Leander Keck - Sermon Untitled (February 2, 1986)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(reverent organ music) | 0:03 | |
[Man] Good morning, and welcome to Duke Chapel. | 10:59 | |
Our guest preacher today is James T. Cleland | 11:02 | |
visiting preacher, he is Doctor Leander Keck, | 11:06 | |
Dean of Yale Divinity School and | 11:11 | |
Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology at Yale, | 11:13 | |
and we welcome this distinguished biblical scholar | 11:18 | |
and preacher to the pulpit here in Duke Chapel. | 11:22 | |
You will note that our choir has selected | 11:26 | |
a rendition of Psalm 90 as our psalm for the day | 11:30 | |
in commemoration for the national week of mourning | 11:34 | |
for the space shuttle tragedy. | 11:38 | |
Also, remind you that our choir will be presenting | 11:42 | |
Mendelssohn's Elijah on February the 23rd, | 11:45 | |
tickets are available from the chapel music office | 11:48 | |
and page box office. | 11:51 | |
The choir is presenting Elijah as part of | 11:54 | |
our year-long 50th anniversary celebration. | 11:56 | |
Now, let us continue our worship. | 12:02 | |
(choir sings) | 12:36 | |
(reverent organ music) | 13:55 | |
(choir sings with organ) | 14:19 | |
[Woman] Oh, ever living God, you have taught us | 17:35 | |
that without love, whatever we do is worth nothing. | 17:39 | |
Send your holy spirit upon us this day, | 17:44 | |
and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, | 17:47 | |
which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue. | 17:50 | |
Grant this for the sake of your only son, Jesus Christ, | 17:57 | |
who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit, | 18:01 | |
one God, now and forever, amen. | 18:05 | |
[Dr. Keck] Let us pray. | 18:21 | |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 18:24 | |
by the power of your holy spirit, | 18:28 | |
so that, as the Word is read and proclaimed, | 18:31 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen. | 18:35 | |
The first lesson is taken from the book of Jeremiah. | 18:43 | |
"Now, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, | 18:48 | |
'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. | 18:50 | |
And before you were born, I consecrated you. | 18:54 | |
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.' | 18:59 | |
Then I said, 'Ah, Lord God, behold, | 19:03 | |
I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.' | 19:06 | |
But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say I am only a youth, | 19:11 | |
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, | 19:15 | |
and whatever I command you, you shall speak. | 19:18 | |
Be not afraid of them, for I am with you | 19:23 | |
to deliver you,' says the Lord. | 19:25 | |
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, | 19:28 | |
and the Lord said to me, 'Behold, | 19:32 | |
I have put my words in your mouth, see, | 19:35 | |
I have set you this day over nations | 19:38 | |
and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, | 19:40 | |
to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'" | 19:44 | |
This ends the reading of the first lesson. | 19:50 | |
(reverent organ music) | 20:06 | |
(choir joins) | 20:21 | |
♪ [Woman] Lord, you have been our refuge ♪ | 20:38 | |
♪ From one generation to another ♪ | 20:42 | |
♪ [Men] Before the mountains and the earth were created ♪ | 20:49 | |
♪ You were God and you will be God forever ♪ | 20:55 | |
(choir sings all together) | 21:03 | |
♪ [Woman] Lord, you turn us back to dust ♪ | 21:20 | |
♪ And say, go back to dust, oh child of Earth ♪ | 21:22 | |
(choir sings all together) | 21:31 | |
♪ [Woman] We are swept away like a flood ♪ | 22:01 | |
♪ We last no longer than our dream ♪ | 22:06 | |
♪ [Men] We are like grass that springs up in the morning ♪ | 22:12 | |
♪ Then withers and fades in the evening ♪ | 22:18 | |
(choir sings all together) | 22:26 | |
♪ [Woman] We are consumed by your anger ♪ | 22:43 | |
♪ We are terrified by your fury ♪ | 22:47 | |
♪ [Men] I give myself up before you ♪ | 22:55 | |
♪ And the secrets of our hearts are before your very eyes ♪ | 23:00 | |
(choir sings all together) | 23:08 | |
(choir sings all together) | 23:41 | |
[Dr. Keck] The gospel is taken from Luke. | 24:49 | |
"And he began to say to them, 'Today, the Scripture | 24:52 | |
has been fulfilled in your hearing.' | 24:55 | |
And all spoke well of him, and wondered | 24:58 | |
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, | 25:00 | |
and they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?' | 25:03 | |
And he said to them, 'Doubtless you will quote to me | 25:07 | |
this proverb, physician, heal yourself. | 25:10 | |
What we have heard you did at Copernium, | 25:13 | |
do here also in your own country.' | 25:16 | |
And he said, 'Truly I say to you, | 25:20 | |
no prophet is acceptable in his own country, | 25:21 | |
but in truth, I tell you, there were many widows | 25:25 | |
in Israel in the days of Elijah, | 25:29 | |
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, | 25:31 | |
when there came a great famine over all the land. | 25:35 | |
And Elijah was sent to none of them, | 25:39 | |
but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, | 25:40 | |
to a woman who was a widow, | 25:44 | |
and there were many lepers in Israel in the time | 25:45 | |
of the prophet Elijah, and none of them | 25:49 | |
were cleansed but only Noaman, the Syrian.' | 25:51 | |
When they heard this, all in the synagogue | 25:56 | |
were filled with wrath, and they rose up | 25:59 | |
and put him out of the city, and led him | 26:01 | |
to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, | 26:03 | |
that they might throw him down headlong. | 26:07 | |
But passing through the midst of them, he went away." | 26:10 | |
This ends the reading of the gospel. | 26:15 | |
(reverent organ music) | 26:30 | |
(choir vocalizes with organ) | 26:32 | |
[Dr. Keck] The second lesson is taken from | 31:22 | |
Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, | 31:24 | |
but chapter 12 rather than 13. | 31:26 | |
"Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, | 31:31 | |
I do not want you to be uninformed. | 31:36 | |
You know that when you were a heathen, | 31:38 | |
you were led astray to dumb idols, | 31:41 | |
however, you may have been moved. | 31:42 | |
Therefore, I want you to understand | 31:45 | |
that no one speaking by the spirit of God | 31:47 | |
ever says, 'Jesus, be cursed,' and no one can say, | 31:49 | |
'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit. | 31:53 | |
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. | 31:57 | |
And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. | 32:01 | |
And there are varieties of working, | 32:05 | |
but it is the same God who inspires them and everyone. | 32:08 | |
To each is given the manifestation of the spirit | 32:12 | |
for the common good. | 32:15 | |
To one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, | 32:17 | |
and to another, the utterance of knowledge | 32:20 | |
according to the same spirit. | 32:23 | |
To another, faith by the same spirit. | 32:25 | |
To another, gifts of healing by the one spirit. | 32:27 | |
To another, the working of miracles, | 32:31 | |
to another, prophecy, to another, the ability | 32:33 | |
to distinguish between spirits, | 32:35 | |
to another, various kinds of tongues, | 32:37 | |
to another, the interpretation of tongues. | 32:41 | |
All these are inspired by one and the same spirit | 32:45 | |
who apportions to each one individually as he wills." | 32:49 | |
This ends the reading of the second lesson. | 32:53 | |
Some years ago, I was visited by a delegation | 33:10 | |
of black students who wanted to let me know | 33:14 | |
that they were upset, and they wanted me | 33:19 | |
to do something about what upset them. | 33:22 | |
What bothered them was not the curriculum, | 33:27 | |
not the food in the dining hall, | 33:30 | |
nor the worship services in the chapel. | 33:33 | |
It had to do with something in the parking lot. | 33:36 | |
Somebody had a car with a Confederate flag. | 33:41 | |
That showed that somebody was insensitive | 33:46 | |
to the feelings of black folk | 33:49 | |
who regarded the stars and bars as the banner of defiance | 33:51 | |
in civil rights, and as a symbol of white supremacy forever. | 33:55 | |
I admit, I was caught off-guard, | 34:02 | |
but deans are not supposed to show it. | 34:06 | |
And I pointed out that the Confederate flag | 34:10 | |
means many things to different people, even in New England. | 34:12 | |
It might be no more than a way of proclaiming to Yankees | 34:17 | |
that this car is driven by a student | 34:21 | |
who's proud to be a Southerner and who misses grits. | 34:24 | |
Moreover, since the building was being renovated, | 34:30 | |
the car might not belong to a student at all. | 34:33 | |
It might belong to a construction worker, | 34:36 | |
a transplanted redneck. | 34:38 | |
Either one of these explanations could have been true, | 34:42 | |
yet neither one nor the other addressed the point. | 34:46 | |
What the license plate meant depended on who you were. | 34:50 | |
The same thing is true of the three texts | 34:58 | |
from the Bible that were read this morning. | 35:00 | |
What these texts mean depends on who we are, | 35:04 | |
or on who we think we are, and who we think we are | 35:08 | |
determines what we pick up on, | 35:13 | |
or with whom we identify in the readings. | 35:16 | |
Now, in reading Scripture, the primary temptation | 35:22 | |
is to identify with the wrong person, | 35:24 | |
or to resist any identification at all. | 35:28 | |
Take the reading from Jeremiah. | 35:35 | |
We might not identify with him at all. | 35:37 | |
Are we not relieved that we don't talk like that anymore? | 35:43 | |
The Lord says, before you were born, I consecrated you, | 35:48 | |
I appointed you a prophet to the nations. | 35:52 | |
Before he was born? | 35:55 | |
That sounds too much like determinism in philosophy | 35:59 | |
and predestination and theology. | 36:01 | |
Aren't we glad we're beyond that? | 36:05 | |
Jeremiah's answer's no better, really, | 36:10 | |
because he says he's too young to be a prophet. | 36:12 | |
In our culture, we expect the young to be prophets. | 36:16 | |
That's what student protests are all about. | 36:20 | |
No, we would never say we're not old enough | 36:24 | |
to preach to our elders. | 36:26 | |
We can't relate to God's reply, either. | 36:31 | |
Who will believe that God put words into somebody's mouth? | 36:35 | |
When people claim that, we send them to the chaplain. | 36:40 | |
Even worse is the work of God, | 36:44 | |
which Jeremiah hears himself sent to do, | 36:46 | |
to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, | 36:50 | |
to build and to plant, | 36:55 | |
what a primitive understanding of God. | 36:58 | |
We know that God is always loving, | 37:03 | |
always affirming, always accepting. | 37:08 | |
Poor Jeremiah, living 26 centuries ago, | 37:12 | |
can't really be blamed for having such an uncouth | 37:16 | |
understanding of God, after all, | 37:19 | |
he's not a Christian, and didn't know that God is love. | 37:21 | |
We're so sure of ourselves, we wonder why | 37:27 | |
the church wants to hear this text at all. | 37:29 | |
If the text from Jeremiah tempts us not to identify | 37:34 | |
with anybody because we are superior to the whole thing, | 37:36 | |
the story of Jesus in his hometown synagogue | 37:40 | |
tempts us to identify with the hero, Jesus himself. | 37:42 | |
In the first part of the story, which was not read, | 37:49 | |
Jesus had read from Isaiah, "The spirit of the Lord | 37:53 | |
is upon me because He has anointed me | 37:57 | |
to preach good news to the poor. | 38:00 | |
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, | 38:03 | |
and recovering of sight to the blind, | 38:08 | |
to set at liberty those who are oppressed, | 38:11 | |
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." | 38:14 | |
And today's reading picks up the story, | 38:21 | |
Jesus declared that these words are now coming to pass. | 38:23 | |
And at first, the congregation welcomed this good news, | 38:28 | |
but then they remembered who said it. | 38:32 | |
Joseph's boy, the kid they'd seen playing | 38:35 | |
in their streets with their kids. | 38:40 | |
The young carpenter who used to make ox yokes | 38:42 | |
and fix their doors. | 38:46 | |
Before you know it, they're so offended | 38:49 | |
at what he said and at who said it that they threw him out. | 38:51 | |
Who wouldn't identify with Jesus | 38:58 | |
and look down on these dumb neighbors | 39:00 | |
who were unable to accept good news for the poor | 39:03 | |
from the mouth of one of their own? | 39:05 | |
Even if they didn't know who he really was, | 39:10 | |
they should have been more open to his message. | 39:13 | |
We would not have responded that way. | 39:17 | |
We are sensitive to the plight of the poor, | 39:20 | |
and the phrase, social justice, is on our lips every day. | 39:25 | |
And if we are liberation theologians, | 39:30 | |
we hear Jesus announce exactly what we proclaim, | 39:31 | |
liberation for the oppressed. | 39:35 | |
No, we wouldn't have thrown him out. | 39:38 | |
We would have gotten him on the Today Show. | 39:42 | |
In the same way, when we hear Paul's letter | 39:47 | |
to the house church in Corinth, | 39:49 | |
we identify with the apostle. | 39:50 | |
He makes so much sense, especially in contrast | 39:54 | |
with those ecstatic, babbling Charismatics. | 39:58 | |
Of course we are like different parts of the same body. | 40:03 | |
Of course we are, just as the university | 40:07 | |
consists of administrators and faculty and students | 40:09 | |
and support staff and alumni and friends. | 40:13 | |
All are a part of the same corporate reality. | 40:15 | |
Of course we identify with Paul. | 40:18 | |
How could the Corinthians be so dumb? | 40:22 | |
So long as we hear these readings with such attitudes, | 40:28 | |
we feel pretty good about ourselves, | 40:31 | |
because we reinforce who we think we are. | 40:35 | |
And if the preacher doesn't mess it up, | 40:40 | |
we'll be reassured, and maybe he'll quit while he's ahead. | 40:43 | |
Probably he won't, though, and you're right. | 40:48 | |
Biblical texts have a way of reversing the flow. | 40:55 | |
We begin by interpreting them, | 41:00 | |
and then they turn around and interpret us. | 41:02 | |
They do not accept our self-identification | 41:06 | |
but expose our true identities. | 41:10 | |
We think, we find that we are not the heroes of the story, | 41:14 | |
but those whom the heroes addressed. | 41:20 | |
So, we're Corinthians after all. | 41:26 | |
Does not really matter whether we're Charismatic or not. | 41:31 | |
That was merely the form in which | 41:35 | |
the problem surfaced in Corinth, | 41:36 | |
we have our own form of the same problem. | 41:40 | |
In Corinth, the problem had to do with the gifts | 41:43 | |
of the spirit, the intense experience of God's presence | 41:45 | |
enabled them to do things they had not done before. | 41:48 | |
To speak wisdom, or knowledge, or to heal, | 41:52 | |
or to work miracles, to prophesy, to speak in tongues, | 41:56 | |
to make sense out of what was said in tongues, | 42:00 | |
the presence of the spirit brought out | 42:05 | |
the diversity of the community. | 42:07 | |
Because the spirit enhances individuality. | 42:10 | |
So the question is, what does this | 42:16 | |
heightened individuality mean? | 42:19 | |
The Corinthians wanted to exercise | 42:24 | |
those heightened capacities for their own sake. | 42:25 | |
They were unhappy to hear what Paul said about that. | 42:28 | |
To each is given the manifestation of the spirit | 42:32 | |
for the common good. | 42:36 | |
We are no more eager to hear that than they were. | 42:41 | |
Because we, too, prize our individuality. | 42:46 | |
If there's anything that is absolutely self-evident | 42:50 | |
and non-negotiable for us, it is | 42:53 | |
the right to actualize ourselves. | 42:55 | |
What I want is the criteria. | 43:00 | |
The slogan of the day is, I want it all. | 43:03 | |
No wonder that a popular TV preacher a year ago | 43:09 | |
was the Reverend Terry, for she promised | 43:11 | |
that God also wanted us to have it all. | 43:15 | |
And over against that reassuring word, | 43:21 | |
Paul insists that our individual gifts | 43:22 | |
are for the common good. | 43:25 | |
And so, we feel a little bit guilty | 43:30 | |
and we resent him for saying that. | 43:32 | |
We don't like being exposed as Corinthians. | 43:37 | |
We're no happier to be exposed as Nazarenes. | 43:43 | |
Do you remember how the story unfolded? | 43:47 | |
Jesus responded to their hostility by saying that | 43:48 | |
no prophet is acceptable in his country. | 43:52 | |
Then he referred to Elijah's time when there was a famine. | 43:57 | |
Elijah fed the foreign widow, not the Israelites. | 44:00 | |
It was like that in Elijah's time, too, | 44:05 | |
there were many lepers in Israel, but the only leper | 44:08 | |
that was healed by the prophet was a Syrian. | 44:12 | |
No wonder they were furious. | 44:18 | |
Jesus implied that God preferred outsiders to insiders, | 44:22 | |
and today, we're the insiders. | 44:28 | |
It's we whom God has chosen, and we do not want | 44:33 | |
anybody to question our chosenness, | 44:36 | |
to call into question the boundaries of the community | 44:38 | |
which has special standing with God. | 44:42 | |
And so, the text has uncovered the Nazarene mind in us. | 44:47 | |
And we don't like it. | 44:53 | |
And we do not like what we read in Jeremiah, either. | 44:57 | |
The idea that God wants Jeremiah to build up and tear down, | 45:00 | |
to uproot and to plant, is offensive. | 45:04 | |
We can agree that God's word is to plant up | 45:10 | |
or break down, but not both. | 45:14 | |
And in our resistance, we find ourselves | 45:21 | |
identified and unmasked. | 45:23 | |
If we are yuppie types, we like that word | 45:28 | |
about building up and planting, | 45:31 | |
but we resist the idea that God's work | 45:34 | |
includes dismantling things. | 45:36 | |
Or, if we are alienated intellectuals, | 45:41 | |
we like that word about tearing things down. | 45:46 | |
But we reject the idea that God's work is also to build up. | 45:51 | |
But what really gets to us is realizing that | 45:54 | |
what one group wants to build up in God's name, | 45:57 | |
the other one wants to tear down, | 46:00 | |
and also, in God's name. | 46:05 | |
Because each wants to prevail over the other, | 46:09 | |
neither is happy with the notion | 46:12 | |
that its program is not God's program. | 46:14 | |
So where does that leave us? | 46:24 | |
Unhappy with this text. | 46:27 | |
It leaves us with a threefold invitation to grow. | 46:31 | |
With a triple opportunity to mature | 46:37 | |
in the faith and understanding. | 46:41 | |
Paul's word invites us to come to terms | 46:45 | |
with the meaning of our individuality. | 46:47 | |
The configuration of talents and sensibility | 46:52 | |
and experiences that makes me, me, is mine alone, | 46:55 | |
and it is important, but | 46:59 |
- | Point of being who I am. | 0:03 |
Of having the capacities I have. | 0:07 | |
For whose sake do they exist? | 0:11 | |
And for who's sake are they to be developed and exercised? | 0:14 | |
Simply for my own self-fulfillment? | 0:19 | |
For my own happiness? | 0:22 | |
The great, overarching need today | 0:27 | |
is to overcome this preoccupation with ourselves. | 0:29 | |
Christopher Lasch was on target | 0:36 | |
when he called our society a culture of narcissism. | 0:37 | |
And much of our religiosity is as self-serving | 0:42 | |
as our economics. | 0:46 | |
The current interest in spirituality | 0:49 | |
often has no horizon higher | 0:51 | |
than that of my own wellbeing. | 0:53 | |
It forgets what my colleague, Aidan Kavanagh wrote, | 0:56 | |
"It is better to illuminate than to glow." | 1:00 | |
In our deepest, most intimate religious experience of God, | 1:06 | |
if it casts no light into the dark corners of life, | 1:10 | |
if that intimate experience of God | 1:16 | |
illumines no enigma of pain or vista of hope, | 1:18 | |
what good is it? | 1:21 | |
To come right to the point, what is your life for anyway? | 1:27 | |
Does it count for anything? | 1:36 | |
That has to do with the common good of all? | 1:39 | |
Nowhere is this question more urgent | 1:45 | |
than in a university. | 1:47 | |
Where remarkable talents of our society | 1:51 | |
are gathered, to be developed. | 1:53 | |
Being mindful of the common good | 1:59 | |
is not settling for an easy average, | 2:01 | |
does not call for sanctifying mediocrity | 2:04 | |
in order to avoid creating an elite. | 2:06 | |
What it does call for is developing talent | 2:09 | |
to the fullest, and using it, and harnessing it | 2:12 | |
to the common good of all. | 2:15 | |
For the sake of our communities. | 2:22 | |
And but what communities? | 2:30 | |
For most of us, the horizons of our communities are too low, | 2:33 | |
and the circle is too small. | 2:35 | |
I, and my family, my company, my neighborhood, | 2:39 | |
my race, my gender, | 2:42 | |
that's too limited a community. | 2:45 | |
As important as they may be. | 2:49 | |
So the shocking word of Jesus about the outsider | 2:53 | |
lifts high and stretches wide the horizons | 2:56 | |
of our community, because as long as we define ourselves | 2:59 | |
by family and firm, region and race, | 3:02 | |
we make ourselves outsiders as well as insiders. | 3:05 | |
It has become virtually a sin to think | 3:12 | |
in terms of what is universally human. | 3:14 | |
Our identities are now derived from the groups | 3:20 | |
to which we belong by birth, | 3:22 | |
male or female, white, black, red, brown, | 3:26 | |
gay, straight, whatever. | 3:29 | |
The offensive words of Jesus about Elijah and Elisha, | 3:32 | |
are nothing less than an attack | 3:36 | |
on that sort of boundary drawing | 3:38 | |
that dominates much thinking, and lack of thinking, today. | 3:40 | |
True, Jesus never left his homeland, | 3:47 | |
and seldom trafficked with us Gentiles. | 3:50 | |
But the horizon of his community was universal, | 3:55 | |
because he penetrated so deeply | 3:59 | |
into the particularly Jewish, | 4:01 | |
that he came upon what was truly human. | 4:02 | |
And in the last analysis, nothing less will do. | 4:08 | |
So the story of Jesus in Nazareth invites us | 4:14 | |
to transcend the particularities of our communities, | 4:16 | |
to find our one humanity. | 4:20 | |
A vision of a common humanity cannot be maintained long | 4:26 | |
without a vision of the one God | 4:31 | |
who stands over against it, as the ground | 4:33 | |
of its being and value. | 4:37 | |
But we always make God into the ultimate warrant | 4:41 | |
for our fragment of human community. | 4:44 | |
We always want a God who epitomizes | 4:47 | |
and legitimates who we think we are, and hope to be. | 4:49 | |
Nobody wants a God who says what Yahweh said, | 4:54 | |
"My ways are not your ways." | 4:58 | |
But Jeremiah invites us to cast off | 5:06 | |
our idolatrous theology, and to acknowledge | 5:10 | |
that the only God who is, and who matters, | 5:13 | |
is the God who builds and destroys, | 5:20 | |
because this God cannot be manipulated, | 5:24 | |
nor can this God be reduced to being | 5:29 | |
the ultimate sanction for our agendas, | 5:31 | |
not even our good ones. | 5:35 | |
The building up and the tearing down | 5:39 | |
of which the Lord God speaks does not mean | 5:42 | |
that our history is but a sandcastle | 5:46 | |
to be created and destroyed at will. | 5:49 | |
But that this reality we call God | 5:54 | |
has an integrity of its own. | 5:56 | |
And that it is not the invisible patron | 6:01 | |
of our particularities, or of our projects, | 6:05 | |
but the creator to whom we are accountable | 6:09 | |
in our particularities, and for our projects. | 6:13 | |
The gods who only build up and tear down | 6:21 | |
what we build up and we tear down, | 6:24 | |
are both predictable and boring. | 6:27 | |
And I don't know which is the more serious flaw. | 6:32 | |
But the God with whom Jeremiah contends, | 6:37 | |
and who must contend with Jeremiah, | 6:41 | |
is full of surprises! | 6:45 | |
This God is not a ventriloquist's doll. | 6:50 | |
This God is the only one on whom you can count. | 6:57 | |
These three readings, like I said, | 7:05 | |
constitute an invitation to grow. | 7:07 | |
To grow by developing our capacity and our identity | 7:14 | |
by committing them to the common good. | 7:17 | |
To grow by transcending the communities that define us | 7:22 | |
by laying hold of what is truly human. | 7:26 | |
To grow by renouncing the gods of class, | 7:30 | |
or gender, or race, or ideology, | 7:34 | |
in order to stand in the presence of the one | 7:37 | |
whom we cannot manipulate, but whom we can count on. | 7:40 | |
That's an invitation to a lot of growing. | 7:48 | |
One more thing. | 7:55 | |
At the bottom of this invitation are two words. | 7:57 | |
Regrets only. | 8:01 | |
(organ music) | 8:19 | |
- | Let us unite in this historic confession | 11:39 |
of the Christian faith, | 11:41 | |
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, | 11:44 | |
maker of heaven and earth, | 11:47 | |
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, | 11:49 | |
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, | 11:53 | |
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, | 11:56 | |
was crucified, dead, and buried, | 12:00 | |
the third day he rose from the dead, | 12:03 | |
he ascended into heaven, | 12:06 | |
and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, | 12:08 | |
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 12:12 | |
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, | 12:16 | |
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, | 12:20 | |
the resurrection of the body, | 12:24 | |
and the life everlasting, Amen. | 12:26 | |
The Lord be with you. | 12:31 | |
- | And also with you. | |
- | Let us pray. | 12:35 |
After each petition, the congregations responds, | 12:46 | |
"Lord, hear our prayer." | 12:49 | |
Oh Lord our God, you hear our prayers before we speak, | 12:55 | |
and answer even before we know our need, | 13:01 | |
though we cannot pray, let your spirit pray in us, | 13:05 | |
drawing us to you, and toward our neighbors on Earth, | 13:10 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 13:15 | |
We pray for the whole creation, | 13:18 | |
may all things work together for good, | 13:21 | |
until by your design, your children inherit the earth | 13:24 | |
and order it wisely. | 13:28 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 13:31 | |
We pray for the church of Jesus Christ, | 13:35 | |
that begun, maintained, and promoted by your spirit, | 13:39 | |
it may be true, engaging, glad, and active, | 13:43 | |
doing you will. | 13:49 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 13:51 | |
We pray for people who do not believe. | 13:55 | |
Who are shaken by doubt. | 13:59 | |
Or have turned against you. | 14:01 | |
Open their eyes to see beyond our broken fellowship, | 14:04 | |
the wonders of your love, displayed in Jesus of Nazareth, | 14:08 | |
and to follow where he calls them. | 14:13 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 14:16 | |
We pray for peace in the world. | 14:20 | |
Disarm weapons, silence guns, | 14:24 | |
and put out ancient hate that smolders still, | 14:28 | |
our flames in sudden conflict, | 14:31 | |
create goodwill among every race and nation, | 14:34 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 14:39 | |
We pray for those involved in world government, | 14:43 | |
in agencies of control or compassion, | 14:46 | |
who work for the reconciling of nations, | 14:50 | |
keep them hopeful, and work with them for peace, | 14:55 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 14:59 | |
We pray for poor people who are hungry, | 15:03 | |
or are housed in cramped places, | 15:07 | |
increase in us and in all who prosper, | 15:11 | |
concerned for the disinherited, Lord, hear our prayer. | 15:14 | |
We pray for social outcasts. | 15:21 | |
For those excluded by their own militance | 15:24 | |
or by the harshness of others, | 15:28 | |
give us grace to accept those our world names unacceptable, | 15:30 | |
and so show your mighty love, Lord, hear our prayer. | 15:36 | |
We pray for sick people who suffer pain, | 15:43 | |
or struggle, or demons of the mind, | 15:46 | |
who silently cry out for healing, | 15:50 | |
may they be patient, brave, and trusting. | 15:53 | |
Lord, hear our prayer. | 15:57 | |
We pray for people everywhere, | 16:01 | |
may they come into their own as children of God, | 16:04 | |
and inherit the kingdom prepared in Jesus Christ our Lord, | 16:08 | |
of all, and savior of the world. | 16:12 | |
Lord, hear our prayer, Amen. | 16:17 | |
Now, let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God. | 16:23 | |
(organ music) | 16:31 | |
(chorale music) | 17:13 | |
Gracious God, we thank you for all the blessings | 22:42 | |
of this life, for family and friends, | 22:46 | |
for food, and for your word, | 22:49 | |
enlightening our spirits and broadening our horizons. | 22:53 | |
Accept these gifts in our lives | 22:57 | |
in response to your love for us. | 23:01 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 23:04 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 23:09 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 23:12 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 23:15 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 23:18 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 23:20 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 23:24 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 23:26 | |
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 23:28 | |
and the glory, forever. | 23:31 | |
Amen. | 23:33 | |
(organ music) | 23:37 | |
(chorale music) | 24:14 | |
And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, | 26:56 | |
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 27:00 | |
go forth with you now, and always. | 27:03 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:08 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:11 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:15 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:19 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:28 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:37 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 27:50 | |
(harpsichord music) | 28:08 | |
(upbeat music) | 30:53 | |
(chorale singing) | 34:14 | |
(faint footsteps) | 35:11 | |
(baby crying) | 36:05 | |
(chorale singing) | 36:40 | |
(organ music) | 42:36 |