McMurry S. Richey - "The Spontaneity and Steadfastness of Jesus Christ" (March 19, 1972)
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Transcript
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- | To be forgiven, our hopes to be renewed, | 0:08 |
our better selves to be quickened. | 0:15 | |
Oh, thou in whom there's harmony, draws to thyself, | 0:20 | |
and silence the discords of our lives. | 0:27 | |
Give us all grace and strength to overcome every sin. | 0:33 | |
Sins of resentment, deliberation, | 0:38 | |
surprise, negligence, omission. | 0:44 | |
Sins against thee, against our neighbor. | 0:51 | |
Sins great, small, remembered, forgotten. | 0:57 | |
Thou whose greatness is beyond our praise. | 1:07 | |
Lift us up about littleness and our daily imperfections, | 1:11 | |
send us visions of the love of that is in thee | 1:17 | |
and of the good that may be in us, amen. | 1:22 | |
And hear these words of assurance, of pardon, | 1:31 | |
thus set the high and lofty one that inhabited the eternity, | 1:37 | |
whose name is holy. | 1:43 | |
I dwell in the high and holy place with him, | 1:47 | |
with her also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, | 1:55 | |
to revive the spirits of the humble | 2:01 | |
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. | 2:04 | |
Therefore we have good courage. | 2:10 | |
And now let us together offer on to God a prayer | 2:15 | |
of thanksgiving using the Canticle number 6:2-7 | 2:18 | |
at the back of the hymnal, | 2:25 | |
which is entitled the Song of David. | 2:28 | |
And let us pray it responsibly. | 2:34 | |
Bless are thy oh, Lord, the God of Israel. | 2:40 | |
(indistinct) | 2:43 | |
- | Thy know Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory | 2:46 |
and the victory and the majesty. | 2:50 | |
(indistinct) | 2:54 | |
- | Thy is the kingdom, oh Lord. | 2:58 |
(indistinct) | 3:01 | |
- | Both riches and honor come from the thy. | 3:04 |
(indistinct) | 3:08 | |
- | In thy hand are power and might. | 3:10 |
- | In thy hand (indistinct). | 3:15 |
- | And now we thank thee, our God. | 3:20 |
(indistinct) | 3:23 | |
- | Amen. | 3:26 |
(soft music) | 3:32 | |
(indistinct) | 4:28 | |
- | The word of scripture is found in Mark 8:31:36 | 7:08 |
and Hebrews 12:1-2. | 7:18 | |
"And he began to teach them that the son of man | 7:24 | |
must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders | 7:27 | |
and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. | 7:32 | |
And after three days rise again, and he said this plainly. | 7:37 | |
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, | 7:43 | |
but turning and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter, | 7:48 | |
and said, "Get behind me Satan, | 7:52 | |
for you are not on the side of God but of men." | 7:55 | |
And he called to him, the multitude with his disciples | 8:00 | |
and said to them, "If any man would come after me, | 8:04 | |
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, | 8:08 | |
for whoever would save His life will lose it. | 8:15 | |
And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels | 8:19 | |
will save it. | 8:24 | |
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world | 8:26 | |
and forfeit his life?" | 8:31 | |
Therefore, since we are surrounded | 8:41 | |
by soul greater cloud of witnesses, | 8:44 | |
let us also lay aside every weight and sin | 8:48 | |
which clings so closely, | 8:52 | |
and let run with perseverance the race that is set before us | 8:54 | |
looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, | 8:59 | |
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, | 9:04 | |
despising the shame and is seated at the right hand | 9:10 | |
of the throne of God." | 9:14 | |
Your end of the lessons. | 9:17 | |
(soft music) | 9:20 | |
(indistinct) | 9:29 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 10:07 |
(indistinct) | 10:10 | |
- | Let us pray. | 10:11 |
At this Lenten season let us offer first | 10:21 | |
the prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus. | 10:23 | |
All mighty God, God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. | 10:28 | |
We give you thanks, for thy son. | 10:35 | |
We remember in great gratitude. | 10:40 | |
His goodness not to be ministered unto, but to minister, | 10:43 | |
his sympathy with suffering of every kind, | 10:49 | |
his bravery in face of his own suffering, | 10:55 | |
his quietness of bearing so that when reviled, | 11:00 | |
he reviled not again, | 11:06 | |
his steadiness purpose in keeping to his appointed task. | 11:10 | |
His simplicity, his inner discipline. | 11:16 | |
His serenity of spirit, his complete reliance upon thee, | 11:21 | |
his acceptance of the cruel cross. | 11:29 | |
His deliverance from death, his ever present spirit. | 11:34 | |
Thanks be to thee, oh God. | 11:42 | |
Let us offer a prayer of intercession | 11:48 | |
for all conditions of men. | 11:51 | |
Loving and Holy Spirit of God, | 11:55 | |
we pray that we and all men me increasingly work together | 11:59 | |
that thy will maybe done on earth. | 12:04 | |
That the resources of the earth may be gathered, | 12:10 | |
distributed and used with unselfish motives | 12:14 | |
and scientific skill | 12:19 | |
for the benefit of all. | 12:22 | |
That beauty may be given to our towns | 12:26 | |
and left to our countryside. | 12:30 | |
That children may be finely bred and finely trained, | 12:35 | |
that there may be open ways and peace and freedom | 12:42 | |
for men to end of all the earth, | 12:49 | |
that all men may learn goodwill | 12:53 | |
through keeping thy company. | 12:57 | |
And let us offer a prayer of supplication for ourselves | 13:03 | |
using part of the words | 13:07 | |
from the breastplate of Saint Patrick. | 13:10 | |
May thy strength oh, God pilot us, | 13:15 | |
may thy power oh, God preserve us. | 13:20 | |
May thy wisdom oh, God protect us, | 13:26 | |
may thy way, oh, God direct us. | 13:31 | |
May thy shield, oh, God defend us. | 13:37 | |
May thy (indistinct) oh, God guard us | 13:42 | |
against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world. | 13:45 | |
May Christ be with us, Christ before us, Christ in us, | 13:51 | |
Christ over us. | 14:00 | |
May thy salvation, oh Lord, God be all was ours, | 14:03 | |
this day and forevermore. | 14:08 | |
And let us offer a prayer of dedication. | 14:13 | |
Our father God, by whom we live, | 14:17 | |
and on whom our hopes are built, | 14:23 | |
grant us ears to hear, eyes to see, | 14:28 | |
wills to obey, hearts to love, | 14:34 | |
then declared what thy will, | 14:41 | |
reveal what thy will, | 14:45 | |
command what thy will, demand what thy will. | 14:48 | |
And let each one numbers answer, | 14:57 | |
speak Lord for thy servant Peter. | 15:01 | |
And now as our savior Christ taught us, | 15:08 | |
we humbly pray together saying our father who art in heaven, | 15:10 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. | 15:18 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 15:22 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 15:27 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 15:30 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 15:33 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 15:37 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 15:40 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 15:44 | |
- | And it came to pass, | 16:20 |
when the time was come that he should be received up. | 16:22 | |
He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. | 16:27 | |
How does one preach? | 16:36 | |
What does one say? | 16:38 | |
When unsure that listeners want to hear this message? | 16:42 | |
Indeed, when he too would like to back away from it. | 16:48 | |
with Kierkegaard, he might even propose, | 16:56 | |
let us collect all the New Testaments that are in existence. | 17:01 | |
Let us carry them out to an open place or up on a mountain. | 17:06 | |
And then while we all kneel down and let someone address God | 17:11 | |
in this fashion, take this book back again. | 17:14 | |
We man, such as we are now | 17:20 | |
are not good at dealing with a thing like this, | 17:22 | |
it only makes us unhappy. | 17:26 | |
For this is Passion Sunday in the Christian year. | 17:31 | |
And its meaning has already been signaled | 17:37 | |
by the scripture readings | 17:40 | |
in which the early church interpreted Jesus steadfast | 17:42 | |
setting of his face towards Jerusalem, | 17:47 | |
and its imminent conflicts with religious | 17:50 | |
and political establishment, | 17:55 | |
and his crucial suffering and his call to his disciples, | 17:58 | |
not to deter, but to follow him, | 18:05 | |
in self-denying bearing of the cross. | 18:09 | |
The writer to the Hebrews, | 18:15 | |
reinforced this summons with a roll call of ancient heroes | 18:17 | |
of the faith and focused it on the present. | 18:21 | |
Therefore, since we are surrounded | 18:26 | |
by so great a cloud of witnesses, | 18:28 | |
let us also lay aside every weight and sin, | 18:32 | |
which clings so closely, | 18:37 | |
and let us run with perseverance the race | 18:39 | |
that is set before us, looking to Jesus, | 18:42 | |
the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, | 18:46 | |
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross | 18:50 | |
despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God. | 18:56 | |
Then the invocation for Passion Sunday | 19:02 | |
presumes our responding prayer, | 19:06 | |
For bid, oh God, | 19:11 | |
that we should forget amid our earthly comforts, | 19:12 | |
the pains and mortal anguish that our Lord Jesus endured | 19:16 | |
for our salvation. | 19:20 | |
Grant us this day, a true vision of all that he suffered, | 19:23 | |
his betrayal, his lonely agony, | 19:27 | |
his false trial, he's mocking and scourging, | 19:32 | |
the torture of the cross | 19:36 | |
that remembering his sufferings and death, | 19:39 | |
we may give ourselves holy to thee, | 19:42 | |
through the same Jesus Christ, | 19:45 | |
our only Lord and savior, amen. | 19:47 | |
Are we really ready to pray that prayer? | 19:53 | |
To enter into such a somber and demanding covenant? | 19:59 | |
If this is what the New Testament demands of us, | 20:05 | |
perhaps we all are on the point of saying, | 20:10 | |
"Take this book back again, we men such as we are | 20:13 | |
are not good at dealing with a thing like this, | 20:17 | |
it only makes us unhappy." | 20:20 | |
Here's the gospel, the good news, | 20:23 | |
really bad news after all? | 20:27 | |
Can we discover or have discovered to us | 20:34 | |
another aspect of Jesus and his message | 20:41 | |
that is good news, news in the sense of the unexpected. | 20:46 | |
Good in the sense of making us joyful, happy, | 20:52 | |
Robert Louis Stevenson in quite another mood | 20:57 | |
than Kierkegaard, once remarked | 21:00 | |
that he sometimes wished he had never read the New Testament | 21:03 | |
so that he might come to it with a freshness | 21:07 | |
that would make him conscious | 21:09 | |
of its amazing significance and quality. | 21:11 | |
Some of you recently experienced through that powerful film, | 21:17 | |
"The Gospel of St. Matthew", | 21:21 | |
what it meant to an Italian Marxist | 21:24 | |
to encounter that strange book | 21:29 | |
and be tellingly encountered engaged by Jesus. | 21:32 | |
Indeed, some of our younger generation | 21:41 | |
for whom our generation has diluted or domesticated | 21:44 | |
or obscured that good news had begun to turn on | 21:51 | |
to the ever surprising inviting winsome word and way | 21:56 | |
and spirit of Jesus who offers and expresses new joy, | 22:02 | |
gladness, freshness, freedom, spontaneity, | 22:09 | |
authenticity of life. | 22:15 | |
Does that turn you on? | 22:18 | |
Let us recall for a moment, | 22:21 | |
the personality and power reflected | 22:23 | |
in the early church testimonies to its master and Lauren, | 22:26 | |
insensitive New Testament scholar, John Knox, | 22:32 | |
reviews the gospel stories and gathers for us the impression | 22:37 | |
of a man of incomparable, moral insight, | 22:42 | |
understanding and imagination. | 22:48 | |
Of singular, moral purpose, and integrity | 22:51 | |
of extraordinary moral courage and ardor, | 22:56 | |
of intense devotion to duty, of joyous trust in God. | 23:00 | |
A person of surpassing charm and winsomeness. | 23:06 | |
Loved by many and loved intensely | 23:11 | |
for the genuineness, completeness, | 23:15 | |
depth and ardor of his humanity. | 23:18 | |
With a warm sense of being a man of belonging to the world | 23:22 | |
of participating in his life, | 23:26 | |
he took life seriously, but not solidly. | 23:29 | |
He enjoyed nature, children, human companionship. | 23:35 | |
He saw life with fidelity, freshness and humor. | 23:41 | |
He tended to erase the line that separated the sacred | 23:46 | |
from the human, indeed extended the sacred | 23:49 | |
to include all it was truly under centrally human. | 23:54 | |
The other side of his lovableness John Knox goes on, | 24:00 | |
was his own exceptional capacity for love, | 24:06 | |
for warmth affection, deep enjoyment to fellowship | 24:12 | |
with all sorts and conditions of man. | 24:16 | |
A searching love for the lost, the sin, the weak, | 24:20 | |
and indignant love against what hurt them. | 24:26 | |
A forgiving love for those who persecuted | 24:30 | |
and despitefully used him, says Knox. | 24:34 | |
An harden person of singular, moral, purity and integrity, | 24:39 | |
for whose love the whole world was too small. | 24:45 | |
No wonder men loved him in return with supreme devotion. | 24:50 | |
Of course, words even these words are never enough. | 24:57 | |
It takes a personal encounter with his spirit | 25:05 | |
in the New Testament and in the continuing church, | 25:10 | |
in personal relationships now, even today. | 25:16 | |
But these words ain't enough to suggest | 25:21 | |
what he's turned us on down through the ages | 25:24 | |
and in all the time. | 25:27 | |
So in that grace and strength and truth, | 25:31 | |
Jesus won the hearing and the following | 25:38 | |
of stalwart men and weak, | 25:40 | |
of developed scholars and the insightful and learned. | 25:45 | |
Of devoted women and profligate one, | 25:50 | |
of the burden, the poor, the aged, the children of all ages. | 25:54 | |
The multitudes and the lonely individuals. | 26:03 | |
He challenged them to fullness of life. | 26:07 | |
Involve their strengths, enhance their selfhood, | 26:10 | |
honor their freedom, redeem their weakness, | 26:15 | |
forgive their failures. | 26:20 | |
He taught not by coercive authority, | 26:23 | |
but by appeal to their recognition, | 26:27 | |
to the insights in their own experience, | 26:30 | |
to their relationships with their fellow man | 26:35 | |
and God at his world. | 26:40 | |
He invited them to blessness, freedom, joy and devotion, | 26:42 | |
and in so doing, | 26:50 | |
he disclosed the eternal God who was manifest in his life | 26:52 | |
and ministry and death. | 26:59 | |
What is our response to such a joyful, liberating ministry? | 27:04 | |
More positive than to the more somber demanding call | 27:12 | |
of the steadfast Jesus facing the cross. | 27:18 | |
This sermon title, the spontaneity and steadfastness | 27:24 | |
of Jesus Christ enlisted from one of the younger generation | 27:28 | |
and agreeing accent on spontaneity, | 27:35 | |
but some reservation over imperative to steadfastness. | 27:40 | |
Perhaps it is one of the perennial services of youth | 27:46 | |
to free things up when their elders | 27:51 | |
have anxiously closed down the very freedoms | 27:55 | |
which our individualistic and hedonistic pleasure | 27:58 | |
seeking Western culture exalts. | 28:04 | |
You remember (indistinct) searching | 28:09 | |
and classic exploration of this theme of freedom? | 28:15 | |
In his story of Jesus before the grand inquisitor. | 28:20 | |
The returning Jesus putting the dungeon | 28:26 | |
at the grand inquisitor's order | 28:31 | |
is encountered there and accused of not loving men enough | 28:35 | |
because he expected too much of them, | 28:44 | |
because when tempted in the wilderness by that dread spirit, | 28:48 | |
he refused to coerce or manipulate man | 28:55 | |
by miracle, mystery and authority, | 29:01 | |
he honored their freedom too high, | 29:08 | |
but the church had overcome his era | 29:12 | |
and given the masses the control they needed. | 29:16 | |
In recalling this classic story, | 29:23 | |
I'm not commenting on that great church, | 29:26 | |
which had one of its low points | 29:32 | |
at the time of the inquisition. | 29:36 | |
I'm rather thinking as you must be of the tendency | 29:40 | |
and the human nature and human institutions to do the same, | 29:46 | |
to abrogate freedom, to distrust it, | 29:52 | |
to resort to rigid external control, | 29:58 | |
moralistic pressures for conformity, | 30:02 | |
mastery through dependence and other strategies | 30:07 | |
of the fearful before their own, | 30:12 | |
our own and others freedom, | 30:16 | |
no wonder youth must overact at times, | 30:20 | |
this process of liberation from throttling authority. | 30:24 | |
Sometimes it must look to them as if a Christian | 30:31 | |
is defined as one who wants to prevent others | 30:34 | |
from having any fun. | 30:37 | |
Yeah, true freedom, spontaneity, | 30:42 | |
maybe as much in danger from the excesses of its devotees | 30:49 | |
as from the restraints of the tired holsters, | 30:55 | |
that picture of the grand inquisitor before Jesus | 31:02 | |
and their discussion of freedom is not the whole story. | 31:09 | |
Jesus could trust men's freedom, | 31:16 | |
if more than just human nature was taken into account. | 31:21 | |
If men could be one to rise above | 31:28 | |
their individualistic self seeking | 31:31 | |
to transformation of voltage, | 31:36 | |
to a new kind of wanting, | 31:41 | |
to a freedom in devotion to God and others, not self. | 31:45 | |
Edwin Markham prophet for the social concerns | 31:54 | |
and Christian faith my generation, | 32:00 | |
left us this quatrain about Jesus. | 32:03 | |
Why does he make our hearts so strangely still? | 32:07 | |
Why stands he forced so stately and so tall, | 32:12 | |
because he has no self to serve, | 32:17 | |
no will that does not seek the welfare of the all. | 32:21 | |
And Martin Luther summed up Christian freedom | 32:27 | |
in two sentences, | 32:31 | |
a Christian man is a perfectly free Lord of all, | 32:34 | |
subject to none. | 32:39 | |
A Christian man is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, | 32:42 | |
subject to all. | 32:48 | |
And this them one can hear Dietrich Bonhoeffer | 32:52 | |
saying it for all time, | 32:56 | |
Jesus is the man for others. | 32:58 | |
The essence of his being and of our being | 33:04 | |
and of the churches being, is being for others. | 33:10 | |
So is the church, truly the church | 33:17 | |
only when it is there for other. | 33:21 | |
What this comes to is a bringing closer together, | 33:29 | |
of those themes of spontaneity or freedom, | 33:33 | |
and steadfastness or resolution, | 33:38 | |
or a finding life in giving it. | 33:43 | |
We've been talking in terms of abstractions largely, | 33:51 | |
perhaps we can become a little more concrete | 33:57 | |
by remembering at least one embodiment of this spirit | 34:00 | |
and catching up the prayer that represented his spirit. | 34:07 | |
750 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi caught up in his life, | 34:13 | |
the themes of our meditation this morning. | 34:23 | |
The steadfastness and self-giving devotion of Jesus | 34:26 | |
and of those who follow him, | 34:32 | |
but the joy involve of the man for others | 34:34 | |
and his discovery of true life. | 34:40 | |
Caught up by the same text we read this morning, | 34:47 | |
Francis gave up his comfortable circumstances and easy way | 34:52 | |
for that remarkable investment of his life | 34:58 | |
in the life of others, | 35:02 | |
that is in shrine, | 35:05 | |
not only in the great Franciscan order, | 35:06 | |
but in this prayer. | 35:09 | |
Oh Lord, our Christ may we have thy mind and thy spirit, | 35:13 | |
make us instruments of thy peace, | 35:20 | |
where there is hatred let us soul love, | 35:25 | |
where there is injury, pardon, | 35:30 | |
where there is discord, union. | 35:34 | |
Where there is doubt, faith, | 35:38 | |
where there is despair, hope, | 35:41 | |
where there is darkness, light, | 35:45 | |
where there is sadness, joy. | 35:48 | |
Oh, divine master grant that we may not so much seek | 35:52 | |
to be consoled as to console, | 35:56 | |
to be understood as to understand, | 36:00 | |
to be loved as to love, | 36:04 | |
for it is in giving that we receive, | 36:07 | |
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, | 36:10 | |
and is it in dying that we are born to eternal life, amen. | 36:14 | |
So prayed St. Francis. | 36:19 | |
Is it possible for us to pray that prayer? | 36:23 | |
or is this one of those rare surfacings | 36:32 | |
in the long history of the church, | 36:37 | |
of that bullion spirit of Jesus Christ, | 36:40 | |
seldom seen, little seen, little effective. | 36:43 | |
If this were true, we would disparity, | 36:52 | |
but would you let me refresh my spirit and perhaps yours | 36:56 | |
by recalling some more recent instances than 750 years ago. | 37:01 | |
And perhaps it's a good strategy to go some distance | 37:08 | |
from Durham and think of people we cannot name. | 37:12 | |
So I will call to instance, | 37:17 | |
several people I met during a trip in Latin America. | 37:21 | |
Here was the Roman Catholic Franciscan lay brother | 37:27 | |
who joyously and sensitively wandered around the streets | 37:35 | |
of the Nicaraguan Town and played with the youngsters | 37:42 | |
and visited the aged, | 37:48 | |
and bury the dead, and brought healing to the sick, | 37:52 | |
and joy to those he met, a Christian brother. | 38:00 | |
He was a retired but not so retired missionary nurse | 38:09 | |
past 75, | 38:17 | |
who 50 years ago was riding mule back over the mountains, | 38:20 | |
up through eight and 9,000 feet | 38:26 | |
to serve as a nurse, | 38:31 | |
to people who had no other recourse in their illness, | 38:34 | |
and no long past retirement | 38:39 | |
and living in a kind of glorious sunset period of her life. | 38:42 | |
She's tutoring little children | 38:50 | |
and bathing and caring for aged people. | 38:53 | |
And here was a young pastor, | 39:00 | |
a (indistinct) India whose language I couldn't understand, | 39:04 | |
but whose spirit I could not miss. | 39:11 | |
As he graciously, encouragingly lovingly worked | 39:15 | |
with youngsters and gathered boys around. | 39:22 | |
As he preached and taught with sensitivity | 39:27 | |
and genuine communication of a spirit | 39:35 | |
that went beyond the words of the language | 39:40 | |
I did not know. | 39:44 | |
Or here was a postman from this country | 39:48 | |
taking a month's accumulated vacation | 39:55 | |
to fly down to a distant mission field, | 39:59 | |
to spend his time and glad giving of service | 40:04 | |
in building a new clinic for the hospital. | 40:08 | |
And then here was a letter just this week | 40:17 | |
from one of our students in a distance city | 40:22 | |
who had discovered more than ever before the vitality, | 40:28 | |
the power and the joy | 40:34 | |
of a ministering Christian congregation, | 40:38 | |
where all are a part of one another and of their Lord | 40:42 | |
and the body of Christ is real in that community. | 40:47 | |
Not only for the members of the body, | 40:52 | |
but for those it serves. | 40:55 | |
These are few among many possible instances | 40:59 | |
of the flowering of that spirit in all time. | 41:05 | |
And if you and I could search our hearts | 41:10 | |
and know the spirit of those sitting next to us in the Pune, | 41:14 | |
undoubtedly, you would find there too. | 41:20 | |
Some yearning, some deep will to be like that, | 41:24 | |
bound and limited, held back | 41:35 | |
by our fearful and anxious resistances, | 41:40 | |
tutored in the selfish ways of our world and our culture | 41:48 | |
and having plenty of talent for inventing such ways | 41:56 | |
even on tutoring, we nevertheless | 42:00 | |
or somehow leave hold off by that spirit. | 42:04 | |
Indeed, to test that fact, | 42:11 | |
suppose we were to take this prayer of St. Francis | 42:15 | |
read a moment ago and try revision, | 42:18 | |
let us first try to revise it in terms | 42:24 | |
of an egoistic pleasure seeking person. | 42:28 | |
And so we begin, oh Lord our Christ, | 42:38 | |
may we have thy mind and thy spirit, | 42:41 | |
make us instruments of thy peace, | 42:47 | |
where there is hatred, let us sow what? | 42:52 | |
Sternness, rejection, control. | 42:59 | |
Where there is injury, let us sow what? | 43:06 | |
Squelching, put down, resistance. | 43:12 | |
Where there is discord, what? | 43:20 | |
Separation, alienation. | 43:25 | |
Well, you see it doesn't work. | 43:29 | |
We can't pray that prayer, | 43:32 | |
in an egocentric way. | 43:38 | |
Perhaps we could shift just a little | 43:41 | |
and propose it with a subtler egoism. | 43:44 | |
Where there is hatred, let us sow kind of understanding | 43:52 | |
that credit's our ability to bring rapport. | 44:00 | |
Where there is injury let us do something | 44:07 | |
that will make people value our help. | 44:11 | |
Where are there is discord, | 44:17 | |
let us invite a reorientation toward us | 44:21 | |
as centers of power. | 44:27 | |
Where are there is doubt, | 44:30 | |
let us give the word on our authority | 44:33 | |
that doesn't work either, doesn't it? | 44:39 | |
This subtler egoism to which we often retreat | 44:42 | |
when afraid of its stark or brand is not what we wanted. | 44:48 | |
Indeed do we not come back in our heart of hearts | 44:54 | |
to the aspiration represented | 45:01 | |
in this Passion Sunday theme of the steadfastness | 45:04 | |
and the spontaneity of Jesus Christ, | 45:10 | |
or to it's cropping out in this prayer Francis, | 45:15 | |
let us again, pray. | 45:20 | |
Oh Lord our Christ, | 45:23 | |
may we have thy mind and thy spirit, | 45:26 | |
make us instruments of thy peace. | 45:29 | |
Where there is hatred let us sow love, | 45:32 | |
where there is injury, pardon. | 45:36 | |
Where there's discord, union. | 45:39 | |
Where there is doubt, faith. | 45:42 | |
Where there is despair, hope. | 45:45 | |
Where there is darkness, light. | 45:48 | |
Where there is sadness, joy, amen. | 45:51 | |
(soft music) | 45:58 | |
(indistinct) | 46:32 | |
(soft music) | 49:15 | |
(indistinct) | 50:36 | |
(soft music) | 53:55 | |
- | Oh God, father of all mercies | 55:14 |
receive this offering which we present to thee | 55:18 | |
as part of our worship. | 55:22 | |
May these gifts be the symbol of our consecration unto thee | 55:25 | |
and to thy son, Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 55:30 | |
Now onto God's gracious, mercy and protection | 55:41 | |
do I commit you, | 55:44 | |
may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly, | 55:47 | |
may he keep you strong and tranquil | 55:52 | |
in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 55:56 | |
(soft music) | 56:03 | |
(bell dings) | 56:34 | |
(soft music) | 56:55 |