Helen G. Crotwell or Vergel L. Lattimore, III - "Be Not Conformed" (September 19, 1976)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(Instrumental music) | 0:13 | |
(Choir singing) | 8:47 | |
- | As the scriptures, encourage us, | 15:48 |
let us confess our sins | 15:52 | |
before all mighty God. | 15:55 | |
Let us pray. | 15:59 | |
Oh God, | 16:02 | |
forgive us, | 16:03 | |
as we confess some of our sins of this day, | 16:04 | |
the sin of pride, | 16:08 | |
which thinks that only we can do a particular job, | 16:10 | |
the sin of covetousness, | 16:16 | |
which hugs to itself privilege of any kind, | 16:18 | |
the sin of lust, which longs for sexual power, | 16:23 | |
the sin of anger, | 16:28 | |
which seeks to destroy | 16:30 | |
those who challenge us | 16:31 | |
or confront us, | 16:34 | |
the sin of greed, | 16:36 | |
by which we cling to our abundance | 16:38 | |
and refuse to share our good with others. | 16:42 | |
The sin of envy, | 16:45 | |
which prevents us from using our own God-given talents, | 16:47 | |
because we waste our time begrudging what others can do. | 16:53 | |
The sin of sloths, | 16:58 | |
which refuses to act because of apathy, | 17:01 | |
the sin of disobedience, | 17:04 | |
which refuses your invitation to love and be loved, | 17:07 | |
hear these confessions, | 17:12 | |
which we offer in the name of Christ, | 17:15 | |
our forgiving Lord. | 17:18 | |
- | Hear now these words of assurance | 17:41 |
from the first epistle of St. John, | 17:44 | |
if we confess our sins, | 17:48 | |
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins | 17:51 | |
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. | 17:56 | |
Amen. | 18:00 | |
(Instrumental music) | 18:11 | |
(Choir singing) | 18:30 | |
- | The epistle lesson comes from | 22:41 |
Paul's letter to the Romans | 22:45 | |
and read thusly. | 22:48 | |
I appeal to you therefore | 22:51 | |
brothers and sisters, | 22:53 | |
by the mercies of God, | 22:56 | |
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice | 22:57 | |
holy and acceptable unto God, | 23:00 | |
which is your reasonable service, | 23:03 | |
do not be conformed to this world, | 23:06 | |
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind | 23:09 | |
that you may prove what is the will of God, | 23:13 | |
what is good, | 23:16 | |
acceptable and perfect. | 23:17 | |
May we now stand for the reading of the gospel lesson. | 23:21 | |
From the time that Jesus began to show his disciples, | 23:40 | |
that he must go Jerusalem and suffer many | 23:44 | |
from the elders and chief priests and scribes, | 23:47 | |
and be killed on the third day and be raised. | 23:51 | |
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, | 23:55 | |
God forbid, Lord, | 23:59 | |
this shall never happen to you. | 24:01 | |
But he turned and said to Peter, | 24:04 | |
get behind me, Satan, | 24:07 | |
you are a hindrance to me, | 24:09 | |
but you are not on the side of God, but of men. | 24:11 | |
Then Jesus told the disciples. | 24:17 | |
If anyone would come after me, | 24:20 | |
let him or her denied themselves and follow me, | 24:23 | |
for whoever would save his or her life will lose it. | 24:28 | |
And whoever loses his or her life for my sake will find it. | 24:32 | |
But what will it profit a man or woman, | 24:38 | |
they gained the whole world | 24:41 | |
and forfeits their lives, | 24:44 | |
or what shall a man give | 24:46 | |
in return for his life? | 24:49 | |
Herein reads the reading of God's word. | 24:52 | |
(Choir singing) | 24:55 | |
- | Let us affirm, | 25:37 |
what we believe. | 25:39 | |
We believe in God | 25:41 | |
who has created and is creating, | 25:43 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 25:47 | |
to reconcile and make new | 25:51 | |
who works in us and others by the Spirit | 25:54 | |
we trust God | 25:58 | |
who calls us to be the Church, | 26:00 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness | 26:03 | |
to love and serve others, | 26:07 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 26:10 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen | 26:13 | |
our judge and our hope | 26:18 | |
in life | 26:21 | |
in death. | 26:22 | |
In life beyond death, | 26:23 | |
God is with us. | 26:26 | |
We are not alone. | 26:28 | |
Thanks be to God. | 26:30 | |
The Lord be with you. | 26:33 | |
Let us pray. | 26:36 | |
- | Eternal God, | 26:49 |
thou has told us to ask and to belief | 26:52 | |
that thou will give | 26:55 | |
to seek in the faith that we shall find | 26:57 | |
and to knock in the hope that the door will open to us. | 27:01 | |
We come and lay our cares and anxieties, | 27:07 | |
our shortcomings and sins | 27:11 | |
before thee, | 27:13 | |
forgive us, we pray the complacency and lassitude | 27:16 | |
that render us indifferent | 27:19 | |
or impotent before evils | 27:22 | |
that oppress people, | 27:24 | |
forgive us our acceptance of ease, comfort and luxury, | 27:26 | |
in a world where men, women and children | 27:30 | |
are hungry every day. | 27:32 | |
Forgive us our heedlessness of the poor among us | 27:36 | |
our hardheartedness | 27:40 | |
toward those who live in misery and degradation. | 27:42 | |
Forgive our unwillingness to believe | 27:46 | |
that they are in our university and city. | 27:48 | |
Forgive our willingness to believe | 27:52 | |
that only they are to blame for their condition | 27:55 | |
and grant us all Lord determination, | 28:00 | |
to struggle for the improvement of | 28:02 | |
the quality of life among all people. | 28:03 | |
We pray, especially for this university | 28:09 | |
and for all who are now returning to their accustomed tasks. | 28:13 | |
Grant us all wisdom in the conduct of our work, | 28:18 | |
grant us grace | 28:23 | |
in the day to day exercise of our responsibilities | 28:24 | |
may our pursuit of learning be also the pursuit of truth | 28:29 | |
and goodness for others, as well as for ourselves, | 28:33 | |
deliver us from that careful self concerned | 28:39 | |
that pollutes the Springs of learning, | 28:41 | |
remind us of the larger purposes and goals, | 28:46 | |
which govern our tasks. | 28:49 | |
In dow with strength and sound judgment, | 28:52 | |
those who bear special responsibility | 28:55 | |
and encourage we pray thee | 28:59 | |
all who grow weary | 29:02 | |
in the exercise of their duties. | 29:04 | |
Finally, oh God, we remember before thee | 29:08 | |
all who may be ill or beset with personal problems | 29:10 | |
or misfortune | 29:13 | |
comfort and sustain them, | 29:16 | |
grant help to the sick, | 29:18 | |
uphold the weak, | 29:22 | |
accompany the lonely | 29:24 | |
and bring them into community with thee, | 29:25 | |
and with others, | 29:29 | |
all these things we ask | 29:31 | |
in the name of Jesus | 29:33 | |
who taught us when praying | 29:36 | |
to say, our Father | 29:38 | |
who art heaven, | 29:40 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 29:42 | |
thy kingdom come, | 29:44 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 29:46 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread | 29:51 | |
and forgive us our trespasses. | 29:54 | |
As we forgive those who trespass against us | 29:57 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 30:01 | |
but deliver us from evil | 30:04 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 30:07 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 30:09 | |
Amen. | 30:13 | |
- | I bid you welcome to this service of worship. | 30:18 |
I wish to take just a moment to say that | 30:24 | |
there is no good reason | 30:27 | |
why | 30:30 | |
Virgin Lattimore | 30:31 | |
should not preach from this pulpit, | 30:33 | |
but he is in fact, not preaching this morning. | 30:37 | |
That is a type of graphical error. | 30:40 | |
Don't anybody leave | 30:43 | |
the preacher for the morning | 30:46 | |
as previously scheduled and announced | 30:48 | |
is the Reverend | 30:52 | |
Helen Cockerill | 30:54 | |
associate minister to the university. | 30:55 | |
- | I'm not sure if someone was trying to tell me something, | 31:04 |
but I assumed they weren't. | 31:07 | |
I'd like to take this time to especially welcomed the choir | 31:09 | |
because this is the first time the new choir | 31:13 | |
has been with us. | 31:16 | |
And I know I expressed your feelings in mine | 31:17 | |
that the contribution they make | 31:20 | |
to our worship | 31:24 | |
could not be made by any other | 31:25 | |
in any other way. | 31:28 | |
So welcome to you old and new choir members. | 31:30 | |
It's a glorious beginning. | 31:33 | |
Thank you. | 31:36 | |
Paul | 31:40 | |
invites us | 31:41 | |
to present our bodies | 31:42 | |
as a living sacrifice | 31:44 | |
to God. | 31:46 | |
These words sound strange to our ears. | 31:49 | |
Sacrifice is not a word | 31:52 | |
that we use regularly in our vocabulary, | 31:55 | |
but at the time Paul was writing, | 32:00 | |
the sacrificial rites were important for the Jews | 32:02 | |
and the pagans | 32:07 | |
and some of the old Testament and new Testament writings | 32:09 | |
describe not only the proper rites, | 32:12 | |
but the point to which, | 32:15 | |
but they point to that, which is really important | 32:17 | |
and the sacrifice, | 32:21 | |
not the outward rite, | 32:23 | |
but the inner meaning. | 32:25 | |
And it is in this spirit | 32:28 | |
that Paul is calling for the people | 32:30 | |
to present their bodies | 32:34 | |
as a living sacrifice, | 32:36 | |
which is their true worship. | 32:38 | |
And this | 32:42 | |
call | 32:43 | |
touches us | 32:44 | |
at one particular point | 32:46 | |
at one place that we are constantly struggling | 32:48 | |
for we are troubled | 32:53 | |
by the compartmentalization | 32:56 | |
of our lives, | 32:58 | |
and we struggle | 33:01 | |
to relate our formal worship | 33:02 | |
on Sundays | 33:06 | |
with our day today, living. | 33:07 | |
And some people don't think we are very successful | 33:11 | |
and they call us hypocrites. | 33:15 | |
I talked with one student | 33:19 | |
several days after our glorious opening Sunday, | 33:21 | |
who said that that Sunday | 33:25 | |
was the first Sunday he had ever | 33:27 | |
in his whole life attended church. | 33:30 | |
And it really wasn't too bad | 33:34 | |
he said, | 33:36 | |
in fact, | 33:37 | |
with all those trumpets, | 33:38 | |
it reminded him of a football game. | 33:40 | |
He didn't call you choir numbers though the cheerleaders, | 33:44 | |
but then he went on to say, | 33:47 | |
it was all hypocrisy | 33:49 | |
worshiping one hour | 33:51 | |
and then living our lives | 33:53 | |
and self-serving ways the rest of the time. | 33:55 | |
And this is how some people see us, unfortunately, | 34:00 | |
but I'm not that cynical, | 34:05 | |
for I sense and this worship in community, | 34:07 | |
our genuine desire to understand | 34:11 | |
what it means to be | 34:14 | |
a Christian today, | 34:16 | |
what it means to present our lives | 34:19 | |
as an offering to God, | 34:22 | |
to let our every day | 34:25 | |
be an expression of our worship of God. | 34:28 | |
I sense not only a searching and a yearning, | 34:33 | |
but an acknowledgement | 34:37 | |
that through our worship | 34:39 | |
and in our worship, | 34:42 | |
we find meaning and purpose | 34:44 | |
and a dimension in our lives, | 34:47 | |
which is more than the givenness of our physical existence, | 34:50 | |
a depth and a purpose, which undergirds our total living. | 34:54 | |
And this continues to be nourished | 35:00 | |
and fed and our common worship. | 35:03 | |
Now Paul's second verse | 35:07 | |
in that 12th chapter of Romans | 35:09 | |
emphasizes the dimension | 35:12 | |
that we are constantly wrestling with. | 35:13 | |
And he says | 35:17 | |
that all this is not easy and simple | 35:18 | |
for Paul is calling us | 35:22 | |
to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, | 35:26 | |
reminding us not to be conformed to this culture. | 35:31 | |
We need not labor this point | 35:37 | |
for all of us have been caught in a place | 35:39 | |
where we knew by conforming, | 35:42 | |
we were denying what we believed in. | 35:44 | |
We were responding to | 35:48 | |
the pressures | 35:50 | |
from our peers. | 35:51 | |
Now our conformity is destructive. | 35:55 | |
Our conformity is destructive | 35:59 | |
when our decisions | 36:02 | |
and our actions do not come from what we value | 36:03 | |
from what we choose for, for our lives, | 36:08 | |
from what we see as being most important, | 36:12 | |
but rather are determined | 36:17 | |
by outside pressures | 36:20 | |
of what other people are saying and are doing | 36:21 | |
by what other people expect of us. | 36:24 | |
This is when conformity is destructive. | 36:29 | |
Those of you who are new to this university | 36:34 | |
have been encouraged to adjust to your new surroundings, | 36:36 | |
to your new situation, | 36:40 | |
to fit in. | 36:42 | |
You've been kowtowed. | 36:44 | |
Don't worry. | 36:45 | |
You will be uncomfortable at first, | 36:47 | |
but after a few weeks, | 36:49 | |
you'll be one of the crowd you'll be comfortable. | 36:51 | |
Now, certainly in the best sense, | 36:56 | |
this advice | 36:58 | |
is to encourage you | 36:59 | |
not to be frightened in new and strange situations | 37:01 | |
and not to be so conformed to your past, | 37:06 | |
that you can't grow and change and develop, | 37:09 | |
and it encourages you to be open to the future | 37:13 | |
and the unknown, | 37:17 | |
but it is too easily translated to | 37:19 | |
adjusting, accepting conforming to the culture, | 37:23 | |
you find yourself, | 37:27 | |
the environment in which you find yourself, | 37:29 | |
even | 37:32 | |
at the risk | 37:33 | |
of destroying what is most important to you. | 37:35 | |
None of us are exempt from the conflict of our values | 37:40 | |
over against all those are over against the culture. | 37:43 | |
And we struggle to know when to hold, | 37:46 | |
when to conform | 37:49 | |
and when to change. | 37:51 | |
It's not easy. | 37:52 | |
The evidence which comes to us | 37:55 | |
from the concerns that you share | 37:58 | |
with the ministers and the counselors | 38:01 | |
and your friends, | 38:04 | |
is it the problem of conforming to our culture | 38:05 | |
is a disturbing and troubling one for you. | 38:09 | |
And the few illustrations that I use today | 38:13 | |
have been selected | 38:16 | |
because they are most frequently used | 38:18 | |
and referred to and talked about | 38:20 | |
by you, | 38:22 | |
by those of you within this university. | 38:23 | |
Now those of you who are not within this university | 38:27 | |
will have little trouble understanding | 38:30 | |
that these are not limited | 38:32 | |
to the university. | 38:35 | |
And even some groups who seek to reform society | 38:38 | |
and not to be conformed by society, but to transform it | 38:42 | |
often become | 38:46 | |
conformist in their method. | 38:48 | |
Believing that the only way to change society | 38:50 | |
is by their way, | 38:53 | |
forcing people into modes, | 38:55 | |
which does not allow any questioning | 38:57 | |
and which dehumanizes | 39:00 | |
those who oppose them. | 39:02 | |
We see this same tendency and some of the religious groups | 39:06 | |
who are trying to provide a correction to distortions | 39:11 | |
or deadness and some of the traditional church groups. | 39:15 | |
But sometimes there is this pressure to conform, which says, | 39:20 | |
if you do not believe | 39:25 | |
as I do | 39:26 | |
or pray | 39:27 | |
as I do | 39:28 | |
or use the Bible | 39:29 | |
as I do | 39:31 | |
or understand the Bible | 39:32 | |
as I do, | 39:34 | |
there's no room for you here. | 39:35 | |
Now, many of you | 39:40 | |
are facing | 39:42 | |
the pressure from your peers | 39:44 | |
to conform to a standard | 39:46 | |
of sexual morality, | 39:49 | |
which is very different from your most basic values | 39:51 | |
and beliefs. | 39:56 | |
And this troubles you and you seek help, | 39:57 | |
but perhaps | 40:03 | |
the most pervasive pressure for conformity | 40:05 | |
in this university | 40:09 | |
and in most universities | 40:11 | |
comes from | 40:13 | |
the academic pressures, | 40:15 | |
which are on you, | 40:17 | |
which evidences itself in the desire to get good grades | 40:18 | |
in order to get a job | 40:23 | |
or to go to graduate school | 40:25 | |
or professional school, | 40:26 | |
or to prove to your parents | 40:28 | |
or your local community, | 40:31 | |
that you can make it and this tough university. | 40:33 | |
And so you become controlled and governed | 40:37 | |
by unhealthy, | 40:41 | |
destructive, | 40:43 | |
competitive spirit. | 40:45 | |
And the battle for grades | 40:48 | |
wins over | 40:50 | |
the desire for learning. | 40:52 | |
We've heard stories from many universities about books, | 40:56 | |
disappearing from the library | 40:59 | |
so that no one else will have the advantage | 41:01 | |
of that source of knowledge | 41:04 | |
or a person's class room notes, disappearing, | 41:06 | |
or a person's experiment being ruined. | 41:11 | |
Now, fortunately only a few students respond | 41:14 | |
to the academic pressure | 41:16 | |
and the competitive spirit in this way | 41:19 | |
more pervasive is what we do to ourselves. | 41:23 | |
The standards we set for by ourselves, | 41:27 | |
the pressures we put on ourselves | 41:30 | |
in order to win the competition, | 41:32 | |
to get good grades. | 41:34 | |
And instead of a renewal | 41:36 | |
of our minds, | 41:38 | |
we have people who become warped and maimed | 41:40 | |
and destroyed and lose the vision and purpose of education. | 41:44 | |
So Paul's talking about our minds being renewed | 41:50 | |
remade and thus our whole nature being transformed | 41:55 | |
strikes are resonant and a hopeful chord within us. | 41:59 | |
Can you imagine | 42:04 | |
what this could mean, | 42:06 | |
if you don't get caught in the destructive competitive trap? | 42:07 | |
You will be freed from the slavish conformity | 42:12 | |
to the competitive battle. | 42:16 | |
A new dimension will be added to your lives | 42:19 | |
or one that is already dire will be nourished. | 42:23 | |
A depth of purpose will be added or strengthened, | 42:26 | |
which will sustain you | 42:29 | |
even during the times | 42:31 | |
when things are most bleak, | 42:33 | |
when there is more work to do | 42:35 | |
than you can possibly get done, | 42:37 | |
and more expectations have been placed on you, | 42:39 | |
then you can possibly meet. | 42:43 | |
And so Paul is speaking to us, | 42:46 | |
appealing | 42:49 | |
imploring, extolling us | 42:51 | |
to live our lives, | 42:54 | |
to use our minds daily | 42:56 | |
as our proper worship of God, | 42:59 | |
with the promise that God's love and mercy and compassion | 43:03 | |
will enable us not only not to be conformed by the world, | 43:08 | |
but in fact, | 43:13 | |
to be transformed. | 43:15 | |
And so we are hopeful that there is another way to live, | 43:18 | |
but then we pause, | 43:23 | |
what does this really mean? | 43:25 | |
What are these dimensions? | 43:28 | |
What is this purpose | 43:30 | |
that can undergird or be added to our lives? | 43:32 | |
And if we are talking about | 43:37 | |
being conformed to the competitive spirit, | 43:39 | |
then we are talking about our culture | 43:42 | |
being transformed into one, which is characterized | 43:45 | |
by a spirit of community | 43:49 | |
and cooperation. | 43:52 | |
And this will mean developing a sense of compassion | 43:54 | |
and caring, | 43:59 | |
compassion, which is rooted and our understanding | 44:01 | |
that we are | 44:05 | |
at one | 44:06 | |
with all people, | 44:07 | |
that this is the basis of our existence, | 44:09 | |
because all of us | 44:12 | |
were created | 44:14 | |
by God, | 44:16 | |
our equal worth and value. | 44:17 | |
And what we hold in common | 44:21 | |
is much more important to claim | 44:24 | |
and to affirm | 44:27 | |
and to celebrate | 44:29 | |
than our differences. | 44:30 | |
But if our values and our importance | 44:33 | |
and our worth comes from our differences, | 44:35 | |
we will have to fight and compete and undercut | 44:38 | |
and destroy and prove our differences | 44:41 | |
and maintain our differences | 44:44 | |
and do our brothers | 44:46 | |
and our sisters in, | 44:48 | |
and our differences, and our uniqueness | 44:51 | |
says will become more important | 44:53 | |
than our oneness and our similarities. | 44:56 | |
But if we can celebrate | 45:00 | |
and claim and affirm our commonality, | 45:02 | |
our oneness with the whole human race, | 45:06 | |
then we can share each other's joys and hopes and dreams. | 45:10 | |
And we also can find the courage to admit | 45:15 | |
and share our common loneliness | 45:19 | |
and anxieties | 45:23 | |
and pains, | 45:25 | |
our cockiness, and the competitive struggle. | 45:26 | |
Our common need, for love and affirmation and community. | 45:31 | |
And only then | 45:37 | |
can we help the least celebrate our differences. | 45:39 | |
But if we live in a competitive world, | 45:43 | |
we are cut off from each other | 45:45 | |
and we remain isolated and lonely and separated | 45:48 | |
and frightened and fearful people. | 45:51 | |
Now, much of what I am saying today | 45:54 | |
has been informed by an article | 45:57 | |
that Henri Nouwen wrote | 45:59 | |
on compassion, | 46:01 | |
and in this article, he quotes a letter | 46:03 | |
that Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother | 46:05 | |
saying | 46:08 | |
that there is a great fire | 46:10 | |
in my soul, | 46:12 | |
but no one ever comes to be warmed by it. | 46:14 | |
For passes by | 46:18 | |
can only see | 46:20 | |
a little smoke | 46:22 | |
coming out of the chimney | 46:24 | |
compassion based on our acceptance | 46:27 | |
of our oneness with all people | 46:29 | |
based on a solidarity and suffering and joy | 46:32 | |
allows us | 46:36 | |
to support and comfort one another. | 46:38 | |
And to recognize the warmth in the other, | 46:40 | |
even when we see such little evidence | 46:44 | |
of that warmth, | 46:47 | |
the destructive competitive spirit | 46:50 | |
separates us from one another. | 46:52 | |
And we see our fellow students as enemies. | 46:55 | |
We see our professors as people to be used and manipulated, | 46:59 | |
and we assume that everyone is out to get us | 47:04 | |
and that everyone is smarter than we are. | 47:08 | |
And that everyone except us | 47:11 | |
has it all together. | 47:13 | |
Now this, | 47:16 | |
you know, is stupid, | 47:17 | |
but if we are not conformed to this, | 47:19 | |
if we are transformed into compassionate, | 47:22 | |
caring people, | 47:25 | |
if we allow ourselves | 47:27 | |
to be who we really can be, | 47:29 | |
who embrace | 47:33 | |
rather than strike out, | 47:34 | |
then we can experience new beginnings. | 47:37 | |
When we take the great human act or compassion of caring, | 47:41 | |
of celebrating together of suffering together. | 47:46 | |
And when we dire to face each other | 47:49 | |
with our dreadful loneliness, | 47:53 | |
our terrible fears, | 47:55 | |
then new life | 47:58 | |
starts to grow in us | 48:00 | |
and gestures | 48:03 | |
of love | 48:04 | |
rather than competition | 48:06 | |
our separation and isolation, | 48:08 | |
are removed | 48:11 | |
and space appears | 48:14 | |
where we can meet | 48:16 | |
and can care | 48:18 | |
for each other. | 48:20 | |
But as long as we want to maintain the illusion | 48:22 | |
of self-sufficiency and independence, | 48:26 | |
the need to be better than anyone else, | 48:29 | |
we need violent arms | 48:32 | |
to grasp and grab and protect and fight. | 48:34 | |
But our arms | 48:38 | |
we're not built for this, | 48:39 | |
but we're built for love and comfort and support | 48:41 | |
and work. | 48:46 | |
As long as power is our goal | 48:48 | |
only destruction | 48:53 | |
can be our reward. | 48:54 | |
When people reach out | 48:57 | |
to the other in mutual openness and helpfulness, | 48:59 | |
tension evaporate, | 49:04 | |
smile, shines through tears | 49:06 | |
and the fears in our eyes | 49:09 | |
and the presence of something new | 49:11 | |
and eternally fresh | 49:14 | |
is synced | 49:16 | |
comfort and caring, | 49:18 | |
are the great human gifts, which create community. | 49:20 | |
Those who come together and a mutual vulnerability | 49:25 | |
all bound together by a new stream, | 49:29 | |
which makes us | 49:32 | |
into one body | 49:34 | |
such comfort and caring does not lead to commiseration | 49:37 | |
or shell can plate or paralyzing pity, | 49:40 | |
rather points to a community in which we are given strength | 49:43 | |
and give strength to one another, | 49:47 | |
by admitting our need, | 49:49 | |
our weakness, our fears, | 49:51 | |
and by facing together | 49:53 | |
the abyss of human moments, | 49:56 | |
the terrible anxieties, | 49:58 | |
the external pressures. | 50:01 | |
And we do not find despair though, | 50:03 | |
but comfort | 50:06 | |
now comfort does not take our suffering away, | 50:08 | |
nor is it nor does it promise we will never fail, | 50:11 | |
nor does it minimize the dread and anxiety, | 50:15 | |
or even completely dispel | 50:19 | |
our basic human loneliness, | 50:21 | |
but it gives us the strength | 50:24 | |
to confront together | 50:27 | |
the real condition of life, | 50:29 | |
not as an unavoidable fate, | 50:31 | |
but as an inexhaustible source | 50:34 | |
of new understanding. | 50:37 | |
And so | 50:40 | |
we are called | 50:41 | |
as Christians | 50:44 | |
not to be conformed, | 50:46 | |
but to be transformed, | 50:49 | |
to show that cooperation | 50:51 | |
is more important than competition. | 50:54 | |
That loving | 50:57 | |
is more human | 50:59 | |
than hating | 51:01 | |
that to embrace | 51:03 | |
and to accept | 51:05 | |
is more human | 51:06 | |
than to reject | 51:08 | |
that to be a friend | 51:11 | |
is more human | 51:13 | |
than to be a rival. | 51:15 | |
That to be honest and straight forward and loving | 51:17 | |
is more human than to be devious | 51:20 | |
and deceptive | 51:23 | |
that to be open and receptive is more human | 51:25 | |
than to be frightened | 51:29 | |
and closed. | 51:31 | |
And so | 51:33 | |
we are called for | 51:34 | |
not to be conformed to this world, | 51:36 | |
to the competitive culture, | 51:40 | |
to the false academic pressures, | 51:42 | |
for we can be transformed | 51:45 | |
into loving, caring, | 51:48 | |
compassionate people | 51:50 | |
by the renewing of our mind. | 51:52 | |
And we are given the promise | 51:55 | |
that in the great wonder of the mystery of God's action, | 51:58 | |
God's spirit will be | 52:02 | |
at work in us, | 52:04 | |
enabling this to happen. | 52:06 | |
Let us pray. | 52:11 | |
A holy God. | 52:18 | |
We give you this day | 52:20 | |
and every day, | 52:22 | |
our lives | 52:24 | |
as our reasonable and holy worship of you, | 52:26 | |
that we may become | 52:30 | |
loving | 52:32 | |
and caring | 52:33 | |
people | 52:35 | |
transforming | 52:36 | |
this world. | 52:37 | |
We pray | 52:40 | |
for the support and strict strength | 52:41 | |
from your spirit, | 52:45 | |
the spirit of Jesus, the Christ. | 52:47 | |
Amen. | 52:50 | |
(Choir singing) | 52:53 | |
- | All things come up thee, oh God. | 1:02:39 |
And of thine own have we given thee, | 1:02:43 | |
except these tokens of our affluence | 1:02:46 | |
as a thank offering to thee, | 1:02:51 | |
and a commitment of our wills. | 1:02:54 | |
Amen. | 1:02:57 | |
(Choir singing) | 1:03:00 | |
- | The Lord bless you and keep you, | 1:07:56 |
the Lord make his face to shine upon you | 1:07:59 | |
and be gracious unto you, | 1:08:02 | |
the Lord lift up the light of his countenance on to you | 1:08:06 | |
and give you peace, | 1:08:10 | |
now and forevermore | 1:08:12 | |
(Choir singing) | 1:08:19 | |
(Bell ringing) | 1:09:20 | |
(Instrumental music) | 1:09:35 |