Clarence G. Newsome - "Righteous Anger" (August 27, 1978)
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Transcript
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Announcer | Duke University Chapel service of worship. | 0:02 |
(pipe organ music) | 0:26 | |
Woman | All joy, amen. | 8:09 |
(pipe organ music) | 8:15 | |
(choir singing) | 8:26 | |
Let us humbly confess our sins to almighty God. | 12:16 | |
Oh God of truth and fact, | 12:21 | |
forgive us for the myths we generate | 12:26 | |
about our heritage to falsify the past, | 12:30 | |
about ourselves to hide our present faults, | 12:35 | |
about those strange to us to justify our lack of charity. | 12:40 | |
Give us courage to seek, | 12:47 | |
and to face all truth. | 12:50 | |
Give us humility to see with less distortion, | 12:53 | |
and give us grace to act upon the truth | 12:58 | |
of Your spirit leads us to perceive. | 13:02 | |
Amen. | 13:07 | |
As the heaven is high above the Earth, | 14:01 | |
so great is God's mercy toward those who fear God. | 14:04 | |
As far as the East is from the West, | 14:09 | |
so far has God removed our sins from us. | 14:12 | |
Amen. | 14:17 | |
Let us give thanks, for God is good, | 14:20 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 14:24 | |
Thanks be to God who creates us, | 14:27 | |
thanks be to God by whose mercy we are redeemed, | 14:31 | |
thanks be to God whose spirit leads us into the future. | 14:36 | |
We welcome as our preacher | 14:43 | |
this morning the Reverend Clarence G. Newsome, | 14:45 | |
who is a member of the faculty at the Duke Divinity School. | 14:49 | |
- | [Reverend Newsome] Let us pray. | 15:05 |
Prepare our hearts, oh Lord, | 15:07 | |
to accept Your word. | 15:10 | |
Silence in us any voice but Your own, | 15:12 | |
that hearing, we may also obey Your will. | 15:16 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 15:21 | |
Will the congregation stand for | 15:25 | |
the reading of the gospel lesson? | 15:27 | |
The lesson is from the 21st chapter of Matthew, | 15:33 | |
verses 12 through 16. | 15:36 | |
"And Jesus entered the temple of God, | 15:40 | |
"and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, | 15:42 | |
"and he overturned the tables of money changers, | 15:46 | |
"and the seats of those who sold pigeons. | 15:49 | |
"He said to them, it is written, | 15:52 | |
"my house shall be called a house of prayer, | 15:56 | |
"but you make it a den of robbers, | 15:58 | |
"and the blind, and the lame came to him in the temple, | 16:01 | |
"and he healed them, | 16:06 | |
"but when the chief priest and the scribes saw | 16:07 | |
"the wonderful things that he did, | 16:09 | |
"and the children crying out in the temple, | 16:12 | |
"God bless the son of David, | 16:14 | |
"they were indignant, and they said to him, | 16:17 | |
"do you hear what these are saying? | 16:20 | |
"And Jesus said to them, yes. | 16:23 | |
"Have you never read out of | 16:27 | |
"the mouth of babes and sucklings, | 16:30 | |
"though haste bought perfect praise." | 16:32 | |
Here ends the reading of the gospel. | 16:36 | |
All praise and glory be to God. | 16:38 | |
Amen. | 16:41 | |
(pipe organ music) | 16:43 | |
(choir singing) | 17:14 | |
Please be seated. | 17:50 | |
Let us pray. | 18:01 | |
Oh merciful and all wise God, | 18:05 | |
only Thou knowest how frail a vessel I am, | 18:09 | |
only Thou knowest how fragile | 18:14 | |
an instrument I am to do Your deed, | 18:17 | |
but that the words of my mouth, | 18:24 | |
and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, | 18:26 | |
oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. | 18:32 | |
Amen. | 18:37 | |
Greetings to each of you. | 18:41 | |
As I come before you, | 18:44 | |
I stand, even at this moment, | 18:46 | |
wondering whose antics I will imitate from this pulpit. | 18:50 | |
Often times when I sit out | 18:56 | |
where you are sitting now and look up, | 18:57 | |
I try to determine whose style I want, | 19:01 | |
but I am aware that there's a danger in imitation, | 19:05 | |
many pitfalls, as I am reminded of a little story | 19:10 | |
that I wish to share with you now before I begin my sermon. | 19:15 | |
It's a story of a man who I am told was in New York, | 19:20 | |
this is what they say, | 19:24 | |
and he was seen jumping on a manhole, | 19:27 | |
up and down, up and down, | 19:30 | |
up and down, and he was counting, | 19:32 | |
"44, 44, 44, 44." | 19:36 | |
Pretty soon people began to gather around, | 19:41 | |
and he just continued, "44, 44, 44." | 19:43 | |
It wasn't long before somebody in the crown said, | 19:50 | |
"I can do that. | 19:52 | |
"I can do that, and I can do it better than you", | 19:55 | |
and the man said, "well if you want, come on." | 19:57 | |
The man was trying to draw some attention to himself, | 20:00 | |
so he took the place of the other man over the manhole, | 20:04 | |
and began to jump up and down, | 20:08 | |
and count, "44, 44, 44." | 20:10 | |
He had his crowd, people were watching, | 20:14 | |
but one time when he was suspended up in the air, | 20:17 | |
the first man reached over, | 20:23 | |
grabbed the top of the manhole, | 20:25 | |
and pulled it back, and the man fell straight down, | 20:26 | |
and when that happened, the first man took the manhole, | 20:31 | |
put it back over, the cover, | 20:35 | |
took the man cover, put it back over the hole, | 20:37 | |
and began to jump up and down again going, | 20:40 | |
"45, 45, 45, 45." | 20:42 | |
I got through that. | 20:47 | |
There are pitfalls in imitation, | 20:49 | |
so I'm mindful of that. | 20:52 | |
Now I wish to express just a word of greetings also | 20:57 | |
to the 1978 Duke University football team. | 21:02 | |
I see many of the young men out in the congregation, | 21:07 | |
and I welcome you especially. | 21:12 | |
The topic of my sermon this morning | 21:17 | |
has to do with the subject of righteous anger. | 21:21 | |
Righteous anger. | 21:26 | |
I have come to my topic by way of meditating | 21:31 | |
on a portion of the 21st chapter of St. Matthew, | 21:37 | |
and that portion, beginning with the 12th verse, | 21:43 | |
and ending with the 16th verse. | 21:47 | |
You heard this familiar passage read | 21:52 | |
this morning as the scripture lesson. | 21:54 | |
I wish now to reread it for the purpose | 21:59 | |
of drawing your attention to its meaning, | 22:01 | |
and if you have a Bible, if you have one with you, | 22:07 | |
I would like for you to read silently along with me. | 22:12 | |
"And Jesus went into the temple of God, | 22:20 | |
"and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, | 22:25 | |
"and overthrew the tables of the money changers, | 22:30 | |
"and the seats of them that sold doves," | 22:34 | |
or pigeons, depending on your translation, | 22:36 | |
"and said unto them, | 22:40 | |
"it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer, | 22:43 | |
"but ye have made it a den of thieves, | 22:46 | |
"and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, | 22:50 | |
"and then he healed them, | 22:53 | |
"and when the chief priests and scribes saw | 22:56 | |
"the wonderful things that he did, | 22:58 | |
"and the children crying in the temple | 23:01 | |
"and saying, Hosannah to the son of David, | 23:03 | |
"they were sore displeased, | 23:06 | |
"and said unto him, hearest thou what these say? | 23:11 | |
"And Jesus sayeth unto them, "yea, have ye never read? | 23:16 | |
"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, | 23:21 | |
"thou hast perfected praise." | 23:24 | |
Now this passage holds for me | 23:29 | |
memories of my boyhood. | 23:33 | |
For some reason I was always fascinated | 23:39 | |
by the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. | 23:41 | |
I cannot remember the first time that I heard it, | 23:46 | |
but I can recall that each time I occasioned to hear it | 23:51 | |
from my mother, my father, | 23:56 | |
my grandmother, the minister at our local church, | 23:57 | |
my Sunday school teacher, | 24:01 | |
each time I was as enraptured | 24:04 | |
as the preceding time. | 24:08 | |
The very vivid, very vivid image | 24:12 | |
of Jesus overturning tables, | 24:16 | |
knocking over chairs, and running people out into the street | 24:19 | |
no doubt intrigued me. | 24:24 | |
As a matter of fact, I can recall that the effect on me | 24:28 | |
was so great and so lasting that I would sometimes, | 24:32 | |
it's funny how I can remember this so clearly, | 24:36 | |
I would sometimes even before I knew how to read well, | 24:40 | |
go to the family Bible, | 24:45 | |
or the green backed Bible story book we had in our house, | 24:48 | |
and hunt for the picture of Jesus cleansing the temple. | 24:54 | |
You know how they have in some editions | 25:00 | |
of the Bible paintings and drawings illustrating | 25:03 | |
different Biblical stories? | 25:07 | |
Well, the illustration of Jesus cleansing the temple, | 25:08 | |
along with that of Joshua fit in the battle of Jericho, | 25:13 | |
I remember that one very well, was my favorite. | 25:16 | |
As I think back on what fascinated me, | 25:23 | |
as I think back on what intrigued me about the story, | 25:29 | |
I suppose it was the image of Jesus, | 25:35 | |
and the feeling of Jesus moving | 25:38 | |
with such evident force | 25:42 | |
and forthrightness. | 25:45 | |
It was even more, I suppose, the image, and the feeling, | 25:50 | |
and the thought | 25:54 | |
of an angry Jesus, | 25:57 | |
and I suppose what intrigued me the most | 26:03 | |
about the thought of an angry Jesus | 26:05 | |
was the contrast it presented to the image of Jesus | 26:11 | |
which was most dominant in my mind. | 26:15 | |
This was the image of a meek, | 26:20 | |
mild Jesus, | 26:24 | |
a Jesus so tender of heart | 26:28 | |
and so loving as to be almost passive. | 26:31 | |
Although it was not intelligible to me then, | 26:39 | |
I realize now that this contrast was, for me, | 26:44 | |
even at a young age, | 26:49 | |
the focal point of my attempt | 26:53 | |
to reconcile an all loving Jesus | 26:55 | |
with a Jesus of righteousness, | 27:01 | |
and in as much as Jesus is the son of God, | 27:06 | |
suppose an all loving god with a righteous God, | 27:09 | |
yea even a wrathful God. | 27:12 | |
Some years after the passing of my childhood, | 27:19 | |
I learned that I had not and was not alone | 27:25 | |
in my attempts to reconcile a loving God | 27:28 | |
with a righteous, wrathful God, | 27:31 | |
a loving Jesus with a righteous, wrathful Jesus. | 27:34 | |
I learned, for example, | 27:40 | |
that though religionists have long agreed | 27:41 | |
that love is indispensable to | 27:43 | |
the Christian view of God's nature, for God is love, | 27:46 | |
there has been much, much disagreement on | 27:53 | |
how God's righteousness, | 27:57 | |
expressed in the form of God's wrath, | 27:59 | |
is reconciled with God's love. | 28:02 | |
The issue as I understand it is in no way new. | 28:08 | |
Years and years ago, during the early days of the church, | 28:13 | |
the theologian Marcion, for example, | 28:19 | |
was among the first to face the problem head on. | 28:21 | |
According to him, reconciling the Old Testament idea | 28:25 | |
of the the righteousness of God | 28:29 | |
with the New Testament idea | 28:31 | |
of the love of God is impossible. | 28:33 | |
The concept of law as he saw it | 28:36 | |
is a complete denial of love. | 28:39 | |
The solution thereby was to insist | 28:43 | |
that the gospel of Christ is completely new, | 28:45 | |
and thus has nothing to do with the concept | 28:50 | |
of righteousness as presented in the Old Testament. | 28:53 | |
As a result, Marcion posited the reality of two Gods, | 28:59 | |
the creator God of the Old Testament, | 29:05 | |
who required obedience to the law of righteousness, | 29:09 | |
and the redeemer God of the New Testament, | 29:12 | |
who is the good, benevolent, | 29:16 | |
self giving God, the God of love. | 29:19 | |
As might be expected, the church rejected Marcion's view. | 29:26 | |
Since the early Christian community did not understand | 29:30 | |
its existence as being completely new | 29:34 | |
in the sense of negating the God of the Old Testament, | 29:37 | |
they believed that they were the authentic continuation | 29:43 | |
of the old Israel, the Noddest denial. | 29:46 | |
Christ therefore did not destroy | 29:50 | |
the Old Testament, he fulfilled it, | 29:53 | |
but while the early church rejected | 29:59 | |
Marcion's division and dichotomy | 30:01 | |
between the Old Testament view of God's righteousness | 30:03 | |
and the New Testament view of God's love in Jesus Christ, | 30:07 | |
many questions and much confusion | 30:12 | |
about the precise relationship between the two aspects, | 30:17 | |
the two modalities, dimensions, | 30:22 | |
call them what you will, | 30:24 | |
of God's reality have persisted, | 30:27 | |
even until the present day, | 30:31 | |
In the main, | 30:36 | |
we Christians have a tendency to regard | 30:40 | |
God's love as the dominant motif of Christianity, | 30:43 | |
while attempting to comprehend God's righteousness | 30:50 | |
in the light of it, | 30:53 | |
but this understand fails to take seriously | 30:56 | |
the importance of God's righteousness, | 31:02 | |
and in this connection, the importance of God's wrath, | 31:06 | |
and tends to make, as Professor Jame Cone | 31:11 | |
of Union Theological Seminary in New York says, | 31:15 | |
tends to make God's love mere sentimentality. | 31:18 | |
Think about it. | 31:23 | |
Most of us fail to regard properly | 31:26 | |
the significance of God's righteousness, God's wrath. | 31:31 | |
This suggests that we tend to see God's love | 31:38 | |
as completely self giving without | 31:41 | |
any demand for obedience. | 31:45 | |
You see, most of us believe in cheap grace, | 31:48 | |
as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it, | 31:54 | |
and what's more, we think, behave, and interact as if | 32:00 | |
grace were indeed cheap. | 32:05 | |
For some reason, perhaps a selfish reason | 32:11 | |
with a logic all its own, | 32:18 | |
we seem to think and act as if God | 32:22 | |
is basically not against anybody or anything, | 32:25 | |
and we all know according to the reasons of the heart, | 32:31 | |
don't we, | 32:34 | |
that that is not the case. | 32:38 | |
How then do we reconcile God's righteousness, | 32:44 | |
yea God's wrath, with God's love? | 32:47 | |
In a word, and at the risk of sounding a bit like Marcion, | 32:55 | |
but don't get ahead of me, we don't. | 33:00 | |
Play any mental games you want, | 33:05 | |
play any word games you want, | 33:07 | |
it is really beyond our ability to fathom it, | 33:08 | |
at least with the powers of the mind. | 33:12 | |
Humble yourselves enough to admit it, | 33:18 | |
but given the powers of the heart, we can at least, | 33:25 | |
on the basis of faith in the reality of God, | 33:30 | |
and mind you, I did not say belief | 33:36 | |
in the idea of the reality of God. | 33:40 | |
I said belief in the reality of God, | 33:46 | |
on that basis we can come to a point of view | 33:52 | |
which reveals to us, | 33:58 | |
and reveals to us not as the eclipse | 34:02 | |
of a once illuminated scene, | 34:05 | |
that's one of my favorite phrases. | 34:06 | |
As the theologian H. Richard Niebuhr | 34:09 | |
once so succinctly expressed, | 34:11 | |
"but which makes transparent to us | 34:14 | |
"for all time that God's love and God's righteousness | 34:17 | |
"are two ways | 34:21 | |
of talking about the same reality." | 34:25 | |
God's righteousness is, | 34:31 | |
whatever else it might be, | 34:36 | |
at least God's constant activity | 34:40 | |
at helping each of us to become aware, | 34:43 | |
making each of us to realize, | 34:49 | |
requiring each of us to see, | 34:55 | |
demanding each of our hearts to accept | 35:01 | |
that not all we do is right, | 35:05 | |
while God's love, | 35:13 | |
whatever else it might be, | 35:17 | |
is at least God's self giving to this task | 35:21 | |
in the interest of all of us. | 35:28 | |
It was as the embodiment of love and righteousness | 35:38 | |
that God, in Jesus Christ, | 35:44 | |
moved through the temple in Jerusalem | 35:46 | |
one particular day, some 2,000 odd years ago. | 35:51 | |
As we consider the account of this event | 35:58 | |
as it is found not only in the book of Matthew, | 36:01 | |
but also in the books of Mark, Luke, and John, | 36:04 | |
there is some question about the precise day, | 36:07 | |
whether it was at the outset of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem, | 36:12 | |
as suggested in Matthew, Luke, and John, | 36:16 | |
or on a subsequent day, as suggested in Mark, | 36:21 | |
is not important, at least not right now. | 36:23 | |
What is important is that the scripture makes plain to us | 36:28 | |
that Jesus' temperament on this occasion | 36:33 | |
was one of righteous anger, | 36:37 | |
for as we are told, he went into the temple of God, | 36:41 | |
and cast out all of them that sold and bought in the temple, | 36:45 | |
and overthrew the tables of the money changers, | 36:50 | |
and the seats of them that sold animals. | 36:53 | |
Why? | 36:59 | |
This is a question well worth considering. | 37:03 | |
When I first pondered this question | 37:10 | |
during the early days of my youth, | 37:12 | |
I concluded that Jesus acted so forcefully | 37:17 | |
and so forthrightly because he was merely offended | 37:20 | |
by the actions of the money changers, | 37:26 | |
the actions of those that sold doves, | 37:29 | |
and by the negligence of | 37:33 | |
the high priest in charge of the temple. | 37:35 | |
Well I'm not sure that this constituted, | 37:40 | |
well I am sure that this constituted | 37:44 | |
much of the reason for Jesus' reaction | 37:48 | |
upon entering the temple, | 37:51 | |
but now I can see that his protest, | 37:55 | |
his wrath was directed at a problem | 37:59 | |
much deeper than their actions. | 38:03 | |
For when I consider what they were doing, | 38:08 | |
I am inclined to sense and feel that Jesus | 38:12 | |
was most likely not that upset, | 38:17 | |
don't get ahead of me here, | 38:21 | |
not that upset with the form of their actions. | 38:23 | |
As a result of looking closely at the text, | 38:29 | |
we learn, for example, | 38:33 | |
that the money changers and those that sold animals | 38:37 | |
were providing a needed service. | 38:40 | |
In a modern day society such as ours, | 38:45 | |
where we have grown such accustomed | 38:47 | |
to 7-11 stores and the like, | 38:49 | |
we can well identify with the kind | 38:55 | |
of business these men operated, | 38:57 | |
for theirs was an operation of convenience. | 38:59 | |
Each day people from outlying areas, | 39:04 | |
Jews and Gentiles alike, | 39:06 | |
would arrive in Jerusalem to worship at the temple, | 39:09 | |
the sacred and ritualistic center of Judaism. | 39:13 | |
Once in the city, they had need of exchanging | 39:18 | |
their coins for the standard Hebrew or | 39:22 | |
Tyrian money, currency, which was required. | 39:25 | |
In addition, they also had need | 39:31 | |
of animals to sacrifice at the temple, | 39:33 | |
animals which had been ritually cleaned, | 39:37 | |
making it too impractical to bring | 39:41 | |
them long distances to Jerusalem. | 39:43 | |
So the money changers and those | 39:47 | |
who sold sacrificial animals provided a needed service, | 39:49 | |
and I'm inclined that this in and of itself offend Jesus, | 39:54 | |
and curiously enough, I know it may sound odd, | 39:59 | |
although I am sure Jesus was disturbed by their actions, | 40:04 | |
I really do not think he was ultimately, ultimately | 40:08 | |
bothered by the extortion | 40:13 | |
and the graft that took place in the temple, | 40:16 | |
or the misguided intentions of those who, | 40:21 | |
according to the Markan account, | 40:26 | |
used the temple as a thoroughfare, | 40:29 | |
a short cut from one street to another, | 40:31 | |
or ultimately bothered by the sanctions, | 40:35 | |
tacit or otherwise, which the high priest must | 40:39 | |
have given these fraudulent and irreverent practices | 40:44 | |
in order for them to have taken place. | 40:50 | |
Rather, my heart tells me | 40:55 | |
that Jesus was most disturbed | 41:02 | |
by the root of these actions, | 41:07 | |
the root of this behavior. | 41:11 | |
My heart tells me that he was most bothered | 41:16 | |
by the fact that they acted and carried on | 41:19 | |
as if there was no wrongdoing, | 41:24 | |
as if what they were doing was | 41:29 | |
in some way permissible in the eyes of God. | 41:31 | |
He was offended by the fact that they did not see | 41:39 | |
that not all we do is right. | 41:43 | |
The chief priest, for example, | 41:51 | |
the leaders of the faith, | 41:54 | |
the custodians of God's temple | 41:56 | |
had become blind to the errors of their ways, | 42:00 | |
so much so that they did not even recognize | 42:06 | |
the son of God when he appeared before them. | 42:09 | |
Rather than join the chorus of children who, | 42:15 | |
as we see in verses peculiar to the Matthew text, | 42:18 | |
children who proclaimed Jesus as the messiah. | 42:22 | |
At the sight of seeing him heal | 42:24 | |
and do wonderful things in the temple, | 42:26 | |
the chief priest became sore displeased. | 42:30 | |
Can you imagine it? The leaders of the faith, | 42:35 | |
the custodians of God's temple, | 42:41 | |
they did not see that not all we do is right. | 42:46 | |
For this reason, Jesus saw the need | 42:53 | |
to react with righteous anger, | 42:57 | |
with the wrath of God, | 43:01 | |
so that eyes might be opened. | 43:05 | |
Perhaps he did not move through the temple | 43:10 | |
with a whip in hand as the Gospel of John portrays him, | 43:12 | |
but by overturning tables and knocking over seats, | 43:16 | |
Jesus acted with righteous anger, | 43:21 | |
so that hearts might be opened | 43:26 | |
even during the time of his earthly ministry | 43:30 | |
to the fact that not all we do is right. | 43:33 | |
When I consider the nature of our age, | 43:42 | |
an age of test tube babies and test tube faith, | 43:48 | |
an age in which the individual is the measure, | 43:53 | |
an age in which whatever is willed | 44:00 | |
and whatever feels good is right, | 44:02 | |
I wonder if we do no need to be reminded that | 44:07 | |
God is real, | 44:11 | |
and that there is a dimension of his reality | 44:16 | |
which can so forcefully and so forthrightly | 44:23 | |
overturn the ways of each of us, | 44:27 | |
so that all of us | 44:32 | |
can see enough for our hearts to make plain to us | 44:36 | |
that in this age of everything goes, | 44:44 | |
all that goes does not go well with God. | 44:49 | |
God is a loving god, | 45:00 | |
but God is also a righteous god, | 45:04 | |
and he will not be compromised. | 45:09 | |
I have only to remind you | 45:15 | |
of the God who mothered Heaven and Earth | 45:22 | |
was the same God who ordered the blood, | 45:28 | |
I have only to remind you, | 45:34 | |
and I don't have to get too specific | 45:38 | |
about contemporary issues, | 45:41 | |
I only have to remind you | 45:44 | |
that the God of Abraham, and the God of Moses, | 45:49 | |
who freed the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, | 45:54 | |
was the same God who kept them | 45:59 | |
in the wilderness for 40 years. | 46:02 | |
I don't have to remind you | 46:07 | |
that the God who was so self giving | 46:12 | |
that he sent his only begotten son | 46:17 | |
so that we might have everlasting life | 46:20 | |
was the same God who overturned the tables of the temple, | 46:25 | |
who knocked over the seats in the temple, | 46:30 | |
who ran the money changers out of the temple, | 46:34 | |
who chastised the high priest | 46:38 | |
in the temple in Jerusalem. | 46:41 | |
The same God. | 46:47 | |
The same God. | 46:50 | |
I have a particular heaviness about my heart today. | 46:54 | |
So many things as of late have seemed to burden me. | 47:01 | |
I can hardly count | 47:08 | |
the number of couples | 47:13 | |
who have been friends to me and my wife over | 47:14 | |
the last four, five years, | 47:18 | |
I can hardly count a one that's still together, | 47:23 | |
with the latest coming not too long ago. | 47:28 | |
Something's wrong. | 47:33 | |
Not everything is right. | 47:37 | |
Not all that we do is right. | 47:42 | |
Something is wrong somewhere and we gotta face it. | 47:44 | |
I can think of parents I've met recently | 47:50 | |
who say that they're searching for inner peace now, | 47:57 | |
and they don't have time to raise their children. | 48:00 | |
It's each man and woman for himself. Something's wrong. | 48:04 | |
Not everything that we do is right, | 48:09 | |
and I think about the Bacchae decision, | 48:17 | |
I wonder about that. | 48:21 | |
Not all that we do is right. | 48:26 | |
For the same God | 48:31 | |
who loves us | 48:36 | |
is the same God | 48:40 | |
who at times gets righteously angry with us | 48:44 | |
and has to straighten us up. | 48:49 | |
That great God, be reminded. | 48:53 | |
May Heaven smile upon you, and may God bless you. | 48:59 | |
Amen. | 49:06 | |
(pipe organ music) | 49:13 | |
(choir singing) | 49:57 | |
Woman | Let us affirm what we believe. | 52:32 |
We believe in God, who has created, | 52:35 | |
and is creating, who has come in the truly human Jesus | 52:39 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 52:44 | |
who works in us and others via the spirit. | 52:47 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 52:52 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 52:57 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 53:00 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 53:07 | |
our judge and our hope, | 53:11 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death, | 53:14 | |
God is with us. | 53:19 | |
We are not alone. | 53:21 | |
Thanks be to God. | 53:23 | |
May you be seated. | 53:30 | |
The Lord be with you. | 53:39 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 53:41 |
Woman | Let us pray. | 53:42 |
Author of the world's joy, | 53:51 | |
bearer of the world's pain, | 53:55 | |
at the heart of all our distress, | 54:01 | |
let unconquerable gladness dwell. | 54:07 | |
Oh God, You made us in Your own image, | 54:14 | |
and redeemed us through Jesus Christ. | 54:16 | |
Look with compassion on the whole human family, | 54:20 | |
take away the arrogance which infects our hearts, | 54:26 | |
break down the walls that separate us, | 54:31 | |
unite us in bonds of love and of work. | 54:36 | |
Look with compassion, oh God, | 54:47 | |
upon the people in this land, | 54:49 | |
who live with injustice, terror, | 54:52 | |
disease, and death as their constant companions. | 54:56 | |
Have mercy on us, cleanse our hearts, | 55:01 | |
quicken our minds and bodies to aid | 55:07 | |
and to suffer those around us in need of us. | 55:11 | |
Gracious god, we pray for Your holy church. | 55:21 | |
Fill it with all truth, truth and all peace. | 55:26 | |
Where it is corrupt, purify it. | 55:31 | |
Where it is in error, correct it. | 55:35 | |
Where it is divided, reunite it, | 55:40 | |
and where it is right, strengthen it, | 55:45 | |
and especially, oh God, | 55:50 | |
we pray for Pope John Paul I. | 55:51 | |
Grant to him the humility and the courage necessary | 55:57 | |
to hear Your spirit and live Your word. | 56:04 | |
Oh God, You have blessed us, | 56:12 | |
and given us dominion over all the Earth. | 56:17 | |
Increase our reverence before the mystery of life, | 56:21 | |
and give us new insight into Your purposes | 56:27 | |
for each one of us, | 56:30 | |
and new wisdom, and determination in providing hope | 56:33 | |
for our future according to Your will. | 56:38 | |
Author of the world's joy, | 56:47 | |
bearer of the world's pain, | 56:50 | |
at the heart of all of our distress, | 56:55 | |
let unconquerable gladness dwell. | 56:59 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 57:06 | |
hallowed be Thy name. | 57:10 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 57:12 | |
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 57:14 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 57:20 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 57:23 | |
as we forgive those who trespassed against us, | 57:26 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 57:30 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 57:33 | |
for Thine is the Kingdom, | 57:36 | |
and the power, and the glory. | 57:38 | |
Amen. | 57:42 | |
(pipe organ music) | 57:49 | |
(choir singing) | 1:02:52 | |
For our creation and preservation, | 1:04:01 | |
and all the blessings of this life, | 1:04:06 | |
and especially, oh God, | 1:04:10 | |
for the gift of Your son, Jesus, | 1:04:11 | |
our savior, the Christ. | 1:04:16 | |
Amen. | 1:04:19 | |
(pipe organ music) | 1:04:23 | |
(choir singing) | 1:04:51 | |
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. | 1:08:15 | |
May the Lord make His face shine upon you | 1:08:19 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 1:08:22 | |
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, | 1:08:25 | |
and give you peace, but also a knowledge of His reality. | 1:08:29 | |
Amen. | 1:08:36 | |
(pipe organ music) | 1:08:40 |