Robert E. McClernon - "Death's Strange Gift" (June 9, 1974)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choral music) | 0:04 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:52 | |
- | Oh God, speak to each of us, the word we need to hear | 5:27 |
and let your word abide with us | 5:32 | |
until it has wrote in us your holy will. | 5:34 | |
Cleanse, quicken and refresh our hearts. | 5:38 | |
Direct and increase our faith | 5:43 | |
and grant that we by our worship at this time | 5:47 | |
may be enabled to see you more clearly, | 5:52 | |
to love you more fully, | 5:55 | |
and to serve you more perfectly | 5:58 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 6:00 | |
amen. | 6:03 | |
(choral music) | 6:11 | |
(instrumental choral music) | 7:13 | |
People of God, | 10:44 | |
let us make our corporate confession of sin | 10:46 | |
before God and our neighbor. | 10:49 | |
Let us pray. | 10:52 | |
We confess to you, oh God, these our sins, | 10:54 | |
for not thinking deeply, | 10:58 | |
for being too intense, | 11:01 | |
for being inattentive to the word of God | 11:03 | |
and the voice of God, | 11:06 | |
for thinking we have the whole truth, | 11:09 | |
for lack of imagination, | 11:12 | |
for lack of feeling | 11:14 | |
and intercession for the needs of our families, | 11:15 | |
the oppressed, the hungry, | 11:19 | |
those in temptation and those without hope. | 11:21 | |
For an uncritical attitude to our own membership | 11:26 | |
and a society of affluence, | 11:30 | |
for ignoring other people, | 11:32 | |
for taking ourselves too seriously, | 11:35 | |
for sins of exhibition, | 11:38 | |
for sins of inhibition, | 11:41 | |
for failure to think and pray | 11:43 | |
and act deeply for the mission and unity of the church, | 11:46 | |
for trying to imprison God in words and institutions, | 11:51 | |
in the name of Christ, our brother, amen. | 11:56 | |
And now let us continue our personal confession. | 12:00 | |
Oh God, forgive what we have been, | 12:22 | |
sanctify what we are | 12:26 | |
and order what we shall be | 12:29 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 12:32 | |
amen. | 12:35 | |
(instrumental music) | 12:39 | |
(choral music) | 13:18 | |
Our Old Testament lesson is from the 90th Psalm. | 16:36 | |
"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. | 16:41 | |
Before the mountains were brought forth, | 16:46 | |
or ever thou has formed the earth and the world, | 16:48 | |
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. | 16:51 | |
Thou turnest back man to the dust and sayeth, | 16:56 | |
turn back ye children of men. | 16:59 | |
For a thousand years in thy sight | 17:02 | |
are but as yesterday when it is past, | 17:05 | |
or as a watch in the night. | 17:07 | |
Thou that sweep men away, | 17:10 | |
they are like a dream, | 17:12 | |
like grass which is renewed in the morning. | 17:13 | |
In the morning it flourishes and is renewed | 17:17 | |
and in the evening it fades and withers. | 17:19 | |
For we are consumed by thine anger, | 17:23 | |
by the wrath we are overwhelmed. | 17:26 | |
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, | 17:29 | |
our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. | 17:32 | |
For all our days pass away under thy wrath, | 17:36 | |
our years come to an end like a sigh. | 17:40 | |
The years of our life are threescore and ten. | 17:43 | |
And even by reason of strength fourscore, | 17:47 | |
yet their span is but toil and trouble, | 17:50 | |
they are soon gone and we fly away. | 17:54 | |
Who considers the power of thou anger | 17:58 | |
and thy wrath according to the fear of thee? | 18:00 | |
So teach us to number our days | 18:03 | |
that we may get a heart of wisdom." | 18:06 | |
Let us stand for the gospel reading. | 18:10 | |
The reading is selected from the 12th chapter of Luke. | 18:19 | |
"One of the multitude said to him, | 18:24 | |
"Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." | 18:26 | |
But he said to him, | 18:30 | |
"Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" | 18:32 | |
And he said to them, | 18:35 | |
"Take heed, and beware of all covetousness, | 18:36 | |
for a man's life does not consist in the abundance | 18:40 | |
of his possessions." | 18:43 | |
And he told them a parable saying, | 18:45 | |
"The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully, | 18:47 | |
and he thought to himself, | 18:50 | |
"What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?" | 18:52 | |
And he said, "I will do this, | 18:56 | |
I will pull down my barns and build larger ones | 18:59 | |
and there I will store all my grain and my goods. | 19:03 | |
And I will say to my soul, | 19:07 | |
soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, | 19:08 | |
take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." | 19:12 | |
But God said to him, | 19:15 | |
"Fool, this night, your soul is required of you | 19:16 | |
and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" | 19:21 | |
So he is he who lays up treasure for himself | 19:26 | |
and is not rich toward God. | 19:30 | |
And he said to his disciples, | 19:33 | |
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, | 19:35 | |
what you shall eat, | 19:40 | |
nor about your body, what you shall put on. | 19:41 | |
For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. | 19:44 | |
Consider the ravens, | 19:49 | |
they neither sow nor reap, | 19:51 | |
they have neither storehouse nor barn, | 19:52 | |
yet God feeds them. | 19:55 | |
Of how much more value are you than the birds? | 19:57 | |
And which of you by being anxious | 20:01 | |
can add a cubit to his span of life? | 20:02 | |
If then you are able not to do such a small thing as that, | 20:06 | |
why are you anxious about the rest?" | 20:09 | |
Thus it ended the reading of the New Testament lesson. | 20:13 | |
Praise be to God. | 20:17 | |
(choral music) | 20:20 | |
Let us affirm our faith. | 21:04 | |
We are not alone. | 21:07 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 21:09 | |
who has come in the true man, Jesus | 21:14 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 21:17 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit. | 21:20 | |
We trust him. | 21:24 | |
He calls us to be in his church | 21:25 | |
to celebrate his presence, | 21:28 | |
to love and serve others, | 21:31 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 21:33 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 21:36 | |
our judge and our hope | 21:40 | |
in life, | 21:43 | |
in death, | 21:44 | |
in life beyond death, | 21:45 | |
God is with us. | 21:47 | |
We are not alone. | 21:49 | |
Thanks be to God. | 21:51 | |
The Lord be with you. | 21:54 | |
Let us pray. | 21:58 | |
We praise you, oh God, | 22:06 | |
for all of your almighty acts. | 22:09 | |
For calling this world into being. | 22:13 | |
For bringing order and beauty out of chaos. | 22:16 | |
For the wonder and beauty that we enjoy. | 22:21 | |
For the unexpected pleasures and delight. | 22:24 | |
Oh God, we cannot comprehend you. | 22:30 | |
We bow before you in all and adoration | 22:33 | |
and give thanks for your love, | 22:37 | |
which enables us to come to you. | 22:40 | |
We give you thanks, oh God, | 22:44 | |
that you keep our world from chaos. | 22:46 | |
That you protect us, | 22:50 | |
inspire us the full consequences | 22:52 | |
of all our hate and fear and stupidity. | 22:54 | |
We give thanks for peace, where it exists | 23:00 | |
and pray that we may never be satisfied | 23:03 | |
with a temporary peace | 23:05 | |
or while there are political prisoners in our world. | 23:08 | |
We give thanks for all persons | 23:13 | |
who have courage to risk their lives and their positions | 23:15 | |
for the sake of reconciliation | 23:19 | |
and for persons who cannot care for themselves. | 23:22 | |
We give thanks for all persons | 23:28 | |
whose work make our lives more human. | 23:30 | |
And we pray that we may never benefit from their work | 23:34 | |
without a concern for their humanity. | 23:38 | |
For all people who make possible | 23:43 | |
the basic necessities of our life, | 23:45 | |
we thank you, oh God. | 23:48 | |
We give thanks for the bond we experience here | 23:52 | |
among ourselves, strengthen it, oh God. | 23:55 | |
And above all, we give thanks | 24:00 | |
that you do not restrict your faithfulness | 24:02 | |
to the limited realm of things of which we are grateful, | 24:05 | |
or even to that which we realize we ought to be grateful. | 24:09 | |
Almighty loving God, | 24:15 | |
you are full of compassion and tender mercy. | 24:17 | |
Hear us as we pray for those who suffer, | 24:21 | |
for those who are hurt and homeless and frightened | 24:25 | |
because of the ravages of tornadoes, | 24:29 | |
for those who are handicapped in life | 24:34 | |
through no fault of their own, | 24:36 | |
for the defective and the delicate, | 24:39 | |
for those who are permanently injured, | 24:41 | |
for those whose livelihood is insecure, | 24:46 | |
the overworked, the hungry and the destitute, | 24:50 | |
for those who have been downtrodden, | 24:55 | |
ruined and driven to despair, | 24:57 | |
for little children whose surroundings hide them | 25:02 | |
from your love and beauty, | 25:04 | |
for all without families, | 25:07 | |
for those who have to bear their burdens alone, | 25:10 | |
for those who have lost those for whom they love, | 25:14 | |
for those in doubt and anguish of soul, | 25:20 | |
for those who are oversensitive and afraid, | 25:24 | |
for those whose suffering is unrelieved | 25:29 | |
by the knowledge of your love, | 25:31 | |
for those who suffer through their own wrongdoing. | 25:34 | |
Set free, oh Lord, the souls of your servants | 25:39 | |
from all restlessness and anxiety. | 25:42 | |
Give us that peace and power, which flows from thee | 25:45 | |
and keep us in our perplexities and distress, | 25:49 | |
in our griefs and grievances, | 25:54 | |
from any fear of faithlessness | 25:57 | |
that being upheld by your strength, | 25:59 | |
through storm and stress, we may abide in you. | 26:03 | |
And let us join in the prayer of our Lord. | 26:08 | |
Our father, who art in heaven, | 26:11 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 26:15 | |
thy kingdom come, | 26:17 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 26:19 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 26:22 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 26:25 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 26:28 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 26:31 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 26:34 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 26:36 | |
and the power | 26:38 | |
and the glory, | 26:39 | |
forever and ever, | 26:40 | |
amen. | 26:42 | |
We are pleased that Bob McCannon can be with us today | 26:45 | |
and we invite him to come to the front | 26:49 | |
so that those of you who would like to speak to him may | 26:51 | |
after the service is over. | 26:54 | |
Welcome to the pulpit of Duke Chapel, Bob. | 26:56 | |
- | On this Sunday morning, | 27:18 |
as on most Sunday mornings, | 27:22 | |
I find myself speaking as a dying man | 27:27 | |
to people who are dying, | 27:29 | |
in the hope that I may encourage myself and them | 27:34 | |
to place our mortality in the service of life. | 27:37 | |
As I understand it, | 27:43 | |
that intention is in keeping with the meaning | 27:46 | |
of the Psalm read this morning. | 27:48 | |
Psalm 90 contains testimony to God | 27:52 | |
as our dwelling place in all generations | 27:55 | |
along with an unflinching recognition | 28:00 | |
that we are all on our way toward death | 28:03 | |
and concludes with a prayer | 28:08 | |
that we will not waste our dying and our death | 28:09 | |
nor shall we waste the dying and the death of others. | 28:13 | |
It strongly appears | 28:20 | |
that the more confident they were | 28:23 | |
in the inestimable love of the infinite God, | 28:26 | |
the greater became our spiritual forebears ability | 28:31 | |
to accept death | 28:35 | |
and to see themselves as that creature | 28:38 | |
who is like the grass, which is renewed in the morning. | 28:42 | |
In the morning, it flourishes and is renewed, | 28:47 | |
in the evening, it fades and withers. | 28:50 | |
I imagine | 28:56 | |
that most of us | 28:58 | |
both need and do not need that reminder. | 29:00 | |
We do not need a reminder of thou coming in. | 29:07 | |
For just beneath the surface of our minds, | 29:12 | |
we live with the often frightening knowledge | 29:15 | |
that we die day after day, | 29:18 | |
whether we want to die or not. | 29:22 | |
Or in the words of Tennessee Williams, | 29:26 | |
"We are haunted by a truly awful sense | 29:30 | |
of impermanence." | 29:35 | |
And yet, on the other hand, | 29:39 | |
I imagine that most of us need to be recalled | 29:43 | |
to a sense of our mortality | 29:46 | |
since so much of our time in life | 29:50 | |
is a wasting of life | 29:54 | |
by pretending as though we shall never die. | 29:55 | |
In which case, | 30:01 | |
and in the language of the song, | 30:04 | |
we need to number our days | 30:07 | |
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. | 30:10 | |
It is about becoming wise | 30:15 | |
at the hands of our awesome teacher death | 30:17 | |
that I wish to talk with you this morning. | 30:22 | |
Not because it is a pleasant topic for a Sunday morning, | 30:25 | |
especially one as beautiful as this, | 30:29 | |
but rather because death is not only inevitable, | 30:34 | |
it is also irrepressible. | 30:39 | |
It makes itself known in the most intimate | 30:44 | |
and the most superficial of our relations in life. | 30:47 | |
I encounter my wife, | 30:53 | |
my children, | 30:56 | |
my parents, | 30:58 | |
my neighbor, | 31:00 | |
the stranger on the street | 31:03 | |
and you, | 31:06 | |
as one who shares with me the fact of death. | 31:08 | |
What does it mean to me, this dying? | 31:14 | |
If I ignore death, | 31:20 | |
I am in danger of misinterpreting everything | 31:21 | |
and everyone else, | 31:25 | |
not excluding myself. | 31:28 | |
What can death and dying | 31:32 | |
teach me and you | 31:36 | |
about life | 31:40 | |
and life | 31:42 | |
and the living of it? | 31:45 | |
As a person and as a pastor, | 31:51 | |
I am too frequently present on this great | 31:56 | |
and mysterious moment | 31:58 | |
in the life of an individual and a family. | 32:00 | |
And more often than not, | 32:05 | |
I am amazed and lifted up by what occurs. | 32:08 | |
In her dying, | 32:16 | |
she has brought together around one event, | 32:19 | |
persons who before did not seem to recognize | 32:24 | |
how much they belong together. | 32:28 | |
How interrelated they have been all their lives. | 32:32 | |
Relatives are called, | 32:38 | |
some of whom have not been seen | 32:41 | |
or perhaps even spoken to for years, | 32:42 | |
even bear acquaintances may appear and strangers. | 32:45 | |
They have been moved to awareness of mortality | 32:52 | |
as a most obvious tie binding us to each other. | 32:55 | |
Because we all are dying, | 33:02 | |
because we have all shared pain at someone's death | 33:07 | |
or in prospect of our own, we are one. | 33:11 | |
We are one. | 33:18 | |
Inseparably we are one. | 33:21 | |
That great negative | 33:26 | |
or what may appear to be a great negative. | 33:29 | |
Death and dying does a good work, | 33:32 | |
which under more happy circumstances would not be done. | 33:35 | |
And again, I see a sign of the Spirit's presence and power | 33:40 | |
availing himself of every opportunity | 33:46 | |
to move everything that is toward everything else that is. | 33:51 | |
And there is also | 34:01 | |
that homely and profound custom | 34:05 | |
of bringing food to a family for which grief has begun. | 34:07 | |
Think of it, | 34:13 | |
food to sustain life at a time of death | 34:15 | |
but far more than food is being offered here. | 34:23 | |
Life is being sustained | 34:28 | |
by the only answer to death there is, | 34:33 | |
the answer of love. | 34:39 | |
What is offered | 34:44 | |
are the bread and the wine of a Holy Communion. | 34:46 | |
Take, | 34:51 | |
eat, | 34:53 | |
my love is given for you, | 34:55 | |
in powerful effect. | 34:59 | |
That is what they are saying as shyly, | 35:02 | |
hesitantly, | 35:06 | |
sometimes awkwardly, | 35:07 | |
they give you a cake, a casserole, | 35:09 | |
a loaf of homemade bread | 35:13 | |
beneath the sadness of bereavement, | 35:17 | |
the grief over such great loss. | 35:19 | |
There is joy for knowing that despite everything | 35:24 | |
you are not alone. | 35:27 | |
As promised, the comforter has come. | 35:31 | |
The spirit has appeared. | 35:37 | |
The spirit has appeared | 35:43 | |
bringing a vase of flowers | 35:46 | |
and a bean salad. | 35:50 | |
The common things have been made holy | 35:54 | |
and a glory on them laid. | 35:58 | |
The truth that is always and forever | 36:02 | |
and in all places, | 36:06 | |
the truth of my life has been made known. | 36:08 | |
This is a moment of revelation. | 36:13 | |
This is a Mount Sinai, | 36:18 | |
an upper room, | 36:21 | |
a road to Damascus. | 36:23 | |
I am standing before the Lord | 36:27 | |
who is bearing gifts. | 36:32 | |
The word has become flesh again. | 36:36 | |
The comforter has traveled in disguise. | 36:41 | |
He has knocked on my door | 36:44 | |
and when I have opened it and seen him, | 36:46 | |
he has looked remarkably | 36:49 | |
like my 75 year old neighbor with an apple pie in her hands. | 36:53 | |
In retrospect, | 37:01 | |
I should have taken off my shoes. | 37:04 | |
I was standing on holy ground. | 37:08 | |
I once had a conversation with a young woman | 37:14 | |
whose creative writing teacher | 37:19 | |
had assigned her class an essay on the topic, | 37:20 | |
"If I had but two days in which to live". | 37:23 | |
Being at that time, 40, rather than 15, | 37:29 | |
I am certain that I was more impressed by the assignment | 37:35 | |
than the one who was to compose the essay, | 37:38 | |
on the whole I imagine, | 37:41 | |
15 year olds, do not really believe | 37:43 | |
that they shall ever die. | 37:46 | |
But by age 40, on the other hand, | 37:51 | |
one's ability to deny death has been considerably afraid. | 37:55 | |
Her assignment, "If I had but two days in which to live" | 38:02 | |
became one that I gave myself | 38:09 | |
and I found it then as I found it now, | 38:12 | |
a difficult one to complete. | 38:15 | |
It brings up questions that I had rather be kept down | 38:19 | |
among which are why, | 38:24 | |
why am I doing what I am doing? | 38:27 | |
And why, | 38:31 | |
is this the way I really wish to spend my days? | 38:36 | |
Are these goods and goals worth living for and dying with? | 38:44 | |
It is difficult | 38:53 | |
but unfortunately not impossible, | 38:57 | |
but difficult to keep on dribbling your life away, | 39:01 | |
wasting hours in the pursuit of dust and ashes | 39:09 | |
or in chronic boredom when you are dying and know it | 39:13 | |
and will admit to that fact of your humanity. | 39:20 | |
In a "Journey to Ixtlan", | 39:28 | |
Don Juan Matus and Carlos Castaneda, have this conversation, | 39:33 | |
"You don't have time for this display you fool," | 39:39 | |
Don Juan said in a severe tone. | 39:42 | |
"This whatever you are doing now | 39:46 | |
may be your last act on earth. | 39:49 | |
It may very well be your last battle. | 39:52 | |
There is no power which could guarantee | 39:58 | |
that you are going to live one more minute." | 40:00 | |
"I know that," I said with contained anger. | 40:05 | |
"No you do not know that," he replied. | 40:09 | |
I contended that I was aware of my impending death, | 40:15 | |
but it was useless to talk about it or think about it | 40:20 | |
since I could not do anything to avoid it. | 40:23 | |
Don Juan laughed and said that I was like a comedian | 40:29 | |
going mechanically through a routine. | 40:34 | |
"If this were your last battle on earth, | 40:38 | |
I would say that you are an idiot," | 40:41 | |
he said, calmly. | 40:45 | |
"You are wasting your last act on earth | 40:47 | |
in some stupid mood." | 40:52 | |
So I asked myself, occasionally, | 40:58 | |
McCannon, "How are you wasting? | 41:04 | |
What may be your last act on earth? | 41:11 | |
Is it in some stupid mood, | 41:15 | |
such as your treasured times of self-pity? | 41:17 | |
Are you making trivia out of the raw materials | 41:23 | |
intended for the creation of a life?" | 41:29 | |
And now, | 41:36 | |
taking advantage of the elevated, | 41:39 | |
if not exalted station of this pulpit, | 41:42 | |
I am bold enough to ask you | 41:47 | |
who with me are dying | 41:51 | |
to inquire whether and how | 41:55 | |
you also trivialize your days and hours? | 42:00 | |
They, and you will not last forever. | 42:08 | |
Are you doing it by having become a busy person | 42:17 | |
or perhaps that embodiment of American virtue? | 42:23 | |
A very busy person. | 42:27 | |
I know many busy people | 42:32 | |
and because the congregation I serve is a distinguished one, | 42:35 | |
I know a few very busy people, | 42:39 | |
all of which remind me of the water bugs | 42:45 | |
I used to watch as a boy | 42:51 | |
scooting about on the surface of the stream. | 42:54 | |
So far as I could tell, never going beneath to the depths. | 42:58 | |
That I suppose | 43:06 | |
is appropriate behavior for a certain kind of bug, | 43:08 | |
but for a human being, | 43:14 | |
have you become an experience freak, | 43:20 | |
aiming toward a quantitative accumulation of sensations, | 43:26 | |
nearly summed up in a silly passage from Thomas Wolfe, | 43:32 | |
the one with the express desire to ride in all the trains, | 43:36 | |
read all the books and sleep in all the beds? | 43:41 | |
Or are you headed for achievement in the university? | 43:49 | |
Maybe only achievement in the form of tenure | 43:58 | |
which apparently shall also someday soon, pass away. | 44:04 | |
But once you have it, what do you have? | 44:10 | |
Security? | 44:15 | |
Yes, security of a sort, I suppose. | 44:19 | |
And as a Baptist minister, | 44:23 | |
whose poor contract and (indistinct) | 44:24 | |
must be renewed in some sense every Sunday, | 44:26 | |
I envy that, but is it enough on which to die | 44:29 | |
and with which to live? | 44:34 | |
What do you have | 44:40 | |
to give you a life while you are dying? | 44:43 | |
What values do you serve? | 44:50 | |
And I will say to my soul, | 44:56 | |
"Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, | 44:59 | |
take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry." | 45:06 | |
But God said to him, | 45:13 | |
"You fool, this night, your soul is required of you." | 45:17 | |
That night or morning or afternoon | 45:26 | |
will arrive for you as for me, | 45:33 | |
shall we have lived before we die? | 45:39 | |
And who shall we become? | 45:46 | |
Believe, to whom shall we belong | 45:49 | |
between now, this moment, and that one final moment? | 45:54 | |
"I was 30," remembers Nick in F. Scott Fitzgerald, | 46:02 | |
"The Great Gatsby". | 46:07 | |
"I was 30 | 46:09 | |
and before me stretched the pretentious menacing road | 46:12 | |
of a new decade, 30. | 46:15 | |
The promise of a decade of loneliness, | 46:20 | |
a thinning list of single men to know, | 46:24 | |
a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm | 46:27 | |
and thinning hair. | 46:31 | |
And so we drove toward death | 46:35 | |
through the cooling twilight. | 46:40 | |
But what of the time | 46:46 | |
between now and then?" | 46:49 | |
It has seemed to me | 46:54 | |
that God, the spirit through death | 46:57 | |
has sought to teach us the significance of now time. | 47:02 | |
The appreciation of time in the present tense. | 47:08 | |
Now is the acceptable time. | 47:14 | |
Now is the day of salvation, | 47:19 | |
not yesterday which is past | 47:25 | |
nor tomorrow which for me may not arrive, | 47:30 | |
but now, | 47:36 | |
always and forever now. | 47:37 | |
I am well aware of the potential danger | 47:44 | |
of focusing attention upon my present | 47:49 | |
and not attending well to my past and to my future | 47:52 | |
which may be. | 47:55 | |
But death tells me to look to my now, | 47:59 | |
it tells me that it is the only time I have. | 48:05 | |
If there is meaningful life, | 48:13 | |
it must be sought now. | 48:17 | |
For now is the acceptable time. | 48:21 | |
Now is the day of salvation. | 48:28 | |
So I ask us, | 48:33 | |
what is needed now | 48:37 | |
for life now | 48:41 | |
in all the time we have of our lives? | 48:44 | |
Now, | 48:52 | |
today, | 48:54 | |
in the acceptable time, | 48:56 | |
the day of salvation, | 48:59 | |
what must you do to live? | 49:02 | |
What do you need to do | 49:09 | |
that you have failed to do | 49:13 | |
that adds to your failure | 49:16 | |
to keep on becoming the person God has created you to be | 49:18 | |
modeled after the pattern of Jesus Christ, | 49:24 | |
our brother and our Lord? | 49:28 | |
Is there a talk you should have with your spouse | 49:35 | |
or your parent or your child? | 49:38 | |
You are, you know, lonely without them | 49:43 | |
although you may live among them day after day. | 49:49 | |
Is there someone whom you've hurt | 49:56 | |
whose forgiveness you need to ask? | 50:00 | |
You are guilty, you know | 50:04 | |
and you need that forgiveness | 50:09 | |
to change the meaning though not the fact | 50:12 | |
of your guilty past. | 50:15 | |
Is there someone who has hurt you | 50:20 | |
from whom you are estranged | 50:24 | |
and to whom you need to be reconciled? | 50:26 | |
You will not enter fully into the heaven of Holy Communion. | 50:31 | |
Be forgiven, until you forgive. | 50:37 | |
And what of God and ourselves, | 50:45 | |
what of that relationship | 50:50 | |
that you and I have tried to live without | 50:51 | |
until some more auspicious day, | 50:55 | |
a day when we are not so busy, | 50:59 | |
a day when we are no longer so self-sufficient, | 51:01 | |
a day when we feel more rested | 51:05 | |
and good natured and religious, | 51:08 | |
can we wait? | 51:14 | |
Dare we wait longer | 51:18 | |
before we seek him | 51:22 | |
as he always and forever | 51:25 | |
has sought and seeks us? | 51:29 | |
Now is the only time there is. | 51:34 | |
We are dying. | 51:38 | |
We cannot afford to postpone life. | 51:42 | |
Let us pray. | 51:47 | |
Teach us our heavenly Father | 51:57 | |
how short our lives are, | 52:02 | |
that we may become wise | 52:08 | |
with the wisdom of mortality | 52:12 | |
in the spirit of Jesus, our Lord, | 52:16 | |
amen. | 52:20 | |
(instrumental music) | 52:27 | |
(instrumental choral music) | 52:57 | |
(instrumental music) | 54:52 | |
(choral music) | 56:31 | |
(instrumental music) | 58:49 | |
(choral music) | 59:34 | |
- | Almighty God, | 1:00:36 |
your loving hand has given us all we possess, | 1:00:37 | |
grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance. | 1:00:42 | |
And that we may always remember | 1:00:47 | |
that our actions must be responsible for all that is ours | 1:00:49 | |
so that we may remain faithful stewards of our abundance. | 1:00:54 | |
We pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 1:00:59 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:01:05 | |
(choral music) | 1:01:55 | |
May the God of hope, | 1:04:56 | |
fill you with all joy and peace and believing | 1:04:58 | |
so that you may abound in hope | 1:05:02 | |
by the power of the Holy Spirit, | 1:05:05 | |
amen. | 1:05:08 | |
(choral music) | 1:05:14 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:06:37 |
Item Info
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