Alvin J. Horton - "Born to Lose" (February 19, 1978)
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| - | Duke University Chapel service of worship, | 0:04 |
| February 19th, 1978. | 0:06 | |
| (instrumental music) | 0:31 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 12:05 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 17:00 |
| Grant us Oh God, your grace that seeing ourselves | 17:03 | |
| in the light of your holiness, | 17:08 | |
| we may be cleansed of the pride and vainglory | 17:10 | |
| which obscure your truth. | 17:13 | |
| And knowing that from you know secrets are hid, | 17:16 | |
| we may perceive and confront those deceits and disguises | 17:20 | |
| by which we deceive ourselves and our brothers and sisters. | 17:25 | |
| So may we worship you in spirit and in truth, | 17:30 | |
| let us continue our pray. | 17:35 | |
| From vagueness of purpose and a weak and wavering wheel. | 17:38 | |
| From confusion patience within different, | 17:47 | |
| cowardice with common sense. | 17:53 | |
| From dislike of criticism and love of popularity, | 18:00 | |
| disdain for the poor and confidence in wealth | 18:05 | |
| and all other kinds of adultery. | 18:09 | |
| That we may love you and our neighbor | 18:16 | |
| and serve you in our work. | 18:19 | |
| Hear our pray Oh Lord, that we should hear your word. | 18:22 | |
| Amen. | 18:42 | |
| Dear people of God believe the good news | 18:45 | |
| which has come to us down through the ages, | 18:49 | |
| through the Christian community. | 18:51 | |
| God is always waiting to forgive us, | 18:54 | |
| except this forgiveness. | 18:59 | |
| Let us give thanks for God is good | 19:02 | |
| and God's love is everlasting. | 19:06 | |
| Thanks be to God who forgives us. | 19:09 | |
| Thanks be to God whose tender mercy heals us. | 19:13 | |
| Thanks be to God who's abundant grace sustains us. | 19:18 | |
| Greetings to you and welcome in the name of Jesus Christ. | 19:23 | |
| Please note, Mr. Eley Westdale | 19:28 | |
| will speak this Wednesday, February the 22nd at 4:30 PM | 19:32 | |
| and Page Auditorium. | 19:37 | |
| This is the final address in the series of the Holocaust | 19:40 | |
| and Jewish Christian understanding. | 19:44 | |
| Those of you who have heard Mr. Westdale | 19:47 | |
| or have read his books, know what a very special privilege | 19:51 | |
| this is for us to have him on campus. | 19:56 | |
| We invite you to join us for this last lecture. | 20:00 | |
| You have responded so well to the Roosevelt Halls, families, | 20:05 | |
| tragic loss of their home and their possessions. | 20:11 | |
| When all was destroyed by fire, | 20:15 | |
| and it contributed clothes and furniture. | 20:18 | |
| And through this community have given $1,130, | 20:22 | |
| and this is good, but their need is still great. | 20:28 | |
| Checks made payable to Duke Chapel | 20:33 | |
| and marked for the Hall family | 20:36 | |
| will help them restore the home | 20:40 | |
| which they had built themselves. | 20:42 | |
| We look forward to the presentation of Bernstein's Mays, | 20:46 | |
| beginning this Easter Sunday night | 20:50 | |
| under the direction of Ben Smith | 20:54 | |
| and continuing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. | 20:57 | |
| The page box office will be open immediately | 21:03 | |
| after this service for your convenience | 21:06 | |
| to get a ticket for this performance. | 21:10 | |
| Having a student preach has become an important tradition | 21:14 | |
| in Duke Chapel. | 21:18 | |
| The committee had so many good sermons submitted | 21:20 | |
| that they have recommended to the worship committee | 21:23 | |
| that they seriously consider inviting students to preach | 21:26 | |
| at least once a semester. | 21:29 | |
| I Al we welcome you to this pulpit and listen to the word | 21:32 | |
| you bring to us with open hearts and minds. | 21:37 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 21:50 |
| Prepare our hearts Oh Lord, to accept your word, | 21:54 | |
| silence in us any voice, but your own, | 21:58 | |
| that hearing we may also obey your will | 22:02 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 22:06 | |
| The Old Testament lesson is from the 20th chapter | 22:11 | |
| of Jeremiah verses seven through 13, | 22:14 | |
| "Oh Lord, Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived. | 22:19 | |
| Thou hast stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. | 22:24 | |
| I have become a laughing stock all the day. | 22:28 | |
| Everyone mocks me, for whenever I speak I cry out. | 22:32 | |
| I shout violence and destruction for the word of the Lord | 22:37 | |
| has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. | 22:42 | |
| If I say, I will not mention him | 22:48 | |
| or speak anymore in his name, | 22:51 | |
| there is in my heart as it were a burning fire | 22:53 | |
| shut up in my bones and I am weary with holding it in | 22:57 | |
| and I cannot. | 23:02 | |
| For I hear many whispering, terror is on every side, | 23:03 | |
| denounce him, let us denounce him, | 23:08 | |
| say all my familiar friends watching for my fall. | 23:12 | |
| Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him | 23:16 | |
| and take our revenge on him. | 23:20 | |
| But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior. | 23:22 | |
| Therefore my persecutors will stumble. | 23:26 | |
| They will not overcome me. | 23:28 | |
| They will be greatly shamed for they will not succeed. | 23:30 | |
| Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. | 23:34 | |
| Oh Lord of hosts who tries the righteous, | 23:38 | |
| who see us the heart and the mind, | 23:41 | |
| let me see the vengeance upon them for today | 23:43 | |
| have I committed my cause. | 23:47 | |
| Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, | 23:49 | |
| for he has delivered the life of the needy | 23:52 | |
| from the hand of evil doers," | 23:55 | |
| here ends the reading from the Old Testament, Amen. | 23:58 | |
| (instrumental music) | 24:04 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 24:30 | |
| Will the congregation stand | 27:28 | |
| for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 27:30 | |
| (clears throat) | 27:33 | |
| The lesson is from the 10th chapter of Matthew | 27:40 | |
| verses 34 through 39. | 27:44 | |
| Listen for the word of God. | 27:47 | |
| "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. | 27:51 | |
| I have not come to bring peace, but a sword | 27:55 | |
| for I have come to set a man against his father | 27:59 | |
| and a daughter against her mother | 28:03 | |
| and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law | 28:05 | |
| and a man's foes will be those of his own household. | 28:09 | |
| He who loves father or mother more than me | 28:13 | |
| is not worthy of me. | 28:17 | |
| And he who loves son or daughter more than me | 28:19 | |
| is not worthy of me. | 28:23 | |
| And he who does not take his cross and follow me | 28:25 | |
| is not worthy of me. | 28:28 | |
| He who finds his life will lose it | 28:31 | |
| and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." | 28:34 | |
| Here ends the reading from the gospel. | 28:39 | |
| Our power and glory be to God, Amen. | 28:42 | |
| (instrumental music) | 28:48 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 28:59 | |
| "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. | 30:06 | |
| I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. | 30:11 | |
| He who finds his life will lose it | 30:17 | |
| and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." | 30:22 | |
| Let us pray. | 30:27 | |
| Teach us thy way Oh Lord, | 30:33 | |
| and help me to speak from my heart | 30:37 | |
| and not only from my mind. | 30:41 | |
| For we make our prayer in the spirit | 30:45 | |
| of your revealing truth, Amen. | 30:47 | |
| The sermon is entitled "Born to Lose," | 30:54 | |
| that's because this sermon is about losing. | 30:58 | |
| It's not about winning, not about achieving or succeeding, | 31:02 | |
| but about losing. | 31:08 | |
| Let me say before I go any farther that, | 31:11 | |
| I think most of us in this chapel | 31:15 | |
| appropriately the architectural symbol of excellence | 31:18 | |
| do not know how to lose. | 31:23 | |
| Most of us find it very difficult to lose. | 31:26 | |
| And if we have lost it all, | 31:30 | |
| then the pain that we have felt from that drives us | 31:33 | |
| very, very far away from the experience. | 31:36 | |
| I want to first tell you why I think | 31:41 | |
| we in particular find it hard to lose. | 31:43 | |
| If you're a student out in in this chapel, | 31:46 | |
| you'll probably find it hard to lose because you're used to | 31:50 | |
| being the top dog in your school probably. | 31:52 | |
| You're used to being successful, | 31:57 | |
| used to people looking to you as responsible | 32:00 | |
| and successful people. | 32:03 | |
| You've been leaders in most everything you've attempted | 32:06 | |
| and you have succeeded | 32:10 | |
| and won many of the things you have have tried. | 32:13 | |
| If you're a professor here, | 32:18 | |
| you're probably near the top of your field. | 32:20 | |
| And if you aren't at the top of your you're probably | 32:22 | |
| trying to get there. | 32:24 | |
| Academic standards have ingrained excellence in your skin | 32:27 | |
| and publish or perish has kept it in your blood. | 32:33 | |
| Let's face it. | 32:38 | |
| You survive in your field by achieving, | 32:40 | |
| by maintaining excellence. | 32:44 | |
| You survive by winning, not by losing. | 32:47 | |
| And the rest of you, don't tell me that you didn't come | 32:52 | |
| to this worship service because, | 32:55 | |
| partly you expect excellence in music, | 32:57 | |
| excellence in liturgy, and sometimes the best in preaching. | 33:02 | |
| And for the rest of you who have perhaps darken the doors | 33:12 | |
| for the first time of this chapel or any other chapel. | 33:15 | |
| And if you're hiding behind the pillars and you're saying, | 33:18 | |
| Oh none of those classifications fit me. | 33:20 | |
| Well, I'd like to say, just by living in America, | 33:24 | |
| you are used to winning and not losing. | 33:26 | |
| And that if you don't think you have one yet, | 33:31 | |
| you know that you would like to try to win | 33:34 | |
| and winning is very much a part of your life. | 33:37 | |
| In America it's survival of the fittest. | 33:41 | |
| It's rugged individualism, it's competition | 33:44 | |
| and to the victor go the spoils. | 33:48 | |
| This is the land of opportunity | 33:52 | |
| where you either win or you lose. | 33:54 | |
| Now winning in and of itself is not all that bad. | 33:59 | |
| I'm not here to condemn you for winning. | 34:01 | |
| I think we should feel very good about the things | 34:04 | |
| that we have accomplished and succeeded with. | 34:07 | |
| I don't want you to rip out the organ in the back | 34:12 | |
| and I don't want you to start singing | 34:16 | |
| Jesus loves me for the Anthem. | 34:18 | |
| And I don't think we need to take away | 34:22 | |
| the academic standards of this university. | 34:24 | |
| All that I'm trying to say is that because we are so used | 34:27 | |
| to winning, it's very difficult for us to lose. | 34:31 | |
| We don't really know how to lose. | 34:36 | |
| In fact, we don't really want to admit | 34:40 | |
| that it's a part of our lives, | 34:43 | |
| but losing is in fact a part of our lives. | 34:46 | |
| Everyone here at one time or another | 34:49 | |
| has lost something in their lives. | 34:52 | |
| Be it a game, for relationship, | 34:56 | |
| perhaps a reputation or innocence. | 34:59 | |
| You can't become an adult without losing your childhood. | 35:04 | |
| And you can't gain knowledge without losing some ignorance. | 35:08 | |
| And we cannot become closer without losing some distance. | 35:13 | |
| Every one of us has lost. | 35:20 | |
| And every one of us knows the pain of that losing. | 35:24 | |
| Therefore, | 35:29 | |
| the question is not whether or not we're going to lose. | 35:29 | |
| That's not the question today. | 35:32 | |
| The question is, | 35:33 | |
| what kind of relationship are we going to have with losing? | 35:34 | |
| There are at least three ways that | 35:41 | |
| we all too often deal with losing. | 35:43 | |
| First, we minimize our loss by minimizing our investment. | 35:47 | |
| I've noticed that if I watch | 35:53 | |
| a professional football game on TV, | 35:55 | |
| and if I don't know the two teams very well, | 35:58 | |
| if I don't pick a side and it's not very enjoyable, | 36:01 | |
| I'll probably go to sleep before the games over. | 36:03 | |
| To make it more enjoyable for me, | 36:06 | |
| I pick a team and fortunately I always picked the underdog | 36:07 | |
| and the underdog always loses. | 36:11 | |
| But the whole point of that is, | 36:15 | |
| that only by investing yourself in one side or the other | 36:17 | |
| do you have any kind of sense of belonging | 36:20 | |
| and any kind of sense of the thrill of victory | 36:23 | |
| or the agony of defeat? | 36:25 | |
| Some of us are so afraid of losing, | 36:29 | |
| that we never take a hold of anything that we might lose. | 36:32 | |
| In other words, we refuse to care. | 36:38 | |
| We refuse to allow anyone or anything | 36:41 | |
| to become important enough to us that by losing it, | 36:44 | |
| that would cause us pain. | 36:49 | |
| How many people walk this campus alone | 36:53 | |
| because they're afraid of losing? | 36:56 | |
| How many of you can count the number of people | 37:00 | |
| that are important to you on your index finger? | 37:03 | |
| Because you're afraid that someday you might lose them. | 37:08 | |
| And how many of you are afraid to tell someone you love them | 37:13 | |
| for fear that your words might be lost on deaf ears. | 37:18 | |
| There's no doubt about it, losing is frightening, | 37:25 | |
| but not caring for fear that we might lose | 37:30 | |
| is like not living because we might die. | 37:33 | |
| Another way of dealing with loss | 37:40 | |
| is to refuse to claim our loss. | 37:41 | |
| In other words, just don't let go, | 37:44 | |
| hold tight to the people you care about. | 37:47 | |
| Squeeze the life out of them, smather them with your love. | 37:50 | |
| Don't let them go because they may never return. | 37:56 | |
| How many mothers do you know like that? | 38:01 | |
| They can't let go of their children. | 38:04 | |
| How many husbands hold tight to their wives | 38:09 | |
| and refuse to let them be what they want and need to become? | 38:11 | |
| How often do we smather people with our expectations | 38:18 | |
| and our worn out stereotypes. | 38:21 | |
| Love is like a handful of powdered gold. | 38:27 | |
| The harder you grasp, the less you can hold. | 38:30 | |
| Takes a lot of faith to open your hand | 38:36 | |
| and allow yourself the risk of losing what you hold. | 38:38 | |
| Imagine holding a bird in your hand | 38:43 | |
| for that you care very much about. | 38:45 | |
| You could say, well, faith is opening your hand | 38:48 | |
| and letting the bird fly away, | 38:50 | |
| believing that it will return. | 38:53 | |
| That's not faith. | 38:57 | |
| We just tied a string to the tail of the bird | 38:59 | |
| and we'll let it fly over the horizon | 39:02 | |
| but we have that string there waiting, | 39:04 | |
| hoping that it will return. | 39:06 | |
| Now faith is opening your hand and letting the bird fly away | 39:09 | |
| and believing that we will survive without it. | 39:12 | |
| That there's something beautiful about an open hand, | 39:17 | |
| about a bird in flight. | 39:21 | |
| It takes a lot of faith to lose. | 39:26 | |
| Faith is letting go and living with the loss. | 39:30 | |
| We're afraid to let go | 39:36 | |
| because we're afraid that we won't survive the pain. | 39:38 | |
| A third way that we all too often deal with losing | 39:45 | |
| is to refuse to admit the pain. | 39:49 | |
| I work as a chaplain in the hospital | 39:52 | |
| and I see so many people every day | 39:54 | |
| that long to share the agony of their loss, | 39:57 | |
| perhaps of a terminal illness, perhaps of an arm or a leg | 40:03 | |
| or perhaps of a relationship. | 40:09 | |
| But they deny the pain and they say, "Oh, I'm okay, | 40:13 | |
| I'm fine and everything is gonna be okay." | 40:16 | |
| I think particularly of a couple that I was with that | 40:20 | |
| an elderly couple, the wife was dying of cancer. | 40:24 | |
| And whenever the two of them were in the room, | 40:30 | |
| they would laugh and talk about the weather | 40:32 | |
| and everything else that didn't concern them. | 40:35 | |
| And then when one would leave the room, | 40:39 | |
| when the husband would leave the room | 40:41 | |
| and I'd be sitting there with the wife, | 40:42 | |
| she would just break down in tears | 40:43 | |
| and the agony of the loss that she was going to experience. | 40:45 | |
| And then I'd go out in the hall | 40:50 | |
| and I'd stand with the husband | 40:51 | |
| and he would cry and weep and just snot the air, | 40:52 | |
| because he was about to lose his wife. | 40:58 | |
| Why can't we hold each other | 41:01 | |
| and feel the agony of our loss together? | 41:03 | |
| You see, we refuse to lose ourselves. | 41:10 | |
| We refuse to let go of ourselves. | 41:15 | |
| I'm very much in control of my life. | 41:19 | |
| Very responsible, fairly intelligent. | 41:23 | |
| I'm willing and I'm able. | 41:27 | |
| When I'm those things, I know what to expect in life, | 41:31 | |
| I know how things will happen, | 41:36 | |
| but I'm afraid to let go of the control I have in my life. | 41:39 | |
| I don't know what will happen when I'm not responsible | 41:44 | |
| and when I'm not intelligent, when I'm not willing and able, | 41:46 | |
| I don't know what will happen to me when I'm irresponsible. | 41:51 | |
| When I'm out of control. | 41:54 | |
| Why if I let go of myself, | 41:57 | |
| somebody just might come up and put their arm around me | 41:59 | |
| and hold me and turn me into a gurgling baby. | 42:01 | |
| I can't let that happen to me. | 42:08 | |
| No, you can't survive in this world as a baby, | 42:11 | |
| you've got to be a man, you've got to be strong | 42:13 | |
| and rough and tough. | 42:15 | |
| And I don't care what Jesus said to Nicodemus | 42:19 | |
| about being born again and I don't know. | 42:21 | |
| He said something to the disciples about | 42:23 | |
| you can't enter the kingdom heaven without becoming a child. | 42:24 | |
| That doesn't make any sense to me. | 42:27 | |
| I've got to be a man, don't come to near. | 42:29 | |
| So I construct a mask and that mask never frowns, | 42:35 | |
| never gets angry, never shed a tear. | 42:41 | |
| I really take it off, just like I rarely take off my shoes | 42:48 | |
| when there's company in my house. | 42:51 | |
| I know underneath my feet stink. | 42:54 | |
| I know what my face looks like underneath that mask. | 42:58 | |
| And I'm afraid of I take off the mask | 43:02 | |
| like when I take off my shoes, the people will all leave me. | 43:04 | |
| So I hang on to that mask. | 43:08 | |
| There's a line in one of Ingmar Bergman's films | 43:13 | |
| that goes something like this. | 43:16 | |
| I wish I had a pin when I was watching the movie. | 43:17 | |
| It's something like this, it says, | 43:21 | |
| "We are all people standing in a dark room, | 43:23 | |
| afraid to cry out, | 43:27 | |
| for fear there is no one there to answer." | 43:29 | |
| Can you imagine being in this chapel | 43:34 | |
| if it were completely black | 43:36 | |
| and you couldn't even see your hand in front of you, | 43:38 | |
| and you hurt and you wanted to cry out | 43:42 | |
| but you were afraid you were alone | 43:45 | |
| and that no one would hear you. | 43:46 | |
| And even if they heard you, and even if someone was there, | 43:49 | |
| they might not come. | 43:53 | |
| Isn't that what we're like behind our mask? | 43:56 | |
| We're afraid that if we cry out no one will come, | 43:59 | |
| that indeed no one may even be there. | 44:03 | |
| So we walked around in darkness, never touching a soul, | 44:08 | |
| never being held. | 44:13 | |
| You see, it takes a lot of faith to lose yourself. | 44:17 | |
| There is absolutely no guarantee that anyone will find you, | 44:20 | |
| you can only trust. | 44:28 | |
| When Jesus gathered his disciples together | 44:32 | |
| to speak the words that we read this morning. | 44:35 | |
| I think he had pretty well gotten fed up | 44:39 | |
| with the way we run scared in life. | 44:42 | |
| He certainly did not promise any kind of rose garden | 44:47 | |
| for anybody, because the great prince of peace said, | 44:51 | |
| "I did not come to bring peace on earth. | 44:57 | |
| I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." | 45:01 | |
| He wasn't calling his disciples to go out | 45:05 | |
| and build the largest cathedral in the world. | 45:07 | |
| He was not calling his disciples to go out | 45:10 | |
| and build the largest bus army that had ever been created. | 45:11 | |
| He didn't want them to build the mightiest | 45:16 | |
| in the grandest of nations. | 45:18 | |
| He merely wanted them to carry a lowly cross, | 45:21 | |
| to become servants, to love, | 45:26 | |
| to dare to risk the pain of losing. | 45:31 | |
| Clearly, he believed that there can be no loving | 45:36 | |
| without losing. | 45:40 | |
| If we want to follow his call and learn to love, | 45:43 | |
| we must be willing to lose ourselves | 45:48 | |
| and something of that which we love. | 45:52 | |
| CS Lewis writes in his book "The Four Loves." | 45:56 | |
| "To love it all is to be vulnerable. | 46:01 | |
| Love anything in your heart will certainly be wrong | 46:04 | |
| and possibly broken. | 46:07 | |
| If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, | 46:09 | |
| you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. | 46:12 | |
| Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, | 46:17 | |
| avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in your casket | 46:21 | |
| or coffin of your selfishness. | 46:26 | |
| But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, | 46:30 | |
| it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. | 46:41 | |
| The only place where you can be perfectly safe | 46:50 | |
| from all the dangers and perturbations of love, is hell." | 46:53 | |
| I'm convinced that God did not want us to be alone. | 47:01 | |
| We were born to be in community. | 47:06 | |
| And since we can only build community | 47:09 | |
| by taking off our masks | 47:11 | |
| and daring to lose the all-important distance | 47:14 | |
| we have placed between ourselves. | 47:17 | |
| I am convinced that we were in a very real sense, | 47:20 | |
| born to lose. | 47:26 | |
| Clearly our fears of losing keep us separated and alone. | 47:29 | |
| Losing is a part of life, but somehow we have been fooled. | 47:35 | |
| We've been fooled by the lie that winning | 47:41 | |
| is the only way to fulfillment and to happiness. | 47:45 | |
| Jesus said, "If you find your life, | 47:51 | |
| if you choose only to win, | 47:53 | |
| only to cling to all that you have won, then in fact, | 47:55 | |
| you will find that you have lost the very thing you see." | 48:00 | |
| However, if you dare to lose your life for his sake, | 48:05 | |
| in other words, | 48:09 | |
| if you dare to risk losing by giving of yourself, | 48:10 | |
| you will find that in the midst of losing | 48:13 | |
| there's a new sense of victory. | 48:17 | |
| When I graduate in May, | 48:22 | |
| and leave here at the end of that month, | 48:26 | |
| I will be leaving behind me four of the most | 48:29 | |
| beautiful years of my life. | 48:34 | |
| I've been an RA here for that's the resident advisor here | 48:40 | |
| for those four years. | 48:43 | |
| And I've grown attached to a lot of the students here. | 48:44 | |
| And in a very real sense, | 48:48 | |
| this university has become my home and my family. | 48:52 | |
| When I leave here, I will experience a very great loss. | 48:58 | |
| It will not be easy. | 49:11 | |
| There will be a lot of pain. | 49:15 | |
| Well, if you leave this place after four years | 49:22 | |
| and it doesn't hurt you, | 49:25 | |
| you've missed a very great opportunity. | 49:29 | |
| If you have nothing to lose when you leave here, | 49:32 | |
| then you have gained nothing. | 49:36 | |
| Look at yourself, ask yourself, | 49:40 | |
| are your fears of losing keeping you from caring | 49:46 | |
| and from being cared for? | 49:50 | |
| Is it keeping you from living? | 49:53 | |
| If so, it's not too late. | 49:57 | |
| There are a few more months left if you're a senior, | 49:59 | |
| if you're a freshmen, | 50:03 | |
| glory hallelujah, you got four years to go. | 50:05 | |
| If you find your life, you will lose it, | 50:11 | |
| but if you lose your life for his sake, you will find it. | 50:14 | |
| I'd like to close by reading, | 50:20 | |
| a few excerpts from "The Little Prince." | 50:24 | |
| It's a children's book | 50:28 | |
| but I really think it was written for adults. | 50:29 | |
| It's about a little prince | 50:35 | |
| that has a lot of adventures on a planet. | 50:37 | |
| And where we come into this story, he's very sad | 50:42 | |
| and he feels very alone. | 50:45 | |
| It was then that the Fox appeared, | 50:50 | |
| "Good mornings," said the Fox. | 50:52 | |
| "Good morning," the little prince responded politely. | 50:54 | |
| Although when he turned around he saw nothing. | 50:57 | |
| "I'm right here," the voice said "Under the apple tree." | 51:00 | |
| "Who are you?" asked the little prince | 51:03 | |
| and added, "You're very pretty to look at." | 51:06 | |
| "I'm a Fox," the Fox said. | 51:09 | |
| "Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. | 51:12 | |
| "I'm so unhappy." | 51:15 | |
| "I can not play with you," the Fox said, "I'm not tamed." | 51:20 | |
| "Ah, please, excuse me," said the little prince. | 51:24 | |
| But after some thoughts he added, | 51:27 | |
| "What does that mean, tame?" | 51:31 | |
| "It's an act too often neglected," said the Fox, | 51:34 | |
| "It means to establish ties." | 51:36 | |
| "To establish ties?" | 51:40 | |
| "Just that," said the Fox. | 51:42 | |
| "To me you are still nothing more than a little boy | 51:44 | |
| who is just like a 100,000 other little boys. | 51:47 | |
| And I have no need of you and you and your part | 51:50 | |
| have no need of me, to you I am nothing more than a Fox, | 51:54 | |
| like a 100,000 other Foxes. | 51:57 | |
| But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. | 52:01 | |
| To me you will be unique in all the world, | 52:05 | |
| to you I will be unique in all the world. | 52:08 | |
| My life is very monotonous," he said, | 52:12 | |
| "I hunt chickens, men hunt me. | 52:15 | |
| All the chickens are just alike | 52:19 | |
| and all the men are just alike. | 52:21 | |
| And in consequence, I am a little bored, but if you tame me, | 52:23 | |
| it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. | 52:28 | |
| I shall know this sound of a step that will be different | 52:32 | |
| from all the others. | 52:34 | |
| Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. | 52:36 | |
| Yours will call me like music out of my borough. | 52:40 | |
| And then look, you see the green fields down yonder, | 52:45 | |
| I do not eat bread, wheat is of no use to me. | 52:49 | |
| The wheat fields have nothing to say to me and that is sad. | 52:54 | |
| But you have hair that as the color of gold, | 52:59 | |
| think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me, | 53:02 | |
| the grain which is also golden, | 53:05 | |
| will bring me back to the thought of you. | 53:07 | |
| And I shall love to listen to the wind and the wheat." | 53:10 | |
| The Fox gaze set the little prince for a long time. | 53:14 | |
| "Please tame me," he said, | 53:19 | |
| "I want to very much," the little replied, | 53:23 | |
| "But I have not much time. | 53:25 | |
| I have friends to discover | 53:27 | |
| and a great many things to understand." | 53:28 | |
| "One only understands the things that one tames," | 53:31 | |
| said the Fox. | 53:34 | |
| "Men have no more time to understand anything. | 53:36 | |
| They buy things already made at the shops, | 53:39 | |
| but there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship. | 53:42 | |
| And so men have no friends anymore. | 53:47 | |
| If you want a friend tame me." | 53:51 | |
| So the little prince tamed the Fox | 53:55 | |
| and when the hour of his departure during the year, | 53:58 | |
| said the Fox, "I shall cry." | 54:02 | |
| "It's your own fault" said the little prince. | 54:05 | |
| "I never wished you any sort of harm, | 54:07 | |
| but you wanted me to tame you." | 54:08 | |
| "Yes that's so," said the Fox. | 54:11 | |
| "But now you're gonna go and cry?" said the little prince, | 54:14 | |
| "Yes, that is so," said the Fox. | 54:17 | |
| "Than it has done you no good at all." | 54:20 | |
| "It has done me good," said the Fox, | 54:24 | |
| "Because of the color of the wheat fields." | 54:27 | |
| Jesus calls us to be tamed and to tame each other, | 54:32 | |
| to risk the agony of losing | 54:39 | |
| all because of the color of the wheat fields, Amen. | 54:43 | |
| (instrumental music) | 55:00 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 55:51 | |
| - | Let us affirm what we believe. | 58:41 |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 58:44 | |
| who has come and the truly human Jesus | 58:50 | |
| to reconcile and make new, | 58:53 | |
| who works in us and others by the spirit. | 58:56 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church | 59:00 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 59:05 | |
| to love and serve others, | 59:09 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 59:12 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 59:15 | |
| our judge and our hope | 59:19 | |
| in life and death in life beyond death, | 59:22 | |
| God is with us, we are not alone. | 59:27 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 59:32 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 59:34 | |
| Let us pray. | 59:37 | |
| Oh, Holy God, we lift to you this day, | 59:47 | |
| this world which you have created and love. | 59:51 | |
| Have mercy on your creation, | 59:56 | |
| so torn by terror and fear, so fractured and divided. | 59:59 | |
| Hear our praise Oh God, | 1:00:08 | |
| for those who work to bring together your people separated | 1:00:09 | |
| by great chasms of ideology, of mistrust, | 1:00:14 | |
| of misunderstanding, of conflicting values and goals. | 1:00:19 | |
| May we all learn to live together Oh God, | 1:00:29 | |
| with good health and happiness, in peace | 1:00:34 | |
| and in physical wellbeing. | 1:00:39 | |
| We pray, oh God, | 1:00:44 | |
| for those persons who are in positions of power | 1:00:45 | |
| in our government, in our labor, in our industry, | 1:00:48 | |
| in our university, in our church, | 1:00:54 | |
| that they may be dedicated to serve you | 1:00:58 | |
| and the spirit in which Jesus serve, willing to lose, | 1:01:02 | |
| that all may gain. | 1:01:06 | |
| We pray for those persons who seek opportunity | 1:01:11 | |
| to bring changes in our family life, our community life, | 1:01:14 | |
| and our world, that they may know when to be patient | 1:01:20 | |
| and when to be impatient, and be guided by love | 1:01:26 | |
| and the search for justice. | 1:01:31 | |
| And hear our prayer so loving God, | 1:01:36 | |
| for those who are in pain, | 1:01:38 | |
| those who are ill and body or mind, | 1:01:41 | |
| those who are separated from the ones they love. | 1:01:47 | |
| Those who have no one to love. | 1:01:53 | |
| Those who feel betrayed. | 1:01:57 | |
| Those who cannot find physical needs for themselves | 1:02:01 | |
| and their families, | 1:02:04 | |
| that they may find fulfillment and peace. | 1:02:08 | |
| Hear our prayers for those who are frightened | 1:02:15 | |
| because of the fear of the unknown, which they are facing, | 1:02:19 | |
| because of the uncertainty of their future, | 1:02:24 | |
| because of the impossible task which are before them, | 1:02:28 | |
| calm their spirits | 1:02:34 | |
| so they may be hopeful and wise and serene. | 1:02:35 | |
| And we pray for our ourselves Oh God, | 1:02:40 | |
| tend to our deepest needs which cry out to you. | 1:02:44 | |
| We pray that our consciences may be stirred by your word. | 1:02:50 | |
| And our anxieties quieted by your love. | 1:02:55 | |
| Hears now is we pray the prayer of our Lord. | 1:03:01 | |
| Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 1:03:06 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 1:03:12 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, | 1:03:15 | |
| give us this day our daily bread | 1:03:19 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 1:03:23 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 1:03:25 | |
| and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, | 1:03:29 | |
| for thy is the king and the power | 1:03:34 | |
| and the glory forever, Amen. | 1:03:37 | |
| (instrumental music) | 1:03:47 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 1:06:35 | |
| We do praise you, Oh God, for the joys of living, | 1:09:31 | |
| for the privilege of sharing in your service. | 1:09:36 | |
| And so we give to your work this offering, | 1:09:40 | |
| which symbolizes our lives, | 1:09:44 | |
| which we dedicate to you again this day. | 1:09:47 | |
| Yes we pray all of us to heal the broken hearted, | 1:09:51 | |
| to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, | 1:09:57 | |
| to be responsible to you and all we do, | 1:10:02 | |
| we pray in the spirit of Jesus, our Christ, Amen. | 1:10:06 | |
| (instrumental music) | 1:10:14 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 1:10:38 | |
| The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 1:13:37 | |
| the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:13:41 | |
| be with you this day and forever more. | 1:13:47 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 1:13:57 |
