William H. Willimon - "Whose Side Are You On?" (September 25, 1988)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (soft music) | 0:01 | |
| (man singing) | 2:33 | |
| (choir singing) | 2:44 | |
| - | Good morning and welcome to this service of worship | 4:20 |
| here at Duke University Chapel. | 4:22 | |
| 20 years ago Duke students, faculty, and employees | 4:25 | |
| gathered in front of the chapel for a silent vigil. | 4:31 | |
| Both in outrage and concern over national events, | 4:38 | |
| and also in commitment to changes that needed to be made | 4:43 | |
| on this campus. | 4:47 | |
| Duke Chapel was part of the silent vigil. | 4:49 | |
| It was the backdrop for the activities during that period. | 4:52 | |
| On one evening when it was raining heavily, | 4:57 | |
| the students were invited inside the chapel | 4:59 | |
| and spent the night here. | 5:01 | |
| The vigil became an important part of this | 5:03 | |
| university's history and also this chapel's history. | 5:07 | |
| And during our service as we worship God | 5:11 | |
| we will commemorate that time in our history. | 5:14 | |
| We are being assisted in our service today | 5:18 | |
| by people who played leading roles in that silent vigil. | 5:21 | |
| Tammy Holtman was president of the | 5:25 | |
| young women's Christian association. | 5:27 | |
| One of the activist groups on campus. | 5:29 | |
| She is now with the Africa News Service. | 5:33 | |
| Elmer Hall was a chaplain here on campus | 5:36 | |
| during that period. | 5:40 | |
| And Sam Cook, Duke's first black professor | 5:41 | |
| who is now president of Dillard College | 5:45 | |
| and a Duke trustee, was also a leader in the vigil. | 5:47 | |
| Our lecturer today is Mr. Dick Sommers, class of 1953 | 5:52 | |
| whose class is in reunion here this weekend. | 5:58 | |
| And our service is being led by professor of homolitic | 6:02 | |
| at the divinity school, Carol Mari Norrin. | 6:06 | |
| At the end of the service, unless it is raining very hard, | 6:10 | |
| you will be asked to process right out behind the choir | 6:14 | |
| and to stand in front of the chapel | 6:18 | |
| for a brief concluding service of remembrance. | 6:20 | |
| The ushers will direct you as you proceed right out | 6:23 | |
| the front steps, I ask you to please keep moving | 6:27 | |
| on out to the front and then turn around | 6:31 | |
| and face the chapel. | 6:33 | |
| The chapel choir will gather on the front steps | 6:34 | |
| and the service will end in front of the chapel. | 6:37 | |
| Now let us worship God. | 6:41 | |
| (organ playing) | 6:47 | |
| (choir and congregation singing) | 7:27 | |
| (choir singing) | 11:13 | |
| - | With penitent and obedient hearts, | 12:03 |
| let us confess our sin to almighty God | 12:05 | |
| that we may obtain forgiveness by his | 12:09 | |
| infinite goodness and mercy. | 12:11 | |
| Please be seated as we pay together. | 12:14 | |
| Almighty and most merciful God, | 12:25 | |
| who knowest the thoughts of our hearts, | 12:28 | |
| we confess that we have sinned against thee | 12:31 | |
| and done evil in thy sight. | 12:34 | |
| We have transgressed thy holy laws. | 12:37 | |
| We have neglected they word and ordinances. | 12:40 | |
| Forgive us, oh Lord, we besiege thee. | 12:43 | |
| And give us grace and power to put away | 12:47 | |
| all hurtful things that being delivered | 12:50 | |
| from the bondage of sin we may bring forth fruit | 12:53 | |
| worthy of repentance. | 12:57 | |
| And henceforth, may ever walk in thy holy ways. | 12:59 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 13:03 | |
| God is light and in him is no darkness at all. | 13:08 | |
| If we walk in the light as he is in the light | 13:12 | |
| we have fellowship with one another | 13:15 | |
| and the blood of Jesus, His son, cleanses us from all sin. | 13:18 | |
| Our sins are forgiven for His sake, amen. | 13:24 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 13:38 |
| Open our hearts and minds, oh God. | 13:41 | |
| By the power of your Holy Spirit, | 13:44 | |
| so that as the word is read and proclaimed | 13:47 | |
| we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 13:50 | |
| Amen. | 13:55 | |
| The epistle lesson is recorded in the letter of James. | 13:58 | |
| Come now you who say today or tomorrow, | 14:04 | |
| we will go into such and such a town | 14:07 | |
| and spend a year there and trade and get gain. | 14:09 | |
| For as you do not know about tomorrow, what is your life? | 14:14 | |
| For you are a mist that appears for a little time | 14:20 | |
| and then vanishes. | 14:23 | |
| Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills | 14:25 | |
| we shall live and we shall do this or that. | 14:29 | |
| As it is, you boast in your arrogance, | 14:33 | |
| all such boasting is evil. | 14:36 | |
| Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it | 14:39 | |
| for him it is sin. | 14:43 | |
| Be patient therefore brethren until the coming of the Lord. | 14:46 | |
| Behold the farmer waits for the precious | 14:51 | |
| fruit of the earth, being patient over it | 14:54 | |
| until it receives the early and the late rain. | 14:57 | |
| You also be patient. | 15:01 | |
| Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. | 15:05 | |
| Do not grumble, brothers and sisters, against one another | 15:10 | |
| that you may not be judged. | 15:15 | |
| Behold the judge is standing at the doors. | 15:17 | |
| As an example of suffering and patience, brethren, | 15:22 | |
| take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. | 15:26 | |
| Behold, we call those happy who were steadfast. | 15:29 | |
| You have heard of the steadfastness of Job | 15:34 | |
| and you have seen the purpose of the Lord. | 15:37 | |
| How the Lord is compassionate and merciful. | 15:40 | |
| This ends the reading of the epistle. | 15:45 | |
| - | Please stand for the reading from the salter | 15:54 |
| and remain standing through the next hymn. | 15:57 | |
| Hear, oh Lord, but I cry aloud. | 16:07 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 16:09 | |
| Thou has said, seek ye my face. | 16:13 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 16:16 | |
| Turn not they servant away in anger, | 16:23 | |
| thou who hast been my help. | 16:26 | |
| Cast me not off, forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. | 16:29 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 16:35 | |
| Teach me thy way, oh Lord and lead me on a level path | 16:40 | |
| because of my enemies. | 16:45 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 16:47 | |
| I believe that I shall see the goodness | 16:57 | |
| of the Lord in the land of the living. | 16:59 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 17:02 | |
| (organ playing) | 17:11 | |
| (choir singing) | 17:19 | |
| - | Let us give ear to the reading of the gospel | 18:06 |
| recorded in the ninth chapter of Mark, | 18:08 | |
| reading verses 38 through 41. | 18:13 | |
| John said to him, teacher we saw a man casting out | 18:18 | |
| demons in your name and we forbade him | 18:23 | |
| because he was not following us. | 18:26 | |
| But Jesus said, do not forbid him. | 18:29 | |
| For no one who does a mighty work in my name | 18:33 | |
| will be able soon after to speak evil of me. | 18:36 | |
| For he that is not against us is for us. | 18:40 | |
| For truly I say to you whoever gives you a cup | 18:44 | |
| of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ | 18:48 | |
| will by no means lose his reward. | 18:52 | |
| Thanks be to God for this word of truth. | 18:57 | |
| (organ playing) | 19:02 | |
| (choir singing) | 19:55 | |
| - | I want you students to know that | 22:02 |
| as one gets older with the onset of age, | 22:07 | |
| the ravages of time, one's tastes change. | 22:12 | |
| This fall, like those who are observing the | 22:18 | |
| 20th anniversary of the silent vigil, | 22:22 | |
| I shall commemorate the 20th anniversary | 22:25 | |
| of my graduation from college. | 22:29 | |
| If you have detected a note of nostalgic | 22:32 | |
| retrospection in my sermons this fall, this accounts for it. | 22:36 | |
| I'm getting older. | 22:40 | |
| We have a vice presidential candidate | 22:43 | |
| one year my junior, though I was never in | 22:44 | |
| the National Guard. | 22:47 | |
| Now there's no cause for those of you who are younger | 22:50 | |
| to be smug, one day this shall happen to you. | 22:53 | |
| And over the years one's tastes change. | 22:57 | |
| There are things which seem sweet to you at 19, | 23:02 | |
| which are repugnant by age 30. | 23:08 | |
| There was a time when I thought that | 23:12 | |
| dream whip was good eating. | 23:14 | |
| Liked nothing better than a Velveeta sandwich. | 23:18 | |
| But now you see, I've been around, | 23:22 | |
| I've gone to the university, I've eaten artichokes. | 23:24 | |
| My tastes have changed. | 23:26 | |
| Now I am more discriminating in my taste. | 23:29 | |
| More discriminating. | 23:33 | |
| Age does that. | 23:37 | |
| Now I'm trying to explain to you why I have | 23:41 | |
| a problem with today's gospel. | 23:44 | |
| What does a preacher do when he is forced | 23:48 | |
| to preach a text for which he has simply lost his taste. | 23:52 | |
| This little vignette from Mark, | 23:56 | |
| which once tasted so good to me, once seemed so right | 24:00 | |
| and appropriate, now hangs in my mouth | 24:04 | |
| like cold cotton candy. | 24:07 | |
| Thanks, but I just don't care for it anymore. | 24:09 | |
| John said to Jesus, rabbi, we saw a man | 24:15 | |
| casting out demons in your name, but he wasn't one of us | 24:19 | |
| so we forbade him. | 24:26 | |
| And Jesus responds, do not forbid him, | 24:30 | |
| for no one who does a good work in my name | 24:35 | |
| shall long speak evil of me. | 24:37 | |
| He that is not against us, is for us. | 24:41 | |
| He that is not against us is for us. | 24:48 | |
| What muddle brained sentimentality. | 24:51 | |
| Don't worry that this unknown exorcist | 24:56 | |
| has a medical degree from a school in Acapulco. | 24:59 | |
| If he's doing good, it's okay. | 25:02 | |
| He's all right, leave him alone. | 25:05 | |
| If he isn't against us, then he must be for us. | 25:10 | |
| This is the proof text of the flake who says, | 25:16 | |
| it doesn't matter what you believe | 25:21 | |
| as long as you're sincere. | 25:23 | |
| What pea brain mush. | 25:26 | |
| Oh there was a time, a time when I was your age | 25:30 | |
| I might have said right on. | 25:32 | |
| But those were during my angry young man | 25:35 | |
| prophetic granola days and this was my text. | 25:40 | |
| In my youthful impatience, I was fed up | 25:46 | |
| with this dry dead religion of hair splitting | 25:49 | |
| dogmas and scholarly theological definitions. | 25:53 | |
| No, I grew up in a church | 25:58 | |
| that had an orthodox creed, | 26:03 | |
| that knew the bible, that used all the right words | 26:06 | |
| and still put guards on the front door | 26:10 | |
| to make sure that no one of the wrong color | 26:13 | |
| tried to pray with us. | 26:16 | |
| What is religion all about, I ask, | 26:20 | |
| if it is not good deeds more than good dogma. | 26:23 | |
| Right action rather than correct thinking. | 26:29 | |
| What is religion about? | 26:32 | |
| During my first summer in college I worked in a factory | 26:36 | |
| of a man who was in our church. | 26:40 | |
| He taught a bible study class there | 26:41 | |
| and had a whole library of bible study books. | 26:44 | |
| I thought it a great privilege to be able to work | 26:47 | |
| into this factory of this biblically | 26:49 | |
| knowledgeable businessman. | 26:52 | |
| Each day he opened work in that factory | 26:55 | |
| with a devotional led by the president of the company. | 26:58 | |
| But I tell you when the whistle blew | 27:04 | |
| he put away that bible stuff and he was yelling | 27:07 | |
| at people on the assembly line, | 27:10 | |
| humiliating workers in front of their fellow workers. | 27:12 | |
| There was no advancement in that factory | 27:16 | |
| for people who didn't have the color of skin that he had. | 27:17 | |
| I remember one day he began yelling at a man | 27:22 | |
| on the assembly line, a man who had worked | 27:25 | |
| in that factory for 40 years. | 27:27 | |
| And on the spot he fired him | 27:30 | |
| and threw him out on the street | 27:33 | |
| without a pension or prospects. | 27:36 | |
| There was another man working in the factory. | 27:42 | |
| Chain smoking, profane sort of person. | 27:46 | |
| I'm sure he had never read the bible, | 27:51 | |
| he never darken the door of a church. | 27:53 | |
| But on that afternoon he was the only person | 27:54 | |
| on the faculty, in the factory. | 27:57 | |
| (laughing) | 28:01 | |
| Okay, another sermon, to lay down, | 28:04 | |
| to lay down his tools and shake his head | 28:09 | |
| and walk out in courageous protest. | 28:12 | |
| And later I heard that it was this profane man | 28:15 | |
| who didn't know Jesus who dug down into his | 28:20 | |
| meager life savings and provided for his fellow worker. | 28:24 | |
| Now think hard, class. | 28:30 | |
| Which man do you think represented, for me and my | 28:33 | |
| 19 years of life, | 28:36 | |
| the one who was closest to Jesus? | 28:40 | |
| That fall I volunteered in a soup kitchen | 28:48 | |
| in the town where I went to college and I still | 28:51 | |
| remember overhearing one of the volunteers | 28:55 | |
| in the soup kitchen holding a bowl | 28:56 | |
| of thin soup in one hand and lecturing an old | 29:00 | |
| hungry man who came to the soup kitchen looking for food, | 29:03 | |
| lecturing him on theology. | 29:07 | |
| I heard him say to the old man, no, no, that's not baptism. | 29:09 | |
| It's not baptism unless it's believers baptism. | 29:13 | |
| It is not efficacious unto salvation unless one | 29:16 | |
| comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. | 29:19 | |
| Then and only then can we speak of baptism | 29:21 | |
| as wholly salvific. | 29:24 | |
| Good Lord, I thought. | 29:28 | |
| Give the poor man his soup. | 29:29 | |
| Is there no limit to this petty theologizing | 29:33 | |
| and barrier building on the part of us Christians. | 29:37 | |
| Thank God for the simple, straightforward | 29:44 | |
| religion of Jesus. | 29:47 | |
| He wouldn't have lectured the man on theology. | 29:48 | |
| He would've give him soup. | 29:51 | |
| But I was younger then, and that was what? | 29:55 | |
| 20 years ago. | 29:57 | |
| Now my taste have changed in regard to this text. | 30:01 | |
| Since then I've learned to be more fair | 30:07 | |
| to the disciples' questioning of the credentials | 30:10 | |
| of that unknown exorcist. | 30:13 | |
| I've learned the dangers of mushy thinking | 30:17 | |
| and the need to make proper discriminations. | 30:19 | |
| It doesn't matter what you believe | 30:25 | |
| as long as you're sincere. | 30:27 | |
| If I ever believed that, I now know better. | 30:29 | |
| I know that history teaches, that down through history | 30:31 | |
| many people have done some horrible things | 30:36 | |
| all the while believing in their hearts | 30:38 | |
| that they were sincerely right. | 30:40 | |
| Wrong thinking can lead to chaotic miserable living. | 30:42 | |
| Since my youth, I've been to the university. | 30:48 | |
| A place dedicated to the enterprise of examination, | 30:52 | |
| giving and diploma bestowing and credentialing. | 30:57 | |
| Professor, there's a first year med student | 31:03 | |
| down the hall that's just cured a broken leg | 31:06 | |
| and he's never had a course in orthopedics. | 31:08 | |
| And the professor says, well I mean, | 31:11 | |
| if he's not against us, I guess he's for us. | 31:15 | |
| Leave him alone, it's okay. | 31:18 | |
| No, no, that's not the way we do business around here. | 31:21 | |
| No. | 31:25 | |
| In the closing of the American mind, | 31:28 | |
| Alan Bloom focuses his critical insights | 31:31 | |
| upon America's infatuation with openness and tolerance. | 31:36 | |
| We wallow in a morass of relativism says Bloom, | 31:43 | |
| which teaches us to count intolerance | 31:48 | |
| as a more grievace sin than error. | 31:50 | |
| We have in Bloom's analysis, convinced ourselves | 31:55 | |
| that it is a virtue, the supreme virtue, | 31:58 | |
| always to be non-judgmentally open | 32:01 | |
| to everything and to accept everybody | 32:04 | |
| and all behavior as equally valid. | 32:07 | |
| According to the advocates of openness, says Bloom, | 32:11 | |
| the true believer is the real danger. | 32:14 | |
| The study of history and culture teaches | 32:18 | |
| that all the world was mad in the past | 32:20 | |
| that people always thought they were right | 32:22 | |
| and that led to wars, persecution, slavery, | 32:24 | |
| xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism. | 32:27 | |
| The point, Bloom says, among the apostles of openness | 32:29 | |
| is not to correct the mistakes and really be right, | 32:35 | |
| but it is to never think that you are right at all. | 32:42 | |
| Openness, openness to the one who does good. | 32:47 | |
| I mean, how do you know what right action is | 32:51 | |
| unless you think about it. | 32:54 | |
| You've seen a lot of people who thought | 32:55 | |
| they were doing right actions, but as it turned out | 32:57 | |
| they did much harm. | 33:00 | |
| How do you know that that uncertified exorcist | 33:01 | |
| is not creating a host of other problems | 33:04 | |
| by his well meaning, but uncredentialed do-goodism. | 33:06 | |
| Our openness, I found, is often a cop out | 33:13 | |
| for intellectual sloth. | 33:16 | |
| Though I might not have thought that | 33:20 | |
| when I was your age, I can now see the disciples' point. | 33:21 | |
| Whose side are you on? | 33:27 | |
| Thinking affects acting. | 33:29 | |
| Beliefs link to behavior. | 33:30 | |
| When the scandals broke last year | 33:32 | |
| down at the PTL club, revelations of sleaze | 33:34 | |
| and financial impropriety, I wished at that time | 33:38 | |
| that I'd kept a list of everybody who said to me, | 33:41 | |
| well you know, they believe in a lot of strange things, | 33:44 | |
| but they do a lot of good. | 33:46 | |
| How do you know they do a lot of good | 33:53 | |
| unless you think about it? | 33:55 | |
| Unless you make proper distinctions. | 33:57 | |
| What theological oatmeal, whoever is not | 33:59 | |
| against us is for us. | 34:02 | |
| As a text, I might have preached with conviction | 34:06 | |
| 20 years ago, but I'm in an intolerant mood right now. | 34:09 | |
| Perhaps my fellow quadroginarian Dan Quayle | 34:14 | |
| is feeling the same way. | 34:17 | |
| You got to make distinctions. | 34:19 | |
| Now by the way, one helpful tactic, | 34:23 | |
| whenever you encounter a bible verse | 34:26 | |
| with which you don't agree is to look | 34:28 | |
| for another bible verse that says just the opposite point. | 34:29 | |
| We call this the law of cancellation. | 34:34 | |
| It's one verse cancels out another verse. | 34:36 | |
| Fortunately, such a text is readily available | 34:41 | |
| in Matthew 12:30, where this same Jesus says, | 34:45 | |
| he who is not with me, is against me. | 34:52 | |
| And he who does not gather with me, scatters. | 34:58 | |
| You see, Mark's Jesus pleads for openness. | 35:02 | |
| Matthew's Jesus excludes. | 35:07 | |
| I'm in the mood for a little exlusivism. | 35:11 | |
| Thank goodness for the contradictions. | 35:14 | |
| Would you please pass the Matthew 12:30. | 35:16 | |
| Or is there a contradiction? | 35:21 | |
| Is there a contradiction? | 35:22 | |
| Mark says that Jesus said whoever is not against us | 35:24 | |
| is for us. | 35:30 | |
| The us, here, is us. | 35:32 | |
| It's his disciples. | 35:36 | |
| In Matthew, Jesus says, whoever is not with me | 35:39 | |
| is against me. | 35:44 | |
| The me, here, is Jesus. | 35:46 | |
| Apparently it is permissible to be outside | 35:50 | |
| the bounds of the club, outside the bounds | 35:52 | |
| of Jesus' 12 best friends, but it is not | 35:55 | |
| permissible to be against Jesus himself. | 35:59 | |
| And that sounds like quite a different matter | 36:04 | |
| than merely mushy headed openness and tolerance. | 36:06 | |
| For it must not be a matter of baptizing | 36:12 | |
| the great unwashed majority who have merely | 36:14 | |
| not take up the trouble to make up their minds. | 36:17 | |
| It is a matter of being with Jesus. | 36:22 | |
| And how is it that we are with Jesus? | 36:27 | |
| How do you get on Jesus' side? | 36:34 | |
| Perhaps the important thing is not that we have | 36:39 | |
| our head straight on correct theology. | 36:42 | |
| Or that we can claim allegiance to the one true church | 36:46 | |
| or the one pure religious group. | 36:48 | |
| The main thing is that you're with Jesus. | 36:51 | |
| And how do you do that? | 36:56 | |
| That's the issue. | 36:58 | |
| Jesus' own life defines discipleship. | 37:01 | |
| Can you cite me anywhere in the gospel | 37:06 | |
| Jesus stands up his disciples and says, | 37:08 | |
| everybody I want to hear to the correct creed | 37:10 | |
| recited by you by heart. | 37:12 | |
| Rather, in this little vignette, Jesus urges his disciples | 37:17 | |
| to get on his side, namely the side of those | 37:22 | |
| who match words with their deed. | 37:27 | |
| The deeds with their words. | 37:30 | |
| And to be ready to be surprised | 37:32 | |
| and to rejoice wherever good work is done, | 37:34 | |
| whoever the agent. | 37:38 | |
| Knowing that Jesus' kingdom is a lot bigger | 37:41 | |
| than our little church's definitions of it, | 37:43 | |
| we can expect as disciples to be surprised | 37:46 | |
| by the rich array of faithfulness | 37:49 | |
| because that world is also Jesus' world. | 37:51 | |
| And disciples are known more often | 37:57 | |
| by their offering of a cup of cold water | 38:00 | |
| than by their affirmation of a creed. | 38:03 | |
| 20 years ago Duke students turned their anger | 38:09 | |
| into a stunning act of protest. | 38:14 | |
| They gathered here in the front of this chapel | 38:17 | |
| to make a statement against injustice here and elsewhere. | 38:20 | |
| On Sunday morning the congregation walked past | 38:25 | |
| those bedraggle looking students | 38:29 | |
| and some of the worshiper undoubtedly sneered | 38:32 | |
| at these rebelling students. | 38:35 | |
| But microphones were put out on the quad | 38:39 | |
| and those out on the vigil were surprised to hear | 38:41 | |
| the then dean of the chapel remark | 38:45 | |
| that there's a good chance that Jesus | 38:50 | |
| would've felt a lot more comfortable outside | 38:53 | |
| with those protesting students than inside | 38:58 | |
| with his best friends. | 39:02 | |
| If we would be where Jesus is, | 39:07 | |
| we have to do what Jesus does. | 39:12 | |
| Those who are not against us, are for us. | 39:19 | |
| And no one who does a mighty work in my name | 39:22 | |
| shall be able to speak ill of me. | 39:25 | |
| Those who are not for me are against me. | 39:30 | |
| Yesterday's student activist become today's | 39:35 | |
| yumpies and bumpies. | 39:38 | |
| Now those of us who are older, who have learned | 39:41 | |
| all the right words and correct | 39:43 | |
| and can recite the creed by heart | 39:45 | |
| and are able to make proper distinction | 39:48 | |
| and discrimination, whose side are we on? | 39:50 | |
| Jesus told a story in Matthew 21 about a father | 40:00 | |
| who had two boys. | 40:04 | |
| And to his two sons he said | 40:06 | |
| that he wanted them to go out and work in his fields. | 40:07 | |
| The first son was a pleasant sort of lad | 40:11 | |
| who always wanted to please his parents | 40:14 | |
| and had a high SAT score and he said, | 40:15 | |
| sure father, it is an honor for me | 40:19 | |
| to be able to do your will. | 40:21 | |
| And yet an hour later, there he was still on the sofa. | 40:25 | |
| The second son was a rebellious adolescent upstart | 40:31 | |
| and he greeted his father's request typically with, | 40:37 | |
| me, forget it. | 40:40 | |
| I gotta work on the carburetor of my Chevy. | 40:42 | |
| I got more important things than to be | 40:44 | |
| your lacky running around doing stuff for you, forget it. | 40:46 | |
| Cooperative words would not fit in his | 40:50 | |
| young, insolent mouth. | 40:52 | |
| And yet about an hour or so later the father looked up | 40:56 | |
| from what he was doing and out in the field, | 40:58 | |
| there was the second son, hard at work. | 41:03 | |
| Jesus said, okay class, think hard. | 41:07 | |
| Which son do you think was closes to his father? | 41:10 | |
| The one with the right words | 41:17 | |
| or the one with the right deeds? | 41:20 | |
| And then to wrap up that story, Jesus made one | 41:25 | |
| of his most tasteless remarks. | 41:29 | |
| He looked at his disciples and he said, | 41:33 | |
| I tell you, tax collectors and whores | 41:36 | |
| are going into the kingdom of God before you. | 41:40 | |
| I tell you it's a text for which I've lost my taste. | 41:45 | |
| Amen. | 41:50 | |
| (organ playing) | 41:55 | |
| (choir singing) | 42:09 | |
| Elmer | The Lord be with you. | 44:06 |
| Congregation | And also with you. | 44:08 |
| - | Let us pray, please be seated. | 44:10 |
| Oh savior of the world, | 44:18 | |
| by your cross and passion you have redeemed us. | 44:21 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 44:26 | |
| From the impatience that prevents from | 44:31 | |
| discerning your purpose and pain and sorrow. | 44:33 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 44:38 | |
| From refusing to share the suffering of the world. | 44:40 | |
| From seeking only confident pleasure, | 44:45 | |
| from forgetting those in distress. | 44:48 | |
| From selfishness that brings needless grief to others. | 44:52 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 44:57 | |
| Almighty God, in the afflictions of your people | 45:00 | |
| you are yourself afflicted. | 45:05 | |
| Hear us as we pray for those who suffer. | 45:07 | |
| For all who are hindered in the race of life, | 45:16 | |
| through no fault of their own. | 45:22 | |
| For the defective and the delicate. | 45:24 | |
| And for those who are disabled. | 45:28 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 45:33 | |
| - | For those whose livelihood is insecure. | 45:36 |
| For the hungry, the homeless and destitute. | 45:39 | |
| For those how are overworked, down trodden | 45:42 | |
| and in despair. | 45:45 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 45:47 | |
| For little children whose surroundings | 45:51 | |
| hide from them your love and beauty. | 45:53 | |
| For the fatherless and motherless. | 45:56 | |
| And for the unwanted and the unloved. | 45:59 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 46:02 | |
| For prisoners and captives and all | 46:06 | |
| suffering from oppression. | 46:09 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 46:11 | |
| For all who are suffering because of their | 46:15 | |
| faithfulness to conviction and duty. | 46:18 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 46:21 | |
| For those who have to bear their burdens alone, | 46:25 | |
| for those who are in doubt and anguish of soul. | 46:28 | |
| For those who are oversensitive. | 46:31 | |
| And for those who suffer through their own wrong doing. | 46:34 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 46:38 | |
| For all who do not pray for themselves | 46:42 | |
| and for all who have not the consolation | 46:44 | |
| of the prayers of others. | 46:47 | |
| And for all whose anguish is unrelieved | 46:49 | |
| by the knowledge of your love. | 46:51 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 46:54 | |
| For the infirm and aged, and all who are growing | 46:58 | |
| weary with the journey of life. | 47:01 | |
| And for all who are passing through the valley of death. | 47:03 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 47:08 | |
| For all forgotten by us, but dear to you. | 47:11 | |
| (congregation speaking) | 47:15 | |
| Elmer | Oh God, our creator. | 47:19 |
| Have regard to our prayers. | 47:22 | |
| Answer them in your compassion. | 47:25 | |
| And make us the channels of your infinite | 47:29 | |
| pity and care, amen. | 47:32 | |
| - | Now let us respond to the word by offering | 47:43 |
| ourselves and our gifts to God. | 47:46 | |
| (man singing) | 48:30 | |
| (organ playing) | 49:48 | |
| (choir singing) | 50:15 | |
| (man singing) | 54:42 | |
| (choir singing) | 56:15 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 56:27 | |
| (choir singing) | 56:34 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 56:47 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 56:53 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 56:59 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 57:07 | |
| - | Accept these offerings, we beseech you oh Lord | 57:18 |
| and mercifully direct and enable us | 57:22 | |
| by your holy spirit, that all things | 57:24 | |
| which we do in your name may be truly wrought in you. | 57:27 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 57:32 | |
| who taught us to pray together saying | 57:35 | |
| our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name | 57:38 | |
| thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 57:42 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven. | 57:46 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 57:48 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those | 57:51 | |
| who trespass against us. | 57:54 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 57:57 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 57:59 | |
| For thine is the kingdom and the power | 58:01 | |
| and the glory forever, amen. | 58:04 | |
| (organ playing) | 58:16 | |
| (choir singing) | 58:56 |
Item Info
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