James T. Cleland - "God's Imprimatur" Easter Service (April 6, 1969)
MP3
Loading the media player...
Transcript
- Download transcript as:
-
Text
-
PDF
-
WebVTT (includes timecodes)
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (orchestral music) | 0:04 | |
| (choir singing) | 0:05 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 2:35 |
| Almighty God, who of your infinite love to all men | 2:39 | |
| gave your son to endure the cross | 2:45 | |
| that we might not perish forever. | 2:49 | |
| We now stop everything to bless the name of Jesus | 2:53 | |
| who tasted death for every man. | 2:57 | |
| Blessed be his glorious name | 3:01 | |
| that he is alive forevermore and has the keys of death. | 3:03 | |
| Let the choirs of heaven and earth rejoice. | 3:10 | |
| Let the trumpet of salvation sound forth | 3:14 | |
| the victory of so great a king. | 3:17 | |
| Let the earth rejoice made radiant | 3:21 | |
| by so great a splendor and let every voice make it known | 3:24 | |
| that the world's darkness is scattered. | 3:29 | |
| Let the church everywhere rejoice, | 3:33 | |
| adorned with the brightness of so great a light | 3:36 | |
| and let this chapel resound with the adoring voices | 3:40 | |
| of those who have been redeemed unto God by his blood. | 3:44 | |
| Our father, our hearts are humble, | 3:51 | |
| as we remember our sins, especially on this day. | 3:54 | |
| Our transgressions are ever before us. | 3:59 | |
| We ask you to take them away. | 4:04 | |
| Take away our slowness to believe the good news of Easter, | 4:07 | |
| our tendency, to believe that other things | 4:13 | |
| are more practical than the gospel. | 4:15 | |
| Our tendency to believe that Easter is mainly a new dress | 4:19 | |
| and not mainly hope for those who live in the ghetto. | 4:24 | |
| Our tendency to think of Easter in terms | 4:28 | |
| of rabbits and eggs, | 4:31 | |
| rather than in terms of ending the war in Vietnam. | 4:33 | |
| Forgive this gross and diabolical sin, oh God. | 4:37 | |
| And restore us by the grace of the risen Christ. | 4:42 | |
| Eternal father, strong to save. | 4:49 | |
| Hear us as we pray for our fellow men. | 4:53 | |
| We ask thee to bless the homes of our nation. | 4:57 | |
| Give faithful devotion to husbands and wives, | 5:01 | |
| the each to the other. | 5:04 | |
| Give wisdom and love to all parents. | 5:07 | |
| Grant patience and hope to all children. | 5:11 | |
| Let all who are in authority, have good judgment. | 5:16 | |
| Let them have love. | 5:22 | |
| Give vision and steadfastness to those who are tempted | 5:25 | |
| and may courage and faith be given to those who have failed | 5:30 | |
| and who wonder if they should try again. | 5:34 | |
| So may the gospel of Easter come to them | 5:37 | |
| and come to all men. | 5:41 | |
| We pray, oh God, for the seniors of this university | 5:45 | |
| who after only a few more weeks | 5:50 | |
| shall terminate their college study, | 5:52 | |
| may these final weeks and hours be times when the tangled | 5:56 | |
| and fragmentary meanings of an education | 6:00 | |
| may come to have a central meaning | 6:04 | |
| and a controlling purpose. | 6:06 | |
| May Jesus Christ be lifted up | 6:09 | |
| and chosen as the Lord and master of life. | 6:12 | |
| And now God, we pray in this momentous time earnestly | 6:19 | |
| for thy servant, the president of the United States | 6:23 | |
| that he may have grace and wisdom to lead thy people well. | 6:28 | |
| Grant under him, true discernment, faithful patience | 6:33 | |
| and firmness in the right and great courage. | 6:39 | |
| We offer under thee our prayer of intercession | 6:45 | |
| for those whose pride and prejudice delay justice | 6:49 | |
| and endanger the peace and the unity of our nation. | 6:55 | |
| May charity come to their hearts and sanity to their minds. | 7:00 | |
| Father forgive them, for they know not what they do | 7:07 | |
| and grant under them, such openness of mind | 7:12 | |
| as will enable them to see the greatness of their sin | 7:15 | |
| and to turn from it lest our nation, be destroyed. | 7:19 | |
| May they be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. | 7:24 | |
| May all of us on this day learn what it means | 7:29 | |
| that Christ was raised from the dead. | 7:33 | |
| We offer these prayers together | 7:37 | |
| with the other unspoken prayers of our hearts | 7:39 | |
| in the name and spirit of our risen Christ, | 7:43 | |
| who has taught us when we pray to say, | 7:45 | |
| our father who are in heaven, | 7:49 | |
| hallowed be thy name. | 7:51 | |
| Thy kingdom come. | 7:54 | |
| Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 7:56 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 8:00 | |
| and forgive us, our trespasses | 8:03 | |
| as we forgive of those who trespass against us. | 8:05 | |
| And lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil | 8:08 | |
| for thine is the kingdom, | 8:13 | |
| and the power and the glory, forever. | 8:15 | |
| Amen. | 8:18 | |
| (orchestral music) | 8:23 | |
| (choir singing) | 9:18 | |
| Let us hear with open hearts and eager minds | 16:00 | |
| a portion of the biblical witness | 16:06 | |
| to the unfolding of the resurrection news | 16:08 | |
| on the first Easter. | 16:11 | |
| From the gospel, according to St. John, | 16:16 | |
| chapter 20 verse 19 through 28, | 16:18 | |
| The same day at evening being the first day of the week, | 16:24 | |
| when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled | 16:28 | |
| for fear of the Jews, | 16:31 | |
| Jesus came and stood among them and said unto them, | 16:34 | |
| "Peace be unto you." | 16:39 | |
| And when he had so said, he showed unto them, | 16:42 | |
| his hands and his side. | 16:45 | |
| Then the disciples were filled with joy at seeing their Lord | 16:48 | |
| then said, Jesus, unto them again. | 16:53 | |
| "Peace be unto you as the father has sent me | 16:56 | |
| so I am now sending you." | 17:00 | |
| And when he had said this, he breathed strongly on them | 17:04 | |
| and said, unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit. | 17:07 | |
| If you forgive any man's sins, they are forgiven. | 17:13 | |
| If you pronounce them, unforgiven, unforgiven they remain." | 17:18 | |
| But Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, | 17:25 | |
| was not with them when Jesus came. | 17:29 | |
| The other disciples therefore said unto him, | 17:32 | |
| "We have seen the Lord,". | 17:35 | |
| But he said to them, | 17:37 | |
| "Except I shall see in his hands | 17:39 | |
| the print of the nails and put my finger into the womb. | 17:43 | |
| And press my hand into his side, | 17:48 | |
| you will never make me believe." | 17:52 | |
| And after eight days again, his disciples were within | 17:55 | |
| and Thomas was with them, then came Jesus | 18:00 | |
| the doors being shut. | 18:04 | |
| And stood in their midst and said again, | 18:06 | |
| "Peace be unto you." | 18:09 | |
| Then he said to Thomas, | 18:12 | |
| "Look at my hands. Put your finger here | 18:14 | |
| and take your hand and put it into my side. | 18:19 | |
| You must not doubt, but believe." | 18:24 | |
| And Thomas answered and said unto him, | 18:28 | |
| "My Lord and my God." | 18:31 | |
| In the words of St. Paul to the church at Corinths | 18:38 | |
| concerning the meaning of this great and holy day. | 18:41 | |
| From the epistle of the first Corinthians chapter 15, | 18:46 | |
| verse one through eight. | 18:49 | |
| "Now let me remind you brothers | 18:52 | |
| of the essence of the good news which I proclaim to you | 18:54 | |
| which also you have received | 18:59 | |
| and on which your faith is based. | 19:00 | |
| And which is now bringing you salvation if you hold fast, | 19:03 | |
| the word which I preached unto you. | 19:07 | |
| Unless of course your faith has no meaning behind it at all. | 19:10 | |
| I transmitted to you before all else | 19:15 | |
| what also had been transmitted to me. | 19:19 | |
| How that Christ died for our sins as the scriptures | 19:22 | |
| foretold and that he was buried | 19:26 | |
| and that he came back from the dead | 19:29 | |
| as it says in the scriptures. | 19:31 | |
| And that he appeared to Cephus | 19:34 | |
| and then to the rest of the 12. | 19:37 | |
| After that, | 19:39 | |
| he was seen by about 500 brethren simultaneously. | 19:40 | |
| The majority of whom survive to this very day, | 19:45 | |
| though some have died. | 19:49 | |
| Then he appeared to James and then | 19:52 | |
| to all of the apostles. | 19:55 | |
| And last of all, he was seen of me also. | 19:57 | |
| As worn born out of due time." | 20:03 | |
| Here ends the reading of the lesson | 20:09 | |
| for this Easter day, Amen. | 20:11 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 20:22 |
| Let us pray. | 20:26 | |
| Our father for the gift of thy son to mankind, | 20:29 | |
| for the example of his life and for his death | 20:36 | |
| up on the cross. | 20:39 | |
| For the gospel of the resurrection and the hope of new life | 20:43 | |
| which it brings. | 20:47 | |
| For the gift of the Holy Spirit. | 20:51 | |
| For every impulse to follow the way of the cross. | 20:57 | |
| Come into our lives and help us to triumph over all sin. | 21:04 | |
| Help us to know Christ and the power of his resurrection | 21:10 | |
| that we may walk with him in newness of life, | 21:14 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, amen. | 21:18 | |
| - | Peace and joy be with you all | 21:44 |
| and with all the people of God. | 21:47 | |
| What difference does Easter really make in our view of God | 21:53 | |
| or in our estimate of Jesus or in our understanding | 22:00 | |
| of the Christian faith? | 22:06 | |
| Is Easter just an Ecclesiastical way | 22:10 | |
| of heralding the happy coming of spring. | 22:13 | |
| That season of light and laughter after the long dark cold | 22:19 | |
| tunnel of winter. | 22:28 | |
| Come to think of it, | 22:30 | |
| the very word Easter is an old Teutonic name | 22:32 | |
| for the goddess of spring, Eostre. | 22:37 | |
| Christianity had a wise genius for baptizing the birthdays | 22:43 | |
| and customs and festivals of the tribes and nations, | 22:48 | |
| which it converted or conquered. | 22:53 | |
| December 25th, the birthday of Mithra, the Sun god. | 22:57 | |
| The Yulong. And Easter, the spring festivity. | 23:03 | |
| That is why it was not inappropriate | 23:10 | |
| for the annual campus Greek weekend | 23:13 | |
| and the Easter festival to be celebrated at the same time. | 23:17 | |
| It's the inevitable blending of the pagan and the Christian, | 23:22 | |
| friendly enemies in our permissive culture. | 23:28 | |
| Now let us cast a quick glance at one difference | 23:33 | |
| which Easter does make, and then return gladly to music | 23:37 | |
| which is the proper way of celebrating this feast of feasts | 23:43 | |
| when death could not hold our Lord any longer. | 23:48 | |
| Easter made all the difference to the disciples view | 23:53 | |
| of Jesus, to their interpretation of his role and person. | 23:58 | |
| He was done to death by the establishment. | 24:05 | |
| In fact, by two establishments, | 24:09 | |
| the Jewish church and the Roman State. | 24:13 | |
| By the San Hidran and the Pretoriam, | 24:17 | |
| on the related charges of blasphemy, claiming to be Messiah, | 24:21 | |
| and treason, claiming to be king. | 24:27 | |
| The Galilean teacher and master and Lord had not conquered. | 24:32 | |
| He had been humiliatingly executed, but worse than that, | 24:39 | |
| the disciples were Jews under the imperative of the law. | 24:46 | |
| And there was one short paragraph in the law, | 24:54 | |
| which said flatly, | 24:56 | |
| "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death | 24:59 | |
| and you hang him on a tree, | 25:05 | |
| his body shall not remain all night upon the tree | 25:08 | |
| but you shall bury him the same day | 25:13 | |
| for a hanged man is accursed by God. | 25:15 | |
| You shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God | 25:21 | |
| gives you for an inheritance." | 25:25 | |
| Now it's true that the Jews did not practice crucifixion. | 25:28 | |
| Their method of capital punishment was stoning, | 25:32 | |
| but as an additional disgrace, | 25:36 | |
| and as a lesson to the community | 25:39 | |
| a stoned body might be hung up | 25:42 | |
| or impaled for all to see after his death, | 25:45 | |
| as an object accursed by God. | 25:50 | |
| That body must be taken down and buried by evening | 25:56 | |
| so that the land might not be defiled with that | 26:00 | |
| which is taboo or unclean. | 26:04 | |
| What would our thoughts have been if we had been Andrew | 26:09 | |
| or James or Philip or one of the 11 | 26:13 | |
| or one of the women on the Friday evening | 26:19 | |
| before the first Easter? | 26:24 | |
| Jesus had been disgraced, executed. | 26:27 | |
| The curtain had fallen on our most unsatisfactory drama. | 26:33 | |
| But worse than that, according to the holy law, the Torah, | 26:40 | |
| he was accursed of God. | 26:48 | |
| He must have been a false prophet, an imposter. | 26:51 | |
| Did Jesus know that he was accursed? | 26:58 | |
| Damned? Is that why cried, "My God, My God, | 27:01 | |
| why hast though forsaken me?" | 27:08 | |
| It was all too much | 27:12 | |
| for Andrew and James and Philip and the others. | 27:13 | |
| They went into hiding. | 27:19 | |
| Supposing there had been no Easter morning on the third day. | 27:23 | |
| No whispered assurance from one to another | 27:29 | |
| that it was not possible that he should be holden of death. | 27:33 | |
| No reunion in the upper room. | 27:37 | |
| No second reunion. | 27:41 | |
| When Thomas whom I love to think of as the disciple | 27:44 | |
| from the Missouri section of Galilee. | 27:49 | |
| When Thomas could see the wounds, | 27:53 | |
| could touch them if he wanted to, | 27:56 | |
| would Christianity have been still born | 28:00 | |
| if there had been no Easter? | 28:05 | |
| Would it maybe have been a little sect within Judaism | 28:07 | |
| referred to as the Nazarene's. | 28:12 | |
| Who might have remembered a few of the parables | 28:17 | |
| and perhaps have focused their daily walk and conversation | 28:20 | |
| on some teachings called the "Sermon on the Mount." | 28:24 | |
| And if that sect had persisted until today, | 28:29 | |
| no one of us could belong to it unless we became Jews first. | 28:34 | |
| So it is Easter, which makes a difference. | 28:44 | |
| Which makes the difference. | 28:49 | |
| Easter is the birthday of the Christian faith. | 28:52 | |
| Not Christmas, not Good Friday, Easter | 28:58 | |
| is God's imprimatur on Jesus. | 29:03 | |
| His approval of Jesus. | 29:08 | |
| He stamped Jesus, okay. | 29:11 | |
| Easter is God's nihil obstat, nothing hinders. | 29:16 | |
| Nothing stands in the way of a high and valid estimate | 29:23 | |
| of this teacher, whom death could not hold. | 29:28 | |
| Jesus is not accursed. | 29:33 | |
| He is a prophet for he speaks out for God. | 29:37 | |
| He is Messiah for he inaugurates the kingdom. | 29:41 | |
| He is son of God for he is one who better than anyone else | 29:47 | |
| reveals the father, God who is love and power | 29:54 | |
| working together. | 30:00 | |
| Paul, the Jew found that out, | 30:02 | |
| when the living Christ, the post Easter Christ | 30:05 | |
| appeared to him, it made a difference to that | 30:08 | |
| Pharisee of the Pharisees. | 30:13 | |
| It made the difference. | 30:15 | |
| From then on for him to live was to live as Christ's man | 30:18 | |
| in his spirit. | 30:23 | |
| At Easter, God vindicated Jesus. | 30:26 | |
| That's the difference between Friday afternoon | 30:31 | |
| and Easter morning. | 30:36 | |
| A distinguished English puppeteer of last century | 30:39 | |
| was unaware of this difference until he had preached | 30:44 | |
| for many years. | 30:48 | |
| He had been a good, Good Friday Christian. | 30:50 | |
| And then like a Damascus road, flash of lightning, | 30:56 | |
| he discovered Easter and you know what he did? | 30:59 | |
| He had an Easter hymn sung every Sunday | 31:04 | |
| for the rest of his life. | 31:10 | |
| Easter is a funny story, but it fits. | 31:14 | |
| It makes sense out of what was nonsense. | 31:22 | |
| And that that's why we are here this morning. | 31:27 | |
| Let us pray. | 31:34 | |
| Oh God who art both love and power. | 31:38 | |
| On this day of days, we need to render unto thee | 31:42 | |
| the tribute of our praise for the Easter gospel, | 31:45 | |
| which hath brought life and immortality to life. | 31:50 | |
| Receive our thanksgiving and send into our hearts | 31:55 | |
| the spirit of the risen Christ. | 32:00 | |
| Amen. | 32:04 | |
| (orchestral music) | 32:10 | |
| (choir singing) | 32:43 | |
| (piano music) | 36:41 | |
| (choir singing) | 37:10 | |
| - | Almighty God. | 44:14 |
| We focus here at this altar now to offer unto thee | 44:16 | |
| our hearts in dedication, our bodies in service, | 44:20 | |
| our minds in disciplined obedience | 44:26 | |
| and our money in love through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 44:30 | |
| And now unto God, who brought again from the dead | 44:40 | |
| our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory praise dominion and power | 44:44 | |
| and may grace, mercy and peace be unto you | 44:52 | |
| through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. | 44:57 | |
| Amen. | 45:00 | |
| (orchestral music) | 45:02 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:09 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:11 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah ♪ | 45:13 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:19 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:21 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:24 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:25 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:26 | |
| (choir singing) | 45:29 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah ♪ | 45:36 | |
| (choir singing) | 45:41 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:48 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:49 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:50 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 45:52 | |
| (choir singing) | 45:53 | |
| ♪ King of kings ♪ | 47:08 | |
| (choir singing) | 47:14 | |
| ♪ King of kings ♪ | 47:22 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 47:24 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 47:27 | |
| ♪ Forever and ever ♪ | 47:31 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah Hallelujah ♪ | 47:33 | |
| (choir singing) | 47:36 | |
| ♪ King of kings ♪ | 47:45 | |
| ♪ And lord of lords ♪ | 47:47 | |
| (choir singing) | 47:50 | |
| ♪ King of kings ♪ | 48:02 | |
| ♪ And Lord of lords ♪ | 48:06 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:46 | |
| (soft music) | 49:06 |