(calm music) - Good morning welcome to this service of worship here in Duke University Chapel. Call to your attention the organ recital which will be here this afternoon and also the alternative Christmas which we are cooperating with the Divinity School in sponsoring and call to your attention the announcement in the bulletin about the alternative Christmas program and their Bazaar which will be on November the 20th. You will notice special music today by our choir as we end these last Sunday's of the Christian year in November the biblical texts take on an apocalyptic quality and the music today mirrors that special quality of these texts. You will also notice that the sermon text today comes from the Epistle to the Hebrews an Epistle thought to be written to early Jewish Christians, that's ironic considering the events on campus in the last two weeks. Last Sunday a large group gathered on the steps of the chapel to commemorate Kristallnacht that day of terror against the Jewish communities in Germany in response to the ad in The Chronicle about the Holocaust, the religious life staff here at Duke is having an ad that is coming out in the Chronicle and they've asked me to read portions of it to you as we begin our worship today. We the religious life staff at Duke University stand in solidarity with Jewish brothers and sisters in our dismay over the Chronicle's decision to accept the Holocaust revisionists ad. We totally reject the claims of this ad and are appalled that it's lies should be presented as scholarship. We believe that this ad was designed to foster hatred against a particular religious and ethnic group, and we share the pain of the Jewish community. We acknowledge with sadness, the role that our own religious communities have played in the past, through our silent complicity with the atrocities of the Holocaust. We've had abundant evidence of our tendency to dehumanize one another and justify violence through racial religious and ethnic difference. We affirm that all persons are created by God, we call upon the Duke community to seek ways to foster respect and understanding, we will continue to encourage dialogue among persons of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds, through such activities as the Annual Interfaith Seder, the annual Holocaust remembrance service at Duke chapel and Duke chapels annual educational programs on jewish-christian relations. We pledge to sponsor a variety of activities to encourage better understanding about the Holocaust during our Holocaust Remembrance Week in the spring. We pledge to continue in a more intentional manner to seek ways to struggle with this issue to foster understanding and respect of all people, we ask for forgiveness for the many times that we have failed to exemplify this ideal. May God grant us grace That our thoughts attitudes words and actions may build genuine community and this is signed by members of the religious life staff at Duke. Let us stand for the greeting. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. - And also with you. - The risen Christ is with us. - Praise the Lord. ♪ Glory to God, and praise and love ♪ ♪ Be ever, ever given, ♪ ♪ By saints below and saints above, ♪ ♪ The church in earth and heaven ♪ ♪ On this glad day the glorious sun ♪ ♪ Of righteousness arose; ♪ ♪ On my benighted soul he shone ♪ ♪ And filled it with repose ♪ ♪ Sudden expired the legal strife, ♪ ♪ 'Twas then I ceased to grieve, ♪ ♪ My second, real, living life ♪ ♪ I then began to live ♪ ♪ Then with my heart I first believed, ♪ ♪ Believed with faith divine, ♪ ♪ Power with the Holy Ghost received ♪ ♪ To call the Savior mine ♪ ♪ I felt my Lord's atoning blood ♪ ♪ Close to my soul applied, ♪ ♪ Me, me he loved, the Son of God, ♪ ♪ For me, for me he died ♪ ♪ I found and owned his promise true, ♪ ♪ Ascertained of my part, ♪ ♪ My pardon passed in heaven I knew ♪ ♪ When written on my heart, ♪ ♪ O for a thousand tongues to sing ♪ ♪ My dear Redeemer's praise ♪ ♪ The glories of my God and King, ♪ ♪ The triumphs of his grace ♪ ♪ My gracious Master and my God, ♪ ♪ Assist me to proclaim, ♪ ♪ To spread through all the earth abroad ♪ ♪ The honors of thy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, the name that charms our fears, ♪ ♪ That bids our sorrows cease, ♪ ♪ 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, ♪ ♪ 'Tis life, and health, and peace ♪ ♪ He breaks the power of canceled sin, ♪ ♪ He sets the prisoner free, ♪ ♪ His blood can make the foulest clean, ♪ ♪ His blood availed for me ♪ ♪ He speaks, and listening to his voice ♪ ♪ New life the dead receive, ♪ ♪ The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, ♪ ♪ The humble poor believe ♪ ♪ Hear him, ye deaf, his praise, ye dumb, ♪ ♪ Your loosened tongues employ, ♪ ♪ Ye blind, behold your Savior come, ♪ ♪ And leap, ye lame, for joy ♪ ♪ Look unto him, ye nations, own ♪ ♪ Your God, ye fallen race ♪ ♪ Look, and be saved through faith alone, ♪ ♪ Be justified by grace ♪ ♪ See all your sins on Jesus laid, ♪ ♪ The Lamb of God was slain, ♪ ♪ His soul was once an offering made ♪ ♪ For every soul of man ♪ ♪ Harlots and publicans and thieves, ♪ ♪ In holy triumph join ♪ ♪ Saved is the sinner that believes ♪ ♪ From crimes as great as mine ♪ ♪ Murderers and all ye hellish crew, ♪ ♪ Ye sons of lust and pride, ♪ ♪ Believe the Savior died for you, ♪ ♪ For me the Savior died ♪ ♪ With me, your chief, you then shall know, ♪ ♪ Shall feel your sins forgiven ♪ ♪ Anticipate your heaven below ♪ ♪ And own that love is heave ♪ - Praise God for the gift of music. Let us pray. We thank you O God for calling us into your church to be your people we have gathered God of grace and wisdom because we have heard your call, you have reached out to us in Jesus Christ, you have touched us with your spirit, and we have turned toward you seeking to love as we have been loved. We call upon your holy name empower us to worship and serve you walking gently on this earth, through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. - Let us pray together the prayer for illumination. Open our hearts and minds Oh God by the power of your Holy Spirit so that as the word is read and proclaimed, we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, Amen. The first reading is taken from the Book of Daniel, the seventh chapter starting with the ninth verse. As I watched Thrones were set in place and an ancient one took his throne his clothing was white as snow and the head of his head, hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames and its wheels were burning fire, a stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence a thousand thousands served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him, the court sat in judgment and the books were opened. I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched the Beast was put to death and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the ancient one and was presented before him. To him was given Dominion and glory and kingship that all peoples nations and languages should serve him. His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion that shall not pass away and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. This is the word of the Lord. Congregation: Thanks be to God. - The psalm is number 145 on page one, I mean number 145 verses 8 through 13 found on page 857. Please stand and sing responsively. ♪ The Lord is gracious and merciful ♪ ♪ Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love ♪ ♪ The lord is good to all, ♪ ♪ His compassion is for all his creation ♪ ♪ All your works shall give thanks to you O Lord ♪ ♪ And your faithful ones shall bless you ♪ ♪ They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom ♪ ♪ And tell of your love ♪ ♪ To make known to all people your mighty deeds ♪ ♪ And the glorious splendor of your kingdom ♪ ♪ Your kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom ♪ ♪ And your dominion endures throughout all generations ♪ ♪ All glory be to you Creator ♪ ♪ And to Jesus Christ our Savior, ♪ ♪ Grant your Holy Spirit, Blessed Trinity ♪ ♪ As it was begun 'er time began ♪ ♪ Praise God, him the King, forever more ♪ - This reading is from the 10th chapter of Hebrews beginning with the 11th verse. And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God and since then has been waiting until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time, those who are sanctified, and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us for after saying, "This is the Covenant "that I will make with them after those days," says the Lord "I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds" He also adds, "I will remember their sins "and their lawless deeds no more. "Where there is forgiveness of these, "there is no longer any offering for sin." This is the word of the Lord. Congregation: Praise be to God. - This reading is taken from the Gospel according to Saint Mark, the 13th chapter starting at the 24th verse. But in those days after that suffering the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken, then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds, with great power and glory, then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree learn its lesson as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly I tell you this generation will not pass away, until all these things have taken place, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away, but about that day or hour, no one knows neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. This is the word of the Lord. Congregation: Thanks be to God. ♪ Blessed is he that readeth, ♪ ♪ That heareth the words of this prophecy, ♪ ♪ And keep those things which are written ♪ ♪ For the time ♪ ♪ Is at hand ♪ ♪ Behold, he cometh with clouds ♪ ♪ Every eye shall see him, ♪ ♪ And they also which pierced him ♪ ♪ And all kindreds of the earth ♪ ♪ Shall wail, shall wail, ♪ ♪ Shall wail because of him ♪ ♪ Even so, amen ♪ ♪ I John, who also am your brother, ♪ ♪ And companion in tribulation, ♪ ♪ Was in the isle, called Patmos, ♪ ♪ And I John, saw these things ♪ ♪ Behold the Lord opened in heaven ♪ ♪ And a great voice I heard was as trumpet calling ♪ ♪ He said ♪ ♪ I am the Alpha and Omega, ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I am he who died ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And liveth forever and ever ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I will show these things ♪ ♪ Which shall be hereafter ♪ - Every priest stands day after day offering again and again the same sacrifice, but when Christ had offered for all time the single sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. Okay class take out a paper and pen, pop quiz time. I suspect that from what I saw on campus last night many of you have been neglecting your Christianity homework, here's a pop quiz that consists of one multiple choice question, listen carefully, question is this. Which of the following is not a religion? A: High-fiber cereal. B: The National Association of Scholars. C: The Wall Street Journal. D: The Christian faith. You can pick only one, which of the following is not a religion high-fiber cereal, the National Association of scholars, the Wall Street Journal or D the Christian faith? Times up, hand in your papers, you got it right if you pick D, the Christian faith, oh but you say you also always thought that Christianity was a religion well a lot that you learned in Des Moines has needed correcting why not what you think about Christianity? No the Christian faith is not a religion, here is a definition. Religion is the attempt by human beings to establish a right relationship between themselves and whatever it is outside themselves that they think will give them life, that's religion, religion by my definition is any attempt to get a handle on the way the world is run, to plug into the power, to find the program that will lead you to meaning or happiness or self-esteem or whatever you think gives a person life and that program may be about God or about the good life or about good sex or whatever a person believes will give life significance, still it is a religion the person who gulps down great quantities of cereal containing sawdust to hedge his bets on good health, the professor who forces down you large quantities of Shakespeare in order to protect you from the ravages of Alice Walker, the anxious observer of the Dow Jones average, all of these can be said to be religious in a way that Christianity is not. Religions all have certain things in common, for instance all religions have three things in common, they all have creeds in common, creeds, something that you are told if you will get your head straight about which will encourage correct thinking, will give you an edge on life, all religions have cults that is certain practices that are evoked by those creeds, certain rituals and habits that they must go through. I don't jog for the fun of it, I do it to get somewhere else, nobody eats oat bran because it tastes good. We don't get advanced degrees for the sheer joy of gaining knowledge, no these are sort of cultic practices to move us somewhere else and then a third thing that all religions have is certain conduct proscribed, prescribed behavior which if you get it right will land you in Nirvana or on Wall Street or in St. Petersburg or wherever you think it is that religion ought to get you in order to set you up. Creed, cult, conduct. Now need I say that a necessary byproduct of all religion is therefore fatigue because every religion is always insisting that there just certain things that you've got to think right, do right, get right in order to be right, people are forever flunking religion. Now there are uptight, terribly difficult to get right religions like golf, just when you master the 9-iron, there's always the Niblick, staring at you from the bag, demanding that you get it right too and then there are laid-back, there're relaxed religions like psychotherapy where you just lie on a couch and you free-associate about your mother but in every religion there's always gonna be creed and then there will be cult and then there will be conduct, just things that simply must be gotten right if you are to be right. In other words that relationship to that something beyond ourselves, religion always tells us is mainly up to us, it's a result of something that we think or we do, we say and it is so tiresome because it is so difficult to get it right no matter how much we watch what we eat, gobbling up large amounts of brown rice, well there's always someone the next day on Good Morning America to tell us oh no, no, no, you got that all right, you're supposed to be eating bulgur wheat instead, sorry for you kid no relationship to the ultimate in life for you so religion is not only a recipe for fatigue but it is a one-way ticket to failure because the harder you try, particularly the more conscientious you are, the more apt you are to be impressed that you just haven't gotten it right. Oh, religion will sometimes tell you that it really loves that source of the ultimate that lies outside of itself with which it is trying to establish a relationship but in fact it's not love that motivates religion, it's appeasement or self-protection, control is really the goal of all religion, some key, some formula, some program to control, bean sprouts and oat bran I love you forget it, it's called work, it's hard work, it's tiresome work, fatigue producing work to get it right but it hardly ever is, we can eat broccoli and brown rice only to get clobbered by an asteroid and we can offer up the blood of our sons and daughters out in the desert for some new world order only to have them enslaved to the Emir's oil. Nobody ever got an A-plus on the exam called religion but the trouble with religion is that A-plus is the only grade worth having and they get it right or lose it, the world of religion, so religion is always a one-way ticket to failure and we're all born religious that is we come into this world just desperate to find some way for us to establish some relationship with that ultimate source of meaning or being outside ourselves, we're just born religious. Lying in our bassinet when we're a baby, we noticed quite by accident that certain facial contortions will bring paroxysms of glee in our parents, oh look at the camera the baby just laughed, well then we do it again, it produces the same effect, we think we may have discovered the key to managing our parents, later we notice whenever Aunt Hildegard comes to visit that if you curtsy she'll come with a fiber so that means at anytime the old lady comes into the room we just drop to our knees and if we get good enough at that afterwards there's the Angier B. Duke Scholarship Competition and then a major in electrical engineering and then it's just on and on and on but we never can seem to quite get it right despite going through life, changing our creeds and our cults and our conduct we just can never seem to get it right now here's the point of the sermon from Hebrews Jesus came to put an end to religion, religion as something that human beings have got to do to somehow get right with God, to have a correct relationship with God interested Jesus even less than golf. Religion is that which we do when we really get serious about cutting down our cholesterol or when we really hunker down and give everything we've got to our career or when we really finally clean up our act morally speaking separating the good from the bad, the saved from the damned, the in from the out, this could have interested Jesus to no account. Jesus never got into what we call religion, that anxious, tiring, fatigue producing, ultimately futile attempt to get right with God because in him, in Jesus, God made it right. Jesus made the only sacrifice ever needed to get right with God, the writer of Hebrews saint of the temple, in the temple the priests work day and night coming before God, coming before God, offering sacrifice for our sins, why did the priests work so hard well Psalm 50 tells us offer to God a thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High and I will deliver you, you see you put your money in here, you get this, quid pro quo, this for that, the temple was off-limits for lay people only the priest could go into the Holy of Holies and on Yom Kippur the priest walked into the Holy of Holies and he made sacrifice for our sins but as Hebrew says it was an annual sacrifice for our sin, you had to do it again and again every year, there's religion for you, no sooner have you finished your sacrifice then it's next Sunday and you have to start the whole thing over again, you get up you come down to the chapel and you come out after being all forgiven and made fresh and clean and you're feeling good and you say yes I got this right, on the way out the door of the chapel, somebody bumps into you, you say hey watch it buddy well then he shoves you back, you shove him, hey how long did your purity last this Sunday, you have to start the whole thing over again, it's so tiring and Hebrews notes that in the temple there weren't any chairs for the priest, Hebrews says that in the temple the priest always had to stand up, well of course they stood if some priest is gonna be offering atonement for my sin he's going to have a full-time job, he'll never get a day off, he'll never be able to take a seat and lounge around cuz no matter how beautiful the music, no matter how stunningly right everything is, the prayers, the sermon, the readings this priest is just gonna have to be kept perpetually, breathlessly running back and forth between my sin and the altar of God. The very busyness of the priest, the fact that there is no chair in the Holy of Holies is for the writer of Hebrews testimony to the failure of religion. Every priest stands day after day at his service offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sin. Then the writer of Hebrews remembers the Prophet Jeremiah who predicted that there would be one day when we would not be running back and forth back and forth from the altar when if God had something to say to us, God would just write it on the heart when that something beyond ourselves would be so close to us that it would be part of us. In contrast to the standing posture of priests, see I'm standing right now even as I talked to you, in contrast to that posture Jesus sits, where is Jesus during the service well he's lounging over there, he's seated, when Christ offered up for all time a single sacrifice for sin he sat down at the right hand of God, the veil in the temple separating us between God was ripped in two at his death, in his great gift he put religion out of business now there is just no point in getting on some treadmill of right thoughts, right actions, right words because that right relationship that we so desperately seek was made right in him. Now all we must do is just trust that he has done what needed to be done. Now class I'll admit to Christianity in its attempt to trust what Jesus did has often made use of the forms of religion, that's probably why you may have answered A, B, or C when you should have answered D, we have sometimes made use of the forms of religion to get across this radically non-religious message, in fact if you look at your bulletin today's service you'll see there, creed, cult, conduct but my point is please, please don't take any of that seriously, there is nothing in this service, there is nothing that in anything I've said and that the choir's sung that can establish a right relationship between you and God, all of that is there is a kind of joke's on us reminder that Jesus has already established a right relationship between us and God and now he has taken his seat. Prayer is not a con job to get God to be gracious, God already is grace, we don't baptize, we don't break bread, we don't read scripture in order to beg God to show up, God's already here, that's why Jesus sits, that's why we call it Gospel, good news. If it were religion, it would still be the bad news that there's still something for us to do to get right, some door to be unlocked, some ritual to be gone through, some little sin to be purged, some inadequate idea to be gotten straight on but we're here this morning not to get right but because in Jesus this thing between us and God has been made right, we don't sing in order to get somewhere with God, we sing because we've already arrived. Now as Robert Capon says you'd think the church with our great big gone out of the religion sign over our door, you might think people would be just be breaking down the door to get in here, now as we said we're all born religious, we come into this world just assuming that there's got to be some creed, cult, or conduct that we can get to get the key and so we breathlessly try to batter down God's door when the door's already open. Look at Jesus, seated, then look at us, oh we're so busy trotting back and forth, trying to get right conduct, right help, right thinking and there he is seated for Heaven's sake now granted there may be some who argue religion has its place, our scurrying about to eat right, think right, look right, do right is testimony that down in our hearts we think maybe we're not right, we are not good lovers, we are not good livers, we are not good dyers yet for all of our inner thoughts about our nagging inadequacies, Hebrews said, our repeated little sacrifices, these can never take away sin, maybe by the way you may be saying right now well wait a minute isn't there good that is God certified true religion and then bad religion? Forget it, Jesus never told us to do anything in some do this, get that quid pro quo sense, we just will never be able to substitute our control for His grace, if we're gonna be rightly related to God, it's gonna be because of something he has done not what we do, it's called Grace and Hebrews has a joyful him that he's done it, it's over, God's got no more quarrel with us and so we come up to the cash register fumbling in our wallet trying to find a bill large enough to pay and we get up there and the guy at the cash register says oh excuse me your bill has been paid by that man seated over there in the corner. When he got through he just sat down at the right hand of God, it was over, tortured in conscience, painfully aware of his own inadequacies, John Bunyan heard God say in grace abounding, Senator, thou thinkest that because of thy sin, and infirmities I cannot save thy soul but behold my son is seated beside me and upon him I look not upon thee and I will deal with thee according as I am pleased with him. ♪ Lo he comes with clouds descending ♪ ♪ Once for favored sinners slain ♪ ♪ Thousand thousand saints attending ♪ ♪ Swell the triumph of his train ♪ ♪ Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia ♪ ♪ God appears, on earth to reign ♪ ♪ Every eye shall now behold him ♪ ♪ Robed in dreadful majesty ♪ ♪ Those who set at nought and sold him ♪ ♪ Pierced and nailed him to the tree ♪ ♪ Deeply wailing ♪ ♪ Deeply wailing ♪ ♪ Deeply wailing ♪ ♪ Shall the true Messiah see ♪ ♪ Those dear tokens of his passion ♪ ♪ Still his dazzling body bears, ♪ ♪ Cause of endless exultation ♪ ♪ To his ransomed worshipers ♪ ♪ With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture, ♪ ♪ Gaze we on those glorious scars! ♪ ♪ Yea, Amen! let all adore thee, ♪ ♪ High on thine eternal throne; ♪ ♪ Savior, take the power and glory: ♪ ♪ Claim the kingdom for thine own: ♪ ♪ Alleluia! ♪ ♪ Alleluia! ♪ ♪ Alleluia! ♪ ♪ Come quickly, come, Lord, come ♪ - The Lord be with you. Audience: And also with you. - Let us pray, you may be seated. God of grace, we give thanks to you, we proclaim the glory of your kingdom, we tell of your power, we declare to all the world your mighty deeds and glorious splendor. We bless your name Lord for by your grace are we saved by your mercy forgiven by your forbearance accepted by your love restored and by this grace are we made gracious and by this mercy merciful and by this forbearance forbearing and by this love loving. This is so not because of anything we have done but because of what you have done. As the author of Hebrews declared, "every priest stands daily at services "offering repeatedly the same sacrifices "which can never take away sins "but Jesus Christ once and for all "embodied our relationship with you "and the Holy Spirit works at all times "to write its good news upon our hearts." Yes our salvation is already accomplished not by our acts but by your act not in another world but in this world not in another time but in this time. All this you have promised and still more for in your boundless love you had vowed I will remember your sins and misdeeds no more. All is done, all is forgiven even before our wavering even before our failing even before our pleading even before our trembling. How can we not bless your name? For you have given to us what we could never gain for ourselves no matter how diligently we practiced religion no matter what creed, cult and conduct we have followed. Who are you Oh God? Who remembers your creatures but no more their sin? You are everything and no thing you are the terrifying door into the unknown and the comforting embrace at the threshold. Yours is a name terrible in its mystery Daniel imagined you as the Ancient of Days, he saw you seated on a throne of flames, your raiment white as snow and your hair like pure wool. Another prophet conceived you as mother he uttered your word to Israel. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should have no compassion on the child of her womb? I will not forget you and Jesus regarded you as father he told of your present provision even for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Oh Lord we call upon your name which is above every name and gives meaning to all names. Usher us through the door of your kingdom and we shall serve you whose realm is eternal and whose Dominion is everlasting in the name of Jesus Christ we pray amen. Freely we have received God's grace, freely let us give out of our abundance. (organ playing) "Visions of St. John by John Ness Beck" - Let us pray. God of grace whose heart abounds with gifts receive this offering as a sign of our gratitude and love, bless it and guide it's use that it may reach and touch those who hunger, who hurt, who seek new hope may they as we, know the joy of your everlasting presence and may your love and ours go with every gift amen. Now let us pray together as the redeemed children of God. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen, Because Christ sits at the right hand of God, there is no need for us to earn our salvation. All has been accomplished on our behalf. Grace, mercy and peace have been given to us. Let us accept the gifts of God with joy may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen. ♪ (organ playing) ♪ All my hope is firmly grounded ♪ ♪ In our great and living Lord ♪ ♪ Who whenever I most need him ♪ ♪ Never fails to keep his word ♪ ♪ Him I must ♪ ♪ Wholly trust ♪ ♪ God the ever good and just ♪ ♪ Tell me who can trust our nature ♪ ♪ Human weak and insecure ♪ ♪ Which of all the airy castles ♪ ♪ Can the hurricane endure ♪ ♪ Build on sand ♪ ♪ Nought can stand ♪ ♪ By our earthly wisdom planned ♪ ♪ But in every time and season ♪ ♪ Out of love's abundant store ♪ ♪ God sustains his whole creation ♪ ♪ Fount of life for evermore ♪ ♪ We who share ♪ ♪ Earth and air ♪ ♪ Count on his unfailing care ♪ ♪ Thank O thank our great Creator ♪ ♪ Through his only Son this day ♪ ♪ He alone the heavenly Potter ♪ ♪ Made us out of earth and clay ♪ ♪ Quick to heed ♪ ♪ Strong the deed ♪ ♪ He shall all his people feed ♪ (organ playing)