoming involved,

42:07

without entering with one's whole person

42:12

into the painful situation,

42:15

without taking the risk of being hurt,

42:17

wounded or even destroyed."

42:20

So Christ did entered into the painful situation

42:26

with his whole person even unto to death.

42:30

This is the word for all the people.

42:34

And I believe that somehow, sometime, some way,

42:39

all God's children will know and experience

42:45

the passionate, caring love of Christ.

42:48

You say to me, Bob, you mean all people everywhere?

42:51

Someday, sometime will know and experience the love of God.

42:54

I believe, yes.

42:58

It may not be in the ways in which you and I now know.

43:00

It may not even be on this side of death.

43:05

Indeed it was James Matthews

43:09

when he was writing about his father's death,

43:10

who gave to me for the first time

43:13

the conception that God loves us even beyond death

43:15

and may redeem many of us, not on this side of death

43:18

but beyond death and from that point on

43:21

through all eternity.

43:23

Oh.

43:27

In some mysterious way,

43:33

in the eternal plan of God all the people will of God

43:36

will know and experience this amazing love.

43:40

For the word of God my friends is too consistent

43:44

and too repetitious on this theme for it not to be true.

43:46

Listen to just a few passages which I can quote for you

43:49

and you can recall many.

43:53

Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of who?

43:54

The world.

43:57

I will be your God and you, plural

44:00

you will be my people.

44:03

For God so loved not individuals,

44:06

but the world that he gave his only son.

44:09

God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

44:14

God commanded his love toward us

44:19

in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

44:22

God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all.

44:27

Here in is love, not did we love God

44:33

but that he loved us

44:36

and sent his son for the propitiation of our sins.

44:39

Oh, what a glorious gospel.

44:45

Power, not for me but for all God's children.

44:49

The love of God not only lasts forever it is for everyone.

44:57

Someone has said,

45:06

risen Christ, if God were good

45:08

he could not look up on the sin of and misery of man

45:11

and live his heart would break.

45:14

And the church points to the cross and says,

45:17

God's heart dead, break.

45:20

Risen Christ, born and reared in sin as we are,

45:25

how can we keep from sin?

45:30

It is the creator who is responsible.

45:32

It is God who deserves to be punished.

45:34

The church kneels by the cross and whispers,

45:37

God takes the responsibility and bears the punishment.

45:39

Risen Christ, who is God?

45:47

What is God?

45:48

The name stands for the unknown.

45:49

It is blasphemous us to say that we know him.

45:51

The church kisses the feet of the dying Christ and says,

45:54

we must worship the majesty we see.

45:59

The majesty of the crucified.

46:02

The majesty of love,

46:04

the majesty of suffering where love gives itself

46:07

for our sake.

46:11

It was for our brokenness,

46:16

our brokenness that the healer came.

46:19

To God be the praise and the glory forever and ever.

46:25

Amen.

46:33

(gentle instrumental music)

46:40

(congregation singing indistinctly)

47:25

Accept these offerings now placed upon your alter

56:07

oh gifter of every good and perfect gift.

56:10

Granted they may be symbols of our love and of ourselves

56:14

now offered more fully to you.

56:18

Use these gifts to the end that your will is done

56:20

and your kingdom of justice, liberation,

56:24

unity and the wellbeing of all people's come.

56:26

Through Jesus Christ on a cross we pray.

56:30

Amen.

56:34

(gentle instrumental music)

56:37

(congregation singing indistinctly)

57:08

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

1:00:17

and the love of God

1:00:19

and the fellowship of the holy spirit, be with you all.

1:00:21

♪ Amen ♪

1:00:28

♪ Amen ♪

1:00:41

♪ Amen ♪

1:01:02

(gentle instrumental music)

1:01:22

(congregation murmuring faintly)

1:04:09

(indistinct)

1:04:21

(gentle instrumental music)

1:04:23

(murmuring faintly)

1:05:20

(gentle instrumental music)

1:05:27

(murmuring faintly)

1:06:17

(gentle instrumental music)

1:06:24

(murmuring faintly)

1:07:04

(gentle instrumental music)

1:07:22

(murmuring faintly)

1:07:28

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Duke University Archives