Thomas A. Langford - Communion Meditation (October 5, 1969)

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	(soft music)	0:03
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	4:26
	(soft music)	5:49
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	7:38
	(soft music)	8:43
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	10:21
	♪ Amen ♪	11:07
-	Let the congregation be seated.	11:24
	The cup of blessing, which we bless,	11:35
	is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?	11:39
	The bread, which we break,	11:46
	is it not a participation in the body of Christ?	11:49
	Because that is one loaf, we who are many are one body	11:56
	for we all partake of the same loaf.	12:05
	Jesus said behold, I stand at the door and knock.	12:11
	If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,	12:18
	I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.	12:25
	The Lord be with you.	12:37
-	And with thy spirit.	12:39
-	Let us pray.	12:41
	Let us offer unto God the collect for purity	12:46
	as found on page nine, the back of the hymnal	12:50
	and let us offer it in unison.	12:54
	Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open,	12:59
	all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,	13:03
	cleanse the thoughts of our hearts	13:09
	by the inspiration of thy holy spirit,	13:11
	that we may perfectly love thee	13:15
	and (indistinct) magnify thy holy name,	13:17
	through Christ our Lord, amen.	13:21
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	13:25
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done	13:31
	on earth as it is in heaven.	13:35
	Give us this day our daily bread	13:38
	and forgive us our trespasses	13:41
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	13:43
	and lead us not into temptation,	13:47
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	13:50
	and the power and the glory forever.	13:54
	Amen.	13:58
	(soft music)	14:00
	♪ Glory to God on high ♪	14:09
	♪ And on earth peace and (indistinct) ♪	14:13
	♪ We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee ♪	14:18
	♪ We glorify thee ♪	14:25
	♪ We give thanks unto thee for thy great glory. ♪	14:27
	♪ O Lord God, heavenly King ♪	14:34
	♪ God the Father almighty ♪	14:39
	♪ O Lord the only begotten son Jesus Christ ♪	14:44
	♪ O Lord God, lamb of God, son of the father ♪	14:50
	♪ Thou takest away the sins of the world ♪	14:59
	♪ Have mercy upon us ♪	15:04
	♪ Thou takes away the sins of the world ♪	15:09
	♪ Receive our prayer ♪	15:15
	♪ Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the father ♪	15:19
	♪ Have mercy upon us ♪	15:26
	♪ For thou only art holy ♪	15:32
	♪ Thou only art the Lord ♪	15:36
	♪ (indistinct) God the father ♪	15:40
	♪ Amen ♪	15:55
-	Ye that do truly and earnestly repent of your sins	16:00
	and are in love and charity with your neighbors	16:05
	and intend to lead a new life,	16:10
	following the commandments of God	16:14
	and walking from henceforth in his holy ways,	16:17
	draw near with faith	16:23
	and take this holy sacrament to your comfort	16:26
	and make your humble confession to almighty God.	16:31
	Let us pray.	16:37
	Almighty God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ,	16:46
	maker of all things, judge of all men,	16:51
	we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness,	16:56
	which we from time to time most grievously have committed	17:00
	by thought, word and deed against thy divine majesty.	17:05
	We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry	17:10
	for these our misdoings.	17:14
	The remembrance of them is grievous unto us.	17:16
	Have mercy upon us.	17:20
	Have mercy upon us, most merciful father.	17:22
	For thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake,	17:26
	forgive us all that has past	17:30
	and grant that we may ever hereafter serve	17:32
	and please thee in newness of life	17:35
	to the honor and glory of thy name,	17:39
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	17:42
	Almighty God, our heavenly father,	17:47
	who of thy great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins	17:51
	to all them that with hearty repentance	17:55
	and true faith turn to thee,	17:58
	have mercy upon us.	18:02
	Pardon and deliver us from all our sins,	18:06
	confirm and strengthen us in all goodness,	18:10
	and bring us to everlasting life	18:15
	through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.	18:19
	Hear what comfortable words the scriptures say	18:27
	to all that truly turn to the Lord.	18:31
	God so loved the world	18:36
	that he gave his only son,	18:40
	that whoever believes in him should not perish,	18:44
	but have eternal life.	18:48
	The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance	18:52
	that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,	18:59
	therefore be of good courage.	19:09
	And now let us pray for the whole state of Christ's church	19:13
	in the litany.	19:19
	Most merciful father,	19:22
	we humbly beseech thee to receive these our prayers	19:24
	for the universal church that thy will confirm it	19:27
	in the truth of the holy faith,	19:32
	inspire it with unity and concord	19:35
	and extend and prosper it throughout the world.	19:38
	We also beseech thee so to guide and strengthen	19:43
	the witness of the church to those in authority	19:46
	in all nations,	19:50
	that they may maintain the justice	19:52
	and welfare of all mankind.	19:55
	Here us, we beseech thee, oh Lord.	19:59
	Give grace oh heavenly father to all ministers	20:03
	of thy church.	20:06
	That both by their life and doctrine,	20:07
	they may set forth light true and lively word	20:09
	and faithfully administer thy holy sacraments.	20:13
	And to all thy people, give thy heavenly grace	20:17
	that with willing heart and due reverence,	20:21
	they may hear and receive thy holy word,	20:24
	truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness	20:28
	all the days of their lives.	20:32
	Hear us, we beseech thee O Lord	20:34
	and we most humbly beseech thee of thy goodness, oh Lord	20:38
	to support and strengthen all those	20:41
	who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow,	20:44
	(indistinct), sickness or any other adversity.	20:50
	Hear us, we beseech thee, oh Lord.	20:56
	We remember with Thanksgiving	20:59
	those who have loved and served thee in thy church on earth	21:01
	who now rest from their labors,	21:06
	especially those most dear to us,	21:10
	whom we name in our hearts before thee.	21:13
	Keep us in fellowship with all thy saints	21:21
	and bring us at length to the joy of thy heavenly kingdom.	21:25
	Grant this oh father, for the sake of Jesus Christ,	21:31
	our only mediator and advocate, amen.	21:35
-	Our scripture lesson is from the sixth chapter	21:56
	of the book of Romans, reading the first eight verses	21:58
	of that chapter.	22:03
	What shall we say then?	22:08
	Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?	22:10
	By no means.	22:16
	How can we who died to sin still live in it?	22:19
	Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized	22:24
	into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death?	22:28
	We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.	22:35
	So that as Christ was raised from the dead	22:40
	by the glory of the father,	22:42
	we too might walk in newness of life.	22:45
	For we have been united with him in a death like his,	22:51
	we shall certainly be united with him	22:56
	in a resurrection like his.	22:59
	We know that our old self was crucified with him	23:03
	so that the sinful body might be destroyed	23:07
	and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.	23:11
	For he who has died is freed from sin.	23:16
	But if we have died with Christ,	23:21
	we believe that we shall also live with him.	23:24
	(soft music)	23:32
	♪ Glory to the father ♪	23:41
	♪ And to the son and to the holy ghost ♪	23:46
	♪ As it was in the beginning ♪	23:53
	♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪	23:58
	♪ World without end ♪	24:03
	♪ Amen, amen ♪	24:07
-	Be seated.	24:17
	The communion service for which we are gathered	24:29
	symbolically stands at the heart of the Christian faith.	24:34
	Here the love of God is manifest.	24:41
	Dear human life is affirmed.	24:45
	To direct our thoughts this morning to this central symbol,	24:53
	let me read from Paul's letter to the Galatians	24:57
	chapter two verse 20.	25:02
	"I have been crucified with Christ.	25:07
	"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me	25:12
	"and the life I now live in the flesh.	25:20
	"I live by faith in the son of God who loved me	25:24
	"and gave himself for me".	25:28
	Obviously in this passage,	25:36
	the central theme is participation or recapitulation.	25:38
	God's grace invites us to participate in death and in life.	25:47
	This is the constant.	25:58
	Grace invites us to life,	26:02
	but it is an invitation which requires, first of all,	26:06
	a confrontation with death	26:11
	and how we need to die.	26:17
	Die to the meaninglessness of our existence,	26:22
	die to our inhumanity, die to our pride,	26:28
	die to our self hatred, die to our prejudice,	26:36
	die to our deceit of our ourselves and others.	26:44
	The search for life is endemic to the lives of each of us.	26:52
	One finds on every side the cry for joy and freedom,	26:58
	for brotherhood, for love, for justice.	27:05
	And these are the cries for life.	27:12
	Even so our crying seems to be muted	27:18
	and our finding so fragmentary, so unfulfilling,	27:22
	so incomplete.	27:28
	At the same time, we can readily recognize	27:33
	even recognize enough the pretentions of those	27:35
	who claim to have found life.	27:40
	We see the hypocrisy, the restrictiveness of spirit,	27:44
	the truncated sensitivity, the smallness of mind,	27:50
	or the limitedness of vision.	27:55
	We recognize the restricted bondages of life,	27:59
	which capture us and others.	28:05
	We recognize these distressing facts,	28:10
	but we seem unable to move beyond them.	28:14
	We know the idols that are false and we can name them:	28:18
	status or racial pride or material goals.	28:25
	We know these idols, we despise them, yet we cling to them.	28:33
	We denounce them with our voices	28:42
	and hold fast to them with our hearts.	28:44
	Perhaps freedom is after all too frightening.	28:49
	Perhaps justice is simply too difficult to achieve.	28:53
	Perhaps brotherliness is unrealizable.	28:57
	Perhaps, perhaps and so we question all of our affirmations	29:02
	and slide back into the molds	29:07
	which we have so vehemently denounced.	29:09
	We simply have not died to the (indistinct)	29:13
	of our own lives.	29:16
	We hold with fearful tenacity to the small comforts	29:18
	and the securities of our limited existence.	29:22
	We speak of death with a brave voice.	29:27
	We point to light with a rigid finger,	29:31
	but we hold back, unsure, frightened, weak.	29:36
	Life is for so many simply inauthentic.	29:44
	But I do not need to convince you of this, this we know.	29:50
	We cannot escape the demand of death,	29:56
	but we do not want to face it.	29:59
	Nevertheless, and once again, in the service this morning,	30:04
	we are invited to death.	30:11
	We come to communion Sunday	30:17
	and we're reminded of Paul's words,	30:21
	do you not know that all of us who have been baptized	30:24
	into Chris Jesus have been baptized into his death?	30:26
	And we hear his own personal confession,	30:30
	I have been crucified with Christ.	30:34
	Death must be met.	30:38
	Death is waiting to meet us.	30:42
	So here we wait before the cross,	30:47
	we hear it's invitation and are invited ourselves	30:51
	to be riveted to its arms,	30:56
	for grace is an invitation to death.	31:00
	Grace is the presentation of the possibility of death.	31:04
	For grace is the medium of life,	31:12
	life which is found on the further side of death.	31:17
	And so Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ.	31:23
	"Nevertheless, I live".	31:29
	And again, while we know if we had been united with him	31:34
	in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him	31:38
	in a resurrection like his.	31:43
	To be alive, to be possessed of a new spirit,	31:48
	a new sensibility, a new humaneness,	31:51
	a new largeness of empathy, a new freedom	31:56
	and a new openness to the future,	32:01
	this is the invitation to life,	32:05
	but an invitation which leads us first through death.	32:09
	Hannah Green in her book,	32:17
	"I Never Promised You a Rose Garden",	32:20
	tells of Deborah, a teenager who lives her own struggle	32:24
	as a patient in a mental hospital.	32:30
	Deborah's troubles almost destroy her.	32:34
	And I quote, "her dream began with winter darkness.	32:39
	"Out of this darkness came a great hand, fisted.	32:47
	"It was a man's hand, powerful and hollowed by the shadows	32:54
	"of the muscles and tendons.	33:01
	"The fist opened and in a long plane of the palm,	33:07
	"there lay three small pieces of coal.	33:11
	"Slowly the hand closed,	33:17
	"causing within the fist a tremendous pressure.	33:21
	"The pressure began to generate a white heat	33:26
	"and still it increased.	33:29
	"There was a sense of weighing, crushing time.	33:32
	"She seemed to feel the suffering of the coal	33:38
	"in her own body, almost beyond the point of being born.	33:41
	"At last she cried out to the hand,	33:50
	"stop it, will you never end it?	33:54
	"Even a stone cannot bear to this limit, even a stone.	34:00
	"After what seemed like too long a time	34:12
	"for anything molecular to endure,	34:14
	"the torments in the fist relaxed,	34:18
	"the fist turned slowly, then opened.	34:23
	"Diamonds, three of them,	34:31
	"three clear and brilliant diamonds, sharp with light	34:37
	"lay in the good palm.	34:45
	"The voice called to her, Deborah,	34:49
	"then again, gently, Deborah, this shall be you".	34:53
	So one finds new life.	35:07
	Paul found new life in Christ.	35:10
	The life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God	35:13
	who loved me and gave himself for me.	35:17
	To participate in Christ brings death,	35:22
	but it also brings life.	35:26
	It brings life as freedom and hope and purpose.	35:29
	And so we meet today before the cross.	35:35
	We have heard an invitation.	35:41
	We shall be offered a cup and bread	35:44
	and with it comes the promise of death	35:51
	and also the promise of life.	35:57
	In the name of the father and of the son	36:04
	and of the holy spirit.	36:07
	Amen.	36:09
	(soft music)	36:11
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	36:31
	♪ Amen ♪	38:00
	(soft music)	38:30
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	40:28
	(soft music)	40:44
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	40:52
	(soft music)	43:11
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	43:44
	♪ Oh blessed Jesus Christ ♪	43:56
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	44:03
	(soft music)	46:34
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	46:51
	♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪	46:57
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	47:03
	♪ Praise him above, ye heavenly host ♪	47:10
	♪ Praise father, son and holy ghost ♪	47:16
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	47:22
	♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪	47:28
	♪ Alleluia ♪	47:35
	♪ Amen ♪	47:44
-	Oh God in whom we live and move and have our being,	47:54
	we offer and present unto thee, the gifts of thy people,	47:59
	silver and gold, bread and wine,	48:05
	for the service of thy kingdom	48:11
	and the use of the table of thy son.	48:13
	Accept them we pray thee for we offer them in his name	48:18
	and for his sake.	48:25
	Amen.	48:28
	Lift up your hearts.	48:48
-	We lift them up to the Lord.	48:51
-	Let us give thanks unto the Lord.	48:53
-	(indistinct).	48:56
-	It is very (indistinct) right,	48:58
	and our bound and duty that we should at all times	49:00
	and in all places give thanks unto thee, oh Lord,	49:03
	holy father, almighty everlasting God.	49:08
	Therefore with angels and archangels	49:13
	and with all the company of heaven,	49:16
	we (indistinct) and magnify thy glorious name,	49:18
	evermore praising thee and saying.	49:22
	♪ Holy, holy, holy thy God of hosts ♪	49:26
	♪ Heaven and earth are full of glory ♪	49:35
	♪ Glory be to thee, oh Lord most high ♪	49:41
	♪ Amen ♪	49:49
-	Let us pray.	49:55
	Almighty God, our heavenly father	50:04
	who of thy tender mercy does give thine only son,	50:08
	Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross	50:11
	for our redemption.	50:14
	Who made there by the one offering of himself,	50:17
	a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice	50:20
	for the sins of the whole world.	50:23
	And in institute and in his holy gospel	50:26
	command us to continue a perpetual memory	50:29
	of his precious death until his coming again.	50:32
	Hear us oh merciful father, we most humbly beseech thee,	50:38
	and grant that we receiving these	50:42
	thy creatures of bread and wine,	50:45
	according to thy son, our savior Jesus Christ,	50:48
	holy institution, in remembrance of his passion,	50:51
	death and resurrection,	50:56
	may be partakers of the divine nature through him.	50:59
	Who in the same night that he was betrayed,	51:04
	took bread and when he had given thanks,	51:07
	he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying,	51:11
	take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you.	51:17
	Do this in remembrance of me.	51:25
	Likewise, after supper, he took the cup.	51:31
	And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying,	51:36
	drink ye all of this,	51:40
	for this is my blood of the new covenant,	51:44
	which is shed for you and for many,	51:48
	for the forgiveness of sins.	51:52
	Do this as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me.	51:55
	Amen.	52:02
	And let us pray together the prayer of humble access.	52:04
	We do not presume to come to this thy table,	52:08
	oh merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness.	52:12
	But in thy manifold and great mercies,	52:16
	we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs	52:19
	under thy table,	52:23
	but thou art the same Lord whose property	52:24
	is always to have mercy, grant us, therefore gracious Lord,	52:27
	so to partake of this sacrament of thy son, Jesus Christ,	52:32
	that we may walk in newness of life,	52:37
	may grow into his likeness and may evermore dwell in him	52:40
	and he in us.	52:45
	Amen.	52:48
	(soft music)	54:56
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	55:10
	(soft music)	56:24
-	Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee	58:01
	and feed on him in thy heart by faith with Thanksgiving.	58:08
	Drink this in remembrance	58:19
	that Christ blood was shed for thee and be thankful.	58:21
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	59:12
	♪ (indistinct) ♪	1:00:49
	(soft music)	1:02:04

Item Info

Title:

Thomas A. Langford - Communion Meditation (October 5, 1969)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49z94d3d

Date:

October 5, 1969

Speaker:

Langford, Thomas A.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0492
ref6189_yb6
uachapelsermaud
duke:628469
dcrau002483
ark:/87924/r49z94d3d
de3138e0-5169-4fd2-845d-2b6cfe599a72

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Thomas A. Langford - Communion Meditation (October 5, 1969)

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