Samuel R. Hope - "The Shattering and Strengthening Grace" (August 8, 1976)
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| (choir sings) | 0:14 | |
| (piano strumming) | 1:36 | |
| (choir sings) | 2:18 | |
| - | Seated, when we gather to worship, | 4:35 |
| we remember that we are people | 4:43 | |
| who have referred our wills to the will of God, | 4:45 | |
| therefore let us confess our sin. | 4:50 | |
| Oh God, you who are before | 4:55 | |
| and after all things by whom | 4:59 | |
| and before whom everything exists that exists, | 5:02 | |
| in who's hand, lie the mysteries of each yesterday, | 5:07 | |
| tomorrow and today. | 5:11 | |
| We are those who knowing the wonder filled dread | 5:14 | |
| of your presence, have lacked the courage of our awareness, | 5:18 | |
| vainly striving to hide ourselves from you. | 5:23 | |
| We are abusing the world about us and all they're in. | 5:28 | |
| We are those who knowing that life is given to us, | 5:33 | |
| only in the present, | 5:37 | |
| desperately cling to our faults images | 5:39 | |
| about the past, and our imagined fantasies | 5:41 | |
| concerning the future, knowing that we are called to live, | 5:46 | |
| do not elect to be called. | 5:51 | |
| Have mercy on us oh God, amen. | 5:54 | |
| Hear these words of assurance from the scriptures. | 6:13 | |
| Come to me all who are heavy laden | 6:17 | |
| and I will give you rest. | 6:21 | |
| The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance | 6:23 | |
| that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, amen. | 6:27 | |
| (piano strumming) | 6:38 | |
| (choir sings) | 7:02 | |
| (piano strumming) | 11:08 | |
| The scripture lesson today, | 11:26 | |
| is from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. | 11:28 | |
| Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews, | 11:38 | |
| the 40 lashes less one. | 11:41 | |
| Three times I have been beaten with rods. | 11:44 | |
| Once I was stoned. | 11:47 | |
| Three times I have been shipped wrecked. | 11:50 | |
| A night and a day, | 11:53 | |
| I have been a drift at sea. | 11:54 | |
| On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, | 11:56 | |
| danger from robbers, danger from my own people, | 12:00 | |
| dangers from the Gentiles, danger in the city, | 12:04 | |
| danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, | 12:06 | |
| danger from false brethren. | 12:10 | |
| In toil and hardship through many sleepless night, | 12:12 | |
| in hunger and thirst often without food | 12:16 | |
| and cold and exposure. | 12:19 | |
| And apart from other things, | 12:22 | |
| there is a daily pressure upon me, | 12:24 | |
| of my anxiety for all the churches. | 12:26 | |
| Who is weak? | 12:30 | |
| Am I not weak? | 12:32 | |
| Who is made to fall? | 12:34 | |
| And am I not indignant? | 12:36 | |
| If I must boast, I will boast of the things | 12:38 | |
| that show my weakness. | 12:41 | |
| The God and father of the Lord, Jesus. | 12:44 | |
| He who is blessed forever knows | 12:47 | |
| that I do not lie. | 12:50 | |
| At Damascus, the governor under King (indistinct), | 12:52 | |
| guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me. | 12:55 | |
| But I was let down in a basket | 12:58 | |
| through a window in the wall | 13:01 | |
| and escaped his hands. | 13:03 | |
| I must boast, there is nothing to be gained by it | 13:05 | |
| but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. | 13:09 | |
| I know a man and in Christ | 13:13 | |
| to 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. | 13:15 | |
| Whether in the body or out of the body, | 13:19 | |
| I do not know, God knows. | 13:21 | |
| And I know that this man was caught up in the paradise, | 13:26 | |
| whether in the body or out of the body | 13:29 | |
| I do not know, God knows. | 13:31 | |
| And he heard things that cannot be told | 13:35 | |
| which man may not utter. | 13:37 | |
| On behalf of this man, I will boast | 13:40 | |
| but on my own behalf, I will not boast, | 13:42 | |
| except of my weakness. | 13:45 | |
| Though if I wish to boast, I should not be a fool | 13:49 | |
| for I shall be speaking the truth, | 13:52 | |
| but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me | 13:55 | |
| than he sees in me or hears from me. | 13:59 | |
| And to keep me from being too elated | 14:04 | |
| by the abundance of revelations. | 14:06 | |
| A thorn in the flesh was given me, | 14:09 | |
| messenger of Satan to harass me, | 14:12 | |
| to keep me from being too elated. | 14:15 | |
| Three times I besoth the Lord about this | 14:19 | |
| that it should leave me, | 14:22 | |
| but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you | 14:24 | |
| for my power is made perfect in weakness." | 14:29 | |
| I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses | 14:33 | |
| that the power of Christ may rest upon me, | 14:37 | |
| for the sake of Christ then, I am contempt with weaknesses | 14:41 | |
| insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. | 14:46 | |
| For when I am weak, then I am strong. | 14:51 | |
| Here ends the lesson. | 14:57 | |
| (piano strumming) | 15:00 | |
| (choir sings) | 15:10 | |
| We are not alone. | 15:44 | |
| We live in God's world. | 15:45 | |
| We believe in God who has created | 15:48 | |
| and is creating, | 15:51 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 15:53 | |
| and make new. | 15:57 | |
| Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 15:59 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church | 16:03 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness, | 16:07 | |
| to love and serve others, | 16:10 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 16:12 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 16:15 | |
| our judge and our hope. | 16:19 | |
| In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. | 16:22 | |
| We are not alone. | 16:29 | |
| Thanks be to God, be seated. | 16:31 | |
| We welcome all who worship this day here in Luke Chapel. | 16:38 | |
| We welcome to our pulpit this morning, the Reverend Sam Hope | 16:45 | |
| who is the minister of first Presbyterian Church | 16:50 | |
| here in Durham. | 16:54 | |
| The Lord be with you, let us pray. | 16:57 | |
| Let us pray | 17:07 | |
| and never cease to ask for all the things | 17:08 | |
| that we long for, | 17:13 | |
| for all that we think we need, | 17:17 | |
| knowing that God knows what we need | 17:20 | |
| and gives us out of that divine wisdom. | 17:23 | |
| Let us pray for all our fellow human beings, | 17:28 | |
| for everyone with whom we are associated, | 17:34 | |
| for all those who depend upon us, | 17:38 | |
| for all those who believe in us, | 17:41 | |
| for all who have suffered for us, | 17:45 | |
| for all who stand beside us. | 17:48 | |
| Help us not to betray their faith in us. | 17:52 | |
| Let us pray for a vital and humane world. | 17:58 | |
| A world like God had in mind | 18:03 | |
| when we were created. | 18:04 | |
| A world where there is trust and solidarity | 18:07 | |
| wherever people work together, | 18:10 | |
| in industry and business. | 18:13 | |
| We pray for honesty in business, | 18:16 | |
| for good working conditions | 18:20 | |
| and fair wages, | 18:21 | |
| that everyone's work may be part of making a life, | 18:24 | |
| more than just making a living. | 18:28 | |
| Let us pray for the increase | 18:32 | |
| of love and respect in our hospitals, mental hospitals, | 18:35 | |
| rehabilitation centers, old people's homes | 18:40 | |
| that we might always have in our hearts a place | 18:46 | |
| for people who are different from us. | 18:48 | |
| Let us pray for everybody who is unhappy and unattractive. | 18:53 | |
| The people who think they have nothing to offer the world. | 19:02 | |
| The people who think that nobody needs them | 19:07 | |
| or wants them. | 19:11 | |
| We pray for people who are hard to live of with | 19:14 | |
| that they may meet with our patients and understanding. | 19:19 | |
| Let us pray also for people who do wrong, | 19:25 | |
| people who are hurt by other people, | 19:29 | |
| people who justify their crime | 19:32 | |
| by reasons of personal circumstance. | 19:35 | |
| People who use their power unjustly | 19:39 | |
| or to Lord over other people. | 19:42 | |
| People who steal, who cheat. | 19:46 | |
| People who think of themselves | 19:51 | |
| more than they think of other people. | 19:53 | |
| In short, we pray for people just like us | 19:58 | |
| that we may all feel the freedom that comes with confession, | 20:03 | |
| the new birth that comes with forgiveness. | 20:10 | |
| Let us pray for everyone | 20:15 | |
| in the world who believes the good news of the gospel, | 20:16 | |
| that they may grow in their understanding | 20:20 | |
| of what it means to be loved by God. | 20:22 | |
| We also pray for all churches | 20:27 | |
| that they may not lay up treasures on earth | 20:31 | |
| or become monuments to a past age | 20:35 | |
| clinging to what is dead remote from people of today, | 20:37 | |
| but that they might be converted to the spirit of our Lord | 20:43 | |
| who is the hope of the world today and always. | 20:46 | |
| Lord, we have noticed that you do not wish | 20:52 | |
| to be without us, | 20:57 | |
| that when we were lost you came and found us, | 21:00 | |
| when we were strangers you welcome us in. | 21:05 | |
| Now that we have come close to you in this hour, | 21:10 | |
| do with us as your heart directs, | 21:14 | |
| keep us near to you, we pray. | 21:18 | |
| Calling you by the name that we were taught. | 21:21 | |
| Our father who art in heaven. | 21:25 | |
| Hallowed be thy name. | 21:29 | |
| Thy kingdom come. | 21:31 | |
| Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 21:32 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 21:37 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 21:40 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 21:42 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 21:46 | |
| but deliver us from evil | 21:49 | |
| for Thy is the kingdom | 21:51 | |
| and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 21:53 | |
| - | The Christian faith is often presented today | 22:24 |
| as the solution to our personal problems. | 22:28 | |
| We're told that if we will only believe in Jesus, | 22:32 | |
| we'll receive a peace that passes all understanding. | 22:36 | |
| I confess that has not been my experience, | 22:42 | |
| nor do I believe it squares with the experience | 22:46 | |
| of New Testament writers of Christians in the early church. | 22:49 | |
| In fact, I believe a strong case can be made | 22:55 | |
| that to follow Jesus Christ, | 22:58 | |
| to have an encounter with the living God, | 23:02 | |
| often increases our problems and anxiety. | 23:06 | |
| Last Sunday evening on 60 Minutes, CBS Television, | 23:14 | |
| there was a program on the resurgence | 23:18 | |
| of the Christian faith in America. | 23:21 | |
| It says in America is right for a religious revival, | 23:26 | |
| that across the country people are praising God | 23:30 | |
| and there's a happiness | 23:32 | |
| and fellowship within the Christian Church. | 23:33 | |
| But as I saw that on the TV screen, | 23:36 | |
| I said, "If that's Christianity, | 23:38 | |
| then I'm not sure I recognize it." | 23:41 | |
| For seem too sweet, | 23:44 | |
| too simple and neatly packaged, too shallow. | 23:47 | |
| What does happen to a person who encounters the living God? | 23:54 | |
| What does happen to us | 23:59 | |
| if we would yield ourselves to Jesus Christ | 24:01 | |
| as Lord and savior? | 24:04 | |
| If we would seek to be faithful disciples | 24:06 | |
| of his in this modern world, | 24:08 | |
| if you look at the life of Saul of Tarsus | 24:16 | |
| and his conversion on the road to Damascus, | 24:20 | |
| I think we can find some clues for ourselves. | 24:22 | |
| I think we need first of all | 24:25 | |
| to forget all that dramatic part about his conversion, | 24:26 | |
| all the unusual and maybe memorable circumstances, | 24:30 | |
| but recall that Saul of Tarsus | 24:36 | |
| was in many ways a good man, a religious man. | 24:38 | |
| He knew what he believed. | 24:43 | |
| He knew where he was going. | 24:44 | |
| He had the courage | 24:46 | |
| of his convictions prior to his conversion. | 24:47 | |
| He had grown up in the synagogue. | 24:50 | |
| He had been devoted to the God of his fathers. | 24:53 | |
| He was not converted from paganism, | 24:56 | |
| but from piety. | 24:58 | |
| Not from immorality, but from a moral life, | 25:00 | |
| not from evil but from a good life. | 25:03 | |
| He'd talked to obey the 10 commandments. | 25:06 | |
| He sought to love God, | 25:10 | |
| but here was a good person who needed to be converted, | 25:12 | |
| who needed to be turned around | 25:16 | |
| which is what conversion means. | 25:18 | |
| And so God did encounter him on the road to Damascus | 25:24 | |
| and in a new and fresh way, | 25:29 | |
| Paul asked, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" | 25:30 | |
| And there was no quick or easy answer. | 25:37 | |
| There followed months, literally months of in a struggle | 25:41 | |
| and turmoil as Paul sought God's will | 25:44 | |
| for his life to make some sense | 25:48 | |
| out of the confusion of life. | 25:50 | |
| Paul was shaken, by the grace of God, | 25:55 | |
| his illusions had shattered | 25:58 | |
| because God loved him, God first shook him up. | 26:02 | |
| He helped to change his perspective on life, | 26:08 | |
| to be sensitized to the needs of others, | 26:11 | |
| to take a new look at his presuppositions | 26:17 | |
| and assumptions about life. | 26:20 | |
| And what were the result | 26:22 | |
| and awards of this dramatic turnabout in Paul's life? | 26:23 | |
| Did he find that piece that passes all understanding, | 26:29 | |
| whatever that might be? | 26:31 | |
| Did he find serenity, tranquility, calmness? | 26:35 | |
| Was he freed from anxiety? | 26:39 | |
| Though he found persecution instead of peace, | 26:44 | |
| continued turmoil instead of tranquility. | 26:49 | |
| We read in our scriptures what happened to him five times | 26:55 | |
| after I received of the Jews 40 lashes less one, | 26:59 | |
| three times, I've been beaten with rods once I was stoned, | 27:03 | |
| three times I've been shipwrecked, | 27:08 | |
| a night of the day I have been drifted at sea. | 27:11 | |
| On frequent journeys, I've been in danger from rivers, | 27:14 | |
| danger from robbers, danger from my own people, | 27:18 | |
| danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, | 27:23 | |
| danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, | 27:28 | |
| danger from false brethren. | 27:30 | |
| Through many sleepless night in hunger and thirst, | 27:35 | |
| often without food, | 27:40 | |
| and cold and exposure. | 27:44 | |
| And apart from all this, there is the daily pressure | 27:46 | |
| of my anxiety for all the churches. | 27:53 | |
| Eight times, the word danger is used. | 28:00 | |
| Paul's life was stirred up. | 28:08 | |
| I submit to you hear exchanged problems. | 28:12 | |
| He had as many problems or more | 28:14 | |
| but perhaps of a different nature. | 28:16 | |
| The complexity of life was continued | 28:20 | |
| and perhaps intensified. | 28:23 | |
| And the reason that is so, | 28:26 | |
| is because the ways of God | 28:27 | |
| and the ways of the world are different. | 28:30 | |
| You and I are called to be like Paul in the world | 28:33 | |
| but not of the world. | 28:35 | |
| To be transformed | 28:38 | |
| and to transform the world, not to be conformed to it. | 28:40 | |
| The world beckons us to self-interest. | 28:45 | |
| God calls us to self-sacrifice. | 28:48 | |
| The world calls us to protect ourselves | 28:52 | |
| and God calls us to be open and vulnerable. | 28:56 | |
| The world calls us to save and keep what we have | 29:01 | |
| and God calls us to share and give it away. | 29:05 | |
| One of the marks of the Christian life is vulnerability, | 29:12 | |
| like the Robert Rains in his book | 29:18 | |
| to kiss the joy, tells of being at the beach | 29:19 | |
| and watching some crabs run around in the sand. | 29:23 | |
| And he was reminded if a crab is going to live and grow, | 29:27 | |
| that from time to time, it's got to discard it's shells. | 29:31 | |
| And in that period without a shell, a crab is vulnerable. | 29:36 | |
| The life cycle of a crab, is sort of a discarding | 29:45 | |
| and rebuilding of shells. | 29:48 | |
| And finally he builds one | 29:51 | |
| that's so rigid and so strong, he can't escape from it | 29:52 | |
| and that's the one in which he dies. | 29:55 | |
| Robert Rain says, "That's an analogy to human life | 29:59 | |
| we build shells too." | 30:02 | |
| Belief systems, lifestyles, convictions that are precious, | 30:05 | |
| that often have to be changed, have to be upset | 30:12 | |
| that God needs to shake us loose. | 30:17 | |
| Frederick Herzog in his book, "Liberation theology," | 30:27 | |
| I think is right on the mark when he says, | 30:31 | |
| "God is a live issue, only where life is not secure, | 30:34 | |
| where man is unable to become complacent, | 30:41 | |
| where we realize that we are not in control of life." | 30:44 | |
| When Paul said, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" | 30:53 | |
| He had to search long for an answer. | 30:59 | |
| There was no divine blueprint | 31:05 | |
| and I think finally John Henry Newman | 31:06 | |
| and that familiar hymn puts it well, | 31:10 | |
| lead kindly light amid the inserting gloom lead thou me on. | 31:14 | |
| The night is dark and I am far from home lead thou me on. | 31:21 | |
| Keep thou my feet. | 31:26 | |
| I do not wish to see the distance scene. | 31:27 | |
| One step enough for me. | 31:31 | |
| You see when you and I are as disciples of Christ, | 31:37 | |
| we go out like Abraham, | 31:44 | |
| in a sense not knowing where we are to go | 31:46 | |
| or like Moses or the prophets to Jeremiah and Amos | 31:51 | |
| who felt they're inadequacy, | 31:54 | |
| or like Paul and the disciples | 31:58 | |
| and the apostles of the New Testament. | 32:00 | |
| We can hardly be at peace | 32:04 | |
| when we love Christ and his world. | 32:09 | |
| And when so much is wrong in the world, | 32:14 | |
| it says Christ would not have it. | 32:19 | |
| And I think our consciousness bother us more | 32:23 | |
| rather than less. | 32:25 | |
| I look in my closet, filled with clothes | 32:28 | |
| and shoes there on the floor, | 32:30 | |
| many more than I need | 32:33 | |
| and there are people in rags and barefooted. | 32:35 | |
| We grow fat while people starve, | 32:40 | |
| we are blind to injustice | 32:45 | |
| and what's worse, often indifferent to it. | 32:47 | |
| Complacent in the face of grave human need. | 32:52 | |
| And a part of what Christ does for us, is to sensitize us | 32:56 | |
| and make us care about out his world. | 32:59 | |
| And that produces, I think a continuous conflict within us | 33:04 | |
| of how we spend our money, how we spend our time. | 33:07 | |
| It makes us ask who we are, | 33:14 | |
| what God would have us do on our days on earth. | 33:16 | |
| There's a lot of hero in our hymns. | 33:21 | |
| One hymn says there's a place | 33:24 | |
| of quiet rest near to the heart of God. | 33:25 | |
| A place where all is joy and peace, | 33:29 | |
| near to the heart of God. | 33:33 | |
| Paul (indistinct) says that to be near the heart of God, | 33:37 | |
| is to hear it breaking. | 33:40 | |
| For as God looks down upon his world. | 33:44 | |
| He weeps over it. | 33:46 | |
| Lost and wandering children. | 33:50 | |
| God loves his world. | 33:57 | |
| Sometimes we sing sweet our prayer, sweet our prayer | 34:00 | |
| that calls me from a world of care. | 34:03 | |
| That's not true, is it? | 34:08 | |
| Prayer should thrust us into the pain of life. | 34:11 | |
| It should call us to share the anguish of God | 34:15 | |
| and of his world. | 34:17 | |
| In the scriptures, none of the persons in the parables, | 34:28 | |
| go bankrupt or failures in life. | 34:35 | |
| I guess the problem is that there are successes. | 34:39 | |
| Their barns are filled, | 34:44 | |
| but one night God whispers, you fool, you fool. | 34:48 | |
| To have missed the mark of life, | 34:58 | |
| to be a success by worldly standards | 35:01 | |
| but not in the sight of God. | 35:03 | |
| I think that's what should make us shutter. | 35:07 | |
| God loves us enough not to give us what we want. | 35:10 | |
| He loves us enough in his grace to shake us up, | 35:16 | |
| to shatter our illusions, to change our dreams, | 35:20 | |
| to give us new visions, new concerns. | 35:25 | |
| God's grace shatters us | 35:34 | |
| and it also strengthens us. | 35:36 | |
| Paul through all of his calamities and shipwrecks | 35:40 | |
| and stonings and whippings, | 35:42 | |
| heard God say to him, | 35:47 | |
| "My grace is sufficient for you, | 35:50 | |
| for my power is made perfect in weakness." | 35:54 | |
| And Paul said, "I will all the more gladly boast | 36:00 | |
| of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, | 36:02 | |
| for the sake of Christ I'm content with weaknesses, | 36:10 | |
| insults, hardships, persecutions calamities. | 36:14 | |
| From when I am weak, then I am strong." | 36:18 | |
| What Paul meant is that, when he was self sufficient | 36:25 | |
| or thought he was, God couldn't help him, | 36:28 | |
| but when he felt a desperate need, | 36:34 | |
| when he recognized his frailty, his sinfulness, | 36:38 | |
| his smallness in face of the amencity | 36:43 | |
| of what God would have him do in the world. | 36:47 | |
| That he was open to receive God's power. | 36:51 | |
| He could ask God for it and use it. | 36:56 | |
| And so when he was weak or realized he was weak, | 37:00 | |
| when seemed as though life was tumbling in | 37:05 | |
| or there was more than could be done, | 37:09 | |
| God's word came, my grace is sufficient for you, | 37:12 | |
| it is enough, | 37:16 | |
| for it enables us to cope with life and its problems, | 37:19 | |
| our problems and the problems of other people. | 37:22 | |
| I think it is true | 37:29 | |
| that man's adversities are often God's opportunities. | 37:30 | |
| In the bicentennial year, | 37:36 | |
| I was reading some in American history, | 37:37 | |
| thinking particularly in the latter stages | 37:45 | |
| of Abraham Lincoln. | 37:47 | |
| Two sums stand out in one of his biographies. | 37:50 | |
| They had told of how Lincoln had lost the love | 37:56 | |
| of his life and (indistinct). | 38:00 | |
| His four year old son Eddie died | 38:03 | |
| and then a son Willy died. | 38:06 | |
| Lincoln was in debt. | 38:10 | |
| He had known political defeat, he'd failed in business. | 38:13 | |
| And the biographer said, | 38:19 | |
| "God has a way of making men wander in the wilderness | 38:21 | |
| until they are ready for his designs." | 38:26 | |
| The shape of great character is often hammered out | 38:30 | |
| on the anvils of sacrifice and suffering. | 38:33 | |
| Lincoln could speak the deathless masterpiece at Gettysburg | 38:38 | |
| because he had experienced Gettysburg of his own. | 38:44 | |
| Another biographer said, | 38:50 | |
| "In such a forest of wind and storm, | 38:53 | |
| God reared and hardened a mighty oak. | 38:57 | |
| In such a school of defeat, | 39:01 | |
| God prepared our greatest American." | 39:05 | |
| Problems and suffering are not good in themselves. | 39:13 | |
| And I think God does not cause many of our problems | 39:18 | |
| but I'm convinced that God can use them for good, | 39:23 | |
| that God's grace is sufficient to enable us to cope | 39:28 | |
| with whatever problems we face. | 39:31 | |
| Remember Paul had a thorn in the flesh, | 39:35 | |
| a physical ailment perhaps malaria fever. | 39:37 | |
| He be thought the Lord might leave him | 39:43 | |
| and God answered his prayer, answered it in the negative. | 39:45 | |
| No, he would not be healed, | 39:51 | |
| but he would have strength | 39:55 | |
| to cope with this physical ailment | 39:56 | |
| and all the other problems | 39:59 | |
| that might face him in life. | 40:01 | |
| There is such a thing, | 40:07 | |
| as the peace of God that passes all understanding, | 40:08 | |
| but it's quite different | 40:14 | |
| from what is normally spoken about it. | 40:15 | |
| I think John Mackay put it best in his book, "God's Order." | 40:19 | |
| He said the peace of God, which passes all understanding, | 40:25 | |
| is given to pilgrims and crusaders. | 40:28 | |
| It is bestowed upon them by the wayside | 40:32 | |
| as they rest from their toil | 40:34 | |
| in order to equip them for further toil. | 40:37 | |
| It is peace on the road for the road | 40:41 | |
| and MacKay then talks about John Bunyan's | 40:45 | |
| great classical allegory "Pilgrim's Progress" | 40:48 | |
| and how peace is described there. | 40:51 | |
| The Pilgrim Christian stops at a wayside home | 40:54 | |
| and is entertained by three hostesses piety, | 40:58 | |
| Prudence and Charity. | 41:02 | |
| He quotes, "they discussed together till late at night | 41:05 | |
| and after they had committed themselves | 41:09 | |
| to the Lord for protection, | 41:10 | |
| they took themselves to rest. | 41:11 | |
| the Pilgrim, they laid in a large upper room | 41:14 | |
| whose window opened towards the sunrise rising. | 41:17 | |
| The name of the chamber was peace, | 41:21 | |
| where he slept till break of day. | 41:24 | |
| In the morning, Christian took farewell of his hostesses. | 41:28 | |
| Before the day was done, | 41:31 | |
| he had fought thethe the Pollion | 41:33 | |
| in the valley of humiliation | 41:35 | |
| and the greatest battle of his career. | 41:37 | |
| Most of the night that followed, | 41:40 | |
| he marched through the horrors, | 41:42 | |
| the valley of the shadow of death | 41:43 | |
| but peace made strong his heart | 41:46 | |
| and he knew not the meaning of fear. | 41:48 | |
| Christian peace, is peace for the sunrise | 41:51 | |
| and also for the leap valley | 41:57 | |
| where the light does not shine by day. | 41:58 | |
| It is peace for the darkness | 42:02 | |
| that comes when the sun goes down. | 42:03 | |
| It is, but natural that Christian peace should be so | 42:08 | |
| if it is really the peace of Christ. | 42:13 | |
| When Jesus Christ said to his disciples, | 42:17 | |
| my peace I give unto you, | 42:20 | |
| not as the world gives, do I give unto you. | 42:21 | |
| It was the night before he died. | 42:25 | |
| He was intensely aware of what lay before him | 42:29 | |
| but his soul was at peace. | 42:33 | |
| That peace he bequeath to his disciples. | 42:36 | |
| The peace which Jesus Christ gives to his followers, | 42:41 | |
| is peace for action, peace for the road, | 42:45 | |
| peace to do the will of God. | 42:51 | |
| May the a piece of Christ be yours. | 42:59 | |
| Let us pray. | 43:06 | |
| Oh Lord, God, help us know how frail we are | 43:11 | |
| in our own strength. | 43:19 | |
| And oh, God, help us know how strong we can be | 43:23 | |
| when your power dwells in us. | 43:28 | |
| We pray that by your grace, | 43:33 | |
| you will deliver us from ourselves, | 43:36 | |
| deliver us, oh, Lord, | 43:40 | |
| and lead us beyond concerns | 43:41 | |
| for only ourselves and our family. | 43:44 | |
| Oh God, we pray for love for your world. | 43:51 | |
| That our hearts may ache and share the pain. | 43:58 | |
| That you may use us as your instruments | 44:03 | |
| in your world for good. | 44:06 | |
| Grant us your grace and your peace | 44:10 | |
| and go with us from this place. | 44:16 | |
| We pray in Christ's name, amen. | 44:18 | |
| (piano strumming) | 44:27 | |
| (choir sings) | 45:16 | |
| (piano strumming) | 48:11 | |
| (choir sings) | 49:56 | |
| - | Almighty God accept these our gifts | 54:48 |
| and accept we ourselves | 54:51 | |
| as we offer ourselves to leave for your work, amen. | 54:53 | |
| (piano strumming) | 55:02 | |
| (choir sings) | 55:34 | |
| And now may the grace of God, | 59:02 | |
| the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 59:05 | |
| be with you now and evermore. | 59:09 | |
| (choir sings) | 59:17 | |
| (bell rings) | 1:00:09 | |
| (piano strumming) | 1:00:29 |