John Bergland - "Never Dislodged from Hope" (February 3, 1974)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(upbeat liturgical music) | 0:04 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:19 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 2:04 | |
- | I will arise and go to my Father | 5:57 |
and say unto him, | 6:01 | |
"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, | 6:03 | |
and I'm no more worthy to be called thy child." | 6:09 | |
Let us now make our corporate confession of our sin. | 6:13 | |
Forgive us, most gracious Lord and Father, | 6:29 | |
what we have done to increase the pain of the world. | 6:33 | |
Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture, | 6:38 | |
the hard and selfish deed, | 6:43 | |
the failure to show sympathy | 6:46 | |
and kindly help where we had the opportunity | 6:49 | |
or failure to seek it. | 6:53 | |
We beseech you to enable us | 6:55 | |
to live the rest of our lives, | 6:58 | |
that we may daily endeavor | 7:01 | |
to lessen the flood of human sorrow | 7:03 | |
and add to the sum of blessedness, | 7:06 | |
both in our own lives | 7:09 | |
and the lives of those who come in contact with us. | 7:12 | |
Amen. | 7:16 | |
Let us continue our prayers | 7:18 | |
and in silence make our personal confession. | 7:20 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 7:36 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 8:13 | |
Hear these words of God's promise as recorded in Ezekiel. | 10:47 | |
"I will give you a new heart | 10:54 | |
and put a new spirit within you; | 10:56 | |
I will take the heart of stone from your body | 11:00 | |
and give you a heart of flesh. | 11:02 | |
I will put my spirit into you." | 11:05 | |
Accept these good words and rejoice in this good news. | 11:08 | |
Let us pray together the prayer of our Lord. | 11:12 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 11:16 | |
hallowed be thy name; | 11:20 | |
thy kingdom come; | 11:22 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 11:24 | |
Give us this day our daily bread; | 11:28 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 11:31 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 11:34 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 11:38 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 11:41 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, | 11:43 | |
forever and forever. | 11:48 | |
Amen. | 11:50 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 11:52 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 11:59 | |
- | The Epistle reading for this fourth Sunday after Epiphany | 13:58 |
is from the letter of Paul to the Colossians | 14:04 | |
chapter one | 14:08 | |
verses 21 | 14:09 | |
through 29. | 14:12 | |
And you, who once were estranged | 14:16 | |
and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, | 14:19 | |
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death | 14:23 | |
in order to present you holy and blameless | 14:30 | |
and irreproachable before him, | 14:33 | |
provided that you continue in the faith, | 14:37 | |
stable and steadfast, | 14:41 | |
not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, | 14:44 | |
which has been preached to every creature under heaven, | 14:48 | |
and of which I, Paul, became a minister. | 14:53 | |
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, | 14:59 | |
and in my flesh I complete what is lacking | 15:04 | |
in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, | 15:08 | |
that is, the church, | 15:12 | |
of which I became a minister, | 15:14 | |
according to the divine office | 15:17 | |
which was given to me for you, | 15:20 | |
to make the word of God fully known, | 15:23 | |
the mystery hidden for ages and generations, | 15:26 | |
but now made manifest to his saints. | 15:30 | |
To them God chose to make known | 15:35 | |
how great among the Gentiles are the riches | 15:37 | |
of the glory of this mystery, | 15:41 | |
which is Christ in you, | 15:44 | |
the hope of glory. | 15:47 | |
Him we proclaim, | 15:50 | |
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, | 15:53 | |
that we may present every man mature in Christ. | 15:59 | |
For this I toil, striving with all the energy, | 16:04 | |
which he mightily inspires within me. | 16:09 | |
Thus, endeth the reading. | 16:14 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 16:18 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 16:27 | |
- | Let us affirm our faith. | 16:58 |
We are not alone, | 17:02 | |
we live in God's world. | 17:04 | |
We believe in God, | 17:07 | |
who has created and is creating, | 17:08 | |
who has come in the true man, Jesus, | 17:12 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 17:15 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit. | 17:17 | |
We trust him, | 17:21 | |
he calls us to be his church | 17:23 | |
to celebrate his presence, | 17:26 | |
to love and serve others, | 17:28 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 17:30 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 17:33 | |
our judge and our hope, | 17:37 | |
in life and death, | 17:39 | |
and life beyond death, God is with us. | 17:41 | |
We are not alone. | 17:45 | |
Thanks be to God. | 17:47 | |
The Lord be with you. | 17:50 | |
- | And in your spirit. | 17:52 |
- | Let us pray. | 17:53 |
O, Holy God, | 18:03 | |
we are people who try to comprehend your greatness, | 18:05 | |
I understand your power and vision, your love, | 18:09 | |
but we cannot, | 18:15 | |
but we are also people who give thanks | 18:17 | |
for the glimpses of your glory, | 18:20 | |
for the evidence of your power, | 18:23 | |
for the gifts of your love, | 18:26 | |
and the signs of your hope. | 18:28 | |
We bow before you and all, | 18:32 | |
and with adoration and in thanksgiving. | 18:34 | |
Here now our prayers of thankfulness | 18:39 | |
that you protect us and spare us | 18:43 | |
the full consequences of all the hate, | 18:46 | |
fear and stupidity of mankind. | 18:49 | |
For peace where it exist, | 18:54 | |
and for persons who give their lives | 18:56 | |
in an effort toward peace for all. | 18:58 | |
For persons in government, in the university, | 19:03 | |
for editors and journalists, | 19:07 | |
for judges and scientists, | 19:09 | |
for all who risk their positions and their lives | 19:11 | |
for the sake of truth and reconciliation, | 19:14 | |
for the countless persons who make possible | 19:19 | |
this service of worship, | 19:21 | |
those who spend their working time cleaning this building, | 19:24 | |
those who proclaim the good news | 19:27 | |
for the secretaries, the technicians, | 19:30 | |
for those whose ministry is music, | 19:33 | |
for those who provide the monies, | 19:35 | |
for all who work that we may worship. | 19:38 | |
Above all, we thank you | 19:43 | |
that we do not restrict your faithfulness | 19:45 | |
to the limited realm of things for which we are grateful, | 19:48 | |
but we can recognize beyond. | 19:51 | |
And more important that you are open to us, | 19:55 | |
and even to those things, which we ought to be grateful. | 20:00 | |
O Lord, hear our prayers of petition and intercession. | 20:05 | |
We pray that what we do with our time | 20:10 | |
and abilities maybe a living sacrifice to you. | 20:12 | |
And that we may never forget the many | 20:17 | |
who cannot choose their work, | 20:19 | |
and the poor who have no work or only their work. | 20:21 | |
Direct our social and political struggle | 20:27 | |
toward a society where all can love you | 20:30 | |
and their neighbors in the midst of their daily work. | 20:33 | |
We pray that the way we spend our leisure time | 20:37 | |
may be a living sacrifice to you. | 20:40 | |
And that we may never forget the many | 20:43 | |
who are enslaved to the industry of entertainment | 20:45 | |
and the poor who have no leisure | 20:49 | |
or have only their leisure. | 20:52 | |
Show us ways to use the blessing | 20:55 | |
of automation to your glory. | 20:57 | |
We pray that the style of life we have been led to chose | 21:01 | |
may be a living sacrifice to you, | 21:06 | |
and that we may never forget the many who are married | 21:09 | |
or unmarried against their will. | 21:12 | |
Release us from loneliness in the crowd, | 21:16 | |
and show us our neighbor and friend. | 21:19 | |
Renew your church, so that it may be more truly your family | 21:22 | |
and become the new humanity. | 21:26 | |
To you, O Lord, we bring our failures, | 21:30 | |
our compromises, | 21:34 | |
and the joy of our achievements. | 21:36 | |
Overrule them and make us a part | 21:39 | |
of your costly love for the world. | 21:42 | |
Hear now our personal prayers of concern | 21:46 | |
for those persons who are sick, | 21:48 | |
for those persons who are facing crises, | 21:51 | |
which seem too much for them to bear, | 21:53 | |
for those persons in special need. | 21:56 | |
O Lord, you know all our yearnings, | 22:10 | |
send your spirit and your power | 22:14 | |
that we may care for those persons for whom we have prayed. | 22:16 | |
We pray in the spirit of our Lord, Jesus Christ. | 22:21 | |
Amen. | 22:25 | |
- | I greet you in the name of our Lord | 22:47 |
and Savior, Jesus Christ. | 22:48 | |
And may I point you to a text found in first Colossians, | 22:52 | |
in Colossians the first chapter. | 22:55 | |
Part of the pericope read here in our hearing this morning, | 22:58 | |
it's the 23rd verse. | 23:02 | |
You must continue in your faith, | 23:06 | |
firm on your foundation, | 23:10 | |
never to be dislodged from the hope offered in the gospel, | 23:14 | |
which you have heard. | 23:18 | |
A Divinity School student was standing in my office | 23:27 | |
asking about a course. | 23:30 | |
His question was very simple, very straightforward, | 23:33 | |
"What should I expect from this course?" | 23:38 | |
The answer is not important, | 23:46 | |
but the question, would you ask it again and again | 23:49 | |
in a great university like this? | 23:52 | |
What do we expect from this degree program? | 23:56 | |
What do you expect from this graduate study? | 24:01 | |
Well, to be sure, if it's medicine, | 24:06 | |
we would expect some particular skills | 24:10 | |
in bringing health to the world, to persons. | 24:12 | |
And if it's studying the law school, | 24:19 | |
again, we would expect | 24:21 | |
that young lawyers would be informed, | 24:25 | |
so that they could participate in decisions | 24:28 | |
that would cause justice to rein in our land. | 24:31 | |
And in the Divinity School, | 24:35 | |
what do you expect? | 24:40 | |
Well, we may answer that we would hope | 24:44 | |
for an increase of faith | 24:46 | |
an increase of love for God | 24:49 | |
and love for neighbor. | 24:52 | |
But more importantly and more specifically, | 24:55 | |
what are your hopes for this place this day? | 24:59 | |
Here this great gothic cathedral, | 25:07 | |
standing at the head of the quad, | 25:10 | |
and we're together now with choirs, | 25:15 | |
with liturgy, | 25:19 | |
with preacher, with congregation. | 25:22 | |
What are your hopes for all of that? | 25:29 | |
In very specific terms. | 25:32 | |
If indeed bakers are for baking bread, | 25:39 | |
and shoemakers are for making shoes, | 25:42 | |
what are preachers for? | 25:46 | |
And if indeed, this place was gone from the university, | 25:50 | |
and its Sabbath worship, | 25:54 | |
and its word of God. | 25:58 | |
What, if anything, would plain men and women miss? | 26:02 | |
Well, it's that kind of question | 26:16 | |
that the Apostle Paul would address | 26:20 | |
even as he writes the Colossians. | 26:23 | |
Kingsley used to lean from his pulpit in England and say, | 26:26 | |
"We are all together here to talk about the things | 26:30 | |
that are most important in your life and in mine." | 26:34 | |
And may I be so bold to quickly say | 26:40 | |
that that's the way I see the conversation in this moment? | 26:42 | |
Not because what I say is important, | 26:49 | |
but because of the very nature of the conversation, you see. | 26:53 | |
Holy worship, worship that's caught up in all of | 26:56 | |
the salvation history | 27:01 | |
that's distilled out of the experience of the race, | 27:02 | |
worship that seeks the presence of the living God. | 27:08 | |
And I think it's the biggest hurdle of all. | 27:14 | |
How you will have to do with your Maker? | 27:17 | |
How the creature will have to do with the creator | 27:22 | |
and all the rest of creation? | 27:24 | |
That's not a strange kind of question to many religions. | 27:30 | |
But the Christian faith, | 27:35 | |
as it's expressed in the book of Colossians, | 27:36 | |
this pericope for today | 27:38 | |
is struggling with the kind of intellectualizing of that, | 27:40 | |
the gnostic heresy, if you will. | 27:44 | |
There were some who said, | 27:47 | |
the way you will have to do with God | 27:49 | |
is by coming to very clear intellectual perception | 27:51 | |
of those secrets | 27:55 | |
that will let you come close to his holy spiritual presence. | 27:59 | |
And they were increasingly dissatisfied, | 28:04 | |
could not in fact tolerate | 28:07 | |
any rude, ordinary, | 28:10 | |
common kind of thing | 28:12 | |
that would have God, | 28:16 | |
the Holy God expressed in flesh. | 28:17 | |
So here it is, that gospel, | 28:30 | |
from which | 28:38 | |
I would not have you dislodged | 28:42 | |
or moved away from in any way at all. | 28:43 | |
What kind of hope does it offer? | 28:51 | |
I think first it offers a kind of hope for noble living, | 28:57 | |
that if this gospel really finds its way in your life, | 29:02 | |
the Christ within you kind of concept read here | 29:06 | |
that your life will be marked by service | 29:10 | |
and courage and faith and love and goodness. | 29:12 | |
There will be a personal holiness that will make you | 29:19 | |
more noble in your living. | 29:24 | |
And another hope. | 29:27 | |
Well, the Colossians story speaks about | 29:30 | |
being blameless before God, | 29:32 | |
about the hope of heaven. | 29:36 | |
I knew that we are very much this worldly in our attitudes, | 29:38 | |
but perhaps even that hope could cause us now | 29:44 | |
to lift our eyes and seek the invisible, | 29:47 | |
to stir up our hearts, | 29:50 | |
to choose that which is still unseen. | 29:53 | |
But it is not either of those hopes | 29:57 | |
I choose to address here, | 29:59 | |
it is rather this thing called a knowledge of God, | 30:01 | |
to know God. | 30:05 | |
And is that not the foundation of all hope? | 30:07 | |
Well, you say the word very quickly, | 30:12 | |
and I know that you know how, | 30:14 | |
all know how to spell it: God, | 30:15 | |
but it's out now. | 30:18 | |
And what images has it stirred for you? | 30:21 | |
What do you see? | 30:24 | |
How would you define it? | 30:27 | |
Could you indeed paint God? | 30:30 | |
The artists of the Catholic Kings tried, | 30:35 | |
it was Tintoretto that put God on a pinnacle | 30:38 | |
over all the creation, | 30:40 | |
above it and overseeing it, but removed from it. | 30:42 | |
Is that God? | 30:47 | |
One of the artists of the Catholic Kings painted God | 30:49 | |
as an old man, wise and dignified, | 30:52 | |
but old so that he was decaying, visibly decaying. | 30:56 | |
Is that God? | 31:02 | |
Raphael painted God as a little busybody-God, | 31:05 | |
flying around heaven with an unborn babe in each hand. | 31:08 | |
But I want you to think of the God | 31:13 | |
who sees time ever-beginning and ever-ending. | 31:16 | |
The source of all that is, | 31:21 | |
the God who sees a thousand years is one day. | 31:23 | |
I want you to think about the God who strings out | 31:27 | |
worlds like pearls, | 31:29 | |
who fingers out man with his right hand | 31:32 | |
and beasts with his left. | 31:35 | |
The God who perhaps created our earth | 31:39 | |
after supper on the day when he spread | 31:41 | |
the whole Milky way as a carpet at his feet. | 31:43 | |
God of God, and Light of Light, and very God of very God, | 31:47 | |
the way the Nicene Creed says it. | 31:52 | |
How can you picture that God? | 31:56 | |
The invisible God. | 32:01 | |
In science we estimate that light travels | 32:12 | |
186,000 miles a second. | 32:14 | |
That's faster than I can imagine. | 32:18 | |
One second, and in that time light goes | 32:19 | |
seven times around our earth. | 32:21 | |
In almost two seconds, light comes from the moon. | 32:25 | |
The light now coming through these windows | 32:30 | |
from our sun has been in journey for | 32:32 | |
almost eight minutes before it reaches our eye. | 32:35 | |
I want you to think of the stars, | 32:40 | |
the nearest star other than our sun. | 32:42 | |
We see after its light has been in journey | 32:46 | |
at that fantastic speed for more than three years. | 32:49 | |
On a clear night, I am told, | 32:55 | |
you can count 20,000 stars with your naked eye. | 32:56 | |
If you go to Palomar | 33:00 | |
and use a photographic plate in that great telescope, | 33:01 | |
you can count 100,000 stars. | 33:04 | |
One astronomer who said, | 33:08 | |
there are as many stars in God's heaven | 33:10 | |
as there are specks of dust in the city of London, | 33:12 | |
and the nearest three light years away. | 33:16 | |
Don't you hear the wonder of it then | 33:20 | |
when the Psalmist speaks in Psalm eight, | 33:22 | |
"When I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars, | 33:24 | |
the work of Thy fingers, | 33:29 | |
O God, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, | 33:32 | |
and the Son of Man that Thou wouldst visit him." | 33:37 | |
And if there is any hope in this knowing God, | 33:41 | |
it must be this God who set stars in their courses, | 33:44 | |
how will you then know him? | 33:52 | |
The witness of the Christian Church is that | 33:58 | |
that knowledge is not held in intellectual philosophy, | 34:01 | |
but it is made evident in an event, | 34:09 | |
an event that began with the bouncy donkey ride, | 34:15 | |
and the young mother | 34:21 | |
and the new baby | 34:24 | |
in a manger, | 34:27 | |
and shepherds and star dust and the stable straw. | 34:30 | |
And I want you to think of it in all of its earthiness, | 34:39 | |
brand-new baby flesh, blotchy red, | 34:44 | |
a wide-open squalling mouth, | 34:49 | |
healthy baby bowels. | 34:52 | |
And they say, "God! God has come among us bodily." | 34:57 | |
As it says in the Colossians text, | 35:04 | |
the word has become flesh. | 35:07 | |
The invisible unseen God is now made known in this miracle | 35:09 | |
that we call the incarnation. | 35:14 | |
And it's worked out on the cross | 35:20 | |
where flesh is mocked | 35:25 | |
and crowned with thorns | 35:28 | |
and spit upon, | 35:31 | |
crucified, dead, | 35:34 | |
buried. | 35:36 | |
Is it any wonder that the thinking, wise, | 35:41 | |
sophisticated, philosophical men of the Colossian moment | 35:44 | |
were dissatisfied with such rude simplicity? | 35:50 | |
How can that be? | 35:55 | |
May I speak confessionally now? | 36:01 | |
December 7th, 1941, I was a young boy of 11 | 36:08 | |
living in a very pious home, | 36:14 | |
a parsonage on the northern plains of Montana. | 36:17 | |
On that Sunday of December, | 36:23 | |
the radio began to bring the news | 36:27 | |
that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. | 36:29 | |
I remember the Monday morning, a bleak wintery day. | 36:34 | |
My father had listened to the news, | 36:39 | |
again on that crackling old radio. | 36:41 | |
He came to the table with the big Bible, | 36:45 | |
and he told me to put away the Wheaties box | 36:48 | |
that I was reading (laughs) all about champions, | 36:50 | |
and breakfasts of champions. | 36:53 | |
And then he began, | 36:55 | |
"Because of the world situation we must pray, | 36:58 | |
and pray earnestly." | 37:04 | |
And we did. | 37:08 | |
And I believe in those prayers and all of the hopes | 37:12 | |
that seem to be caught up in stories of mangers, | 37:16 | |
and mothers, and crosses, and resurrections. | 37:20 | |
And I left that piety, and my world began to enlarge. | 37:29 | |
And there was always a critical situation in the world, | 37:37 | |
and I prayed, often I prayed, | 37:40 | |
but I prayed again because of the condition, | 37:43 | |
my own creature condition. | 37:46 | |
When I came to loneliness or boredom, | 37:48 | |
and life seemed to be an emptiness and a mockery | 37:53 | |
that had no meaning or no possible place | 37:55 | |
for celebration of fulfillment. | 37:58 | |
I prayed out of my doubts and out of my despair, | 38:03 | |
and I prayed when I was anxious and when I was afraid. | 38:08 | |
And I prayed when I was guilt-ridden | 38:13 | |
and had no sense of personal worth at all. | 38:16 | |
Prayed that somehow the hope of the gospel | 38:21 | |
would save me. | 38:26 | |
I didn't forsake that child hope | 38:33 | |
and that young hope deliberately, | 38:37 | |
I simply questioned it, doubted it, | 38:41 | |
and then was more attracted to philosophy. | 38:46 | |
Surely that would make God clearer, known to me. | 38:49 | |
Or science, let me know his world | 38:53 | |
and then know the creator. | 38:56 | |
And I neglected the simple story | 39:00 | |
that makes the invisible God | 39:03 | |
come alive for the most humble | 39:06 | |
and ignorant of all God's creatures. | 39:08 | |
And so I was in sympathy, you see, with the story | 39:15 | |
of D.T. Niles. | 39:20 | |
He told the three university students, | 39:23 | |
and I felt what they were saying. | 39:26 | |
It was a Good Friday, | 39:29 | |
and they came across a number of people lined up, | 39:31 | |
waiting to stand before the priest | 39:33 | |
and to make their confession, | 39:36 | |
so that they could then go | 39:38 | |
and receive the sacrament of holy communion. | 39:39 | |
The university students stopped for a moment, | 39:47 | |
watch the procedures and then said, | 39:49 | |
"Isn't that foolishness? | 39:53 | |
What indeed can they hope for in that? | 39:57 | |
Do they really think that they will be made blameless? | 40:04 | |
And do they believe that this Christ can have | 40:11 | |
anything to do with their real life now or any time? | 40:14 | |
What in fact could this Jesus Christ possibly do | 40:21 | |
for any one of us?" | 40:24 | |
Then they came upon | 40:29 | |
a rather brutal, almost blasphemous kind of decision. | 40:33 | |
One of them decided to stand in line, | 40:37 | |
and when he came before the priest, | 40:41 | |
instead of offering a confession, | 40:44 | |
he would offer the questioning blasphemy. | 40:47 | |
And it wasn't long until there he was, | 40:51 | |
and the priest was hearing him say, | 40:52 | |
"It's foolishness. | 40:55 | |
How indeed can it present me blameless? | 40:57 | |
What possible hope is there in it? | 40:59 | |
What can Christ do for me?" | 41:02 | |
And before he could finish, | 41:06 | |
the priest was out of that booth | 41:07 | |
and standing beside him and saying, | 41:09 | |
"Young, man, I want you to do something. | 41:12 | |
I dare you to do it. | 41:15 | |
I want you to go to the front of the church, | 41:19 | |
you'll find the crucifix there, | 41:22 | |
I want you to look up at it. | 41:25 | |
And then say in words, | 41:30 | |
not usually spoken in church, | 41:31 | |
but words that clearly sum up what you have just said to me. | 41:33 | |
You look at it and you say, 'Jesus Christ died for me, | 41:38 | |
but I don't give a damn.'" | 41:44 | |
The young man was surprised, | 41:48 | |
but he made his way to the front of the church. | 41:50 | |
He stood there before the figure of the crucifix | 41:54 | |
and he said, "Jesus Christ died for me, | 41:57 | |
and I don't give a damn." | 42:01 | |
And he turned and started to leave the church, | 42:03 | |
the priest caught him, | 42:05 | |
"Can you do that again?" he said. | 42:08 | |
"I dare you." | 42:12 | |
Hesitatingly but deliberately, | 42:15 | |
the young man came and stood before the crucifix, | 42:18 | |
the form of heaven's very best, God's own son, | 42:21 | |
and he was saying again the words, | 42:24 | |
"Jesus Christ died for me, and I don't give a damn." | 42:26 | |
He started to rush from the church this time, | 42:37 | |
and the priest caught him. | 42:39 | |
"I dare you, do it again, face the Christ again." | 42:42 | |
Hesitatingly he stood before the crucifix, | 42:48 | |
he looked up at the nail-pierced hands and feet, | 42:51 | |
and he made the words, "Jesus Christ died for me, and..." | 42:55 | |
He turned to the priest and said, | 43:02 | |
"Will you hear my confession now?" | 43:05 | |
I have learned that I'm set here in flesh. | 43:11 | |
It's the most ordinary stuff about me, | 43:14 | |
and so are you. | 43:18 | |
And last night in the farm fields of North Carolina, | 43:22 | |
foxes were hunting, and if they found rabbits, | 43:24 | |
they would kill them and eat them. | 43:27 | |
Fleshes in season, the lions hunt in Kenya, | 43:29 | |
they can kill a man, | 43:35 | |
and in our cities there is violence. | 43:37 | |
Flesh, ah, it's exploited to the applause of fight fans, | 43:41 | |
it's marketed and bartered in the ranks of pro-football. | 43:48 | |
It is dressed up and paraded in Miss America pageants, | 43:54 | |
exploited for the profit of drug-pushers. | 43:59 | |
Prostituted. | 44:02 | |
Autopsied. | 44:06 | |
Buried. | 44:08 | |
All flesh is in season, | 44:10 | |
your flesh is in season. | 44:13 | |
But I speak to you of a hope that is in the gospel, | 44:19 | |
that in a moment when God would make himself known to you, | 44:23 | |
he came among us bodily. | 44:30 | |
For all of the intellectual attractions, | 44:36 | |
for all of your doubts, | 44:41 | |
may I speak to each one of you who has faith, | 44:43 | |
a simple word. | 44:47 | |
Stand firm in that faith. | 44:49 | |
Don't be moved away from the hope of the gospel. | 44:52 | |
Let us pray. | 44:58 | |
Lord, our God, thou knowest who we are, | 45:03 | |
and from whence we've come to this place. | 45:06 | |
We are the faithful or we are the half-faithful, | 45:11 | |
or we are unfaithful, | 45:15 | |
but now O God, let us know again, | 45:18 | |
that Thy gift of Christ, our Lord | 45:23 | |
and Savior is for each of us and for all of us. | 45:25 | |
In our prayers of confession | 45:31 | |
and in our prayers of affirmation, O God, | 45:34 | |
make Christ real in us, a hope of glory. | 45:37 | |
Amen. | 45:43 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 45:50 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 46:33 | |
- | The Duke University ministers | 46:34 |
extend a special welcome to the many persons who listen | 46:36 | |
to the Sunday worship services regularly on WDNC. | 46:40 | |
We feel it may be helpful to you who worship by radio, | 46:45 | |
to have a copy of the Sunday bulletin, | 46:49 | |
so you can follow the prayers. | 46:52 | |
The Scripture readings read the words to anthem | 46:54 | |
since they have song, can know the organ music being played | 46:58 | |
and know who the participants are. | 47:02 | |
If you would like to receive the Sunday bulletin | 47:05 | |
and other chapel mailings in advance, | 47:08 | |
please send your name and address to: | 47:11 | |
Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. | 47:14 | |
Once enough names are secured to get a bulk mailing permit, | 47:19 | |
we will begin mailing the bulletin to you. | 47:24 | |
The address again is: | 47:27 | |
Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. | 47:29 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 47:37 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 49:55 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 51:21 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 57:04 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 57:37 | |
- | O Lord, from whom we receive all, | 58:39 |
and upon whom we are dependent, | 58:43 | |
accept this offering of ourselves before you | 58:46 | |
onto the service of all persons. | 58:51 | |
Use our being and our doing, | 58:54 | |
our gifts and our goods | 58:58 | |
for your glory | 59:01 | |
and the wellbeing of all of your creation. | 59:02 | |
To you be all glory | 59:06 | |
and honor forever. | 59:09 | |
Amen. | 59:11 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 59:15 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 1:00:12 | |
Go forth into the world in peace, | 1:03:11 | |
be of good courage, | 1:03:14 | |
render to no persons evil for evil, | 1:03:16 | |
strengthen the faint-hearted, | 1:03:20 | |
support the weak, help the afflicted on all persons. | 1:03:22 | |
Love and serve the Lord | 1:03:28 | |
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, | 1:03:31 | |
and the blessing of God Almighty. | 1:03:35 | |
Father, Son, and Holy spirit be upon you | 1:03:37 | |
and remain with you forever. | 1:03:42 | |
Amen. | 1:03:44 | |
(upbeat liturgical music) | 1:03:48 | |
(church bell rings) | 1:04:44 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:04:58 |
Item Info
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