William H. Willimon - "Who Are These?" (November 4, 1990)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Good morning and welcome to this celebration | 6:01 |
of Homecoming Sunday and All Saints' here in the chapel. | 6:04 | |
We're particularly glad to have our alumni with us. | 6:09 | |
The president of the alumni association is our lector, | 6:12 | |
and we have a number of choir alumni | 6:15 | |
who'll be singing in our choir today. | 6:18 | |
I've been asked to announce that beginning this Sunday | 6:20 | |
and for the next three Sundays, | 6:23 | |
Christmas cards will be sold out in front of the chapel | 6:26 | |
to benefit Heifer Project International, | 6:29 | |
one of the ministries supported by Duke Chapel | 6:32 | |
which sends animals to needy families at home and abroad. | 6:36 | |
And you're invited to look at their selection of cards. | 6:40 | |
Next Sunday, we will have a celebration | 6:45 | |
of the African American Church. | 6:47 | |
The music and the service will be | 6:50 | |
from the African American Church, | 6:51 | |
and our special guest will be the Duke Dance Ensemble. | 6:53 | |
And now let us stand for the greeting. | 6:59 | |
The Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 7:08 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 7:10 |
- | The risen Christ is with us. | 7:12 |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 7:14 | |
(choir singing) | 7:38 | |
(organ music) | 9:02 | |
(choir singing) | 9:39 | |
- | Eternal God, we praise you for the great company | 14:27 |
of all those who have finished their course in faith | 14:31 | |
and now rest from their labors. | 14:35 | |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 14:38 | |
To all of these, grant your peace. | 14:55 | |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 14:59 | |
And bring us at last with them into the joy of your home | 15:10 | |
not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens. | 15:15 | |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 15:19 | |
All | Amen. | 15:22 |
(organ music) | 15:24 | |
(congregation singing) | 15:32 | |
- | Let us pray. | 16:28 |
All | Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 16:31 |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 16:34 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed | 16:37 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 16:40 | |
Amen. | 16:45 | |
- | The first reading is taken from the book of Revelation. | 16:47 |
After this, I looked and there was a great multitude | 16:51 | |
that no one could count. | 16:55 | |
From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages | 16:57 | |
standing before the throne and before the Lamb | 17:03 | |
robed in white with palm branches in their hands. | 17:08 | |
They cried out in a loud voice saying, | 17:13 | |
salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne | 17:17 | |
and to the Lamb and all the angels stood around the throne | 17:22 | |
and around the elders and the four living creatures | 17:28 | |
and they fell on their faces before the throne | 17:32 | |
and worshiped God singing, amen, | 17:35 | |
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor | 17:40 | |
and power and might be to our God forever and ever. | 17:47 | |
Amen. | 17:53 | |
Then one of the elders addressed me saying, | 17:55 | |
who are these robed in white and where have they come from? | 17:58 | |
I said to him, sir, you are the one that knows. | 18:03 | |
Then he said to me, these are they | 18:08 | |
who have come out of the great ordeal. | 18:12 | |
They have washed their robes and made them white | 18:15 | |
in the blood of the Lamb. | 18:20 | |
For this reason, they are before the throne of God | 18:22 | |
and worship him day and night within his temple, | 18:26 | |
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. | 18:31 | |
They will hunger no more and thirst no more. | 18:35 | |
The sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat | 18:39 | |
for the Lamb at the center of the throne | 18:44 | |
will be their shepherd and he will guide them | 18:47 | |
to springs of the water of life | 18:50 | |
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. | 18:54 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 18:58 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 19:01 |
- | This reading is from the gospel | 19:03 |
according to Saint Matthew. | 19:05 | |
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to the mountain | 19:08 | |
and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. | 19:12 | |
Then he began to speak and taught them saying, | 19:17 | |
blessed are the poor in spirit | 19:21 | |
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. | 19:24 | |
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. | 19:27 | |
Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. | 19:32 | |
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness | 19:36 | |
for they will be filled. | 19:41 | |
Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. | 19:43 | |
Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. | 19:47 | |
Blessed are the peacemakers | 19:52 | |
for they will be called children of God. | 19:54 | |
Blessed are those who are persecuted | 19:57 | |
for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. | 20:00 | |
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you | 20:05 | |
and utter all kinds of evil against you | 20:10 | |
falsely on my account. | 20:13 | |
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, | 20:16 | |
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets | 20:22 | |
who were before you. | 20:25 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 20:27 | |
Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 20:29 |
- | "'Who are these clothed in white robes, | 20:37 |
"'and whence have they come?' | 20:40 | |
"I said, 'these are they who have come | 20:43 | |
"'from the great tribulation, have washed their robes | 20:45 | |
"'and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'" | 20:49 | |
In the book "Habits of the Heart," | 20:57 | |
the sociological study of Americans in the '80s, | 20:59 | |
we read an interview with someone named Sheila. | 21:04 | |
When asked about religion, Sheila says, | 21:09 | |
"I consider myself very religious, | 21:12 | |
"although I cannot remember when I've been to church. | 21:16 | |
"My religion is my own little voice. | 21:20 | |
"I guess you could call my religion 'Sheila-ism.'" | 21:24 | |
A religious journal designated Sheila | 21:29 | |
as the theologian of the '80s. | 21:32 | |
Sheila is us. | 21:34 | |
A Duke student noted recently that on this campus, | 21:38 | |
it appears sometimes as if any subject | 21:42 | |
is up for conversation--except religion. | 21:46 | |
Sex or politics or economics--but religion, | 21:50 | |
oh, we say that's not public, that's personal, | 21:55 | |
that's private. | 21:58 | |
As Sheila says, religion is my own little voice. | 22:01 | |
In our relativistic age, disagreements about religion | 22:08 | |
are usually resolved by recourse to, | 22:12 | |
"well that's your opinion and this is my opinion | 22:15 | |
"and if that works for you, that's good." | 22:18 | |
The important thing is what works right | 22:20 | |
for you personally, right? | 22:23 | |
Religion: personal, private. | 22:29 | |
My personal opinion. | 22:34 | |
More than that, it is my personal opinion at the moment, | 22:35 | |
what works right for me right now. | 22:40 | |
And therefore, one of the most uncomfortable aspects | 22:45 | |
of religion in our relativistic age | 22:48 | |
is that religion, | 22:52 | |
viewed by people like us, seems old. | 22:55 | |
Who else but religious people would have built | 22:59 | |
a building like this one in the 1930s | 23:02 | |
to resemble something 2,000 years ago? | 23:04 | |
Why is it that you come to church and you read this old book | 23:10 | |
with old words and you've got clergy leading worship | 23:14 | |
in old looking clothes and this stole that I'm wearing | 23:17 | |
was once a Roman neck tie. | 23:21 | |
About the fifth century, western males | 23:24 | |
stopped wearing stoles but clergy didn't. | 23:26 | |
And little wonder that a lot of people say | 23:30 | |
if the old, old church wants to really be heard | 23:32 | |
by the fresh modern world, | 23:36 | |
the church had better get with it. | 23:38 | |
We better modernize. | 23:41 | |
But I tell you, there is something to be said in our time | 23:46 | |
for the church not getting with it. | 23:49 | |
There is a peculiar kind of relevance of the irrelevant. | 23:55 | |
For tradition, the past, what is old | 24:02 | |
gives contemporary Christians not only roots, | 24:05 | |
a context, an identity, a stability, | 24:08 | |
but also the past has a way of giving us options. | 24:11 | |
Tradition, far from just limiting our focus | 24:17 | |
to the rear view mirror of the past, | 24:20 | |
has a way of enriching the spectrum of our vision | 24:24 | |
and many of us today are just dying for want of options. | 24:29 | |
For instance, for many modern people, | 24:34 | |
ethics (what ought I to do) | 24:37 | |
is mainly a matter of | 24:39 | |
narrowing life's focus. | 24:42 | |
Why did you do what you did in this circumstance? | 24:46 | |
Oh, well, I considered the two possible options | 24:48 | |
and then I narrowed everything down to the one right, | 24:51 | |
absolutely right thing for me to do, | 24:54 | |
what seems right for me. | 24:58 | |
Christian people are those who do what's right, | 25:01 | |
but of course, the trouble is when you're only listening | 25:06 | |
to your voice of your own conscience, | 25:09 | |
when we're only deciding on the basis | 25:11 | |
of my personal experience, then what seems right to me, | 25:14 | |
ascertainment of correct action, | 25:18 | |
is greatly simplified. | 25:21 | |
And such simplification runs the risk of, | 25:26 | |
in G.K. Chesterton's words, | 25:29 | |
making us slaves to the opinion | 25:32 | |
of that arrogant oligarchy | 25:36 | |
of those who just happen to be walking about. | 25:39 | |
Many of us have liberated ourselves from the past | 25:43 | |
only to become slaves to the present, | 25:46 | |
and we have found that the present | 25:49 | |
can be a demanding master. | 25:52 | |
The past, experienced here in church or out, | 25:57 | |
has a way of giving us options. | 26:02 | |
That's why a major concern for feminist studies | 26:06 | |
and for African Americans today has been | 26:11 | |
the recovery of a history because oftentimes, | 26:14 | |
if you're not careful, history is just written | 26:17 | |
by the people who won, and we forget that there's a | 26:19 | |
wealth of options there that the group in charge | 26:23 | |
doesn't mention in its history. | 26:26 | |
He had been born, as many of you on the right side of town, | 26:33 | |
to the right family. | 26:37 | |
His father was a wealthy cloth merchant. | 26:40 | |
He had a good education, good looks, | 26:44 | |
he liked good wine and good times and a good fight. | 26:46 | |
But as he grew older, into his young adult years, | 26:51 | |
Francis Bernardone became more serious, | 26:54 | |
but not overly serious. | 26:57 | |
He became concerned about the plight of the poor, | 26:59 | |
but not overly concerned. | 27:02 | |
Then one day, Francis was riding along a narrow road | 27:04 | |
and he encountered a man whose body | 27:07 | |
had been disfigured by leprosy, | 27:10 | |
and he tossed him a silver coin. | 27:14 | |
But then as if out of nowhere, he spurred his horse around, | 27:18 | |
dismounted, gave the man all the money that he had, | 27:21 | |
and, overcoming his revulsion at his sores, he embraced him. | 27:25 | |
Of course, we know him as Saint Francis, | 27:32 | |
the young man who walked out of a good position | 27:38 | |
with his old man's business and went away to God. | 27:41 | |
As Chester didn't say it in his biography of Francis, | 27:47 | |
Francis of Assisi ran away to God | 27:50 | |
the way some little boys ran away to the circus. | 27:53 | |
Now, one can only guess about | 27:58 | |
the possibly disruptive effects of telling a story like that | 28:00 | |
on the options of a Duke undergraduate. | 28:03 | |
Because one of the most disruptive revolutionary aspects | 28:08 | |
of the past is that, and the church telling these stories | 28:11 | |
of the saints, these men and women throughout history | 28:16 | |
who have said "no" to the paucity of options | 28:20 | |
given to them by the present, by the status quo. | 28:24 | |
That's one of the most revolutionary things the church does. | 28:30 | |
Remembrance gives us options. | 28:35 | |
A graduate student I know has been interviewing women | 28:40 | |
who go to an abortion counseling center near here, | 28:43 | |
and she's found out a couple of things. | 28:48 | |
She says, first of all, most of the women who go there | 28:50 | |
go so out of deep regret and when asked, | 28:54 | |
why are you here getting an abortion, | 28:58 | |
the primary reason given is, | 29:00 | |
I had no other options. | 29:05 | |
Now that doesn't sound like freedom of choice, does it? | 29:11 | |
That doesn't sound like the right to choose. | 29:16 | |
"I had no other option." | 29:21 | |
Lack of imagination is a byproduct of social amnesia. | 29:27 | |
An inability to remember the saints produces | 29:33 | |
a failure of nerve among today's contemporary believers. | 29:36 | |
If you don't have any options, | 29:40 | |
we have no options when we have no memory. | 29:42 | |
Remembrance becomes a potentially revolutionary activity. | 29:46 | |
Which is one of the things that I love about this chapel, | 29:51 | |
because to gather here on a Sunday, | 29:55 | |
to gather here on a Sunday to worship | 29:57 | |
is vividly to be reminded that none of this began with us. | 30:00 | |
We are debtors every time we gather to worship. | 30:06 | |
Maya Angelou, the writer and the poet, | 30:10 | |
stood here and addressed our freshman class this fall | 30:13 | |
and she said to our freshman class, | 30:16 | |
"You people have been paid for." | 30:18 | |
"A lot of people have dreamed and sacrificed and worked | 30:22 | |
so that you could be here. | 30:25 | |
And whether we gather on Homecoming | 30:28 | |
and remember that glorious train of alumni | 30:30 | |
that have come through this place | 30:32 | |
or whether we gather here on All Saints' | 30:35 | |
and remember that glorious procession of the saints, | 30:37 | |
every time we gather in this building, | 30:40 | |
our spiritual forebearers just stare down at us | 30:42 | |
from their perches high above. | 30:46 | |
Every time we gather, we've got Deborah and Sampson | 30:48 | |
and Gideon and Mary and all the saints. | 30:51 | |
Every time we gather for worship, we hear, | 30:54 | |
we join that divine human conversation | 30:57 | |
which began long before anybody here was born | 31:02 | |
and shall continue, we believe, | 31:05 | |
long after all of us have died. | 31:07 | |
Conversation, which is always richer | 31:14 | |
than our merely contemporary expressions of it. | 31:17 | |
Is that why we love this place? | 31:22 | |
Is that why we're threatened by this place? | 31:26 | |
"Oh, I'm getting by the best that I can. | 31:31 | |
"Oh, yes, I do consider myself somewhat religious, | 31:34 | |
"but I don't make a big show of it. | 31:37 | |
"I find that one must adjust and adapt one's enthusiasms." | 31:40 | |
And there you come, you're all adapted, | 31:47 | |
you're all adjusted and you put on a coat and tie | 31:50 | |
on Sunday morning just to please mama, and you go to church. | 31:54 | |
Oh, yes ma'am, I'm brushing my teeth | 31:59 | |
when I get up in the morning and I'm taking precautions | 32:01 | |
when I go on a date on Saturday. | 32:03 | |
And oh yes, yes. | 32:06 | |
Just to be safe, I go to chapel on Sunday morning. | 32:07 | |
But as you enter the chapel, as you enter just to be safe, | 32:12 | |
you smell something. | 32:17 | |
Do you smell something as you come through the front door? | 32:19 | |
Pigeons? | 32:23 | |
It's not Aqua Velva. | 32:25 | |
What is that odor? | 32:27 | |
What is that odor? | 32:28 | |
And you look to your left just as you're coming in the door | 32:31 | |
and there you see staring down at you | 32:34 | |
the Florentine Friar, Savonarola, | 32:36 | |
and next to him there's Wycliffe, and you said, | 32:38 | |
oh yes, now I know what that is I smell. | 32:41 | |
It's burning flesh. | 32:44 | |
So you loosen your tie and when you get to your seat, | 32:48 | |
you fumble for your safety belt because you don't know | 32:51 | |
where you might end up by the end of this service. | 32:55 | |
Because in baptism, you are a saint. | 32:59 | |
And one might think that preaching | 33:03 | |
would be better from this pulpit | 33:05 | |
what with so many placed on so high, | 33:07 | |
staring down over the preacher's shoulder every Sunday. | 33:09 | |
Because here, my sermons are judged not just | 33:13 | |
by whether they're interesting and reasonable or short, | 33:16 | |
but also whether they can endure the scrutiny of the saints. | 33:21 | |
For the faith that I am paid to preach | 33:27 | |
(not as well as some members of the English department), | 33:30 | |
but the faith that I am paid to preach | 33:33 | |
is not just my own opinion or even yours, | 33:36 | |
but it's a faith of the church. | 33:39 | |
It's this 2,000 year procession that wrote | 33:41 | |
some of its best stuff in blood. | 33:45 | |
Under the base of the lectern over there, | 33:49 | |
there's this baldheaded figure, Saint Ambrose, he is. | 33:52 | |
He's got a scroll in one hand and a quill in the other. | 33:57 | |
And I always thought he was down there | 34:00 | |
sort of as a symbol of divine inspiration. | 34:03 | |
See, the saint is taking notes from God, | 34:08 | |
being inspired by God. | 34:12 | |
The other day it occurred to me | 34:16 | |
that maybe he's over there right across from the pulpit | 34:18 | |
because he's taking notes from me. | 34:22 | |
I'm accountable not just to Dr. Brodie and the trustees, | 34:26 | |
but to the saints. | 34:29 | |
And that's a little scary for a contemporary preacher. | 34:32 | |
And so are you accountable. | 34:39 | |
Fred Craddock, who's preached from this pulpit many times, | 34:43 | |
tells of returning to his little boyhood town in Tennessee | 34:47 | |
and visiting the church where he grew up. | 34:53 | |
And he walked inside this little church | 34:56 | |
and he noticed that they had new windows | 34:58 | |
since he had been there last. | 35:01 | |
And he walked around and he looked | 35:02 | |
at these new stained glass windows | 35:04 | |
and he noticed that the names on the bottom of the windows, | 35:06 | |
the donors of the windows, | 35:09 | |
but he didn't recognize a single name. | 35:12 | |
He said to the preacher serving the church, | 35:15 | |
"Wow, you must've had a lot of people move in this town | 35:18 | |
"since I lived here, must a lot of new people | 35:20 | |
"joined this church since I was here. | 35:22 | |
"I can't recognize a single name on the windows." | 35:24 | |
The preacher said, "Oh, well, | 35:28 | |
"this town hasn't grown a bit since you left. | 35:32 | |
"This church hasn't grown at all since you left. | 35:35 | |
"Those people aren't members here." | 35:39 | |
He said, "Well, who are they?" | 35:43 | |
And he said, "Well, there was a church up in St. Louis, | 35:44 | |
"bought stained glass windows from a company in Italy | 35:48 | |
"and the windows came over here and got to St. Louis, | 35:51 | |
"they wouldn't fit. | 35:54 | |
"So the company in Italy said, well, we're sorry about it. | 35:56 | |
"Try to sell the windows if you can to somebody over there. | 35:59 | |
"And so we bought those windows | 36:02 | |
"from that church in St. Louis." | 36:04 | |
And Fred said, "Well, don't you want to change the names | 36:07 | |
"on the bottom of the windows?" | 36:11 | |
And the pastor said, "Well, we thought about it | 36:13 | |
"at the board meeting, but we're just a little church | 36:15 | |
"and we don't grow much and it's just kind of good | 36:20 | |
"to gather on Sunday morning and be surrounded | 36:26 | |
"by the names of people other than yourselves." | 36:30 | |
Amen. | 36:37 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 36:48 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 36:49 |
- | Let us pray. | 36:51 |
God of all holiness, throughout the ages, | 36:58 | |
men and women have followed your call to faith. | 37:03 | |
We pray that we may walk in their footsteps. | 37:06 | |
We give you thanks, oh Lord, | 37:11 | |
for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah, his wife, | 37:12 | |
for Moses, for Miriam and Joshua, | 37:17 | |
Deborah and Gideon, for Samuel and Hannah, his mother, | 37:20 | |
for Isaiah and all the prophets. | 37:25 | |
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 37:28 | |
We give you thanks, oh God, for Mary, the mother of Jesus, | 37:32 | |
for Peter and Paul, and all the apostles, | 37:35 | |
for Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene, | 37:39 | |
for Stephen, the first martyr, | 37:42 | |
for Agnes, Perpetua and Felicity, | 37:44 | |
martyrs of the early church, | 37:47 | |
for Francis of Assisi, lover of your creation. | 37:49 | |
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 37:53 | |
We give you thanks, oh God, for poets, artists, | 37:57 | |
and musicians who speak the language of the soul. | 38:00 | |
For Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel, | 38:04 | |
Michelangelo and Rembrandt, John Donne and George Herbert, | 38:07 | |
Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, | 38:13 | |
William Blake, Charles Stanford, | 38:15 | |
T.S. Elliott, Leonard Bernstein. | 38:18 | |
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 38:21 | |
We give you thanks, oh God, for reformers, | 38:26 | |
peacemakers and advocates for the poor. | 38:28 | |
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, | 38:32 | |
Dag Hammarskjöld and Desmond Tutu, | 38:35 | |
Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, | 38:37 | |
Oscar Romero and Dorothy Day. | 38:41 | |
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 38:44 | |
We give you thanks, oh Lord, | 38:48 | |
for the unsung heroes in our own lives, | 38:49 | |
for teachers, doctors, nurses, child care givers, | 38:52 | |
counselors, coaches, friends and families | 38:58 | |
who have been our advocates | 39:02 | |
in the best and the worst of times. | 39:03 | |
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 39:06 | |
Almighty God, you have surrounded us | 39:10 | |
with a great cloud of witnesses. | 39:12 | |
As we join our worship and our labor to theirs, | 39:15 | |
may we know ourselves to be a part of their great company. | 39:19 | |
And so may all your people be united in faith | 39:23 | |
that your church may live to serve and praise you | 39:26 | |
in the one unbroken fellowship of your love | 39:30 | |
through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. | 39:33 | |
Amen. | 39:37 | |
Christ invites to his table all who love him | 39:40 | |
and who desire to live in peace with one another. | 39:44 | |
Let us stand therefore and offer each other | 39:48 | |
signs of God's peace and love. | 39:50 | |
(congregation chattering) | 39:58 | |
Pour our gifts and ourselves to God. | 40:21 | |
(organ music) | 40:44 | |
(choir singing) | 40:45 | |
(organ music) | 47:29 | |
(congregation singing) | 48:10 | |
- | Please join me in The Great Thanksgiving | 49:04 |
on page 17 in the hymnal. | 49:06 | |
The Lord be with you. | 49:16 | |
Congregation | And also with you. | 49:18 |
- | Lift up your hearts. | 49:19 |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 49:20 | |
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. | 49:22 | |
(congregation responding unintelligibly) | 49:24 | |
Blessed are you God of all creation, | 49:27 | |
God of Abraham and Sarah, Miriam and Moses, | 49:29 | |
Joshua and Deborah, Ruth and David, | 49:32 | |
God of Mary and Joseph, of apostles and martyrs, | 49:36 | |
God of our mothers and fathers, | 49:40 | |
God of our children to all generation. | 49:42 | |
You made us in your image and though we sinned | 49:45 | |
and we fell short of your glory, | 49:50 | |
you loved the world so much | 49:51 | |
that you sent your only son Jesus, to be our Savior. | 49:52 | |
Through his suffering and death, | 49:56 | |
his resurrection and ascension, | 49:57 | |
you gave birth to the church and delivered us | 50:00 | |
from slavery to sin and death. | 50:02 | |
And so with your people on earth, | 50:05 | |
with all the company of heaven, we praise your name | 50:09 | |
and join in their unending hymn. | 50:14 | |
(organ music) | 50:17 | |
(congregation singing) | 50:26 | |
- | On the night he offered himself up for us, | 51:02 |
he took bread, gave you thanks, broke the bread, | 51:04 | |
gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat. | 51:07 | |
This is my body given for you. | 51:10 | |
Do this in remembrance of me. | 51:12 | |
When the supper was over, he took the cup, | 51:15 | |
gave you thanks and said, drink from this, all of you. | 51:17 | |
This is my blood in the new covenant poured out for you | 51:21 | |
and many for the forgiveness of sins. | 51:23 | |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. | 51:26 | |
And so in remembrance of these, | 51:30 | |
your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, | 51:32 | |
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving | 51:34 | |
as a holy and living sacrifice in union | 51:36 | |
with Christ's offering for us | 51:40 | |
as we proclaim the mystery of faith. | 51:42 | |
(organ music) | 51:46 | |
(congregation singing) | 51:55 | |
- | Spirit on us and on these gifts, | 52:06 |
that in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine, | 52:09 | |
we made know anew the presence of the living Christ. | 52:11 | |
Renew our communion with all the saints. | 52:15 | |
May we run with perseverance the race that is set before us | 52:18 | |
being surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses | 52:22 | |
looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. | 52:25 | |
All honor and glory is yours, | 52:31 | |
Almighty Father, now and forever. | 52:34 | |
(organ music) | 52:37 | |
(congregation singing) | 52:47 | |
All | Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 52:59 |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 53:02 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 53:05 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 53:07 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 53:10 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 53:12 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 53:15 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. | 53:20 | |
Amen. | 53:24 | |
- | The bread which we break, is it not a means | 53:26 |
of sharing in the body of Christ? | 53:28 | |
When we give thanks over the cup, | 53:32 | |
is it not a means of sharing in the blood of Christ? | 53:34 | |
Come to the Lord's table. | 53:37 | |
The congregation is invited to join | 53:39 | |
in singing hymn 708 as we commune. | 53:41 | |
(organ music) | 53:46 | |
(congregation singing) | 54:18 | |
(choir singing) | 58:48 | |
(organ music) | 1:02:25 | |
(choir singing) | 1:02:40 | |
- | Let's stand for the benediction. | 1:08:20 |
Grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, | 1:08:29 | |
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 1:08:33 | |
the communion of the saints be with you as you go forth. | 1:08:36 | |
(organ music) | 1:08:41 | |
(choir singing) | 1:08:45 | |
(organ music) | 1:09:06 | |
(congregation singing) | 1:09:44 | |
(choir singing) | 1:12:45 | |
(organ music) | 1:13:02 |