William H. Willimon - "The Darkness Ahead" (January 30, 1994)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Good morning, and welcome to this service of worship | 0:00 |
here on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany. | 0:03 | |
It's wonderful to see such a good congregation | 0:07 | |
on a dreary morning. | 0:10 | |
On these northern European mornings though | 0:13 | |
is the best time to be in the chapel | 0:16 | |
and view the chapel windows, | 0:19 | |
since there's a congruence there | 0:20 | |
between the windows and the atmosphere outside, | 0:22 | |
and the original setting, | 0:25 | |
and so we're delighted that you're here. | 0:27 | |
The first anthem is going to be moved | 0:31 | |
immediately after the first lesson | 0:33 | |
because of its relationship to that lesson. | 0:35 | |
We call your attention to various announcements | 0:40 | |
in the bulletin. | 0:42 | |
Now let us join together in the greeting. | 0:44 | |
Let us stand. | 0:48 | |
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 0:52 | |
- | And also with you. | 0:57 |
- | The splendor of Christ shines upon us. | 0:58 |
- | Praise the Lord. | 1:00 |
(lively organ music) | 1:03 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 1:55 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 3:07 | |
(lively organ music) | 4:02 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 5:07 | |
- | Let us pray. | 6:04 |
We thank you, oh God, for calling us | 6:06 | |
into your church to be your people. | 6:09 | |
We have gathered here because we heard your call | 6:12 | |
and seek to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. | 6:16 | |
Make us radiant with the light of Christ. | 6:21 | |
Help us worship with reverence and serve you | 6:24 | |
with joy in the world. | 6:27 | |
May our words, our songs, our thoughts, and our lives | 6:30 | |
be pleasing to you, oh God, | 6:36 | |
for we pray in the name of Christ, | 6:39 | |
our sovereign Lord, Amen. | 6:42 | |
You may be seated. | 6:45 | |
- | Let us pray together the Prayer for Illumination. | 6:55 |
- | Open our hearts and minds, | 7:00 |
oh God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, | 7:02 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 7:06 | |
we may hear your message with joy this day, Amen. | 7:09 | |
- | This reading is taken from the 18th chapter | 7:15 |
of the Book of Deuteronomy, | 7:17 | |
beginning with the 15th verse. | 7:19 | |
The Lord your God has raised up for you a prophet | 7:23 | |
like me from among your own people. | 7:26 | |
You shall heed such a prophet. | 7:29 | |
This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb | 7:33 | |
on the day of the assembly when you said, | 7:36 | |
"If I hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore" | 7:39 | |
"or ever again see this great fire, I will die." | 7:42 | |
Then the Lord replied to me, | 7:47 | |
"They are right in what they have said." | 7:50 | |
"I will raise up for them a prophet like you" | 7:52 | |
"from among their own people." | 7:55 | |
"I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet" | 7:57 | |
"who shall speak to them everything that I command." | 8:00 | |
"Anyone who does not heed the words of that prophet" | 8:04 | |
"the words that prophet shall speak in my name," | 8:08 | |
"I myself will hold accountable." | 8:10 | |
"But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods" | 8:13 | |
"or who presumes to speak in my name" | 8:16 | |
"a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak," | 8:19 | |
"that prophet shall die." | 8:22 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 8:25 | |
- | Thanks be to God. | 8:27 |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 8:31 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 9:31 | |
(soft organ music) | 10:12 | |
- | This morning's psalm is number 111, | 10:45 |
found on pages 832 and 833 in your hymnal. | 10:47 | |
Please stand and join me in singing the psalm | 10:52 | |
and Gloria responsively. | 10:54 | |
(soft organ music) | 10:57 | |
♪ Praise the Lord ♪ | 11:03 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 11:05 | |
♪ Great are the works of the Lord ♪ | 11:18 | |
♪ studied by all who have pleasured in them ♪ | 11:21 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 11:26 | |
♪ Who has caused his wonderful works to be remembered ♪ | 11:38 | |
♪ The Lord is gracious and merciful ♪ | 11:43 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 11:49 | |
♪ The Lord has shown his people the power of his works ♪ | 11:59 | |
♪ By giving them the heritage of the nations ♪ | 12:03 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 12:08 | |
♪ The Lord sent redemption to his people ♪ | 12:32 | |
♪ And has commanded his covenant forever ♪ | 12:36 | |
♪ Holy and wondrous is God's name ♪ | 12:40 | |
(congregation and choir congregation indistinctly) | 12:45 | |
♪ All glory be to you, creator ♪ | 13:06 | |
♪ and to Jesus Christ our savior ♪ | 13:10 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 13:13 | |
♪ As it was ere time began ♪ | 13:20 | |
(congregation and choir singing indistinctly) | 13:24 | |
You may be seated. | 13:33 | |
- | This reading is taken from the eighth chapter | 13:42 |
of the first book of Corinthians, | 13:44 | |
beginning with the first verse. | 13:46 | |
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, | 13:50 | |
we know that all of us possess knowledge. | 13:53 | |
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. | 13:56 | |
Anyone who claims to know something | 14:00 | |
does not yet have the necessary knowledge. | 14:02 | |
But anyone who loves God is known by God. | 14:05 | |
Hence as to the eating of food offered to idols, | 14:10 | |
we know that no idol in the world really exists | 14:14 | |
and there is no God but one. | 14:18 | |
Indeed even though there may be so-called gods | 14:21 | |
in heaven or on Earth, as in fact there are many gods | 14:24 | |
and many Lords, yet for us there is one God | 14:28 | |
from whom are all things and from who we exist | 14:31 | |
and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things | 14:35 | |
and through whom we exist. | 14:41 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 14:44 | |
- | Thanks be to God. | 14:46 |
- | This reading is from the first chapter of the Gospel | 14:49 |
according to Saint Mark, beginning with the 21st verse. | 14:51 | |
They went to Capernaum, and when the sabbath came, | 14:57 | |
he entered the synagogue and taught. | 15:00 | |
They were astounded by his teaching, for he taught them | 15:03 | |
as one having authority, not as the scribes. | 15:05 | |
Just then, there was in their synagogue | 15:10 | |
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, | 15:12 | |
"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" | 15:16 | |
"Have you come to destroy us?" | 15:19 | |
"I know who you are, the holy one of God." | 15:21 | |
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, | 15:26 | |
"Be silent and come out of him." | 15:28 | |
And the unclean spirit, convulsing him | 15:31 | |
and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. | 15:33 | |
They were all amazed and they kept on asking one another, | 15:37 | |
"What is this, a new teaching with authority?" | 15:40 | |
"He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." | 15:43 | |
At once his fame began to spread | 15:48 | |
throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. | 15:50 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 15:53 | |
- | Thanks be to God. | 15:55 |
- | As a child, I never ventured into the basement alone. | 16:07 |
The basement at the foot of the stairs. | 16:13 | |
Our basement had been dug into the hill, and its walls | 16:17 | |
were covered with field rock and mortar, | 16:21 | |
and when there was rain, the water would ooze through cracks | 16:26 | |
in the wall, as if reminder that this basement was | 16:30 | |
subterranean, and it was dark and it was deep. | 16:36 | |
"Now don't be silly," my mother would say | 16:43 | |
when she would send me down there to fetch something. | 16:45 | |
"There's nothing down there in that basement to fear." | 16:47 | |
But I knew that basement was dark and it was unknown, | 16:54 | |
and when one switched the light on, | 17:00 | |
dark things scurried into the corners. | 17:03 | |
"Don't act like a baby," I would be told. | 17:08 | |
"You go down there and you bring up those jars" | 17:11 | |
"from the basement." | 17:13 | |
"There's nothing down there to fear." | 17:14 | |
But I know that in my childhood wisdom, | 17:16 | |
it was like the little house was built over | 17:22 | |
this something that was dark, | 17:26 | |
and there were things down there that preferred to live | 17:31 | |
in the darkness rather than in the light. | 17:34 | |
There's nothing down there in the dark to fear. | 17:39 | |
Darkness is not so terrible. | 17:45 | |
We've all grown up, come of age, we can fend for ourselves. | 17:49 | |
There is no subterranean abyss at the bottom of the stairs. | 17:53 | |
There's no dark down there underneath | 17:59 | |
the bright constructions which we call reality up here. | 18:03 | |
You're 21, you're educated, you're liberated, | 18:08 | |
you're self-sufficient, you can buy beer for yourself | 18:12 | |
without help from the fat man. | 18:14 | |
And my job as your preacher therefore on Sundays | 18:17 | |
is to help you celebrate yourself, | 18:20 | |
your self-sufficiency, to glory in the glow | 18:23 | |
of our electronically-induced enlightenment. | 18:27 | |
So I guess that means that our alumni William Styron's | 18:35 | |
haunting memoir of his depression, "Darkness Visible," | 18:40 | |
I guess that's a lie. | 18:47 | |
There really is nothing down there to fear. | 18:50 | |
We keep telling you this, | 18:55 | |
and if there is nothing down there to fear, | 18:59 | |
if there is nothing over which we do not have control, | 19:01 | |
well then, "There is no need," said Napoleon, | 19:07 | |
"of this God hypothesis." | 19:09 | |
And so contemporary theologian, Dorothee Sölle | 19:15 | |
chirps cheerfully, "God is love within human beings." | 19:20 | |
"God is that power, that spark that animates our love." | 19:25 | |
"We should stop looking for God." | 19:31 | |
According to Sölle, we are strong, we can accomplish. | 19:36 | |
We can create a new world. | 19:39 | |
She says we do not have to sit around all year singing | 19:44 | |
with Luther, did we in our own strength confide, | 19:47 | |
our striving would be losing. | 19:50 | |
She says, "to live, we do not need" | 19:54 | |
"what has repeatedly been called God." | 19:59 | |
A power that intervenes, rescues, judges, and confirms. | 20:03 | |
For the most telling argument against our traditional God | 20:10 | |
is not that He no longer exist, but rather | 20:14 | |
that He has drawn back within himself | 20:19 | |
and we no longer need him. | 20:22 | |
We do not need him, because love is all we need. | 20:26 | |
We need nothing more. | 20:32 | |
And yet I suppose if you're a woman that has had | 20:37 | |
a different experience of night than Professor Sölle, | 20:39 | |
I suppose that if you happen to know firsthand | 20:46 | |
William Styron's "Darkness Visible," | 20:51 | |
if in your life, there is some abyss lurking | 20:56 | |
at the bottom of the stairs, | 20:59 | |
you may dispute the cheerful modern notion | 21:05 | |
that there is nothing down there to fear. | 21:09 | |
Alas, the world which is offered us by modern secularism | 21:16 | |
tends to be restricted to life upstairs. | 21:22 | |
Improvised. | 21:27 | |
Quite incapable of satisfying real need. | 21:29 | |
For life at the bottom of the stairs. | 21:37 | |
To give him credit, this is what Nietzsche realized | 21:42 | |
about contemporary Christianity. | 21:45 | |
It's all so nice and polite and bourgeois, | 21:49 | |
offering nothing of help for the late night, | 21:51 | |
three in the morning terror. | 21:54 | |
And I'm betting that some of you are here | 22:00 | |
even if you do not know that is why you are here | 22:04 | |
for you know such terror. | 22:08 | |
In her autobiographical work, Virginia Woolf remembers | 22:12 | |
that bright day when she was about nine | 22:18 | |
and she was playing with her cousin, Gerald Duckworth, | 22:22 | |
and they were playing childish games. | 22:28 | |
Gerald was considerably older than she, | 22:31 | |
and they were playing, and at one point, Gerald took her | 22:34 | |
and lifted her up on the buffet. | 22:38 | |
And silently, he began with his hands to explore | 22:43 | |
her private parts. | 22:47 | |
And she remembered as a child sitting there frozen, | 22:50 | |
but looking back as an old woman late in life, | 22:56 | |
she remembered that day, she said, as a day | 23:00 | |
in which 2,000 years of darkness came over her. | 23:03 | |
Oh this world for all of its beauty and grace | 23:14 | |
is also the realm of darkness. | 23:19 | |
Things do not go well for millions. | 23:22 | |
The sun shines not for millions of sisters and brothers | 23:28 | |
even if it shines for us today. | 23:33 | |
Pär Lagerkvist in his short story, "My Father and I," | 23:38 | |
tells of an experience that he had when he was a small boy. | 23:45 | |
Isn't it interesting that it's mostly children | 23:51 | |
who know this? | 23:53 | |
Pär Lagerkvist and his father went out for a walk | 23:57 | |
one bright Sunday afternoon. | 24:00 | |
It was a beautiful day, and their walk began. | 24:02 | |
But suddenly night came, and they were engulfed in darkness, | 24:07 | |
and without any street lamps in their little town | 24:12 | |
to find their way home, they walked along | 24:17 | |
the familiar railroad tracks. | 24:20 | |
The boy was filled with fear at the encroaching dark. | 24:24 | |
But he said my strong father walked calmly along. | 24:29 | |
The boy tried to walk closer to his father. | 24:34 | |
He confessed to his father, "I'm afraid." | 24:37 | |
The darkness was terrifying. | 24:42 | |
His father replied, "oh no, my boy, it is not horrible," | 24:45 | |
he said, gripping me by the hand. | 24:51 | |
"Oh yes, father, it is." | 24:54 | |
"Oh no, my child, you mustn't think like that," | 24:57 | |
"not when we know there's a God." | 25:00 | |
He said, "I felt so lonely, forsaken." | 25:05 | |
And it was strange that only I was afraid, not Father, | 25:10 | |
it was strange, we didn't think the same. | 25:14 | |
And it was strange that what he said did not help. | 25:18 | |
It didn't stop me from being afraid. | 25:21 | |
Not even what he said about God helped me. | 25:25 | |
And we walked on in silence, each with our own thoughts. | 25:29 | |
My heart contracted as if | 25:33 | |
the darkness had got into my heart | 25:37 | |
and was beginning to squeeze it. | 25:40 | |
And then as we were rounding a bend on the railroad tracks, | 25:43 | |
we suddenly heard a mighty roar behind us. | 25:47 | |
We were awakened out of our thoughts, and we were alarmed. | 25:51 | |
Father jerked me and pulled me down the embankment. | 25:54 | |
Down into the abyss, and he held me there. | 25:57 | |
A train tore past, a black train, | 26:01 | |
all the lights in the carriages were out. | 26:04 | |
And it was going at a frantic speed. | 26:07 | |
What sort of train was it? | 26:10 | |
There wasn't a train due now. | 26:13 | |
We gazed up at it in horror, the fire blazed | 26:16 | |
in the huge engine and sparks whirled out into the night, | 26:19 | |
and it was terrible, and the driver stood there | 26:24 | |
in the light of the fire, pale, motionless, | 26:28 | |
his features as though turned to stone. | 26:32 | |
Father didn't recognize him. | 26:38 | |
The man just stared straight ahead, | 26:41 | |
as though intent only on rushing on into the darkness, | 26:44 | |
far into the darkness that had no end. | 26:48 | |
And I stood there panting, gazing after the furious vision. | 26:53 | |
It was swallowed up by the night. | 27:00 | |
Father took me by the hand | 27:04 | |
and we hurried home. | 27:09 | |
The only thing he said on the way home was, | 27:13 | |
"Strange, what train was that?" | 27:16 | |
"And I didn't recognize the driver." | 27:22 | |
We walked in silence. | 27:26 | |
My whole body was shaking. | 27:28 | |
It was for me, it was for my sake. | 27:32 | |
I knew what it meant. | 27:35 | |
It was the anguish that was to come. | 27:38 | |
It was the unknown. | 27:40 | |
It was all that Father knew nothing about. | 27:41 | |
It was what Father would not be able to protect me against. | 27:45 | |
That was how it would be in this world, this life. | 27:51 | |
Not like Father's, where everything was secure and certain. | 27:55 | |
It wasn't a real world, a real life, it just hurdled | 27:59 | |
blazing into the darkness ahead. | 28:03 | |
The darkness ahead. | 28:10 | |
That dark train hurtling into the night without a thought | 28:16 | |
for those who cowered below. | 28:20 | |
The basement that haunted my childhood. | 28:25 | |
The depression of William Styron's middle age. | 28:31 | |
Oh what vain, vacuous academic drivel | 28:37 | |
to tell us that we have outgrown need | 28:42 | |
of external intervention. | 28:45 | |
What silliness to say that love is all we need, | 28:49 | |
which the Beatles said before Dorothee Sölle. | 28:53 | |
That we no longer require a God | 28:58 | |
who intrudes and heals and helps. | 29:00 | |
It would've been nice if my mother had ventured | 29:06 | |
down those stairs with me into the dark | 29:10 | |
and with maternal power had rebuked the terrors. | 29:16 | |
It would've been good if Pär Lagerkvist's father | 29:22 | |
might shield him from the terrible onslaught | 29:27 | |
of the dark train, to stand there | 29:30 | |
before the blazing dark uncertainty. | 29:33 | |
But you're big boys and girls and you know they can't. | 29:38 | |
Even parents can't withstand the darkness ahead | 29:43 | |
because it's their darkness too. | 29:48 | |
Though parents know not how to tell their children of it. | 29:53 | |
I think one of the hardest truths | 29:59 | |
to be encountered growing up | 30:00 | |
is the hard truth that Mommy and Daddy are just as scared | 30:04 | |
and as helpless as you. | 30:09 | |
I was 40 before I knew that my mother at 46 was wrong, | 30:15 | |
and I at six was right. | 30:21 | |
There are things worthy of terror | 30:26 | |
in the dark, at the bottom of the stairs. | 30:30 | |
And what is the answer? | 30:37 | |
And wherein is light? | 30:40 | |
Would you listen again to today's Gospel? | 30:44 | |
It was a rainy Sunday at Capernaum. | 30:48 | |
And when the congregation was all settled safe and secure | 30:52 | |
in their bolted down pews, | 30:55 | |
there was a cry, there was a shout, an intrusion. | 30:58 | |
This man with an unclean spirit, | 31:02 | |
what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? | 31:05 | |
I know you, you holy one of God! | 31:07 | |
Isn't it interesting that in Mark's Gospel | 31:11 | |
it's the people most confused, most darkened by the world | 31:14 | |
who say I know you, Jesus, holy one of God? | 31:20 | |
And Jesus rebukes the spirit. | 31:27 | |
Be silent, come out! | 31:30 | |
And in convulsions and loud cries, the spirit comes out. | 31:34 | |
Everybody in the congregation is amazed and says, | 31:41 | |
what is this? | 31:45 | |
He commands even unclean spirits, | 31:48 | |
and they obey. | 31:53 | |
I tell you this is a parable. | 31:58 | |
It is a vignette of our salvation. | 32:01 | |
Jesus intrudes. | 32:07 | |
Jesus enters the hurt. | 32:10 | |
Jesus embraces the darkness ahead, the darkness visible | 32:13 | |
and rebukes it and commands it, depart. | 32:21 | |
Jesus stills troubled souls, confused spirits, | 32:26 | |
calms and blesses us. | 32:31 | |
He is the holy one of God come among us! | 32:35 | |
He enters pain, confronts the dark, | 32:39 | |
commands, peace, | 32:46 | |
be still. | 32:51 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 32:58 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 33:36 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 34:36 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 35:52 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 36:09 |
- | And also with you. | 36:11 |
- | Let us pray, you may be seated. | 36:12 |
The response to each petition is "hear our prayer." | 36:16 | |
Oh God, without you, we would be terribly alone | 36:24 | |
and without hope as we face the abyss of the darkness. | 36:29 | |
But you are the God who has intruded into the darkness | 36:36 | |
of human existence, even into the abyss of death. | 36:40 | |
And the darkness has not and cannot overcome your light. | 36:46 | |
It is your light in the midst of the darkness | 36:53 | |
that gives us the courage to face the abyss | 36:57 | |
in spite of our fears, knowing that we do not face it alone | 37:00 | |
and that the darkness does not have the final word. | 37:06 | |
Radiant God, shine your light | 37:12 | |
into all the dark corners of our lives. | 37:15 | |
Rid us of unclean spirits. | 37:19 | |
Heal our hurts. | 37:23 | |
Still our troubled souls. | 37:26 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 37:29 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 37:32 |
- | We pray especially for those who are gripped | 37:35 |
by fear of the unknown, uncertain of their futures, | 37:37 | |
that they may find courage to face tomorrow, | 37:43 | |
knowing that you are there. | 37:47 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 37:50 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 37:53 |
- | We pray for those who face personal tragedy, | 37:56 |
for those who have been injured in accidents, | 38:01 | |
for those who are facing ill health, | 38:05 | |
for those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, | 38:10 | |
that your strength may sustain them | 38:15 | |
and see them through the pain, | 38:17 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 38:21 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 38:23 |
- | We pray for those who have faced the terror | 38:26 |
of natural disaster, | 38:29 | |
for those who watch their world tumble | 38:32 | |
in the earthquake in Los Angeles, | 38:34 | |
for the Midwesterners who are digging out from the floods, | 38:38 | |
for the communities in the West | 38:43 | |
that have been ravaged by fire, | 38:45 | |
and for the states that are still rebuilding | 38:48 | |
from Hurricane Andrew, | 38:51 | |
that they may know the comfort of shared suffering | 38:54 | |
and the hope of new life. | 38:58 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 39:01 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 39:04 |
- | We pray for those who are victims of human tragedy, | 39:07 |
for those who have been abused by a family member, | 39:12 | |
friend, or stranger, | 39:15 | |
for those who are incarcerated unjustly, | 39:18 | |
for victims of violence and war, | 39:22 | |
that they may be healed at the very deepest level | 39:27 | |
of their beings, | 39:30 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 39:33 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 39:36 |
- | We pray also for those | 39:39 |
who are the perpetrators of violence, | 39:40 | |
for those who abuse and rape and oppress and kill, | 39:44 | |
that they might be freed of unclean spirits | 39:51 | |
and the self-hatred that makes them hate others, | 39:55 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 40:00 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 40:02 |
- | Lord we pray for each one of us | 40:06 |
as we face this litany of the abyss | 40:08 | |
that we are not overwhelmed by the pain of life. | 40:12 | |
Help us learn to trust you in the midst of the darkness, | 40:16 | |
knowing that you are the holy one of God | 40:21 | |
who commands even the unclean spirits | 40:24 | |
that lurk in the darkest places of life. | 40:27 | |
Into our lives, to heal our hurts, calm our fears, | 40:32 | |
and still our troubled souls. | 40:38 | |
In the name of the one who brings us hope | 40:42 | |
and light and life, Amen. | 40:44 | |
Let us serve the Lord of light as we bring our offerings. | 40:51 | |
(lively organ music) | 40:59 | |
(contemplative organ music) | 42:11 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 42:26 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 43:41 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 44:37 | |
(lively organ music) | 45:14 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 46:08 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 46:12 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 46:19 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 46:31 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 46:37 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 46:43 | |
- | Let us pray. | 46:55 |
Almighty God, giver of every good and perfect gift, | 46:57 | |
teach us to render to you all that we have | 47:02 | |
and all that we are, that we may praise you | 47:05 | |
not with our lips only but with our whole lives, | 47:08 | |
turning the duties, the sorrows, the fears, | 47:12 | |
and the joys of all our days into a living sacrifice to you | 47:16 | |
through our savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray, | 47:22 | |
- | Our father, who art in heaven, | 47:25 |
hallowed be thy name. | 47:28 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 47:30 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 47:34 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 47:36 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 47:39 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 47:41 | |
and lead us not into temptation | 47:45 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 47:47 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever, | 47:49 | |
Amen. | 47:54 | |
(lively organ music) | 47:59 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 48:35 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 49:15 | |
(choir and congregation singing indistinctly) | 50:33 | |
- | The peace of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, | 51:14 |
be with you now and always, Amen. | 51:18 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 51:26 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 52:29 |