William H. Willimon - "More" (December 16, 1990)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(chiming music) | 0:00 | |
(pages turning) | 0:11 | |
(bells ringing) | 0:50 | |
(pages turning) | 3:40 | |
- | Good morning and welcome to this service of worship | 3:53 |
here at Duke University Chapel | 3:56 | |
on this third Sunday in Advent. | 3:58 | |
We are delighted to be able to welcome back | 4:00 | |
to the chapel for their annual visit | 4:02 | |
the bell ringers of the First Baptist Church | 4:04 | |
in Henderson, North Carolina | 4:06 | |
and their director, Mr. Philip Young. | 4:08 | |
We look forward each year to their musical contribution | 4:10 | |
to our worship here during Advent. | 4:13 | |
We also are grateful to the Reverend, | 4:16 | |
Dr. Paula Gilbert, who is Assistant Director | 4:17 | |
of the Office of Continuing Education | 4:20 | |
for serving as our lector today. | 4:22 | |
The preacher for today's service is the Reverend | 4:25 | |
Dr. William H. Willimon, Dean of the Chapel. | 4:28 | |
Please note the remaining announcements | 4:31 | |
as they are printed in your bulletins. | 4:33 | |
And now let us stand for the greeting. | 4:35 | |
Show us your mercy, oh Lord. | 4:44 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 4:47 | |
Truth shall spring up from the earth. | 4:49 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 4:52 | |
(organ music) | 4:57 | |
(congregation singing) | 5:38 | |
- | Stir up your power, oh Lord, | 8:36 |
and with great might, come among us. | 8:39 | |
And because we are sorely hindered by our sins, | 8:42 | |
let your bountiful grace and mercy | 8:45 | |
speedily help and deliver us through Jesus Christ our lord, | 8:47 | |
to whom with you and the holy spirit | 8:53 | |
be honor and glory now and forever, amen. | 8:55 | |
- | Let us pray. | 9:14 |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 9:17 | |
by the power of your holy spirit. | 9:20 | |
So that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 9:23 | |
we might be prepared for your advent among us. | 9:26 | |
Amen. | 9:30 | |
A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. | 9:33 | |
The spirit of the lord God is upon me, | 9:42 | |
because the Lord has anointed me. | 9:45 | |
He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, | 9:48 | |
to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty | 9:52 | |
to the captives, and release to the prisoners. | 9:56 | |
To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, | 10:01 | |
and the day of vengeance of our god. | 10:04 | |
To comfort all who mourn, to provide | 10:07 | |
for those who mourn in Zion, to give them | 10:10 | |
a garland instead of ashes, the oil | 10:13 | |
of gladness instead of mourning, | 10:16 | |
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. | 10:20 | |
They will be called oaks of righteousness, | 10:24 | |
the planting of the Lord to display his glory. | 10:28 | |
They shall build up the ancient ruins, | 10:33 | |
they shall raise up the former devastations, | 10:35 | |
they shall repair the ruined cities, | 10:39 | |
the devastations of many generations. | 10:42 | |
For I, the Lord, love justice. | 10:47 | |
I hate robbery and wrongdoing. | 10:50 | |
I will faithfully give them their recompense, | 10:54 | |
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. | 10:57 | |
Their descendants shall be known among the nations, | 11:02 | |
and their offspring among the peoples. | 11:05 | |
All who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people | 11:08 | |
whom the Lord has blessed. | 11:12 | |
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. | 11:15 | |
My whole being shall exalt in my god. | 11:18 | |
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. | 11:21 | |
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness | 11:25 | |
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, | 11:29 | |
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. | 11:32 | |
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, | 11:37 | |
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, | 11:40 | |
so the lord God will cause righteousness and praise | 11:45 | |
to spring up before all the nations. | 11:49 | |
This is the word of our lord, thanks be to God. | 11:55 | |
(pages turning) | 12:08 | |
A reading from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. | 12:23 | |
Rejoice, always. | 12:30 | |
Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, | 12:32 | |
for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. | 12:37 | |
Do not quench the spirit, do not despise | 12:43 | |
the words of prophets, but test everything. | 12:47 | |
Hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. | 12:51 | |
May the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely, | 12:59 | |
and may your spirit and soul and body | 13:03 | |
be kept sound and blameless at the coming | 13:06 | |
of our lord, Jesus Christ. | 13:09 | |
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. | 13:12 | |
This is the word of the lord, thanks be to God. | 13:20 | |
A reading from the first chapter | 13:38 | |
of the gospel according to St. Luke. | 13:40 | |
In those days, Mary set out and went with haste | 13:47 | |
to a Judean town in the hill country | 13:51 | |
where she entered the house of Zachariah | 13:53 | |
and greeted Elizabeth. | 13:56 | |
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, | 13:59 | |
the child leaped in her womb, | 14:02 | |
and Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit | 14:05 | |
and exclaimed with a loud cry, | 14:08 | |
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed | 14:12 | |
is the fruit of your womb. | 14:15 | |
And why has this happened to me | 14:18 | |
that the lord and the mother of my lord comes to me? | 14:21 | |
For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, | 14:25 | |
the child in my womb leaped for joy. | 14:28 | |
And blessed is she who believe | 14:31 | |
that there would be a fulfillment | 14:33 | |
of what was spoken to her by the lord." | 14:35 | |
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the lord, | 14:41 | |
and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. | 14:46 | |
For he has looked with favor | 14:50 | |
on the lowliness of his servant. | 14:52 | |
Surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed, | 14:55 | |
for the mighty one has done great things | 15:01 | |
for me, and holy is his name. | 15:03 | |
His mercy is for those who fear him | 15:07 | |
from generation to generation. | 15:09 | |
He has shown strength with his arm. | 15:13 | |
He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. | 15:16 | |
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, | 15:20 | |
and lifted up the lowly. | 15:23 | |
He has filled the hungry with good things, | 15:26 | |
and sent the rich away empty. | 15:30 | |
He has helped his servant Israel | 15:33 | |
in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise | 15:36 | |
he made to our ancestors, to Abraham | 15:40 | |
and to his descendants forever." | 15:44 | |
This is the word of the lord, thanks be to God. | 15:49 | |
(chiming music) | 16:04 | |
(pages turning) | 18:39 | |
(footsteps pattering) | 18:43 | |
- | There is more to life than meets the eye. | 19:11 |
There is more to our past than mere history | 19:17 | |
knows how to tell. | 19:21 | |
There is more going on in this present moment | 19:24 | |
than that of which we are aware. | 19:28 | |
There is more to our relationships with one another | 19:33 | |
than we can tell. | 19:37 | |
And the more we explore the mystery of ourselves, | 19:41 | |
the more mysterious ourselves become. | 19:46 | |
Seldom have we been content with what appears | 19:52 | |
on the surface of things, 'cause we know | 19:55 | |
there has got to be more. | 19:59 | |
Seldom have we felt fully at ease in the present moment, | 20:04 | |
sensing however inchoately that beyond the now | 20:09 | |
there must be more. | 20:15 | |
We tend, if left to our own devices, toward reductionism. | 20:21 | |
Here in the university we ought to be exploring | 20:26 | |
possibilities, cultivating a sense of wonder. | 20:29 | |
But alas, if left to our own devices, | 20:35 | |
we reduce the great cosmos to the periodic table. | 20:38 | |
History becomes the six reasons for the Civil War, | 20:44 | |
the main cause of the Great Depression, | 20:52 | |
15 true/false questions about the 16th century. | 20:55 | |
But even here in academia, in our better moments, | 21:02 | |
when the modern analytic gives way | 21:06 | |
to the eternal poetic we know, there is more. | 21:08 | |
Whenever life is reduced to technique, | 21:16 | |
six simple steps towards success, | 21:19 | |
flattened into a series of problems to be solved, | 21:24 | |
we become numbed, anesthetized against | 21:30 | |
either real pain or true pleasure. | 21:34 | |
The body seems to adjust to whatever cage is given it. | 21:38 | |
But occasionally, occasionally someone manages | 21:44 | |
to hit a nerve, and we find ourselves | 21:49 | |
twitching slightly in discomfort. | 21:52 | |
And we suspect that there may just be more. | 21:57 | |
The audience for our advent text from Isaiah | 22:04 | |
is the afflicted, the broken hearted, | 22:07 | |
the captives, those who mourn. | 22:09 | |
In short, your average Durham December congregation. | 22:12 | |
The people to whom these words from the prophet Isaiah | 22:17 | |
are addressed are people who come to church | 22:21 | |
out of a sometimes barely recognized, | 22:27 | |
at other times fervently burning hope for more. | 22:30 | |
These words are also addressed to those, | 22:36 | |
although we do not know how they shall hear them, | 22:38 | |
also addressed to those who stop coming to church | 22:42 | |
because they have ceased hoping for more. | 22:47 | |
Here's what the prophet Isaiah says. | 22:52 | |
God has intervened. | 22:56 | |
God has anointed someone to take action. | 23:00 | |
That action is political. | 23:05 | |
Release of prisoners, reparation of ruined cities, justice. | 23:08 | |
The intervention is announced by Isaiah, | 23:16 | |
as is so often in the bible, through the poetical. | 23:19 | |
We're just reading poetry here, | 23:23 | |
poetry with dangerous implication to the establishment. | 23:27 | |
Because the year of the Lord, which Isaiah | 23:35 | |
so joyfully announces, is jubilee time | 23:38 | |
when everything would be turned upside down and set right. | 23:42 | |
When the established political, social, economic orders | 23:48 | |
to which we become so easily adjusted | 23:52 | |
gets flipped on its head, and devastated empty streets | 23:56 | |
of downtown Durham are transformed into place of festival. | 24:01 | |
And upon hearing such poetic words, | 24:09 | |
if you know the story, you're apt to remember. | 24:12 | |
Yes, we remember we were slaves in Egypt, | 24:17 | |
and God intervened. | 24:23 | |
We had learned to be content with our lot in Egypt. | 24:27 | |
At least in Egyptian slavery, we got | 24:30 | |
three square meals a day. | 24:32 | |
But with a mighty arm, God intervened | 24:36 | |
and brought us out toward more. | 24:39 | |
The prophet says that divine intervention is needed again, | 24:44 | |
some dramatic intrusion into present arrangements | 24:47 | |
that will enable new life, and halt our march toward death. | 24:51 | |
Israel and the church have always struggled | 24:56 | |
to name such intervention. | 24:58 | |
We've called it by events and places like | 25:00 | |
Exodus, | 25:04 | |
Bethlehem, | 25:07 | |
the upper room, | 25:10 | |
Calvary, | 25:13 | |
the empty tomb. | 25:15 | |
Because without intervention there really is | 25:20 | |
no hope for more. | 25:22 | |
But thank God, because there is a God, | 25:27 | |
and circumstances of the worst brokenness, captivity, | 25:30 | |
imprisonment, mourning, | 25:36 | |
we can dare to hope for more. | 25:39 | |
Isaiah, through his speech, evokes a world | 25:44 | |
beyond present arrangements, a world | 25:47 | |
where there is good news and liberty and comfort | 25:50 | |
and garlands instead of ashes. | 25:53 | |
What we're reading here is biblical, apocalyptic talk. | 25:58 | |
Talk about the more beyond the now. | 26:04 | |
It's daring, poetic, political speech. | 26:08 | |
It's speech pushed to the boundaries | 26:13 | |
in an attempt to describe what God is breaking open | 26:17 | |
among us, breaking open in dusty, | 26:21 | |
little out of the way places like Bethlehem or Soweto. | 26:23 | |
Isaiah's words refuse to abide behind the confines | 26:29 | |
of the dominant, imperial rationality. | 26:33 | |
Refuse to be limited by common sense | 26:38 | |
and what we've already experienced, | 26:40 | |
refuse to be limited behind the | 26:42 | |
NAS canon of western literature. | 26:44 | |
This apocalyptic speech is just breaking open. | 26:47 | |
And it was Isaiah, you probably picked this up, | 26:53 | |
it was Isaiah who taught Mary | 26:55 | |
how to sing apocalyptically. | 26:59 | |
My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit | 27:05 | |
rejoices in God my savior, because he scattered the proud, | 27:10 | |
he's put down the mighty from their thrones. | 27:15 | |
He's lifted up those of low degree, | 27:17 | |
he's filled the hungry with good things, | 27:20 | |
and the rich he sent empty, away. | 27:22 | |
And every time you come to church, | 27:29 | |
and you're exposed to speech like that of Isaiah | 27:31 | |
or the songs of Mary, we're beckoned out | 27:35 | |
beyond the world of patterned predictability | 27:40 | |
into a world of risk and gift. | 27:44 | |
A world in which divine intervention | 27:50 | |
enables us to break free of prosaic reductions, | 27:52 | |
to subvert tamed expectations, to evoke fresh faith. | 27:57 | |
Because dangerous hope leads to daring resistance, | 28:04 | |
and docility is impossible for those | 28:09 | |
who have heard tell of more. | 28:13 | |
Being interviewed on television by a western reporter, | 28:19 | |
a christian dissident in the Soviet Union | 28:22 | |
who'd just been released from prison was asked, | 28:28 | |
well, what do you want? | 28:34 | |
Why are Christians in the Soviet Union not satisfied? | 28:36 | |
Why don't you feel grateful to Mr. Gorbachev | 28:40 | |
and stand behind the government? | 28:43 | |
And the christian dissident responded, | 28:48 | |
"We are not satisfied. We want more." | 28:52 | |
The church at its best has known | 29:03 | |
that anything less is trap and delusion. | 29:05 | |
Sunday at its best is always a summons toward more. | 29:09 | |
But not just any old more. Our vague | 29:16 | |
of frequently reoccurring, nagging, | 29:20 | |
gnawing sense of need | 29:24 | |
which we often try to assuage with buying and getting | 29:27 | |
and giving and giving, particularly at this time of year. | 29:31 | |
That gnawing sense of hunger is articulated and reformed | 29:36 | |
and named by the prophet as a groping | 29:42 | |
after God and God's will. | 29:46 | |
The more that we feel deep within our hearts | 29:50 | |
is given a name, it is called the acceptable year | 29:54 | |
of the Lord, the year of the Lord's favor, | 29:58 | |
the year in which God finally gets what God wants, | 30:01 | |
that which God had in mind when God began creating the world | 30:04 | |
until this world more closely resembles | 30:08 | |
that which God had in mind. | 30:11 | |
When God began forming something out of nothing, | 30:14 | |
and more out of the less. | 30:20 | |
Poetic, apocalyptic speech like that of Isaiah or Mary, | 30:25 | |
or like that that we sing in advent hymns | 30:32 | |
doesn't just describe the world, it recreates the world. | 30:37 | |
It is a world made open where old, comfortable certitudes | 30:44 | |
are broken by the advent of a God who makes everything new. | 30:48 | |
In this new world, we're allowed to roam a little bit. | 30:54 | |
Here is poetic, imagination assaulting dominant ideology. | 31:00 | |
New configurations of life yet unformed, | 31:06 | |
unthought, undreamed, become available. | 31:10 | |
Does it surprise you that the text | 31:16 | |
which John Wesley selected for his first sermon | 31:20 | |
to the trapped Bristol coal miners was this. | 31:25 | |
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me | 31:32 | |
to preach good tidings to the afflicted, | 31:36 | |
the opening of prison to those who are bound, | 31:39 | |
to give them garland instead of ashes." | 31:43 | |
Here is Isaiah's prophetic protest against religion | 31:50 | |
reduced to slogan, morals, five fundamentals, | 31:54 | |
little bumper sticker piety that you can put | 31:59 | |
out on a bulletin board out in front of a church. | 32:01 | |
Thoughts for the day, religion relegated | 32:04 | |
to the conventional, sermons just a boring rehash | 32:06 | |
of the obvious and the already known. | 32:11 | |
Here is protest against Sunday | 32:14 | |
as adjustment to what is seen rather than a probing, | 32:18 | |
a probing of what might be the more. | 32:22 | |
Oh, but so often we just come to church | 32:30 | |
to find out what we already know. | 32:32 | |
We come to church just for certitude, | 32:36 | |
to touch base with the known. | 32:38 | |
But apocalyptic speech goes beyond the certainties. | 32:45 | |
In this poetic, prophetic, spirit-anointed space, | 32:51 | |
possibility overwhelms necessity and we can, | 32:56 | |
for the first time, breathe. | 33:00 | |
And so you go forth after church, | 33:05 | |
and they're often the same quarrels in the car | 33:08 | |
on the way home, the same tensions over the dinner table, | 33:10 | |
the same blue Monday, but | 33:13 | |
now we have become made aware, however dimly, | 33:16 | |
of a new world with new hope and new possibility | 33:21 | |
and new dreams, and new hunger for something else. | 33:26 | |
In short, we become aware of the more. | 33:34 | |
We see how greatly reduced is what we call truth. | 33:38 | |
We've tasted some new wine, and we just want more. | 33:43 | |
And on such Sundays, the Prince of Darkness whispers, | 33:49 | |
"Adapt, adjust." | 33:55 | |
'Cause the prince wants to keep the world closed, | 34:00 | |
because a closed world is much easier | 34:03 | |
for the bureaucrats to administer. | 34:06 | |
'Cause people without a future are much more manageable | 34:09 | |
than those who've got some imagination. | 34:12 | |
And some Sundays when we gather, let's be honest, | 34:18 | |
the prince rules the roost. | 34:20 | |
No new thing is uttered, and no new thing is heard. | 34:23 | |
The pulpit is just a place of platitude | 34:28 | |
and comfortable cliche, proverbs, | 34:30 | |
slogans for better living, nothing more. | 34:33 | |
But there are some Sundays, sometimes on a cold December day | 34:39 | |
when we peek over the horizon, we stand on tiptoes | 34:44 | |
with the prophet, and there is more. | 34:48 | |
Somebody goes home newly discontent | 34:55 | |
with present arrangements, hungry. | 34:58 | |
Somebody gets ready for more than just another Christmas. | 35:02 | |
Advent becomes adventure, | 35:06 | |
and we dare to wish for ourselves | 35:10 | |
more, for our world, more, | 35:14 | |
for others, more. | 35:19 | |
And Isaiah laughs, and then Mary sings. | 35:20 | |
Poetry has carried the day against official prose, | 35:25 | |
and the prince knows that he's lost just a little bit | 35:30 | |
of territory to its true Lord. | 35:34 | |
And the Lord's newly acquired territory is you. | 35:41 | |
And the kingdom of this world has become | 35:48 | |
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, | 35:52 | |
and he shall reign forever and ever. | 35:54 | |
Did you read in the newspaper a while back | 36:02 | |
about a man in a very depressed region of Appalachia, | 36:06 | |
a coal miner who'd been out of work for months? | 36:10 | |
And one morning he caught his children | 36:15 | |
sitting on the back porch of their little house, | 36:16 | |
thumbing through the pages of an old Sears catalog, wishing. | 36:20 | |
And that man flew into a rage, | 36:29 | |
and he switched their legs, and he took that catalog | 36:33 | |
and just ripped it to bits, and then he sat down | 36:37 | |
in his front yard and cried like a baby. | 36:41 | |
He loved his children so much, he just couldn't bear | 36:49 | |
to see them wish and then be disappointed. | 36:54 | |
Did you read in the bible about a young woman | 37:01 | |
in a depressed region of Judea? | 37:05 | |
Poor, unmarried woman, mother-to-be, | 37:08 | |
who got caught singing for more? | 37:14 | |
My soul magnifies the lord, 'cause he's done great things. | 37:22 | |
He scattered the proud, he's put down the mighty | 37:29 | |
from their thrones, he's lifted up those of low degree | 37:33 | |
and he has filled the hungry | 37:37 | |
with good things. | 37:42 | |
(organ music) | 37:51 | |
(congregation singing) | 38:15 | |
Reverend Nancy | The lord be with you. | 40:26 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 40:28 |
- | Let us pray. | 40:30 |
O eternal god, who brought forth all worlds | 40:42 | |
from the womb of your being and | 40:46 | |
nurtured creation to splendor in the cradle of your care. | 40:48 | |
As we continue on our pilgrimage toward Bethlehem | 40:53 | |
to greet the Christ's child, we acknowledge | 40:56 | |
that we are wayfarers even as we seek | 41:00 | |
to know more of your will for our lives. | 41:04 | |
We are prone to erratic changes of course, | 41:07 | |
to losing sight of our goals, | 41:10 | |
to becoming discouraged by the journey. | 41:12 | |
Help us on our way, O God. | 41:16 | |
If we change our course, let it be to | 41:19 | |
share the love of Christ with another sojourner. | 41:21 | |
If we grow weary and forget you are with us, | 41:24 | |
let it lead to recognition of our need for you | 41:28 | |
as we travel in a world that sometimes seems | 41:32 | |
a hostile wilderness, enable us to go on. | 41:35 | |
Lord, hear us as we pray. | 41:39 | |
Come oh come, Emmanuel. | 41:42 | |
O God of Peace, we lift before you a world | 41:47 | |
burdened with the power to incinerate itself, | 41:51 | |
prone to settle all its disputes by threats of violence. | 41:55 | |
Show us the way of peace, O God. | 41:59 | |
Speak to all people, but especially to us, | 42:02 | |
that we may not lift up sword against any nation. | 42:06 | |
Do not turn away from us when we place our trust | 42:10 | |
in armaments rather than your love, | 42:13 | |
but empower us to be peacemakers in your name. | 42:16 | |
Lord, hear us as we pray. | 42:21 | |
Come oh come, Emmanuel. | 42:24 | |
O God of Justice, as an infant cradled | 42:27 | |
in your mother's arms you hungered for food. | 42:31 | |
Help us always to remember that it is you | 42:35 | |
whom we behold in the weakened bodies | 42:37 | |
and haunting faces of the hungry of the world. | 42:40 | |
Grant that we may not turn away from them, | 42:44 | |
but we may receive your blessing | 42:47 | |
as a minister to the least of our brothers and sisters. | 42:49 | |
Lord, hear us as we pray. | 42:53 | |
Come oh come, Emmanuel. | 42:56 | |
O God of Love, as a child born into poverty | 42:59 | |
we pray, show us the poor, not just those | 43:04 | |
who have been shoved aside in the wake of competition, | 43:08 | |
but the ones who have no self respect, | 43:12 | |
who have no one to call a friend, | 43:14 | |
who do not accept your love for them. | 43:17 | |
Open our eyes to see a poverty of the heart, | 43:21 | |
where saving is more important than sharing. | 43:24 | |
Help us to understand that in giving, we will receive. | 43:27 | |
Lord, hear us as we pray. | 43:32 | |
Come oh come, Emmanuel. | 43:34 | |
O God of Mercy, as a messenger sent to proclaim God's love | 43:38 | |
for the humble and the weak, you know the needs of the sick. | 43:43 | |
Comfort and relieve those stricken with illness and disease | 43:48 | |
and give your power of healing to those | 43:52 | |
who would tend to their needs. | 43:54 | |
May those for whom our prayers are offered | 43:56 | |
be strengthened in their weakness, | 43:58 | |
and comforted in your loving care. | 44:01 | |
Lord, hear us as we pray. | 44:04 | |
Come oh come, Emmanuel. | 44:06 | |
O redeeming God, as we survey the world | 44:10 | |
that awaits its savior, lift the scales from our eyes | 44:13 | |
that we might behold the people | 44:17 | |
for whom Christ became flesh. | 44:19 | |
As the word became flesh for us, | 44:22 | |
let the word become flesh through us. | 44:25 | |
Amen. | 44:29 | |
As a forgiven and reconciled people, | 44:33 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves | 44:35 | |
unto God with thanksgiving. | 44:37 | |
(bells chiming) | 44:48 | |
(organ music) | 50:53 | |
(congregation singing) | 51:31 | |
- | Gracious god from whom we receive the gift of life, | 52:30 |
we praise your holy name. | 52:34 | |
We praise you for Jesus Christ, who embodies human life | 52:36 | |
that we might embody divine life. | 52:39 | |
In the spirit of joyful thanksgiving | 52:42 | |
we offer these gifts, praying that we might pursue you | 52:44 | |
with the devotion of the shepherds, | 52:48 | |
praise you with the song of the angels, | 52:50 | |
and present you with a gift even greater | 52:53 | |
than those of the wise men, the gift of ourselves. | 52:55 | |
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, | 52:59 | |
who taught us to pray with confidence. | 53:02 | |
Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 53:04 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 53:09 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 53:12 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 53:14 | |
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those | 53:17 | |
who trespass against us. | 53:20 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 53:22 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, | 53:27 | |
and the glory forever, amen. | 53:29 | |
May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace | 53:34 | |
in believing, so that you may abound in hope | 53:38 | |
by the power of the holy spirit, amen. | 53:42 | |
(organ music) | 53:46 | |
(congregation singing) | 54:42 | |
(organ music) | 56:45 |