James T. Cleland - "Saints in Caesar's Household" (March 9, 1969)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft music) | 0:04 | |
Man | Beloved, if there is one thing | 9:19 |
that our common humanity means it is that we are all sinners | 9:21 | |
and stand in need of grace and forgiveness. | 9:27 | |
As a necessary part of achieving that great blessing, | 9:31 | |
we should confess our sins before God, | 9:37 | |
and in the presence of one another. | 9:39 | |
Accordingly, may we join our hearts and our voices | 9:42 | |
and our unison prayer of confession and for pardon. | 9:45 | |
Let us pray. | 9:49 | |
Holy father, we humbly confess that in kneeling, | 9:51 | |
our hearts often are not humbled, | 9:55 | |
and that in praying, | 9:58 | |
we often have felt no burden greater than our own strength. | 10:00 | |
We confess that in naming Christ, | 10:04 | |
our spirits have often sought the comfort of self. | 10:07 | |
We pray thee to burn our hypocrisy | 10:11 | |
with the fire of thy judgment, | 10:14 | |
lest we be destroyed by our own deceit. | 10:16 | |
We pray thee to forgive us through thy sacrificial love. | 10:19 | |
We ask this in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. | 10:24 | |
Let us hear the comforting words of scripture | 10:31 | |
as they tell us concerning our Lord, | 10:35 | |
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. | 10:38 | |
He shall gather the lambs in his bosom and carry them. Amen. | 10:41 | |
(choir singing) | 11:38 | |
Man 2 | The scripture this morning | 14:26 |
is from Paul's letters to the Philippians. | 14:27 | |
First chapter verses 12 through 14 | 14:29 | |
and fourth chapter verses 21 through 23. | 14:33 | |
Now I would have you know brothers | 14:37 | |
that the things which happened to me, | 14:39 | |
have turned out to the furtherance of the gospel | 14:41 | |
rather than otherwise. | 14:44 | |
It has even become evident, | 14:46 | |
not only to all of the imperial guard, | 14:48 | |
but to everyone that it is for Christ's sake | 14:50 | |
that I'm in chains. | 14:53 | |
And besides this, most of our brothers in the Lord | 14:55 | |
have gained confidence through my chains | 14:59 | |
and they now venture with far greater freedom | 15:02 | |
to speak God's message fearlessly. | 15:04 | |
Give my greetings to every one of the saints | 15:07 | |
in Christ Jesus. | 15:09 | |
The brothers who are with me wish to be remembered to you. | 15:11 | |
All the Saints salutes you, | 15:15 | |
especially those who are Caesar's household. | 15:17 | |
The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. | 15:21 | |
(choir sings) | 15:34 | |
Man | The Lord be with you. | 16:02 |
Let us pray. | 16:06 | |
All mighty God, we thank thee for the heavy blanket of snow, | 16:16 | |
which temporarily made a Wonderland | 16:20 | |
of our grab wintry earth. | 16:23 | |
For although it broke the limbs, | 16:27 | |
it also watered the earth gently | 16:29 | |
and softened the hard crust of the earth. | 16:32 | |
We thank thee for the overwhelming experiences in our lives, | 16:36 | |
for although they sometimes break | 16:41 | |
our naive self-sufficiency, | 16:43 | |
they can by thy grace soften the hard crust of our spirits | 16:46 | |
and make us pliable and responsive to our brothers | 16:51 | |
and to Jesus Christ. | 16:55 | |
We thank thee for the near approach of spring. | 16:59 | |
With its deathless help of flowers, of foliage, new growth, | 17:03 | |
and the covering up of ugly scars | 17:09 | |
by the new and the beautiful, | 17:11 | |
we offer under thee our thanksgiving for the season of lent | 17:16 | |
that means spring. | 17:19 | |
During which we may each and all examine our hearts | 17:21 | |
to see what wicked ways yet remain in us, | 17:27 | |
to see how we too crucify Christ even today. | 17:31 | |
We bless thee for the deathless hope we have, | 17:36 | |
that through his grace new growth | 17:40 | |
in the realm of the spirit, | 17:42 | |
fresh flowers in the area of human relationships | 17:45 | |
may spring to life and replace the ugliness of the old, | 17:49 | |
the twisted and the dead. | 17:54 | |
We thank thee for the keen rivalries we have, | 17:58 | |
which test our grasp of truth, our dedication to fair play | 18:02 | |
and our physical skill in athletics. | 18:08 | |
And whether at any given moment, | 18:12 | |
whether it be in an argument or in an athletic contest, | 18:14 | |
we may win or lose. | 18:19 | |
We thank thee for the rewarding experiences, | 18:22 | |
which can come to all concerned | 18:25 | |
when we earnestly strive to excel. | 18:29 | |
Our heavenly Father, we offer our prayers of intercession | 18:34 | |
for all thy children, both for those who call us brother | 18:38 | |
and for all who call us enemy around the world. | 18:43 | |
We pray, especially for those who call us enemy. | 18:48 | |
And for those whom we are attempted to reckon as enemies. | 18:52 | |
Enable all of us to draw Christ's line of distinction | 18:56 | |
between the sin and the sinner, | 19:00 | |
realizing that we all are sinners | 19:04 | |
and that our own hope of forgiveness | 19:06 | |
rests upon our willingness to forgive. | 19:08 | |
We pray for students who find current events confusing, | 19:13 | |
that they may find the information, the sense of direction, | 19:18 | |
and the tranquility needed to discover | 19:22 | |
a path out of their confusion. | 19:25 | |
We pray for those who find the Bible confusing, | 19:28 | |
that they may by study and prayer, find the eternal word | 19:32 | |
speaking to them out of the bewildering array of books | 19:36 | |
and that they may supremely discover | 19:41 | |
the word made flesh in Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 19:43 | |
Grant we pray thee that we may all hear | 19:48 | |
and see the living word in our time and here in our place. | 19:51 | |
We offer, oh God our prayers for the sick, for the crippled, | 20:00 | |
the chronically ill, for those about to die. | 20:05 | |
We pray for the lonely, the bitter, the recalcitrant, | 20:11 | |
the reactionary, the rude, the stubborn, the prejudiced, | 20:16 | |
and for all who bring healing, we pray, | 20:23 | |
the nurses, the physicians, the surgeons, | 20:27 | |
editors, pastors, reformers, social workers, and professors. | 20:31 | |
For those who bear the burdens of responsibility | 20:38 | |
and the heat of the day | 20:41 | |
and the wee hours of the night we pray. | 20:42 | |
For maintenance man, dining hall workers, administrators, | 20:45 | |
trustees, janitors, maids, carpenters, | 20:50 | |
painters, electricians, plumbers, secretaries, | 20:55 | |
accountants and clerks, | 21:01 | |
grant, oh God that we may all, each in his own way, | 21:04 | |
seek after thy will and grace and find them. | 21:08 | |
Together may we grope our way through worship, | 21:14 | |
through study, through argument, through action, | 21:17 | |
through service and through humility | 21:22 | |
to thy perfect kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 21:26 | |
who has taught us when we pray to say, | 21:31 | |
"Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 21:34 | |
thy kingdom come. | 21:38 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 21:40 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 21:44 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 21:47 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 21:49 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 21:53 | |
for thine is the kingdom | 21:56 | |
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. | 21:58 | |
Preacher | The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ | 22:27 |
be with you all. | 22:30 | |
If we ever have the power to send a person to jail | 22:36 | |
and use that power, | 22:43 | |
then don't let him be supplied with writing paper | 22:47 | |
because anything may result and not always to our advantage. | 22:53 | |
He may write the revelation of Saint John, the divine, | 23:01 | |
a pep talk which put vim and vigor | 23:06 | |
into a discomforted group of Christians | 23:10 | |
at the end of the first century. | 23:14 | |
He may write "The Pilgrim's Progress" | 23:18 | |
next to the Bible, the most influential book | 23:21 | |
in ordinary average Protestantism for 200 years. | 23:25 | |
He may write "Mein Kampf" which too few of us still living | 23:33 | |
took seriously before 1939. | 23:40 | |
Or he may just write letters like Sacco and Vanzetti, | 23:46 | |
the Italian anarchists in Massachusetts | 23:53 | |
whose trial and execution were the major topic | 23:58 | |
of impassioned conversation during my first year in America. | 24:01 | |
Or like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, done to death a few days | 24:10 | |
before the allied troops might have freedom from the Nazis | 24:15 | |
whose correspondence is read and studied | 24:22 | |
with a wondrous fascination right on this campus. | 24:26 | |
Or like Martin Luther King | 24:33 | |
whose one letter to the clergy | 24:36 | |
from a prison in Birmingham, Alabama | 24:39 | |
had the weight of a sledge hammer, no, a pile driver. | 24:43 | |
Something written by any one of these criminals | 24:51 | |
may fascinate the mind, inspire the heart, | 24:55 | |
deflect the wheel, | 25:01 | |
so the reader is never quite the same again, | 25:03 | |
as the writer being dead yet speaking. | 25:09 | |
Now that fact hit me as I re-read a letter | 25:15 | |
from another jail bird | 25:19 | |
who was foolishly given writing material, | 25:23 | |
probably a papyrus. | 25:27 | |
His name was Paul. He's better known as Saint Paul. | 25:30 | |
It's a flat fact that the early church | 25:38 | |
had a remarkable criminal record. | 25:41 | |
Many of its members, | 25:46 | |
and most of its leaders almost commuted to prison. | 25:48 | |
Our lesson this morning was part of a letter | 25:54 | |
to Paul's favorite church. | 25:56 | |
The one he founded at Philippi, a Roman colony. | 26:00 | |
Paul calls that little Philippian church, | 26:06 | |
a colony of heaven, | 26:09 | |
and three expressions in that letter | 26:13 | |
was written from Caesarea or Ephesus | 26:17 | |
or most probably from Rome, | 26:22 | |
intrigued me as I puzzled over a sermon for this morning. | 26:26 | |
Let's look at these three expressions. | 26:32 | |
The first is the whole Praetorian guard, | 26:38 | |
Paul's jailers were members of the imperial lifeguard. | 26:44 | |
The troops originally hand picked by Augustus | 26:51 | |
and having the kind of renown | 26:56 | |
that the regiments of the guards now have in great Britain. | 26:59 | |
This was the (speaks in foreign language) | 27:05 | |
who served for 16 years | 27:08 | |
and received three times the pay of a legionnaire. | 27:13 | |
Paul's attitude to them is interesting. | 27:18 | |
He has no complaints, no suggestions, no criticism. | 27:21 | |
He just tells them about the Christian religion. | 27:28 | |
With what result? | 27:32 | |
The cause of the gospel had been advanced | 27:34 | |
and fellow Christians outside the prison | 27:38 | |
were emboldened to speak the word of God without fear. | 27:42 | |
Paul evidently cooperated with the inevitable | 27:49 | |
and so continued his missionary work. | 27:54 | |
The second expression is Caesar's household. | 28:00 | |
Paul is here referring to the non-military personnel | 28:05 | |
in the government employ, | 28:09 | |
what we might call the civil service. | 28:11 | |
The phrase probably has no pertinent reference | 28:16 | |
to the members of the imperial family, | 28:19 | |
though it may include some of the courtiers. | 28:22 | |
Paul includes them in his greeting at the end of his letter. | 28:26 | |
The brethren who are with me greet you. | 28:31 | |
All the saints greet you, | 28:35 | |
particularly those of Caesar's household. | 28:39 | |
The latter group was probably not made up of Paul's converse | 28:43 | |
from the Praetorian guard, | 28:50 | |
but the folk who had accepted Christianity | 28:52 | |
from other wandering evangelists. | 28:55 | |
But it is the third phrase (indistinct) a single noun, | 29:00 | |
which intrigues me most, | 29:04 | |
that word just prior to Caesar's household, saints. | 29:07 | |
For us a saint is an unusually consecrated, | 29:16 | |
holy and godly person whose attitude is mocked by piety | 29:20 | |
and whose behavior and is distinguished by genuine | 29:27 | |
though unobtrusive good works. | 29:31 | |
Those of us who are Protestants | 29:35 | |
hardly ever use the word about anybody. | 29:38 | |
And we would be embarrassed | 29:44 | |
to the point of not need confusion, | 29:47 | |
if anyone used it of us. | 29:50 | |
Paul used the word more pedestrianly, more validly. | 29:53 | |
A saint is a sinner who knows he's a sinner, | 30:00 | |
but who would like to do something about it, | 30:09 | |
in the eyes of God, | 30:14 | |
and in the company of sinners of like-mind. | 30:16 | |
A person is a member of a Pauline church, | 30:23 | |
not because he is good or virtuous | 30:26 | |
or angelic, | 30:33 | |
but because he is aware of what he is | 30:36 | |
and would like to be somewhat different. | 30:42 | |
He's a Saint not because of what he is plus or minus, | 30:47 | |
but because of whom he belongs to, Jesus, the Christ, | 30:53 | |
the head of the church. | 31:00 | |
Now, how did Paul develop such an attitude | 31:05 | |
to the imperial guard, the state police of his day, | 31:09 | |
who enforced the Pax Romana | 31:15 | |
and to the members of Caesar's household | 31:19 | |
who occupied and ran the various imperial Allen buildings | 31:23 | |
scattered throughout the empire? | 31:29 | |
His attitude to Caesar's household | 31:34 | |
is probably formed from three ingredients. | 31:36 | |
First, he believed that the empire | 31:42 | |
was coming to an end shortly | 31:45 | |
with the return of Jesus Christ. | 31:49 | |
So why reform or destroy or even waste time on it? | 31:52 | |
Secondly, he was a (speaks in foreign language) | 32:02 | |
a Roman citizen | 32:06 | |
and very proud of the advantageous distinction | 32:09 | |
this conferred on him. | 32:13 | |
Thirdly, he believed that it was the Roman government | 32:18 | |
who held the world together. | 32:21 | |
According to some interpreters of a passage | 32:26 | |
in a letter to the Thessalonian church. | 32:29 | |
Therefore in Romans 13, he warmly commends the state | 32:33 | |
and its servants, Caesar's household | 32:39 | |
for justice and integrity. | 32:43 | |
If it hadn't been for the law and order of Rome, | 32:48 | |
for roads made safe and waters swept clear of pirates, | 32:54 | |
for the talisman of Roman citizenship | 33:01 | |
which opened the right doors, | 33:04 | |
then Paul would have been a dead duck | 33:07 | |
early in his public ministry. | 33:12 | |
No wonder he was delighted to find Christians | 33:15 | |
in Caesar's household and join their greetings to his | 33:20 | |
when he wrote to Philippi. | 33:26 | |
But how does one account for Paul's friendly attitude | 33:30 | |
to the Roman soldier, | 33:33 | |
to the Praetorian guard and other legionaries? | 33:36 | |
He is regularly grateful for their help and protection | 33:41 | |
on his travels. | 33:47 | |
And when finally reached Rome having appealed to Caesar, | 33:50 | |
that is to the Supreme court. | 33:58 | |
He was allowed to stay by himself | 34:01 | |
with the soldier that guarded him. | 34:04 | |
To stay by himself with the soldier that guarded him. | 34:08 | |
That's probably his contact with the Praetorian guard. | 34:12 | |
But other parts of the new Testament | 34:18 | |
are more than tolerant of military men. | 34:20 | |
There are three references to centurions, army officers, | 34:25 | |
which cast a favorable light on the military men | 34:29 | |
who policed the empire. | 34:34 | |
The highest compliment Jesus ever paid anyone, | 34:37 | |
he said of a Roman Centurion, | 34:42 | |
"I have never found faith like this anywhere | 34:46 | |
even in Israel." | 34:51 | |
And the Centurion in charge of the crucifixion | 34:54 | |
almost returned the courtesy when he said of the dead Jesus, | 34:59 | |
"This man was certainly a son of God." | 35:05 | |
The first non Jewish convert to Christianity | 35:12 | |
was a Roman officer by the name of Cornelius. | 35:16 | |
It was Peter who brought him into the church | 35:22 | |
and then had to defend his action | 35:26 | |
before the Jerusalem conservatives. | 35:29 | |
Integration has had a hard time in ecclesiastical circles | 35:33 | |
from the very beginning. | 35:38 | |
And yet neither his citizenship nor his personal experiences | 35:42 | |
with army men was the real motivation | 35:46 | |
for Paul's attitude and behavior | 35:50 | |
toward the government and its servants. | 35:52 | |
Paul had been converted, that is turned around. | 35:57 | |
He'd been given a new mindset by his experience of Christ. | 36:06 | |
He had joined the democratic society of sinners | 36:15 | |
who know they are sinners, | 36:22 | |
who know they are forgiven sinners, | 36:26 | |
who know they are recurring sinners, | 36:32 | |
in need of forgiveness all over again. | 36:37 | |
And when one majors in that point of view, | 36:43 | |
then he is for Paul a saint. | 36:48 | |
Now that does things to a man. | 36:54 | |
It keeps him from having a good conceit of himself. | 36:59 | |
And that was rough on Paul, | 37:05 | |
for he had no hereditary humility. | 37:09 | |
It makes him realize that the one fundamental difference | 37:15 | |
between people is that some are forgiven sinners | 37:21 | |
and others are just ordinary sinners, | 37:26 | |
but all are sinners, Jews, Christians, | 37:30 | |
Greeks, Romans, and the rest. | 37:35 | |
So he loves them all. | 37:40 | |
He can't figure out any better way of rubbing shoulders | 37:42 | |
with other folk in any church or in any jail, | 37:46 | |
in any Jerusalem or Philippi or Rome, | 37:51 | |
be it with the state police or any Caesar's household. | 37:58 | |
And yet it's an irony of history | 38:04 | |
that according to tradition, | 38:08 | |
Caesar turned thumbs down on him. | 38:11 | |
(indistinct) | 38:17 | |
and some officer carried out the sentence, execution. | 38:20 | |
Now what if anything does this say to us | 38:30 | |
who are saints, forgiven and errant sinners in this chapel? | 38:32 | |
How do we behave who have confessed the Christ | 38:41 | |
as Lord of our lives at such a time as this? | 38:45 | |
The campus situation is both disturbed and distraught, | 38:53 | |
understandably so. | 39:01 | |
We did not really believe that Allen building | 39:05 | |
would be occupied | 39:09 | |
nor that the police if called would behave as they did. | 39:12 | |
We still do not wish to believe | 39:20 | |
that we are living in a time of revolution, though we are. | 39:22 | |
We've watched an intensifying of conviction on both sides, | 39:32 | |
a piling of demand on demand from various quarters, | 39:38 | |
a disbelief in normal processes of bargaining, | 39:45 | |
a lack of knowledge of the facts. | 39:51 | |
Now you can put facts in quotation marks if you like, | 39:54 | |
but a lack of knowledge of the facts | 39:57 | |
and therefore a growing frustration and a mounting anger. | 40:02 | |
Now the sense of urgency is combated | 40:09 | |
by Duke's normal unperturbed pace and deliberate speed. | 40:13 | |
I experienced a minor instance of that in the last few days. | 40:21 | |
The position of university organist | 40:28 | |
became vacant in September, 1967, not 68, 67. | 40:31 | |
And the first committee meeting to fill this vacancy | 40:42 | |
was held a week ago yesterday. | 40:45 | |
I know almost nothing was said about a new organist. | 40:50 | |
Now my alma mater, Glasgow can match that. | 40:54 | |
It used to take two years public notice | 40:59 | |
on every bulletin board in the university | 41:04 | |
to change the hour of a class, | 41:08 | |
two years public notice. | 41:12 | |
Now there was a reason for it. | 41:14 | |
My own best friend came up as a freshman, | 41:17 | |
sat with his advisor for 30 minutes | 41:20 | |
and planned his entire academic career for a degree in arts, | 41:22 | |
one in science and one in medicine in half an hour | 41:26 | |
on the first day he got to the university, | 41:30 | |
never saw him again. | 41:33 | |
In fact, he managed to take a course in arts | 41:36 | |
and one in medicine at the same time | 41:38 | |
because he borrowed my notes, | 41:39 | |
which I'd had the year before, | 41:40 | |
and the professor gave the same lectures every year, | 41:42 | |
so it was all right. | 41:44 | |
Now this academic sense of eternity | 41:49 | |
is hardly likely to enjoy outlining and implementing | 41:54 | |
an Afro-American major in six months, including Swahili. | 41:59 | |
Any black today who has a PhD in Afro-American studies | 42:07 | |
has more purchasing power | 42:15 | |
than if he owned gold certificates in France. | 42:18 | |
And the Negro colleges have traumatic experiences | 42:23 | |
about Harvard and Yale, | 42:27 | |
and maybe Duke reading their faculties for teachers. | 42:30 | |
More than that, | 42:38 | |
we on this campus are disappointed in one another, | 42:39 | |
some in Allen building, some in the Chronicle, | 42:44 | |
some in the Proctor or the Kirchhoff | 42:50 | |
or the Oregon committee, | 42:54 | |
in the faculty, in the students, | 42:57 | |
in the chapel, in the trustees, in the alumni, in Duke. | 43:00 | |
We will not accept that this campus is but a true microcosm | 43:10 | |
of the seething macrocosm, | 43:18 | |
which the world has always been. | 43:21 | |
And then we begin to single out our enemies | 43:26 | |
and there is no enemy | 43:33 | |
so hated as the one who is close at hand | 43:35 | |
and once thought to be an ally. | 43:41 | |
We tried to pit the chaplain against the assistant chaplain | 43:46 | |
to their dismay because they are friends | 43:51 | |
as well as colleagues. | 43:56 | |
We set older faculty with tenure | 43:59 | |
over against younger faculty without tenure. | 44:02 | |
And we set the administration over against everybody. | 44:08 | |
We focus on symbols, dowel chemicals, the white merchant, | 44:13 | |
the cop, and soon I guess the ROTC. | 44:19 | |
We sign petitions while other folk downtown | 44:26 | |
work on committees for hours and in the boycott. | 44:31 | |
And we, yes, we Christians develop | 44:38 | |
a bewildered, bloody mindedness. | 44:44 | |
One of the most gracious, gentle Christians I know, | 44:47 | |
said to me on the day over the innovation of Allen building, | 44:52 | |
"I hope they set fire to the police, | 44:56 | |
and I hope we keep the doors locked | 44:59 | |
and let them burn up inside." | 45:01 | |
And that's one of the most gracious people I know. | 45:04 | |
Now, this is what I mean by bewildered, bloody mindedness. | 45:09 | |
It might be good for us to remember that it is unwise | 45:16 | |
as well as unchristian | 45:23 | |
for us to ascribe lower motives to others | 45:26 | |
than we ascribe to ourselves. | 45:32 | |
Let me say that again. | 45:37 | |
Might be good for us to remember that it is unwise | 45:39 | |
as well as unchristian for us to ascribe | 45:44 | |
lower motives to others than we ascribe to ourselves. | 45:49 | |
Self-righteousness is not a spiritual virtue. | 45:56 | |
Smugness really suggests an openness to others. | 46:01 | |
Epithets may inflame tension and provoke tear gas, | 46:08 | |
and yet policemen are not pigs | 46:15 | |
or piggers or piggross. | 46:19 | |
They are people too. | 46:24 | |
And Allen building is staffed by sinners | 46:29 | |
just as the Chronicle is. | 46:33 | |
But some in both places know that they are saints, | 46:38 | |
in the Pauline sense. | 46:44 | |
Now, for goodness sake remember that last phrase. | 46:45 | |
In the Pauline sense. | 46:49 | |
And it would be well for the community to find that out, | 46:52 | |
because then we might have the beginning of community again. | 46:56 | |
Then we could talk and not yell. | 47:03 | |
We could reason about reasonable matters | 47:09 | |
without either calling them demands | 47:12 | |
or vetoing any appraisal of any appeal. | 47:17 | |
We could become a university rather than the multiversity. | 47:23 | |
which we now are. | 47:33 | |
The Pauline saint is here among us. | 47:39 | |
He does not pray that others be changed, | 47:44 | |
he prays for himself | 47:51 | |
that he forget not what he is, | 47:55 | |
that he may fathom the length and breadth | 48:01 | |
and height and depth of his Pauline saintliness | 48:05 | |
and its responsibilities. | 48:13 | |
He listens before he talks. | 48:16 | |
He tries to keep lines of communication open. | 48:21 | |
When reviled, he does not revile in return. | 48:26 | |
He is despised and rejected of both right and left wings, | 48:33 | |
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. | 48:42 | |
But he is resolved that come hell | 48:49 | |
or high water or worse, | 48:53 | |
he will continue his ministry of compassion, | 48:58 | |
of reconciliation, of reasonableness, of hope. | 49:04 | |
And we need more saints like that. | 49:13 | |
Let us pray. | 49:21 | |
Oh God, who art dependent on very ordinary people | 49:25 | |
for thy work. | 49:30 | |
Persuade us that thou (indistinct) us | 49:33 | |
for the ministry of reconciliation, | 49:37 | |
that we may have peace on our campus. | 49:41 | |
Peace with justice penetrated by love. | 49:45 | |
In the name of him who blessed the peacemakers, | 49:53 | |
even Jesus Christ thy son, our Lord. | 49:58 | |
Amen. | 50:06 | |
(slow music) | 50:10 | |
(choir sings) | 50:42 | |
Man | All mighty God, our heavenly father, | 1:01:45 |
we bring our substance and ourselves | 1:01:47 | |
symbolically here to this alter each and every one of us | 1:01:50 | |
to dedicate what we are and have to be. | 1:01:55 | |
We bring thee our ignorance that it may be dispelled. | 1:01:59 | |
We bring thee our sins that they may be washed away. | 1:02:03 | |
We bring thee our abilities | 1:02:07 | |
that they may be consecrated and increased. | 1:02:09 | |
We bring thee our means | 1:02:12 | |
that they may be distributed throughout the earth | 1:02:15 | |
for the glory of Christ. | 1:02:18 | |
In his name we pray. | 1:02:20 |
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