Charlene P. Kammerer - "Sometimes We Need to Be Sick" (May 17, 1981)
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- | Coming to you live from the Duke Chapel, | 0:06 |
it's The Service of Worship on May 17th, 1981. | 0:08 | |
(serene organ music) | 0:23 | |
(faint speaking) | 1:31 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:45 | |
(uplifting choral music) | 1:54 | |
(solemn organ and choral music) | 6:05 | |
(uplifting organ and choral music) | 9:59 | |
(serene organ music) | 11:54 | |
(serene choral music) | 12:53 | |
(solemn organ music) | 15:55 | |
(solemn choral music) | 16:49 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 18:01 | |
(uplifting choral music) | 18:39 | |
- | On behalf of Duke University | 22:11 |
and as a Minister of Jesus Christ, | 22:12 | |
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. | 22:16 | |
But if I may, I greet you with the words | 22:20 | |
of Apostle Paul found in his letters | 22:24 | |
to the New Testament Churches. | 22:26 | |
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father | 22:29 | |
"and the Lord Jesus Christ. | 22:34 | |
"That's not the kind of peace that means the absence of war. | 22:38 | |
"It's not simply peace of mind. | 22:42 | |
"It's not even the peace of the dead. | 22:45 | |
"This is that dividing peace in your heart of hearts | 22:49 | |
"that comes when you know that at the very center | 22:54 | |
"of the universe, there is toward you, | 22:56 | |
"grace, mercy, steadfast love. | 22:59 | |
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father | 23:04 | |
"and the Lord Jesus Christ." | 23:09 | |
Such grace invites us, brothers and sisters, | 23:12 | |
to confess our sins. | 23:14 | |
Let us pray together. | 23:17 | |
Oh Lord, do you see us as hypocrites | 23:20 | |
while we see ourselves as righteous? | 23:25 | |
Do you see us like tombs covered with whitewash? | 23:29 | |
Do you know us as legalists who lack love? | 23:33 | |
Do you find us neglecting justice | 23:38 | |
and worrying about inconsequential rituals of worship? | 23:40 | |
Do you see us obsessed with keeping minor religious laws | 23:45 | |
but unwilling to help those in need? | 23:50 | |
If we are blind guides, pretending Christians, | 23:54 | |
self-righteous souls, shake us with reproof and rebuke gods | 23:58 | |
until we awaken to our condition and repent. | 24:04 | |
Create in us pure hearts and the right spirit | 24:09 | |
so that we may see you more clearly | 24:13 | |
and serve you more nearly. | 24:16 | |
Amen. | 24:19 | |
(solemn organ music) | 24:21 | |
Let the word of God be our insurance of pardon. | 25:03 | |
God so loved the world that He gave His only son. | 25:06 | |
That whoever believes in Him will not perish | 25:10 | |
but have everlasting life. | 25:15 | |
Let us give thanks for God is good | 25:20 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 25:23 | |
(congregation murmuring) | 25:27 | |
Amen. | 25:41 | |
We welcome all of you to this service of worship today. | 25:45 | |
We especially want to welcome the choir | 25:49 | |
that comes from Elon College. | 25:51 | |
Thank you choir. | 25:53 | |
And may we recognize, especially, | 25:55 | |
Professor James H. Glenn, the director, | 25:58 | |
and Dr. Walter Westover. | 26:01 | |
We are pleased that they have come to add | 26:04 | |
to our worship today and already they have blessed us. | 26:06 | |
The preacher today is Reverend Charlene Kammerer, | 26:13 | |
assistant minister to the university. | 26:18 | |
I'm sure you will hear her gladly. | 26:21 | |
Her topic is different than that which is listed. | 26:25 | |
She is speaking to us on this subject, | 26:28 | |
sometimes we need to be sick. | 26:32 | |
Sometimes we need to be sick. | 26:36 | |
We're glad you're here. | 26:41 | |
Thanks be to God for this place. | 26:44 | |
Thanks be to God for this Sabbath day. | 26:47 | |
Thanks be to God for each one of you. | 26:49 | |
- | Let us pray. | 27:02 |
Oh Lord our God, who by the entrance of your word, | 27:05 | |
gives light onto the soul. | 27:08 | |
Pour down upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding. | 27:10 | |
That being taught by you and holy scriptures, | 27:15 | |
we may receive with faith the words of eternal life | 27:18 | |
and be made wise unto salvation | 27:22 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 27:25 | |
Amen. | 27:27 | |
The Epistle lesson this morning is from Romans 8:14-28. | 27:29 | |
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. | 27:37 | |
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back | 27:42 | |
"into fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship. | 27:45 | |
"When we cry Abba, Father, it is the Spirit himself | 27:50 | |
"bearing witness with our spirit | 27:54 | |
"that we are children of God. | 27:57 | |
"And if children, then heirs, heirs of God | 28:00 | |
"and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him | 28:04 | |
"in order that we may also be glorified with him. | 28:09 | |
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time | 28:14 | |
"are not worth comparing with the glory | 28:17 | |
"that is to be revealed to us. | 28:20 | |
"For the creation awaits with eager longing | 28:22 | |
"for the revealing of the sons of God. | 28:25 | |
"For the creation was subjected to futility, | 28:28 | |
"not of its own will, but by the will of him | 28:31 | |
"who subjected it, in hope because the creation itself | 28:34 | |
"will be set free from its bondage to decay | 28:38 | |
"and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. | 28:41 | |
"We know that the whole creation has been groaning | 28:46 | |
"in travail together until now. | 28:48 | |
"And not only the creation, but we ourselves, | 28:51 | |
"who have the first fruits of the Spirit, | 28:55 | |
"groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, | 28:58 | |
"the redemption of our bodies. | 29:01 | |
"For in this hope we are saved. | 29:04 | |
"For in this hope we were saved. | 29:07 | |
"Now hope that is seen is not hope. | 29:09 | |
"For who hopes for what he sees? | 29:13 | |
"But if we hope for what we do not see, | 29:16 | |
"we wait for it with patience. | 29:19 | |
"Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. | 29:22 | |
"For we do not know how to pray as we ought, | 29:25 | |
"but the Spirit himself intercedes for us | 29:28 | |
"with sighs too deep for words. | 29:31 | |
"And he who searches the hearts of men | 29:34 | |
"knows what is the mind of the Spirit, | 29:36 | |
"because the Spirit intercedes for the saints | 29:39 | |
"according to the will of God. | 29:41 | |
"We know that in everything God works for good with those | 29:44 | |
"who love Him, who are called according to that purpose." | 29:48 | |
Here ends the reading from the Epistle lesson. | 29:54 | |
Amen. | 29:57 | |
(serene organ and choral music) | 30:24 | |
- | Thou has made man a little lower than the angels. | 31:58 |
And has crowned him with honor and with glory. | 32:05 | |
Thou has given him dominion over the work of thy hands. | 32:14 | |
Thou has put all things under his feet. | 32:22 | |
All sheep and oxen and the feast of the field, | 32:26 | |
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea. | 32:31 | |
(choral chanting) | 32:36 | |
(serene organ music) | 32:46 | |
(serene choral music) | 32:59 | |
- | Will the congregation please stand | 34:22 |
for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 34:24 | |
The gospel lesson is from John 5:2-9. | 34:30 | |
"Now there is in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool, | 34:38 | |
"in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes. | 34:42 | |
"In these lay a multitude of invalids, | 34:48 | |
"blind, lame, paralyzed. | 34:50 | |
"One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. | 34:54 | |
"When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been | 34:58 | |
"lying there a long time, He said to him, | 35:01 | |
"'Do you want to be healed?' | 35:04 | |
"The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me | 35:06 | |
"into the pool when the water is troubled, and while | 35:10 | |
"I am gone and going another steps down before me.' | 35:14 | |
"Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.' | 35:18 | |
"And at once the man was healed, | 35:23 | |
"and he took up his pallet and walked." | 35:25 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. | 35:30 | |
Amen. | 35:32 | |
(solemn organ and choral music) | 35:34 | |
- | Grace and peace be onto you from God our Creator | 36:38 |
and the Lord Jesus Christ. | 36:42 | |
The question Jesus put to the man who had chronically ill | 36:47 | |
for 38 years was, | 36:51 | |
"Do you want to be healed?" | 36:55 | |
Doesn't that seem like an absurd question to ask | 36:58 | |
of a man lying crippled on a pallet? | 37:02 | |
And yet on second thought, why had this man | 37:07 | |
been waiting for 38 years? | 37:11 | |
The pool of Beth-za'tha, called the place of five porches, | 37:16 | |
by the first century Jews, was a shaded colonnade area | 37:21 | |
where there were five entrances to a great pool. | 37:27 | |
There was a legend at the time that said on occasion | 37:32 | |
an angel would come to that pool of water | 37:36 | |
and stir the waters. | 37:40 | |
At that point, the first one into the water | 37:43 | |
would be healed with a miraculous power. | 37:46 | |
I perceived that that five porches area | 37:51 | |
must have been a favorite haunt of invalids | 37:55 | |
to come and to hope for a cure for their particular malady. | 37:59 | |
So to me, when we see Jesus first approach this invalid, | 38:05 | |
his question about healing appears rather ridiculous. | 38:10 | |
But then we see what is this man's response | 38:17 | |
to Jesus' question. | 38:21 | |
We find the man evading the question itself. | 38:23 | |
He begins to complain. | 38:28 | |
He says that no one would put him in the water | 38:31 | |
at the right time or that someone had always | 38:34 | |
managed to reach the water before him. | 38:37 | |
To me, this man was obviously for 38 years | 38:42 | |
getting some kind of fringe benefits from his illness. | 38:47 | |
I perceived that he became a complainer after a time. | 38:52 | |
In this way, he can blame his condition | 38:57 | |
on others not helping him. | 38:59 | |
He could avoid the responsibility to live the life he had, | 39:03 | |
regardless of the illness. | 39:07 | |
By complaining, he could well rationalize becoming dependent | 39:11 | |
and he could reject any demands placed on him. | 39:16 | |
Thus it is no wonder that Jesus ask him, | 39:21 | |
"Do you really want to be healed?" | 39:26 | |
For you see, being well would mean paying a price, | 39:30 | |
the price of losing the attention he had gotten | 39:36 | |
for 38 years for being ill. | 39:40 | |
I believe that sometimes we need to be sick. | 39:45 | |
If we are honest at looking at ourselves, | 39:51 | |
we must admit that for us too, | 39:55 | |
illness can have some fringe benefits. | 39:58 | |
I don't mean this as true every time we have a cold | 40:03 | |
or miss work for a few days. | 40:06 | |
But it could be happening to us | 40:09 | |
and we would not be aware of it. | 40:11 | |
Let me share with you some of the possible fringe benefits | 40:14 | |
of illness and exactly what I mean by saying this. | 40:18 | |
First, if we are ill, we can get attention | 40:24 | |
we feel we might not get otherwise. | 40:28 | |
I am aware that many battered children | 40:33 | |
have longer than normal recovery times | 40:36 | |
when they land in the hospital | 40:39 | |
because even these children realize on some level | 40:42 | |
that it is safer to stay in that hospital | 40:47 | |
than it would be to return to the home environment. | 40:50 | |
The growing presence of anorexia nervosa today | 40:55 | |
among young women is a clear signal | 40:59 | |
and a crying call for help. | 41:03 | |
Part of this insidious disease is that | 41:06 | |
self-inflicted starvation will guarantee attention | 41:10 | |
for young women who seem so desperately to need it. | 41:15 | |
In the second place, when we are ill, | 41:22 | |
it is generally acceptable to be irritable, | 41:25 | |
demanding, depressed, and teary-eyed. | 41:29 | |
When we are ill we can expect comfort | 41:34 | |
and we can expect soothing attention. | 41:37 | |
We can use illness to manipulate others who are close to us, | 41:41 | |
trying to get them to do what we want or to get our own way. | 41:46 | |
When I had my tonsils out at age four, | 41:53 | |
I noticed that every time I complained or cried, | 41:56 | |
I would get a marvelous treat of ice cream or Jell-O | 42:01 | |
or crushed ice and sometimes coloring books and crayons. | 42:06 | |
My cries were very effective. | 42:12 | |
I am also aware upon looking back at that time in my life | 42:16 | |
that my older sister lay in the bed next to me, | 42:21 | |
also minus her tonsils, but she was too weak to cry out | 42:26 | |
and she could not talk, for infection had set in | 42:32 | |
after surgery for her. | 42:36 | |
Looking back on that experience now, | 42:39 | |
I am quite sure that she did not get as much | 42:42 | |
as attention as I did and that for her there was | 42:46 | |
very little gratification in getting her tonsils out. | 42:50 | |
Thirdly, we can use illness to secure preferential treatment | 42:56 | |
which if we are not careful, can foster our own needs | 43:02 | |
of being dependent upon others. | 43:06 | |
It seems to me that the more sick we are, | 43:10 | |
the more critical the illness, the larger the danger. | 43:13 | |
We can use our illness to evoke sympathy or gain pity. | 43:18 | |
How many times is it called forth from us | 43:23 | |
to want to respond to a sick person, | 43:27 | |
oh you poor thing. | 43:30 | |
We can ourselves sink in self-pity at these moments. | 43:34 | |
Worse yet, we can try to win love through illness | 43:40 | |
when we begin to transmit this kind of message: | 43:45 | |
How could you not love anyone as sickly as I am? | 43:49 | |
I have been with people who have tried to hold on | 43:56 | |
to a marriage partner through an illness, | 43:59 | |
or to cling desperately to a child, | 44:02 | |
relying on the illness itself to establish | 44:06 | |
a kind of false loyalty. | 44:10 | |
When we are ill, we can avoid having people | 44:14 | |
make demands on us, for we can easily say | 44:17 | |
well I would like to help out or do that but I am too ill. | 44:21 | |
The list for ourselves will go on and on. | 44:26 | |
We can escape competition with illness. | 44:31 | |
How many athletes have you known who were injured | 44:34 | |
before the big contest? | 44:37 | |
We can avoid making difficult decisions | 44:41 | |
confronting conflict within ourselves. | 44:44 | |
Or working through deteriorating relationships | 44:47 | |
when we are ill. | 44:50 | |
In short, we can avoid, through illness, | 44:52 | |
facing life as it is. | 44:57 | |
I remember vividly a little boy | 45:01 | |
who needed to be sick and who taught me a great deal | 45:04 | |
out of a sick time in his life. | 45:09 | |
When I was doing some clinical work | 45:13 | |
in a hospital in Illinois, one of the units I covered | 45:15 | |
in the hospital was a pediatric area. | 45:19 | |
It was there that I met Matt, a bright very thin, | 45:23 | |
five year old boy. | 45:27 | |
He was admitted with severe rectal bleeding | 45:30 | |
and it was most obvious that his parents, | 45:34 | |
grandparents, and the physicians on duty, | 45:37 | |
were very worried about him. | 45:40 | |
They were with him constantly | 45:43 | |
and very solicitous over his condition. | 45:45 | |
It was finally decided by the doctors | 45:50 | |
that some fairly serious surgery for a child that age | 45:52 | |
would need to be performed. | 45:57 | |
As a result of that surgery, | 46:00 | |
the hospitalization time was eight weeks. | 46:01 | |
During the sixth week, I noticed one morning | 46:06 | |
that we had a new patient on the pediatrics unit, | 46:09 | |
and he had the same last name as Matt's. | 46:14 | |
When I walked into that child's room to get acquainted, | 46:18 | |
I discovered Joey, | 46:22 | |
an older lookalike of his brother Matt. | 46:24 | |
It soon became clear to all of us | 46:28 | |
that Joey had unconsciously decided | 46:32 | |
that if he was going to get any attention in that family, | 46:35 | |
he would have to get sick too | 46:39 | |
and come to the hospital to get it. | 46:41 | |
So Joey began developing symptoms similar to those of Matt. | 46:45 | |
Those parents had put all of their energy | 46:51 | |
into their sick child and were unable | 46:54 | |
to give love and attention at home | 46:57 | |
for the very short periods they were there. | 46:59 | |
Amazingly, after several days of devoted attention, | 47:04 | |
Joey miraculously recovered and was able to go home. | 47:09 | |
Unfortunately, for that family, some of the dynamics | 47:14 | |
of illness were understood in a new way | 47:18 | |
and they were able to begin reestablishing | 47:21 | |
some family ties and relationships. | 47:24 | |
Now it is not often the case when we deliberately get sick | 47:28 | |
to gain or to avoid anything, but I am aware | 47:34 | |
that this can happen to us some times outside the level | 47:38 | |
of our own awareness. | 47:42 | |
We can use illness to be sheltered from life. | 47:45 | |
Physicians tell us that from 50 to 70% of people they see | 47:50 | |
in their offices really need a counselor, | 47:56 | |
a minister, or some positive relationship, | 47:59 | |
much more than they need any kind of medical attention. | 48:04 | |
The more we learn about our bodies, | 48:09 | |
the more aware we are of the inner-relatedness | 48:12 | |
of all the parts and functions. | 48:16 | |
It is true that when something goes wrong | 48:19 | |
with one dimension of our life, | 48:22 | |
it touches other dimensions as well, including the physical. | 48:24 | |
I get the impression that the man at the pool | 48:30 | |
of Beth-za'tha, nursed his ill health in some way. | 48:33 | |
Perhaps clinging to that sickness | 48:39 | |
without even being aware of it. | 48:41 | |
Jesus searching words to him, | 48:44 | |
"Do you want to be healed?" | 48:48 | |
brought to him a new kind of strength | 48:51 | |
and the recovery of health. | 48:54 | |
Full health is understood in the gospel | 48:58 | |
in a very special way. | 49:01 | |
It is always understood as physical, emotional, | 49:04 | |
and spiritual soundness. | 49:08 | |
Healing for Jesus would be an act of the whole part | 49:10 | |
of rescuing of life. | 49:14 | |
Healing is an expression of God's | 49:17 | |
continuing work of salvation. | 49:20 | |
In fact, the meaning of salvation | 49:23 | |
in the New Testament is wholeness. | 49:25 | |
The many ways that we see healing | 49:30 | |
recorded for us in the gospels, | 49:32 | |
conveys a sense of deep mystery. | 49:35 | |
Something happens to someone that seems | 49:39 | |
extraordinarily significant and could not have been | 49:41 | |
expected under normal circumstances. | 49:45 | |
The point of each story seems to be beyond | 49:48 | |
any scientific explanation. | 49:52 | |
But according to the gospels, Jesus' miracles of healings | 49:55 | |
were real and specific. | 50:00 | |
Events which could be grasped and understood. | 50:02 | |
I believe it is important for us to remember | 50:07 | |
that a healing always occurred | 50:11 | |
in an atmosphere of faith. | 50:14 | |
For the question of miracle cannot be separated from faith. | 50:17 | |
In the New Testament, it is faith in the person of Jesus, | 50:24 | |
the preaching and His power, both of which had to do | 50:28 | |
with the dawning of the Kingdom of God, | 50:33 | |
around which healing occurs. | 50:36 | |
I believe that faith then as now, | 50:39 | |
cannot prove that miracles happen, | 50:43 | |
but it is faith which is the context in which we began | 50:46 | |
to understand the signs and wonders of God. | 50:51 | |
After the man at the pool of Beth-za'tha | 50:58 | |
unknowingly revealed to Jesus the fringe benefits | 51:01 | |
of his illness, Jesus told him, | 51:06 | |
"Pick up your bed and walk, | 51:10 | |
"or pick up your life and walk." | 51:12 | |
Dare to take the risk of being whole and being well, | 51:16 | |
and then you can begin to meet life as it is | 51:21 | |
and as it comes to you. | 51:24 | |
The book "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" | 51:29 | |
has left a deep impression on me | 51:31 | |
even after years have passed since first reading that. | 51:34 | |
To me that book is a book about healing. | 51:39 | |
It tell us the story of Debra, a young schizophrenic woman | 51:43 | |
who becomes that way because reality in her own life | 51:49 | |
is too painful for her to face. | 51:53 | |
She's been in a private hospital for a long time | 51:56 | |
working with a therapist and the time comes | 52:00 | |
when Debra must leave that hospital, | 52:03 | |
become part of the community again, | 52:06 | |
pick up her bed and walk. | 52:10 | |
But she is afraid of the risk and the pain | 52:13 | |
that will involve for her. | 52:17 | |
There is far more security in the fantasy world | 52:19 | |
which she has created for herself. | 52:23 | |
She dramatizes her fear at that moment | 52:26 | |
by beginning to burn her body with matches, | 52:30 | |
which will guarantee that she can stay | 52:34 | |
in the hospital awhile longer. | 52:37 | |
The question for us today as we hear the gospel lesson is | 52:42 | |
do we want to be healed? | 52:47 | |
It is our faith in God and in the saving grace of wholeness | 52:52 | |
that we find in Jesus Christ that can help us say | 52:57 | |
yes to that question. | 53:03 | |
We can choose to face life the way it is | 53:06 | |
with its hurts and pains. | 53:10 | |
When we began to relate to ourselves and God and others | 53:13 | |
in wholeness and in ways of love, | 53:18 | |
we won't need to be sick anymore. | 53:22 | |
We will be able to coup with illnesses that do come to us. | 53:26 | |
The word to the man at the pool of Beth-za'tha, | 53:32 | |
is still the same word to us today | 53:35 | |
and the challenge of the gospel to all of us is this, | 53:39 | |
as Jesus has said it, | 53:45 | |
"Pick up your life and walk." | 53:47 | |
So be it, amen. | 53:52 | |
(solemn organ music) | 54:03 | |
(solemn choral music) | 54:28 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 56:26 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 56:29 | |
Who has come into truly human Jesus, | 56:35 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 56:38 | |
Who works in us and others, by the Spirit. | 56:41 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church. | 56:45 | |
To celebrate life and its fullness. | 56:50 | |
To love and serve others. | 56:53 | |
To seek justice and resist evil. | 56:55 | |
To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. | 56:59 | |
Our judge and our hope. | 57:03 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 57:06 | |
God is with us, we are not alone. | 57:10 | |
Thanks be to God. | 57:15 | |
The Lord be with you. | 57:19 | |
- | And with your spirit. | 57:21 |
- | Let us pray. | 57:23 |
Oh Lord our God, Thou who did steal the diseases | 57:43 | |
of all who seek Thee, | 57:48 | |
Thou who does know our needs | 57:52 | |
more than we know them ourselves, | 57:54 | |
cause us now to cry out with Thee, | 57:58 | |
out to Thee from hearts that truly believe, | 58:00 | |
asking for wholeness through Jesus Christ. | 58:05 | |
Thou know us who we are and from whence | 58:10 | |
we come to this place. | 58:12 | |
Some of us have come from well ordered lives, | 58:16 | |
marked with health and strength, | 58:19 | |
with success, with friendship. | 58:23 | |
Some of us come from a deeper need, | 58:28 | |
Thou know us our brokenness, our loneliness, | 58:32 | |
our embarrassment, our sin. | 58:37 | |
Thou know us the world from which we come to Thee oh God. | 58:43 | |
A world that is marked by violence, | 58:48 | |
by deceit, | 58:53 | |
by greed. | 58:56 | |
Thou know us the tragedies of this past week. | 59:01 | |
Hear us oh God as in one voice, we ask for thy salvation | 59:08 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 59:12 | |
Hear us oh God as in one voice, we ask for newness of life. | 59:16 | |
Hear us oh God as in one voice, | 59:24 | |
we pray for new strength for the Pope, | 59:28 | |
for some vision in the midst of this confusion, | 59:33 | |
for thy peace, even in the midst of our brokenness. | 59:38 | |
But oh divine love, Thou who does everlastingly | 59:49 | |
stand outside the closed doors of all the souls | 59:53 | |
of men and women, knocking ever and ever again, | 59:56 | |
will Thou not now give each one of us grace | 1:00:01 | |
to throw open our soul's doors. | 1:00:04 | |
Not every bolt and bar be drawn, | 1:00:07 | |
let us hither to, robbed our lives | 1:00:10 | |
of the fresh breezes of Thy spirit and of light and of love. | 1:00:16 | |
Open our ears of God that we may hear Thy voice | 1:00:23 | |
calling us to new high and ever. | 1:00:26 | |
Too often we have been deaf to appeals | 1:00:30 | |
that Thou has addressed to us. | 1:00:32 | |
But now give us courage to answer | 1:00:34 | |
with the Prophet Jeremiah sent me. | 1:00:37 | |
And when anyone of Thy children, | 1:00:41 | |
our human brothers and sisters cries out in need, | 1:00:44 | |
give to one of us and all of us | 1:00:48 | |
an open ear to hear that cry, Thy call to service. | 1:00:50 | |
Give us open eyes oh God, eyes quick to discover | 1:00:58 | |
Thy end dwelling in the world which Thou has made. | 1:01:01 | |
Let all lovely things today, fill us with gladness | 1:01:07 | |
and let them uplift our minds | 1:01:10 | |
to thine everlasting loveliness. | 1:01:12 | |
Forgive all our blindness in past days | 1:01:15 | |
to that which is grand and glorious, | 1:01:18 | |
our blindness to charm of little children. | 1:01:22 | |
To the sublimities of the human story. | 1:01:26 | |
To all the intimations of Thy presence, | 1:01:30 | |
which 10,000 things in this world contain. | 1:01:34 | |
And give us open hands oh God, | 1:01:42 | |
hands ready to share with all who are in want, | 1:01:44 | |
the blessings which Thou has given to us. | 1:01:47 | |
Deliver us from all vengeance, | 1:01:53 | |
all meanness, all selfishness, all self-righteousness. | 1:01:57 | |
Let us hold Thy gifts in stewardship. | 1:02:06 | |
And let our whole lives be as a trust for Thee. | 1:02:12 | |
To whom even now, be all honor and glory forever. | 1:02:16 | |
Through Jesus Christ, who has taught us when we pray to say: | 1:02:25 | |
Our Father, Who art in heaven, | 1:02:31 | |
hallowed be Thy name. | 1:02:35 | |
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, | 1:02:37 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 1:02:42 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 1:02:45 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 1:02:48 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 1:02:51 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 1:02:55 | |
but deliver from evil. | 1:02:58 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 1:03:01 | |
and the glory forever. | 1:03:04 | |
Amen. | 1:03:07 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:03:14 | |
(serene choral music) | 1:05:07 | |
(solemn organ music) | 1:08:10 | |
(solemn choral music) | 1:09:14 | |
Almighty God, Thou who has given all things, | 1:10:20 | |
the appointment of our lives stands according Thy will | 1:10:25 | |
and we could not bring gifts to Thee | 1:10:28 | |
had Thou not first given to us. | 1:10:30 | |
Therefore receive our gratitude and also these gifts | 1:10:34 | |
and bless them to the Kingdom of God | 1:10:39 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1:10:42 | |
Amen. | 1:10:44 | |
(serene organ music) | 1:10:47 | |
(serene choral music) | 1:11:30 | |
- | The Lord bless you and keep you. | 1:15:09 |
The Lord made his face to shine upon you | 1:15:11 | |
and be gracious onto you. | 1:15:13 | |
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you | 1:15:16 | |
and give you peace today and forevermore. | 1:15:19 | |
Amen. | 1:15:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:15:28 | |
♪ Glory Jesus my Lord ♪ | 1:15:35 | |
♪ Praise His name ♪ | 1:15:43 | |
♪ Praise His name ♪ | 1:15:50 | |
♪ Praise His name forever ♪ | 1:15:58 | |
♪ Lord He will live forever ♪ | 1:16:05 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:16:16 | |
(uplifting organ music) | 1:16:30 | |
(laughing) | 1:20:47 |