Wesley Aitkin - "The Dangling Conversation" (March 23, 1969)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(liturgical organ music) | 0:04 | |
(liturgical choral music) | 4:22 | |
(cheerful organ music) | 7:30 | |
- | Dearly beloved. | 10:50 |
We are in need of the cleansing | 10:51 | |
of our hearts and souls regularly, as much as we are in need | 10:53 | |
of cleansing our physical bodies regularly. | 11:00 | |
Because of the relative importance of the two, | 11:04 | |
it is especially significant that we should set aside | 11:09 | |
a time when we gather together for corporate worship. | 11:13 | |
For each one of us individually, | 11:17 | |
but all of us collectively to acknowledge | 11:20 | |
before almighty God and in the presence of one another | 11:23 | |
our guilt, our shortcomings, and pray | 11:27 | |
for the forgiveness of almighty God. | 11:31 | |
So may we join our hearts and our voices together | 11:34 | |
in our prayer of confession and for pardon. | 11:38 | |
Let us pray. | 11:40 | |
Oh Lord most holy, God, most mighty, | 11:43 | |
who has found us wanting and yet has not forsaken us, | 11:47 | |
deliver us in these days of Lenten devotion | 11:52 | |
from all the luxuries and comforts | 11:55 | |
of smug private righteousness. | 11:58 | |
Search us deeply, oh God, that in remembering the passion | 12:01 | |
of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, | 12:05 | |
our minds and hearts may be cleansed of all insincerities, | 12:08 | |
of merely formal poses and dubious devotions. | 12:13 | |
Oh God, we have failed to practice with diligence | 12:17 | |
the elementary drudgery of training | 12:20 | |
our souls to be spiritually competent. | 12:22 | |
Forgive us, Lord, for words uttered without serious purpose, | 12:26 | |
words that have helped us forget our need of thee. | 12:31 | |
Help us now to turn again to thee with real hunger | 12:35 | |
for thy righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 12:38 | |
And now let us hear the words of scripture | 12:46 | |
as they are recorded in First John, in the first chapter, | 12:49 | |
especially written for people who | 12:54 | |
are in the situation we now find ourselves in. | 12:56 | |
This is the message we have heard from him, | 13:01 | |
that is from Jesus, and proclaim to you | 13:04 | |
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. | 13:09 | |
If we walk in the light as he is in the light, | 13:16 | |
we have fellowship with one another. | 13:20 | |
And the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. | 13:25 | |
Amen. | 13:31 | |
(liturgical choral music) | 14:04 | |
Let us hear the reading of the Word of God. | 17:23 | |
Paul's letter to the Corinthians, first letter, chapter 13. | 17:26 | |
And now I will show you the best way of all. | 17:33 | |
I may speak in tongues of men or of angels, | 17:38 | |
but if I am without love, | 17:41 | |
I am a sounding gong or a clanging symbol. | 17:44 | |
I may have the gift of prophecy and know every hidden truth. | 17:49 | |
I may have faith strong enough to move mountains, | 17:53 | |
but if I have no love, I am nothing. | 17:57 | |
I may dole out all I possess, | 18:00 | |
or even give my body to be burned. | 18:03 | |
But if I have no love, I am none the better. | 18:06 | |
Love is patient, love is kind, envies no one. | 18:11 | |
Love is never boastful, never conceited, never rude, | 18:21 | |
never selfish, nor quick to take offense. | 18:29 | |
Love keeps no score of wrongs, | 18:35 | |
does not gloat over other men's sins, | 18:39 | |
but delights in the truth. | 18:42 | |
There is nothing love cannot face. | 18:45 | |
There is no limit to its faith, its hope, its endurance. | 18:50 | |
Love will never come to an end. | 18:57 | |
Are there prophets, their work will be over. | 19:01 | |
Are there tongues of ecstasy, they will cease. | 19:05 | |
Is there knowledge, it will vanish away, | 19:10 | |
for our knowledge and our prophecy alike are partial. | 19:15 | |
And the partial vanishes when wholeness comes. | 19:18 | |
When I was a child, my speech, my outlook, | 19:24 | |
and my thoughts were all childish. | 19:27 | |
When I grew up, I had finished with childish things. | 19:31 | |
Now we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror, | 19:36 | |
but then we shall see face to face. | 19:40 | |
My knowledge now is partial. | 19:44 | |
Then it will be whole, like God's knowledge of me. | 19:47 | |
In a word, there are three things that last forever, | 19:52 | |
faith, hope, and love. | 19:57 | |
The greatest of these is love. | 20:02 | |
(liturgical choral music) | 20:09 | |
The Lord be with you. | 20:45 | |
Let us pray. | 20:49 | |
Heavenly father, | 20:59 | |
we express our gratitude to thee in this hour | 21:02 | |
for friends who encourage us | 21:06 | |
and who recognize our strong points. | 21:09 | |
We are grateful for friends who help us to see | 21:13 | |
where we are wrong, where we have | 21:16 | |
weak points and need to improve. | 21:19 | |
We are thankful that evil is not so strong, | 21:24 | |
but that we can rise above it | 21:27 | |
when we surrender our wills to thine | 21:30 | |
and seek thy divine grace. | 21:33 | |
We bless thee for victories of health over disease, | 21:37 | |
of love over hate, of unity over division, | 21:42 | |
of understanding over confusion, of truth over error, | 21:48 | |
of beauty over ugliness, for the victory of order | 21:55 | |
over anarchy, spring over winter, and peace over war. | 22:00 | |
We express our gratitude for seed time and harvest, | 22:10 | |
for full barns and full employment, | 22:14 | |
for the abundance of industry, for improved distribution. | 22:19 | |
And for the beginning of a greater sharing | 22:25 | |
of the fruits of honest labor. | 22:28 | |
Oh God, we thank thee for pioneers who point the way | 22:33 | |
to more Christian relationships, | 22:36 | |
Christian relationships in the home, in the university, | 22:40 | |
in the office, in the marketplace | 22:46 | |
and in the halls of government. | 22:50 | |
Most of all, we thank thee that while | 22:54 | |
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. | 22:56 | |
And we bless thee for our hope of the final triumph | 23:00 | |
of righteousness and the life everlasting. | 23:04 | |
We pray, heavenly father, | 23:10 | |
as we gather here in this sanctuary, | 23:14 | |
that joy may come to unhappy souls, | 23:16 | |
that illumination may dawn upon the uninspired, | 23:20 | |
that courage may come to the crushed, | 23:25 | |
and hope may come into the frustrated. | 23:29 | |
We remember before thee, oh God, our friend and colleague | 23:35 | |
professor Robert Smith, whose death we mourn this morning. | 23:38 | |
We thank thee for his great contribution | 23:44 | |
to his own discipline and to the university at large. | 23:46 | |
We pray thine comfort and strength upon his family. | 23:52 | |
And may we all now share the burdens which he has put down | 23:56 | |
so that his good work may go on through us. | 24:02 | |
Here in this time and hour and place of devotion, | 24:08 | |
may we be equipped by thine grace, each one of us, | 24:13 | |
to meet life or to face death, to fight the good fight, | 24:16 | |
to keep the faith, to finish the course. | 24:22 | |
Therefore do we beseech thee to clarify our sight | 24:26 | |
so that we can see how small are the issues | 24:31 | |
we sometimes mistakenly think are big, | 24:34 | |
and how great are the issues | 24:38 | |
for which Jesus Christ lived and suffered and died. | 24:39 | |
Grant us who worship here a generous | 24:45 | |
portion of his character, | 24:47 | |
and give us his indignation against sinful living, | 24:50 | |
and give us his unbounded love for sinners. | 24:56 | |
We pray for enough of his grace | 25:00 | |
to make us persuasive witnesses for his way of life. | 25:02 | |
So from this time of worship | 25:08 | |
do thou send us out to be better campus citizens, | 25:10 | |
more understanding roommates, | 25:14 | |
more respectful sons and daughters, | 25:17 | |
wiser parents, true scholars, courageous prophets, | 25:20 | |
responsible leaders, good followers. | 25:28 | |
And most of all, faithful witnesses and disciples | 25:34 | |
of thy son, Jesus Christ our Lord. | 25:37 | |
This is our prayer, oh God. | 25:41 | |
And we make it in the name of him who has taught us | 25:44 | |
when we pray to say together, our father who art in heaven, | 25:46 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 25:52 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 25:56 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread, | 26:00 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 26:02 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 26:04 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 26:08 | |
for thine is the kingdom and the power | 26:12 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 26:15 | |
It's not only my privilege to greet | 26:41 | |
you this morning and speak to you. | 26:42 | |
It was it also my privilege to travel here this morning | 26:46 | |
on this glorious Sunday morning. | 26:50 | |
So to those of you who sit before me, | 26:55 | |
you share that privilege. | 26:57 | |
To those of you who listen over the radio, | 26:59 | |
I regret that you couldn't. | 27:02 | |
The birds piped us here all the way, | 27:06 | |
announcing the glory of spring. | 27:09 | |
The beauty of nature embraced us. | 27:13 | |
And we felt it's warmth. | 27:19 | |
I greet you all. | 27:24 | |
Recently, I heard a former clergyman tell of his work | 27:31 | |
with rebellious youth in a large metropolitan area. | 27:34 | |
He made the distinction that there were | 27:40 | |
many young people who migrated to hippie type | 27:41 | |
communities because of healthy reasons. | 27:44 | |
The main one being the defiant effort | 27:48 | |
to resist the dehumanizing process which exists | 27:50 | |
in our different social and political systems. | 27:55 | |
He was quick to admit that these unusual communities | 27:59 | |
also attract youth who are seriously ill, mentally, | 28:02 | |
but that the majority of them are conscientious, | 28:07 | |
intelligent, and healthy young people. | 28:11 | |
I recalled the incident of the parents | 28:16 | |
who tracked down their teenage son to such a community | 28:18 | |
in a large city and asked him to come home. | 28:21 | |
The parents received a rather abrupt no, | 28:26 | |
he did not want to go home with them. | 28:29 | |
In fact, he did not even want to talk with them. | 28:31 | |
The reason he gave was that he knew without question | 28:34 | |
that his parents would want him to change. | 28:38 | |
And he felt they not really taken time | 28:42 | |
to find out who he was that they wanted to change. | 28:45 | |
It seems almost impossible that a man and woman | 28:52 | |
could give birth to a son and provide for him and live | 28:54 | |
with him for 17 years and then not know him. | 28:58 | |
Yet I have no doubt that there | 29:04 | |
was truth in the boy's statement. | 29:05 | |
At the same time, I am certain | 29:10 | |
there was truth in the parents' statement | 29:11 | |
when they said that they loved their son dearly | 29:13 | |
and were utterly baffled by his behavior. | 29:15 | |
The intimate trusting relationship that once existed between | 29:22 | |
those parents and their son was left dangling somewhere, | 29:26 | |
and it slowly died from neglect. | 29:29 | |
The tragedy of all this is doubled by the fact | 29:33 | |
that there is not only the shocking discovery | 29:36 | |
of the great loss of intimacy and honest communication, | 29:39 | |
but there is also the long tedious, painful struggle | 29:44 | |
necessary to reclaim any of it, if such is even possible. | 29:48 | |
The dehumanizing process that our youth rebel against | 29:58 | |
suggests distance, indifference, insensitivity, | 30:01 | |
absence of communication, loneliness, isolation. | 30:06 | |
Certainly God did not intend this for his creatures. | 30:12 | |
This is evidence of unhealth, not health. | 30:16 | |
This is evidence of unrighteousness, not righteousness. | 30:21 | |
I point to the way we talk to each other, | 30:29 | |
or fail to talk to each other. | 30:32 | |
Let's consider this. | 30:37 | |
People of today seldom talk to each other | 30:40 | |
about intimate, personal concerns, | 30:42 | |
and when they do, they so frequently mask | 30:44 | |
the concerns or skirt the real issues | 30:47 | |
to such an extent that no one ever hears them. | 30:50 | |
We can talk at length about ideas and about objects, | 30:54 | |
but we seldom dare to get personal about life. | 30:57 | |
The personal conversations about our deeper yearnings, | 31:03 | |
fears, disappointments, differences, | 31:06 | |
hopes are left dangling. | 31:12 | |
They die on the vine so to speak | 31:16 | |
for lack of a serious talker or a serious listener. | 31:18 | |
I'm not suggesting that we strike up conversations | 31:26 | |
with persons on streetcorners or in supermarkets. | 31:29 | |
I have seen people attempt this out of desperation. | 31:32 | |
I am referring to the conversations | 31:38 | |
among us who live closely together, such as families, | 31:40 | |
or people who work together, or people who worship together. | 31:43 | |
The apostle Paul referred to the need we have | 31:51 | |
to speak seriously to each other, | 31:54 | |
and to be heard attentively. | 31:57 | |
He stated that no matter how brilliantly | 32:00 | |
and intelligently we might converse, | 32:02 | |
if we do not have love, we are merely making noise. | 32:04 | |
What must love be, or what must it provide, | 32:12 | |
in order for conversations to be something other than noise? | 32:14 | |
In my thinking, there are two imperatives to love. | 32:22 | |
The first imperative of love is to respectfully | 32:27 | |
take the other person seriously. | 32:30 | |
Respectfully take the other person seriously. | 32:36 | |
That is pay attention to him, and listen to him | 32:40 | |
as if he deserves that kind of attention, | 32:43 | |
regardless of what he's saying. | 32:46 | |
When he's finished saying it, you may say | 32:50 | |
I disagree with you completely. | 32:51 | |
But pay attention to him while he's saying it. | 32:55 | |
The second imperative for love is to reply in utter honesty, | 33:01 | |
insofar is that as humanly possible, and respectful. | 33:07 | |
These may sound easy to accomplish, but they are not. | 33:13 | |
Evidence of the difficulty people have listening | 33:18 | |
to each other attentively and responding honestly | 33:21 | |
is seen in the fact that small controlled discussion | 33:25 | |
or conversation groups are popping up all over the nation | 33:29 | |
in various kinds of settings. | 33:32 | |
They're called everything from discussion groups, | 33:36 | |
tea groups, personal concerns groups, sensitivity groups, | 33:38 | |
encounter groups, all the way to group psychotherapy. | 33:43 | |
This is without even considering the thousands of people | 33:48 | |
who daily seek out and employ individuals | 33:51 | |
to listen to them attentively, take them seriously, | 33:55 | |
and make honest responses | 33:59 | |
in one form of private counsel or another. | 34:01 | |
It is truly a sign of our time | 34:07 | |
that we are unable to speak lovingly to each other, | 34:10 | |
especially when we need to get intimate and personal, | 34:14 | |
without hiring somebody to do the job. | 34:18 | |
Let me reiterate that when I say speak lovingly, | 34:23 | |
I refer to the imperatives of love I mentioned earlier. | 34:26 | |
Loving a person must mean something | 34:31 | |
other than just being nice to him. | 34:33 | |
The delegates to our United Nations work overtime | 34:37 | |
trying to be nice to each other, but you and I both know, | 34:40 | |
and so do the delegates to the UN, | 34:44 | |
that the verbal communications on the floor | 34:47 | |
are frequently anything but honest expressions from one | 34:49 | |
to the attentive, serious listening of another. | 34:55 | |
Conversation which become vehicles for deceit, | 35:01 | |
evasiveness, schemes, plots, or punishment | 35:03 | |
cease to be conversations at all, | 35:08 | |
and become destructive weapons, which, cleverly used, | 35:12 | |
can only increase separation, mistrust and isolation. | 35:15 | |
The hazard is that we have become so intellectually astute | 35:24 | |
and sophisticated in our abilities to explain | 35:28 | |
away rationally that which we see before our very eyes | 35:31 | |
and to tune out mentally and cease to listen to persons | 35:38 | |
who attempt to speak to us seriously | 35:42 | |
that we do this and we're not even aware of it. | 35:46 | |
Otherwise, the thousands of healthy | 35:51 | |
and seriously motivated people who seek out these | 35:53 | |
various group opportunities would not find themselves | 35:56 | |
engaged in such lengthy difficult processes | 36:00 | |
to achieve the imperatives of love I referred to earlier. | 36:04 | |
If what I am suggesting is true, then those who sit | 36:12 | |
at tables to negotiate by conversation, | 36:15 | |
whether in our community of Durham | 36:19 | |
or at the Paris Peace Conferences | 36:21 | |
must admit that the task is not an easy one. | 36:23 | |
I hope for the day when both black and white | 36:29 | |
can sit down and be relatively free | 36:31 | |
to discuss the written agenda before them | 36:33 | |
without being so controlled or strongly influenced | 36:38 | |
by the hidden agendas they carry, | 36:41 | |
mistrust, fear, anger, guilt. | 36:45 | |
Yet I know that much serious and attentive struggle | 36:52 | |
must take place before that might ever be possible. | 36:57 | |
Being under the influence of or control of hidden feelings, | 37:02 | |
such as mistrust and anger, is not a problem confined | 37:06 | |
only to the conference tables. | 37:09 | |
It shows itself at one time or another | 37:12 | |
in every important relationship we maintain. | 37:14 | |
We might call it pouting, | 37:19 | |
playing it cool, | 37:22 | |
being bored, | 37:25 | |
or any other rational explanation | 37:27 | |
that we might attach to it. | 37:30 | |
This is when honest conversations | 37:34 | |
are left dangling in midair. | 37:36 | |
Paul Simon of the singing duo of Simon and Garfunkel | 37:42 | |
has written a striking poem which laments our inability | 37:46 | |
to speak personally or lovingly to each other. | 37:51 | |
They sing it in their own magnetic and piercing style | 37:57 | |
as "The Dangling Conversation." | 38:00 | |
This is the poem. | 38:04 | |
It's a still life watercolor of an Adelaide afternoon. | 38:09 | |
As the sun shines through the curtain lace | 38:13 | |
and the shadows wash the room | 38:17 | |
and we sit and drink our coffee. | 38:18 | |
Couched in our indifference like shells upon the shore. | 38:22 | |
You can hear the ocean roar in the dangling conversation | 38:25 | |
and the superficial sighs, the borders of our lives. | 38:29 | |
And you read your Emily Dickinson and I my Robert Frost. | 38:35 | |
And we note our place with bookmarkers | 38:41 | |
that measure what we've lost. | 38:43 | |
Like a poem poorly written, we are versus out of rhythm, | 38:46 | |
couplets out of rhyme in syncopated time. | 38:51 | |
And the dangling conversation and the superficial sighs | 38:55 | |
are the borders of our lives. | 39:00 | |
Yes, we speak of things that matter | 39:04 | |
with words that must be said, can analysis be worthwhile? | 39:06 | |
Is the theater really dead? | 39:11 | |
And how the room is softly faded, | 39:15 | |
and I only kiss your shadow. | 39:18 | |
I cannot feel your hand. | 39:21 | |
You're a stranger now unto me, | 39:24 | |
lost in the dangling conversation | 39:27 | |
and the superficial sighs in the borders of our lives. | 39:29 | |
The lack of sensitivity to each other's needs, | 39:39 | |
with its resulting separation and loneliness, | 39:44 | |
reminds me of the mother who sadly told me that there was | 39:48 | |
nothing for her teenage son and her to talk about. | 39:51 | |
He is only interested in sports | 39:56 | |
and I don't know anything at all about sports. | 39:58 | |
So there's nothing left for us to talk about. | 40:00 | |
They certainly were existing | 40:04 | |
in the borders of each other's lives. | 40:06 | |
Conversations can be left dangling because one person, | 40:14 | |
hearing the appeal from the questioning or hurting person, | 40:18 | |
may be so engrossed in his own concerns that he will not | 40:23 | |
permit the concern of another to penetrate his defenses. | 40:27 | |
A good example of this was provided by Peanuts this week. | 40:34 | |
I'm certain some of you read it. | 40:38 | |
Lucy asked Charlie Brown, life is a mystery, Charlie Brown. | 40:42 | |
Do you know the answer? | 40:48 | |
Charlie Brown replied be kind, don't smoke, be prompt, | 40:51 | |
smile a lot, eat sensibly, avoid cavities, | 40:55 | |
and mark your ballot carefully, avoid too much sun, | 40:58 | |
send overseas packages early, | 41:00 | |
love all creatures above and below, | 41:02 | |
insure your belongings, and try to keep the ball low. | 41:04 | |
What can you do with that kind of response? | 41:12 | |
I wonder how many little brothers feel that that is the kind | 41:17 | |
of response they get from their older sisters | 41:21 | |
when they ask questions. | 41:23 | |
Or teenagers, | 41:29 | |
if they feel they get that kind of response | 41:31 | |
when they ask questions of their parents. | 41:33 | |
Or I might add parents of teenagers. | 41:37 | |
When parents ask their ask questions of their teenagers. | 41:41 | |
Or a gentlemen of the choir, | 41:46 | |
have you ever felt that you've got that kind of a response | 41:48 | |
when you ask a question of one of your professors? | 41:51 | |
We all are capable of it. | 42:00 | |
And at times we can't avoid doing it, | 42:04 | |
we are human, you know. | 42:06 | |
It is important that we try to realize | 42:11 | |
when we do it and admit it, and then try to get beyond it. | 42:12 | |
Lucy's reply was great because she did not | 42:19 | |
get trapped by the verbal barrage. | 42:22 | |
Instead, she merely responded in terms of the emotion | 42:28 | |
she felt as a result of what Charlie Brown had done to her. | 42:32 | |
She said, hold real still, because I'm going | 42:38 | |
to hit you a very sharp blow on your nose. | 42:42 | |
We are too civilized to go around | 42:54 | |
popping people on their noses. | 42:56 | |
What we do is beat them over the heads with words, | 43:02 | |
with a similar verbal barrage, or we pout. | 43:06 | |
As I suggested earlier. | 43:11 | |
Or we walk away carrying a king size | 43:17 | |
load of anger inside of us. | 43:19 | |
And we add one more stone to the Berlin Walls that we build | 43:29 | |
between us and other people at times. | 43:32 | |
If the abilities to be honest and to listen attentively | 43:41 | |
to another, respectfully taking him seriously, | 43:43 | |
our abilities we don't use as effectively as we should, | 43:48 | |
how can we cultivate them or reclaim them? | 43:58 | |
Must we all get into discussion groups, | 44:04 | |
such as I mentioned earlier? | 44:06 | |
Many will choose to do that. | 44:11 | |
Some, because of the complex nature of their difficulties, | 44:14 | |
will have to get into specialized groups. | 44:17 | |
Most of us are already in groups, | 44:24 | |
family groups, | 44:31 | |
worship groups, | 44:34 | |
and work groups. | 44:37 | |
We should try to use them more effectively. | 44:43 | |
What are the important ingredients | 44:50 | |
for doing this on our own? | 44:51 | |
First, we must struggle to put into words and say aloud | 44:56 | |
what we really feel rather than dwell | 44:59 | |
only with the ideas that are being discussed. | 45:01 | |
People become insensitive because they cease to be aware | 45:06 | |
of or alert to the emotional commitments and investments | 45:09 | |
that are in the ideas that are being discussed. | 45:13 | |
Feelings, our emotions such as joy, sadness, | 45:18 | |
anger, frustration, fear. | 45:22 | |
And at times, these feelings are so strong that they must | 45:27 | |
be dealt with before the ideas can be discussed. | 45:30 | |
When a person is uptight, the ideas he communicates | 45:36 | |
may actually be of no value other than vehicles | 45:40 | |
for communicating his uptightness. | 45:43 | |
The second ingredient is persistent effort to understand | 45:51 | |
the nature and the origin of the feelings | 45:55 | |
that are being experienced and put into words. | 45:57 | |
If Lucy had explained why she was angry enough | 46:05 | |
with Charlie Brown to want to poke him in the nose, | 46:09 | |
she would undoubtedly have to point out to him how arbitrary | 46:13 | |
and insensitive he seemed to be as he answered her question. | 46:17 | |
This then would free Charlie Brown to speak | 46:24 | |
honestly about whether he was arbitrary | 46:26 | |
and insensitive because he couldn't help it, | 46:30 | |
or whether he was just prompted to be that way when Lucy | 46:35 | |
came at him with some of her entrapping questions, | 46:39 | |
as she can do so well. | 46:45 | |
The third ingredient for achieving more respectful honesty | 46:51 | |
and attentiveness in our relationships is time. | 46:55 | |
Time seems always to be behind us, pushing us and saying, | 47:01 | |
move on, get busy, keep going. | 47:05 | |
But loving a person takes time with undivided attention, | 47:10 | |
loving a person needs time, | 47:16 | |
loving a person, except in principle, | 47:18 | |
is not possible without time to relate. | 47:21 | |
People who engage in the group experience I have mentioned | 47:29 | |
repeatedly state that they find the experiences | 47:33 | |
to be very meaningful and fulfilling | 47:36 | |
and well worth the struggle and pain. | 47:38 | |
Some say that it is a new experience for them. | 47:42 | |
Others say it is a much deeper, richer, and more intense | 47:45 | |
experience of what goes on in everyday living. | 47:50 | |
I suggest that those persons have succeeded in discovering | 47:57 | |
anew what it means to love and be loved. | 48:00 | |
They ceased making noise and began talking to each other. | 48:08 | |
We can realize this more in every | 48:16 | |
important relationship we maintain, | 48:19 | |
but we must struggle and pay a price for it. | 48:25 | |
Let us pray. | 48:30 | |
Oh God our father, grant us the courage to talk | 48:38 | |
with honesty, to listen sensitively | 48:47 | |
as if we who talk and we who listen are worthy of it. | 48:54 | |
And will be blessed and fulfilled by it. | 49:05 | |
Amen. | 49:11 | |
(liturgical choral music) | 49:17 | |
Eternal God, giver of every good and perfect gift, | 58:18 | |
who seekest above all thy gifts to give thyself to us, | 58:23 | |
grant that with these token gifts of our hands, | 58:28 | |
we may more fully give ourselves to thee | 58:32 | |
in joyous obedience and service | 58:35 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 58:38 | |
And now may the peace of God | 58:47 | |
which passeth all understanding keep our hearts and minds | 58:48 | |
and the knowledge and love of God, and the blessing of God | 58:52 | |
almighty the father, the son, and the holy spirit, | 58:56 | |
Rest upon us and abide with us now and evermore. | 59:00 | |
(liturgical choral music) | 59:10 | |
(liturgical organ music) | 59:38 |