James T. Cleland - "Micah Got It All Together" (January 17, 1971)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(organ playing hymn) | 0:15 | |
(congregation singing) | 0:58 | |
Priest | Christian friends, | 3:56 |
with humility, | 3:58 | |
with sincerity, | 4:00 | |
openness of mind, | 4:02 | |
let us join together in our hearts | 4:04 | |
and our voices in our prayer of confession and for pardon. | 4:07 | |
Let us pray. | 4:12 | |
Almighty God, | 4:14 | |
we humbly confess that we are a guilty people. | 4:16 | |
We cannot count the sins that we have done, | 4:20 | |
nor can we remember all the evil thoughts of our hearts. | 4:23 | |
We have neglected Thy word, | 4:28 | |
have taken lightly Thy mercies. | 4:30 | |
We have not turned away from violence and vanity. | 4:33 | |
We, therefore, do not deserve | 4:37 | |
the forgiveness that we pray for, | 4:39 | |
but we ask Thee to grant it through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 4:42 | |
Amen. | 4:48 | |
Hear now the words of Scripture, | 4:51 | |
were written for our comfort, for our benefit. | 4:54 | |
"Though your sins be as scarlet, | 4:59 | |
they shall be as white as snow. | 5:03 | |
Though they be red like crimson, | 5:07 | |
they shall be as wool." | 5:10 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 5:18 | |
(congregation singing) | 5:52 | |
- | Here again at the sixth verse | 12:13 |
of the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet, Micah. | 12:15 | |
"With what shall I come before the Lord | 12:19 | |
and vow myself before God on high? | 12:21 | |
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, | 12:26 | |
with calves of a year old? | 12:29 | |
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, | 12:31 | |
with 10 thousands of rivers of oil? | 12:35 | |
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, | 12:39 | |
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? | 12:43 | |
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good. | 12:47 | |
And what doth the Lord require of you, | 12:51 | |
but to do justice and to love kindness, | 12:55 | |
and to walk humbly with your God? | 12:59 | |
Hear the blessings. | 13:04 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 13:07 | |
(congregation singing) | 13:15 | |
The Lord be with you. | 13:49 | |
Let us pray. | 13:53 | |
Almighty God, | 14:01 | |
in recognition of the fact | 14:04 | |
that we are not entirely sufficient unto ourselves, | 14:06 | |
we are not our own creators, | 14:10 | |
that we receive use and enjoy great many things | 14:14 | |
we did not ourselves provide. | 14:18 | |
We now also acknowledge this. | 14:21 | |
Be aware of our indebtedness to others | 14:25 | |
and to the ultimate source of our belongings and blessings. | 14:27 | |
We recognize Thee and Thee being our source. | 14:33 | |
We realize that we have not deserved these gifts. | 14:37 | |
We know that the only reasonable attitude we have | 14:41 | |
is one of thanksgiving. | 14:44 | |
So here we are with gratitude on our lips | 14:47 | |
and in our hearts. | 14:50 | |
We give thanks for the degree of health, which we have, | 14:53 | |
for the measure of peace there is in the world, | 14:57 | |
for the percentage of employment we have in our nation, | 15:02 | |
for the extent to which | 15:06 | |
we have mastered our courses this semester, | 15:07 | |
for all of the pluses in our lives, | 15:12 | |
which tend to offset the minuses. | 15:14 | |
We especially thank Thee that even the minuses | 15:18 | |
can, with divine help, become pluses. | 15:20 | |
We're grateful for light shining and darkness, | 15:24 | |
for warm places on a cold day, | 15:28 | |
for fresh insight in the midst of our confusion, | 15:31 | |
and for a friend in our times of anxiety. | 15:36 | |
We are grateful for the creative people in our lives. | 15:41 | |
Above everyone else, for Jesus. | 15:45 | |
O God, even as we express our gratitude | 15:50 | |
for past and present blessings, | 15:54 | |
we renew our request for new ones. | 15:57 | |
As final exams are in front of us, | 16:02 | |
all of us pray for each other and ourselves. | 16:06 | |
For professors, we pray that | 16:11 | |
examinations may be given in fairness and with imagination, | 16:14 | |
that grades may be given without bias. | 16:19 | |
For students, we pray that there may be clarity and honesty, | 16:24 | |
the sense of perspective. | 16:30 | |
We pray that this may be a good time of examination, | 16:35 | |
that wisdom may come in along with facts. | 16:40 | |
Help us, O God, to understand that | 16:47 | |
this is symbolic of the many times of testing in our lives, | 16:48 | |
the many times when we shall be tested throughout life | 16:55 | |
and that ultimate final examination that we shall have | 17:01 | |
before Thee. | 17:05 | |
O God, we ask on this day, | 17:08 | |
Thy blessing, Thy mercy, Thy healing. | 17:11 | |
Come to the tortured land of Vietnam, | 17:16 | |
all of that part of the world. | 17:19 | |
For peace and understanding and forgiveness | 17:24 | |
to be in the Middle East. | 17:26 | |
For a concern for human welfare | 17:30 | |
and peace in Latin America. | 17:33 | |
For brotherhood and justice and kindness at home. | 17:37 | |
O God, we ask that | 17:44 | |
the way of Jesus may be seriously examined in our day | 17:47 | |
for its relevance to our own problems. | 17:52 | |
Once more as ever, | 17:59 | |
our heavenly Father, we lift our hearts and prayer | 18:02 | |
for those of our who are sick. | 18:06 | |
Thou knowest their needs better than we. | 18:10 | |
Thou are able to provide their needs better than we. | 18:14 | |
And yet, help us to see the ways in which we can help. | 18:18 | |
May kindness and good insight be given | 18:23 | |
to doctors and nurses. | 18:27 | |
May all of us have a generous, liberal quality of love. | 18:30 | |
We pray, our Father, for everyone who is anxious, | 18:39 | |
who does not know what the outcome will be, | 18:43 | |
whatever their problem. | 18:46 | |
May tranquility and insight, Christian grace and love, | 18:49 | |
to come to all of us. | 18:54 | |
We make these prayers | 18:58 | |
in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 18:59 | |
who has taught us when we pray we say: | 19:04 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, | 19:07 | |
hallowed be Thy name. | 19:10 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 19:12 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 19:14 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 19:17 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 19:20 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 19:22 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 19:26 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 19:29 | |
For Thine is the kingdom, | 19:31 | |
the power and the glory. | 19:32 | |
Forever. | 19:35 | |
So God, deliver us all. | 20:01 | |
This is a bad period of the year. | 20:07 | |
January is a long, cold tunnel of a month. | 20:13 | |
Gray in color, | 20:19 | |
damp in character, | 20:22 | |
seemingly endless in duration, | 20:25 | |
with examinations thrown in for bad measure. | 20:30 | |
Moreover, the good intentions | 20:36 | |
with which we started the new year | 20:37 | |
are, but shadows of things have lost the way. | 20:41 | |
The good resolutions, for most of us, | 20:49 | |
have turned out to be vague prisons. | 20:52 | |
What do we do for the rest of the year? | 20:58 | |
Instead of resolutions, | 21:04 | |
let us look at the criterion of excellence | 21:06 | |
found in the old Testament, | 21:11 | |
which was read as our lesson, | 21:15 | |
read by our Carmarden, | 21:20 | |
whom you have heard so often | 21:23 | |
I thought it was time that you also saw him. | 21:26 | |
Here is what an English critic said of that passage | 21:30 | |
last century. | 21:34 | |
In the eighth century BC, | 21:38 | |
in the heart of a world of idolatrous politics, | 21:42 | |
Hebrew prophet put forth a conception of religion, | 21:47 | |
which appears to me as wonderful and inspiration of genius | 21:53 | |
as they are ridiculous of science of Aristotle. | 21:58 | |
Many so-called religion takes away from this great saying. | 22:05 | |
I think it wanted you to read. | 22:11 | |
While it adds there too, | 22:15 | |
I think it obscures the perfect ideal of religion. | 22:18 | |
Now, who said what? | 22:27 | |
Well, Micah was his name. | 22:32 | |
Here, again, is what he said, | 22:35 | |
"With what shall I come before the Lord | 22:39 | |
and bow myself before God up high? | 22:44 | |
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, | 22:49 | |
with calves of a year old? | 22:53 | |
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, | 22:57 | |
with 10,000 rivers of oil? | 23:03 | |
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, | 23:09 | |
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? | 23:16 | |
He has showed you, O man, what is good. | 23:24 | |
What does the Lord require of you, | 23:30 | |
but to do justice and to love kindness | 23:33 | |
and to walk humbly with your God?" | 23:40 | |
That is Micah's criteria of religious excellence. | 23:45 | |
Now, we shall not spend any time on the question | 23:54 | |
but the Micah of Moratia really said this off his own back. | 23:58 | |
But if some unknown maker spiritual genius | 24:05 | |
slipped it into Micah's lens, | 24:09 | |
he wisely said of Homer's alien | 24:13 | |
that if it were not written by Homer | 24:17 | |
then it was written by another man called Homer. | 24:21 | |
So with the summary of religion in the book of Micah, | 24:27 | |
and it probably was a summary, | 24:31 | |
termed to his three great predecessors | 24:36 | |
among the inserted prophets | 24:39 | |
and took from each a central emphasis | 24:43 | |
and combined them. | 24:48 | |
First of Amos. | 24:51 | |
Now, what was his keynote? | 24:53 | |
Justice. | 24:56 | |
The recovery of the old nomadic ethic of the wilderness | 24:58 | |
with the stress on the brotherhood, | 25:03 | |
on community, | 25:06 | |
on a classless society, | 25:08 | |
where any superiority | 25:11 | |
was that only of functional leadership. | 25:14 | |
It's a point of view which keep the pack | 25:19 | |
in the jungle world, | 25:21 | |
the strength of the pack is the wolf | 25:24 | |
and the strength of the wolf is the pack. | 25:29 | |
Here is how Amos put it in a sermon at a special service | 25:33 | |
in the royal sanctuary. | 25:38 | |
He spoke as if his voice was the voice of the God: | 25:41 | |
"I hate, I despise your feasts, | 25:45 | |
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. | 25:50 | |
Even though you offer me burnt offerings | 25:54 | |
and cereal offerings, I will not accept them. | 25:57 | |
And the peace offerings of your fat beasts, | 26:03 | |
I will not look upon. | 26:06 | |
Take away from me the noise of your songs | 26:09 | |
or the melody of your hearts, | 26:14 | |
I will not listen. | 26:16 | |
But when justice roll down like water | 26:20 | |
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." | 26:26 | |
Hence Micah's, "What does the Lord require of you, | 26:32 | |
but to do justice?" | 26:38 | |
Then Micah turned to Hosea | 26:42 | |
as firing a denunciator as Amos, | 26:45 | |
but to also introduce the note of mercy, | 26:50 | |
loving-kindness, | 26:55 | |
tenderness. | 26:57 | |
The change is so dramatic that Dr. Stinespring, | 26:58 | |
professor of Old Testament in our own divinity school, | 27:03 | |
just deposited the theory that there were two Hoseas. | 27:08 | |
And what caused this emphasis on mercy? | 27:13 | |
An unsuccessful man. | 27:20 | |
Hosea's wife proved unfaithful. | 27:25 | |
The law required divorce. | 27:28 | |
Then Micah discovered, | 27:33 | |
I mean, Hosea discovered | 27:36 | |
that he still loved her. | 27:38 | |
She was about to be sold as a slave. | 27:42 | |
He bought her | 27:45 | |
and brought her back into this home. | 27:48 | |
Not his wife, | 27:54 | |
but he took care of the home. | 27:56 | |
And then he drew his conclusions. | 27:58 | |
If I can love my wife who has been unfaithful, | 28:01 | |
who became a prostitute, | 28:06 | |
surely God can love Israel | 28:10 | |
despite its worship of the Baals | 28:14 | |
and his heart. | 28:19 | |
Here is Hosea's big achievement. | 28:21 | |
When Israel was a child, | 28:23 | |
I loved you. | 28:26 | |
Now, Egypt I call my son, | 28:28 | |
the more I called them, | 28:32 | |
the more they went from me. | 28:34 | |
They kept sacrificing to the Baals | 28:38 | |
and burning incense to idols. | 28:40 | |
Yet it was I who taught and freed them. | 28:45 | |
I let them with chords of compassion, | 28:49 | |
with the bands of love. | 28:52 | |
Then God comes to this conclusion: | 28:58 | |
"I will not execute my fierce anger. | 29:00 | |
I will not again destroy Israel. | 29:05 | |
But I am God, | 29:09 | |
but not man, | 29:12 | |
and I will not come and destroy." | 29:15 | |
Hence, Micah's "And to love and kindness." | 29:20 | |
Let's turn to Isaiah. | 29:27 | |
He's more famous, contemporary, | 29:29 | |
whose vision in the temple has become | 29:32 | |
almost the order of public worship. | 29:34 | |
The mood is one of reverence, | 29:38 | |
reverence filled with joyous gratitude, | 29:41 | |
because of the revelation that God, | 29:45 | |
the great God, | 29:48 | |
is one who cares | 29:51 | |
and who cleanses | 29:54 | |
and who asks for man's cooperation | 29:56 | |
in the day in, day out | 30:00 | |
task of making and keeping the heart of mind, | 30:03 | |
the heart and the mind of the will of God. | 30:08 | |
Here are some verses from Isaiah's apocrypha. | 30:13 | |
"In the year that the king Uzziah died | 30:18 | |
I saw the Lord sitting up on a throne. | 30:21 | |
Above Him stood the seraphims, | 30:26 | |
each had six wings. | 30:30 | |
One called to the other and said, | 30:34 | |
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. | 30:36 | |
The whole earth is full of His glory." | 30:40 | |
And I said, woe is me, | 30:45 | |
but I'm lost. | 30:49 | |
I'm a man of unclean lips. | 30:51 | |
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, | 30:53 | |
and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. | 30:57 | |
Then flew one of the seraphims to me, | 31:03 | |
having in his hand a burning coal, | 31:05 | |
which he had taken with tongs off the altar, | 31:08 | |
and he touched my mouth and said, | 31:11 | |
'Behold, this has touched your lips, | 31:14 | |
your guilt is taken away, | 31:18 | |
your sin forgiven.' | 31:21 | |
And I heard the voice and the Lord saying, | 31:27 | |
'Whom shall I send? | 31:30 | |
Who will go for us?' | 31:34 | |
And I said, | 31:37 | |
here am I, | 31:39 | |
send me." | 31:42 | |
Hence, Micah's, "And to walk humbly with your God", | 31:45 | |
which is to walk modestly with God, | 31:50 | |
to conduct oneself without self-assertion, | 31:55 | |
to call God, Sir. | 31:59 | |
This is the background of Micah's perception of religion, | 32:03 | |
drawn from his three predecessors, | 32:07 | |
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah. | 32:10 | |
Justice of a brotherhood, | 32:14 | |
a loving-kindness for the undeserving, | 32:17 | |
the kind of attitude which knows that God is top priority. | 32:21 | |
Micah got, altogether, | 32:28 | |
about 700 years before the Christian. | 32:32 | |
Now does this view of religion stand up down the centuries? | 32:38 | |
Yes. | 32:44 | |
All kinds of people, folk who we admire, we respect, | 32:45 | |
we wish we could emulate, | 32:49 | |
saints, | 32:52 | |
on the matter of justice, | 32:54 | |
listen to two or three of them. | 32:56 | |
What is justice? | 32:59 | |
Giving to a person that which is due to him. | 33:01 | |
Jesus knew the need for justice, | 33:08 | |
if there was to be any sense of community, | 33:11 | |
but Jesus widened the idea of community and so of justice | 33:14 | |
to include sinners | 33:20 | |
and Samaritans | 33:23 | |
and an officer in the Roman army. | 33:26 | |
When an end was put to Jesus' earthly existence, | 33:33 | |
Paul picked up the idea | 33:37 | |
and made a famous statement | 33:39 | |
about the brotherhood of the church | 33:40 | |
in which there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile, | 33:43 | |
between freeman and slave, | 33:49 | |
even between male and female. | 33:53 | |
All are one. | 33:55 | |
Maybe not in the world. | 33:58 | |
One in the church. | 34:01 | |
A person is a person is a person, | 34:06 | |
has to be treated as such. | 34:11 | |
Shakespeare in "The Merchant of Venice" | 34:16 | |
astutely widens into the world | 34:19 | |
when Shylock say, | 34:22 | |
"I am a Jew. | 34:25 | |
Hath not a Jew eyes? | 34:29 | |
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, | 34:33 | |
dimensions, senses, affections, passions, | 34:36 | |
fed with the same food, | 34:42 | |
hurt with the same weapons, | 34:44 | |
subject to the same diseases, | 34:48 | |
healed by the same means | 34:51 | |
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer | 34:54 | |
as a Christian is? | 34:58 | |
If you crack us, do we not bleed? | 35:01 | |
If you tickle us, | 35:07 | |
do we not laugh? | 35:10 | |
Poison us, | 35:13 | |
do we not die?" | 35:15 | |
Justice for all or just for some? | 35:19 | |
The same justice for all | 35:26 | |
within a community which knows | 35:29 | |
what a community is all about. | 35:31 | |
The need and the hope are ever with man | 35:34 | |
and with men. | 35:41 | |
How about mercy? | 35:43 | |
Kindness, simple. | 35:45 | |
What is mercy? | 35:49 | |
And compassion so great has to enable a person to forbear | 35:52 | |
even when justice demands punishment. | 35:58 | |
It's more than tolerance. | 36:02 | |
It is a positive, | 36:06 | |
positive goodwill to the undeserving. | 36:07 | |
Jesus expressed that to the woman taken in adultery, | 36:12 | |
to Peter, when his disciple publicly cursed | 36:17 | |
and swore that he had no dealings with Jesus, | 36:22 | |
to a thief dying alongside him on a second cross. | 36:29 | |
He even forced an ecclesiastical lawyer | 36:36 | |
to use the Word. | 36:40 | |
The scribe had asked him, "Who is my neighbor?" | 36:43 | |
This continual old problem of community. | 36:46 | |
Jesus told a story, | 36:52 | |
the one we call "The Good Samaritan". | 36:54 | |
And at the end Jesus, just asked the lawyer a question, | 36:57 | |
"Which of these three, | 37:02 | |
priest, Levite, Samaritan, | 37:04 | |
do you think proved to be good | 37:09 | |
to the man who fell among the robbers?" | 37:12 | |
The lawyer knew, | 37:18 | |
but he didn't, | 37:21 | |
maybe he wouldn't say, "Samaritan". | 37:23 | |
What he did say was, "The one who showed mercy." | 37:28 | |
Jesus didn't leave it at that. | 37:36 | |
He asked him, "Go and do likewise." | 37:40 | |
One of the beatitudes is, | 37:46 | |
"Blessed are the merciful, | 37:47 | |
they will receive what they give." | 37:50 | |
Let's turn to Shakespeare again | 37:56 | |
for "The Merchant of Venice" | 37:58 | |
and listen to the question. | 38:01 | |
"The quality of mercy is not strained. | 38:06 | |
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven | 38:10 | |
upon the place beneath. | 38:14 | |
It is twice blest. | 38:17 | |
It blesseth him that gives | 38:21 | |
and him that takes. | 38:24 | |
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. | 38:28 | |
It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. | 38:32 | |
His scepter shows the force of temporal power, | 38:38 | |
the attribute to awe and majesty, | 38:43 | |
wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. | 38:46 | |
But mercy is above this sceptered sway. | 38:51 | |
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings. | 38:56 | |
It is an attribute to God himself, | 39:03 | |
and earthly power doth then show likest God's | 39:08 | |
when mercy seasons justice. | 39:13 | |
Therefore, Jew, | 39:20 | |
though justice be thy plea, | 39:24 | |
consider this, | 39:27 | |
that in the course of justice, | 39:29 | |
none of us should see salvation. | 39:34 | |
We do pray for mercy, | 39:40 | |
and that same prayer doth teach us all | 39:45 | |
to render the deeds of mercy." | 39:48 | |
The mercy which seasons justice, | 39:53 | |
this quality of good community endures. | 39:57 | |
The need, the hope are still with us. | 40:02 | |
What about walking humbly with God? | 40:06 | |
Reverence for the holy. | 40:10 | |
The acceptance of the fact that God is God | 40:13 | |
and man is always only a creature, | 40:17 | |
and yet a creature who may need the son. | 40:22 | |
When one knows that and accepts it, | 40:30 | |
then religion is adoration, | 40:33 | |
homage emotion. | 40:35 | |
God is at the center and man revolves around Him, | 40:38 | |
but he does it willingly, | 40:42 | |
honestly, | 40:45 | |
cooperatively. | 40:46 | |
This is so true of Jesus, | 40:48 | |
that one may but think of the primacy of God | 40:52 | |
at the beginning of his ministry | 40:55 | |
in the three answers, | 40:58 | |
which he gave to the devil in the temptation experience. | 40:59 | |
The name, God, is in jest. | 41:03 | |
And again, at the end of his ministry, | 41:08 | |
in Gethsemane he said to God, | 41:11 | |
"Not my will, | 41:15 | |
but Thy will be done", | 41:17 | |
though he did not look forward | 41:19 | |
to what was going to be done. | 41:23 | |
Name the heroes of the faith. | 41:27 | |
Isn't it a case of God first? | 41:28 | |
The rest, nowhere is that close to God. | 41:31 | |
Paul and Santa Teresa. | 41:35 | |
Augustine and Florence Nightingale. | 41:38 | |
Joan of Arc. | 41:41 | |
Martin Luther King. | 41:43 | |
Reverence for God leads to reverence for life, | 41:46 | |
the life of all kinds of people, | 41:50 | |
because this third part of Micah's perception, | 41:54 | |
to walk humbly with God, | 41:58 | |
is what leads to doing justice. | 42:02 | |
The loving mercy. | 42:06 | |
The last two are the fruits of a life rooted in reverence, | 42:08 | |
at all times, in all places, for all people. | 42:15 | |
But does such a criteria of excellence make sense for us, | 42:22 | |
my little campers? | 42:27 | |
The vigil of a few years ago, | 42:35 | |
the plea for group bargaining, | 42:38 | |
even the agitation for co-ed dorms | 42:43 | |
have some relation to a justice ending, | 42:47 | |
which stresses community above past, race and sex. | 42:51 | |
Of course, with the longing | 42:56 | |
for equality of status and opportunity | 42:58 | |
it's going to be a hard time for... | 43:01 | |
The man with a Christ tag, whatever. | 43:06 | |
There's truth in the old adage, | 43:10 | |
"Take what you like from life, | 43:13 | |
but pay for it." | 43:17 | |
And there are days ahead | 43:20 | |
for other vigils and parades, | 43:21 | |
picketing, | 43:26 | |
and crisis to pay. | 43:29 | |
It's good to remember that there's also a place for mercy, | 43:33 | |
for loving-kindness, | 43:36 | |
done without vigiling, | 43:38 | |
or parading or picketing. | 43:40 | |
And on that, some years ago, | 43:42 | |
when I personally required an active blood transfusion, | 43:45 | |
five divinity students gave the needed amount. | 43:51 | |
I discovered their names, | 43:56 | |
and two of them I didn't like. | 43:59 | |
They probably didn't like me either. | 44:05 | |
But I was a member of the beloved community who needed help, | 44:11 | |
so they helped. | 44:19 | |
That is mercy. | 44:21 | |
There are folk all around us who need more than justice. | 44:25 | |
A class mate, | 44:29 | |
a janitor, | 44:31 | |
a maid, | 44:33 | |
a waitress, | 44:34 | |
a cop, | 44:36 | |
a bus driver. | 44:38 | |
There's always room for mercy. | 44:42 | |
There's also a place for the humility, | 44:48 | |
the modesty and the lack of arrogance, | 44:50 | |
which allows an opening for surprise and wonder and awe. | 44:53 | |
It's the opposite of the Greek word, hubris, | 44:58 | |
that suggests that we are the people, | 45:03 | |
and wisdom will die with us. | 45:06 | |
It's the reverence which brought 800 folk | 45:11 | |
to this chapel at 11 o'clock on Christmas Eve | 45:15 | |
a few weeks ago. | 45:21 | |
It's the wonder, which made three astronauts | 45:25 | |
on Christmas Eve, 1968, | 45:28 | |
bring back to the listening earth | 45:31 | |
part of the creation story from Genesis | 45:33 | |
before they slipped around the far side of the morning | 45:38 | |
for the first time ever. | 45:42 | |
It is perhaps, I don't know, but perhaps, | 45:47 | |
the reason that Duke still sponsors | 45:51 | |
this university service. | 45:55 | |
Suddenly, my son, | 46:00 | |
yes. | 46:04 | |
My first conception | 46:06 | |
is not yet outdated. | 46:08 | |
So, don't worry about broken or neglected resolutions. | 46:11 | |
Make Micah's criteria your own | 46:15 | |
in this new year, | 46:18 | |
which has justly begun, | 46:21 | |
to do justly, | 46:24 | |
put love first, | 46:26 | |
to walk modestly with God. | 46:28 | |
Micah got involved in long before camp, | 46:31 | |
and he must still be with us when camp is forgotten. | 46:38 | |
Let us pray. | 46:46 | |
O God of Micah and Jesus, | 46:50 | |
love has shown us what is good. | 46:54 | |
Active justice, | 47:00 | |
to love-kindness, | 47:03 | |
to carry ourselves without pretense, | 47:05 | |
righteousness. | 47:10 | |
Help us. | 47:13 | |
We won't make it in our own strength, | 47:16 | |
but we might. | 47:20 | |
Amen. | 47:30 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 47:33 | |
(congregation singing) | 48:03 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 52:21 | |
(congregation singing) | 52:25 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 55:37 | |
(congregation singing) | 56:23 | |
Almighty God, | 57:19 | |
we present here as this offering | 57:21 | |
a symbol of our presence our money and ourselves, | 57:24 | |
with the prayer that | 57:32 | |
we can be used to advance justice and mercy. | 57:35 | |
Now, may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, | 57:49 | |
be with us all. | 57:53 | |
Congregation | ♪ Amen ♪ | 57:57 |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:01 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:05 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:19 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 58:28 | |
(organ playing hymn) | 59:18 | |
(people chatting) | 59:45 | |
(person whistling) | 59:58 | |
(people chatting) | 1:00:05 |