Roland P. Perdue III - "Well, Just Look Who's Here" (February 26, 1978)
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Transcript
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- | Duke University Chapel Service of Worship, | 0:04 |
February 26th, 1978. | 0:06 | |
(gentle music) | 0:46 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 5:50 | |
(gentle music) | 6:47 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 7:17 | |
- | May grace, mercy, and peace be with you | 10:22 |
through our Lord Jesus Christ. | 10:27 | |
My dear friends, we in the church come together in honesty | 10:31 | |
and sincerity to confess our sin to God. | 10:36 | |
In the name of Christ, we ask God to forgive us. | 10:43 | |
As we confess our sin, God surely hears and forgives. | 10:49 | |
We are aware of some of our sin, we are not aware of all. | 10:56 | |
Let us ask God now to forgive us the sin we knowingly | 11:03 | |
or unknowingly have committed. | 11:08 | |
Let us pray. | 11:12 | |
Oh God have mercy, judge us with love | 11:14 | |
and lift the burden of our sins. | 11:19 | |
We confess that we are twisted by pride. | 11:22 | |
We see ourselves pure when we are stained, | 11:26 | |
and great when we are small. | 11:30 | |
We have failed in love, forgotten to be just, | 11:33 | |
and have turned away from your truth. | 11:38 | |
Have mercy oh, God and forgive our sin | 11:42 | |
for the sake of Jesus, your Son, our Savior, | 11:47 | |
amen. | 11:51 | |
Let us continue with our silent prayers. | 11:53 | |
Unto God... | 11:56 | |
Let us hear these words of assurance from the Psalmist, | 12:23 | |
"In our despair and need, we cry to the Lord for help. | 12:27 | |
We wait eagerly for the Lord's help and trust in God's word. | 12:33 | |
Happy are those who sins are forgiven, | 12:38 | |
whose transgressions are pardoned. | 12:43 | |
The wicked indeed suffer. | 12:46 | |
But those who trust in the Lord | 12:50 | |
are protected by God's constant love." | 12:53 | |
Let us now receive the joy that comes with our salvation | 12:58 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 13:03 | |
Amen. | 13:05 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good. | 13:07 | |
And God's love is everlasting. | 13:11 | |
Thanks be to God who forgives us. | 13:15 | |
Thanks be to God whose tender mercy He owes us. | 13:18 | |
Thanks be to God whose abundant grace sustains us. | 13:23 | |
Amen. | 13:29 | |
A word or two of announcement. | 13:32 | |
For two weeks now we have had Lenten breakfasts | 13:37 | |
with various persons in the university community | 13:41 | |
sharing some of their own personal faith and testimony | 13:44 | |
along the theme of emergings. | 13:47 | |
This Wednesday at 7:45 on East Campus, | 13:50 | |
7:45 am, that is. | 13:53 | |
On West Campus Wednesday it is at 7:45 | 13:58 | |
and on East Campus on Thursday, | 14:03 | |
Dr. Waldo Beach will share some reflections with us | 14:08 | |
on Wednesday. | 14:11 | |
And Dr. Pelham Wilder will share some reflections with us | 14:13 | |
on Thursday. | 14:16 | |
You're invited to come and share in this time together, | 14:18 | |
get your breakfast and join us in the East Campus Union. | 14:20 | |
And in 101 on West Campus. | 14:25 | |
You're aware that many groups on campus, | 14:28 | |
the music department, the drama department, | 14:32 | |
the dance department, the Chapel Choir, the Chorale, | 14:34 | |
many others are joining together | 14:37 | |
to present Leonard Bernstein's mass | 14:40 | |
four evenings beginning Easter Sunday evening. | 14:44 | |
Immediately following service today for one hour, | 14:50 | |
the page box office will be open. | 14:54 | |
If you would like to get tickets at that time, | 14:56 | |
please do so. | 14:59 | |
Before we gather to worship all of us | 15:02 | |
gathered to worship again here, | 15:04 | |
many of you will have had time for a much needed, | 15:06 | |
long awaited, few days of rest. | 15:13 | |
And I guess in between now and Friday, | 15:17 | |
when the break officially begins, | 15:19 | |
there'll be a few exams and all. | 15:20 | |
So let me wish you well, | 15:23 | |
as you finish up before the break, | 15:25 | |
and as you have a few days to rest and recover | 15:28 | |
to complete this semester. | 15:32 | |
Many members of the Chapel Choir | 15:34 | |
will be joining the going with the Corral on tour | 15:36 | |
in various places in the South. | 15:40 | |
We wish you well and Godspeed as you travel. | 15:42 | |
Our preacher for today is the senior pastor | 15:48 | |
at the University Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, | 15:53 | |
and outstanding churchman | 15:59 | |
And native of Atlanta, Georgia. | 16:03 | |
Educated at the university of North Carolina | 16:07 | |
at Chapel Hill. | 16:10 | |
And I must say that I thought the game | 16:13 | |
would end differently, | 16:15 | |
or we would not have invited | 16:16 | |
him for today. | 16:17 | |
(congregation laughing) | ||
He did his seminary work at Columbia Seminary | 16:23 | |
in Atlanta, Georgia, served churches in Atlanta | 16:26 | |
and served as the Presbyterian Campus Minister | 16:30 | |
for a number of years | 16:33 | |
at the University of Georgia in Athens, | 16:35 | |
and has been for seven years | 16:37 | |
at the University Presbyterian Church in Austin. | 16:39 | |
He is a gifted preacher and writer, | 16:42 | |
and we welcome you (indistinct) to Duke University | 16:45 | |
and to Duke Chapel. | 16:48 | |
And we look forward to God's word, | 16:50 | |
as you will bring it to us at the appropriate time | 16:52 | |
in the service. | 16:55 | |
Blessings on you. | 16:56 | |
- | Let us pray. | 17:03 |
Prepare our hearts oh, Lord, to accept your word, | 17:06 | |
silence in us any voice, but your own | 17:10 | |
that hearing we may also obey your will | 17:14 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 17:18 | |
Amen. | 17:21 | |
The epistle lesson is from the first chapter | 17:23 | |
of first Corinthians verses 25:31, | 17:25 | |
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, | 17:31 | |
and the weakness of God is stronger than men. | 17:35 | |
Take yourselves for instance, brothers and sisters | 17:39 | |
at the time when you were called, not many of you were wise, | 17:42 | |
according to worldly standards. | 17:47 | |
Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, | 17:49 | |
but God chose what is foolish in the world | 17:54 | |
to shame the wise. | 17:57 | |
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. | 17:59 | |
God chose what is low and despised in the world | 18:04 | |
even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are | 18:08 | |
so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. | 18:13 | |
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, | 18:17 | |
whom God made our wisdom, | 18:21 | |
our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. | 18:23 | |
Therefore, as it is written, | 18:27 | |
let him who boasts boast of the Lord." | 18:30 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle. | 18:34 | |
Amen. | 18:37 | |
(soft piano music) | 18:39 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 19:32 | |
Well, the congregation stand | 22:43 | |
for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 22:44 | |
The lesson is from the second chapter of John | 22:52 | |
verses 13 through 25, | 22:55 | |
"The Passover of the Jews was at hand | 22:59 | |
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. | 23:02 | |
In the temple He found those | 23:05 | |
who were selling oxen, and sheep, and pigeons, | 23:07 | |
and the money changers at their business. | 23:10 | |
And making a whip of cords, | 23:14 | |
He drove them all with the sheep and oxen out of the temple. | 23:15 | |
And he poured out the coins of the money changers | 23:20 | |
and overturned their tables. | 23:24 | |
And he told those who sold the pigeons, | 23:26 | |
'Take these things away, | 23:29 | |
you shall not make my father's house a house of trade.' | 23:31 | |
His disciples remembered that it was written, | 23:36 | |
zeal for the house will consume me. | 23:39 | |
The Jews then said to him, | 23:43 | |
'What sign have you to show us for doing this?' | 23:45 | |
Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple | 23:49 | |
and in three days I will raise it up.' | 23:53 | |
The Jews then said, 'It has taken 46 years | 23:56 | |
to build this temple | 24:00 | |
and will you raise it up in three days?' | 24:02 | |
But he spoke of the temple of his body. | 24:05 | |
When therefore he was raised from the dead, | 24:09 | |
his disciples remembered that he had said this | 24:11 | |
and they believed the scripture and the word | 24:14 | |
which Jesus had spoken. | 24:18 | |
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, | 24:20 | |
many believed in his name when they saw his signs, | 24:23 | |
which he did, | 24:27 | |
but Jesus did not trust himself to them | 24:28 | |
because he knew all men | 24:32 | |
and needed no one to bear witness of man | 24:34 | |
for he himself knew what was in man." | 24:37 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel, | 24:41 | |
all power and glory be to God. | 24:44 | |
Amen. | 24:47 | |
(soft piano music) | 24:49 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 24:59 | |
- | It is a pleasure | 25:58 |
to be in this magnificent house of worship | 25:59 | |
in this land of blue devils. | 26:03 | |
Let us pray. | 26:07 | |
Dear God, our father cleanse us from all sin, | 26:10 | |
anoint us thy Holy Spirit | 26:16 | |
and clothe us in the righteousness of Christ. | 26:19 | |
Amen. | 26:22 | |
Daddy, look at that, they're bowlegged naked cowboy. | 26:27 | |
My family had not been in Austin, Texas very long. | 26:32 | |
Before one of our children | 26:37 | |
spotted at University of Texas student, | 26:39 | |
all dressed out in jeans, boots, and Stetson. | 26:41 | |
And excited by the appearance and by the outward curve | 26:46 | |
of his knees, | 26:49 | |
the child responded by saying, "Daddy, look at that, | 26:51 | |
they're bowlegged naked cowboy." | 26:54 | |
My wife and I tried to explain to the child | 26:59 | |
that you did not point at someone | 27:01 | |
and you did not refer to someone, | 27:05 | |
as that their bowlegged cowboy even if they were. | 27:06 | |
In an effort to help the child overcome her inability | 27:12 | |
to speak properly, | 27:17 | |
we took that child to a professor at the University of Texas | 27:19 | |
who worked in the English department | 27:24 | |
and whose field of expertise | 27:26 | |
was Shakespearean (speaks faintly). | 27:28 | |
After several weeks of working with that professor | 27:32 | |
and reading through the sonnets of Shakespeare | 27:35 | |
and other portions of his work, we were back on the campus | 27:38 | |
at the University of Texas in Austin. | 27:42 | |
And sure enough, the student dressed in Western attire | 27:44 | |
came across the campus. | 27:49 | |
And my daughter said, | 27:51 | |
"Hark, what manner of men are these that wear their pants | 27:52 | |
in parentheses?" | 27:55 | |
(congregation laughing) | ||
That's an old, old story. | 28:06 | |
And I've been told by persons who should know | 28:10 | |
that it's the oldest, Texas Aggie jokes still in existence. | 28:12 | |
But regardless of the age of the story, | 28:18 | |
the question it raises is new | 28:20 | |
and also very old, much older than the story. | 28:23 | |
What manner of men and women are we? | 28:28 | |
What kinds of persons within the church of Jesus | 28:32 | |
as the Christ? | 28:37 | |
Indeed St. Paul must have wondered | 28:40 | |
about the manner of men and women. | 28:42 | |
Those brothers and sisters of his and Corinth. | 28:44 | |
For Corinth was always that kind of a community of faith, | 28:49 | |
which left Paul somewhere between heartache and headache. | 28:52 | |
The Corinthian Christians were divided into cliques, | 28:57 | |
expressing more loyalty to those men | 29:01 | |
who had established them | 29:03 | |
and been part and parcel of their founding | 29:05 | |
than they did to the Christ in whose name they were founded. | 29:08 | |
And in their divided cliqueishness they sloganized, | 29:13 | |
I belong to Paul. | 29:18 | |
I belong to a Polis. | 29:19 | |
I belong to Peter. | 29:21 | |
I belong to John Calvin. | 29:22 | |
(speaks faintly) John Wesley. | 29:24 | |
I belong to Jesus, the Christ. | 29:25 | |
See if you can top that. | 29:27 | |
Divided from one another. | 29:30 | |
They were also those who expressed a confusion | 29:33 | |
as they attempt to communicate | 29:37 | |
the good news of the gospel. | 29:40 | |
For some had been blessed with a certain amount of charisma, | 29:43 | |
with the ability to interpret, to understand, | 29:48 | |
and all of the gifts of charisma grace gift | 29:52 | |
or gifts of grace, were to be used to communicate | 29:55 | |
the good news of the gospel to reflect reconciliation. | 30:00 | |
Instead, those who were blessed, | 30:06 | |
use their blessings to draw attention to themselves | 30:08 | |
rather than to the Christ, | 30:13 | |
whose faith they sought to convey. | 30:16 | |
Those who were to fluent use their grace gifts, | 30:20 | |
their charisma of a fluence to add stature to themselves. | 30:23 | |
And those who could become enthused by God | 30:28 | |
with esoteric enthusiasm thought | 30:31 | |
that everyone else had to be able to be just as enthused | 30:34 | |
and utter the same kinds of expressions as they did. | 30:38 | |
And so, these Corinthian Christians | 30:44 | |
were the manner of men and women | 30:46 | |
who were divided and who communicated confusion. | 30:48 | |
Their moral strength was also corrupt. | 30:54 | |
One slept with his stepmother, | 30:56 | |
others were engaged with temple prostitutes | 30:59 | |
as expressions of the new freedom. | 31:03 | |
Still others use the occasion of the Lord's Supper | 31:07 | |
an opportunity to level all their social differences | 31:10 | |
and distinctions | 31:14 | |
as an opportunity to enhance their division, | 31:16 | |
their differences. | 31:20 | |
Hark what manners of men and women were these? | 31:23 | |
These were the kind of men and women of whom it's been said, | 31:26 | |
"Why can't we be more like the early church, | 31:30 | |
my Lord, who would want to be?" | 31:33 | |
But we cannot really be too hard on these early Christians. | 31:38 | |
What manner of men and women are we? | 31:44 | |
what kinds of persons are we | 31:48 | |
who gather in Duke University Chapel | 31:50 | |
on this a Sunday in lent? | 31:53 | |
A missionary was traveling from the United States | 31:58 | |
into the East. | 32:00 | |
She stopped at one of the ports of call and got off the ship | 32:03 | |
was met by one of the customs officials | 32:08 | |
and was requested to fill out some information | 32:10 | |
among the questions was the question, religion. | 32:13 | |
She wrote in the word Christian | 32:19 | |
and the immigration officer said, "Yes, Madam Christian, | 32:20 | |
but what damn nation do you belong to?" | 32:24 | |
What nation damn indeed, | 32:28 | |
for there are times when our denominational differences | 32:32 | |
have more to do with the civil war | 32:36 | |
than with anything related to Christian theology. | 32:38 | |
Indeed, I may be long to one of the two denominations, | 32:43 | |
which today is still fighting the civil war, | 32:47 | |
the Southern and the Northern Presbyterians. | 32:50 | |
And our division | 32:54 | |
into different kinds of denominational structures | 32:55 | |
not only corrupts our mission and weakens our witness, | 32:59 | |
but it also confuses a great many people in our world today. | 33:03 | |
I don't know about students here on this campus, | 33:09 | |
but students on the campus that I serve, | 33:12 | |
care not for denominational differences. | 33:17 | |
They do care for the strength and the vitality | 33:21 | |
of the witness of the local church wherever it is. | 33:24 | |
And in our division, we have weakened our witness to Christ, | 33:28 | |
but let's leave the church at large for the moment | 33:38 | |
and draw our attention closer to home. | 33:41 | |
What manner of men and women are we gathered in this place | 33:44 | |
on this Sunday? | 33:47 | |
Look around and in the words of Frederick Buechner, | 33:49 | |
you will see old ladies in the front pews | 33:52 | |
turn up their hearing aids | 33:57 | |
while a young lady gives her a six year old, | 33:58 | |
a lifesaver and a magic marker. | 34:01 | |
You will see college sophomores | 34:05 | |
who are worshiping with their parents, | 34:07 | |
all of whom thought the other | 34:11 | |
really wanted to come to worship this Sunday | 34:12 | |
and they are bored out of their minds. | 34:14 | |
You will see a young pregnant girl | 34:19 | |
feel the stirred of life within a high school math teacher, | 34:21 | |
who for 20 years has kept his homosexuality a secret | 34:26 | |
for the most part, even from himself | 34:31 | |
crease his order of worship | 34:33 | |
down the center with his thumbnail | 34:35 | |
and tuck it under his knee. | 34:37 | |
And you will see also pilot here with his wet hands, | 34:43 | |
king Lear with a bit of (speaks faintly) | 34:48 | |
dried on his tie and his weak kidneys. | 34:50 | |
You will see an old professor | 34:54 | |
who for 30 years has carried a grudge against his colleague | 34:55 | |
who received more credit for the book they authored. | 35:00 | |
You will see the son here, | 35:05 | |
the 50 year old son whose father died last week | 35:06 | |
before they could begin to discuss | 35:10 | |
their love, hate relationship. | 35:13 | |
And you will see yourself and me, | 35:17 | |
but wondered of wonders | 35:23 | |
and it's still the best news in all the world, | 35:24 | |
you will see here if you look beneath the surface, | 35:26 | |
and if you look at the happenstance and the occasion | 35:30 | |
in which he happens, you will also see God here. | 35:34 | |
For God Himself is with us. | 35:39 | |
And God is with us always happening between persons, | 35:42 | |
always in the midst of our lives breaking forth. | 35:47 | |
This is none other | 35:53 | |
than the body of our Lord and savior Jesus, the Christ. | 35:55 | |
This gathering of people in this chapel on this Sunday, | 35:59 | |
this is the church of Jesus, the Christ. | 36:04 | |
For the wisdom of God and the strength of God | 36:09 | |
is made into an illustration of the people of God. | 36:14 | |
And as Saint Paul dares | 36:18 | |
to proclaim to those heartache, headache, | 36:20 | |
Corinthian brothers and sisters of his, | 36:25 | |
you are God's foolishness and you are God's wisdom. | 36:29 | |
And in the midst of this people up, messed up, | 36:34 | |
diverse mixture of men and women, God himself happens. | 36:38 | |
And God's potent weakness embraces you | 36:43 | |
and invades your stupid wisdom. | 36:46 | |
And in the midst of that, | 36:49 | |
you are made into his very own body, | 36:51 | |
the church of Jesus, the Christ. | 36:54 | |
If you want an illustration of God's foolishness, | 36:58 | |
which is wisdom and God's weakness, which is strength, | 37:02 | |
then take yourselves as an example for you. | 37:06 | |
You are the church. | 37:11 | |
You remember that conversation | 37:14 | |
between the little prince and the fox in the little prince. | 37:16 | |
The little prince wants the fox to come out | 37:21 | |
and play with him and says to him, | 37:23 | |
"Come out, be my companion." | 37:25 | |
The Fox says, "I am not yet tamed and I cannot come out." | 37:29 | |
The little prince asks the question, | 37:36 | |
"What does it mean to be tamed?" | 37:37 | |
And after several attempts at a definition, | 37:40 | |
the little Fox says to the prince, | 37:42 | |
"To be tamed means to establish ties. | 37:46 | |
My life is very monotonous. | 37:50 | |
I hunt chickens, men hunt me. | 37:52 | |
And in consequence I am a little bored, | 37:55 | |
but if you will tame me, | 37:59 | |
it will be as if the sun came up to shine on my life, | 38:02 | |
I shall know the sound of a step | 38:06 | |
that will be different from all other steps. | 38:08 | |
Other steps in me, hurrying back underneath the ground. | 38:11 | |
Yours will call me like music out of my den." | 38:16 | |
The step of God's presence among us in his potent weakness. | 38:22 | |
And in his wise foolishness, | 38:29 | |
the step of God's presence among us, | 38:31 | |
tames us and draws us out of our holes of fear, | 38:35 | |
out of our dins of betrayal, | 38:40 | |
and enables us to live and breathe together. | 38:43 | |
And to be those persons who in spite of ethnic | 38:47 | |
and economic differences, | 38:51 | |
in spite of our long history | 38:53 | |
of failing to honor the place of women | 38:55 | |
in spite of our social distinctions | 38:59 | |
enables us to be that unique community, | 39:02 | |
which unlike a mighty tortoise, but like a mighty army | 39:06 | |
moves across the face of this land | 39:11 | |
to create for all other persons, | 39:14 | |
the presence of God in our myths. | 39:17 | |
You see my friends St. Paul is big on faith, | 39:23 | |
but it is not the faith of humans that Paul is big on, | 39:26 | |
It is not our faith that is important to Paul, | 39:30 | |
it is rather the sovereign faith of a sovereign God, | 39:34 | |
the faith of a God who saves us because he is faithful, | 39:39 | |
who makes us whole, who brings salvation. | 39:43 | |
That is to say health and wholeness to this land | 39:46 | |
because he is trustworthy. | 39:50 | |
My daughter Sharon came home from a friend's house | 39:55 | |
the other day distressed | 39:58 | |
that her friend did not believe in God. | 39:59 | |
And Sharon who's nine said, | 40:02 | |
"Daddy, Mandy said she didn't believe in God." | 40:05 | |
And one of Sharon's four brothers said, | 40:08 | |
"Oh, Sharon, don't worry about it. | 40:10 | |
God believes in Mandy." | 40:12 | |
And that indeed is the good news of the gospel. | 40:15 | |
God believes in us. | 40:19 | |
God believes in the church. | 40:22 | |
God believes that in this gathering of people, | 40:25 | |
the church happens. | 40:28 | |
The church is set free | 40:30 | |
to share with God and the creation of new community | 40:33 | |
in the midst of this old divided world. | 40:37 | |
When I was a student at the University of North Carolina, | 40:43 | |
a professor there listened to me, complain and gripe | 40:49 | |
about the state of the local church. | 40:53 | |
And after listening for a long time, he said, | 40:58 | |
"Roland, let me share with you | 41:00 | |
a positively offensive quotation from Karl Barth. | 41:02 | |
Take good note that a Parson or person who does not believe | 41:10 | |
that in this congregation of his, | 41:15 | |
including these men and women, old wives and children, | 41:19 | |
exists Christ congregation | 41:24 | |
does not believe at all in the existence of the church. | 41:28 | |
I believe in the church means | 41:33 | |
that I believe that here in this place, | 41:35 | |
in this visible assembly, | 41:38 | |
the Spirit of Christ is at work | 41:41 | |
happening among people creating new life." | 41:44 | |
So, let us be proud on this Sunday of lent. | 41:52 | |
Let us make our boast before one another | 41:58 | |
and before the world, | 42:01 | |
but let us as St. Paul puts it, | 42:04 | |
if we must boasts, boast in the Lord | 42:07 | |
who is here to among us and who has created in this place, | 42:12 | |
the church of Jesus Christ. | 42:17 | |
The Lord bless you, the church. | 42:21 | |
The Lord make his face to shine up on you, the church. | 42:25 | |
The Lord lift up the countenance of his love upon you, | 42:29 | |
the church in this place now and forevermore, | 42:33 | |
amen. | 42:40 | |
(soft piano music) | 42:51 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 43:40 | |
- | As the church, as the body of Christ, | 46:21 |
let us affirm what we believe. | 46:25 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 46:29 | |
who has come into truly human Jesus | 46:34 | |
to reconcile and make new | 46:37 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 46:40 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church | 46:44 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 46:49 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 46:52 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 46:58 | |
our judge and our hope. | 47:02 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death God is with us. | 47:05 | |
We are not alone. | 47:12 | |
Thanks be to God. | 47:14 | |
The Lord be with you. | 47:17 | |
(congregation speaks faintly) | ||
Let us pray. | 47:20 | |
Let us offer to God our prayers of intercession | 47:28 | |
and supplication. | 47:31 | |
Dear God, God of love and mercy, | 47:35 | |
God of each of us, and God have us all, | 47:40 | |
help us as we pray, help us to pray as we hoped, | 47:45 | |
help us to trust and believe not in our prayers, | 47:52 | |
but to trust in your hearing and answering. | 47:59 | |
We are in our moments of real honesty, | 48:05 | |
not ashamed to admit openly our need to be loved, | 48:09 | |
our need to be cared for, our need to be handled gently, | 48:14 | |
our need for tenderness and for strength. | 48:21 | |
You know us, oh God even as we know, not ourselves. | 48:26 | |
We pray for all those, even ourselves | 48:35 | |
who need a tender touch, who long for a gentle word, | 48:40 | |
who wait for a comforting hand. | 48:46 | |
There is, oh, Lord, much hurt, much pain, much suffering, | 48:51 | |
much loneliness, much estrangement among us your people. | 48:59 | |
Help us to know that we do belong to one another. | 49:06 | |
That is one of us suffers, we all suffer. | 49:13 | |
As one of us rejoices, we all rejoice together. | 49:18 | |
We pray for others as we pray for ourselves | 49:26 | |
ooh, loving God for the freedom to give the touch of love, | 49:31 | |
the word of love, the patience of love, | 49:40 | |
the persistence of love, | 49:46 | |
the hope of love, and the ever lasting triumph of love. | 49:49 | |
In our struggle to become who hoped, | 50:00 | |
give us grace to be who you would have us to be. | 50:04 | |
Ooh, God, as you have promised us never to leave us, | 50:12 | |
come now to us in the church, now to us right here. | 50:19 | |
Maybe have heard and understood and receive your word | 50:26 | |
into our lives this day. | 50:32 | |
May we not leave this place as we came, | 50:36 | |
but may we be renewed through the love of Christ | 50:42 | |
in body, mind, and spirit. | 50:46 | |
We rest our weakness in your strength, | 50:52 | |
our insufficiency in your wholeness. | 50:56 | |
Take us and do for us what we cannot do | 51:01 | |
and make us what we cannot be. | 51:06 | |
Saved, but for your love, | 51:10 | |
which we know in and through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord, | 51:13 | |
who taught us to pray as we pray. | 51:20 | |
Our father who art in heaven, | 51:24 | |
Hallowed be thy name. | 51:28 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 51:30 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 51:33 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 51:38 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 51:41 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 51:44 | |
And lead us, not into temptation, | 51:48 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 51:50 | |
For thy is the kingdom, and the power, | 51:53 | |
and the glory, for ever. | 51:56 | |
Amen. | 51:59 | |
(soft piano music) | 52:05 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 54:06 | |
(soft piano music) | 57:10 | |
(soft piano music) | 57:32 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 58:02 | |
- | With grateful and loving hearts ooh, God, | 58:47 |
we approach your altar now, | 58:51 | |
as we all turn to make our commitment to you, | 58:55 | |
may we give thanks for all the gifts of life | 58:59 | |
we have received through your grace | 59:02 | |
and through the goodness of others. | 59:05 | |
Give thanks for all those things we are | 59:08 | |
not only because of our own strength, | 59:11 | |
but also because of the help and support of others. | 59:15 | |
We give thanks for those whose lives and spirits | 59:20 | |
have touched and influenced and shaped our own. | 59:24 | |
Now, oh God, receive and bless these gifts | 59:31 | |
even as you receive and bless our lives | 59:35 | |
through Jesus Christ, our blessing Lord and savior, | 59:39 | |
amen. | 59:45 | |
(soft piano music) | 59:51 | |
(choir singing faintly) | 1:01:15 | |
- | And now without bowing heads or closing eyes, | 1:04:45 |
may I offer you this blessing as one Christian to others, | 1:04:48 | |
the grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, | 1:04:54 | |
the love of God, | 1:04:58 | |
the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:05:00 | |
be with you and with those whom you love | 1:05:04 | |
this day and forever. | 1:05:09 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:14 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:18 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:22 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:27 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:33 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:40 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:49 | |
(soft piano music) | 1:06:01 | |
(soft piano music) | 1:06:59 |
Item Info
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