Robert T. Young - "Why Do You Seek the Living among the Dead?" (April 6, 1980)
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Transcript
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| - | Easter Sunday worship service, | 0:03 |
| April sixth, 1980, | 0:06 | |
| Duke Chapel. | 0:09 | |
| (organ music) | 0:11 | |
| (organ music) | 10:31 | |
| (horn music) | 19:39 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 21:17 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 23:20 | |
| - | And a voice from the throne said, | 23:24 |
| behold, I make all things new. | 23:26 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 23:31 | |
| Amen and amen. | 23:41 | |
| (organ music) | 23:44 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 24:27 | |
| In order that our joy in the knowledge that neither death | 31:25 | |
| nor life, things present or to come | 31:28 | |
| or anything else within the whole creation can separate us | 31:33 | |
| from God's love. | 31:36 | |
| Let us call one another to confession of our sins. | 31:38 | |
| If there is no resurrection of the dead, | 31:45 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 31:49 | |
| if Christ has not been raised, | 31:51 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 31:55 | |
| but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. | 31:59 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 32:04 | |
| Let us worship God, let us pray. | 32:07 | |
| Be seated please. | 32:11 | |
| Oh God | 32:21 | |
| who raised Jesus Christ and made him lord of all time, | 32:23 | |
| forgive us for the ways we have treated | 32:28 | |
| the time given to us. | 32:31 | |
| We have wasted time | 32:34 | |
| considering our lives to be of little worth. | 32:36 | |
| We have marked time ignoring the opportunities | 32:40 | |
| for service and care that come to us each day. | 32:44 | |
| We have killed time seeing life itself as a threat | 32:49 | |
| rather than as a gift. | 32:54 | |
| We have been nostalgic for a past that never was. | 32:56 | |
| Selfish in the present and fearful of the future. | 33:01 | |
| We give thanks that in the power of the resurrection | 33:06 | |
| Jesus is the lord of past, present and future. | 33:10 | |
| Redeem our time, oh lord, | 33:15 | |
| forgive us our past sins, | 33:18 | |
| renew our present lives, | 33:21 | |
| restore our confidence in your future. | 33:23 | |
| We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. | 33:27 | |
| Let us confess in silence, our personal sins. | 33:33 | |
| The lord has given us life that we may rejoice in the lord. | 34:01 | |
| The lord has given us love and granted us deliverance. | 34:06 | |
| The lord has given us the power of new life from which | 34:12 | |
| comes faith that sees us through doubt and adversity. | 34:15 | |
| Love that binds us to the lord and to one another | 34:20 | |
| and hope that takes us beyond the tumults of this world | 34:24 | |
| to the peace and tranquility of the world to come | 34:28 | |
| as loved, freed and forgiven people. | 34:32 | |
| In the name of the lord, let us forgive one another. | 34:37 | |
| Let us give thanks | 34:43 | |
| for God is good and God's love is everlasting. | 34:45 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 34:50 | |
| Amen. | 35:07 | |
| We would like to request, please, that if you are able to | 35:10 | |
| do so, you will move in toward the center aisle so that | 35:14 | |
| some of those who are standing may be seated. | 35:17 | |
| I welcome all of you today who are present here | 35:23 | |
| and those who worship with us by radio and by television | 35:27 | |
| and I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. | 35:32 | |
| Whose resurrection we gather to celebrate. | 35:35 | |
| Like Mary of Magdala, we too have seen the lord | 35:39 | |
| and it is marvelous in our eyes. | 35:44 | |
| Alleluia. | 35:48 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 35:58 |
| Prepare our hearts, oh lord, | 36:02 | |
| to accept your word. | 36:05 | |
| Silence in us, any voice but your own. | 36:08 | |
| That hearing, we may also obey your will | 36:12 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our lord, amen. | 36:16 | |
| The Old Testament lesson | 36:21 | |
| is from the 15th chapter of Exodus, | 36:23 | |
| selected verses. | 36:26 | |
| Then Moses and the people if Israel | 36:29 | |
| sang this song to the Lord saying, | 36:32 | |
| I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. | 36:35 | |
| The horse and his rider, he has thrown into the sea. | 36:40 | |
| The lord is my strength and my song | 36:45 | |
| and he has become my salvation. | 36:48 | |
| This is my God, and I will praise him, | 36:51 | |
| my father's God, and I will exalt him. | 36:55 | |
| Who is like thee, oh lord, among the gods? | 37:00 | |
| Who is like thee, | 37:04 | |
| majestic in holiness, | 37:06 | |
| terrible in glorious deeds, | 37:09 | |
| doing wonders? | 37:11 | |
| Thou has led in thy steadfast love the people whom thou | 37:14 | |
| hast redeemed. | 37:17 | |
| Thou has guided them by thy strength to thy holy abode. | 37:19 | |
| Thou will bring them in and plant them on thy own mountain. | 37:24 | |
| The place, oh lord, which thou has made for thy abode. | 37:29 | |
| The sanctuary, oh lord, | 37:34 | |
| which thy hands have established. | 37:36 | |
| The lord will reign for ever and ever. | 37:39 | |
| The epistle lesson is from the first letter of Paul | 37:45 | |
| to the Corinthians, | 37:49 | |
| chapter 15, verses one through 11. | 37:51 | |
| Now I would remind you brethren, | 37:57 | |
| in what terms I preach to you the gospel | 38:00 | |
| which you received, | 38:03 | |
| in which you stand, | 38:05 | |
| by which you are saved if you hold it fast | 38:07 | |
| unless you have believed in vain. | 38:11 | |
| For I deliver to you as of the first importance | 38:14 | |
| what I also received. | 38:17 | |
| That Christ died for our sins | 38:20 | |
| in accordance with the scriptures. | 38:23 | |
| That he was buried, and that he rose on the third day | 38:25 | |
| in accordance with the scriptures. | 38:29 | |
| And that he appeared to Cephas, | 38:32 | |
| then to the 12. | 38:34 | |
| Then he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. | 38:37 | |
| Most of whom are still alive. | 38:42 | |
| Though some have fallen asleep. | 38:44 | |
| Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles. | 38:47 | |
| Last of all, as to one untimely born, | 38:53 | |
| he appeared also to me. | 38:57 | |
| For I am the least of the apostles. | 39:00 | |
| Unfit to be called an apostle because I persecuted | 39:03 | |
| the church of God. | 39:08 | |
| But by the grace of God, I am what I am | 39:10 | |
| and his grace toward me was not in vain. | 39:15 | |
| On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, | 39:18 | |
| though it was not I, but the grace of God which is in me. | 39:22 | |
| Here ended the reading of the epistle. | 39:28 | |
| (organ music) | 40:09 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 40:15 | |
| Let the congregation stand for the reading of the gospel. | 46:56 | |
| The gospel lesson is from the 24th chapter of Luke, | 47:11 | |
| verses one through 11. | 47:15 | |
| But on the first day of the week, | 47:19 | |
| at early dawn they went to the tomb taking the spices | 47:21 | |
| which they had prepared. | 47:27 | |
| And they found the stone | 47:30 | |
| rolled away from the tomb. | 47:33 | |
| But when they went in, | 47:36 | |
| they did not find the body. | 47:38 | |
| While they were perplexed about this, behold, | 47:42 | |
| two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. | 47:45 | |
| And as they were frightened, | 47:49 | |
| and bowed their faces to the ground, | 47:51 | |
| the men said to them, | 47:54 | |
| why do you seek the living among the dead? | 47:56 | |
| Remember how he told you | 48:00 | |
| while he was still in Galilee, | 48:02 | |
| that the son of man must be delivered into the hands | 48:05 | |
| of sinful men, and be crucified | 48:08 | |
| and on the third day, rise. | 48:12 | |
| And they remembered these words. | 48:16 | |
| And returning from the tomb, | 48:18 | |
| they told all of this to the 11, | 48:20 | |
| and to all of the rest. | 48:22 | |
| Now it was that Mary Magdalene | 48:25 | |
| and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, | 48:28 | |
| and the other women with them, | 48:32 | |
| who told this to the apostles. | 48:34 | |
| But these words seemed to them an idle tale | 48:37 | |
| and they did not believe them. | 48:41 | |
| Here ended the reading of the lesson. | 48:43 | |
| (organ music) | 48:47 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 48:56 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 49:47 |
| Oh God, | 49:52 | |
| take now these words | 49:54 | |
| and make of them your holy word | 49:56 | |
| and may the very living presence of our risen lord | 50:01 | |
| come alive to each of us | 50:04 | |
| in new and special ways, this day we pray | 50:07 | |
| through Christ, our lord, amen. | 50:11 | |
| E.E. Cummings has a word for us this blessed Easter morning. | 50:17 | |
| He writes, | 50:23 | |
| "I thank you God for most, this amazing day. | 50:26 | |
| For the leaping greenly spirits of trees | 50:32 | |
| and a blue true dream of sky. | 50:35 | |
| And for everything which is natural, | 50:40 | |
| which is infinite, | 50:44 | |
| which is yes." | 50:46 | |
| We do give thanks to God for everything this day. | 50:50 | |
| Everything which is natural, everything which is infinite, | 50:54 | |
| everything which is yes. | 50:59 | |
| And as we do, there is one word I want to share this morning | 51:02 | |
| that is at the heart and soul of this Easter story | 51:05 | |
| that comes singing through our gospel lesson | 51:10 | |
| and that has become clearer and clearer to me this | 51:14 | |
| particular holy Lenten season. | 51:18 | |
| And that is that the promises of God | 51:21 | |
| are true and can be trusted. | 51:25 | |
| The word of the lord is fulfilled. | 51:29 | |
| Death has been overcome. | 51:32 | |
| Christ is risen. | 51:35 | |
| Easter. | 51:39 | |
| Easter flowers, Easter sunshine, | 51:41 | |
| Easter crosses, Easter. | 51:45 | |
| I want to say this morning that I believe in the message | 51:52 | |
| of Easter. | 51:56 | |
| I believe in the God who sustained Jesus through Easter. | 51:58 | |
| I believe in the Christ who gave himself to death, | 52:03 | |
| hell and the grave and was raised that we might know life, | 52:07 | |
| might know life now and forever. | 52:11 | |
| Yes, | 52:15 | |
| I believe in Easter. | 52:17 | |
| And to believe in Easter, though, we must believe in dying. | 52:19 | |
| It was just about three weeks ago, | 52:25 | |
| I was talking with a middle aged woman. | 52:29 | |
| The words on the lips of this middle aged wife, | 52:34 | |
| mother and caring friend in many of her church, | 52:37 | |
| the words on her lips came out haltingly but convincingly | 52:41 | |
| as she talked with me. | 52:45 | |
| 43 years old, mother of three, leader in her church, | 52:48 | |
| she had learned just six weeks earlier of malignant cancer | 52:53 | |
| in several of her organs and literally spread | 52:57 | |
| throughout her body. | 53:00 | |
| We sat and talked and near the end of our conversation, | 53:02 | |
| she looked me straight in the eyes and said, | 53:05 | |
| I don't want to die. | 53:07 | |
| I want to live. | 53:12 | |
| I have so very much to live for. | 53:14 | |
| And so she does. | 53:22 | |
| Dying is that mysterious experience in life that many | 53:24 | |
| people can describe but that no one understands. | 53:28 | |
| But the Easter message response to that deep and mysterious | 53:34 | |
| threat, that threat which says that everything that is | 53:38 | |
| possible is not always possible. | 53:42 | |
| Easter, my friends, puts into perspective the plight of | 53:46 | |
| those who suffer, you, me, others around us who suffer, | 53:49 | |
| those who are dying slowly but surely, day by day. | 53:52 | |
| The migrant worker in California or Florida or Mexico | 53:57 | |
| or North Carolina. | 54:01 | |
| The migrant worker who just does not know what to do | 54:04 | |
| or where to go. | 54:09 | |
| The parolee from prison who is in no one's land | 54:12 | |
| because no one wants him. | 54:16 | |
| No one claims him. | 54:19 | |
| No one trusts him. | 54:20 | |
| No one seems to care for him | 54:22 | |
| and there's nowhere to go. | 54:25 | |
| The teenage alcoholic | 54:30 | |
| and unfortunately we have some of those | 54:33 | |
| right here on campus and in this community. | 54:36 | |
| The teenage alcoholic who started out drinking to prove | 54:40 | |
| that he or she was really somebody | 54:43 | |
| and now longs earnestly is to feel and to believe that | 54:46 | |
| he or she is somebody. | 54:49 | |
| Yes, dying takes many forms as it captures our lives | 54:53 | |
| and the lives of those around us, right here, right now | 54:57 | |
| but the Easter message comes to us | 55:01 | |
| and the Easter message reaches in and touches those | 55:05 | |
| hidden rooms and those hidden thoughts of many men | 55:08 | |
| and women, many described By Marilyn French when she writes | 55:12 | |
| in her book, The Women's Room, she writes, | 55:17 | |
| "I feel like a survivor | 55:21 | |
| who has lost everything but her life, | 55:24 | |
| who wanders around inside a skinny, shriveled body | 55:28 | |
| collecting dandelion greens and muttering to herself. | 55:33 | |
| I feel like a survivor who has lost everything but life." | 55:39 | |
| But we don't have to wander around inside ourselves, | 55:43 | |
| we can become a part of him who is the living, | 55:46 | |
| not among the dead, but the living among the living | 55:49 | |
| and so before we look at Easter flowers and Easter | 55:54 | |
| sunshine and Easter crosses, we must know that Easter | 55:56 | |
| belief begins with a belief in dying. | 56:00 | |
| To believe in Easter, we must believe in life. | 56:05 | |
| Easter, I believe, is a positive, loving and constant | 56:08 | |
| yes on the part of God to our lives, | 56:13 | |
| to us as individuals, to us as specific persons. | 56:16 | |
| Easter makes it possible for each one of us to say, | 56:21 | |
| not that death is not the end | 56:25 | |
| but it makes it possible for each one of us to say, | 56:29 | |
| death is not the end for me. | 56:31 | |
| Death for no individual person, young or old, rich or poor, | 56:37 | |
| learned or ignorant, black or white, north or south, | 56:42 | |
| have or have not, death we know for no one is ever ordinary. | 56:45 | |
| And Easter says, on the other hand, loudly and clearly | 56:51 | |
| that life for no one is ever ordinary. | 56:55 | |
| Life for each one is important, life for each one has | 56:59 | |
| eternal worth. | 57:04 | |
| So Easter. | 57:08 | |
| Easter is that experience for you and me when we can come | 57:11 | |
| down from the mountain or up from the valley, | 57:14 | |
| can come down from that frightening, precarious mountain | 57:17 | |
| that we live on sometimes or can come up out of the very | 57:20 | |
| pits of hell themselves where we often live | 57:24 | |
| day by dragging day. | 57:27 | |
| Easter is a return, it is a new exodus, | 57:29 | |
| it is a rebirth, a new living that frees us just as quickly | 57:32 | |
| as Jesus freed the adulteress woman when he said to her, | 57:38 | |
| go and sin no more. | 57:41 | |
| Anyone who has lived, | 57:45 | |
| anyone who has ever been upon the mountain's edge | 57:47 | |
| or in the depths of the valley, | 57:50 | |
| anyone who knows life, anyone, | 57:52 | |
| anyone of us who has ever sinned needs Easter. | 57:55 | |
| But before we look at Easter flowers and Easter sunshine, | 58:01 | |
| and Easter crosses, | 58:04 | |
| we must know that Easter belief begins | 58:06 | |
| with a belief in life. | 58:09 | |
| To believe in Easter is to believe in others. | 58:12 | |
| We know about the experience of the baptism of our lord, | 58:15 | |
| who he stepped into the river Jordan | 58:18 | |
| and was baptized by John. | 58:20 | |
| When our lord stepped in to the Jordan waters, though, | 58:22 | |
| he didn't enter there so that anyone or all of his sins | 58:24 | |
| might be washed away, rather, Jesus went down into the | 58:28 | |
| Jordan river to identify with each and every one of us. | 58:32 | |
| To become one with us in our concerns, one with us in our | 58:37 | |
| cares, one with us in our sins, if you will. | 58:40 | |
| As the law in the Old Testament spoke about fulfillment | 58:46 | |
| through obeying God's precepts, it was Jesus who came to | 58:50 | |
| announce that we must love one another. | 58:54 | |
| No longer were we going to be forgiven by the keeping | 58:59 | |
| of the law and by keeping any or all of the precepts. | 59:03 | |
| But rather, now from now on we are to be forgiven as | 59:06 | |
| we forgive others. | 59:11 | |
| No longer is salvation to the nation or to the people | 59:14 | |
| or to the community but salvation comes to those who care | 59:17 | |
| for those who are the least among us. | 59:21 | |
| And as Elie Weisel puts it in his book, The Madness of God, | 59:27 | |
| "Some things are just too important to be done alone, | 59:31 | |
| and so they are." | 59:38 | |
| Easter, my friends, makes all the difference in the world. | 59:40 | |
| All the difference in the world for you and me and for | 59:44 | |
| every child of God on the face of this Earth. | 59:48 | |
| There is no other experience that this Earth has ever seen | 59:53 | |
| that shows how deeply we are cared for as does the | 59:58 | |
| crucifixion, resurrection of Jesus. | 1:00:02 | |
| Easter is God's word to you and to me and to every other | 1:00:05 | |
| child of God, saying, I love you. | 1:00:09 | |
| I love you. | 1:00:14 | |
| I love you. | 1:00:17 | |
| And so before we look at Easter flowers and Easter sunshine | 1:00:25 | |
| and Easter crosses, | 1:00:27 | |
| we must know that Easter belief begins with a belief | 1:00:30 | |
| in others. | 1:00:33 | |
| To believe in Easter means that we believe in Jesus | 1:00:35 | |
| who is the Christ. | 1:00:38 | |
| Easter is a word of thanks be to you, oh God. | 1:00:42 | |
| The response to Easter is not words of acceptance | 1:00:47 | |
| or of belief nor even of obedience. | 1:00:50 | |
| The response to Easter is a doxology, | 1:00:53 | |
| a dox a logos. | 1:00:56 | |
| A praise to the lord. | 1:00:58 | |
| Jesus the Christ, that is who. | 1:01:02 | |
| That radical human being and some people for some strange | 1:01:06 | |
| reason don't like to think of Jesus as a radical | 1:01:10 | |
| or a revolutionary but he was, my friends. | 1:01:14 | |
| And it was his radicalness that took him to the cross | 1:01:18 | |
| and it was the radical love of God which raised him | 1:01:23 | |
| from the dead. | 1:01:26 | |
| That radical human being who invites all of us to take | 1:01:28 | |
| the same radical stance that he did. | 1:01:33 | |
| To defy that last temptation when they | 1:01:36 | |
| taunted him, come down off the cross | 1:01:39 | |
| and he calls us also not to come down off the cross | 1:01:42 | |
| and take an easy way of life | 1:01:45 | |
| but he calls us to remain there. | 1:01:48 | |
| To remain there on our cross | 1:01:51 | |
| until our Easter comes. | 1:01:55 | |
| This radical Jesus invites those to follow. | 1:01:59 | |
| Those of us who will to follow just as he invited | 1:02:03 | |
| Mary Magdalene and Mary came to know Jesus so well, | 1:02:06 | |
| so intimately, so familiarly | 1:02:11 | |
| that on that Easter morning, all she had to hear was Mary | 1:02:15 | |
| and she knew immediately that it was no longer the gardener | 1:02:20 | |
| who was standing beside her but it was Jesus her lord. | 1:02:24 | |
| That radical stance | 1:02:28 | |
| that invited others to follow so that he could send us forth | 1:02:31 | |
| to heal, | 1:02:36 | |
| to forgive, | 1:02:37 | |
| to care, | 1:02:39 | |
| to love. | 1:02:40 | |
| You remember Jesus' friend, Lazarus? | 1:02:43 | |
| Lazarus died. | 1:02:47 | |
| The way I remember Lazarus is that when I was a little boy | 1:02:49 | |
| growing up in the Baptist church, and the Methodist church, | 1:02:51 | |
| I first went to one and then to the other. | 1:02:54 | |
| The only memory verse I could ever remember in the whole | 1:02:57 | |
| bible was Jesus wept. | 1:02:59 | |
| That's the experience that Jesus had with Lazarus. | 1:03:02 | |
| Lazarus was Jesus' friend. | 1:03:08 | |
| The death of Lazarus did evoke | 1:03:12 | |
| weeping from Jesus. | 1:03:16 | |
| Lazarus lay in his tomb | 1:03:19 | |
| until the word of Jesus came to him and Jesus said, | 1:03:23 | |
| Lazarus come forth, come out, come out this moment. | 1:03:26 | |
| Lazarus was in his tomb just as you and I are in our tombs | 1:03:33 | |
| until we hear the word of Jesus saying, come out, | 1:03:38 | |
| come out, | 1:03:42 | |
| come out this moment. | 1:03:44 | |
| And my friends, it is the risen Christ and he alone | 1:03:47 | |
| who can issue that invitation to you and to me. | 1:03:51 | |
| Jesus the Christ has become the first fruits | 1:03:57 | |
| of them that slept. | 1:04:02 | |
| The lord is risen, | 1:04:05 | |
| the lord is risen indeed, | 1:04:08 | |
| hallelujah, hallelujah, | 1:04:11 | |
| hallelujah, amen. | 1:04:14 | |
| (drum roll) | 1:04:34 | |
| (horn music) | 1:04:39 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:04:58 | |
| - | Let us unite in this historic confession | 1:07:54 |
| of the Christian faith. | 1:07:57 | |
| I believe in God, the father almighty, | 1:08:00 | |
| maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, | 1:08:03 | |
| his only son, our lord | 1:08:07 | |
| who was conceived by the holy spirit, | 1:08:09 | |
| born of the virgin Mary, | 1:08:12 | |
| suffered under Pontius Pilate, | 1:08:15 | |
| was crucified, dead and buried. | 1:08:17 | |
| The third day he rose from the dead. | 1:08:20 | |
| He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand | 1:08:24 | |
| of God, the father almighty. | 1:08:27 | |
| From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 1:08:30 | |
| I believe in the holy spirit, | 1:08:34 | |
| the holy Catholic church, | 1:08:37 | |
| the communion of saints, | 1:08:39 | |
| the forgiveness of sins, | 1:08:41 | |
| the resurrection of the body | 1:08:44 | |
| and the life everlasting. | 1:08:46 | |
| Amen. | 1:08:49 | |
| The lord be with you. | 1:08:50 | |
| (congregation in unison) | 1:08:52 | |
| Let us pray. | 1:08:54 | |
| On this day of days, mighty God, | 1:09:07 | |
| we come to bless your name. | 1:09:09 | |
| We thank you for Jesus our savior, | 1:09:13 | |
| who for our sakes became poor and | 1:09:16 | |
| dwelt among us for 30 years | 1:09:18 | |
| earning his living, | 1:09:21 | |
| declining no humble tasks, | 1:09:23 | |
| knowing our joys, our sorrows, | 1:09:25 | |
| our happiness, our hurts. | 1:09:28 | |
| We rejoice that through him death is finished. | 1:09:32 | |
| Love prevails | 1:09:36 | |
| that he is present with us now. | 1:09:38 | |
| We thank you that no hesitancy in believing, | 1:09:42 | |
| no impossibility of circumstance, | 1:09:46 | |
| no hardness of heart, | 1:09:49 | |
| no familiarity with Easters past | 1:09:51 | |
| need deprive our soul of this day's joy and peace. | 1:09:54 | |
| Do thou quiet in our minds, oh God, | 1:10:00 | |
| and deliver us from momentary preoccupations | 1:10:03 | |
| that we may exercise our faith in you | 1:10:07 | |
| through this, our prayer | 1:10:10 | |
| for others and ourselves. | 1:10:12 | |
| Give us peace from our individual and corporate anxieties. | 1:10:16 | |
| Give us rest from our troubles. | 1:10:21 | |
| Release us from selfishness | 1:10:23 | |
| so that we may open our hearts to the cares of the world | 1:10:26 | |
| and have our minds opened to the realities of who | 1:10:30 | |
| and whose we are. | 1:10:34 | |
| Teach us, our loving maker, | 1:10:36 | |
| that in prayer there are no secrets. | 1:10:38 | |
| We do most earnestly pray for all brothers and sisters | 1:10:43 | |
| of every land and race who do not know the gospel | 1:10:46 | |
| of the cross in empty tomb. | 1:10:49 | |
| Make us true Christian witnesses to them, | 1:10:53 | |
| not for vain glory but in humble response to your | 1:10:56 | |
| commission to us through Jesus. | 1:11:00 | |
| May the world know we are Christian, | 1:11:04 | |
| not through the cut of clothes on our backs, the language | 1:11:06 | |
| we speak or the size of our bank accounts, | 1:11:10 | |
| but through our love. | 1:11:14 | |
| Love for each other and for all strangers within | 1:11:16 | |
| and beyond our gates. | 1:11:20 | |
| We pray for the untaught. | 1:11:23 | |
| Brothers and sisters of all ages who through their own | 1:11:25 | |
| choosing or conditions forced upon them, | 1:11:29 | |
| are locked in a prison of ignorance. | 1:11:32 | |
| Often an ignorance of the dignity of their own lives | 1:11:35 | |
| as your children. | 1:11:38 | |
| Or ignorance of civil and political rights | 1:11:40 | |
| and of proper nutrition | 1:11:43 | |
| and of the joy of literacy. | 1:11:45 | |
| Inspire us to teach. | 1:11:49 | |
| To serve you by serving the untaught | 1:11:51 | |
| but also, most just God, | 1:11:54 | |
| make us to see our own ignorances and to willingly | 1:11:57 | |
| embrace that which persons of other cultures | 1:12:00 | |
| can teach us. | 1:12:03 | |
| For we, oh God, need to learn and relearn the lessons | 1:12:05 | |
| of kindness, patience and respect for one another. | 1:12:09 | |
| And we pray, oh God, for those who destroy your creation. | 1:12:15 | |
| That their eyes may be open to their sin. | 1:12:19 | |
| May those who kill and mutilate and pollute what you have | 1:12:23 | |
| made, feel the wrath of your judgment. | 1:12:26 | |
| For in your merciful judgment is the love that transforms, | 1:12:29 | |
| makes new and gives us second chances. | 1:12:33 | |
| We pray for our brothers and sisters who hold political, | 1:12:39 | |
| economic and social power. | 1:12:41 | |
| That they may honor you by extending justice, | 1:12:44 | |
| peace and compassion for all people. | 1:12:47 | |
| We pray for the forgotten, the mistreated, | 1:12:51 | |
| for unloved children, | 1:12:55 | |
| for unloving parents, | 1:12:57 | |
| for unloved parents and unloving children. | 1:13:00 | |
| Hard hearted adults and all persons twisted by hate. | 1:13:04 | |
| We pray for those who's bodies hurts. | 1:13:10 | |
| Whose minds are in a panic and for all who fear tomorrow. | 1:13:12 | |
| Make us missionaries of your redemption, | 1:13:18 | |
| agents of your healing, | 1:13:21 | |
| bearers of your comfort. | 1:13:23 | |
| After the manner of Jesus, | 1:13:26 | |
| keep us at the side of those who need us. | 1:13:28 | |
| We pray as a company of those who love you | 1:13:33 | |
| and we pray in the name of Jesus our savior | 1:13:36 | |
| who lives and who teaches us to pray. | 1:13:39 | |
| Our father who art in heaven, | 1:13:43 | |
| hallowed be thy name. | 1:13:46 | |
| They kingdom come, they will be done | 1:13:48 | |
| on Earth as it is in heaven. | 1:13:52 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 1:13:55 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 1:13:58 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 1:14:00 | |
| and lead us not into temptation | 1:14:04 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 1:14:07 | |
| For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 1:14:09 | |
| forever, amen. | 1:14:14 | |
| (choral music) | 1:14:33 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:14:35 | |
| Holy God, by the blood of your son you have opened up | 1:24:22 | |
| a new way of living | 1:24:25 | |
| and granting us to come into your presence. | 1:24:28 | |
| Today we bring offerings knowing that all that is in heaven | 1:24:31 | |
| and on Earth belongs to you, lord. | 1:24:34 | |
| And that it is of your own we give you, | 1:24:37 | |
| praying that you will accept us and these, your gifts | 1:24:40 | |
| for your glory | 1:24:43 | |
| through Jesus Christ, your son who died that we too | 1:24:44 | |
| might live, amen. | 1:24:48 | |
| (organ music) | 1:24:52 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:25:27 | |
| Go in the peace of Christ | 1:28:50 | |
| to serve him and the world | 1:28:52 | |
| and the grace of the lord Jesus Christ | 1:28:55 | |
| and the love of God | 1:28:58 | |
| and the fellowship of the holy spirit | 1:28:59 | |
| be with you always. | 1:29:02 | |
| (hymnal singing) | 1:29:09 |
Item Info
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