Helen G. Crotwell - "Nothing Can Separate" (July 30, 1978)
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- | Duke University Chapel service of worship, July 30, 1978. | 0:06 |
(inspirational organ music) | 0:13 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 14:57 | |
- | If we say we have no sin | 18:29 |
then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, | 18:32 | |
but if we confess our sins before God | 18:37 | |
he is just and he can be trusted to forgive. | 18:40 | |
Therefore, let us confess our sins before almighty God. | 18:45 | |
Oh God, we confess that we have failed in many ways. | 18:51 | |
We have tried to hide from you, | 18:55 | |
from one another | 18:58 | |
and even from ourselves. | 18:59 | |
There have been times | 19:03 | |
when we have drawn back from the right | 19:04 | |
because it was a difficult experience. | 19:07 | |
Too often we have involved ourselves | 19:10 | |
in a meaningless round of activities | 19:13 | |
that lead nowhere and do not bring satisfaction. | 19:16 | |
We have treated persons as things | 19:21 | |
and things as gods. | 19:23 | |
We have strayed far from the fullness | 19:26 | |
of life that you have made possible for us. | 19:28 | |
Forgive us for our self centeredness | 19:33 | |
and our weakness | 19:36 | |
and give us the courage to accept the pain | 19:37 | |
of complete commitment | 19:40 | |
which brings new birth and healing of our brokenness. | 19:42 | |
In the name of Jesus, amen. | 19:47 | |
Now hear the gracious words of our Lord Jesus Christ. | 19:51 | |
Unto all that repent and turn to him, | 19:55 | |
he says come unto me all that labor | 19:59 | |
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. | 20:02 | |
Whoever comes to me I will not cast out. | 20:06 | |
So, now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ | 20:10 | |
be with all of you. | 20:13 | |
I declare to you our sins are forgiven. | 20:14 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good | 20:19 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 20:21 | |
(congregation chanting) | 20:25 | |
Let us pray. | 20:39 | |
Lord, God open our hearts and our minds | 20:42 | |
that we may be good soil for the seeds of faith | 20:44 | |
that you sow there through your holy word, amen. | 20:48 | |
The Old Testament lesson this morning comes | 20:56 | |
from Isaiah, the 55th Chapter, verses one through three. | 20:58 | |
Let us listen to the word of God. | 21:09 | |
Everyone who thirsts come | 21:18 | |
to the waters and he who has no money | 21:21 | |
come and buy and eat. | 21:24 | |
Come, buy wine and milk without money | 21:28 | |
and without price. | 21:30 | |
Why do you spend your money for that | 21:33 | |
which is not bread and your labor | 21:35 | |
for that which does not satisfy? | 21:38 | |
Harken diligently to me and eat what is good | 21:41 | |
and delight yourselves in fatness. | 21:46 | |
Incline your ear and come to me. | 21:49 | |
Hear that your soul may live | 21:52 | |
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant. | 21:55 | |
My steadfast sure love for David. | 21:59 | |
The New Testament scripture comes to us from Paul's letter | 22:04 | |
to the Romans, the 8th Chapter beginning with the 35th | 22:09 | |
and ending with the 39th verse. | 22:14 | |
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? | 22:19 | |
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution | 22:23 | |
or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? | 22:27 | |
As it is written for thy sake | 22:33 | |
we are being killed all the day long. | 22:35 | |
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. | 22:39 | |
Know in all these things we are more | 22:43 | |
than conquerors through him who loved us. | 22:45 | |
For I am sure that neither death nor life | 22:49 | |
nor angels nor principalities | 22:53 | |
nor things present nor things to come | 22:56 | |
nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else | 23:00 | |
in all creation will ever be able | 23:05 | |
to separate us from the love of God | 23:08 | |
in Christ Jesus our Lord. | 23:11 | |
Thus, ends the reading of scripture. | 23:14 | |
May God give us understanding of his word, amen. | 23:17 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 23:41 | |
Will the congregation please rise for the reading | 27:08 | |
of the gospel? | 27:11 | |
The gospel is Matthew's, Chapter 14, beginning | 27:19 | |
with the 13th and concluding with the 21st verse. | 27:22 | |
Now when Jesus heard this he withdrew from there | 27:27 | |
in a boat to a lonely place apart. | 27:30 | |
But when the crowds heard it they followed him on foot | 27:34 | |
from the towns. | 27:37 | |
As he went ashore he saw a great throng and he had | 27:39 | |
compassion on them and healed their sick. | 27:42 | |
When it was evening the disciples came to him | 27:47 | |
and said, this is a lonely place and the day | 27:49 | |
is now over. | 27:53 | |
Send the crowds away to go into the villages | 27:54 | |
and buy food for themselves. | 27:57 | |
Jesus said, they need not go away. | 28:00 | |
You give them something to eat. | 28:04 | |
And they said to him, we have only five loaves here | 28:07 | |
and two fish. | 28:11 | |
And he said, bring them here to me. | 28:12 | |
Then, he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass | 28:16 | |
and taking the five loaves | 28:20 | |
and the two fish | 28:23 | |
he looked up to heaven | 28:25 | |
and he blessed and broke and gave the loaves | 28:27 | |
to the disciples and the disciples | 28:30 | |
gave them to the crowds | 28:33 | |
and they all ate and they were satisfied. | 28:35 | |
And they took up 12 baskets | 28:39 | |
full of the broken pieces | 28:42 | |
that were left over | 28:43 | |
and those who ate were about 5000 men | 28:46 | |
besides women and children. | 28:49 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 28:55 | |
- | Nothing can separate us from the love of God. | 30:13 |
Paul says, not tribulation nor distress | 30:20 | |
or persecution or famine or nakedness | 30:24 | |
or the sword, not even death nor life, | 30:28 | |
nor things present nor things to come, | 30:34 | |
not powers, not height, or depth | 30:38 | |
nor anything else | 30:43 | |
in all creation. | 30:46 | |
For us we'd say, not hard times or unemployment, | 30:50 | |
not divorce or hunger or loneliness, | 30:56 | |
not illness or boredom or fear, | 31:01 | |
not political powers | 31:05 | |
or even death or death of someone we love. | 31:08 | |
Nothing in or past, our present or our future | 31:14 | |
has the power to separate us from the love of God, | 31:19 | |
nothing. | 31:25 | |
Such assurance was real for Paul at a time | 31:28 | |
when Christians were bein' persecuted, | 31:31 | |
when there were all sorts of forces at work | 31:36 | |
trying to separate people from God's love | 31:39 | |
shown to them in Jesus, the Christ. | 31:42 | |
Our experience may not be identical, | 31:47 | |
but we know similar struggles and conflicts | 31:50 | |
and some of us have the same testimony and hope | 31:54 | |
which Paul expressed in his letter to the Romans. | 31:58 | |
Others of us want to believe, but it sounds unreal, | 32:03 | |
a fanciful dream spinning. | 32:08 | |
Listen to these situations, not about actual | 32:13 | |
individuals, but about real people | 32:17 | |
and the sense of the stories are a composite | 32:21 | |
of many of our stories and so therefore, | 32:25 | |
are pictures of us. | 32:28 | |
A woman is looking for a job which will use her talents | 32:32 | |
and allow her time to be with her family. | 32:36 | |
There're not many available positions | 32:41 | |
because hers is a specialized skill. | 32:43 | |
She is one of the final candidates | 32:47 | |
for two very good positions, | 32:49 | |
but she is rejected by both. | 32:53 | |
She says, how fortunate, for neither of these | 32:56 | |
positions would've allowed me time to be with my family | 33:01 | |
and I was immediately offered a job | 33:05 | |
which used my abilities and did give me | 33:08 | |
the necessary time that I wanted to be with my family. | 33:11 | |
She comments, it is comforting to know | 33:15 | |
of God's love and care for me, | 33:20 | |
that God has a plan for my life. | 33:23 | |
But what about the person | 33:28 | |
with a family who has struggled and skimped | 33:31 | |
and saved so that he could get his PhD | 33:34 | |
only to be told time and time again | 33:39 | |
that he has all the qualifications, | 33:43 | |
but the position is going to someone else | 33:46 | |
who is qualified, a woman or a black? | 33:49 | |
Or, another contrast, a man's wife dies. | 33:55 | |
He is later reunited with a childhood sweetheart. | 34:00 | |
Surely God's love is seen in this. | 34:05 | |
But, what about the woman who has been faithful | 34:09 | |
to her husband, denying her vocational options | 34:13 | |
to care for her family as wife and mother | 34:17 | |
and who is told by her husband | 34:21 | |
that he is leaving because his life | 34:24 | |
can no longer be fulfilled in relationship with her | 34:28 | |
and he has found a young and beautiful | 34:33 | |
and brilliant woman who makes him feel important, | 34:36 | |
like a real man? | 34:40 | |
There are such times of personal anguish and deep suffering | 34:44 | |
when we feel separated from the love of God, | 34:48 | |
the times when we see no hope in the future, | 34:52 | |
the times when we suffer because we cannot fulfill | 34:56 | |
or meet the expectations of someone we love. | 35:00 | |
The husband whose wife wants him to get a promotion, | 35:05 | |
the wife whose husband wants her to look | 35:11 | |
forever 21 years old, | 35:14 | |
the children whose parents want them to make all As, | 35:18 | |
the young woman who has | 35:24 | |
a problem which causes her to be overweight | 35:25 | |
in a society which says all women should wear | 35:29 | |
a size eight dress. | 35:33 | |
We struggle to achieve similar goals | 35:37 | |
to gain them or keep the love of those | 35:42 | |
who are most important to us | 35:45 | |
and in our desperation we often feel separated | 35:49 | |
from these people and often from the love of God. | 35:53 | |
We see God's love as being as conditional | 35:58 | |
as some of our family or our friends seems to be | 36:02 | |
and sometimes we expect that if God really loves us | 36:08 | |
we would be a size eight, or get the promotion, | 36:12 | |
or be whatever seems most important to those | 36:15 | |
we want to please. | 36:18 | |
Now, intellectually we know immediately | 36:21 | |
the absurdity of such expectations. | 36:24 | |
We know that Paul did not, | 36:26 | |
nor in fact does any Biblical witness | 36:29 | |
promise that God's love will bring us success | 36:31 | |
or beauty or a happy marriage or a good job | 36:34 | |
or that God's love is even dependent | 36:39 | |
on our meeting any standard. | 36:42 | |
But on some level at some time we believe | 36:46 | |
like the woman who found the job that if God loves us | 36:50 | |
it will be expressed in our being | 36:54 | |
everything we want to be | 36:57 | |
and having everything we need. | 36:59 | |
So, when this doesn't happen | 37:02 | |
we feel separated from God's love. | 37:04 | |
Now such yearning and questioning is not foreign | 37:08 | |
to our Biblical faith. | 37:11 | |
Hear a paraphrase of the 44th Psalm. | 37:13 | |
Oh God, I have heard so much about how close you were | 37:18 | |
to your children throughout history. | 37:22 | |
They clobbered the enemy and credited you | 37:25 | |
for their victories. | 37:27 | |
It was their persistent faith in you | 37:29 | |
that held them together through the crises | 37:31 | |
of their lives | 37:33 | |
and I am aware of how you have watched | 37:36 | |
over me in the midst of our conflicts. | 37:38 | |
You have enabled me to overcome many | 37:42 | |
of the obstacles in my life. | 37:44 | |
Even when I so miserably failed | 37:46 | |
you set me on my feet again. | 37:49 | |
I am keenly aware of my incapabilities, | 37:52 | |
inadequacies and of how much I need you. | 37:55 | |
I know all this, Lord. | 37:59 | |
I am deeply grateful for your care and concern, | 38:02 | |
but what about now? | 38:07 | |
I am on the spot and I can't reach you. | 38:09 | |
It seems as if you have left the scene | 38:12 | |
and I am left holding the bag. | 38:15 | |
I cry for help | 38:18 | |
and hear only the echo of my own voice. | 38:20 | |
I grope about me and find insurmountable walls | 38:24 | |
and dark corners. | 38:29 | |
The advice of my peers and superiors seems devoid | 38:30 | |
of genuine love and concern. | 38:34 | |
Oh God, if you are truly my God, | 38:37 | |
reveal yourself to me now. | 38:40 | |
I simply cannot bear the shame and pain of my problem. | 38:44 | |
Nobody around me can help me. | 38:49 | |
If people knew about it they would only shun me. | 38:52 | |
I have not forgotten you, oh God. | 38:56 | |
I have dedicated my life to you | 38:58 | |
and your purposes and I am in deep trouble. | 39:00 | |
I have no one else to turn to. | 39:04 | |
Oh God, listen to me. Respond to my cry for help. | 39:07 | |
Deliver me from this terrible conflict | 39:11 | |
before it destroys me. | 39:13 | |
Help me to sense your love and concern. | 39:16 | |
Save me before it is too late. | 39:19 | |
The cry of the Psalmist is our cry. | 39:25 | |
Oh Lord, show us your love. | 39:29 | |
Paul was talking about the love of God | 39:34 | |
as he knew and experienced it through Jesus, the Christ. | 39:37 | |
So, to know this love we look to Jesus | 39:42 | |
who knew the human condition, who suffered himself, | 39:45 | |
who did not escape being human, | 39:50 | |
the agony, the loneliness, the unknown. | 39:53 | |
Jesus endured life to the end. | 39:57 | |
His story is real, not fiction | 40:00 | |
and the ending was not a fairy tale | 40:03 | |
that said he lived happily ever after, | 40:06 | |
but the end, a horrible death. | 40:09 | |
He was forsaken by his friends | 40:13 | |
and he felt abandoned by God. | 40:16 | |
Now, if we do not stop with the cross, | 40:20 | |
but move through it to the assurance | 40:24 | |
that the resurrection of Jesus | 40:27 | |
was to a new life with God we will find hope. | 40:29 | |
It is clear that God who seemed | 40:34 | |
to have abandoned him | 40:37 | |
and from the perspective of the crowd, | 40:39 | |
to have left him without support | 40:41 | |
did in fact, sustain him even through death. | 40:44 | |
God had been with him in what some people call | 40:49 | |
a hidden presence. | 40:53 | |
Now we can find meaning and hope | 40:56 | |
in the face of such senseless suffering and death | 40:59 | |
which in some lesser degree | 41:04 | |
many of us face only as we look to the one | 41:07 | |
who is holy other and yet is at the same time | 41:12 | |
completely present with us in our human condition. | 41:16 | |
Elie Wiesel writes about one of the most horrible | 41:21 | |
of examples of human evil and sin, the Holocaust, | 41:24 | |
in his book, Night, and he recalls an experience | 41:30 | |
from one of the concentration camps | 41:34 | |
when three prisoners were bein' hanged. | 41:37 | |
One, a very young boy who, because he was so light | 41:40 | |
weighted, took so much longer to die. | 41:45 | |
One man kept asking where is God now? | 41:50 | |
Where is God? | 41:53 | |
And Wiesel said he heard a voice within him, | 41:55 | |
where is God? Here is God. | 42:00 | |
God is hanging on this gallous. | 42:05 | |
Such stories, as horrifying as they are, | 42:10 | |
offer us hope knowing that if these people | 42:13 | |
can sense God's presence and these terrible times | 42:17 | |
we too can be assured of God's loving presence | 42:21 | |
in whatever situation we find ourselves. | 42:25 | |
We know there's no way to avoid suffering | 42:29 | |
or anguish or loneliness, | 42:33 | |
but we also know there is a way through these conditions, | 42:36 | |
for our faith is that God is also present | 42:43 | |
participating in our human situation, | 42:46 | |
even at the times of utmost peril and meaninglessness. | 42:51 | |
God, the holy other, is present in our history | 42:55 | |
seeking, searching, standing with us in darkness | 42:59 | |
and futility and in those meaningless moments | 43:04 | |
offering us hope, not a hope of easy escape, | 43:08 | |
but of living through it. | 43:13 | |
God's love does not protect us | 43:15 | |
from all suffering, but it protects us | 43:19 | |
in all suffering. | 43:23 | |
We have the witness to this from countless Christians | 43:26 | |
who have lived out their human existence | 43:29 | |
without looking for cheap consolation. | 43:32 | |
Countless who though incurably sick, | 43:36 | |
have discovered through their illness | 43:38 | |
a new awareness of themselves. | 43:41 | |
Think of the people you know | 43:45 | |
who affirm that God has stood by them | 43:47 | |
when they were faced with overwhelming chaos | 43:50 | |
oppressed by our society, listless | 43:55 | |
because of their boredom | 44:00 | |
paralyzed by fear, | 44:02 | |
forgotten by friends, betrayed by spouses. | 44:06 | |
Not all come out victorious. | 44:12 | |
Some are crushed and broken. | 44:14 | |
Survival is not mechanical and automatic, | 44:16 | |
but nothing can separate us from the love of God | 44:20 | |
which sustains us through such times, | 44:25 | |
nothing except ourselves. | 44:28 | |
Viktor Frankl, another person who survived | 44:34 | |
the horror of the Holocaust says, everything | 44:37 | |
can be taken from a person but one thing, | 44:41 | |
the last of the human freedoms, | 44:44 | |
to choose one's attitude in any set of circumstances. | 44:47 | |
Everything can be taken from a person | 44:53 | |
but one thing, to choose one's attitude | 44:56 | |
in any set of circumstances. | 45:01 | |
We choose how we respond to our human condition. | 45:05 | |
Nothing can separate us from the love of God | 45:09 | |
except ourselves. | 45:13 | |
God's love is ours, | 45:17 | |
but it's not a love which is coercive, overpowering, | 45:20 | |
which negates our will and our freedom. | 45:25 | |
We may be separating ourselves from God's love | 45:30 | |
when we give absolute power and control | 45:34 | |
of our lives to people and institutions | 45:38 | |
which do not have and cannot bear | 45:41 | |
such absoluteness. | 45:45 | |
The husband who is driven to satisfy his wife's need | 45:47 | |
for him to be promoted, the wife who constantly | 45:51 | |
struggles to look 21 years old, the child who cannot | 45:55 | |
fulfill the parents' expectation, the woman who | 46:00 | |
unconditionally accepts culture's picture | 46:05 | |
of what she must look like if she is to be lovable. | 46:09 | |
If these expectations are given ultimate power | 46:13 | |
over us, if they determine how we make our decisions, | 46:17 | |
how we spend our time, our energy, our money, | 46:22 | |
they become all consuming. | 46:26 | |
They have taken the place of God and have become our gods | 46:29 | |
and none of these have the power to sustain us ultimately, | 46:33 | |
especially in times of failure | 46:38 | |
when we can't get promotions, when we get old | 46:42 | |
and wrinkled and even cantankerous, when we stay fat. | 46:46 | |
None of these values stand by us in love no matter what. | 46:52 | |
They may be conditionally and temporarily satisfying | 46:58 | |
when we are able to meet their standards. | 47:03 | |
But we are affirming that nothing can separate us | 47:08 | |
from God's love, even the failure to meet | 47:10 | |
these cultural values of standards and the experience | 47:13 | |
of the people like the man with the PhD who keeps | 47:18 | |
seeking a job, sometimes he finds one, | 47:21 | |
sometimes he has to find another work. | 47:26 | |
Or, the woman whose husband leaves her, | 47:29 | |
sometimes he comes back, | 47:32 | |
sometimes she finds another person | 47:34 | |
with whom to make a new and lasting covenant, | 47:36 | |
but sometimes she has to learn to live her life | 47:40 | |
without a marriage partner, finding new friends | 47:44 | |
and a new way of life. | 47:47 | |
Each of us knows people who have faced | 47:50 | |
similar situations and have come out confident | 47:52 | |
of God's love and were enabled to share this love | 47:56 | |
with others. | 48:00 | |
We also know there are less dramatic, more hidden reasons | 48:02 | |
why we, which cause us to feel separated | 48:06 | |
from the love of God. | 48:09 | |
Some reflected in that paraphrase of the 44th Psalm. | 48:11 | |
I cry out for help and hear only the echo | 48:16 | |
of my own words. | 48:21 | |
When we seem cut off from God, | 48:25 | |
when we cry out and there's no one there, | 48:27 | |
an emptiness, then we trust the God is present | 48:30 | |
though hidden. | 48:35 | |
Our past experience and faith may sustain us | 48:37 | |
and we are comforted in these times when we read | 48:41 | |
the testimony of the people we name saints | 48:45 | |
who have known the dark night of the soul | 48:48 | |
when God seemed absent or remote. | 48:52 | |
We are held when we read about their spiritual | 48:55 | |
pilgrimage knowing they came through | 48:59 | |
affirming God's presence and love. | 49:03 | |
Another of the less dramatic, more hidden dimensions | 49:08 | |
of our experience of the absence of God | 49:10 | |
is reflected again in the Psalm. | 49:15 | |
I cannot bear the shame and the pain of my problem. | 49:18 | |
If people knew about it they would only shun me. | 49:22 | |
Such feeling of separation gnaws at us when we know | 49:27 | |
we have betrayed that which we value most. | 49:31 | |
There is an emptiness. | 49:36 | |
Our insides feel like a hollow shell because of our | 49:38 | |
compromise or fraud or deceit or betrayal. | 49:42 | |
We cannot believe that God would love us. | 49:47 | |
We don't love and respect ourselves and if our family | 49:50 | |
or neighbors only knew they would not respect us. | 49:53 | |
But, the witness of so many people is that God | 49:58 | |
does not abandon us even then. | 50:00 | |
The wonder of the Biblical story is it is often | 50:03 | |
these people who experience God's love | 50:07 | |
in the fullest. | 50:10 | |
God's love often expressed first and forgiveness | 50:12 | |
and acceptance and then often leading to restoration, | 50:16 | |
restitution and renewal. | 50:20 | |
When God is absent to us where do we turn? | 50:25 | |
If the Christian community is the church | 50:30 | |
continuing the work of the Christ, | 50:34 | |
then it is here that we will be gently | 50:37 | |
and lovingly carried through our time | 50:41 | |
of utter darkness to that time when we sense | 50:43 | |
a glimmer of hope. | 50:48 | |
We'll find the undergirding arms during our time of worship, | 50:50 | |
in our prayer and our reflection and our meditation, | 50:54 | |
especially in reading the Psalms. | 50:59 | |
We will know that we are not alone | 51:02 | |
in this experience, that others have shared | 51:05 | |
and share the emptiness we sense. | 51:09 | |
God's love often comes to us at these times | 51:13 | |
through another person, | 51:17 | |
a friend or a counselor, or even a stranger. | 51:19 | |
Being with another | 51:24 | |
at times of deep anguish offers to the other | 51:27 | |
comfort, hope, consolation and helps to lead | 51:30 | |
the other from isolation and separation | 51:35 | |
into the fellowship of love. | 51:39 | |
Hear now the prayers from one of our Eucharistic services. | 51:43 | |
Our community celebration of God's love for us | 51:47 | |
at all times, we thank you oh God, | 51:52 | |
for speaking your word, sending your love to us despite | 51:57 | |
our deafness. | 52:02 | |
Your word is life in many ways, | 52:04 | |
a forgiving word, a reassuring smile, | 52:08 | |
friends who walk mysteriously into our lives | 52:12 | |
and awaken good in us we never knew existed. | 52:16 | |
Your word is hope, creativity, imagination | 52:21 | |
and new beginnings. | 52:26 | |
When we somehow start out again from the ashes | 52:29 | |
of defeat or disappointment, | 52:33 | |
send over us we pray, your Holy Spirit, | 52:37 | |
the Spirit who brings us life, | 52:42 | |
the Spirit who helps us love, | 52:46 | |
the Spirit who makes all that we do | 52:50 | |
not easy but full of meaning. | 52:53 | |
Only with the Spirit's help can we truly be | 52:57 | |
the church of Jesus Christ. | 53:00 | |
The Spirit's presence in our community gives more | 53:03 | |
than human meaning to the support which we show | 53:08 | |
to one another. | 53:12 | |
Let us rejoice and give thanks that nothing | 53:14 | |
can separate us from the love of God, | 53:18 | |
amen and amen. | 53:22 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 53:30 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 54:23 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 57:14 |
We believe in God | 57:18 | |
who has created and is creating | 57:20 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 57:23 | |
to reconcile and to make new, | 57:27 | |
who works in us and others | 57:30 | |
by the Spirit. | 57:32 | |
We trust God | 57:34 | |
who calls us to be the church | 57:36 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 57:39 | |
to love and serve others, | 57:43 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 57:45 | |
to proclaim Jesus | 57:49 | |
crucified and risen, | 57:51 | |
our judge and our hope, | 57:53 | |
in life, in death, | 57:56 | |
in life beyond death | 57:59 | |
God is with us. | 58:01 | |
We are not alone. | 58:03 | |
Thanks be to God. | 58:06 | |
The Lord be with you. | 58:08 | |
Let us pray. | 58:12 | |
Lord God almighty, | 58:22 | |
giver of life | 58:25 | |
and sustainer of those who struggle with it. | 58:27 | |
Hear our prayer for people in need. | 58:32 | |
Help us to have the wisdom, | 58:36 | |
the patience, the courage | 58:40 | |
and the imagination to serve your children, | 58:44 | |
those who are hungry and poor, | 58:49 | |
those who are lonely, | 58:53 | |
who are mourning the loss of a loved one, | 58:56 | |
those who are sick in body and mind, | 59:00 | |
those who are faithless, | 59:05 | |
those who are consumed with anger | 59:08 | |
and those possessed by greed. | 59:12 | |
Come, Spirit of God, | 59:16 | |
live in your church | 59:19 | |
and liven its members that we all | 59:21 | |
may do your will. | 59:24 | |
Inspire our leaders | 59:26 | |
and our lay people that they may be doers | 59:28 | |
of the word and not hearers only | 59:30 | |
and help us, whatever we do, | 59:35 | |
to do it for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ | 59:38 | |
who led us in prayer this way. | 59:42 | |
Our Father who art in heaven | 59:46 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 59:49 | |
Thy kingdom come | 59:51 | |
thy will be done | 59:53 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 59:55 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 59:58 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 1:00:01 | |
as we forgive those | 1:00:03 | |
who trespass against us | 1:00:04 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 1:00:07 | |
but deliver us from evil | 1:00:10 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 1:00:12 | |
and the power | 1:00:14 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 1:00:15 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 1:00:23 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 1:02:23 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 1:05:26 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 1:07:04 | |
Lord God, creator of the universe | 1:08:03 | |
accept we humbly pray | 1:08:06 | |
these gifts which you have given us | 1:08:10 | |
and we now return in your service. | 1:08:12 | |
Use them we pray for the doing of your word | 1:08:17 | |
that every knee should bow and every tongue confess | 1:08:23 | |
that Jesus is Lord, amen. | 1:08:26 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 1:08:31 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 1:09:18 | |
And may the love of God | 1:11:40 | |
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ | 1:11:43 | |
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:11:45 | |
be and abide with you now and always, amen. | 1:11:47 | |
(inspirational choir music) | 1:11:59 | |
(inspirational organ music) | 1:13:18 | |
(congregation clapping) | 1:21:20 |