Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond All Hope" (December 5, 1971)

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	(choir singing faintly)	0:03
	(gentle music)	0:16
	(choir singing faintly)	1:31
-	Beloved let us unite our hearts in prayer	4:23
	to all mighty God.	4:27
	Our heavenly father,	4:31
	who of your infinite love to all men	4:32
	gave your son to be born,	4:38
	to live among us and to endure the cross	4:41
	that we might not perish forever.	4:46
	We now stop everything to bless the name of Jesus.	4:49
	Bless it be his glorious name	4:56
	that he is today alive forevermore,	4:59
	let the choirs of heaven and earth rejoice	5:04
	and let the trumpet of salvation sound forth the coming	5:09
	of so greatest savior,	5:13
	let the earth rejoice made radiant by so greatest splendor	5:16
	and let every voice make it known	5:22
	that the world's darkness is scattered.	5:24
	May thy church everywhere celebrate	5:29
	adorned with the brightness of so great alight	5:33
	and let this chapel	5:37
	resound with the adoring voices of those	5:38
	who have been redeemed unto God by his blood.	5:42
	But our father, our hearts are humble.	5:48
	As we remember our sins in comparison	5:51
	with what we have to rejoice about	5:55
	our transgressions are ever before us.	6:00
	We ask you to take them away,	6:04
	take away our slowness to believe the good news of advent,	6:08
	our tendency to believe that other things are more practical	6:13
	than the gospel	6:17
	our tendency to think that advent is mainly Christmas trees,	6:19
	not mainly hope for those who live in the ghetto,	6:24
	our tendency to think of advent in terms of reindeer,	6:29
	rather than in terms of ending the war in Vietnam,	6:33
	we have refused oh God in our sophistication	6:39
	to believe that a child in a manger	6:42
	who had no academic degrees could bring wisdom	6:46
	into our world.	6:51
	Indeed, we have trusted too much in our degrees.	6:53
	Our academic proprieties, our published works.	6:58
	We have not taken seriously enough.	7:02
	The call of him who was born among the cattle	7:05
	forgive this sin, oh God.	7:11
	And in restoring us by your grace,	7:15
	give us faith to believe the message	7:18
	which comes to us from on high at this season.	7:22
	Amen.	7:27
	In the gospel according to Matthew 1:20-21,	7:32
	we find these words,	7:38
	which are so appropriate to us.	7:40
	Now,	7:43
	"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream	7:46
	saying thou son of David	7:52
	fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife	7:55
	for that, which is conceived in her is of the holy spirit.	7:59
	And she shall bear a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus	8:04
	for he shall save his people from their sin."	8:12
	Let it be.	8:20
	Because we have received so much from so many.	8:38
	And because we are blessed especially by Jesus Christ.	8:46
	May we bring together our hearts and voices	8:52
	for our prayer of thanksgiving.	8:56
	Let us pray.	8:58
	All praise and thanksgiving be unto you Oh God	9:00
	merciful father for you have given us sows to know	9:04
	and love you and you care for the life you have given.	9:08
	And remember what things we need glory be to you	9:13
	that when by our sins, we were lost and ruined.	9:18
	You sent your only son into the world	9:21
	to redeem our life from destruction	9:24
	and to create us and new onto life everlasting.	9:27
	Praise and thanks be unto you	9:31
	that you have shed abroad in our hearts the holy spirit	9:33
	who helps our infirmities and makes intercession for us,	9:37
	according to the will of God	9:41
	merciful father let no and thankfulness	9:44
	or on the worthiness of ours,	9:48
	the privates of these your unmerited blessings,	9:50
	but continue your mercy toward us	9:53
	and guard us from stumbling	9:56
	that finally we may be presented before the presence	9:58
	of your glory faultless and with exceeding joy	10:02
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	10:06
	Amen.	10:09
	(gentle music)	10:12
	(choir singing faintly)	11:26
-	I've seen a great light.	16:02
	Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness	16:04
	on them has light shined.	16:06
	Thou has multiplied the nation.	16:09
	Thou has to increased its joy.	16:12
	They rejoice before thy,	16:14
	as with joy at the harvest	16:16
	as men rejoice, when they divide the spoil	16:18
	for the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder,	16:22
	the rod of his oppressor thou has broken on the day	16:26
	as with midian.	16:29
	For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult.	16:31
	And every garment rolled in blood	16:35
	will be burned as fuel for the fire.	16:37
	For to us a child is born to us.	16:40
	A son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder.	16:43
	And his name will be called wonderful counselor,	16:48
	mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace	16:52
	of the increase of his government	16:59
	and of peace there will be no end	17:01
	upon the throne of David	17:04
	and over his kingdom to establish it	17:05
	and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness	17:08
	from this time forth and forevermore,	17:11
	the zeal of the Lord of hosts we'll do this.	17:14
	May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.	17:18
	(gentle music)	17:23
	(choir singing faintly)	17:32
-	The Lord be with you.	18:09
-	And also with you.
	Let us pray.	18:13
	All mighty God, our heavenly father.	18:24
	We come with our prayers for our world, for our fellows,	18:28
	for ourselves,	18:32
	asking that you will give to our strife torn	18:35
	world of today and news birth	18:37
	of the spirit of the prince of peace.	18:41
	May those who had not thought peace to be possible	18:46
	gain a fresh hope,	18:49
	give a new conscience to those who have tried	18:52
	to justify great wrongs	18:57
	by claiming to be merely following orders	19:00
	and doing the inevitable.	19:03
	We remember, especially	19:07
	your sons and daughters in India and Pakistan in Ireland	19:11
	and Vietnam, Laos, Palestine, and Egypt	19:18
	so many places where there is strife	19:26
	and where there needs to be hope that love can reconcile.	19:30
	And so may he who came to earth first as a little child	19:38
	come now as more than a child	19:44
	as the Lord of the nations,	19:49
	the mighty God, the prince of peace	19:51
	grant unto us grace to make straight in the desert	19:59
	of our barren hearts,	20:02
	a highway for our God, we pray you, oh God,	20:04
	to send the holy comforter to those who are bereaved.	20:09
	Those who feel beyond the reach of hope,	20:15
	may the spirit, which comes from the gospel	20:18
	at this time of the year, begin to soften	20:22
	those who are hard of heart,	20:24
	may power be given to the tempted.	20:28
	Send love the love of the great position	20:31
	to those who now are in pain	20:35
	and made trust and strength and companionship	20:40
	be given to those who face and uncertain illness	20:43
	give patients and perspective to all of us	20:48
	as we seek day by day to meet our own times of testing.	20:52
	Holy God as we remember the advent	20:59
	of your son into a humble family,	21:03
	we intercede for the homes in every nation	21:06
	or all the mothers who cradle their infants.	21:10
	We're all hungry children,	21:14
	all illegitimate or unwanted sons and daughters,	21:16
	or the innocent who suffered the consequences	21:21
	of the wrongdoing of others.	21:24
	Grant us the grace to desire you with our whole hearts.	21:29
	That's so desiring we may seek and find you.	21:35
	And so finding you may love you	21:39
	and loving you may hate those sins	21:42
	from which you seek to redeem us,	21:44
	open our minds to the councils of the eternal wisdom	21:48
	and let our hunger and thirst be for righteousness	21:54
	that we may be filled with the bread of heaven	21:59
	grant us grace to seek first your kingdom,	22:03
	and then the faith to believe that you will add unto us	22:07
	all things that are needful.	22:11
	We pray in Christ's name.	22:15
	Amen.	22:17
	Now, before we pray together the Lord's prayer,	22:19
	I would like to share some thoughts	22:23
	with you about this special day in the chapel.	22:25
	We have called this Messiah Sunday,	22:29
	partly because our dear friend, Dr. Stewart Henry,	22:34
	who is preaching this morning has agreed	22:38
	to let his sermon be an interpretation of the Messiah.	22:42
	Partly because some of the special music in our service	22:46
	comes from the Messiah	22:50
	cheaply because this is the weekend when the great rendition	22:52
	by the choir and orchestra is given	22:57
	of Handels magnificent oratorio.	23:01
	This afternoon at four o'clock.	23:06
	The last of the three presentations will be given.	23:07
	I acknowledge that all of the tickets for seats	23:13
	in the chapel this afternoon are gone.	23:18
	However, those of you who do not have tickets	23:22
	and who wish to come, are invited to do so,	23:26
	as long as you know that you will not get one of the best	23:29
	seats in all probability	23:33
	and that it is barely possible	23:36
	you might not get a seat at all,	23:38
	but if you come at 10 minutes until four	23:42
	you probably will be admitted to the chapel,	23:46
	those who heard the Messiah yesterday at firm	23:51
	that it is worth standing the entire time to hear it.	23:55
	As you know,	24:00
	the walls of the chapel since last December	24:01
	have been coated with an acrylic sealant,	24:05
	making it possible to hear the choir	24:08
	and the orchestra as never before.	24:11
	So that literally it is true	24:15
	that it will be better this year than ever before.	24:18
	If for that reason only	24:22
	there are other reasons.	24:25
	So I encourage you to come along with me	24:28
	and try to find a seat even if you do not have a ticket,	24:33
	you will be welcomed and it will be worth it.	24:37
	Now may we be in our hearts as sincere	24:42
	as Jesus was when he gave us the words	24:47
	which we use Sunday after Sunday through 1900 years	24:50
	in prayer saying.	24:56
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	24:59
	thy kingdom come	25:04
	I will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	25:06
	Give us this day, our daily bread	25:10
	and forgive us our trespasses	25:13
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	25:15
	and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	25:18
	for thine is the kingdom	25:23
	and the power and the glory forever.	25:24
	Amen.	25:28
-	And the name of the Father and of the Son	26:02
	and of the Holy Spirit.	26:06
	Amen.	26:08
	In mid 18th century London,	26:13
	the city was already the most populous one on the globe	26:17
	and then acquired new inhabitants daily,	26:22
	diplomats and derelicts,	26:26
	philosophers and fools among others,	26:28
	gravitated to the metropolis in such numbers	26:31
	that the city was distinguished quite as much	26:35
	by the astonishing variety and contrast of human life	26:39
	which she sheltered as by the growth which she boasted,	26:43
	but English man at that time,	26:49
	whatever their station or a sturdy locked,	26:51
	often violent and always hardy	26:55
	and seemingly able to survive anything but death	26:59
	they surged along the noisy cobblestone streets,	27:05
	violet and saints together,	27:09
	jostling each other along London's ill lighted ways	27:11
	as they went about their several errands	27:16
	Whether hurrying to the entertainment of a public hanging,	27:20
	or bound for a meeting of parliament	27:24
	and all breed the heavy air	27:27
	that was sitting with the fires of a thousand cold hearts	27:30
	and malodorous with the refuge from the gutters.	27:35
	Now in due course, there are arrived in England	27:40
	one whom the conglomerate population of London eventually	27:45
	came to know and mostly to love George Frederick Handel	27:50
	though he was both foreigner and musician.	27:57
	London made a place for him in her earthy heart.	28:02
	And it was no more than right	28:05
	for in an age of many gifted artist,	28:08
	he was distinguished by achievements	28:12
	and his genius raised him above the literalness	28:15
	of those ridiculous episodes of his early life,	28:18
	which had made his name sometime a subject of gossip	28:22
	and often an object of amusement	28:26
	in the days before the city had accurately	28:29
	taken the measurement of the lumbering German from Holland,	28:32
	although Handel tried hard to be an Englishman	28:37
	he never really succeeded.	28:40
	He did indeed after petitioning parliament	28:43
	become a subject of the crown	28:45
	and British years accepted him,	28:48
	but it was a concession	28:51
	for all about he learned to swear in English	28:53
	he could never do so without an accent.	28:56
	And it was impossible to understand his (speaks faintly),	29:00
	unless one knew four languages.	29:03
	What Handel achieved however,	29:07
	was more substantial than the sincere flattery	29:10
	of successful imitation.	29:13
	It was not for nothing that when the old man died	29:16
	and was buried in Westminster Abbey,	29:21
	there assembled Saturn observer,	29:24
	the greatest concourse of people of all ranks	29:27
	ever seen upon such or indeed any other occasion	29:31
	London had long since forgiven him, his parents,	29:37
	his gross corpulence, his almost hot bearing.	29:41
	In his old age, he moved with a certain majesty,	29:47
	which was odd considering his bowed legs and his heavy gate,	29:50
	nor was it the Scarlet gray coat that he wore	29:56
	now, the gold headed cane, but he carried,	30:00
	which gave him the unmistakable air of grandeur.	30:02
	It seemed rather to be an earned right	30:07
	which was his by virtue of the memory of a vision	30:11
	and the knowledge of a faith.	30:15
	He was tranquil in this world	30:18
	because he was oriented to the next.	30:21
	Londoners had appreciated the circumstance, but slowly	30:25
	with characteristic perversity,	30:30
	not of the times are at the place,	30:32
	but simply of the way word human heart,	30:36
	London was tardy and remarking the greatness of the Messiah	30:40
	it maybe you think of Handel it once and even only	30:45
	as the composer of the great oratorio,	30:50
	no matter in a world of competition that is praised or not	30:53
	by Handel whose work in buck is equal almost to that	30:58
	of Bach and Beethoven combined.	31:03
	And which includes among other compositions,	31:06
	46 operas did not explore the oratorio fully	31:10
	until he was middle of age,	31:16
	nor right. The Messiah until he was 56.	31:19
	And when he did produce the Messiah,	31:22
	it was by no means spontaneously and universally,	31:25
	according the masterpiece status which it now enjoys	31:30
	when London first took notice of Handel,	31:35
	it was for petty reasons.	31:38
	And for the years that she remembered him,	31:40
	he had bought a public deal.	31:43
	He had produced the fashionable opera.	31:46
	He had presided successfully over the big ring	31:49
	squabble and bravo Prima Donnas.	31:51
	It was only later, much, much later	31:55
	that London discovered that she could not forget	31:59
	the Messiah.	32:02
	Although she did forget much about the composer	32:04
	and let him die alone.	32:08
	Now, London at first rejected the sacred oratorio	32:10
	self-consciously and conventionally religious folk	32:16
	were already apprehensive	32:20
	because Handel had shown an unfortunate tendency,	32:22
	not only to deal with scriptural subjects	32:26
	in his compositions,	32:29
	but to do so in a way, which they did not consider a proper	32:31
	presenting sacred material in the music halls.	32:36
	Sometime earlier Handel had composed music for a mask,	32:40
	which dealt with the exciting Old Testament story	32:45
	of Haman and Mordecai.	32:48
	Of course it was after all about the Jews.	32:52
	So there might have been some excuse for it,	32:56
	but even so the performers wore costumes	32:59
	and there was scenery	33:03
	and so it scandalized the Christians Old Testament or no	33:05
	putting a Bible story on the stage,	33:09
	played by common Mummers,	33:12
	but came texts for church sermons up and down the town.	33:14
	"What are we coming to?"	33:19
	demand that one (speaks faintly).	33:20
	When the will of sight,	33:22
	Mr.B imposed upon us in this fashion	33:24
	Handel always mixed with the last set or another,	33:28
	by which of course he meant actressy women	33:33
	and uncertain man.	33:35
	And now we are the critic.	33:38
	He has become their slave,	33:40
	but the bomb exploded when it was discovered	33:43
	that Handel intended to repeat the presentation	33:46
	of Haman and Mordecai	33:49
	and to use the children of the choir	33:51
	of the chapel Royal in the production.	33:54
	Well, Dr. Gibson, the Bishop of London put a stop to that.	33:57
	He forbid the children to perform.	34:02
	So Handel almost accidentally	34:05
	turned to refining the oratorio form	34:09
	a device without offending costumes	34:13
	or movement or scenery.	34:17
	Nevertheless,	34:20
	the apprehension or occasion to by Haman	34:22
	and Mordecai was mild	34:24
	compared to the shock which attended the intelligence	34:27
	that Handel had composed a piece to be called Messiah,	34:30
	to put that word Messiah on a play bell.	34:37
	It was surely madness.	34:42
	No one list of all the man himself	34:46
	can save what actually happened to Handel	34:51
	during the time he composed the Messiah.	34:54
	Amazingly, it was a work of 24 days.	34:58
	He did not leave his house.	35:02
	No, very often his room,	35:05
	a man servant who brought him food	35:08
	on returning generally found the trays untouched	35:11
	and Handel staring in the vacancy	35:15
	are now and again, weeping without shame.	35:18
	And once confessing that he had seen all happy	35:23
	and the great God himself.	35:28
	Poor Handel, he needed and heavenly reassurance since 1741,	35:31
	the public always pick on now make war upon him,	35:38
	Handel all been in and out the favor of his beloved London	35:42
	was being shamefully used.	35:46
	According to his enemies,	35:49
	his career was now beyond all hope.	35:50
	The Preston mind, body and the state,	35:54
	he began work on his greatest composition.	35:58
	Now it is the function of a Messiah	36:02
	to come to those whose need is sorest	36:06
	and futile no doubt for a Messiah to appeal to others.	36:10
	But if it is the Messiah's role to speak to the hopeless,	36:15
	it is the genius of the true Messiah,	36:20
	but he can make himself heard.	36:24
	He compels the prisoner	36:28
	the captive, the forsaken, but have no other hope.	36:30
	They hazard nothing.	36:36
	Those who are free need no deliverance.	36:38
	My whole do not know how to long for healing.	36:43
	The very opening words of the Messiah announced,	36:47
	and the music underscores the desire of the human heart.	36:50
	Comfort you, comfort you.	36:56
	They are reassuring words and genuine	36:59
	for Handel spoke the word that he himself longed to hear	37:03
	beyond the hope himself	37:08
	he addressed hopeless man with authenticity	37:11
	because he knew the agony of the human heart and despair.	37:16
	London was a long time hearing.	37:22
	Perhaps it was parklet that although the word	37:25
	was for London, it was not for her alone	37:29
	Handel where elders know better	37:32
	and surely not worse than ours,	37:34
	but as it was a world of teaming humanity,	37:37
	it was of course, a world of frustration	37:41
	and desire for all the bravado and the complacency	37:44
	of the 18th century.	37:48
	Handel times where after all light hours,	37:51
	Smollett complained that London had become in some ways	37:57
	more desperate and Savage than since mankind were civilized	38:02
	and Horace Walpole reported that one had to travel at noon	38:08
	even as if he were going to bathroom.	38:13
	How familiar yet?	38:16
	The real despair of Englishman of Handel's day	38:18
	lay where despair has always festered	38:23
	where then the human heart,	38:27
	not to Londoners alone,	38:29
	but to every man's heart Handel saying his song of comfort	38:32
	the actual words, of course he did not write at all	38:38
	no more did the librettist.	38:42
	They were from the Bible	38:45
	gems called from a dozen books,	38:47
	elevated from a context sometimes tedious	38:50
	and placed together so that they invite and thrill	38:54
	and warn and reassure	38:59
	instinctively Handel knew	39:03
	just when the setting should be muted	39:04
	and just where the melody must (speaking faintly)	39:07
	or repeated again and again, with amen and amen	39:09
	and reflection of the soul acknowledgement.	39:15
	But if you read the libretto of Handel's Messiah.	39:18
	There is no systematic statement of doctrine	39:22
	rather what one find just a credo.	39:26
	It is a confession of faith yet it is,	39:29
	as it were hearing words with which we are familiar	39:33
	in such a way that having long known what they say,	39:39
	we know now for the first time, what they mean,	39:45
	the words are all from the Bible,	39:51
	London not withstanding her wilderness	39:54
	was less contemptuous of the tradition than we,	39:58
	and probably knew many of the words,	40:03
	what they said that his.	40:06
	Handel alerted them to what the words meant.	40:10
	And so it was to some as if they had never heard them before	40:16
	it is ever thus with truth	40:21
	ever thus where the Messiah	40:24
	Jesus often said to his disciples,	40:27
	"You have heard it said, but I say unto you."	40:30
	and then proceeded to astonish them	40:34
	with his insight yet the power	40:37
	of what he said, lay not in its novelty,	40:39
	but in his obvious identification with what he said,	40:43
	he preached what he practiced.	40:48
	He was his message.	40:52
	Men were moved, not because he spoke of law,	40:54
	but because he was love and thus a Messiah,	40:58
	it is just this kind of unexpected truth	41:03
	that leaps out of the melody and the meaning of the oratorio	41:07
	sprung from the despair of one beyond hope	41:12
	it speaks to helpless man.	41:16
	And it punched to that, which is itself beyond hope,	41:19
	which transcends every dream	41:23
	and every aspiration that modern man might	41:26
	have it points to that which we have not imagined	41:30
	because it is beyond anything we dare hope for	41:34
	hearing it, really hearing it	41:39
	is like standing in the presence of one who is dying.	41:43
	And because he is unafraid of death,	41:49
	suddenly knowing for the first time, the meaning of life,	41:52
	the prisoner hopes for freedom	41:59
	and the Messiah brings not only deliverance,	42:01
	but victory as well.	42:05
	The wounded longs for healing	42:08
	and the Messiah brings this and more, much more	42:10
	He brings life.	42:14
	The damned seeks forgiveness, but the Messiah offers purity.	42:16
	So desperate man find fulfillment beyond all hope	42:23
	in the person of the Messiah,	42:28
	but ask for stones and he gives them bread.	42:30
	This is ridiculous.	42:35
	Such wild promises well enough for children in the nursery	42:38
	or old ladies with anything.	42:41
	But for us, for you, for me	42:45
	here is the outrageous fate offered to those	42:49
	lost in the Hills of Greece,	42:53
	that they shall stand in a dazzling light	42:55
	that in the land of shadow that will come splendor	43:00
	and love and peace.	43:04
	Now it's outrageous,	43:08
	but it is the nature of faith to be outrageous	43:10
	no, do not turn away.	43:13
	Even if the outrageous	43:15
	one can make a reasonable observation consider	43:18
	before he died, Handel lost his sight,	43:23
	operated on unsuccessfully by the same possession	43:27
	who performed surgery on box eyes	43:31
	and with no happier resolved	43:33
	Handel spent his last days and that special loneliness,	43:37
	which only the blind suffer.	43:41
	By now he had been many times in and out of public favor.	43:45
	Since that season,	43:49
	almost a generation earlier	43:51
	when he had composed the Messiah,	43:54
	London had not wanted it ban	43:57
	religious controversy kept many away	44:00
	the storm about performing a work of this nature	44:04
	and the Playhouse blasted for years.	44:07
	The clergy called the oratorio, (speaks faintly) religion	44:10
	Handel, a heretic	44:13
	and few had understood what the composer	44:16
	had attempted.	44:18
	Dublin accepted the peace, true,	44:20
	but only for special reasons.	44:23
	Yet in the years, between the time it was first presented,	44:26
	the day of his death,	44:31
	London had come, if not to understand what Handel it seen	44:33
	at least to grant that there had been a vision	44:39
	that his experience was genuine	44:42
	and that he gave this sit here, no ordinary offering.	44:45
	The Messiah was not performed annually	44:49
	and Handel always up a philantropist between bankruptcy's	44:53
	regularly gave the proceeds to our worthy cars,	44:58
	a hospital for the foundlings,	45:02
	comfort for prisoners.	45:05
	After the old man site was gone he still conducted	45:08
	attendance would lead him to the podium	45:12
	and there he would be transformed	45:15
	scarcely two weeks before his death	45:18
	he conducted the Messiah for the last time.	45:20
	And when it was over, he was very tired.	45:25
	His friends either did not notice	45:28
	or would not admit the gravity of his condition,	45:31
	"10 concerts and little over a month". They said,	45:34
	at his age	45:38
	74, really the old veterans should have learned a lesson.	45:40
	And then they spoke of moderation.	45:46
	But Handel for half death	45:49
	that was on the 6th of April	45:52
	and he did not last a fortnight.	45:54
	And the antrum like a rudderless boat	45:57
	drifting towards shore yet unable to stay	46:02
	or to guard his course,	46:05
	he lay almost motionless	46:08
	staring with cyclists eyes at the ceiling	46:11
	attended only by those who stepped he recognized	46:15
	whose bias he knew.	46:19
	He wished he said to die on good Friday.	46:22
	As a matter of record,	46:25
	it was Easter Eve when he breathed his last.	46:26
	So it is no small matter to relinquish life.	46:32
	He was completely trying to call	46:35
	in his last hour, as continually	46:40
	since he had written the Messiah,	46:43
	he testified step straight to a way laying light,	46:45
	even as the oratorio itself underlies this confession.	46:49
	The essence of all that is song in the Messiah is this	46:55
	I know that my Redeemer liveth	47:01
	now translate it into your own words.	47:05
	I know that there is meaning for my life	47:09
	lying even beyond my dearest hope.	47:13
	not I know, but I know, I, myself,	47:17
	I resonate to the music.	47:25
	I have indeed not as Handel seen all heaven itself	47:29
	and the great God,	47:34
	not I, but being beyond hope,	47:36
	I have known that redemption comes	47:41
	must come and can only come from beyond hope.	47:45
	Why he is much of a theology of hope in these days.	47:52
	And hope is good,	47:56
	but the apostle Paul wisely and rightly	47:58
	places faith before hope,	48:02
	hope may nurture faith, but it does not give it birth.	48:05
	It happens the other way around	48:10
	and the symbols of this blessing season	48:13
	promise that there is that	48:16
	which one there's not hope for	48:18
	that is Christmas must be more than candlelight and sparkle,	48:21
	more than (speaks faintly).	48:27
	The Messiah makes this plane.	48:31
	It is authentic because it speaks up more than shepherds	48:35
	in the fields	48:38
	here is bad for him, but here is our soul Calvary	48:40
	and beyond there is that for which a man dare even hope.	48:45
	The assurance that the power,	48:51
	which has blessed us with Bethlehem	48:53
	can conquer Calvary.	48:56
	The wisdom that the manger has no meaning	48:59
	without the cross	49:02
	and the dark mystery that this may be true	49:05
	is canceled by the bright wonder that it is	49:08
	and you God bless and pity you,	49:14
	it may be that you find yourself without hope.	49:19
	I do not know.	49:24
	I cannot look into another's heart, but I know my own.	49:26
	And as we are all brothers, you and I	49:33
	old and young,	49:38
	we are all of us desolate	49:41
	and beyond hope unless, unless	49:44
	the witness of the Messiah	49:51
	springs from just such helplessness.	49:53
	And it seems of that, which lies beyond all hope,	49:58
	which every man, any man,	50:03
	you may know if we hazard the lead	50:07
	amen and amen.	50:14
	Oh my God, wonderful counselor,	50:19
	everlasting father, prince of peace	50:26
	and lighten our eyes	50:34
	with the understanding of faith	50:37
	that we might know and acknowledge	50:40
	that in thee and thee alone,	50:44
	we live and to move and how I'll be.	50:48
	Amen.	50:53
	(gentle music)	50:56
	( choir singing faintly)	51:41
-	All mighty God.	1:02:05
	We pray that the spirit of the Christ child	1:02:06
	may not only purify the priestly sons of Levi,	1:02:10
	but all Layman as well,	1:02:14
	that all of us together may offer unto the Lord	1:02:17
	an offering in righteousness.	1:02:21
	A righteousness,	1:02:23
	which comes by having been cleansed by his spirit	1:02:24
	so that whether we stand here at this altar	1:02:29
	and offer our money,	1:02:31
	or whether we are in our rooms, in the classrooms,	1:02:34
	or wherever we may be,	1:02:38
	an offering of our lives may be made in righteousness.	1:02:40
	Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all	1:02:51
	(gentle music)	1:02:56
	(choir singing faintly)	1:02:59

Item Info

Title:

Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond All Hope" (December 5, 1971)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4mw2dg4j

Date:

December 5, 1971

Speaker:

Henry, Stuart C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0597
ref6397_co9
uachapelsermaud
duke:628419
dcrau002584
ark:/87924/r4mw2dg4j
c0e81600-494c-44ef-9f77-e1804a8ae386

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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