Robert T. Young - "One for the People" (April 4, 1976)
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| ♪ Bless thy Lord ♪ | 0:10 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 0:15 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:24 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 1:58 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 3:58 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 5:24 | |
| (coughing faintly) | 6:16 | |
| - | Now says the Lord, | 6:21 |
| you turn to me with all your heart and with fasting, | 6:24 | |
| with mourning and render your heart | 6:28 | |
| and not your garments | 6:30 | |
| and turn to the Lord your God, | 6:33 | |
| for God is gracious and merciful. | 6:35 | |
| Slow to anger and of great kindness. | 6:38 | |
| Therefore, with contrition and joy we come before God. | 6:42 | |
| Let us confess our sin. | 6:47 | |
| - | Oh, holy God | 6:50 |
| you who want the sacrifice of forgiveness and mercy, | 6:52 | |
| hear us as we pray. | 6:57 | |
| For all of us who don't know | 6:59 | |
| the joy of giving and receiving. | 7:01 | |
| For all of us in our institutions | 7:04 | |
| who rely on power and money | 7:07 | |
| to exert influence in the world, | 7:10 | |
| for our husbands and wives | 7:13 | |
| and all people who no longer have the strength to forgive, | 7:15 | |
| nor the humility to be sorry. | 7:20 | |
| Forgive us when we push aside any well-intentioned word. | 7:22 | |
| When we exploit our family, | 7:27 | |
| our friends and those whom we do not even know. | 7:29 | |
| Oh loving God, you know our hearts and our intentions. | 7:34 | |
| We pray you help us to confess who we are, | 7:39 | |
| that we may become more faithful and loving. | 7:43 | |
| Hear the promises of God. | 7:56 | |
| Ask and it will be given you, | 7:58 | |
| seek and you will find, | 8:00 | |
| knock and it will be open to you. | 8:03 | |
| If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just | 8:06 | |
| and will forgive our sins. | 8:10 | |
| I announced therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ | 8:13 | |
| that we are forgiven. | 8:16 | |
| Amen. | 8:19 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 8:22 | |
| ♪ Lord take me oh Lord ♪ | 9:00 | |
| (singing indistinctly) | 9:09 | |
| ♪ Oh I will sing of thy blessing ♪ | 9:21 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 9:30 | |
| ♪ Lord take me oh lord ♪ | 9:48 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 9:57 | |
| ♪ Do not see (indistinct) ♪ | 10:08 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 10:18 | |
| ♪ Holy (indistinct) ♪ | 10:32 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 10:39 | |
| ♪ Lord take me oh Lord ♪ | 11:46 | |
| (singing indistinctly) | 11:54 | |
| ♪ I must promise ♪ | 12:10 | |
| (singing indistinctly) | 12:14 | |
| ♪ I must promise ♪ | 12:34 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 12:49 | |
| - | The Old Testament lesson today, | 13:27 |
| is taken from the book of Genesis, | 13:30 | |
| chapter 22 verses one through two | 13:32 | |
| and also nine through 14. | 13:35 | |
| "It happened sometime later | 13:39 | |
| that God put Abraham to the test. | 13:41 | |
| Abraham Abraham, he called. | 13:44 | |
| Here I am, he replied. | 13:47 | |
| Take your son, God said | 13:49 | |
| your only child, Isaac whom you love | 13:51 | |
| and go to the land of Moriah. | 13:54 | |
| There you shall offer him as a burnt offering | 13:56 | |
| on a mountain that I will point out to you. | 13:59 | |
| When they arrived at the place God had pointed out to him, | 14:02 | |
| Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood. | 14:06 | |
| Then he bound his son, Isaac and put him on the altar | 14:09 | |
| on top of the wood. | 14:12 | |
| Abraham stretched out his hand | 14:14 | |
| and seized the knife to kill his son. | 14:16 | |
| But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven, | 14:19 | |
| Abraham, Abraham, he said | 14:22 | |
| I am here, he replied. | 14:25 | |
| Do not raise your hand against the boy, the angel said. | 14:27 | |
| Do not harm him, | 14:31 | |
| for now I know you fear God. | 14:32 | |
| You have not refused me your son, your only son. | 14:35 | |
| Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram | 14:39 | |
| caught by its horns in a bush. | 14:42 | |
| Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering | 14:44 | |
| in place of his son. | 14:47 | |
| Abraham called this place Yahweh provides." | 14:49 | |
| And hence the saying today, | 14:53 | |
| on the mountain Yahweh provides. | 14:55 | |
| The New Testament lesson is taken | 14:58 | |
| from the Gospel of John, chapter 11 verses 45 through 53. | 15:00 | |
| Please rise for the reading of the gospel. | 15:05 | |
| "Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary | 15:12 | |
| and had seen what he did believed in him. | 15:15 | |
| But some of them went to tell the Pharisees | 15:18 | |
| what Jesus had done. | 15:20 | |
| Then the chief priest and Pharisees called a meeting. | 15:22 | |
| Here is this man working all these signs they said | 15:26 | |
| and what action are we taking? | 15:29 | |
| If we let him go on in this way, | 15:31 | |
| everyone will believe in him. | 15:34 | |
| And the Romans will come and destroy the holy place | 15:36 | |
| and our nation. | 15:38 | |
| One of them, Caiaphas the high priest that year said, | 15:40 | |
| you don't seem to have grasped the situation at all. | 15:44 | |
| You fail to see that it is better for one man to die | 15:48 | |
| for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. | 15:51 | |
| He did not speak in his own person. | 15:55 | |
| It was as high priest that he made this prophecy | 15:58 | |
| that Jesus was to die for the nation | 16:00 | |
| and not for the nation only, | 16:03 | |
| but to gather together in unity | 16:04 | |
| the scattered children of God. | 16:07 | |
| From that day, they were determined to kill him." | 16:09 | |
| May the Lord bless this, the reading and hearing | 16:13 | |
| of his holy Word. | 16:16 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 16:17 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 16:26 | |
| - | We are not alone, we live in God's world. | 17:00 |
| - | We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 17:04 |
| Who has come in the truly human Jesus, | 17:09 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 17:12 | |
| Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 17:15 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 17:18 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness. | 17:23 | |
| To love and serve others. | 17:26 | |
| To seek justice and resist evil. | 17:28 | |
| To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. | 17:31 | |
| Our judge and our hope, | 17:35 | |
| in life, in death, in life beyond death, | 17:37 | |
| God is with us. | 17:41 | |
| We are not alone. | 17:43 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 17:45 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 17:48 |
| (congregation murmuring loudly) | 17:49 | |
| Let us pray. | 17:51 | |
| Our loving God, parent of our Lord Jesus Christ | 18:00 | |
| and our parent. | 18:04 | |
| What do you make of these days? | 18:06 | |
| All of our living of it, the injustice and oppression, | 18:09 | |
| the trials and tragedies, | 18:14 | |
| the torments of heart and the struggles of brain, | 18:16 | |
| the fears and confusions that compound our days, | 18:20 | |
| be patient, oh God | 18:24 | |
| and guide us in our walking | 18:26 | |
| that we may do your will. | 18:29 | |
| Where we have failed lift us to new strength to try again. | 18:32 | |
| Where we have gone forward steady our uncertain steps | 18:36 | |
| and guide us to higher ground. | 18:40 | |
| Everywhere be our companion. | 18:43 | |
| Judge us, inspire us, support us | 18:46 | |
| that we may not grow weary in seeking justice | 18:50 | |
| or vain in our attempts at well-doing. | 18:54 | |
| Liberate us from yesterday's limits. | 18:57 | |
| Give us hope for this day | 19:01 | |
| and grant us visions for the morrow. | 19:03 | |
| Oh Lord, this day began for some of us joyfully | 19:08 | |
| for others grimly. | 19:10 | |
| Some will spend the hours without anxiety | 19:12 | |
| and others will be caught in the web of living pain. | 19:15 | |
| Some will exalt its vista of hope | 19:19 | |
| and others will carry a burden too heavy | 19:22 | |
| to see far beyond the moment. | 19:24 | |
| Some of us know thee | 19:27 | |
| and some of us do not know if we know thee or not. | 19:29 | |
| But all of us, oh Lord have needed thee. | 19:33 | |
| And so while there is no one word for all of us, | 19:36 | |
| we bow our hearts each a little world in him or herself. | 19:40 | |
| If we are weird, strengthen us. | 19:46 | |
| If we are proud, humble us. | 19:50 | |
| If we are perplexed, enlighten us. | 19:52 | |
| If we are torn by inner strife, heal us. | 19:56 | |
| If we are lost in meaningless activity, | 19:59 | |
| get us with thy purpose. | 20:02 | |
| If we are discouraged heart in us, | 20:05 | |
| if we have sin teach us how to repent. | 20:08 | |
| If we have been sinned against teach us how to forgive. | 20:11 | |
| If we feel alone be at our side. | 20:15 | |
| If we feel weak, grant thy strength. | 20:18 | |
| If we are bewildered grant us thy hope. | 20:21 | |
| If we are anxious grant thy peace. | 20:25 | |
| If we do not know how we can get to tomorrow | 20:28 | |
| grant us thy courage. | 20:30 | |
| We are selfish deep in our love for thee and our neighbor. | 20:33 | |
| If we are senseless silence our tongues | 20:37 | |
| until we learn to understand. | 20:39 | |
| If we have tried in vain to pray, grant us patience. | 20:42 | |
| Whatever our need be with us | 20:47 | |
| and with all those we love | 20:50 | |
| and with all your people, | 20:52 | |
| as thou art with us, | 20:54 | |
| this we pray in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord | 20:56 | |
| who taught us also to pray. | 20:59 | |
| - | Our father who art in heaven, | 21:01 |
| hallowed be thy name, | 21:04 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 21:06 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 21:08 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 21:12 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 21:15 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 21:17 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 21:21 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 21:24 | |
| For thine is the kingdom, and the power | 21:26 | |
| and the glory, forever. | 21:29 | |
| Amen. | 21:31 | |
| - | You are invited to a celebration of the sacrament | 21:40 |
| of the Lord's Supper, | 21:43 | |
| in the Memorial Chapel at 12:15 today, | 21:45 | |
| immediately following the service. | 21:48 | |
| My name is Leslie Manford. | 21:51 | |
| I spent the week of spring break | 21:54 | |
| with a team of 15 other students and adults | 21:55 | |
| from my hometown, | 21:58 | |
| helping to rebuild homes destroyed by the earthquake | 22:00 | |
| in the Mayan village of Sara Alto in Guatemala. | 22:03 | |
| The work was physically exhausting | 22:07 | |
| and the living intense was hard. | 22:09 | |
| We left tired and sore and dirty and sunburnt. | 22:11 | |
| We also left with the feeling that the week | 22:16 | |
| had been the most meaningful and inspiring of our lives. | 22:19 | |
| The Indians were the most courageous, energetic | 22:23 | |
| and innovative people I'd ever known. | 22:26 | |
| They had lost everything. | 22:29 | |
| They were trying to rebuild their homes and their lives | 22:30 | |
| and to do it before the onset of the rainy season | 22:34 | |
| in late April. | 22:37 | |
| Yet they had a spirit and a hope for the future, | 22:38 | |
| and they had a plan to work toward that future. | 22:43 | |
| For instance, all the men in the village | 22:46 | |
| had been in divided into construction groups of about eight | 22:48 | |
| that were given daily assignments in the rebuilding | 22:52 | |
| of the 300 destroyed homes. | 22:55 | |
| But the most amazing thing to us | 22:58 | |
| was that in spite of their deep personal tragedy, | 23:01 | |
| they had a sweetness and a concern for others. | 23:04 | |
| They worried about and offered help to their neighbors | 23:08 | |
| in the next village of Volodiero. | 23:11 | |
| And after the daily trimmers, | 23:13 | |
| they always ran to check on their nervous American friends. | 23:15 | |
| The day of our departure, | 23:19 | |
| all of the people in the two villages | 23:21 | |
| turned out to give us a big sendoff. | 23:23 | |
| They presented us with a hand painted plaque that read, | 23:26 | |
| "Thanks to the North American students | 23:29 | |
| from the people of Sara Alto | 23:31 | |
| and Volodiero Guatemala, Central America. | 23:33 | |
| We are Americans too. | 23:36 | |
| We are all Americans. | 23:38 | |
| We are all brothers. | 23:41 | |
| Today you have an opportunity to remember | 23:43 | |
| our Central American brothers and sisters | 23:45 | |
| with your offerings. | 23:48 | |
| Please be generous." | 23:49 | |
| - | In the name of God, | 24:04 |
| who creates, redeems and sustains us. | 24:06 | |
| Passion Sunday is observed in the Christian church today, | 24:12 | |
| the fifth Sunday in the season of Lent. | 24:17 | |
| The word passion, has become so perverted and distorted | 24:22 | |
| and so stigmatized with lustful destructive sex only | 24:28 | |
| and sex at any price connotations | 24:34 | |
| that one almost hesitates to use this particular word. | 24:37 | |
| But there is power in the message of Passion Sunday. | 24:43 | |
| There is power in the meaning | 24:47 | |
| of the scripture lessons for today. | 24:49 | |
| There is power, power to redeem, to reconcile and to renew. | 24:52 | |
| Passion means love, devotion, caring, compassion, | 24:59 | |
| offering, giving, sacrifice and perhaps maybe even death. | 25:06 | |
| In our Christian faith, our own Christian tradition | 25:14 | |
| Passion Sunday is the day on which we observe, | 25:18 | |
| remember, recall, relive the loving sacrifice | 25:21 | |
| of Jesus the Christ, even to death for all persons. | 25:25 | |
| In his little book entitled, "You! Jonah!" | 25:31 | |
| Thomas John Carlisle, has some lines caption, | 25:34 | |
| "Compassion for compassion. | 25:38 | |
| Keep open to pain. | 25:42 | |
| His, hers, theirs as well as yours. | 25:44 | |
| Threshold deep, wide for ultra and equalized empathizes. | 25:49 | |
| Agony can create capacity to respond in kind. | 25:56 | |
| Acute heartbreak walks back to gather pieces, | 26:01 | |
| to bandage wounds. | 26:06 | |
| Sensitive to all living, all suffering, | 26:08 | |
| let mercy rise." | 26:13 | |
| Passion Sunday observes that passion for compassion, | 26:16 | |
| which God has for all persons. | 26:20 | |
| Passion Sunday, sacrifice, death, suffering, | 26:25 | |
| one for the people as our sermon topic says | 26:31 | |
| as our scripture lesson says, | 26:34 | |
| one for all who needs this. | 26:35 | |
| Who? | 26:39 | |
| You? | 26:40 | |
| Me? | 26:41 | |
| Anyone, everyone, if there is no sin | 26:43 | |
| then there is no need for a savior. | 26:48 | |
| If there is no brokenness, | 26:51 | |
| then there is no need for a healer. | 26:52 | |
| If there is no guilt, then there is no need for forgiveness. | 26:55 | |
| If there is no wrong, then there is no need for sacrifice. | 26:59 | |
| If there is no estrangement between God and us, | 27:02 | |
| then there is no need for a mediator | 27:06 | |
| to bring us together again. | 27:08 | |
| If there is no death, then there is no need for life. | 27:11 | |
| But I believe that there is present among us, | 27:15 | |
| among us who are God's own children's sin and brokenness | 27:18 | |
| and guilt and wrong and estrangement and death. | 27:22 | |
| Therefore we need the greatest possible outpouring | 27:26 | |
| of God's grace and that we have | 27:30 | |
| in Jesus Christ, the crucified. | 27:33 | |
| We need this Jesus Christ, the crucified | 27:38 | |
| to help make us one with ourselves, | 27:43 | |
| one with one another and one with God. | 27:45 | |
| As John Calvin, once wrote, | 27:49 | |
| "Christ did actually come to redeem us from sin | 27:51 | |
| and that is enough." | 27:54 | |
| That is enough. | 27:58 | |
| That is enough. | 28:00 | |
| That is the good and glorious word that I have for all of us | 28:02 | |
| from God's word today. | 28:06 | |
| But that's enough for this line of thought for the moment, | 28:10 | |
| for this is the end of the story. | 28:14 | |
| This is where we are today. | 28:16 | |
| Let's go back. | 28:19 | |
| Let's look at the passages of scripture used | 28:20 | |
| as the lessons for Passion Sunday. | 28:23 | |
| And let me tell you first off | 28:25 | |
| that if you heard much of the message | 28:27 | |
| as the lessons were read, | 28:29 | |
| you know already that these are weird, strange, perplexing, | 28:30 | |
| hard to understand passages of scripture. | 28:35 | |
| In Genesis chapter 22, | 28:39 | |
| Abraham is told by God to gather up his things, | 28:41 | |
| to take whatever is necessary | 28:46 | |
| to get his son in hand and to go up to the mountain | 28:49 | |
| and make of his beloved son, Isaac, a sacrifice to Him. | 28:52 | |
| That is to Jehovah, to Yahweh, to God. | 28:58 | |
| Isaac, you remember who, Issac was? | 29:02 | |
| For years Abraham had longed for a son | 29:06 | |
| by his beloved wife, Sarah | 29:09 | |
| but he was growing old. | 29:12 | |
| And one day God promised to Abraham that he and Sarah | 29:13 | |
| would indeed bear a son. | 29:17 | |
| And then for 10 more long years they waited. | 29:19 | |
| Finally Abraham did have a son | 29:23 | |
| but this son was by Hagar, his Egyptian woman slave. | 29:24 | |
| But then God gave to Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac. | 29:30 | |
| They rejoiced where they were well on in their years. | 29:35 | |
| Indeed, Abraham we are told was a hundred years old | 29:38 | |
| when Isaac was born. | 29:41 | |
| And then the word comes to Abraham, | 29:42 | |
| take your son, your only son, Isaac, | 29:44 | |
| whom you love and offer him as a burnt offering. | 29:47 | |
| Then in John chapter 11, Caiaphas has gathered | 29:54 | |
| all of the chief priests and the Pharisees | 29:56 | |
| together with him. | 29:58 | |
| There are concerned about this man, Jesus | 30:00 | |
| who had been performing many signs, | 30:02 | |
| who had been teaching and preaching to the multitudes | 30:04 | |
| and who had been moving out | 30:06 | |
| among the strange people all across the land. | 30:08 | |
| The raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus | 30:11 | |
| is told in the verses of chapter 11 | 30:14 | |
| immediately preceding our lesson for today. | 30:16 | |
| And oh what a glorious story this is. | 30:19 | |
| The story of love and friendship and caring | 30:22 | |
| and touching and healing and weeping and rejoicing. | 30:25 | |
| It is in these earlier verses that Jesus says to Martha | 30:29 | |
| and to all of us Martha's who have followed questioningly | 30:33 | |
| and yet faithfully in her train. | 30:37 | |
| I am the resurrection and the life, | 30:39 | |
| he who believes in me though he were dead | 30:42 | |
| yet shall he live. | 30:44 | |
| No wonder the chief priests | 30:46 | |
| and the Pharisees were concerned. | 30:49 | |
| They had cause to be concerned about this man, Jesus. | 30:51 | |
| Then Caiaphas being the chief high priest | 30:55 | |
| prophesy to them that one man should die | 30:59 | |
| for are all the people and not just for the nation, | 31:02 | |
| but for all the children of God's scattered abroad. | 31:06 | |
| What kind of God is this my friend? | 31:10 | |
| Who is this God who will give to an old man | 31:18 | |
| and his wife there long for son | 31:23 | |
| and then will tell the father to go make a burnt offering | 31:25 | |
| of this very very special son? | 31:28 | |
| Who is this God who will send his own son into the world | 31:32 | |
| to be born of Joseph and Mary | 31:37 | |
| and will call him his beloved son | 31:39 | |
| on the day of his baptism | 31:41 | |
| and then allow the very high priest | 31:43 | |
| to proclaim that this beloved son must die. | 31:45 | |
| What kind of God? | 31:48 | |
| Who is this God? | 31:50 | |
| What is going on in God's mind? | 31:53 | |
| Does God not care? | 31:55 | |
| First God gives and then God takes away. | 31:57 | |
| Is this the way God works with his children? | 32:01 | |
| Walter Russell Bowie, | 32:07 | |
| in writing about the Abraham Isaac experience says, | 32:08 | |
| "Here there is embedded the fact that | 32:11 | |
| once men not only practiced human sacrifice, | 32:14 | |
| but they did it at what they thought was divine command." | 32:18 | |
| Suppose they did that now. | 32:22 | |
| Then he says, the story of Abraham going out | 32:25 | |
| to sacrifice, Isaac may either seem incredible | 32:28 | |
| or else profoundly disturbing to children in Sunday school | 32:32 | |
| or to adults who hear it read in church, | 32:36 | |
| unless they know what to sift out | 32:39 | |
| in order that the real truth may appear. | 32:43 | |
| It is incredible, absurd, unbelievable. | 32:47 | |
| What a testing? | 32:53 | |
| what kind of God? | 32:54 | |
| And then D.M Bailey, in his profound theological treat us, | 32:59 | |
| God was in Christ rights for the early Christians. | 33:05 | |
| The crucifixion might well seem | 33:11 | |
| to be the final reduction odd absurdism, | 33:13 | |
| of the belief that the world | 33:18 | |
| is governed by a gracious providence. | 33:20 | |
| If God was good, | 33:23 | |
| how could he have allowed such a dreadful thing | 33:26 | |
| as the crucifixion of their Lord and master | 33:29 | |
| to have happened? | 33:32 | |
| There could be no doubt about the goodness of Jesus | 33:33 | |
| or of his love for others | 33:36 | |
| that had been made plainer than ever before. | 33:38 | |
| But how could they believe any longer in the love of God? | 33:40 | |
| Incredible, unbelievable, absurd. | 33:47 | |
| What kind of God? | 33:51 | |
| Who is this God? | 33:54 | |
| This God, who asks for sacrifice | 33:58 | |
| from the ever obedient Abraham | 34:02 | |
| and who calls for sacrifice from his ever obedient son | 34:05 | |
| is one in the midst of our pain and suffering and sacrifice. | 34:08 | |
| And he won even in the midst of our death. | 34:12 | |
| God is not above it all or away from it all | 34:15 | |
| or aloof from it all but God is in it all. | 34:18 | |
| That is the affirmation from Abraham and Isaac. | 34:24 | |
| That is the affirmation from Jesus the Christ. | 34:28 | |
| That is the affirmation of Passion Sunday for all people. | 34:32 | |
| Charles Allen Densmore writes, | 34:38 | |
| "There was a cross in the heart of God, | 34:41 | |
| long before there was one planted on the green hill | 34:45 | |
| outside Jerusalem." | 34:49 | |
| Pierce Plowman questions, who suffers more than God, | 34:53 | |
| Horace Bushnell once preached, | 35:03 | |
| it is as if there were a cross unseen | 35:06 | |
| standing on its undiscovered hill, | 35:09 | |
| far back in the ages | 35:12 | |
| out of which were sounding always just the same deep voice | 35:14 | |
| of suffering, love, and patience | 35:20 | |
| that was heard by mortal ears | 35:23 | |
| from the sacred hill of Calvary. | 35:25 | |
| Or as someone has said, | 35:29 | |
| there is no end to anything until God finishes it. | 35:30 | |
| We do not know the end of these things | 35:37 | |
| until God finishes with them. | 35:40 | |
| Who is this God, one who suffers? | 35:44 | |
| Who is this God, one who speaks to us personally | 35:50 | |
| and one who demands obedience? | 35:54 | |
| It was God's will that Abraham should go and offer Isaac. | 35:57 | |
| It was God's will that Jesus should be the one to die | 36:02 | |
| for the people. | 36:05 | |
| Abraham and Jesus were called to obey God. | 36:07 | |
| I'm convinced that both Abraham and Jesus | 36:11 | |
| could have said no I won't go. | 36:15 | |
| For Abraham was no mindless patriarch | 36:19 | |
| and Jesus was no helpless victim, | 36:22 | |
| but they didn't. | 36:26 | |
| They did not say no, they sought God's will. | 36:27 | |
| And when they became aware of God's will, | 36:31 | |
| they obeyed it and they followed it. | 36:33 | |
| These experiences of these men with God's will say to me, | 36:37 | |
| that in God's will there is risk. | 36:41 | |
| There is the unknown, there is danger and uncertainty. | 36:45 | |
| There is death, but there is also freedom and power, | 36:49 | |
| freedom to decide and power to act. | 36:53 | |
| As for me and perhaps for some of you | 36:58 | |
| and perhaps for many others, | 37:01 | |
| we don't often find this will of God. | 37:03 | |
| We don't often discover this or know this | 37:05 | |
| or hear this, or see this, or understand this | 37:08 | |
| or appropriate this will of God for our own lives. | 37:13 | |
| It's very rare that I feel that | 37:16 | |
| I am acting out the will of God. | 37:23 | |
| But when we do, | 37:27 | |
| we then become willing to fight any cause | 37:29 | |
| or go to any battle or face any army | 37:32 | |
| or be burned at any stake or to sacrifice a loved one, | 37:34 | |
| or even to go to death ourselves. | 37:37 | |
| Or I'm convinced that when a person knows, understands, | 37:40 | |
| and accepts and acts on God's will | 37:43 | |
| that person can endure any experience on earth | 37:46 | |
| or in heaven or even in Hell. | 37:51 | |
| D.T. Niles, the great Christian Saint | 37:55 | |
| of the church of south India says, | 37:58 | |
| "To live by faith is to live by the faithfulness of God." | 37:59 | |
| So when we know God's will and act on it | 38:03 | |
| we live not just by our faith, | 38:05 | |
| but by the faithfulness of God. | 38:07 | |
| Thus these experiences of these man with God | 38:09 | |
| tell me that there must be in God's will | 38:11 | |
| a peace and a contentment and a tranquility of soul. | 38:14 | |
| There must be in the will of God hope and assurance | 38:18 | |
| and promise of spirit in God's will | 38:22 | |
| there is a tomorrow. | 38:24 | |
| How else could Abraham or Jesus have endured? | 38:26 | |
| Oh, to know God's will and to live in it. | 38:30 | |
| Who is this God, one who suffers with us and for us? | 38:39 | |
| One who speaks to us personally and demands obedience. | 38:46 | |
| Then this God is one for the people, one for all the people. | 38:51 | |
| John says Jesus is the one who should die for people | 38:57 | |
| for all the children who are scattered abroad. | 39:00 | |
| D.T. Niles in this book of his entitled, "This Jesus," | 39:05 | |
| talks about two ways of knowing | 39:09 | |
| that Jesus Christ is the savior. | 39:12 | |
| He writes, the only reason that Charles Wesley gave | 39:14 | |
| or believing Jesus is sufficient for anyone, | 39:18 | |
| is it Charles Wesley believed that Jesus | 39:22 | |
| was sufficient for him. | 39:24 | |
| Wesley knew that he was not an exceptional person | 39:28 | |
| and that what was true for him | 39:32 | |
| was true for all other person. | 39:34 | |
| Now says then, | 39:38 | |
| "But the truth which I am seeking to convey | 39:41 | |
| is the opposite of this. | 39:44 | |
| It is that what was true for all persons was | 39:46 | |
| and is therefore true for me. | 39:49 | |
| For me it has made the final difference | 39:53 | |
| to my own happiness that I know that God loves | 39:55 | |
| all people equally. | 39:59 | |
| God's love is for all and therefore it is for me." | 40:02 | |
| God's love is for me and therefore is for everyone. | 40:06 | |
| So whether you want to believe first that God loves you | 40:12 | |
| and therefore must love all people, | 40:15 | |
| or whether you want to believe that God loves all people | 40:18 | |
| and therefore must love you, | 40:21 | |
| it really leads to the same end | 40:22 | |
| that God loves us one and all. | 40:24 | |
| So there is this communal or corporate or community word, | 40:30 | |
| this inclusive word which I want us to hear this morning. | 40:36 | |
| Jesus is the one from God, for all the people. | 40:40 | |
| If Jesus is not for everyone, | 40:43 | |
| then I wonder is Jesus for anyone. | 40:45 | |
| I believe that we have overstressed individuality | 40:52 | |
| in Christianity. | 40:56 | |
| We have put too much emphasis on the singling out | 40:58 | |
| of God's children. | 41:01 | |
| We have over individualized and separated ourselves | 41:03 | |
| into nice little Christian isolates | 41:07 | |
| of one person for far too long. | 41:11 | |
| For what is this life without others? | 41:14 | |
| What is Christianity without Christ | 41:21 | |
| and other Christians? | 41:25 | |
| Indeed, what is eternal life alone? | 41:28 | |
| What if as one young person said to me recently, | 41:35 | |
| all we really have after all is personal relationships. | 41:38 | |
| What is the I without a we? | 41:43 | |
| what is the mine without an our? | 41:45 | |
| How then can one, even God die for all the people? | 41:49 | |
| I do not know. | 41:58 | |
| I cannot understand, | 42:01 | |
| but perhaps it is as Henry Nowan says, | 42:03 | |
| "No one can help anyone without becoming involved, | 42:07 | |
| without entering with one's whole person | 42:12 | |
| into the painful situation, | 42:15 | |
| without taking the risk of being hurt, | 42:17 | |
| wounded or even destroyed." | 42:20 | |
| So Christ did entered into the painful situation | 42:26 | |
| with his whole person even unto to death. | 42:30 | |
| This is the word for all the people. | 42:34 | |
| And I believe that somehow, sometime, some way, | 42:39 | |
| all God's children will know and experience | 42:45 | |
| the passionate, caring love of Christ. | 42:48 | |
| You say to me, Bob, you mean all people everywhere? | 42:51 | |
| Someday, sometime will know and experience the love of God. | 42:54 | |
| I believe, yes. | 42:58 | |
| It may not be in the ways in which you and I now know. | 43:00 | |
| It may not even be on this side of death. | 43:05 | |
| Indeed it was James Matthews | 43:09 | |
| when he was writing about his father's death, | 43:10 | |
| who gave to me for the first time | 43:13 | |
| the conception that God loves us even beyond death | 43:15 | |
| and may redeem many of us, not on this side of death | 43:18 | |
| but beyond death and from that point on | 43:21 | |
| through all eternity. | 43:23 | |
| Oh. | 43:27 | |
| In some mysterious way, | 43:33 | |
| in the eternal plan of God all the people will of God | 43:36 | |
| will know and experience this amazing love. | 43:40 | |
| For the word of God my friends is too consistent | 43:44 | |
| and too repetitious on this theme for it not to be true. | 43:46 | |
| Listen to just a few passages which I can quote for you | 43:49 | |
| and you can recall many. | 43:53 | |
| Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of who? | 43:54 | |
| The world. | 43:57 | |
| I will be your God and you, plural | 44:00 | |
| you will be my people. | 44:03 | |
| For God so loved not individuals, | 44:06 | |
| but the world that he gave his only son. | 44:09 | |
| God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. | 44:14 | |
| God commanded his love toward us | 44:19 | |
| in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. | 44:22 | |
| God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. | 44:27 | |
| Here in is love, not did we love God | 44:33 | |
| but that he loved us | 44:36 | |
| and sent his son for the propitiation of our sins. | 44:39 | |
| Oh, what a glorious gospel. | 44:45 | |
| Power, not for me but for all God's children. | 44:49 | |
| The love of God not only lasts forever it is for everyone. | 44:57 | |
| Someone has said, | 45:06 | |
| risen Christ, if God were good | 45:08 | |
| he could not look up on the sin of and misery of man | 45:11 | |
| and live his heart would break. | 45:14 | |
| And the church points to the cross and says, | 45:17 | |
| God's heart dead, break. | 45:20 | |
| Risen Christ, born and reared in sin as we are, | 45:25 | |
| how can we keep from sin? | 45:30 | |
| It is the creator who is responsible. | 45:32 | |
| It is God who deserves to be punished. | 45:34 | |
| The church kneels by the cross and whispers, | 45:37 | |
| God takes the responsibility and bears the punishment. | 45:39 | |
| Risen Christ, who is God? | 45:47 | |
| What is God? | 45:48 | |
| The name stands for the unknown. | 45:49 | |
| It is blasphemous us to say that we know him. | 45:51 | |
| The church kisses the feet of the dying Christ and says, | 45:54 | |
| we must worship the majesty we see. | 45:59 | |
| The majesty of the crucified. | 46:02 | |
| The majesty of love, | 46:04 | |
| the majesty of suffering where love gives itself | 46:07 | |
| for our sake. | 46:11 | |
| It was for our brokenness, | 46:16 | |
| our brokenness that the healer came. | 46:19 | |
| To God be the praise and the glory forever and ever. | 46:25 | |
| Amen. | 46:33 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 46:40 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 47:25 | |
| Accept these offerings now placed upon your alter | 56:07 | |
| oh gifter of every good and perfect gift. | 56:10 | |
| Granted they may be symbols of our love and of ourselves | 56:14 | |
| now offered more fully to you. | 56:18 | |
| Use these gifts to the end that your will is done | 56:20 | |
| and your kingdom of justice, liberation, | 56:24 | |
| unity and the wellbeing of all people's come. | 56:26 | |
| Through Jesus Christ on a cross we pray. | 56:30 | |
| Amen. | 56:34 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 56:37 | |
| (congregation singing indistinctly) | 57:08 | |
| The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ | 1:00:17 | |
| and the love of God | 1:00:19 | |
| and the fellowship of the holy spirit, be with you all. | 1:00:21 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:00:28 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:00:41 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:01:02 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:01:22 | |
| (congregation murmuring faintly) | 1:04:09 | |
| (indistinct) | 1:04:21 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:04:23 | |
| (murmuring faintly) | 1:05:20 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:05:27 | |
| (murmuring faintly) | 1:06:17 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:06:24 | |
| (murmuring faintly) | 1:07:04 | |
| (gentle instrumental music) | 1:07:22 | |
| (murmuring faintly) | 1:07:28 |
