Debra K. Brazzel - Sermon Untitled (June 20, 1993)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Good morning. | 0:35 |
We'd like to welcome you to Duke Chapel. | 0:36 | |
There are a couple of wonderful happenings | 0:37 | |
at the chapel we hope you'll be able to make this week. | 0:39 | |
At 5:00 today, there is a recital by Don Eagle, | 0:42 | |
who will be playing the trumpet and Mary Ellis Bragg, | 0:46 | |
who will be performing on the organ. | 0:50 | |
Then, on Thursday night, at 7:00 PM, | 0:52 | |
our university carillonneur, Professor J. Samuel Hammond, | 0:55 | |
will give a demonstration of the carillon | 1:00 | |
in the chapel tower. | 1:02 | |
The elevator will be open, and those | 1:03 | |
who come will be able to go up into the tower | 1:05 | |
and see him perform. | 1:08 | |
This is a rare opportunity, | 1:10 | |
and we hope you'll take advantage of that. | 1:11 | |
Please stand as we continue our worship with a greeting. | 1:13 | |
Oh God, our God, how glorious is your name | 1:24 | |
and all the Earth? | 1:28 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
When we look to the heavens, the work of your fingers, | 1:34 | |
the moon and the stars, we wonder. | 1:38 | |
(congregation chants) | 1:41 | |
You are the God of light, crowning us with glory | 1:46 | |
and honor to serve you all our days. | 1:50 | |
Oh God, our God, how glorious is your name in all the Earth. | 1:55 | |
(hymnal music) | 2:03 | |
(vocalizing) | 2:42 | |
- | Please remain standing and turn to selection number 890 | 5:57 |
in your hymnal. | 6:03 | |
Let us pray in unison the prayer of confession. | 6:12 | |
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned | 6:16 | |
against you in thought, word, and deed by | 6:20 | |
what we have done and by what we have left undone. | 6:24 | |
We have not loved you with our whole heart, | 6:28 | |
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. | 6:32 | |
We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent. | 6:36 | |
For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us | 6:40 | |
and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk | 6:45 | |
in your ways to the glory of your name, Amen. | 6:51 | |
Almighty God, have mercy on you. | 7:07 | |
Forgive all your sins through our Lord, Jesus Christ. | 7:09 | |
Strengthen you in all goodness. | 7:13 | |
And by the power of the Holy Spirit, keep you | 7:15 | |
in eternal life, Amen. | 7:18 | |
- | Let us pray together the prayer of illumination. | 7:36 |
Open our hearts and minds, oh God. | 7:41 | |
By the power of your Holy Spirit so that, | 7:44 | |
as your Word is read and proclaimed, | 7:48 | |
we may hear your message with joy this day, Amen. | 7:51 | |
This reading is taken from the 21st chapter of the book | 7:58 | |
of Genesis, starting with the eighth verse. | 8:02 | |
The child grew, and he was weaned. | 8:08 | |
And Abraham made a great feast on the day | 8:11 | |
that Isaac was weaned, but Sarah saw the son of Hagar, | 8:14 | |
the Egyptian who she had born to Abraham playing | 8:20 | |
with her son, Isaac. | 8:25 | |
So she said to Abraham, cast out the slave woman | 8:26 | |
with her son for the son | 8:31 | |
of this slave woman shall not inherit along | 8:34 | |
with my son, Isaac. | 8:37 | |
The matter was very distressing to Abraham on the account | 8:40 | |
of his son, but God said to Abraham, | 8:44 | |
do not be distressed because of the boy and because | 8:49 | |
of your slave woman. | 8:53 | |
Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you | 8:56 | |
for it is through Isaac | 9:00 | |
that offspring shall be named for you. | 9:03 | |
As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation | 9:07 | |
of him also because he is your offspring. | 9:11 | |
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread | 9:17 | |
and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar. | 9:22 | |
Putting it on her shoulder along with the child | 9:26 | |
and sent her away, and she departed and wandered about | 9:30 | |
in the wilderness of Bathsheba. | 9:37 | |
When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child | 9:39 | |
onto one of the bushes. | 9:45 | |
Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, | 9:48 | |
about a distance of a bow shot. | 9:52 | |
For she said, do not let me look on the death of the child. | 9:56 | |
And she sat opposite him. | 10:02 | |
She lifted up her voice and wept, and God heard the voice | 10:05 | |
of the boy. | 10:10 | |
And the angel of God called to Hagar from Heaven and said | 10:12 | |
to her, what troubles you, Hagar? | 10:17 | |
Do not be afraid for God has heard the voice | 10:21 | |
of the boy where he is. | 10:25 | |
Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with you | 10:30 | |
in your hand for I will make a great nation of him. | 10:35 | |
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. | 10:41 | |
She went and filled the skin with water | 10:48 | |
and gave the boy a drink. | 10:50 | |
God was with the boy, and he grew up. | 10:54 | |
He lived in the wilderness and became an expert | 10:59 | |
with the bow. | 11:02 | |
He lived in the wilderness of Paran, | 11:04 | |
and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. | 11:07 | |
This is the Word of the Lord. | 11:14 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
This reading is taken from the Gospel according | 11:23 | |
to St. Matthew. | 11:26 | |
Chapter 10, beginning with the 28th verse. | 11:28 | |
Do not fear those who kill the body | 11:37 | |
but cannot kill the soul. | 11:39 | |
Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. | 11:43 | |
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? | 11:50 | |
Yet, not one of them will fall to the ground apart | 11:54 | |
from your father. | 11:58 | |
And even the hairs on your head are all counted. | 12:00 | |
Do not be afraid. | 12:05 | |
You are of more value than many sparrows. | 12:07 | |
Everyone, therefore, who acknowledge me before others, | 12:12 | |
I will also acknowledge before my Father in Heaven. | 12:17 | |
But whoever denies me before others, I also will deny | 12:23 | |
before my Father in Heaven. | 12:29 | |
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the Earth. | 12:33 | |
I have not come to bring peace but a sword. | 12:37 | |
I have come to set a man against his father | 12:42 | |
and a daughter against her mother | 12:45 | |
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. | 12:49 | |
And one's foes, will be members of one's household. | 12:54 | |
Whoever loves father | 12:59 | |
and mother more than me is not worthy of me, | 13:00 | |
and whoever loves son | 13:06 | |
and daughter more than me is not worthy of me. | 13:08 | |
And whoever does not take up the cross | 13:13 | |
and follow me is not worthy of me. | 13:15 | |
Those who find their life will lose it, and those | 13:21 | |
who lose their life for my sake will find it. | 13:25 | |
This is the Word of God. | 13:31 | |
(congregation chants) | 13:35 | |
- | Hello. | 13:50 |
Come on in. | 13:51 | |
Welcome. | 13:52 | |
Welcome to my home. | 13:53 | |
Can you believe it? | 13:56 | |
The home that you see about me, | 13:59 | |
who would have ever thought that I, Hagar, | 14:01 | |
would have a home like this. | 14:06 | |
The walls, look at the walls. | 14:09 | |
They're made of stone, and there's even glass | 14:12 | |
in the windows and furniture that you see. | 14:15 | |
It's wood, | 14:20 | |
the finest hand-crafted furniture from Egypt. | 14:21 | |
Who would have ever believed it? | 14:27 | |
And my son, Ishmael, my son. | 14:29 | |
The son of a slave, he is the father of 12 sons. | 14:33 | |
12 princes, | 14:39 | |
12 tribes spread out all over this land. | 14:41 | |
And they have houses and tents and animals and slaves. | 14:45 | |
Who would have ever thought that it would have come to this? | 14:51 | |
Oh, life is funny. | 14:56 | |
I never expected this. | 14:59 | |
How did it come to be? | 15:03 | |
Well, that is quite a story. | 15:05 | |
You say you have time? | 15:10 | |
Pull up a chair. | 15:12 | |
Make yourself comfortable, and I will tell you | 15:13 | |
how this happened. | 15:17 | |
Now, as you know, I was born a slave in Egypt. | 15:19 | |
I never knew who my father was, and I was taken | 15:24 | |
from my mother and sold into slavery at a very young age. | 15:28 | |
You know they don't want you to get very close, attached, | 15:33 | |
to your mother. | 15:37 | |
This was the hardest thing about those early days, | 15:39 | |
missing my mama. | 15:41 | |
And the loneliness. | 15:44 | |
When I was still a young girl, I was sold | 15:46 | |
in the marketplace to a man named Abraham. | 15:49 | |
He had come a long way off, and he was a rich man | 15:53 | |
with much property. | 15:57 | |
He bought me, he said, to be a slave girl | 16:00 | |
for his wife, Sarah. | 16:02 | |
And we traveled many days until we came to his tent | 16:04 | |
in the land of Canaan. | 16:08 | |
Sarah wasn't a bad mistress as mistresses go. | 16:12 | |
She was an old woman like Abraham and childless | 16:16 | |
for many years. | 16:20 | |
This had caused her much pain, and I saw her weep | 16:22 | |
about this many times. | 16:25 | |
Abraham tried to comfort her saying | 16:28 | |
that God had promised that their descendants would be | 16:31 | |
as the stars in the heavens. | 16:35 | |
As far as I could see, they might as well be reaching | 16:37 | |
for the stars. | 16:39 | |
For it had ceased to be with Sarah after the way | 16:41 | |
of women for more than two decades. | 16:43 | |
But one night, I heard her talking to Abraham | 16:47 | |
about me, Hagar. | 16:51 | |
And I heard her tell him, I want you to go | 16:53 | |
in to my slave girl and take her to bed so | 16:57 | |
that I may get children through her. | 17:00 | |
Now this may shock some of you, but it was customary in | 17:04 | |
that day that if a woman was childless, | 17:08 | |
that she would give her husband to another wife so | 17:10 | |
that his line might be continued. | 17:14 | |
And Sarah chose me, and Abraham came in. | 17:17 | |
And he lied with me, and I became pregnant. | 17:21 | |
And I have to tell you that I was so proud to know that I, | 17:25 | |
Hagar, a slave girl, would be the one to bear the child | 17:31 | |
for my master, a rich man of much property. | 17:36 | |
For a slave girl, there can be nothing better than this, | 17:42 | |
the possibility of escaping slavery through the birth | 17:45 | |
of a child. | 17:48 | |
In looking back, I'm a little ashamed to say | 17:51 | |
that I did gloat it over my mistress Sarah | 17:55 | |
that she was barren and I was to bear a child. | 17:59 | |
But she took it way too hard, and she came down on me | 18:03 | |
and was cruel to me. | 18:07 | |
And I could no longer stand it in the house, | 18:09 | |
so I ran away into the wilderness. | 18:11 | |
And I came upon a spring, and I knelt | 18:14 | |
to the spring to drink. | 18:18 | |
And then I heard a voice, a voice calling to me. | 18:20 | |
And I must tell you that it scared me, and I got up | 18:24 | |
to run away. | 18:27 | |
But the voice said, Hagar, do not be afraid. | 18:28 | |
Return to the home of your master, Abraham, and submit | 18:32 | |
to Sarah and all will be well with you and with the child. | 18:37 | |
You will give birth to a son. | 18:43 | |
And you will call the son Ishmael, | 18:46 | |
which means God hears. | 18:49 | |
Not knowing what else to do, I returned | 18:53 | |
to my master's dwelling. | 18:56 | |
And it came to pass | 18:58 | |
that everything the angel had told me was true. | 19:00 | |
Those were good days in my life. | 19:05 | |
I can tell you that I was so excited to know | 19:08 | |
that I was the one to bear the child, the son, | 19:12 | |
the inheritor for my master. | 19:16 | |
My son would be a free man. | 19:20 | |
And, perhaps, with his inheritance, I too might be free. | 19:23 | |
These were good years, but then a strange thing happened. | 19:28 | |
Three men came to see Abraham, | 19:33 | |
and they told him | 19:38 | |
that Sarah would give birth to a son. | 19:39 | |
Now Sarah was listening at the door of the tent, | 19:42 | |
and she laughed. | 19:46 | |
Though she later denied it to the men. | 19:47 | |
But I too was listening, and I knew better than | 19:51 | |
to laugh out loud. | 19:55 | |
But I thought, how stupid these men are. | 19:56 | |
Don't they realize it is beyond the way of women with Sarah? | 19:59 | |
Her womb, her womb is dried up. | 20:02 | |
But to my amazement, she began to grow big with child. | 20:07 | |
And in nine months, she gave birth to a son. | 20:12 | |
And they called him Isaac, which means laughter. | 20:17 | |
I began to feel a little bit nervous about | 20:23 | |
what this might mean for my own son, Ishmael. | 20:27 | |
But in our culture, the law protects the inheritance | 20:31 | |
of the firstborn even if there was another son | 20:34 | |
that is born later. | 20:37 | |
So I tried to put my worry aside. | 20:40 | |
And for the next three years, things went along fine. | 20:43 | |
Sarah was excited about finally having a child of her own, | 20:48 | |
and so she was a little bit easier to live with. | 20:52 | |
And as the children grew, Isaac | 20:55 | |
and Ishmael played together as brothers. | 20:57 | |
And it was so exciting for me to see my son happy | 21:01 | |
and playful as a child. | 21:05 | |
For childhood was something that I had never known. | 21:07 | |
But all of a sudden, things began to change. | 21:11 | |
It happened after the feast. | 21:16 | |
A great feast that Sarah and Abraham gave | 21:19 | |
and invited all their friends and their family and all | 21:22 | |
of us slaves to come to celebrate the weaning of Isaac | 21:25 | |
when he was three. | 21:30 | |
Now weaning was a big deal for us because | 21:32 | |
so many children died before they were weaned. | 21:35 | |
There was no weaning celebration given for my son, | 21:39 | |
but all the same, it was a great party for Isaac. | 21:43 | |
And there was much food and music and dancing | 21:47 | |
into the night, and the children, | 21:51 | |
the children were also playing and running around | 21:53 | |
in the yard and enjoying themselves. | 21:57 | |
And as I watched them playing, I saw Sarah | 21:59 | |
across the way staring at Isaac and Ishmael. | 22:03 | |
And she looked up, and she caught my eyes. | 22:08 | |
And in that moment, the smile froze in my throat. | 22:12 | |
And I felt a shiver of fear run down my back. | 22:17 | |
In that moment, I had the feeling | 22:22 | |
that something bad was about to happen. | 22:26 | |
And I tried to put my uneasiness away. | 22:29 | |
But from that moment, things began to change. | 22:32 | |
Whenever Sarah would see Isaac and Ishmael playing together, | 22:37 | |
she would take Isaac away. | 22:41 | |
And whenever she saw me, she would turn the other way. | 22:43 | |
And if we happened to meet, she was angry and short with me. | 22:46 | |
And at night, | 22:50 | |
at night I heard her arguing with Abraham | 22:53 | |
in tense whispers. | 22:57 | |
So I knew, I knew that something was up. | 23:00 | |
But when Abraham came to me to tell me that Ishmael | 23:05 | |
and I had to leave his house, had to leave his house | 23:10 | |
for good, I was amazed. | 23:15 | |
I pleaded with him for his son, Ishmael. | 23:20 | |
Your son, your firstborn. | 23:24 | |
I told him the law. | 23:28 | |
The law said that you cannot disinherit the firstborn child, | 23:29 | |
but Abraham said to me, God has said that he would provide. | 23:35 | |
So you must go. | 23:41 | |
I can't begin to tell you what it was like to go back | 23:45 | |
to my tent that night, to look around to decide | 23:48 | |
what I would take with me into the wilderness. | 23:54 | |
What would you take? | 23:57 | |
Leaving a home after 10 years. | 24:00 | |
The next morning, when Abraham came to meet us, | 24:05 | |
I saw a tear in his eye. | 24:10 | |
And I knew that my dreams for our son were crumbling | 24:12 | |
as the dust. | 24:17 | |
I knew that the decision had been made and | 24:20 | |
that Ishmael was cut off from the inheritance, | 24:23 | |
and he placed water and bread upon my shoulders. | 24:28 | |
And he picked up our son, and he put him in our arms. | 24:34 | |
And he sent us away. | 24:40 | |
As he turned away from us, and I turned to go | 24:44 | |
into the wilderness. | 24:49 | |
Tears running down my face. | 24:51 | |
I can hardly see to walk, and I thought, | 24:55 | |
what will I do? | 25:00 | |
A woman, a slave woman, alone in the desert | 25:02 | |
with a child with no one to turn to | 25:07 | |
and nowhere to go? | 25:11 | |
I don't mind telling you that I was scared. | 25:14 | |
More scared than I have ever been in my life. | 25:17 | |
The next few days are a blur. | 25:23 | |
We wandered around. | 25:26 | |
It was hot and dry in the day and cold at night. | 25:28 | |
We would lay down in our blankets, shivering together, | 25:34 | |
waiting for the day. | 25:38 | |
And sometimes I was so filled with anger | 25:41 | |
that I felt I could kill at the injustice | 25:45 | |
that was done to us. | 25:48 | |
Ishmael, the firstborn, had been cut off. | 25:51 | |
It was against everything that was legal, everything | 25:56 | |
that was fair. | 25:59 | |
And I wanted to go back, and I wanted to fight. | 26:01 | |
And I wanted to make them do what was right, but | 26:03 | |
what could I do? | 26:07 | |
A slave woman. | 26:09 | |
It was unfair and cruel, but I was powerless | 26:12 | |
to do anything about it. | 26:16 | |
And so we wandered in the desert. | 26:20 | |
Sometimes the darkness was so dark, | 26:23 | |
and I felt such despair that I just wanted to lay | 26:26 | |
down and die. | 26:29 | |
But then when Ishmael would cry, I remembered the child. | 26:33 | |
And I knew that I had to keep going on for the child. | 26:39 | |
We would stop and take a small bit of bread, | 26:45 | |
hoarding our water in sips, trying to make it last. | 26:49 | |
But then when the water ran out, I didn't know | 26:55 | |
what else to do. | 26:59 | |
I ran about in the desert like a crazy woman, looking | 27:01 | |
for a spring, a settler, a traveler, anything | 27:05 | |
that would help us survive. | 27:09 | |
And there was nothing, and Ishmael cried, | 27:12 | |
Mommy, I'm thirsty! | 27:16 | |
I'm thirsty, Mommy! | 27:18 | |
And then, as the hours turned into days, | 27:21 | |
he no longer cried. | 27:26 | |
And his silence frightened me more than anything. | 27:29 | |
I could not bear to see my son die, | 27:35 | |
so I took him. | 27:40 | |
And I put him under a bush, hoping that | 27:41 | |
at least his last few hours would be shaded. | 27:45 | |
Maybe he would be comfortable when the end came, | 27:49 | |
and then I walked about a bow shot. | 27:53 | |
And I sat down to wait with the buzzards circling | 27:57 | |
over my head, and I put my head in my lap. | 28:01 | |
And I wept, why, God? | 28:06 | |
Why have you done this? | 28:09 | |
Help my son! | 28:11 | |
Help us! | 28:14 | |
And then there was a voice that came to me, | 28:17 | |
and I didn't know if it was real or if it was coming | 28:22 | |
from my own mind. | 28:25 | |
But the voice said, Hagar, why are you troubled? | 28:27 | |
Why are you troubled? | 28:33 | |
Why? | 28:34 | |
My son is dying. | 28:35 | |
You ask me why I'm troubled, and the voice, | 28:36 | |
the angel of God continued, | 28:42 | |
come and pick up the boy and lift him | 28:45 | |
up for God has heard the voice of the boy crying. | 28:49 | |
And I will make a great nation of him. | 28:54 | |
And suddenly, my eyes were opened. | 28:59 | |
And I saw a well, and I went. | 29:02 | |
And I picked up my son, and I held him close | 29:06 | |
for a long time. | 29:11 | |
And then we went over to the well, and we drank. | 29:14 | |
And our thirst was satisfied. | 29:19 | |
Well, this was the beginning of a new life for us. | 29:26 | |
I won't go into all the details of those days. | 29:31 | |
They weren't always easy, | 29:35 | |
but this God, this God | 29:38 | |
who hears provided for us. | 29:42 | |
And we were able to make our way in the wilderness, | 29:46 | |
and my son grew up strong to manhood. | 29:50 | |
And he was good with a bow, and he was able to provide | 29:55 | |
for us enough even for trade. | 29:59 | |
And when he was grown, I went to Egypt. | 30:03 | |
And I got a wife for him there, and he had 12 sons | 30:06 | |
by his wife. | 30:10 | |
And we began to acquire some of what you see | 30:12 | |
around you today. | 30:15 | |
Some people have asked me how could I continue | 30:18 | |
to worship the God of Abraham, the God who was so unjust | 30:22 | |
to me that he cast me out into the desert? | 30:27 | |
Well, I have to tell you truthfully | 30:32 | |
that I am not convinced that Abraham was following God | 30:36 | |
when he cast me out. | 30:41 | |
Like I said before, it seemed to me, living | 30:44 | |
in the household, that he was listening much more | 30:46 | |
to Abraham than to God in those days. | 30:49 | |
I don't blame him so much anymore really. | 30:54 | |
I think it's easy to get confused with the voices | 30:58 | |
in our mind, and sometimes we don't know what's our voice. | 31:03 | |
And what are other voices, and what's God's voice? | 31:06 | |
But I can tell you this. | 31:10 | |
I know that the God who hears is not a cruel God, | 31:13 | |
and I don't believe that that God would have sent | 31:19 | |
out a helpless woman and child into the desert | 31:22 | |
with nothing but a skin of water and a loaf of bread. | 31:26 | |
Abraham was a rich man. | 31:31 | |
He could have done better by his firstborn child than that. | 31:34 | |
Even if he had been determined to send him out and | 31:40 | |
to deny the inheritance, | 31:44 | |
he could have given him more than that. | 31:46 | |
And I can't blame God for that, | 31:50 | |
but maybe, | 31:56 | |
maybe it was better this way. | 31:58 | |
We were cast out, exiled, thrown | 32:00 | |
into the wilderness with nothing. | 32:03 | |
We got nothing from Abraham, | 32:05 | |
but I know without a doubt | 32:09 | |
who saved us. | 32:12 | |
And I can tell you with absolute certainty that | 32:14 | |
without the God who hears, we would have died | 32:17 | |
in the wilderness. | 32:21 | |
And you know what I think? | 32:24 | |
I think that Sarah and Abraham, they knew about this God | 32:26 | |
and the blessings that this God provides. | 32:30 | |
But they wanted to keep the blessings for themselves. | 32:34 | |
They wanted to keep their bloodline pure | 32:37 | |
to keep the promise in the family, | 32:41 | |
but I don't believe this God can be contained in that way. | 32:44 | |
I mean, look at me, Hagar, a slave woman. | 32:50 | |
Look at what God has done for me who was cast out | 32:55 | |
with nothing and no one to turn to, and my son, Ishmael, | 33:00 | |
who was raised from the point of death | 33:05 | |
to become the father of | 33:08 | |
12 tribes, 12 princes. | 33:10 | |
He has made his descendants as the stars in the sky, | 33:14 | |
and so I have come to be grateful to this God. | 33:21 | |
This God, the God of Abraham and Isaac, | 33:26 | |
the God of Ishmael, | 33:31 | |
the God of the promise. | 33:34 | |
So you see, I have much to be grateful for. | 33:38 | |
And this home that you see about you, this home, I try | 33:41 | |
to remember that it hasn't always been this way and | 33:46 | |
that this is a gift, a gift from the God who hears. | 33:50 | |
Well, I've taken up enough of your time. | 33:59 | |
But I hope you'll stay for dinner. | 34:03 | |
God has made a wonderful feast for us, | 34:05 | |
and there's plenty for all. | 34:09 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 34:31 |
(congregation chants) | ||
Let us pray. | 34:35 | |
We give thanks, oh Lord, that your ways are not our ways. | 34:40 | |
We are sometimes good, we are sometimes just. | 34:45 | |
You are always good and just. | 34:51 | |
Tempering your justice with your unfathomable love | 34:55 | |
and deepening your love with the high price of justice. | 34:58 | |
Our presence here is our testimony to your goodness | 35:04 | |
and justice, which have relentlessly pursued us | 35:08 | |
without counting the cost. | 35:12 | |
Oh, Heavenly Father, who wept over Jerusalem we pray | 35:17 | |
for children whose fathers know neither | 35:22 | |
goodness nor justice. | 35:25 | |
We pray for mothers and children abandoned, forgotten, | 35:28 | |
or simply neglected by fathers | 35:33 | |
who have repudiated their vocation as father. | 35:36 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 35:43 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
Oh Lord who submitted the back of your son | 35:49 | |
to the repeated blows of his persecutors | 35:52 | |
to redeem those you love, we pray for women | 35:54 | |
and children abused physically and sexually by husbands | 35:59 | |
and fathers, beaten, subjected, intimidated, harassed, | 36:04 | |
physically and sexually abused. | 36:12 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 36:18 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
Oh now whose only begotten one went about doing good, | 36:23 | |
blessing women and children and calling all persons | 36:26 | |
to goodness and justice, we pray for our society | 36:30 | |
which is confused about the true role of men, men | 36:35 | |
in relation to women, men in relation to children and | 36:39 | |
to other men. | 36:44 | |
Help our men to find their way to true manliness, | 36:47 | |
to tenderness as well as toughness, to sensitivity | 36:50 | |
as well as sensuality, to the value | 36:57 | |
of person more than the value of property, | 37:02 | |
to the vocation of fatherhood as well | 37:08 | |
as the vocation of profession. | 37:10 | |
Bring the men of our culture to justice and to goodness, | 37:15 | |
to the elevation, preservation, dignity, and ennoblement | 37:18 | |
of human life as you alone can do. | 37:24 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 37:29 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
Oh God who rules and governs the nations, | 37:35 | |
who humbles the mighty and lifts up the forgotten | 37:38 | |
and seemingly insignificant ones, we pray for those | 37:42 | |
who literally have no place and no one to turn to, | 37:47 | |
who have been cast aside and abandoned | 37:53 | |
by family, neighbor, community, for those who have no one | 37:56 | |
to pray for them. | 38:03 | |
May our prayer and our communion service count for them | 38:06 | |
to comfort, to console, to encourage, to lift up. | 38:10 | |
And may our act of love, adoration, and obedience | 38:20 | |
in this service reshape our hearts and lives | 38:24 | |
that we may love you and these more dearly and serve you | 38:28 | |
and them more clearly. | 38:34 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 38:39 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
Amen. | 38:44 | |
As a forgiven and reconciled people, let us stand | 38:48 | |
and greet one another with signs | 38:51 | |
of our reconciliation and love. | 38:54 | |
Please be seated. | 39:21 | |
It is both our privilege and our duty to worship God | 39:30 | |
with our tides and offerings. | 39:34 | |
Let us worship God. | 39:36 | |
(spiritual music) | 39:39 | |
(vocalizing) | 41:05 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 46:50 |
(congregation chants) | ||
Lift up your heart. | 46:53 | |
(congregation chants) | ||
Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God. | 46:57 | |
(congregation chants) | 47:00 | |
It is right | ||
and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, | 47:04 | |
to give thanks to you, God Almighty, creator | 47:08 | |
of Heaven and Earth. | 47:12 | |
You formed us in your image and breathed | 47:13 | |
into us the breath of life. | 47:16 | |
When we turned away and our love failed, | 47:19 | |
your love remained steadfast. | 47:21 | |
You delivered us from captivity, made covenant | 47:24 | |
to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us | 47:27 | |
through the prophets. | 47:30 | |
And so with your people on Earth and all the company | 47:32 | |
of Heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn. | 47:34 | |
(spiritual music) | 47:39 | |
(vocalizing) | 47:48 | |
Holy are you and blessed is your son, Jesus Christ. | 48:27 | |
Your spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, | 48:30 | |
to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering | 48:34 | |
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those | 48:37 | |
who are oppressed, and to announce | 48:41 | |
that the time had come when you would save your people. | 48:43 | |
He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. | 48:47 | |
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, | 48:52 | |
you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery | 48:55 | |
to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant | 49:00 | |
by water and the Spirit. | 49:03 | |
When the Lord, Jesus, ascended, he promised to be | 49:06 | |
with us always in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit. | 49:09 | |
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, | 49:13 | |
he took bread, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, | 49:17 | |
and said, take, eat. | 49:22 | |
This is my body which is given for you. | 49:24 | |
When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks | 49:27 | |
to you, gave it to his disciples and said, drink from this, | 49:32 | |
all of you, for this is the blood | 49:36 | |
of the new covenant poured out for you and for many | 49:38 | |
for the forgiveness of sins. | 49:41 | |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, | 49:43 | |
and so in remembrance of these, your mighty acts | 49:50 | |
in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise | 49:52 | |
and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice. | 49:56 | |
In union with Christ offering for us | 49:59 | |
as we proclaim the mystery of faith. | 50:01 | |
(spiritual music) | 50:05 | |
(vocalizing) | 50:09 | |
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and | 50:23 | |
on these gifts of bread and wine. | 50:26 | |
Make them be, for us, the body and blood of Christ | 50:29 | |
that we may be, for the world, the body | 50:32 | |
of Christ redeemed by his blood. | 50:35 | |
By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one | 50:38 | |
with each other, and one in ministry to all the world | 50:41 | |
until Christ comes in final victory. | 50:44 | |
And we feast at his heavenly banquet through your son, | 50:48 | |
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, | 50:51 | |
all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, | 50:55 | |
now and forever. | 50:59 | |
(spiritual music) | 51:01 | |
(vocalizing) | 51:05 | |
And now with the confidence of the children of God, | 51:18 | |
let us pray together. | 51:21 | |
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 51:23 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth | 51:28 | |
as it is in Heaven. | 51:32 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 51:34 | |
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those | 51:36 | |
who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation | 51:40 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, | 51:44 | |
and the power, and the glory forever, Amen. | 51:48 | |
Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body | 51:55 | |
for we all partake of the one loaf. | 51:59 | |
The cup over which we give thanks is a sharing | 52:08 | |
in the body of Christ. | 52:12 | |
Won't you come and feast at the Lord's banquet. | 53:00 | |
(spiritual music) | 53:05 | |
(vocalizing) | 53:27 |