Charlene P. Kammerer - "Redeeming the Time" (January 1, 1984)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(somber organ music) | 0:03 | |
("Good King Wenceslas") | 1:37 | |
(congregation signing "Good King Wenceslas") | 2:15 | |
(papers rustling) | 4:26 | |
- | Due to some miscommunication, | 4:41 |
the ministers have not arrived up here yet. | 4:43 | |
If you'll wait for just a moment, | 4:46 | |
the service will continue with the confession. | 4:47 | |
(organ music) | 5:05 | |
- | Grace to you and peace from God Almighty, | 6:39 |
the one who is and who was and who is to come. | 6:42 | |
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, | 6:48 | |
we are come together in the presence of God | 6:50 | |
and of the whole company of heaven | 6:54 | |
to set forth God's most worthy praise, | 6:56 | |
to hear the Lord's most holy word, | 7:00 | |
to declare our faith in Christ | 7:03 | |
and to ask for ourselves and all persons | 7:05 | |
those things which are necessary for the body and the soul. | 7:08 | |
Wherefore, let us now prepare ourselves for this hour | 7:13 | |
by making humble confession of our sins unto the Lord. | 7:18 | |
Let us confess to God our sin. | 7:24 | |
For coming into your presence with unclean lips | 7:28 | |
and impure hearts oh Lord, | 7:32 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 7:34 | |
For bringing jealousies and resentments | 7:38 | |
into our life oh Lord, | 7:40 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 7:43 | |
For wasting time we have set aside for your service oh Lord, | 7:46 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 7:51 | |
For accepting help from others without giving | 7:54 | |
and for offering help to others | 7:58 | |
in the hope of receiving oh Lord, | 8:00 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 8:03 | |
For praising you here more fervently | 8:06 | |
than in our daily living oh Lord, | 8:09 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 8:11 | |
For every un-Christlike attitude that corrupts our worship | 8:15 | |
and weakens our witness oh Lord, | 8:20 | |
forgive us we pray you. | 8:23 | |
Accept us and use us in your service, | 8:26 | |
we ask you in Christ's name, amen. | 8:30 | |
Hear these wonderful words of hope and assurance. | 8:48 | |
This is the message we have heard from Christ | 8:53 | |
and proclaim to you, | 8:56 | |
that God is light and in God is no darkness at all. | 8:58 | |
If we walk in the light as God is in the light, | 9:04 | |
we have fellowship with one another | 9:08 | |
and the blood of Jesus his son, | 9:10 | |
cleanses us from all unrighteousness. | 9:13 | |
Let us now give thanks, for God is good | 9:18 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 9:21 | |
Thanks be to God who's love creates us. | 9:25 | |
Thanks be to God who's mercy redeems us. | 9:30 | |
Thanks be to God who's grace leads us into the future. | 9:35 | |
On this very cold and first Sunday of the new year | 9:43 | |
the ministers and the staff of Duke Chapel | 9:48 | |
welcome you to this service of worship | 9:51 | |
and pray that it will be a blessing upon you | 9:53 | |
as you go forth from this place today. | 9:56 | |
This is the first Sunday in Christmastide | 10:00 | |
and we are pleased that you have chosen | 10:03 | |
to worship with us this morning. | 10:05 | |
The Reverend Charlene Kammerer | 10:11 | |
has asked me to make an announcement to you. | 10:13 | |
We have been very shocked and saddened this week | 10:17 | |
to learn of the death of Steven Bowman, | 10:21 | |
a senior here at Duke. | 10:24 | |
Steven and his brother Michael, | 10:26 | |
who was a sophomore at North Carolina State University | 10:28 | |
were both killed in a car accident earlier this week. | 10:32 | |
The Bowman family is from Hickory | 10:36 | |
and thus is the location | 10:39 | |
from which the funeral was conducted Friday | 10:41 | |
at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church. | 10:44 | |
Steven was very active here at the university, | 10:47 | |
participating in the Lutheran Campus Ministry. | 10:50 | |
He was a tutor for the Athletic Association | 10:54 | |
and was on the Dean's list for academic honors. | 10:57 | |
We extend our prayers and our heartfelt sympathy | 11:01 | |
to Steven and to Michael's family | 11:04 | |
and this really overwhelming loss. | 11:06 | |
There will be a memorial service on campus | 11:09 | |
and the details of this service | 11:12 | |
will be announced in the near future, | 11:14 | |
when the students have returned to the campus. | 11:16 | |
The Reverend Charlene Kammerer acting minister | 11:23 | |
to the university will be delivering the sermon for today. | 11:26 | |
The sermon is entitled Redeeming the Time. | 11:31 | |
- | Let us pray. | 11:47 |
Oh Lord our God, you have given your word | 11:53 | |
to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. | 11:56 | |
Grant us grace to receive Your truth and faith | 12:01 | |
and love that by yet we may be prepared unto every good word | 12:04 | |
and work to the glory of Your name. | 12:09 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 12:13 | |
The Old Testament lesson this morning is from | 12:19 | |
Ecclesiastes the third chapter the first nine verses | 12:22 | |
and verses 14 through 17. | 12:26 | |
For everything there is a season | 12:31 | |
and a time for every matter under heaven. | 12:34 | |
A time to be born and a time to die. | 12:38 | |
A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. | 12:42 | |
A time to kill and a time to heal. | 12:47 | |
A time to break down and a time to build up. | 12:51 | |
A time to weep and a time to laugh. | 12:54 | |
A time to mourn and a time to dance. | 12:58 | |
A time to cast away stones | 13:01 | |
and a time to gather stones together. | 13:04 | |
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. | 13:09 | |
A time to seek and a time to lose. | 13:13 | |
A time to keep and a time to cast away. | 13:17 | |
A time to rend and a time to sew. | 13:21 | |
A time to keep silence and a time to speak. | 13:24 | |
A time to love and a time to hate. | 13:29 | |
A time for war and a time for peace. | 13:31 | |
What gain has the worker from his toil? | 13:36 | |
I know that whatever God does endures forever. | 13:40 | |
Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken away from it. | 13:44 | |
God has made it so, | 13:48 | |
in order that men should fear before him | 13:49 | |
that which is already has been. | 13:53 | |
That which is to be already has been. | 13:56 | |
And God seeks what has been driven away. | 14:00 | |
Moreover, I saw under the sun | 14:04 | |
that in the place of justice even there was wickedness. | 14:06 | |
And in the place of righteousness, | 14:10 | |
even there was wickedness. | 14:13 | |
I said in my heart, | 14:15 | |
God will judge the righteous and the wicked, | 14:17 | |
for He has appointed a time for every matter | 14:21 | |
and for every work. | 14:24 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 14:28 | |
The epistle lesson is from Galatians | 14:33 | |
the fourth chapter verses four through seven. | 14:35 | |
But when the time had fully come God set forth his son. | 14:40 | |
Born of women, born under the law, | 14:44 | |
to redeem those who were under the law. | 14:46 | |
So that we might receive adoption as sons. | 14:49 | |
And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit | 14:52 | |
of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father. | 14:55 | |
So through God you are no longer a slave but a son. | 15:00 | |
And if a son, then an heir. | 15:05 | |
Here ends the reading from the epistle lesson. | 15:10 | |
(organ music) | 15:15 | |
- | Would you please stand | 17:33 |
for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 17:33 | |
The gospel lesson's from the first chapter of John | 17:42 | |
the first 19 verses. | 17:44 | |
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. | 17:48 | |
And the word was God. | 17:52 | |
He was in the beginning with God. | 17:55 | |
All things were made through Him | 17:57 | |
and without Him was not anything made that was made. | 17:59 | |
In Him was life and the life was the light of men. | 18:03 | |
The light shines in the darkness | 18:08 | |
and the darkness has not overcome it. | 18:10 | |
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. | 18:13 | |
He came for testimony to bear witness to the light | 18:17 | |
that all might be believe through Him. | 18:20 | |
He was not the light but came to bear witness to the light. | 18:23 | |
The true light that enlightens every man | 18:27 | |
was coming into the world. | 18:29 | |
He was in the world and the world was made through Him | 18:31 | |
yet the world knew Him not. | 18:34 | |
He came to His own home and His own people received Him not. | 18:37 | |
He came but to all who receive Him, | 18:41 | |
who believed in His name, | 18:45 | |
He gave power to become children of God, | 18:47 | |
who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, | 18:50 | |
nor of the will of man, but of God. | 18:54 | |
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. | 18:58 | |
Full of grace and truth. | 19:02 | |
We have beheld His glory. | 19:04 | |
Glory is of the only son from the Father. | 19:06 | |
John bore witness to him and cried | 19:10 | |
this was He of whom I said | 19:12 | |
He who comes after me ranks before me for he was before me. | 19:14 | |
And from his fullness have we all received grace unto grace. | 19:21 | |
For the law was given through Moses. | 19:27 | |
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. | 19:29 | |
No one has ever seen God, | 19:34 | |
the only son who is on the bosom of the Father, | 19:37 | |
He has made him known. | 19:42 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. | 19:46 | |
Amen. | 19:49 | |
(organ music) | 19:51 | |
(congregation singing) | 19:59 | |
- | In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, Amen. | 20:55 |
There was a large, easy to read | 21:04 | |
ol' fashion type of school clock on the wall | 21:07 | |
by the checkout desk of Garrett Library. | 21:11 | |
As a work study library aid at that seminary | 21:16 | |
and student there for four years, | 21:20 | |
I was often confronted by the ticking | 21:23 | |
and sound of that clock. | 21:26 | |
Semesters came and went. | 21:29 | |
Term paper, deadlines, exams | 21:32 | |
and research projects flowed on endlessly. | 21:35 | |
We all marched in and out of those doors under that clock | 21:40 | |
but most of us paused to smile | 21:46 | |
as we really looked at that clock. | 21:49 | |
There was an inscription underneath it which said | 21:52 | |
redeeming the time. | 21:56 | |
It was rather a constant reminder to us | 22:00 | |
of our corporate task as a community of faith there. | 22:03 | |
And also of our individual journeys and pursuits. | 22:08 | |
I can still see in my mind's eye | 22:12 | |
the beckoning of that clock, | 22:15 | |
both humorlessly and hopefully. | 22:17 | |
There is another clock however, | 22:22 | |
which confronts all of us today and causes us, | 22:25 | |
I think to grasp desperately for hope. | 22:30 | |
This symbolic Doomsday Clock on the cover | 22:34 | |
on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist | 22:38 | |
has inched one minute closer to midnight | 22:42 | |
in this last edition of 1983, | 22:46 | |
suggesting that the world is nearer to nuclear war | 22:51 | |
than it has been in more than 30 thirty years. | 22:56 | |
The time on this clock has been pictured | 23:01 | |
in this publication since 1947. | 23:04 | |
We are told it changes when scientists | 23:09 | |
who run the publication agree on either an increased | 23:12 | |
or decreased threat of nuclear war. | 23:16 | |
The hands of this clock have moved 11 times | 23:21 | |
in the history of the magazine. | 23:25 | |
With the most recent movement being in 1981. | 23:28 | |
And now, the hands have moved from four minutes | 23:33 | |
to three minutes before midnight. | 23:38 | |
Symbolizing the increased United States, Soviet tensions | 23:41 | |
and a highly escalating arms race. | 23:46 | |
According to world renowned scientists | 23:50 | |
their bulletin predicts | 23:54 | |
that doomsday is getting closer by the minute. | 23:56 | |
Today's three lections address for us one question, | 24:03 | |
does our life, set in a framework of time, | 24:09 | |
have any enduring meaning. | 24:13 | |
Kohelet, the writer of Ecclesiastes, | 24:17 | |
sketches for us in that beautiful book, | 24:21 | |
the oppressive rigidity of this kind of framework | 24:25 | |
by declaring that for everything there is a season | 24:30 | |
and a quote appointed time. | 24:34 | |
Herein we perceive the reflections of a philosopher | 24:38 | |
rather than a testimony of belief | 24:43 | |
about the experiences of life. | 24:46 | |
I am quite sure that Kohelet would not be inclined | 24:50 | |
to make New Year's resolutions. | 24:54 | |
This writer seeks to understand, by use of reason, | 24:59 | |
the very meaning of human existence | 25:04 | |
and the possible good which one can find in life. | 25:07 | |
To him God is the inscrutable originator of the world | 25:12 | |
and the determiner of humanity's fate. | 25:18 | |
As the natural world is in constant change, | 25:23 | |
movement without very real change, | 25:27 | |
so human expenditure of effort then | 25:30 | |
would achieve nothing. | 25:34 | |
All for Kohelet is vanity: | 25:37 | |
a breath, a fleeting moment, unsubstantial. | 25:41 | |
The character thus and accomplishments of men and women | 25:46 | |
make no difference for their fate is no different | 25:51 | |
than those of the beast around them in this creation. | 25:55 | |
Yet, though baffled by the very reason he chooses to use | 26:00 | |
Kohelet throughout that book, nevertheless affirms | 26:06 | |
that life even with these limitations is worth living. | 26:10 | |
His message to us is that one must face facts, | 26:16 | |
accept what cannot be changed | 26:21 | |
and enjoy whatever good things God permits | 26:24 | |
until death brings oblivion. | 26:28 | |
Robert L. Short author of the book, | 26:34 | |
A Time to Be Born-A Time to Die, | 26:37 | |
speaks against and to the images | 26:42 | |
and insights of Ecclesiastes for our time. | 26:45 | |
He is aptly termed the thrust of Ecclesiastes | 26:51 | |
as the Christ shaped vacuum. | 26:56 | |
And it is the New Testament lessons today | 27:00 | |
which respond to this vacuum | 27:03 | |
we hear in Ecclesiastes. | 27:06 | |
John's gospel states for us | 27:10 | |
a profound Christology | 27:13 | |
which speaks of life's meaning | 27:16 | |
within a framework of time. | 27:19 | |
To cyclic repetitive time in Ecclesiastes, | 27:22 | |
this lesson in John opposes time with a beginning | 27:27 | |
and time with a consummation. | 27:33 | |
To Kohelet of blind necessity is his own reasoning, | 27:37 | |
this passage in the gospel contrasts | 27:42 | |
the very promisee of purposeful meaning. | 27:46 | |
For it says to us in the beginning was the word, | 27:51 | |
logos or meaning. | 27:56 | |
Far from times meaningless redundance | 28:00 | |
according to Ecclesiastes. | 28:04 | |
John's view of time reaches from a timeless beginning | 28:07 | |
even before creation, | 28:13 | |
to a goal that is named in the New Testament | 28:16 | |
power to become children of God, | 28:20 | |
laden all the way in this life with meaning. | 28:24 | |
In Jesus, this meaning, logos, | 28:29 | |
became flesh. | 28:34 | |
Ultimately the gospel tells us | 28:38 | |
that meaning resides in God, | 28:41 | |
whom Jesus has made known to us. | 28:44 | |
So the message of the New Testament lesson today | 28:49 | |
is that life does have meaning | 28:53 | |
and its explanation, in fact, | 28:56 | |
comes to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. | 28:59 | |
His birth, his life, his ministry, | 29:04 | |
his death and his resurrection. | 29:09 | |
35 years ago now, | 29:15 | |
George Orwell's futuristic fantasy, | 29:18 | |
1984, made it's first appearance. | 29:22 | |
For those of us, no matter when in our lives | 29:27 | |
we've read that book, who shuddered at its nightmare | 29:30 | |
of thought control and doublethink, | 29:35 | |
there was comfort in how far off all of that seemed. | 29:39 | |
But today we woke up | 29:45 | |
and the dateline on the paper was 1984. | 29:47 | |
If Orwell's bad dream has not quite come true, | 29:53 | |
we are far down the road anyway in its direction. | 29:58 | |
I find that less often noted than the shadow | 30:04 | |
of Orwell's Big Brother character | 30:08 | |
is the underlying issue that he raised in writing this book. | 30:11 | |
And that is, how shall we deal with time? | 30:17 | |
Orwell saw that the shackles of the mind were forged | 30:23 | |
by continuous reconstruction of the past | 30:28 | |
to make it justify the present. | 30:32 | |
All forged by the influence of the Party | 30:35 | |
with a capital P. | 30:40 | |
How could you communicate with the future | 30:43 | |
asked the central character in Orwell's book? | 30:46 | |
It was of nature impossible, | 30:50 | |
either the future would resemble the present, | 30:54 | |
in which case it would not listen to him. | 30:57 | |
Or it would be different from it | 31:01 | |
and his predicament would be meaningless. | 31:03 | |
The trap which held Orwell's character fast | 31:08 | |
was time bereft of meaning. | 31:13 | |
Is that our plight in world society? | 31:18 | |
Is the symbol of our age the fateful clock | 31:23 | |
on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist? | 31:27 | |
What indeed will our society make of time? | 31:31 | |
And what of our plight and personal existence? | 31:37 | |
One of Aldous Hoxley's characters | 31:42 | |
observes our culture obsessed with time, | 31:45 | |
passionately concerned with our personalities | 31:50 | |
and with those magnified projections of our personalities | 31:55 | |
which we call our policies, | 32:00 | |
our ideals, our religions. | 32:03 | |
Being obsessed with time and our egos | 32:07 | |
we are forever craving and worrying, according to Hoxley. | 32:11 | |
We worry and crave ourselves into high blood pressure, | 32:17 | |
heart disease, sexual aberrations, | 32:22 | |
insanity, suicide. | 32:26 | |
How shall we deal personally with time? | 32:30 | |
Today's scripture lessons taken together respond | 32:37 | |
that the incarnation of God | 32:42 | |
in Jesus Christ supplies | 32:45 | |
times missing meaning. | 32:48 | |
Ecclesiastes, as we hear it | 32:52 | |
with it's world weary picture | 32:55 | |
presents what Robert Short in his book has called | 32:58 | |
the Bible's negative image of Christ, the truth. | 33:03 | |
For it is when Christ came into the world Short noted, | 33:09 | |
He came as the light that shines in the darkness. | 33:14 | |
And precisely here in Ecclesiastes, | 33:20 | |
we have the clearest expression of the darkness. | 33:24 | |
The vacuum into which Christ came | 33:29 | |
as the light and fulfillment. | 33:33 | |
I have found myself wondering lately, | 33:38 | |
what the light and truth of this gospel | 33:42 | |
can say to our sister in Christ, | 33:47 | |
Elizabeth Boothia. | 33:51 | |
What would I, or any of us say, | 33:54 | |
given the chance to Elizabeth | 33:59 | |
about the meaning of life. | 34:02 | |
For here, is a young woman who experiences time | 34:06 | |
and life as the enemy. | 34:11 | |
Paralyzed and suffering in pain, | 34:15 | |
she has cried out | 34:19 | |
that she wants no more of life | 34:21 | |
and has asked for societies help | 34:24 | |
in ending her life. | 34:27 | |
She says that there is no life for her | 34:30 | |
because she is trapped in a useless body | 34:34 | |
and yet we hear | 34:40 | |
Jesus came as the light, | 34:42 | |
the only light that shines | 34:46 | |
in such darkness. | 34:50 | |
I don't know what we say | 34:54 | |
except that I do know | 34:57 | |
that we need to say to Elizabeth | 34:59 | |
and all the Elizabeth's out there and around us | 35:02 | |
that you are not alone, that there is meaning, | 35:08 | |
value and purpose in life. | 35:13 | |
With Paul the apostle we can proclaim | 35:18 | |
what then shall we say to this? | 35:23 | |
If God is for us who is against us? | 35:27 | |
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? | 35:32 | |
Shall tribulation or distress | 35:37 | |
or persecution | 35:42 | |
or famine or nakedness or peril | 35:44 | |
or sword or in my words paralysis, | 35:49 | |
know in all these things | 35:54 | |
we are more than conquerors | 35:57 | |
through Him who loved us. | 36:00 | |
In contrast, to Elizabeth's plea | 36:05 | |
another woman, who in my opinion, has been powerless | 36:10 | |
and victimized most of her life | 36:14 | |
has another point of view. | 36:18 | |
She is my friend, Native American, | 36:22 | |
Virginia Saumont McGilbray, | 36:25 | |
who lives in Lawrence, Kansas. | 36:29 | |
She has shared her resolves for 1984 | 36:33 | |
and her vision for the future | 36:38 | |
in a recent church publication. | 36:40 | |
This is what she says, | 36:44 | |
"Seeing the day after caused me to ponder long | 36:46 | |
"and hard about peace in our world | 36:52 | |
and why we cannot learn | 36:56 | |
"to love each other for what we are as human beings. | 36:58 | |
"We are to live together on the Earth | 37:05 | |
"it was created by the great spirit for a purpose. | 37:08 | |
"And I don't believe that purpose | 37:13 | |
"was to wipe each other out by a nuclear blast. | 37:15 | |
My eight year old granddaughter asked during the showing, | 37:21 | |
"Grandma can this really happen?" | 37:25 | |
And I answered, | 37:29 | |
"yes but it doesn't have to happen | 37:31 | |
"if we can all learn to love | 37:35 | |
"and live peace with each other." | 37:38 | |
Virginia says, "I will work for peace | 37:42 | |
everyday in 1984." | 37:46 | |
It is a bold hope to learn to live | 37:52 | |
and love peace with each other | 37:56 | |
but this is the hope | 38:00 | |
which is possible because of Jesus Christ | 38:02 | |
who came to redeem all of time. | 38:06 | |
In Him was life | 38:12 | |
and the life was the light of all people. | 38:14 | |
The light shines in the darkness | 38:19 | |
and the darkness has not overcome it. | 38:23 | |
Thanks be to God for this marvelous, marvelous gift. | 38:27 | |
Amen. | 38:33 | |
(organ music) | 38:40 | |
(Congregation singing "What Child Is This") | 39:35 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 42:33 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 42:36 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 42:43 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 42:46 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 42:49 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 42:54 | |
to celebrate life and His fullness, | 42:59 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 43:01 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 43:08 | |
our judge and our hope. | 43:12 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death God is with us. | 43:15 | |
We are not alone. | 43:22 | |
Thanks be to God. | 43:24 | |
The Lord be with you. | 43:27 | |
- | Let us pray. | 43:30 |
- | Let us pray. | 43:31 |
Almighty God, as we exit the old year | 43:43 | |
and stand on the threshold of the new, | 43:47 | |
We are grateful for these moments of reflection. | 43:51 | |
We offer unto you our deepest gratitude and thanksgiving | 43:55 | |
for what has been accomplished in the past, | 43:59 | |
the many gifts of our lives each and every day. | 44:03 | |
The blessings of this Christmastide season | 44:06 | |
and the most precious gift of your son, | 44:10 | |
our Lord Jesus Christ. | 44:13 | |
We seek your guidance now | 44:16 | |
as we venture forth into the new year. | 44:17 | |
Help us to accept the reverses and disappointments of life | 44:21 | |
and convert them into opportunities | 44:26 | |
for creative development. | 44:29 | |
Give us the courage to pick up our fragmented dreams | 44:31 | |
and broken hopes and begin again. | 44:35 | |
We do not ask that the way be made smooth and easy | 44:39 | |
but that we may be found loyal | 44:42 | |
and faithful to your sacred trust. | 44:44 | |
Lord we confess that too often | 44:48 | |
we do not extend ourselves to redeem the time. | 44:51 | |
We fail to make use of the opportunities | 44:55 | |
that reach out to us in each moment. | 44:58 | |
We fail to see the one who is hurting, | 45:01 | |
the one who is disappointed, the one who is hungry, | 45:04 | |
the one who is looking for some kind of | 45:09 | |
spiritual assistance and hope. | 45:11 | |
Help us to live each moment to its fullest | 45:15 | |
and to undertake our lives in the spirit of discipleship | 45:18 | |
to Your son and to the way of truth, | 45:21 | |
life and light that He showed to us. | 45:24 | |
Into this world of darkness which we have created | 45:29 | |
with our own evil thinking and evil ways, | 45:32 | |
make your will known to us. | 45:35 | |
Redirect us so that when another year is finished, | 45:38 | |
we will have arrived at some spiritual height | 45:42 | |
we have not yet attained. | 45:45 | |
We are mindful of those | 45:49 | |
who are enduring life without meaning. | 45:50 | |
Those with so much to offer who have never been discovered, | 45:53 | |
those who are searching for meaning in all the wrong places, | 45:57 | |
those who are ill, bereaved and lonely. | 46:01 | |
Give unto these persons | 46:05 | |
Your spiritual strength and encouragement. | 46:07 | |
And help us and all Your children, every place | 46:10 | |
and in every time, to redeem our time and our world | 46:13 | |
from hate, prejudice, envy and distrust. | 46:18 | |
We lift up this prayer in the name of the one who came | 46:23 | |
as your gift to redeem us and the world that we might see | 46:26 | |
and be guided by your holy light. | 46:31 | |
And who taught us to pray saying, | 46:34 | |
Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed by thy name | 46:37 | |
thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth | 46:43 | |
as it is in Heaven. | 46:47 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 46:49 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 46:51 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 46:54 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 46:58 | |
but deliver from us evil for thine is the kingdom | 47:01 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 47:05 | |
Amen. | 47:10 | |
(organ music) | 47:16 |
(church organ music) | 0:03 | |
(church organ music) | 4:20 | |
(faint singing) | 4:41 | |
- | Eternal God, giver of every good and perfect gift, | 5:43 |
who seekethst above all your gifts to give yourself to us, | 5:48 | |
we dedicate these, our offerings, | 5:52 | |
to the service of your church, | 5:54 | |
humbly beseeching you that all our gifts | 5:56 | |
and energies may be consecrated | 5:59 | |
to the extension of your kingdom on earth. | 6:01 | |
Grant that with these token gifts of our hands, | 6:04 | |
we may more fully give ourselves in joyous obedience | 6:07 | |
and service, through Jesus Christ, our lord. | 6:11 | |
Amen. | 6:15 | |
(church organ music) | 6:18 | |
(faint singing) | 6:45 | |
Grant, O Lord, that what has been said with our lips, | 9:31 | |
we may believe in our hearts | 9:35 | |
and that what we believe in our hearts, | 9:37 | |
we may practice in our lives. | 9:39 | |
And now, unto God's gracious mercy and protection, | 9:42 | |
we commit you and the blessing of God Almighty, | 9:45 | |
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, | 9:49 | |
be upon you and remain with you always. | 9:52 | |
Amen. | 9:56 | |
(church organ music) | 10:01 | |
(baby cooing) | 13:55 | |
(footsteps tapping) | 13:57 | |
(church organ music) | 14:01 |