B. Maurice Ritchie - "Salvation Belongs to Our God" (April 27, 1980)
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Transcript
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Woman | Sunday worship service, | 0:04 |
April 27th 1980, Duke chapel. | 0:06 | |
(somber organ music) | 0:13 | |
(rhythmic organ music) | 4:53 | |
(somber organ music) | 7:39 | |
(Choir singing) | 11:17 | |
(rhythmic organ music) | 12:38 | |
(choir singing) | 13:15 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
Woman | I welcome you and I greet you today | 16:51 |
in all mighty God. | 16:53 | |
Who has made us, who saves us | 16:56 | |
and who continues to be with us. | 16:59 | |
In order that we prepare ourselves | 17:02 | |
to offer heart felt praise and thanksgiving. | 17:05 | |
Let us confess our sins and accept God's forgiveness, | 17:08 | |
let us pray. | 17:13 | |
(clears throat) | 17:17 | |
Oh Lord, | 17:21 | |
holy and righteous God, | 17:23 | |
we acknowledge before thy that we do not fear thy | 17:26 | |
and that we do not love thy above all things. | 17:30 | |
We do not delight in prayer, nor take pleasure in thy word. | 17:34 | |
We do not really love our neighbor, | 17:40 | |
we lack the consonance that should accompany | 17:43 | |
our Christian profession. | 17:45 | |
Our hearts are divided. | 17:48 | |
Crossed by doubts and guilty desires, | 17:50 | |
we accuse ourselves before thy oh God. | 17:54 | |
We employ thy who's nature and who's name is love, | 17:58 | |
to forgive us and in forgiving to heal us | 18:02 | |
so that in our lives something will finally be changed. | 18:07 | |
Amen. | 18:12 | |
Let us confess in silence, | 18:14 | |
our personal sins. | 18:16 | |
(coughing) | 18:34 | |
Friends, | 18:43 | |
here and believe the good news of the gospel. | 18:44 | |
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven, | 18:48 | |
let us forgive one another. | 18:52 | |
Let us give thanks, for God is good | 18:55 | |
and Gods love is ever lasting. | 18:59 | |
Thanks be to God, | 19:03 | |
by whose love we have been made. | 19:05 | |
Thanks be to God, | 19:08 | |
by whose grace we have been made whole. | 19:10 | |
Thanks be to God, | 19:14 | |
by whose resurrection we are promised life ever lasting. | 19:16 | |
Amen. | 19:21 | |
I think it not inappropriate today | 19:25 | |
in this time of accounting, | 19:29 | |
accounting why students have learned | 19:32 | |
and what professors have taught, | 19:34 | |
that we wish all of you well. | 19:37 | |
You are engaged in the enterprise of examinations | 19:40 | |
and final papers. | 19:44 | |
We welcome to the pulpit today | 19:48 | |
the reverend B. Maurice Richie, | 19:50 | |
assistant dean for field education and student services | 19:52 | |
in the divinity school. | 19:56 | |
We await with eagerness the message | 19:58 | |
that he will bring to us. | 20:00 | |
Woman | Let us pray. | 20:16 |
Prepare our hearts, oh Lord. | 20:19 | |
To accept your word, | 20:22 | |
silence in us any voice but your own. | 20:25 | |
That hearing we may also obey your will, | 20:29 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 20:34 | |
The new testament lesson is from acts chapter 13, | 20:40 | |
verses 14 through 16 and 26 through 39. | 20:45 | |
But they passed from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia | 20:53 | |
and on the sabbath day they went in through the synagogue | 20:59 | |
and sat down. | 21:03 | |
After the reading of the law and the prophets | 21:06 | |
the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, | 21:09 | |
saying, brethren, if ye have any word | 21:11 | |
of exhortation for the people, say it. | 21:16 | |
So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, | 21:20 | |
brethren, sons of the family of Abraham | 21:25 | |
and those among you that fear God, | 21:30 | |
to us has been sent the message of this salvation. | 21:33 | |
For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers | 21:38 | |
because they did not recognize him, | 21:42 | |
nor understand the utterances of the prophets | 21:45 | |
which are read every sabbath | 21:48 | |
fulfill these by condemning him. | 21:51 | |
Though they could charge him with nothing deserving death. | 21:54 | |
Yet they asked pilot to have him killed | 21:58 | |
and when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, | 22:03 | |
they took him down from the tree | 22:07 | |
and laid him in a tomb. | 22:09 | |
But God raised him from the dead | 22:12 | |
and for many days he appeared | 22:15 | |
to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, | 22:17 | |
who are now his witnesses to the people | 22:22 | |
and we bring you the good news | 22:25 | |
that what God promised to the fathers, | 22:28 | |
this he has fulfilled to us their children | 22:31 | |
by raising Jesus. | 22:34 | |
As also it is written in the second Psalm. | 22:36 | |
Thou art my son, | 22:40 | |
today I have begotten thy | 22:43 | |
and as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, | 22:46 | |
no more to return to corruption. | 22:50 | |
He spoke in this way, I will give you the holy | 22:53 | |
and sure blessings of David. | 22:58 | |
Therefore he says also, in another Psalm, | 23:01 | |
Thou wilt not let thy holy ones see corruption. | 23:05 | |
For David, after he had served the council of God | 23:10 | |
in his own generation, fell asleep | 23:14 | |
and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. | 23:18 | |
But he whom God raised up, | 23:22 | |
saw no corruption. | 23:25 | |
Let it be known to you therefore brethren, | 23:27 | |
that through this man, | 23:31 | |
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you | 23:33 | |
and by him everyone that believes is freed from everything | 23:37 | |
from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. | 23:42 | |
The apostle lesson is from Revelation, chapter 7, | 23:48 | |
verses 9 through 17. | 23:54 | |
After this I looked, and behold, | 23:57 | |
a great multitude which no man could number, | 24:01 | |
from every nations, from all tribes, | 24:05 | |
and peoples, and tongues, | 24:09 | |
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, | 24:11 | |
clothed in white robes, | 24:16 | |
with palm branches in their hands, | 24:18 | |
and crying out with a loud voice, | 24:21 | |
salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, | 24:24 | |
and to the Lamb and all the angels stood around the throne | 24:29 | |
and the elders and the four living creatures, | 24:34 | |
and they fell on their faces before the throne | 24:39 | |
and worshiped God, saying, | 24:41 | |
Amen, Blessing and glory and wisdom, | 24:44 | |
and thanksgiving | 24:50 | |
and honor and power and might, | 24:53 | |
Be to our God forever and ever. | 24:57 | |
Amen. | 25:00 | |
Then one of the elders addressed me saying | 25:02 | |
Who are these clothed in white robes, | 25:06 | |
and wenst did they come from? | 25:09 | |
I said to him, Sir, you know. | 25:12 | |
And he said to me, | 25:16 | |
These are they who come out of the great tribulation, | 25:18 | |
they have washed their robes | 25:23 | |
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. | 25:25 | |
Therefore are they before the throne of God, | 25:29 | |
and serve Him day and night in His temple. | 25:33 | |
And He who sits upon the throne will shelter them | 25:37 | |
with his presents. | 25:40 | |
They shall neither hunger no more, | 25:42 | |
neither thirst anymore. | 25:45 | |
The sun shall not strike them, nor any heat | 25:48 | |
for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will shepherd | 25:53 | |
and he will guide them to springs of living waters. | 25:58 | |
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. | 26:02 | |
Here ends the reading from the apostle, amen. | 26:09 | |
(calming instrumental music) | 26:33 | |
(choir vocalizing) | 26:54 | |
(choir singing) | 30:06 | |
Will the congregation please stand | 31:39 | |
for the reading of the gospel lesson? | 31:41 | |
The gospel lesson is form John, chapter 10, | 31:52 | |
verses 22 through 30. | 31:56 | |
It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem. | 32:00 | |
It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, | 32:04 | |
in the portico of Solomon's. | 32:09 | |
So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, | 32:13 | |
How long will you keep us in suspense? | 32:17 | |
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. | 32:20 | |
Jesus answered them, I told you, | 32:25 | |
and you do not believe. | 32:29 | |
The works I do in my Fathers name, | 32:32 | |
they be a witness to me, | 32:36 | |
but you do not believe because you do not belong my sheep. | 32:39 | |
My sheep hear my voice and I know them, | 32:45 | |
and they follow me and I give them eternal life, | 32:50 | |
and they shall never perish | 32:55 | |
and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. | 32:58 | |
My Father, who has given them to me, | 33:02 | |
is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them | 33:06 | |
out of my Father's hand. | 33:11 | |
I and the Father are one. | 33:14 | |
(rhythmic organ music) | 33:20 | |
(choir singing) | 33:32 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
Maurice | The public worship services of this chapel | 34:39 |
have always been meaningful to me | 34:42 | |
and therefore it is a special pleasure for me | 34:46 | |
to have a part in the leadership of today's service. | 34:49 | |
The last book of the bible, | 34:56 | |
the revelation to John of Patmos. | 34:59 | |
Is a frequently midline and misunderstood book. | 35:03 | |
For most persons it is perhaps the most difficult | 35:08 | |
slice of scripture to grasps. | 35:11 | |
Consequently it receives little attention | 35:16 | |
from the more literate christian public. | 35:18 | |
This fact makes all the more curious my personal history | 35:24 | |
with this graphic piece of religious literature. | 35:29 | |
From my childhood comes a stream | 35:34 | |
of memories of things religious, | 35:36 | |
one of these was the old testament stories | 35:40 | |
my mother read to me from a thick, | 35:42 | |
blue back collection of bible stories for children, | 35:45 | |
as we sat together on the sofa of our living room. | 35:49 | |
Another is perhaps more vivid | 35:55 | |
because of the near terror it struck in my young heart. | 35:58 | |
Often we children sat with various members | 36:04 | |
of our extended family as they talked | 36:07 | |
in aunt Mayfields living room. | 36:11 | |
To help you appreciate the scene, | 36:15 | |
I shall have to describe the setting. | 36:18 | |
Aunt Mayfield and uncle Fred lived with their four children | 36:22 | |
in a four room bungalow across the street from us. | 36:26 | |
For several years uncle Fred was in the South Pacific | 36:32 | |
with the United States Navy. | 36:35 | |
The living room where we sat was dark | 36:39 | |
because it was small, with only two tiny windows | 36:41 | |
but it was also dark because the walls | 36:47 | |
were not ordinary walls, | 36:50 | |
they were from corner to corner and floor to ceiling, | 36:53 | |
real life scenes, in oil, | 36:57 | |
of a South Pacific island, | 37:01 | |
including everything but the bare breasted natives. | 37:04 | |
We were much too pius for bare breasted natives. | 37:08 | |
This lovely work of art had been provided | 37:14 | |
by another member of the larger family, | 37:17 | |
uncle Hen Nouse. | 37:20 | |
Who with his two young daughters, | 37:24 | |
had died of tuberculoses only a very few years before. | 37:26 | |
How often the adults sat there in that dark room, | 37:33 | |
eating, dipping their snuff, | 37:37 | |
entering into their extensive debates | 37:40 | |
over the books of Daniel and revelation. | 37:43 | |
With a son and a husband in the South Pacific | 37:47 | |
in World War II, aunt Mayfield's concern was greater | 37:51 | |
than speculative theology, eschatology | 37:55 | |
or apocaliptcism. | 38:00 | |
She had high personal stakes. | 38:03 | |
Besides that she probably suffered | 38:07 | |
a rather guilty conscience over who knows what | 38:09 | |
but in those discussions emerged certain questions, | 38:15 | |
who is the beast in revelation? | 38:20 | |
Who the anti Christ? | 38:23 | |
Who the great harlot? | 38:26 | |
And I can approximately date my memories | 38:29 | |
from some of their interpretations. | 38:32 | |
In the earlier days Adolf Hitler was the anti Christ, | 38:35 | |
then Joseph Stalin assumed that role. | 38:40 | |
Sometimes in addition to or quite separately | 38:44 | |
from Mao Tse-Tung. | 38:48 | |
As time rolled on things became more obscure | 38:51 | |
and more confused, | 38:54 | |
perhaps the anti Christ was a nation and not a person? | 38:56 | |
Or a movement? Communism, perhaps? | 39:00 | |
It is testimony to the power of John's images | 39:07 | |
that the superficially simple persons, | 39:10 | |
cotton mill workers, a plumber, a seamstress, | 39:14 | |
with their elementary educations sat around | 39:20 | |
trying to locate themselves, if not in God's history, | 39:23 | |
then certainly in Johns grand scheme of things. | 39:28 | |
What is God up to in history? | 39:34 | |
And what does this mean for us? | 39:37 | |
Is the end near? | 39:40 | |
Yesterday morning during a morning Harold | 39:45 | |
carried an associated press article reporting | 39:47 | |
that a new generation has taken up aunt Hazel | 39:50 | |
and aunt Mayfield's debate. | 39:53 | |
Pat Robertson and his 700 Club | 39:56 | |
sent their 250,000 members | 39:59 | |
a leaflet recently suggesting that the anti Christ | 40:03 | |
will be a young world dictator rising our of a new Rome. | 40:07 | |
The 10 nations of the European common market. | 40:12 | |
The article says, given the current European disdain | 40:17 | |
for both the Christian gospel and the nation of Israel, | 40:22 | |
it is not hard to imagine parts of the book | 40:26 | |
of revelation coming to pass in the 1980's. | 40:29 | |
Hal Lindsey who's book entitled | 40:34 | |
"The late great planet Earth" | 40:36 | |
sold more than any book published in the 70's, | 40:38 | |
agrees with Robertson and his crowd. | 40:43 | |
Needless to say the Washington office | 40:46 | |
of the European economic community | 40:49 | |
chose not to comment on any of these speculations. | 40:51 | |
Even these interpretations still point | 40:58 | |
to the contemporary power of revelation. | 41:00 | |
It is a book, difficult, uneven, complex, | 41:05 | |
which deserves to be taken seriously | 41:11 | |
by the community of faith. | 41:13 | |
In our own community both Dr. James Price | 41:16 | |
of the department of religion | 41:19 | |
and Dr. James M Efird of the divinity school | 41:20 | |
have written on it. | 41:23 | |
The events of the last few days have brought many of us | 41:26 | |
to envision a world of catastrophic, | 41:29 | |
not unlike those depicted by John in his book. | 41:31 | |
Among the earthquakes, winds and fires, | 41:39 | |
the harlot, dragons and beast. | 41:43 | |
The choir of angels and elders and heavenly anthems. | 41:47 | |
Is there a word of the Lord | 41:52 | |
for an Easter tid celebration in Duke chapel? | 41:54 | |
Before we look at the specifics of the 7th chapter, | 42:00 | |
let us first remember John's specific situation. | 42:03 | |
He tells us he is involuntarily on the island of Patmos, | 42:08 | |
a tiny island of the Easter Mediterranean | 42:13 | |
because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. | 42:16 | |
In other words John was an exile for religious reason. | 42:21 | |
The churches of western Asia minor to whom he is writing | 42:28 | |
are a mixture of strength and weakness, | 42:31 | |
faithfulness and unfaithfulness. | 42:34 | |
What will be their future at the hands | 42:38 | |
of the Roman imperial pressure to bow down | 42:40 | |
and give a obeisance to the Gods of Rome? | 42:43 | |
Some have already capitulated says John, | 42:48 | |
eating meat offered to idols | 42:51 | |
and entering into ceremonies | 42:53 | |
basically in conflict with Christian faith. | 42:55 | |
Others as John of Patmos himself, | 42:59 | |
had refused obeisance and had suffered torture, | 43:02 | |
death or exile. | 43:04 | |
The future John envisions for the struggle is on the level, | 43:08 | |
on the one level bleak. | 43:14 | |
The forces of evil will slowly build | 43:17 | |
until by the end of history there will be | 43:19 | |
a mighty conflict between the forces for righteousness | 43:21 | |
and the forces of evil. | 43:25 | |
In the 7th chapter John brings us | 43:29 | |
to stand before that final moment. | 43:31 | |
As the forces for evil mount | 43:35 | |
and the nature calamities multiply, | 43:37 | |
who indeed can stand? | 43:40 | |
John sees God sealing his faithful ones | 43:44 | |
before the calamities fall. | 43:47 | |
The church is assured that all through | 43:50 | |
the increasing terrors of the last days, | 43:53 | |
the merciful union of believes with their heavenly lord, | 43:56 | |
will never cease, no, not for one moment. | 44:01 | |
Even in this darkest moment of life in this world, | 44:07 | |
God is faithful and active among his people | 44:12 | |
to assure their union with him. | 44:16 | |
He remains King and Lord of history. | 44:20 | |
From the motley mixture of these seven churches | 44:28 | |
through the calamities of the end times | 44:31 | |
stream the thousands upon thousands of faithful | 44:33 | |
to the throne of God and his land. | 44:36 | |
The victors' song is not of their great feats of faith, | 44:39 | |
it is rather salvation belongs to our God | 44:45 | |
who sits upon the throne and to the lamb. | 44:49 | |
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, | 44:53 | |
in honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. | 44:56 | |
So it is those who kept the faith, | 45:04 | |
who stand before the throne of God | 45:08 | |
robed in the victors garb of white. | 45:10 | |
It is they who are sheltered with God's presence, | 45:14 | |
safe beyond the reach of a natural human calamities | 45:18 | |
of this world. | 45:22 | |
Safe because of their own heroics? | 45:24 | |
No. | 45:28 | |
Safe because of their own strength? | 45:30 | |
No. | 45:33 | |
Safe because of their own cunning? | 45:35 | |
No. | 45:39 | |
Safe because of their faith? | 45:41 | |
Which has joined them to the one who sits upon the throne, | 45:46 | |
the alpha and the omega, | 45:51 | |
the almighty, the one who is and who was | 45:53 | |
and who is to come. | 45:58 | |
These have come out to the great tribulation | 46:01 | |
because they died and rose with Christ the lamb. | 46:04 | |
Even the terrible sufferings of the catastrophic last days | 46:09 | |
of the end of time, | 46:13 | |
can not stop the triumphal prepossession of the redeemed. | 46:15 | |
God has called and gathered and enlightened the elect | 46:20 | |
and God has the power to keep them in Christ to the end. | 46:25 | |
Out of the eating and the talking | 46:34 | |
and the dipping and the praying | 46:37 | |
that went on in Mayfield's living room, | 46:39 | |
came a strong sense of the judgment of God. | 46:42 | |
I felt the terror of impending mysterious events | 46:47 | |
and the awesome and frightful judgment of God implicit | 46:52 | |
in the havoc that might come. | 46:56 | |
The thrust of a great deal | 47:00 | |
of the conversation was repentance, | 47:02 | |
get ready, the forces of evil are mounting, disaster looms | 47:04 | |
and that is indeed true to one part of John's vision. | 47:11 | |
But equally if not much more significant theme | 47:16 | |
is the one handle immortalized in Messiah, | 47:20 | |
the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord | 47:23 | |
and of his Christ and he shall rain forever and ever, | 47:28 | |
the victory for John is sure. | 47:34 | |
God rains and will rain and in his rule, | 47:37 | |
he throws over is own people, | 47:42 | |
the tabernacle of redemptive presence. | 47:44 | |
In the 7th chapter, God has seen the faithful ones | 47:49 | |
through the disasters and the calamities of the world | 47:53 | |
and brought them into his own presence, | 47:57 | |
where hunger, thirst and the hot sun of the Middle East | 48:00 | |
can touch them no more. | 48:05 | |
As Han Leegues said a generation ago, | 48:08 | |
in the 7th chapter, the door of heaven is open | 48:11 | |
and a ray of future glory falls upon the world | 48:17 | |
in it's sorrow and in it's pain. | 48:20 | |
If the rescue effort is attempted again in Iran, | 48:29 | |
if the world teeters in these days | 48:34 | |
on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, | 48:37 | |
if empires rise and fall, | 48:42 | |
old orders fade and news remain elusive, | 48:46 | |
let us sing with John of Patmos, | 48:52 | |
salvation belongs to our God. | 48:55 | |
He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, | 49:00 | |
Jesus is raised up, not to leave us | 49:05 | |
but to impel us with his Resurrection | 49:10 | |
and to proceed and beckon us to himself | 49:13 | |
by the throne of the almighty one. | 49:16 | |
Our God has invited us into his very own life | 49:20 | |
and by faith, | 49:25 | |
neither life nor death, | 49:27 | |
nor powers, nor principalities, | 49:30 | |
nor things present, nor things to come | 49:33 | |
will separate us form Gods love, | 49:38 | |
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. | 49:43 | |
To him be glory, dominion, honor, power and might, | 49:48 | |
today and forevermore, | 49:53 | |
amen. | 49:58 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 50:07 | |
(choir singing) | 50:41 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
Woman | Let us affirm what we believe, | 53:08 |
we believe in God, | 53:11 | |
who has created and is created. | 53:13 | |
Who has come in the truly human Jesus | 53:16 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 53:19 | |
Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 53:22 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church | 53:26 | |
to celebrate life and it's fullness. | 53:31 | |
To love and serve others, | 53:34 | |
to seek justice and resist evil. | 53:37 | |
To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 53:40 | |
our judge and our hope. | 53:44 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 53:46 | |
God is with us, we are not alone, | 53:51 | |
thanks be to God, | 53:56 | |
the Lord be with you. | 53:58 | |
Let us pray. | 54:02 | |
Holy and mighty God, | 54:13 | |
we thank you that by the spirit and power of love, | 54:16 | |
you are always reforming the church | 54:20 | |
and reforming us so that church and people | 54:22 | |
are resorted to their rightful image, your image. | 54:27 | |
We thank you that we do not need | 54:33 | |
to wonder what you God are like, | 54:34 | |
for we know of your majesty | 54:38 | |
and of your servant hood in Jesus Christ. | 54:40 | |
We thank you that in Jesus you have wrapped us up in love | 54:44 | |
and that you have been willing to get wrapped up in us. | 54:48 | |
We are thankful for Jesus Christ, | 54:54 | |
who joins us in poverty and spirit | 54:56 | |
to be able to lead us | 54:59 | |
into the kingdom of spiritual richness. | 55:01 | |
Who mourns for us when we are lost, | 55:05 | |
who is mighty and meekness to temper our pride. | 55:08 | |
Who is righteous as our example. | 55:13 | |
Merciful to forgive our sin, | 55:17 | |
pure of motivation to direct our lives. | 55:20 | |
A peace maker to keep us together | 55:24 | |
and who is the persecuted Lord, | 55:28 | |
suffering to save us from ourselves. | 55:30 | |
We rejoice and are glad oh God, | 55:35 | |
that through Christ we belong to you. | 55:38 | |
Here we stand, | 55:42 | |
we can be no other but yours | 55:44 | |
and as yours, we offer prayers for ourselves, | 55:49 | |
the church and our world. | 55:54 | |
We know that people in the world are hungry | 55:59 | |
and have no shelter | 56:02 | |
and have great need of much that we have. | 56:03 | |
We know people are in prison, | 56:08 | |
many times unjustly so | 56:10 | |
and we know that people suffer from loneliness and neglect. | 56:12 | |
We know that we stand by and allow things to happen | 56:17 | |
to people in places all over the world, | 56:20 | |
when we are apathetic and don't get involved in anyway | 56:23 | |
in procedures of government and big business | 56:27 | |
and in the admits of our attempting to do nothing, oh God, | 56:31 | |
we pray for ourselves. | 56:36 | |
We are part of a world wide church, | 56:40 | |
apart of the body of Christ. | 56:43 | |
Whose efforts at being the body are lacking sadly at best, | 56:46 | |
whose attempts at doing your will many times | 56:51 | |
become ensnared in power plays and fights for money | 56:53 | |
and we don't know how to set examples | 56:57 | |
and we don't want to give up what we have. | 57:00 | |
In this tiny corner, | 57:04 | |
where we in this congregation live and work, | 57:06 | |
we look around us and see the needs | 57:10 | |
and we talk about them | 57:13 | |
but not many of us are motivated to do very much | 57:15 | |
and so in amidst of holding on to who we are | 57:20 | |
and what we have, oh God, | 57:24 | |
we pray for ourselves. | 57:27 | |
And we look at ourselves in this congregation | 57:32 | |
and community with one another, | 57:34 | |
we smile at our friends | 57:37 | |
and we don't meet the eyes of those who have displeased us | 57:39 | |
and we are resentful towards some persons | 57:43 | |
and we talk about being Christians, | 57:46 | |
and hate to admit, God, | 57:49 | |
that we don't always like what your word says to us | 57:51 | |
about who we should be and what we should do. | 57:54 | |
And so we pray for ourselves, | 57:58 | |
even when we probably don't intend to change very much | 58:01 | |
but we dare to pray, knowing that you love even us. | 58:05 | |
In the mist of praying for ourselves | 58:12 | |
we pause to remember those who are sick, | 58:14 | |
may our ministry to them be your ministry of healing. | 58:17 | |
We remember those who grieve, | 58:22 | |
may we through you bring comfort and love to them. | 58:24 | |
To those who are lonely and afraid or in special need, | 58:29 | |
may our awareness be increased and our presence in caring | 58:33 | |
for them in your name be made known. | 58:36 | |
May we rejoice with those who know special joice | 58:40 | |
and to the leaders of this nation, | 58:44 | |
may our message be one of peace. | 58:47 | |
We do most earnestly pray | 58:50 | |
for your guidance of those how lead us, | 58:52 | |
to the hostages in Iran may our ministry be one of concern | 58:56 | |
and caring and prayer for their safe release. | 59:00 | |
May your word of peace come also | 59:03 | |
to those who hold them captive. | 59:06 | |
All these concerns we voice | 59:10 | |
and those hidden deep within our hearts, | 59:12 | |
we pray in the name of our savor, | 59:15 | |
Jesus Christ to teaches us to say together, | 59:18 | |
our father, who art in Heaven, | 59:22 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 59:25 | |
thy kingdom come, | 59:27 | |
thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 59:29 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 59:33 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 59:36 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 59:39 | |
and lead us not into temptation | 59:43 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 59:45 | |
for thym is the kingdom | 59:48 | |
and the power and the glory, amen. | 59:50 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 1:00:01 | |
(intense organ music) | 1:01:34 | |
(choir singing) | 1:02:21 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
(rhythmic organ music) | 1:07:24 | |
(choir singing) | 1:07:41 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
Woman | We give thanks to you mighty God | 1:08:42 |
for your gift of life and love | 1:08:44 | |
and we offer back to you a portion | 1:08:48 | |
of what you have given us. | 1:08:50 | |
Guide it's use for your work in this place, | 1:08:52 | |
we offer again with these gifts ourselves. | 1:08:56 | |
Accept us and point us in the way of your service, | 1:09:01 | |
we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, | 1:09:05 | |
our Lord and savior, amen. | 1:09:08 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 1:09:15 | |
(choir singing) | 1:09:50 | |
(organ drowns out singing) | ||
Let us go from this place | 1:12:28 | |
remembering that Jesus is our Lord, | 1:12:29 | |
that we are Gods people. | 1:12:33 | |
We are loved, we are forgiven, | 1:12:35 | |
we have been taught, we have declared our intentions | 1:12:39 | |
and we know our responsibilities. | 1:12:43 | |
Let us now scatter into the world to live as free | 1:12:47 | |
and responsible people in Christ | 1:12:49 | |
and may the peace and joy of God almighty, | 1:12:53 | |
creator, son and holy spirit | 1:12:56 | |
go with us all. | 1:12:59 | |
(choir vocalizing) | 1:13:03 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 1:14:20 |