William H. Willimon - "Remember Not...Remember Me" (September 27, 1987)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(beautiful organ music) | 0:01 | |
- | Good morning and welcome to Duke Chapel. | 4:41 |
We're glad that you're with us. | 4:43 | |
We welcome as a special soloist today, Dr. Eric Meyers. | 4:46 | |
In honor of the Jewish High Holy days, | 4:50 | |
our choir is singing a selection | 4:52 | |
from Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service. | 4:55 | |
By the way, the choir will be singing | 4:57 | |
this service in it's entirety next spring | 5:00 | |
with Dr. Meyers as cantor. | 5:03 | |
Remind you that you're invited for coffee and conversation | 5:07 | |
immediately after the service in the Page Art Gallery | 5:10 | |
and we hope you'll join us for that. | 5:15 | |
And now let us continue our worship. | 5:18 | |
(choral singing) | 5:24 | |
- | Remembering that we have failed God and one another, | 11:27 |
let us turn to number 723 in the back of the hymn book, | 11:32 | |
and seated make our confession to Almighty God. | 11:38 | |
Have mercy upon us, oh God | 11:53 | |
according to thy loving kindness. | 11:56 | |
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, | 11:59 | |
blot out our transgressions. | 12:03 | |
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities | 12:05 | |
and cleanse us from our sins, | 12:09 | |
for we acknowledge our transgressions | 12:12 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 12:14 | |
Create in us clean hearts, oh God, | 12:17 | |
and renew a right spirit within us. | 12:21 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. | 12:24 | |
Hear the good news. | 12:28 | |
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. | 12:30 | |
That is God's own proof of His love towards us. | 12:34 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. | 12:38 | |
Crowd | In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. | 12:42 |
- | Let us pray. | 13:09 |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 13:11 | |
by the power of Your Holy Spirit, | 13:14 | |
so that as the Word is read and proclaimed, | 13:17 | |
we might hear with joy what You say to us this day. | 13:20 | |
Amen. | 13:24 | |
- | The first lesson is taken from the book of Ezekiel. | 13:34 |
The word of the Lord came to me again. | 13:40 | |
What do you mean by repeating this proverb | 13:44 | |
concerning the land of Israel? | 13:47 | |
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, | 13:49 | |
and the children's teeth are set on edge. | 13:52 | |
As I live, says the Lord God, | 13:57 | |
this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. | 13:59 | |
Behold, all souls are mine. | 14:04 | |
The soul of the father as well as | 14:09 | |
the soul of the son is mine. | 14:11 | |
The soul that sins shall die. | 14:15 | |
Yet you say the way of the Lord is not just. | 14:19 | |
Hear now, oh house of Israel. | 14:25 | |
Is not My way just? | 14:27 | |
Is it not your way that is not just? | 14:31 | |
When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness | 14:35 | |
and commits iniquity he shall die for it. | 14:39 | |
For the iniquity which he hath committed he shall die. | 14:44 | |
Again, when a wicked man turns away | 14:49 | |
from the wickedness he has committed, | 14:52 | |
and does what is lawful and right, | 14:55 | |
he shall live. | 14:57 | |
He shall save his life, | 15:00 | |
because he has considered | 15:04 | |
and turned away from all the transgressions | 15:06 | |
which he has committed. | 15:09 | |
He surely shall live. | 15:10 | |
He shall not die. | 15:14 | |
Yet the house of Israel says | 15:17 | |
the way of the Lord is not just. | 15:19 | |
Oh house of Israel, are my ways not just? | 15:23 | |
Is it not your ways that are not just? | 15:28 | |
Therefore, I will judge you oh house of Israel. | 15:33 | |
Everyone according to his ways says the Lord God. | 15:37 | |
Repent and turn away from your transgressions, | 15:41 | |
lest iniquity be your ruin. | 15:45 | |
Cast away from you all the transgressions | 15:47 | |
which have committed against me, | 15:50 | |
and get yourselves a new heart, | 15:53 | |
and a new spirit. | 15:57 | |
Why will you die, oh house of Israel? | 16:00 | |
For I have no pleasure in death of anyone, | 16:04 | |
says the Lord God. | 16:08 | |
So turn away and live. | 16:10 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 16:15 | |
- | The reading from the Psalter is number 562 | 16:28 |
in the back of your hymn book. | 16:31 | |
Please stand. | 16:33 | |
To thee, oh Lord, I lift up my soul. | 16:41 | |
Let me not be put to shame. | 16:47 | |
Make me to know thy ways, oh Lord. | 16:53 | |
Lead me in thy truth and teach me. | 16:58 | |
Be mindful of thy mercy, oh Lord, | 17:08 | |
and of thy steadfast love. | 17:10 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. | 17:15 | |
Good and upright is the Lord. | 17:27 | |
He leads the humble in what is right. | 17:33 | |
All the paths of the Lord | 17:39 | |
are steadfast love and faithfulness. | 17:40 | |
For thy namesake, oh Lord. | 17:48 | |
Who is the one that fears the Lord? | 17:53 | |
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him. | 18:00 | |
May integrity and uprightness preserve me. | 18:07 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 18:13 | |
(choral singing) | 18:22 | |
- | Our second lesson is taken | 19:21 |
from Paul's letter to the Philippians. | 19:23 | |
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, | 19:29 | |
any incentive of love, any participation in the spirit, | 19:33 | |
any affection and sympathy, complete my joy, | 19:38 | |
my being of same mind, having the same love. | 19:43 | |
Being in full accord of one mind. | 19:48 | |
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, | 19:52 | |
but in humility count others better than yourselves, | 19:56 | |
lest each of you look not only to his own interest, | 20:00 | |
but also to the interest of others. | 20:04 | |
Have this mind among yourselves, | 20:07 | |
which is yours in Christ Jesus, | 20:10 | |
who though He was in the form of God, | 20:13 | |
did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, | 20:17 | |
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. | 20:21 | |
Being born into the likeness of man, | 20:28 | |
and being found in human form, | 20:32 | |
he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death. | 20:34 | |
Even death on a cross. | 20:40 | |
Therefore, God has highly exalted Him | 20:44 | |
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. | 20:47 | |
That at the name of Jesus, | 20:52 | |
every knee should bow in Heaven | 20:55 | |
and on Earth and under Earth, | 20:58 | |
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. | 21:01 | |
To the glory of God, the Father. | 21:06 | |
Therefore, my beloved, | 21:10 | |
as you have always obeyed, | 21:13 | |
so now, not only in my presence, | 21:15 | |
but much more in my absence, | 21:19 | |
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. | 21:22 | |
For God is at work in you, | 21:27 | |
both to will and to work for His good pleasure. | 21:30 | |
This ends the reading of the second lesson. | 21:39 | |
The gospel is taken from Matthew. | 21:42 | |
What do you think? | 21:49 | |
A man had two sons | 21:51 | |
and he went to the first and said | 21:54 | |
Son, go work in the vineyard today. | 21:56 | |
And he answered, I will not. | 21:59 | |
But afterwards, he repented and went. | 22:03 | |
And he went to the second and said the same thing. | 22:07 | |
And he answered, I go sir. | 22:10 | |
But did not go. | 22:14 | |
Which of the two did the will of his father? | 22:17 | |
And they said, the first. | 22:20 | |
And Jesus said to them, | 22:24 | |
Truly, I say to you the tax collectors | 22:26 | |
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. | 22:31 | |
For John came to you in the ways of righteousness | 22:36 | |
and you did not believe him, | 22:39 | |
but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him, | 22:42 | |
and even when you saw it, | 22:46 | |
you did not afterwards repent and believe. | 22:49 | |
This ends the reading of the gospel. | 22:55 | |
(choral singing) | 23:19 | |
- | As I ponder what to preach to you each Sunday, | 26:36 |
only rarely does some | 26:43 | |
word leap from the Biblical text | 26:46 | |
and grab me by the throat, shake me up and down | 26:49 | |
and demand to be preached. | 26:52 | |
And such was the case today. | 26:55 | |
When I looked over the assigned lessons for this Sunday, | 26:58 | |
nothing caught my attention, | 27:01 | |
until I looked at the assigned Psalm for the day, | 27:04 | |
and I read the phrase: | 27:10 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth | 27:14 | |
or my transgressions. | 27:19 | |
According to thy steadfast love, | 27:22 | |
remember me. | 27:27 | |
And I was hooked. | 27:31 | |
It was too good a phrase to let pass in a university chapel. | 27:32 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 27:37 | |
What an evocative phrase. | 27:41 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 27:42 | |
And what are these sins of the youth | 27:47 | |
for which the psalmist begs divine amnesia? | 27:49 | |
Sins of the youth. | 27:53 | |
I see smoke filled rooms, | 27:55 | |
sleazy dives down by the railroad station | 27:59 | |
known as Sam's Bar and Grill, | 28:02 | |
all night binges followed by aching head. | 28:05 | |
Road trips to descents into Hell to God knows where. | 28:09 | |
"Animal House" redone in Durham. | 28:13 | |
Encounters in the backseats of Chevrolets. | 28:16 | |
Sins of the youth. | 28:19 | |
About the age of a Duke Sophomore or Junior, Saint Agustine | 28:24 | |
who spent the rest of his life | 28:30 | |
paying back God for debts incurred | 28:31 | |
during youthful degradation, | 28:34 | |
Saint Augustine prayed | 28:37 | |
Oh God, make me chaste, | 28:40 | |
but not yet. | 28:45 | |
(laughter) | 28:46 | |
For this he was voted the patron saint | 28:48 | |
of all college students. | 28:50 | |
Sins of the youth. | 28:52 | |
Every year during the chapel choir's presentation | 28:56 | |
of Handel's Messiah there is that point in the Messiah when | 29:00 | |
a boy soprano steps forward and sings of corruption. | 29:05 | |
He suffered not corruption. | 29:10 | |
He suffered not corruption. | 29:12 | |
I, with Ben Smith, have often wondered | 29:15 | |
what does he know of corruption? | 29:18 | |
What does an 11 year old know of such things? | 29:21 | |
Let him come back when his voice has changed | 29:23 | |
and he's a Duke Sophomore | 29:26 | |
and then he can speak of corruption | 29:28 | |
with personal conviction. | 29:30 | |
Sins of the youth. | 29:32 | |
Speaking at a little college somewhere out in the Midwest | 29:34 | |
in a town so small it didn't even merit a dot on the map, | 29:37 | |
I wondered aloud, | 29:43 | |
what on Earth do they do here | 29:48 | |
for entertainment on the weekends? | 29:49 | |
Oh preacher, don't even ask | 29:53 | |
said the chaplain. | 29:56 | |
Every person over 10 or 12 has some secret room somewhere. | 30:00 | |
Some trunk hidden in the attic | 30:06 | |
or casket buried deep in the basement of the soul. | 30:09 | |
Closed, dusty, cluttered with dark moments. | 30:15 | |
Memories we would as soon forget. | 30:20 | |
And the older you get the more memory you have | 30:25 | |
to forget. | 30:30 | |
The more you have to put into that trunk, | 30:32 | |
that secret room, that grave. | 30:34 | |
The older you grow, the more you have to forget. | 30:39 | |
What is remorse, but bitter memory? | 30:44 | |
And what is guilt, but accusing memory? | 30:48 | |
I know that in my counseling with people | 30:56 | |
the most frequent kind of pain | 30:57 | |
with which I come into contact | 31:00 | |
is suffering brought on by memory. | 31:04 | |
I mean, for what do you think we have this nervousness, | 31:09 | |
this sleeplessness, this tossing and turning, | 31:12 | |
this drug taking, except | 31:15 | |
from the feelings of fear and anxiety | 31:19 | |
brought on by memory too painful to bear. | 31:22 | |
Oh, we fill our rooms with trophies, | 31:27 | |
and we hang diplomas on our walls, | 31:31 | |
and we frame pictures and we wear class rings, | 31:33 | |
and we put up blue ribbons of good memories. | 31:37 | |
But deeply hidden from public view, | 31:44 | |
in the cellar of the soul | 31:49 | |
is where we stuff the memories too painful to remember. | 31:50 | |
We handle undesirable memories | 31:57 | |
by attempting to forget them. | 31:59 | |
Let's agree just to forget about it. | 32:03 | |
Let's both act as if this never really happened. | 32:05 | |
Why dwell on the past? | 32:09 | |
What is done is done. | 32:11 | |
Let's talk about something more pleasant. | 32:13 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 32:18 | |
But bad memory unremembered | 32:23 | |
pushed back into the secret place of ourselves | 32:27 | |
can do much harm, | 32:31 | |
because the unconscious has no digestive tract. | 32:33 | |
It's not as if we can just swallow hard | 32:38 | |
on our bad memories and be done with them. | 32:40 | |
I mean we've tried to do that time and again as a nation. | 32:47 | |
We've tried to just forget about past national traumas | 32:50 | |
and we've tried to do it as individuals. | 32:54 | |
But when we try to forget painful memories, | 32:59 | |
we often become strangers to ourselves. | 33:01 | |
Having cut our history down | 33:07 | |
to just what is pleasant, and manageable and cheerful. | 33:09 | |
We don't know ourselves. | 33:15 | |
As Henri Nouwen says, | 33:18 | |
"To try to live our lives without memory | 33:21 | |
is to turn our back on our best teacher." | 33:23 | |
We cannot reduce | 33:30 | |
our history to the stuff of daydreams | 33:33 | |
and live out the nightmares. | 33:36 | |
Oh we wish that we were over and done with our past, | 33:41 | |
but our past is never over and done with us. | 33:45 | |
Not yet, we're not the escape artist we wish we were. | 33:49 | |
Oh we chatter, we make jokes, we turn on the radio, | 33:54 | |
we take a drink, we try to live just for today. | 33:58 | |
But then, just when we think we are cut loose, | 34:02 | |
there is that face, that sideward glance | 34:05 | |
or some snippet of an old tune | 34:10 | |
long since played out. | 34:13 | |
And we remember. | 34:18 | |
And we wish to God that we could forget. | 34:21 | |
A while back, I was accosted by an alumnus of my college. | 34:26 | |
We were students there together, | 34:31 | |
and knowing that I am now a trustee of the place, | 34:33 | |
he sought to collar me. | 34:36 | |
Today's students are a disgrace, he said. | 34:39 | |
You know what is going on in the dormitories of our college? | 34:42 | |
I tell you, you trustees should stick by your guns, | 34:46 | |
and you should tell them to shape up or ship out. | 34:49 | |
You ought to tighten things up. | 34:51 | |
Unfortunately for him, | 34:56 | |
my memory had not been so dulled by the years. | 34:57 | |
Apparently I remembered his past better than he. | 35:02 | |
(laughter) | 35:05 | |
And I said to him, | 35:08 | |
Tighten the rules? | 35:10 | |
It seems that I remember when we were there | 35:14 | |
there were strict rules against dormitory visitation | 35:15 | |
by members of the opposite sex. | 35:18 | |
He said yes, and there ought to be today. | 35:21 | |
And I said, well I do remember a certain evening | 35:25 | |
in April of 1967, or was it April 1968 | 35:27 | |
when someone down the hall from me | 35:32 | |
had a visit from someone of the opposite? | 35:35 | |
He wished to God that I had forgot. | 35:43 | |
I know in seminary, it never failed. | 35:48 | |
The person, the chief radical, | 35:52 | |
the chief theological radical on the hall, | 35:54 | |
the one who was always ranting and raving | 35:56 | |
about these stupid conservatives, | 35:59 | |
these backward fundamentalists was always | 36:00 | |
a former fundamentalist himself. | 36:07 | |
He was raving and raging against his own background, | 36:11 | |
his own roots, his own memory. | 36:14 | |
At my high school reunion, | 36:20 | |
with the band belting out | 36:23 | |
oldies-but-goodies in the background she asked, | 36:25 | |
You weren't always planning on being a preacher, were you? | 36:32 | |
I mean you weren't thinking about it | 36:36 | |
back in high school, were you? | 36:38 | |
And I said, no I don't suppose I was. | 36:41 | |
Why do you ask? | 36:44 | |
Good, she said. | 36:47 | |
That at least makes me feel much better. | 36:47 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 36:53 | |
Remember not, not just the things we did on Saturday night, | 36:57 | |
but what we did all week long. | 37:00 | |
Remember not the way we treated our parents, | 37:02 | |
and the people, the people whose names we can't even recall, | 37:06 | |
whom we offended by thought, word and deed. | 37:10 | |
By things left undone, and by things done. | 37:17 | |
Dare we to remember, even for a moment, | 37:21 | |
and to admit to the truth | 37:27 | |
of the ancient words of confession. | 37:29 | |
We have followed too much the devices | 37:33 | |
and desires of our own hearts. | 37:35 | |
There is no health in us. | 37:40 | |
We are not worthy to be called thy children. | 37:44 | |
And maybe that's why we always begin | 37:50 | |
the service of worship with a prayer of confession, | 37:54 | |
because there's so much we need to forget to get in here. | 37:57 | |
We wish to God that we could forget, | 38:03 | |
and I hate to tell you, but wishing that you could forget | 38:08 | |
is certainly not over and done with when you're 21 or 31, | 38:10 | |
you've just begun to want to forget. | 38:14 | |
If children must yearn for their parent's forgiveness, | 38:17 | |
how much more ought parents | 38:20 | |
to yearn for their children's forgiveness? | 38:23 | |
Because some day every parent looks | 38:29 | |
at his or her grown children and thinks not | 38:31 | |
look at all that I've done for you. | 38:34 | |
But thinks look at all I've done to you. | 38:37 | |
How can there ever be enough forgetfulness to go around? | 38:46 | |
A student said of his younger sister | 38:52 | |
now in her second year of therapy, | 38:55 | |
chemically dependent in misery. | 38:59 | |
If she could only learn to forgive our parents | 39:03 | |
for what they did to her or they didn't do to her. | 39:07 | |
If she could only learn to forget. | 39:13 | |
He hoped that the therapist would help her to remember | 39:17 | |
in order that she might then forget. | 39:20 | |
And if we yearn for the forgetfulness of other people, | 39:26 | |
how much more ought we to yearn | 39:32 | |
for the forgetfulness of God? | 39:34 | |
As another Psalm asks, Oh Lord, | 39:40 | |
if thou should count our iniquities, God who could stand? | 39:45 | |
If God is omniscient, omnipresent, | 39:52 | |
all-knowing and all-wise, | 39:56 | |
think of the suffering that God suffers because of us. | 39:58 | |
I mean, at least eventually many of our old wounds heal. | 40:04 | |
If you live long enough, amnesia sets in. | 40:09 | |
And we achieve, therefore, a kind of relative peace. | 40:12 | |
I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday, | 40:18 | |
much less whom I offended. | 40:20 | |
But God? | 40:23 | |
If God remembers everything, | 40:25 | |
God must suffer terribly. | 40:30 | |
I mean, you wonder how in the world | 40:33 | |
God can endure the silence of the universe. | 40:35 | |
If God can still hear the cries of Hiroshima, | 40:38 | |
if God still remembers the agony of Auschwitz, | 40:42 | |
if God can still hear the prayers | 40:46 | |
of the Battle of Hastings, | 40:48 | |
and on the field of Waterloo, | 40:50 | |
and last moments, unkind thought, or deed of meanness, | 40:52 | |
how can God stand it? | 40:56 | |
Does God have the alleged memory of an elephant? | 41:02 | |
Smith? | 41:06 | |
Isn't that E. Smith? | 41:07 | |
Yes, let's see. | 41:09 | |
Gabriel, bring me the file on E. Smith. | 41:10 | |
Lord, who could stand? | 41:14 | |
Jesus meets the woman at the well, | 41:18 | |
and the woman says something about my husband | 41:22 | |
and Jesus says I believe you've had five husbands, | 41:24 | |
and the man you're living with now is not your husband. | 41:31 | |
And she ran back to town and said | 41:36 | |
come see a man who told me everything I've ever done! | 41:38 | |
And so it is in this context that the Psalmist prays | 41:45 | |
remember not my transgressions. | 41:51 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 41:55 | |
Forget it. | 42:00 | |
We wish to God that God would forget. | 42:02 | |
Someday each of us stands before our father, our mother, | 42:07 | |
and looks into their eyes and sees reflected back our youth. | 42:12 | |
The demands we made, the unkind words we spoke, | 42:20 | |
the ways we disappointed, and the ways we hurt | 42:25 | |
without even trying to hurt. | 42:28 | |
And we silently ask for their forgetfulness. | 42:32 | |
Their forgiveness. | 42:37 | |
And someday, each one of us must ask | 42:41 | |
for the same forgetfulness of God. | 42:45 | |
Remember not. | 42:49 | |
And will God forget? | 42:53 | |
I mean, you could observe our delight | 42:57 | |
in remembering, recalling, recollecting | 42:59 | |
somebody else's sordid past. | 43:02 | |
What if God's like that? | 43:04 | |
Smith? | 43:07 | |
Is that E. Smith? | 43:08 | |
That's E. Smith, the banker, isn't it? | 43:10 | |
Oh, no, if memory serves me correctly, | 43:11 | |
I think it's E. Smith the philanderer. | 43:15 | |
Citizen of the year? | 43:19 | |
Oh well, I do think I remember some little trouble | 43:21 | |
with the IRS sometime ago. | 43:24 | |
Presidential candidate? | 43:28 | |
Wasn't there something back there | 43:29 | |
about some law review article something? | 43:31 | |
Look at how we delight in remembering | 43:36 | |
not only the sins of youth, | 43:38 | |
but of middle age and any other age | 43:39 | |
because our remembrance is a way | 43:42 | |
of keeping people pinned down and tied to their place. | 43:44 | |
A way of putting and keeping others | 43:48 | |
where we think they ought to be. | 43:50 | |
Oh they may try to break free. | 43:53 | |
They may try to cut loose, | 43:55 | |
but as long as we remember, they're done for. | 43:57 | |
They are always enslaved by our remembrance. | 43:59 | |
One day Thomas Aquinas was lecturing | 44:09 | |
to some of his students on the greatness, | 44:12 | |
the omnipotence of God, | 44:15 | |
and after he finished the lecture, | 44:17 | |
one smart aleck raised his hand and said | 44:19 | |
Doctor Aquinas, is there anyway in which God is limited? | 44:21 | |
And the great teacher said yes. | 44:27 | |
And there was a shocked hush in the class. | 44:31 | |
Yes, he said. | 44:34 | |
Even God Almighty | 44:38 | |
cannot make the past not to have been. | 44:41 | |
I mean, even God can't do that. | 44:47 | |
What's past is done, and what's done is forever. | 44:50 | |
No wonder the Psalmist prays against divine memnasis | 44:59 | |
and prays for forgetfulness. | 45:04 | |
I'll tell you who you're real friends are. | 45:10 | |
A friend is someone who knows you, | 45:13 | |
who remembers you, perhaps better | 45:16 | |
than even you remember yourself, | 45:19 | |
but who doesn't remember. | 45:24 | |
Friends are those who discretely forget, | 45:28 | |
before whom certain things don't have to be dredged up, | 45:32 | |
certain things don't have to be recollected. | 45:35 | |
For the sake of love, they forget. | 45:39 | |
A friend is someone who forgets what you've done | 45:45 | |
in order to remember who you are. | 45:52 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 45:58 | |
Remember me. | 46:03 | |
Isn't that what each of us really wants from God | 46:06 | |
when it's all said and done? | 46:09 | |
That God will love us enough to forget | 46:11 | |
what we've done and left undone | 46:14 | |
in thought, word and deed in order to remember who we are. | 46:18 | |
On our knees with outstretched, empty hands, | 46:26 | |
that's what we want. | 46:33 | |
It is this divine forgetfulness | 46:36 | |
which is called forgiveness in scripture. | 46:38 | |
The greatest mercy we want from God | 46:44 | |
is to forget in order to remember. | 46:48 | |
Smith? | 46:53 | |
Is that E. Smith? | 46:55 | |
Gabriel, forget the file. | 46:58 | |
I remember him. | 47:02 | |
I remember. | 47:06 | |
Hanging on the cross, | 47:09 | |
one thief mocked Jesus. | 47:13 | |
The other thief said, | 47:17 | |
man don't you fear God? | 47:18 | |
We deserve what we're getting but He doesn't. | 47:21 | |
And then the thief said, | 47:26 | |
Jesus, | 47:29 | |
remember me. | 47:32 | |
Remember not the sins. | 47:37 | |
Remember me. | 47:41 | |
It's the last deepest prayer we utter. | 47:44 | |
A couple of Psalms later, the Psalmist says, | 47:51 | |
if my father and my mother forget me, | 47:56 | |
Lord you'll take me. | 48:01 | |
Remember not the sins of my youth. | 48:07 | |
According to thy steadfast love, | 48:11 | |
remember me. | 48:15 | |
Amen. | 48:18 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 48:27 | |
(choral singing) | 48:56 | |
Rev. Noren | The Lord be with you. | 51:08 |
Let us pray. | 51:11 | |
Almighty God, our Father | 51:24 | |
with the tender love of a parent, | 51:28 | |
would draw all Your sons and daughters to Yourself. | 51:29 | |
Give to all who seek You open and trusting hearts | 51:35 | |
to respond to Your gracious word. | 51:39 | |
We pray for all who are hindered | 51:43 | |
from knowing the fullness of Your love | 51:45 | |
because of fear or bondage to memory | 51:49 | |
or cynicism or half-heartedness | 51:54 | |
and we pray Your forgiveness when we have reinforced | 51:59 | |
or justified those barriers in other's lives. | 52:02 | |
By the power of the risen Christ, | 52:07 | |
reconcile them and us to Yourself. | 52:10 | |
God, our ruler, You behold all nations of the world | 52:15 | |
and know their pain. | 52:20 | |
Their longing for peace. | 52:22 | |
Their mistrust of one another. | 52:25 | |
Deliver us from pride and selfishness | 52:29 | |
in our dealings with one another. | 52:32 | |
Give to our president and to the leaders of all nations | 52:35 | |
wisdom and strength to do Your will. | 52:39 | |
Fill them with the love of the truth and righteousness | 52:45 | |
which come from You. | 52:48 | |
Comfort and sustain all who live | 52:51 | |
in places torn by war and unrest. | 52:54 | |
Let Your kingdom come, | 52:59 | |
and Your will be done. | 53:02 | |
God, our strength and joy, | 53:06 | |
You have built Your church on Jesus Christ, | 53:09 | |
the sure foundation, | 53:12 | |
and called us to be in mission. | 53:13 | |
We pray for all ministers | 53:18 | |
and lay people in Your church around the world. | 53:20 | |
Give us and them singleness of heart in serving You. | 53:25 | |
Unite us in our one Lord, one faith, one baptism. | 53:31 | |
Through the power and gifts of Your Holy Spirit, | 53:37 | |
equip us for ministry in and to the world. | 53:40 | |
Teaching Your word, healing the sick, | 53:44 | |
nurturing the young, comforting the afflicted, | 53:49 | |
laying down our lives for the sake of the Gospel, | 53:55 | |
or to whatever tasks You call us. | 53:59 | |
These things we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord | 54:02 | |
who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever. | 54:06 | |
One God, world without end. | 54:11 | |
Amen. | 54:14 | |
And now let us bring to God our tithes and offerings. | 54:18 | |
(somber organ music) | 54:24 | |
(triumphant organ music) | 56:09 | |
(choral singing) | 56:17 | |
- | Oh Lord, we pray You will pour out Your Holy Spirit | 1:03:31 |
upon these are gifts and upon us as we offer ourselves | 1:03:34 | |
that in all things we may glorify Your name. | 1:03:40 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 1:03:43 | |
who taught us to pray together saying | 1:03:46 | |
Our Father who art in Heaven, | 1:03:49 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 1:03:52 | |
Thy kingdom come. | 1:03:54 | |
Thy will be done | 1:03:55 | |
on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 1:03:57 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:03:59 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 1:04:02 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 1:04:05 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 1:04:08 | |
but deliver us from evil | 1:04:11 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 1:04:13 | |
and the power | 1:04:14 | |
and the glory forever. | 1:04:15 | |
Amen. | 1:04:18 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 1:04:21 | |
(choral singing) | 1:04:59 | |
- | Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ | 1:08:14 |
and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:08:18 | |
be with you now and always. | 1:08:22 | |
(choral singing) | 1:08:27 |