Samuel S. Wiley - "The Redemption of the Routine" (August 22, 1976)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (melancholy orchestral music) | 0:05 | |
| (somber piano music) | 0:11 | |
| - | Please be seated. | 7:43 |
| Let us confess our sins publicly and in unison. | 7:52 | |
| Almighty God, we acknowledged before you | 8:01 | |
| our unworthiness and sin. | 8:05 | |
| You sent your son to show us the way of life | 8:08 | |
| yet we have strayed from you. | 8:13 | |
| You have manifested His kingly right | 8:17 | |
| and we have seen His glory, | 8:20 | |
| but we have offered Him the home edge of our lips | 8:24 | |
| and not given him the loyalty of our lives. | 8:28 | |
| We have followed our own pleasures. | 8:32 | |
| We have sought our own ends. | 8:36 | |
| We have lived in selfishness. | 8:40 | |
| We have refused the way of the cross. | 8:43 | |
| Have mercy upon us. | 8:47 | |
| Rebuke our lay witness and folly | 8:50 | |
| and grant us true repentance | 8:54 | |
| that our sins may be forgiven | 8:57 | |
| in the name of Jesus. | 9:00 | |
| Amen. | 9:02 | |
| Now let us pose a moment | 9:05 | |
| to confess our sins privately and silently. | 9:08 | |
| Be of good cheer. | 9:32 | |
| God is a loving God. | 9:35 | |
| He is a forgiving God, | 9:40 | |
| and He is a just God. | 9:45 | |
| (somber piano music) | 9:51 | |
| (Catholic orchestral music) | 10:22 | |
| Let us prepare to hear the reading of the scripture | 13:55 | |
| taken from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. | 14:00 | |
| "I must boast | 14:09 | |
| there is nothing to be gained by it, | 14:12 | |
| but I will go on to visions and revelations of the law. | 14:16 | |
| I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago | 14:22 | |
| was caught up in the third heaven, | 14:30 | |
| whether in the body or out of the body, | 14:35 | |
| I do not know, God knows. | 14:40 | |
| And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, | 14:44 | |
| whether in the body or out of the body. | 14:51 | |
| I do not know, God knows. | 14:56 | |
| And he heard things that cannot be told, | 15:01 | |
| which men may not alter. | 15:06 | |
| On behalf of this man, | 15:11 | |
| I will boast. | 15:14 | |
| But on my own behalf, | 15:17 | |
| I will not boast except of my weaknesses. | 15:20 | |
| Though if I wish to boast, I shall not to be a fool | 15:27 | |
| for I shall be speaking the truth. | 15:33 | |
| But I refrain from it | 15:40 | |
| so that no one may think more of me | 15:43 | |
| than he sees in me or hears from me. | 15:49 | |
| And to keep me from being too elated | 15:55 | |
| by the abundance of revelations, | 16:00 | |
| a thorn was given me in the flesh, | 16:06 | |
| a messenger of Satan to harass me, | 16:11 | |
| to keep me from being too elated. | 16:17 | |
| Three times, I be thought the Lord about this, | 16:22 | |
| that it should leave me. | 16:28 | |
| But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. | 16:31 | |
| For my power is made perfect in weakness.' | 16:38 | |
| I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses | 16:45 | |
| that the power of Christ may rest upon me | 16:51 | |
| for the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, | 16:57 | |
| insults, hardships, | 17:05 | |
| persecutions and calamities | 17:10 | |
| for when I am weak, | 17:15 | |
| then I am strong." | 17:19 | |
| God bless the reading of His holy word. | 17:23 | |
| (somber piano music) | 17:26 | |
| Let us affirm our faith. | 18:08 | |
| We are not alone. | 18:12 | |
| We live in God's world. | 18:15 | |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 18:18 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus | 18:24 | |
| to reconcile and make new, | 18:28 | |
| who works in us and others by the spirit. | 18:31 | |
| We trust God, | 18:35 | |
| who calls us to be the church | 18:38 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness | 18:41 | |
| to love and serve others, | 18:45 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:48 | |
| to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen | 18:51 | |
| our judge and our hope | 18:56 | |
| in life, in death. | 18:59 | |
| And life beyond death | 19:02 | |
| God is with us. | 19:05 | |
| We are not alone. | 19:07 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 19:10 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 19:12 | |
| Let us pray. | 19:16 | |
| Almighty God, | 19:26 | |
| as I am to shepherd this flock to the throne of grace | 19:30 | |
| let the words of my mouth | 19:37 | |
| and the meditations of my heart | 19:41 | |
| be acceptable in thy sight. | 19:46 | |
| Oh, heavenly master | 19:51 | |
| we thank you for your son, Jesus, | 19:54 | |
| who as our savior Christ | 19:59 | |
| died so that we might be forgiven | 20:03 | |
| our sins and transgressions. | 20:06 | |
| We thank you for the love you express each and every day | 20:11 | |
| through families that are supportive | 20:19 | |
| friends that care and advisors that are wise and counsel | 20:24 | |
| counsel by which we can live in harmony | 20:33 | |
| with others and nature. | 20:38 | |
| Oh, gracious Lord, | 20:42 | |
| we thank you for spirits that have found peace | 20:46 | |
| bodies that are healthy and minds that are sound | 20:54 | |
| and guided by the vision of a better life. | 21:01 | |
| Herein we thank you for communities | 21:09 | |
| where love of neighbor | 21:13 | |
| is stronger than love of self. | 21:18 | |
| But we recognize that all is not well. | 21:24 | |
| So eternal God, | 21:32 | |
| be forever our rock | 21:37 | |
| in a weary land. | 21:39 | |
| A land or a universal, where war is still waged. | 21:42 | |
| A land where people are hungry, | 21:49 | |
| homeless, jobless, | 21:55 | |
| a land where people still suffer from human injustice. | 21:59 | |
| We pray for the unfortunate. | 22:07 | |
| We pray for the dispossessed, ease their burden, | 22:11 | |
| and we pray for those hampered and weakened by sickness. | 22:19 | |
| Blessed dear Lord, the sick and shut in, | 22:27 | |
| restore them to good health. | 22:31 | |
| Strengthen them with the touch of divine physician | 22:35 | |
| of your healing hand. | 22:40 | |
| We pray for those whose maladies are of the spirit. | 22:44 | |
| Mend broken hearts. | 22:51 | |
| Reclaim souls estranged from you | 22:54 | |
| and befriend the lonely. | 22:58 | |
| We pray that you will keep friends near. | 23:04 | |
| May we find in them as well as in ourselves and others, | 23:10 | |
| a greater inclination to be patient | 23:19 | |
| and a greater willingness to be helpful and forgiving. | 23:24 | |
| Keep families dear, | 23:32 | |
| particularly at this time for the young men who left home | 23:36 | |
| and arrived on campus yesterday | 23:44 | |
| to participate in the game of football for another season. | 23:48 | |
| May they find in courage moment in their endeavor, | 23:54 | |
| may their experience be wholesome | 24:00 | |
| and may they be protected from injury. | 24:04 | |
| This prayer we pray, | 24:10 | |
| in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ, | 24:13 | |
| who taught us to pray. | 24:16 | |
| Our Father who art in heaven, | 24:19 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 24:23 | |
| thy kingdom come | 24:26 | |
| thy will be done on earth | 24:28 | |
| as it is in heaven. | 24:31 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 24:34 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 24:37 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 24:40 | |
| Lead us not into temptation, | 24:45 | |
| but deliver us from evil | 24:48 | |
| for thine is the kingdom, | 24:51 | |
| the power and the glory forever and ever. | 24:54 | |
| Amen. | 24:59 | |
| We welcome Reverend Wiley | 25:06 | |
| to the Duke University chapel pulpit today. | 25:10 | |
| Reverend Wiley has served as executive director | 25:16 | |
| of the North Carolina Council of Churches since 1964. | 25:21 | |
| - | At the fifth assembly | 25:48 |
| of the world council of churches at Nairobi. | 25:49 | |
| Robert McAfee Brown sat in the midst of much | 25:54 | |
| that remains unclear to me. | 25:59 | |
| One thing at least becomes increasingly clear. | 26:02 | |
| There is a convergence today between the Biblical view | 26:07 | |
| of Jesus as liberate all | 26:10 | |
| and the cry of oppressed peoples for liberation. | 26:13 | |
| People today are in chains, | 26:18 | |
| not only the chains of personal guilt and inadequacy | 26:22 | |
| and individual shame, | 26:25 | |
| but also the change forged by those who use political | 26:28 | |
| and economic systems for their own gain | 26:32 | |
| and destroy whole peoples and continents in the process. | 26:36 | |
| Now you might expect of me today | 26:43 | |
| since I'm engaged in ecumenical service, | 26:45 | |
| a stress on the latter emphasis | 26:48 | |
| for God knows the need for international reform | 26:52 | |
| of political and economic systems, | 26:57 | |
| but God knows also the need of people for our liberation, | 27:01 | |
| from the chains of personal guilt | 27:04 | |
| and inadequacy and individual shame. | 27:07 | |
| I would like to affirm here, | 27:12 | |
| my belief in what Elton Trueblood has called | 27:15 | |
| The Holy Conjunction, | 27:19 | |
| and we need conversion of the corporate systems of society | 27:21 | |
| and personal renewal. | 27:27 | |
| Perhaps it will surprise you to hear me say | 27:31 | |
| that I feel led to center my remarks, | 27:34 | |
| chiefly and at first certainly today | 27:37 | |
| on what my experience has revealed | 27:41 | |
| as a special need of individuals. | 27:43 | |
| And that is the redemption of the routine. | 27:47 | |
| The verses from 2 Corinthians 12, which were read. | 27:53 | |
| Our classic passage fall proof | 27:58 | |
| that a vital faith in Jesus Christ | 28:00 | |
| we'll teach a person how to deal with trouble. | 28:03 | |
| We can all thank God that humble dependence upon the Lord | 28:09 | |
| will teach one how to triumph over adversity. | 28:13 | |
| The apostle Paul was able to say for the sake of Christ, | 28:18 | |
| I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, | 28:23 | |
| persecutions, and calamities. | 28:28 | |
| For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. | 28:31 | |
| If we can compare these verses, | 28:36 | |
| which were read from the Revised Standard Version | 28:39 | |
| with the King James Version, | 28:42 | |
| we find an interesting usage. | 28:43 | |
| In the authorized version it reads, | 28:47 | |
| "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, | 28:49 | |
| in necessities, in persecution, | 28:53 | |
| in distresses for Christ's sake. | 28:56 | |
| For when I'm weak then am I strong?" | 29:00 | |
| Now in this list is the word necessities, | 29:04 | |
| which suggests that faith is victory, | 29:09 | |
| not only for times of crisis, | 29:11 | |
| but also for more ordinary days. | 29:14 | |
| Not only for emergencies which require special reserves | 29:17 | |
| of energy and courage, but also for the pedestrian routine, | 29:21 | |
| which calls for stamina in which courage is patience. | 29:25 | |
| And redemption of the routine is perhaps more important | 29:31 | |
| because the routine makes up so large a part of our lives. | 29:34 | |
| As an old domestic servant said, | 29:41 | |
| life is so daily around here. | 29:43 | |
| Now I can imagine what it's like for professors and students | 29:48 | |
| in a university setting. | 29:52 | |
| It's tough enough to do the book work | 29:54 | |
| and to labor the labels in the laboratories, | 29:56 | |
| but then the papers. | 29:59 | |
| The only thing worse than writing papers | 30:02 | |
| that I could imagine would be having to read them. | 30:03 | |
| But tasks and routine is a large part of merely any job | 30:07 | |
| on campus or off. | 30:12 | |
| Men and women in offices, and factories, in homes, on farms | 30:15 | |
| often find the routine quite wearing. | 30:19 | |
| And if Christianity can give us victory here | 30:24 | |
| will serve us well. | 30:26 | |
| And unless it does, | 30:28 | |
| it will not be the answer to the needs of the whole person. | 30:30 | |
| My thesis then is that the Christian faith is the answer | 30:34 | |
| because Paul was able to say, | 30:38 | |
| "I take pleasure in necessities." | 30:40 | |
| Now we must recognize that when Paul wrote the Greek word | 30:45 | |
| for necessities had come to mean something rather dramatic | 30:51 | |
| the necessary hardships involved in a bold course of action. | 30:55 | |
| Calamities, distresses, straights, | 30:59 | |
| but originally it meant simply the things imposed | 31:02 | |
| by external conditions or by duty. | 31:06 | |
| And I find in this thought, the idea that Jesus | 31:10 | |
| can redeem the routine. | 31:15 | |
| Suppose we could learn to take pleasure in necessities. | 31:18 | |
| We are reminded here that Christianity | 31:25 | |
| is the gospel of the incarnation. | 31:27 | |
| The belief that God Himself has entered | 31:30 | |
| the right into human experience, | 31:33 | |
| that the son of God was born in the little town of Bethlehem | 31:35 | |
| grew up in the graceless place called Nazareth. | 31:38 | |
| We're accustomed to think of the Lord's life | 31:41 | |
| in terms of His miracles of healing and raising the dead | 31:44 | |
| of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem | 31:48 | |
| of His contest with the high priests, | 31:50 | |
| the Last Supper, the agony in Gethsemane, | 31:53 | |
| His trials before Herod and Pilate, | 31:57 | |
| and then the resurrection and the ascension. | 31:59 | |
| These are the great events of the cosmic drama, | 32:03 | |
| but there are times when I find more help for my need | 32:08 | |
| in the thought that Jesus was a carpenter. | 32:11 | |
| As so we believe. | 32:14 | |
| And when scripture says he was tempted in all points | 32:16 | |
| like as we are yet without sin, | 32:20 | |
| it means that God has entered into | 32:23 | |
| and redeemed our daily routine. | 32:26 | |
| And now there are two considerations | 32:31 | |
| which can lead to the redemption of the routine for us. | 32:32 | |
| First is the realization of the priesthood of all believers. | 32:37 | |
| The church has been rediscovering this belief, | 32:43 | |
| which was one of the Cardinal doctrines | 32:46 | |
| of the Protestant reformation. | 32:48 | |
| We're stressing again, | 32:51 | |
| the importance of the ministry of the layoffs, | 32:53 | |
| the people of God. | 32:55 | |
| We have recognized that the true ministry of the church | 32:58 | |
| is not limited to ordained clergy | 33:02 | |
| and professional full-time church workers. | 33:04 | |
| But that in Christian service, | 33:08 | |
| every Christian can have a part. | 33:10 | |
| A formal study and worship on Sunday | 33:14 | |
| can be highly significant, but even more significant. | 33:18 | |
| May be what you do through the week | 33:23 | |
| as you serve other people in the name of Jesus Christ. | 33:25 | |
| Your job is your parish, that is your ministry. | 33:29 | |
| Now not like to discount for a moment, | 33:34 | |
| the need for the best ordained clergy we can get. | 33:36 | |
| But their truest function is not to be religious | 33:40 | |
| or to serve in your stead, | 33:43 | |
| but to help you fulfill your ministry. | 33:47 | |
| The coach shouldn't run with the ball. | 33:52 | |
| you are the ones to play the game. | 33:55 | |
| Now, Christian vocation means that we are all invited | 33:58 | |
| to become partners in the Father's enterprise. | 34:01 | |
| It is proper for every disciple sooner or later | 34:05 | |
| to find the answer, which Jesus gave at the age of 12 | 34:09 | |
| to Mary and Joseph, | 34:12 | |
| when they saw it and found him in the temple. | 34:13 | |
| "Didn't you know," he said, | 34:17 | |
| "that I must be about my Father's business." | 34:19 | |
| Paul said later you are no longer a servant, but a son. | 34:24 | |
| Now the import of our calling is hinted | 34:31 | |
| in the little epistle we call "Third John". | 34:34 | |
| The elder there is speaking of the need | 34:38 | |
| of giving hospitality to the itinerant missionaries | 34:40 | |
| who were wandering about Asia. | 34:44 | |
| "We ought to receive such," he said, | 34:47 | |
| "that we might be fellow helpers to the truth." | 34:49 | |
| James Moffett translated | 34:53 | |
| that we're bound to support such men, | 34:54 | |
| to prove ourselves allies of the truth. | 34:57 | |
| What a calling to be allies of the truth with a capital? | 35:02 | |
| What a difference would be made in our routine | 35:09 | |
| if we were to realize that whatever we do in word and deed, | 35:13 | |
| we can do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. | 35:17 | |
| As a legend, that over the door or the carpenter shop | 35:21 | |
| at Nazareth, were this words, | 35:25 | |
| "My oaks are easy and I believe that they were." | 35:28 | |
| So now a worker who has conscious | 35:35 | |
| that he is in partnership with God | 35:37 | |
| will do his work well. | 35:39 | |
| And we'll find what could otherwise be weary monotony | 35:41 | |
| redeemed, because doing it, | 35:45 | |
| he is doing it in the name of the one who made yokes | 35:49 | |
| that were well-fitting and easy. | 35:52 | |
| And he still does. | 35:55 | |
| Over Ruth Graham's Madeline kitchen, | 35:58 | |
| it has a line that says, | 36:02 | |
| divine service will be held here three times daily. | 36:04 | |
| A young woman told my wife once that | 36:11 | |
| a profound impression was made upon her | 36:15 | |
| when she came upon her mother one day | 36:17 | |
| while the mother was cleaning the bathroom and singing. | 36:19 | |
| For her, a menial task was transformed | 36:25 | |
| because she did it with love for her family in her heart. | 36:29 | |
| Her sad brother Lawrence, | 36:34 | |
| but he confess that he felt the divine presence as fully | 36:36 | |
| when he was in the kitchen of the monastery | 36:42 | |
| with a dozen people calling for things at once. | 36:45 | |
| As he did, when he was kneeling | 36:49 | |
| before the blessed sacrament. | 36:50 | |
| These lines are attributed to a London serving girl, | 36:57 | |
| lot of all, pots and pans and 10, | 37:01 | |
| since I have no time to be a saint by doing lovely things | 37:04 | |
| or watching late with the or dreaming in the dawn light | 37:07 | |
| or storming heaven's gates, | 37:11 | |
| make me a Saint by getting meals and washing up the plates. | 37:14 | |
| Although I must have Martha's hands, I have a mayor in mind. | 37:20 | |
| And when I blacked the boots and shoes, dye sandals, | 37:24 | |
| Lord, I find. | 37:28 | |
| I think of how they tried the earth | 37:31 | |
| what time I scrubbed the floor, except this meditation Lord. | 37:32 | |
| I haven't time for more warm all the kitchen with on love | 37:38 | |
| and light it with that peace. | 37:42 | |
| Forgive me all my worrying and make all grumbling cease. | 37:44 | |
| Thou who is to love to give men food and room | 37:48 | |
| I bother see. | 37:51 | |
| Except this service that I do. | 37:53 | |
| I do it unto thee. | 37:56 | |
| Now if such victory as possible in a kitchen | 37:59 | |
| cannot other people, men and women find it in classroom | 38:03 | |
| or office or at work bench? | 38:08 | |
| We could take pleasure in necessities | 38:12 | |
| if we recognized in them a humble service to others | 38:15 | |
| and an opportunity for witness to our Lord. | 38:19 | |
| Now, apart of the menace of the routine | 38:24 | |
| comes from the limitations | 38:26 | |
| under which we ordinary fault labor. | 38:28 | |
| And this is the second point I should like to make. | 38:31 | |
| In another passage in 2 Corinthians, | 38:35 | |
| Paul urges that in all things, | 38:38 | |
| Christian should approve themselves as ministers of God | 38:40 | |
| in much patience, in afflictions, | 38:43 | |
| in necessities, in distresses. | 38:46 | |
| Now the word translated distresses | 38:49 | |
| is a very interesting word in the Greek. | 38:51 | |
| It's root meaning is narrowness of place. | 38:54 | |
| Paul is saying that we can be ministers of God, | 39:00 | |
| even in situations | 39:02 | |
| where we feel narrowly circumscribed and limited. | 39:03 | |
| We've been talking about the individual | 39:08 | |
| is placed in the scheme of things. | 39:11 | |
| And now we come back to that other concept of the corporate | 39:12 | |
| nature of the church. | 39:15 | |
| And the influence that an organic and organized | 39:17 | |
| body of people can have on the systems | 39:19 | |
| that so much need changing. | 39:22 | |
| Bayard Taylor has some lines which are among my favorites. | 39:26 | |
| "The healing of the world is in its nameless saints. | 39:30 | |
| Each separate star seems nothing | 39:34 | |
| but a myriad scattered stars break up the night | 39:37 | |
| and make it beautiful." | 39:41 | |
| Now, if there are enough of us holding the good thought | 39:44 | |
| and living true to it, | 39:48 | |
| we can make a difference in this big world. | 39:50 | |
| Healed Rives tells of going through a little village | 39:53 | |
| in Maine one summer. | 39:56 | |
| She saw on every hand, pansy is growing in window boxes | 39:59 | |
| and on the borders of the Watts | 40:02 | |
| and a little boy was gathering a bouquet of them | 40:04 | |
| from a pansy bed. | 40:07 | |
| And she saw bunches of them on sale at a market. | 40:11 | |
| Then she drove on into the country and suddenly a sale, | 40:14 | |
| but a very sweet fragrance. | 40:18 | |
| So sweet and strong that she pulled over to the side | 40:22 | |
| of the road to see where it came from | 40:25 | |
| and she discovered an acre of pansies. | 40:27 | |
| She'd never known that they smelled so fragrantly. | 40:30 | |
| And as she drove on she knew what she would tell | 40:35 | |
| her church friends when they said to her, | 40:38 | |
| what can just one Christian do? | 40:40 | |
| What can just one church do in a big world? | 40:42 | |
| She knew now she would say the work of Christians | 40:46 | |
| is like the fragrance of pansies. | 40:49 | |
| A single pansy or a single Christian | 40:51 | |
| may not make much impression. | 40:54 | |
| A single church, like a single pansy bed | 40:56 | |
| is noticed by people nearby, but not those far away. | 41:00 | |
| But when many Christians working together | 41:04 | |
| do so with vigor and enthusiasm, | 41:10 | |
| something wonderful is sure to happen. | 41:14 | |
| Faith can make great things happen, | 41:18 | |
| even in narrowness of place. | 41:20 | |
| If we enter into allegiance with God and with one another, | 41:23 | |
| it is in this alliance that even obscure members | 41:28 | |
| of the body of Christ can make their contribution | 41:31 | |
| and find their otherwise dull routine redeemed. | 41:34 | |
| Read again, the parable of the talents. | 41:39 | |
| The five talent man received the accolade, | 41:43 | |
| but so also did the two talent man | 41:46 | |
| and the one talent man failed to do, | 41:49 | |
| to receive any praise at all, rather condemnation. | 41:52 | |
| Because he failed to do what he could | 41:57 | |
| with what he was given. | 42:00 | |
| He had not wasted his master's goods, | 42:03 | |
| like the unjust steward. | 42:05 | |
| He had not spent all his portion in riotous living | 42:07 | |
| like the prodigal son, nor was he 10,000 talents in debt | 42:10 | |
| like the unmerciful servant. | 42:14 | |
| He had simply failed to do what he could. | 42:16 | |
| And we might feel sure that he would have heard, | 42:21 | |
| well done, good and faithful servant | 42:24 | |
| if he had just put his gift into circulation. | 42:26 | |
| Dwight L. Moody was a great Christian of his generation | 42:34 | |
| and left an imprint, | 42:40 | |
| which every student of Christian history knows. | 42:41 | |
| He had determined as a young shoe clerk, | 42:48 | |
| realizing that the world had yet to see | 42:53 | |
| what could be accomplished by someone completely dedicated | 42:56 | |
| to God that he would try to be that person. | 42:59 | |
| He was not well-educated. | 43:04 | |
| Once an unkind critic made fun of his grammar. | 43:06 | |
| Dwight L. Moody looked the man straight in the eye and said, | 43:11 | |
| "You have grammar, what are you doing with it?" | 43:16 | |
| And the question is for you and me, | 43:21 | |
| we have grammar, what are we doing with it? | 43:24 | |
| Now we can face the demands of that big world | 43:30 | |
| even though we may feel limited, circumscribed | 43:33 | |
| or may not think that we're too gifted. | 43:39 | |
| The planned parenthood program of church world service | 43:43 | |
| reports that there are 65 million more people | 43:47 | |
| in the world today who are unable to read and write | 43:50 | |
| than the were 10 years ago. | 43:53 | |
| With the total number, nearing 800 million. | 43:56 | |
| And literacy is necessary for family planning, | 44:00 | |
| for childcare, for health and nutrition, | 44:03 | |
| for an understanding of good agricultural procedures, | 44:06 | |
| for leadership in community. | 44:10 | |
| You have grammar, what are you doing about it? | 44:15 | |
| The world hunger is pictured with views of starving babies, | 44:21 | |
| but abandoned children do not get as much publicity. | 44:26 | |
| Child abandonment is alarmingly on the increase | 44:30 | |
| throughout the world. | 44:33 | |
| Countless millions of children, fend for themselves, | 44:35 | |
| cleaning to life in the slums of every major city. | 44:37 | |
| Children bond, parents unwilling | 44:42 | |
| or unable to care for them, | 44:44 | |
| terrified and anguish children without a childhood, | 44:45 | |
| without a present or future. | 44:50 | |
| Ragged, filthy, and half started sleeping in doorways | 44:52 | |
| and ditches, cemeteries and sewers. | 44:55 | |
| We have ability and money | 45:00 | |
| what are we doing with them? | 45:03 | |
| What of our efforts to bring about justice, | 45:07 | |
| liberation and human fulfillment in the world? | 45:10 | |
| The improvement of the quality of life in community | 45:14 | |
| and state and nation and on planet earth. | 45:17 | |
| Will you take some leadership in caring | 45:22 | |
| and in reconciliation | 45:27 | |
| where disadvantaged families struggle against the cycle | 45:30 | |
| of poverty and prejudice? | 45:34 | |
| Will you stand for concern, for sharing, and for change? | 45:36 | |
| Amen. | 45:46 | |
| Let us pray. | 45:47 | |
| Father we remember that it was said of Jesus | 45:52 | |
| that He went about doing good. | 45:55 | |
| And if we should ever be called do gooders, | 45:58 | |
| may we take it as an honor. | 46:02 | |
| By your grace, through our faith, make us faithful | 46:03 | |
| so that we may do great things as though they were small | 46:10 | |
| because of your help. | 46:13 | |
| And little things as though they were great | 46:15 | |
| because we're doing them in Jesus' name | 46:18 | |
| and for His sake. | 46:22 | |
| Amen. | 46:24 | |
| (somber piano music) | 46:27 | |
| - | Dear Lord, oh, Heavenly Father, | 56:09 |
| we offer these gifts freely given from the heart. | 56:13 | |
| Use them, bless them, consecrate them Holy Trinity. | 56:21 | |
| Amen. | 56:29 | |
| (somber piano music) | 56:32 | |
| And now may the grace of God | 1:00:02 | |
| and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit | 1:00:05 | |
| rest rule and abide with wall hits forth now | 1:00:09 | |
| and forever more. | 1:00:13 | |
| Amen. | 1:00:16 | |
| (church bell rings) | 1:00:21 | |
| (energetic piano music) | 1:00:38 |
Item Info
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