James T. Cleland - Easter Service (March 29, 1970)
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| (soft piano music) | 0:05 | |
| ♪ Oh he has won ♪ | 2:10 | |
| ♪ And we give thanks ♪ | 2:14 | |
| ♪ And his work of heart are impressed ♪ | 2:18 | |
| ♪ For all this far he has brought us ♪ | 2:27 | |
| ♪ So merry and he to commit will his whole will ♪ | 2:49 | |
| ♪ So he understands us ♪ | 3:04 | |
| ♪ In has arose I will rejoice in ♪ | 3:26 | |
| ♪ As he rose me ♪ | 3:37 | |
| ♪ All he has done ♪ | 3:44 | |
| ♪ Beyond thee ♪ | 3:52 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:23 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:26 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:34 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:40 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:42 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 4:57 | |
| ♪ I raise my head Agape ♪ | 5:20 | |
| - | The lesson for Easter is taken first from the book of Job. | 6:25 |
| The 14th chapter, selected verses. | 6:30 | |
| "Man that is born of a woman is a few days | 6:37 | |
| and full of trouble. | 6:43 | |
| He becomes forth like a flower and withers, | 6:47 | |
| he flees like a shadow and continues not, | 6:52 | |
| There is hope for a tree. | 7:00 | |
| If it be cut down that it will sprout again. | 7:02 | |
| And that it shoots will not cease | 7:06 | |
| Though, it root, grow old in the earth | 7:11 | |
| and it stump die in the ground, yet at the center of water | 7:13 | |
| it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant | 7:19 | |
| But man dies | 7:27 | |
| and is laid low, | 7:30 | |
| Man breathes his loss. | 7:33 | |
| And where is he? | 7:38 | |
| If a man die, shall he live again?" | 7:42 | |
| And in the first teaches of Paul out of the Corinthians | 7:49 | |
| the 15th chapter selected verses. | 7:53 | |
| "Now I would remind you brethren | 7:59 | |
| in what terms I preached, which you received. | 8:01 | |
| In which you stand by which you are saved. | 8:08 | |
| If you hold it fast, unless you believed in vain | 8:14 | |
| But I delivered to you as a first important | 8:23 | |
| but I also received, the Christ died for our sins | 8:27 | |
| in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried. | 8:33 | |
| That he was raised on the third day | 8:40 | |
| in accordance with the scriptures. | 8:43 | |
| That he appeared to save us. | 8:47 | |
| Then to the 12. | 8:50 | |
| Then he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. | 8:54 | |
| Most of whom are still alive, | 9:00 | |
| though some have fallen asleep. | 9:03 | |
| Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. | 9:07 | |
| Last of all, to one untimely born. | 9:14 | |
| He appeared also to me". | 9:21 | |
| Now, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead | 9:26 | |
| how can some of you say | 9:30 | |
| that there is no resurrection of the dead? | 9:31 | |
| If there is no resurrection of the dead | 9:36 | |
| then Christ does not been raised. | 9:39 | |
| If Christ has not been raised | 9:43 | |
| then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. | 9:45 | |
| We are even found to be misrepresenting God | 9:53 | |
| Because we testified of God that he raised Christ. | 9:57 | |
| For me did not raise. | 10:02 | |
| If it's true that the dead are not raised, | 10:05 | |
| but if the dead are not raised, | 10:08 | |
| then Christ has not been raised. | 10:10 | |
| If Christ has not been raised | 10:14 | |
| your faith is futile. | 10:16 | |
| And you are still in your sins. | 10:21 | |
| Then also those who have fallen asleep | 10:25 | |
| in Christ have perished. | 10:27 | |
| If in this life we who are in Christ have only hope | 10:32 | |
| we are of all men, most to be pitted. | 10:38 | |
| But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. | 10:43 | |
| The first fruit of those who have fallen asleep, | 10:47 | |
| or as by a man came death | 10:51 | |
| by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead | 10:54 | |
| or as an Adam will die. | 10:58 | |
| So also in Christ shall all be made alive. | 11:02 | |
| But each in his own order Christ the first fruit. | 11:07 | |
| Then it is coming. | 11:14 | |
| Those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. | 11:15 | |
| And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. | 11:22 | |
| And when this perishable puts on the imperishable | 11:29 | |
| and the mortal puts on immortality, | 11:33 | |
| then shall come to pass the saying that is written. | 11:36 | |
| Death is swallowed up in victory. | 11:40 | |
| Oh, death where is life victory? | 11:43 | |
| Oh, death where is life sting? | 11:47 | |
| Thanks be to God who gives us the victory | 11:52 | |
| through our Lord Jesus Christ. | 11:59 | |
| Amen. | 12:04 | |
| Here end the lesson. | 12:05 | |
| (choir singing) | 12:09 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 12:53 |
| - | And also be with you. | 12:55 |
| let us pray. | 12:56 | |
| Eternal God before whom the morning stars | 13:07 | |
| first sang together | 13:12 | |
| and who hold us in thy hands, | 13:15 | |
| the destiny of every living thing. | 13:17 | |
| We worship thee. | 13:21 | |
| Bless it be the name of Jesus who tasted death | 13:24 | |
| for every man. | 13:28 | |
| Bless be his glorious name | 13:31 | |
| that he is alive forevermore and have the keys of death. | 13:33 | |
| Oh God, who does give us a new day and a new opportunity. | 13:41 | |
| We come to offer our thanks | 13:48 | |
| for giving us a chance to enable our lives | 13:49 | |
| by worshiping thee. | 13:52 | |
| We thank thee for all the open door | 13:55 | |
| which are us set before us | 13:59 | |
| For the great open sky above us. | 14:02 | |
| If our health is less than perfect, | 14:07 | |
| We thank thee that there are doctors, nurses, | 14:11 | |
| medicines, and hospitals. | 14:15 | |
| If our ritual health is at a low ebe, | 14:18 | |
| we thank thee | 14:23 | |
| that we have thee thy loving invitation | 14:24 | |
| whosoever will may come. | 14:27 | |
| And that thou has provided the scriptures | 14:30 | |
| the church, teachers, preachers, counselors, friends | 14:34 | |
| the great Christian seasons of the year | 14:41 | |
| through which we may be renewed. | 14:44 | |
| Oh God if we have failed thus far to establish righteousness | 14:49 | |
| in order, we thank thee for a new day | 14:53 | |
| for new resources and a new chance to try. | 14:57 | |
| If the great leaders which thou has sent us | 15:03 | |
| to preach justice and love have been assassinated. | 15:07 | |
| We thank thee that those of us who yet live, | 15:13 | |
| can pick up the torch from their fallen hands | 15:16 | |
| so that their cause and their voice may still be heard | 15:20 | |
| and may still be followed. | 15:26 | |
| Give us the grace and the grit to do it. | 15:29 | |
| We thank the oh God that spring follows winter. | 15:34 | |
| We bless thee for the thrill of a new day | 15:39 | |
| following the night or the sense of satisfaction | 15:42 | |
| that comes from a job well done | 15:45 | |
| for great music and great musicians. | 15:48 | |
| We are grateful | 15:53 | |
| for those who seek to make the gospel contemporary | 15:53 | |
| up to the moment in our time. | 15:58 | |
| We thank thee for a storehouse | 16:02 | |
| of learning in the library, which beckons us. | 16:04 | |
| For teachers who unknowingly guide us to it | 16:08 | |
| For parents who really care. | 16:14 | |
| For the response of sons and daughters | 16:17 | |
| who are learning to be themselves | 16:19 | |
| without breaking the relationships of family. | 16:22 | |
| For the creative relationship of love, between true lovers | 16:27 | |
| who unselfishly are devoted to each other. | 16:32 | |
| And we give thee thanks for Jesus Christ | 16:36 | |
| who purifies and makes noble every relationship. | 16:39 | |
| And now our heavenly father | 16:46 | |
| we intercede for the sick, for the bitter, the alcoholic | 16:48 | |
| the drug addict, the prejudist, | 16:55 | |
| and for him who believes he has gone too far to return. | 17:00 | |
| Oh God to whom alone is known the full meaning of suffering. | 17:07 | |
| We intercede on behalf of all who are afflicted in body | 17:12 | |
| or in spirit, or in mind, | 17:17 | |
| we pray for those who are bowed down in grief | 17:20 | |
| for those who are bewildered. | 17:24 | |
| May they have faith to claim the healing power | 17:27 | |
| of the great position. | 17:29 | |
| Forbid, oh God, that we should forget. | 17:34 | |
| Even on this day, amid our luxuries, the pains | 17:37 | |
| and mortal anguish that our Lord Jesus Christ endured | 17:42 | |
| for our salvation. | 17:46 | |
| Grant us this day, a true vision of all that he suffered, | 17:48 | |
| his betrayal, his lonely agony, his false trial, | 17:51 | |
| his mocking and scouring, the torture of the cross | 17:57 | |
| that remembering his sufferings in death, | 18:01 | |
| we may have a true appraisal of his mighty resurrection. | 18:04 | |
| Father of all mercies. | 18:12 | |
| We pray for ourselves as well as others. | 18:14 | |
| We live to thee for healing and strength | 18:18 | |
| every broken purpose, every broken life, everywhere. | 18:20 | |
| We pray for all who are beset by evil, | 18:28 | |
| that they may know thee as the great deliverer. | 18:30 | |
| We pray for those who are afraid | 18:35 | |
| that they may know thee is their confidence. | 18:37 | |
| And for lonely ones do thou show Christ as elder brother, | 18:40 | |
| the Holy Spirit as comforter. | 18:46 | |
| And may all who have been rejected by groups earth | 18:49 | |
| know that their acceptance by thee, is far more important. | 18:53 | |
| And give us grace all to accept each other | 18:58 | |
| in the spirit of the risen Christ. | 19:01 | |
| We ask this in his name | 19:04 | |
| remembering the words he has taught us to use. | 19:07 | |
| When we pray together saying, | 19:10 | |
| Our Father who are at in heaven | 19:13 | |
| Hallowed be thy name, | 19:15 | |
| Thy kingdom come thy will be done | 19:17 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven. | 19:21 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread | 19:23 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 19:26 | |
| as we forgive those who trespasses against us | 19:28 | |
| and lead us not in the temptation | 19:32 | |
| but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 19:35 | |
| and the power and the glory forever. | 19:39 | |
| Amen. | 19:42 | |
| - | The peace of God be with you all. | 20:02 |
| Some weeks ago, a colleague | 20:09 | |
| and I went sick visiting in the North Carolina hospital | 20:12 | |
| some miles from Durham. | 20:17 | |
| After chatting for a while | 20:21 | |
| the patient whom we had gone to see | 20:23 | |
| asked us to visit one of his friends. | 20:26 | |
| The most interesting whom he had met in the hospital. | 20:30 | |
| The friend was all of there. | 20:35 | |
| A quadriplegic of five years duration | 20:41 | |
| the result of a motor crash. | 20:47 | |
| He was just ahead on a pillow, | 20:52 | |
| But what ahead? | 20:57 | |
| Alive, alert, interested, interesting | 20:59 | |
| with the Irish Catholics | 21:07 | |
| with and amused acceptance of protestants | 21:09 | |
| His ears were open to the outside world | 21:16 | |
| The world which was scarcely aware of his existence. | 21:20 | |
| He asked me if I knew I belong to Glasgow. | 21:26 | |
| This theme song | 21:32 | |
| The signature tune of my native city. | 21:34 | |
| I assured him that I did, including the pather. | 21:39 | |
| He suggested that we sing it as a duet. | 21:44 | |
| I suggested that we do it quietly. | 21:48 | |
| He wanted its sang patisimo. | 21:53 | |
| We sang, nurses began to arrive. | 21:59 | |
| Then ambulatory patients | 22:05 | |
| while a Presbyterian divine | 22:09 | |
| and a Roman Catholic head on a pillow | 22:12 | |
| sang the praises of dear dirty wet Glasgow. | 22:16 | |
| And going back again soon | 22:23 | |
| to teach him the words of the second verse. | 22:25 | |
| And as we drove away | 22:31 | |
| from that hospital in the drags of a messy snowstorm | 22:32 | |
| My fellow visitor said to me, "We were not made to last". | 22:38 | |
| We drove in silence, for quite a few miles. | 22:48 | |
| We were not made to last. | 22:54 | |
| It's another way of saying that we were born to die. | 22:58 | |
| Death is the only guaranteed fact | 23:04 | |
| which a accompanies birth. | 23:08 | |
| Death is inexorable, inflexible, relentless. | 23:12 | |
| The old Testament knows that, listen to it. | 23:19 | |
| The years of our life are three score and 10 | 23:22 | |
| or even by reason of strength four score. | 23:27 | |
| Yet their span is back toil and trouble. | 23:32 | |
| They are soon gone and we fly way. | 23:37 | |
| That is Psalm 90 verse 10. | 23:41 | |
| "It is better to go to the house of mourning | 23:46 | |
| than to go to the house of feasting. | 23:49 | |
| For this is the end of all men. | 23:53 | |
| And the living will lay it to heart." | 23:56 | |
| That is Ecclesiastes seven verse two. | 24:00 | |
| A boy says cry. | 24:06 | |
| And I said, "What shall I cry?" | 24:08 | |
| All flesh is grass. | 24:12 | |
| And all its beauty is like the flowers of the field. | 24:16 | |
| The grass withers, the flower fades | 24:21 | |
| when the breath of Lord blows upon it. | 24:24 | |
| That is Isaiah versus six and seven. | 24:28 | |
| That is the message of the first part of the morning lesson | 24:33 | |
| Job 14 there, the emphasis is on the brevity of life | 24:36 | |
| and the finality of death. | 24:42 | |
| And Bacon in one of his essays. | 24:47 | |
| Put it very simple. | 24:49 | |
| Simply, "It is as natural to die | 24:50 | |
| as to be born and to a little infant. | 24:55 | |
| Perhaps the one is as painful as the other". | 25:01 | |
| And there is an Arabian proverb. | 25:07 | |
| "Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all". | 25:10 | |
| Now as you're well aware, | 25:20 | |
| man reacts to the flat fact of death in all kinds of ways. | 25:21 | |
| There is the despair which leads | 25:27 | |
| to anxious, frustration and discordancy. | 25:29 | |
| There is the curl PDM attitude | 25:34 | |
| which suggests that today we eat, drink and be married | 25:37 | |
| for tomorrow or the day after or the year after we die. | 25:42 | |
| There is the disen chance that leads to the anger | 25:50 | |
| which perhaps wrote this epita | 25:54 | |
| for an eight months old infant. | 25:57 | |
| Since I have been so quickly done for | 26:01 | |
| I wonder what I was begun for. | 26:06 | |
| There is the resignation of the faithless, | 26:11 | |
| which accepts the inevitable | 26:14 | |
| and says with his like-minded companions | 26:16 | |
| (speaking in foreign language) | 26:19 | |
| we who are about to die | 26:24 | |
| salute thee somebody. | 26:27 | |
| We were not made to last. | 26:31 | |
| These were the kind of thoughts | 26:35 | |
| which began to run through my mind | 26:37 | |
| in the car, as we carefully drove away from that hospital | 26:40 | |
| and our friend and his Irish buddy. | 26:46 | |
| Now, as Easter approach. | 26:52 | |
| It came to me that Easter is the reply | 26:55 | |
| to the rebuttal of such a point of view. | 26:58 | |
| Isn't Easter the primary reason | 27:05 | |
| for the spread of Christianity? | 27:07 | |
| No, Easter, no, Christianity. | 27:12 | |
| And at the heart of its good news is something like this. | 27:17 | |
| We will are made to last. | 27:23 | |
| Do you remember Job's question | 27:28 | |
| at the end of the morning's old Testament lesson? | 27:30 | |
| If a man die, shall he live again? | 27:33 | |
| Now the book of Job goes on | 27:38 | |
| for 28 more chapters and never answers the question. | 27:40 | |
| Centuries later, Paul writing to the church | 27:47 | |
| at cotton replied to Job's question. | 27:51 | |
| The deduction that in the resurrection death | 27:55 | |
| had been defeated is so central to Paul's gospel | 27:59 | |
| that he writes one chapter of 58 verses on the subject. | 28:05 | |
| Listen to just two of the verses again. | 28:11 | |
| If Christ has not been raised | 28:14 | |
| Then your faith is in vain. | 28:19 | |
| And three verses later, if Christ has not we raise | 28:25 | |
| your faith is futile. | 28:30 | |
| The two Greek adjectives | 28:32 | |
| which Paul uses to describe | 28:34 | |
| the uselessness of the Christian faith, | 28:36 | |
| which is not centered | 28:40 | |
| on Easter are "cannot" meaning empty, purposeless, | 28:41 | |
| null and void. | 28:48 | |
| And Matthias, useless, an illusion and a delusion | 28:50 | |
| there's nothing to it. | 28:57 | |
| Christmas celebrates the birthday of our Lord Jesus | 29:00 | |
| Which Sunday or Pentecost celebrates | 29:05 | |
| the birthday of the church. | 29:07 | |
| Easter celebrates the birthday of our faith. | 29:10 | |
| Our religious point of view, our spiritual perspective | 29:15 | |
| therefore hymns of triumph and hallelujah and lily's | 29:21 | |
| and our vocal | 29:28 | |
| (speaking in foreign language) | 29:29 | |
| and a short sermon. | 29:32 | |
| Easter is symbolic of the confidence | 29:36 | |
| that in the divine economy, death is not the last word. | 29:39 | |
| The resurrection of Jesus is an earn, a token, a pledge | 29:48 | |
| that we shall live on through and after our earthly death | 29:53 | |
| therefore Paul ends his with a shout | 29:59 | |
| "Oh death where is the sting? | 30:02 | |
| Oh grave where is the victory? | 30:06 | |
| Thanks be to God who give us the victory | 30:10 | |
| Through our Lord Jesus Christ | 30:15 | |
| Proof, there is none. | 30:18 | |
| Any scientific sense, such an attitude | 30:22 | |
| to life and death is based on what we believe | 30:26 | |
| to be the character and will of God as declared by Jesus. | 30:30 | |
| This is the kind of faith which Alfred Lord | 30:36 | |
| tends narrate that in the prologue, | 30:38 | |
| which he prefix to immemorial | 30:42 | |
| just before it was published. | 30:45 | |
| He took 16 years to write immemorial. | 30:48 | |
| That poem drawn out of him by the death | 30:55 | |
| of his college friend after hell. | 30:59 | |
| And in the prologue | 31:04 | |
| which he especially wrote at the end of 14 years | 31:05 | |
| part of which is him 146 and our hymn, | 31:09 | |
| he wrote these words addressed to God | 31:13 | |
| "Thou will not leave us in the dust. | 31:18 | |
| Thou made us man." | 31:23 | |
| He knows now out why. | 31:26 | |
| He thinks he was not made to die. | 31:29 | |
| And thou has made him, | 31:36 | |
| Thou are just, I share Tenons | 31:39 | |
| groping confidence that we were made to last. | 31:45 | |
| Why does the university sponsor this service | 31:52 | |
| during a period of recess, | 31:55 | |
| here we once closed the chapel on Easter Sunday | 31:59 | |
| and a thousand people turned up. | 32:02 | |
| Why are you here? | 32:05 | |
| What are we trying to do at service? | 32:08 | |
| We are celebrating the birthday of our faith | 32:13 | |
| and the defeat of the fear and sting of death. | 32:18 | |
| You see the cloth in the gold and white | 32:26 | |
| That's the cloth we use for all funerals in the DCHA | 32:31 | |
| Signifying the defeat of the sting and the fear of death. | 32:38 | |
| John Don Dean of St. Paul's in the 17th century | 32:44 | |
| has put it into poetry for us. | 32:48 | |
| And many of you know | 32:50 | |
| the words by heart, "Death, be not proud. | 32:51 | |
| For those some have called the mighty | 33:00 | |
| and dreadful the work not so. | 33:03 | |
| For those whom now think is thou dust overthrow | 33:09 | |
| die not poor death, nor yet hence thou kill me. | 33:13 | |
| One short sleep pass. | 33:24 | |
| We wake eternally | 33:27 | |
| and death shall be no more death thou shall die". | 33:30 | |
| We were made to laugh. | 33:41 | |
| Thanks, be to God to give | 33:44 | |
| with us the victory through our Lord. | 33:47 | |
| Jesus Christ. | 33:52 | |
| Let us pray, | 33:55 | |
| Almighty God who did bring again | 33:58 | |
| from the dead, our Lord Jesus | 34:01 | |
| aid us now worthily to celebrate glorious resurrection | 34:04 | |
| that we may leave this place to live a life of joyful trust | 34:10 | |
| and confident hope | 34:15 | |
| through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. | 34:18 | |
| Amen. | 34:23 | |
| (choir singing) | 34:26 | |
| (soft piano music) | 39:05 | |
| (choir singing) | 42:25 | |
| - | Oh, mighty God. | 47:15 |
| Before we depart from this house dedicated | 47:17 | |
| to the gospel to go out into the world. | 47:20 | |
| We stand here now, in fact, or symbolically | 47:24 | |
| all around thy alter. | 47:29 | |
| To celebrate life. | 47:32 | |
| Risen life, eternal life, abundant life, | 47:35 | |
| and to celebrate love that motivates it all. | 47:41 | |
| And the power of Christ. | 47:46 | |
| And here we dedicate these offerings | 47:49 | |
| and ourselves unto that life. | 47:51 | |
| And under thy love through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 47:55 | |
| - | And now may the grace of the risen Christ | 48:03 |
| be with us all always. | 48:07 | |
| Amen. | 48:11 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 48:15 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 48:18 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 48:22 | |
| (bell ringing) | 48:33 | |
| (soft piano music) | 48:46 | |
| (indistinct conversation) | 49:31 |