Hugh Anderson - "Godly Laughter" (April 27, 1975)
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| - | Good morning. | 0:11 |
| The Duke Chapel would like to welcome all of you | 0:14 | |
| to the special music presentation this morning | 0:17 | |
| by Al Carmines. | 0:20 | |
| He's going to be playing some of the new hymns | 0:22 | |
| he has composed until 11 o'clock. | 0:25 | |
| I think you would probably be more comfortable some | 0:29 | |
| of you if you would like to come forward to hear him, | 0:31 | |
| Mr. Carmines has come down to help the parish ministry staff | 0:35 | |
| and also the Council for Religion and Art work out | 0:40 | |
| some possibilities, the innovations in the area of worship. | 0:44 | |
| He is a man who's very talented | 0:49 | |
| and has a great deal of expertise in this area. | 0:51 | |
| So right now, we got to offer you his talents | 0:54 | |
| as a musician. | 0:58 | |
| - | I'm happy to be with you this morning. | 1:07 |
| The hymns I'm gonna be using are | 1:10 | |
| from a hymn book called Go to Galilee | 1:12 | |
| which consists of 12 hymns | 1:14 | |
| which I wrote for modern worship and which was brought out | 1:18 | |
| by the Methodist Women's Organization | 1:23 | |
| and can be obtained through the Methodist Bookstore | 1:26 | |
| in case any of you interested in that book. | 1:29 | |
| It's called Go to Galilee | 1:31 | |
| and it's 12 songs that come from plays and worship services | 1:33 | |
| which I have tried to put together to enable people to sing | 1:36 | |
| and worship in a way that is contemporary | 1:41 | |
| and relevant to their lives at least as I see it. | 1:44 | |
| The first hymn I wanna do for you is a hymn that comes out | 1:48 | |
| of a genuine experience of mine. | 1:51 | |
| People often are a little romantic | 1:55 | |
| about the way composers work and they think | 1:57 | |
| that you always have a very overpowering experience, | 1:59 | |
| then you compose a song. | 2:03 | |
| It's often much more prosaic than that | 2:04 | |
| and really has to do with getting at a desk and sitting down | 2:06 | |
| and working very hard. | 2:09 | |
| But this song did come from a religious experience of mine | 2:12 | |
| and it's called Go to Galilee. | 2:17 | |
| When I was a child, | 2:19 | |
| I grew up in a very devoted household | 2:20 | |
| and my mother would always say to me | 2:24 | |
| when I would go on a visit someplace, | 2:25 | |
| take Jesus with you. | 2:28 | |
| And then when I was 10 years old, | 2:30 | |
| having been an only child for 10 years, | 2:32 | |
| a baby brother was born into my household. | 2:35 | |
| And as I became a teenager | 2:38 | |
| and he began to be three and four and five, | 2:40 | |
| she would say to me when I go out, | 2:42 | |
| "Take your little brother with you." | 2:44 | |
| And I began to resent both Jesus and my little brother | 2:46 | |
| because I had to take them with me every place. | 2:49 | |
| I was reading the scriptures for an Easter sermon | 2:52 | |
| in about six years ago. | 2:55 | |
| And I was reading the passage where the women come | 2:58 | |
| to the tomb and the angel says to the women, | 3:01 | |
| "He is risen, He is not here. | 3:05 | |
| He has gone ahead of you to Galilee, | 3:08 | |
| go to Galilee and there you will find Him." | 3:10 | |
| And it suddenly occurred to me, | 3:14 | |
| I think for the first time in my life | 3:15 | |
| that perhaps our responsibility need to catch up | 3:18 | |
| with what Jesus is already doing | 3:22 | |
| rather than to have the feeling | 3:25 | |
| that we have to drag him with us wherever we go. | 3:27 | |
| Jesus was out there working, | 3:30 | |
| doing those things that have to do with his kingdom | 3:33 | |
| and our job is to run as fast as we can | 3:36 | |
| to become part of that ministry, | 3:38 | |
| and not to somehow have this feeling that he's a burden | 3:40 | |
| on our lives that we have to somehow haul along. | 3:43 | |
| And that revelation was great the least for me | 3:47 | |
| and this song came out of it. | 3:50 | |
| It's a very rhythmical kind of rock, kind of beat, | 3:51 | |
| but the words have to do with that understanding | 3:56 | |
| of the Ministry of Christ | 3:58 | |
| and honestly we have to really catch up with him. | 4:00 | |
| Paul Rounsaville who's a graduate of Union Seminary | 4:02 | |
| and has been in many of my plays | 4:05 | |
| and on the staff of our church | 4:07 | |
| at Judson Church in New York City | 4:08 | |
| is gonna sing that song with me. | 4:11 | |
| And the chorus is very simple | 4:13 | |
| and I think you'll be able to pick it up, | 4:14 | |
| but we'll do a couple of verses alone first. | 4:16 | |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 4:36 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 4:38 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 4:41 | |
| ♪ Galilee ♪ | 4:45 | |
| ♪ That's where you'll find him ♪ | 4:47 | |
| ♪ He couldn't stay here he's too busy ♪ | 4:49 | |
| ♪ You will find him where he actually his ♪ | 4:52 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead to Galilee ♪ | 4:54 | |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 5:00 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 5:02 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 5:04 | |
| ♪ Galilee ♪ | 5:09 | |
| ♪ That's where you'll find him ♪ | 5:11 | |
| ♪ With things to say and things to do ♪ | 5:13 | |
| ♪ He couldn't wait around for you ♪ | 5:15 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead to Galilee ♪ | 5:18 | |
| - | Good, now you know kind of how the chorus goes. | 5:22 |
| The first requirement for any group singing | 5:25 | |
| is to open your mouth. | 5:27 | |
| And the second requirement is not to care | 5:29 | |
| what your neighbor thinks about your voice. | 5:31 | |
| My roots are Methodist as perhaps many of yours are, | 5:34 | |
| they call us shouting Methodist | 5:38 | |
| but we've become whispering Methodist for the most part. | 5:39 | |
| And I think we need to learn to sing again. | 5:42 | |
| One way to learn to sing | 5:44 | |
| is to really sing and sing to God | 5:46 | |
| and not care what your wife or husband | 5:48 | |
| or child thinks about your voice | 5:50 | |
| because you're singing to worship God all mighty. | 5:52 | |
| This course is very simple, | 5:55 | |
| I think you can pick it up fairly quickly and let's see | 5:57 | |
| what we can do with just those few lines, | 6:00 | |
| go to Galilee, there you'll find him. | 6:02 | |
| He's gone ahead of you to Galilee. | 6:04 | |
| Just those four lines, let's try that. | 6:06 | |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 6:08 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 6:11 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 6:13 | |
| - | Good, that was pretty good, | 6:16 |
| let's try it one more time now. | 6:18 | |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 6:21 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 6:24 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 6:26 | |
| - | Good, now Paul and I will do the verses | 6:30 |
| and you come in on the chorus please with us. | 6:33 | |
| Let's take it from... | 6:36 | |
| We'll do a chorus then we'll do the third verse Paul. | 6:38 | |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 6:40 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 6:43 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 6:45 | |
| ♪ Galilee ♪ | 6:49 | |
| ♪ That's where you'll find him ♪ | 6:51 | |
| ♪ This garden has a lovely view ♪ | 6:53 | |
| ♪ But Galilee has neater view ♪ | 6:56 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead to Galilee ♪ | 6:58 | |
| - | All right Paul. | 7:02 |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 7:04 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 7:06 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 7:08 | |
| ♪ Galilee ♪ | 7:12 | |
| ♪ That's where you'll find him ♪ | 7:14 | |
| ♪ Don't even stay the drop of fear ♪ | 7:16 | |
| ♪ You can't ever see him, he's not here ♪ | 7:18 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead ♪ | 7:21 | |
| ♪ Look out of here ♪ | 7:23 | |
| - | One more chore. | 7:24 |
| ♪ Go to Galilee ♪ | 7:26 | |
| ♪ There you'll find him ♪ | 7:28 | |
| ♪ He's gone ahead of you to Galilee ♪ | 7:30 | |
| - | Good. | 7:37 |
| Well, I can begin to hear you at this point. | 7:38 | |
| I'm gonna work with another song that comes | 7:43 | |
| from the Song of Songs in the Bible. | 7:46 | |
| It's called Many Waters Cannot Quench Love. | 7:49 | |
| The song comes from an opera called the Song of Solomon | 7:53 | |
| which I wrote several years ago. | 7:59 | |
| What pages is that? | 8:03 | |
| Four, no (indistinct). | 8:04 | |
| Let's see if we can find it here. | 8:05 | |
| There it is. | 8:10 | |
| And the words are very simple, | 8:12 | |
| many waters cannot quench love, | 8:13 | |
| that's all you need to know at this point | 8:14 | |
| and then we'll add a few words later. | 8:16 | |
| And the chorus goes like this, | 8:18 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 8:21 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 8:27 | |
| - | Good, let's try that together please. | 8:34 |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 8:36 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 8:43 | |
| - | Good, now there is a second part to that, | 8:49 |
| that goes like this. | 8:52 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 8:53 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 8:58 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 9:01 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 9:04 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 9:08 | |
| And when I used to teach this song, | 9:11 | |
| I would say the women sing the melody | 9:12 | |
| and the men sing the low part, the low voices. | 9:15 | |
| And then a woman spoke to me after a session | 9:19 | |
| and she said, "I think that's a sexist remark." | 9:22 | |
| She said, "Some women have low voices too | 9:25 | |
| and we like to sing low also, | 9:27 | |
| don't just assume that we all have high voices." | 9:29 | |
| So from then on I said all right, | 9:31 | |
| high voices, tenors and sopranos sing the melody | 9:33 | |
| and altos and basses can sing the part | 9:36 | |
| that comes after that. | 9:38 | |
| So we who sing the melody sing | 9:40 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 9:42 | |
| And when we hit love, | 9:47 | |
| you low voice people sing, | 9:48 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 9:50 | |
| And the second time you go very low. | 9:53 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 9:55 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 9:58 | |
| Like that, all right. | 10:01 | |
| Paul you lead the high voices in the melody | 10:03 | |
| and I'll lead the low voices in the obligato. | 10:04 | |
| - | All right here we go | 10:08 |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 10:10 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 10:14 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 10:17 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 10:21 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 10:24 | |
| - | Now, low voices we need a little more from you. | 10:28 |
| You all seem to think you're high voices | 10:30 | |
| and I know you're not. | 10:32 | |
| So those of you who normally don't sing | 10:32 | |
| because you sing down like this, | 10:36 | |
| you can sing that part with me, this time. | 10:37 | |
| Let's do it one more time please | 10:40 | |
| and I think I'll just be very arbitrary and tyrannical. | 10:41 | |
| everybody on this side sing the melody with Paul | 10:45 | |
| and you people please sing the low part | 10:47 | |
| with me on the obligato. | 10:49 | |
| So we sing, | 10:51 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 10:52 | |
| Watch my mouth when I open it, you come in with me. | 10:55 | |
| Paul, lead them. | 10:57 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 11:00 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:04 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 11:07 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:10 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:14 | |
| ♪ Love is stronger than death ♪ | 11:17 | |
| ♪ Jealousy is cruel as the grave ♪ | 11:24 | |
| ♪ Love, is strong as death ♪ | 11:30 | |
| - | Chorus. | 11:34 |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 11:35 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:39 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 11:42 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:46 | |
| ♪ Neither can the floods drown it ♪ | 11:49 | |
| - | What time is it now? | 11:55 |
| I think we got time to do one song for you, | 11:59 | |
| which is the hymn... | 12:02 | |
| Which I wrote for the Cincinnati Convention | 12:04 | |
| of Methodist Women. | 12:06 | |
| And it's a hymn that means a great deal to me and it's theme | 12:08 | |
| because when I first became a pastor in Greenwich Village, | 12:11 | |
| I assumed that all the situations | 12:17 | |
| there would be very different from situations I had known | 12:19 | |
| that all the problems would be exotic | 12:22 | |
| and that the people would be totally different | 12:25 | |
| than the people I grew up with in Virginia, | 12:27 | |
| or had worked with in the suburbs when I was in seminary. | 12:29 | |
| And one of the first things I learned of course | 12:33 | |
| is that though people may dress different | 12:35 | |
| and have a different style of language, | 12:37 | |
| the human problems that people face | 12:40 | |
| are the same all over every place. | 12:43 | |
| And I learned two things in that first year | 12:46 | |
| in Greenwich Village. | 12:48 | |
| One was that their problems | 12:50 | |
| were the same as human problems every place | 12:53 | |
| and the second one was like on to it | 12:56 | |
| that all the people I had thought were so normal | 12:59 | |
| when I was growing up were very exotic indeed | 13:01 | |
| as exotic as the people in Greenwich Village. | 13:04 | |
| That our idea of what normality is derived from our fantasy | 13:07 | |
| and not from reality, | 13:12 | |
| that none of us are normal deep down, thank God. | 13:13 | |
| And so this is a song called Many Gifts, One Spirit. | 13:17 | |
| And I suppose that being a composer and a writer, | 13:22 | |
| being an artist and working in theater, | 13:28 | |
| what means most to me as a Christian is the tolerance | 13:31 | |
| for diversity that I find faith in Christ gives to me. | 13:38 | |
| I think the hardest thing for all of us is to learn to love | 13:43 | |
| in a way that allows the other person to be different. | 13:48 | |
| Because I think we're all terribly caught up in trying | 13:51 | |
| to make copies of ourself in this world. | 13:55 | |
| And when I first went to the Village to be a pastor, | 13:58 | |
| I remember trying very hard to get everyone | 14:01 | |
| to like the theologians I like, to speak about God as I did | 14:05 | |
| and to turn them into kind of copies of myself | 14:09 | |
| and God had to teach me a very hard lesson, | 14:14 | |
| that it was possible to be quite different from me | 14:18 | |
| and be a disciple and a lover of Jesus Christ and God. | 14:21 | |
| And that learning about diversity has finally been | 14:27 | |
| the richest experience of my life | 14:32 | |
| because it's enabled me to look at people | 14:35 | |
| who are terribly different and believe | 14:37 | |
| that there's a wisdom they can give me without trying | 14:40 | |
| to turn them into something that I think they ought to be. | 14:42 | |
| So this hymn is about that. | 14:46 | |
| It's Many gifts, One Spirit, once it comes | 14:48 | |
| from Pote's great description of the ministry of the church. | 14:51 | |
| ♪ God of change and glory ♪ | 15:03 | |
| ♪ God of time and space ♪ | 15:07 | |
| ♪ When we hear the future ♪ | 15:10 | |
| ♪ Give to us your grace ♪ | 15:14 | |
| ♪ In the midst of changing ways ♪ | 15:17 | |
| ♪ Give us still the grace to praise ♪ | 15:21 | |
| ♪ Many gifts, one spirit ♪ | 15:26 | |
| ♪ One love known in many ways ♪ | 15:29 | |
| ♪ In our difference is blessing ♪ | 15:33 | |
| ♪ From diversity we praise ♪ | 15:36 | |
| ♪ One giver, one Lord, ♪ | 15:40 | |
| ♪ One spirit, one word ♪ | 15:43 | |
| ♪ Known in many ways ♪ | 15:47 | |
| ♪ Hallowing our days ♪ | 15:50 | |
| ♪ For the giver, for the gifts ♪ | 15:54 | |
| ♪ Praise, praise, praise ♪ | 15:57 | |
| ♪ God of many colors ♪ | 16:01 | |
| ♪ God of many signs ♪ | 16:05 | |
| ♪ You have made us different ♪ | 16:08 | |
| ♪ Blessing many kinds ♪ | 16:11 | |
| ♪ As the old ways disappear ♪ | 16:15 | |
| ♪ Let your love cast out our fear ♪ | 16:19 | |
| ♪ Many gifts, one spirit ♪ | 16:24 | |
| ♪ One love known in many ways ♪ | 16:27 | |
| ♪ In our difference is blessing, ♪ | 16:31 | |
| ♪ From diversity we praise ♪ | 16:34 | |
| ♪ One giver, one Lord, ♪ | 16:38 | |
| ♪ One spirit, one word ♪ | 16:41 | |
| ♪ Known in many ways ♪ | 16:45 | |
| ♪ Hallowing our days ♪ | 16:48 | |
| ♪ For the giver, for the gifts ♪ | 16:52 | |
| ♪ Praise, praise, praise ♪ | 16:55 | |
| - | Well, I want us to try one more chorus together. | 17:04 |
| And then after the service, those of you who can stay, | 17:07 | |
| we'll try to learn a few more songs together perhaps do | 17:10 | |
| a few more hymns for you. | 17:12 | |
| This is from again, | 17:14 | |
| from the resurrection story where Jesus says | 17:16 | |
| to the disciples, "Ye are witnesses." | 17:18 | |
| And when I was writing this song | 17:22 | |
| for the first time I think it occurred to me | 17:25 | |
| that the word witness not only means | 17:28 | |
| to tell what you've seen, | 17:30 | |
| but also means see, | 17:32 | |
| to witness something is to see it. | 17:34 | |
| And I suppose the most important sentence ever uttered to me | 17:37 | |
| when I was in seminary was uttered by Reinhold Niebuhr, | 17:41 | |
| the great theologian who said in one class, | 17:45 | |
| "Never deny something that you know is true | 17:49 | |
| because of your religious faith. | 17:54 | |
| Because if your faith cannot handle what you see to be true, | 17:56 | |
| your faith is not big enough to handle you." | 18:02 | |
| And being in a city and ministering in a city | 18:06 | |
| and seeing many things that are difficult, | 18:10 | |
| his words have often given me comfort | 18:14 | |
| because there have been times when I've been tempted to say, | 18:16 | |
| I don't see that simply in order to hold on to my faith. | 18:20 | |
| And his words that faith is big enough | 18:25 | |
| to handle whatever we know is true, | 18:27 | |
| whatever we truly see, whatever we truly feel | 18:29 | |
| has enabled me to believe at times | 18:33 | |
| when I might have given up because of a smaller faith. | 18:36 | |
| So, this is a song called Dear Witnesses, | 18:40 | |
| Witnesses of These Things. | 18:43 | |
| And for me it means not only witnesses of the works of God, | 18:44 | |
| but witnesses of all that we see in life in creation | 18:48 | |
| as well as in recreation. | 18:51 | |
| It's first simple to learn | 18:53 | |
| and I think you can learn it fairly quickly. | 18:55 | |
| ♪ And you are witnesses ♪ | 18:59 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:01 | |
| ♪ And you are witnesses ♪ | 19:04 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:06 | |
| ♪ Repentance and remission of sin ♪ | 19:09 | |
| ♪ Should be preached in his name ♪ | 19:12 | |
| ♪ And you are witnesses ♪ | 19:15 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:17 | |
| - | All right, now don't be afraid of that rhythm, | 19:21 |
| just get a little thing for patient in you | 19:23 | |
| before the service, you can even pat your foot | 19:24 | |
| if you'd like to. | 19:27 | |
| And let's try those first two lines | 19:28 | |
| and you're witnesses. | 19:29 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 19:32 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:34 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 19:37 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:39 | |
| - | All right, that's pretty good. | 19:42 |
| Let's do it one more time please. | 19:43 | |
| Now remember, look straight ahead, | 19:45 | |
| don't look at the person next to you or behind you | 19:47 | |
| or in front of you. | 19:50 | |
| Look straight ahead, just look at me and sing. | 19:51 | |
| All right let's try. | 19:53 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 19:55 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 19:57 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 20:00 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 20:02 | |
| ♪ Repentance and remission of sin ♪ | 20:05 | |
| ♪ Should be preached in his name ♪ | 20:08 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 20:11 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 20:13 | |
| - | Good, let's try that one more time, one more time. | 20:15 |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 20:20 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 20:22 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 20:25 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 20:28 | |
| ♪ Repentance and remission of sin ♪ | 20:30 | |
| ♪ Should be preached in his name ♪ | 20:33 | |
| ♪ And you're witnesses ♪ | 20:36 | |
| ♪ Witnesses of these things ♪ | 20:38 | |
| - | Thank you very much. | 20:43 |
| There's a second part to that and those of you | 20:44 | |
| who can stay after the service will learn that part also. | 20:46 | |
| (congregation applauds) | 20:50 | |
| (upbeat music) | 28:55 | |
| Well, you're a (indistinct). | 29:08 | |
| - | No, I don't know it's name. | 29:12 |
| (indistinct) | 29:15 | |
| - | What is your name, my name is Carmine (indistinct). | 29:21 |
| - | Robin. | 29:23 |
| - | Robin, are you a pianist? | 29:24 |
| (crowd laughing) | 29:26 | |
| - | You're gonna be a future pianist that's obvious. | 29:27 |
| Queen pianist. | 29:30 | |
| (crowd murmuring) | 29:32 | |
| I don't know if this is on. | 29:52 | |
| I don't know think this is on yet. | 29:56 | |
| - | It's on, it's on. | 30:00 |
| - | It is, it's alright. | 30:01 |
| I can hear it. | 30:03 | |
| Perhaps we could begin by repeating one of the songs | 30:05 | |
| we learned earlier, | 30:09 | |
| those of you that remember it. | 30:10 | |
| Let's repeat the Many Waters Cannot Quench Love | 30:13 | |
| and then we'll get into a new one. | 30:16 | |
| - | All right. | 30:17 |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 30:25 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 30:31 | |
| - | One more time please. | 30:37 |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 30:39 | |
| ♪ Many waters cannot quench love ♪ | 30:46 | |
| - | I was very moved and interested to see the dance | 30:59 |
| in the service today. | 31:02 | |
| My church in New York, we use a great deal of dance | 31:04 | |
| in our service and it has meant a lot to us. | 31:08 | |
| But I always remember our discomfort oftentimes with dance | 31:11 | |
| and I remember my own discomfort with it | 31:15 | |
| when we first began using it in our service, | 31:18 | |
| I think we and the protestant, | 31:21 | |
| particularly the Methodist tradition have a hangover | 31:22 | |
| of puritanical guilt about dance | 31:25 | |
| that it's hard to get over. | 31:27 | |
| My grandmother was a great old Methodist saint I think. | 31:29 | |
| But she never understood how I could go to junior | 31:34 | |
| and senior proms and dances at school | 31:36 | |
| and still wanna go into the ministry. | 31:39 | |
| She thought they didn't work together. | 31:41 | |
| Finally, on my last senior prom | 31:43 | |
| I went to the door and she stopped me. | 31:46 | |
| She grabbed me by the wrist and she said, | 31:48 | |
| "Alvin, don't forget a praying knee | 31:50 | |
| and a dancing foot never grew on the same leg." | 31:52 | |
| And then she let me wander off. | 31:55 | |
| So I think a lot of us have that, | 31:58 | |
| the kind of feeling slightly we think we're liberated, | 31:59 | |
| but we're a little terrified of it. | 32:02 | |
| This is a song which I wrote really to celebrate what dance | 32:04 | |
| and what the arts had done for our worship at our church | 32:09 | |
| because what they had done for us essentially, | 32:11 | |
| was to liberate us from thinking everything had to be spoken | 32:14 | |
| or everything had to be conceptual | 32:19 | |
| or everything had to be rationalized or verbalized. | 32:21 | |
| And it's a song about faith | 32:24 | |
| that sometimes takes the form of movement rather than words. | 32:26 | |
| Called Faith Is Such a Simple Thing. | 32:34 | |
| ♪ Faith is such as a simple thing ♪ | 32:47 | |
| ♪ It can't fall but only sings ♪ | 32:51 | |
| ♪ It can't reason but can dance ♪ | 32:55 | |
| ♪ Take a chance, take a chance ♪ | 32:58 | |
| ♪ Life is full of ways to go ♪ | 33:02 | |
| ♪ Sun, rain, wind, snow ♪ | 33:05 | |
| ♪ All unknowingly we trace ♪ | 33:10 | |
| ♪ A geography a grace ♪ | 33:13 | |
| ♪ From breath to breath and blink to blink ♪ | 33:16 | |
| ♪ It's never quite the way we think ♪ | 33:20 | |
| - | We were looking a few years ago | 33:28 |
| for a play to do about peace. | 33:29 | |
| And I sent out a call for scripts to be sent to the church | 33:33 | |
| and I must've read about 200 play about the theme of peace. | 33:38 | |
| And a lot of them were on the side | 33:43 | |
| of the angels in terms of their desires | 33:46 | |
| but as plays they were terrible. | 33:49 | |
| They were sermons set to drama, | 33:52 | |
| they were not really plays. | 33:54 | |
| And I kept reading and reading and finally I came across one | 33:56 | |
| that I thought was a marvelous play. | 34:00 | |
| The name of it was Peace, | 34:03 | |
| and it was a celebration of peace. | 34:05 | |
| It had joy, it had humor, it had satire, | 34:07 | |
| it had passionate hatred for war | 34:10 | |
| and a passionate love for peace. | 34:13 | |
| And I thought, this is a brilliant, wonderful play. | 34:15 | |
| And I had read the title page very cursorily, | 34:18 | |
| so I went back to see who had written it, | 34:21 | |
| so I could write the person a letter and say, | 34:23 | |
| we want to do your play. | 34:25 | |
| And the title page said Peace by Aristophanes, | 34:27 | |
| translated by Timothy Reynolds. | 34:31 | |
| And the play was a play | 34:34 | |
| that had been written 2,500 years ago | 34:35 | |
| to celebrate the end of a war between Athens and Sparta. | 34:39 | |
| And it was humbling for me and good for me | 34:43 | |
| because I think many times we think | 34:47 | |
| we moderns have discovered all the 'causes | 34:49 | |
| and all the passions. | 34:52 | |
| And the people who lived before us never had the feelings | 34:53 | |
| we have about peace or war or justice or love or hunger. | 34:55 | |
| And to discover this man who lived so long ago | 35:02 | |
| and his passionate love for peace was very moving for me. | 35:06 | |
| This is a song from that play. | 35:11 | |
| In the play, Aristophanes has a poem about the fact that | 35:14 | |
| when peace comes, the earth will be fruitful again. | 35:18 | |
| And walking on your campus this morning | 35:21 | |
| I felt close to that particular song. | 35:23 | |
| And he has a line that he repeats several times. | 35:25 | |
| He says, you'll look at the sky and nothing | 35:29 | |
| but water will be coming out of the sky. | 35:32 | |
| He thought of the flaming arrows and we think | 35:36 | |
| of more awful things, but he said, | 35:38 | |
| "When peace comes nothing | 35:40 | |
| but rain will be there to disturb you." | 35:42 | |
| And this is a song which I'd like us all to learn the chorus | 35:44 | |
| of but Paul and I will sing it through. | 35:49 | |
| From that play written by Aristophanes's 2,500 years ago, | 35:51 | |
| Things Starting to Grow Again. | 35:58 | |
| ♪ Things starting to grow again ♪ | 36:09 | |
| ♪ Blackbirds and mockingbird sing again ♪ | 36:14 | |
| ♪ And nothing but water, nothing but water ♪ | 36:18 | |
| ♪ Falling out of the sky ♪ | 36:23 | |
| ♪ Oh fig, pick big bunches ♪ | 36:27 | |
| ♪ Oh fig from the vine ♪ | 36:31 | |
| ♪ Oh sweet wine, sweet wine, sweet wine ♪ | 36:35 | |
| ♪ Wells of clear water ♪ | 36:42 | |
| ♪ Wells of clear water ♪ | 36:45 | |
| ♪ The olives we missed so much, so much ♪ | 36:47 | |
| ♪ So much ♪ | 36:52 | |
| ♪ Things starting to grow again ♪ | 36:55 | |
| ♪ Blackbirds and mockingbird sing again ♪ | 36:59 | |
| ♪ And nothing but water, nothing but water ♪ | 37:03 | |
| ♪ Falling out of the sky ♪ | 37:08 | |
| - | Now that song is in 3/4 time and we tried | 37:12 |
| to sing it once I remember on a peace march | 37:16 | |
| and ended up waltzing of course instead of marching | 37:18 | |
| because it's 3/4 time rather than four 1/4. | 37:20 | |
| But it's a song that... | 37:24 | |
| It's a song that celebrates nature and when so many | 37:26 | |
| of our hymns are so humanly oriented, | 37:29 | |
| we're all practically human chauvinist pigs you know. | 37:31 | |
| It's a wonderful thing to celebrate for me at least some | 37:34 | |
| of the other elements of life besides our own humanity. | 37:39 | |
| And this is a song that sings about birds and nature. | 37:42 | |
| And I think we can sing it fairly easily. | 37:48 | |
| We'll do that chorus for you one more time in a major key. | 37:51 | |
| ♪ Things starting to grow again ♪ | 37:54 | |
| ♪ Blackbirds and mockingbird sing again ♪ | 37:58 | |
| ♪ And nothing but water, nothing but water ♪ | 38:03 | |
| ♪ Falling out of the sky ♪ | 38:08 | |
| - | Let's try. | 38:11 |
| ♪ Things starting to grow again ♪ | 38:12 | |
| - | Blackbirds and mockingbird. | 38:15 |
| ♪ Blackbirds and mockingbird sing again ♪ | 38:17 | |
| - | Starting with water | 38:20 |
| ♪ And nothing but water, nothing but water ♪ | 38:21 | |
| ♪ Falling out of the sky ♪ | 38:26 | |
| - | One more time. | 38:28 |
| ♪ Things starting to grow again ♪ | 38:30 | |
| ♪ Blackbirds and mockingbird sing again ♪ | 38:34 | |
| ♪ And nothing but water, nothing but water ♪ | 38:39 | |
| ♪ Falling out of the sky ♪ | 38:44 | |
| - | I'd like to do one last song for you | 38:50 |
| because it's a song that has to do with an attempt | 38:52 | |
| to talk about the kingdom of God in terms of the city. | 38:58 | |
| One of the reasons we began to change our hymnody | 39:03 | |
| at Judson Church is that the children | 39:06 | |
| in our Sunday school began to ask us | 39:08 | |
| why we had so many hymns about sheep and pastures | 39:11 | |
| and no hymns about delicatessens and subways | 39:14 | |
| and the things that they experienced every day. | 39:17 | |
| And they had come to think that religion and hymns were | 39:20 | |
| for people who live in the country | 39:24 | |
| and not for children who live in the city | 39:25 | |
| because it never mentioned the things that they saw. | 39:27 | |
| So we began to try to write hymns that had to do with some | 39:30 | |
| of the things that were part of their life every day. | 39:33 | |
| And we did write hymns about delicatessens and about subways | 39:36 | |
| and various other things. | 39:40 | |
| This is a hymn called I Believe In A New World. | 39:42 | |
| And it's a hymn that we used for our Easter Service | 39:46 | |
| because we wanted to talk about the hope of Easter | 39:49 | |
| in terms of the future. | 39:53 | |
| It's a very kind of march like and marshal melody, | 39:55 | |
| and it's a little difficult to sing | 40:00 | |
| but Paul and I are gonna try it for you. | 40:02 | |
| And you'll notice some of the imagery comes | 40:04 | |
| from the city and some comes from the country. | 40:07 | |
| ♪ I believe in a new world ♪ | 40:17 | |
| ♪ I do, yes I do ♪ | 40:21 | |
| ♪ And I live in this cross ♪ | 40:24 | |
| ♪ That although everything I see may turn to dust ♪ | 40:28 | |
| ♪ We are moving ♪ | 40:33 | |
| ♪ Inexorably, inexorably, inexorably ♪ | 40:35 | |
| ♪ For the new world ♪ | 40:42 | |
| ♪ Our unjustice will be known by the same name ♪ | 40:46 | |
| ♪ And love will run in the streets ♪ | 40:53 | |
| ♪ Where only fragments run before ♪ | 40:57 | |
| ♪ Oh yes children ♪ | 41:00 | |
| ♪ We'll play the games of justice ♪ | 41:03 | |
| ♪ And love ♪ | 41:24 | |
| ♪ And a lamb will sing in the subway tunnel ♪ | 41:26 | |
| ♪ A lamb will sing in the subway tunnel ♪ | 41:30 | |
| ♪ Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa ♪ | 41:33 | |
| ♪ I believe in a new world ♪ | 41:40 | |
| ♪ I do, yes I do ♪ | 41:44 | |
| ♪ And I live in this cross ♪ | 41:48 | |
| ♪ That although everything I see may turn to dust ♪ | 41:52 | |
| ♪ We are moving ♪ | 41:56 | |
| ♪ Inexorably, inexorably, inexorably ♪ | 41:58 | |
| ♪ For the new world ♪ | 42:05 | |
| - | I think you could learn those first two lines | 42:10 |
| with us without much trouble. | 42:13 | |
| And definitely is, I believe in a new world, I do, yes I do, | 42:14 | |
| and I live in this cross. | 42:19 | |
| Let's do that march for you. | 42:21 | |
| ♪ I believe in a new world ♪ | 42:23 | |
| ♪ I do, yes I do ♪ | 42:27 | |
| ♪ And I live in this cross ♪ | 42:31 | |
| - | Good, that although everything I see may turn to dust, | 42:35 |
| we are moving inexorably three time | 42:39 | |
| for the new world so it goes. | 42:41 | |
| ♪ That although everything I see may turn to dust ♪ | 42:43 | |
| ♪ We are moving ♪ | 42:48 | |
| ♪ Inexorably, inexorably, inexorably ♪ | 42:51 | |
| ♪ For the new world ♪ | 42:58 | |
| - | That's very hard to move to a new world sitting down. | 43:03 |
| So let's try standing up and singing that for us one time. | 43:06 | |
| And I believe in a new world, I do, yes I do. | 43:09 | |
| And I live in this cross | 43:13 | |
| that though everything I see may turn to dust, | 43:15 | |
| we are moving inexorably, inexorably, | 43:18 | |
| inexorably toward a new world. | 43:21 | |
| ♪ I believe in a new world ♪ | 43:26 | |
| ♪ I do, yes I do ♪ | 43:30 | |
| ♪ And I live in this cross ♪ | 43:34 | |
| ♪ That although everything I see may turn to dust ♪ | 43:38 | |
| ♪ We are moving ♪ | 43:43 | |
| ♪ Inexorably, inexorably, inexorably ♪ | 43:46 | |
| ♪ For the new world ♪ | 43:54 | |
| - | While we close, let's do that one more time please, | 44:00 |
| we'll raise it half step. | 44:01 | |
| ♪ I believe in a new world ♪ | 44:06 | |
| ♪ I do, yes I do ♪ | 44:11 | |
| ♪ And I live in this cross ♪ | 44:15 | |
| ♪ That although everything I see may turn to dust ♪ | 44:19 | |
| ♪ We are moving ♪ | 44:24 | |
| ♪ Inexorably, inexorably, inexorably ♪ | 44:27 | |
| ♪ For the new world ♪ | 44:35 | |
| - | Thank you very much. | 44:43 |
| (crowd applauding) | 44:44 |
| - | Let us pray. | 0:07 |
| Oh God, | 0:10 | |
| God of the free life giving spirit, | 0:11 | |
| come now to this place and to us, your people | 0:15 | |
| and give us a new sense of freedom. | 0:19 | |
| Freedom, to be honest with ourselves | 0:23 | |
| and with everybody else. | 0:25 | |
| Freedom to be willing to lose everything, | 0:28 | |
| but our very souls. | 0:30 | |
| Freedom to trust you, oh God | 0:33 | |
| with the purity of a child's heart. | 0:35 | |
| Oh God free us to be who we really are, | 0:38 | |
| who we really want to be, | 0:43 | |
| our very best selves | 0:46 | |
| through Jesus Christ Our Lord. | 0:49 | |
| Amen. | 0:52 | |
| (orchestra music) | 0:54 | |
| (organ drowns out singing) | 2:13 | |
| - | When we fear, we need to feel God's presence. | 7:31 |
| When we are lonely and need love, | 7:38 | |
| we need to feel God near. | 7:40 | |
| When we hunger and thirst, | 7:44 | |
| it is God who can provide, | 7:45 | |
| when we are dismayed, it is God who can comfort. | 7:49 | |
| When we are astonished and bewildered and overwhelmed, | 7:54 | |
| it is God who can make | 7:57 | |
| the weak ground around us become firm. | 8:00 | |
| I invite you now to open yourself to God, | 8:05 | |
| give of yourself and receive God's presence | 8:09 | |
| as we pray together, this prayer of compassion. | 8:12 | |
| Forgive us, Oh God, | 8:18 | |
| for prayers spoken too easily. | 8:21 | |
| For words that run from our mouths like air, | 8:24 | |
| for hopes that pass like shadows over the face of life | 8:28 | |
| For gestures quickly made and quickly forgotten. | 8:33 | |
| For every act of worship done with the body, | 8:37 | |
| but not the soul. | 8:40 | |
| Forgive us our fear of the future. | 8:42 | |
| The unknown, the different, | 8:45 | |
| our clinging to the past, | 8:48 | |
| our lack of trust in you and your grace | 8:51 | |
| in this sacred place. | 8:55 | |
| Keep us silent until we are able to pray out of the depth, | 8:57 | |
| bend us to our knees by the weight of the world's agony | 9:02 | |
| and in your grace keep us in touch with you | 9:07 | |
| and your love that we may be obedient to you. | 9:10 | |
| Hear and receive this word. | 9:49 | |
| The Lord is our shepherd, | 9:54 | |
| we shall not want. | 9:59 | |
| Even though we walk through the valley, | 10:02 | |
| we shall not fear, | 10:06 | |
| for the Lord is with us, | 10:10 | |
| amen. | 10:14 | |
| (organ playing) | 10:24 | |
| The Lord has delivered us from the dominion of darkness | 10:45 | |
| and transferred us to the king of his beloved Son, | 10:52 | |
| in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins. | 10:56 | |
| The Lord is the image of the invisible God, | 11:04 | |
| the first born of all creation | 11:08 | |
| for in him, | 11:13 | |
| all thing were created in heaven and on earth, | 11:13 | |
| visible and invisible, | 11:18 | |
| where there are thrones or dominions | 11:21 | |
| or principalities or authorities, | 11:24 | |
| all things were created through him and for him. | 11:27 | |
| He is before all things | 11:34 | |
| and in him, all things hold together. | 11:37 | |
| He is the head of the body, the church, | 11:42 | |
| he is the beginning, | 11:46 | |
| the first born from the dead | 11:47 | |
| that in everything, he might be preeminent. | 11:50 | |
| For in him, all the fullness of God | 11:54 | |
| was pleased to dwell | 11:57 | |
| and through him to reconcile to himself, all things, | 12:00 | |
| whether on earth or in heaven, | 12:05 | |
| making peace by the blood of his cross. | 12:09 | |
| (choir singing) | 12:17 | |
| - | Please stand for the reading of the gospel. | 15:55 |
| The first lesson is found | 16:04 | |
| in Matthew 23:1-12 | 16:06 | |
| "Then said Jesus to the crowds | 16:11 | |
| and to his disciples | 16:13 | |
| the scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses's seat. | 16:15 | |
| So practice and observe whatever they tell you, | 16:19 | |
| but not what they do | 16:22 | |
| for they preach, but they do not practice. | 16:24 | |
| They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear | 16:27 | |
| and lay them on men's shoulders, | 16:30 | |
| but they themselves will not move them with their finger. | 16:33 | |
| They do all their deeds to be seen by men | 16:37 | |
| for they make their phylacteries broad | 16:40 | |
| and their fringes long. | 16:42 | |
| And they love the place of honor at feasts | 16:44 | |
| and the best seats in the synagogues | 16:48 | |
| and salutations in the market places | 16:50 | |
| and being called rabbi by men. | 16:53 | |
| But you are to be called rabbi for you have one teacher | 16:56 | |
| and you are all brethren. | 17:01 | |
| And call no man your father on earth | 17:03 | |
| for you have one father who is in heaven, | 17:06 | |
| neither be called masters | 17:10 | |
| for you have one master the Christ. | 17:12 | |
| He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. | 17:15 | |
| Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, | 17:19 | |
| and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. | 17:22 | |
| The second lesson is found in John 6:20-26. | 17:27 | |
| I'm sorry, it's Luke 6. | 17:38 | |
| "And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, | 17:44 | |
| blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God. | 17:48 | |
| Blessed are you that hunger now | 17:53 | |
| for you shall be satisfied. | 17:56 | |
| Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh. | 17:58 | |
| Blessed are you when men hate you | 18:02 | |
| and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out, | 18:05 | |
| your name as evil on account of the son of man | 18:09 | |
| rejoice in that day, and leap for joy for behold, | 18:12 | |
| your reward is great in heaven | 18:16 | |
| for so their fathers did to the prophets. | 18:18 | |
| But woe to you that are rich | 18:21 | |
| for you have received your consolation. | 18:23 | |
| Woe to you that are full now | 18:26 | |
| for you shall hunger. | 18:29 | |
| Woe to you that laugh now | 18:31 | |
| for you shall mourn and weep. | 18:33 | |
| Woe to you when all men speak well of you | 18:35 | |
| for so their fathers did to the false prophets." | 18:39 | |
| Thus endeth the reading of the lesson. | 18:43 | |
| (organ playing) | 18:45 | |
| ♪ Glory be to the Father ♪ | 18:55 | |
| ♪ And to the Son ♪ | 19:00 | |
| ♪ And to the Holy Ghost ♪ | 19:02 | |
| ♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 19:08 | |
| ♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪ | 19:13 | |
| ♪ World without end ♪ | 19:18 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 19:21 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 19:24 | |
| - | With one voice and in one spirit, let us affirm our faith. | 19:32 |
| We are not alone. | 19:38 | |
| We live in God's world. | 19:40 | |
| We believe in God | 19:42 | |
| who has created and is creating, | 19:44 | |
| who has come in the true man, Jesus | 19:47 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 19:50 | |
| Who works in us and others by his spirit. | 19:53 | |
| We trust him. | 19:57 | |
| He calls us to be his church, to celebrate his presence, | 19:59 | |
| to love and serve others, | 20:05 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 20:07 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen | 20:11 | |
| our judge and our hope | 20:14 | |
| in life, in death, in life beyond death, | 20:17 | |
| God is with us. | 20:21 | |
| We are not alone, | 20:24 | |
| thanks be to God. | 20:26 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 20:29 | |
| - | And also with you. | 20:31 |
| - | Let us pray. | 20:33 |
| Oh God. | 20:42 | |
| The Psalmist of old cried | 20:43 | |
| when my soul is downcast within me, I think of you, oh Lord. | 20:47 | |
| Deep is calling to deep, as your cataracts, roar. | 20:53 | |
| All your waves. | 20:58 | |
| Your breakers have rolled over me. | 20:59 | |
| In the daytime may Yahweh command his love to come. | 21:03 | |
| And by night, may his song be on our lips, | 21:08 | |
| a prayer to the God of our life. | 21:11 | |
| Oh God, how can we make it from the valley of weeping | 21:16 | |
| to the mountain of the Lord? | 21:22 | |
| Be with us in our valleys and lead us to your mountain, | 21:25 | |
| our valleys of sickness and pain of loneliness and hurt | 21:28 | |
| of disease and death, of poverty and sickness. | 21:33 | |
| Of indifference and unconcern | 21:38 | |
| of preoccupation with self and callousness to others. | 21:42 | |
| And special valleys oh God. | 21:50 | |
| For students today, | 21:54 | |
| valleys of deadlines and all night study | 21:58 | |
| of papers not finished and others not well done. | 22:02 | |
| Of exams not ready for and books not read. | 22:08 | |
| Of notes not taken and lectures not heard. | 22:11 | |
| Valleys of pressure from home, valleys of pressure | 22:16 | |
| from others, of pressure from within. | 22:19 | |
| Good Lord, Good Lord, | 22:24 | |
| and in our moments of deepest need, | 22:27 | |
| we know you are good. | 22:29 | |
| Come | 22:32 | |
| with calmness | 22:35 | |
| and give wisdom | 22:37 | |
| and assurance | 22:39 | |
| to each person in this place. | 22:42 | |
| This moment, according to her needs or his needs | 22:46 | |
| And lead us oh God, | 22:54 | |
| not just to, | 22:55 | |
| but through the valley | 22:56 | |
| to the mountain. | 23:00 | |
| Your mountain. | 23:03 | |
| And now oh God, | 23:07 | |
| may we continue to know and to feel your presence | 23:08 | |
| in this service. | 23:10 | |
| Awaken our hope. | 23:14 | |
| Give us beautiful moments. | 23:17 | |
| Teach us all | 23:20 | |
| until we can touch truth, | 23:23 | |
| handle hope, | 23:27 | |
| and live life. | 23:30 | |
| Teach us to trust you, oh God. | 23:34 | |
| And in trusting you | 23:38 | |
| to learn to trust ourselves, | 23:41 | |
| and to trust others. | 23:45 | |
| Through Jesus Christ, | 23:49 | |
| our Redeemer, | 23:52 | |
| and hear us now, as we pray the prayer, | 23:55 | |
| which our Lord has taught us. | 23:57 | |
| Oh God, | 23:59 | |
| our Father, who art in heaven. | 24:01 | |
| Hallowed by thy name. | 24:05 | |
| Thy kingdom come, | 24:08 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 24:10 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread, | 24:15 | |
| forgive us our trespasses | 24:18 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 24:21 | |
| Lead us not into temptation, | 24:25 | |
| deliver us from evil | 24:28 | |
| for thine is the kingdom, | 24:31 | |
| the power and the glory forever. | 24:32 | |
| Amen. | 24:37 | |
| Today's service is a service of celebration | 24:45 | |
| or the ending of the year. | 24:50 | |
| To those of you who will be graduating two weeks from today, | 24:54 | |
| we extend our deepest congratulations and best wishes. | 24:59 | |
| And if you have exams and papers between now and then | 25:04 | |
| we wish you well on those also. | 25:07 | |
| To those of you who will be returning | 25:11 | |
| hopefully another full semester | 25:15 | |
| or another full year advanced, | 25:17 | |
| we wish you well in the days ahead. | 25:20 | |
| And during the time you may be away from us this summer. | 25:23 | |
| We welcome each of you to this service of worship, | 25:28 | |
| as we celebrate together in the presence of God | 25:33 | |
| and in the presence of one another. | 25:35 | |
| This is a very special day for a number of reasons. | 25:38 | |
| And so I want to say a word of thanks | 25:42 | |
| to those who have made it that. | 25:44 | |
| To Dot Borden and the dancers who have led us | 25:47 | |
| movingly in an interpretive dance. | 25:49 | |
| To Al Carmines, who played and led us prior to the service | 25:54 | |
| and to others who have shared in a very meaningful way. | 26:01 | |
| And for those of you who were not able to be here at 10:30, | 26:05 | |
| we have asked Mr. Carmines to remain after the service | 26:09 | |
| and play and interpret again, | 26:13 | |
| some of his hymns, very rich and full of meaning. | 26:15 | |
| And so you're invited to remain | 26:19 | |
| following the benediction and the postlude | 26:22 | |
| and to come down near the front of the chapel | 26:25 | |
| where Mr Carmines will lead us | 26:29 | |
| and play and sing some of his hymns. | 26:31 | |
| It's also special because we have back home with us today, | 26:36 | |
| Dr. Hugh Anderson | 26:41 | |
| Professor at New College in Edinborough | 26:44 | |
| at the University of Edinborough, | 26:48 | |
| Edinborough, Scotland. | 26:49 | |
| His wife and daughter, and two friends of theirs | 26:52 | |
| visiting with him and with us. | 26:54 | |
| Dr. Anderson was on the faculty of the divinity school here | 26:57 | |
| for nine or 10 years in the fifties and sixties, | 27:00 | |
| a scholar, preacher, | 27:06 | |
| a man respected by students and faculty | 27:09 | |
| and all who came to know him. | 27:11 | |
| But especially a warm, genuine, | 27:15 | |
| loving, caring, human being. | 27:17 | |
| He's visiting professor at Bryn Mawr College | 27:20 | |
| and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania this year. | 27:23 | |
| So we could not help, but take advantage of this opportunity | 27:26 | |
| to invite him to come and be with us | 27:30 | |
| while he was on this side of the Atlantic. | 27:32 | |
| So Dr. Anderson, we welcome you back home | 27:36 | |
| and gladly hear God's word | 27:39 | |
| as you bring the message to us for this hour. | 27:41 | |
| - | I am very grateful indeed to the Reverend Robert Young, | 27:49 |
| for his all too generous words of welcome and introduction. | 27:53 | |
| It is very good to be back in this lovely | 28:00 | |
| and familiar house of God, | 28:04 | |
| my family and I cherish the warmest | 28:07 | |
| and the most precious memories of our years | 28:10 | |
| at Duke in the late fifties and sixties. | 28:13 | |
| And I am immensely privileged today | 28:18 | |
| to participate with my very good friend. | 28:21 | |
| And I think former student, Robert Young | 28:23 | |
| in this act of celebration. | 28:27 | |
| I am commissioned to bring you official greetings | 28:33 | |
| from sister institution of higher learning | 28:37 | |
| across the seas from the University of Edinborough. | 28:41 | |
| And that I am indeed very pleased to do. | 28:45 | |
| And at the same time to express the same kind of good wishes | 28:48 | |
| to you all in your lives and careers | 28:52 | |
| as Mr. Young has just done. | 28:56 | |
| It is a very great joy to be back with old friends | 28:59 | |
| in this lovely place. | 29:03 | |
| Let us pray. | 29:06 | |
| Bless the words of my lips | 29:10 | |
| and the meditations of your people's hearts, | 29:13 | |
| oh God, our strength and our Redeemer. | 29:18 | |
| Amen. | 29:24 | |
| My sermon for this occasion is entitled Godly Laughter. | 29:30 | |
| And the texts from which it arises | 29:37 | |
| are first, the book of Psalms 2:2-4, | 29:41 | |
| Psalm 2:2-4, | 29:46 | |
| "The Kings of the earth set themselves | 29:50 | |
| and the rulers take counsel together | 29:53 | |
| against the Lord and his anointed saying, | 29:56 | |
| let us burst their bonds asunder | 30:00 | |
| and cast their chords from us. | 30:03 | |
| And he who sits in the heavens laughs." | 30:07 | |
| And then again, | 30:13 | |
| in the gospel of Luke 6:21, | 30:14 | |
| "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh." | 30:18 | |
| Now the capacity to laugh is given to us with our existence. | 30:26 | |
| Our society without laughter is as difficult to contemplate | 30:32 | |
| as laughter without society. | 30:38 | |
| You will no doubt recall Alice's encounter | 30:42 | |
| with the grinning Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. | 30:45 | |
| "You make me quite giddy," says Alice, | 30:52 | |
| "By appearing and vanishing so suddenly. | 30:55 | |
| All right, responded the cat, | 30:59 | |
| and this time it vanished quite slowly, | 31:02 | |
| beginning with the end of the tail and ending with the grin, | 31:07 | |
| and the grin remained sometime | 31:14 | |
| after the rest of the cat had gone. | 31:16 | |
| Well, I've often seen a cat without a grin, said Alice, | 31:20 | |
| but a grin without a cat, | 31:26 | |
| it's the most curious thing I ever did see in all my life." | 31:29 | |
| Now a grin without a cat is a conceit, | 31:36 | |
| no less I'm using and impossible | 31:40 | |
| than a lonely laughter | 31:44 | |
| that is not integrated into the fabric of human society. | 31:46 | |
| In our society of course laughter assumes | 31:54 | |
| many forms and guises. | 31:56 | |
| There is the honest to goodness belly laugh | 32:00 | |
| at per fascicle or the slap stick. | 32:03 | |
| In another key, there is the superficial | 32:07 | |
| and frequently artificial laughter of the cocktail party | 32:11 | |
| or the laughter arising from ribaldry | 32:17 | |
| in men's club or locker room. | 32:20 | |
| In the interest thesis of our conversation, | 32:24 | |
| we often laugh, don't we? | 32:27 | |
| To cover our embarrassment | 32:30 | |
| at the exposure of our own ignorance or lack of concern. | 32:33 | |
| Worst of all and lowest of all, and most sinister of all, | 32:40 | |
| there is the laughter of the arrogant and haughty ones | 32:46 | |
| over the antics of the mass of little ones, | 32:51 | |
| the poor ones, the destitute ones. | 32:56 | |
| A laughter that rings very devilishly | 33:01 | |
| through the corridors of history | 33:04 | |
| and a company's slavery and oppression, | 33:07 | |
| ethnic subjugation and class discrimination. | 33:11 | |
| You may say laughter around on earth just about everywhere, | 33:18 | |
| but whatever garb it wears | 33:24 | |
| this laughter of which I'm speaking is simply the property | 33:29 | |
| of our natural humanity. | 33:34 | |
| It is as best as we well know if femoral, | 33:38 | |
| it fades away all too soon | 33:42 | |
| with our fleeting changes of mood, how fickle we are. | 33:45 | |
| My theme today is an all together | 33:53 | |
| different kind of laughter, | 33:57 | |
| almost silent, | 34:01 | |
| enduring, mysterious. | 34:04 | |
| The laughter that is heard properly on high | 34:08 | |
| and is echoed only in the life of faith on earth. | 34:13 | |
| The laughter that penetrates the belly of hell | 34:19 | |
| and scales the shining heights of heaven. | 34:23 | |
| My hymn today is Godly laughter. | 34:27 | |
| Again and again, | 34:33 | |
| the biblical tradition affirms that with God in heaven, | 34:35 | |
| there is peace and tranquility. | 34:42 | |
| With God on high there is steadfast love. | 34:45 | |
| With God on high | 34:50 | |
| there is even wrath and justice, | 34:52 | |
| but laughter with God in heaven, | 34:56 | |
| it must be confessed | 35:00 | |
| is only on the periphery of the biblical witness. | 35:02 | |
| But four times in the Old Testament, | 35:07 | |
| God is described as laughing. | 35:10 | |
| And the classic case is the second psalm. | 35:15 | |
| "The Kings of the earth set themselves | 35:19 | |
| and the rulers take council together | 35:22 | |
| against the Lord and his anointed. | 35:26 | |
| And he who sits in the heavens | 35:30 | |
| laughs." | 35:34 | |
| Now the Psalmist I think is here testing | 35:36 | |
| the completely serious laughter of the creator, God | 35:40 | |
| in his majesty and holiness, | 35:46 | |
| he recognizes the tragic comic dimension | 35:50 | |
| in the existence of his creatures | 35:54 | |
| who abysmally misused, their creaturely freedom | 35:57 | |
| and rage and rampage like Titans in the world | 36:02 | |
| to its corruption and despoliation. | 36:07 | |
| Is there not a superb irony in the thought | 36:13 | |
| that God wants man to be himself, | 36:17 | |
| to be no more than truly human | 36:23 | |
| and man refuses and Lords it on the earth by playing God. | 36:27 | |
| As the old German Jewish saying has it. | 36:34 | |
| (speaking in German) | 36:38 | |
| When man aspires, | 36:42 | |
| God laughs. | 36:45 | |
| In the New Testament, | 36:50 | |
| there is no word about laughter in heaven, | 36:52 | |
| nor is Jesus of Nazareth, | 36:58 | |
| anywhere at all said to have laughed | 37:00 | |
| but to be sure | 37:06 | |
| he wept. | 37:08 | |
| He wept when he beheld the city of Jerusalem | 37:11 | |
| with compassion and a broken heart | 37:16 | |
| over its restless strivings, | 37:20 | |
| its pretensions, | 37:23 | |
| it's all together vain show. | 37:25 | |
| And we may be certain, I believe | 37:29 | |
| that this Jesus knew the secret of godly laughter | 37:32 | |
| precisely because he knew how to weep | 37:37 | |
| at the immense pathos of human existence, | 37:41 | |
| The inextricable interfusion of weeping and laughter in fact | 37:47 | |
| comes across loud and clear | 37:54 | |
| in one of those dramatic reversals | 37:58 | |
| of normative human judgments | 37:59 | |
| that characterize the speech of Jesus of Nazareth. | 38:03 | |
| "Woe to you that laugh now for you shall weep. | 38:08 | |
| Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh." | 38:14 | |
| The essential thrust of Jesus language | 38:20 | |
| if that if only, | 38:23 | |
| if only we could see things as they really are | 38:25 | |
| and be moved to the very depth of our existence | 38:31 | |
| by what we saw | 38:35 | |
| then, and only then heavenly laughter | 38:38 | |
| might become assured for us. | 38:42 | |
| However, if we are honest with ourselves, | 38:48 | |
| we shall say that it is very hard indeed | 38:52 | |
| for us to be utterly realistic about ourselves | 38:56 | |
| and our world | 39:02 | |
| does not life allow us very readily | 39:04 | |
| to deceive ourselves. | 39:08 | |
| Fleeing from reality, | 39:11 | |
| and fleeing from our real self, we wear disguises. | 39:13 | |
| Do we not? | 39:18 | |
| We wear disguises and we indulge in role playing. | 39:18 | |
| Dare I say that the executive plays the part | 39:27 | |
| of the big and efficient one. | 39:31 | |
| The professor may on occasion play the part | 39:35 | |
| of the big and learned one | 39:40 | |
| who stands above all ordinary matters. | 39:43 | |
| We wear disguises, do we not? | 39:48 | |
| The world becomes a sort of stage | 39:51 | |
| like this stage here | 39:54 | |
| for our professional pretensions and parade. | 39:56 | |
| We are the big one. | 40:00 | |
| The result is that the traces of our true human self | 40:05 | |
| become obliterated steadily | 40:11 | |
| and the masks we wear become more important to us | 40:14 | |
| than the selves we really, and truly are. | 40:19 | |
| We are thus dehumanized | 40:24 | |
| and we do not know | 40:28 | |
| either how to weep at our own human frailties | 40:30 | |
| or laugh at our own great possibilities under God. | 40:35 | |
| You remember how Jesus reserved his most stringent criticism | 40:42 | |
| for some of the Pharisees of his day. | 40:48 | |
| He could simply not abide their exhibitionism in religion, | 40:52 | |
| by which they thought to impress man and God | 40:59 | |
| and stake their own claim upon the creator himself. | 41:05 | |
| "Whited sepulchers." | 41:11 | |
| Jesus called them. | 41:14 | |
| "Shiny on the outside, | 41:16 | |
| but really very hollow men within | 41:18 | |
| who take their own religious showing | 41:22 | |
| before the world more seriously, | 41:25 | |
| really than they take either God or their fellow man." | 41:27 | |
| It requires no great width to discern | 41:34 | |
| that this brand of phariseesm | 41:39 | |
| is very much alive with us today. | 41:42 | |
| Let those of us who stand, | 41:46 | |
| take heed lest we fall before the weathering word of Jesus | 41:49 | |
| whited sepulchers. | 41:56 | |
| One has known and I do not wish this | 41:59 | |
| to sound too judgemental. | 42:02 | |
| One has known theological students, | 42:04 | |
| bright and lively and humorous and colorful | 42:08 | |
| before ordination, suddenly transformed overnight | 42:12 | |
| by the official recognition | 42:18 | |
| of their ministerial status, too bad. | 42:20 | |
| You know what one means, | 42:25 | |
| the taking on of the ministerial posture, | 42:28 | |
| the assumption of a part as if life were a play | 42:32 | |
| and all this with the resultant steady atrition | 42:37 | |
| of the authentic human self. | 42:42 | |
| Clerical dramatist persona who know little, if anything, | 42:45 | |
| about the dialectic of weeping and laughter. | 42:51 | |
| Official sank to money | 42:56 | |
| drains the religion they represent | 42:58 | |
| of all its color and galantry | 43:00 | |
| and appeal and adventure. | 43:04 | |
| A certain minister in Scotland visited a home in Glasgow | 43:26 | |
| in which the man of the house had been ill for some time. | 43:31 | |
| And at the door, the minister asked the man's wife | 43:36 | |
| if he could go upstairs to the bedroom to see him, | 43:40 | |
| and the wife replied, | 43:44 | |
| "Aye, can go upstairs to see him, all right, | 43:46 | |
| only don't talk to him about Christianity. | 43:49 | |
| He's depressed enough already." | 43:53 | |
| Whoever among us runs away from the true self | 44:00 | |
| and plays a part hypocritically | 44:06 | |
| is draining real color out of humanity. | 44:09 | |
| We run away to that other professional self | 44:13 | |
| and the destroy the possibility | 44:16 | |
| of the godly laughter of faith. | 44:19 | |
| Another obstacle to genuine realism | 44:25 | |
| about man and God that accompanies true laughter | 44:28 | |
| is our preoccupation, I think particularly in the west | 44:33 | |
| with the motif of success and achievement. | 44:37 | |
| I wonder if you would agree with me | 44:43 | |
| that the Protestant ethic of hard work, | 44:45 | |
| which unquestionably lies behind the industrial | 44:50 | |
| and technological advance of Western societies | 44:53 | |
| has also left a very unfortunate legacy. | 44:57 | |
| We work not for the sheer of joy of it, | 45:02 | |
| but as a means to our own aggrandizement, | 45:06 | |
| the promotion of our own status, | 45:11 | |
| prestige and material prosperity. | 45:13 | |
| And among other things, | 45:18 | |
| we again become dehumanized by the tyrannies | 45:20 | |
| of worldly wealth and the tyranny of consumer goods, | 45:24 | |
| which are the mark of our success. | 45:30 | |
| And to suffer a setback, to suffer a setback, | 45:34 | |
| leads to our becoming guilt ridden. | 45:38 | |
| And to imagine that the only way to expiate our guilt | 45:41 | |
| is to work even harder and accomplish more success. | 45:47 | |
| What a philosophy of a light | 45:51 | |
| the outcome is that we surrender | 45:54 | |
| to that most subversive of all idolatries. | 45:57 | |
| We equate our own little human achievement | 46:01 | |
| with the presence of God. | 46:06 | |
| Or alternatively we think of God as a manipulable par | 46:08 | |
| to be used for the furtherance | 46:14 | |
| of our own earthly goals | 46:16 | |
| or the protection of our own interests, | 46:19 | |
| our own group, our own class, | 46:22 | |
| our own church, our own race. | 46:25 | |
| So the dialectic of Jesus Christ | 46:29 | |
| scores no points, whatever with us. | 46:32 | |
| Woe to you who laugh now for you shall weep. | 46:36 | |
| And the weakness and the smallness of our humanity | 46:41 | |
| and the greatness of God are eclipsed for us. | 46:45 | |
| God, I think it has to be said is no agent | 46:51 | |
| for our worldly progress | 46:54 | |
| or a promoter of our worldly designs and purposes. | 46:57 | |
| Assuredly, I say to you today | 47:02 | |
| that we need to listen to Ivan Illich's | 47:04 | |
| resounding proclamation. | 47:07 | |
| "I want to celebrate my faith in life and in God | 47:08 | |
| for no purpose at all. | 47:12 | |
| Presumably that means to acknowledge | 47:17 | |
| that God is God and man is man. | 47:20 | |
| It means to take life in its pathos and tragedy | 47:24 | |
| as in its joy, as the great creators risky, | 47:29 | |
| but loving gift to his creature | 47:34 | |
| to be sung about and sung about and sung about | 47:37 | |
| forever and forever. | 47:40 | |
| There is however, no way toward the celebration | 47:45 | |
| of our faith and life for no purpose at all, | 47:49 | |
| save the way of our own sure grasp of our own mortality. | 47:53 | |
| Our endless craving and struggling for success. | 48:00 | |
| Our hypocritical play acting are actually, | 48:04 | |
| are they not grandiose attempts to cheat our own death | 48:09 | |
| to run away from this most certain of all certainties | 48:14 | |
| that we too shall die. | 48:18 | |
| Send not to say for whom the bell toes, | 48:22 | |
| the bell toes for thee, my son. | 48:26 | |
| Our own death is the Supreme examination of our own life. | 48:30 | |
| It is the final revealer of all our shams and pretensions. | 48:36 | |
| It is the great leveler that discloses to us, | 48:41 | |
| our common lot with all humanity, | 48:47 | |
| that starving little child in Asia | 48:51 | |
| shares exactly the same fate as I too must share | 48:56 | |
| with all men and women. | 49:01 | |
| I am given now possibly just a little respite, | 49:04 | |
| a few days, a few months, a few years by the grace of God, | 49:08 | |
| a little respite to embrace the hungry | 49:14 | |
| and the needy and the lonely and the helpless. | 49:17 | |
| For shortly we shall all be one at last | 49:22 | |
| in death." | 49:26 | |
| In a vivid passage, | 49:30 | |
| in his address on the decisiveness of death, | 49:31 | |
| beside a grave, Kierkegaard, states | 49:34 | |
| that, "Faced even with the death | 49:38 | |
| of those near and dear to us, | 49:42 | |
| we still place ourselves outside of our own death | 49:46 | |
| by thinking of it as the common fate of the race, | 49:50 | |
| and not about ourselves in death. | 49:54 | |
| And so, death in its inexplicably | 49:59 | |
| is not allowed to inter penetrate our life | 50:03 | |
| so as to transform it and renew it | 50:06 | |
| and remind us of our humanity, | 50:10 | |
| it is only when the earnest thought | 50:13 | |
| of our own death grips us, | 50:16 | |
| that we do really learn to know ourselves | 50:19 | |
| and to will at last to be known by God. | 50:22 | |
| Only then shall we be released from the folly | 50:27 | |
| and the vanity of purely human wishes | 50:30 | |
| and aspirations and be freed for the genuine compassion | 50:32 | |
| that weeps with those who weep | 50:38 | |
| and knows the inextinguishable joy of godly laughter." | 50:41 | |
| Towards the close of this sermon let me say | 50:48 | |
| that the dialectic of weeping and laughter | 50:51 | |
| corresponds very closely to the dialectic | 50:56 | |
| at the very heart of the Christian gospel, | 50:59 | |
| the dialectic of cross and resurrection. | 51:02 | |
| If I am not mistaken, | 51:08 | |
| there is a abroad in the church in our time, | 51:11 | |
| a very cheap way of understanding Easter | 51:15 | |
| as if it were an easily one victory, | 51:19 | |
| all too hastily and prematurely, | 51:22 | |
| we desire to be lifted above the travail of the world | 51:25 | |
| to Easter celebration and gladness. | 51:29 | |
| As if our Lord himself had been miraculously rescued | 51:32 | |
| from his suffering on the cross. | 51:37 | |
| In the best agnostic fashion, | 51:40 | |
| we cling to the hearing, | 51:43 | |
| we cling to the elusory notion | 51:45 | |
| that God can provide the elixir to raise us | 51:48 | |
| here and now, above the agonies of history. | 51:53 | |
| As if Christ had not really died on the cross | 51:57 | |
| or legions of angels had broken in to save him. | 52:01 | |
| But the New Testament, resolute clear resists | 52:05 | |
| every attempt men ever make to believe that God, | 52:10 | |
| nowhere more powerfully is present | 52:15 | |
| than in miraculous displays | 52:18 | |
| of his strength. | 52:23 | |
| The New Testament, | 52:25 | |
| resolutely resists every attempt to divorce | 52:26 | |
| the risen one from the one | 52:30 | |
| who goes through passion and death. | 52:32 | |
| When Sacheverell Sitwell visited Athens, | 52:37 | |
| he went into the temple of Christ Pantokatror, | 52:40 | |
| the all conquering Christ, | 52:44 | |
| and he tells us that standing there on the floor | 52:46 | |
| and looking up into the dome | 52:48 | |
| at the face in the distance, | 52:50 | |
| he felt an irresistible longing to take a ladder | 52:52 | |
| and climb up and strike matches | 52:55 | |
| so that he could see the lines of agony for men | 52:57 | |
| on the face of the all conquering Christ. | 53:02 | |
| So there it is really, there it is, | 53:05 | |
| there is no song without sacrifice, | 53:07 | |
| no ultimate crown without a cross, | 53:09 | |
| no celebration of life without sadness, | 53:12 | |
| no laughter without pain. | 53:15 | |
| And those alone who know how to celebrate | 53:20 | |
| and how particularly to celebrate Easter faith | 53:23 | |
| with godly laughter are those who are able | 53:26 | |
| to contemplate with reverence. | 53:29 | |
| The inscrutable mystery | 53:33 | |
| of Christ's dissent into hell and into death, | 53:35 | |
| into the Abbys of all men's lostness | 53:40 | |
| and sense of despair and forsakenness. | 53:44 | |
| After some years of looking at the New Testament, | 53:48 | |
| I am more and more persuaded | 53:51 | |
| that the most August moment in it | 53:52 | |
| is the most agonizing one. | 53:56 | |
| Christ's cry of deriliction on the cross, | 53:58 | |
| "My God, why have you forsaken me?" | 54:01 | |
| He is in the depths of all our lostness, | 54:05 | |
| but he still clings to God. | 54:08 | |
| And I wish this morning, if we are to celebrate a right, | 54:12 | |
| that we could all catch a glimpse of Christ | 54:16 | |
| in the midst of all the Hells of his time | 54:20 | |
| and in the midst of all the Hells | 54:24 | |
| green, yellow, red, black, and white in our time, | 54:26 | |
| because the sight of our Christ | 54:31 | |
| right beside us in the hellishness of the moment | 54:34 | |
| should steady us and arm us | 54:37 | |
| and open the gates of new life for us | 54:41 | |
| towards real triumph and victory, | 54:43 | |
| towards the possibility of godly laughter at last. | 54:46 | |
| It's rather well summed up in a little poem | 54:51 | |
| by the Scottish mystic poet, | 54:53 | |
| Edwin Muir, it's called The Good Man in Hell. | 54:55 | |
| "If a good man were ever housed in hell | 55:00 | |
| would he at last grown faithful in his station, | 55:05 | |
| kindle a little hope in hopeless hell. | 55:09 | |
| So among the damned doubts of damnation, | 55:12 | |
| since here someone could live and could live well. | 55:15 | |
| One touch of doubt would bring down such a grace, | 55:20 | |
| open such a gate, all Eden might enter in hell, | 55:22 | |
| be a place like any other place | 55:26 | |
| and life and death and love and hope begin. | 55:29 | |
| I do wish for us that we could catch a sight | 55:36 | |
| of the one uniquely good man, | 55:41 | |
| even Jesus Christ Our Lord | 55:43 | |
| in the Abbys of the hells of our day | 55:46 | |
| for surely, the sight of him would teach us both to weep | 55:49 | |
| with those who weep | 55:54 | |
| and open the gates towards the possibility | 55:57 | |
| of the laughter of heaven itself, | 56:00 | |
| which is the laughter of faith and the laughter of hope | 56:04 | |
| that goes on hoping when all the lights of history are out | 56:08 | |
| and goes on, hoping against | 56:12 | |
| all worldly hopes and pretensions, and stupidities. | 56:14 | |
| A little hope in hopeless hell, | 56:21 | |
| that's what we Christians celebrate this morning, | 56:23 | |
| but we need to know the giant agony of the world | 56:27 | |
| in order to do it properly. | 56:29 | |
| Blessed are you who weep now | 56:32 | |
| for you shall most surely laugh. | 56:35 | |
| And unto our God, | 56:39 | |
| Father, Son and Holy Spirit | 56:40 | |
| be all honor and glory | 56:43 | |
| majesty dominion and praise world without end, amen. | 56:45 | |
| (organ drowns music) | 56:54 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:04:54 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:04:57 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:05:00 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:05:04 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:05:07 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:17 | |
| - | Oh, God | 1:05:26 |
| receive these our gift | 1:05:27 | |
| as we give our possessions, | 1:05:31 | |
| may we give of our persons in love and service to you | 1:05:33 | |
| and to one another through Christ our Lord, amen. | 1:05:39 | |
| (organ drowns music) | 1:05:50 | |
| - | The grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. | 1:09:35 |
| The love of God, | 1:09:40 | |
| the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 1:09:44 | |
| be with you and those whom you love | 1:09:48 | |
| this day and forever. | 1:09:54 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:10:00 | |
| (organ playing) | 1:10:22 |