Helen G. Crotwell - "How Can We Sing the Lord's Song?" (August 1, 1976)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(church music playing) | 0:08 | |
(church music continues) | 0:34 | |
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(church music continues) | 1:29 | |
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(church music continues) | 2:26 | |
- | Now in these moments, | 4:38 |
let us recall | 4:39 | |
some of our inner feelings and urges and desires. | 4:43 | |
Let us remember the way we have loved | 4:49 | |
and have failed to love. | 4:51 | |
As we joined together to confess our sins | 4:57 | |
before almighty God. | 4:59 | |
And as we receive again, | 5:02 | |
the word of grace and forgiveness, | 5:03 | |
which our spirits need. | 5:06 | |
Let us pray. | 5:09 | |
Most merciful God, | 5:11 | |
we know we do not love you above all | 5:14 | |
and we do not really love our neighbor | 5:17 | |
because we're too interested in ourselves. | 5:20 | |
We confess that we often do not like the bodies we have. | 5:23 | |
We have long to be in different families. | 5:28 | |
We would like to forget parts of our past lives. | 5:32 | |
We are afraid of our moods and feelings. | 5:36 | |
We wish we had more time. | 5:40 | |
We would like to start life over again. | 5:43 | |
We think money will solve our problems. | 5:46 | |
We envy others, | 5:50 | |
resent the injustices we have suffered | 5:52 | |
and cherish our sorrows. | 5:56 | |
We feel we have never really been understood, | 5:58 | |
in short, we have refused to live | 6:02 | |
because we have held out for better terms. | 6:05 | |
Heal us, O God! | 6:09 | |
From the distance we have tried | 6:11 | |
to put between ourselves and life. | 6:13 | |
Heal us from the open wounds | 6:17 | |
that separate us from you and from one another | 6:19 | |
and bind us together in the spirit of the Christ, | 6:23 | |
our Lord and savior. | 6:27 | |
Let us continue now with our expressions | 6:30 | |
of personal confession to God. | 6:32 | |
Now will you join with me responsively | 6:56 | |
in the words of promise from God. | 6:58 | |
Those who saved their lives shall lose them | 7:02 | |
but those who lose their lives for my sake shall find them. | 7:06 | |
(crowd repeating father's sentence) | 7:11 | |
We are accepted by one who is greater than we. | 7:25 | |
(crowd repeating father's sentence) | 7:32 | |
We are a value just as we are. | 7:44 | |
Life is good as it is given. | 7:48 | |
Let us receive this gift and live through Jesus Christ. | 7:52 | |
Amen. | 7:59 | |
(church music playing) | 8:06 | |
(church music continues) | 8:27 | |
(church music continues) | 8:47 | |
(church music continues) | 9:13 | |
Let us hear now the word of God. | 9:37 | |
As it comes to us first from the Book of Psalms, | 9:41 | |
psalm number 137. | 9:43 | |
By the waters of Babylon, | 9:48 | |
there we sat down and wept, | 9:51 | |
when we remembered Zion. | 9:55 | |
On the willows there we hung up our lyres. | 9:59 | |
For there our captors required of us songs, | 10:04 | |
and our tormentors mirth, | 10:07 | |
saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion! | 10:09 | |
How shall we sing the songs of the Lord | 10:13 | |
in a foreign land? | 10:16 | |
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, | 10:20 | |
let my right hand wither. | 10:24 | |
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, | 10:27 | |
if I do not remember you. | 10:30 | |
If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! | 10:32 | |
Remember, O Lord against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, | 10:38 | |
how they said, "Raise it, raise it, | 10:41 | |
down to its foundations!" | 10:44 | |
O daughter of Babylon, you devastated, | 10:46 | |
happy shall he be who requites you | 10:50 | |
with what you have done to us! | 10:52 | |
Happy shall he be who takes your little ones | 10:55 | |
and dashes them against the rocks! | 10:59 | |
How shall we sing the Lord's song | 11:04 | |
in a strange and foreign land? | 11:08 | |
Will you stand now for the reading of the Gospel. | 11:13 | |
Gospel lesson is found in the Book of Matthew, | 11:21 | |
chapter 10, verses 16 through 23. | 11:24 | |
Let us hear the word. | 11:28 | |
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. | 11:30 | |
So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. | 11:35 | |
Beware of men, | 11:42 | |
or they will deliver you up to councils | 11:44 | |
and flog you in their synagogues. | 11:46 | |
And you will be dragged before governors and Kings | 11:50 | |
for my sake to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. | 11:53 | |
When they deliver you up, do not be anxious, | 11:58 | |
how you are to speak or what you are to say. | 12:02 | |
For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. | 12:06 | |
For it is not you who speak, | 12:10 | |
but the spirit of your father speaking through you. | 12:13 | |
Brother will deliver up brother to death. | 12:17 | |
And the father his child | 12:19 | |
and children will rise against parents | 12:22 | |
and have them put the death. | 12:24 | |
And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. | 12:27 | |
But those who endure to the end will be safe. | 12:31 | |
When they persecute you in one town, | 12:35 | |
flee to the next, | 12:38 | |
or truly I say to you, | 12:40 | |
you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel | 12:41 | |
before the son of man comes. | 12:45 | |
May God bless to our hearing and understanding these words | 12:50 | |
from his holy word. | 12:53 | |
Amen. | 12:55 | |
(church music playing) | 12:58 | |
(church music continues) | 13:19 | |
We are not alone. | 13:36 | |
We live in God's world. | 13:39 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 13:42 | |
who has come into truly human Jesus | 13:47 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 13:51 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 13:54 | |
We trust God calls us to be to church, | 13:58 | |
to celebrate life in its fullness, | 14:03 | |
to love and serve others, | 14:06 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 14:09 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 14:12 | |
our judge and our hope. | 14:16 | |
In life in death, | 14:19 | |
in life beyond it. | 14:21 | |
God is with us. | 14:23 | |
We are not alone. | 14:25 | |
Thanks be to God. | 14:27 | |
The Lord be with you. | 14:31 | |
Let us pray. | 14:35 | |
How good it is, O God! | 14:42 | |
Together in this place to worship this day. | 14:46 | |
We offer to you our lives and our words | 14:52 | |
as expressions of our thanksgiving. | 14:56 | |
For O God! | 15:00 | |
we have been loved and cared for and supported and affirmed | 15:01 | |
by friends and loved ones and family. | 15:04 | |
Thank you, O God! | 15:08 | |
For the joy of receiving and of giving love. | 15:10 | |
Thank you, O God! | 15:16 | |
For those who care for us when we are down or hurt or lonely | 15:18 | |
or sick or confused or face trials or even death. | 15:21 | |
For those of us, those who come to us in time of need, | 15:27 | |
we give you thanks and praise indeed, O Lord! | 15:30 | |
For all of life or health and family and friends | 15:33 | |
and goodness and joy and hope and promise. | 15:38 | |
For all that sustains us in the night and in the day, | 15:42 | |
we thank you. | 15:48 | |
We remember O Lord, those who have special needs | 15:51 | |
those of our human family who have been devastated | 15:56 | |
by the earthquakes in China. | 15:59 | |
Those who long for peace in Lebanon, | 16:02 | |
Ireland, the Middle East and Africa. | 16:05 | |
Those who were kidnapped in California and their families. | 16:09 | |
Those whose minds were warped in such a way | 16:16 | |
that they became the kidnappers. | 16:20 | |
And we pray for them and their families. | 16:22 | |
Those who are all alone in this life, | 16:27 | |
those who are in hospital here on this campus, | 16:34 | |
in this city and around the world, | 16:37 | |
those who seek healing of body or mind or spirit. | 16:39 | |
Give strength to those who suffer. | 16:44 | |
Wisdom and skill and compassion to all of us. | 16:47 | |
O God! Who have the privilege of serving them. | 16:50 | |
And now God, we pray for ourselves. | 16:56 | |
May we be more obedient to love you with all of our lives | 17:01 | |
and to love our neighbors as ourselves. | 17:07 | |
When we face struggle, | 17:12 | |
may we find strength in your presence. | 17:13 | |
When the future is unknown and unclear, | 17:17 | |
may we trust your mercy and your wisdom. | 17:19 | |
Help us, O God! | 17:24 | |
Surely to dream dreams and to see visions | 17:25 | |
about today and about tomorrow. | 17:28 | |
About what might be and about what will be, | 17:31 | |
about who we are and about who we may become. | 17:34 | |
But then, O God! | 17:37 | |
We ask of you only grace enough to take the one next step, | 17:41 | |
to walk the one crooked path in front of us, | 17:48 | |
to have courage only to turn the next unknown corner, | 17:53 | |
to say the one word of love, | 17:59 | |
to show your mercy to one person. | 18:03 | |
And then finally, | 18:09 | |
and ultimately to put our trust in you | 18:11 | |
through Jesus Christ who loved us, loves us | 18:18 | |
and who trusted always in your mercy. | 18:23 | |
Through him, O God! | 18:29 | |
we offer these prayers and we pray the prayer, | 18:30 | |
which he taught us and all his disciples praying. | 18:33 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 18:37 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 18:41 | |
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. | 18:46 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 18:51 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 18:55 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 18:57 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 19:02 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 19:04 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 19:07 | |
and the power, and the glory, forever. | 19:09 | |
Amen. | 19:14 | |
May I welcome you to this service of worship | 19:20 | |
on this the first day and the first Sunday of August. | 19:24 | |
You don't have to be out in the sun | 19:29 | |
to know that the heat of summer is here. | 19:31 | |
And if any of you would like | 19:34 | |
to make a generous contribution to air conditioning, | 19:35 | |
this place would be glad to receive any and all at any time, | 19:37 | |
we are glad you are here this day to worship God | 19:43 | |
in the company of all who gathered in this place. | 19:46 | |
It is our privilege immediately following the service | 19:49 | |
to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's supper, | 19:51 | |
for those who would like to receive it. | 19:53 | |
This has become accustomed with us | 19:56 | |
on the first Sunday of each month | 19:58 | |
to observe the sacrament of the Lord's supper | 20:00 | |
in the Memorial chapel, to my right, | 20:02 | |
to your left immediately following the service. | 20:04 | |
It's a brief service, | 20:07 | |
but one that many of us have found very, very meaningful. | 20:08 | |
And we invite you to remain and sharing it with us. | 20:12 | |
Next Sunday will be the last Sunday | 20:16 | |
in which Duke Chapel and Duke university. | 20:18 | |
At least for the time being we'll have the privilege | 20:22 | |
and the satisfaction of the services | 20:25 | |
of Dr. William Gudger. | 20:27 | |
Bill Gudger was a student here, | 20:30 | |
did his graduate studies, | 20:33 | |
doctoral studies and others at Yale university, | 20:35 | |
and came back here two years ago | 20:37 | |
to serve in the music department | 20:40 | |
and to serve on the chapel staff. | 20:41 | |
He leaves soon to assume a position | 20:44 | |
in the department at Arizona State university. | 20:46 | |
He will be playing the organ next Sunday. | 20:50 | |
He is directing the choir this Sunday, | 20:52 | |
but to Bill, we would like to express our thanks | 20:54 | |
and wish you God's richest blessings. | 20:58 | |
As you continue to serve so significantly and helpfully | 21:01 | |
with your mind and your talents. | 21:05 | |
Let us hear now the word of God, | 21:09 | |
as the Reverend is Helen Crotwell | 21:12 | |
preaches to us and for us. | 21:17 | |
- | While we are waiting for the chapel to be at conditioned, | 21:27 |
we want to assure you | 21:30 | |
that you men can worship God without your coat. | 21:32 | |
So if you want to take them off, | 21:35 | |
do take them off. | 21:37 | |
In the name of God who creates us, | 21:40 | |
redeems us and sustains us. | 21:44 | |
Amen. | 21:48 | |
How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? | 21:52 | |
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. | 21:59 | |
Many of us feel that we do live in a strange land | 22:10 | |
and that we are sheep in the midst of wolves | 22:14 | |
that our culture is alien soil for growth | 22:18 | |
of the Christian gospel of love. | 22:23 | |
But we've heard this and heard this | 22:27 | |
until we are almost tired of hearing of this. | 22:31 | |
It has become a contemporary chant. | 22:36 | |
Look at the mess our country is in, | 22:39 | |
our world is in. | 22:43 | |
Look at the state of our national morality. | 22:46 | |
Look at the condition of our personal morality, | 22:50 | |
our local morality. | 22:56 | |
This is a strange land to sing the Lord's song. | 22:58 | |
In fact, | 23:05 | |
sometimes things have sounded so terrible | 23:06 | |
that we didn't want to believe them. | 23:10 | |
When we first heard the stories about dirty tricks, | 23:14 | |
we refuse to believe it. | 23:19 | |
We thought it was yellow journalism or sensationalism, | 23:21 | |
or some political opportunist creating dirty stories. | 23:25 | |
And it was political opportunism, | 23:33 | |
but creating not dirty stories, | 23:36 | |
but dirty tricks. | 23:39 | |
For we found that these stories were indeed factual | 23:42 | |
and had been affecting our lives | 23:46 | |
in ways we did not even know about. | 23:48 | |
Not only nationally, but locally. | 23:52 | |
And even now we keep discovering more and more | 23:56 | |
and we have grown suspicious | 24:01 | |
and we wonder how much more will we find out | 24:03 | |
even at this late date. | 24:07 | |
And we really didn't believe | 24:11 | |
that secretaries would get promoted | 24:13 | |
if they responded to that boss's request | 24:17 | |
for service beyond that public job description. | 24:19 | |
This was just woman's lib hunting an issue | 24:24 | |
or unattractive women who were jealous. | 24:28 | |
But then we discovered this is more fact than fiction. | 24:31 | |
And when we heard of the sexual exploits | 24:37 | |
of our elected representatives, | 24:40 | |
we dismissed saying people will always gossip | 24:43 | |
about public officials or someone has a good imagination | 24:46 | |
and been watching too many of the daytime television series. | 24:51 | |
But as it has become more obvious, | 24:56 | |
we said, men will be men. | 24:59 | |
These people lead such a hectic life. | 25:02 | |
They need some outlet | 25:05 | |
and it doesn't matter as long as | 25:07 | |
they don't use our public funds. | 25:09 | |
But strangely enough, | 25:13 | |
we don't seem that concerned about our public funds. | 25:16 | |
Someone told me just recently how much money we have spent, | 25:20 | |
an unbelievable sum developing a new army helmet. | 25:25 | |
And our concern about the use of public funds | 25:32 | |
is not in the area of mismanagement. | 25:35 | |
All of developing a defense system | 25:38 | |
that can kill the Russians or Chinese | 25:40 | |
many more times than they can kill us. | 25:43 | |
And it seems to me, it's concerned with wasting money, | 25:47 | |
feeding people who ought to be able to living by themselves. | 25:52 | |
And then we hear stories of justice in our own state | 25:58 | |
that it maybe that we have people being held | 26:03 | |
political prisoners here in North Carolina. | 26:06 | |
And that many people in prison may not be as harmful | 26:10 | |
to our society as some of the people who are outside | 26:15 | |
and who are outside only because | 26:20 | |
they are people with power and money, | 26:22 | |
but we don't want to believe this | 26:28 | |
because we believe that our courts are just and fare. | 26:30 | |
These courts cannot make mistakes, | 26:35 | |
but then we have discovered through an investigation related | 26:38 | |
to the Watergate affair, | 26:43 | |
that our government had paid a person who was in jail, | 26:45 | |
paid him and freed him in exchange for what seems to be | 26:51 | |
false testimony against some people who had been working | 26:56 | |
for civil rights and civil liberties for the blacks. | 27:01 | |
And while I very much oppose capital punishment, | 27:07 | |
I wonder why it is so easy | 27:11 | |
for a white woman to be found not guilty. | 27:14 | |
When she had walked into a black man's yard | 27:18 | |
with a gun and killed him. | 27:20 | |
And I wonder what would have happened | 27:24 | |
if a black man had walked into a white woman's yard | 27:28 | |
and killed him in identical circumstances. | 27:32 | |
Do we have equal justice in our state? | 27:38 | |
How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? | 27:43 | |
But we find our national picture | 27:49 | |
is a reflection of our local picture, | 27:52 | |
which is a reflection of our individual picture. | 27:55 | |
And we find our national morality | 28:00 | |
is a reflection of our personal morality. | 28:03 | |
And we wonder, could we find 10 righteous people to save us? | 28:07 | |
The problem is that our personal morality | 28:15 | |
has become a private morality | 28:20 | |
and we are isolated, separated individuals | 28:24 | |
whose main and ultimate concern | 28:28 | |
is our own individual wellbeing. | 28:31 | |
The center and basis for our morality is not God, | 28:36 | |
but it's the me and the I, | 28:42 | |
which means that I am not ultimately responsible | 28:45 | |
to anyone except myself. | 28:50 | |
For our private morality sets us up as the ultimate. | 28:54 | |
And all the world and all the people | 29:00 | |
have been created to serve me. | 29:04 | |
A recent article in Harper's on the new narcissism, | 29:09 | |
raises serious questions about the helpfulness | 29:14 | |
of some forms of our human potential movement, | 29:18 | |
saying that many of these movements encourage and allow | 29:21 | |
our selfishness and our moral blindness to assert themselves | 29:27 | |
and the larger culture as enlightenment and psychic health. | 29:34 | |
They encourage people to believe that all people | 29:41 | |
as individuals have the ability and resources | 29:44 | |
to be responsible for their own destinies. | 29:49 | |
So that anyone who wants to work can, | 29:52 | |
who wants to eat can, | 29:56 | |
so you don't have to worry about the hungry or the sick. | 29:58 | |
It's their personal decision and personal choice | 30:02 | |
that has gotten them in this condition. | 30:05 | |
Though, worldview is centered solely on the self | 30:09 | |
with the individual survival as a sole good. | 30:14 | |
That is a retreat from morality and from history. | 30:20 | |
And unembarrassed to now | 30:24 | |
of human responsibility and community. | 30:27 | |
We are the masters of our fate. | 30:30 | |
There is no sense of guilt or shame about the self, | 30:34 | |
all the condition of the world. | 30:39 | |
Now, this is certainly not a fair description | 30:44 | |
of all human potential movements | 30:47 | |
and the article doesn't claim that it is. | 30:50 | |
And my previous description of our world | 30:54 | |
and of the justice in our state | 30:58 | |
is not a total picture of who we are, | 31:00 | |
but it does reflect a part of our situation. | 31:04 | |
And most of us can claim that it reflects in some part, | 31:09 | |
a little of who we are. | 31:14 | |
So, we can not dismiss it or ignore it | 31:17 | |
or become paralyzingly defensive. | 31:21 | |
For it does seem that our personal morality | 31:27 | |
has become a private morality. | 31:31 | |
And we see ourselves as isolated, separated individuals | 31:35 | |
whose main and ultimate concern is for our own wellbeing. | 31:41 | |
And this is often reflected more in our actions | 31:48 | |
than in our talk. | 31:52 | |
For, we can talk a good game. | 31:54 | |
The center and basis of our private morality is not God, | 31:58 | |
but me and I. | 32:04 | |
So I am responsible for no one except myself. | 32:06 | |
And no one can call me into question, | 32:13 | |
not even the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, | 32:16 | |
the God of all people in all creation | 32:20 | |
because we have our private guards | 32:24 | |
and we are responsible to no one, | 32:27 | |
not even the one who has given us life and called it good. | 32:31 | |
So our private gods, | 32:38 | |
are success for ourselves money and security file ourselves | 32:39 | |
sexual pleasure for ourselves, | 32:45 | |
self fulfillment for ourselves, | 32:47 | |
getting all we can for ourselves. | 32:50 | |
And there is no reason then for us | 32:54 | |
to not to deny ourselves to sacrifice. | 32:56 | |
So we use others to feed our own ego needs, | 33:01 | |
discarding them when another person comes along, | 33:06 | |
who can meet our latest need. | 33:10 | |
I had been puzzling about the negative response | 33:15 | |
against the concept of guilt. | 33:19 | |
Hearing that no one | 33:23 | |
and nothing should make anyone feel guilty. | 33:25 | |
The only sin really is to cause a sense of guilt. | 33:29 | |
Now we have had some unhealthy and unchristian demands | 33:34 | |
of a person to feel guilty, | 33:39 | |
about things they should not feel guilty about | 33:42 | |
and perhaps should even celebrate. | 33:45 | |
But to remove the word guilt | 33:48 | |
from our Christian vocabulary is a puzzle. | 33:50 | |
But if our ethics, | 33:55 | |
our private ethics and morality is a private morality, | 33:57 | |
then our goal is self satisfaction | 34:03 | |
and personal fulfillment and development. | 34:07 | |
Then the opposite of this of course is, | 34:10 | |
the negative of course is, | 34:13 | |
frustration and non-development, not guilt. | 34:15 | |
For we experienced guilt only when our ethics are personal, | 34:20 | |
which implies a relation to the holy other, | 34:27 | |
the one who has called us and all people into being. | 34:30 | |
We experience guilt only when our ethics are personal, | 34:36 | |
which implies in a relation and a responsibility | 34:43 | |
to our brother and our sister and the world. | 34:47 | |
But if ours is a private morality | 34:52 | |
and the fulfillment of our personal needs and growth | 34:56 | |
is ultimate, | 35:00 | |
then all people and all the world are steamed to be used | 35:01 | |
for our personal benefits. | 35:07 | |
And so we feel no responsibility and hence no guilt | 35:09 | |
about the condition of our world, | 35:15 | |
or of our neighbors plight. | 35:18 | |
And we worship ourselves and our pleasure | 35:20 | |
and our personal satisfactions. | 35:25 | |
And so, here our marriage vowels are kept. | 35:28 | |
If we do not find someone who for the moment satisfies | 35:33 | |
a private need and marriage is difficult | 35:38 | |
in a private morality. | 35:41 | |
For there is no expectation of sacrifice, | 35:43 | |
of self-giving, of commitment, | 35:47 | |
but always the seeking of the individual satisfaction | 35:50 | |
at the expense of the other. | 35:55 | |
And the tragedy is the search is endless | 35:58 | |
for the quest of private morality, | 36:03 | |
never brings fulfillment | 36:06 | |
and our private morality allows us to use our neighbor | 36:10 | |
our coworker to help us advance, | 36:14 | |
to help us become successful, | 36:18 | |
to gain our goal and once you get there, | 36:21 | |
to be dismissed and forgotten and move on to another person, | 36:25 | |
someone who can help us more. | 36:31 | |
And our private morality makes a God out of sex and beauty. | 36:35 | |
And we reflect our culture or our culture reflects us | 36:41 | |
and our secretaries and bosses and our wives and husbands | 36:47 | |
must be Venuses thou with arms and Adonis | 36:51 | |
and so on and on and on. | 36:55 | |
But this isn't the whole picture. | 36:59 | |
And we are thankful for this. | 37:02 | |
For we are aware of our situation | 37:04 | |
and we anguish and we wonder, | 37:07 | |
how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? | 37:10 | |
And we know that we have helped create a culture | 37:14 | |
which makes gods out of beauty and sex | 37:18 | |
and makes it easy for people to become self-serving | 37:22 | |
and self-seeking and selfish. | 37:25 | |
Those of us who worship the living God | 37:30 | |
are also a part of this culture | 37:34 | |
and share some responsibility for it. | 37:37 | |
And so we claim and confess our sin and guilt. | 37:41 | |
And we wonder, | 37:46 | |
how can we sing the Lord's song and this strange land? | 37:48 | |
We were caught up in Bob Young's Communion Meditation, | 37:55 | |
which reflected our awareness that we do deceive ourselves, | 37:59 | |
posing affront, | 38:04 | |
a masquerade of love and concern for all those, | 38:06 | |
the idiot and the ugly but knowing too well, | 38:09 | |
the shame we have created | 38:13 | |
and this moved us to respond, not generally, | 38:17 | |
but specifically to those who are hurting | 38:21 | |
and lonely and sad and starving and facing death, | 38:26 | |
and to respond in specific ways | 38:32 | |
to specific persons who need us. | 38:35 | |
Many of us who were here, that Sunday remember | 38:39 | |
our commitment to express our love to others | 38:42 | |
in specific actions. | 38:46 | |
And we have, but we know, | 38:48 | |
we know that we need to be called out | 38:52 | |
of our private morality again and again. | 38:55 | |
For, we do believe that we truly gain our lives | 39:00 | |
as we lose them in service to those who need | 39:04 | |
our love and care. | 39:08 | |
And so we look at the biblical readings, | 39:10 | |
the Psalm is one that Jon Wesley | 39:14 | |
did not want included in the Psalter. | 39:16 | |
Thought it is the only song which calls for a curse, | 39:19 | |
a revengeful, punitive action. | 39:23 | |
The beginning of the song is a beautiful lament. | 39:28 | |
And we are made aware of the Jews' | 39:31 | |
intense loyalty to their faith | 39:34 | |
in spite of the temptations which they faced, | 39:37 | |
but then how awful, | 39:42 | |
how could anyone had be happy to take little ones | 39:44 | |
and dash them against the rocks? | 39:49 | |
So the Psalm has a beautiful lament with an awful reminder | 39:51 | |
that our response to being in a strange culture | 39:56 | |
can be less loving and more destructive | 40:00 | |
than the strange culture is. | 40:05 | |
And so we look to Matthew and get such a different model, | 40:08 | |
still singing the Lord's song in a strange land. | 40:13 | |
And the preface to the lectionary lesson, | 40:19 | |
Jesus has given instructions to his disciples, | 40:22 | |
to minister to these people in this strange land | 40:25 | |
to heal the sick, | 40:29 | |
to cleanse the lepers | 40:31 | |
and to take no money for our work. | 40:32 | |
For all is a gift to us. | 40:35 | |
And we freely share these gifts with those in need. | 40:37 | |
And if we are not welcome, | 40:43 | |
we simply shake the dust upon our feet and move on. | 40:45 | |
And there is the warning that this will not be easy | 40:51 | |
and we will be persecuted, | 40:56 | |
but we have the right assurance of our value and worth | 40:59 | |
and God's care for us. | 41:04 | |
And that those who lose their lives, | 41:07 | |
that those who give up their private morality, | 41:10 | |
those who suffer and being obedient | 41:14 | |
and loving and caring for their neighbor | 41:17 | |
will not lose their lives, | 41:21 | |
but will truly find their lives here on this earth. | 41:23 | |
And then after we leave this earth. | 41:28 | |
Let us pray. | 41:33 | |
O holy God! | 41:37 | |
Send over us. | 41:40 | |
We pray, | 41:41 | |
your holy spirit, | 41:43 | |
the spirit who brings us life. | 41:46 | |
The spirit who helps us love, | 41:51 | |
The spirit who makes all that we do not easy, | 41:55 | |
but full of meaning. | 42:01 | |
Only with the Spirit's help can we truly be | 42:03 | |
the church of Jesus Christ? | 42:08 | |
Amen. | 42:11 | |
And amen. | 42:13 | |
(church music playing) | 42:16 | |
(church music continues) | 42:31 | |
- | We come, O God, | 51:02 |
to offer these gifts to serve you | 51:05 | |
and to show our love for others. | 51:07 | |
May we give out of a spirit | 51:11 | |
of commitment, compassion, and concern, | 51:13 | |
Accept our gifts and accept us and transform them and us | 51:18 | |
into miracles of mercy. | 51:24 | |
To redeem and make home a broken and weary world | 51:27 | |
through Jesus Christ, Our Lord! | 51:33 | |
Amen. | 51:37 | |
(church music playing) | 51:41 | |
(church music continues) | 52:05 | |
(church music continues) | 52:17 | |
(church music continues) | 52:37 | |
The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. | 54:58 | |
The love of God, | 55:04 | |
the fellowship and communion of the holy spirit | 55:07 | |
be with you and those whom you love, | 55:12 | |
now and forever. | 55:17 | |
(church music playing) | 55:23 | |
(church music continues) | 55:40 | |
(church music continues) | 55:53 | |
(church music continues) | 56:23 | |
(church music continues) | 56:53 | |
(indistinct crowd chatter) | 59:10 |
Item Info
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