Clarence "Smoke" Kanipe - "Today" (March 25, 1979)
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- | Duke University Chapel, service of worship, | 0:08 |
March 25, 1979. | 0:11 | |
(slow organ music) | 0:16 | |
(solemn organ music) | 2:16 | |
(slow organ music) | 3:51 | |
(bright organ music) | 4:27 | |
(solemn organ music) | 8:48 | |
(slow organ music) | 10:33 | |
♪ Lord Jesus savior ♪ | 13:55 | |
♪ My God of nations ♪ | 14:04 | |
♪ Somehow I have ♪ | 14:11 | |
♪ Somehow I have ♪ | 14:19 | |
♪ Glory all God has ♪ | 14:27 | |
♪ Praise my Lord of nations ♪ | 14:34 | |
♪ Now and forevermore in God ♪ | 14:41 | |
♪ Now and forevermore in God ♪ | 14:52 | |
♪ Praise be God ♪ | 15:02 | |
(majestic organ music) | 15:17 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 15:54 | |
- | No one may truly come into the sacred presence | 19:12 |
of the holy one of Israel who does not first acknowledge | 19:16 | |
uncleanness, the sins of heart and hand, | 19:22 | |
who does not say (speaks a foreign language), | 19:29 | |
lord have mercy. | 19:32 | |
Therefore, let us join in a unison prayer of confession. | 19:35 | |
Let us pray. | 19:43 | |
Almighty God, we confess ourselves unworthy | 19:46 | |
of the least of thy mercies. | 19:51 | |
Thou has made us for thyself but we have gone our own way | 19:54 | |
and done our own pleasure. | 20:00 | |
We have not loved thee with all our heart | 20:02 | |
and with all our soul, with all our strength | 20:05 | |
and with all our mind. | 20:09 | |
We have been intent on our own advancement | 20:12 | |
and have passed our neighbor by on the other side. | 20:16 | |
Lover of the souls of us all, forgive us | 20:21 | |
so that we who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve | 20:25 | |
to be punished. | 20:31 | |
By the comfort of thy grace, may mercifully be relieved | 20:33 | |
through our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. | 20:38 | |
May thy grace turn us from our unworthy ways | 20:43 | |
to walk in the ways on thy love. | 20:48 | |
That enduring hardness, as good followers of Jesus Christ, | 20:51 | |
we may deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. | 20:57 | |
So may we be kind to one another, tender hearted, | 21:03 | |
forgiving one another even as thou in Christ | 21:09 | |
has forgiven us and to thee shall be praise | 21:13 | |
and glory forever. | 21:17 | |
Let us each confess silently our sins before God. | 21:22 | |
Hear these words of assurance. | 21:53 | |
As the heavens are high above the earth, | 21:57 | |
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. | 22:00 | |
As far as the east is from the west, | 22:07 | |
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. | 22:12 | |
Amen. | 22:20 | |
As forgiven people, we now give thanks | 22:23 | |
for God is holy and God's love is ever present. | 22:27 | |
(congregation speaking softly) | 22:34 | |
Amen. | 22:49 | |
I would call your notice to several announcements | 22:58 | |
in the bulletin and one further announcement | 23:03 | |
that was squeezed out for lack of space. | 23:08 | |
That is that part five in the seven part historical | 23:15 | |
worship service series, sponsored by the Faith | 23:19 | |
and Arts Committee of the University Parish Ministries | 23:23 | |
will take place this evening, March 25, | 23:30 | |
at 7:30 PM in York Chapel. | 23:33 | |
This will be a congregational worship service | 23:37 | |
from the period of the Revolutionary War in America | 23:40 | |
conducted by Dr. Barney Jones. | 23:44 | |
Subsequent services will include a service of worship | 23:47 | |
from the Black Tradition on April first | 23:51 | |
and an American Frontier Service on April eighth. | 23:55 | |
Everyone is welcome to attend these in York Chapel. | 24:00 | |
I would like to also to draw your attention | 24:09 | |
to the Annual Crop Walk to be held next Sunday afternoon | 24:13 | |
and the ways that you may indicate your intention | 24:21 | |
to participate with the insert in the bulletins | 24:23 | |
explaining more about the purposes, procedures of crop. | 24:30 | |
There will be tables set up in the north X | 24:36 | |
in front of the chapel. | 24:40 | |
As you may sign up there as you leave the service | 24:42 | |
this morning if you are intending to participate. | 24:46 | |
It has been a happy custom for a number of years | 24:55 | |
to have a preacher from the student body | 25:03 | |
at least one Sunday of the year so that there may be | 25:11 | |
some turn about in the direction of Christian communication | 25:16 | |
and those of us of advancing years who tend to claim | 25:23 | |
a monopoly on wisdom may hear and learn something | 25:29 | |
from our juniors. | 25:34 | |
The student preacher today is Clarence Kanipe, a junior | 25:38 | |
in Trinity College. | 25:44 | |
He's been active in the work of the Duke University | 25:46 | |
Parish Ministry and we gladly hear his interpretation | 25:50 | |
of God's word. | 25:56 | |
- | Let us pray. | 26:09 |
Prepare our hearts, oh Lord, to accept your word. | 26:13 | |
Silence in us any voice but your own | 26:18 | |
that hearing we may also obey your will | 26:21 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 26:24 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from the ninth chapter | 26:31 | |
of Amos, verses 13 through 15. | 26:34 | |
Behold the days are coming, says the lord, | 26:39 | |
when the plow man shall overtake the reaper | 26:42 | |
and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed. | 26:45 | |
The mountain shall drip sweet wine | 26:50 | |
and all the hills shall flow with it. | 26:52 | |
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel | 26:56 | |
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities | 27:00 | |
They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine | 27:05 | |
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. | 27:09 | |
I will plant them upon their land | 27:14 | |
and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land | 27:17 | |
which I have given them, says the lord, your God. | 27:21 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 27:24 | |
Amen. | 27:27 | |
(solemn organ music) | 27:47 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 27:54 | |
♪ Behold ♪ | 28:50 | |
♪ Behold ♪ | 28:54 | |
♪ Behold ♪ | 28:56 | |
♪ Behold ♪ | 28:58 | |
♪ God has saved my day ♪ | 29:02 | |
♪ God has saved my day ♪ | 29:07 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 29:12 | |
♪ God has saved my day ♪ | 29:33 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 29:37 | |
♪ You saved me ♪ | 33:20 | |
♪ You saved me ♪ | 33:27 | |
♪ You saved me a little ♪ | 33:31 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 33:37 | |
♪ Your mercy ♪ | 34:10 | |
- | Will the congregation please stand for the reading | 34:34 |
of the gospel lessons? | 34:36 | |
The gospel lessons are from the 13th chapter of Matthew, | 34:44 | |
verses 31 through 33, the first chapter of Mark, | 34:49 | |
verses 14 through 15, and the 17th chapter of Luke, | 34:53 | |
verses 20 through 21. | 34:58 | |
Another parable he put before them saying, | 35:02 | |
the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed | 35:06 | |
which a man took and sowed in his field. | 35:10 | |
It is the smallest of all seeds but when it is grown, | 35:14 | |
it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree | 35:20 | |
so that the birds of the air come and make nests | 35:24 | |
in its branches. | 35:27 | |
He told them another parable. | 35:30 | |
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven | 35:34 | |
which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour | 35:37 | |
till it was all leavened. | 35:41 | |
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee | 35:44 | |
preaching the gospel of God and saying, | 35:50 | |
the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. | 35:53 | |
Repent and believe in the gospel. | 36:00 | |
And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God | 36:05 | |
was coming, he answered them. | 36:09 | |
The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed | 36:12 | |
nor will they say, lo, here it is or there | 36:18 | |
for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. | 36:22 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel. | 36:30 | |
All praise and glory be to God. | 36:33 | |
Amen. | 36:35 | |
(majestic organ music) | 36:39 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 36:53 | |
- | One of my favorite Peanuts comic strips | 37:54 |
has Lucy and Charlie Brown talking together. | 37:57 | |
Lucy says, think about this day for a moment, Charlie Brown. | 38:01 | |
This could very well be the most important day in your life. | 38:05 | |
When a day begins, you never really know | 38:10 | |
what is gonna happen and Charlie Brown | 38:12 | |
begins to build up his confidence a little bit. | 38:16 | |
He says, you're right Lucy, and this very ordinary day | 38:19 | |
could really turn out to be the most important day | 38:24 | |
in my life. | 38:27 | |
And then Lucy says, but it probably won't. | 38:29 | |
Jesus said, I came that they may have life | 38:35 | |
and have it abundantly. | 38:39 | |
Life. | 38:43 | |
Life. | 38:45 | |
What a glorious promise that is. | 38:46 | |
Through the person and the ministry of Jesus, | 38:49 | |
we are promised that our lives can be full, | 38:53 | |
rich, meaningful, abundant. | 38:57 | |
As the psalmist put it, our cups overflow. | 39:02 | |
As we read in the first epistle of John, | 39:07 | |
we are God's children now | 39:10 | |
and as Jesus said, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you | 39:14 | |
and so this morning, my message is quite simple. | 39:21 | |
Life as we know it on this earth is very important. | 39:25 | |
Everything from sunshine to smog, | 39:31 | |
from babies crying to nuclear weapons and cancer, | 39:35 | |
from churches to Moonies, Jonestown, | 39:40 | |
everything that we call life in the 20th century | 39:45 | |
is very important because it is life. | 39:49 | |
Too often Christianity has set its sights on life | 39:55 | |
in the hereafter and has forgotten | 39:59 | |
that there is no hereafter until after here, | 40:02 | |
after life on this earth. | 40:06 | |
While the world has run around trying to save its life, | 40:10 | |
to save the flesh and ignored the soul, | 40:14 | |
Christianity has all too often tried to save souls | 40:19 | |
that didn't have bodies. | 40:23 | |
I think Christian theology has all too often | 40:26 | |
taken one of two routes. | 40:29 | |
The first route we might call turn or burn theology. | 40:32 | |
It states very simply that either you believe in Jesus | 40:36 | |
as your savior or you spend eternity burning in hell. | 40:40 | |
That's not a statement, that's a threat. | 40:45 | |
Well, I remember when I was a youngster | 40:49 | |
going to Sunday school, that used to be one of the biggest | 40:51 | |
motivators for me to read my bible, to go to church, | 40:53 | |
to say my prayers because whenever I was sick, | 40:57 | |
whenever I hurt myself, I would think, boy, | 41:01 | |
hell's gonna be a lot worse than this | 41:04 | |
and I just don't know if I can stand it. | 41:06 | |
Well, the second road is similar to the first road. | 41:10 | |
I once saw a bumper sticker that pretty well summed up | 41:14 | |
this point of view. | 41:19 | |
It said, Christians' retirement benefits | 41:21 | |
are out of this world. | 41:24 | |
Well, I also remember when I was in Sunday school | 41:28 | |
as a youngster, when I wasn't thinking about how awful | 41:31 | |
hell would be, a lot of times I would think | 41:34 | |
how wonderful heaven was gonna be. | 41:38 | |
Having never seen three of my grandparents, | 41:41 | |
I used to think that one of the biggest drawing cards | 41:44 | |
for heaven was that I would get to see them | 41:47 | |
and a lot of famous people besides. | 41:49 | |
Well, Jesus talked differently about the kingdom of God. | 41:53 | |
He talked about the kingdom of God in the present tense, | 41:58 | |
the kingdom of God today. | 42:02 | |
Jesus says, since John came, the good news of the kingdom | 42:07 | |
of God is preached. | 42:11 | |
He says, don't be afraid for it is | 42:16 | |
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. | 42:19 | |
He says, this kingdom is in the midst of you. | 42:25 | |
And the Old Testament prophets have some beautiful visions | 42:32 | |
of the kingdom of God with their messiah reigning | 42:35 | |
and, you know, they never, never talk about ivory palaces, | 42:39 | |
crystal fountains, pearly gates but they talk about | 42:45 | |
this earth, this very earth that you and I live on. | 42:50 | |
Now these visions are visions. | 42:55 | |
They're not photographs of the details | 42:58 | |
of the kingdom of God but they show us the spirit | 43:00 | |
of the kingdom | 43:03 | |
and it can't be separated from life today. | 43:06 | |
You recall what we heard from Amos a few moments ago. | 43:12 | |
They shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. | 43:16 | |
They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine | 43:21 | |
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. | 43:26 | |
I will plant them upon their land and they shall | 43:29 | |
never again be plucked up. | 43:34 | |
No pearly gates but vineyards, | 43:37 | |
rebuilt cities, gardens | 43:41 | |
and no hell of fire because what could be more hellish | 43:46 | |
than to be excluded from such a glorious kingdom? | 43:50 | |
Look at the Beatitudes. | 43:55 | |
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit ivory palaces? | 43:57 | |
No. | 44:03 | |
They shall inherit the earth. | 44:04 | |
And perhaps it is only the meek who can really tell us | 44:08 | |
what a glorious promise this is | 44:11 | |
for one day this earth on which you and I are living | 44:14 | |
right now, one day this very life that you | 44:17 | |
and I are living will experience the full transformation | 44:21 | |
of our lord's redemption just as it is now received | 44:26 | |
a partial transformation. | 44:31 | |
It just may be that this transformed life | 44:35 | |
is not so different from the life that we know right now. | 44:38 | |
It seems that one of our main problems | 44:44 | |
with the kingdom of God is the very same problem | 44:46 | |
that the Jews had in Jesus's day. | 44:49 | |
We're looking for the wrong kind of kingdom. | 44:54 | |
We forget so easily that the kingdom of God | 44:57 | |
is like a grain of mustard seed. | 45:02 | |
It is like leaven which a woman took | 45:04 | |
and hid in three measures of flour. | 45:07 | |
It is like a seed which grows secretly. | 45:10 | |
Many of you probably saw the recent movie, Oh, God! | 45:16 | |
George Burns played God. | 45:20 | |
He decided to reveal himself to all-American boy | 45:22 | |
supermarket manager who was played by John Denver. | 45:25 | |
At one point, God has just met Jerry in his bathroom | 45:30 | |
and so he begins to unload all his pent up questions on God. | 45:37 | |
He asks him why he doesn't do something drastic | 45:42 | |
about all the problems that are in the world, | 45:46 | |
all the pain, all the suffering, and God says something | 45:48 | |
like this, oh, you mean a miracle? | 45:53 | |
Well I don't do miracles. | 45:58 | |
They're too flashy. | 46:00 | |
Oh, once in a while just to keep my hand in it. | 46:03 | |
The last one was the 69 Mets. | 46:07 | |
But God is speaking about miracles | 46:12 | |
in Jerry's mistaken terms. | 46:15 | |
He's speaking about flashy miracles. | 46:18 | |
A little later he tells Jerry that if he really | 46:22 | |
wants to see a miracle, all he has to do | 46:25 | |
is to go look at a fish. | 46:29 | |
Perhaps we should rephrase God's lines and make 'em | 46:32 | |
sound something like this, oh, you mean a miracle? | 46:35 | |
Why that's all I do. | 46:40 | |
One miracle after another. | 46:42 | |
You look at your body. | 46:44 | |
Look at the sun. | 46:46 | |
Tonight, look at the stars when they come out. | 46:48 | |
Pretty good, huh? | 46:51 | |
You humans just don't use the right words. | 46:53 | |
You don't see things in the right way. | 46:56 | |
Jesus said the kingdom of God is not coming with signs | 47:02 | |
to be observed but it is so much in our midst | 47:07 | |
that we don't even recognize it. | 47:12 | |
In his book, Letters and Papers from Prison, | 47:16 | |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes the following words, | 47:19 | |
it is only when one loves life and the world | 47:23 | |
so much that without them everything would be gone. | 47:26 | |
It is only then that one can believe in the resurrection | 47:32 | |
and a new world and yes, | 47:37 | |
it is only those of us | 47:41 | |
who can catch a glimpse of the kingdom of God today, now. | 47:43 | |
Only those of us can have a true concept of eternal glory. | 47:49 | |
But things are not as rosy as they may seem. | 47:57 | |
You know the old comedy line, I have some good news | 48:00 | |
and some bad news. | 48:03 | |
Well, this is the bad news part of this sermon. | 48:05 | |
For just a surely as the kingdom of God has partly come, | 48:09 | |
hell has also partly come on this earth | 48:13 | |
and just as surely as we miss the kingdom of God | 48:17 | |
on this earth, we miss hell on this earth also. | 48:21 | |
All our threats of hell in the hereafter | 48:26 | |
and all our caricatures of Satan and hell, you know, | 48:29 | |
Blue Devils that play football and basketball | 48:34 | |
and those things, all these things have blinded us | 48:36 | |
to the reality of hell right in our very midst. | 48:40 | |
To put it very frankly, we don't love deeply enough | 48:45 | |
to realize the hell of an alcoholic or a drug addict | 48:49 | |
or a prostitute or a student or professor | 48:53 | |
who is so tied up in his books that he or she | 48:57 | |
loses life itself. | 49:01 | |
Or a millionaire who has money to have anything | 49:04 | |
but finds no meaning in it. | 49:08 | |
Yes, I think if you ask any of those people | 49:12 | |
how close hell is, they would tell you | 49:15 | |
that it's all too close. | 49:18 | |
T.S. Eliot is a poet who is very famous for seeing hell | 49:22 | |
in our daily lives. | 49:26 | |
In his poem, The Wasteland, he paints a picture | 49:28 | |
of the hell that he sees in London. | 49:32 | |
He writes, unreal city, | 49:36 | |
under the brown fog of a winter dawn, | 49:40 | |
a crowd flowed over London Bridge. | 49:44 | |
So many. | 49:47 | |
I had not thought death had undone so many. | 49:49 | |
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled | 49:53 | |
and each man fixed his eyes before his feet. | 49:59 | |
Jesus also knew how hellish this life can be | 50:05 | |
for as much as anything in the gospels, | 50:09 | |
we see Jesus going around, casting out demons | 50:12 | |
and just what kind of world is this with demons | 50:17 | |
if it's not a world in which hell is frighteningly real. | 50:21 | |
And you know, isn't it interesting | 50:27 | |
that the people that we see Jesus | 50:29 | |
keeping company with are the very people | 50:31 | |
who are experiencing hell in their lives right now? | 50:34 | |
We see him calling a tax collector to come down | 50:40 | |
from a tree to go eat dinner with him. | 50:44 | |
We see him speaking with prostitutes, with adulteresses, | 50:48 | |
all those people who are not respectable | 50:52 | |
but Jesus doesn't seem to care. | 50:57 | |
He says he came to heal the sick, not to heal the well. | 51:00 | |
Jesus came to share the burden of hell on this earth | 51:06 | |
and he came to introduce the kingdom of God. | 51:11 | |
And so, as disciples of this Jesus, it is our responsibility | 51:18 | |
to change as much of hell as we can into the kingdom of God | 51:22 | |
just as he did. | 51:26 | |
It's a very stern word that Jesus speaks to us. | 51:28 | |
He says, unless you're willing to take up your cross, | 51:32 | |
unless you're willing to lose your very life for my sake, | 51:37 | |
then you'll never find the kingdom of God | 51:43 | |
and you'll never find true life. | 51:46 | |
And so, at the end of the gospel of John, | 51:50 | |
we see Jesus talking to Peter and he says, Peter, | 51:53 | |
if you love me, me, then feed my sheep. | 51:57 | |
Peter, if you love me, in other words, | 52:03 | |
you must suffer through the hell that you see | 52:07 | |
destroying other people. | 52:09 | |
You must share the burden of hell | 52:12 | |
because you know what true life is | 52:15 | |
and you know that anything apart from me | 52:18 | |
is hell even though it may be disguised | 52:22 | |
and you know that I still share the burden of hell | 52:26 | |
because I am love. | 52:30 | |
Our good friend, Charlie Brown, has experienced hell also. | 52:33 | |
In another cartoon, the gang is playing baseball. | 52:39 | |
Charlie Brown mutters to himself on the pitcher's mound. | 52:43 | |
Boy, I must be stupid. | 52:47 | |
I must be out of my mind to stand up here like this. | 52:50 | |
My team hates me. | 52:54 | |
I'm a lousy pitcher and my stomach hurts. | 52:55 | |
I must really be stupid. | 52:59 | |
Then Linus comes up with a bit of worldly philosophy. | 53:02 | |
He says, Charlie Brown, you can't go on like this. | 53:06 | |
You're not enjoying life at all. | 53:12 | |
The moments you spend out here on the pitcher's mound | 53:15 | |
are moments to be treasured. | 53:17 | |
You're not gonna be a child forever, Charlie Brown, | 53:20 | |
so treasure these moments. | 53:23 | |
And so Charlie Brown again, builds up his confidence. | 53:26 | |
He fires in his next pitch and it comes back | 53:30 | |
about 10 times as fast as it went in. | 53:33 | |
It knocks him down, knocks him flat on his back, | 53:37 | |
knocks off his cap, his glove, his shoes, everything | 53:40 | |
but his Bermuda shorts and Charlie Brown lies there | 53:44 | |
flat on his back on the pitcher's mound | 53:48 | |
and he says, this is a difficult moment to treasure. | 53:51 | |
(congregation laughing) | 53:56 | |
And so it is. | 54:00 | |
But you see, Christianity insists that hell is important. | 54:03 | |
It is central to the gospel message that this hell on earth | 54:09 | |
is making souls ready to receive a life after death. | 54:14 | |
Maybe you're familiar with the old version | 54:21 | |
of the Apostle's Creed before we made it nice. | 54:23 | |
It used to read, Jesus was crucified, dead, | 54:28 | |
and descended into hell. | 54:33 | |
Saint Paul writes that if any man is in Christ, | 54:36 | |
he is a new creature and surely being in Christ | 54:39 | |
means going through hell with Christ. | 54:45 | |
Hell helps make us into new creatures. | 54:50 | |
We come out differently from the way we went in. | 54:54 | |
Yes Charlie Brown, hell is a part of life | 54:59 | |
and yes, it is a moment to be treasured. | 55:03 | |
Now in saying how important life on this earth is, | 55:09 | |
I hope I have not implied that eternity is unimportant | 55:13 | |
for know it is so important that perhaps we can't grasp | 55:17 | |
its true greatness | 55:22 | |
but eternity is not important enough | 55:26 | |
to blind us to the glories of the kingdom of God | 55:29 | |
right now, today, on this earth | 55:32 | |
nor is it important enough | 55:37 | |
to blind us to the horrors of hell. | 55:39 | |
And another point in Oh, God! | 55:45 | |
A council of theologians has been set up | 55:47 | |
to ask a bunch of questions to God, whoever he might be. | 55:49 | |
One of the questions concerns the meaning | 55:55 | |
of man's existence and God responds something like this, | 55:58 | |
each individual's existence means exactly | 56:05 | |
what that person thinks it means at any particular time. | 56:10 | |
Nothing more, nothing less. | 56:16 | |
As Christians, as followers of the king, | 56:20 | |
as the ones who know the kingdom is come, | 56:25 | |
it is our responsibility to see the kingdom, | 56:30 | |
to share the kingdom with others and to change hell | 56:34 | |
into the kingdom. | 56:38 | |
A few years ago, a popular song was written called Today. | 56:42 | |
The last verse had the following words, | 56:47 | |
I can't be contented with yesterday's glories | 56:51 | |
and I can't live on promises, winter to spring. | 56:56 | |
Today is my moment. | 57:01 | |
Now is my story. | 57:03 | |
I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing. | 57:06 | |
In his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis beautifully | 57:13 | |
sums up what I've been trying to say. | 57:17 | |
He writes, but what, you ask, of earth? | 57:22 | |
Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone | 57:27 | |
to be in the end a very distinct place. | 57:32 | |
I think earth, if chosen instead of heaven, | 57:36 | |
will turn out to have been all along only a region in hell | 57:41 | |
and earth, if put second to heaven, to have been | 57:48 | |
from the beginning a part of heaven itself. | 57:52 | |
The kingdom is in our midst and if we can't see it here, | 57:58 | |
today, then we can't see it anywhere at all. | 58:04 | |
Father, grant us the eyes to see, | 58:12 | |
the ears to hear, the faith to believe, | 58:17 | |
and the love to work for your kingdom. | 58:21 | |
Amen. | 58:26 | |
(majestic organ music) | 58:36 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 59:00 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 1:00:52 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 1:00:57 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 1:01:03 | |
and make new, who works in us and others by the spirit. | 1:01:08 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 1:01:15 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 1:01:20 | |
to love and serve others, | 1:01:23 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus | 1:01:26 | |
crucified and risen, our judge and our hope, | 1:01:32 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death. | 1:01:37 | |
God is with us. | 1:01:43 | |
We are not alone. | 1:01:45 | |
Thanks be to God. | 1:01:47 | |
The Lord be with you. | 1:02:04 | |
Let us pray. | 1:02:08 | |
Oh God, we praise thee and thank thee for thyself | 1:02:14 | |
who takes an acorn and makes it a tree, | 1:02:20 | |
sets air over us and daylight and the large pictures | 1:02:24 | |
of each season. | 1:02:30 | |
Gives us the walk and run of the body, | 1:02:34 | |
the mind's radar, and the heart's insatiable dreams. | 1:02:38 | |
We praise thee and thank thee for thyself | 1:02:48 | |
who gives us the gifts we do not earn, | 1:02:52 | |
the strength we do not have | 1:02:56 | |
and the forgiveness we do not deserve. | 1:03:01 | |
Unto thee be all glory and honor, dominion and power, | 1:03:05 | |
world without end. | 1:03:12 | |
Oh Lord God of all creation, you made this world a garden | 1:03:18 | |
and appointed us its stewards. | 1:03:24 | |
Help us though to care for your earth | 1:03:28 | |
that it may produce good fruit and plenty. | 1:03:33 | |
Keep us from preoccupation with convenience and our own gain | 1:03:39 | |
so that we will not despoil this garden and deprive others | 1:03:45 | |
of its enjoyment. | 1:03:49 | |
Keep us daily mindful of the hungry, Lord, | 1:03:53 | |
and of the fact that they need not be so. | 1:03:58 | |
Let us never forget that we have our abundance | 1:04:05 | |
at the cost of others privation. | 1:04:09 | |
So may we dedicate ourselves to making your earth | 1:04:14 | |
a place of justice as well as of plenty. | 1:04:19 | |
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ in whose name | 1:04:24 | |
we are commanded to break bread with all | 1:04:30 | |
and who taught us when we pray to say, our father, | 1:04:36 | |
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 1:04:43 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 1:04:47 | |
as it is in heaven. | 1:04:53 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 1:04:55 | |
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those | 1:04:59 | |
who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation | 1:05:03 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 1:05:09 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 1:05:14 | |
Amen. | 1:05:18 | |
(solemn organ music) | 1:05:37 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 1:07:09 | |
(slow organ music drowns out singers) | 1:10:10 | |
(majestic organ music) | 1:12:31 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 1:13:25 | |
Almighty God, by the bounty of whose grace | 1:14:07 | |
we live our years in peace and plenty, | 1:14:13 | |
accept these our gifts as tokens of our worship of thee. | 1:14:16 | |
Renew in us the will to share the yield of the earth | 1:14:21 | |
with those in need. | 1:14:25 | |
In Christ's name, amen. | 1:14:28 | |
(solemn organ music) | 1:14:37 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 1:16:04 | |
(majestic organ music) | 1:18:00 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 1:18:04 | |
Now may the grace of our lord, Jesus Christ, | 1:18:42 | |
the love of God and the fellowship of the holy spirit | 1:18:46 | |
be with you all. | 1:18:51 | |
Amen. | 1:18:54 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:57 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:02 | |
♪ Ah ah ah ah amen ♪ | 1:19:08 | |
♪ Ah ah ah ah amen ♪ | 1:19:16 | |
♪ Ah ah ah ah amen ♪ | 1:19:23 | |
♪ Ah ah ah amen ♪ | 1:19:33 | |
♪ Ah ah amen ♪ | 1:19:47 | |
(solemn organ music) | 1:20:06 | |
(congregation talking softly) | 1:23:08 |