Paul Moore, Jr. - "The Open Church" (March 2, 1980)
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- | Duke University chapel service of worship, | 0:04 |
March second, 1980. | 0:06 | |
(organ music) | 0:09 | |
(light organ music) | 3:33 | |
(organ music) | 4:51 | |
(organ music) | 10:17 | |
(choir singing) | 17:17 | |
(organ music) | 18:27 | |
(choir singing) | 19:00 | |
(organ music) | 19:37 | |
- | Friends, I greet you today in the name of the one | 21:43 |
who creates and sustains us, | 21:47 | |
who saves us, and who walks with us. | 21:50 | |
We are come together this morning | 21:54 | |
in the presence of Almighty God, | 21:55 | |
and of the whole company of heaven, | 21:57 | |
to make humble confession of our sins and to our God, | 22:00 | |
to set forth praise worthy of God, | 22:04 | |
to hear God's most holy word, | 22:07 | |
to declare our faith in God, | 22:10 | |
to ask for ourselves in all people | 22:13 | |
those things that are necessary for the body and soul, | 22:16 | |
and to offer unto God the service of our lives, | 22:20 | |
and to receive God's blessing. | 22:25 | |
Therefore, let us begin by confessing our sins | 22:28 | |
that we may claim again the forgiveness | 22:32 | |
already offered unto us. | 22:35 | |
Let us pray. | 22:38 | |
Almighty God who art rich in mercy | 22:46 | |
to all those who call upon thee, | 22:49 | |
hear us, we beseech thee, | 22:53 | |
as we confess our sins before thee. | 22:55 | |
In the presence of thy love and our neighbor's need, | 22:59 | |
we acknowledge our disobedience and ingratitude, | 23:03 | |
our pride and willfulness, | 23:07 | |
our heedlessness and indifference. | 23:10 | |
We confess that we are not worthy to be called thy children, | 23:13 | |
yet do thou in mercy keep us as thine own. | 23:18 | |
Grant us true repentance, | 23:23 | |
and forgive us all our sins | 23:25 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 23:28 | |
Let us confess in silence our personal sins. | 23:33 | |
There is no sin so terrible that God's love cannot forgive. | 24:06 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. | 24:12 | |
- | There is no sin so terrible | 24:18 |
that God's love cannot forgive. | 24:20 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. | 24:24 | |
- | Let us give thanks, for God is good, | 24:29 |
and God's love is everlasting. | 24:32 | |
Thanks be to God whose love has made us, | 24:35 | |
thanks be to God whose mercy forgives us, | 24:39 | |
thanks be to God whose promise secures us, amen. | 24:43 | |
There is a car parked out front which has its lights on. | 24:53 | |
It's a North Carolina license plate, HLK 939. | 24:57 | |
There will be an organ recital tonight at seven p.m. | 25:08 | |
by Grigg Fountain. | 25:11 | |
Today in the memorial chapel to my right | 25:16 | |
immediately following this service, | 25:19 | |
there will be a service of holy communion. | 25:21 | |
We welcome to the pulpit today | 25:26 | |
the Right Reverend Paul Moore, | 25:28 | |
bishop of New York, the Episcopal Church. | 25:31 | |
We look forward to the message he will bring to us. | 25:34 | |
Let us pray. | 25:42 | |
Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to accept your word. | 25:47 | |
Silence in us any voice but your own, | 25:52 | |
that hearing we may also obey your will | 25:56 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 25:59 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, | 26:05 | |
verses one through nine. | 26:09 | |
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, | 26:13 | |
"because the Lord has anointed me | 26:17 | |
"to bring good tidings to the afflicted, | 26:18 | |
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, | 26:21 | |
"to proclaim liberty to the captives, | 26:25 | |
"and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, | 26:28 | |
"to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, | 26:31 | |
"and the day of vengeance of our God, | 26:35 | |
"to comfort all who mourn, | 26:38 | |
"to grant to those who mourn in Zion, | 26:41 | |
"to give them a garland instead of ashes, | 26:44 | |
"the oil of gladness instead of mourning, | 26:47 | |
"the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit, | 26:51 | |
"that they may be called oaks of righteousness, | 26:55 | |
"the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. | 26:58 | |
"They shall build up the ancient ruins, | 27:04 | |
"they shall raise up the former devastations, | 27:07 | |
"they shall repair the ruined cities, | 27:10 | |
"the devastations of many generations. | 27:13 | |
"Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, | 27:16 | |
"foreigners shall be your plowmen and vine dressers, | 27:20 | |
"but you shall be called the priests of the Lord, | 27:24 | |
"men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God, | 27:27 | |
"you shall eat the wealth of the nations, | 27:31 | |
"and in their riches you shall glory. | 27:34 | |
"Instead of your shame you shall have a double portion, | 27:37 | |
"instead of dishonor you shall rejoice in your lot, | 27:41 | |
"therefore in your land you shall possess a double portion, | 27:45 | |
"yours shall be an everlasting joy. | 27:49 | |
"For I the Lord love justice, | 27:53 | |
"I hate robbery and wrong, | 27:57 | |
"I will faithfully give them their recompense, | 28:00 | |
"and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. | 28:03 | |
"Their descendants shall be known among the nations, | 28:07 | |
"and their offspring in the midst of the peoples, | 28:10 | |
"all who see them shall acknowledge them, | 28:13 | |
"that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed." | 28:16 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 28:22 | |
(organ music) | 28:26 | |
(choir singing) | 28:55 | |
- | The gospel lesson is from the 16th chapter of Matthew, | 32:27 |
verses 24 to 27. | 32:31 | |
Please stand for the reading of the gospel. | 32:34 | |
"Then Jesus told His disciples, | 32:41 | |
"If anyone would come after me, | 32:44 | |
"let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. | 32:46 | |
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, | 32:51 | |
"and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. | 32:55 | |
"For what will it profit a person, | 33:00 | |
"if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? | 33:03 | |
"Or what shall a person give in return for his life? | 33:07 | |
"For the Son of man is to come with his angels | 33:12 | |
"in the glory of his Father, | 33:15 | |
"and then he will repay everyone for what he has done." | 33:17 | |
Praise be to God. | 33:24 | |
(organ music) | 33:26 | |
(choir singing) | 33:34 | |
- | Almighty God, | 34:29 |
open our hearts | 34:32 | |
and open our minds | 34:35 | |
and open our lives to your love, amen. | 34:38 | |
It is good to be in the sunny south once more, | 34:49 | |
having come down from a lovely day in New York City | 34:55 | |
to celebrate winter sports. | 34:58 | |
I think if they're worried about | 35:02 | |
where to have the next Winter Olympics, | 35:04 | |
I've got a nomination for them. | 35:05 | |
But I must say, I'm impressed by those of you who are here, | 35:09 | |
and who have come out through the snow for this service, | 35:15 | |
and it's a great privilege for me to preach here | 35:19 | |
for the first time in this beautiful chapel. | 35:21 | |
I can't believe that this is not an Episcopal institution, | 35:25 | |
(Congregation laughs) | 35:29 | |
but it makes our cathedral in New York | 35:31 | |
look like a humble little chapel in the wilderness. | 35:34 | |
It is beautiful though, seriously, | 35:37 | |
and I feel very much at home here, | 35:39 | |
and very grateful to Bob and the others | 35:42 | |
who invited me to be at Duke today. | 35:44 | |
The first lesson this morning from Isaiah | 35:49 | |
is the famous passage which our Lord Himself used | 35:52 | |
when He first preached in the synagogue, | 35:55 | |
proclaiming liberty to the captives. | 35:59 | |
The second lesson spoke of our Lord | 36:04 | |
saying to His disciples, | 36:09 | |
"If any man would come after me, | 36:12 | |
"let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." | 36:14 | |
And the other text I'd like to use this morning, | 36:23 | |
"I, if I be lifted up, | 36:28 | |
"will draw all men unto me." | 36:31 | |
The theme being the openness of Christ | 36:37 | |
and how this is deeply part of the passion, | 36:42 | |
the suffering, and the love of Christ. | 36:46 | |
Did it ever occur to you that the way Jesus died | 36:51 | |
was no accident of history? | 36:55 | |
Not just because the Romans happened, at that time, | 36:59 | |
to execute most criminals by means of a cross, | 37:02 | |
but rather that there was a much deeper significance | 37:07 | |
about the way He died, | 37:10 | |
so that the symbol of His church coming down | 37:12 | |
through the ages would always be the cross, | 37:15 | |
always symbolize the openness of Jesus | 37:19 | |
whereby His hands were nailed open, | 37:25 | |
and His arms stretched open forever | 37:29 | |
in the symbol of the openness of His love. | 37:34 | |
We believe that the church, you and I, | 37:40 | |
are the body of Christ. | 37:44 | |
This is not just an easy symbol, a word picture, | 37:48 | |
but it has a very, very deep reality, | 37:53 | |
and if indeed we are the body of Christ, | 37:58 | |
then we must be exposing our whole body, | 38:01 | |
our arms nailed open as a church, | 38:08 | |
our arms nailed open as individuals. | 38:12 | |
So I'd like to talk through a little bit today | 38:17 | |
about the physical openness of the church, | 38:21 | |
the intellectual openness of the church, | 38:23 | |
and the openness of the church | 38:26 | |
in its heart and in its love. | 38:28 | |
Around so many of our congregations, | 38:33 | |
our invisible doors, | 38:37 | |
the first parish I ever went to symbolized it so well, | 38:42 | |
it was an inner city parish | 38:48 | |
in a very poor neighborhood of Jersey City, | 38:49 | |
and they had this lovely Old English lychgate | 38:53 | |
over the entrance to the garden, | 38:57 | |
having been built in more prosperous times, | 38:58 | |
and across it were inscribed in gothic letters, | 39:03 | |
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving." | 39:06 | |
Beneath, on the iron gate, were the signs: Keep Out. | 39:09 | |
This is what we keep saying in our churches | 39:16 | |
again and again and again, oh yes, | 39:20 | |
we welcome all people, but when they come into the churches, | 39:22 | |
they do not feel at home | 39:25 | |
for so many, many different reasons, | 39:28 | |
and it isn't just that the Christians | 39:31 | |
are keeping out those who are not Christians, | 39:33 | |
the Christians are keeping each other | 39:35 | |
out of each other's churches. | 39:37 | |
We pray for the unity of the church, | 39:40 | |
and we bemoan our divisions, | 39:42 | |
so often blamed on doctrinal differences, and | 39:46 | |
we labor hours in our seminaries trying to resolve these. | 39:49 | |
That's not the real reason we're separate, | 39:55 | |
I think if tomorrow morning all the doctrines | 40:00 | |
of all the churches were made exactly the same, | 40:02 | |
we would still be separate. | 40:05 | |
It was a very convenient thing, | 40:09 | |
I know to my grandparents and parents, that when the Irish, | 40:11 | |
the unwashed Irish came into America, | 40:16 | |
they were Roman Catholics, | 40:20 | |
and therefore in another church. | 40:22 | |
It's been a very convenient thing that most black people | 40:25 | |
have been Baptists | 40:27 | |
for those white churches that were not, | 40:30 | |
because then we didn't really have to mingle very much, | 40:33 | |
and so on and so on and so on, | 40:36 | |
and then some of the cultural differences. | 40:37 | |
What keeps, I think, | 40:40 | |
the Episcopalians apart from the Methodists | 40:41 | |
more than anything else is that one uses grape juice | 40:43 | |
at the Eucharist and the other uses wine. | 40:46 | |
Don't think our Lord is too concerned about that, | 40:49 | |
of course He would have... | 40:52 | |
He used wine, and that's quite clear but... | 40:53 | |
(Congregation laughs) | 40:56 | |
What I'm trying to say is these differences | 40:59 | |
really have more to do with culture | 41:02 | |
and with differences of economy, | 41:04 | |
of class, of money, of race, | 41:08 | |
and of culture than of doctrine. | 41:11 | |
And we do close ourselves one to another. | 41:15 | |
I remember feeling so strongly in the 60s | 41:19 | |
when the younger generation | 41:22 | |
was so culturally different from the old, | 41:23 | |
I thought there was a border of invisible doors there | 41:27 | |
which were keeping our young people | 41:31 | |
out of church because of their hair. | 41:32 | |
And it would be wonderful, wouldn't it, | 41:39 | |
someday, if people looked around a community, | 41:41 | |
and said isn't it strange | 41:47 | |
that the only place in this community | 41:49 | |
where all the different parts of the city | 41:52 | |
come together in love are the churches of God? | 41:54 | |
That's a long ways away, | 42:00 | |
but also, we have to be concerned | 42:05 | |
about the openness of every part | 42:07 | |
of church's life to everybody. | 42:09 | |
Finally, in the Episcopal church, | 42:12 | |
we've caught up with the rest of Protestantism, | 42:13 | |
and now have women in the priesthood, | 42:16 | |
and that was not an easy fight. | 42:19 | |
But it is beginning, I think, | 42:23 | |
to deal with a much more subtle kind | 42:24 | |
of theological closedness, | 42:28 | |
the cosmic sexism of a male God, | 42:32 | |
which is another invisible door | 42:39 | |
keeping out many of the levels of the psyches of our women | 42:41 | |
as well as much of the sensitivity of response of men | 42:47 | |
who are responding unconsciously | 42:53 | |
to a maleness in God rather than understanding God | 42:56 | |
to be full of all kinds of personal being. | 43:01 | |
Another great battle in the church | 43:09 | |
has been the battle to accept homosexual people | 43:11 | |
equally to all others. | 43:16 | |
Gay people, as they're now called, | 43:20 | |
who over generations and centuries | 43:22 | |
have been loving pastors, | 43:26 | |
have been martyrs in the life of the church, | 43:29 | |
but now we say no, they may not be part of us. | 43:34 | |
Is God as interested in what people do in private | 43:41 | |
to give each other pleasure | 43:44 | |
as He is interested in starvation, | 43:46 | |
as He is interested in unemployment, | 43:50 | |
in the breaking of people's spirits in war, | 43:53 | |
in injustice? | 43:56 | |
These are the things He's interested in | 43:58 | |
if you read your Bibles | 44:00 | |
from the Old Testament to the New, | 44:03 | |
rather than the petty littlenesses | 44:05 | |
of some aspects of our personal life. | 44:09 | |
And it may be that our corporate sin | 44:12 | |
is much more grievous to Him than our individual sin. | 44:16 | |
But the point is the reverse | 44:23 | |
is to be physically open in our churches | 44:26 | |
to all people, | 44:30 | |
and all parts of the life of our church, | 44:33 | |
judging each person hopefully | 44:37 | |
the way in which God judges us. | 44:39 | |
Sinners, yes, but everyone made equally precious | 44:44 | |
in God's own image. Everyone, | 44:50 | |
no matter how repulsive or difficult for us to accept, | 44:54 | |
having down there deep within him or her, | 44:58 | |
the image, the glorious image of God Himself, | 45:04 | |
ultimate dignity, ultimate glory | 45:08 | |
in the heart of every single human being, | 45:12 | |
every being for whom Christ died. | 45:18 | |
Jesus said I have got many things to say unto you, | 45:25 | |
but you cannot bear them now. | 45:28 | |
Albeit, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, | 45:30 | |
he will guide you into all truth. | 45:33 | |
There are invisible doors locking people out | 45:37 | |
of the church on the intellectual level. | 45:42 | |
I don't think there is anything more heretical | 45:46 | |
than this kind of rigid fundamentalism, | 45:50 | |
whether it be a fundamentalism of Bible or of doctrine | 45:56 | |
whereby we say you cannot come in | 45:59 | |
because you have ideas which I cannot handle. | 46:04 | |
And we say to our people close your mind | 46:10 | |
when you enter the church. | 46:13 | |
This kind of dogmatic rigidness has been more damaging | 46:17 | |
than anything else in the life of the church, | 46:23 | |
and only intellectually and in terms of evangelism, | 46:26 | |
but also this is what has cost lives | 46:29 | |
in the wars of religion down over the centuries, | 46:33 | |
and still does. | 46:36 | |
Now remember that when God Almighty | 46:39 | |
wanted to totally reveal Himself, | 46:43 | |
He did not write theology. | 46:45 | |
He came into the changing, dynamic actions of history, | 46:49 | |
and the response of people to that. | 46:55 | |
He took on a human person, | 46:58 | |
person of Jesus, | 47:03 | |
a person remains the same person, | 47:06 | |
but a person can always change, | 47:09 | |
a person responds to different events that come upon him, | 47:13 | |
and he can respond differently now | 47:17 | |
than he will tomorrow, | 47:19 | |
because the constancy of his loving personality | 47:21 | |
needs different responses today than tomorrow, | 47:26 | |
and therefore in order to remain the same, | 47:29 | |
the person of Christ keeps responding differently. | 47:33 | |
Because what was loving yesterday is not loving today. | 47:38 | |
Time makes ancient good uncouth, | 47:43 | |
in the words of that old hymn, | 47:46 | |
so in order to remain the same open, compassionate Jesus, | 47:48 | |
Jesus must continue to express love in different ways. | 47:55 | |
And this is where we find God, | 48:00 | |
not in any rigid doctrine. | 48:04 | |
Well, think then of the church, the body of Christ, | 48:09 | |
clumsily trying over the ages | 48:14 | |
to respond differently to different times. | 48:18 | |
And think of the image now for a moment | 48:25 | |
of Jesus as the word made flesh, | 48:28 | |
word, mind made flesh, | 48:32 | |
and think of the unfolding by the action of the Holy Spirit | 48:37 | |
of the mind God gave us | 48:43 | |
responding to the word made flesh | 48:47 | |
as the mind of man through the grace of God | 48:52 | |
reveals deeper and deeper truths about reality. | 48:57 | |
Well now, the body of Christ must be opened to respond | 49:03 | |
to these new truths, | 49:07 | |
whether it be Darwin, whether it be Freud, | 49:09 | |
whether it be Marx, | 49:11 | |
the mainstream of the Protestant tradition | 49:15 | |
and the Anglican tradition has been this, | 49:18 | |
not being willing to close our mind | 49:24 | |
in the fundamentalism of scripture or doctrine | 49:29 | |
or even in the fundamentalism of morality, | 49:32 | |
because we reject any kind of infallibility, | 49:36 | |
we reject any kind of total fundamentalism | 49:44 | |
because it is intellectually dishonest, | 49:50 | |
and God gave us our mind. | 49:52 | |
We reject any kind of puritan legalism, | 49:55 | |
which brings us back to the closed Old Testament law | 50:01 | |
which Christ died to free us from. | 50:06 | |
Therefore, as I say, we can look at Darwin, | 50:10 | |
we can look at Freud, we can look at Marx, | 50:13 | |
we can look at biblical criticism | 50:16 | |
knowing and having faith, and here's the important thing, | 50:18 | |
having faith in the mind that God gave us, | 50:22 | |
that if we use that mind with discipline and integrity, | 50:25 | |
we'll go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper | 50:28 | |
into that new truth, that new intellectual truth, | 50:31 | |
and we'll find there what? | 50:33 | |
Find there the truth of Almighty God we never knew before, | 50:37 | |
and it will coincide with the truth | 50:42 | |
we learned in Revelation. | 50:45 | |
So the Darwin makes more glorious and rich | 50:48 | |
the doctrine of creation, | 50:52 | |
Freud makes more glorious and mysterious | 50:55 | |
the depths of our unconscious, | 51:00 | |
out of which our love of God comes | 51:02 | |
as well as our sexual love one for another. | 51:05 | |
And the spiritual life can be much better understood | 51:10 | |
and more deeply entered into | 51:12 | |
because of the discoveries of that Jewish, atheist, strange, | 51:14 | |
and biblical criticism certainly makes us know more fully | 51:22 | |
how the word of God came to be in the Bible. | 51:26 | |
And you see it's so exciting to be open, | 51:33 | |
open to other persons of different kinds and one's self, | 51:40 | |
open to new ideas and not being afraid to look at them, | 51:44 | |
and open, open in your very life, | 51:49 | |
'cause you never know what's gonna happen next. | 51:53 | |
And instead of being afraid of it | 51:56 | |
and pulling back in the corner, | 51:57 | |
and hiding yourself under the skirts of Jesus, | 52:00 | |
rather, you are open as He is to whatever is coming next, | 52:05 | |
to respond with your whole being, | 52:09 | |
your mind and your body and your heart. | 52:11 | |
With the great courage that He showed us upon the cross | 52:15 | |
with His open heart, | 52:21 | |
and there comes together, | 52:25 | |
there coincides openness and passion, | 52:29 | |
because there is a price | 52:38 | |
to this openness of mind and heart and life, | 52:41 | |
and that price may be | 52:49 | |
the price Jesus Himself was willing to pay. | 52:53 | |
If the church only will look like Him, | 53:03 | |
if the church only will nail open her arms, | 53:10 | |
then the chances are she will look more like Him | 53:14 | |
because she will begin to be scarred | 53:19 | |
with the whips and lashes and nails | 53:23 | |
of those who killed Him. | 53:29 | |
Then perhaps we can bear with Him in pride | 53:33 | |
these scars and wounds of conflict, | 53:41 | |
perhaps the years that are just ahead | 53:45 | |
with all the danger we see coming upon us | 53:47 | |
will be a time when the church will be asked | 53:51 | |
to once more bear the scars of loving. | 53:55 | |
So how much better, | 54:00 | |
how much better to be loving and to be wounded | 54:03 | |
than to be afraid and to be guarded | 54:08 | |
and to be careful and to be clean? | 54:12 | |
How much better? | 54:16 | |
How much more thrilling? | 54:20 | |
And how much closer to understanding | 54:22 | |
what life is really all about? | 54:25 | |
Throwing yourself with passion as Christ did, | 54:28 | |
the word passion, meaning suffering and love, | 54:33 | |
loving with enough passion | 54:37 | |
to be willing to be passionate in your suffering, | 54:39 | |
how much better to throw yourself into this? | 54:43 | |
And in doing so, exploring the depths of the pain of Christ | 54:47 | |
until you know the depths of the love of Christ, | 54:55 | |
and getting far enough down into the darkness, | 54:59 | |
into the fear, into the loneliness, | 55:02 | |
and the hurt and the pain, | 55:04 | |
getting far enough down to understand | 55:06 | |
the depths of His suffering so that with Him | 55:09 | |
you will be able to come up in the glory of Easter, | 55:13 | |
because that glory is not easily won, | 55:19 | |
it is no cheap grace, | 55:23 | |
it comes only after we dare go down with Him | 55:26 | |
that He will bring us up with Him. | 55:33 | |
And we go down with Him, as it were, with open arms, | 55:40 | |
opening our arms in love, | 55:47 | |
our minds in truth, | 55:50 | |
to share the openness of Jesus Christ. | 55:53 | |
This is how our church must be | 55:58 | |
if our church is to be His body. | 56:02 | |
And then... | 56:08 | |
then there may be... | 56:12 | |
a touch of real glory upon us. | 56:15 | |
A touch of real glory, | 56:20 | |
and we will be lifting His cross up so high | 56:23 | |
that all persons will see it | 56:29 | |
and will be drawn as by a magnet of love | 56:34 | |
to His image of openness, | 56:40 | |
compassion, peace, and glory. | 56:43 | |
Let us pray. | 56:55 | |
We kneel, O Lord, | 57:05 | |
before your cross | 57:09 | |
in wonder | 57:13 | |
at those open arms. | 57:18 | |
Withdraw us to your love, | 57:23 | |
give us courage to open our arms in love, | 57:30 | |
our minds to truth, | 57:38 | |
our lives to courage, | 57:43 | |
that we may dare to stand with you | 57:47 | |
as you share our pain. | 57:54 | |
And grant, O Lord, | 58:00 | |
that we may dare to go down into the darkness | 58:04 | |
with you | 58:08 | |
so that you may raise us on Easter day | 58:11 | |
to the glory of the risen life of your kingdom, amen. | 58:16 | |
(organ music) | 58:28 | |
(choir singing) | 58:52 | |
- | Having heard the word sung, read, and proclaimed, | 1:01:08 |
let us now one voice affirm what we believe. | 1:01:14 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 1:01:19 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 1:01:24 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 1:01:27 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 1:01:30 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 1:01:33 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 1:01:38 | |
to love and serve others, | 1:01:41 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 1:01:44 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 1:01:47 | |
our judge and our hope, | 1:01:51 | |
in life, in death, | 1:01:53 | |
in life beyond death, | 1:01:56 | |
God is with us, we are not alone, | 1:01:58 | |
thanks be to God. | 1:02:02 | |
The Lord be with you. | 1:02:05 | |
- | And also with you. | 1:02:07 |
- | Let us pray. | 1:02:08 |
O Lord our God, on this day, | 1:02:17 | |
we worship you in wonder and in love. | 1:02:21 | |
Our minds cannot contain all we know and believe about you, | 1:02:26 | |
nor can our words express you, O Lord. | 1:02:32 | |
Yet in Christ we see your glory and hear your word | 1:02:36 | |
and know your love. | 1:02:39 | |
Open our eyes to see you now, | 1:02:43 | |
open our ears to hear your command, | 1:02:46 | |
open our hearts to love you and our neighbor more | 1:02:49 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1:02:53 | |
For all your goodness and grace, | 1:02:58 | |
we thank you, O God, | 1:02:59 | |
for life and health, for family and friends, | 1:03:02 | |
for all the good gifts of your love | 1:03:08 | |
by which we are sustained from day to day, | 1:03:10 | |
for every pure and lovely joy, | 1:03:14 | |
even the purity of cold and wind and snow | 1:03:16 | |
and all its raw beauty, | 1:03:19 | |
for every true joy and every good gift | 1:03:23 | |
we give thanks to you, O God. | 1:03:26 | |
We bring to you now in our prayer | 1:03:31 | |
the needs of your children everywhere. | 1:03:35 | |
We pray for all those millions of persons, | 1:03:39 | |
strangers, perhaps to us, | 1:03:42 | |
but known, surely, and loved, surely, by you, | 1:03:45 | |
all those who this day hurt and starve | 1:03:49 | |
while we and others waste our bread. | 1:03:52 | |
O God, let not our consciences rest at peace | 1:03:57 | |
until the good harvest of this earth | 1:04:00 | |
is freely shared with every person in need. | 1:04:03 | |
We pray for those whose lives are shadowed by sorrow, | 1:04:08 | |
those whose sickness knows no cure, | 1:04:13 | |
those whose sadness knows no comfort, | 1:04:17 | |
those whose loneliness cannot be filled, | 1:04:20 | |
those who in bitterness will not forget, | 1:04:24 | |
bind up their wounds, O Lord, | 1:04:27 | |
and lift their hearts for healing to your presence. | 1:04:30 | |
We pray, O Lord, for your church throughout the world, | 1:04:37 | |
make it truly open in the name | 1:04:41 | |
and spirit of Christ our Lord. | 1:04:44 | |
Where it is strong, make it gentle, | 1:04:47 | |
where it is weak, make it strong, | 1:04:50 | |
where it is honored, make it humble, | 1:04:53 | |
where it is persecuted, lift up its head, | 1:04:56 | |
where it is wrong, overrule it, | 1:05:00 | |
where it is right, make it stand. | 1:05:03 | |
Give us strength for this day, | 1:05:09 | |
and for this life, | 1:05:13 | |
but give us life not for this world alone, | 1:05:16 | |
but through Christ bring us to that new age, | 1:05:21 | |
and new life with you. | 1:05:24 | |
Hear us in these words and through these prayers, | 1:05:27 | |
and hear us as we pray together now | 1:05:33 | |
as our Lord has taught us, | 1:05:35 | |
saying our Father who art in heaven, | 1:05:36 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 1:05:41 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:05:45 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:05:50 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 1:05:53 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 1:05:55 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 1:05:59 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 1:06:02 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 1:06:04 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 1:06:06 | |
(organ music) | 1:06:32 | |
(choir singing) | 1:07:36 | |
(organ music) | 1:08:35 | |
(choir singing) | 1:09:13 | |
(organ music) | 1:12:14 | |
(choir singing) | 1:13:12 | |
(organ music) | 1:14:12 | |
(choir singing) | 1:14:49 | |
(organ music) | 1:16:26 | |
(choir singing) | 1:16:51 | |
- | We pray, O Lord our God, | 1:17:32 |
that you will accept this offering | 1:17:34 | |
which we make in your holy name. | 1:17:36 | |
And as we make this offering, send down your Holy Spirit, | 1:17:39 | |
the Lord and giver of life, | 1:17:44 | |
to bless and consecrate our bodies, minds, and spirit, | 1:17:46 | |
that we may give ourselves to you | 1:17:52 | |
as a living daily sacrifice, | 1:17:53 | |
a reasonable and desirable gift to offer through your Son, | 1:17:57 | |
our Savior, even Jesus the Christ, amen. | 1:18:01 | |
(organ music) | 1:18:07 | |
- | Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, | 1:21:43 |
the love of God, | 1:21:47 | |
the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, | 1:21:49 | |
be with you and with those whom you love | 1:21:52 | |
this day and forevermore. | 1:21:55 | |
(choir singing) | 1:22:00 | |
(organ music) | 1:23:07 |
Item Info
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