James T. Cleland - "Let Us Worship God" (March 13, 1966)
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| (choir vocalizing) | 0:03 | |
| (bright organ music) | 0:27 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 0:55 | |
| - | Dearly beloved brethren, the scriptures move with us | 3:26 |
| in sundry places to acknowledge and confess | 3:30 | |
| our manifold sins and wickedness. | 3:35 | |
| And we should not dissemble nor cloak them | 3:38 | |
| before the face of almighty God, our heavenly Father, | 3:41 | |
| but confess them with an humble, lowly, | 3:46 | |
| penitent, and obedient heart, | 3:50 | |
| to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the sin | 3:53 | |
| by His infinite goodness and mercy. | 3:57 | |
| And now let us humbly confess our sins to almighty God, | 4:01 | |
| Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, | 4:06 | |
| we confess that we have grievously send against Thee | 4:11 | |
| in thought, in word and in deed. | 4:16 | |
| We have come short of Thy glory, | 4:19 | |
| we have broken the unity Thy holy church, | 4:22 | |
| and we have turned every one of us | 4:26 | |
| aside from the way of light, | 4:28 | |
| yet do Thou most merciful Father, | 4:31 | |
| hear on us when we call upon Thee with penitent hearts, | 4:34 | |
| pardon our sins, and grant us Thy peace, | 4:39 | |
| confirm us in all goodness | 4:43 | |
| that we may serve Thee with a quiet mind | 4:46 | |
| and bring us to the life everlasting | 4:49 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 4:52 | |
| Amen. | 4:55 | |
| Hear what comfortable words our savior Christ | 4:57 | |
| said unto all who truly turned to him: | 5:00 | |
| "Come unto me, all ye that travel and are heavy laden, | 5:04 | |
| and I will refresh you." | 5:09 | |
| So God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son | 5:11 | |
| to the end, that all that believe in him should not perish, | 5:16 | |
| but have everlasting life. | 5:19 | |
| Hear also what's St. Paul said: | 5:23 | |
| "This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received | 5:26 | |
| that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." | 5:30 | |
| Hear also what's St. John said: | 5:35 | |
| "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, | 5:38 | |
| Jesus Christ the righteous, | 5:42 | |
| and he is the propitiation for our sins." | 5:45 | |
| And now we are bold to say, | 5:50 | |
| Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; | 5:53 | |
| Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done | 5:58 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven. | 6:02 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread; | 6:05 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 6:08 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 6:10 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 6:14 | |
| For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 6:19 | |
| forever and ever. | 6:24 | |
| Amen. | 6:25 | |
| (gentle organ music) | 6:29 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 7:04 | |
| - | The scripture reading for today comes from Isaiah, | 11:06 |
| the Old Testament, 6:1-8. | 11:10 | |
| In the year that King Uzziah died | 11:17 | |
| I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; | 11:20 | |
| and His train filled the temple. | 11:25 | |
| Above Him stood the seraphim. | 11:28 | |
| Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, | 11:30 | |
| and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. | 11:34 | |
| And one called to another and said: | 11:38 | |
| "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; | 11:41 | |
| the whole earth is full of his glory!" | 11:45 | |
| And the foundations of the thresholds | 11:48 | |
| shook at the voice of him who called, | 11:50 | |
| and the house was filled with smoke. | 11:52 | |
| And I said: "Woe is me! | 11:54 | |
| For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, | 11:57 | |
| and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; | 12:00 | |
| for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" | 12:04 | |
| Then flew one of the seraphim to me, | 12:09 | |
| having in his hand a burning coal | 12:11 | |
| which he had taken with tongs from the altar. | 12:13 | |
| And he touched my mouth and said: | 12:16 | |
| "Behold, this has touched your lips; | 12:18 | |
| your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven." | 12:21 | |
| And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, | 12:25 | |
| "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" | 12:28 | |
| And I said, "Here I am! Send me." | 12:31 | |
| The reading from the New Testament | 12:37 | |
| comes from Paul's letter to the Colossians 3:12-17. | 12:39 | |
| Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, | 12:51 | |
| compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, | 12:54 | |
| forbearing one another, | 13:01 | |
| and if one has a complaint against another, | 13:03 | |
| forgiving each other; | 13:05 | |
| as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. | 13:06 | |
| And above all these put on love, | 13:11 | |
| which binds everything together in perfect harmony. | 13:14 | |
| And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, | 13:18 | |
| to which indeed you were called in the one body. | 13:21 | |
| And be thankful. | 13:24 | |
| Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, | 13:26 | |
| as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, | 13:30 | |
| and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs | 13:33 | |
| with thankfulness in your hearts to God. | 13:37 | |
| And whatever you do, in word or deed, | 13:40 | |
| do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, | 13:43 | |
| giving thanks to God the Father through him. | 13:46 | |
| Amen. | 13:50 | |
| (bright organ music) | 13:53 | |
| (choir singing) | 14:22 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 17:02 |
| - | And with your spirit. | 17:04 |
| - | Let us pray. | 17:06 |
| O Lord, the giver of every good and perfect gift, | 17:08 | |
| we give Thee unfeigned thanks for all Thy mercies, | 17:13 | |
| for our being, our reason | 17:18 | |
| and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body, | 17:22 | |
| for our health, friends, food, raiment, | 17:27 | |
| and all the other comforts and conveniences of life. | 17:32 | |
| Above all, we adore Thy mercy | 17:37 | |
| in sending Thy only Son into the world, | 17:39 | |
| to redeem us from sin and eternal death, | 17:43 | |
| and in giving us the knowledge | 17:47 | |
| and sense of our duty towards Thee. | 17:49 | |
| We bless Thee for thy patience with us, | 17:52 | |
| notwithstanding our many and great provocations; | 17:56 | |
| for all the directions, assistances, | 18:00 | |
| and comforts of Thy Holy Spirit; | 18:03 | |
| for thy continual care watchful providence over us | 18:07 | |
| through the whole course of our lives, | 18:11 | |
| beseeching Thee to continue these these blessings to us; | 18:14 | |
| and to give us grace to show our thankfulness | 18:18 | |
| in a sincere obedience to Thy laws. | 18:22 | |
| O God, at whose Word man go forth to his work | 18:26 | |
| and to his labor until the evening, | 18:30 | |
| be merciful to all whose duties are difficult or burdensome | 18:33 | |
| and comfort them concerning their toil. | 18:38 | |
| Shield from bodily accident and harm | 18:42 | |
| the workmen at their work. | 18:44 | |
| Protect the efforts of sober and honest industry, | 18:47 | |
| and suffer not the hire of the laborers | 18:52 | |
| to be kept back by fraud. | 18:54 | |
| Incline the heart of employers and of those whom they employ | 18:57 | |
| to mutual forbearance, fairness, and good-will. | 19:02 | |
| Give the spirit of governance and of a sound mind | 19:08 | |
| to all in places of authority, | 19:12 | |
| especially Thy servants, the President of the United States | 19:15 | |
| and the governor of this State. | 19:19 | |
| Bless all those who labor in works of mercy, | 19:22 | |
| in our schools of good learning. | 19:26 | |
| Care for all aged persons, and all little children, | 19:30 | |
| the sick and the afflicted, | 19:36 | |
| and those who travel by land or by sea or by air. | 19:39 | |
| Remember all who by reason of weakness are overtasked, | 19:44 | |
| or because of poverty are forgotten. | 19:49 | |
| Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners, | 19:52 | |
| and especially our prisoners of war, come before Thee. | 19:55 | |
| Give unto our prayer, O merciful God, | 20:00 | |
| for the love of Thy dear Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. | 20:03 | |
| Amen. | 20:09 | |
| (bright organ music) | 20:16 | |
| (choir singing indistinctly) | 23:09 | |
| ♪ And let your joy (indistinct) ♪ | 23:13 | |
| ♪ Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord, Almighty God ♪ | 23:16 | |
| ♪ Rejoice in the Lord, Almighty God ♪ | 23:23 | |
| ♪ (indistinct) heaven and earth ♪ | 23:31 | |
| (choir singing indistinctly) | 23:34 | |
| ♪ Rejoice in the Lord, Almighty God ♪ | 24:52 | |
| (choir singing indistinctly) | 25:00 | |
| (gentle organ music) | 25:22 | |
| ♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 26:08 | |
| ♪ Praise him, all creatures here below ♪ | 26:16 | |
| ♪ Praise him above, ye heav'nly host ♪ | 26:24 | |
| ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ | 26:32 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 26:42 | |
| - | Pray, all things come of Thee, O Lord, | 26:51 |
| and of Thine own have we given Thee. | 26:54 | |
| and of Thine hands, O Lord, we commit ourselves this day. | 26:57 | |
| Give to each of us a watchful, humble and diligent spirit | 27:01 | |
| that we may seek in all things to know Thy will | 27:07 | |
| and whom we know it may perform it perfectly and gladly | 27:11 | |
| to the honor and glory of Thy Name, | 27:15 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 27:18 | |
| Amen. | 27:21 | |
| (gentle organ music) | 27:24 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 27:55 |
| Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts | 27:58 | |
| be acceptable in Thy sight, | 28:03 | |
| O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. | 28:08 | |
| Amen. | 28:13 | |
| Do you who sit in the pew catching the sermons | 28:22 | |
| pitched from the pulpit ever wonder what inspired | 28:28 | |
| or at least initiated a particular sermon | 28:34 | |
| on a given Sunday morning? | 28:39 | |
| I can tell you with the exactness what primed the pump | 28:43 | |
| for today's homily. | 28:48 | |
| Three weeks ago from this pulpit, Dr. Ralph Suchman | 28:52 | |
| quoted a description of worship, | 28:59 | |
| which has already found its way | 29:02 | |
| into more than one anthology, | 29:05 | |
| and which was penned by the late William Temple, | 29:09 | |
| once Archbishop of Canterbury. | 29:13 | |
| Now that recalled to me that I had used the quotation | 29:18 | |
| as the first question in the final exam last May | 29:24 | |
| in CW40 the church at worship in the Divinity School. | 29:30 | |
| So I turned to the examination and found a note on it: | 29:37 | |
| "Preach on this in the Duke Chapel some Sunday." | 29:42 | |
| That's what primed the old pump. | 29:47 | |
| Now there are three assumptions, | 29:52 | |
| which are prerequisite on our part for this sermon. | 29:54 | |
| First, we are worshiping together during Lent | 30:00 | |
| because of our gratitude for the Christian faith. | 30:05 | |
| There is a joy to our worship. | 30:11 | |
| Second, we are here because we accept at least in part, | 30:16 | |
| the Christian faith. | 30:22 | |
| There is an obedience in our worship. | 30:25 | |
| Third, there is an enthusiasm for the Christian faith, | 30:31 | |
| with a consequent desire for a further understanding of it. | 30:36 | |
| There is a commitment of the head | 30:43 | |
| as well as of the heart in our worship. | 30:46 | |
| So what we shall think now of the church at worship, | 30:51 | |
| as a community of believers | 30:56 | |
| in the light of Archbishop Temple's interpretation. | 30:59 | |
| Now, what did he say? | 31:05 | |
| Well, what he said it's published on the second page | 31:09 | |
| of the announcement. | 31:13 | |
| "To worship is to quicken the conscience | 31:18 | |
| by the holiness of God, | 31:23 | |
| to feed the mind with the truth of God, | 31:27 | |
| to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, | 31:34 | |
| to open the heart to the love of God, | 31:41 | |
| to devote the will to the purpose of God." | 31:47 | |
| Now let us look at these five assertions, | 31:54 | |
| somewhat varying the order in our exposition. | 31:58 | |
| To worship is to quicken the conscience | 32:05 | |
| by the holiness of God. | 32:09 | |
| Who is God? | 32:14 | |
| God is the ultimate cause and end of worship. | 32:16 | |
| He is the creator, sustainer and Redeemer of our lives. | 32:24 | |
| He is the Pole Star, or the norm, | 32:31 | |
| or the yardstick about daily living. | 32:37 | |
| Our worship of Him is our voluntary self-committal | 32:42 | |
| to that which, to Him who is ultimately worthwhile. | 32:48 | |
| And what do we mean by His holiness? | 32:58 | |
| He is absolute spiritual perfection. | 33:02 | |
| He is awesome model completeness. | 33:07 | |
| He is the completely right whole fact in life. | 33:13 | |
| He is the wondrous one | 33:20 | |
| before the revelation of whose greatness, | 33:22 | |
| the angels veil their faces, | 33:25 | |
| Moses takes the shoes from off his feet, | 33:29 | |
| Peter collapses in reverence, | 33:34 | |
| and we bow down in awful wonder. | 33:38 | |
| Worship this devotion to that, which is the holy ultimate. | 33:43 | |
| What is conscience? | 33:52 | |
| It is the inmost thought, which acts as the touchstone, | 33:56 | |
| the criterion, by which we test out words and deeds. | 34:01 | |
| Conscience is the government | 34:07 | |
| of our daily walk and conversation. | 34:09 | |
| Thus the first emphasis in worship | 34:14 | |
| is to establish our inmost thoughts by focusing upon | 34:16 | |
| and acknowledging the spiritual perfection of Him, | 34:23 | |
| who is the ultimately worthwhile fact in our lives. | 34:29 | |
| The creature recognizes the creator. | 34:36 | |
| We who are temporal and temporary recognize Him | 34:42 | |
| who is eternal and permanent. | 34:48 | |
| We appreciate who God is and defer who we are. | 34:53 | |
| Now as a consequence, a valid order of worship | 35:02 | |
| opens with an act of adoration. | 35:08 | |
| It may be implemented by a call to worship, | 35:13 | |
| a prayer invocation, a hymn on an anthem of homage | 35:18 | |
| or a combination of these. | 35:26 | |
| This morning, we use two of these items, | 35:29 | |
| a call to worship sung by the choir, | 35:33 | |
| addressed to us as the congregation, | 35:38 | |
| and then an ancient hymn of adoration, | 35:43 | |
| a paraphrase of the 100 Psalm. | 35:47 | |
| Epictetus, a slave from Asia Minor, | 35:54 | |
| a founder of the Stoic philosophy, | 36:01 | |
| an advisor to the Roman emperor Hadrian, once wrote, | 36:05 | |
| "If indeed I were a nightingale, | 36:11 | |
| I should sing as a nightingale, | 36:16 | |
| if a swan, as a swan, | 36:20 | |
| but as I am a rational creature, I must praise God. | 36:25 | |
| This is my task and I do it. | 36:34 | |
| And I will not abandon this duty | 36:39 | |
| so long as it is given to me." | 36:42 | |
| And I invite you all to join in this same song. | 36:46 | |
| Now second, to worship is to purge the imagination | 36:56 | |
| by the beauty of God. | 37:04 | |
| There is or there should be an immediate reaction | 37:09 | |
| to the act of adoration, | 37:13 | |
| the quickening of the conscience by the holiness of God. | 37:16 | |
| While the conscience leaps, the whole being is shaken, | 37:21 | |
| for it is no casual experience to expose ourselves to God. | 37:29 | |
| Temple describes the reaction by the phrase, | 37:39 | |
| "to purge the imagination by the beauty of God." | 37:42 | |
| Beauty is an interesting word to use of God. | 37:51 | |
| Beauty is applied to that, | 37:58 | |
| which excites the keenness pleasure, not only of the senses, | 37:59 | |
| but of the mind and the spirit or of the imagination, | 38:04 | |
| which may be Temple's overall word | 38:09 | |
| for the senses, mind and spirit working in conjunction. | 38:12 | |
| Perhaps an analogy will help us to understand | 38:17 | |
| what we should mean by the beauty of God. | 38:21 | |
| The Greeks formed a word for a gentleman | 38:27 | |
| by combining two adjectives: kalos, which means beautiful, | 38:34 | |
| and agathos, which means good. | 38:43 | |
| When they wished to describe someone | 38:49 | |
| who had a flair for the good, | 38:52 | |
| who linked a graciousness with uprightness, | 38:55 | |
| they called him Kalos kagathos, | 39:02 | |
| a courteous man of rectitude. | 39:07 | |
| And David Livingston, the Scottish missionary | 39:13 | |
| and explorer in Africa had a similar idea in mind. | 39:16 | |
| He wrote in his journal, January 14th, 1856 | 39:22 | |
| of being tempted to abandon a journey | 39:28 | |
| because of the hostility of the natives. | 39:32 | |
| He went on, "But I read that Jesus said: | 39:36 | |
| all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. | 39:42 | |
| Go ye therefore and teach all nations | 39:48 | |
| and lo, I am with you always, | 39:52 | |
| even unto the end of the world." | 39:57 | |
| And Livingston added, "It is the word of a gentleman, | 40:02 | |
| of the most strict and sacred honor. | 40:09 | |
| So there's an end of it. I shall stay. | 40:13 | |
| I feel quite calm now. Thank God." | 40:19 | |
| For Livingston, the Holy God revealed in Jesus | 40:24 | |
| is Kalos kagathos, a gentle man. | 40:30 | |
| Now what does this idea do to us? | 40:39 | |
| It shatters us. | 40:42 | |
| Maybe we could stand, stand erect, even as humble creatures, | 40:46 | |
| in adoration before the holiness of God, reverencing Him. | 40:54 | |
| But His beauty, His gracious loveliness | 41:00 | |
| drives us to our knees because we out unworthy | 41:06 | |
| of His courteous goodness. | 41:12 | |
| So a prayer of confession follows: we are sinners, | 41:16 | |
| our imagination needs to be purged. | 41:24 | |
| It can be purged by the acknowledgement of sin, | 41:29 | |
| sin, which is our lack of at-oneness with God, | 41:35 | |
| especially if such confession is followed, | 41:41 | |
| as it was followed this morning, | 41:45 | |
| and is regularly followed in this chapel, | 41:47 | |
| by the comfortable words of the announcement of forgiveness, | 41:50 | |
| the assurance of a God who self-imposed day in, day out, | 41:56 | |
| voluntarily accepted us, as to bring folk like us | 42:05 | |
| back into right relations with Himself. | 42:13 | |
| Third, to worship is to open the heart | 42:20 | |
| to the love of God. | 42:26 | |
| The love of God is His good-will in action, | 42:32 | |
| His good-will in action, | 42:38 | |
| which is the theme of the entire Bible, | 42:40 | |
| from Genesis to Revelation, | 42:45 | |
| spoken by law givers, prophets and psalmists, | 42:49 | |
| made conspicuously clear by Jesus, experienced today | 42:55 | |
| in the working of the Holy Spirit in our heart. | 43:02 | |
| But it is experienced on one condition: | 43:06 | |
| that we open our heart to God's love. | 43:12 | |
| Abraham knew it. | 43:18 | |
| So did Hosea. | 43:21 | |
| Paul wrote about it from personal experience. | 43:24 | |
| Augustine was turned upside down by it. | 43:30 | |
| Luther shook the United Catholic church by preaching it. | 43:35 | |
| Wesley glowed with it at Aldersgate. | 43:43 | |
| It sent Livingston and Schweitzer to Africa, | 43:48 | |
| it sent Grunfeld to Labrador, | 43:52 | |
| it kept Kagawa in Japan, | 43:56 | |
| and returned Bonhoeffer to Germany. | 44:00 | |
| All these folk talked about the holy love of God. | 44:06 | |
| They do not separate holiness from love. | 44:11 | |
| They think of them as one. | 44:14 | |
| Love is not the primary quality of God. | 44:17 | |
| It is His essence, His very being. | 44:23 | |
| And what staggered these men | 44:29 | |
| was that it was given gratis, for free to the undeserving. | 44:31 | |
| Man cannot pay for it. | 44:46 | |
| It's their to be accepted like sunlight and bird song. | 44:50 | |
| And yet, once it has been accepted by man, | 44:57 | |
| it must be shared with his friends | 45:00 | |
| and with his enemies. | 45:04 | |
| It is the appropriation, the giving, | 45:08 | |
| and the living of good news of glad tidings, of great joy. | 45:13 | |
| I've read that this note occur liturgically | 45:22 | |
| in an order of worship. | 45:25 | |
| It occurs in an act of thanks giving | 45:28 | |
| sometimes in the first anthem, or always in a prayer. | 45:32 | |
| This is our acknowledgement of the love of God, | 45:39 | |
| but it doesn't stop there. | 45:42 | |
| It goes out to others in the prayer of intercession | 45:44 | |
| for all kinds and conditions of men | 45:50 | |
| as this morning's prayer, for young and old, | 45:54 | |
| rich and poor, sick and well, at home and abroad. | 45:58 | |
| And then, when we have prayed for others, | 46:07 | |
| we may present our own petitions | 46:12 | |
| in a prayer of supplication. | 46:16 | |
| And the proper way to end this container of thanks giving, | 46:19 | |
| intercession and supplication | 46:24 | |
| is with the Lord's prayer offered in unison. | 46:27 | |
| Fourth, to worship is to feed the mind | 46:34 | |
| with the truth of God. | 46:39 | |
| The truth of God, that is by a priori definition, | 46:44 | |
| truth pure, complete, and undefiled. | 46:52 | |
| He is the one who confirms to reality. | 46:59 | |
| He is reality. | 47:04 | |
| His omniscience enables Him to see all particular aspects | 47:07 | |
| of truth in one coherent system. | 47:12 | |
| He is truth as He is love. | 47:16 | |
| The name for His opposite is adversary, the devil, | 47:21 | |
| is the father of lies. | 47:27 | |
| The Liar. | 47:32 | |
| Even the Lie. | 47:35 | |
| The Christian faith has interpreted the preposition | 47:40 | |
| in the phrase, "the truth of God," | 47:43 | |
| in two complementary ways. | 47:48 | |
| First, it is the truth from God. | 47:51 | |
| He has given it to man, He has shared it with man. | 47:57 | |
| Ours is a religion of revelation. | 48:02 | |
| But second, it is the truth about God. | 48:06 | |
| And we apply our minds to understand it and Him. | 48:12 | |
| Jesus told us to love God with the strength of our minds, | 48:20 | |
| as well as with the strength about hearts and souls. | 48:25 | |
| There is a place for the intellect, | 48:30 | |
| the understanding in the worship of God. | 48:33 | |
| There is a pursuit of the truth of God. | 48:39 | |
| And it will make us free or mad. | 48:45 | |
| Feeding the mind with the truth of God has a legitimate, | 48:53 | |
| a necessary place in a service of worship. | 48:59 | |
| It occurs in the reading and hearing of the scripture lesson | 49:04 | |
| and in the preaching and hearing of the sermon. | 49:09 | |
| One should never talk of worship and sermon. | 49:14 | |
| One may talk of worship with sermon | 49:21 | |
| or worship without sermon. | 49:24 | |
| A sermon per se is never tacked on to worship. | 49:28 | |
| A sermon is part of the structure of worship. | 49:34 | |
| And I am convinced, though many disagree with me, | 49:40 | |
| that the intent of the sermon set in worship | 49:44 | |
| is primarily to teach. | 49:49 | |
| I have a sister-in-law, brought up a Congregationalist, | 49:54 | |
| who became an Episcopalian in middle life. | 50:00 | |
| She is exacting in her attendance | 50:05 | |
| at early communion on the Lord's day. | 50:10 | |
| But after breakfast, | 50:15 | |
| she listens to two sermons on radio and TV. | 50:17 | |
| She must needs feed her mind with the truth of God. | 50:25 | |
| The sermon may not be the channel of grace, | 50:35 | |
| as to many of the reformed churches think it is, | 50:40 | |
| but it is a channel of grace, | 50:43 | |
| And if it be a valid sermon, | 50:47 | |
| it is in itself the Word of God. | 50:53 | |
| And then fifth, to worship is to devote the will | 51:02 | |
| to the purpose of God. | 51:08 | |
| This clause and Archbishop Temple's description | 51:13 | |
| probably refers to the post service aspect of worship. | 51:16 | |
| It points up to the effect of worship | 51:22 | |
| in the life of the Christian, | 51:26 | |
| as he returns to his work in the world | 51:28 | |
| from the church service. | 51:32 | |
| Do you remember the scathing words of indictment? | 51:35 | |
| "Your deeds speak so loudly but I cannot hear what you say." | 51:40 | |
| If our corporate worship has been the real thing, | 51:51 | |
| then that fearful dictum should become "your deeds | 51:56 | |
| speak so loudly that I now can hear | 52:01 | |
| what you are trying to say." | 52:07 | |
| We worship here together so that together or separately | 52:11 | |
| we may continue the service of God | 52:16 | |
| through service to man, suffering, sinful, | 52:20 | |
| lost, confused men and women and children, | 52:26 | |
| living lives of quiet or noisy desperation. | 52:33 | |
| Many of you do serve God through service to those in need. | 52:41 | |
| Thanks be to you, and glory be to God. | 52:49 | |
| It is the proper ending about being together in His house | 52:55 | |
| for an hour on the Lord's day. | 53:01 | |
| And yet, yet, there is a proper place | 53:05 | |
| for such a devotion of the will to the purposes of God | 53:14 | |
| in the liturgy of the morning service. | 53:19 | |
| We do not make a proper use of it here in the chapel, | 53:24 | |
| to my way of thinking, though some of you, | 53:29 | |
| many of you, will disagree with me. | 53:33 | |
| There should be following the sermon, | 53:38 | |
| an act of rededication | 53:43 | |
| when corporately we recommit ourselves | 53:47 | |
| to God's job for us in the world. | 53:52 | |
| It could be effected by a hymn, an anthem, | 53:58 | |
| a prayer of rededication. | 54:03 | |
| Yet the act should be symbolized, | 54:08 | |
| so that we may see it as a corporate transaction. | 54:11 | |
| And that could be accomplished by moving the offering | 54:17 | |
| to a post-sermon spot in the service. | 54:24 | |
| Then it would be a manifest deed of rededication. | 54:29 | |
| It would be a human sacramental act, | 54:35 | |
| the outward and visible sign | 54:39 | |
| of the inward and invisible grace of God's working in us | 54:43 | |
| and our response. | 54:49 | |
| One minister of my acquaintance | 54:52 | |
| made the offering such a knack | 54:55 | |
| by using these words in the prayer of dedication, | 54:58 | |
| as he placed the offering on the table: | 55:02 | |
| "Here we offer an present unto Thee | 55:05 | |
| our minted and our printed blood." | 55:10 | |
| Our minted and our printed blood. | 55:18 | |
| The money signifies the sacrifice of ourselves. | 55:25 | |
| And it is only a sacrifice | 55:32 | |
| that can transform that table into an alter. | 55:34 | |
| There is no alter, unless there is a sacrifice. | 55:40 | |
| And this is our sacrifice, or it could be. | 55:45 | |
| The proper rather than paper and the coins | 55:54 | |
| represented the devotion of the will to the purpose of God. | 56:00 | |
| Let's pull this whole sermon together. | 56:07 | |
| There are really two major aspects to worship. | 56:10 | |
| One is homage, the re-swearing of allegiance to the God | 56:14 | |
| who has created, sustained and redeemed us, | 56:22 | |
| who has given us in the church the body of Christ, | 56:27 | |
| who works in us for good through His Holy Spirit. | 56:31 | |
| That's why in Paul's words, read in our hearing, | 56:35 | |
| we sing songs and hymns | 56:39 | |
| and spiritual songs with thankfulness. | 56:41 | |
| The other aspect is fealty, the observance of obligation, | 56:46 | |
| as we go from this place to live amid the furniture of earth | 56:55 | |
| with the good news of God in our hearts. | 57:01 | |
| That is why in Isaiah's words, also read in our hearing, | 57:05 | |
| each of us may say, "here am my, send me," | 57:10 | |
| when God asks us in His temple, "whom shall I send | 57:18 | |
| and who will go for us?" | 57:24 | |
| Worship is homage, that is why we are here. | 57:27 | |
| Worship is fealty, that is actually tested when we leave | 57:33 | |
| after the benediction. | 57:42 | |
| Worship is a scent followed by fidelity. | 57:45 | |
| The two are complementary | 57:51 | |
| and together they are our reasonable service. | 57:55 | |
| Amen. | 58:04 | |
| Let us pray. | 58:06 | |
| Almighty God, Father of all mercies, | 58:13 | |
| we beseech Thee Give us that due sense of all Thy mercies | 58:16 | |
| that our hearts may be infinitely thankful | 58:21 | |
| and that we show forth Thy praise not only with our lips, | 58:25 | |
| but in our lives and by walking before Thee | 58:31 | |
| in holiness and righteousness all our days | 58:35 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 58:39 | |
| And may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly, | 58:42 | |
| may it keep you strong and tranquil | 58:47 | |
| in the truth of His promises through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 58:50 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 59:01 |
