J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

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	(somber organ music)	0:03
	(audience murmuring)	9:26
	(jubilant organ music)	9:38
	(church choir singing)	10:21
-	Come ye people,	13:18
	be aware of the presence of God.	13:20
	Come with joy, for there is much to celebrate.	13:24
	Come with your confessions,	13:28
	for there is forgiveness and renewal here.	13:30
	Come with your sorrow, for there is comfort here.	13:35
	O come with your treasure,	13:40
	for here your gifts are received, blessed and multiplied.	13:41
	Come with your cares, for here there is caring.	13:47
	Come with your caring, for there are those to be cared for.	13:52
	O come, ye servants, for there is one to serve.	13:57
	Come, ye worshipers,	14:02
	for there is one to worship.	14:04
	(audience murmuring)	14:11
	Let us join in the prayer of confession.	14:20
	Almighty God, whom we are called to love with our heart,	14:25
	soul, mind and bold strength.	14:31
	We know well that often we are heartless	14:35
	towards Your purposes for good,	14:38
	that we heed not Your call	14:41
	to be makers of peace,	14:43
	that too often our strength	14:46
	is expended laboring after that which cannot satisfy.	14:47
	By our luxury, the hungry are sent empty away.	14:54
	We have grown patient with injustice, tolerant of war.	14:59
	As of old, we killed the prophets and anoint the fools.	15:04
	We regret, oh Lord our callousness.	15:09
	Help us to deplore in ourselves the evil that destroys.	15:13
	Provoke in us those inward charges	15:18
	that cause us to do justice, to make peace,	15:21
	to live according to Your holly purpose	15:25
	in the name of Jesus.	15:28
	Jew of Nazareth, prince of peace, the Christ.	15:30
	Amen.	15:36
	And Lord now here the personal confessions of Your people.	15:38
	O Lord, you have promised in Your own words,	16:07
	if my people which are called by my name	16:11
	shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my faith,	16:14
	and turn from their wicked ways,	16:19
	then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin.	16:21
	Grant then, oh Lord, that those who have confessed,	16:26
	with a willingness and commitment to turn back toward you,	16:30
	be forgiven their sinful ways.	16:34
	In the name of Jesus, we pray.	16:37
	Let us give thanks for God is good,	16:44
	and God's love is everlasting.	16:47
	Thanks be to God, whose love creates us.	16:51
	Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us.	16:55
	Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future.	17:00
	We welcome you here this morning,	17:08
	to do chapel on this sixth Sunday in Easter.	17:11
	We especially welcome those of you	17:16
	who are visiting this morning.	17:19
	And we invite you to worship with us again,	17:21
	when you are in this vicinity.	17:24
	We are blessed this morning	17:27
	to have the preaching of the word of God's word	17:29
	by the Reverend Jon Laidlaw,	17:33
	as Acting Assistant Minister to the university.	17:36
	His sermon is entitled: Who Will Water the Roots.	17:40
-	Let us pray.	17:57
	Almighty God, in whom I hid all the treasures	18:00
	of wisdom and knowledge,	18:03
	open our eyes that we may behold	18:05
	wondrous things out of Your word,	18:08
	and give us grace that we may clearly understand	18:11
	and heartily chose the way of Your love,	18:14
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	18:17
	Amen.	18:20
	The Old Testament lesson is found in the 14th chapter	18:21
	of Joshua, beginning with the first verse.	18:25
	When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan,	18:28
	the Lord said to Joshua,	18:32
	Take 12 men from the people, one from each tribe,	18:34
	and order them to lift up 12 stones from this place	18:38
	out of the middle of the Jordan,	18:42
	where the feet of the priest stood firm.	18:44
	They are to carry them across and set them down	18:47
	in the camp where you spend the night.	18:50
	Joshua summoned the 12 men, whom he had chosen	18:54
	out of the Israelites, one man from each tribe,	18:57
	and said to them,	19:00
	Cross over in front of the ark of the Lord your God,	19:02
	as far as the middle of the Jordan,	19:05
	and let each one of you take a stone	19:08
	and hoist it on his shoulder,	19:10
	one for each of the tribes of Israel.	19:12
	These stones are to stand as a memorial among you,	19:15
	and in days to come, when your children ask you,	19:19
	What these stones mean?	19:22
	You shall tell them that the waters of Jordan were cut off	19:24
	before the ark of the covenant of the Lord,	19:28
	when it crossed the Jordan.	19:31
	Thus these stones will always be a reminder	19:33
	to the Israelites.	19:36
	The Israelites did, as Joshua had commanded,	19:38
	they lifted up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan,	19:41
	as the Lord had instructed Joshua,	19:44
	one for each of the tribes of Israel,	19:47
	carried them across to the camp and set them down there.	19:49
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	19:54
	The Epistle lesson is from the first chapter of Colossians,	19:58
	beginning with the ninth verse.	20:02
	For this reason, ever since the day we heard of it,	20:05
	we have not ceased to pray for you.	20:10
	We asked God that you may receive from Him	20:13
	all wisdom and spiritual understanding	20:16
	for full insight into His will,	20:19
	so that your manner of life maybe worthy of the Lord	20:22
	and entirely pleasing to him.	20:26
	We pray that you may bear fruit	20:28
	and act of goodness of every kind	20:30
	and grow in the knowledge of God.	20:33
	May He strengthen you in His glorious might	20:36
	with ample power to meet whatever comes,	20:39
	with fortitude, patience and joy,	20:42
	and to give thanks to the Father who has made you fit	20:45
	to share the heritage of God's people	20:48
	in the realm of light.	20:51
	He rescued us from the domain of darkness	20:53
	and brought us away into the kingdom of His dear Son,	20:56
	and whom our release has secured and our sins forgiven.	21:00
	He is the image of the invisible God.	21:05
	His is the primacy of all created things.	21:10
	In Him everything in heaven and on earth was created,	21:14
	not only things visible, but also the invisible orders	21:18
	of thrones, sovereignties, authorities, and powers.	21:22
	The whole universe has been created through Him and for Him,	21:26
	and He exists before everything.	21:32
	And all things are held together in Him,	21:34
	He is, moreover, the body of the church.	21:37
	He is the origin, the first to return from the dead	21:42
	to be in all things alone supreme,	21:46
	for in Him the complete being of God,	21:50
	by God's own choice, came to dwell.	21:53
	Through Him, God chose to reconcile	21:57
	the whole universe to himself,	21:59
	making peace through the shedding of his blood	22:02
	upon the cross, to reconcile all things,	22:04
	whether on earth, or in heaven, through Him alone.	22:08
	Here ends the reading from the Epistle.	22:13
	(plaintive organ music)	22:21
	(audience murmuring)	25:32
	Will the congregation please rise	25:34
	for the reading of the Gospel.	25:36
	(audience murmuring)	25:38
	The lesson for the morning	25:42
	is from the 14th chapter of the Gospel	25:43
	according to St. John beginning with the 15th verse.	25:46
	If you love Me, you will obey My commands,	25:51
	and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another,	25:55
	to be your advocate, who will be with you forever,	25:58
	the spirit of truth.	26:03
	The world cannot receive him,	26:05
	because the world neither sees nor knows him,	26:07
	but you know him, because he dwells with you and is in you.	26:10
	I will not leave you bereft.	26:16
	I am coming back to you.	26:18
	In a little while, the world will no longer see Me,	26:21
	but you will see Me, because I live,	26:25
	you too will live also.	26:30
	Then you will know that I am in the Father,	26:32
	and you in Me, and I in you.	26:35
	The man who has received My commands and obeys them,	26:39
	he is who loves Me.	26:43
	And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father.	26:46
	And I will love him and disclose Myself to him.	26:50
	Amen.	26:55
	Here endeth the reading from the Gospel.	26:56
	(soaring organ music and church choir)	27:00
	(audience murmuring)	28:00
-	On this stormy Sunday morning to your hearty souls,	28:07
	in Christ name special greetings.	28:13
	Let us pray together.	28:17
	O God whose mercies are in	28:22
	under, over, beside all things and peoples.	28:25
	Let Your word move among the word spoken	28:30
	in Your name this day.	28:32
	That they bear, though brokenly, the mark of Your truth,	28:35
	its fire, its vast intention,	28:40
	and persuade in the minds and hearts of all who hear	28:45
	a new desire to let Your truth break forth clamorously.	28:50
	And with compassion in our homes, in our neighborhoods,	28:54
	in this Your world,	29:01
	in Christ's name.	29:04
	Amen.	29:07
	In Chaim Potok's gracious novel In the Beginning,	29:12
	a struggling youthful David Lurie	29:17
	is haunted by the question,	29:20
	Who will water the roots?	29:22
	The heart of the matter and the meaning of the question	29:26
	is this,	29:29
	As a religious people, who will keep our traditions alive?	29:31
	Who will nourish the present and the future,	29:36
	by remembering the past?	29:40
	In other words, who will tell the stories	29:43
	of our origins?	29:48
	Life thrusts that question at us in myriads of ways	29:52
	at a multitude of times.	29:56
	Where did I come from?	29:58
	Where did I come from, is not just the dreaded question,	30:01
	that the five-year old asks the mother,	30:05
	as father makes hasty retreat.	30:09
	It is also the question that generations ask of themselves.	30:12
	And civilizations beg explained	30:17
	in the name of science or knowledge,	30:19
	or history, or whatever,	30:22
	and not civilizations only, but also individuals,	30:26
	and not in the name of history alone, but something deeper,	30:30
	more pervasive, more primal than that,	30:34
	of which history is but a symptom and knowledge,	30:38
	but meager cure.	30:42
	For I have discovered, I have discovered	30:45
	that this earning to know where we have come from	30:48
	is as fundamental a characteristic of us, human beings,	30:52
	as the urge to procreate, and no less necessary, I suspect	30:57
	for the survival of our species.	31:02
	And what's true of civilizations and those of us	31:06
	who populate each and every civilization,	31:10
	is also true of our faith.	31:13
	As a religious people, will our heritage live on?	31:16
	What is our heritage?	31:21
	And perhaps, most basic, why should it live on?	31:24
	And so we're asking you and I	31:29
	not only who will water the roots,	31:31
	but also in what soil are they planted.	31:35
	As disciples of the Christ,	31:39
	we inquire quite without blushing,	31:42
	Who will tell the stories of our faith?	31:44
	Where did we come from?	31:49
	Where are we going?	31:52
	Now, my stories, I don't mean fables and fairytales,	31:58
	though each of these do bare certain faint truths,	32:02
	and we're foolish, if we don't extract from them	32:07
	the ore that is there.	32:09
	But I do mean those things that probe and poke	32:12
	and touch the very tender tissue of life itself.	32:16
	And not just touch it, but also tell us something	32:22
	of its source and do something more	32:25
	than hint at its destiny.	32:28
	I am talking, dear friends, about the stories	32:31
	that tell us, why in God's name we are here,	32:34
	why we gather in this place of all places.	32:40
	And singing and pray as we do,	32:44
	and sometimes let the soul dance,	32:47
	if not the feet.	32:51
	Indeed, that simply tell us who	32:53
	and why we are.	32:58
	Period.	33:00
	Otherwise.	33:02
	Otherwise, the songs become stale,	33:04
	and the prayers become as dust on our tongues,	33:08
	and the dancing ceases.	33:12
	Otherwise, life itself becomes the tale	33:14
	spun by an idiot, signifying precisely nothing.	33:18
	Or to use the imagery of one of our stories,	33:23
	we become as dry bones.	33:27
	Well,	33:34
	is that it?	33:35
	Is that all?	33:37
	Put some flesh on these bones, you should demand.	33:39
	Because, of course, that isn't all.	33:43
	In James Joyce's Ulysses,	33:51
	there is an episode that causes Stephen Dedalus to utter,	33:55
	We walk through ourselves meeting robbers, ghosts,	34:00
	giants, old men, young men, widows,	34:05
	brothers in love,	34:09
	but always, always meeting ourselves.	34:13
	And that, I suspect, is the rub.	34:18
	Always meeting ourselves.	34:21
	And we will get more than we bargained for	34:26
	in the encounter more than likely,	34:28
	but it's a place to begin.	34:31
	There is a certain terror here as well,	34:35
	because, my God, we'd rather not meet ourselves, thank you.	34:37
	But in these stories, we do.	34:41
	Because while there are certain qualities of our own	34:46
	that may strike us, as worthy at least and lovable at best.	34:49
	There are others, I'm afraid,	34:55
	that cause the maiden to blush,	34:57
	and the whore to feel quite righteous,	35:00
	and the thief in the night to seem little less than a saint.	35:03
	Let's see,	35:10
	ah, yes,	35:12
	there is Jacob,	35:14
	who would do battle onto dawn for a blessing and a name.	35:16
	And while it may be said that he got something of both,	35:21
	his resistance to God at the Jabbok river	35:24
	did carry, quite literally, with it a crippling defeat.	35:27
	And I am reminded of all the struggles,	35:32
	our struggles with God,	35:35
	to rest from him some favor,	35:37
	so often paltry, insignificant,	35:40
	cheap.	35:45
	And, my goodness, there is Cain, disdainful of life itself.	35:47
	And not only disdainful, but willing to snuff it out,	35:53
	if the cause is right,	35:58
	convinced, no doubt,	36:01
	that the end did justify the means.	36:03
	And by his brother's blood,	36:08
	as it lifts its altogether plaintiff cry,	36:11
	I am reminded of our efforts this wide world over,	36:15
	to justify violence	36:20
	in the name of the host of principled causes,	36:23
	and the cry of all the human blood spilled upon the earth.	36:28
	But, surely, surely that explains itself.	36:33
	God help us, if it doesn't.	36:38
	And Jonah, a good man, a religious man, a man of prayer	36:42
	under the right circumstances,	36:48
	a man of God,	36:51
	but a pitiful man still,	36:54
	determined to cling as he did	36:57
	to every last one of his racial biases,	36:58
	his social arrogance,	37:02
	his nationalism,	37:06
	but stunned to find out that God really does care	37:09
	about the whole wonderful world.	37:12
	And not only cares about the world,	37:16
	but that God is busy redeeming the world from itself.	37:18
	And in Jonah I am caused to remember our prayers	37:24
	and promises, so quickly made,	37:26
	so quickly forgotten, when bad times become not so bad.	37:31
	And David, that one whose blazing patience	37:37
	found something less than holly expression often.	37:42
	And I am compelled by David to recall all of our lusts	37:46
	and jealousies, and fits of rage,	37:52
	and Moses, the murderer,	37:57
	and Noah, and Judas,	38:01
	and then, too, Peter and Paul.	38:05
	And how can we forget Eve and Adam,	38:09
	the begetters of it all, so to speak,	38:12
	the every woman, the every man.	38:15
	Read their stories.	38:18
	Read their stories.	38:21
	Not an innocent in the bunch,	38:22
	not a one of them a likely prospect for an ethics award.	38:25
	Look at them, I mean really scrutinize them,	38:29
	clutching their fig leaves, playing out their hatreds,	38:35
	their betrayals, spilling their angers and bigotry	38:39
	all over God's good earth.	38:44
	Their graceless plays for power,	38:47
	striking out for glory,	38:51
	settling more often for notoriety,	38:54
	their not so holy hubris.	38:58
	And I look at them, and I want to weep a little,	39:04
	because they all look so pathetic.	39:10
	And I want to laugh a little,	39:14
	because they all look so clumsy,	39:18
	so silly, really.	39:22
	And I would laugh,	39:26
	since I can have this laugh at their expense,	39:28
	if they weren't so dangerous.	39:32
	But the real danger is that I just might miss who it is,	39:36
	that I really see there.	39:40
	That's me there,	39:44
	and not me only, but you too,	39:47
	and not just us,	39:51
	we of this proud intimate gathering of the clan,	39:52
	but all of us,	39:55
	this wide world over,	39:58
	wherever we of the human race stake our claim,	40:02
	be if for flag, of family, or simply for ourselves.	40:05
	That's us	40:10
	strutting and bellowing,	40:12
	quarreling and conniving, shedding blood,	40:14
	if not literally, like Moses, then surely like Judas,	40:18
	and very like Moses in our awkward efforts	40:22
	to hide the bodies in the sand.	40:25
	Wrestling with God by whatever river we can wrestle him by.	40:30
	Willing to deceive for even a meagerest profit,	40:35
	full of Lord Lords until,	40:39
	until the squeeze comes at last,	40:45
	and the Lord does say to us,	40:47
	Pick up your cross, my friend	40:51
	and follow me.	40:55
	And we counterreply,	40:57
	Not just now, please.	41:00
	What I am saying in classic terminology is just this,	41:08
	We have sinned you and I,	41:13
	and the cock crows thrice,	41:17
	and we know that we have been found out,	41:20
	in our dark conspiracies	41:24
	and sad rebellion.	41:27
	That's just the trouble with this Bible of ours.	41:31
	It leaves us all standing here,	41:35
	grabbing frantically for some fig leave of respectability,	41:39
	but leaving us really standing here quite naked,	41:45
	exposed,	41:49
	vulnerable.	41:52
	And so, is that it?	41:57
	Is that all that I have come to say?	42:00
	No.	42:05
	No, thank God.	42:07
	Because if that's all that I have to say,	42:09
	if this were it and no more,	42:12
	then I might well urge, indeed, I would even conspire	42:15
	in a quick death for these stories of ours.	42:19
	After all, there is no hope, there is no hope	42:23
	in knowing that we've sinned.	42:26
	We'll likely sin again, indeed, we'll sin again.	42:29
	There's only fatal despair in that knowledge.	42:32
	But it is precisely because there is more than that,	42:38
	infinitely more, if you will, that these stories	42:42
	must be told, shared, wed,	42:45
	wed somehow to our own experience.	42:48
	Oh, yes, the story of creation is a story of a world	42:53
	intruded upon by creaturely vanity, human frailty.	42:58
	But that's only a chapter or two, you see.	43:05
	It's not the whole book.	43:08
	It's not even the theme of the book.	43:11
	It's simply the reason for the book.	43:14
	No, if you after the theme,	43:23
	listen.	43:28
	So God created humankind in his own image,	43:30
	male and female, created he them.	43:35
	And God saw what he had made,	43:39
	and it was very good.	43:43
	Listen, old dry bones hear the word of the Lord.	43:47
	This is the word of the Lord God to these bones.	43:53
	I will put breath into you, and you shall live.	43:57
	Dare to listen again,	44:04
	Father,	44:08
	Father, they are tragically ignorant even now	44:10
	of what they are doing.	44:14
	Nevertheless,	44:17
	forgive them.	44:20
	When playwright Tennessee Williams	44:27
	converted to Christianity,	44:29
	after a nearly fatal bout with influenza,	44:31
	he described the reason for his conversion this way.	44:36
	I want, said Williams, I want my innocence back.	44:43
	Well, it's too late for that, God knows,	44:49
	too late for Williams, too late for all of us.	44:53
	Innocence has come and gone,	44:56
	and maybe we're the better for it.	45:00
	But that's not even the point.	45:03
	No, the point is only this and all of this,	45:05
	that into the midst of all of this,	45:10
	right here, amongst our treacheries and our frailty,	45:13
	and our brokenness and our wounds,	45:16
	exactly here	45:18
	is found God.	45:21
	Right here into our darkness, morning has broken,	45:24
	as the hymn declares.	45:29
	And that's the theme of all of these stories.	45:31
	Indeed, there is but one thing more potent than our sin.	45:35
	There is one thing more potent than human sin	45:40
	And that is God's determined grace.	45:45
	The power of God to redeem what God creates.	45:48
	The theme of it all is grace and mercy.	45:55
	And the plot of the thing	46:01
	builds mercifully around God's impatient love affair	46:04
	with the whole wild wonderful rebellious earth.	46:09
	Through Christ,	46:17
	God chose to reconcile	46:19
	the whole universe to himself	46:22
	making peace through the shedding of His blood	46:26
	upon the cross.	46:29
	To reconcile all things,	46:32
	weather on earth or in heaven,	46:36
	through Him alone.	46:40
	Who are we?	46:45
	Whose are we?	46:47
	Where did we come from?	46:50
	Where are we going?	46:53
	I experience something like an answer to these questions,	46:56
	when my wife Susan and I	46:59
	breathe the air and touch the soil of Scotland.	47:02
	Especially, as we savored the hospitality	47:06
	of the gentle people of Galashiels,	47:09
	that place from whence had come	47:14
	my great-great-grandfather Laidlaw over a 130 years ago.	47:15
	And such is the experience each time	47:21
	I stand at the edge of Atlantic ocean,	47:23
	on which my great-great-great-grandfather	47:27
	Cater Edwards made his living	47:29
	as captain of the merchant ships,	47:31
	that often brought him from his home in Wales	47:33
	to the Eastern coast.	47:36
	But these are not the final answers.	47:39
	Wouldn't be even if I could go back 500 years a 1000,	47:43
	wouldn't be even if I could go back, somehow,	47:48
	into the dim primordial mist before all time.	47:51

-	At best these are only clues	0:04
	for they lack any ultimacy, you see,	0:08
	as to my ultimate source, my ultimate destiny.	0:10
	No, for these I like you	0:14
	must turn to the stories of our faith.	0:17
	Jyshuas is the poignant reminder	0:21
	that as a people of faith	0:24
	we dare not, we dare not ignore the literature	0:27
	of our faith,	0:30
	those letters and legends and histories,	0:33
	those poems and prayers and parables	0:36
	that trouble us with their truth	0:40
	and set us free, set us free to experience the hope	0:42
	of God's grace	0:47
	and the passion of God's love.	0:50
	The stories must be studied, learned, told	0:56
	in all of their chilling honesty,	1:02
	with all of their fierce transforming power	1:06
	they must, they must be told.	1:11
	Who then will water our roots,	1:19
	nourish the present by remembering the past?	1:23
	Who will tell the stories of our origins?	1:27
	Who will give a name to our journey's destination?	1:32
	Who indeed?	1:38
	These stones are to stand as a memorial among you	1:41
	and in the days to come	1:46
	when your children ask what these stones mean,	1:47
	you shall tell them.	1:52
	In Christ's name, amen.	2:02
	(lively organ music)	2:15
	(congregation sings)	3:04
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	5:35
-	We believe in God	5:40
	who has created and is creating,	5:43
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	5:47
	to reconcile and make new,	5:51
	who works in us and others	5:54
	by this Spirit.	5:57
	We trust God who calls us to be the church	5:59
	to celebrate life in its fullness,	6:04
	to love and serve others,	6:08
	to seek justice and resist evil,	6:11
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	6:15
	our judge and our hope,	6:20
	in life, in death, in life beyond death.	6:23
	God is with us.	6:29
	We are not alone.	6:31
	Thanks be to God.	6:33
-	The Lord be with you.	6:39
	(congregation mumbles)	6:41
	Let us pray.	6:43
	Oh gracious and loving God,	6:56
	thou who created us and knows us better	7:00
	than we ourselves,	7:03
	thou who sustains us when we ourselves	7:06
	are too weak, too weary,	7:09
	too drained of hope to carry on,	7:12
	thou who loved us while we were yet sinners	7:17
	and loves us even now in our sinning.	7:20
	Thou who is able to push away the clouds	7:24
	of doubt and despair	7:27
	and bring forth the light of the sunshine,	7:30
	thou who is able to subside our fears	7:34
	and give us courage and strength,	7:38
	thou who was here before us	7:42
	is with us now and will be here after us.	7:44
	We rejoice that we are thy people	7:49
	and thou art our God.	7:54
	We thank you this morning, Lord,	7:59
	we thank thee for having been true to us,	8:01
	for having never left us,	8:05
	for having remained steadfast	8:08
	in your love for us.	8:10
	And we thank thee for having entrusted us with so much.	8:14
	A rich land,	8:19
	healthy bodies, good minds,	8:22
	families and friends to love us	8:26
	and yea, Lord, a good heritage.	8:28
	We thank thee, Lord,	8:34
	on this Memorial weekend	8:35
	for those who have left us,	8:36
	those who fought with the hope and desire	8:41
	that all people would be free,	8:44
	those who struggled to build and keep alive the church	8:48
	that we might be not just a nation	8:52
	under God but a world under God	8:55
	and those who passed onto each of us	9:00
	a family tradition of values,	9:04
	of goals, of high ideals.	9:08
	Yes, we thank thee, Lord for all of these.	9:12
	We ask that thou would hear our prayers this morning.	9:17
	We pray for those who feel they stand	9:21
	in the midst of unanswered prayer,	9:25
	remind us, Lord of the many times you have answered prayer,	9:29
	silence our voices of fear, of doubt,	9:33
	of need so that we might hear your voice.	9:38
	Oh Lord, teach us patience	9:43
	to wait for your answer.	9:45
	There are those of us who are struggling with relationships,	9:49
	things have begun to fall apart	9:53
	in our families, in our friendships,	9:56
	in our relationships wherever we find them.	9:59
	Lord, help us to love with the same love	10:02
	you gave to us, you go on giving to us,	10:06
	unmerited, undeserved but given willingly and freely.	10:11
	Help us give that kind love, God	10:17
	that we might bind up the wounds	10:20
	that separate us one from the other.	10:23
	And Lord, then we would pray	10:28
	for all of those who are ill,	10:29
	those who are dying,	10:32
	those who are left	10:35
	in a state of illness	10:38
	that will be long and painful and enduring.	10:40
	We pray for those who are grieved over the loss	10:46
	of a loved one,	10:49
	those who have troubled minds,	10:52
	those who have lost sight of their need for you	10:55
	and their need to participate in a community of faith,	10:58
	those who are imprisoned by the bars	11:03
	of our society but also confined by invisible bars	11:06
	that enslave them.	11:12
	Oh Lord, for all of these we pray	11:15
	and now Lord, here are the personal petitions	11:20
	of your people.	11:23
	In all our words of praise and petition, Lord,	11:40
	we acknowledge that they are empty.	11:43
	If we are not willing ourselves	11:47
	to be your instruments of healing and love,	11:49
	if we are not willing to be witnesses	11:53
	of you in our deeds and actions,	11:57
	oh Lord, help us remove the stumbling blocks	12:00
	that keep us from being the standard bearers of the faith.	12:03
	Help us to overcome our indifference	12:09
	to the plight of others,	12:11
	their illnesses, their grief, their trials, their agonies.	12:13
	Help us to overcome our greed	12:20
	and self-concern	12:23
	which keeps us from sharing with others	12:26
	all that we have and all that we are.	12:28
	Help us to overcome our prejudiced and hatred	12:34
	which keeps us divided and separated from others	12:37
	which gives us, Lord, a false sense	12:42
	of our own worth	12:44
	at the same time devalues the worth of others.	12:47
	And oh Lord, help us to reach out to each other,	12:53
	to be willing to walk hand in hand	12:57
	so that we can get close to each other,	13:00
	physically, emotionally and spiritually,	13:03
	to reach out and not only touch another's hand	13:08
	but their hearts and minds as well,	13:12
	to reach out that our own minds and hearts	13:17
	might be touched.	13:21
	We pray these things that thy name,	13:24
	not ours, might be glorified.	13:27
	Hear us now as we unite our voices	13:30
	in the prayer you taught us to pray.	13:33
-	Our Father, who art in heaven,	13:37
	hallowed be thy name,	13:41
	thy kingdom come,	13:44
	thy will be done	13:46
	on Earth as it in heaven.	13:49
	Give us this day our daily bread	13:52
	and forgive us our trespasses	13:56
	as we forgive those who trespassed against us.	13:59
	Lead us not into temptation	14:03
	but deliver us from evil	14:06
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	14:09
	and the glory forever and forever, amen.	14:13
	(tranquil organ music)	14:26
	(inspirational organ music)	17:32
	(lively organ music)	21:07
	(congregation sings)	21:29
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	21:43
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	21:46
	(congregation sings)	21:51
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	22:04
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	22:07
	(congregation sings)	22:12
-	Accept these our gifts, oh Lord	22:36
	in thanksgiving for all	22:39
	that we have been so generously given.	22:41
	We acknowledge that we but give back	22:45
	what is yours for all that we are and have	22:48
	is a gift for you.	22:52
	May this offering be used according to your will.	22:55
	In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.	22:59
	(lively organ music)	23:04
	(congregation sings)	23:55
-	Now may the God of all grace,	26:24
	the God of all glory go with you,	26:27
	going in front of you,	26:29
	going alongside you, going in back of you,	26:30
	reminding you who you are	26:34
	and what your roots are	26:37
	and helping you to build upon that fine, great tradition.	26:39
	In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.	26:45
	(lively organ music)	26:53

Item Info

Title:

J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1): 29:12. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 02:06.
The yearning to know where we come from is a fundamental desire of humankind, and the same is true of us as a people of faith. To begin answering this question, we must turn to the stories of our faith in Scripture to find out the truth of who we are. At the heart of those stories we find God's unrelenting love for us. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “As a people of faith, we dare not ignore the literature of our faith…The stories must be studied, learned, told, in all of their chilling honesty, with all of their fierce transforming power, they must be told.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40863k7b

Date:

May 27, 1984

Speaker:

Laidlaw, J. Michael

Biblical Book:

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0212
ref7945_f5k
uachapelsermaud
duke:320451
dcrau001200
ark:/87924/r40863k7b
a6cd2cef-6c70-45f8-9126-f8952682e942

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

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Educational Use Permitted

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This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

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1. J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

2. J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

Duke University Archives

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J. Michael Laidlaw - "Who Will Water the Roots" (May 27, 1984)

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